Author's note: Well six month is a long waiting time. I'm sorry for that, but I was rather busy these last month, not to mention that this chapter didn't want to write itself was smoothly as the others, but it's finally done. I hope you'll be able to forgive me for this long waiting time and I'll try to write the next one much faster, although I can't promise anything.
Without further ado read and enjoy.
Naruto groaned, his head throbbing in pain as he tried to open his eyes. All he could see was white, at first because his eyes had to adjust to the brightness of the day and then because he realized he was staring at a white ceiling, looking around the walls were white too as were the covers of his bed.
'Where am I' he asked himself and tried to remember what hes was doing 'The last thing I remember is escaping from Orochimaru's hidden bunker.'
"You are awake." he heard someone say, the voice slightly familiar but he could not say where he knew it from at the moment. He turned towards the source of the voice, which belonged to a man with long spiky white hair. That was when he remembered where he had seen the man before, Sarutobi's memories were full of that man, having been one of the old man's students, Jiraiya was his name.
"Mind telling me what you were doing with Orochimaru, Naruto?" the white haired man got straight to the point
"No, I'd rather not. I don't even know you to begin with, so you have no right to know about my business." Naruto replied inwardly congratulating himself for that reply, knowing that Jiraiya was a 'nice' 'light' mage he wouldn't try to force anything out of him
"Well, I am Jiraiya one of Sarutobi's former students. One of the "Legendary Three Mages" and author of the well known Icha Icha Paradise book series. I was even best friends with your father, Minato." Jiraiya told him and Naruto gave him a deadpan look. The white haired man smiled "Well now that you know who I am, I think you could tell me what your business was with Orochimaru considering he is a wanted dark mage."
"No." the blonde stated flatly "I still see no reason to tell you about anything."
Jiraiya frowned but gave it a rest "Alright, I can't force you to tell me anything if you don't want to."
"Glad you realized that." the hospitalized boy responded
"However there are some other things I would like to know about." the white haired man said and his demeanor made clear that he wouldn't accept a no this time around "How did you survive the Crimson Massacre?"
"I left the village." the blonde answered with a flat voice, which technically wasn't a lie, he had left the village prior to the Massacre, however Jiraiya never asked if he wasn't present at that time.
Jiraiya inwardly sighed, he knew that the boy wasn't truthful with him, he just didn't know if it was for the type of secrets he had, because of the lack of trust or maybe it was both.
But he couldn't leave the son of one of his best friends and the only survivor of that massacre all alone to fend for himself, especially if he had some dark secrets. He just wouldn't be able to forgive himself if he strayed from the right path.
"Why did you leave the village in the first place?" Jiraiya wanted to know at least that much
"...Try living in a place that denies your right to exist for the whole time you are there." the blonde responded with a frown his voice laced with a light tone of anger.
'Well at least he is showing some emotions this time, even if such anger isn't good.' the white haired man thought to himself, before deciding to let his questioning rest for the time being.
"All right, I understand." Jiraiya tried to placate the young boy, before adapting a thinking pose "You know it must be hard fending for yourself. How about you travel with me? I'm sure there is a lot I can teach you about magic too, if that's what you are after."
"No, thank you. I'd rather continue to travel on my own, I think I managed pretty well these last few years." the blonde responded his voice once again neutral, not giving away anything
"What? Why not? Hundreds of young mages like yourself would beg to be given the chance to travel and train under such a renown mage like me!" the legendary mage exclaimed surprised
"Then perhaps you should look for exactly such a person, but I remain not interested."
"It's because I write erotic books, right? Because I am a pervert." Jiraiya fell into fake lamentation "Oh I should have never taken up this vice." He cried out in mock despair
And for a split second Naruto's face held a smile as a slight chuckle escaped his lips, as he considered the absurdity of what the old man had said.
"I assure you, your... 'hobby' has nothing to do with my decision. I am just not interested and let's leave it at that." Naruto explained and pulled his body up into a seated position. He could feel the dull pain of each wound that littered his body.
'Perhaps...' he thought ' Some moronic prude would have problems learning from him, but only a truly stupid person would refuse tutelage from him, perhaps I would have accepted his proposal if it weren't for the fact that I already know the core magic types he is using. Except maybe for his Toad magic, but I have little interest in that.'
"Where are my clothes?" the blonde inquired, feeling the need to quickly leave the hospital and carry on with his quest for revenge. Thanks to Orochimaru he now knew that Zeref was still alive somewhere and he had to find him and then he would crush him. Without remorse he would make the Dark Mage suffer as long as he could before snuffing out the last bit of life in him. He wouldn't even deign to drain the Black Mage, every last piece of his self would be eradicated from existence.
