"Hey everyone, let's stop for a moment."
Everyone came to a stop after Jiraiya made that request, though Naruto was the only one who looked unhappy about this.
"What is it?" Kakashi asked.
"I've been thinking about the enemies we're likely to face and I think I have an idea on how to at least match them in power. But before I can do anything, I need to speak to Naruto alone."
"Not going to happen." The whiskered blonde declared, crossing his arms.
"Naruto be reasonable." Kakashi tried to tell his student.
Naruto glared at the cycloptic jounin. "Anything he has to say he can say in front of all of us. Otherwise you won't know and you'll all be expecting me to pull a miracle out of my ass and save us all, so you won't make any effective plans or strategies since you won't know what to expect. That will make it easier for us to fail here and we cannot afford to fail here. So either the godfather who loves his penis more than he loves me tells us all his plan, or he admits that he's trying to buy back my trust with secrets."
The others looked from Naruto to Jiraiya and back again, feeling a strong sense of discomfort vibing between them.
"He's got a point." Sakura spoke up. "We can make better plans and fight more unified if we all know what to expect."
"But this only affects Naruto." Jiraiya justified.
"But the fight doesn't." Naruto countered.
"Jiraiya-sama, just go ahead and tell us all. It will take less time than trying to convince him otherwise." Kakashi claimed.
Feeling like he had no other choice now, Jiraiya slowly nodded. "According to our source, we're going up against very powerful demons. One if we're lucky, but most likely more than one. While winning is not impossible, the longer the fight takes the harder it will be to win. The Kyuubi is right now as far as I can see our best means of keeping things in our favor, but Naruto has limited use of it. I know this is risky, but I have a way to change that if you are willing Naruto."
Naruto rolled his eyes. "For three years you fixated on me using the Kyuubi's chakra. If you had anything to make that easier why didn't you do it sooner?"
"You needed to know what you could handle as you can handle it now. Giving you access to more from the beginning would have been too much too soon. In a way I fear it still is, but if you want to get out of this alive we may not have a choice."
Naruto looked reluctant. "What is this you've got?"
Jiraiya nodded then did a summoning, bringing before them an unusual toad. Sure for the most part it looked normal, aside from the black and orange coloring, but what made it weird was that it had a long torso uncharacteristic of toads. There was a white wrapping around it's torso similar to a belt, creating the illusion that the toad was being compressed in the middle.
"This is Gerotora, a unique type of toad and an important one." Jiraiya introduced. "He holds the key to the seal."
"Key?"
Jiraiya nodded again. "You see, he is a rare species that closely guards whatever secret has been written on its scroll-abdomen until its contractor dies. He was summoned during the Kyuubi's attack on Konoha by Minato."
"Wait wait..." Sakura interjected. "You just said that he guards the secret until the contractor dies. So why would he still have it after the death of the Yondaime Hokage? Shouldn't the deal have ended years ago?"
Jiraiya sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "The thing is Minato wasn't the designated contractor, only the summoner. And I am not the contractor either, just the caretaker."
"Then who is?" Sakura asked.
Jiraiya gestured over to Naruto, who cocked his head slightly. "Me?"
The toad sage nodded. "That is right, the day you were born and right after the sealing Minato contracted this toad to you. However, since you were only a child, the toad was sent to me by Minato to oversee until I felt you were ready to enact it."
Naruto narrowed his eyes slightly. "Oh, so you suddenly decided I was ready now? After all the crap that has happened you choose now to lay yet another secret out for me? Is that supposed to-?"
"Naruto stop!" Jiraiya stated firmly, holding himself as straight as possible to reach his full height and glare down at his student. The two stared at each other, Jiraiya seeing in the jinchuuriki's eyes that he wasn't intimidated by the old pervert, but Jiraiya took the opportunity to continue.
"You have been wronged and you have been lied to when you deserved the truth, there is no denying that. You put your trust in people who abused it, myself included. For that I am truly sorry and I hope one day you will find a way to forgive. However, right now you need to get over it. You can either stay angry and act like a petulant child or you can accept what happened and work to prove you are better than you were given credit for."
Naruto's body remained tense, his glare unchanging. "I need to get over it? Look here old man, when and if I 'get over it', it will be on my terms. Whether or not that's convenient to you is none of your damn business. For now though my focus is on the people threatening my fiancee, and if that's not proving I'm better than you give me credit for then nothing will."
