A Long Road Ch 5

A Naruto Fan Fiction

I do not own Naruto

Ch 5: Skill? OVER 9000!

Tsunade was going through her fifth pile of paperwork that morning. It had been piling up for about a week now. When she heard that Jiraiya had died she had almost stopped functioning, retreating into alcohol and old photographs. Deciding that she had procrastinated long enough her mission was to complete all the work that was missed in the days past. There were still twelve more stacks to do and even if she only had to sign her name for most of it Tsunade's pace was starting to slow.

Letting her mind wander she wondered where Naruto could be. She had not seen him in since they met at the gate a week ago, and apparently none of the people he would normally be seen with had talked to him in a while. Perhaps when Sakura returned from her mission with ANBU today she would check up on him at his apartment.

"Shizune!" Tsunade called in a heavy tone. Shizune walked in moments later with a clipboard in hand, "Yes lady Hokage?" "Could you give a message to Sakura telling her that Naruto has returned when she arrives?" "Actually she was here a few minutes ago to get her pay, I mentioned it to her then and she headed strait to see him." "Good. That will be all Shizune."

…..

Sakura walked with a quick pace as she headed to Naruto's place. When she heard that he had come back to the village she knew that she had to speak with him. Mostly to catch up on what he had been up to over the past five years, but also to talk about when he would be ready to go after Sasuke. She felt she had waited long enough for Naruto to fulfill his promise and bring him back to his home so that they could be together.

As Sakura approached his building she couldn't stop from noticing its warn down state. It reminded her of Naruto's apartment in a way, cluttered, not well kept and there were multi coloured stains on almost all surfaces. She walked up the flight of stairs and down the hall to reach his door. The door was open so she let herself in. the place was much nicer than she remembered it to be with freshly painted walls and new furniture. She could here movement from the kitchen "Naruto?" she called. There was no response so she walked over to see what was happening.

Naruto had not even noticed her come in and walk up behind him. He was sitting at the kitchen table apparently working on some long metal contraption. Sakura peered over his shoulder to get a good look at what he was doing, witch was apparently fiddling with the inner mechanism. "What is that thing?" she said casually. Naruto was so focused on his project that he almost jumped out of his skin when she spoke. A small spring flew across the room and he cursed as the tiny metal pieces fell into the bowels of the machine. "You scared the shit out of me." He said a little flustered that his hard work was for nothing. "Sorry I didn't mean to mess up your thing. (if you know what I mean) I just wanted to say welcome back and see how you were doing." She said apologetically while picking up the pieces on the floor. "Ya well sorry for snapping at you like that, I've been working in this all day." "What is it anyway?" "Oh, well it's a long range projectile weapon." He explained to her. "It doesn't look like anything I've ever seen." Sakura said now more curious. "Well probably not it's pretty rare to see one even in places where this stuff is common. I had to build this one from scratch and even had to make most of the parts myself."

"Well it looks complicated, I hope for your sake that it's effective in combat." She looked around the room scrutinizing the details. "How did you afford all this new stuff? I thought you only got here a week ago." She questioned him. "I have a lot of extra cash that I've saved from my trip and I figured I may as well spend it now that I'm back." Naruto turned back to his project and managed to fish out everything he had dropped inside.

"Naruto…" Sakura spoke in a weak tone "I know that you just got back and everything, but I want to ask you when you are ready to retrieve Sasuke." Naruto didn't stop what he was doing and without turning to face her said. "Do you know anything about where he might be?" Sakura was taken back by his seeming lack of interest. "Hum... No we haven't had any information on that in a while." "When we know more we can go after him, no point in running out blindly hoping to stumble across a clue." Sakura wasn't sure how to respond, it was like he didn't care about Sasuke anymore. This seemingly offended her and she could feel the anger rising in her stomach. "If you aren't going to help your team mate and be a selfish prick then ill do it myself! But remember that he would have done the right thing and helped you." She said with true conviction in her voice. "I doubt that greatly." Naruto said never changing his tone. "How could you say that about him?! Don't you think you owe him for picking up your slack on all the missions?! He was always the one to save us when we needed it. Now can't you do the same?" Naruto rose from his chair unable to hold back any longer "Pull your head out of your ass of a minute and listen closely. Do you really believe that he would lift a finger to help anyone? He never cared about anything but himself. He tried to kill me and if you had been there to stop him he would have tried to kill you to. He is so obsessed with revenge that he betrayed the village and ran to Orochimaru. He is lost Sakura, the sooner you except that the better things will be." They both stood there for what seemed like forever. Tears formed in the corner of her eyes and ran out of the building without saying a word.

