Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto (unfortunately). I do own all of my own characters.
Thank you to all my reviewers!!! you ppl r so nice :-)
"blah" speech
'blah' thoughts
blaboy - kind of; i'm considering it... That's right no NaruHina. (I think it's a bit over-used and IMO it's getting bland)
Monaki-cheung - this chapter was intended to be all dialogue and as for ur request, plz wait a little...
Third Degree Run - they only know that he's killed Orochimaru, some may be guessing, but it's not a fact that's on the table.
HikaruOfArrow - if u really want it then vote for it; the polls have opened.
Perverted-senin - exactly right!
bLack - Woman!!?? Who the hell ever said I was a woman!
tyranimo - that won't be revealed for a few chaps
gopher guy - yes ur allowed to make suggestions, but I control the hammer and nails that will be used to seal the coffin. Falling back on Konohamaru: plans change... plus Naruto didn't just come back for the scroll... I'll explain below...
Death's little side kick - The WHOLE FIC!!!??? DAMN!!!
kagehana - oh dont worry its not you i'll be killing...
Really sorry for the exceedingly long wait, but I've been very busy with college studies. Plus a bit of not in the moodness and a mental block where I just couldn't write what-so-ever... but enough w/ my excuses...
Sequel? Well you see, I already have another story planned (Actually I'm doing quite a bit of pre-production for it already).But how can u ask for a sequel if u don't know how its gonna end?
NaruHina!? You ppl really want to taste blood, don't you? -sigh- Sorry, but I warned ya...
VOTE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE CHAPTER!!!!!
Chapter 18 – Battle of Understanding
The sword in Naruto's hand vanished, re-appearing back in its sheath. Naruto instantly got into a loose stance, getting ready to attack Jiraiya.
"Don't underestimate me, dobe, you'll need that sword of yours," said Sasuke and charged at Naruto. However before he could completely make it to Naruto, he was intercepted by a Sound-nin with a large scar across his forehead. Sasuke stopped where he was and glared at the Sound-nin, "what the hell do you think you're doing?" he asked vehemently.
"You opponent is me," declared the scarred shinobi.
"What the hell?" growled Sasuke and tried to get around the Sound-nin, but forced back once more. "Fine. Prepare to die!" yelled Sasuke as he charged at the scarred shinobi.
Sasuke executed several kicks and punches that were all blocked. He let his anger get the better of him and slipped up in his defense, so the Sound-nin was able to land a kick in Sasuke's gut and send him flying back.
In mid-air Sasuke was trying to calm himself, 'I cannot let my emotions control me,' he thought, 'just concentrate on your objective… killing your opponent.' He breathed out a steady stream of air and flipped himself over, at the same time throwing three shuriken at his opponent.
The Sound-nin pulled out his kunai, "do you really think a couple of shuriken will help?" he asked as he prepared to block them.
Sasuke smirked and formed a single hand seal, the Sound-nin's eyes widened, 'Shit! I've seen Otokage-sama use that jutsu once.' Sasuke channeled some chakra and said, "Kage Shuriken no Jutsu," making the three shuriken into thirty. The Sound-nin was forced to put away the kunai and run through a quick set of seals, he then placed his palms on the ground and said, "Doton: Earth Wall no Jutsu."
As planned, the wall stopped the projectiles, but Sasuke was nowhere to be seen. The Sound-nin looked around, his senses on high alert, but still couldn't find his opponent. Just as he started thinking that his opponent had once again started to pursue the Otokage, a hand shot out from the ground, "Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu" (Inner Decapitation) was heard as the Sound-nin found himself being pulled down.
Once the Sound-nin was buried up to his neck, Sasuke got out of the ground and put a kunai to the Sound-nin's throat. However, as soon as he pressed into his opponent's skin, it started crumpling, 'what the hell?' questioned Sasuke. He then punched his opponent's head, only to have it crumble into dirt, 'Damn it! I can't believe I fell for that,' Sasuke scolded himself.
This, of course, was no time to relax, as Sasuke suddenly felt a presence very close behind him and unfortunately didn't have time to dodge or block as a fierce kick was delivered to his side. Leaving him with very little time to recover before another onslaught of kicks and punches was sent his way.
Sasuke was getting annoyed again and activated his sharingan to be able to easily block and counter his opponent's attacks, not to mention copy his jutsus. Instantly, Sasuke was able to see his opponent's next attack and was able to dodge and instantly deliver a fierce punch right under his opponent's arm. Afterwards, Sasuke immediately elbowed the Sound-nin in the chin and kicked him into a tree.
The Sound-nin stood up and looked right into Sasuke's eyes, he gasped when he saw the sharingan; Sasuke smirked at his reaction. Before the Sound-nin had time to recompose himself, Sasuke did a few very quick hand seals and slammed his palms on the ground, "Doton: Land Bind no Jutsu," said Sasuke.
The dirt under the Sound-nin's feet rose up and wrapped itself around his feet tightly, holding him in place. Sasuke did several more hand seals and held his left arm slightly away from his body as chakra started to appear all around his left hand, "Chidori!" he cried and dashed at his opponent.
The Sound-nin did a few hand seals and bent down to the ground, "Doton: Doroku Gaeshi," he said (A/N: Earth Wall Land Flip). The Sound-nin happily realized that Sasuke would be unable to alter his path and would be forced to hit the wall instead.
