Naruto: The Uchiha Chronicles Re-Version:
Hey, hope everyone is doing good. welcome to this month's first chapter, the fights finally begin! Hope you enjoy. Feel free to leave a review and leave suggestions for improvement. If you'd like to read Chapter 31, it's already out on my pa treon. Simply type in the website name /rinnetaicho or go to my AO3 account of the same name where there is a link you can copy and paste.
Arc V: Kusanoka's Revenge:
Chapter 30: Of Flowers and Trees
-x-x-x-x-x-x- NTUC -x-x-x-x-x-x-
BOOM! … BOOM!
A loud explosion roared to life behind them. Another followed soon after. Sasuki glanced back over her shoulder. Her eyes flooded with chakra as she activated her Sharingan. The increased perception showed every minor detail. Three figures had broken off and were pursuing them. Further behind, she could see Naruto and his odd mix of light blue and purplish-pink chakra engaging the insane bastard. Koroshi's chakra was hard to describe. It was a chaotic ball of greyish flame with flecks of color flicking about.
"Looks like the plans working. How long do you think we need to go for?" Asked Sakura. She had to shout to be heard.
Now that they had confirmation the four were split up, Sasuki deactivated her Sharingan and faced forwards. With a shrug she said, "Not sure. A couple miles I guess."
That was about how long they'd waited to split up, so it made sense to have a similar distance between Naruto's battle and their own.
"It's safe to assume the big guy with the kanabo is a pretty straight forwards fighter, but I'm not sure about the others. Any ideas?" Said Sakura.
She frowned and tried to remember any details from the other two. Her Sharingan had burned their images into her brain. "The plain looking one has some kind of blade. It looks curved. As for the silver-haired guy, I've got no clue."
Sakura bit her lip. Sasuki could practically hear the gears turning in her head. She was curious what kind of ideas Sakura would come up with.
"Our best bet is to try and place a couple paper bombs just before we stop. We might be able to catch them off guard and take one out. After that, we'll have to approach them cautiously." She finally said.
"Sounds good. There's not much point making up anything too intricate at this point." Sasuki agreed.
By some unspoken que, they both saw the spot at the same time. It couldn't have been more than a few minutes since they'd split from Naruto, and there was a gap amongst the twisted branches. The trees stopped suddenly at a steep bank of blood-red clay. There was a narrow strip of desolate ground made of rock and dirt. 'Perfect for Sakura to ambush from' She thought. Sasuki leapt down into the clearing. Sakura followed quickly after, taking time to throw two kunai wrapped with explosive tags towards the trees on either side. The black knives plunged deep into the trees on either side of the opening.
Thunk-thunk!
Their trap was set, now all they had to do was wait. There was a stillness in the air. Everything was deathly still as though the land could sense the impending fight. A calm feeling took over. Despite all the stress of the past day, and her concerns about Naruto, Sasuki was in her element. It'd always been like that. Battle was where she thrived.
She frowned when nothing happened after several minutes waiting. They should have caught up by now.
An odd sort of flapping sound drew her attention. Sasuki's head snapped up to see the huge one descending on them, his clothes fluttering in the breeze and kanabo raised to smash them.
"Dodge!" She exclaimed.
Sasuki had no time to see if Sakura was able to receive her warning. She only had a split second to throw herself backwards.
BAM!
The earth cracked under the giant man's club. Sasuki felt the rush of the air on her face as the club barely missed her. She was pelted by pebbles and dirt. Her feet slid across the ground haphazardly as she tried to regain her footing. Just as she was about to tumble backwards, someone stopped her momentum.
"I got you!" Sakura exclaimed.
She mumbled a 'thanks', but kept her gaze fixed on their enemy. His teammates had joined him. The silver-haired one stood shoulder to shoulder with him, while the brown-haired man stood just slightly behind them.
"Damn. I missed. I was hoping to squash em'." The Giant grunted. With a single hand, he swung his kanabo onto his shoulder with ease.
The brown-haired one sighed. "Junichi, we're not supposed to kill them. Well, correction, we're not supposed to kill the Uchiha." He chastised.
"Oh, right. Sorry Ishimaru." Junichi replied. His beady eyes never left her and Sakura. Though they seemed to lack intelligence, his eyes conveyed a savage cruelty. "Can we at least have some fun with them?"
Her skin crawled. Just the way he said the word 'fun' made her want to take a shower. His piggish eyes took in their bodies greedily. The academy had never hidden the dangers kunoichi in particular faced if missions went bad. Rape was a possibility. They'd heard several horror stories about what happened to kunoichi that fell victim to capture. Though Sasuki was determined not to let the same happen to her.
"Huh, I don't see anything wrong with that. Just don't damage her eyes. And don't be too rough. The old fogies might decide to try breeding the Sharingan after all. Though we can do whatever we want with the pink-haired one. Pity she's not as developed." The brown-haired one–Ishimaru–said.
An eerie silence descended. The wind, the trees, everything was silent save for the distant sounds of explosions and trees falling. It seemed all the wildlife had already ran away.
Sasuki glanced at Sakura to see how she was doing. The pink-haired girl seemed to be holding up remarkably well. She had a steely look in her eyes.
"Hn, listen to these dumbasses. Talking as if they're going to beat us." She muttered.
