The Pathless Sage
Beta read by 'I before A except after K'.
A/R: I took you guys' flames to heart and made A/R at the beginning shorter.
This chapter is going to be fun, a quick little insight into just how strong Naruto is right now. By which, I mean VERY strong.
"The screeching of a Haruno woman. Not just Sakura."
Loose guide to base damage (starting with lowest):
Punches, Kicks, Elbows, Knees, Weapons, Poisoned Weapons, Chakra Powered Weapons, Earth Chakra Powered Weapons, Water Chakra Powered Weapons, Fire Chakra Powered Weapons, Lightning Chakra Powered Weapons, Wind Chakra Powered Weapons, Sage/Natural Chakra Powered Weapons, Demonic Chakra Powered Weapons.
On with the story!
Sakura was royally pissed. That wasn't all that abnormal, nor was the fact that she was pissed off at Naruto, but the fact that she was pissed off enough to try killing Naruto wasn't something that happened often. Sure, she hated the guy irrevocably, but she seldom wanted to kill the boy.
On the inside, Naruto was on high alert, while on the outside Naruto was acting goofy and idiotic to try and fool their assailant. He knew someone was close by, so he concentrated on finding their accurate whereabouts and trying to nail them.
"OVER THERE!" With a battlecry, Naruto threw a kunai. Fortunately, the kunai found it's mark and hit something. Unfortunately, that something happened to be a white rabbit that was now nailed to the trunk of a tree by it's coat. That was why Sakura was pissed at Naruto.
"Naruto! Look what you did, you almost killed the rabbit by trying to act cool!" Naruto only kept on acting goofy and let Sakura berate him, while roughly embracing the now traumatised rabbit. On the inside, though, Naruto was guarded. "A snow rabbit. Their fur is only white in the winter, so why is it white now? Unless it's domesticated ... REPLACEMENT JUTSU!"
"Everybody duck!" Naruto and Kakashi screamed simultaneously, as a large zanbato flew over their heads and embedded itself into the trunk of a rather large tree. Zaraki and Sasuke had floored themselves immediately, as did Naruto, but he also had to pull Tazuna and a confused Sakura to the ground. A creepy looking man with bandages over his face and a Hidden Mist headband shunshinned onto the hilt of the sword and stood there.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't Copy Ninja Kakashi," the creepy man intoned in a deep, grating voice. His voice somehow sounded ... scary.
"Zabuza Momochi, Demon of Hidden Mist. This is going to be a tough fight," Kakashi said, straightening his hitai ite over his forehead, revealing his red left eye. He was going to go all out for this fight, "You guys, Manji formation and don't interfere. This guy is way out of your league."
"What an honour, I get to see the Sharingan first hand from a man that copied over a thousand Jutsu," Zabuza got a manic grin on his face. No, not manic ... that grin was plain demonic. "This should be fun!"
Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura and Zaraki got into the Manji formation around Tazuna, each ninja protecting a side of the target and looking dead ahead. "How does Kakashi have a Sharingan? Is he an Uchiha, or did he steal our Bloodline?" A certain Uchiha was fuming in his thoughts.
Zabuza pulled his sword out of the tree, flipped twice in the air and landed on the floor. Kakashi pulled out a kunai and held it in a reverse grip. As both Jounin got ready to fight, the air started to get thicker and thicker with the intent to kill.
Zaraki was used to it by now, he had gotten blasted around by KI for so long that he wasn't affected any more. Naruto ... well he was the Kyubi's Jinchuriki, so this felt like a walk in the park for him. Sakura and Sasuke, they weren't as immune as the first two. Sakura was having trouble breathing and was unable to move at all, while Sasuke was having suicidal thoughts.
Not that it was an irregularity.
"So these are Jounin, elite ninja of their Villages. This is insane, the bloodthirst in the air. It's suffocating. I can't stand this, I can't bear it anymore. I would rather take my life by my own hands!" To follow through with his thoughts, Sasuke pulled out a kunai shakily. He prepared to stab down into his own stomach.
"Calm down Sasuke. You are my comrades, there is no way I'll let him hurt you, any of you," Kakashi looked backwards from his position, giving them all a small eye smile. Reassured by his sensei's words, Sasuke calmed down enough to put away the kunai and get into a defensive stance.
