Daze
Chapter 35: Battle of blades
A/N: Super excited to be back, thanks for all the support I've received during my hiatus, sorry it took so long, but I'm here now, and it's time to take this baby home.
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Naruto's Susanoo swipes carefully through the tree trying to avoid accidentally bisecting his allies who are trapped somewhere within.
"Kisame, where are you?!"
After a short delay there is a response, a loud irritated voice clearly Suigetsu.
"Grr we're here!"
It seems to originate from the center of the forest.
Naruto drops his Susanoo and draws a water infused blade cutting through the brush quickly with his Suiton sashimi and rushing forward.
When he reaches the wooded clearing he can see Kisame is on the ground badly burned and coughing up blood.
Suigetsu is growling, half of his body a wave of water as he is locked blade to blade with a man who looks just like him but a bit taller, and pale.
"Who is that?"
Naruto's eyes lock onto the new figure.
"It's my brother, that bastard Kabuto used some jutsu then ran off into the woods."
Suigetsu struggles to hold the man back who is clearly much stronger than him, and wields the familiar Kubikiribocho.
"And Kisame?!"
Suigetsu growls looking down.
"He shielded me from the blast, even with the water shield he got cooked by the heat."
Kisame is groaning on the ground, his chest burned black with flames, his entire body covered with varying degrees of burns.
Naruto's eyes widen.
"Karin, I hate to ask you, but-"
She nods.
"I'll do it, just help that dumb water mutt not get killed."
She lowers her collar and approaches the shark man guiding him to bite her neck.
He does, his sharp teeth piercing into her flesh just enough to draw blood, she shivers in pain and visible green chakra is channeled into him healing the worst of his burns.
Suigetsu winces as his blade shatters against the Executioner blade, and it approaches his exposed chest.
Naruto rushes forth and flips, swinging down with his water blade at the elder Hozuki brother.
Mangetsu deftly dodges and smirks with a shark-like grin, cracks across his face, and his black sclera reveal his status as an edo.
He counters by kicking Naruto in the gut.
"Ugh wow, he's fast."
Naruto skids on his feet landing next to Suigetsu who has made some distance between them.
"Don't underestimate my brother blondie, he is the only man to wield all seven blades, a swordsman without equal."
Suigetsu says half admirably but also clearly nervous.
Naruto nods, tossing his sword to Suigetsu to replace his own broken blade.
The waterboy nods gratefully.
Naruto summons his bandaged Totsuka blade, holding it with both hands.
"I haven't had to use this form before, usually my regular stance is enough, but if my opponent is the second coming of the demon, then I can't drop my guard."
Karin groans with annoyance as she helps Kisame to a seated position.
"Why are you playing around anyway, just flatten him with your ninjutsu!"
The blonde Shogo leader shakes his head.
"That won't work, we're surrounded on all sides by that chakra fire, water won't dispel it and if I throw out any wide scale jutsu it'll knock the trees over and we'll all be cooked."
Naruto smirks with an intense gaze.
"Besides, this is a battle of blades, I've wanted to face Mangetsu-san for awhile."
Mangetsu chuckles.
"I'm honored."
Suigetsu's eye twitches.
"Hey asshole I thought you were under a spell!"
Mangetsu grins at his brother.
"I can't control my body, but I've been able to talk this whole time, I just didn't want you getting distracted, figured you'd have a better chance of not dying immediately."
Suigetsu sweat drops.
"Even in death you never take me seriously."
Naruto smirks, lunging forward without warning and clashing blades with Mangetsu.
The elder Hozuki grins sharply, examining his form.
"Hmm, not bad, you telegraphed your first attack, but I could tell you had some level of discipline."
Mangetsu counters by spinning the Executioner blade and slamming it down into Naruto's guard, severing some of the bandages on his blade and knocking him back.
"Woah, you are stronger than you look."
Naruto grits his teeth struggling to outpace the mist ninja who is packing a lot of speed and strength in his body.
"Well then, what is your name?"
The blonde responds hopping away with a clashing of steel as he pushes the Kubikiribocho back with the edge of his Totsuka blade
"Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki."
Mangetsu nods in acknowledgement.
"Uzumaki-san, I was never able to find someone who rivaled me in kenjutsu, even my brother, though he has the potential to one day surpass me, hasn't yet."
The man draws a scroll from his back and with a plume of smoke several blades appear.
He lifts his hand and Kisame's Samehada flies into his grip.
"S-Samehada...
Kisame coughs weakly reaching for it.
"Did you miss me, Same-kun?"
Mangetsu pets the blade which lets him wield it purring.
Mangetsu, wields the large axe-like blade Kabutowari, the helm splitter in his mouth, showing superhuman jaw strength and dexterity.
