Chapter 21 Missing pieces of the battle retold Part 1
Naruto and Lee crashed moments after Sakura had taken care of Naruto's wounds, as the effects of the soldier pill wore off. They slept for the rest of the day, and through the night, with Sakura checking on both of them in their rooms. Shikamaru was mostly relaxing around the hotel, Sakura asked if he wanted to ask her anything about Naruto but got a reply that sounded in a way familiar to her own beliefs.
"There really is nothing to ask, as any questions right now are too troublesome. I will ask Naruto when he's up for talking."
Lee had awoken at around early afternoon, he however was completely clueless about what had happened after Shikamaru mentioned something to him about 'D-fist strategy'. Sakura was still confused herself by what happened, but from what Shikamaru told her, she understood that Lee seems to have a very strange reaction when exposed to even the slightest trace of sake. Shikamaru himself was still clueless on the matter, but suggested to speak to Gai when they returned to Konoha to find out.
That left Naruto who was still sleeping in his room, Shikamaru changed him into one of Naruto's spare out fits (which still was mostly orange). He was wearing a loose black shirt covering his bandages around his left arm. Sakura had pulled up a chair and casually was reading her book next to Naruto's bed.
"What are you reading Sakura-chan?" said a tired voice, causing her to grin.
"I am reading a book on learning how to diagnose advanced types of poisons in a person's body without the use of medical instruments, but through the use of hearing and other techniques."
"...Sweet, I-er-guess."
Chuckling, she then placed her bookend on the page she was on and closed her book and smiled at his grinning features, "How are you feeling, Naruto?"
"Ramen..."
Sakura laughed as she helped Naruto sit up, "Baka." She then asked Naruto to lift his left arm, and repeat the motion several times but stretching it in different directions. Once she was satisfied the arm was no longer stiff she sat down on the seat and continued their topic.
"Were you reading anything while training Naruto?" Sakura motioned towards his weapons pouch that was on the side of the bed and picked it up.
"No I was too busy with my training, I never had time to grab any cool manga's."
Sakura pulled out a small orange book from his pouch and smirked, "Then what do you call this then?"
Sakura turned the book around and looked confused at the title as she read it aloud, "Icha Icha Tactics." Naruto instantly paled, Suddenly remembering his extra baggage the sannin had given him.
'Oh no!'
"Umm Sakura-chan that is no-" Sakura already flicked to a random page and started reading and she smiled with surprise while blushing at her teammate.
"Naruto, I didn't know you read romance stories." Naruto paled even more, dreading how her eyes were going in a typewriting mechanic at unreal speeds to the fact she had flipped to the next page already.
'God help me...STOP READING IT PLEASE!' Sakura then flushed furiously and slammed the book shut as if trying to deny her eyes from seeing something that was vile.
"NARUTO! THIS IS HENTAI!!"
Sakura screeched in her semi demonic voice full of disgust and rage, as she was readying her clenched fist while Naruto was staggering, "W-W-W-W-Wait Sakura-chan! I CAN EXPLAIN DATTEBAYO!" Naruto slammed his eyes shut, afraid to see the incoming projectile that would surely put him in a coma for the rest of his life.
"....Well I am waiting." Said Sakura who still was flushing at what she read, but still kept her fist clench prepared to deliver harsh judgement if she detected a lie in Naruto's explanation, her eye was also unconsciously twitching. Naruto opened his eyes slowly, wondering if he was dead.
"Naruto...I'm waiting!" Sakura said with annoyance. Naruto smiled in gratefulness and gave his explanation.
"Ero-sennin gave me that-" He pointed at the book in Sakura's hand for emphasis. "-He was telling me to read it to find out what I thought about it before he was sending it to the publishers around. But the book was so lame I stopped reading it after the fourth page, so I decided to keep it and give it to Kakashi-sensei as a present when I came back. That is all I swear!" Naruto finished, slightly afraid he said anything wrong.
Sakura sighed, which made Naruto sigh in relief that he was going to live past today.
