Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. This is fanfiction, after all.
AN: Here is the second installment of the epic 30th of April. Even though the last chapter ended in the mid-afternoon, this one will start in the late morning.
Uzumaki Training Grounds, Konoha – April 30, AK 22 (late morning)
Hanabi was training by herself in the Uzumaki training grounds. Naruto had gone off to babysit the Fire Daimyo's granddaughter so she had nothing to do besides train.
The Fire Daimyo had decided to stay the whole day, but Naruto had somehow managed to coax the old man into heading back home early. Naruto had winked at her and said that the earlier he left, the earlier he would return.
He didn't mention the obvious fact that the time he spent away would still be the same, however, and Hanabi was left wondering how she would spend a week without her husband.
The answer had been to train.
Unfortunately, Naruto had not seriously trained her in how to use independently use spiritual and physical energy, saying that such training was dangerous. He had said that a person's body is so used to being fed chakra that the sudden splitting of that chakra into spiritual and physical energy would send her body into shock the moment she split her chakra apart into its constituents. The idea had been to gradually get her body used to running off of spiritual energy and physical energy in short intervals until it could last an entire day without chakra.
All they had managed to do was discover that she leaned heavily towards yin—Naruto theorized that most people were predominantly predisposed to using one or the other—and get her able to last a few hours without chakra. Hanabi had wanted to start training, but Naruto said the strain on her body would become much more severe once she started using techniques. To prove his point, he had taught her a yin technique that would cause time itself around her body to invert, a form of time dilation, thereby speeding up her movements. Just two thrusts had been enough to leave her bedridden for the rest of the day.
Her endurance since then had grown, but she had learned her lesson. She would not be using spiritual energy techniques until Naruto deemed her fit to do so.
And since Naruto wasn't present, she had to work on something else. Hanabi was currently practicing to fully incorporate her elemental chakra into her battle style. It would probably no longer be the Gentle Fist anymore, given that she incorporated the use of two small battle fans coated with wind chakra to cause external damage to her foes. But it would make her a much better and more versatile fighter. Hanabi gained extra range from being able to use long-ranged wind attacks with the fans open or a chakra-conducting base to create her water whip with the fans closed.
The open fans had sharp edges and could themselves be used either as melee or ranged weapons and could cut deeply even without wind chakra. The closed forms of the fans were extremely sturdy and would allow her to block any incoming kunai or shuriken instead of having to dodge or use the chakra-intensive Kaiten. The Hyuuga never carried weapons even on missions because of their desire to appear more than brute savages. With her fans, she would appear every bit the noble that she was while still giving her deadly weapons to use and parry other weapons.
"Lady Hanabi?"
Hanabi stopped to look at her orange-haired attendant. Sasame was the closest to her in age amongst all her attendants, and over the last month, they had become fast friends.
"Yes?"
"Are you practicing ninjutsu?"
"I am," Hanabi replied, wondering why the older girl had asked.
"Do you mind if I practiced with you?" Sasame asked.
Hanabi raised an eyebrow. "Sasame, you were a ninja before Naruto hired you?"
That was news to her. The girl didn't mention anything like that before. But to be fair, Hanabi had been more focused on learning about her husband on her honeymoon. She made a mental note to get to know the stories of all her retainers.
The other girl nodded. "Before Lord Naruto found me, I was part of the Fuuma clan. Most of my clan members are now scattered and living among civilians, but we were once a ninja clan. I…" the girl paused, "My clan went through hard time. To settle some debts, the faction of the clan that I was a part of sold me into slavery," Hanabi saw the girl lightly touching the spot where she had been branded, "I managed to fight my way to freedom even while drugged, but I had to wander from place to place without having a home to return to. Fortunately, it wasn't a long time. Lord Naruto found me on one of my trips and I have dedicated my life to him since."
Suddenly, it made sense why Naruto had insisted that she get close to Sasame.
Sasame was probably supposed to be Hanabi's secret bodyguard.
Hanabi didn't know whether to be pleased or annoyed with that. On one hand, it was sweet that Naruto wanted to make sure no harm came to her. On the other, it was a blow to her pride that Naruto thought she needed protection.
And there were Sasame's feelings to think of. Often times, Hanabi would notice the girl's eyes flicker over to gaze at Naruto when he had his back turned. Hanabi caught it because she was once a Hyuuga, but she doubted anyone else would have caught Sasame's surreptitious looks of affection.
Despite Sasame's best efforts to conceal how she felt, Hanabi had concluded that other girl had a crush on her husband. Judging by the very light blush on the other girl's face even now that almost appeared to be more from embarrassment from telling her life story, it seemed that Sasame did indeed have feelings for Naruto. While she wasn't entirely happy with the situation, Hanabi knew that Naruto trusted Sasame. So she too in turn would trust the orange-haired girl.
It wasn't like the Sasame had made any overt passes at Hanabi's husband either. Sasame clearly knew what was appropriate and what was not, so Hanabi would not resent Sasame for simply having feelings.
Hanabi got into a defensive stance as she activated her Byakugan. "Sure, then let's practice."
Sasame smiled before jumping to attack.
Hanabi immediately felt herself being pressured by her attendant. Hanabi was incredibly shocked by the speed and agility that the other girl was showing. Sasame's speed wasn't quite on par with Hanabi's own, but Hanabi knew from the other girl's body language that Sasame wasn't going all-out. Furthermore, Sasame more than made up for lack of speed with strange techniques.
