Chapter 27 - The Masked Men
Welcome back to a new chapter of "Kitsune of Las Noches"! I apologize for the delay but I decided to take another month off from this story to both work a bit more on my other story, "The Maelstrom and Deathberry" (Please check it out if you haven't done so already), and to collect my thoughts on what I plan to do for Part 2 of this story. Anyways I hope this chapter makes it worth the wait!
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Disclaimer: Still applies.
[Uzu no Sebone]
Current Time...
Naruto's group and the Akatsuki stood before the entrance to the cave that Kazuko had been hiding out without saying or doing anything for several minutes before the man with the marked mask appeared to turn his gaze Naruto.
"So you're Naruto Uzumaki; you've been quite the thorn on our side, haven't you?" he asked rhetorically.
"It's only fair... considering what you did to me and my parents," Naruto retorted as he gripped the hilt of his zanpakuto in case this guy tried to make a move on him or his team.
Before the man could respond to this comment the blonde-haired Akatsuki member entered the conversation.
"So you're the gaki who killed Orochimaru! I wanted to be the one who defeated that snake and you had to take that honor from me, hm!" he said to which Naruto smirked.
"Really? Why did you want to kill him so badly? Did he dump you or something... Deidara?" Naruto asked mockingly, clearly trying to provoke the now-named Deidara.
It appeared to work as Deidara began to clench his teeth in anger at the young Uzumaki's insult.
"Why you little-!" Deidara began as he reached into his robe.
As Sasuke and the rest of Naruto's team tensed up at this move the man with the spiral mask appeared to panic, in an almost childish manner, before he ran up to Deidara and grabbed both his arms from behind, restraining the former Iwa-nin.
"Please don't do it, Deidara-senpai! We're supposed to bring back Kazuko alive, remember?! And besides Madara-sama is right next to us; do you really want to make him mad?!" the spiral masked man pleaded with a childish voice that would've made this scene a bit comical if it had happened anywhere else.
Deidara, now focusing his anger on the spiral masked person, tried to break free from his grip until the person with the marked mask, who was presumably the "Madara" that his masked compatriot was referring to, calmly walked up to them and separated the two.
"That's enough from the both of you, Deidara and Tobi! In case the two of you hadn't noticed are guests are waiting. (Turns to the Akatsuki member inside the puppet) Sasori, be prepared to-" Madara began.
Before Madara could finish his sentence, however, Naruto flash stepped in front of him and Tobi and drew his zanpakuto in an attempt to bifurcate the two masked men... only to completely pass right though their bodies as if they were only apparitions. While Sasuke and the rest of Naruto's peers were surprised by this both Kazuko and Naruto were unfazed.
"As I thought; it looks like defeating you will take a little more work than it did for me to beat all of your lackeys so far," Naruto mused as he flash stepped back to where his group was standing.
"That was way too close wasn't it, Madara-sama? Another split second and the Kyubi Jinchuriki would've cut the two of us in half," Tobi noted in a tone that had a bit of fear emanating from it.
"Indeed, Tobi. (he turns back to Naruto) Naruto, Naruto, Naruto... only a few minutes after we've met and you've already lived up to your growing reputation so far. Why don't we see how strong you truly are?" Madara asked as if it were a challenge.
Naruto, while more than willing to fight Madara as far away from his teammates as possible, had to be sure he could leave his teammates to deal with the other Akatsuki members.
"Kazuko," he said.
"Yes?"
"I know we've only just met right now but could you please help my teammates fight those other two Akatsuki members?" Naruto asked while directing the Uchiha's attention to Deidara and the Akatsuki member hidden inside the hunch-backed puppet.
Kazuko turned her gaze towards the Akatsuki, and then to Naruto's teammates, before she let out a deep sigh.
"Not even a few minutes after meeting you and I'm already in the middle of a fight, huh? I suppose it can't be helped; there is no way that I'll ever join any organization that threatens Konoha... especially one with him in it. Count me in," Kazuko said as she narrowed her eyes at Madara.
"Thank you, Kazuko-san. (he turns to Madara and Tobi) Let us take our battle elsewhere; I don't want fight here," Naruto said as if it were an order, all the while keeping his eyes locked on Madara and Tobi in case they tried to use any sort of trickery.
"After you, Uzumaki," Madara said in a mocking tone.
Naruto, without saying another word, flash stepped to an unknown location, but not before sending a glare at Sasuke in order to remind his compatriot on Team 7 to not get involved in his fight, while Madara and Tobi appeared to enter into the ground and simply vanish. After a few moments of silence, Neji spoke up.
"I hope Naruto-san knows what he's doing," Neji muttered.
"I'm worry about Naruto; there's no way he would ever lose to someone like that," Sasuke said rather calmly. He was somehow able to keep his rising anger towards Madara in check despite knowing what the man had been responsible for; Naruto's intimidating glares and warnings certainly made it much easier for the Uchiha to suppress his own rage.
