Clash with Danzo
[Last chapter]
"The Hokage have until today most influential and more powerful than other Kages. Shodaime-Sama, Yondaime and Hiruzen were all strong enough to take on the other 4 of their counterparts and win. The Nidaime himself was hailed as the strongest among the Kages in his time as the leader of hidden leaf. So, I say Uzumaki Naruto lacks the power to be the Hokage." Danzo clarified calmly.
[Now]
"It is not logical. Uzumaki-sama is young now. He will have the time to grow into person he will be as the Hokage." Shibi Aburame said in monotone.
"Even at his age, Yondaime was able to destroy 6 of elite Kumo jounins and rescue one Uzumaki Kushina from Kidnaping attempt. At the same age both Shodaime-sama and Nidaime-sama were fighting in clan wars. Sandaime himself was strong enough that Tobirama sensei used to call him the second coming of Shodai Hokage. But looking at those standards, Uzumaki-San fail to fill the footsteps of his predecessor.
"Oh, and how are you sure about that?" Tsume Inuzuka raises her eyebrows with a feral grin.
"From what I have heard, Uzumaki Naruto is the strongest gennin of the leaf if we don't count Kosuke Maruboshi." Yamanka Inoichi inputed with Akimichi Choza nodding his head in agreement.
Danzo smirked at that "Then I present a simple compromise. Uzumaki Naruto have to face me in battle. If he impresses us enough, he will be the chosen apprentice and will have the elders' complete support. But If he can't then, Hiruzen will have to rescind the apprenticeship given to Uzumaki Naruto and the next Hokage will have authority to name his successor."
Hiruzen frowned at that "And what makes you think, you have any authority of doing that. If I say Naruto is going to be my successor than he is. Not even the fire daimyo could retract the decision."
"Not that I think he would be willing to do it." Hiruzen added as he remembered that Naruto had good relations with Daimyo of Hi no Kuni.
Danzo frowned as his plan seemed coming down until he heard Naruto speak "Why not Hokage sama! If I have your permission, I will accept the challenge. I don't want anyone to doubt my authority when I am the Hokage of hidden leaf. Danzo's words If not proven wrong could sow seeds of doubt in mind of others. And we don't want to have that, do we?"
Danzo regained his smirk as the Uzumaki trapped himself into his plans.
[In the forest of death]
Naruto had deployed a heavy barrier around himself and Danzo. The clan heads and Hokage themselves were surrounded by other barrier so that they could watch the fight without being caught by the attack. Naruto had each of them including the elders to sign the confidentiality contract, so that they couldn't reveal whatever of his abilities they saw on the battle. Seeing as he was going to be the Hokage in future, they had no qualms about signing it. The elders did try to resist but with a simple statement of sign or get out of here, they complied.
Currently Naruto was facing Danzo in the middle of their battlefield. The shinobis had manipulated the forests into a battlefield with mixture of landscapes so that both the participants could utilize their strength.
"You are very young Uzumaki. You had the easy way of being the Hokage by clinging onto Hiruzen's authority and yet you let it all go to just satisfy your arrogance." Danzo sneered.
"It is not arrogance when it is truth, Danzo. You will see the truth soon. Why don't we start?" Naruto said.
Danzo dispelled the heavy rings around his bandaged right hand. Ofcourse he didn't undo the bandages. Naruto doubted he would want the others to see the sharingans embedded in them.
Danzo manipulated the wind around himself, lessening the wind resistance and flashed towards Naruto intent on hitting him with a strong punch. Naruto saw Danzo was going to use the bandaged hand, that was made up of Shodai's cells. The punch would pack power of a low level of Tsunade's attack.
Naruto did his hands in snake seal "Mokuton: Boeiheiki no jutsu (Wood release: defensive wall technique)".
A wooden wall formed in front of Naruto, blocking Danzo's punch.
"Mokuton: Hotie no jutsu! (Wood release: laughingBuddha technique)" Naruto manipulated the wood to change it it's shaped in a giant wooden hand and constrict Danzo.
"M-Mokuton! H-How do you have it?" Danzo stuttered a bit.