Sasuke saw the wall and scoffed lightly, 'the Chidori will easily go through that,' he thought as he increased his speed.
The Chidori impacted the earth wall with a loud explosive sound and immediately ate straight through the wall and continued on to the Sound-nin. 'What!?' yelled the Sound shinobi in his mind. Sasuke's sharingan eyes narrowed as he saw his opponent gather a small amount of chakra. It didn't matter, though, as the Chidori hit the Sound-nin a second later.
However, instead of blood flying in all directions, a poof was heard and the Sound-nin disappeared in smoke to be replaced with a log.
"Kawarimi," mumbled Sasuke.
"Yes," came the reply from behind Sasuke, "sometimes the basics are a major help."
"Hmph," was the only thing heard from Sasuke. The Sound-nin started to make hand seals, but before he could even get the second one done, he felt a presence very close to him. He turned to look and the last thing he saw was Sasuke stabbing him with a kunai straight through the neck.
"…But mostly, basics are useless," concluded Sasuke, and let the body fall.
Meanwhile with Naruto:
As they split, Naruto forced Jiraiya to the corner of the meadow, so as not to involve anyone else.
"After three years, we finally meet on the battlefield," said Naruto.
"Naruto, you don't have to do this," said Jiraiya, "we can work things out… I can talk to Tsunade…"
Naruto cut him off, "and say what? She obviously hates me. I saw it, through all her genjutsu, I saw that hatred hidden deep inside."
Jiraiya sighed and shook his head lightly, "I can't say you don't deserve it, Naruto," he said softly. "First you leave and join the Akatsuki," noticing the slight surprise on Naruto's face he clarified, "yes, I found out you were in the Akatsuki about a year after you joined. I told Tsunade, but no one else, we gave you the benefit of the doubt and assumed that they forced you. But then, you go and do something as horrible as the Hyuga massacre. Do you know how much chaos you caused?"
"I can guess," calmly responded Naruto.
"Over the years, she's grown more and more wary of you. Trust being replaced by hatred… you betrayed her, Naruto. Now that you… hold a high position in the Sound, who are sworn enemies of the Leaf," Naruto's eyes narrowed at this new information.
"You've spying on me haven't you, Ero-Sennin?" asked Naruto.
"We had been getting reports on the Sound from a team inside for a year before two members vanished without a trace. That was a year ago, just as the new Otokage came to power," explained Jiraiya.
Naruto scoffed and smirked darkly, "you want to know whether or not Konohamaru and Moegi are dead or not," Naruto stated, "and not only that, but you want to know who the Otokage is because that is a vital piece of information that you have been unable to get, am I right?"
Jiraiya stared at Naruto with a raised eyebrow, 'this definitely isn't the Naruto I once knew. To be able to see through me like this…' Jiraiya contemplated his next move. "Will you be so kind as to answer then?"
Naruto laughed lightly, "I will say that they are not dead… yet," Jiraiya stiffened at the last part. "But you also wonder what part I play in all this," stated Naruto and Jiraiya nodded. "Let's just, spoils to the victor," said Naruto with a slight smile.
"Either way…" Naruto suddenly dashed forward and punched an unsuspecting Jiraiya in the stomach, "this battle will continue."
'Damn it, should have expected that,' the sannin scolded himself. He mentally kicked himself into battle mode and was successfully able to block or dodge all of Naruto's punches and kicks. Once he saw and opening, he hit Naruto in the stomach and sent him flying back, however he noticed that Naruto flew back farther than he should have. 'He purposely left that opening, so that he could use the momentum from my punch to get farther away… that means a long-range attack!'
As soon as Jiraiya thought that, a lone shuriken was sent at Jiraiya. Once it was very close Jiraiya, it multiplied into several hundred. However, Jiraiya had expected that and had left a Bushin in his place while he crossed the battlefield to where Naruto would land.
'That pervert won't fall for the shuriken, so instead of Kage Bushin I'll make it regular Bushin and,' he quickly did some hand seals, 'I'll set up a little something for him.'
As soon as Jiraiya landed, he felt very strong winds around him. At the same time, Naruto got the final fix on Jiraiya's location and activated his jutsu, "Tornado," he whispered. The winds around Jiraiya started spinning wildly, and instantly began tearing his clothes apart. With his plans foiled Jiraiya did the only thing he could; raise a Fuuiton-ninjutsu defense.
Naruto smirked, 'good, now I've got you right where I want you,' he formed several hand seals, 'Quicksand,' he tapped his foot.
Jiraiya thought he was temporarily safe within his Wind Barrier, when suddenly he felt himself sinking, 'what the hell?' He looked down and saw that the ground beneath him had turned into quicksand. He tried to use chakra to oppose the effects only to find that he began sinking faster, 'this is the Sand Village's special Resistance Quicksand…' concluded Jiraiya. He then released his Wind Barrier, but was surprised that Naruto's wind attack was still going, 'the kid's good, to be able to hold two different types of ninjutsus going at the same time.'
Even though his instant reaction was to avoid the attack, Jiraiya smirked and let the Tornado hit him. The Tornado did make several cuts and scratches on Jiraiya, but the force of its attack also ripped Jiraiya out of the quicksand.
