I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters.
Knights vs Ninjas
Naruto walked calmly toward the light watching the battle before him. Sand ninja were battling soldiers in extremely heavy suits of armor carrying massive morning stars. The sand ninjas fighting them were losing badly and when reinforcements arrived, they seemed to make short work of them. Until they began to stand again after fatal wounds. One ninja was hit with a morning star but his skin fell apart and his clothes fell off to reveal a puppet. The puppet pulled a soldier in and shredded it with internal blades just before even more soldiers arrived. Then, the ground began to shake and the ninjas and the puppet all retreated just before the ground exploded skyward, turning into a sand twister and destroying the soldiers.
"Giant Sand Burial!" a voice shouted drifting across the sand to Naruto.
Suddenly, the entire area the soldier had been in dropped into a crater, pulverizing the soldiers. Naruto grinned and looked up to Jiraiya who was watching beside him.
"Gaara has it handled," Jiraiya stated. "They don't need us."
"Come on Master," Naruto grinned. "We've been training for over a month now. How bad could it be if I trained by fighting actual enemies for a while?"
"If they need help, you can help," Jiraiya stated.
"Did I do better fighting Danzo or Minato and Kakashi?" Naruto grinned.
"Fine, go help," Jiraiya sighed. "Once this is over, we're continuing our training."
Just as Naruto sprinted forward, the soldiers began walking backward into the water and disappearing. Naruto stopped beside Gaara who ignored him staring out to sea. Three ninja jumped into a boat and followed the solider. After a tense moment, there was a crash and the ninja screamed. Then, it was silent.
"We're at a complete disadvantage at sea, and it's pitch black out there," Kankuro stated.
"Fire off a few flares," Gaara ordered.
Three ninjas pulled out large cylinders and fired a flare each out to sea. After a moment they lit up a massive armored four mast ship with several dozen cannons visible.
"That can't be good," Naruto groaned making hand seals as the ship's cannons fired. "I've got this."
He held a kunai out and the blasts hit his teleportation barrier reappearing out at sea and splashing down near enough to send water over the boat washing a few soldier overboard.
"I forgot you could do that," Gaara mused.
"Probably why you can't beat me," Naruto grinned. "Not that I particularly want to prove that statement right now."
"Guys!" Kankuro shouted.
They both looked to see that the ship was leaving, almost out of sight already.
"It's fast," Naruto stated.
"It's headed toward the Leaf Village," Gaara stated. "I think you should make an emergency trip home."
"Right," Naruto nodded. "See you around."
Gaara nodded and Naruto sprinted back to Jiraiya telling him what Gaara suspected and Jiraiya sighed but nodded and they headed back. After a few days, they reached a field outside the Leaf Village where several traps were set up. Naruto held a hand up as a ferret sprinted through the field then turned and ran into one of the traps. Naruto walked out of the trees as Sakura and Shikamaru ran up to the trap, putting the ferret into a carrier.
"Fearless animal catcher once again huh Sakura?" Naruto called out making both spin around.
"Naruto!" Sakura shouted happily. "I thought you were leaving for two years."
"I'm not back yet," Naruto stated. "There are some people heading this way, they're probably already here. They attacked Sunagakure. If I hadn't been there, they all likely would have died."
"And they're coming here?" Sakura questioned.
"Yes," Naruto nodded. "Don't know when or where exactly, but, soon enough."
"We have to get this ferret back to its owner," Shikamaru stated. "Wanna carry it?"
"Sure," Naruto smirked and took the carrier. "Jiraiya, you better head back to the village and warn Tsunade. With my luck, I'll meet them anyway."
Jiraiya sighed and nodded then headed to the village. Naruto, Shikamaru, and Sakura all headed along a small mountain path toward the meeting point until they reached a bridge spanning a chasm. They walked out onto it and Naruto's foot fell through, followed by the rest of his body. Then, he turned into a cloud of smoke and the real Naruto appeared beside them.
"That could have been bad," Naruto sighed. "It's just past those fields right?"
"Yeah," Shikamaru said thoughtfully.
"What's wrong?" Sakura questioned.
"It's the middle of the day," Naruto stated. "Where is everyone? And what's making that smoke?"
"Right," Shikamaru nodded. "We should hurry. Loop around Naruto. You're fastest. Come in from the far side."