Naruto didn't reply. He just stared at Danzo thinking of a plan to extract the Kotoamatsukami in Danzo's right eye. He discreetly summoned a clone who mended into the wooden hand constricting Danzo. The clone then nicked Naruto's feet taking a bit of blood and then travelled behind one of trees outside anyone's vision.
The clone went through the handsigns and slammed his hands on the ground "kuchiyose no jutsu!"
The small albino fox kit was summoned in a puff of smoke. The clone told Yoko about the plan to take out Danzo's eye. Yoko nodded and rushed towards the center of battlefield, still hidden behind tress.
[With the clan heads]
"H-He have the famed Mokuton! How is it possible?" Choza Akimichi stuttered a bit.
They all started whispering and murmuring about it. Only Shikaku was silent.
He looked at hokage and groaned "Mendukse! You already knew about it. Didn't you?"
Sarutobi just smiled and said, "I am his shishou, aren't I?"
[With Naruto and Danzo]
Naruto felt Yoko's chakra pulsing, as the 'Amenokototachi' took it effect.
Everybody including Danzo saw Naruto asking Danzo to give up. Danzo mocked Naruto about his inability to kill and the wooden Hand crushing Danzo to death. then Danzo appeared behind Naruto.
Danzo cursed Naruto and then himself for using Shisui's Mangekyou for 'Izanagi'.
What really happened was Naruto's wooden clone manifesting itself out from wooden hand constricting Danzo and tearing out his right eye, similar to what he had done to Shisui, and sealing it away. The clone then healed his eye of wound. The bleeding stopped but Danzo lost his sight from right eye, thinking he used the eye for 'Izanagi'.
Danzo regained his footings and appeared behind Naruto and used a Kunai to stab towards Naruto. Unfortunately, the Kunai broke against the chakra enhanced Wood.
"Mokuton: Kannon no ken!" A wooden hand formed and punched Danzo to death, making his corpse fly and smash into nearby stone structure.
Danzo reappears once again, this time a bit further away from Naruto.
'What an Idiot! He just wasted 2 of his Izanagi. Though he must have additional sharingan if he doesn't mind losing them.' Naruto thought to himself.
Naruto once again tried to hit Danzo with his wooden arm, but Danzo escaped. The punch hit the ground converting it into rubbles. Danzo used the rubles to jump on them towards Naruto. Naruto also jumped just in front of Danzo while creating hand seals in midair.
"Katon: Gokamekyaku (Fire style: Majestic destroyer flames)"Naruto spewed literal sea of flames towards Danzo at point blank range, burning him to death.
Danzo again flickered just behind Naruto going through handseals "Fuuton: Shinkudan rendan! (Wind release: Vacuum bullet barrage)".
"Fuck!" Naruto muttered as he knew at that range, he won't be able to dodge one of the deadliest jutsu of second fastest element.
[With Clan heads and Hokage]
"That's not just a gennin. He is easily more powerful than us." Hiashi stated.
"No, he isn't just a gennin. In a serious fight he can draw with Jiraiya without sage mode. Ofcourse, if he isn't hiding any of his abilities from me." Hiruzen replied.
"And how is Danzo escaping after being hit by such fatal attacks?" Shikaku asked.
Hiruzen narrowed his eyes at Danzo. He was titled professor as he is able to decipher any techniques by seeing them only once. He knew most of jutsu of Hidden leaf and he suspected Danzo of using the eyes of fallen Uchiha clan.
"NARUTO!" Hiruzen shouted as he saw Danzo firing the vacuum bullets at him. The rest of clan heads were also worried.
[Back in fight]
"Got you brat!" Danzo sneered seeing Naruto's panicked face.
Just before the bullets could hit Naruto, his face had changed from a panicked expression to a smirkingone. Naruto disappeared in flash of Gold.
Danzo's expression turned to downright horror after witnessing the Hiraishin.
Even the Hokage had his jaws agape, showing that he had no idea about Naruto being able to use the Hiraishin.
Naruto reappeared a bit further away from Danzo slightly panting and bit distorted.
Danzo was relived as he addressed Naruto. "So, you can't use the Hiraishin perfectly. It leaves you tired and disoriented."