Jiraiya was unhappy with this, but he knew that if he pressed the issue that would only be interpreted as him demanding forgiveness. "I'm not sure if you're ready for Gerotora now, but that right now is irrelevant. If your goal is to protect someone you love, than I trust you to do what is best with this power. So now I am giving him to you."
The whiskered blonde looked to Hinata as if asking for a second opinion. The heiress glanced to the toad sage and Jiraiya could tell she was about as happy with him as Naruto was. Maybe even less so. But then she looked back to her fiancee and slowly nodded.
"Alright then. Let's give this a shot." Naruto claimed.
Gerotora nodded. "Alright kid, open wide." Naruto blinked and tilted his head in confusion, making the toad sigh. "Open. Like this." He opened his mouth as wide as he could.
"Why?" Naruto asked while opening his mouth wide, distorting the word.
Taking the opportunity, Gerotora leaned down and jumped right into Naruto's mouth, forcing himself through. Naruto's eyes widened and he tried to spit the amphibian out but Gerotora fought back, trying to force himself down the throat. Naruto grabbed the body and tried yanking.
"Don't fight it boy." Jiraiya told him, coming up and pushing Gerotora down his student's throat. Naruto whined inaudibly and tried pushing away the older shinobi, but Jiraiya succeeded and soon Gerotora's body, legs, and feet disappeared from view into Naruto's mouth.
Naruto coughed several times, rubbing his neck and spitting out the taste of toad. Hinata put an arm around him and rubbed his back trying to soothe him. "What the hell was that for?" He shouted when he could speak coherently again.
"That's the first part of using the key. When the time comes, the rest will take care of itself." Jiraiya explained. "Now that it's done, let's get back on the road."
Everyone agreed and resumed running, though Naruto kept coughing for a few more minutes.
At around midnight, the shinobi had finally reached the outskirts of Dejima. They could tell something was wrong by how quiet and dark the town was, effectively deserted. It was in too good condition to be a ghost town or merely abandoned, so it had to have been evacuated.
"Do you think they already killed everyone?" Sakura whispered.
"I doubt it, my brother is a demon of his word. He would not have allowed anyone to be harmed before the deadline he set." Rimona said through Hinata's mouth in response.
"Assuming that your brother is the one responsible." Jiraiya noted.
"Well, we can't tell anything from here. Hinata, check the area." Kakashi replied.
Hinata, resuming control, nodded and activated her byakugan. "There's a few people in one building near the center of town. Outside of that, it looks like a lot of people are underground just outside of the town. I don't see anything out of the ordinary though."
"Okay, so we know where the villagers are, let's start there." Kakashi advised.
"What about the people in the center of town?" Naruto asked.
"That's probably who we're here to deal with kid." Jiraiya claimed.
"Which should we go for first?" Sakura asked.
"The enemy. Saving the hostages won't do us any good if the enemy can just recapture them later." Naruto declared.
Kakashi nodded. "I agree, let's focus on them."
The shinobi silently trekked into Dejima, seeing nothing but rats and mice searching for food in the garbage. Naruto noticed a white cat standing on some boxes and thought nothing of it, until he started noticing that the feline was looking at them more than the mice. Having a bad feeling, he took out a kunai and threw it at the cat. The feline cat hissed and ran off, the kunai impacting the wall behind where it had been.
"Naruto why did you do that? It was just a cat." Sakura berated.
"Zabuza's white rabbit." Naruto said bluntly. Sakura's eyes widened then she nodded in understanding.
"Someone's coming." Hinata warned as she saw a surge of chakra energy. "Someone who looks powerful."
"Here we go." Kakashi said, getting his sharingan ready.
All the ninja could see a person rushing towards them from down the street, not trying to hide or anything. Shadows obscured most of their features. What was truly weird though was that said person was running on all fours, like an Inuzuka performing Beast Mimicry or something.
"Oh crap, move out of the way! Move!" Rimona screamed.
"Everyone get out of the way!" Hinata warned, jumping onto the nearest roof. Naruto immediately joined her as did Sakura, but Kakashi and Jiraiya remained on the ground. "What are you doing? Rimona says to move!"