"Alright...I believe you, but I swear, if I EVER catch you reading this or any other hentai..." She didn't finish her sentence to give the added effect, which worked very well. Something then hit Sakura's mind like a freight train, Jiraiya was the author! Then she remembered what Jiraiya said to her before she entered Wave.
'Now you best catch up with your group before they start gathering suspicions hmm.' She then went further back and remembered the mission she went on with Jiraiya and Naruto, and how both of them back then didn't know what was meant by 'fooling around with women'.
Sakura clenched her fist, 'Jiraiya...YOU PERVERT!'
"Naruto what do you call your sensei again?" Sakura asked tracing out her killing intent that Naruto misinterpreted as being directed at him.
"I-I-I-I call him Ero-sennin b-but I will try and show more respe-"
"That name sounds very respectful to me, fits his title VERY well." Sakura beamed, clearly seeing that Naruto got the wrong impression. Naruto blinked once or twice to make sure he heard that right and then grinned, as Sakura placed the book back in his pouch.
"Sakura-chan...Who were those guys?" Naruto asked changing the topic and showing his confused expression and his tone hinting anxiety.
Sakura shook her head, frowning that the mood was ruined, "I honestly wish I knew the answer myself Naruto." Beginning to hate that grim look on his face, she tried to comfort her friend in the best way to handle this situation...gloat.
"We sure showed them not to mess with us though." Sakura beamed, and smiled when she saw her plan worked when Naruto put on his familiar wide smile.
"YOSHA! We annihilated them hardcore! You should have seen what I did to that squid-teme, hehehe it will never mess with captain of the coast guard, Uzumaki Naruto ever again!"
Sakura laughed, and calmed down to minor giggles as she wiped away her stray tear, "You didn't seem so pleased with your dubbed title the previous two days." She said remembering how Naruto gave a long lecture to Shikamaru at how boring his assigned 'job' was...something told her he will never tell that part of the story to Konohamaru back home.
"I would like to know what happened if you're up for it Naruto?" Sakura asked, more serious now as she was really interested to know what happened while she was busy.
Naruto nodded, "Sure thing Sakura-chan."
-
Flashback – Great Naruto Bridge, yesterday
-
Naruto and his army of clones landed in the water, using chakra to keep them afloat when they all went agape at the sight before them. The summon was nowhere near the size of Gamabunta, but its body was roughly 100 feet long Naruto estimated through the water, and was very wide, maybe 60 or 70 feet. The tentacles however were a very different story, they were maybe 3 maybe even 4 times the size of its actual round, scalelike body. Each tentacle had thousands of small holes in them, Naruto couldn't tell what they were for, but he noticed some sort of ink was oozing out of them, and turning the water a thick black shade. The creature itself was half way out of the water, exposing the top half of its body.
Naruto also spotted parts of the creature glowing amazingly bright, then the part of that body would mysteriously disappear, cutting off at the source of the light, almost as if it was...phasing? In the centre was a large oval mouth with what looked like thousands of sharp teeth that were almost the length of long broad swords.
The clones shared their opinions aloud, "That thing is huge!"
"What is with that bright light?"
"Why does this put me off ever having sea flavoured ramen ever again?!"
"...Yeah! It does!"
The real Naruto groaned grinding his face with his palm. 'Why...are these clones so stupid!?' Naruto just realised what he had just done with that thought...he just called himself a baka!
-
Present
-
"The bright light would explain how the creature was teleporting to the tags" Sakura concluded, then she smirked. "And yes...you are a baka." Naruto pouted "Sakura-chan!" Sakura chuckled "I'm sorry, please continue Naruto."
-
Flashback resumed
-
Naruto shook himself from his musing and sprung to action, "Form a line and prepare with a wave of rasengan's"
A chorus of "Yosha's!" were heard from the clones as they did as told forming a line that consisted of over several channelling rasengan's.
"Let's get wild!" Then the clones charged, covering the long distance in seconds and ramming their rasengan's directly into the creatures side and a couple of the risen tentacles.
The creature emitted an ear piercing cry as the rasengan's knocked it slightly off balance and the tentacles came soaring straight back down into the water, causing a massive wave which the army of Naruto's smoothly adjusted for and avoided. The clones that got in close however were not so lucky and dispelled as they were crushed by the water.
