I do not own Naruto. Unless you mean Ninja Storm.
Hoisting Soi Fon on his shoulder hurriedly, Naruto yelled to Shino telling him." Shino, to the trees!"
Hearing the hog with the broken leg stop squealing abruptly, the blonde led the Aburame heir away from the large wolves that had began slowly emerging from the treeline to the opposite end of the clearing. Thankfully Shino knew the tree walking exercise and the pair traversed up to a thick branch far enough from the field that would quickly become a war zone in the pursuit of a meal. Setting Soi Fon down gently, he turned his attention back to the huge pack of larger than normal wolves that were now dragging off the hogs he had previously killed.
"Naruto I'm scared!" Said the fearful girl that had latched onto his arm and was watching the wolves along with Shino and the blonde.
"Dont be Soi Fon Chan! I'll protect you both with my life. I'll never let my friends be hurt!" Naruto consoled her while gently rubbing her.
Shino's glasses once again rose from the fierce look of determination from the blonde as he stopped his trembling, feeling the protective aura that strongly radiated from the last Uzumaki. "Friends." He thought considering the idea for the first time in his life. The Aburame had always been ostracized in the village although they were well respected from their clan status. People tended to fear what was foreign to them, lacking the understanding to accept others that may have been innately different from themselves. Naruto though had not only just saved his life, but he had said his kikaichu were "cool." Suddenly the Aburame didn't feel as secluded as he once did, nor afraid of the beasts in the forbidden forest. He had a friend now, not just an ally or someone looking to benefit from his existence. Seeking to help console the girl that his friend had been comforting he calmly said." Naruto's right, he's strong and the wolves appear to be focusing on the hogs and not on us. It's only logical they would pursue a larger meal that comes free rather than try to hunt us."
Slowly nodding her head at Shino's words, the girl's fear also began fading as a few of the hogs were pulled away back into the thicket.
"Thanks Shino I appreciate it man." Naruto said smiling at the Aburame.
Watching the systematic hauling of carcasses in slight awe, the two student shinobi present noticed a pitter patter of rapid movement as the last carcass was being pulled slowly by four of the enlarged feral canines. Then all hell broke lose suddenly putting them all on high alert. Hearing the sounds of struggle in the distance where many wolves had entered and exited the clearing, what they saw enter admittedly frightened even Naruto. A horde of horse sized arachnids came leaping from everywhere, quickly engaging the outnumbered wolves that fought tooth and nail to protect their precious food. Soi Fon started to scream in palpable fear before a trembling Shino put his hand over her mouth to quiet her. He knew Naruto was strong, but if these things saw them they were finished. Arachnids are superior climbers and being in a tree wouldn't save them from this threat.
"Soi Fon be quiet. Why? Because I don't want my organs to be liquefied and ingested into these Portia." Shino quietly chided the girl who slowly nodded her head.
"You know about these spiders!?" Naruto quietly questioned looking for any information available on this new threat.
"Yes I do. Portia are one of the most intelligent species of arachnids and capable of formulating battle plans through natural instinct. A good example of this is their systematic hunting of the weaver spider, that creates a large web daily to catch its prey. They will stealthily circle the web until finding a good position, all the while snipping individual threads of the web to create an opening to leap through. My studies have suggested that they were solitary however. I never would expect a group of this magnitude to exist, let alone this size." He quickly explained.
Naruto's eyes widened at the seriousness of the situation, instantly understanding that they could all die here if they were spotted. The wolves were actually putting up a decent fight, the significantly larger creatures working in tandem and attacking the spiders legs. Naruto began seeing the different methods animals used to attack, and he quietly explained to Shino who agreed also trying to gain any life saving information.
"You are correct Naruto. The hogs from earlier seemed more inclined to frontal assaults and head on charges. The wolves however seem to target the legs first instead of outright killing the enemy. Their strategy has kept them from becoming occupied and left open to counter attacks. It isn't as affective as I think it would be however, because the Portia along the outside seem to be studying them and waiting for an opportunity. The ones that they do wound have multiple more appendages and aren't automatically incapacitated like we would be if we lost a limb." Shino explained.
Naruto nodded his head trying to formulate a strategy along with Shino to survive besides hiding. Watching a wolf fall to a leaping Portia, the spider sinking its fangs directly into the wolf's head, he couldn't think of any way to defeat so many deadly intelligent enemies. He did have his Dust Cloud jutsu, and that was honestly his best bet if it came down to battling the arachnids. The three observers of the ferocity of nature were so immersed that they almost didn't notice the brown tree branch that had been much farther above them slowly descending the trunk. Almost.
"Shit!" Naruto yelled pushing Shino while grabbing Soi Fon and dropping to the ground, a large saw like appendage striking where they were just at with lightning quick speed. Landing in a crouch, the Uzumaki barely had time to dodge the follow up the large alien looking creature nearly caught him with.
"Throwing Soi Fon roughly to Shino who caught her he yelled "RUN!" His sword already drawn the boy was nearly captured again by the brown colored bug that positioned itself in the tree trunk facing downward.
