Caught in the Middle

Chapter 20

Rage Un-caged

Oh Jesus, I'm back again! I'm not dead! Yeah, I know I said I'd work more on my fanfics, but the last half of June was crazy, and I just totally forgot about this place up until a few days ago. I had about half of this done when I was forced to let it sit for a while, but at least it's here now, so let's get it rollin'! Lots of action this chapter, ya know, the whole Sasuke vs Naruto thing again, except this time Naruto's all hyped up on demon steroids. Should be fun.

(Yayz, I get to beat around Sasuke!)


Karen looked up from her failed attack. At first she had thought she was going crazy hearing Naruto's voice, but she had turned around to find him alive and well. Not only that, but with a drastic increase in power; he was radiating magical energy. He grinned, still looking off in the direction he had bitch-slapped Sasuke; he was clear on the other side of the cliff now.

"Karen," he said suddenly, drawing her attention, "don't worry about Sasuke, I'll get him. I've got a bunch of new tricks up my sleeve."

With that, Naruto began striding over to where Sasuke was recovering from the blow. Sasuke didn't waste any time activating his Sharingan. Naruto's movement speed had easily tripled; he'd need every advantage. However, despite the now clear danger his life was in, he couldn't help but be excited. He began to shake, not in fear, but anticipation.

"What's the matter bastard, ya scared?" mocked Naruto, still calmly walked towards him.

Sasuke smirked and wiped a smidge of blood from the side of his mouth. "Please, of a loser like you? I'm just excited; I get to beat your ass again."

Naruto put on a smirk of his own. "Pretty confident for a dead man, now turn on that freaky power of yours, otherwise this won't be any fun."

Sasuke didn't need any incentive to turn on his Curse Seal; he had planned on it anyway. He was confident but he wasn't stupid; there was no way he'd be able to beat Naruto without the seal's power. Sasuke's body was absorbed into a purplish black aura as the black marks crawled across his body. Now the two teens stood with opposing aura's surrounding their bodies, ready to duke it out to the end.

"I'll let you make the first move, for all the good it'll to ya," said Naruto.

Without warning, Sasuke leaped forward with speed that only an hour ago, Naruto would have been utterly unable to keep up with. Now though, it seemed to him that Sasuke was moving at half his actual speed. As Sasuke threw forward his first blow, Naruto simply twisted to the left, dodging the attack completely. As the demon hunter flew by him, he took the opportunity and grasped his ankle, whipping him back around smashing him into the side of the mountain.

Naruto stood over his temporarily defeated opponent sneering. "What, is that it, that's all you got?"

He got his answer a second later when out of the dust came a torrent of flames. He quickly took a clump of his demon aura and projected it in front of him, splitting the stream of fire around him in a 'Y' shape. The flames died as suddenly as they had began, and Naruto dropped his 'shield'. Just as the flames disappeared, Sasuke made his entrance, and capitalized on the split second between Naruto's shift from defense to offense, and grabbed onto his right arm. He twisted so Naruto's arm was over his shoulder, and thrust his left elbow back, delivering a blow to the blond's mid-chest. He was then flipped over Sasuke's shoulder and into the same mountain wall he had previously thrown Sasuke into.

Naruto quickly rolled to his feet and was very nearly introduced to the business end of Sasuke's chokuto. The blade impaled itself into the rock right in front of his face. Sasuke removed it and twisted it in his hands a few times before coming at him again. Naruto leaned left and right, ducked and jumped to avoid his bladed assault. He was able to avoid all the blows, the blade raining small sprinkles of sparks and leaving slash marks in the hard stone.

The blond jumped over another attack made by Sasuke and pushed off the rock, leaping right over his head. Sasuke whipped around and blocked a punch from Naruto, threw his arm out of the way, and thrust his blade forward. A mixed sensation of exhilaration and disappointment hit him as he ran Naruto through with his sword, the tip easily breaching his body and coming to a stop on the other side.

At first, Naruto looked shocked as he looked down at the sword resting in his stomach. Then he looked up to Sasuke, and grinned, and then exploded in a puff of smoke. Sasuke pulled his blade back, trying to get to a defensive position, but Naruto flew right out of the clone's smoke as soon as it exploded. Sasuke brought up his chokuto just in time to deflect Naruto's mid-air kick, but the blond twisted to the side in the air and slammed his free foot into the side of Sauske's head, sending him flying clear off the side of the cliff.