"Second wave!" Naruto instructed as a second line of clones prepared and charged. This time the creature was giving its full attention to the army of orange and shot smaller tentacles at the clones. Naruto caught a glimpse of another bright light from the squid as it continued its attack. Some clones were impaled by the surprisingly sharp tips of the tentacles, then Naruto's eyes widened when hundreds of spines shot out of the holes, reaching 5 feet beyond the tentacles base, killing off the rest of the wave of clones, then retreating to back inside its soft covering.
Naruto winced at what he just saw, 'That is one very powerful self defence...HEY WHAT THE-' Naruto's eyes widened further when he looked at the squids body and found that the massive craters his clones first wave had caused were...healing? Each crater seemed to be covered in the same ink he saw earlier, and slowly the marks from his assault vanished.
'It can regenerate?!' Naruto mused, as he saw yet another flash, this one cutting off a semi large tentacle that was already dripping with the same ink.
-
Present
-
'So that's when he regenerated the first time...I cannot believe me and Shikamaru missed seeing it if the tentacle was indeed that big.' Sakura thought, not interrupting Naruto.
-
Flashback resumed
-
Naruto thought out his next move, 'I can't summon Gamabunta...he is too big and might even destroy the bridge accidently, so that leaves...' Naruto bit his thumb and ran though his well practiced seal chain for the summoning jutsu. His eyes narrowed though when he saw a large tentacle making an eel like slither through the water right for him. Another wave of clones intervened by quickly hengeing into different weapons, ranging from kunai to fuma shuriken. Then another group of clones grabbed the transformed weapons and threw it in the direction of the squid's body. The squid quickly intercepted by lifting its attacking tentacle up in self defence to block the 'weapons' with another release of its spines. Naruto completed his seal chian, and placed his palm just above the water then shouting 'Kuchiyose no Jutsu!' and a large smoke covered Naruto's view. The smoke soon cleared to show the familiar red toad that was Gamakichi.
Gamakichi had grown over time and now easily towered over Naruto at three times Naruto's height. He also had an extra long kunai strapped to his side like a miniature katana like Gamabunta. Finally, he also has a pipe, but it wasn't with him that day.
"Yo Naruto, how is it going?" Gamakichi beamed, and then he saw the several dozen clones.
"Whoa, you having a massive spar against an army of kage bunshin's and wanted a spar partner? Count me in Naruto!"
Naruto sweat dropped, Gamakichi had been summoned facing the wrong side and didn't see the true opponent. "Umm...Gamakichi...turn around dattebayo." Naruto mumbled in a monotone voice. Gamakichi complied with a puzzled grunt, then suddenly jumped at least Naruto's height in surprise.
"Whoa!! Naruto shouldn't you have called out dad for this?!" Naruto shook his head, sharing his reasoning.
"That bridge must not be destroyed, Gamabunta is too large and would easily destroy it on accident." Gamakichi nodded in agreement, though a part of him was screaming.
'Screw the bloody bridge! Summon dad NOW Naruto!'
"You can use the combo jutsu to make Gamayu Endan like Gamabunta right?" Naruto asked, eagerly hoping the answer was yes.
Gamakichi nodded, "Last time I checked, you don't know any Katon's Naruto." Naruto waved an explosive note in his hand as he began wrapping it around a kunai and grinned.
"This worked last time, it will work again."
Gamakichi nodded in approval, "Use your Kage bunshin's to distract it, while I try to get within range and coat it with oil, I'll put as much chakra that I can into the jutsu, but it probably will make me return to my realm, sorry Naruto."
Naruto shook his head and widened his grin, "No worries Gamakichi, the point is I want to do something about that regenerating ink so my attacks actually deal some damage."
The toad had no idea what Naruto was talking about, but nodded his head. Naruto caught glimpse of another bright light as several tentacles disappeared behind the light. Naruto couldn't waste any more time. "Everybody charge!" All of the clones and Naruto dashed towards the squid. The squid readied three large tentacles through the water to fight off the incoming army. The Naruto's tried to the best of their abilities to dodge the giant tentacles for as long as possible, but more and more of the cloners were dispelling with each sweep with the exposed spines.