Her teammate nodded sharply. "Cha! I have no plans of letting my first time be with some sweaty pig."
The giant Junichi snarled at them. His stringy hair framed his face. "Watch it pinky. I don't have ta' keep you alive." He growled.
Tension filled the air. They were like two storm fronts waiting to clash. While he talked, Sasuki slowly reached for the tanto at her back. She didn't expect it to go unnoticed–the silver-haired one was watching her like a hawk. Still … they seemed to content to allow them to fight. The metal sang as she drew her short blade. It was a signal.
"… Takahiro, Junichi, you know what to do." Ishimaru muttered.
No elaboration was needed. The two men moved like a well-oiled machine. In an instant the silver-haired one flew threw a set of hand seals. A wave of violent blue water burst from his mouth and quickly swept towards them. Alarm bells went off in her head when she saw him perform yet more hand seals and saw a spark of white-blue electricity in his hands.
"Damn, a combination jutsu!" She cursed.
"I got it!" Sakura said confidently. Her hands blurred through a series of seals. She ended by slamming her palms onto the ground. "Earth Style: Double Earth-Style Barrier!"
The ground vibrated and two rough earthen walls erupted from the ground. The walls weren't very thick, but together they made up a decent defense.
Shhhhhhhhh!
A loud hiss filled the air. Sasuki hoped the wall held up. Several seconds passed. The earth groaned under the pressure of the water. Tiny cracks formed in the middle. 'Is the lightning chakra going to let it get through?' She wondered. Generally earth was strong against water, but perhaps the addition of lightning chakra would change that. It held though. The hissing sound died down.
"Good job." She said. Sakura gave her a small smile. For a single instant Sasuki relaxed her guard. BAM!
The center of the earth wall was blown apart by a giant fist of brown stone. They were pelted by dust and rock, thought thankfully no large pieces hit them. Amidst the dust she could see the hulking brute with his kanabo. His fists were encased in brown rocks like a large glove. He moved fast for a man his size. One second he was standing on the destroyed remains of Sakura's wall, the next he crossed the distance to her with his kanabo reared back to smash her.
"As if some puny wall could stop us!" He roared.
She just barely ducked under his swing and rolled out of the way. By the time she came up she'd already channeled chakra to her eyes and activated her sharingan. His movements slowed to a crawl. It made it a lot easier for her to see his follow up punch and dodge to the side. Underneath his arm she saw Sakura dancing out of the way of the silver-haired man's reach. He was using a pair of Tiger Claws to try and cut her to ribbons.
The giant man was quick to recover. Almost before she even realized it he'd turned to try and bring his club down on her again. It glinted a dark black. 'That looks just like when Naruto uses earth chakra flow.' On a hunch Sasuki channeled lightning chakra through her tanto. It was a good thing she did.
An unholy screech grated at her ears. Ever so slowly, her blade started to cut into the kanabo. Her eyes widened as she felt the pressure suddenly lift. The kanabo slid to the side and looked as if it would deflect away from her. A harsh impact clipped her on the shoulder. The bones groaned but held.. With a curse she took several hops back towards Sakura.
'What the hell is going on.' She wondered through teeth gritted in pain. The club-like weapon had clearly missed her, yet she still felt the blow. Either it had some sort of aura that extended its blows or …
Sasuki pulsed chakra into her eyes. Instantly the Sharingan activated and she could see a shimmering layer of chakra in the air. "Genjutsu."
Her chakra pulsed, releasing the genjutsu. She blinked as everything shifted just slightly. Junichi was a few inches to the left of where he was before. More importantly … the plain one wasn't there anymore.
"So you noticed? Too late."
A searing pain erupted in her left arm. Sasuki hissed in pain and twisted to strike at where the slash came from. Her tanto whistled through the air. It missed her foe rather badly. The apparent leader of the trio–Ishimaru–grinned at her sadistically. Clutched in his hand was a wickedly sharp garden scythe. It's blade dripped with a mixture of blood and some clear liquid.
"If only you'd noticed the genjutsu, you'd be in better shape. It's just a matter of time until my poison takes effect. Just be glad it's not deadly since we need you alive." He taunted.
Sasuki scowled, though the sound of earth crunching under heavy feet distracted her from responding. She dodged away just in time to miss a looping hit from the giant's Kanabo. The two slightly older men slowly started to circle her. Like a pair of wolves sizing up wounded prey. She gripped her tanto tightly and tried to come up with some sort of way out of the situation. At this range, trying for a jutsu was pointless. With two of them they'd stop her long before it succeeded. Hand to hand was just as poor an option. Every move would make whatever toxin Ishimaru used circulate her system faster. Maybe it was her imagination, but it felt like her vision was dulling.
'Crap, what do I do?' She thought heatedly.
Before she could come up with a plan, Ishimaru made his move. He lunged forward. His arm wound back for another slash!
"Earth Style: Earth Flow Spears!"
She almost sagged forward in relief at the welcome sound of Sakura's voice. It rang through the air clear and soft. Jagged rock spikes erupted from the ground and lunged at their enemies, forcing them to back off. Seconds later Sakura was at her side, hand glowing with a green miasma as she pressed it against Sasuki's wound.
"Jeez, I leave you for a couple minutes and you get yourself all cut up." Sakura said teasingly.