Jiraiya did a set of hand signs and cast the Swamp of the Underworld Jutsu in the area in front of him. Kakashi readied a fire jutsu, waiting for the target to get close enough for it to hit him.
"Hinata-chan, who is this?" Naruto asked.
Before the white-eyed girl could respond, the charging man got closer and more visible. He was muscular but on the short end of normal male height, sporting spiked orange hair and green eyes. His clothes were simplistic, nothing but brown shorts like he thought he was at the beach. He came in close and Kakashi unleashed a fireball at him. It hit dead center and the man vanished in the flames, however when the flames dissipated the man stood there, his body smoking but he was otherwise unharmed. He let out a bestial grunt and began moving again, slower though. He didn't seem to notice anything around him though because when he stepped into Jiraiya's swamp, he started to sink into it.
The man roared and thrash about at the murky ground as if that would make it release him. Kakashi moved in and tried to tackle the man, but he was rebounded.
'Kami he is a study guy, it's like trying to push down an oak tree with nothing but your shoulder.' Kakashi thought
"That's Touma, my brother and sadly if he's here that means Yui and Riku are here too." Rimona informed Hinata. "Sorry girl, but this is the worst thing you could deal with other than my parents right now. I suggest getting out of here while you can."
"What good will that do Rimona? They know where I live." Hinata protested.
"Ugh, fine. Fortunately for you Touma here is the weakest of the Trouble Trifecta, but he's not weak by a long shot. He's brutally strong, like an elephant on two legs. If he punches you, say goodbye to whatever bones you used to have there. But his main power is taking on what we call a Feral Mode. In that state of mind he is more animal than demon, a savage beast that will attack anything that moves. He won't even be aware that you're hurting him, if you're lucky enough to do so. I've never seen anyone succeed in stopping him, only the lack of targets returns him to normal. So the best strategy with this guy is to get as far away as possible."
"Kakashi-sensei, Jiraiya-sama, with this guy you need to attack from a distance or blind him. That's the best way to stop him!" Hinata called out.
Rimona groaned. "Why ask for my advice if you're just going to ignore it?"
Having heard Hinata, Jiraiya spat some oil at Touma's face while Kakashi pulled a suppression seal out of his pouch and tried to slap it on the opponent. Touma swung a fist and hit Kakashi in the chest, sending him flying back into a building and shattering the wall.
Naruto and Sakura gasped, then Hinata grabbed Sakura's arm. "Go heal him. Rimona says that guy can hit as hard as Hokage-sama. Maybe even harder."
The pinkette nodded and rushed down to tend to her first sensei.
Naruto created dozens of clones and had them swarm Touma, buying Jiraiya time to light an explosive seal and throw it at the incubus. The seal impacted Touma and exploded with extra power thanks to the oil on his face. Naruto's clones were caught in the blast and vaporized, making the entire area engulfed in more smoke. Jiraiya backed away, hoping that this enemy wouldn't be standing anymore after that.
The smoke cleared, and Touma stood there looking somewhat reddened as if burned and scratching at his face like it was itching him.
"He withstood that?" Naruto asked, surprised.
"Touma is a behemoth, but he's not the one you should be worried about." Rimona warned.
Jiraiya got started on a rasengan, when all of a sudden the white cat from earlier jumped on him from behind and began attacking him. He tried to get it off, but the cat was persistent. Clawing and biting at him, like the super pervert had truly offended it for reasons only the cat would know. Gritting his teeth Jiraiya managed to grab ahold of the cat's middle and fling it off him. The cat landed on all fours and came besides Touma who barely registered its presence.
Then the cat grew and transformed, turning into a beautiful woman. A white-haired tanned woman wearing a blue strapless sleeveless leotard, like a one-piece swimsuit but with legs. She stretched her arms above her head like she had just gotten up after sitting down for so long, and of course Jiraiya's eyes went right for her bosom.
"Well well well, it is about time you lot got here." The woman said in a voice that was as smooth as velvet.
"That's Yui, my sister. Whatever you do, do not actually attack her. Restrain her, trap her, mess with her mind, just as long as you don't try to inflict pain on her. Trust me, you do not want to fight her that way." Rimona warned.