He wields the Needle blade, Nuibari, between his arms going across his back.
He has the explosive tag blade, Shibuki, tied to his hip with a steel rope.
The executioner's blade and Samehada in either hand.
Naruto pales.
"Woah…"
Naruto turns back to the rest of the group.
"You all need to go."
Karin nods, lifting the barely conscious Kisame, Jugo helps her carry him out.
Suigetsu growls.
"This is my legacy, I can't just leave!"
Naruto shakes his head.
"Suigetsu, I understand how you feel, but I promise, I will return all of the blades to you."
He seems to soften in his resolve but still seems hesitant.
Mangetsu gives him a look that communicates.
"Leave."
Suigetsu sighs.
"Mangetsu, if you kill Naruto, I'm getting that rematch, but if somehow, he beats you, I'll see you in hell."
Mangetsu smirks over the blade handle in his mouth and nods.
Once the area is clear, all that is heard is the audible whistling of wind, and the crackling of the flames which have the area bathed in a green glow.
Naruto bites the bandages on the edge of his totsuka blade, tearing them loose and revealing the brilliant black longblade.
He assumes a stance, and the Edo vessel, barely held back by Mangetsu's immense sense of honor, immediately rushes forward.
Naruto can barely react before Samehada has torn the back of his leg, drinking a full quarter of his immense chakra in seconds.
'S-Shit!'
He raises his Susanoo skeleton to block the shark blade, but Mangetsu spins like an aerial shuriken and slams into it with his helmsplitter cracking the bone with his raw strength.
Naruto forms an orange cloak over it wrapping it in spectral cloth, but that is struck with the explosive blade.
Mangetsu whirls away like a spinning top, his perpetual motion sending the roped blade away from him where it explodes on impact with a crackling of tags.
Naruto's Susanoo is shattered by the explosion enhanced by Mangetsu's own impressive chakra.
"H-how can I fight this, he's like Kisame and Zabuza put together, but so much faster…"
Before he can catch his pose, he's rushed again by the edged Executioner blade, and stops it barely by raising his Totsuka.
He is unable to react as Mangetsu spins around and stabs him with the Nuibari wielded in the small of his back and positioned by his lower arms.
"Ugh!"
Naruto coughs up blood as the needle blade pierces right through his armored jacket, chainmail, and cleans through his chest and back.
He hops away but the string of chakra holds him in line for Mangetsu to rush forth with another Kubikiribocho swipe.
Naruto blocks it with his Totsuka but the impact sends him sprawling back.
Samehada, seemingly of it's own mind, rushes forth it's handle turning into a tail like cable and stabs his leg with a hidden spike sapping another quarter of his chakra in seconds.
'D-Damn it… I'm almost out of chakra, how much can that thing drink?!'
Naruto coughs up blood, slashing the chakra thread out of his chest.
He hops away trying to put some space between them, but the circular enclosure of the forest traps him in a natural arena.
'I can't run, I have to fight, but he wields all seven blades effortlessly, I can't counter more than two of them at once, and any one of them could be my death…'
Naruto grips his Totsuka shakily.
'He can shatter through my partial Susanoo even in third state, and I don't have enough chakra left to use any big jutsu, if he dodges them I'd be down to nothing.'
Cautiously Naruto channels wind his primary element into his blade, wrapping the physical Totsuka in ethereal green chakra.
'Sorry Suigetsu, but this is the only way I can win, this is a battle against the seven blades, so the blades are my enemy!'
Naruto rushes forward purposefully telegraphing a straight strike.
Mangetsu meets him with the executioner's blade, but this time the Totsuka slices clean through it, dropping the Kubikiribocho in two broken segments to the ground.
The mist sword master drops it, wielding Samehada with both hands.
He tears the bandages off, which had been pulsing and ripping, a large urchin like creature has grown to massive size from eating Naruto's chakra.
'Woah, that's Samehada?!'
Mangetsu's eyes narrow as he realizes Naruto might be a greater threat than anticipated.
With the loss of one of his blades his stance shifts, and he spins around Naruto aiming to sever his legs with the Sharkskin.
Naruto hops over it and slices at the Nuibari with his Totsuka hoping to destroy another blade.
Mangetsu realizes his strategy and shifts his body so that Naruto's blade slices his abdomen instead.
"W-what?!"
Naruto realizes why he did it as he begins to reform with paper like ashes restoring the damage.
Mangetsu tosses the axe splitter at him from his mouth grinning wildly.
"Gragh!"
Naruto blocks it but the heavy axe splitter is enough to leave a small crack in his Totsuka.
Mangetsu doesn't let up, slamming Samehada forward at Naruto's legs and forcing the blonde to hop away.
