Chapter 5.
Pairing: Naruto x Uchiha Mikoto.
THIS WILL NOT BE A HAREM
A/N: So sorry for the long wait. No excuse. I'm terribly sorry.
Remember to follow my Twitter for urgent news regarding stories! Name: Skairipa1337. Thank you.
Also, I don't feel like I'm too great at writing fights yet. You are warned. But hey, practice makes perfect.
Warning: The main character's age has been adjusted.
Outskirts of Kusa.
In the lands of Kusa, the three Uzumaki calmly traveled toward the border between Kusa and Hi no Kuni. The trip had been filled with small talk. Or it was rather Naruto constantly asking curious questions regarding Uzushio and the Uzumaki culture. Hours were slowly passing by as they made their way out of this hostile country. The journey was slow and so far uneventful. They managed to get close to the border with no surprises. Yet.
Akari was more than happy to answer all the things she could. As they were in the middle of a conversation about how The Uzumaki had gotten such knowledge and interest in seals, they were suddenly interrupted by the third Uzumaki, the youngest member of the party. Karin.
Feeling a pull at the edge of his cloak, Naruto blinked and leaned forward to curiously stare at the young glasses-wearing girl that looked up at him with such an intense expression on her face. "Are you my... Aniki now?"
Naruto blinked a bit before his eyes widened and almost fell over. That word had a lot of meaning, especially to him and his past. It was unexpected that she would call him that, hence his sudden reaction of quietness and flabbergasted shock.
"Karin!-" Akari started with her eyes widening dangerously. A small blush on her cheeks from embarrassment due to her child's unpredictability.
After somewhat recovering, Naruto shrugged and chuckled much to Akari's confusion. "I guess I am." He responded calmly with a small smile, his finger busy scratching his cheek sheepishly as he looked slightly uncomfortable. The entire scene made Akari unable to hide a few giggles slipping loose of her lips as she watched the scene unfold.
"Look Kaa-chan! I got an Aniki too now!" Karin yelled with the usual excitement of a child. It was quite amazing really. The kid seemed to adapt to his presence quickly, but Akarion the other hand, despite being polite and friendly, was also obviously wary of him and on guard the entire time they had been walking.
Akari shook her head at the child's naivety and selfishness. As she opened her mouth to speak, she abruptly stopped herself as something felt wrong. "Naruto-san… something is coming from the direction of the village." She whispered, her voice breaking and her body shivering with horror. They had to be coming here to take her back. Why else would they have so many numbers with them?
Naruto's eyes widened before narrowing dangerously. The entire atmosphere around them changed and the blond stepped up in front of them as he looked in the direction of the village. "Akari-san." He calmly spoke as he started to feel the increasing number of chakra signatures heading their way at high speeds.
"Y-Yes?" She stuttered and pulled her child to her, looking at the back of the lone male Uzumaki present.
Sighing, Naruto reached up and grabbed the hilt of his blade sticking up from under his cloak and grasped it tightly, "Take Karin and run to the east. If you keep going east you'll get closer and closer to Hi no Kuni. Should I be unable to join you before you get to the border, tell them you're with Uzumaki Naruto returning from S-Rank political matters in Kusa. You shall be kept there in safe surroundings until your statements are either confirmed by myself or Hokage-sama."
"What about you? There's a lot of people coming this way…" Akari whispered the last part hurriedly, her arms clutching around Karin as the child looked beyond terrified. As if she too was realizing the danger ahead.
Naruto shook his head and sighs, to her it might seem like many, but to him, it wasn't quite that horrifying. Didn't stop him from getting pissed tough, "I'll be right behind you. Just run to the east. Quickly!"
"E-East?" Akari in the heat of the moment was unable to find her sense of direction, looking around slowly.