'We're not supposed to attack her? Is Rimona secretly on their side?' Hinata couldn't help but wonder.
"Ohhh, my dear little brother." Yui said soothingly yet mockingly as she stroked Touma's orange hair. "Did these dumb little boys think they could hurt you?"
Touma growled and got back on all fours, saliva dripping from his mouth.
Yui snickered and licked her lips. "Well if you insist, go ahead. Riku's not here to stop us this time. Besides, we're owed some fun."
Touma roared and charged forward, tackling Jiraiya sending the two of them through the wall of a building.
"ERO-SENSEI!" Naruto shouted as he ran forward to aid the perverted sage. Before he could take fives steps, Yui suddenly appeared in front of him, a wicked gleam in her eye.
"Throw a kunai at me will you?" Her nails suddenly grew outwards and became claws. She swiped them across Naruto's chest before he had a chance to react.
The blonde boy let out a yelp of pain and jumped backwards, the front of his outfit torn across the chest, exposing the skin and revealing blood.
Yui smirked and licked her bloodied nails. "For all the humiliation you inflicted on my family, your suffering will be long and slow." She said, giggling like a mischievous child.
Meanwhile Jiraiya groaned, laying on the ground. Before he had a chance to get up Touma was on top of him, slamming his fists down onto the chest of the Sannin, knocking the wind out of him. Touma brought his fists down again and again like an enraged gorilla.
Suddenly Kakashi came up from behind and threw himself onto the demon's back, wrapping his arm around the brutal incubus and putting him in the sleeper hold. Touma snarled and tried to shake Kakashi off of him, roaring loudly.
Jiraiya, coughing and trying to catch his breath, reached into his hip bag and took out a kunai with an explosive scroll attached to it. He threw it up onto the ceiling. "Take cover!" He said as he got to his feet and jumped out of the hole in the busted wall, followed by Kakashi as he jumped off Touma's back. The demon snarled and turned around just as the explosive went off.
The entire building, a combination of concrete and wood, came crashing down on the demon. Kakashi and Jiraiya stood outside, Kakashi more wobbily in doing so, and stared at the pile of rubble. "Do you think that got him?" Kakashi asked, only for the rubble to rumble as a hand shot through the debris. Touma pulled himself out from the wreckage, covered in dust and wood splinters, but otherwise unaffected. Save for the fact that he looked pissed off.
"My guess is no." Jiraiya said as he and Kakashi dropped into fighting stances.
Yui got ready to dig her claws into Naruto's flesh, but she was stopped by Hinata tackling her from the side, knocking her to the ground.
"Hinata no!" Rimona shouted.
The Hyuuga heiress ignored her inner demon and wailed on the succubus, trying to juuken her into immobility but in her current state of mind she was striking randomly and missing several tenketsu. And yet, Yui laughed like she was being tickled. Ticked, Hinata struck at her heart much like Neji had done to her years ago.
Upon impact Hinata felt tremendous pain inside her own chest, seizing her and making her want to vomit blood. She yelled in agony and fell on her back, clutching her chest.
"Hinata-chan!" Naruto shouted in panic as he moved to check on his fiancee. All the while Yui stood up, unharmed, and dusted herself off with one hand. He tried applying the only healing jutsu he had ever learned, thanks to Shizune during the brief trip they brought Tsunade to Konoha, and used it on Hinata. It was only a pain soothing jutsu, not one that really healed any damage but it made it hurt much less, but it was the only thing he could do right then.
"Ooh, judging by her pain those hits were apparently supposed to really hurt me." Yui said as if amused by the entire thing.
Naruto glared at the succubus, his eyes starting to turn red but still bluish. "What did you do to her you bitch?"
"Me? Not a damn thing. She did that to herself."
Now Naruto's eyes were all red but otherwise he hadn't invoked the kyuubi cloak. He lunged at her, kunai in hand, and thrust the weapon at her. She dodged but fumbled a little, looking a little surprised but backing away.
"Hold it, something's not right." She said to herself, checking out her body like she was looking for something.
Naruto quickly attacked her again, this time with a kunai in each hand and slashed at her. Yui dodged though one of them did manage to cut her arm and draw blood. Yui yelped and covered her wound while Naruto winced, feeling something wrong with his own arm. He ignored it and threw the two kunai, one hitting her leg and the other her shoulder.