Naruto narrowed his eyes, 'using my own attack to help himself, albeit getting cut a little bit, but it's worth the sacrifice.' Just as Naruto released both jutsus, he heard the unmistakable sound the Chidori. Looking over at the source he couldn't help but curse, 'Damn it! Hirotaro is not suited to fight the Uchiha… that wall won't stop the Chidori…'
While Naruto was distracted Jiraiya had enough time to recover. He quickly summoned a toad that was twice his size and had two katanas.
Naruto was brought back to his own battle by the sound of swords being drawn and the slight shaking of the ground, turning to look he saw a large toad charging at him dual-wielding katanas. 'Shit!' cursed Naruto as he drew his own sword and parried the toad's attack. Naruto alternated blocking one sword and dodging the other and in a little while managed to land a blow on the toad's shoulder. However, his game was thrown off as Jiraiya attacked in-sync with the toad, so while Naruto blocked the swords Jiraiya managed to kick him in the back.
Naruto realized that he wouldn't just be fighting the toad and mentally prepared himself for the time when Jiraiya would attack, 'he'll probably attack me from the back,' mused Naruto. After blocking the swords, he felt a presence behind him that was closing in fast, 'so he's going to attack now, I better get ready.'
Naruto had set up a very thin chakra barrier on his back so that he would sense the attack before it actually impacted him, so as soon as he felt the barrier being breached he transferred some chakra to his feet and jumped a little bit upwards of the direction the kick would push him. Thus, for a few valuable second Naruto ended up right above the toad's head. He, of course, used this time to his benefit and chopped the toad's head in two with his katana.
When he landed behind the toad, he saw it vanish into smoke and caught a quick glimpse of Jiraiya biting him thumb and doing hand seals, 'is he going to…?' Before Naruto could finish his thought a giant cloud of smoke pushed him back about a hundred feet. Once he got back on his feet he saw Jiraiya standing on top of Gamabunta.
"What are you going to do now, Naruto?" asked Jiraiya with a sly grin, "no other toad will fight against The Boss."
Suddenly out of nowhere, Naruto once again heard the Chidori, though this time it sounded like it was coming towards him, 'what the hell?' He turned around and was greeted by the sight of Sasuke running at full speed at him, Chidori blazing, 'is he serious?' thought Naruto with amazement.
Naruto sighed and slowly did several hand seals, 'I hope this is the right way to do it…' he thought. Naruto finished the hand seals and held his hand tightly in a clapping position. What happened next took both Jiraiya and Sasuke by surprise. Sasuke suddenly fell to the ground, releasing the Chidori and screaming in pain while holding his Cursed Seal.
"Well, I guess it does work," said Naruto with a hint of surprise in his voice.
Sasuke looked up with hatred in his eyes, "What the hell did you do to me?" he seethed.
"Well, you see Orochimaru used the Cursed Seal as a means to control his subordinates and this is the pinnacle of that control," explained Naruto.
"So you didn't actually kill him, did you?" asked Jiraiya with contempt. "You're working for him aren't you?"
"No, I did kill him," replying Naruto calmly, though he was boiling with rage inside. 'How dare he even assume that I would work for that snake? I'm gonna rip off his arms and legs and…' Naruto decided to stop right there before he got too carried away. "Spoils of war, people," he chuckled, "I just went through Orochimaru's stash of scrolls after I killed him and found a little something about the Cursed Seal. If this deal had gone like I had planned, I would have given you this scroll because it also talks about how to remove these seals, but now…" Naruto trailed off as Sasuke finally passed out from pain.
"Now, where were we?" he asked as he turned back to Jiraiya.
By this time Gamabunta had become aware of the situation, "If you fight me, Naruto, you can consider our contract null and void," he stated and Jiraiya laughed.
Naruto chuckled darkly, "who needs toads?" he bit his thumb and ran through a half-dozen hand seals, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu," he said and disappeared into a large cloud of smoke. In the next moment he was standing a little higher than Jiraiya, on the head of a black fox with yellow malicious eyes; Jiraiya's laughter died instantly. "You were saying something?" asked Naruto darkly.
Jiraiya gulped, even though the fox's eyes were yellow, they were in the same shape as the Kyuubi's. 'He's probably the only one to ever have the fox summoning contract,' contemplated Jiraiya, 'no doubt given to him by the Kyuubi.'
Gamabunta almost dropped his pipe, "Impossible, no one should have the fox summoning contract. It's forbidden and was sealed away with the Lord of Foxes," he said.
The fox boss chose this time to speak up, "Lord Kyuubi-sama, chose Naruto-sama a more than worthy successor of the contract," he said with pride.
"Shall we, Yori?" Naruto calmly said to the fox.
Yori gave a slight growl and crouched down preparing to attack. Gamabunta pulled out his katana and charged at Yori and Naruto. Gamabunta went to slash, but Yori just jumped over him, "Kitsune Spiked Tail" he said, while in mid-air over Gamabunta. The fur on the fox's tail stood straight up and thickened, to become sharp chakra-infused spikes. As Yori came down, he brought his tail down over Gamabunta aiming to cut his back. The toad managed to dodge most of the attack, but Yori managed to clip his backside and draw blood.
"You damn fox!" yelled Gamabunta.
"We get that a lot, don't we Yori?" said Naruto somewhat sadly. 'Yori, vines…' thought Naruto, knowing that Yori could hear him because of the telepathic link Naruto has with all foxes. Naruto did the hand seals, and Yori generated and directed the chakra appropriately.