She needed to relies that it was a foolish dream to believe that they could just bring Sasuke back to the village like nothing had ever happened. He would need to answer for his crimes just like other missing ninja. The Hokage couldn't just stand by and except a traitor in to the village, both as a citizen of Konoha and as a politician it would be unacceptable. He didn't regret a word he had said, after all he had plenty of time to think about when he was away.

…

Later that day Naruto headed to the training ground, Tsunade had requested to see him for an exercise to evaluate his skill level. She had asked that he wear all of his gear and weapons to the training ground at noon. When he arrived Tsunade greeted him herself. "Are you ready Naruto? I called for Kakashi to join us about two hours ago so he should be here any time now." "That's a good idea, I should try it some time." Naruto laughed. "Naruto I need to ask, what kind of training did you get after Jiraiya… passed away?" Naruto paused for a moment thinking about the question "I was taken in by a warrior who taught me about many different forms of combat. I know how to fight with different types of blades, seals, hand-to-hand and how to use my power effectively." "Well it sounds like you know how to handle yourself, but still I hope you will be able to keep up with Kakashi." "Speak of the devil." Naruto said watching the man himself walk over to them.

"Naruto! You're looking well." "You to Kakashi. How have you been since I left?" "As good as can be expected." Kakashi replied. Tsunade cut in abruptly "Sorry to rush you both but I have a tone of paperwork to finish, so you'll need to catch up later. Are you both ready?" They nodded and took positions across the field from each other.

(I talked about almost all of Naruto's weapons and armor at the start of the story, but if you have forgotten here is a list. [ARMOR {Gantlets left one has spikes on the knuckles, complete arm and shoulder armorer trench coat with fine mesh chainmail under shirt.] [WEAPONS {A 130cm Long sword, two combat knives at the hip, book of seals and a two shot pistol])

"I'm ready when you are Naruto!" Kakashi yelled from a distance. Naruto grinned and pulled out his sword, Kakashi had no idea what was coming. They charged at each other as fast as they could, Kakashi drew a kuni from his pouch and held it in a reverse grip. Naruto made the first move swinging the giant blade faster then most would have guessed he could. The swing was a little high and Kakashi ducked under and stabbed the kuni at Naruto's gut. Using his forward momentum Naruto was able to through himself over Kakashi's crouched form rolling as he landed. Now facing away from each other they both turned quickly, Naruto blindly slashed with his sword as he faced Kakashi. It was a good move; the Cyclops was forced to jump back giving Naruto the advantage with his long sword.

It would be too hard for Kakashi to get close to Naruto as long as he had that sword on him. He would need to find a way to get it away from him. Naruto gave him no time to think of a plan as he ran at Kakashi full force. Kakashi retreated a safe distance and preformed some hand signs sending a massive fireball hurtling toward him. Naruto didn't avoid it at first, but without moving his feet he was propelled to the right by a seemingly invisible force. Kakashi was shocked; he hadn't seen Naruto use his hands to cast a jutsu. Summoning two shadow clones Kakashi then continued to through and abundance of kuni at Naruto. This to didn't seem to faze him in the slightest. Holding out his hand the knives seemed to hit a rubber wall as they went flying back in the opposite direction scattering across the battlefield.

Now that he concentrated he could feel no chakra coming from Naruto at first he was sure he was mistaken. Waiting for Kakashi to make his move Naruto slung his sword back into its sheath, he grabbed for the book of seals he kept in his belt and flipped it open. Kakashi advanced taking advantage of Naruto's opening however when Naruto lifted his hand he hesitated, expecting a blast from an invisible force. However the outcome was different from before, instead a circle formed in the air just smaller then the size of his palm. It glowed a dark purple and it began to sprout lines, Kakashi realized as the lines connected that Naruto was preforming a seal in mid air. He would only have a few more seconds before it was completed; acting quickly Kakashi put his hands together and yelled "Shadow clone lightning release!" Naruto's eyes grew wide when he looked over his shoulder to see one of Kakashi's clones behind him.

The explosion of lightning sent Naruto sprawling forward onto his front. As he got to his knees he looked up to see Kakashi at his doorstep advancing on him. Fortunately the seal had been completed not a moment before the explosion, and he now held it in his left hand. He swung outwards with the seal at Kakashi apparently trying to hit him with it. Kakashi was fast enough to avoid the labored strike by stepping back. Kakashi sighed with disappointment "Well nice tr-" All of a sudden out of the ground to the right of him erupted a stone pillar that took him in the side of the rib. It knocked him clear about four meters and Naruto couldn't help from saying "Sorry I couldn't hear that you need to speak up." Even with Kakashi gasping for breath Naruto swore that he heard a chuckle.

