Thank you all for staying this long reading this story, and also for those reading my other stories. I appreciate it :)
Enough of my babbling. I hope you enjoy reading.
CHAPTER 23
'I should have known something was going to happen; the trip here was too peaceful,' Naruto murmured to himself as his blue rectangular shield spiralled out his right forearm and a chakra scalpel, courtesy of Kabuto Yukushi, clanged against it. Naruto was crouched on the ground as he blocked the attack, over Yumi Chou's weakened form, with his left palm on the ground, Kabuto, not too aware of the full extent of his mastery over the chakra beam attack, didn't anticipate the four earth fists that shot out from directly under him and cracked against his chin.
Naruto didn't change his expression as his fingers dug into the ground. He closed his hand into a fist before he cancelled his shield and levelled his now-open left palm at the airborne medic ninja.
'Lightning Release: Chakra Beam.'
A torrent of bluish-purple chakra poured from his hand and washed over the silver-haired teen. Naruto's mouth twitched down as the attack fazed through the ninja, revealing him to be an illusionary clone. He looked down as he heard a groan and he placed a hand on the wounded Chill leader's shoulder, forcing her to stay on the ground while his genin team rushed to him. "Take care of her."
"Yes, sensei." He stood up and began walking off towards the sounds of violent fighting in the forest bordering Kumo. "Noriko, barrier seal." The younger seal master nodded at his teacher's command and unrolled a scroll on the ground, then slapped his palms together as Naruto disappeared into the forest in a cool jog.
"Fuinjutsu: Seal Barrier."
The night before had been fairly uneventful, with the Wave and Chill guards keeping up their rounds keeping watch of their camp and the forest around them while Yugito kept a careful eye on Naruto's tent, sensing that he was sleeping but wasn't lying down…
Flashback
Naruto, still in the combat uniform he wore that day, sat down with his legs crossed. He breathed in deeply and breathed out, then he placed his hands into the ram hand seal and closed his eyes. He allowed his chakra to flow through the hand seal and the sensation of falling backwards hit him but he refrained from opening his eyes, only allowing his consciousness to fall back and land softly on lush, green grass, in a wide field that had black clouds floating in the sky and the moon shining crimson red. The trees looked relatively normal, besides the tree situated on an island at the very centre of the field that was completely made up of ink and seals. The boy looked around and instinctively tested to see if his hands and feet were still working before he huffed to his feet and looked around for the imprisoned-tailed beast. His search didn't last long; the Kyuubi pranced out from behind a clump of trees and stopped close to his jailer, sky blue eyes clashed against vulpine red eyes as the beast sat on his haunches and cocked his head to the side.
"I see the Two Tails jinchuriki got to you," the beast simply said with a roll of his eyes. In Naruto's mindscape, and as the two were speaking, Kyuubi's deep tone lessened to something more human-like. Naruto nodded to the beast's frank statement.
"She thinks I'm weak."
"Are you?"
He scoffed and shrugged. "I don't know, you tell me." He trusted Kyuubi's honesty.
The beast, with his tails waving around behind him gently, replied, "You're strong for your age—"
"That's still not a reply, Kyu."
Kyuubi sighed. "You are strong." The beast rumbled as he strongly stared at Naruto, who was used to the beast giving him the look. "You are unbelievably strong, especially for one your age."
"Thank you," Naruto said as he briefly sent the behemoth a wide smile, "but that still won't change my mind."
"I told you, you would be ready for all of my tails by the time you're sixteen."
"That's three years too far; I want to be ready to face whoever comes against me and complete control of your chakra would do that."
"Wouldn't sage mode be better than using my chakra?" Kyuubi prodded as he laid his head on the ground and looked at his jinchuriki.
"I don't have a summons—" his long-time friend stopped him with an amused exhalation.
"We both know that you don't need a summons to use sage mode; you've got your Chakra High seal. That's sage mode; if anything, it's as close as non-animal summoners can get to sage mode."
"I've already mastered that; everyone with the seal has mastered it, and combined with your chakra and mine there is no limit to what can happen."
"Like an explosion capable of destroying all life on earth."
"Or," Naruto interjected, "chakra so potent, even more potent than yours and mine combined, that it will make people think twice before attacking my allies. Not just me."
Kurama sighed tiredly and slowly sat up again, getting to his feet and looking down at the pea-sized boy. "I see I can't change your mind." He shook his head in exasperation. "You're just like Kushina."