"You should keep your eyes on your opponent," quick as lightning, Zabuza was on him, his zanbato ready to strike. Kakashi was taken by surprise, and before he could react, the zanbato sliced through him with practiced ease. Rather than a spurt of blood, though, Zabuza got a face full of water. "WATER CLONE JUTSU!"
"You should learn to take your own advice," Kakashi appeared behind Zabuza and held a kunai to his throat, "It's over."
The only response Kakashi got was Zabuza melting away into water. Slowly but surely, the surrounding atmosphere started to become clouded as mist shrouded them in a hazy glow. The mist was thick, almost too thick to be natural.
"Hidden Mist Jutsu!" Zabuza announced gleefully from somewhere in the area. His voice echoed eerily, as if it was coming from all around them rather than from just one particular place.
"Be on your guard. Zabuza is a master of the Silent Killing technique. You won't know what happened until you're dead," Kakashi warned, once again holding his kunai in a reverse grip in an attempt to cut down on his reaction time, and look cool in the process.
The four Gennin immediately stiffened, even Naruto and Zaraki.
"Eight choices: Larynx, spine, lungs, liver, jugular, subclavian artery, kidneys, heart," Zabuza's voice rang out from around them, taking sickly pleasure in seeing his targets squirm. "Now, which one should I go for?"
With one hand in half a Tiger Seal and his zanbato held behind his back, Zabuza landed lithely within the group protecting Tazuna, intending to take him out quickly. That was not to be. As soon as he landed, he found a kunai embedded into his ribs, water seeping from the wound.
Kakashi had seen the other Jounin land inside the Gennin's defenses and moved as fast as he could to intercept him before he could kill Tazuna or one of the kids. The force of their mentor moving past them so fast made the Gennin stumble forward slightly. He drove the kunai as far as it would go into Zabuza's ribs, only to find out it was a Water Clone.
"I'm not that easy to catch Kakashi," Zabuza shouted as he fell towards the cyclopean Jounin, swinging his massive sword downwards in an attempt to cleave his opponent in half, lengthwise. Apparently caught by surprise, Kakashi allowed himself to get cleaved in half. Only to explode in a shower of water. Again.
Seeing Kakashi get split in half, Sakura let out a little scream.
Cutting clean through Kakashi, Zabuza's sword embedded itself into the ground. Kakashi took this opportunity to jump out and attack the so-called Demon. As soon as he got close enough to attack, though, Zabuza pushed off from his sword's hilt and kicked him accross the ribs, making him fly into the heavy water of the sea.
"This water, it's not normal, it's dense ... SHIT!" Kakashi thought.
"I got you now!" Zabuza was running through Seals as fast as he could, which, admittedly, was very fast. "Water Prison Jutsu!" The water rose up around Kakashi, forming a spherical prison around him, keeping him captive, while Zabuza's arm was inside the prison as well, keeping the water there.
"Forget it Kakashi, you can't escape my Water Prison," Zabuza got that same demonic grin on his face again, "Now watch as I destroy these brats of yours."
He made a Water Clone. It had a tenth of Zabuza's strength, but was strong enough to take on some wannabe brats that wanted to play ninja.
"You brats wear headbands and walk around, thinking it makes you a ninja. When you have brushed with death so many times that it doesn't faze you, then you may be called a ninja. When you have become so deadly that your profile is entered into my Bingo Book, then you may have earned the title ninja-" the Clone berated, walking towards the Gennin slowly, while the mist thickened around him, hiding him from view. "-but to call upstarts like you ninja, it's an insult and a joke!"
Sasuke and Naruto, caught by surprise, were kicked through the air in quick succession. Their progress through the air was halted by having their backs meet with the trunks of a couple of large trees. They were winded, but the Water Clone wasn't strong enough to hurt them while using so little strength.
They got up and walked back towards their comrades, to see Zabuza about to slice Zaraki in half.
Zabuza thought he had finished the first two off, so he went for the third one, the one that looked to be the most dangerous. Admittedly, he probably wouldn't be the only one to assume that, seeing his ragged and battle worn look.
