Chapter 9 - Naruto vs. Hiruzen.

Pairing: Naruto x Uchiha Mikoto.

THIS WILL NOT BE A HAREM

A/N: I post updates regarding the story on my Twitter. So, if you want to be prepared for when chapters come out, I'm always announcing how far I am with the stories in good time. My Twitter: Skairipa1337.

Question: Would you guys be more interested in a Minato and Kushina alive story? Or a Dark Naruto story, kind of Anakin Skywalker inspired main character.

The long-awaited fight versus Hiruzen has arrived. I hope you like how it turned out.

Warning: The main character's age has been adjusted.

The Former Training Ground.

Hiruzen's eyes softened as the beam of black onyx lightning dispersed around his staff. How had it come this far? It shouldn't have. Not in a million years. The person in front of him didn't resemble his grandson. Not one bit. There was only a wild animal in front of him.

His old eyes stared on at the rabid beast that was glaring in his direction as he stood in the middle of the burning inferno of a forest fire. The grass that used to be beneath them, gone, leaving behind a wasteland of dirt and gravel with the fire crackling around them, tearing down the forest.

With a soft sigh, Hiruzen lifted his adamantine staff, the lone eye giving away Enma's presence looking at the blond shinobi. "ANBU! Raise the barrier!" And as instructed, two squads of masked soldiers dropped down around them; only far enough away to give the two enough space for a battle.

With a round of 'hai' echoing about, an almost invisible dome-shaped barrier raised around them, as it kept the fires from spreading. The area that they used to call a training ground withered away, leaving behind a sight resembling that of a warzone. And Hiruzen would know, having lived through all the former wars, from the first to the third.

Hiruzen sighed to himself as he grasped his hands tightly around the transformed staff; the monkey king's voice booming to him, "Hiruzen… what's the plan?" The question didn't push many thoughts through the man's head. There was only one goal in mind. To save Naruto from himself.

The power that the blond was displaying was beyond his control in his current state, and it was only getting more and more out of hand by the second. The streaks of black lightning ran up and down the blond's limbs, streaking across the ground; ripping it even further open, and burning down more and more of the once beautiful green forest. And in its wake, lay a raging inferno surrounding the two.

It was, however, evident that Naruto was struggling, fighting to get himself under control. His entire face was trembling, the morphed colors in his eyes shifting between this enraged state and his usual azure ones.

A small smile crawled onto Hiruzen's face as he pointed the large staff in the blond's direction. The soft gaze in his eyes confused the enraged shinobi as the old man spoke through a calm tone, "Then bring it, boy, show me what one of Konoha's best has to offer! Don't hold back! Bring it on!"

The words echoed in Naruto's empty mind. Putting down any semblance of struggle as his eyes shifted permanently back into the black and red version. The uncontrolled and untamed lightning intensified all around his body, creating a cloak that sparked and roared out around him as his entire form shook.

Hiruzen's eyes scanned through Naruto's form repeatedly. He looked evil and filled with so much hate. But, Naruto wasn't evil. He was kind and good. He had only ever wanted the best for everyone, but kami never seemed to give him any peace. He lost so many people, and always in the worst ways possible, yet he constantly stayed true to himself and his nation, but as the saying went. It was always the good ones that get hurt.

It seemed like all the grief and all his tucked away sadness and anger had finally had reached their breaking point. Naruto needed to release these emotions, as he had kept them bottled up for so long that he was now a bomb set to burst. Always trying to be brave, trying to be the best of himself for everyone, it was time for him to take care of himself.

Hiruzen lowered his gaze briefly as a lone thought rang throughout his mind, 'You truly are a kind one…' But there was no more time left to waste. It had to be now or never. Or else he feared that he would lose the blond to his inner demons.

With that last thought leaving his mind, his eyes widened quickly as Naruto disappeared in an instant, but the insane amount of uncontrolled chakra was easy enough for an experienced shinobi to track. Lifting his adamantine staff toward his left, he blocked a fist that was crackling with heavy amounts of chakra with the staff.

The punch created a large shockwave upon impact, such that the terrain behind Hiruzen ripped open and flew several yards away, the roots of trees almost entirely pulled out of the ground by the force alone, yet Hiruzen's kept a stable footing.