"Compliment me later, fight now." And as an afterthought, he added, "Please."
The fox rolled his eyes and bared his teeth in a dangerous snarl. "Prepare yourself."
The red moon illuminated the field well enough, despite the dark clouds that were in the sky, so Naruto was able to see the three fox tails that shot down to him so he could leap backwards away from it and spin away from the two the erupted from the ground to skewer him.
There was a low, almost quiet bell that rang through the field, and the landscape took a small change, barely noticeable by the untrained eye; the tree on the island covered itself with a translucent dome. Kyuubi's fur stood on end and his formerly light red eyes darkened evilly, his back hunched over and his claws grew, sharper than anything Naruto had ever seen in his life but he wasn't dissuaded. The speck standing on the grassy field that looked up at the beast in defiance forcefully controlled his heart as he got into the Third stage Armadillo fighting style position; getting on the ground like he was about to start sprinting. He also underwent a few intimidating changes; his blonde hair spiked up even uncontrollably and his blue eyes darkened with determination.
He shot forward in a roll that kept going, gathering earth around him until he was covered in a rocky ball half the beast's size and Kyuubi shot forward as well. He smashed his head against the ball with a thunderous crack but the ball screeched and kept pushing.
The tailed beast had a monumental advantage over Naruto with his tails and the surface knowledge of some of Naruto's skills, so he used two tails to lift the ball of rock and earth and two more to stab into it. Silence reigned after that and the Kyuubi tutted as he slowly pulled his tails out to get a look at his holder. "Better luck…next…time…?"
"Don't underestimate me," Naruto muttered as he crouched on the two tails with a dome of blue chakra protecting his feet from demonic chakra. Naruto dug deep into his massive stores of chakra and charged up both chakra beam seals in his palms.
Purple lightning licked his sleeves, charring them slightly as he slammed them down on the tail without hesitation.
"Chakra beam: Lightning resonance!"
The electricity passing through the great beast was potent enough for his skeletal system to flash erratically and his tails to flail madly. Kyuubi bellowed and slapped the boy off his tail; Naruto hit the ground, back first from the speed and the power, and bounced three times before he got both of his hands under him and backflipped five times, each on to slow down the speed he was hurtling in until he stopped at his feet and skidded backwards, his hands deep in the ground and clawing it to stay in place, carving a destructive path of twisted soil and grass as he did so.
The boy excitedly licked his lips as the nine-tailed beast charged at him, infuriated that his jailer had deceived him.
The demon fox opened his mouth wide and started pelting his jailer with black balls of dark chakra the size of average human beings. The Wave leader hurriedly stood up straight and hopped away twice while his hands weaved through a fairly long set of hand seals.
"Wind release: Wind tunnel." Not a second later, the wind began spinning around him and the beast bullets Kyuubi had been shooting at him smashed against the wall mercilessly, cracking it visibly each time.
The beast kept charging murderously towards Naruto.
'I just need a second,' Naruto mentally prayed as he placed his right hand on the ground, brown chakra glowed around the palm on the ground. "Chakra Beam: Fuinjutsu: Journeyman's Chain Prison." The earth chakra pulsing out of the chakra beam seal in his right hand forced itself into the ground and a split second of peace fell on clearing before it was violently broken when wrought iron chains as large as the beast's fingers burst out of the ground, breaking apart the ground, and speedily wrapped around each of the tailed beasts limbs and tails. This stopped the beast abruptly and he growled at his suspiciously sturdy chains.
"Wait…no!" The beast roared and Naruto, still inside the breaking wind tunnel, levelled his other hand where another chakra beam seal painted onto his palm began glowing bright red, all while still keeping his left palm flat on the ground. The seal melded with itself and morphed into a different seal.
"Suppress!"
"Dick move, Naruto! That's cheating!" Kyuubi yelled as his chakra was forced out of his pores and straight into the suppression seal on Naruto's palm.
"I'm a ninja. Deal with it!" Naruto retorted as he gritted his teeth under the constant strain of pulling the toxic chakra out of the beast and channelling it into the wrought iron chains that held down the Kyuubi.
The Journeyman's Chain Prison was a jutsu of Naruto's creation where he combined an earth attack from his chakra beam and the tailed beast suppression seal. The suppression seal wasn't just an ordinary one he could use on the six tails, but one that could only be used on the nine tails, the strongest of all tailed beasts.