It seemed that the other girl could control chakra at will. Every time Hanabi tried to dodge, there would be a solid wall of pure, transparent chakra blocking her path, forcing her to jump in another direction. It seemed that the girl could create only one wall at once. But the wall would remain present for a long time and Sasame was free to continue making more. Hanabi suspected that hand seals would give the other girl more versatility with the strange technique.
Hanabi dashed forward, dodging between all the chakra walls that had been set up. When we saw yet another wall go up, trapping her in an area with only few holes to escape from, she tried to smash one with her Gentle Fist only to have her hand rebound back. Finding herself now completely surrounded by chakra walls, she coated her fan with wind chakra and tossed it at one of the barriers as a last resort.
The chakra barrier shatter.
"As expected, Lord Naruto chose a strong woman to be his wife. I hadn't expected you to escape that technique, Lady Hanabi."
It was well hidden but Hanabi could tell that there was a touch of bitterness in the tone. Hanabi couldn't explain it, but she knew that the bitterness in Sasame's tone wasn't directed at her or any person in particular. Her tone reminded her of the times when Neji would vent about life. Perhaps Sasame also felt trapped by her own slave mark in the same way Neji had with the Caged Bird Seal.
"But you're not too bad yourself, Sasame. I'd say we're about even in skill. Your skills are at A-rank, aren't they?" Hanabi asked.
"They are." Sasame nodded as Hanabi walked out of the impromptu cage that had been made. "Probably mid- to upper- A-rank."
That was a surprise. Hanabi was a typical A-rank ninja. While Hanabi was not arrogant enough to accuse Sasame of lying, it was still somewhat of a shock that Sasame was that strong.
"Just what is that technique?" Hanabi inquired curiously.
Hanabi had seen many techniques in her life, but none that involved creating pure solid chakra constructs. The nearest thing to that would be the Kaiten and Rasengan, both of which were dense and tangible, but Sasame's walls seemed to be made of inert chakra and not dense or moving chakra.
"It's our clan's Madala Curse technique. Our clan became quite adept at manipulating the physical properties of chakra. We can shape chakra into whatever physical shape we wish. Barriers tend to be the easiest to make and thus are the most practical for use in battle. I can also use chakra threads when they are appropriate."
Hanabi nodded in appreciation. "It seems like your chakra constructs are strong enough to repel normal chakra and physical attacks quite well."
"Yes, but both wind and lightning can pierce or shatter my technique. Wind creates a thin sheet while lighting creates a small point. As such, with power focused into such small areas, a sufficiently strong enough wind or lightning attack can shatter my walls."
Hanabi frowned but didn't say anything. She had simply channeled her chakra through the fan. It shouldn't have been an incredibly strong and focused attack. Hanabi wasn't skilled at nature manipulation on a level that would have freed her from those chakra constructs. She took a careful look at her fans with her Byakugan and saw the normally invisible seals all over it. Perhaps the seals amplified the power and potency of her chakra. If Sasame was to be believed, Hanabi was easily outclassed by her attendant in ninjutsu.
She had only escaped because of Naruto's foresight. Hanabi glanced at the other girl briefly.
Perhaps Naruto did have a right to worry about Hanabi's safety.
Hanabi knew that there were S-rank monsters out there, but they usually had some kind of strange ability. The Hokage had his Sharingan, Lee's strange teacher had his Inner Gates, and Naruto had monstrous chakra levels that had been left behind when the Kyuubi (and the other bijuu) were sealed away in the moon.
Among normal mortals, Hanabi had thought herself strong and capable. But if someone relatively normal like Sasame was this powerful, it meant that Hanabi was nowhere near the limits of her abilities, especially considering that Hanabi too had a unique ability in her bloodline that was not available to most ninjas. Simply by virtue of being blessed with a powerful bloodline, she had a duty to reach S-rank.
"What else can you do?" Hanabi asked curiously.
"I'm a sensor, which was why I suspect Lord Naruto wishes me to remain close to you at all times." Hanabi nodded at what was the confirmation of her theory that Naruto had wanted to protect her. "I can also use earth and fire ninjutsu."
"Well," Hanabi said after a while, accepting that she needed to grow much stronger, "that first spar was fun. Want to try again? This time using your other techniques as well."
"Of course, Lady Hanabi."
Capital City, Land of Fire – April 30, AK 22 (early afternoon)
As always, the capital city was bright and lively. There was a festive atmosphere throughout the streets as people laughed, drank, sang, and danced.
"Little Naruto," the Fire Daimyo said warmly from the open window of his palanquin, "It is nice to have seen you grown up so well. How many years has it been?"
"I believe it has been six, Your Majesty," Naruto said politely. Usually, to authority figures, he would wiggle his way into their hearts by giving them a fresh breath of familiarity. But Naruto had long decided to be extra respectful to the Fire Daimyo simply to annoy other government officials. The Daimyo's advisors regularly complained that Naruto was too rude and unfit to be the Hokage or be in the Daimyo's favor. But because Naruto was overly polite to the Daimyo himself, whenever the advisors would claim Naruto was rude, the Fire Daimyo gave them looks as if they were crazy. It was a rather entertaining game to play; Naruto always made sure to flip the bird to the advisors whenever the Daimyo wasn't looking.
"Ah, indeed it has, Naruto," the Fire Daimyo laughed heartedly behind his fan. "We hope you don't mind indulging Our little granddaughter. She has a been a fan of yours for the longest time."
"It is an honor, Your Majesty."