"Ah shut up. You only had the one to deal with. I had the brute and the other guy." She bit back. Sasuki eyed their opponents to make sure they didn't make any moves. The silver haired one had rejoined his comrades, his legs caked with mud up to his knees. "Be careful of the brown-haired guy. He uses layered genjutsu, and there's some kind of poison on his sickle. Apparently it's not deadly."
Her teammate hummed thoughtfully. After a minute, the green glow died down and Sakura pulled her hand away. A small globule of blood and the poison hung in the miasma. With a flick of the hand it was thrown into the dirt. Where the cut had been there was only the faint hint of a pink line.
"Try not to move too much until we have to. I was only able to remove a bit of the poison." Sakura said. She nodded in understanding. Her teammate turned her gaze to look at the enemy trio. "So that one uses genjutsu?"
Sasuki nodded sharply. "He doesn't like attacking with the others, he only gets in close when you're disoriented."
"So then we should try and separate them and take the other two out." Sakura responded. Sasuki readily agreed. The pink-haired girl made a good point. If they could isolate the other two and take them out quickly the brown-haired one wouldn't have any way to distract them.
"What do you think, tactic 1.4?" Sasuki asked. She got a nod in return.
With a grunt of effort she shoved herself off the ground. Thankfully she still felt pretty steady. They didn't need to talk. Their movements were perfectly in sync. This was one of many tactics they'd drilled since the joint training.
Her hands were a blur of motion. In less than a second she completed the jutsu. 'Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!' Embers burst from her lips. They erupted into basketball-sized balls of flame that soared towards the enemy.
The silver-haired man was quick to act. In an instant he had a water whip in his right hand that he used to strike down a number of the fireballs. His teammates had to dodge them the old fashioned way. The jutsu did its job, forcing the three to separate. While Takahiro batted the balls out of the air, Ishimaru simply retreated backwards towards the bank of clay, and Junichi batted any of the fireballs away with his kanabo. In all the chaos, none of them noticed then faint pop of Sakura creating a clone before tunneling underground.
Together Sasuki and the clone darted towards the silver-haired shinobi and the brute. Their job was to distract. The clone raced through a set of hand seals.
"Earth Style: Bog!" She cried.
Underneath their enemies the once hard earth transformed into viscous mud. They quickly found themselves sinking in it. With precise chakra control Sasuki stayed on the surface of the mud pit. She gripped the hilt of her tanto tightly and ducked under a clumsy blow from Junichi.
Her hand lashed out like a viper. The blade split the thick flak jacket and shirt the man wore and carved into his skin like it was butter.
"YOU BITCH!" He roared furiously.
He lashed out at her mindlessly like an angry bear. The blow came so fast she couldn't dodge. It drove the breath from her lungs. Her ribs felt like they would snap. She got flung backwards. 'Have to keep going.' Teeth grit with pain and side aching in protest, she twisted her body and landed in a crouch just on the edge of the newly made bog. Her vision was blurry from pained tears.
Through the haze of pain, a faint pop reached her ears. Sasuki blinked away her tears.
In another situation, the site of the so-far stoic silver-haired man gaping at thin air would have been amusing. As it was, she felt a single instant of panic that the plan would fail. She needn't have worried. Takahiro shouted in pain as a hand wreathed in chakra pierced the earth and slashed across the back of his ankles. He collapsed to his knees. Sakura emerged from the earth like a silent wraith. Her hand lashed out at the man's neck.
His face froze in a look of shocked disbelief. The skin went grey and lifeless. Everything was silent as the man fell forward like a puppet that had its strings cut. He fell face forward into the mud. Splat!
The two other chunin froze upon seeing their comrades death. 'Now's the chance.' Sasuki channeled chakra into her armguard and unsealed a length of ninja wire with a shuriken tied to the end. With one smooth motion she threw the shuriken. It whistled through the air. In an instant it wrapped around the giant man tightly. The steel wire bit into his flesh. Clenching it between her teeth, Sasuki performed a few quick hand seals. "Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!" She mumbled.
FWOOM!
A line of fire raced down the wire and engulfed Junichi. It's effect was as quick as it was disturbing. In a single instant he was bathed in orange flames. They licked at his body. The man let out a howl of pure agony. She almost cringed as his skin started to bubble. In an act of mercy she unsealed a kunai and channeled lightning chakra through it. With one quick toss it was over. The kunai pierced the man right through the forehead and killed him instantly.
The leader of the trio gaped in horror at his teammates corpses. Sasuki kept a close eye on him, even as she looked at her teammate.
Sakura hadn't moved since she'd struck the final blow on Takahiro. Her hands were shaking, and she couldn't seem to look away from the body. Sasuki frowned. Of their team, Sakura was the only one who hadn't experienced death. While she hadn't killed anyone herself, her brother had made sure Sasuki saw plenty of death. 'Better refocus her.'
"Sakura, let's end this." She said.
Her words jarred Sakura from her trance. The girl jumped and looked at her with empty eyes. "Yeah … sure." She said quietly.
As if on autopilot her teammate completed a set of hand seals. Her hands slammed into the ground. Earth rose up and snared the still shocked Ishimaru in a column that left only his head exposed.
