Naruto: Kung Fu Guardian

Chapter 12: NeoNaruto

…o.0.O.0.o…

This chapter is longer than last chapter. Hope it was worth the wait.

Disclaimer: I borrowed Narutoverse from Kishimoto and two techniques from Jin Yong. Everything else, including the explanation of how those techniques work, though, is mine.

…o.0.O.0.o…

Naruto steadied himself behind the crisscross of his sword and sheath, trying his best to recall the sword lessons with Kyuubi in his mindscape and the chants of the Nine Stances.

As his mind desperately tried to recall the past and bring it back to the present, he saw the shark-skinned shinobi carrying a club-looking weapon speeding toward him.

And as if he wasn't already under enough pressure, out of the corner of his vision, he saw Sasuke and Sakura lay unmoving under the tree outside the library.

He had already realized that he was severely outclassed by these two powerhouses. Well, actually, just one, if he was to consider Itachi an ally; though at the moment, he would probably not be of any help since he was an ally whose duty it was to serve the greater good of Konoha. Were Itachi to help Naruto, it would blow his cover and compromise his espionage mission.

In the back of his mind, Naruto knew that all he had to do was hold out long enough for help to come. The question was, Could he? He knew that no matter what the answer to that question was, he had to. He had to do it at least long enough for Itachi to record a report for the Hokage in his mindscape, just like he'd done so when they'd met four years ago. If that was still where his loyalty lay, and if there was anything to report.

Looking for a quick and easy capture was probably why Kisame was running towards him instead of waiting for him to make a move.

The shark-man had probably guessed that Naruto had already alerted someone and that the sooner he completed the capture, the less likely they would have to return to Leader empty handed.

As he sped closer to what he thought would be an easy capture, he swung the Samehada at Naruto's head. The boy backflipped and dodged it with ease, which had been Kisame's intension all along.

Kisame smirked as he felt a large pool of chakra being absorbed into his prized weapon. His smirk deepened as he noted how much larger Naruto's chakra supply was than those he had gathered from Itachi's little brother and that pink-haired Genin girlfriend of his.

The abundance was not as large as he was expecting from the Jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tailed Chakra Powerhouse, but it was still substantially satisfying. Mentally, Kisame shrugged off what he deemed to be an insignificant discrepancy.

Naruto, unaware of Kisame's true intent in using a sword stance that made his attacks relatively easy to dodge, felt a surge of confidence in his ability to at least delay them until the arrival of his Jiji's personal ANBU … that was, at least in his mind, if Itachi was not put in a position where he had to join the fight.

And as long as he could keep their fight relatively distant from Itachi, Naruto reckoned that the double agent would not have to prove his loyalty to those he was supposed to work for.

Using the momentum he had built when he backflipped to dodge the Samehada's head sweep, his legs cartwheeled upward, kicking Kisame's sword-holding hand in hopes of disarming him. Of course, such as effort from someone as small and relatively weak as he was had no chance of loosening Kisame's grip.

The blond Genin's actions were almost comical, and definitely pathetic, in Kisame's mind. Here was a puny little boy, barely taller than Kisame's waistline, trying to hold off two S-class Missing-Nins.

Kisame's smirk became more sinister when he saw the determination in the eyes of Naruto after he righted himself from his backflip. The audacious boy – now standing a good distance from him – was going the fight him instead of yielding to common sense: give up, live, fight again some other day.

Deciding a need to teach the gaki some real life lessons – lessons that a relatively peaceful and peace-loving village such as Konoha would normally not teach their Genins – Kisame rapidly formed some hand seals, took a deep breath, and spew out a small geyser of water, hitting Naruto square in the chest, knocking the boy to his butt.

From the resulting water puddle near Naruto raised a copy of the shark-skinned Akatsuki. It walked over to the fallen boy and raised one of its feet, attempting to stump at the boy's head.

Still feeling a little dazed from getting knocked down earlier, Naruto barely had time to gather himself, take note of his surroundings, and roll to his left to avoid that crushing blow. As he did, he quickly sliced his sword through the water clone, dispersing it.

"Not bad," said Kisame. He was not really trying to kill Naruto. If he really wanted the boy dead, he could easily have done so in one move. Plus, doing so would defeat the objective of their mission. That did not mean he could not rough the boy up a bit, toy with him, or break his spirit.

In the back of Naruto's mind, as he pushed himself off the ground, he remembered what his adoptive father was trying to tell him one time after a sparring session.