At first a single vine tendril went up to encircle each of Gamabunta's legs and arms. Gamabunta saw and cut the two vines that were attacking his arms, but missed the other two. Once the two that were going up to capture the legs were successful, a dozen more shot out of the ground. Some entangled the legs further, while others intertwined with each other to bind the legs together.
Yori charged once again, Naruto doing hand seals throughout the run. As soon as the fox got within striking distance of the toad, it just disappeared, 'Huh? What the hell is he doing?' wondered both Gamabunta and Jiraiya. They didn't have much time to ponder this as a Fuuiton attack suddenly hit them head-on, out of nowhere and because Gamabunta was tied down, he was forced to take the whole of the attack.
Naruto smiled darkly at the sight, 'that's the beauty of In-Vortex, it travels right behind me and hits my opponent(s) right after I disappear.' Naruto quickly started contemplating his next attack, 'In-Vortex damaged the vines enough to allow Gamabunta to cut through them without too much effort. Yori, I'll need you to rip apart the toad while I engage Jiraiya.'
'Yes, Naruto-sama,' replied the fox.
The fox boss charged in and began attacking Gamabunta using his tail, nails and teeth, right as the toad finished cutting the vines himself. Gamabunta had at first tried blocking with his katana, but soon realized that the fox was a lot faster and more agile.
It was at this time that Naruto teleported onto Gamabunta's head and knocked Jiraiya down to ground level.
Gamabunta jumped back, away from the fox and formed a hand seal, "Suiton: Teppo Dama," two water-bullets shot out of Gamabunta's mouth. Yori paused his onslaught for a second to also form a hand seal, "Fuuiton: Renku Dan," he countered the toad's attack with two airwave cannons; water was scattered all around the battlefield. By the time the water cleared, Yori was already next to Gamabunta fiercely attacking him again.
Naruto noticed Jiraiya looking at the summonings' battle and said, "We have our own fight to finish, wouldn't you agree, Jiraiya-san?"
Jiraiya got into a fighting stance waiting for Naruto to attack, 'Gamabunta can take care of himself, I should worry more about my former student.'
Naruto did a single hand seal and the ground under Jiraiya exploded. Jiraiya jumped away to dodge, but the ground under him exploded once more, 'he must have set up chakra-activated land mines.' Jiraiya finally settled in a tree only to have the ground beneath the tree blow up and the tree fall.
As soon as Jiraiya recovered, he was assaulted by a swarm of punches and kicks. The sannin managed to block one of his punches and catch that arm, but Naruto seemed prepared for that and did a few one-handed seals and brought the tips of his fingers to his mouth, 'Katon: Goukakyuu,' he thought and breathed out. The toad sannin wasn't stupid, he instantly use Kawarimi, so Naruto ended up burning a log.
Jiraiya sat high up in a tree watching Naruto just stand in the field all alone, 'he's really a tough opponent… and that black fox of his has already made Gamabunta disappear; good thing it didn't decide to attack me…' thought the sannin. 'And to think he hasn't used his signature technique yet; the Kage Bushin…' just then Jiraiya realized that no way Naruto would have stayed in the middle of the field doing nothing, 'Shit!' He felt a presence right behind him, but couldn't react fast enough and was forced to take a savage kick to the side. The sound of ribs breaking was clearly heard as Jiraiya fell towards the ground. Naruto then appeared right above him and delivered another kick straight to Jiraiya's face.
'Naruto Rendan,' Naruto chuckled lightly, 'haven't used that one in… since I left Konoha.' He then took these few seconds to look around the battlefield, what he saw did not please him. He saw a mostly worn out Kisame go flying courtesy of Tsunade's punch, 'Shit, I need to end,' he thought and brought his attention back to the toad sannin.
Naruto extended his nails to their usual combat length and jumped straight at Jiraiya who was still recovering from being slammed down into the ground by a foot to the face. Since Jiraiya was still somewhat confused, Naruto easily got in a swipe at Jiraiya's torso, ripping straight through his clothes and making a quarter of an inch cut across his stomach. Afterwards Jiraiya jumped back instinctively, but Naruto was right behind him and stuck his fingers straight into Jiraiya's back and pulled out a kidney. He appeared right in front of Jiraiya and tossed the kidney into his hands.
The toad sannin started at his kidney as if in a trance, a slow trickle of blood coming out of the corner of his mouth. Naruto then decided to end this; he quickly pulled out his katana and stabbed Jiraiya straight through the heart. In the distance Naruto heard someone cry "NO!" but didn't pay much attention to it. He twisted his katana ninety degrees, to prevent the wound from closing and slowly pulled out his katana.
Meanwhile with Kisame:
Kisame saw Naruto jump at Jiraiya and Uchiha Sasuke was stopped from following Naruto by Hirotaro, 'I guess I'm the only one who can take on another sannin,' he thought. "Looks like my fight is with you, Hokage-sama," said Kisame while un-strapping his Samehada.
Tsunade scowled, "fine, let's do this," she said crouching down into a half-stance.
Kisame charged right at her, holding his Samehada to the side with only his right hand. He went to swipe Tsunade right across the chest, but she jumped back and counter attacked with a Katon-jutsu. Kisame put the Samehada in front of himself, stopping all the flames from hitting him; however the bandages on his Samehada were completely burned off.
