I do not own Naruto no matter how much I wish I did.
INARI BLESSED
"It's Playtime…" The man drawled with a giggle.
Yumiko and the clone were still surprised with how the man had destroyed their barrier but quickly got over their surprise. With a silent agreement, the clone stood at a defensive position in front of Naruto while Yumiko engaged the man.
The man simply giggled while dodging strike after strike from Yumiko. He was not going on the offensive at all, almost as if he was playing with her. He giggled occasionally while dodging.
Yumiko jumped back frustrated and sped through hand signs: "Earth Style: Dragon Dance" multiple dragons made of earth and stone rushed at her opponent.
The man jumped back and moved his hands in an arc, a wall of stone rose before the dragons and they all smashed into it and shattered.
The clone grimly as the man performed a sign-less jutsu. He looked at Naruto, who was in the last stages of the nature chakra extraction. 'Hurry up boss'
Yumiko growled and made a hundred shadow clones all of them rushed at the man, trying to overwhelm him.
The man dispatched them with ease even with all of them having high chunin taijutsu.
"You style is good, but shadow clones are useless when fighting someone who can absorb chakra." The man giggled looking at Yumiko. Suddenly he jumped out of the way as the ground he stood at exploded sending a raging inferno at him. He used body flicker, but the fire that now took the form of a phoenix was intended for following him.
"How annoying!" He said and sped through hand signs. The Naruto clone narrowed his eyes when he saw the jutsu he was about to perform.
"Wind Style: Null Void" but whatever he hoped to happen didn't. He narrowed his eyes when he saw the clone standing there with a hand sign and a smirk. He didn't get to ponder it before the fire phoenix engulfed him.
Yumiko landed next to the clone.
The charred body of the man was left on the other side of the clearing.
Yumiko panted and fell to one knee. The clone went to help her up.
"It's not over yet." He said as he held her, without taking his eyes off of the burnt man.
The body on the ground twitched and burnt skin regenerated at an alarming rate and he struggled up, giggling.
Yumiko's eyes narrowed and she looked back Naruto. Before she took a determined step forward, but the clone caught her hand and shook his head.
"You countered my jutsu with your own wind technique didn't you?" The man asked the clone with a smirk.
The clone instead of answering sends three of his explosive kunai flying at the man. The man dodges them expertly only to get a foot planted in his face courtesy of Yumiko. He tries to grab her leg, but a white chain coils around his leg and sends him sailing across the clearing.
The clone looked at the white chakra chain that had shattered like glass after only a second of contact with the man. There was also a massive energy drain, any more and the clone would be toast.
He got no time to ponder on it as the man appeared behind the cone and jabbed at its neck.
Yumiko looked at the smoke that followed the clone's destruction. She admitted to herself that she was scared, but being scared wouldn't save her friends or the village. The only plan now is to persevere until Naruto's done with Gato. She'll deal with the rest afterward if she makes it that far.
To her surprise and relief, the man didn't seem interested in attacking the original Naruto. Instead, he simply turned towards her once again and vanished from sight.
Yumiko tensed and the man attacked her with a series of taijutsu moves that left her worst for wear, especially as each hit she took meant a major chakra drain and the chakra drain led to more hits being taken. It was a vicious cycle that would only end once she was drained of the last drop of her chakra and was left lifeless. Her Dancing Mist Style helped her a lot, but there only so much it could do.
Yumiko lay at the man's feet panting and no matter how much she tried her muscles refused to move. Her chakra reserve was at an all-time low and she closed her eyes to come up with something.
She didn't have time to do anything anymore. The man bends down towards her, with a maniac grin that pronounced her doom.
"Well, it looks like-"
Yumiko looked up to see why the man had stopped.
Blood dripped from the man's mouth. Three chakra chains pierced completely through him, their white color now stained red. One chain had pierced through his throat from behind one pierced through his heart and the next through his abdomen.
"That's enough," A soft voice said from behind the man. Yumiko sighed with a small smile.
The chains pulled back and the man crumbled to the ground like a broken puppet.
The next moment Naruto was standing beside her. He helped her up and moved her away from the twitching man on the ground.
A deranged giggling was heard from the man's prone form. Naruto moved away and placed Yumiko away from the man and he made three clones to protect her.
"I have to finish this" Naruto said and that was the first time she saw his eyes. Her breath hitched as she saw the cross pupil in the middle of the flower design that was his dojutsu.
He's manipulating nature chakra. Amazing…
"Be careful." She said with a small smile. He smiled back and nodded.
Yumiko let the clone heal her as Naruto moved towards the man. She knew he could win.
"Finally came to play huh?" The man asked giggling.
Naruto observed the man who swaying on his feet, his abdomen and throat healed half way, but there was a gaping hole in his chest where his heart was supposed to be. It was mending very slowly considering his earlier healing rate.
"Now let's start the real game."
Michiko raced at Naruto and Naruto ducked out of the way of his fist and retaliated by kicking Michiko in the stomach. Naruto noticed that his speed had increased drastically due to the influx of nature chakra, which was not really a good thing in the long run for an ordinary ninja. But thankfully Naruto was nowhere near ordinary. But there would be some kind of backlash when the Nature chakra leaves his system. He'll deal with it then.
Right now Naruto could almost keep up with Michiko, almost.
Naruto ducked and weaved through the punches and kicks, avoiding any contact with the man. His dojutsu helped a lot in avoiding being hit.