Naruto nodded and took off while Shikamaru and Sakura went the short way. After about fifteen minutes, Naruto stopped when he saw the village. Suddenly, the ferret began to go nuts and Naruto tensed. He slowly turned around just as three of the same soldiers from Sunagakure leapt out of the trees and swung at him. He dove sideways drawing his sword as he landed on the ground. The three soldiers charged at him and Naruto grinned pressing the button on his communicator.
"Company," Naruto stated. "Non-threat for me. Be careful, there were dozens at Suna."
"Copy," Shikamaru replied.
Naruto disconnected and dove sideways out of the way of the way of a morning star then jabbed his sword forward blasting the armor into pieces and leaving no human before.
"Empty," Naruto breathed grinning. "Explains a lot. Puppet jutsu. Good."
He darted forward, bisecting the next suit of armor then jumped and exhaled several Air Bullets at the last suit, destroying it. The second's upper half leapt at Naruto, spinning and swinging at him. The morning Star hit Naruto in the face but he disappeared in a cloud of smoke and the real Naruto smashed a Rasengan into the armor then both into the ground. It exploded and Naruto leapt away, landing a fair distance back. He grinned but it faded as the smoke cleared.
There was another soldier standing there, but this one was different. The other soldiers all looked fat, whether from their armor or something else. This soldier was thin and a bit taller than Naruto, but not by much. He wore silver boots over black chainmail pants, a silver chest plate with dark blue hip guards, silver gauntlets, a chainmail shirt, long silver pauldrons, a red and black object on his left arm that looked to be the shape of a knife blade, a blue cape that wrapped around his neck and had a red interior, and a silver helmet obscuring the upper half of his armor with long blonde hair extending from the back of the helmet and falling past his shoulders. He had black gloves and as he lifted one arm, Naruto saw a sword hilt extending sideways from behind him at his waist.
The ninja made a thumbs down and Naruto created three clones and sent them at him. The first was at one tenth his power, the second at one fourth, and the third at two thirds. As they reached the soldier, he stepped out of the way of the first two then caught the third by the throat. He threw him away then spun punching the first one in the stomach and destroying him then spun and kicked the second in the face. Then, he did a backflip kicking the third into the ground. Then, he turned toward Naruto visible face completely emotionless.
Naruto threw a dozen shuriken at the soldier and he held up his arm the red object opening into a round shield and blocked the shuriken. Just as he lowered it, Naruto fell toward the soldier, swinging at him with his Double-Edged Sword. The soldier moved in a blur, drawing his sword and blocking Naruto's, holding his own sword in reverse grip. He swung his arm around and threw Naruto away. When Naruto landed, he split his sword in two and charged again. He began attacking the soldier with the two blades in a blur, catching sight of a red eye beneath the mask as the soldier struggled to keep up.
"You're pretty good," Naruto commended. "But I'm better."
Suddenly he dropped to the ground spinning and kicking the soldier sideways. The soldier crashed into a rock and stood only to be attacked by Naruto again. After a moment, Naruto heard a scream from off to his right and looked. He returned his attention to the soldier just in time to lean out of the way of a stab, then jump over a slash and head toward the source of the scream, finding Sakura being held up by one of the suits of armor.
As he saw her, he spun around and blocked a slash from the soldier, throwing him away then landing on the ground with the soldier slowing his descent and landing lightly beside the soldier.
"Let her go!" Naruto ordered.
The soldier smirked but then dodged sideways as the armor's morning star crashed down where he had been.
"Thank you, Shikamaru," Naruto grinned. "I'll take fancy boy. You handle the fat one. It's just a suit of armor."
"Right," Shikamaru nodded.
"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto said creating dozens of clones, all wielding his swords.
The soldier held his sword out to his side and the blade extended before glowing, green energy shooting off like flames. The clones charged forward, but before they were halfway, the soldier swung his sword and blasts of energy shot off of the blade obliterating clones right and left. Once those blasts were gone, he swung it the other way and obliterated even more. The clones that were left, fell toward him but then exploded against an invisible force field around him.
Naruto sprinted forward, his swords together and put away and a Rasengan in his hand.
"Rasengan!" Naruto shouted.
"Rising Thunder!" the soldier shouted swinging his sword at Naruto. Naruto's Rasengan met his sword blade and the two attacks shot off a massive amount of energy. The ground began to shake from their attacks. After a moment, Naruto's backpack that had the ferret in it, broke free and flew away. When Naruto turned to look, the soldier stepped forward, pushing his sword harder against Naruto's Rasengan resulting in a massive fiery explosion that destroyed the cliff they were on. Both combatants fell into the chasm below them.