Originally, the seal was meant to hold him, the jinchuriki of the nine-tailed beasts, down if he was to ever go berserk under the beast's chakra, but it could also be improvised to hold down the nine tails itself. Not indefinitely, of course. Just long enough for Naruto to drain his chakra down to a sizable, more stable level.
Simply speaking, he had replicated the Uzumaki chakra chains using a level nine suppression seal and his chakra beam, though it was not as perfect as the original Uzumaki chakra chain.
The chains inflated more and more, getting stronger and stronger with each influx of Kyuubi chakra and the Kyuubi, in turn, began shrinking, as his tails turned into short stumps one after the other, leaving just five tails and the beast twice as big as a gorilla born and raised in Konoha's forest of death, which was much bigger than a gorilla born anywhere else. The beast used its drastically reduced size to slip out of the massive chains.
Naruto let go of the ground as the Kyuubi drilled a tail down on his former position, releasing the suppression earth chains. The chakra flowed through the ground and into the pools of chakra, specifically a section to hold Kyuubi's, where it would stay until their fight was over.
Naruto grunted as the tail skimmed past his gut, cutting his side open slightly and infecting him with Kyuubi's tainted chakra, from the evil smirk plastered on the beast's face as he withdrew the tail, he knew the situation Naruto was now in. The boy grabbed his side with his left hand and coughed, clumps of thin bleed fell from his mouth and hit the trussed-up grassy ground. He fell heavily onto his knees and coughed again, more blood flowed from his lips, as well as the wound on his side that refused every effort on his part to seal up.
When a jinchuriki and a tailed beast reached an agreement, a personal pact between the two, that the holder was ready to possess all of its chakra then the resulting fight would be between beast and man, with the man not having any of the perks of a normal jinchuriki, not even control of his mindscape. They fight the beast as every other normal person would.
The great beast slowly lumbered to Naruto's kneeling form and frowned as Naruto coughed again, struggling to breathe with each desperate wheeze and gut-wrenching hack. The wound that had caused it all now looked like a gruesome slash in his side, further eroding into the boy at an agonisingly slow pace.
The simple fact that Naruto wasn't squirming in absolute pain or even whimpering increased the fox's respect for the boy. Naruto's shoulders shook as he panted for air, between bloody spurts pouring from his mouth. He could just spy Kyuubi's feet far away from him but close enough for the beast to just reach forward and crush him. A wave of toxic pain washed over him and he clamped his eyes shut, gasping for air as more was squeezed out of his body.
"I told you kid…you aren't ready," The nine-tailed fox, a close friend of his owner, grumbled with a small sigh. "Please don't struggle." He only got heavy coughing and racking breaths as a reply, his eyes momentarily drooped as Naruto's shoulders sagged.
"Y-Y-You're…" the boy stuttered, mentally crying as his chakra was burnt out of his body by the ever-toxic-tailed beast chakra. Kyuubi perked his ears to listen to the boy, with a suspicious downward twitch of his lips. "Y-You're…" his voice was quieter, softer with an emotion Kyuubi was well versed in, seeing as he knew his holder more than any other mortal could ever know. The beast palmed his face tiredly and allowed the boy to speak. "You-You're l-loo-looking d-d-down on me…"
Kyuubi closed his eyes and shrugged. "I'm sorry, kid. Better luck next time." He was about to reach forward and drag out his chakra from the boy but stopped as Naruto chuckled slowly, starting with a whisper that increased to a barely audible raspy laugh, something that held the beast back from touching the boy. "What's so funny?"
The boy gasped as the beast chakra ate more into his stomach but he still managed to reply. "Kyu…y-you kn-know h-how I f-fight…" his voice was a low whisper, only allowing the beast's heightened hearing to hear him. "B-better than anyone…" his pained stammering lessened dramatically and the beast subtly began preparing for an attack, its five tails flailing around.
"What are you getting at?"
Naruto wasn't lying; he had been a keen observer in Naruto's life, only adding a few words of encouragement when the boy got lost and guiding him away from the path of total depression, with all of this going on he was still a major critique on Naruto's fighting style, comparing it to the ones he knew and helping the jinchuriki close up any holes that most would never notice. Every seal created by the young Uzumaki genius, he was there watching; there were little secrets that Naruto could keep from him and these secrets were only secret because he had been sleeping, or was in a noisy part of the forest mindscape.