Narrowing his eyes, he snorted tauntingly, "Is that the best you have to offer?" And as intended, it got a rise out of rabid ninja. A huge scowl formed on the blond's face as he flashed out of existence, speeding all over the training ground like a streak of black lightning, more and more resembling a lightning bolt.

And as a loud thunderclap echoed all over the crater, Hiruzen grunted as he swirled the staff about him. Naruto's racing form appeared everywhere and nowhere, and with every hit blocked the blond had vanished and appeared elsewhere. Hiruzen didn't even get to see the face of this menacing form of black lightning.

As he sensed the tremendous chakra above him, Hiruzen quickly leaped away, barely getting the time to land before the streak of lightning slammed right into the ground where he had been standing a moment before.

The ground exploded in a shower of boulders and rocks, pillars of black lightning rushed through the field, ripping it all to dust and rubbish.

Hiruzen raised an arm to block the dust and small rocks from his eyes. When had Naruto gained this much power? He had never seen nor heard of anything like it. No mission report or anything of the like had mentioned a word about this. Black lightning was extremely rare. It was said that the Sandaime Raikage had been able to use it, but Naruto was from Konoha.

'Could it be the Kyuubi?' Hiruzen mused as he flipped sideways to dodge another headfirst attack, immediately turning around on his feet to slam the staff into Naruto's back, sending the blond crashing through the burnt trees. The burned wood splintering, sending embers and chunks of wood flying all around the path he had sent his surrogate flying in.

'No, I don't sense that much Kyuubi chakra present in his attacks. This is his own power, but how did he gain this much strength? If he could control it… maybe I would have to focus on defending.' The man finished his line of thought as he tucked his stuff up under his arm, extending his free hand forward with his palm facing toward the torn down trees.

The morphed monkey king staff extended in size at blinding speeds, rushing at the blond's location, and the enraged shinobi was barely able to raise his hands to block the staff when it was an inch away from his chest. Venom dripped from his eyes as he glared daggers into the man that was attacking him as he grabbed onto the staff, unable to recognize his Jiji.

Sighing, Hiruzen took a firm grip of the staff before hurling it sideways with the blond still clinging to it. The feral ninja crashed through multiple boulders and trees until he was forced to let go, rolling across the ground into a crawling position.

"Grrr" He snarled as he lifted his face. The red irises glowing brighter as a dome of black lightning bolts exploded about him, the air around them becoming denser as it was filled with more and more chakra.

With shaky movements, Naruto got to his feet with his hand slowly rearing into the air, and, with an earth-shattering roar, sent it flying forward. Following the blond's fist, the dome of black lightning dispersed into dozens of lightning bolts striking through the air at speeds a normal shinobi would never be able to react to.

The old man threw his staff a few feet into the air and easily dodged the majority of the bolts, all the while going through hand seals at blinding speeds. And as last bolt neared him, Hiruzen spat out a huge current of water and bent it toward the lightning bolt, making the water become a conduit for the lightning to pass through, before he redirected it back towards the blond.

Eyes widening in shock, the feral blond stood, surprised at the change of events, as moments later he found his own attack crashing right into his body, giving him a nice ride back for a few dozen yards before he finished, ending up onto his stomach.

With a loud growl of anger, Naruto stumbled back onto his feet with heavy breathing. His back slumped over as the sweaty blond locks swayed over his forehead, covering and revealing his eyes as they swayed past them.

Thrusting his hands before him, he placed his palms one above the other, leaving a small space in between as he grit his teeth. His chakra immediately spiked as a sphere of black lightning build up between his hands, his hands slowly distancing from the other as the sphere built up rapidly in size.

Moments later, gravity suddenly increased around the blond ninja, as he found himself sinking into the ground. Simultaneously, the black sphere that had rapidly grown in size found itself halting, before slowly and slowly reverting and size.

Hiruzen's eyes widened as a deep black sphere of roaring chakra formed between Naruto's hands, the size growing from that of a Rasengan to what would more resemble a dozen of them... Or more. And yet, all of that was condensed, back into the size of a Rasengan.

Quickly slipping his hands through a dozen more hand seals, Hiruzen took a deep breath as his chest swelled in size, intense amounts of chakra building up within his core.

