Hello again, hope you all are safe, this corona situation has really gotten out of hand in my area. So I would advise you to follow the rules when going out side. Anyways, lets continue with the story.
'internal thoughts'
"Normal conversation"
Xx From Kushina's perspective xX.
"Begin!" the Hokage announced, immediately, Kushina noticed the subtle genjutsu being cast on her and immediately dispelled it.
"Genjutsu, really Naruto?" Kushina started, exasperated "You know that I can't be put under a genjutsu right, the kyubi would just disrupt it if I don't."
"I know that" Naruto replied "but It wasn't for you", he said motioning to the three standing besides her. She moved to dispel the genjutsu on them but was interrupted by Naruto.
"Are you sure you want to do that?" he questioned, "I mean, they are talented, no doubt about it but they would just slow you down and probably get in your way when you go 'all out'" he reasoned with her, "Plus they were caught by a genjutsu, that's pretty funny. I didn't even use my sharingan for it."
"First of all" Kushina started, a little offended that he would think they would slow her down "That's a bit unfair of you, the genjutsu you casted was of a pretty high level, most jounin won't be able to notice it until its too late, I didn't get caught in it because I knew you would try something like this and was ready for it." she took a few calming breaths and continued" Secondly, in any other scenario I wouldn't leave my team behind under any condition but since this is an training exercise and they probably will get caught in the crossfire if we escalate too much, which I totally intend to. Besides, I too want to compare myself against you, so I'll let this one slide. "
Naruto smiled and nodded to her challenge.
" OK then, let's get going, you have got me all fired up". They both moved away from the clearing, leaving the other three behind.
Now, standing in a new training field, facing each other, Kushina pulled out her tanto and got in a ready stance, Naruto too prepared himself by manifesting a dark red katana from his chakra and got into a ready stance.
"You can solidify your chakra too, I thought only I could do that" Kushina commented.
"Your chakra chains are special, I can't manifest something like those" he lied "but, I did use their concept to create this" he replied motioning to his katana, "with it, I can now create any weapon I want with my chakra alone. Its a long and complicated process, I'll explain it to you later" Kushina nodded and gave a slight smirk.
"Ready or not, here I come!" with that she vanished from her position and appeared behind Naruto with a slash already in motion. Just as she completed her swing, the Naruto is front of blurred away, she widened her eyes,
"An after image!", quickly ducking from the slash which appeared from her blindside, she turned around and blocked the next strike with her tanto.
"You have very quick refexes" Naruto complimented her "Your speed and strength are also quite impressive. You have clearly improved a lot."
"Thanks" Kushina replied, accepting the compliment "But I haven't even gotten started yet".
With that she pushed Naruto off her blade and swung her sword in his direction. A thin red energy arc flew from her sword's edge, catching Naruto right in the chest.
Kushina didn't follow through with her attack, instead opting to wait as Naruto looked down to see a razor thin slice appear on his chest with blood flowing from it.
"Now, stop playing around" Kushina warned "I know we both went easy earlier as there were kids around. But now, if you still hold back and go easy on me, you will be in a world of pain."
Naruto looked up again and pointed to her stomach.
"What gave you the idea that I am holding back, I am completely serious" he replied, as he again got in a stance.
Kushina looked down in surprise and noticed a deep gash on her stomach, it was already starting to heal, so, Ignoring the wound for now, she too got in a stance and coated her tanto with her chakra, turning the black tanto deep red.
This time, it was Naruto who initiated the attack, he dissappeared from his spot and appeared in a low stance in front of Kushina, he then swung his katana upwards in a diagonal slash. But Kushina was ready for it as she too swung her sword in a downwards arc, the swords met with a loud boom, creating shockwave from the force of the swing. Both tried to overpower each other for few seconds, not succeeding to gain an upper hand, Naruto quickly disengaged and threw his katana at Kushina. Surprised by his unorthodox move, Kushina was a little slow to dodge and got impaled in the shoulder because of it.
Jumping back, with the sword still stuck in her shoulder, Kushina quickly swung a vertical slash and bisected the fireball Naruto had just launched at her. Grunting, she pulled his katana from her shoulder, it destroyed itself as soon as it was removed. Looking at the wound, Kushina noticed it wasn't healing as quickly as it should.
'Kurama, what's going on' she reached out to the nine tail fox 'why am I healing so slowly?'.
There was a low grumble but soon he replied,
'Its that brat's chakra, it is clinging to your wound and not allowing it to heal. I can possibly negate it, but you would have to use my chakra.'
'Its too soon for that, I want to save it for later. Plus, he would think I am not strong without you' Kushina whined, causing the nine tails to huff in annoyance.