Naruto coughed again, splattering the ground with his blood and shivering at the blood loss. "I've got you…" Naruto whispered and that was when Kyuubi noticed something, making his eyes widen in horror.
Naruto's right hand was on the ground. Palm open.
"Chakra Beam: Earth Coffin," Naruto whispered as his hand glowed blue.
Kyuubi reared away violently and attempted to leap into the air as the familiar replicated jutsu floated into his ears but it was already too late. His hindlegs were forcefully dragged into the ground and his arms followed suit, as he began fiercely smashing his remaining five tails about to free himself. They too were summarily swallowed up by the ground. The ground began breaking up, starting from Naruto's right hand and shooting towards the buried tailed beast, creating a circle of cracked earth around the panicking beast. There was a violent lurch all around, even shaking the trees far away from them but gladly not affecting the Chakra Control Seal Tree, and the beast rose into the air in a rigid circle of earth that prevented him from moving, even a millimetre, and especially because he was in his weakened form, he couldn't muster up enough chakra fast enough to break it before Naruto finalised his attack. Naruto's glowing blue right hand followed the beast as it rose into the air, only one eye open out of pure force of will and dying from his wounds. His eye locked onto the beast's own and he ground his teeth together in effort as he squeezed his hand.
"Crush."
His voice echoed around the field ominously and there was a loud, spine-tingling sound of bone snapping as the box of earth chakra crumpled within itself with Kyuubi still in it.
Aaaaarrrrrrrghhhhhhhh!
Kyuubi boomed in pain as his arms and legs were broken in an excruciatingly painful wrong direction, twisting and breaking in eight different ways, and his tails were twisted together grotesquely, close enough for it to feel like they were about to be torn off completely. He fell to the ground with a thud and screamed as his limbs throbbed horribly as a result, thick red chakra seeped from his wounds unhindered, pumping from his broken limbs, his twisted tails and his shattered neck. His eyes were clamped shut as he painstakingly forced his remaining chakra through his body to straighten himself out, while Naruto stumbled to his feet desperately, his feet powering forward to his long-time friend. He released hold of his grotesque wound and reared his right fist back, his teeth painted red with his blood and grit in effort and his eyes wide open as his chakra spread into the chakra beam seal, which cracked open like a blooming flower and morphed into a completely different seal, different from the suppression seal.
"Uzumaki Judgement Punch!" Naruto bellowed, his burning fist swirling with violent purple-bluish chakra, eerily similar to an Uzumaki whirlpool. The air cracked and groaned as his fist surged forward, leaving a trail of crackling smoke in its wake.
Then his fist connected with the groaning beast's forehead and the mindscape lit up in bright white light.
Naruto's eyes flashed open when the flap of his tent was gently prodded open.
His eyes instinctively looked down at his right arm to see if there was any physical consequence of pulling out his last attack and it was in the form of the long sleeve being shredded and steam lightly wafted off his arm. The young leader sighed in frustration and pulled off his flak jacket, then his shirt while he ruffled through his bag for another shirt, momentarily forgetting about the person who had opened his tent flap, even as the masked woman fell onto her knee in a classic ANBU submissive position.
"Ma-Master Naruto!" Mole hotly whispered as steam billowed from her ears, watching as Naruto's back moved while he ruffled for another shirt in his backpack. The boy was shockingly fit, his clothes were meant to hide the lean muscles he piled on during his training. Looking at his back, for the gobsmacked DARK deputy commander, was like looking at an intricate painting made up of flesh and bones, speckled with seal tattoos she had heard that high-level seal masters had. The woman had never seen the boy without his shirt on and had not seen all of the artfully depicted drawings and seal tattoos over his entire torso and winding down his arms, just stopping short of his fingers and collarbone; he usually wore a short-sleeved shirt and shorts with ankle and shin guards.
The woman's superior hummed and put on another deep blue long-sleeved shirt with black and white stripes winding up to his upper arm. He shrugged on his flak jacket and motioned over his shoulder to the jounin for her to speak while he started looking for a wheat bar. He tossed it over his shoulder to her and began chomping as he listened. "We have detected a group of five people heading to the camp." She deftly caught the offered bar and stashed it away for later.
"Any clue on their strength?"
"They are suppressing their chakra too well and they are still too far away to make a guess, sir."
"Have you warned your other comrades?" he was also talking about the Chill ANBU.
"Yes, sir, but Yumi has already gone to meet the group."