"Naruto, remember not to get cocky. You've been taught many things by many talented people, and you are indeed talented for your age. But you've never been in a real battle, staring at the eyes of your enemy, who may even be many times stronger and bigger than you. They won't fight you like we do when we spar. They'll be fighting you for real." Asuma said in a serious

"I know that, Dad!"

"I don't think you get it. You don't know what it's like to overcome someone who has the exact opposite objective as you, wanting to do nothing more than stopping you from accomplishing your goal, your mission. And you certainly don't know what it's like to have to make a choice of whether to take such a person's life or to sacrifice your comrades for the greater good of the mission, of the village."

"Dad, don't worry, I won't get TOO cocky. Plus, won't we be in a 3-men cell led by our Jounin-sensei?"

"You're missing the point ... you'll understand when the time comes."

Dusting himself off, Naruto just realized that Asuma was not telling him not to underestimate his opponents or not to think too much of his own abilities. Rather, Asuma was trying to explain that the realities of a battle could not be taught through training or lectures. They could only be learned through and during a real life battles.

It mattered not how many jutsus Naruto learned, how privileged of a clan library he grew up having access to for the past four years, or how well-grounded and diversified his training from his senseis were. Naruto now knew that in battle experience trumps knowledge any day.

That did not mean he wasn't going to try.

However, at the moment, Naruto was still wary about molding chakra. There was still too much unknown. For example, what would happen if something backfired this time? If it was only his life on the line, he would probably not care about the consequences.

But, with the fate of his teammates still uncertain, only attacks not dependent on chakra usage were viable; which meant ….

Naruto charged forward, using the footwork for the sword dance that Yuugao-sensei had taught him, spinning his body in synch with his arm movements and crisscrossing his sword and sheath in a sublime combination of both offense and defense.

This sword dance was the same one that, unbeknownst to him, had been taught to a select few by his very own mother, Uzumaki Kushina.

Unfortunately, the blond Genin was too busy executing his movements to notice the momentary surprise on Kisame's face at seeing the all too familiar movement that he had seen his own partner practice so many times when they were alone.

The shock came and went. Kisame felt no need to dwell on it. Since Uchihas were well known for their technique copying Sharingan, the blue-skinned Akatsuki dismissed the unlikelihood that there might be something more to the similarities between Itachi's and Naruto's sword dance, reasoning that his stoic partner had probably copied it off someone in Konoha with his bloodline limit.

This minor detail, like the one about the unexpectedly low amount of chakra that his weapon had absorbed, was ignored.

Naruto moved surprisingly quickly for someone his size and closed the distance between them and launched himself into the air, with his sword and sheath forming a scissors pattern aiming to behead his fiendish foe.

Had Naruto been a few years older – with his body matured to a more respectable height and built – Kisame might have taken such a lethal move, and such a dangerous sword dance more seriously, for he was well aware what this dance combination could do in Itachi's hands. With Naruto, however ….

Kisame spun right, pivoting clockwise on the ball of his left heel and effortlessly dodging Naruto's attack. Since his Chakra Eater had been resting on his right shoulder, the spin also meted out the perfect counteract, catching Naruto in the back by surprise.

Fortunately, the kunai-dodging training with Anko paid off. The subconscious reflexes baked into Naruto's muscles through those countless hours spent enduring Anko's sadistic tortures warned him of the incoming hit.

Reacting almost instinctively, Naruto lowered his arms, disengaging the sheath-and-sword crisscross attack, and swung them behind him, crossing the weapons upward to form a defensive structure this time, hoping against all logic that this would be enough.

"Urgh!" grunted Naruto in pain as he felt something ripping his weapons from his hands while callously shaving the now unshielded area on the his back, shredding that portion of his ninja attire, splashing blood and exposing open flesh to the unforgiving cold air.

Pain was another thing that Naruto had yet to become accustomed to in his new sans-Kyuubi-aided self. Without the soothing, numbing and healing effects of his tenant's chakra, he was left to deal with the excruciating pain of the torn flesh on his back like any other normal shinobi.

Naruto was not afraid of pain. He certainly had more than his share of it in the orphanage; however, these four years with the Sarutobis had been kind to him. Besides the occasional minor cuts, scrapes, and bruises he had incurred during training, which were quickly mended by his tenant, he had experienced nothing close to pain of this extent.

Then he felt something grabbing his right ankle, halting his forward momentum in mid air.

Naruto bent his head, trying to peek at what caught him while his left leg was kicking wildly at whatever that had snagged his right ankle as gravity took hold of his body. Once he found out that the offending object was Kisame's left hand, his free leg gathered every last bit of his strength and aimed it at the Shark-man's grip.