"I'm sorry to say but they were nearly completely destroyed when Orochimaru's hideout exploded, but I got you some new ones." the white haired man explained "Don't worry about the cost, just think of it as a belated birthday present."
"Thank you." the dark mage said. While he wasn't a nice person by any stretch of the imagination he was far from ungrateful.
Jiraiya had bought him a pair of blue plants, a black t-shirt and a long sleeved blue, matching his pants color, shirt, a pair of socks and some sturdy shoes that would keep together even if he walked across Fiore and back and of course a new cloak that would protect him from the cold weather up here.
Naruto got dressed in his new clothes and frowned lightly, as he suppressed the urge to tear his clothes of his body.
He didn't feel well not wearing anything red. It made him feel naked despite everything he wore.
Although the Reaper didn't feel a hundred percent well, still feeling the aftereffects of liquifying his body two times in a row, large expenditure of magic energies and the wounds that littered his body, but that would be gone in a week tops.
"Well thanks for everything old man, but I'll be on my way again." the blonde stated and draped the cloak over his body. He walked up to the door of his room and pressed the handle down, opening the door and leaving the room, Jiraiya still inside, behind him.
For now he had to somehow find this Brain, who told Orochimaru about Zeref.
Naruto decided to travel westwards from now on, because if he continued to travel north he would come across the Blue Pegasus Guildhall and he didn't have any interest in dealing with another Guild.
As the white haired mage saw the blonde leave he smirked to himself 'If that idiot thinks I'm not going to follow him, he's more naive than I thought.'
Four Days later. Unspecified location: Four days west of Tetsuiro
The last two days had been rather uneventful for Naruto. Since Christmas had past just yesterday he had avoided all kinds of towns, as the happy families would have made him angry at what he had been missing out all theses years ago. Meanwhile on a more positive note his wounds had been healed so far, but his body still felt a little weak from being liquified, he doubted he could fight at full capacity if he wanted to, most likely he shouldn't be using Sanguine Pool for a while now.
And to top it all the old coot had been following him these past two days 'If the senile old fool believes I didn't notice him 'stealthily' following me, he should consider retiring early.'
But unknown to Naruto this day should prove to be more interesting than he had imagined.
Not far from Naruto he a blue haired woman observed him. This woman had been tracking him down for the past two days.
Unknown location: Guren's hideout. Time:Four days ago.
Guren sat inside of her small hideout that Orochimaru had provided her with. She had blue hair which she wore in a spiky ponytail with two bangs framing her face. Her lips were covered in thick red lipstick, contrasted by her light skin and dark eyes.
Her outfit consisted of a green dress with a long left sleeve and a short right one, a red turtle-neck which had a white, fluffy collar and brown gloves. Under the dress, she wore a one piece red suit. For shoes, she was wearing calf-length brown sandal boots.
On top of a table near her was a large orb, a communication lachryma.
The orb began to vibrate catching Guren's attention who had been honing her skills.
She touched the lachryma and the pale visage of her master, Orochimaru, looked at her from the surface.
"Hello, Guren." the snake like man greeted her, his voice foreboding
"Master, what an unexpected call." she responded and decided against kneeling, since Orochimaru wasn't present in person
"Yes, I imagine so." he hissed "It has been quite a while since I had a mission for you."
"You have a mission for me?" she asked in surprise, a bit of delight filling her voice as she may get to kill someone "Tell me what I shall do and it will be done, master."
"Today someone stormed my base near Tetsuiro, killed Jirobou, Tayuya, Kidomaru, Sakon and Ukon." Orochimaru stated
"That is quite unfortunate." Guren responded carefully, although she wasn't on best terms with the five, they were all loyal to Orochimaru which made her feel just a bit angry at whoever had killed them, although she knew that Orochimaru valued only strength and if they were defeated then they deserved it.
"Indeed, very unfortunate." the legendary mage said and she could almost feel the mirth inside his voice, as if he was eagerly anticipating something, through the lachryma projection "You mission is as follows. Capture the intruder and bring him to me, alive. He is blond, has blue eyes and is about five feet and three inch in height. He is in somewhere in his mid teens and he goes by the name of Naruto."
Guren listened to the description her master gave her and nodded "I shall capture him at once." Guren answered her voice filled with devotion and a slight bit of disappointment at not being able to kill anything.
"I hope you wont prove yourself to be a failure unlike those five pieces of trash that died." the pale man grinned threateningly at her and she could feel shivers traveling down her spine, knowing that she had to expect harsh punishment should she fail in capturing her target.
Orochimaru's base
"You think Guren will be able to complete this task you have given her, Orochimaru-sama?" Kabuto asked sceptically
"Kukukuku." the pale skinned male laughed in amusement "Don't worry, Kabuto-kun. With her Crystal Make Magic she should be suited very well to deal with him."