If one wasn't walking down the path that led down to the other sections of the mountain, it was a very steep drop, and Sasuke couldn't grab ahold of anything. He continued his plummet down to earth uninhibited. In a desperate attempt to halt his fall, he plunged his chokuto into the rock of the mountain. Splashes of sparks rained down on him as his blade chipped away at the stone.

After coming extremely close to slamming into the ground, he slowly but surely decreased in speed and finally come to a stop. Sasuke breathed a sigh of relief as he held onto the hilt of his sword for dear life, looking down at the remainder of the drop.

He couldn't believe this! Even with his Sharingan and Curse Seal active, Naruto's movements were still incredibly fast. Even when he'd encountered this demon power of his before, he still had never been this effective, this precise and powerful. His head was really in this fight, and unlike all those times before, he now had the skill to back his intelligence.

If he wanted to win this fight, he'd have to pull out all the stops.

All of them.


Naruto spat over the edge of the cliff where Sasuke had fallen. Having just beaten his ass down a mountain, he was feeling pretty good. The first thing on his list now was to get Karen safe, and after that, help out Kakashi. From the looks of things, Jiraiya was doing pretty well on his own with his big...toad...thing.

He ran back to the other side of the cliff and slid to a stop in front of Karen, who was still panting and leaning against the rock. He took her arm and threw it over his shoulder, supporting most of her weight and bringing her into the cavern.

"You gonna be alright?"

She nodded. "Just tired, that's all. Did you take care of Sasuke?"

"Yeah, he's outta the way for now."

Once they were deep enough in the cavern, Naruto set Karen down against one of the walls.

"Alright, just stay here and keep out of trouble. I'm gonna go help Kakashi."

Karen tried to stand up again. "No, I can help you, just give me a second."

"Oh no you don't, you stay right here. My job is to protect you, so let me do it; this fight will be over soon."

She had a defeated look on her face, but complied. With that, Naruto stood up straight and turned around to head back out to the cliffside.

"Naruto!"

He looked over his shoulder.

"Just be safe, alright?"

He grinned and gave her a thumbs up. "Come on, it's me."

She sighed as he left. "I know, that's why I'm worried."


Naruto ran down the path down to the lower levels of the mountain. He could clearly sense Kakashi's magic, everything seemed so much more defined than before, he could probably track him for another mile if he had to. Speaking of tracking magic, he could clearly sense a signature he really wish would just go away, and it was making a B-line for him. He skidded to a stop just as something collided with the mountainside. He threw his hand up to protect his eyes from the sudden upturn of dust and debris.

It was all suddenly wiped away as if by a giant fan, and Naruto could see clearly again. Naruto knew by his magical signature that Sasuke was back, but he looked completely different. The most obvious change were the two giant wings sprouting from his back. His skin was a dark gray and his hair had grown out.

"Back again?"

"You didn't think throwing me off a cliff would kill me did you?" he sneered.

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, you're right, bad plan in hindsight,"

"So what's your plan now, to fight me again dressed up like a transsexual demon? Come on, at least my transformations so far have looked cool."

Sasuke growled and expanded his wings outward. "Just shut up and fight me!"

He pushed off with a combination of his feet and wings and was on Naruto before he could react, he speed had moved past his again. Sasuke sacked Naruto and carried him into the air, high above the forest surrounding the mountains. They flew straight up into the air, and when they were easily miles above the peaks of the mountains, Sasuke let go, and Naruto plummeted down to earth.

Naruto reached for the back of his belt and found a small storage scroll, one that was only able to hold one item, and rolled it out. He released it's contents, a TDI Vector sub-machingun, and grasped it in his hand. Sasuke flew down after him, and Naruto opened fire. He tried to keep a steady aim, but when you're falling down to earth from an undetermined height at a near ninety degree angle shooting at an asshole who can fly, aiming is a bit difficult.

Sasuke continued to come in closer and closer, and Naruto ran out of ammo much faster than he would have liked. He threw the rifle at him, but missed completely, Sasuke had a huge advantage in the air. Sasuke came barreling fist first into Naruto's torso, and he could tell a few of his ribs snapped in his chest, but the pain faded as the damage was repaired by his accelerated healing.

Naruto grabbed both of Sasuke's wrists, threw the off to the side, and pulled up his right leg, nailing Sasuke's in the chin with the tip of his foot, then kicked off his chest with both feet, gaining distance and falling in a more streamline and aerodynamic posture. Sasuke flew down next to him, both of the heading downward side by side. The ground was coming up fast, and the sooner the better. Naruto was confident he could survive provided he cushioned the impact, but while he as in the air, Sasuke had free reign.