Naruto smirked getting his panting under control. "Yes, I don't prefer it for pure combat anyways. And I don't need to teleport around to kick your arse, you fake-cripple!"
Naruto rushed towards Danzo in great speed, who retaliated by going through handseals and launching 'Fuuton: Shinku Renpa! (Wind style: Vacuum serial wave!)' at Naruto.
Naruto cursed as he knew he couldn't use fire release to overpower it as the incoming technique would just cleave through the techniques. Naruto then got a smirk on his face as he put his right palm forward which had kanji for 'Accommodate'.A seal formula not unlike summoning formed as 5 kunai with Explosive tag connected to them came out launched towards and launched towards Danzo's technique. The explosion completely dispersed Danzo's offensive technique and proceed to destroy the nearby area creating dust and debris.
A shuriken encased with Wind chakra, that increases its range dramatically, came flying towards Naruto which he dodged. Naruto marveled at the fineness and creativity with which Danzo used Fuuton techniques. He had to give it to Danzo to be the actual greatest Wind Style user.
The debris cleared and Danzo was seen with two similar shuriken in both his hands. Danzo threw both shuriken at Naruto while preparing to throw more of them.
Naruto launched a Kunai towards the Shuriken. The kunai struck through incoming shuriken's holding space and continued its way towards Danzo along with Danzo's shuriken. Danzo jumped back out of his own shuriken's range. The Kunai embedded before Danzo. Naruto, who had dodged 3 of wind enhanced shuriken didn't move to dodge the 4th one. He just clapped his hands and called out "Hiraishin: Dorai! (Flying thunder god: guiding thunder)".
The Shuriken got sucked into the jutsu-shiki that had formed before Naruto. A moment later the same shuriken appeared on the spot of Kunai had been embedded, moving forward while cleaving Danzo into two.
[with the observers]
"Isn't that the technique, Minato-sama used to teleport a kyubbi's Bijudama away from the village?" Inoichi asked.
"Yes, it is." Hiruzen replied proudly, seeing his surrogate grandson and apprentice using his legacy so well.
[Back in fight]
Danzo used Izanagi to resurrect himself once again. This time Naruto moved.
"Kokuangyuo no jutsu (Bringer of darkness technique)!"Naruto called wide area genjutsu. Not being an ocular genjutsu, Naruto's barrier was able to stop the darkness from covering the spectators, but Danzo wasn't that lucky. However much he tried, he failed to break out.
Naruto channeled wind chakra into his Kunai, increasing its range to that of a sword. He rushed towards Danzo to impale him with it. Just before Naruto was going to impale Danzo, Danzo's body fell down lifeless, and he again flickered out of the place and behind Naruto touching Naruto's shoulder.
'What an insane man! He just killed himself to break out of the Genjutsu.' Naruto thought to himself as he felt his body being constricted.
Naruto saw black curse mark spreading on his body and him being unable to move.
"Paralysis cursed seal!" Danzo crowed in triumph as he drew out Naruto's Kunai from his palm. He then channeled his own chakra creating a Vacuum blade and stabbed Naruto's chest with it, leading the clan heads to cry out in anger. Sarutobi wasn't affected as he knew there was no way Naruto would fall to such a trick.
True to his thought the impaled Naruto turned into deformed wood signaling it was a 'mokubunshin'. Danzo was then kicked away from his position. The kick was so strongthat Danzo smashed into the stone structures and broke it.
"Suiton: Suiryuu kobaku ! (Water style: Bite of explosive dragon)". Water rose from nearby bodies taking form of roaring eastern dragon. It gained height and from a high altitude fell upon Danzo."
"Fuuton: Gokuho (Wind style: Great Vacuum Cannon)". A large blast of Wind chakra clashedwith incoming water dragon cancelling out each other.
"Fuuton: Shinkugyaku! (Windstyle: Vacuum sphere)!" Danzo spat out a large ball of destructive wind chakra easily comparable to size of 5 great fireball techniques.