Before anyone else in Naruto's group could say anything else, however, they were forced to dodge an thrusting attack from the now-named Sasori, forcing them to focus on fighting their own battle...
With Naruto...
After a few minutes of flash stepping Naruto finally reached his destination: the summit of a very large plateau several miles to the east of where Kazuko and the rest of his team was fighting Deidara and Sasori. Madara and Tobi reached the plateau several minutes later, with both shinobi emerging from the ground.
"Dear, Dear, you're a real fast one, Naruto-san," Tobi said.
Tobi's attempt at flattering Naruto only earned him a harsh glare from the young Uzumaki, causing an intimidated Tobi to run back to Madara and hide behind his master in fear. Madara sighed at his protégé's antics before he whispered something into Tobi's ears; Tobi nodded in response to whatever Madara said before vanishing into the ground.
Madara Uchiha then turned his attention back to Naruto.
"It seems you're full of surprises, Naruto Uzumaki; I haven't seen someone as skilled as you are in a very long time," Madara said.
Naruto smirked at this comment.
"I'm guessing that you're referring to my dad... or would you prefer... your sensei?" Naruto said in a cryptic manner.
Madara showed no visible reaction to the first part of Naruto's comment but the second part of said comment was a different manner entirely. Even hidden behind his mask Naruto could see that Madara's right eye, which had already changed to his Sharingan, had widened in shock.
The Uchiha then closed his left hand into a fist.
"What did you just say?" Madara asked back to which Naruto scoffed.
"You heard me the first time; I guess I didn't make myself clear enough. (he sighs) I know who you really are and you're definitely not Madara; you're just his student, one who's simply borrowing his name. I haven't told anyone your identity just yet and I won't do it until the time is right. I also won't explain how I know your identity because there's no point in doing so," Naruto explained.
"Oh? And why is that?" the fake Madara asked, barely able to contain his growing rage.
Naruto unsheated his zanpakuto, having sheathed his blade after his first attempt to strike down "Madara" and Tobi.
"Isn't it obvious? It's because you're going to die here and now... by my blade," Naruto ominously declared as he glared at "Madara".
Before "Madara" could respond to Naruto's threat the young chunin flash stepped right behind "Madara" who was barely able to turn himself transparent in time to avoid getting cut in two. The fake Madara immediately jumped hundreds of yards away from his opponent before he formed a hand seal.
"Fire Style: Bomb Blast Dance!" "Madara" yelled as a massive stream of flames in form of a spiraling vortex shot out of his mouth, despite the fact that he still wore his mask.
Naruto sighed at this display.
"Bakudo #81. Danku," he said before a rectangular wall that was translucent in it's appearance formed in front of the young Uzumaki just before the streak of fire could envelop him.
"Madara" watched in absolute shock as his attack was stopped dead in its tracks by this barrier. He was also surprised by the fact that Naruto appeared to be unfazed by his jutsu.
"Is that your best? Madara really did a crappy job training you if it is," Naruto taunted.
The fake Madara's visible right eye narrowed at Naruto as the young chunin pointed the tip of his blade at "Madara".
"Anyways you had your shot; now it's my turn. Hyōga Seiran!" he said which caused his blade to shoot out a massive wave of ice at his opponent.
"What kind of attack is that?!" "Madara" thought to himself as the wall of ice closed in on him.
As with Naruto's previous attacks "Madara" was barely able to evade the attack but, instead of turning transparent as he had before, he made the absentminded mistake of simply moving out of the way. Before the fake Madara could shift his focus away from the wave of ice Naruto flash stepped to the masked man and, with one quick swing of his blade, cut off the man's left arm before the fake Madara could see him with his Sharingan.
"Madara", despite the pain caused from losing one of his limbs, was able to turn the rest of his body transparent before Naruto could do further damage to him. The Masked Man then used what Naruto noted to be some sort of space-time ninjutsu to create some sort of distance between himself and the young Uzumaki while a white ooze emerged from where his arm used to be, causing the profuse bleeding from the wound to stop.
"What's wrong? I thought you would be more of a challenge than this..." Naruto taunted as he prepared for another attack.
Before the chunin could make his move, however, Tobi appeared right beside "Madara."
"Sorry I took so long, Shishou! It took me a while to find Deidara and Sasori; they were really taking a beating from Kazuko and the others so we were barely able to get away from them and reach our hideout," Tobi said in a cheerful tone that caused alarm bells to ring in Naruto's mind.
"That is of little consequence right now, Tobi... we'll deal with Kazuko and the others soon enough, anyways. Did you bring the item I asked for?" Madara asked.
Tobi nodded before reaching into his cloak and pulling out a scroll. Naruto recognized what it was right from his first glance at the object... as did Kurama.