When the feral beast became satisfied with his beautiful weapon of destruction, he thrust the sphere forward. The sphere then exploded into an enormous spear of roaring black lightning, racing across the field at seemingly impossible speeds toward the Hokage, the intent to kill bleeding off of the attack.

The Hokage caught his staff, that he had thrown moments before, under his arm as muttered to himself, "Fire Release: Great Blaze Ball!" before slumping his back over and exhaling a high-pressure stream of burning hot white fire that was melting the rocks and boulders in its path as it scorched over the ground. The fire coalesced into an inferno that rapidly approached the lance of black lightning.

The two highly offensive attacks clashed midway into a massive explosion with runaway sparks and flames flying all over the space between them as the attacks duked it out.

After a few seconds of fighting, the two attacks canceled out the other. Waves of heat flew all over the field as both the lightning and the fire combined during the intense exchange.

Naruto's eyes momentarily closed as his attack was effortlessly forced to a draw. Snapping his eyes open, he clenched his fists tightly while letting out another roar. The loud roar applied even more pressure around him, bending the ground out around him as the devilish cloak of black lightning increased in size, and every now and then, a lightning bolt would separate from his cloak crashing wildly around him.

Outside of the barrier, Itachi landed alongside Genma and Yugao. His eyes quickly widened as he ran up to the barrier, placing his palms against the almost invisible dome that surrounded the Hokage and his best friend, who was fighting in what looked like an all-out battle within a warzone.

Turning his face to one of the ANBU guards that were holding up the barrier, Itachi didn't even have to ask to realize what was happening inside. It was exactly what he had feared, but he had never expected the outcome to be this bad. The Hokage was battling his best friend, with the latter looking more animal than man.

Yugao gulped slightly as she took a step back from the barrier. She couldn't believe that it was her teammate that was in there. She couldn't recognize him, aside from his appearance. It was like an intruder had taken over his body, controlling his every move. Could it be the Kyuubi?

Genma on the other hand found it extremely difficult to keep himself calm as he ran up and slammed his fist into the barrier, "Naruto! What the hell are you doing?! You realize that that's the Hokage that you are fighting! STOP THIS!" He yelled out with the veins on his throat popping out, his teeth gritting tightly together as he watched those dark eyes turn to face him.

Naruto, who was covered in lightning as black as Madara's soul, turned his face toward the noise before flashing right in front of the barrier. Genma gasped and stumbled a few feet back as Naruto reared his hand back, craning his fingers back into the shape of a claw as the black lightning wrapped all around his hand, forming black claws around the tips.

And without a single moment of hesitation or even a hint of expression, he slammed his hand into the barrier.

The claws slowly dug through the barrier, and one of the ANBU was sent flying back from the sudden force that began fighting the barrier. The claw tips slowly made their way through the dome.

Hiruzen's eyes widened as he thrust his staff forward, the tip extending at rapid speeds just to slam right into Naruto's spine, making the blond's body smash right into the invisible wall. The man took this chance to go on the offense. Them fighting was one thing, but if Naruto was so far lost in his despair that he would attack anything that dared to stand up to him, then he couldn't afford to passively sit on the matter.

With a blur, Hiruzen leaped up beside Naruto, his staff back in the normal shape as he slammed it into the blond's scalp, making him crash into the ground before Hiruzen swirled around on his feet, dragging the tip of the staff across the ground and striking Naruto across the chin, sending the blond swirling into the air with a trail of lightning following him.

The blond grit his teeth tightly together as blood ran down the corner of his mouth, and with a loud grunt, a large burst of lightning stopped his swirling and he paused in mid-air. With hectic breathing, the blond gazed down upon them from the top of the dome, his eyes glaring daggers upon the old Sarutobi.

Yugao's eyes widened even more as her mouth gaped open, "He's flying…"

The words brought Genma out of his shock as he snapped his head up to look at Naruto who was indeed flying at the top of the dome. The lightning rapidly bursting around his body as he flickered around in place, the cloak keeping him from falling down.

With a loud, desperate roar, Naruto thrust his arms forward over and over, with each aggressive swing a bolt of lightning escaped from around his arms to fly down toward Hiruzen.

Hiruzen spun around on his feet and threw his staff into the first bolt before rapidly rushing through hand seals, "Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation!" Hiruzen's chest swelled up again before he exhaled a huge flamethrower that was racing up to meet each of the lightning bolts.