It was anything but. Naruto outwardly gave a warm smile but mentally scowled. He could have been using the time to train, to spend with Hanabi, to plan to bring peace to the entire continent, or even just to relax. Instead, he was being asked to babysit a fangirl.
Still, he couldn't voice any of his thoughts to the Fire Daimyo. And after all, Naruto did understand him and didn't resent him because of his request. To civilians in the Land of Fire, especially the ones not living in a ninja village, the wars that ninjas fought were almost always invisible. Wars were always in other countries. To those in the Land of Fire, it had been decades of perennial peace and people were more worried about personal daily struggles.
For someone like the Daimyo, the battles were just simply entertaining stories to hear about unless they became as big as Pein's invasion or the Fourth Shinobi World War.
The closest thing to war that civilian nobles experienced was having to occasional place bets on the young ninjas who fought in the Chuunin Selection Exams. Ninja battles were a sport to them, which contributed to the Fire Daimyo's inability to understand why his granddaughter's demands were so unreasonable.
"We are glad you feel that way, Naruto," the Fire Daimyo returned with a warm smile of his own. "By the week's end, We shall grant you any wish that you might have for this favor." The Fire Daimyo chortled. "Within reason, of course. We won't be able to grant you ownership of the moon." The Fire Daimyo chuckled again at his own joke.
Naruto lowered his head formally. The Fire Daimyo didn't really have anything Naruto wanted. Naruto wanted peace in the world, but that was something no one could give him. There was also equality for all citizens, including slaves, but there was no way the Fire Daimyo would overturn the centuries-old caste system.
In any case, however, appearances had to be kept. Naruto had to make a show of gratitude.
"Thank you, sire. But the greatest wish of your servant is to serve under you as the Hokage of the Hidden Leaf Village. Your servant shall be forever grateful for your support."
"We already promised you Our support, little Naruto. You did us a great service by defeating the Akatsuki criminals." The Fire Daimyo sounded disappointed. "We were hoping We could do more for you." The Fire Daimyo paused. "Considering your age, We would have considered finding you a decent wife among the nobles, perhaps even Our granddaughter, but you are a newly married man. Another marriage this soon would be somewhat insulting to your wife."
"Yes, my lord," Naruto murmured, not mentioning that he had no intention of marrying a minor even if it was the Fire Daimyo's granddaughter.
Nor did he mention that Hanabi would probably render his family jewels useless if he got married while away at the capital. The girl claimed she was fine with him taking on concubines and even accepted that he might take more wives, but Naruto doubted that anyone in the world was that generous. People might claim that love is selfless, but that was a lie. His experience with Sakura taught him that while the greatest form of love was selfless and sacrificial, most forms of love were selfish and jealous.
"Hm," the Fire Daimyo mused out loud to himself with his fan over his face, "Perhaps in the future then. You are already a noble as well so granting you noble status is out of the option. How frustrating. How frustrating, indeed., the Fire Daimyo repeated muttered. "It is a shame, but We shall have to reward you with gold instead. Perhaps a set of jewelry for your lovely wife as well. And the opportunity of taking any woman in the Land of Fire as your next bride. Each year there is a contest for the most beautiful woman in the Land of Fire. We will give the next winner to you as your second wife. Ah yes. This will be Our decree."
"But—"
"No, buts, Naruto," the Fire Daimyo commanded. "You will accept these gifts. We command it! If your wife is opposed to you taking another wife, then you may take the woman as a concubine. Even a noblewoman will consider being the concubine of the great Naruto Uzumaki as an honor. Especially if We make it a mandate."
Naruto lowered his head in silent assent. He didn't need the money, but more money couldn't hurt, especially with his plans for the future. And he would just introduce Hanabi to the Daimyo if the Daimyo kept insisting that Naruto take multiple wives. That particular conversation between them wouldn't go well, but it would at least free Naruto of having to get married again.
They walked in silence until they finally reached the palace. As they entered the palace, Naruto decided that he would just treat it as a protection mission to spare his sanity when he saw all the politicians around them.
"Welcome back, Your Majesty!" everyone intoned at once.
Naruto stood near the doorway as the Daimyo regally walked by all his advisors and ministers towards his throne.
"Call the princess at once!" the Fire Daimyo ordered once he sat down.
"It shall be done, Oh Great One. Your grace is immeasurable," they all chanted in unison. Naruto twitched in annoyance as all the ministers bowed their heads in perfect unison. He wasn't annoyed at the show of respect or even the silliness of the scene, but it always irked him that they were somehow able to read one another's minds deciding when to chant and bow.
It was rather unnatural and strange.
"Ah and Naruto, you can come up here and wait."
Naruto formally bowed his head for what was the millionth time and marched silently on the red carpet between the two lines of nobles to sit on his knees before the Daimyo.
After a few minutes, the door behind them slid open. "Grandfather, you are surely the greatest man alive! I finally get to see my hero!"
Naruto merely kept his head down, not trusting himself to show the proper emotion required. He was tempted to laugh, cry, and blow up something all at the same time. Megumi really was a fangirl, the worst kind at that.
"Naruto, you may stand."
Naruto did and formally kept his head down as the princess marched up directly to him and squealed with glee. "Grandfather, I must ask permission to take the legendary Golden Sun of Konoha back to my quarters."
Naruto's eyes would have bugged out at that, but he quickly mastered himself. He couldn't cause a scene here.