Kisame smirked and attacked with the Samehada again, Tsunade did her best to dodge, but was finally forced to block it with her kunai. She tried to channel chakra into her kunai to help block the Samehada, but found that it was all disappearing. "My Samehada eat up chakra," clarified Kisame when he saw Tsunade's confused look. Tsunade scowled and pushed Kisame's Samehada off of her with her freakish strength.
She then dashed at him with punches and kicks. Kisame mostly dodged, the one time he went to block with the Samehada Tsunade disappeared, re-appearing right behind him and delivering a terrifying blow to his right shoulder. Kisame ended up flying into a tree all the way on the other side of the clearing.
'Damn that woman, probably broke my right shoulder, good thing I can still wield with my left hand… though not as well,' thought Kisame as he was getting up. As soon as he was up again, Tsunade jumped at him with chakra visible around her hands and began attacking all his vital points. Since Kisame couldn't block as fast, he was finally forced to use a ninjutsu. Taking a little extra time to concentrate Kisame ran through the necessary hand seals, "Suiton: Spiral Water Shield." Within the barrier, Kisame was wincing in pain, 'damn, it sure hurts to make water.'
Tsunade knew that attacking the Water Shield would be futile, so she deactivated her medical jutsu and instead started doing hand seals for another jutsu. "Doton: Mud Spike," she said quietly.
Kisame suddenly felt chakra gathering right below him, 'Shit, a Doton-jutsu.' He quickly released the shield and tried jumping away from the spike that was coming up right next to his leg, but the spike had already started wrapping itself around Kisame's leg. Tsunade had once again activated her medical jutsu and charged at Kisame. Kisame put the Samehada in front of himself while quickly doing a few hand seals, 'good thing Itachi-san showed me some Doton-jutsus,' he thought.
"Doton: Diffusion," he said and channeled chakra to his captured leg. The Mud Spike quickly turned into muddy water and Kisame was able to block with his Samehada while jumping away. Kisame panted, 'I poured a little too much chakra into it, but it couldn't be helped I needed the speed.'
Tsunade narrowed her eyes, 'I've never heard of that jutsu, I wonder where a Mist-nin would learn that. Though it seemed to have worn him out quite a bit,' she contemplated. Just then she heard a giant rumbling and looked over to see Naruto and Jiraiya fighting on top of their summonings, 'A black fox…' she mused, but didn't have much time to wonder about it since out of the corner of her eye she saw Kisame get up to his feet.
Kisame had also noticed the summonings appear, but wasn't so surprised as he had seen Naruto summon foxes before. Rather he focused on Tsunade, who for now seemed distracted by the appearance of the black fox. He quickly formed a single hand seal and created a regular Bushin in his place, while he hid.
The Bushin started to slowly stand up and eventually caught Tsunade's attention. As soon as she saw him standing, she immediately charged at him and went to punch his jaw, but the punch went right through as the Bushin suddenly disappeared. Kisame used this opportunity to cut the Hokage on the back, but when his sword hit her she also disappeared in a cloud of smoke. 'What? No! She saw through the Bushin, then that would mean that…' Kisame wasn't allowed to finish his thought because Tsunade appeared right in front of him and punched him straight in the chest sending him flying.
Kisame was having trouble breathing and was coughing up blood, 'if only we were fighting in a more moist place.' Just then, a mass of water came down from the sky soaking everything in sight, 'hmm… I never though my prayers would be answered…' he thought. Kisame quickly did a couple of hand seals, "Suiton: Suikodan no Jutsu," he said. (A/N: Great Water Attack)
The water that had just fallen onto the ground, gathered up and launched itself at an amazing speed right at the female sannin. Tsunade did a few hand seals and slammed her palms into the ground, "Doton Keikkai." A wall of earth came up right in front of her and shielded Tsunade from the water attack, but it did not hold for long. Soon the wall started to dissolve into mud and the Suiton-jutsu broke through, sending Tsunade crashing along the ground half a dozen times.
The attack was powerful, but it left Kisame in a very vulnerable position. He realized that that was probably the one and only time that he would be able to use a Suiton-jutsu, so he poured a lot of chakra into that one move, hoping that it would sufficiently injure the female sannin.
Tsunade was pretty badly injured from that last water attack, but she quickly did a self-healing jutsu and most of the cuts and bruises disappeared instantly. 'I may not have a whole lot of chakra left, but it is enough to beat the crap out of him.' She then walked over to a very injured Kisame and punched him right under the jaw sending him flying across the battlefield.
Kisame tried to get back up and attack her with his Samehada, but Tsunade casually dodged it and easily knocked it out of his hand. "This is the end of the line," she said and activated her Chakra Scalpel. She then used the Chakra Scalpel to cut several of Kisame's major arteries; Kisame's body collapsed soon after.
Tsunade deactivated her medical jutsu and turned to look over at Naruto and Jiraiya's battle, what she was terrified her. There was Jiraiya standing on one knee, and Naruto was standing right in front of him with his katana drawn. Then Naruto just plunged it right into Jiraiya's chest, "NO!!!" screamed Tsunade, knowing that her old friend was already dead. 'Damn you, Naruto! Damn you! First you tear through the village with the Hyuga massacre and now you kill one of my best friends,' Tsunade angry and sad at the same time.