Loud explosions shook the ground as the attacks clashed again, and again. Large smoke clouds filled with embers and sparks filled the air as Hiruzen caught his staff with ease.

With a grunt, Hiruzen, once again, extended the staff through the smoke clouds created by the explosions, making it rush into the blond's face before Enma extended his arms out of the staff, grasping a hold of the blond's wrists to keep him locked in place, a lone eye gazed out at the blond from the end of the staff.

Naruto glared at the monkey paws keeping his arm in place before his dark gaze turned to stare into the sole eye that gazed back at him. He roared out in anger as the cloak of lightning, once more, exploded in size, and the dark lightning wrapping around Enma's arms, burning the monkey king's hair and skin instantly.

With a loud yelp of pain, Hiruzen's personal summon hurriedly let go of the blond with his arms smoking, and with a glare, he watched Naruto blitz toward the ground, landing with a loud rumble. But before the blond could react or throw any counter-attacks, he was surrounded by Hiruzen, along with four clones, that had appeared out of nowhere, who all had their mouth open, ready to exhale an attack.

Not giving the Uzumaki time to react, Hiruzen and his clones spat out a stream of each of the five elements respectively, and currents of water, fire, earth, wind, and lightning crashed into Naruto's form before they exploded on impact. The explosion created a large cloud that covered the blond from their field of vision before the clones popped out of existence.

Hiruzen waved his adamantine staff into the cloud to push it out of his view, looking into the cloud's remains, 'Did I overdo it?' He mused to himself. Naruto might have been on a rampage and had attempted to escape the barrier to attack his teammates, but he was still his surrogate grandson. And as much as the blond seemed at fault for this, the village was just as bad. Many Shinobi had gone mad from experiencing, and making it through dangerous and traumatizing missions, but it was also within the village's responsibility to make sure that they got help.

'If I just had noticed in time, we wouldn't even be here…' Hiruzen sighed with a small frown before his eyes suddenly widened in surprise as the cloud dispersed to reveal Naruto still standing on his legs. His clothes may have been torn to shreds, and he was barely hanging onto his body, but he was still standing.

With a loud growl, Naruto threw both his palms up into the air, channeling his newfound powers up above, rapidly forming it into a huge black lightning sphere, even bigger than the one he had created before.

Hiruzen blinked before he threw his staff in front of him, Enma cloning himself to form a protective wall of the adamantine staff, "That's not going to end well…" The old man muttered mostly to himself, as he watched with fascination.

The blond gave a slight grunt as he kept pushing more chakra into it, the size rapidly growing by the second as his cloak started to fade back into normal lightning, so the black lightning could focus on fueling the huge sphere above him.

But it didn't go as planned. The huge black sphere began spiraling out of control, just as Hiruzen had predicted. The black sphere bent and distorted, and began to toss lightning all about, the size still growing as the blond lost all semblance of control, and a small streak of black lightning cut through his normal lightning cloak, burning the remains of his shirt to nothing.

What happened next could only be expected. The black sphere exploded above him, tearing down through his left arm and forcing him to cry out in pain. His body stumbled over, and the feral hostility in his eyes disappeared, and he clutched his arm against his body in a failed attempt at lessening the pain. Charred and burned smoke emitted from his entire body, with the worst of it centering at his arm. The ground beneath him broke into a huge crater as he fell to his knees.

Naruto's vision slowly started returning to him as he looked around him with some semblance of consciousness. The pain in his arm quickly becoming overbearing as his vision became blurry and he fell down sideways. Crashing into the ground, his eyes struggled to stay open, and he managed to notice a dark blurry figure walking toward him with a staff in hand just before he passed out.

Hiruzen ran over to Naruto as the lightning cloak started to fade back into the blond's body, Hiruzen unsummoned Enma and fell down beside the blond. Pushing him onto his back, he quickly checked his pulse. Thankfully, his surrogate grandson was still alive.

The barrier that the ANBU had formed earlier began to slowly disperse as the masked men closed in around them. Genma and Yugao stood close behind Hiruzen as they worriedly looked at their teammate over, not liking the shape that it was in. His body was smoking, and his entire left arm was black from the severe burning.