'Its your choice, just don't get hit by his attacks too much. I'll help whereever I can'
'Thanks Kurama, you are the best!' she thanked him and prepared for her next attack.
"Kage bunshin no jutsu"
50 of her clones popped around her and quickly dashed to Naruto's position, some stayed behind to help her with her traps.
Naruto, meanwhile, had been preparing his own trap for Kushina after using his fireball jutsu to buy himself some time. No sooner he finished, the traps were immediately triggered by the horde of Kushina's clones, many were dispelled by exploding tags, kunais, shurikens and various other traps he had prepared but many managed to stay alive and were on him within few seconds.
Now, fighting 1 vs 20, Naruto was doing an excellent job of holding his own against them, while they would dispel with only a single solid strike, they still possessed the skills and strength of the original, which was nothing to scoff at, so with some difficulty, Naruto managed to defeat them all. By the end of their barrage, he was mostly uninjured, with only few scratches and scuff marks on him.
'I didn't think she would be this strong, her strikes are even bypassing my chakra armor. This will not be as easy as I thought it would. I really need to take her seriously now, else I would face an humiliating defeat', he thought while he healed his wounds 'I think it's time to bring out the big guns'.
Meanwhile, Dragon, Mikoto and the hokage were perched on a tree branch overlooking the entire training field, they had stopped Kakashi and the other two from entering the match again as they had lost their chance to fight him. Nawaki and Anko argued that they didn't even get to fight him but Kakashi understood what the hokage was trying to tell them, if they couldn't even dispel his genjutsu, what chance did they have in any physical confrontation. After calming his team, he motioned them to jump on the branch of a nearby tree and observe the match so that they could learn something from it.
"So, what have you thought of the fight so far? " the Hokage questioned dragon.
"It has been interesting, to say the least" he started, "Casting a genjutsu on 3 skilled and well trained ninjas, at once, without using the sharingan or any hand seals is incredibly difficult and doing it with only a clap is highly praise worthy, the mental fortitude and chakra control required to execute it perfectly would be..." he paused for a second" I can't even find a metaphor to compare it to".
"Yes, it is very difficult indeed" Mikoto agreed "Without using the sharingan, even I can only cast it on 2 people and that too requires atleast a few hand seals. But what is more impressive is that it took them so long to break out of it. I have personally trained the three of them to cast and dispel gen jutsu, so for them to be in it so long means the genjutsu was so genuine, they didn't even noticed they were in one until the very end" she looked a bit annoyed as she said the last part.
"I wouldn't blame it on your training" the Hokage replied, noticing her angry expression "Its Naruto we are talking about, he doesn't do anything half-assed. Most ninjas' would probably fall for it and never notice anything amiss. You can't really blame them, while they are skilled, they don't have enough experience to match him", this seemed to calm her down a little.
The branch they were standing on shook a little, as Jiraiya and Tsunade both landed on it.
"So, what did we miss?" Jiraiya inquired, looking around the destroyed forest.
"We sensed Naruto and Kushina flare their chakra, so we came to check what was going on? " Tsunade continued.
"I think the whole village might have sensed their chakra, they weren't exactly subtle about it." Mikoto replied.
"Speaking of subtle," Jiraiya started, with a perverted grin "I couldn't help but notice that you and Naruto were not seen in the village for the past 2 days, should we be expecting a good news soon?".
There was a low boom, followed by the sounds of breaking branches and bones, as Jiraiya was launched outside the training field at neck breaking speed.
" Pervert" Mikoto muttered with disgust. The other two males wisely kept their mouths shut and slowly scooted away from her, while Tsunade looked impressed by how far Jiraiya was launched by the punch.
Walking into the empty field, Naruto closed his eyes and materialized another katana. There was a brief moment of silence as he stood still in the centre of the field, then, all hell broke loose.
"Katon: Onohidama (Fire style : Massive Fireball)"
" Fuuton: Kaze Bakuhatsu (Wind style: Wind Explosion)"
A massive fireball, 50 feet in diameter, fell from the sky, launched by Kushina and her clone. The combined fire-wind jutsu, instantly vapourised any moisture in the air. Any viewers who had come to watch the fight immediately vacated the area. Mikoto, Jiraiya, Tsunade and Minato quickly created a barrier around the training field to minimize any further damage.
Meanwhile, Naruto had yet to open his eyes, he was still standing calmly as the world around him started to catch on fire, the heat appeared to have almost no effect on him, apart from a little sweat on his face, there was no visible reaction from him.
"Well, it was nice knowing him" Jiraiya commented as he strengthen the barrier.