His kick hit air, which invited a series of chuckles from his fiendish opponent.

Kisame had released him the very last second, causing his miss and his body to fall even faster. Ignoring the radiating pain on his back, Naruto clutched his jaws as he moved awkwardly in efforts to right himself before landing.

The pain receptors in his brain did not get to process the feedback from his wounded back for too long. This was because it got bumped down the list of priorities by something far more severe and immediate.

"Umph!" came the sound from his throat as air was forcefully expelled from his lungs.

His eyes bulged out in shock as he saw Kisame retracting a foot from his stomach. The shark-skinned shinobi had just kicked him there, hard. He did not believe it was possible to experience that kind of pain and still remain conscious. The pain from the wound on his back was nothing compared to the new level of pain he was experiencing.

Then, Naruto felt something, perhaps the content of his stomach, the ramen that Anko had purchased an hour ago, inching up his esophagus as he sailed in the air.

Instead of tasting the partially digested vomit in his mouth, as his rather naive mind was anticipating, his tongue encountered something familiar but hard to place – something warm, salty, and copper-ish. He got a feeling whatever that fluid was, it would mean something worse than would a simple stomach content.

'Blood!'

Turning his attention back to the situation at hand, Naruto realized that the force carried by Kisame's kick had also propelled his small body much farther than he had initially planned for, taking him close to Itachi, and distancing him from his teammates' what-he-was-hoping-were-just-unconscious bodies.

As much as he would like to play hero right now, Naruto could not afford to think about anything else but how he was going to prepare for landing when he was not sure if he was in any condition to right himself mid air or to bring his arms back to the front again to brace him for what might be a potential face-first landing.

Biting hard on his teeth, he bared with the pain as he pulled his legs under his body and brought his arms forward.

As the ground approached, his mind blanked out again for a brief second as his tenant made yet another less than stellar attempt to mind-link. Unfortunately, it was a most inopportune brief second to have his concentration interrupted.

Naruto made a mental note that once this was over, he was going to visit his tenant and yell his head off at her using all the curse words his twelve-year-old mind had picked up. He was not sure if she would still be able to hear him through Wu's Qi barrier, but he knew he would definitely feel better afterward.

"Umph!"

Naruto's lungs gave out the excess air as he mistimed the landing, his face and chest receiving an abrupt introduction to the ground, which was only a few meters away from Itachi.

Seconds later, his Yuutou and its sheath embedded themselves into the ground on either side of his head.

"Heh, heh," chuckled Kisame as he walked leisurely back to his partner and Naruto's fallen body while addressing the Genin, "and you call yourself a ninja! Where I came from, my Genin graduation Exam was to slaughter everyone else in my class. I graduated because I was the last one standing."

"That ..." Naruto muttered as he struggled to turn his head to the side so that his mouth was no longer buried in the grass.

" ... is the ... " he whimpered after he forced his arms to ignore the pain radiating from his wounded back and push his chest off the ground.

" ... stupidest thing ... " he managed in between coughs as he pulled air into his much deflated lungs. The red blotches on the ground confirmed that his injuries were more serious than he had thought. And there was no Kyuubi healing him this time.

Naruto was now on all fours, willing himself to stand up.

" ... I have ever heard," the blond finished with a labored grunt after he managed to stand on his legs, barely. He was heavily bent over, using his arms to distribute the majority of his torso weight onto his knees.

Given the boy's close proximity to him, Itachi could clearly see that the wound on Naruto's back, which was facing him, was not healing as quickly as the injuries he remembered seeing four years previous.

The normally emotionless Uchiha furrowed his eyebrows slightly and only for a brief second as he pondered, 'Why isn't he healing?' Despite not planning on feeding chakra to his bloodline at all in this visit, at least not this early in the game, his curiosity got the better of him as he reluctantly activated his Sharingan, tomoe-commas spinning in the blazing red irises.

What he saw – the lack of chakra aiding the open wound – did indeed confirm his conjecture: Something had happened to Kyuubi. Now the question was what. Only two possibilities: Either Naruto was no longer the Jinchuuriki of Kyuubi, or someone had somehow blocked her from Naruto. He wanted to explore more … he wanted to enter Naruto's mindscape and find out himself, but he was willing to wait for the right moment. Once he made up his mind, his eyes returned to their normal color.

Meanwhile, with his attention still on the boy, Kisame secretly applauded the twelve-year-old's tenacity, but questioned his sanity. He continued, "It's no wonder my partner abandoned this pathetic village. Heh ... since no one wants you and there's nothing for you here anyway, why don't you come with us?"