Zaraki saw the blade coming at his shoulder in a downward arc, and despite being more than fast enough to intercept it, he made no efforts to stop the blade. Sakura gasped, expecting the sword to cleave her team-mate in half. The mist cleared a little, revealing a grinning Zaraki with a zanbato seemingly resting on his shoulder.
"You'll need to to better than that to cut through my Hierro," Zaraki said, drawing his own nodachi and slicing through the surprised Water Clone with ease.
"Well, well, well. Seems like the Hidden Leaf brats aren't all useless," to conserve Chakra, Zabuza released his Hidden Mist Jutsu and created a few Water Clones, "Tell me brat, how did you stop my Kubikiribocho?"
"Hah? It's simple, just focus Chakra to where the blade's gonna hit you, and you can stop it from slicing you to ribbons," Zaraki complied, earning him dubious looks from Sakura and Sasuke. Why would the idiot give away secrets to his technique?
Naruto sighed loudly, catching everyone's attention. "What are you sighing about, Dobe?" Sasuke asked, looking at him like he was insane. Which he did most of the time with anyone that did anything out of the norm.
"Nothing, I just didn't want to take these off so quickly," when Sakura and Sasuke looked at him curiously, Naruto started to take his jacket off, "I wanted to keep these a secret at least until the upcoming Chunin exams.
While all this was taking place, Zabuza stood there quietly, wondering what the blonde kid looked so calm about. After all, most Gennin weren't calm in front of certain death, so why was this kid so different?
"Naruto, why are you stripping? Put your clothes back on," Sakura wailed, which was quite damaging to the hearing of surrounding lifeforms, especially Kakashi, since he was submerged in water.
"Calm down, I can't take off the weights on my torso with my clothes on, can I?" Off came the jacket, revealing large iron bars within a sash with pockets for the weights to go into. The sash covered most of his torso, along with two others that covered the entirety of his forearms. All in all, he looked to be wearing body armour consisting of weights. No wonder Naruto wore such a loose jacket and no shirt.
"How much ya wearing?" Surprisingly, it was Zaraki that asked the question. He wasn't one to usually start conversations, especially in a fight. The Gennin on his team had gotten to know quite well that their team-mate lived for the thrill of the battle.
"Around a hundred pounds, last I checked. I dunno though, it never felt lighter even though I kept training, so maybe Kisame added weights without me noticing," Naruto answered, though he wondered why the other boy cared. It wasn't like they were going to fight each other. Yet.
Zaraki licked his lips, unbeknownst to all other than Zabuza, who thought it gave the boy somewhat of a demonic appearance.
Sakura and Sasuke looked surprised. They thought Naruto was utterly feeble, so being able to move normally with that much weight ... how strong was he?
"Impossible, I would collapse if I had that much weight put on me, let alone more. How can the Dobe move around normally as if the weights aren't even there?" Sasuke thought in bemusement.
"Zaraki, try getting Kakashi out of that prison. Chop Zabuza's arm off if you can, that would break the Jutsu and give us the advantage of having his arm gone. I'll hold off all the Clones, Sakura and Sasuke watch over the client," Naruto took charge, giving out orders like a seasoned ninja that had gone on and led many missions in his time.
Zabuza was honestly surprised. For a Gennin to walk around like nothing was going on while wearing that much weight. He hated to admit it, but for the first time, he was impressed with a brat of his age.
Zaraki ran over to where Zabuza was holding his prisoner captive, Sasuke and Sakura stiffened in their position around Tazuna and Naruto stood behind where Zaraki just ran past, covering his trail and making sure none of the Clones went to intercept him. They would have to get through him first.
The fight was on.
Not waiting for the Clones to attack him, seeing as he would be overwhelmed due to lesser numbers, he decided to charge. While his eyes and brain expected him to arrive fairly quickly at his target, he wasn't prepared to appear right next to them as if he had just teleported. He was ready to punch, but he was caught off guard by his own speed.
His body had become so fast that his brain and his eyes couldn't keep up. He willed his arm to punch a Clone three times within two seconds and ended up punching eight times, completely demolishing the Clone, but overbalancing due to excess force from the last punch that hit air.
One Clone down, nineteen to go.