In order to spare her teammate the experience of killing him too, Sasuki forced herself to her feet. She began to trudge towards the last enemy at a deliberate pace. His situation finally seemed to dawn on the man, and he began to try and struggle and scream.
"No, no! Stay away. I'm sorry, please let me go!" He pleaded.
Sasuki wasn't moved with his pleas. The man had helped kidnap her friend. He wanted to rape her and her other friend and take her back to his village so they could get the Sharingan. No, there was no sympathy for him. With a cold sense of detachment she drowned out his please and reached up with one hand to clutch his head. Her side groaned in protest.
"That's enough out of you." She muttered. Her hand sparked with blue electricity. His death was even faster than his teammate. In a single instant she flooded his brain with lightning chakra. Ishimaru let out a terrible scream. His faced turned red, eyes melting in their sockets. Pinkish ooze dripped from his ears. It was a horrendous sight. One that was seared into her mind from her Sharingan. At some point, he must have lost control of his bowels. Her noise wrinkled at the foul stench that permeated from the corpse. Her stomach heaved, but she managed to hold it in.
With the last opponent defeated, all the adrenaline drained from her body.
Her head felt heavy and clouded. She struggled just to hold it up. Sasuki stumbled momentarily. She took several deep breaths to try and clear her mind. The world tilted dramatically. Suddenly she found herself staring at the cold blue sky. Why was she staring at the sky? A hawk flew across the sky. Or was it three? It was hard to tell, one second it was just one, the next there were several rather blurry birds of prey.
"Whoah, easy there. Hold on." Said Sakura. Her voice was muffled and distant.
The next several minutes were foggy at best. A dreamlike haze clouded her mind. Everything was a confusing mish-mash of sound and color. She felt Sakura shove something into her mouth and force her to chew it. A bitter taste of copper made her gag. Seconds later a hot lance of pain seared her bicep. It was followed by a rush of even worse disorientation, and finally a soothing sensation. The haze began to lift.
Sasuki blinked and shook her head. Her vision started to clear. She took deep, steadying breaths. That was a mistake.
The smell of iron was overwhelming. There was a sticky feeling on her arm. Almost afraid of what she'd find, Sasuki mustered up the will to look at the source. She grimaced at the sight of her skin being stained by what was an insane amount of blood. How had she possibly survived losing so much? For that matter, when had it even happened?
"I had to give you a plasma pill and flush out some of the poison." Sakura explained. As she spoke the pink-haired girl unsealed a bottle of water and washcloth and started to clean up the blood. With every bit of fair skin that was cleaned, the rag was stained red. By the end you couldn't tell what color it had originally been. "Can you stand?" Sakura asked gently.
It was a good question/ Could she stand? Sasuki still felt a slight tremor from that poison. She braced her arm against the ground and tried to push herself up. It was slow. Her muscles already felt heavy from the energy she'd expended. It would be a while before she could move freely. She managed to get to her knees just fine, but as she tried to push off the ground and stand up Sasuki stumbled. Sakura was quick to help her stay standing.
A hot flush spread through her body. Needing help was humiliating. Sasuki wanted to protest that she could stand on her own but now wasn't the time.
For a moment the two just stood there and surveyed the battlefield. It was a mess of upturned earth and water puddles, with a scorched circle where Junichi's charred corpse lay.
"…We should clean up, then head out and find Naruto." Sasuki mumbled.
Sakura nodded in agreement. "Yeah, let's get to it."
As they began to go about gathering and sealing their enemies bodies, Sasuki couldn't help but wonder how Naruto was doing in his own fight.
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"Dance? What the fuck do you think this is brat?" Koroshi said with a derisive snort.
His chakra began to flair like a halo. It felt as chaotic and shifty as its owner looked. The sensation wasn't helped by the constant buzz he could feel as large bursts of chakra were used in the other fights. He took a deep breath to center himself. With his eyes closed, Naruto tried hard to reign in his sensing abilities. It was like trying to compress a rubber ball evenly. Sweat beaded his temple. After finally wrestling his senses into a hundred meter radius, he opened his eyes again.
Koroshi hadn't moved. For someone as … psychotic as he seemed, the man had a good deal of patience. Naruto regarded him calculatingly. From what he saw earlier, the Grass ninja could use his Fuma Shuriken to form shields and to try and slice his opponents.
'I should test out how good that shield is first and foremost.' His hands moved swiftly to perform a set of seals, ending with tiger. Heat billowed in his chest and his lungs expanded. 'Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!'
The blazing hot fire chakra spilled from his mouth and ignited when it met the air. A curtain of flame raced through air to try and devour Koroshi. Despite the wave of death headed towards him, the man simply smirked.
"Heh, is that all you got? Pathetic!" He taunted. Mere seconds before the fire jutsu reached him, six more chakra strings shot from the man's fingers and snared the remaining shuriken on his back. They flew into the air and joined the two he was already using, rocketing to form a makeshift wall of fan blades between him and the fire. Naruto expected that he'd activate his shielding. Instead the something happened that almost made his jaw drop. The second the flames touched the shuriken they started to disappear. His flames were gobbled greedily by the fan wall and left them glowing the faintest orange. Koroshi's eyes widened in delight, an insane grin stretched his lips.
"That's quite the power there. Ya know, fire isn't really my style. Why don't you take it back?" He said.
'Lookout!' The nine-tails roared.