"Shut the hell up! I'll never join the likes of you!" shouted Naruto, his body trembling in anger and pain as he continued to gingerly wean the weight of his upper torso off his knees.

"Hmph! Don't tell me you actually think that people here care about you?" Kisame asked mockingly. "All they care about are themselves! The fact that someone, doesn't matter who, protects from them from the Nine-Tails is all that matters in their eyes. They don't care about you, your feelings, or your welfare. In fact, they think you are the Nine-Tails itself."

In defiance, Naruto willed his body to ignore all pain and made a final push to stand tall. He shouted with more vigor than before, "You don't know what you're talking about! I have people who cares about me here, and who I care about...." - images of Jiji, Asuma, Anko, Iruka, Kakashi, Tenten, Hinata, and faces of many other friends he'd made at the Academy flashed in his mind - "... they have become precious to me."

The injured blond grunted as he made a hand cross seal for his signature jutsu and shouted, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Nothing happened.

No chakra surge, no chakra expansion, no chakra pull, no chakra molding, no chakra anything, and certainly no clones.

"Heh! My Samehada absorbs chakra," explained Kisame, ever so smugly. "Like I said before, you should just give up now. A gaki like you doesn't stand a chance against me."

'Guess there's no point trying any of the other jutsus I learned from Jiji's wonderful clan library, huh?' pondered Naruto, furrowing his eyebrows.

Just when he wanted to attack Kisame with some Kung Fu moves that Asuma taught him, he found himself engulfed by a large water sphere, which he immediately recognized as one of the Suiton jutsus that he had read about, Suiro no Jutsu.

Naruto held his breath and looked around within the water prison. He saw another Kisame water clone holding him prisoner.

Just then, Naruto felt an overwhelming pressure in his head.

This new sensation overtook his whole body like a heavy blanket threatening to suffocate him. The feeling, the heaviness, was so overwhelming that it robbed his attention from his otherwise unbearably painful injuries.

His first guess was that it had something to do with his tenant trying to mind-link with him again, but the feeling was not the same as that of Kyuubi's attempts. This time, the signals were much stronger, more refined and focused. Another deviation was that he did not blank out like before.

Paradoxally, this "pressure" was making his mind feel more alert than before, though at the same time he felt as if he was somehow losing control of himself, of his body, and of his independent thoughts. It was as if his mind was no longer connected to his body, as if his conscience took on a detached ethereal form; and for the duration of this whatever-this-was,he was looking on the events unfolding before him as a bystander. This feeling was absolutely surreal.

In Naruto's head, voices that started from silent whispers too faint to be heard when Wu infused Qi into him three days ago at the waterfalls had been growing gradually and now had become booming echoes too ambient in his mind to ignore. The echoes chanted the verses from the Nine Lonesome Sword Stances and the Nine Yangs of Qi manuscripts. These chants were resonating from his memory into every fiber of his body. They were so overlapping and convoluted that it was difficult for Naruto to distinguish which were from the Nine Stances and which were from the Nine Yangs.

All the while that Naruto was experiencing what could be termed as an internal mutiny, one within his own consciousness, Kisame had finished closing in on him. The shark-man fiend now stood in front of what he thought to be a shell-shocked boy, one so panic-stricken that he had become paralyzed with fear.

Kisame's left hand made a quick hacking motion aimed at Naruto's neck, intending on knocking the boy unconscious, similar to what he had done to the other two Genins.

Naruto saw his opponent's strike coming. In fact he saw it coming the moment Kisame's arm muscles twitched, much like the times he'd fought in his mindscape, capable of anticipating his opponents' move by reading the subtleties of their muscle twitches.

'What the hell?' he, or rather the ethereal containment that was his surreal awareness, shouted, but no audible noises came forth. In fact, Naruto wasn't even realizing that his mouth, lips, and tongue remained motionless, uninvolved in his "speaking" efforts.

'You, neck, dodge!' he issued another inaudible command to his unresponsive body. 'Move dammit!'

And he dodged, or at least he thought he did.

As he dodged, he turned to look at Itachi only to find the Uchiha's eyebrows raised high above his activated Sharingan.

Naruto was puzzled by what could possible be startling Itachi so much that even the normally emotionless double agent was having trouble masking his shock.

Cautiously, for he was almost afraid to, Naruto followed Itachi's glance and looked down at himself and found his body was now completely bathed in a hazy lime-colored light and, as if that wasn't weird enough, nearly translucent.