"That, escalated quickly," the Hokage commented, as he observed the mini sun from a safe distance, "That really got out of hand fast", everyone around looked at him strangely, even his own anbu team.
"Naruto, do something!!" Mikoto screamed from across the barrier "Don't just stand there like a log!"
"Yeah, brat, do something" Tsunade too screamed from her end of the barrier "I have placed huge bets on you, if you die now, I will kill you myself!!!".
Naruto cracked a smile hearing that and finally opened his eyes and looked up.
His eyes had gone from bluish purple to dark red, his pupil slitted like that of a lizard. He seemed to have gained a lot of mass, as his muscles slowly grew in size, tearing through his shirt and trousers. (Imagine this transformation to that of Escanor from the Seven deadly sins anime.)
He then got in a wide stance and bent his knees to get a strong support then crossed his katana and aimed them up, at the enormous fireball. Coating the katanas with his chakra, they started to increase in size, becoming twice as big as him and changing to deep black in colour.
"Ryū no yaminokiba (Dragon's dark fangs)"
He spoke in a deep voice and slashed his two katanas in X formation. The ground beneath his feet immediately gave way and collapsed under the pressure of his swings, creating a huge crator and pulverizing everything in the training field.
The slashes that he released, combined together and completely dwarfed the 50 feet fireball.
As the two attacks met, a huge rumbling was heard as the very ground shook from the pressure. The fireball resisted for few seconds before it was completely engulfed by the black chakra.
Bright daylight was soon replaced by pitch black darkness as the attack exploded in the sky and covered everything till the horizon.
It took few minutes but soon the black chakra dessipated in the atmosphere bringing back the sunlight.
"What the hell?" Jiraiya questioned no one in particular, it was the question going through everyone's mind, "Did you know he could do that?" he continued, looking at Mikoto, who was just as surprised as everyone else, shook her head in negative.
Naruto was still standing in the crator he had created, looking forward with glazed eyes.
"Where is Kushina?" Tsunade asked, looking everywhere.
"I am here" she replied, as she slowly materialised from Mikoto's shadow.
"What the hell?" she yelled, surprised more than scared, as Kushina rose from her shadow.
"He saved me before I could get injured" Kushina said pointing at the huge black wolf coming out of Mikoto's shadow.
"Is there anyone else in there?" Mikoto questioned, pointing at her shadow and looking wearily at it.
The wolf ignored her and walked a few feet away from them, in the direction of Naruto, and sniffed the air.
"Is Naruto OK?" Kushina asked, worried, as he was still standing in his spot and looking aimlessly ahead.
"He has entered Dragon drive but appears to have lost control over it because of that last attack, he probably discharged his chakra too quickly for his body to keep up with, I would recommend not going near him for few weeks" he replied and sat on the ground, observing Naruto from a distance.
"Few weeks!" Mikoto exclaimed "What's going on with him?, what's Dragon drive? And who are you?"
"I am Kuro, leader of the shadow wolf's, I am one of Naruto's summon, he had requested me to protect both of you in case something like this happened." Kuro replied as he got comfortable in his spot.
"You still haven't answered what Dragon drive is." Jiraiya pointed out.
"I would usually not disclose any information regarding my summoner but since he will be screwed if I don't, I am going to make an exception this time." Kuro started as he observed Naruto, "lose the crowd, I don't want anyone else hearing this".
The hokage nodded and ordered Kakashi and his team to clear the entire area around the barrier.
As they went about their duty, only Mikoto, Kushina, Jiraiya, Tsunade and Sakumo, who had just arrived after he witnessed the explosion, were present along with Sarutobi himself. He had ordered everyone else nearby to retreat back to the village, even his the Anbu commander and his Anbu team.
"The dragon drive," Kuro started, "Is one of the abilities he gets from being the summoner of the dragons, I have personally never met them but most of the high tier summons know of their existence, It is considered to be the highest honor to be their summoner. The chance of them accepting you is One in ten billion, even the sage of six paths was rejected by them " this immediately got everyone's attention.
" The sage of six paths is real?" Nawaki interwened, "I thought he was just a myth".
"He is real" Jiraiya answered "The leader of our toads has met him, or so he says. I am more suprised that Dragon's are real, the toads never mentioned them".
"Kuro did say only the higher tier knew of their existence, so I guess it would be true that the toads wouldnt know about them" Nawaki commented and immediately ran behind Tsunade to hide as Jiraiya twitched with annoyance, "Why you little...".