"But what if your old teammate Jiraiya is with him I doubt she'll be able to take both of them out." the gray haired man argued
"I doubt Reaper-kun would want him to be around, it would greatly decrease the freedom of his movements."
"You are of course right Orochimaru-sama, but there is always a small chance..." Kabuto pushed up his glasses in worry. Although he held a certain disdain for Guren mainly because each time they met she had to question his worthiness as Orochimaru's right hand man, but he knew that she was one of Orochimaru's most valuable assets. Her combat strength was perhaps just a bit below the level of Kimimaro, who was currently still recuperating
Present Time
Finally she had found her target. He was casually walking through the forest, his blue clothes sticking out like a sore thumb and even his magic aura wasn't suppressed, radiating off of him like a flare.
Guren doubted that he had sensed her else he would be more on guard.
"Crystal Make:Knives." whispered and the air crystallized into a four pink knives. The knives were sturdy and could easily clash with any known iron or steel weapon without breaking into pieces 'As long as he doesn't die I'm sure I can injure him as much as I want to.' she thought to herself and let the four knives fly towards his limbs, intent on disabling them.
Naruto was continuing his trek through the forest and his mood... well it could be better. Jiraiya was still following him. About an hour ago, he thought the old fool had given up when he couldn't sense the erotic authors magic signature anymore, but apparently that was just to lull him into a false sense of security. Jiraiya hadn't been able to keep himself fully from being noticed, likely from being without practice for so long, but finally he managed to sense the last specks of the mans aura, who had been hiding just at the edge of his range. He had to divert nearly all his focus to keep himself updated on the mans position. If he needed anymore attention to keep sensing him he could stop moving all together, because he would risk walking into trees and what not.
'Can't he just leave me alone?' the blonde thought exasperated and nearly too late he heard the whirring of something flying in the air.
His eyes widened in surprise as he realized that he was being attack and hoped that it wasn't too late to dodge.
Luckily for him it wasn't. The offending weapons grazed his body, cutting open his clothes and skin, before impaling themselves into nearby pieces of the forest.
The blood mage quickly moved into cover and tried to track the trajectory of the projectiles, while his mind went into overdrive.
'Damn it.' he cursed' If Jiraiya wasn't there I may have sensed my attacker earlier. Just my luck that he could sneak past my attention like that.'
He was really angry at Jiraiya now and if he saw the man the next time in person, he would pay him back somehow, but for now he would have to deal with his assailant.
The place from which his enemy had thrown his weapons had of course been deserted.
The blonde stopped trying to sense Jiraiya and focused fully on any unknown signatures in the surroundings.
He sensed something coming from above him and jumped out of harms way as a large crystalline lance was about to impale him.
He couldn't use any Blood Magic because that would reveal himself to Jiraiya who had to be lurking around somewhere.
"Golems hand." the large stone construct sped towards Naruto's opponent who touched it the moment it came into range
"Crystallize." a feminine voice said and the stone was turned into the same pink substance the knives had been made of, before shattering.
Naruto now got a closer look at his opponent who was a woman with blue hair.
"Who are you and what do you want?" the blonde inquired
"I am Guren one of Orochimaru's most trusted followers. I am here to bring you to him." the blue haired woman explained "But enough of the talk. Crystal Make: Jade Crystal Blade."
The air once again crystallized to form two blades along Guren's forearms. The blue haired woman then followed up by rushing towards her opponent.
The blonde wracked his mind as he began dodging the woman's assault. He had quite a lot of magic types stored in his mind, but he didn't know which one to chose. He had largely relied on his earth magic besides his blood magic, which was why it was so easy to drag all that knowledge to the forefront.
All other type of magics had been mostly a one time situational use.
'Having all that knowledge in my head is useless when I can't bring it out as fast as I want to.' he cursed himself as the woman nicked him a few times, her attacks picking up speed as she realized that I didn't try to attack 'Okay all the holder type magics are out... Don't have anything to use those. And I can exclude anything that uses either a liquid, solid or gas as a base for attacks as well, since she'll likely just crystallize those and shatter them.'
The blood mage gathered his magical energy"Lion of Light." and the large luminescent lion shot towards his target with a loud roar. The beast pounced towards Guren and the woman so surprised that he decided to fight back forgot to dodge.
The blue haired woman was thrown to the ground as the beast tried to maul her.
She kept the lion barely at bay"Crystal Make: Crimson Fruit." around the light construct she formed a pinkish prison that resembled as the name told a fruit.
She barely had enough time to dodge the incoming Light Rain, before retaliating with Crystal Needles which were knocked out of the air by a pair of bird shaped lights.