He gasped, or at least tried to, but again his efforts produced no sound.

With all the clues he was gathering, Naruto started to piece together what was happening to him. But there were a few things he did not quite understand, like for example, what had happened to his body?

As soon as he formulated that inquiry in his mind, Naruto felt a tug on him – his whole being, his whole essence. He was being pulled in the direction of the tug and found himself looking at his own tangible flesh.

It. His own material body.

It hadn't dodged Kisame's punch with him; instead, it remained where it had been standing. The only change was now its right hand had moved on its own and caught Kisame's left-handed strike.

If what he saw was not spooking him enough, the fact that without any of his awareness or receiving any command to do so, its or "his" right hand had caught and was gripping hard on Kisame's wrist without making any actual physical skin-to-skin contact. It seemed as though the hand grabbing Kisame was wearing an invisible and ultra-thick glove.

Naruto concluded that his mind got detached from his body somehow; and something else overtook control of it. Either that, or it was moving on its own. 'No, that would be TOO weird.'

What, though? He didn't think it was Kyuubi … no, it couldn't be her.

Turning his attention back to the matter at hand, Naruto could see the shock on Kisame's face as well, the look of incredulity in his eyes. He could even lip read Kisame's curse words as he struggled to free his wrist from "Naruto's" grip.

But what captivated Naruto's thought process was how Kisame was looking at it, the body, instead of him, the mind. Unlike Itachi whose Sharingan were able to see the ethereal manifestation of his mind, his consciousness, Kisame could not see that separation between mind and body and was unaware of the dilemma that Naruto was having.

After some unproductive attempts, Kisame raised his Samehada off his right shoulder and tomahawked it at Naruto, intending on hacking the boy's head off. The success of the mission be damned.

From the sideline, Itachi's Sharingan could see that Kisame was putting everything behind that swing, and carefully readied himself and his Sharingan to send Samehada to another dimension, if needed.

Kisame's speed was so fast that even though Naruto's ethereal awareness was able to see that monstrosity of a sword got within a hair width, he had still yet to register his shock before issuing commands to his rather detached body, hoping against all hopes that it would respond this time. Fortunately, what or whoever that was controlling his body was already aware of the attack and knew what to do.

Much to Naruto's chagrin, his body failed to respond to his commands, and again it moved on its own, tugging at his ethereal form to pattern after its swift movements. It let go of its hold on Kisame's wrist. Its foot stepped forward. Using the momentum channeled through its torso, its left hand holding the sheath gathered to its side and slowly pushed toward Kisame's Samehada.

Even though the sheath was sailing through air, the deliberate movement on "Naruto's" part made it seemed like "he" was pushing against a raging current of water. Whatever speed the boy's body seemed to have moved before had been converted into pure unstoppable and slow-moving inertia.

Kisame smirked, unaware of changes within Naruto. He was amused by the boy's rather sluggish counterattack and his foolishness for attempting to parry the Samehada with a mere scrawny sword sheath. It was like trying to ward off a swinging club with a toothpick.

'What's going on?' Naruto's ethereal manifestation of his mind shouted inaudibly to himself and at his unheeding body. 'How come you slowed down? I'm or we are a sitting duck waiting to be wacked. Speed up dammit!'

Naruto tried to speed up the attack, he moved forward faster, or his ethereal lime-translucent manifestation of his mind did, hoping that he could drag his body to follow suite, much like how his body was dragging him or his form whenever it moved.

Of course, much like how this had been for him ever since he got imprisoned n that accursed Suiton jutsu, ever since someone or something decided to debunk his mind from his body, everything went against logic. Nothing worked, and Naruto couldn't be more frustrated with his lot right now, not having any control over his member, over his fate, over … just about everything.

Suddenly Naruto saw Kisame's smirk morphed into a puzzled look. Then, he saw the Samehada and the blue-skinned fiend slowing down to match his body's same deliberateness, his mind pieced more clues together, though he ended up with more questions than answers. It seemed to him as if the air around them had arbitrarily congealed into an invisible molasses; it seemed like both of them were moving underwater or pushing through tons of heavy water-soaked sand.

Time seemed to have slowed down. Naruto's sheath and Kisame's Samehada inched closer together in a rather unnaturally snail-crawling pace.

From the sideline, Itachi was in awe of the image his Sharingan was revealing as they were easily captivated by the novelty of an unknown field of energy surrounding Naruto, with a heavy concentration around the sheath on his left hand and the sword on his right. To the Sharingan, waves upon waves of rainbow colors canvassed the air occupying this strange energy.