The next Clone he ran at wasn't as slow to react and swung his sword in a high, sideways arc, trying to cleave Naruto in half. Naruto dodged by bending backwards, but in the process, he bent back too far due not being used to moving so fast and hit his head on the floor.
The sword was heavy, so the Clone had to either swing back around in an attempt to use the momentum, or use all of his strength to pull the sword back. Thinking it more beneficial to keep it under control, he pulled the sword back with all his might.
Seeing his chance, Naruto planted his arms on the floor, pushed up and kicked out at the Clone that had just attacked him. He kicked straight through his watery head and up into the air behind him.
Two Clones down, eighteen to go.
On the other front of the mini-war, Zaraki was having some problems. As the battle loving maniac he was, he decided that having a fight with a virtually paralysed Zabuza would be more fun. Rather than trying to free a quickly suffocating Kakashi, he attacked the Hidden Mist missing nin head on, only to find that he was rather nimble with his large zanbato, as he blocked every strike of his nodachi with a slight flick of the wrist.
Zabuza didn't try to attack the Gennin in any way, since he didn't have enough Chakra to hold the Water Prison Jutsu and make a Clone, so he just resorted to defending while expending the least amount of Chakra as possible. And while he was interested in the maniacally grinning Zaraki, the blonde behind him interested him more.
Kakashi was pumping as much Chakra as he could to his lungs, trying to make his air last as long as he possibly could.
Naruto had gotten rid of the first twelve Clones that he attacked and he was already bruised, badly. None of these bruises were inflicted by Zabuza' Clones, all of them had come from him somehow managing to screw up his co-ordination badly enough to either hit himself, the ground, or some rather hard objects.
He was starting to adjust to his new speed, his eyes getting better at monitoring things at higher speeds, his brain starting to process the information faster. His body started to respond more like he wanted to, though his technique was nowhere near what it was with his weights on. While his technique had been flawless with the weights, it was no sloppy at best.
Normally, his punches and kicks derived their destructive power from rotation of the hips, chest and pivoting on either leg, but since he couldn't co-ordinate himself well enough to transfer weight from one part to another effectively, he resorted to using brute force from his arms and legs. The few times that he had tried to use rotation, he had either spun out of control, or badly misfired his punches and kicks.
Sasuke and Sakura were looking on in scarcely restrained awe. Here was a boy of their own age, who they thought to be far inferior to them, fighting Clones of a Jounin, the former commander of the Assassination Unit, no less. Sure, it had a tenth of the original's strength, but that didn't mean it wasn't strong.
He was running around and attacking so fast that he looked like he was using some kind of Time-Space ninjutsu, like the Fourth Hokage. Thinking of the Fourth Hokage, Naruto did look awfully similar to the deceased warrior.
"Nah, the Dobe couldn't be related to such a powerful man."
"No way, that Baka related to a Hokage? Laughable!"
Oh how wrong and ignorant they were.
They didn't understand one thing though, what was it with him and inflicting injuries on himself? Was he some kind of emo masochist? Did he like the pain? So he hurt himself on purpose for the fun of it? Both Sasuke and Sakura cringed at the thought.
Tazuna didn't have any idea what was going on. He was just glad that the blonde brat had decided to tag along when he did, otherwise, he might as well have been dead right now. All Tazuna could see of Naruto was ... nothing. His eyes were far inferiorly trained than that of a ninja, so his eyesight couldn't even comprehend Naruto's movements.
Naruto was starting to feel only slight amounts of fatigue, even after fighting for so long against such a superior opponent. The advantage of doing about five hundred years worth of hardcore training was that it caused his already inhuman levels of stamina to skyrocket. That made him quite resistant to fatigue, to say the least. Add to that the fact that he was the Jinchuriki of the most powerful Demon currently in existence, and you have yourself a nigh tireless warring machine.
Finishing the last Clone with a sloppy punch to ... where the Sun never shines, he turned to see Zaraki finally getting bored of slashing at a dummy that didn't bother to do anything other than block and finally slashing at Zabuza's arm.
Of course, Zabuza was a perfectly intelligent human being (unlike some others present in the battlefield at that moment) and could see that not letting the Water Prison go would be bad for him. Not only would he lose his arm, he would also release the Water Prison anyway. So he took the best course of action and jumped away from the ball of water to evade the blade that was about to slice his arm off.