"Anyways" the wolf continued, coming back to the point "The Dragons thought him their techniques and one of them is this Dragon drive. As Naruto explained it, the Dragon drive splits his chakra into physical and spiritual energy and mixes it with the nature's chakra to greatly augment every aspects of his power. "
" So, it's like sage mode?" Jiraiya interrupted " The toads have thought me something similar to that" he continued, " in sage mode, we balance our chakra with that of the nature around us to strengthen our body and our chakra"
Kuro shook his head in negative "Its not like the sage mode, instead of balancing your chakra with the nature, in dragon drive, you command both halves of the nature chakra"(Yin and Yang) itself. Comparing the two would be like comparing a pup's bite with that of an adult wolf's. The difference is too much but the concept is still the same."
"Why did you say we have to wait for weeks, why can't we just go there and snap him out of it" Kushina asked.
"There is nothing to snap him out of, he is not having some internal battle, he is just asleep. His body is moving on instincts alone now, so, if you don't approach him, he won't react to your presence either. It would take him around 2 weeks to use up all of his chakra in this state, after that his body will become normal and leave the Dragon drive on its own."
"So, if we leave him alone, he will eventually turn back normal?" Mikoto asked, relieved that it won't cause him much harm.
"Yes, he will become normal, physically," this made everyone sigh in relief, "He will just lose his ability to use chakra forever."
"What???" they all shouted, "Don't you think you should have started with that". Kushina yelled.
"His chakra is being split apart into Yin and Yang and is mixing with nature's chakra to strengthen him. Normally, the separated chakra would get recombined over time once he deactivates this mode, but, the longer he stays in that state, the higher are the chances that he would loose that amount of chakra forever." Kuro explained.
" What can we do to help him?" Sakumo asked, coming straight to the point.
" Wake him up forcefully by severely wounding him or physically exhausting him so that the seal on his body would activate on its own and return him back to normal , he didn't elaborate so I don't know much about it".
"That's convenient" Jiraiya remarked.
"He had planned for it, just in case something like this happened. Its not convenient, it's just being smart".
"I can use my adamantine chains to bind him and drain the nature chakra. " Kushina offered.
"You won't be able to catch him, much less bind him. And I seriously doubt those chains would hold him for long. It took three of our elders to defeat him when he used this in training, the collateral damage was enormous, we have new lakes and mountains because of him. I doubt there would be much left of your village if I asked them to come here and help".
" How about I cast a powerful genjutsu on him, it will calm him down for sure" Mikoto asked.
"Can you cast genjutsu on someone who is in a dreamless sleep?" Kuro questioned.
Mikoto looked at Tsunade for guidance, "I have absolutely no Idea, this is the first time I am facing a problem like this" she replied, "But we can try to find out".
"Yes, we should atleast try it" Jiraiya proposed "We never know, it may work".
"Fight together and exhaust him, I'll go bring back up." with that Kuro stood up and jumped into Mikoto's shadow.
"That's so creepy" She muttered, looking at her shadow.
"So, what's the plan of action?" Jiraiya asked, excited to fight a buffed up Naruto.
The hokage took charge, "We will attack him in pairs, that way we have someone to watch our backs if things go south", everyone agreed, it was a smart plan.
"Jiraiya and Tsunade will lead, they will distract him enough for Mikoto and Kushina to launch their attack, both of you, use your strongest technique, no need to hold back.. Sakumo and I will provide support when needed."
"What about us?" Kakashi asked, "We too want to help", Anko and Nawaki nooded their head in agreement.
"Its too dangerous for you all" Kushina replied "You will have to sit this one out"
"But," Nawaki started was immediately interrupted by Tsunade.
"No butts, I have trained Naruto myself, I know his true strength. The way he is right now, it would only take him a single punch to smear you all over the ground in a bloody paste".
"Let them help," the Hokage intervened "They will be sent to fight a war soon, it would be helpful for them to experience a real battle situation." He continued, "Don't worry, Sakumo and I will keep an eye on them, make sure they don't get too cocky" He finished, easing everyone's worry.
Tsunade finally relented. "OK, but all of you will only support and always stay in arms reach from Sensei and Sakumo". The three agreed to the condition and went besides the hokage
"OK, everyone ready?" The hokage enquired few minutes later, now dressed in his battle uniform.
"Yes", Kushina replied "We have created a 3 layered barrier surrounding the entire training field, no one can come in and no one can get out, this way we can keep him boxed in and not worry about damaging the village".
. After everyone replied that they were ready, the hokage finally gave the signal to start the fight.
So guys, did you like it, I know that making him lose his chakra is kind of nonsensical but I don't want him to be so over powered that he has no weakness. Anyway, give your thoughts on the chapter