The birds descended towards her but were quickly impaled upon another wave of crystals.
"Crystal Make: Crystal Shuriken." a pair of the pink throwing weapons appeared in her hands and were thrown towards her target, this process she repeated a few times until Naruto had no choice but to create a large mud wall that kept the shuriken stuck in it's soft structure. Unfortunately this robbed Naruto of his vision as well, as suddenly a wave of crystals shot along the ground and stopped him from moving.
The blue haired woman moved around his wall and he could feel her gathering her magic energy as the crystals around his legs started growing into a large pillar that kept him fully immobilized.
Perhaps if he had been better prepared he could have beaten her, but Guren had completely negated his usual battle tactics and caught him off guard. Now she would bring him to Orochimaru.
Which would have made finding this Brain easier, surely his 'friend' Orochimaru should know where he is, but at the moment Naruto was sure the much more experienced mage would beat him.
But that was all moot as he was going to be dragged off and experimented on until his usefulness had run out.
Slowly he ran out of air and he lost his consciousness inside of the crystal pillar. The last he felt was a small tremor.
Guren smiled she has successfully completed the task her master had given her.
She was about to cancel her technique so as to not suffocate her target and incur the wrath of her master, when she felt someone gathering a large amount of magical power, giving her ample time to create a Jade Clone of herself and fall back from the point that was targeted, as she snuffed out the last bits of her magic signature.
Two large purple magic formulas were formed. One under and one above her clone"Amaterasu Formula 60" the purple formulas created an explosion, filling the air with dust. After the dust had settled she saw that her Clone had been shattered into hundreds of tiny little jade green splitters and the prison around her target had shattered without causing damage to him.
Then she noticed the person next to her blond target. A large man with spiky long white hair. This was a person you couldn't mistake no matter who you were.
It was Jiraiya a mage on the same level as her master, if she had to capture this Naruto and defeat Jiraiya she was confident that she wouldn't be able to accomplish this without being defeated.
So she retreated and planned to ask her master for assistance in dealing with his old teammate.
Later that day
Nighttime had settled in over Fiore, as Naruto finally woke up.
The blonde pried his eyes open to look into the starry night sky above him, while he heard the crackling of a campfire close to him.
"The sleeping beauty is finally awake?" Jiraiya asked bemusedly that the young boy had been out of it for so long
Naruto's mind was still a bit fuzzy from the lack of oxygen so he decided to ask the legendary mage "What happened?"
"Well, you fought with one of Orochimaru's henchman and lost quite badly to her I might add." the author of the Icha Icha series explained and the fight to Guren came back to his mind. That time he fought against Erza he had simply been outclassed in terms of speed and power. He had not been able to react at all to her attacks, which was partly his concoctions fault, but Guren wasn't necessarily stronger than him, she just had out skilled him. Had he been better prepared he was sure to beat her.
"You are just lucky I was in the area to save you or you would be strapped to some kind of table in one of Orochimaru's labs right now."
Naruto snorted at his explanation "Sure you were 'in the area'." the blonde commented sarcastically "More like tailed me for the past days."
"Y-you noticed me?" the white haired man asked incredulously, having thought that his stealth skills hadn't dulled these last years he had more or less dedicated himself to writing his books "But back in Tetsuiro you didn't notice me while I followed you to Orochimaru."
"What are you so surprised for? Yes, I noticed you and you did it very well but for some reason there was just a tiny bit of your signature you couldn't erase. Using nearly all my focus I had been able to keep track of you, which is how this woman, Guren, had been able to get the drop on my in the first place." the blonde said with a large hint of annoyance in his voice
"So you are saying it was my fault you got your ass kicked?" the white haired man asked with a smirk
"No, I am saying it is your fault that someone could sneak up on me unnoticed. If you didn't insist on following me, things could have gone a lot different." Which he himself doubted very much, but Jiraiya didn't need to know that. And although he had sworn that he would pay the old man back he had saved his life, so he decided that he would drop it.
In response the white haired man muttered something about ungrateful blonde brats that didn't appreciate him saving their asses.
"But glad to see that you aren't in cahoots with Orochimaru." the white haired man confessed
Jiraiya had noticed Guren sneaking up on the blonde, but wanted to see what she wanted.
If Naruto had really been working for his old teammate the blue haired woman could have given him new orders or something of the sort. Since that had not been the case, he wanted to see what Minato's son could do in terms of magic and he was impressed. Naruto was incredible for a boy his age. He had large magic reserves, good control but he lacked experience so someone like Guren who could have been close to twice his age had been able to make better use of her skill set than him.
As a matter of fact he didn't know what to think of the boys magic. Using two different types of magic at that age was rather unheard of especially two such different elements.