Itachi kept himself at a distance as a frown made its way onto his face. He unconsciously clenched his fist while gritting his teeth, whilst somehow keeping the stoic Uchiha mask on the exterior. 'If it hadn't been for the Uchiha's ignorance… This would have also never happened. Had the clan kept their arrogance and pride in check, Shisui would still be alive, and Naruto wouldn't be so torn apart, both mentally and physically…'

Waltzing behind a tree, Itachi leaned in against the bark as he softly punched against the bark of the tree, 'Damn you, Tou-sama… Danzo... This shouldn't have happened!'

Hiruzen, after checking Naruto over, took a step back and pointed his hand toward a masked man with silver hair, "INU! Get Naruto-kun to the hospital! Make sure our best medics are on the job, he needs immediate treatment!"

The ANBU operative 'Inu' quickly nodded and scooped the blond up in his arms, shunshining out of the area, with nary a swirl of wind and leaves in his place.

Itachi watched Naruto get taken away from the scene with a frown on his face. Half of his body hidden away from sight by the tree as he gave a small sigh. He had to let the two Uzumaki hear of this before they got too worried and would start looking around for him. It wasn't common knowledge yet, but Itachi suspected that Naruto would keep them close to him. And since his apartment wasn't the biggest place. There was only one place left he could take them, to his knowledge at least.

His parents' old estate.

And it would make sense. A lot of construction workers and cleaners had been fixing up the place for the last passing week. 'What else could Naruto be using that place for, if not to keep his family close and secure?'

With that last thought leaving his mind, Itachi shunshined out of the area and landed close to the gate leading into the large property formerly owned by their late Yondaime Hokage and his late wife.

Pushing the gate open, Itachi walked on the broad path leading up to the main entrance.

The house itself was quite large. It had a double-door as the main entrance, with a wooden porch leading all the way around the house. The house was two stories tall, with a nice large garden going around the house. Surrounding the garden was a wooden face a bit taller than he was. Probably in place to keep prying eyes out.

The last noticeable feature from the outside was the training grounds. There were two of them in total, one on the left side, and one on the right side.

Itachi reached the doors as he finished looked around the place. Raising his hand, he knocked on the door with the back of his hand before letting his arm fall back down to his side.

A few moments later, the older redheaded woman slowly opened the door and looked up at him with surprise evident in her eyes, "Itachi-san, what do I owe this visit? Naruto hasn't returned yet."

Itachi just nodded his head and opened his mouth to answer, "I'm aware of that, and I'm here to talk about that. Naruto is currently in the hospital. Disturbing news made him, uneasy, and the simple conclusion I can give you without asking for permission is that you shouldn't expect him around for a few days."

"H-Hospital? Is he alright?" Akari asked with shock as she stepped out of the house, so her daughter wouldn't hear any details that a child shouldn't.

Itachi could just shrug as an answer. Truthfully he was unaware of whether or not Naruto would be okay again. He had just lost a good friend, and his mind was already corrupted with dark thoughts before that. And that was before considering his medical situation. Naruto had been struck by lightning rumored to only have been used by the Sandaime Raikage before and had been rushed to the hospital right after.

"I'm currently unaware of his condition. However, I'll keep you posted. Have a nice evening Uzumaki-san, try not to worry too much about Naruto-kun." Itachi bowed politely before bidding the Uzumaki woman farewell for the evening. Leaving many thoughts to go through her head, and emotions through her being.

Naruto's vision flickered in and out as he watched up at the lights passing over his face. His body was in motion, and he could hear running footsteps around him as he slightly tilted his head to the side. A man and a woman wearing all white were pushing him through some hallways. He had to be in the hospital.

'Great, the hospital. I just love this place…' He thought to himself as he slightly shifted in place, a loud grunt escaping his lips as pain rushed through his arm, making him place it against his chest as he almost fell over the edge of the stretcher that they were pushing him on.

"The sedatives are already wearing off! The fox must be fighting them, get Uzumaki-sama a new dose!" The female roared out as a nurse came sprinting to his side, a syringe in her hand as she pushed the needle into his chest.

'I really like hospitals. Especially when there is at least a hundred feet between me and it. Damn it, I'm going to have to sneak out again, aren't I?' He thought to himself as his vision faded away again, his mind drifting back into unconsciousness.