Of course, without the benefit of having the Sharingan, Kisame was not aware of the phenomenon before him or why he should be taking this more seriously. He maintained his arrogance, confident of his eventual victory despite the peculiarity of the situation.

Just before the attacking metals collided, the toothpick that was the shealth of Yuutou started to circle around the club monstrosity that was Samehada.

After the first revolution, Kisame felt the force exerting against the Samehada increased by ten folds and grunted while trying to keep his sword above ground. Its weight was becoming so unbearable that he had to use his other hand to hold it.

On the Yuutou sheath's second revolution, the blue-skinned Mist Missing-nin could no longer elevate his sword. He was barely able to hold on to its hilt when its oversized length crashed into the ground.

Unheard of! The Akatsuki with more chakra reserve than the better half of the Akatsuki could no longer lift his own signature weapon. Itachi could see that not even Kisame was accepting this turn of events.

However, none was more surprised than Naruto himself, as he continued to reconcile the many unknowns surrounding his lime-translucent self and his separation from his body. Questions – How? Who or what took over? Would he ever fuse back with his body? – still lingered in the back of his mind.

'Surely this is a good thing, right?' Naruto asked himself, somewhat glad that he – though technically the credit should go to his body, but still him, all things considered – was able to turn the tide of the battle. 'With this power, I can kill Madara, revenge Kyuubi, and do whatever else that needed to be done for this Guardian of the Two Nines thing quick and go back pursuing my goal of becoming Hokage. Why did my life have to get so complicated? I didn't ask for this.'

With renewed confidence, his goal was not merely to hold the Akatsuki off until help arrive. Now he was starting to believe that he, a mere Genin, could beat an S-ranked Missing Nin by himself, with, of course, help from whomever or whatever taking over his body.

Naruto's body, once finished circling the sheath twice around shark-man's sword, leapt toward him while arching its right arm, readying for a diagonal sword slice. While elevating, its left arm dragged the tip of Yuutou's sheath against the length of the Samehada, blazing a trail of sparks in its wake.

That drag seemed innocent enough, but once the resulting sound from the hollowness of the sheath reached Itachi's ears, the prized weapon of one of the Seven Legendary Swordsmen of the Mist shattered into countless irrecoverable fragments.

Kisame was pissed. How could he not be? His weapon was one of the legendary swords. People had killed and plotted, including himself, to get this weapon, and it was his. 'Why? How?' he pondered. 'What, though, had made him a mere Genin baka this powerful? Was this the reason that Leader wanted us to come so early in the game, even though we are not really ready for the bijuu extractions?'

If he had been properly warned, he would have taken things more seriously, instead of toying with Naruto like how he had done in the beginning. 'If Leader knew about this yet withheld it from us, I would ….'

Kisame didn't get a chance to finish his thoughts. He saw the boy at the crest of his leap swing his sword for a diagonal slice. Kisame dodged, or so he believed, as he jumped backwards toward his partner Itachi.

In mid flight, he brought his hands together to form the necessary seals for his favorite jutsu, especially when water was not abundantly around … never mind the commotion using such a jutsu would create. At the moment, he was so pissed at what Naruto had done to his Samehada that he wanted to skin the boy alive with a dull knife, even if it meant returning to Leader with a dead Kyuubi Jinchuuriki.

Actually, right now, he didn't give a damn about what Leader would think.

"Suiton: Baku Suishouha," called out Kisame as he tilted his head back to gather himself before expelling water from his gullet.

The water shot forth from his jutsu, but instead of it expanding into a large volume of water like it was supposed to, it got caught up in the circular waves of energy produced by Naruto's sword slice. The water stream got dispersed into tiny droplets scattering all around him and became entrapped in air pockets so small that the droplets were easily absorbed by the dryness of the air.

'Whoa!' Naruto exclaimed incredulously, though he was still inaudible. 'I could get used to this. So what if I have to give up some' – actually ALL – 'control of my body. I'm such a kickass!'

The failure of that Suiton jutsu allowed Kisame to see what Itachi was seeing all along with the Sharingan, namely a visual representation of the air of heaviness that had surrounded him a second ago.

Once he landed next to Itachi, the shark-like Akatsuki turned to his red-eyed partner and asked impatiently, "Aren't you going to do something?"

"Yes," replied Itachi in his standard monotone as he jumped into the air, catching a shiny metallic object with a strip of shredded cloth attached to it. Once he landed, he held it out for his blue-skinned partner and said, "I believe this belongs to you."