'I mean there are of course the holder types, who pretty much all know Requip magic. Some similar magics like Take Over and Transformation are seen often together as well, but Earth type elemental magic and Light that is pretty far apart from each other. Earth is very rigid, sturdy and excellent in defending. Light however is flexible, intangible and very offensive.' Jiraiya contemplated ' At least he is taking somewhat after Minato using Light Magic.'
However what worried the white haired man the most was that he could not discern what of these two magics was his natural or first magic.
Usually young mages only used one type of magic, especially in combat, to master it and then some would consider learning a second one.
All mages usually had a magic that they were best attuned with, with enough experience or skill in sensing magical energies one could even get a feel for a persons natural magic, as the more you used this kind of magic the more it imprinted on your signature. And you couldn't just do it from a distance, you had to be close. Back in the Hospital he didn't think to check it, the questions he had wanted to ask Naruto were far more pressing in his mind.
But now he could get a feel for it and it wasn't like anything he ever felt before.
For example Minato, who had in his life nearly always used Light magic, his magic felt like a soft warmth, like a soft protective blanket which would cover you. Orochimaru's magic had felt like something fleeting, something you wanted to grasp but could not, but Naruto's it was unlike everything he knew. He had even felt the magic of a Dragon Slayer at one point, which felt like the typical elemental magic, but stronger, raw and uncontrolled.
Naruto however if he had to describe it, it felt like a liquid and a bit sticky, cold and metallic like a knife, but beneath that he could feel something ever changing. This all worried Jiraiya very much.
'What are you hiding?' he thought to himself as he observed the boy who was quietly staring or maybe he was even glaring into the campfire' No use mulling over it now.' he finally decided "I'm going to sleep now, if you are gone in the morning I am just going to follow you again."
Naruto gave no sign of acknowledgment and so Jiraiya just tried to make it comfortable for him on the cold forest floor.
Naruto meanwhile was spending his time sorting all the knowledge he had drained from his victims. A blood mage had besides the physiological changes they went through an increase in mental abilities too. They didn't get smarter though, no their capacity to store knowledge and information was increased. They could store an endless amount of knowledge and recall it, however they did not possess perfect recall. It took him quite some time to bring a certain kind of information to the front of his mind, unless he kept using that certain type of knowledge over and over again.
That was at least until he got more experienced in sorting through his mind and filtering the unneeded things out or found something to increase the speed at which he could recall information.
The blonde spent a few more hours with his mental exercises, which Sorin had taught him all those years ago, until he decided to call it quits and fell asleep as well.
With Guren
She had more or less escaped certain prison sentence at the hand of Jiraiya.
Why had her master not mentioned that his old teammate would accompany the boy?
Did he want her gone? Had she lost her usefulness? These and other thoughts were going through her head, but then decided to discard them. If she had displeased Orochimaru-sama then he would deal with her directly instead of doing such a roundabout way.
She took out a small communication lachryma that fit into her hand, it was much smaller than the one standing in her hideout.
Focusing her magic energies into the small orb the glinting yellow snakelike eyes appeared, before being followed by the mans pale face.
"Ahhh, Guren. I hope you decided to contact me to report a successful capture of your target?" Orochimaru asked intrigued and a sense of foreboding overcame her
"No, Master." she admitted her own failure
"Is~ there a reason you have failed?" he asked dangerously"Or was it just your own incompetence?"
"I apologize Orochimaru-sama, but the boy was in the company of your old acquaintance Jiraiya. It wasn't possible for me to beat him and to take the boy."
"Ahhhh, yes~ my pesky old fool of a friend." the snake like man seemed contemplative" I didn't expect him to be anywhere near the boy, so you are forgiven this time."
"Could you be so gracious as to send me some backup to deal with him while I capture the boy, Orochimaru-sama?" she implored of her master
"Why, yes indeed I could. I am a generous master and I realize that it is impossible for you to deal with Jiraiya on your own." the pale skinned man grinned maliciously "I will send Kabuto-kun along, he will be able to keep the pervert occupied."
"Thank you, master. You are truly most generous."
"I know my dear Guren-chan." his voice held a dangerous edge to it "But know that should you fail a second time, I wont excuse you again. Understood?"
"Yes, of course master. I understand completely."
"Good. Kabuto should arrive in about two days." once Orochimaru had finished his sentence he ended the connection
Two days later
Guren saw the gray haired bespectacled man walking towards her.
She had been restless these last days, waiting for her masters right hand man to arrive.
"Finally you are here." she noted with a large amount of impatience in his voice "We can get going then. They should not have too much of a head start."