She saw him retract his blade and wipe it off using Jiraiya's robes. Then he looked over in her direction and narrowed his eyes; Tsunade glared back at him. Without putting his katana away he started walking towards her, 'Oh shit! What am I going to do? I'm in no state to fight against him now.' Tsunade was rapidly searching for alternatives in the matter. She turned around to look for any of her subordinates that could help her out; the sight was not pretty.
Hinata's Battle:
Hinata watched as Jiraiya, Tsunade and Sasuke were quickly paired off with the obviously stronger opponents. Her face grimaced, 'does no one see me as a threat?' she wondered angrily.
Just then a Sound-nin appeared in front of her and attempted to punch her, however his attack was stopped by a chakra layer, 'what the hell?' thought the Sound-nin. Then he was suddenly thrown back, in-flight he saw a rotating sphere of chakra enclosing his opponent. 'So she uses the force of rotating chakra to push me away. That defense would of course also repel chakra as well as people…' analyzed the Sound-nin. As he was nearing the ground, he flipped himself over and landed perfectly on his feet.
Hinata deactivated her Kaiten and at the same time activated the Byakugan. She instantly crouched down into the Hyuga Jyuken (Gentle Fist) taijutsu stance and motioned her opponent to attack her. (A/N: think Lee).
Her opponent did not rush in though, 'she looks very confident in close combat. Pure taijutsu probably won't work on her, I'll have to use my nin-taijutsu,' he mused. He dashed at Hinata and went to kick her in the stomach. She blocked, but her arm shook a little while it was in contact with the Sound-nin's leg.
'He had chakra surrounding the leg that he kicked me with, but that still doesn't explain why my hand shook like that,' wondered Hinata. However, she didn't want to lose this opportunity and since her opponent was within hand's reach, she attacked him aiming to close several important tenketsus. The Sound-nin quickly realized that she was using chakra in her attacks and so he gathered a bit of chakra to his mouth and blew out.
"DO!" he screamed and knocked Hinata back. Noticing the confused look on her face he decided to explain a little, "it's a sound attack. Chakra can be used to manipulate many things, one of them is sound and in this case it can be used as you just saw."
Hinata narrowed her eyes slightly, "so that is how you were able to make my arm shake," he nodded lightly. 'Like I thought, he relies a lot on chakra, so I will have to close as many his tenketsus as I can,' planned Hinata.
'Good, as long she hangs on to that explanation I have a definite edge on her,' thought the Sound-nin with a mental smile, but retained his emotionless composure. He disappeared and re-appeared right behind her, but wasn't able to even begin his attack as she quickly hit him in the arm and closed off a tenketsu. 'Damn it, those special eyes of hers must have something to do with this… and what the hell did she do to that point on my arm?' wondered the Sound-nin. He jumped back a little ways away from her; she just jumped after him. 'No time, she's going to continue her onslaught… then…' he quickly did several hand seals and covered his whole body in a layer of chakra.
'What? Does he think that he'll be able to stop the Gentle-Fist by covering himself in chakra?' Hinata smirked, 'It's not that easy.' She continued with her attacks, pumping in a little more chakra into each hit to compensate. As his blocks got harsher, she noticed that her hands were shaking more and more after each collision, 'he couldn't just be manipulating sound…'
At this point, Hinata saw an opening and hit him hard with an open palm sending him tumbling over the ground. 'Yes!' she thought. "You are within my field of divination," said Hinata as she got into the appropriate stance.
'Divination?' questioned the Sound-nin, 'Whatever it is, it can't good for me,' he quickly started preparing a ninjutsu.
"Hakkeshou: Rokujuu Yonshou," said Hinata and charged at the Sound-nin. (A/N: Hand of the Eight Divinations: Sixty-four Palms).
The Sound-nin saw her coming and unleashed his counter-attack, "Sonic Boom," he yelled and held his palms outwards at Hinata.
Hinata knew that he was attacking, but was already locked in to her own attack, 'He's planning something… oh well I'll just have to beat him to it,' she thought and increased her speed. However as soon as she hit one of his open palms, a loud explosion was heard and Hinata was blown back savagely. She landed several dozen yards away and tumbled along the ground until she hit a tree.
'Damn, she took the attack at point-blank range… she's not getting off without several major injuries,' reflected the Sound shinobi. He watched Hinata get up and hold her left arm while slightly limping on her left leg. 'She's injured, now's the time to attack,' he thought and quickly began doing hand seals.
Hinata saw her opponent getting ready to attack her and patiently waited for his attack to come, knowing she would have to rely on the Hyuga's ultimate defense. The Sound-nin fired off several chakra-based projectiles, at least that's what they looked like through the Byakugan. When the projectiles were about to hit, Hinata released chakra all around her body and began spinning, "Kaiten."
The Sound-nin smirked, 'just as I thought, she's resorting to that same spinning defense.' He closed his eyes in concentration and did a few quick hand seals, "Fracture Waves," he whispered.
To an onlooker it looked like he nothing happened, but then again sound waves are invisible. Suddenly the Kaiten broke down and an agony-faced Hinata was seen stumbling out of the center of the crater. Her upper body looked somehow deformed, her Byakugan had been deactivated and blood was slowly dripping down the right side of her mouth. She stumbled a little and finally fell to ground face first.