He catches and wields the Axe splitter in his free left hand, holding Samehada in his right, he moves the Nuibari into his mouth.
'Kami.. if he had the Kiba I would be a deadman…'
Naruto thinks back to the twin lightning fangs he had tossed into an endless ravine.
Naruto notices the chip in the Totsuka and winces.
'If he shatters my Totsuka I'll be done for, no ordinary blade could handle this much abuse for more than a single parry.'
Naruto channels water into the blade, encasing it in a thick block of chakra giving it a shape like a large boxcutter.
'Only the Totsuka could contend with the Seven blades, because it was one of Masamune's eight treasures.'
Naruto closes his eyes for a moment, steeling himself then rushes forth again.
"I know you are the better swordsman, but I won't lose!"
He swings with the totsuka hopping and hip spinning.
Mangetsu is forced to block him with the helm splitter, his eyes widening when the thick axe-blade is actually shattered beneath Naruto's immense strike.
The blade is sent flying away into the woods passing through the air like a clay pigeon.
Mangetsu drops Nuibari from his mouth into his free hand, he drops Samehada, the shark blade's tail handle wrapping around his waist.
Mangetsu smirks with his shark teeth and a focused gaze.
He wields the Nuibari in both hands.
His stance changes again with both his knees bent and all of his weight pushing forward.
Samehada and the explosive blade, Shibuki, are both cabled to his side.
Naruto holds the Totsuka blade, cycling his chakra to fire.
Mangetsu darts forth, aiming to pierce him with the Nuibari, Naruto parries it away with a slash.
Samehada lurches down and tries to chomp one of Naruto's legs.
The blonde growls and kicks the shark blade, sending the urchin flying back and pulling Mangetsu a bit with it.
Mangetsu doesn't waste the motion tossing his cabled shibuki blade forward to explode at Naruto.
Naruto doesn't try to block it, or use the Susanoo knowing it would just incinerate him, instead he waits till the last moment and slams the totsuka into it with the earth element channeled into it.
He knocks it back at Mangetsu.
"Preta path!"
Naruto raises a hand as the blade explodes, catching the bit closest to him, though the rest destroys Mangetsu, and Samehada is sent flying away.
The swordsman begins to reform starting with his upper body, his arms holding the Nuibari.
The Shibuki was sent flying away by the blast with no one left to cable to.
Samehada crawls back to Mangetsu's reforming feet, like a cat.
Mangetsu chuckles darkly.
"That's more like it, but you seem to be approaching your limits, Uzumaki Naruto-san, and I'm just getting started."
"Same-kun, you know what to do."
The blade crawls up his back, and Naruto can see it entering his body like a parasite.
Mangetsu begins to grow fins, his skin turning a sickly grey color, and his pupils growing sharper.
Wielding the needle blade as his main weapon, he begins to pool a mass of water chakra into it, which bubbles outward eventually surrounding the entire area.
Naruto tries to avoid it but it grows to such a size there is no way he could leave it.
'This is Kisame's… no… this must be a seven swordsmen jutsu.'
Bubbles move from his mouth as he has to avoid his lungs filling with water.
Mangetsu now shark-like swims rapidly towards him faster than any opponent Naruto had faced to date.
The Nuibari has melded into his arm like a lance, giving him the appearance of some sort of winged swordfish.
Naruto coughs up blood, the water around him turning red as he is pierced three times, in the lung, gut, and thigh.
On reflex out of desperation he raises a Susanoo ribcage but the water lance combined with Mangetsu's enhanced speed and strength punches right through it.
Naruto is pierced directly through the abdomen and sent flying through the water as a reward.
"Ughk!"
He spits out a large stream of blood.
Weakly holding his Totsuka he holds it firmly, channeling lightning and gritting his teeth at the resulting pain, when Mangetsu makes his next approach Naruto mocks a parry.
The sharkman, unaware of what Naruto is up to, obliges him with a blade clash, and is promptly and violently electrocuted, as his own blade is directly in his body he is cooked violently.
Naruto holds out as long as he can, hoping to hurt the man enough to make him drop the jutsu.
Samehada emerges as an eel-like spike mouth and bites him, draining enough of his chakra that Naruto can no longer hold his lightning blade.
'D-damn it..'
Fading from consciousness due to a combination of blood and chakra loss Naruto and Mangetsu have a similar thought and both channel all of their strength into one last exchange.
Naruto at the last second uses all of his chakra to wrap the Totsuka in his Susanoo creating the true Totsuka blade.
Mangetsu rushes forth to pierce him through the heart with his Nuibari lance.
Naruto allows him to do this to ensure that he catches the man with the Totsuka blade.