"You should watch your tone when speaking to me Guren. It is only by Orochimaru-sama's generosity and the fact that capturing Naruto-kun is of the utmost importance that I am here." Orochimaru's right hand man replied his voice filled with a hint of anger "Otherwise I would leave you to fend for yourself."
She matched the glare he had sent her, as they started the chase after Naruto and Jiraiya.
One day later
The two dark mages had finally caught up to the two.
"As agreed I will take care of Jiraiya while you deal with the boy." Kabuto declared "I think I will be able to buy you at least fifteen minutes against Jiraiya. Use that time to capture the boy. If you have him we'll meet half a days walk to the north along the river."
Guren nodded and decided to begrudgingly follow the mans plan even if she didn't like him.
Guren gathered quite a bit magical energy and formed the crystal to her liking "Crystal Make: Crystal Dragon." a large pink crystal dragon with jade eyes emerged from below Guren and carried her towards her target. The crystalline dragon charged at the blonde, maw wide open.
The blonde rolled out of the way as the dragon tore through a row of trees and turned to charge towards him once more.
"Amaterasu Formula..." Jiraiya was about to cast a spell, but he had been interrupted as he dodged a glowing blue hand. He stared at the glasses wearing young man who was poised to strike him once more.
"I recognize you! You are the 'Ghost Surgeon' Yakushi Kabuto." Jiraiya exclaimed remembering the mans face from a few wanted posters
"My what an honor that my reputation has even reached the likes of the great Jiraiya-sama." the gray haired mage mocked and charged towards Jiraiya "I know quite a lot about your fighting style from my master. I wont let you set up any kind of runes or formulas."
The legendary mage dodged once more a swipe of the glowing hand.
Kabuto was using an outlawed assassination magic called Ghost Wounds. The user coated their hands or any body part they wanted in magic and when they hit somebody the damage passed through the skin, completely foregoing any external damage to focus on internal damage. If somebody had enough knowledge on human anatomy this style was really dangerous. You could have been poked or hit and feel just a little hurt and hours or days later die in a pool of your own blood.
That was how Kabuto got his name. With the precision of a surgeon he would strike a person maybe once or twice in a fight and then retreat only for that person to die a belated death.
'This guy means business.' Jiraiya thought to himself as he dodged his opponents attacks and was countering with a Formula that didn't take much time to set up, which Kabuto dodged equally as well
Meanwhile Guren and Naruto had been driven away from their two respective 'allies'.
The blue haired woman was still sitting atop her dragon trying to hit the blonde pest, after all a few superficial wounds like a missing leg or so would be fine.
"Give up brat. You only got away last time because Jiraiya rescued you. You are all alone now."
"All alone you say?" he asked with a smile "That is exactly what I wanted all this time you know?"
Naruto knew that under Jiraiya's watchful gaze he wouldn't be able to fight to kill or get to drain her of Orochimaru's possible whereabouts.
These last three days he had spent a lot of time sorting through all the different magic styles stuck in his head, this time he wouldn't lose.
"Chain Lightning." a blinding white bolt of lightning shot towards the onrushing dragon and pierced straight through him, coming out at the end of it. Where the lightning had pierced the crystal it was nothing more than molten slag.
The bolt didn't continue in a straight line though, it turned in mid air and the crackling energy rushed towards Guren's back.
She jumped from the dragons back onto the ground and so she barely dodged the lightning that would have pierced through her body.
The spell didn't turn again and instead rushed towards the blonde who caught it in his hand, feeling the raw unbridled power of his own spell, before having to redirect it, sending it into a nearby tree, which exploded showering the forest in burning pieced of wood and setting the rest of the tree ablaze.
While the blonde had been distracted by his own display of power Guren had used that window of opportunity and had created a razor sharp 'wheel' around her body. The ground under her split as she gained momentum.
"Protector Golem." he raised the large stone construct from the ground tasked with protecting him. The stone giant reached towards the wheel to grab it only for it to slice through it like a hot knife through butter.
"What you can do I can do as well." Naruto smiled evilly at her "Shatter." Just as Guren was in between the two parting halves of stone, the construct shattered violently.
Guren had to react fast as she saw the sharp stone shrapnel fly towards her and with a little effort she changed the wheel "Crystal Make: Crystal Orb." the 'two-dimensional' wheel filled out to each side covering her in a protective layer of he precious Crystals. The stone had little chance of piercing the hardened minerals.
"Let's see if you can take the heat." Naruto's eyes flashed crimson red as his hands contained red hot fire magic "Fire Storm." and a torrent of flames engulfed the orb and a good deal of the forest, while Guren was being roasted alive in the protective layer.
"Shatter." she shattered the orb and tried to get as fast out of the fire as possible, but her previously pristine skin was now littered with blisters and burned skin.