Kakashi was breathing hard, now that he could actually breathe. Holding his breath for almost ten minutes had been quite an ordeal for him and he was starting to turn blue from the strain.
After catching his breath, Kakashi stood upright to continue with his battle against Zabuza, who was now fuming and trying to find a way to slice Zaraki, who was now using a full body Hierro, only to have his sword bounce off over and over again.
Kakashi mentally facepalmed, for someone so great, Zabuza sure could be dense sometimes. Did he not realise he could easily slice through something of that level if he only channelled a little bit of Chakra through his blade?
Kakashi ran through a few handsigns, intending to use one of the Jutsu he copied with the Sharingan, in his earlier days. He hadn't used it in a while and prayed that he could still remeber how to do it.
"Earth Style: Crushing Earth!" Kakashi announced, and as soon as he did, the the ground around Zabuza started rising up and covering every nook and cranny of his body. The soil piled higher and higher around Zabuza, starting to crush him under the weight already. Before the soil rose any higher though, two senbon needles flew towards him and embedded themselves into the side of his neck.
A hunter nin in a sky blue kimono with pink flower print appeared next to Zabuza, his/her face covered by a mask. Nodding in thanks to the Leaf ninja, she quickly shunshinned away.
"That's suspicious ... why didn't the hunter nin destroy the body on the spot like they are meant to? Whatever, I'm too tired right now," Kakashi though, replacing his hitai ite over his left eye and promptly falling unconscious due to Chakra exhaustion.
Zaraki sheathed his sword and returned to the side of his team-mates. Sakura and Sasuke relaxed, but Naruto stayed on guard, replacing his weights and jacket, feeling the familiar pressing feeling take over his body as the weights restricted his movements again.
Tazuna moved in and picked up the limp body of Kakashi. Since he was the client and not a ninja, he was the only person fit to carry Kakashi, as he would not be required to move at a moment's notice should a threat arise.
They carried on their journey at a slower pace, with the strinct guidance of Tazuna himself, who had travelled the path hundreds, maybe thousands of times before.
Eventually, they arrived at a small two story house that looked a little beaten down, a little worse for wear but it looked no less appealing to the ninja right now. All they needed was some food and a bed to sleep in.
Tazuna opened the door, having handed Kakashi over to Zaraki, to be welcomed by the open arms of his beautiful daughter, Tsunami. She was a woman of about thirty with dark, shoulder length hair.
"Father, you're back! I'm glad you're home safe and sound," she cheered, her features lighting up in what Naruto and Zaraki identified as a forced smile. Her face upturned into a smile, but her eyes maintained the dead look they had about them.
"Yes, thanks to these ninja from the Hidden Leaf," Tazuna said, pointing to the four kids that were now standing in their doorway, Kakashi laying forgotten on the floor. Sakura looked quite bashful, Sasuke looked like he did all the work himself (which was utterly prepostrous), Zaraki looked bored and Naruto looked like he wanted to sleep.
"Ninja? They look like they're the same age as my Inari!" Tsunami exclaimed surprised by their young age. She still hadn't noticed Kakashi lying on the floor, "Aren't they being supervised by an adult?"
"Kakashi-sensei overdid it a bit in the fight on the way here," Sakura said, pointing down towards the floor. Having noticed the poor Jounin for the first time, Tsunami rushed to the unconscious man's aid. With some effort, she pulled Kakashi on her back and hauled him over to one of the empty rooms to recover.
They had survived the fight, but was this going to be the only one? Were they going to get out without casualty if they had to fight again? Would their enemies underestimate them again? Would they leave loopholes in their defenses again?
So many questions, so little answers. Such is the way of life.
A/R: Nothing much to say. 4K, without counting notes.
Hope you enjoyed. Please review and share, it really helps me out.
I have decided to not respond to reviews in chapters, and I can't find anything to rant about right now. If I find anything, I'll include them.
Just because I don't respond to them here doesn't mean I don't read them. I read reviews all the time, twice or thrice for each review. If I find a review interesting, or if you have a question, I will mail you a response.
Zaraki isn't an Arrancar, I just needed a name for his hard skin. So meh.
Majin out!