Both getting to there feet they took a long hard look at each other. The battle had reached a new level and they both knew it. Kakashi reached for his face and pulled down the cloth covering his Sharingan. Naruto with his free right hand took out his combat knife and switched it in an reverse hold, and raised the seal above his head. The pillar came from under his feet lifting him several meters into the air. Now with the stage set Naruto started to swing it around as if it were some kind of heavy object. As the pillars jumped out of the ground Kakashi's hand lit up with electricity and smashed them like they were made of chalk.

He understood that he couldn't keep this up forever, and he would need to get Naruto down from there before he could attack again. Naruto pushed him back to the other end of the field. The pillars stopped jutting out of the ground and Naruto had stopped trying to summon them. Kakashi looked at the distance between the.

It looked like 100m was the max range for the ability. He thought of what he had seen so far, 100m, one pillar at a time, two second delay and he would be open to close range attacks, how ever he had neglected to look at how the mysterious seal worked. But if he wanted to find out he would need to use his Sharingan closer to the target.

Getting into action, Kakashi summoned 20 shadow clones and they made a mad dash for Naruto's pillar. Naruto started as well picking them off one by one as they ran towards him. He wasn't fast enough however, as three clones and the original made it to the tower. One exploded in lightning taking a chuck out of the side, it began to tip and half way down Naruto jumped to the side gaining distance between them. The seal dissolved in his hand and he reached for his pistol. He had two shots before he would need to reload so he had to make them count. He raised it and pulled the trigger, the kickback was enough to break a normal persons hand but he had grown accustomed to it. The shadow clone had disappeared as Naruto hit him with 30mm of led. The second shot missed blowing a hole in one of the trees across from him.

He holstered his weapon and once again drew his combat knife into his right hand. The Kakashi clone came first and Naruto managed to parry the first strike, the original quickly followed with his own strike. Naruto managed to catch the kuni with his gantlet and pull it away, then the invisible force pulled him across the battle field. Now that he was clear he through the kuni at the clone and just as he had expected it exploded with a burst of electricity.

Kakashi seemed stunned; he had seen the invisible for that had propelled Naruto. It wasn't chakra. He had seen hundreds of almost invisible crystals form in the air around Naruto and each one had expanded to propel him to a safe distance. He was amazed and worried at the same time. There was no chakra in Naruto's body.

Naruto's hand began to glow like when he formed the seal, bit this time the light seemed to come from the back of his hand. Kakashi noticed that on the back of Naruto's left hand there was another seal similar to the one before. This time earth did not jut from the ground but his hand was engulfed in flame. Naruto rushed forward trying to make contact with the copy ninja. Two could play this game. Both of Kakashi's hands lit up with electricity. Naruto took a step back, he could not block with his metal knife.

"STOP!" Tsunade called from the sidelines. Both men had stopped dead in there tracks and holstered their weapons. The Kage stared on in awe, they both seemed to be evenly matched despite the years of experience Kakashi had over Naruto. To be honest Tsunade had been a little worried what would have happened if the battle had gone on much longer. "Naruto that was vary impressive." Tsunade said shocked at his skill. "Kakashi I will leave it to you to decide what Naruto's rank should be. I expect your conclusion by the end of the day." She said as she walked back to her office. If she was fast she may have been able to finish what work she had left for the day.

Kakashi pulled up the cloth to cover his Sharingan once more and looked over at Naruto. He had laid down in the grass tired from the battle that had past. "Naruto." He said in a serious tone. "Ya Kakashi?" "What was that power that you used?" Naruto looked over at him with a hesitant face. "It's called Dark Energy." "What does that mean?" Naruto debated with himself weather or not to tell Kakashi for a moment. "It's one of the few forms of pure energy that can accumulate within a person." Naruto said plainly. "That still doesn't help me understand." Getting up but not facing him Naruto simply walked off with a sour look on his face. Kakashi didn't bother to stop him; he knew Naruto wouldn't say anymore on the subject.

The one eyed man knew that he was strong enough to become a Jonin, but he wasn't sure if he was ready for the responsibility yet. He still had the rest of the day to decide but it would be a hard choice.

….

Thank you for reading my story once again.

I have made a commitment to at the very least get two chapters done a week. But if you would like to see more then that favorite, follow or comment.

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