Naruto facepalmed slightly, and pointed into the sky, "See the sun? It's going down which means you run like hell in that direction!" He yelled at the top of his lungs and threw his hand toward the direction he meant while Akari felt like punching herself in the face. Nodding gratefully at him, she scooped her kid up in her arms and started running as fast as her weak and bruised body could carry her.
Naruto sighed and turned around again. He was about to reach back up for his sword when a presence leaped out of the woods and landed a few yards away from him. The person that had appeared made him scowl.
"Ryujin-dono, what do I owe the pleasure?" Naruto grunted sarcastically as the middle-aged man stood up with his black locks swaying around in the air.
While spitting on the ground between them, Ryujin reached down and placed a hand on a sword he was now carrying by his hip. "Cut the crap brat, where's the Uzumaki?" He demanded while grasping his hand firmly around the handle he started pulling the blade out of its sheath, revealing a double-edged longsword.
"This is a bad idea." Naruto sighed and looked around at the woods while keeping his guard up. Around five more men were hiding in the trees and bushes around them. Judging from the chakra level they were displaying at the current moment, he'd say there were about Chunin level in strength.
"Agreed, so hand the Uzumaki over and I'll make sure you'll get painlessly executed." Ryujin agreed with a shrug as he held his sword down along his side.
Naruto couldn't help but chuckle at that before his gaze turned completely serious with his eyes narrowed dangerously. His sharp blue piercing gaze digging into the mind and soul of the Kusa leader as he smirked devilishly, and almost sadistically. "No, what I mean is… The blood of your men will be on your hands, not mine."
Ryujin's eyes widened slightly as the words left the blond's mouth. As he was about to shout out an order for the attack, Naruto had vanished from view. Appearing midair while turning upside down with his head facing toward the ground, Naruto spun around while flipping kunai in between his fingers.
Closing his eyes, Naruto allowed his senses to take over as he took a deep breath, 'There are five opponents, and I have ten kunai. They are hiding, but it doesn't matter.' Naruto snapped his eyes opens with a grin at that. Twisting and turning around he started throwing the kunai through the air all around him.
As the audible sound of metal clashing echoed throughout the forest, the first kunai Naruto had thrown was hit by the last ones he threw. Landing in a crouched position on the ground, Naruto mentally counted down from ten. As he got to one, three forms fell out of the trees and onto the ground, and the last two bodies of Ryujin's shinobi fell face forward out of the bushes with a kunai in their respective neck.
"Seems like I overestimated them. I thought they were Chunin level in strength but without the ability to even dodge or deflect a kunai I've changed my mind and now I'm more thinking academy student." Naruto smirked as the leader of Kusa gritted his teeth so tightly together that it felt like they would crack.
"You'll pay for that!" The man shouted in absolute blinding anger.
Naruto scoffed at that and pointed a finger toward him, "You were the one who attacked me. Their blood is on your hands, not mine."
"You stole my property!" Was the response he got, which made Naruto's usually bright blue eyes darken in color.
Scowling angrily, Naruto yelled, "They are not your property! They are living people with emotions and feelings! Not some emotionless property of your belonging!"
"That's rich coming from you! You're a shinobi! You're a weapon, a tool for your Kage!" Ryuujin retorted.
Snorting at that answer, Naruto crossed his arms over his chest, "I chose that. I decided I wanted to be a shinobi, I decided I wanted to be of use to my village and nation. They didn't decide to become residents of a martyr, Akari didn't choose to become a chew toy. You decided that in exchange for letting her survive."
"I've had enough of you…" The leader of Kusa shook his head as he swirled his blade around in his grasp before charging forward. Rearing his blade back, he sliced toward the blond that leaped back and pulled his blade out and swirled around in place, clashing his blade into Ryujin's.
"And I, you." Naruto hissed before pushing his blade into Ryujin's, creating a small space for him to charge into an offense.
Their blades clashed and slammed together over and over, sparks of the metals fighting each other flew around them as Naruto went low and swept at Ryujin's legs with his feet. The man noticed in time and backflipped out of the way while pushing his sword back into his sheath.