The Sound shinobi narrowed his eyes, 'something's not right… that attack was aimed at the lower ribs, but that deformity makes it look like…' his eyes suddenly shot open in realization. 'Of course, that defense digs into the ground, so what was lower ribs before became collar bone…'
The Sound-nin then made his way towards her, "I wonder if she's still alive…" he mused. He made his way over to Hinata, flipped her over onto her back and lightly examined her body. 'Yup definitely a collar bone hit,' he sighed, 'both of them fractured into a million pieces and her rib cage fell, accounting for the deformity.' He felt her pulse and didn't find one, 'one of the upper ribs must gained a sharp edge during the attack and cut into her heart either when her rib cage fell or when she fell face forward onto the ground,' he shook his head. "It doesn't matter, she's dead either way," he mumbled.
He closed her eyes and slowly walked away from Hinata's body, 'well, my bloodline is one of the most powerful in the Sound,' he thought with a slight smile of pride.
Sakura's Battle:
Sakura was paired off with a female Sound shinobi with short purple hair. The Sound-nin attacked Sakura with taijutsu, which Sakura countered relatively easily. However she felt that she was burdened with all the weapons she was carrying, so she jumped back and threw half a dozen shuriken at her opponent. The purple haired shinobi dodged the shuriken and went to attack Sakura, but was stopped short as she felt the shuriken closing in on her once again, 'chakra strings,' she concluded.
She quickly formed a few hand seals and disappeared underground. The Sound-nin's hand came up right below Sakura and she quickly used the Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu on Sakura, only to find that the Leaf-nin had replaced herself with a log. 'Damn! And I was underground, so I don't know where she could have gone,' cursed the Sound-nin.
Soon the Sound shinobi found that she was unable to move, looking down she realized that her legs were caught in newly hardened mud, 'how did I not notice?' she wondered. Then she realized that the mud was slowly making its way up her body, hardening as it went up making a sort of second skin over the Sound-nin. 'This is… there's no way I can get out of this alone,' she thought and bit her thumb.
Sakura, meanwhile, was hiding in a neighboring tree overlooking her opponent. Sakura's hands were locked in a hand seal and little bits of sweat were visible on her forehead from concentration. 'I hope the genjutsu swallows her up before she is able to summon,' hoped Sakura.
But things weren't going to go Sakura's way and right as the genjutsu-generated mud grabbed the Sound-nin's arm, she had already completed her hand seals. "Kuchiyose," she said and raised her right arm over her head. Smoke covered the area above her arm and soon a spotted brown and black owl appeared right above her.
"Yes, master?" it asked.
"Pull me out of this mud," half-cried the Sound-nin.
Meanwhile, Sakura encased her victim in another genjutsu where a tree was tightly holding the purple-haired ninja and Sakura's head was coming out right above her.
"I have you now," said Sakura with a kunai in-hand.
'This isn't good,' thought the summoning, 'I have to use it, even this early in the battle.' The owl quickly did a few hand seals. Its eyes turned absolutely white and it dug its claws into the Sound-nin's arm, pulling her in the direction opposite of the imaginary tree.
As soon as her owl clawed her, the Sound-nin was immediately aware that she was trapped within a genjutsu and that her summoning was countering it.
"Thanks, Yashi," she said. 'Good thing I summoned the owl that has a special ability of seeing through and freeing themselves and their summoner from all genjutsus. Though they can only use this ability once a day, but when you're in jam it really helps.'
Once free of the genjutsu she saw Sakura a little ways ahead of her, standing in the middle of the battlefield with a very confused expression, 'opportunity,' thought the Sound-nin and quickly did a half dozen hand seals. "Fuuiton: Wind Tunnel," she said and shot the attack right at her pink-haired opponent.
Sakura could not believe that the Sound-nin was able to so easily escape her genjutsu, 'did she purposely wait until I revealed myself to cancel my jutsu?' wondered Sakura, still not aware of her surroundings. 'How did she…?' Sakura couldn't complete her thought as she felt sudden wind around herself and the next moment she was forcefully thrown back and into a tree. 'Shit! I can't let my mind wander like that during battle,' she scolded herself.
Looking up, but was surprised to find her opponent gone. However, that didn't last long because soon she heard a voice somewhere above her. "Razor Feathers," said the Sound-nin while riding on the back of the owl. The next thing Sakura knew several hundred projectiles were headed her way.
"Doton Keikkai: Half Dome," said Sakura as she put her palms on the ground. A wall of dirt came up in front of Sakura and curved back to cover Sakura's hunched form behind it.
'Not so easy Pinky,' thought the Sound-nin with a smirk. She moved her fingers, briefly showing the chakra strings that were attached to them. The Sound-nin then directed at least fifty of the feathers around Sakura's dome and right into her. At that time she caught sight of movement to her left and saw that Sakura had actually left a Bushin in her place. 'Well she found the wrong time to show herself,' smiled the Sound shinobi.
Sakura had indeed left her Bushin behind and was now going through a long list of hand seals; 'I hope this works, since it will drain a lot of my remaining chakra.' Unknown to her, but her opponent was also going through a long list of hand seals; also wanting to finish the battle.
The two attacks were released at the same time, "Fuuiton: Jet Stream," said Sakura. "Fuuiton: Hurricane Winds," said the Sound-nin.
The attacks collided in mid-air and were more or less canceling each other out. However, soon it became apparent that the Jet Stream jutsu was more powerful as it ripped through the Hurricane Winds and smashed into the Sound-nin and her owl. The Sound shinobi was tossed off of her owl and fell to the ground, but since she wasn't that high up she got off with only a broken hand and a slightly limp.