'Gamakichi, hurry up already!' Naruto cried mentally as a spine just missed slicing him in two, but made a clear cut through his jacket. Gamakichi was coming along the side of the bridge, with only the tip of his head exposed out of the water.
'Just a little bit closer and...' Gamakichi flew straight out of the water, causing the squid to emit a surprised screech, as Gamakichi almost like a fire hose, began dousing the creatures body, and the water around it in oil. Within ten seconds though, Gamakichi was whacked hard from the side with a tentacle, sending him flying off as he shouted 'NOW NARUTO!!' before 'poofing' out of existence. Naruto quickly created a single kage bunshin, then henged into a fuma shuriken. The clone threw Naruto as hard is it could into the air, before the tip of a tentacle collided with it, causing it to disperse. Naruto then 'poofed' back to his normal form and threw his exploding kunai.
While the explosion was small, the fire was blinding and sizzling. The entire exposed part of the squid and the surrounding water was set alight in an engulfing fire. The squid emitted a loud scream, as it shook violently in fury as it tried to put the fire out. The creature then resulted to slowly submerging itself into the water still screaming in pain until only its tentacles were visible. Within moments the entire squid was no longer seen.
Naruto beamed out to himself as he was still airborne. "YOSHA! I got you goo-"
Naruto couldn't finish his sentence as a tentacle that was as wide as his body shot out of the water at blinding speed for him. Naruto's eyes widened when the tentacle reached him and wrapped itself around his left arm and squeezed tightly causing Naruto to cry in pain, as the tentacle then gave a hard tug, sending him flying down towards the tunnel of teeth of the now returned angry squid.
Naruto quickly recovered and gritted his teeth through the pain of his now bleeding left arm as he formed the kage bunshin seal. Naruto created a second clone underneath his feet and used it to leap frog out of the immediate danger of becoming the squids snack. Luck wasn't on Naruto's side however, when the same tentacle from before made a stab for him, this time with the small spines exposed. Naruto repeated the same trick again, but only got him half way out of harm's way, as the tentacle just missed his gut, but the spines ripped into his side causing him to again cry out in pain.
-
Present time
-
Sakura winced, "Are you still hurt?" she asked full of concern, Naruto laughed, although his stomach did hurt a little through the bandaging.
"I'm ok Sakura-chan, really, it just hurts a litt-" Sakura already was by his side and analysing his wounds with her chakra.
"Then you won't mind if I double check over your wounds again...please continue though." She said in a tone that left no room for argument.
Naruto chuckled with a slight pink hue on his cheeks, "Ok then Sakura-chan."
-
Flashback resumed
-
Naruto hit the water on his back hard, sending him underneath, as his blood flowed through the water as he continued his descent. Naruto appeared knocked out, until he opened his eyes to reveal red slits. Naruto could already feel the Kyuubi working in overdrive on the numerous wounds he received, although they weren't closing, it at least was not bleeding as much. Naruto burst out of the water with his claws and stood back up on the surface, ignoring his bodies protests as the pain was almost pinging in his mind to stop.
Naruto glared at the squid which had now returned underneath the bridge, and was taking a sweep of the left side of the bridge with a tentacle. It appeared as if Naruto's last attack with the oil and fire had worked, since Naruto could still see traces of blood all over the squid, as well as clear signs of heavy burns. His enhanced senses could smell with satisfaction the cooked squid. The crispy skin of the squid was preventing it from releasing enough ink to heal itself effectively.
'Now's my chance, and I think I know the perfect way to return the favour for my arm too.' Naruto concluded as he formed his two clawed fingers into his favourite seal and closed his eyes deep in concentration.
"Kage bunshin no jutsu!" He whispered with his demonic voice, as a single clone 'poofed' into existence. Naruto then repeated the jutsu again, but without concentrating creating a pair of normal kage bunshin's. The super clone and the ordinary clone shared a glance slit to slit, then began running around the other side of the squid, taking care not to be noticed. Naruto and the other remaining clone walked a bit more towards the centre of the body and stood side by side and waited for something.
