Sasuke thrusts his chidori into Naruto, who turns into a puff of smoke. Still holding the chidori at hand, Sasuke looks around for his blonde rival.
"Naruto! Show yourself, you stupid…" Naruto pops up from the ground, grabs Sasuke's legs and throws him against a tree.
The Uchiha braces for the impact by softening the contact with his hand-like wings. He stands up, runs toward the blonde young man while forming seals.
"Hebi dokubutsu!" Sasuke's arms transform into snakes that spit out multiple needles at Naruto.
Naruto's able to avoid Sasuke's attacks with his lightning speed. He runs towards the Uchiha with incredible speed and kicks him in the stomach. Sasuke catches Naruto's leg to stop the attack and counters by punching him in the face. Naruto takes a few steps back and watches as Sasuke summons a giant snake. The snake lunges at Naruto who takes the opportunity to jump on the reptile's head and attack the Uchiha. Sasuke sees Naruto approaching.
"Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu!"
Blowing a huge fireball in Naruto's direction, Naruto body flickers his way to get behind Sasuke and lands a roundhouse kick on his back. Sasuke falls off the snake but is able to land on his feet. Sasuke and Naruto take a few jabs and kicks at each other, trying to prevent the other from forming seals and doing any jutsus. The giant snake opens its mouth to eat Naruto, but the blonde fighter disposes the snake by feeding it the rasengan. Sasuke takes this opportunity to attack Naruto from behind.
"Kanashibari no Jutsu," Sasuke paralyzes Naruto, as he turns around to counter the attack.
Naruto, not being able to move his body, watches as Sasuke charges up another chidori and prepares for the kill.
"C'mon, just concentrate." Naruto closes his eyes as he moves his chakra towards his body to give himself the strength to move.
Sasuke was just about to attack but Naruto jumps up and lands a kick on the head. The chidori in Sasuke's hand goes flying off as he loses his grip on it. An agonizing scream is heard as the chidori makes contact with another person who is not visible to the fighters at the moment. Sasuke grabs Naruto from behind. Naruto senses great danger as he struggles to be free. It turns out that Sasuke had a Jibaku Bunshin (suicide bombing clone) placed on Naruto. An explosion ensues and Naruto is lying on the ground, greatly injured. The real Sasuke approaches the body, which turns into smoke.
"Stupid Naruto and his kage bunshin." Sasuke mutters.
Naruto appears as the smoke clears.
Sasuke deactivates his seal and his sharingan.
"I have to say, I'm impressed," smirks the Uchiha. "But you're insulting me by not using the demon in you." Sasuke reactivates his seal.
"You bastard! Just give it up; you won't be able to beat me."
"If that's the case, why don't you just kill me?"
Naruto's thoughts flash back to the promise he made to Sakura.
"Last chance Sasuke. Stop all of this and I won't have to really hurt you."
"I can't believe you're more stupid than before." Sasuke laughs.
Naruto forms an X with his arms with 2 fingers out on each hand.
In the forest, Naruto improves his use of Hiraishin no jutsu. His uncle watches as he marks each tree with a kunai. Naruto lands beside his uncle and proudly grins.
"What do you think? Aren't I awesome?" Naruto beams.
"It took you a couple of weeks to get it right?"
"Shut up! At least I've perfected it." Naruto glares at Ryo.
"Fine, whatever. This next technique I'm going to teach you is a bit easier to learn."
Ryo whistles for Shiroi who arrives immediately in front of him. Naruto sees his uncle's arms become covered in electricity as he forms an X shape.
"Fuka Tama!" Shouts Ryo
The white fox shoots out a ball of electricity from her mouth. Ryo, with lightning speed, catches the ball and it disappears in his hand. Naruto can clearly see the electricity move throughout Ryo's arm as the ball dissipates.
"Whoa!" Naruto cries out in awe.
Ryo punches Naruto in the gut with his lightning powered arm. Naruto falls to the ground and can't seem to bring himself to get up.
"What was that for!" Naruto groans in pain as he grabs his stomach, while lying on the ground.
"This jutsu is called Hekireki kutsuu. In order to really teach you this technique, you have to experience the pain it causes. Now, I didn't punch you really hard so you shouldn't have any internal damages. You may also feel other parts of your body in some sort of pain, that's because of the electricity that accompanies the massive punch. Naruto, practice this technique with the foxes; catch their fuka tama without feeling any pain."
"How do I do it?"
Naruto can feel lightning electricity flow through his arms as he charges them with chakra. Sasuke smirks as he watches--unimpressed with Naruto's jutsu.
"Last chance Sasuke."
"Don't be a moron," replies the Uchiha.
Naruto takes out a few kunai and throws them towards Sasuke, who dodges them. Naruto body flickers to the kunai that passed by Sasuke and throws 3 more in his direction. Sasuke knocks down the kunais to the side. The blonde fighter quickly appears right in front of the Uchiha and delivers a thundering punch to the gut. Naruto continues punching, sending his rival up in the air. Sasuke can't bring himself for a counterattack because of the extreme amount of pain he's experiencing throughout his body. The Uchiha lands hard on the floor and coughs up blood. Sasuke holds on to his stomach and watches Naruto walk towards him.
"You don't have the guts to kill me." Sasuke growls at him.