Ryujin landed a few yards back and flipped through hand seals. The blond was young but quite formidable with a sword. Even in the offense, he had a great defense. Even if he was confident he would win, he didn't have the time to clash with the brat. His property was getting away…
"Hidden Grass Secret Technique: Grass Serpent!"Ryujin called out as he slammed his palms together. The grass around him grew rapidly in size before swirling around each other to form a large serpent with fangs and yellow glowing eyes.
Naruto's eyes widened at the sight, mentally noting how much this technique seemed to remind him of what he had heard of the Shodaime Hokage's Mokuton. Cursing at himself for not having learned enough Katon ninjutsu to fight this, Naruto flipped through the hand seals to the only fire attack Itachi had managed to teach him so far.
'Fire is not my primary element, but I hope it'll suffice!' The blond groaned as he flipped into the air while spinning around. As he finished his last seal, ending on the tiger seal, he sweated as he saw the serpent flying up at him.
Begging mentally for this to be enough he took a deep breath, his chest swelling before he opened his mouth and mentally called, 'Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu" Exhaling a large stream of fire that formed into a huge burning globe of fire that crashed right into the heads of the serpent nearing his airborne body.
The orb of fire crashed into the grass and immediately started to fight the hostile technique, burning away at the grass the embers and ashes of the grass started to fly around him. Much to his pleasure, his technique won the battle and continued down toward the leader of Kusa that had to leap into the air to dodge the blazing globe.
Deciding now was a good time to use something from more familiar to him, Naruto flipped through hand seals again as he threw his palms forward, "Lightning Release: False Darkness!" Gritting his teeth as he channeled his chakra into lightning that traveled across his palms, he shot it from his pams in shapes of dark blue spears roaring toward Ryujin.
Growling at the boy that was managing to push him, Ryujin thrust his palm toward a tree as his hand shot a long rope of intervened grass out of his palm toward to pull him out of harm's way.
"Such a damn peasant!" Ryujin roared in anger and frustration, pulling out what seemed to be endless kunai and shuriken he threw in the blond's direction.
Naruto scoffed at the sight and pulled his blade out again and started to easily deflect the incoming projectiles. As the last kunai was near him, he calculated it's flight route and stabbed the tip of his sword into the hole at the bottom of the handle and swirled around before he hurling the kunai back at the enemy.
Ryujin was slightly taken back by the move and felt his shoulder slit open by the kunai grazing through his clothes and skin. Grasping the cut tightly with his palm, his veins throbbed as he growled angrily.
Landing on the ground again, Naruto channeled lightning around his body to increase his strength and momentum drastically. Launching himself off the ground, he flew forward and first threw his sword at Ryujin who desperately grasped his own and dragged it out of the sheath to block the blade with sparks flying around the clashing metals.
Having created his intended opening, Naruto flew in close and grabbed the man's wrist to lock the blade in place, kneeing him in the gut and doubling him over. Then, Naruto quickly reared his fist into position to send a devastating uppercut into the man's chin, punching up into the man's face as hard as he could.
Using this moment to pull the sword out of the man's grasp, Naruto grabbed his own airborne blade and went for a dual-wielded cut down that Ryujin despite his disorientation managed to leap away from with blood leaking out of the corner of his mouth.
Deciding enough was enough, Ryujin flipped his hands into a half ram seal and mentally called out, 'Hidden Grass Secret Technique: Poison Cloud Mist!' With his cheek swelling, he expelled a dark green mist flying at blinding speeds out of his mouth toward Naruto whose eyes widened as he brought his arms wielding the two blades to shield his face.
Coughing wildly Naruto leaped as fast as he could backward and out of the smoke cloud, coughing into his sleeve as he felt his vision start to blur, and his muscles starting to go numb. 'Shit…'
"A cloud of poison mist just as toxic as the purple python's venom. You shouldn't even be standing, but I guess that it wasn't just the two females that were formidable Uzumaki!" Ryujin roared as he seemingly appeared out of nowhere and punched the blond in the side of his face, sending him crashing into the ground and rolling across the forest floor.