"That's... that masked bastard must be desperate if he's willing to use that. What do you plan to do now, Naruto?" the Tailed Beast/zanpakuto asked his jinchuriki.
"Hmmm... I haven't used that trick in a while, Kurama; I think this is as good time as any to use it," Naruto said to Kurama; the young Uzumaki could almost feel Kurama grin in excitement at what he said as he refocused his attention to "Madara" and his lackey as the former grabbed the mystery scroll.
"You've managed to surpass my expectations, gaki, but I don't have time to play games with the likes you. Let's see how you deal with this," "Madara" said as he opened the scroll, revealing that it was a summoning contract for some unknown creature, and placed it on the floor.
After making a few hands seals the fake Madara then slammed the palm of his right arm on the seal of the summoning jutsu, which already had a few drops of blood placed on it.
"Summoning Jutsu!" "Madara" yelled out before he and Tobi were both enveloped by a massive cloud of smoke.
Tobi suddenly ran out of the smoke before he made cheesy introduction for the creature that was just summoned.
"Ta-da! Introducing my Shishuo's main summon and one of the terrifying beings known to man, other than the Tailed Beasts, it's the one and only... it's the Gedō Mazō!"
As soon as Tobi finished the smoke finally cleared, allowing Naruto to finally get a good look at the summoning.
Standing behind the fake Madara was something that looked like some sort of massive, humanoid, statute-like monster that had been decaying for quite some time. It stood several stories tall, was a pale-shaded purple color, and had multiple spike-like protrusions sticking out of its back. It appeared to wearing some sort of robe and appeared to have shackles, with broken chains attached to the bindings, on its arms and ankles. For some reason the creature was wearing a blindfold and had a large metal rod sticking out of its midsection.
The massive creature, whether by "Madara's" design or not, let out a massive roar that appeared to caused the very ground on which it stood to shake violently.
And what was Naruto's response to the monstrosity standing before him?
"That's it? Your grand plan to defeat me is to bring a toy into battle?" Naruto asked with a bored expression now etched onto his face.
"A toy, you say? Do you really think you can defeat my summoning so easily?" Madara asked back as if he had already won the battle.
"I know I can beat that plaything around even if you and that idiot you call a lackey join the fray. That said..." Naruto began as pointed his zanpakuto at Madara.
The Uzumaki then had the tip of his blade pointing to the ground as if he was about to release his zanpakuto; unlike with his previous releases, however, Naruto held his outstretched right arm, sword in hand, in front of him instead of to his side.
"... I think it'll be more interesting to have him fight that chew toy instead. Oh, and don't even bother trying to control him with your Sharingan because it's not going to work this time," Naruto finished.
"Madara" and Tobi's eyes widened in shock upon realizing what Naruto was about to do... but it was too late to stop him.
"Devastate, Kurama: Kyubi Kuchiyose(Nine-Tails Summoning)!" Naruto yelled out.
At soon as Naruto said the release command the blade began to emit a massive blood red aura while the red wrappings around the hilt disintegrated even as Naruto held on to his zanpakuto, the exact opposite of what would happen with his normal releases. The red aura began to expand beyond the blade until it had enveloped Naruto and most of the plateau on which he stood; as the red aura continued to glow Tobi, and his master to a lesser extent, felt their hearts drop when they heard an all-too familiar roar.
"AHHHHH! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! IT'S THE KYUBI! HE'LL EAT US ALIVE!" Tobi yelled as he ran away, tripping over himself in his panic a couple of times in the process.
"Madara", having planned for Tobi to withdraw once he had summoned the Gedō Mazō, paid no heed to his assistant's childish "retreat" as he was focused on what was now coming out of the now vanishing aura that had enveloped Naruto.
Naruto had somehow summoned Kurama from within himself; while the sight of the massive kitsune alone was enough to shock the fake Madara it wasn't the only shocker.
"The Kyubi's back to full size? Did it somehow regain the half of its chakra that Minato-sensei sealed away?" "Madara" thought to himself.
As Naruto flew beside the Tailed Beast that normally dwelled within him pointed his zanpakuto, which he still wielded even after summoning Naruto, at his masked opponent.
"I can tell that you take great pride in that empty shell of a summon; Kurama and I will tear that pride apart... piece by painful piece," Naruto said in a dark tone as he and Kurama prepared themselves for the next part of their battle...
Next Time - The Bloodline Thief: Kazuko Uchiha!
A/N: For those who might be confused, Hyoga Seiran is a Kido Spell that was used in the anime-only Zanpakuto Unknown Tales Arc by one of the two main antagonists; it looked cool enough to me so I decided to use it here. It's number was never revealed so I decided not to write one. On a more important note, I'll be returning to my old system of alternating between each story as far as updates are concerned. Anyways please enjoy the new chapter.