It's warning came just in time. On instinct Naruto flooded chakra into his sword.
The swords seals glowed pink and silvery steel sand poured out to form a dense wall of glittering silver razor blades tinged in pink chakra. It wasn't the sturdiest thing, or even solid, but it would have to do. The wall formed not a second too soon. There was a loud–FWOOM! Suddenly he found himself bathed in heat as a curtain of flames twice as large as his own barraged his makeshift barrier. Unbelievably, he could see the metal fragments glow a pale yellow from the heat. Small tongues of light orange flame licked around the edges and slipped between the razors, but all in all he remained unharmed save for the stifling heat.
When the flames finally died off Naruto quickly willed the wall to part so he could keep an eye on his enemy. Koroshi hadn't moved at all. He still had that grin, and his shuriken hovered in the air around him like the tentacles of an octopus.
'What in the hell just happened?' He wondered to himself. One second he'd been testing the capabilities of the barrier jutsu he'd seen, the next Naruto found himself defending against his own attack. 'It's like he absorbed it and fired it right back. Though that was way stronger than my jutsu. Didn't Kakashi mention Hiroshi could cancel jutsu? Does his brother have a similar skill?' That was a sobering thought. An enemy that could absorb a jutsu and send it right back … was about as dangerous an opponent Naruto could possibly face.
"Heh, didn't expect that now, did ya punk?" Koroshi gloated.
Naruto's eyebrows pinched together in annoyance. "No, I didn't. That's an annoying ability. I think I'll need all my resources for this." His sluggish chakra followed his directions, spreading into Senbonzakura once more. "Scatter, Senbonzakura."
The blade glowed pink and dispersed into thousands more pink-tinged silver slivers. Far more than one would expect from your average sword. All the new blades rose to join the cloud that hovered at his back, swelling it to at least twice it's original size. As the light shifted through the trees it would catch the mass and give it the appearance of a hovering cloud of cherry blossoms.
His enemy sneered. "Heh, how fitting. A pretty weapon for a pretty boy. Let's see what you can do against a real weapon!"
Koroshi swiped his hand through the air, and four of the shuriken at his back zipped forwards. Two of them arced to the sides, while the others went straight for Naruto.
In response he gripped Senbonzakura's hilt tightly and swung it sharply. Four tendrils shot out of the mass of blade fragments. Their movements weren't as smooth as usual, but they got the job done. In an instant the tendrils met the madly spinning shuriken.
A horrid screech rent the air, and sparks flew constantly. Dozens of tiny tinks rang out as the blades met the shuriken. They can so rapidly the sounds seemed to blur together into one large buzzing. Naruto gritted his teeth and willed his blades to try and still the shuriken and stop them cold. For a brief moment it seemed to work. The sound of the spinning shuriken died down.
Naruto allowed himself a small smile. He'd successfully stopped the initial attack, now to launch one of his ow–
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Suddenly one of his tendrils just–the one to his left–disintegrated. The razor-sharp slivers flew in every direction and Koroshi's shuriken continued its path towards him!
There wasn't any time to react. Even if there had been, frankly he was too stunned by development to do so. Thankfully either on their own or at the behest of his subconscious, a wave of 'petals' split from the main mass and crashed into the shuriken just in time to send it off-course. It was just enough time for Naruto to shake himself from his momentary shock.
Mere seconds later two more tendrils collapsed and unleashed their targets. This time he noticed something. Just before the collapse, there was a sudden drain on the chakra controlling them. 'So it's not just energy based techniques.' He thought.
With a deft swipe Naruto sent two new tendrils to knock them away. For good measure he tried to sent extra chakra into the sole remaining tendril, and compelled it to toss the last shuriken back in Koroshi's direction.
"Hahaha, these shuriken are just full of surprises, aren't they?" Koroshi cackled in amusement. "These things were made of special chakra conducting metal. I love em' because they let me play with my opponents, and there's not a damn thing they can do to stop it. In the end everyone runs out of chakra!"
There wasn't much time for Naruto to respond with his dulled senses picking up the three shuriken approaching from his back and sides. Not that he really wanted to. With the secret of the shuriken discovered he knew to deflect instead of capturing them, and that was a full time pursuit.
His eyes narrowed in concentration as he sent tendril out to knock away another shuriken, and another after that. On and on it went. They were coming fast and fierce now, attacking in a flurry of spinning death. Worse, his chakra was still being drained. It was far less than the initial drain, but still it chipped away at his reserves. More annoying was the fact that he couldn't find any room to counterattack with the blades responding so sluggishly. It was all he could do to try and keep up with the constant barrage of demon wind shuriken.
'Dammit, at this rate the bastard is gonna be right. He'll drain me dry if I don't do something.' Naruto cursed.
In a desperate attempt to give himself room to breathe, he did something risky. Naruto sent a wave of blades towards Koroshi in a surprise attack. For a single second he thought it might land with the way the man's eyes widened. His brief hope was quickly dashed by the reminder of the shuriken's other ability.
With a simple twitch Koroshi surrounded himself in a semi-dome of overlapping blue shields that darted about fending off the barrage easily. At the same time, he recalled the four shuriken he'd been using to attack to hover in front of himself.