Yui stepped back showing pain while Naruto also started to hurt too. He grabbed his shoulder, wondering if he had dislocated it. But as he inspected it, he couldn't find anything wrong, just an internal stinging pain. He felt it in his foot too.
'Wait, my shoulder and foot, and earlier my arm.' He thought, glancing at his opponent. 'Can she make me feel whatever harm I inflict on her?'
"I hate it when the other guy uses weapons." Yui remarked, removing a kunia. "It takes all the fun out of it."
'Okay, that confirms it. Fighting her means I feel whatever I do to her, same when Hinata-chan did it. Her whole fighting style must be about taking hits and tricking her opponent into hurting themselves. But she can be hurt, so how do I take her down without taking myself down in the process?'
Yui took out the other kunai and twirled it, her wounds healing as quickly as Naruto's own did. "Oh brutal of you. What if you had actually hurt me?"
"That was the idea."
From behind Yui Sakura appeared and threw a fist at the succubus's back. The hit connected and Yui was hurled forward until she collided with a wall, creating a crater. Right away Sakura's body seized up and she collapsed like a puppet with it's strings cut, though he body tensed into a pained fetal position.
"Sakura-chan? You alright?" Naruto asked, taking Hinata into his arms and coming up to the pinkette.
"What... the hell... did she do to me? I didn't... even see anything." Sakura managed to wince out, gritting her teeth trying not to cry out in pain.
"That's her power. Whatever we do to her we feel the pain of. But she does take physical damage so we can still take her down, it's just going to hurt us to do it." He explained, setting his fiancee down next to the medic. "Try to recover, and please help Hinata-chan when you can. I'll keep her busy."
Sakura nodded and he went off to deal with the demoness.
Jiraiya and Kakashi weren't doing that much better themselves. Kakashi's body felt like it was moving and holding itself together through sheer force of will and at any moment he was apart to collapse like an unbalanced house of cards. He was using ranged tactics and a lot of simple genjutsu to keep Touma distracted, he did not want to see if he could survive getting hit by this walking tank a second time.
Jiraiya was trying to be a decoy to assist Kakashi while using his best trapping and elemental jutsus to try and hurt Touma as well. He wanted to wear down the incubus more before going in for the big finish, but so far Touma was acting like they might as well had been fighting him with water pistols.
'This is crazy! Can this guy not feel pain at all? He doesn't seem invulnerable but seriously how much can he take? If I don't get results soon I may have to resort to the big guns and I really don't want to play my trump card this soon.'
Touma got in close and Jiraiya activated his Hair Jizo jutsu, covering himself with a spikey coat of hair. Touma knocked him to the ground and tried to claw it apart, ripping some of the hair awhile but Jiraiya could see some blood being shed in the process. From behind Kakashi readied his raikiri and slashed at the enemy from behind, leaving a gash on his back. Touma roared like an angry bear and reared back.
Seeing a chance, Kakashi climbed onto Touma's back and wrapped his arms around his neck trying to administer a submission hold. 'C'mon, please go down!'
Jiraiya reduced his armor without removing it entirely, and quickly made a rasengan that he thrust into Touma's chest. The chakra orb whirled and tore into his flesh, sending blood and bits of skin flying away. Touma roared and raised his arm before swinging it down onto Jiraiya's arm. Jiraiya then found his arm severed.
Screaming, Jiraiya backed away clutching at his wound with his remaining hand. The right arm was torn off just above the elbow, the flesh was jagged and the bone looked just as bad. Blood was pouring out and unless he did something quick, he could die from it.
Not wanting to wait any long, Kakashi reduced his hold on Touma just enough to grab a kunai and jabbed it into Touma's neck. 'There's no way he can survive this.' He thought, jumping away and rushing to Jiraiya to tend to the wound. Touma faltered to his knees, bleeding on his back, chest, and neck and finally looking like he was starting to feel the damage from the fight.
"My my, this is more than I had expected."
Kakashi and Jiraiya tensed, turning to see someone walking up behind Touma. It was a man in a black trench coat, and said man came up to Touma and gently removed the kunai.
"You better get some rest Touma, and take Yui with you. I'm more than powered enough to take these ninja down for good."