Mangetsu is pierced but unaware of the result is caught in the sealing jutsu which begins to suck him in.
His eyes widen but then he smiles.
"Uzumaki… you really are great."
He closes his eyes looking content, and before the sealing can finish, his edo begins to fall apart, a visible soul floating away.
'What… Did he find peace?'
The water drops, and Samehada is flung to the ground in sword form, with no host to bond to.
Naruto falls to the ground with the fight over, his injuries begin to catch up to his brain.
'T-that's not… good..'
He tries to vocalize but can't due to his lung filling up with blood.
He clutches his chest where his heart had been effectively torn apart by the water lance coughing up blood.
He can see Karin and Jugo running forward to attempt to help him, but a large white snake slams into a series of trees blocking their path with green chakra fire.
Naruto's eyes widen.
'Kabuto…'
He tries to growl but it comes out as a bloody garble.
The white haired man walks forward with a smarmy grin, his skin is scaly and white, and he has serpentine eyes.
"Kukuku Naruto-kun, I saw your fight, very impressive."
The man walks closer to him and kneels down just out of reach.
"How pitiful that you would just die here, without accomplishing all your hard sought goals."
Naruto glares at him and spits blood into his face.
Kabuto's jaw unhinges and a too long tongue disturbingly flops out licking the blood off his own cheek.
"Mmm, your blood is quite nice Uzumaki, but that's not why I came here."
The man's hands begin to glow green and he places them on Naruto's chest.
Naruto, expecting a chakra scalpel is surprised to feel a cooling medical jutsu repairing his desiccated organs.
"Madara would want my head if he knew, but I simply won't let you off that easy, no, for the crime of killing Orochimaru-sama you need to experience firsthand the suffering to come."
Kabuto channels a greater than Tsunade level medical jutsu into Naruto, restoring his organs and siphoning blood out of his lungs at the same time.
"Do see that my hard work isn't wasted, okay Naruto-kun.~"
Once he's done Naruto is fully healed, but completely exhausted and out of chakra.
Kabuto stands up and grabs the boy's Totsuka blade, smirking.
"I suppose it's only fair the doctor gets his due."
Kabuto grabs the blade, and as Naruto watches on horrified he snaps it over his knee.
Tossing the broken relic to Naruto's side.
"Ta ta for now."
The man gives him a serpent grin and begins to vanish with a ripple of flaming leaves a moment before Sai and Tobiko crash into his position with blades drawn.
"Naruto!" / "Naruto-Nii!"
Tobiko kneels down to check on him.
"What… he's stable?"
Sai looks up nodding with a look of relief.
"Sis, grab him, we need to get out of here."
He draws another sparrow summoning it in the clearing.
Sai and his sister lift Naruto up tenderly and set him atop it's back climbing on, it flies away no sooner than the trees all collapse where the blades had embedded into them in the earlier fight.
"Woah.. that was too close for comfort."
Sai makes an awkward laugh smiling friendfully at Naruto.
Naruto semi conscious, stares desolately down at where his blade is being buried beneath ash and wood.
'Itachi-nii… your sword… forgive me.'
The trio fly away to the forest entrance, Arriving just as Karin, Suigetsu, and Jugo are escaping as well.
Sai dispels the bird allowing all of them to regroup on the ground.
"Sasori… D-Deidara."
Naruto looks back worriedly.
There is a techno buzz and the group's transceivers save for Naruto's who's was ruined in the battle begin to relay an annoyed sounding Sasori's voice.
"We're fine, we ended up on the East side of the forest, Deidara lost his clay pouch, and my Hiruko puppet was destroyed on our way out, but we're alive."
Sai lifts his transceiver.
"We're on the Southmost side of the forest, about 40 miles South-west."
"Roger, we can be there in twenty."
The transceivers shut off as no-one is speaking into them.
Karin helps Naruto up his head resting on her lap, a fact which despite his attempts to be chivalrous still makes him blush.
Suigetsu turns to Sai.
"So, what now."
Sai looks down at Naruto.
"Well it seems our leader isn't going to be moving any time, we should probably take him and head back to the base."
Jugo lifts him onto his back and they all get ready to transport him.
The sound of grass crunching beneath footsteps turns the heads of the group.
"Sasori, Deidara-san is that yo-"
They all freeze, as they see an orange haired man with the same eyes as Naruto, along with five other figures.
The head figure, a man with mid length spiky hair, and six nose piercings speaks with a deep and powerful voice.
"You are surrounded, and the strongest among you are unconscious, hand us that boy, and we might let you live."
He raises his hand, palm facing outward, black spikes adorning his face, and his purple eyes pulsing with power.
X END X