Naruto practically growled and withdrew his attack. Keeping it up would take too much chakra and concentration. Suddenly, there was a massive burst of chakra from Koroshi to one of his shuriken. The center began to glow with blue light. At first glance it almost looked like he was going to activate a shield, but the concentration of chakra was wrong.
On pure intuition Naruto launched himself away from the tree branch he was standing on.
VWOOM! BOOM!
A split second after he leapt away the branch exploded when a beam of pure chakra slammed into it. Splinters pelted everything around it. He could feel a few minor cuts on his arms and cheek, and one chunk the size of a finger embedded itself in his shoulder. Thankfully the adrenaline drowned out the pain. For now.
"Of course the bastard can fire fucking lasers!" Naruto groused. All jokes aside, he knew he needed to create space and time to think. For that, he'd need to use a technique he'd been avoiding due to his unstable control.'Damn, this could get dicey. I just hope my control is still good enough for this.'
He actually took the time to perform the tiger seal this time. The familiar invigorating feeling of his cells flooding with energy came with a harsh sting this time. Even without moving, he could tell using Teleportation for an extended period would hurt like a bitch. His vision blurred at the edges as he dashed down the tree and onto the ground. Dashing between the trunks and underbrush, Naruto darted between the shadows to get roughly parallel to Koroshi. He finally came to a stop behind one of the large tree trunks.
As soon as he could he let up on the jutsu with a relieved sigh. The effect wasn't too bad but it wasn't something he wanted to keep up. 'Good. Now that I'm hidden I can attack him without worrying about those shuriken–'
His planning was cut off by Koroshi's annoyed scoff. "Tch, did you really think that would work brat? I'm not in the mood for hide and seek." An eerie silence hung in the wake of his words. It was punctuated by a sudden increase in the noise made by the shuriken. "Eight Saw Dance!"
With his senses, Naruto felt a massive burst of chakra travel from Koroshi to his shuriken. On pure instinct he pulled a page from Sakura's handbook and raced to perform the seals for the Hidden Mole Jutsu. He dove into the earth at the same instant that Koroshi's shuriken darted towards the ground and started to orbit in a giant circle. Insulated amongst the smell of damp dirt that clung to his skin, he felt the earth tremble. An endless series of shuddering impacts. Boom … crash … crack! Like steps of some terrible titan he could hear a muffled but deafening cacophony of crashes and cracks, along with the now familiar Zzzzzzz of the shuriken.
The constant feedback of the technique that let him know what was going on above got so distracting Naruto cut it off. It gave him a … relative silence to consider his next move. 'I'm running low on chakra here. I could release my limiting seal, but it's a massive risk.'
Releasing the seal would shoot his chakra control all to hell in the aftermath. Sure he'd have a huge boost temporarily, but afterwards he'd be practically useless in a fight. His chakra control would be worse than it already was for at least a day or two. No, that was strictly for emergencies. That left only the Nine-Tails Chakra.
'What do you say Nine, mind letting me use your chakra for this?' He asked. He heard a deep rumbling scoff from the fox.
'Tch, fine. But do try and make it quick.' The fox growled.
'Will, do.' He replied. A second later he felt the familiar sting of the foxes chakra seep into his veins. Now all that was left was to wait for it to be safe to emerge.
Naruto couldn't be sure how long it lasted. In the cold dark earth it felt like hours. Though it was likely only minutes. Even after the last shudder, he waited some time to be sure. Only then did he dare to poke his head above the ground. He was treated by a sight that was jaw-dropping yet some how expected. After all, what else could that terrible noise have been?
A good chunk of what had been thriving woodland was now a graveyard of fallen trees under a choking haze of dust. Hundreds of massive trees had been cut down to mere stumps. Giant logs littered the area in neat concentric circles. The smell of freshly cut wood lay heavily in the air. Even the underbrush hadn't been spared, bushes had their tops cut smoothly like the finely groomed hedges of a Daimyo's estate. The destruction must have stretched for half a mile on every side in a perfect circle.
Koroshi stood at the center of it all in the branches of the sole tree standing. Naruto gripped the trunk of one of the downed trees and hauled himself out of the earth.
"Guess we're doing this the direct way." He muttered sardonically.
His eyes never left his enemy. Even as he swung Senbonzakura out to the side and started to recall the thousands of blade fragments that had been scattered in the chaos he never looked away from those insane dark green irises. The cloud of blades gathered quickly in many different streams. From under logs and inside bushes they came and gathered into a glittering cloud that was sucked into Senbonzakura's seals.
An eerie silence filled the lull. The tiniest flicker in Koroshi's chakra prompted him to unleash once more! Senbonzakura scattered to the wind and raced towards his enemy.
For once, he had beaten Koroshi to the punch. Senbonzakura separated into eight different streams and lashed out at his opponent, forcing him to constantly shift his shuriken about to keep himself shielded.
The petals of Naruto's blades circled Koroshi like a pack of hungry wolves. Occasionally one would dart forward and get rebuffed. Every once in a while the man would try and launch a counterattack, but Naruto would always respond quickly.
It only took him second to note something curious. 'He hasn't tried absorbing my chakra since I've been on the attack.' He mused. Wait … what if he couldn't? Curious to test his hypothesis, Naruto raised his left hand and gathered lightning chakra. He felt the vibrating chakra tingle on his palm. "Lightning Style: Pale Lightning!"