'I couldn't even see him…' Naruto cursed, mentally thanking his lineage and tenant for already fighting the poison before it became too much for him to even stand.
Noticing movement to his right, Naruto lifted his palm to block and incoming fist but gaped with salvia flying from his mouth as a kick was planted firmly in his gut. Unable to fly back from the grip on his fist, Naruto lifted his head to growl but was instead punched on top of his head and sent flying face-first into the ground.
Ryujin took this chance to grab a kunai and thrust down toward the blond's neck, but the sound of metal getting drawn made Naruto's eyes widen. Flying to his knees Naruto grabbed the man's wrist and used all the strength he could gather in his poisoned state to kick the side of the man's knee, bringing him down kneeling so he could punch him right in the nose, sending him falling backward with a yelp.
"You damn brat!" Ryujin roared and flew up to punch Naruto's face as hard as he could, sending the blond's head flying backward with blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. Not stopping there, Ryujin grabbed the blond's hair and tried to stab him in the throat with the kunai from before.
Naruto looked on with widened eyes as he brought up his hand to block it again, but the action was slightly too late. Instead of blocking the wrist, he blocked the blade with his palm. The blade stabbing right through it.
"Are you the dumbest person alive?" Ryujin taunted while Naruto just smirked tiredly while groaning in pain.
"Lightning Release…" Grasping his fingers as hard as he could around the kunai and Ryujin's hand, he groggily formed a hand seal with his free hand and started to emit as much lightning he could from his pierced hand, "Electromagnetic Murder!" The metal instantly directed it into Ryujin's hand and arm as Naruto held him in place as he proceeded to fry the man's flesh.
As he started to feel the effect of the poisons getting weaker and weaker until the point he barely noticed it, he mentally scowled and thanked the Kyuubi for breaking down the poison this fast. Pulling his palm backward to release it from the kunai, Naruto hissed in pain as blood run down his hand and arm from his wrist.
Ryujin who was too busy cradling his arm in pain didn't get time to notice Naruto swirling up to his feet and kicking him straight in the face, sending him propelling back into a tree.
Panting heavily Naruto waltzed over and grabbed his sword and placed it in its sheath before grabbing the hilt of Ryujin's sword that he had snatched from his grasp earlier. He could still feel the effect of the poisons in his systems, his vision and senses were getting better, but he still had a hard time feeling his legs.
Bringing up the sword he had stolen he panted harshly while starting to slowly walk over toward Ryujin whose arm was still smoking from the burns that had burnt his sleeve to a crisp along with his skin.
Spotting Naruto coming closer, he grabbed a kunai and charged forward, clashing his blade into the sword of the still poisoned Uzumaki who deflected it with the longsword.
Slamming the kunai out of the man's grasp, Naruto kicked him the gut and grabbed his hair before placing the tip of the blade at the man's throat. "It's over."
Ryujin looked on in horror as he felt the defeat. He had been bested by a brat. A Konoha lapdog. How could it have come to this? He didn't get more time to speculate before he was hit in the neck by the hilt of his own sword, instantly knocking him out cold.
Naruto panted heavily and looked at the blade, chuckling tiredly he sighed, "Spoils of war." He chuckled and reached down to grasp the sheath Ryujin had been wearing, placing it around his waist to carry the sword by his hip before fishing a roll of bandages out of his Shuriken pouch.
As he started to wrap his arm up, he sweatdropped a bit, "I guess Itachi was right. Going easy on your opponent is a bad thing. I almost lost."
"Kaa-chan? My feet hurt…" The young redhead whined softly up at her mom as the two Uzumaki ran side by side over one of the last bridges there were before they'd get to the Konoha outpost, their hands tightly clasped together.