Meanwhile her owl had been able to evade the rest of Sakura's attack and very quickly made his way behind the Leaf-nin. It then swooped down at her with his feathers turned into razors. Sakura had wrongfully assumed that the summoning had just vanished and was too focused on the Sound-nin to notice the owl's attack until it was too late.
The feathers dug into Sakura's back and arms. She cried out and tried to fight back with her kunai, but before she could, the owl hit her right across the face with three of his feathers.
Sakura's vision was becoming blurry as she was suffering from exhaustion and blood loss. The owl to the side of her disappeared in a cloud of smoke and she assumed that she had managed to kill him. Satisfied with the result, she smiled a little and passed out.
"Well she's out," said the purple-haired shinobi. She then looked over at the rest of the people and gasped. Out of her comrades only one was alive, even Kisame was dead, 'good thing Otokage-sama is still alive,' she breathed a sigh of relief at that. She watched as her still living teammate swung their fallen comrade over his shoulder and walked over to where the Otokage was talking with the Hokage. She slowly limped her way after him.
Meanwhile with Naruto and Tsunade:
Naruto walked over to Tsunade with a cold look on his face and made a motion with his sword as if he was going to attack her, but at the last second stopped the attack and put the sword back in its sheath.
Tsunade tried using this opportunity to attack him using the Chakra Scalpel. Naruto let the attack hit, but grabbed Tsunade's hand before she could pull it away. "You shouldn't give your hands away like this," he said softly while in his other palm activated an incomplete Rasengan and hit Tsunade in the stomach. She was sent flying back to crash into a tree; she sat there against the tree not having enough strength to get up.
She watched the wound she had inflicted on him heal up in a matter of seconds, "so are you going to kill me now?" she asked.
Naruto scoffed and did several hand seals, "Transparency," he muttered. He then reached down and into one of Tsunade pockets and pulled out a scroll. "I'll be taking this now," he said softly and turned to walk away.
"So you got your prize, huh? Going to use it against people that care about you again?" she spat out.
Naruto turned back to the Hokage with sad and angry eyes, "I didn't want the scroll, don't you get that!?" Naruto yelled at Tsunade, while waving the scroll at her. "I didn't come here for the damn scroll! I came here to make peace between us… ME and YOU," he paused for a second. "I didn't want to make this political... it was supposed to be on a personal basis..."
"And what did you expect for me to just forgive you after everything that you've done!" Tsunade yelled back.
"Of course not," replied Naruto softly. "I merely wanted to apologize and to try and do a few nice things to make up for some of the horrible things that I've done."
"Really? Make up for hurting or killing people that cared about you, that worried about you, that were hoping you would escape the darkness and come back to us," the last part Naruto realized was spoken about herself.
Naruto sighed deeply and regretfully, "like you said, I wasn't able to escape the darkness until it was too late, but I did want to make amends…" his tone was giving away to bitterness, "but what do you do? You throw it back in my face without even looking at it!" he paused briefly to gather his thoughts. "All of this," he motioned to the destruction that lay around him, "shouldn't have happened. I wanted it to be a 'happy' ending… or as happy as it could be made out to be.
"I wanted peace between our villages," noticing the confused look on Tsunade's face Naruto clarified. "I'm the Otokage…" he smiled sadly, "I guess you could say I attained my childhood dream."
"You? You are the one in charge of that village?" Naruto nodded. "So then it was you that rooted out our spies, " Naruto nodded again. "And I assumed that it was you that gave the order to kill them!"
At that Naruto's face darkened, "don't assume shit about me, you know nothing. Konohamaru and Moegi are alive and well," he clenched his fist and began walking away. "Or at least they would have been if you had simply trusted a little and had the courtesy to listen," concluded Naruto darkly.
"Trust? I trusted you once and you let me down," countered Tsunade.
"I extended my hand in peace… you should have thought about it. If I trusted you enough to stand before you alone, then you should have at least trusted me enough to hear me out," said Naruto in a very calm voice, but it was clear that it was merely a mask for the anger that he was feeling.
Naruto walked over to Kisame and paused to look at his dead body. He lifted up the body and swung it up on his shoulder. "I'll make sure to send back Konohamaru... in a box..." he said coldly; Tsunade visibly flinched.
With a flick of his head he motioned for his subordinates to come over to him. Once they were on either side of him, he started doing a list of hand seals, but paused to survey the battlefield once again.
Noticing a more-or-less awake Sasuke and a completely knocked out if not dead Sakura, Naruto shook his head sadly, "Sasuke… your brother would have been very disappointed," he concluded in a sad tone.
He completed his hand seals and instantly three tails of black chakra appeared behind him. Naruto took one last look at his former village-mates before mumbling, "Demonic: Fox Leap," and disappearing along with his subordinates, in black smoke.
IMPORTANT!! IMPORTANT!! IMPORTANT!!
Now is your time to choose:
Do you want me to pair up Naruto with an OC or not?
If Yes, then the next chapter will have a lot of romance(The ending probably won't change)
If No, then I will just continue without a pairing.
Notes:
(1) This is the only pairing I'm offering.
(2) And I'm not introducing new OC's (So I think you can guess who its gonna be)
(3) This fic can do with or without a pairing, so really i don't care much.
Oh and if anyone wants a quick responce from me, then it's better to either IM me or email me.