She realized that if she kept fighting like this she would likely die.
"Crystal Release: Growing Crystal Thorns" she pressed here palms on the ground and a sharp pink, but thin crystalline structure rose from the ground growing towards Naruto.
The blonde saw the crystal emerging from behind the torrent of flames and dodged to the side only for the construct to grow to the side following his movements.
The blonde kept evading the growing structure and even blasted it with lightning, but even cut off from its point of origin the crystal kept growing.
And while Naruto was busy dodging Guren gathered as much of her magical energy as she could muster.
A translucent prism grew around her body, encasing her once more in a protective layer of crystals, but her technique didn't stop there. The prism rose into the air, hovering over the fire on the ground, close to the tree tops.
'I just hope he is going to survive this. I didn't pull out my strongest technique to survive just to fail my mission in the end.' she thought to herself and the prism focused her energy into a visible form at the front.
"String of Glory." a glowing blue beam of her energy was shot at blonde whose eyes widened in panic
Naruto cursed inwardly, he had just gotten rid of this ever growing 'weed' crystal and now he knew that he wouldn't be able to dodge the attack in time, his only hope was that he could put up a strong enough defense, because his body still had not recovered enough to enter a sanguine pool.
"Light Shield." Normally this would form many shields beside each other but this time he placed them overlapping in front of each other, raising a large line to meet the beam flying towards him.
The beam came closer and impacted upon his first shield of light which was pierced like paper and the following few did nothing to slow the beam either. As soon as the attack reached the last pair of shields it slowed down and Guren started pumping the little rest of her magic into the technique, which gave it the push needed to pierce the last shields, however the attack had been severely weakened.
As the beam impacted an explosion of dust robbed Guren of her vision. Her crystal prism fell apart because of her lack of magic power and she only barely broke the fall, else she would have broken her legs instead.
She knelt panting on the the ground, sweat pouring down her face in exhaustion and from the heat of the nearby flames. As she walked towards the dust cloud she expected to see an injured but unconscious Naruto.
Her eyes widened in shock "No, it can't be..." she muttered and Naruto had indeed been injured. His clothes had once again been torn up 'I seriously need to consider getting sturdier clothing.' Naruto thought to himself, as his blood streamed down from cuts all over his body.
He walked towards Guren who was frozen in shock, an expression of terror on her face as he grabbed her throat lifting her up "Let's see if I can pry Orochimaru's location out of you."
"I wont tell you anything." she said in defiance although she knew that she could not defend herself at all right now
He smiled maliciously and it somehow reminded her of Orochimaru when he had a test subject in front of him "What makes you think this is a voluntary process?"
His eyes were glowing so strong you'd probably see them even in the darkest night "Transfusion."
The red life giving liquid started pouring out of Guren and into Naruto as he assimilated her knowledge.
Taking a few minutes to regain his bearings he looked at the corpse in his hand in disappointment.
"She knew nothing after all, but maybe Kabuto will know more."
Before he made his way to the point where the two were supposed to meet he threw the corpse into the burning fire to erase the evidence of his blood magic. After all he could not have people believe that he was still alive, could he?
And behind him the fire continued to burn strongly.
With Jiraiya and Kabuto
Jiraiya had sensed the large build up in magical energies and he thought he could even see something floating in the air. That was a sign for him that he had to increase his efforts to beat Kabuto and get to Naruto.
"Amaterasu Formula 60. Amaterasu Formula 50." he combined the two formula spells and Kabuto was surrounded with formulas. One above, one below, one west, east, north and south of him. In effect this was the same as Formula eighty, but with less power and a quicker setup time.
The formulas exploded around the bespectacled man. When the dust had disappeared Kabuto was mostly unharmed, but rough scales could be seen covering his skin.
"Snake Magic." Kabuto stated a forked tongue tasting the air, as he disappeared from view.
He appeared behind Jiraiya, who suddenly jumped higher than would have been humanly possible out of his position. His hands hat become webbed, a single wart resting on his nose, as he eyes were surrounded by red markings. He landed on a nearby tree and then spat orbs of water towards Kabuto, who dodged them with his increased nimbleness and was just about to attack when his eyes flickered over to the site of Naruto and Guren's battle
'Seems I didn't even have to go for the fifteen minutes.' he realized as suddenly Jiraiya's foot impacted with his jaw sending him flying into and through a nearby tree.
If Kabuto had not been using snake magic he was sure to have not only his jaw broken, but many of his bones as well. Instead they were only heavily bruised.
As Jiraiya was walking closer to him "I'm sorry I can't stay and fight you, but I have somewhere to be and you should perhaps see after Naruto-kun." the gray haired man advised and sped away past the trees while Jiraiya made his way towards the other battle site, only to find large flames in front of him burning the forest to cinders.