When he woke the next time, he had no idea of how long he had been out. His body felt more… normal, but his arm was still hurting beyond imagination. He had never felt pain like this before. Just what had happened?

Flickering his eyes open slowly, he turned his head around, and upon noticing the bland colors on him denoted that it was the sheets of the hospital. Groaning softly, he raised himself into a sitting position. Looking down over his body, he scoffed at the hospital clothes that they had forced him into. Lifting his right, specifically not hurting, hand, he tucked his shirt up to reveal his abdomen that was covered in bandages all the way up.

Gazing down his right arm, he noticed he was also patched up all the way down, even his fingers were getting the special treatment. Groaning again, he leaned down and bit his teeth into the bandage and tore it off his arm and spat it onto the ground.

He truly despised hospitals. He admired and respected the people that worked here, especially for what they did for people, but he couldn't stand being in one. The bland walls and surroundings, and that damn sterile smell that was everywhere. It was worse than the smell that a classroom had, which was saying something…

As he looked out the window, he let his mind wander. 'Shisui…' He sighed to himself, and a sudden rush of memories came rushing back to him. They weren't clear, but he could understand enough.

It looked like a warzone, but no war was being fought. He could see his grandfather figure in his battle gear, deflecting attacks upon attacks. It looked like lightning, but why was it black?

The more memories he went through, the more clear it became to him that it was him that was fighting his grandfather figure. He could feel the anger he had felt when he had fought. No… Not anger. Guilt.

Palming his forehead, he gritted his teeth together before he tossed the hospital sheets away and swung his legs over the edge of the bed and leaped onto the floor. A small jolt of pain rushed up through his left arm as he landed, making him regret the jump, but nothing more.

With a loud and deep sigh, he slowly raised his left arm up with shaky movement. He naturally healed fast, which was obvious, especially since the majority of his body was already fine again, but his left arm was still damaged. That last attempted attack had really backfired on him.

Shaking his head free of the thoughts, he waltzed over to a sink and turned the tap on. Lowering his face toward the sink, he raised his right hand and gathered some water in his palm that he then used to wash over his face before grabbing a paper towel to wipe it dry again.

Lifting his head up, he looked to his side and spotted a calendar. Curiously he pulled the thing off the wall and looked down at it, intending to figure out how long he had been out.

Three days since he departed from Yu no Kuni to get back here… He had been out for two to three days in total, then...

He gave a dry chuckle as he hung the thing up on the wall again. To keep him sedated and out cold for that long must have certainly required a lot.

Deciding he didn't really want to stay here, he walked over to a closet and opened it to find only a pair of pants. 'Oh yeah… my clothes didn't agree with my fight.' He groaned with annoyance. He had just bought those.

Extending his hand into the closet, he pulled his pants out and cringed at the smell. It smelled like smoke and dirt, and the thing was torn and ripped everywhere. With a pout, he tossed the object that had at one time been a comfortable pair of pants into the trashcan in the corner of the room.

Closing the closet again, he jumped up and opened the window to reveal the dark night sky. After looking around him a few times, he shunshined away from the hospital as fast as possible. As he rushed through the empty streets of Konoha in his hospital clothes. He made sure not to get spotted. He really wanted to avoid any questions right now, or worse, being forced to return to the hospital.

When he finally got back to his apartment, he quietly slipped in through the front door and closed it behind him. As the door closed with an audible click, he turned the lock and sighed to himself before turning on the lights. As the lights flickered on, he grabbed the edges of his hospital shirt and threw it into a trashcan. His pants soon followed. Now in his birthday suit, he went into his bedroom and slumped headfirst into his bed. His head landing heavily against the pillow as sleep almost in an instant claimed him. The darkness closing in on his eyes until a soft sound of peaceful snoring sound throughout the dark bedroom.

Well, that took a while. I've started back in school, and the heat has been insane the last few days so I've had zero energy nor motivation to do anything at all. However, I have some time off this weekend and decided to finish this chapter before the wait became too long.

Question 1: As always, I like asking you guys a question or two. Who is your favorite pairing? I'm asking since; last time I asked you guys about story ideas, a lot of you had a pairing added to the idea. (Obviously) Which made me curious, who is your favorite?

Question 2: Did you enjoy the fight? I tried making it realistic.

Mine is Mikoto. No shame admitting that, she is by far the best after my own opinion.