Kisame touched his uncovered forehead with his left hand and gulped. 'If the aim was any lower, I would be missing more than just the …'

Before he could grab his forehead protector, Itachi kicked him away while shouting, "Watch out!"

Both Missing Nins had gotten out of the way just before seeing the possessed Naruto standing where they were formerly, with the tip of his sword buried into the ground.

Itachi fed more chakra into his eyes as he activated Mangekyou Sharingan. He wanted, no, needed, to test his power against Naruto's entranced state, but more importantly he needed to subdue him – not only to act out his Akatsuki cover, but also to teach Naruto that power without control was no power at all; because from the sideline, his Sharingan clearly read the lips of Naruto's ethereal form.

Power and contol, of which Ninjas were supposed to be the very embodiments. Should the boy who was the Jinchuuriki of the most powerful bijuu and possessor of another source of unfathomable power ever to believe otherwise, much like what his lips had tried to convey, disaster would ensue.

Tried as he might, even feeding more chakra than he knew it was necessary, Itachi still could not access the possessed Naruto's mindscape, or to do anything with the boy that the Mangekyou Sharingan normally could. 'It was as though something or someone had set up an impenetrable barrier in his mind.'

Just when his right hand was reaching for the katana on his back, Itachi felt an attack coming from behind and instinctively jumped over the sword swing.

But, throughout history, attacks using the Nine Sword Stances had never missed. Ever. If it did, it was intentional.

Itachi's Sharingan could see the truth of that as a wave of that mysterious energy from Naruto's swing continued past him in its trajectory, slicing through a few tall poles, one of which ended up falling in Kisame's direction, while others were falling ever which way. Some smashed onto houses, causing the civilians to panic and flee while shouting "demon child" warnings to their neighbors.

Of course, Kisame saw the pole falling his way. Under normal circumstances, Kisame would have simply knocked something like that away with his bare fist. However, the day had been anything but normal, so he decided to be cautious and dodged instead, not wanting to find another surprise. As he dodged, his hands were forming hand seals for one of his more powerful Suiton jutsus.

Before he could finish, he saw Itachi's body flying directly at him, though he thought he had seen his partner cleanly dodging Naruto's palm strike. Kisame had to abandon his hand seals in lieu of catching his partner's body. Somehow he knew that was Naruto's intention.

Meanwhile, Naruto, or his mind, was throwing everything he could at his body to make it stop its recklessness, but it wouldn't respond to him. He could see it now, how stupid and naïve his thoughts had been to choose power over control, thinking he could play hero instead of being a good little boy, resting in the hospital and letting the grownups handle this.

He was also regretting how the villagers had to run for safety because he had somehow lost control again. It seemed like throughout his life, he was his own Achilles' heel, he and his lack of self-control. He made a silent resolve to never ever lose control again, come what may.

And Naruto, if nothing, was a promise keeper.

As he calmed down, the ethereal form that was his mind gradually settled into his fleshly body, causing more frequent and intense buzzing sensations "snapping" together what Kami had never intended to be apart, until a final unbearable jolt coursed through his whole being.

"Urgh!"

Naruto's painful cry was finally heard once his mind regained control of his body, which unfortunately included an overworked nervous system that had been channeling complaints from his strained limb muscles, shredded skin and flesh on his back, internal abdominal bleeding, potential cracked ribs, and an acid-eroded esophagus – all of which had been sheltered from his mind during its detachment, but now seemed to be bombarding his brain with compounded interest.

Using his sword and sheath to prop himself up as crutches, Naruto fought to remain standing and will his exhausted self from fainting before a smirking Kisame and a pensive Itachi.

Kisame wanted another go at the worn out boy, whose former power seemed to have left him. The gaki had not only destroyed his prized weapon, but had also insulted his nindo by disbanding his hitai-ate. Just thinking about payback made his grin more sinister.

"No, not now," said Itachi, looking into Kisame's eyes with his blazing Sharingan. "Our time is up." Turning to Naruto, the Uchiha said, "Naruto-kun, we'll meet again soon."

With that, the two Akatsuki took off in the direction of the East Gate.

Once they were gone, Naruto's pupils dilated before his heavy eyelids closed down on them as every last ounce of strength left him. His hands loosen their grip on their make-shift crutches, and gravity overtook his unconscious body.

Within a mere second, Wu arrived in time to catch Naruto's falling body before it hit the ground. His eyes squinted at the two fleeing straw hats. For a brief moment, he debated on whether to go after them and decided that since he could not do so without jeopardizing the prophesized Guardian-to-be's safety, he would not interfere with what he deemed to be bad blood between those two and Konoha.