'Another 30 seconds, and the other pair should be in the right spot.' Naruto's eyes widened when he saw an extremely bright light emitting from just above the squids mouth. He then smirked when he saw the squid raise itself further out of the water, placing its mouth into the light.
'Perfect, more area to damage.' Naruto snickered.
Naruto placed his palm next to his clone as he began moulding the chakra for his jutsu. The Rasengan was almost complete and Naruto's smirk widened when the squid had lifted three quarters of its body out of the water, sticking most of the top part of its mouth through the bright light. Naruto then began his charge with his clone, the unstable Rasengan soaring with loose chakra escaping the pairs joined palms, sending sparkles of chakra flying past them as they ran towards the still oblivious squid.
The squid screeched in sudden surprise when it heard Naruto scream out 'Oodama Rasengan!' from both of its sides, but it was too late to react as the two huge spheres collided with the sides of its body. The area on both sides was covered by a blinding light and a loud explosion. The scream of pain from the squid sounded a little distanced at first, but when the squids mouth dropped out of the bright light above, Naruto heard the scream of its pain at full blast. The scream seemed endless, until the creature 'poofed' out of existence, leaving behind a very exhausted and injured Naruto, who was leaning on one of the bridges thick supports with his right arm.
-
Present time
-
Sakura looked at Naruto dumbfounded at the conclusion of his story, to the point where she had stopped her medical jutsu looking into his eyes with disbelief. Naruto began to grow concerned when she did not react for what felt like a minute.
"Umm Sakura-chan, are you-" Naruto was silenced when his cheek felt something soft, and blinked to realized Sakura was giving him a firm embrace, which made his mouth hang wide open.
"S-Sakura-cha-"
"Thank you so much Naruto!!" She whispered in his ear tightening her hug to the point where he felt like he was being crushed.
"Sakura-chan...you're...hurting...me!" Sakura widened her eyes and pulled away but still held her grand genuine smile.
"You have no idea, but you actually saved me from being that squid's lunch." She spoke softly.
Naruto blinked now in surprise, "W-w-what? Huh!?" Sakura nodded, the smile still not leaving her face, although her eyes flickered with traces of fear.
"L-Let's just say the mouth that you saw disappear...actually was reappearing underneath my feet, had you not stopped it when you did, I..." His gasp stopped her from finishing her sentence, but her grateful smile that was directed at him never dropped.
"Thank you Naruto." She still said quietly, although her gratefulness was practically vibrating loudly under her near whisper.
Naruto still hadn't recovered entirely, but he couldn't resist beaming with ecstatic joy. "YOSHA! What a perfect story to rival a fairy tale. The hero defeated the beast, saved the princess, and even got a kiss from the princess, BEST STORY EVER DATTEBAYO!"
Sakura face palmed while groaning at him killing the mood, 'Same old immature and childish Naruto...baka!'
"Neh Neh, Sakura-chan, how about giving your knight in shining arm-"
"NO!" That derailed Naruto's...second fairy tale, very quickly.
Neither of them said anything immediately after that, as Sakura finished checking Naruto's arm for the second time, still a little annoyed with his behaviour.
'Honestly, can't he just be serious for once?'
"Sakura-chan...What about your fight?"
Naruto asked his interest clear across his face. Sakura ended her inner scolding and sat back down on her seat, and unconsciously scratched at the weight strapped to her right leg with her hand.
"I'd rather not talk about it." She said simply, causing him to raise an eyebrow.
"Ok..." Neither said anything for a while, but Naruto was beginning now to really worry with what had happened.
"Are you ok Sakura-chan?"
"Hmm?"
"Maybe I do act stupid some times, but if what you said is true, it sounds like you almost died."
Sakura went agape at his confession that he said so seriously, but winced at the end, "..."
"Want to talk about it? I promise I won't be stupid."
Sakura waited a few moments looking into his eyes to see he was serious and smiled, 'He really can be serious when he knows he has to be.'
"If you insist then..."