Shino had begun dashing while holding a crying Soi Fon and exclaimed." Naruto it's a Mantis! Watch the arms it's fast! If it grabs you it will bite you're head off!
Rolling backward and barely hearing the advice, Naruto was forced to dodge once again as he righted himself up, the Mantis having leapt from the tree flying at a high speed toward him. Dodging a swift arm by a paper thin margin, the blonde only barely managed to block the next deadly swipe, and while his blade stopped the saw like arm from piercing his front, the other arm dug deeply into back causing blood to pour from the punctures.
Hearing Naruto's scream of pain, Shino halted his escape looking back at his first friend and the battle of logic versus emotion began. If course he should run and live, after all Naruto had instructed him too anyways, staying behind to cover him and Soi Fon. But he couldn't. Why? For the first time in his life he had no understanding of causality.
In the blink of an eye he dropped Soi Fon and grabbed his only kunai, the only means of defence he had left. Tossing it as he never had tossed a knife in his existence, the blade struck the large Mantis directly in its protruding eye, causing not a small amount of puss to flow from the precise strike. It had been just about to break Naruto's blade, the steel bending under the pressure of its razor sharp mandibles.
Naruto recovering from the pain enough to respond thanks to Shino, desperately tried to escape to no avail. Out of sheer desperation he placed his left hand in its half of the snake seal, praying to Kami that this would work. Concentrating for his very life and channeling chakra to his hair, the blonde loudly thought." Wild Lion's Mane!" His blonde locks immediately grew in length just as his blade broke in half, preventing the praying mantis' jaws from crushing his skull and simultaneously freeing him from the saw like arms that dug into his back. Falling to the ground in a heap, the boy couldn't celebrate as the composed itself once more despite its bleeding arms and wounded jaws. Looking down at Naruto it's punctured eye never saw the leaping arachnids that saved the blonde's life as it was intercepted mid strike. His eyes widening immediately Naruto channeled as much chakra as possible while rising and rapidly going through three handseals. "Dust Cloud Jutsu!" He thought blowing a powerful stream of wind that blew away the Mantis, the spider that saved him, and the few others that had noticed the commotion. As the monster like creatures flew back into the clearing skipping through the grass while sustaining minor injuries, the entire horde was agitated by the techniques and there was also the fact that both the wolves and hogs had been sucked dry. Turning to the new food source with instinctual calculation, they quickly began moving toward the three who were running for their lives, setting their sights upon the blonde that was lagging behind apparently injured. Leaping and creeping along the forest floor at high speeds, a few began leaping from tree to tree and gained velocity quicker than the others that instantly caught on and adapted.
Seeing the Portia horde closing the distance, Naruto turned around once more and went through the three handseals while channeling as much chakra as he possibly could. Sending an extremely overpowered Dust Cloud jutsu at the center of the group, he was relieved to see that many were swept away and a few were even crushed from impacting trees. Turning around already transforming into a crow, the boy flew at top speed quickly passing Shino who was holding Soi Fon while running as fast as he could. Shifting back and only wearing his black pants and gi top, the teen stumbled but continued running as Shino caught up and was next to him feeling quite exhausted himself.
"Shino..huff huff... We gotta..faster!" Naruto said his vision getting blurry and his head feeling light. The pain that wracked his body was fading as numbness spread, and the blonde felt like everything suddenly was closing in on him and gravity itself must have increased 20 fold. Blood was pouring from his back as he fell to the ground, shutting his eyes while hearing his friends shout his name. Hearing their distressed voices get farther and farther away, everything went pitch black as he lost consciousness, thinking of how he'd never marry Anko or become Hokage.
"Is that all the resolve you have you petulant weakling!?" Said a raspy voice that seemed to come from every direction in the pitch black setting. Naruto couldn't even see his own hands, yet a pair of huge bloodshot red eyes were suddenly visible as a large cage appeared before him.
"Is this hell?" Naruto asked becoming very afraid as he stared wide eyed.
"Laughing in its hoarse voice the entity answered." Yesss.. For me it is..That's why I'll make you a deal. I'll help you save your friends and grow stronger and you'll let me see the outside world. You should make your decision fast before your friends die."
"Who are you!?" Naruto asked now in a rush."Why should I trust you!?
"I am a being beyond your understanding boy!" As far as trust.. The only thing you can trust is that you're friends will die if you don't make the correct choice! Now choose! Will they live or DIE!?"
"LIVE!" Naruto shouted a feeling of immense power beginning to food through him.
"Good..GOOD...Now leave! You may return by meditating my name. Kurama. Do this and focus on speaking with me and you will come here. We have much to discuss.
The eyes fading away quickly felt more power seep into him as an uplifting feeling spread throughout his being. Suddenly back in the forest standing hunched over with Shino and Soi Fon behind him, he looked at the Portia horde with rage that would make the hardest of shinobi curl up in a ball.
Taking a look back at his friends he declared." Don't worry. I won't let my friends die. And I won't die until I'm Hokage!"