Naruto forms the rasengan in his electricly charged hand and hits his rival's chest. Sasuke's eyes close as he feels the attack connect with him. Looking down at his rival, Naruto picks up Sasuke's body and searches for Sakura, who's healing a jounin.
"Naruto!" Sakura gasps as she sees Sasuke's body.
"He's just unconscious, but he's badly hurt. Although I highly doubt it, if he wakes up and tries to attack, don't be afraid to hit him." Naruto leaves to return to battle.
Naruto is looking for the right opportunity to join in the fight between Jiraiya and Orochimaru. Just as he's about to jump in, Tsunade grabs his shoulder and pulls him back down.
"Tsunade-obaasan, what are you doing?"
"Naruto, go help the others. Leave the bastard snake to me. It's best if a sannin destroys him. Jiraiya and I should be able to kill him once and for all."
Naruto obeys the Hokage and goes to help Kakashi and the others.
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Kakashi finds himself in trouble as Kabuto is now backed up by Tokage, Sai and a griffin he summoned from his drawing. The copy cat ninja's body is tiring from the use of his sharingan and he's been fighting for hours. But fortunately, Neji and Howaito arrive to help the jounin.
"This fox Sakura left me is pretty strong. He and I can take care of the other two, while you go for four eyes," Neji tells Kakashi.
Howaito attacks the griffin as Kakashi and Neji go for Kabuto and Tokage. Sai pulls back on the griffin to avoid the fox and attack Kakashi and Neji. But with the fox's lightning speed, Howaito is able to deflect the griffin's attack on the jounins. The fox bites down on the griffin's neck and its loud screech disrupt the other battle. Thrashing its neck around, the griffin uses its talon to scrape the fox off. Howaito's side gets slashed by the giant creature's claws. The snow fox whimpers in pain as blood is drawing out from his side. Unable to move, the fox can only watch as the griffin swoops down on its prey. Kakashi kage bunshins, and rescues the fox by moving it out of the way. Naruto arrives and sees his companion bleeding badly. He takes the fox from the clone and wraps the wound with his blue cloak. Naruto hides him behind a tree and joins in with Kakashi's battle.
Half of Konoha ninjas are pushed into the village. Buildings are being demolished as the fighting intensifies. Knowing that he can't waste anymore time, Kakashi forces his injured arm to form the proper seals for Raikiri. Naruto battles with Sai who is flying around in his griffin. Naruto runs pass Kabuto as Kakashi lunges with Raikiri. Instead of hitting the medic nin, Kakashi's attack runs through Sai's chest, killing him instantly and turning the griffin into a puddle of ink. Naruto attacks Kabuto with the rasengan, which does not kill the nin, but does cause Naruto to fall on his knees.
"Naruto!" Kakashi runs to his side.
"I'm ok," Naruto declares.
"Naruto-kun, you're running out of chakra," chokes out a weakened Kabuto. "But, I am impressed; to fight the 4th and Sasuke-kun all in the same day-"
Neji lands on top Kabuto as he falls on his back. Tokage dusts of his muscular arms as he grabs Neji and throws him in Kakashi's direction. Kakashi catches the unconscious Neji and gently places him on the ground.
"Sorry Kabuto, I didn't mean for this filthy ninja to land on you," Tokage states.
Kabuto stands up and stares at the trio of Konoha ninjas.
"Although you all have fought valiantly, the end must come for you," announces the medic ninja.
Just as Naruto tries to call on the power of the Kyuubi, a dark blur appears and Kabuto and Tokage are pinned against a tree. A man in a black cloak holds Kabuto by the neck and a white fox is holding Tokage by biting his neck.
"Uncle?" Naruto weakly mutters.
The figure removes his hood and confirms Naruto's assumption. Ryo charges his left hand and punches it through Kabauto's chest, directly crushing and destroying his heart. The snow fox bites down harder and rips out Tokage's throat killing him in the process. Ryo approaches Naruto who is now unconscious from exhaustion.
"Are you from Konoha?" Ryo asks Kakashi.
Kakashi nods and Ryo helps him to his feet.
"Who are you?" asks the grey-haired jounin.
Ryo looks down at Naruto and answers, "I am an ally of Konoha."
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Naruto wakes up in a hospital bed and finds Kakashi sitting in a chair and reading his favorite novel.
"Kakashi-sensei." Naruto weakly utters.
"You're awake."
"What happened?"
"Well, we we're able to drive Orochimaru's army out. Konoha's damaged but reparations are on their way."
"Orochimaru, did he..."
"He's dead. Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya-sama were able to kill him."
Naruto sits up in his bed upon hearing this.
"But Naruto…although we were successful…there's something…something else." Kakashi's tone is filled with sorrow.
"What? What is it?"
"It's about Iruka-sensei. He died in the war. I know what he means to you…"
"H-how—what—how—how did he…" Naruto looks for words to say.
"I saw his body and there was no doubt about it, he was hit with the chidori. Although it didn't look like it was forced into him."
Naruto thinks back to his fight with Sasuke when he lost his grip on the chidori. Sasuke interrupts his thoughts on Iruka.
"S-Sasuke, where is he?"
"He's in the hospital, with critical internal injuries," Kakashi responds.
Kakashi watches as Naruto tries to figure out and make sense of what's happening. Naruto feels Kakashi's hand on his shoulder, but he doesn't bother to look up.
"By the way, the Hokage wants to see you as soon as possible. It regards your return to the village."
