The Leaf village was unrecognizable beyond belief. I was reverse summoned here from the Angelic dominion, and I already had many questions in my head, waiting to be answered. The first one being, 'Where was everyone?'
The hidden leaf was mostly wasteland, however there was some rebuilding going on in the process. I then recognized a few familiar faces on the way, although I didn't quite know where I was going.
'Hey Masakhi-san, over here!' It was Naruto. He seemed happy to see me, even though my arrival to the leaf village was long overdue. We caught up with things in the new Ichiraku Ramen which actually, Naruto was heading for. Apart from enjoying the Ramen that I missed so dearly since leaving the village, Naruto told me about Pain's invasion which destroyed this village. Naruto defeated pain himself, using his own Sage mode. I was impressed by his progress, and he said that after that he talked to Nagato himself, in order to reason with him. For me, it was refreshing to know that the ninja world wasn't all about the fighting. It made me think about my own purpose, how I was going to win over the Markovians, especially the Jashins, if I was to ever return there. I then asked him about the others. It was reassuring to know that the friends I made here were still alive, in these times of difficulty. But Naruto was sad about one thing.
'Hey Naruto, where's Lady Tsunade. I need to see her.' I needed to let her know that I was okay and ready to fight. However, I realized I was too late. The one assuming 'leadership' interrupted.
'Lady Tsunade is in terrible shape. She used her jutsu to protect the village at her absolute limit. And now she is in a comatose state.' I felt terrible as Kakashi-san said that.
'I should have been there to protect you guys! I could have helped', I claimed helplessly. When I left the mist village, there were several detours ahead. Could they have been avoidable? Maybe. The damage had been done. I kept beating myself up about the situation. Then Naruto was being his usual self.
'Snap out of it Masakhi!' She yelled as he grabbed my shoulders. The other customers at Ichiraku was startled, and Teuchi almost dropped a fresh set of noodles to the floor. I fell silent. Then Naruto had an idea.
'If you think you could have saved the village, prove it! Fight me, and show me how much you have improved! Besides, I still need to beat you!' He grinned, and the prospect of a rematch against Naruto was somehow exciting. We moved this fight away from the village, deep into the forest that decorated the land of Fire.
'I don't want you to hold back, I want you to fight me seriously!' Naruto said.
'I wouldn't want you to hold back either!' We began the fight.
Naruto began by throwing a smoke bomb. It caught me by surprise, but I drew my sword just in case. Shuriken! One of them skimmed me and as the smoke cleared I blocked the several shuriken that were heading for me with my sword. But of course that was just a diversion.
'Rasengan!' Naruto headed for me, but I was quick enough to dodge and slice him. It was a shadow clone. Where was Naruto?
'Wind Style: Rasenshuriken!'
'What?' I thought to myself, as a spiralling shuriken was headed for me. I had to think quickly; in fact I had no time to think. I had to dodge using lightning style, I aimed to jump into the air and quickly use a summoning angel to fly me further. I was safe whilst the shuriken expanded, shredding several trees in its radius. From a bird's eye view it looked like an unnatural crater in the middle of the forest
'Masakhi! I hope you're not overwhelmed, but this... is my true strength, Sage mode.' And he didn't stop there as he summoned Gamabunta, Gamakichi and Gamatatsu. I summoned the rest of my angels as I realised that had a proper battle on my hands. I ran into the forest summoning several shadow clones to hide away for later. Hopefully Naruto wouldn't notice. I would need at least one to stay still and help me go into Sage mode myself. Meanwhile I needed to get rid of those frogs.
'Water Style: Water dragon jutsu!' I aimed for Gamabunta, and wasted no time for the next jutsu.
'Lightning Style: Wave of inspiration!' I managed to electrocute the giant frog, with my five angels managing to prolong the electrocuting effect but Gamabunta endured it, and the summons were having a hard time cancelled eachother out.
'Father!' His children both shouted. Naruto was also rather distracted. Now was my chance.
'Dark Rasengan!' I had Naruto for sure. It was yet another shadow clone! And then, from below Naruto, and several of him came out.
'U-zu-ma-ki ... Barrage!' Several of his clones juggled me into the air, beating me up, and when I was airborne. He rammed a Rasengan right into my stomach. I crashed down, and for a second both of us thought that the fight was over. I got up slowly looking at Naruto who appeared before me, and released my shadow clone jutsu. The clones I stationed out disappeared and my body was flowing with light energy. Four wings sprouted from my back, I was getting stronger. I looked up, seeing that my entire angel summons ran out of stamina. They disappeared too, and the frogs were heading towards me. I summoned three shadow clones.
'Sage art: Dark Rasengan!' My clones were carrying a Dark Rasengan each (which was formed using two wings), it was slightly bigger than the standard Dark Rasengan. They flew towards the frogs and defeated them. Naruto was distracted once more, hopefully overwhelmed by my power. I flew towards him with a great speed.
'Angelic Lariat!' I aimed for his neck. The jutsu probably would have killed, but his sage abilities allowed him to respond quickly, and he somewhat 'punched' me away. I couldn't see the punch, but I felt it. That was the power of nature energy. I was going to get up once more. But Naruto already had his handsigns ready. Many shadow clones came out, and headed for me. I had to do the same.
'Sage Art: Multiple Giant Rasengan!'
'Sage Art: Multiple Dark Rasengan!' Our clones cancelled each other out, despite the several struggles going on midair, we were both equal. The huge surge of power meant that both of us exhausted our Sage modes. Taijutsu. That was the keyword running in both of our heads. We fought each other using Taijutsu, and our own weapons; Naruto with his chakra blades, and me with my swords. We slugged it out, and eventually due to our own fatigue, both of us were disarmed easily. We still kept going, this was the final hurdle. I aimed for his neck, Naruto unbeknownst to me, aimed for my stomach. It was a draw. We fell to the floor and remained there until Guy-San and Kakashi-San arrived. Guy was quite surprised at the devastation.
'Ah, I see your power of youth have caused you to destroy this forest.' I noticed his arrival, but barely. However his next words caused us to both wake up.
'Now, time to get up off your asses, Lady Tsunade has woken up. She's going to be okay!' We jumped and then fell to the floor again, as we were so tired after the fight. Instead, Kakashi and Guy carried both of us back to the leaf village.
When we returned, I got enough stamina back to walk to the small area that Lady Tsunade was staying. I saw her lying there awake, but grossly emaciated. She smiled towards me nonetheless. I felt greatly overjoyed, not just because she was okay, but following my battle I felt that I could do anything. I knew now that I could return to Markovia, in the safe knowledge that the Leaf village was in good morale.
However, my journey was far from over…