Clapping his hand in 'snake' hand seal, Naruto called out "Mokuton: Mokuryuu no jutsu! (Wood style: Wood Dragon technique)". A large dragon made up of wood 6 times bigger than Naruto's previous water dragon formed. Its eyes glowed yellow and it made its way towards Danzo's attack, roaring.
The dragon wrapped around Danzo's attack and to his surprise, wrapped itself around it without even getting an ounce of damage. The size of Danzo's attack started to decrease signaling that dragon was absorbing the chakra from it. When the attack was much smaller, the dragon unwrapped itself swallowing the smaller wind ball. Its eyes glowed bright yellow showcasing it's increased power. From its open maw, a yellow glow can be seen. The dragon roared and immense yellow energy shot towards Danzo killing him immediately and completely turning the geography of the surroundings.
Danzo again used Izanagi and reappeared, biting his fingers and slamming his hand on ground after going through handseals "Kuchiyose: Baku!"
An odd beast with limbs of tiger and upper body of Elephant appeared in puff of smoke. It completely towered over him as it faced the wooden dragon.
The dragon and the summon clashed witheach other fighting for dominance. The dragon wrapped itself around the summon while Baku was using his claws to damage the dragon.
After a bit of hassle, Baku escaped Dragon's confinement. It took in a deep breath and blew out a literal storm out of his mouth. Naruto's wooden dragon itself concentrated for a bit. Naruto understood it was absorbing Nature chakra. Naruto could also sense Baku's attack itself was utilizing Senjutsu. The dragon roared and similar yellow beam just stronger than the last one made its way towards the storm created by Baku. Both attacks filled with natural chakra clashed with each other creating a large explosion.
The explosion dispelled Baku and killed Danzo once more. A wooden structure with dragon's face engraved on it was seen on the place Naruto was standing with the wooden dragon that was still present hovering over it. Though it can be seen mending its damaged structure and shrinking in Size as a result.
The wooden structure split from between as Naruto came out of it announcing "Mokuton: Hobi no jutsu! (Wood release: Wood expulsion technique)".
He saw as Danzo once again used Izanagi to come back to life glaring at Naruto.
'He has already used Izanagi 7 times out of ten and I have taken out Shisui's eyes from the equation. He only has 3 livesleft.'
"I am invincible! Give up brat and maybe you can live long enough." Danzo roared at Naruto hiding the fact that if fight goes any longer, he will probably loose as he only has 4 more chances left. Additionally, he wasn't doing any better in battle of Stamina. He was pretty spent and the Jinchuriki brat didn't even looked much winded. So, he tried to win by bluffing.
Naruto smirked "So you can seemingly come back to life even after dying. Interesting. But Danzo, the real question is how many times?"
Naruto clapped his hands and closed his eye for a moment. The wooden dragon that had shrinked to the size of an elemental dragon attack dispelled at the same moment.
Red markings formed around his eyes simultaneously reaching his cheeks. He started to give off a greenish aura.
[Among the spectators]
"His chakra changed. It's added with some thick chakra which is originating around him." Hiashi commented as he turned on his Byakugan after feeling the immense power of Naruto.
"I-It can't be." Hiruzen murmured. "The shodaime's sage mode!"
"S-Sage? Surely not. He is too young." Inoichi murmured with disbelief.
"But it is true. We can all witness it." Shikaku said as he wiped drop of sweat out of his brow.
[With Naruto and Danzo]
"Senpo: Mokuton: Shin Susenju! (Sage mode: Wood release: 1000 hands!)", Naruto called out as a giant 1000 meters tall wooden statue of Buddha formed with more than thousands of hands behind him.
Only the illusion created by the barrier stopped whole Konoha's population along with Shinobis of other villages to stop rushing here to see the spectacle. Danzo just shook involuntarily as he dropped on his knees.
"I-I give up!" He called out before falling down unconscious due to combined stress of Chakra exhaustion and trauma at seeing Naruto using Hashirama's most powerful technique.
Naruto dispelled his technique as he discretely looked at his hand which was changing to it's normal form from being turned into stone.
"I still have ways to go before I am able to utilize this technique." He murmured to himself.
Making sure Danzo was really out of fight, he went towards the Hokage and clan heads who were looking at him in awe.