"You may do as you will with him, princess." The Fire Daimyo giggled at that behind his fan. "We even grant you permission to leave the palace grounds. We hope you enjoy your gift." The Daimyo looked at Naruto and gave a wink. "What happens here stays here, Naruto."
Naruto was stunned that the Daimyo pretty much gave him permission to sleep with his granddaughter, but before he could do anything about it, the girl began to drag him out. Naruto stopped at the door and turned to give the Daimyo another short bow of the head.
Naruto followed the girl into her quarters, wondering if he would have to place a genjutsu on her to make her believe that something actually happened that night. There was no way he was going to sleep with another woman, let alone a minor. Even putting aside what Hanabi would do to him, he himself had serious moral issues about something like that. While he had been engaged to Hanabi when she was technically still a minor, she was an adult when he got married to her. Most noblemen didn't really care about age, but Naruto wasn't one of them. He wasn't a pedophile.
"Lord Naruto! I am so excited to meet you! I have been collecting your action figures and cards ever since they started coming out six years ago!"
Naruto raised an eyebrow at that. Action figures? Cards? What the heck were those?
Seeing him not respond, the girl motioned for him to sit and then went through her drawers to take out a small plastic figure that looked like him. The figure had a little blue ball on it hand.
She pressed a button and the action figured moved forward thrusting the blue ball forward, "Rasengan!" it shouted.
Megumi, the princess, put the action figure on a small table and put one of her books up in front of the action figure. "This is one of the books that my tutor makes me read for my education. It's just a bunch of ancient rules that no longer apply. It's much more useful for this."
"Rasengan!"
The book fell over the side of the table.
A sweat drop appeared on Naruto's head. That was certainly an…interesting way of using the Rasengan.
Civilians were stranger than he thought. What was the point of getting these action figures?
"Oh! Here's your playing card, too!" Naruto just stared as the girl shoved a durable plastic card into his hand.
The card itself was mostly orange and read LIMITED FOURTH WAR EDITION on the back. The top half had a picture of him holding his Wind Release: Rasenshuriken boxed in a shiny silver background and Naruto twitched as he saw what else was on the card. There was a number saying 100 HP on the top right and the bottom had two of his techniques listed: Shadow clones (30 HP damage) and Wind Release: Rasenshuriken (120 HP damage). There was something that appeared to represent chakra next to each with the Rasenshuriken requiring four along with something that appeared to represent wind while the shadow clone technique only required two.
(AN: Yes, this is a Pokémon card.)
"Um…princess, I am quite…flattered," Naruto said, mentally cursing his fate for the next week. Maybe Neji had the right idea when he was young. Fate really was a bitch.
The princess didn't appear to hear him and just continued to show him whatever else she had in her collection of Naruto goods. Noticing the symbol of Konoha on all of these products, he realized that this was how Konoha subsidized missions the village requested of itself. Missions requested by customers were funded, but missions required for village security or for securing political alliances needed to be funded in a different way. Looking at the excited princess dump more items on him, Naruto realized that taxes must not have been enough.
"Look, I have posters of you, too! I am not allowed to decorate my room, but I try to look at these at least twice a day!"
He swore that he was going to kill Kakashi once he got out of there.
And maybe kill the original Naruto as well for sticking him in this situation. "Naruto" was tempted to just dispel himself.
…except for some reason he wasn't able to dispel.
Right.
He had forgotten that he was a damn chakra clone, not a shadow clone, that operated on a set amount of chakra and wasn't directly linked to the original's chakra reserve.
So it was impossible for him to dispel unless he died or he ran out of chakra. Only the original could dispel him.
The only thing he could do at this point was to try to use up all the chakra he had in his body. But even with one-hundredth of the original Naruto's chakra, he had more than most A-rank ninjas. Even if he destroyed the entire capital, he would still have chakra left to burn.
"Naruto" groaned.
It was going to be a long week.
Mountains, Land of Frost – April 30, AK 22 (mid-afternoon)
"Hinata, run!" Konohamaru jumped in front of her, summoned a shadow clone, and held out both his arms to gather chakra for a double Rasengan. His shadow clone did the same.
Immediately, everyone spurred into action.
"Hyuuga! Run away!" Tajiri shouted as she tossed half a dozen explosive tags.
Konohamaru saw Hinata nod and run off at top speed in the opposite direction.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Konohamaru saw the four Kumo ninjas about to give chase. "I won't let you!" Konohamaru and his shadow clone both body flickered in mid-technique, something only Shisui Uchiha was competent at. "Twin Rasengan!" they both shouted.
The Kumo ninjas managed to dodge but the four different Rasengan were enough of a distraction for Hinata to disappear from sight.
Konohamaru dispelled his clone to conserve chakra. He wasn't feeling tired just yet, but it was never a bad idea to conserve energy. Especially when he was in a battle with three A-ranks and an S-rank.
To be honest, the situation was quite hopeless, even for a talented ninja like him, but Konohamaru was not going to go down without a fight. It was what Naruto would do.
"Captain Darui! What the hell do we do now?" a redhead with dark skin yelled out. "The Hyuuga got away!"
"So you are after Hyuuga," Takaishi accused in a cold voice. "Typical of trash from the Land of Lightning."
"What did you say, you damn tree-hugger?" the girl screamed as she was held back by one of her teammates, "Let go, Omoi! I'm going tear him apart!"
"Karui, calm down. They might be hiding some kind of weapon like the Spirit Bomb. If you rush in, you might get hurt." Omoi muttered.