On the other hand, if they were here for Naruto …. Well, if that was the case, his and Master Wong's Successor-in-Training would have to be ready for them the next time they meet.

Wu's thoughts now turned to Naruto. 'Could it be this soon?' His two fingers lifted up Naruto's eyelids and confirmed his theory.

He stared in the general direction of the two distancing Akatsuki as he pondered the possibilities.

When Kyuubi was actively occupying Naruto's consciousness, the boy's thoughts never had a chance to be scrambled. Wu did not think the demon fox had done this out of her kindness; rather, she was probably doing it for her own survival and selfish reasons. She wanted, no needed, to maintain her monopoly over Naruto's consciousness, instead of sharing it with others. She would rather not have to compete. Female bijuus were extremely territorial that way.

Now that her influence had been muffled by Wu's Qi, however, nothing was preventing the spirits of the old masters, whose Qi had been residing in the two ancient manuscripts, from taking over Naruto when needed and as they saw fit.

Silently the WuDang Headmaster thanked Itachi for giving the manuscripts to Kyuubi for safekeeping. Such action, whether he knew it at the time, essentially creating a convenient situation that allowed the spirits direct access to take over the boy's body in dire situations such as what had just happened.

Another factor that made it easy was the massive amount of Qi that Wu had pushed into Naruto three days ago to subdue Kyuubi. In fact, it was Wu's residual Qi that kick-started Naruto's fight a moment ago by first circulating throughout Naruto's body. Once Wu's Qi entered the core of Naruto's being, it compounded exponentially with Naruto's innate Qi reservoir, its fire no longer waiting to be kindled.

'Haha! Looks like training began without me!'

Wu took a second look at the battered unconscious boy in his arms. Gently he untied the Konoha hitai-ate from his forehead and tugged it away into his sleeves.

It was merely ceremonial, but he needed Naruto to be a civilian before accepting him as an apprentice. Being a "civilian" meant not being apprenticed to any master and not being in servitude to any deity or man, including Kage.

Again, it was merely ceremonial. Wu would give it back in time … should Naruto choose to return.

This WuXia rule was something Wu had kept from the Sarutobis, whom he should have obtained permission from. Although Wu was an honorable man, one who lived by the chivalrous code of the WuXia community, the successful fulfillment of the Dual Guardian Prophecy was too important to be put to risk because of mere formalities. Besides, with one being Naruto's leader and adoptive grandfather and another being his adoptive father, Wu doubted they would have consented to what was essentially going to be a de-konoha-nizing of Naruto.

Sensing people approaching them, he lowered his body and enveloped his arms around Naruto's body while channeling Qi to his legs. As soon as his Taoist cloak draped over them both, he leapt and they were airborne, heading toward the West, toward Mount WuDang.

Wu's single leap should take them well outside of Konoha's gates before needing to land and take another leap.

Seconds later, the Sandaime, Asuma, Kakashi, Yuugao, Anko, Tenten, and Hinata got there. They looked around and saw some puddles of water, shattered pieces of what used to be a sword of some sort, and some ground evidence of a battle. There was still some misting of water that the Sandaime believed to be the residual of a Suiton Jutsu of some kind.

However, neither Naruto nor Wu was anywhere to be found, not even Hinata's Byakugan could locate them. They must have already traveled out of range of her all-seeing Kekkei Genkai.

Kakashi motioned Anko to check on Sasuke and Sakura with him. Anko was a little reluctant at first, but she went anyway, fully aware that teaching Sakura was a direct order from her Kage, and soon to be her future father-in-law, especially when the man was standing right next to her.

Suddenly, the Sandaime yelled, "Get down!"

Hizuren flashed through a set of hand seals for a Doton wall jutsu, just in time to block a Chinese throwing knife, one that Asuma recognized belonging to Wu.

Tied to the knife was a ribbon with message that read, "See you in six months."

…o.0.O.0.o…

My thanks to KyLewin for betaing and providing invaluable suggestions.

A/N: This chapter, especially with the part about Naruto and his ethereal form, was hard to write. I had to make more revisions than I care to count, making those scenes clearer and more understandable. If I somehow failed to convey this in the chapter, Naruto's ethereal form is NOT a powered up Naruto, like Gai or Lee with Gates opened. It is simply a visual representation of his mind, nothing more, and doesn't give him power. His power comes from the spirits of the Old Masters of those manuscripts, but as you can see, it does have limitations. Overall, I think I did a decent job, but I'm biased. You however can be frank and let me know how I really did.