Bkraam!
A narrow beam of lightning hurtled towards Koroshi. Naruto knew the instant Koroshi's eyes widened and he raced to place a shield in front of the beam he'd been right. Even as the lightning slammed ineffectively into the circular shield he felt a sense of triumph.
"So, he can't shield and absorb at the same time. Guess I'll go for broke then." He said.
Focusing inwards, Naruto drew on more of the foxes chakra. More than he had ever done outside of training. Bubbling red chakra seeped from underneath his skin. His canines jutted from under his lips and his nails became claw-like. Once sapphire eyes turned orangish-red with slit pupils. The bubbling red chakra formed a vaguely fox-shaped cloak around his body, with three tails that swayed chaotically behind him. A savage grin stretched his lips when he saw Koroshi look slightly nervous.
"Oi, what the hell's with that chakra brat?" He growled.
Instead of responding, Naruto channeled his newfound power into Senbonzakura. 'Let's try something different.' He rarely if ever used his magnet style to mimic his Grand-Uncles usage, but this seemed like the ideal situation. At his beckoning the slivers dispersed into individual particles of silvery sand. Naruto clenched his fist, forming the sand to take a solid shape. Due to his unfamiliarity the process took several seconds. In the end, he was left with two dozen silvery steel spikes the size of a man. Crude, but effective.
"Senbonzakura: Steel Sand Gathering Formation." Naruto said.
With a sharp swipe of Senbonzakura's hilt, the spikes were sent at Koroshi. The man was forced to interlock his shields to form a solid dome.
Bam … Bam … Bam.
Naruto hammered his opponent's shields relentlessly. As he did he could feel his chakra responding more easily. 'The nine-tails chakra must be burning off the rest of the poison.' His grin widened, and he threw himself all the more vigorously into his assault.
Koroshi snarled in defiance. He grew visibly agitated as the assault continued. If he had to guess, this was likely the first time in a while the man was forced on the defensive.
"Dammit!" Koroshi yelled.
With a shout of frustration, the shields flickered out of existence. A harsh jab sent all of the shuriken flying at Naruto in a last ditch attempt to retake the initiative. His body fueled with the power and aggression of his tenant's chakra, Naruto forewent using Senbonzakura.
He charged forward recklessly and thrust a hand towards the shuriken. Eight crude chakra arms burst forwards to seize Koroshi's prized weapons. In a single instant, all of them were rendered motionless.
"What the hell?" Koroshi exclaimed.
Naruto savored the panicked look of his enemy. "You seem to really like absorbing chakra, why don't you try this on for size." He said.
Before Koroshi could think to respond, Naruto forced the Nine-Tails' chakra into the shuriken. They glowed purple from the clashing of the two chakra's. The clash didn't last long. In an instant the red chakra raced down the chakra threads and directly into Koroshi's hands.
"AHHHHHHH!" Koroshi screamed in anguish. The corrosive chakra of the Nine-Tails consumed the Grass shinobi's hands. His skin turned red and blistered.
The pain was so severe that Koroshi tumbled from his perch. With a harsh thud the man slammed into the ground at the base of the tree. Naruto let out a tense breath and let go of his control of the tailed beast chakra. Just as quickly as it came the chakra receded.
"I suppose it's time to finish this." He muttered.
With a careful gait, he approached his enemy. It wasn't the easiest of tasks to pick his way towards his opponent amongst all the twisted and broken trees. As he walked Naruto held Senbonzakura's hilt out and recalled the steel sand. His blade reformed itself from the shimmering pink particles, until once more he held a beautiful but normal blade.
Scattered twigs and branches cracked under his heels. The noise roused Koroshi, who struggled to sit up from his crumpled heap. Blood trickled down the side of the mans face. His body shook from the effort, but the best the man could do was to crawl to his knees.
Green eyes blazed like fire. He gave Naruto a furious glare.
"Damn you! Fucking Leaf Trash! I can't stand you. That smug confidence all of you have as if you're the greatest! Dammit, dammit, dammit!" Koroshi raved. "I can't believe I'm going to die at the hands of some Leaf brat!"
Naruto regarded the man with a cold gaze. Normally seeing a powerful shinobi reduced to such a pathetic state might get some sympathy from him. But honestly he couldn't muster any for this … man. From every indication he was a rabid dog. Besides, he and his cohorts had planned to take Sasuki and do heaven knows what to her. No, he got no sympathy. He stopped just outside of arm's length from Koroshi. His mind couldn't help but race back to his nightmares. Losing Sasuki. How much learning of their plans had triggered that fear. Maybe it was the lingering effects of the foxes chakra, but a burning rage built in the pit of his stomach. It quickly became a chaotic tempest. He clenched his fist so tightly his nails dug into flesh, causing rivulets of blood to stain the sawdust that blanketed the forest floor.
"I'm not doing this as a Leaf Shinobi. I'm doing it because you tried to lay your filthy hands on my best friend, my most treasured pride. That's all the reason I need to kill you." Naruto rebutted.
Just as he was about to deal the killing blow, he had a thought. There were things that just didn't add up about this fiasco. Why waste this opportunity? Yes, he should gather any information he could.