"Oh, shut the hell up, you worry-wart! What the hell is a spirit bomb anyway? That sounds like something from that stupid manga you're always reading about dragon testicles or whatever!"
"Dragon balls! Not dragon testicles! Don't talk like that! The Eternal Dragon is going to—"
"You goddamn idiot! Are you even a man? I shouldn't have to explain stuff like this to you! Balls are testicles!"
Konohamaru stepped forward, ignoring the two idiotic Kumo ninjas who were fighting over what to call the male genitalia. "What business do you have with Hinata and why do you want to take her to Kumo, assuming that Kumo is your home?"
They all knew the answer, of course. Kumo was going after the Byakugan again. And they chose to go after Hinata again.
This was merely a stalling maneuver.
"We have no reason to answer your question, you Konoha monkey," a blond ninja said. "Darui, she's heading south towards the Land of Hot Water. She might be trying to make a break for the Land of Fire."
Konohamaru internally smirked despite the insult hurled at him. Yes, but you won't be able to send your strongest person after her because you'll have to deal with me. But Hinata is more than capable of taking down an A-rank if she just believes in herself. After all, she follows the same nindo that Naruto and I do. She'll give whoever goes after her a hard time.
Despite his thoughts, a drop of sweat rolled down Konohamaru's neck.
Unfortunately, Konohamaru wasn't sure he could win against the strongest person in the Kumo squad. Darui was an S-rank threat. Konohamaru, on his best day, could perhaps take on all three elites or at least hold them off for an extended period of time, but there was no way he could fight even a delaying action with Darui in the mix.
But at the same time, Konohamaru had to prevent him from being the one to chase after Hinata at all costs. In the Konoha squad, Konohamaru was the only one who stood a chance against Darui. Konohamaru wasn't an S-rank by any means, but because of his regular spars with Naruto, Konohamaru could withstand the immense chakra pressure and killing intents from an S-rank. He could at least put up a decent struggle, unlike the others. And his trump card, a technique that he vowed never to use except in emergencies, allowed him to enter the territory of masters temporarily.
Konohamaru looked to his two subordinates. Tajiri and Takaishi were holding up relatively fine, but Konohamaru suspected that it was because Darui was currently holding much of his power back. Intelligence reports showed that he wasn't a bloodthirsty kind of person.
"Shee, you stay here with Karui and Omoi and take care of the ninjas here," Darui said after a moment. "None of them are too big of a threat so this mission should be rather dull. I'll chase after the princess."
Shit! It seems like Darui isn't playing around if he's going after Hinata himself. This little trap of theirs was definitely sanctioned by the Raikage.
Konohamaru quickly shared a look with his teammates and nodded. They would cover him while he distracted the four Kumo ninjas. After all, the two of them didn't stand a chance in an open fight.
"You won't have chance to go after her, you bastards!" He roared as he created a clone.
"Fire Release: River of Flame!" shouted his clone.
A couple of water techniques shot out from behind him towards a black lightning bolt. The black lightning vaporized the water instantly and kept moving towards him.
"Captain," Takaishi warned. "Watch out for that black lightning! It's incredibly powerful!"
Konohamaru didn't need the warning. He regularly kept his bingo book updated and knew that Darui had two signature moves: the Storm Release and the Black Lightning.
"Something like that isn't going to stop me!" Konohamaru yelled back, thanking Naruto for teaching in the technique he was about to use, "Ninja Arts: Oil Stream!"
Collaboration Technique: Flowing White Flame Blast! Konohamaru intoned in his head. Never figured out how to do collaboration techniques by myself like Grandpa did, but shadow clones take care of that little problem.
The red flame became white-hot the moment it touched the oil and then actually absorb the black lightning. The lightning coated fireball continued to head towards the enemy.
"Storm Release: Laser Barrier!"
The rapidly traveling white fireball hit the mixed wall of water and lightning and turned into steam.
Konohamaru cursed. His attack should have been able to pierce that wall. The cold temperature of the area was probably not helping with the power of his techniques.
What made things worse was that Konohamaru was at an elemental disadvantage. He had fire and earth, while Darui had water and lighting. And that wasn't counting the other elemental attacks from the other elites.
Konohamaru needed to continue hitting them with a barrage if he wanted to have any chance of distracting them long enough.
It was time to use his trump card.
Using the principles of the Rasengan, he released fire natural chakra around him and made it move around him as quickly as possible. He didn't have a way to combine the Rasengan with elemental attacks like Naruto did so he created his own larger scale technique that was more suited to his hit-and-run fighting style instead of Naruto's ambush-and-then-tank style. The rotating fire would increase the heat of the air around him to such a degree that it would boil any water attacks before they reached his body. The heat was strong enough to completely melt metal after a ten or so seconds and more than enough to kill most enemies instantly if they got within one meter of him. It was to be seen if Darui had some sort of defense that would help him survive in the case they made contact.
"Fire Release: Genesis Flame Shroud," Konohamaru said in a serious voice as the flame began rotating at incredibly speeds around his body to the point that they became invisible. "Tajiri, Takaishi, make sure to stay away from me. You'll die if you come close."
There were two costs to this technique. First, was the technique's immense chakra cost, but Konohamaru had Naruto draw multiple chakra storage seals all over his body for him to keep the technique active for thirty minutes. It would take weeks, most likely months, to fully recharge all his storage seals again, but if it got them out alive, that was a very small price to pay. Second, this was the one technique he could not use in conjunction with the body flicker. The Genesis Flame Shroud itself boosted his natural speed, but it wasn't as fast as the body flicker.