Jiraiya quickly used what little he knew about Water and Earth magic to stop the fire from spreading further eventually a few hours later snuffing it out.
All that he found among the ashes of the many trees was a charred corpse.
"No..." Jiraiya was devastated for a moment thinking that it was Naruto's corpse, but it wasn't "This belongs to that Guren woman..."
He didn't know if he should be happy that the son of one of his best friends had survived or sad because he had been forced to kill somebody.
"Well, I better go looking for him." Jiraiya spread his senses out, but could not get a feel for the blondes magic signature. Jiraiya cursed his luck and tried to move as fast as he could, when he broke down in pain "Shit, my leg." he cursed and held his right leg in pain "Kabuto probably tore some muscles, but when..."
He tried to think back 'That's it! When I jumped into the air he must have grazed my leg for just a split second and cut the muscles.'
Jiraiya cursed his luck 'And I am not even Tsunade with her legendary bad luck.' he thought to himself 'Well that's it for chasing after the brat.'
It pained him to leave the blonde alone somewhere in this forest, with the weight of having killed someone on his shoulders, but until his leg was healed he couldn't travel fast at all.
One hour ago at the meeting spot
Naruto had finally found the place Guren and Kabuto were supposed to meet, the glasses wearing guy probably hadn't specified an exact location just to annoy Guren by having her search for him.
The reason why he knew he had found the spot was a single note addressed towards him.
'Congratulations on defeating Guren, Naruto-kun. You surely affirmed the interest my master has in you. The next time he will send someone who is even stronger than, Guren was. You should prepare yourself.'
He scrunched up the piece of paper, glaring at the offending note like it had insulted his mother, because once again he was stuck in a dead end.
However a grin spread over the blondes face "I hope the next guy snake face is going to send knows where he's hiding at."
Spell Grimoire
Guren's abilities can be found on the naruto wiki, most of the time with the name used otherwise it is pretty obvious which technique is meant.
Except for the following three:
Crystal Make: Crystal Orb Caster Type Magic, Defensive, B-Rank
The caster forms and almost impenetrable orb of crystal around them, protecting them from most forms of attacks, however it leaves the user incapable of attacking themselves as well.
Crystal Make: Crystal Knives Caster Type Magic, Offensive, C~B-Rank
The caster creates as many knives as they wish out of crystal for close combat or as throwing weapons. The crystalline material is as before very sturdy.
Crystallize Caster Type Magic Offensive, Defensive, Supplementary ?-Rank
A or perhaps the basic skill of Crystal Make. Any kind of liquid, solid or gaseous substance the caster comes into contact with can be crystallized and then used for their own purpose.
Shatter Caster Type Magic Offensive, Supplementary C~A-Rank
Users of a solid Element that can be shattered such as Stone, Ice, Crystal... can choose to do so either stopping their creation coming under the control of an enemy or to blast the enemy with the resulting shrapnel.
Chain Lightning Caster Type Magic Offensive B-Rank
The caster shoots a bolt of lightning in a straight line that will after having hit it's initial target change direction towards the closest source of magical energy. This direction change only occurs once. This means an unaware user of this Spell can be hit by their own attack.
Fire Storm Caster Type Magic Offensive A-Rank
The caster creates a raging torrent around a certain person, object or location. The fire will continue to burn as long as a normal fire would.
Amaterasu Formula 50 Caster Type Magic Offensive B-Rank
The target of this Formula is surrounded from all four directions. The Formulas can be dodged either by jumping into the air or burying into the earth.
Amaterasu Formula 60 Caster Type Magic Offensive B-Rank
Above and below the target of this spell form an Amaterasu Formula that will explode a little while later. Dodging to any side is preferable.
Snake/Toad Magic Caster Type Magic (Body Enhancement Type)
These two magics are similar to Take Over magic because they grant the Caster attributes based on the animal they chose, however the caster themselves don't give up their human form and using the enhancements causes great exhaustion and places a good deal of stress on the body with prolonged exposure.
The body enhancements can be anything from Scales for enhanced defense, a greater nimbleness or even increased strength.
Ghost Wounds Caster Type Magic
This type of magic allows the caster to bypass the bodies skin to attack the inner body directly in other words, the caster is able to attack muscles, bones, arteries/veins and inner organs at their leisure. However the caster can't necessarily decide what to attack in the heat of the battle, but most of the time it is surely a crippling strike.
This magic enjoys great popularity amongst Assassins and Assassin Guilds, especially those that like to leave little evidence, for the delayed deaths it can cause. This is the reason the Magic Council of Fiore has decided to Outlaw this magic as of the year X735.