Naruto's eyebrows shot up into his hairline and he froze mid-bite. "Do you know why?"
"Madam Yumi said that she didn't trust them; she intended to intercept them before they got too close to the camp." The woman continued mechanically. "Her guards went with her and Yugito Nii chose to stay back."
"Well, this is just convenient…" the Wave leader muttered as he ushered the older ninja out of his tent, following after and idly nodding to Yugito as she bowed deeply to him. "This trip was just getting fun and we're going to be sidetracked. No doubt Orochimaru somehow got wind of our intentions." His bright blue eyes sharply looked towards his students' tents and beamed slightly when he noticed the three of them standing at attention in front of their tents, one for Noriko and Inari and the other for Kam; he was training them to be light sleepers and proper protocol in these sorts of situations. The protocol in this situation was to wait patiently for the leader, or leaders, of the group to emerge to give them their assignments.
Suddenly there was a shuddering explosion in front of them and Mole immediately dove in front of her leader and erected a mud wall to deflect the backlash, idly noticing as Naruto erected a large blue ball of protection around Yugito, two of her DARK comrades and himself, his eyes frantically wide in surprise.
He hastily dropped the blue iron ball and leapt over the mud wall with one hand, his eyes searching for his students before anything else, even as dust filled the campground. He ran in their direction and sighed heavily, feeling his heart drop in relief, as he saw a blazing blue dome of seal protection covering the genin, with Noriko in the middle of the dome with both of his hands holding the seal up.
Naruto felt his senses flare and he stepped aside from a downward clubbing blow from a grotesque, motley grey beast covered in warts and wielding a bludgeon four times the size of his whole body.
He crossed his fingers and a flurry of papers, six in number, slipped into his hands. He slapped them onto the monster's stomach before it could gather its senses, noticing that its intended target had dodged at the very last minute. Naruto covered his body with another iron blue bubble as the resulting explosion from his last action blew up the creature without mercy, showering the camp with blood and guts, but that was the least of his worries.
Naruto snapped towards the crater and glared as the dust cleared enough to see blonde hair under the foot of another disgusting, massive monster.
Without thinking he charged forward and thrust his palms at the beast, a whirlwind of paper spiralled from both of his sleeves and the boy flicked his fingers quickly, barely noticeably, and they curved around the monster's downward smash and slashed harshly into its head.
An explosion closely followed the paper bombs impacting the giant creature's torso.
The boy dove onto his injured comrade.
Yumi Chou might not have been the strongest member of the alliance but there was a reason her people respected her. Not because of her good decisions or even her looks but also because she didn't use her heritage as a successor to be weak. Her abilities were high jounin. The woman looked battered, probably by those mysterious, nauseating monsters that had attacked while under the control of their summoner. The attackers must have been high jounin if they had inflicted this much damage on his friend.
He motioned for his DARK ninjas to go and support the Chill ANBU in their fight in the forest, they needed all the support they could get. Yumi looked at Naruto with strong eyes and tried to stand up but a firm hand on her shoulder kept her down, Naruto didn't meet her gaze as he raised his left forearm to deflect a chakra scalpel from a silver-haired, bespectacled man.
Flashback end
Yugito Nii watched all of this with growing surprise; the boy, highly acclaimed as the world's leading expert in fuinjutsu and having a store of chakra so saturated and dense it could bring most people to their knees, was able to hold his own fairly well against two behemoths and a Sound ninja, if the forehead protector was any indication.
She wasn't aware that after the boy's monumental fight in his mindscape against the Kyuubi had burnt away more than half of his chakra and left him with barely enough to run. His first two attacks, the paper bombs, took little to no effort on the boy's part since he had become very proficient in using them, but the chakra beam and the two iron blue bubbles he summoned were wearing him down.
As the Wave leader commanded his genin fuinjutsu user to cast a barrier seal over his team and the injured Chill leader, he discreetly signed for her to watch over them before he disappeared into the forest to aid his DARK and the Chill ANBU. After a few moments of indecision and swaying from side to side she decided to leave a fully powered lightning clone with the team and blurred right after him, just to see first-hand what else he could do.
Naruto was hopping from tree branch to tree branch in a flurry of motion, towards the fight and he frowned as his senses felt concentrated lightning affinity chakra follow him, he allowed it to slip off his mind for the moment; he would deal with her later, now he had these Sound ninjas to deal with. His chakra was slowly returning, but not fast enough for him to wait, leaving him with just one other option to use to overpower the fighters.