Konohamaru raced towards Darui, taking any water attacks head on and boiling them away before they touched him. He kept continuing to intercept Darui whenever the man tried to run towards the direction Hinata had left. Konohamaru had lost a lot of speed, but his range grew larger to about a meter away from his body. He didn't have to remain completely in front of Darui to stop him from passing. The heat surrounding him would do that for him.
"Tch, you're really annoying," Darui grunted in a low voice as he jumped back due to the heat. "Storm Release: Laser Circus!"
Konohamaru dodged, not wanting to test whether his heat armor could burn away lasers.
As soon as he stopped, Konohamaru suddenly stumbled and collapsed. He was already out of chakra. He instantly opened one of the chakra storage seals to rejuvenate himself.
"Captain!" he heard Tajiri shout, "Watch out! Water Release: Water Gun!"
Konohamaru ducked but the spray of water boiled before it intercepted the lightning charged windmill shuriken. Konohamaru backhanded the rapidly melting shuriken and grit his teeth as he got shocked by the electricity that had been present in the shuriken.
He turned to look at the other three Kumo ninjas. After five minutes, they were no longer content with watching the battle and had decided to join.
He jumped over a energy slash made from a sword before Takaishi took out something that appeared like a gun and fired multiple chakra bullets at Omoi, the one who had attacked.
He immediately moved again to block Darui's path and lunged at the older man in vain. The man had already calculated the range of Konohamaru's Genesis Flame Shroud and made sure to keep out of reach from the scorching heat.
Konohamaru panted from the incredibly chakra cost of keeping up his chakra shroud. He was already out of chakra for a second time. He opened the second of the nine chakra storage seals on his body and felt the chakra run threw his body.
There was not much else he could do. He couldn't use a complementary area of effect technique he had because his teammates would be killed as well. He couldn't summon Enma without deactivating his fire shroud, which wasn't ever an option at any point in that battle.
He would have to either delay as long as he could, which appeared to be a maximum about twenty-one more minutes after he ran out of his current supply of chakra (three minutes per seal), or try to use an energy intensive but fast and unexpected attack in an attempt to take out Darui.
Opening a third chakra storage seal even without having depleted the chakra currently in his body, Konohamaru channeled even more fire chakra to his legs and used bursts of fire to speed up his motions beyond what was possible with even with the body flicker. It was incredibly stupid. His muscles would tear from the speed and he wasn't even sure the layer of chakra he had surrounding himself would protect him from the heat he was emitting, but it wasn't the time to hesitate.
Seeing an opening, he charged up a miniature Rasengan while in the flame shroud in less than a second and hit Darui. The Genesis Rasengan burned right through the Kumo ninja.
Konohamaru stopped and panted.
"Wait!" he growled out. There was something wrong. That had been too easy. He thought he might be able to get an arm or a leg, but actually kill Darui? Darui was way too fast and strong to be taken out that easily. Konohmaru's eyes widened. "Release! Genjutsu!"
"Congratulations," Shee muttered in a dark voice as he appeared a few meters in front of him. "Lightning Illusion Flash of Lightning Pillar. You found out incredibly quick. You broke it in five seconds. But it's already too late. Darui's gone. He took that time to maneuver around you."
"Shit!" Konohamaru rushed in the direction that Hinata had left to try and catch up to Darui.
"I won't let you!" Konohamaru didn't even move when several enemy shadow clones attacked him and regretted it instantly. They hadn't been shadow clones; they were lightning shadow clones. The clones popped simply from the heat he was emitting but he was hit by the lightning discharge upon their "deaths."
"Tch." Ignoring the pain in his body, Konohamaru popped a soldier pill into his mouth instead of opening a fourth storage seal. Any medic around him would have scolded him for sacrificing his health to preserve his seals, but those seals were a pain in the ass to charge up. He could always get more soldier pills, but he would have spend a long time recharging his seals.
Konohamaru didn't like it, but it seemed like Hinata was going to have to try and hold off Darui while they finished off the small fries here.
He landed in front of Shee who was sporting an evil smirk despite feeling the heat and pressure from the heat shroud. "I have a thin layer of water chakra around me. It's hot and I'm sure I'll suffer some second degree burns, but you won't kill me fast enough with that," Shee shouted as he hopped away. "I'm a medic and I can heal any minor damage you do, Konoha trash!" Shee landed far away. "It's too late for your Hyuuga friend. You know as well as I do that Darui is S-ranked. And none of you stand a chance either. Our entire squad is A-ranked or higher. You're the only A-rank and you're already tired from fighting Darui while the rest of us," Shee gestured to his own teammates, "are still fresh. You're as good as dead."
Konohamaru noticed that Takaishi was facing off with Omoi and Tajiri was facing off with Karui. It was strange how they each managed to pick out an opponent with the same gender, but Konohamaru wasn't going to ponder on irrelevant issues.
Not when he had his own enemy to rip apart.
He held out a hand and began to charge up his favorite technique, augmented by his Genesis Flame Shroud.
Let the idiot feel secure in his high rank and his flimsy water armor. Konohamaru had taken down two elites at once before. In terms of power, Konohamaru considered himself second only to Naruto. It was only his lack of skill in genjutsu and "low" intelligence that kept him from being S-rank.
This Shee, or whoever the hell he was, was in for a rude awakening.