Only a few hundred feet left until they hit the ground, and Naruto built up his aura strictly around his hands. Sasuke suddenly flew to the side and smashed into Naruto, sending him into a spiral. Oddly enough, it actually ended up helping him. Once he was back in his streamline dive, he was still in his spiral, helping to disperse the energy more evenly.

The moment of truth came, the time of impact. Just as he was about to hit the ground, Naruto sent all of the pent up energy he gathered up until that point and released it in a spiraled surge, creating a drill-like cushion that absorbed the brunt of the force. The ground crumbled a bit from the force, and Naruto rolled forward after hitting the ground, and skidded across the grass until he came to a stop laying on his side.

Naruto pushed himself up with a groan as Sasuke came in for a landing, lightly planting his feet on the ground.

"That was pretty clever of you, creating an cushion out of your own magic energy. I've never seen anyone use it like that before. Still, using that much at once must have taken a lot out of you, and I'm sure that fall still hurt."

He slowly began walking to Naruto, who was back to his feet in a fighting stance.

"I'll admit something to you Naruto, fighting you has been the biggest challenge I've ever had. Every time we fight you seem to get stronger and stronger, a rapidly evolving opponent. But it doesn't matter, because every time you get a new trick, every time you pull something new out, I'm always prepared for it. You can't beat me Naruto, I'm better than you. Faster, stronger, smarter, and more powerful than you'll ever hope to be."

Naruto roared loudly as he leaped forward at Sasuke. "Shut the fuck up!"

Sasuke easily side-stepped the attack and roundhouse kicked Naruto in the gut in response. He was angry now, he was rash and getting sloppy. He took Naruto's head in both hands and lifted him up in the air and slammed in back down to the ground, planting his foot on his chest with a hard stomp.

"See what I mean? In this form, you can't win against me. Don't worry though, I'm not going to capture you like Orochimaru wants, I'm just going to kill you. I remember mentioning that before, and trust me, if you knew what was waiting for you, you'd be thanking me. Your fox bitch is next to. After I'm done here, I'm going back to that cave, and I'm gonna take my sword, and cut her fuckin' head off."

"I won't...let you!" he growled back.

Sasuke chuckled confidently. "How, you can't move? Once swipe and your head's gone to. It's checkmate for you Naruto, give up."

"No!" he shouted, and grabbed into Sasuke's leg and squeezed.

The sound of a crack filled the air immediately, and both of them knew Sasuke's leg was fractured. Naruto's aura began to flare up again, deepening from a wavy orange to a blood red color. It became less undefined and moved closer to his body, taking on an actual form instead of just flailing energy. It began to cover his body, at first just around his hand which was crushing Sasuke's leg, then crept up his arm. It soon enveloped his entire body.

"What the hell!?"

Sasuke pushed off with his wings and flew back. Naruto slowly stood back up again, his aura completely blood red and covering his entire body, it's form in the shape of a fox with one flowing tail sprouting from behind. He unleashed a loud roar, and the air practically exploded outward, causing Sasuke to put up both his arms to protect his eyes.

When the wind died down, he brought down his arms to see a slightly transparent red arm fly out towards him and grab him by the neck. He gagged as it clamped down on his esophagus, and felt it yank him forward. He saw Naruto pull his free fist back and knew what was coming as he flew forward in his grasp.

"Let's see you keep talking when I knock out all your teeth!" he yelled just as he drove his fist straight into Sasuke's face.

Sasuke flew back similar to when Jiraiya hit him with the Rasengan, flying straight through tree's and bouncing like a rubber ball off the ground. It took him a full ten seconds after he came to a rolling stop to actually realize that he had stopped moving. He pushed himself up onto his hands and knees, feeling extremely dizzy, and watching as blood dripped out of his mouth in small streams.

He grabbed the side of a tree and steadied himself. His leg was still sending shards of pain up through his body.

"Huh...looks like he's really pissed now; this should be good. He's so predictable, just bad mouth the bitch once and he throws me through a forest."

With that, he spread his wings and began to float a foot off the ground. He'd need to rely on his wings now that his leg was failing him.

"Let's get the real fight on."


Okay...so. Yeah, that was really just the warm-up. The fight will probably span at least most of next chapter if not the entire thing. Again, sorry about the long absence, I didn't realize how much stuff I had coming up when I said that, but I really am trying folks. Just bear with me alright. I don't know exactly when, but I am hellbent on finishing this story.

Feel free to review.