With a pulse of chakra he activated his sharingan. Koroshi's stunned expression brought a smirk to his lips. Still, he had a job to do. Naruto tore ruthlessly into the mans mind and rooted through his recent memories. Unfortunately he wasn't the most skilled at this practice. He got brief glimpses at best. Scattered and incoherent bursts of sight and snippets of conversation. Some of the things he saw were … disturbing beyond compare. It turned his stomach so bad he almost missed it.
'Wait, what was that?' Naruto's eyes narrowed in concentration. Slowly an image he'd seen only briefly swam before his eyes. A silver forehead protector marked with a familiar leaf symbol.
Frowning, he tried to force his way into he memory.
Everything was blurry and vague. It had a dream-like quality to it. He seemed to be standing in void of cloudy mist. His brother stood in front of him. Koroshi felt bored as he listened to the endless prattle. He tried to focus on the face of the man they were talking to, but all he could make out was fair skin, and his stupid forehead protector that sent his stomach boiling.
"-e mission is confirmed. I've ensured the 'package' passed inspection. All that's left is for you to fulfill your end and make sure the girl is captured." The man said. His voice had a condescending edge to it that made Koroshi want to gut him.
"Don't worry about it. We'll do our job, and then both of our villages will have the Sharingan as long as your master does as he's promised. This should be quite a blow to one of the five major villages." Hiroshi said.
Naruto was ripped from the memory with a gasp, unable to maintain focus any longer. He blinked in shock, unintentionally deactivating his Sharingan. A traitor?
"Y-you're one of them? Uch –" Koroshi's voice yanked him from his dazed state, and reminded him of what he'd been doing.
Exhausted from his battle, and recalling the cruelty he'd seen the man commit, he didn't hesitate. With a scowl and all too practiced ease he wound back and slashed Senbonzakura with a backhanded swing.
Shlick!
The beautiful sword sliced through Koroshi's neck without resistance. His expression was forever frozen in shock and fear.
"That's quite enough out of you. You wanted to do those … unspeakable things to someone very precious to me, for that there's no forgiveness." Naruto said grimly.
A crimson line appeared at his enemies throat. Then his head tumbled from his shoulders and hit the ground with a sound reminiscent of a ripe watermelon. Naruto callously shoved the body away with his foot so as to avoid getting sprayed by the spurting life blood.
Normally he wasn't so heartless but seeing the man's memories left him completely devoid of any guilt at the moment. Calling him an animal would be an insult to animals.
Instead his mind was consumed with thoughts of what he'd learned. There was a traitor in the Leaf. It made sense. Since waking up in the cabin he'd had the feeling something was off. There was never any time to consider it until now. In hindsight he should have realized it immediately. Like Kakashi said, mission assignment always inspected packages sealed in scrolls to avoid this exact scenario. The only possible way to get around it was for someone to make sure it slipped through.
"Naruto, hey Naruto! Thank god you're okay." The sound of Sakura's enthusiastic voice jarred him from his musing.
Naruto snapped his head in the direction of the shout. His heart leapt into his throat when he saw his teammates racing towards him. For a brief moment he worried they'd heard his exchange with Koroshi. Thankfully they were still quite a ways away. He quickly deactivated his sharingan so it wasn't noticed.
"Oh, yeah. It's good to see you made it out in one piece too." He called, plastering a smile on his face. Though it was dampened when he realized that wasn't exactly true. Sasuki looked exhausted, her skin paler than usual and bags under her eyes. She seemed to wince with every step. Though her cheeks oddly were tinged a faint pink. "Wait, are you?" He asked.
Sasuki scowled. "Yes you idiot, I'll be fine." She huffed. "Now hurry up and deal with body so we can go find Kakashi and end this."
Naruto tilted her head in confusion. The tone in her voice … was she embarrassed? He shook his head. It didn't really matter. She had a point. With a quick tiger seal, Koroshi's body was consumed by flames. The sickly sweet smell of burning flesh made his stomach turn but he shoved it aside. Judging from the green tinge to Sakura's face she wasn't much better. Though the haunted cast to her eyes gave him pause.
'I see … she probably killed one of them. Something to address later.' He thought a simple thought a clone popped into existence. "Collect his demon wind shuriken and seal them along with the head. Make sure to bring to me. We're going ahead." He ordered. The clone gave a sharp nod and went about his tasks.
Naruto turned back to the girls, a sheepish grin on his face when he saw their deadpan expressions.
"What? We're in a rush, right? Come on, let's get going. You can tell me about your fight on the way." He said.
Sakura shook her head in exasperation. He heard her mutter something under her breath. Nonetheless, he got a nod from each of them. Together they turned and dashed for the tree line, treating the fallen trees like steppingstones.
"So how did your fight go?" He asked.
Sasuki grunted in annoyance.
-x-x-x-x-x-x- NTUC -x-x-x-x-x-x-
There's the fights! Next chapter we get to see the fight between Kakashi and Hiroshi. Then there's just one more in this arc. After that there will be a bit of a break for this story while I'm working on another one.
Anyways, thanks to my patrons who support my writing:
⸻ Patron Shoutout ⸻
Odin Darkfeather, Garim, MK3Kratos, Neil Tucker, Chillz90, Kit Arashi.
Well, thats all for now.
Until Next Time,
RinneTaicho, Signing Off!