"I can take someone like you on my worst days and still win," Konomaru growled as he propelled himself at max speed at the Kumo ninja. Darui may have been fast enough to dodge it, but this idiot probably hadn't even noticed that Konohamaru had recovered his chakra by taking the soldier pill. "Genesis Rasengan!"
He smirked in victory as he felt Shee vanish from the heat of his shroud and rip apart from the force of the Rasengan.
"One down."
Mountains, Land of Frost – April 30, AK 22 (late afternoon)
"Give up, Lady Hinata," Darui said in a bored tone. "You should know that resistance is meaningless."
Darui had decided to fight from distance at the very beginning. First of all, the Hyuuga were known to be close range fighters. She would not be able to hurt him if he kept his distance. Second, while the Hyuuga clan members had an absolute defense in the Kaiten, the technique was chakra intensive and the user would eventually tire out.
Darui was aiming for that purpose. He wanted to avoid hurting her. She was going to be a princess of a new clan in Kumo. It wouldn't be proper to hurt such an important person.
Moreover, this person was going to be his future wife. He was already pushing it by kidnapping her; he would never earn her affection if he brutally hurt her on top of that. Darui wasn't particularly excited about the prospect of having to marry a girl he never met but the tone in Raikage's voice did not leave any room for discussion. The Raikage wanted him to marry Hinata Hyuuga.
Of course, there was also the fact that his fight with Konohamaru Sarutobi left him more drained than he had thought. The boy had been incredibly talented, using that incredibly dangerous fire technique to keep Darui at bay. Darui had stopped channeling chakra to his muscles for a split second in preparation for a large-scale technique and Konohamaru had seized that opportunity to strike. Had it not been for Shee's genjutsu, Darui was sure the boy's last technique would have cost him an arm or leg.
Darui didn't understand how Konoha even considered the boy an average A-rank. That Sarutobi kid combined rapid succession body flickers with his techniques when he wasn't using that fire armor of his, created with an S-rank flame shroud hot enough to boil A-rank water attacks instantly, and augmented that technique with yet another A-rank technique. That alone should have put the boy at S-rank.
Darui shook his head. Darui's mind wandered to thoughts about the legendary Naruto Uzumaki. The last time they had met, Naruto had said that Konoha had given him a hard time over the years with regards to promotions.
Konoha's government was filled with idiots who couldn't recognize talent.
Or maybe, they just have a misguided sense of what strength is. They seem to dislike and underrate power fighters like Konohamaru Sarutobi and Naruto Uzumaki in favor of finesse fighters like the Kakashi Hatake.
In any case, Darui had to conserve his chakra as much as possible. There was a miniscule chance that he had to fight off any people who might try to take the Hyuuga heiress back. But Kumo did not operate based on probabilities; they operated on certainties. Even something with a one percent was accounted for. Even then, some missions would still end in failure.
"I…I…I can't g…give up!" the Hyuuga princess panted.
Darui decided to stop his barrage of lightning strikes to give the girl a break.
"Why not?"
The girl gave him a confused look. "Because I simply can't! I promised to be strong. Strong for my friends. Strong for my family. I have been considered weak all my life. If I give up here, it is only confirmation that I am weak."
"We in Kumo do not think of you as weak," Darui said, shaking his head. No, it's not a misguided sense of strength. I'm beginning to think that Konoha is just full of bigots. "We have heard your story. We have heard of how your father constantly berated you for not being the harsh Hyuuga heir he desired. We have also heard of your love for Uzumaki and also of how he threw you to the side for your own sister. What is there left for you in Konoha?"
The Hyuuga princess grew silent at that. His words clearly had an impact on her. After all, he wasn't trying to be deceptive at all. Darui was merely showing her the truth. Konoha didn't value her at all.
"It is true that my father does not love me, and it is also true that Naruto does not love me, but neither of them have abandoned me. Father could have placed the Caged Bird Seal on me earlier but he trusted in me enough to give me time to grow. Naruto may not love me romantically, but he has been my inspiration for all my life. And this isn't even counting the many friends I have made in my life. I have plenty left in Konoha! I will make my family proud. I will not abandon my friends!"
"Even if Kumo can offer you all that and more?" Darui inquired. He had personally seen and worked with many Konoha ninjas during the last war and had always thought they were a bit strange. Their government itself was hypocritical and rotten to the core, much like governments elsewhere outside of Kumo, but the many of the ninjas were highly idealistic and sincere. "There are plenty of people you can be friends with in Kumo. In Kumo, you can become a true princess. We would not treat you like a spare only to be used when there is no other option." Darui noticed that the girl winced at that. "Come with us. You have fought admirably already. You owe nothing more to Konoha."
"I can't! Kumo is the village that kidnapped me when I was younger. Kumo is responsible for my uncle's death. And I can't ever approve of a village that seeks war with my home," the girl said fiercely.
"You misunderstand, Lady Hinata," Darui said with a shake of his head. "We do not seek war with Konoha. It is true that we are more militaristic than Konoha, but our village is peaceful as well. Many of us are people just seeking to live out our lives in comfort and peace." Darui paused. "As for your uncle, that was over seventeen years ago when Lord Ē first took office. While I am his right-hand man today, I don't know too many details about those events in the past before I rose to power. But I do know that he has changed much and isn't cruel. We are not the demons some of your villagers make us out to be."
The girl shook her head as well. "And you don't understand. I cannot give up. To go to Kumo willingly would be the same as me giving up my dreams in Konoha. There are still things I must do for my family and friends back home. As long as I have breath in my body, I will not give up! That is my nindo!"