Akari panted hard as she reached down to pull her kid up into her weakening grasp again. She hadn't felt the presence of the incoming enemy in a while, but at the same time… She hadn't felt Naruto's either.
"We're almost there…" Akari panted and panted hard as she stopped at the end of the bridge to catch her breath. She couldn't sense any danger, so she put her daughter down again to rest. Her face was getting pale, and her clothes drenched in sweat.
"K-Kaa-chan? Are you okay?" Karin asked worriedly as Akari smiled weakly and held onto the railing of the bridge, her vision starting to go slightly blurry.
Nodding tiredly Akari knees started to shake as she whispered through panting breaths, "Y-Yes dear, Kaa-chan is okay…" She barely got to finish before her eyes went dark and she slumped down against the bridge.
"KAA-CHAN!" Karin screamed horrified and slumped down beside her mom, shaking her limp form wildly with a terrified expression covering her face, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes before running down her cheeks.
Naruto who had been running all he could to catch up with the two got to the bridge about ten minutes later. Racing over the bridge as he ran as fast as he could, his legs still feeling wobbly from the poison, he almost fell as he noticed Akari's form collapsed on the bridge with her daughter over her.
Crouching down the blond panted heavily and got down beside Karin and asked hurriedly with wide eyes, "Karin! What happened?" He almost shouted as the small girl snapped her head up to look up and him as she hugged her mom's arm.
"A-Aniki? Kaa-chan just fell over! She… She said she was okay…" The girl sobbed as she clung to her.
Naruto mentally felt relieved. There hadn't been an attack. Now wasn't a time to rest though, leaning over her he quickly placed to fingers at her throat and exhaled slowly and relieved that there still was a pulse.
"Your mother is alive, but this doesn't look like normal fatigue. I'm no medic, but the marks on her arms are having an odd color too." Naruto whispered gently and held the woman's arm in his grasp. The bite marks were changing into a more purple or blue color.
"W-Will she be okay?" Karin stuttered and looked up at him with teary eyes.
Naruto bit his lip slightly and looked a bit guilty. He honestly didn't know. He didn't even dare to move her in this state, he couldn't tell if it was safe to move with her all the way to Konoha. And could Konoha even help with this? It wasn't a normal sick state, it looked like some intense chakra poisoning.
Lifting Akari into his arms, Naruto walked with her and Karin in tow under a tree to place her down in the shadows. Pulling his cloak off to reveal his sword sheath that had been covered, he rolled the piece of clothing together to form a makeshift pillow to place under her head. Reaching into his Shuriken pouch he pulled out some bandages and drenched them in some cold water and placed on her forehead.
After about ten minutes of waiting, Naruto looked on at the still out could mother with her daughter quietly running her small hand through her hair. Sighing softly to himself, Naruto walked out behind a tree and bit his thumb, placing his hand on the ground as he quietly mumbled, "Summoning Jutsu."
A small cloud of smoke popped into existence, and as a cleared a small orange toad appeared before him, "Yo bro, what's poppin'?"
"Tone it down Gamakichi, this is not the time for cheerfulness." Naruto sighed, making the small toad raise a brow at him amused.
"That's oddly dull of you."
Naruto shook his head and sighed again while handing the toad a small note, "Sorry for being so abrupt this time, but there is a life on the line here. Give this to the Hokage and tell him I'm requesting the location of her."
"Who is her?" Gamakichi asked confused.
Naruto shushed him and waved his hand, "Oji-san will know who I'm talking about, please, just be on your way."
"Fine, fine, but there better be snacks the next time!"
So that's chapter 5 everyone. Sorry for the wait, but thanks for sticking here and reading. I'll try to update more frequently now that I'm on summer break starting next Friday. Did you like the fight between Ryujin and Naruto? As stated earlier this is one of my first tries writing a fight, so I hope it wasn't totally garbage.
Question of the chapter: Do you think Akari will be okay? Who is her? Let me know your theories.