Jutsu were being fired left and right. The clearing was destroyed now. But Naruto had a sinking feeling that he was fighting a losing battle. The man was too experienced and Naruto's chakra manipulation was out of option because the man simply absorbed them.
Naruto searched his mind for any technique that he could use, but every time he tried to swift through them he ended up being pulled back and forth between memories and got a migraine that left him paralyzed. He tried that once and got about half of his Nature chakra drained as a result.
Naruto couldn't dodge the fireball that came from behind him and got hit. He moved out of the way but not before a majority of his back got burned. He groaned as he felt the pain. He would heal without a scar, given time, but the pain now will hinder his fighting prowess.
Michiko appeared before him, cackling and once again began a barrage of assaults that Naruto could not dodge this time, not when he was crippled by the pain.
Naruto made a water wall to block the fire dragon. A great cloud of steam bellowed out and covered the ground.
Naruto almost screamed when a fist collided with his injured back sending him spiraling forward. He lost even more of the Nature chakra.
As he tried to rise, a foot was placed on his neck pressing him into the burnt grass. Naruto struggled.
"Aw! You are not as strong as I hoped. Too bad."
His chakra was draining by the minute. No! No! I can't let this go on. Ice spikes erupted from the ground and pushed Michiko off of him.
"Ice Release: Blizzard" Naruto yelled out and the snow storm hit Michiko dead on. But it wasn't enough. Of course, he only had memories of the technique; he doesn't have any actual practice in it. So it was very weak.
'Damn it! What can I do?' Naruto felt panic when he saw Michiko brush of his technique with a smirk.
Then as if answering his question images began to filter into his eyes.
Something was different though. This time instead of a multitude of memories, it was a name that came to his mind.
Uzumaki Yuichi the wielder of the spirit techniques. Fifth daughter of Uzumaki Kentaro and Yoshiki Suba.
And just like that, Naruto let Uzumaki Yuichi's memories take the lead.
Naruto jumped back to avoid a rock spike that rose from where he stood and then performed a set of hand signs unfamiliar to both Michiko as well as Yumiko who was watching from afar.
"Spirit technique: Phoenix Cry" wisps of white, silver and golden energy emerged from the ground as well as Naruto and formed a transparent phoenix.
Naruto had the odd feeling like he was having an out of body experience. He felt that someone else had taken over his controls and he was just sitting there watching.
"Amazing!" Michiko said seeing the technique.
The Phoenix charged at Michiko. He smirked and pulled his hand back forming a sign.
As soon as the Phoenix was near he opened his palm and impacted it with the Phoenix, but it didn't get absorbed like he hoped. Michiko felt his entire being shake as the Phoenix impacted him and disappeared. He felt his body trembling and looked down surprised.
"What- "
Naruto pushed chakra into his left leg and stomped on the ground, multiple spikes of crystal emerged from the ground and Michiko barely escaped. But one of them had cut up his left shoulder. Naruto had risen off the ground before he had any time to recover.
Whatever the technique that hit him earlier was, it had done some major damage although no wounds were visible.
Naruto formed a hand sign mid-air and similar wisps of energy formed multiple blades and rained down on Michiko. His eyes widened when he saw no way for escape, not when his body still felt barely functional.
"Spirit technique: Slicing Wave" The blades hit their mark and Michiko was stunned by the pain he felt. And this time too, no wounds formed on him.
"What are you-"The words got stuck in his throat when he saw Naruto's eyes. They were not the dojutsu he had seen earlier nor were they the blonde's normal crystal blue eyes. Michiko found himself looking at startling royal blue eyes, that belonged to a war-hardened warrior and not an eleven-year-old genin.
Naruto's long hair too now had streaks of red in them. Michiko had the strange feeling that the person he was looking at was not the genin he had set his eyes on.
Naruto moved his hands in a circle, a trail of wispy energy leaving his finger tips and forming a circle. He then put both palms together in a prayer position, the and
"Spirit Technique: Spiraling Spears" Energy trial erupted from five points of the circle and began rotating and intertwining with each other, became a spear that kept spinning.
Naruto released the prayer position and the spear released.
Michiko's eyes widened and the spear hit him.
Yumiko heard a brief scream that stopped abruptly. When she looked at where the fight took place she was greeted with the sight of Naruto standing over Michiko's dead body.
The clones had dispelled some time during the fight. Yumiko, now healed, wet towards Naruto whose appearance had changed back to normal. He was staring at the dead body with a frown.
"Is he dead?" She asked as she neared him.
Naruto nodded pensively.
She sighed in relief, "You okay?"
Again Naruto nodded. His back was already half healed, but his healing was slowed thanks to all the damage he had taken.
"Come on. We can go to the others."
My personal opinion on this chapter is that it is too mundane, not well edited and I probably shouldn't have posted it. But what the hell, I am having a writer's block for this thing and I couldn't work on this chapter any further than this without tearing my hair off in frustration.
So I apologize to all those readers who waited for so long and got this in return. And I also think that I need to finish the Wave Arc because it's been going on for too long and that is once again testing my patience.
It's probably because of the upcoming exams that I am so frustrated and that fever that reduced all my plans to dust.
I will be free by this time next month and hopefully, by then my muse would get kick-started.
Once again I apologize if this chapter is not to your liking. I promise to try harder next time.