"Very well," Darui remarked in a low tone. He sighed and lifted up a hand. "As you wish. Lightning Release: Black Panther," Darui intoned.
He made sure to reduce the power. This was maybe the twentieth blast he sent from distance and the girl was on her last legs. This next technique would hit.
"Kaiten!" the girl cried out, but her sphere of chakra sputtered before disappearing. "AHHHH!"
Darui sighed as the Hyuuga princess crumbled to the ground after being hit by his black lightning technique.
The Hyuuga princess had put up a good fight, but was ultimately doomed to fail from the start. She was fairly strong for a jounin, but Darui was S-ranked. He could handle a dozen jounin in his sleep.
Still, Darui gave a small nod of respect to the now unconscious girl and was tempted to scoff in a manner uncharacteristic of him when he thought of Sakuma deeming this girl as weak.
Hinata Hyuuga…she's anything but weak.
Once again, he questioned the sanity of Konoha's leadership. Was Kakashi Hatake this blind, even with the insight granted to him by his Sharingan? Just how much did Naruto Uzumaki have to do to be given his S-rank status? Was he something like a triple S rank and begrudgingly given a mere S-rank?
Darui didn't even want to think about that. Just the thought was scary. And in any case, it didn't matter at this point. It wasn't his business whether Konoha devalued their gems. One man's trash was another man's treasure. Or in this case, one village's trash was another village's treasure.
Darui looked at the surroundings. There were broken branches and pieces of bark around the entire area, mostly from damages caused by the Hyuuga girl's Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm technique. Such damage didn't come from "weak" techniques. The girl hadn't managed to hit him even once, but it wasn't as if anyone else in the Hyuuga clan could.
If landing a hit on Darui was the measure of strength, then, by that logic, everyone in the Hyuuga clan was weak. There were only a dozen people in the world who could manage that.
The girl's personality was soft, but since when was gentleness and kindness considered weakness? Even someone as militaristic as the Raikage didn't care about a person's personality and temperament as long as the person had power to back it up. It was why the Raikage tolerated Lord Bee's horrible rapping.
Darui walked to her and was about to pick her up when he heard some footsteps near him.
"So…I hear that Kumo is trying to start a new Hyuuga clan. Can you tell me if that's true?"
Darui instantly twisted his body around to face the stranger and stood in a defensive stance. Just the fact that this man was able to sneak up on him meant that he was incredibly talented. Darui had not dropped his guard in the least.
He saw a man wearing a black mask, black robes, and a black cape and hood.
"Having to follow protocol is dull, but I'm going to have to ask you to state your name and purpose." Darui demanded.
Darui mentally cursed. His instincts told him that this man was S-rank and Darui wasn't fresh.
"Hm…purpose? I want to prevent a war…a war that you're about to start by kidnapping that girl. I can't let you disturb what little peace we have in this world."
Darui narrowed his eyes. They had done thorough checks on the perimeter to make sure no one was in the area. Was it space-time ninjutsu? If so, this person was extremely dangerous. And how did the stranger know to come to this place?
This operation was kept secret even to those in Kumo. Only a dozen people knew about it.
Darui shook his head. He would worry about the leak of information later when he got home. This man in front of him had to be taken down at all costs.
"And name?"
Darui rapidly motioned through hand signs. A fight was inevitable.
"Oh, I'm no one famous, but I believe they call me Kokuten."
AN: A double release. Might as well get the stuff I have out asap.
I'm going to get questions about this so I'll preemptively answer.
Konohamaru cannot use more than nine storage seals on his body because he doesn't have any more space on his body.
Each chakra storage seal takes about two to three weeks to fully charge up since he's storing away his own chakra into these seals for future use. Each of these seals can store up to the equivalent of his entire reserves so they take a long time to charge up. I had it set up this way so that Konohamaru wouldn't be overpowered. I think it's also representative of his and Naruto's character of being able to pull out more power when they absolutely must.
Explanation of the shadow clone technique in this story. Shadow clones draw chakra from the original all at equal rates. So if there are two shadow clones and one original, all three draw chakra from the same energy pool at the same rate. Therefore, they would be eating up chakra at three times the rate that Naruto would if he were the only Naruto present.
I am assuming THIS is what Kishimoto meant when he tried to explain the shadow clone technique. The explanation of splitting chakra in halves or thirds make no sense if you consider subsequent creation of clones and not just immediate creation.
For example, let's say Naruto had 100 chakra units and Kakashi had only 1, which is the approximate ratio of chakra between base Naruto and Kakashi according to the manga. That means, when Naruto makes a shadow clone, both he and his clone will have only 50 left. Let's say that the clone dispelled and Naruto decides to make four clones. Since the first clone dispelled, Naruto would have 50 left only and he and his four new clones would split it five ways to give each of them 10. Let's say Naruto orders his clones to rush in stupidly as he always does and gets them all dispelled. Naruto this time makes NINE clones, leaving each of them with 1 unit left. I don't care if Naruto had started off with one thousand times the amount of chakra that Kakashi has. This splitting theory makes shadow clones absolutely makes no sense unless the person (1) creates a lot of clones in the beginning and (2) never creates new clones after the old ones expire.
Of course, this theory could be remedied by saying that any chakra that his clones didn't use would be returned to the original. But there's nothing in the manga that suggests this at all.
So, I am going to stick with my splitting the usage of chakra.