His blue eyes darkened dangerously as he spied the location of their fight, he sped up and exploded into the glade.
Kidomaru's head spun to the abrupt sound and he yelled as a pair of feet stepped on his face, bringing his head to the ground and forming a small crater under him as an effect.
Naruto spread out his senses as far as his limited reserve could allow and took in everything within three seconds.
Two Chill ANBU seemed to be out cold, two DARK ninjas were unconscious as well and the rest were in an unrelenting fight against four shinobi wearing the hitaite of the Hidden Sound, minus the one he was standing on. He couldn't merely shoot them down with chakra beams because he could only afford one beam before exhaustion took hold and he passed out. That just wouldn't do in this situation. So, without delay, he hopped towards one of the attackers, the one that had a head sprouting out from his back and fought him hand to hand.
Naruto's fighting style was a warped, older version of Iwa's kickboxing, except his fists and feet were secondary weapons, while his forearms and shins were primary attacking tools. The boy learnt the fighting style just to compliment his affinity for fuinjutsu but now that he was limited to just using it without seal support it was just a little bit harder to use.
Not anything he couldn't handle though.
The boy slapped aside both hands to his shoulders with his forearms, protected by their guards, and slammed his right shin into the attacker's side, cracking a rib at the sheer brutal strength he used. He pulled back his forearms and simultaneously drove them forward to strike the attacker's face, shattering his nose and thrusting him away so Naruto could attack the next person, a girl with bright red hair lifting a flute to her lips to blow.
Correctly deducing that the flute was a weapon, he flicked his fingers at her and twelve paper shuriken shot from his sleeves. Tayuya dove away just in time but didn't anticipate more paper weapons flying after her, distracting her from blowing her flute. The cursing girl was too busy running away from the bombs, not noticing as another barrage was sent to her from the other side.
The first explosion covered her in burning hot flames. Another volley of spinning sheets of sharp paper entered the first explosion; the resulting explosion shook the ground violently.
Out of habit, Naruto reached his senses towards the crackling bonfire of weeping flesh and carbonised bone, confirming what he already knew.
'Two down.' He suppressed a grating groan when the burning flesh and bone inside the fire dispelled into blood and chakra. 'This is ridiculous; another blood clone.'
"Take it easy kid. You're seriously low on chakra." Kyuubi grumbled as it lazily lay under the sealing tree, a tail dipping into the crimson red section of the pool of chakra to reabsorb his chakra. Naruto wasn't too lucky; he had to wait for the normal way to get back his chakra.
'When have I ever not taken it easy?' Naruto grunted in question as he rolled backwards from webs shooting from the ninja he first attacked, quickly signing for a DARK ninja to retrieve the first two ninjas he had dealt with. Mole appeared beside him, her tanto unsheathed and dripping with dark green blood.
"Blood clones, sir," She abruptly said to her superior and he hummed in thought.
"Dispatch of the clones' then." The captain saluted and blurred to take care of the apparent leader of the Sound ninjas.
"They were probably here to gauge your strength." His tailed beast friend said and Naruto nodded after a small pause.
'Good thing I'm low on chakra, huh.'
"Why is that?" Kyuubi questioned as he attentively watched his holder scan around for any more opponents, seeing as the remaining ANBU were taking care of them well enough on their own. The boy answered as he quickly raised his right forearm to deflect a chakra scalpel, lifted his left foot to avoid being tripped and slipped back a step as a knee was driven towards his stomach.
Naruto remained calm as the attacker's face finally rang a bell in his memory. "You were in the chunin exams," He momentarily asked, not forgetting his beast's question. Kabuto, breathing a little deeply from the effort to stay corporal, mockingly rolled his eyes.
"And you're that crippled kid the Sandaime rejected."
A twisted smirk crossed Naruto's face after hearing this. "Why yes, I am." This confounded the medic ninja clone and he ran to Kabuto. The ninja jabbed at the younger boy's head but Naruto skidded on his knees under the blow, dodging the deadly chakra scalpel, and used his momentum to drag back Kabuto's right leg, bringing him to the ground. Naruto got to his feet and harshly twisted the leg, snapping the bone, and stepping on Kabuto's back, pulling the leg out completely with a mighty heave.
Kyuubi snorted in amusement, even bursting out in laughter as Naruto brought down the ripped-out leg onto Kabuto's head numerous times, caving his head in and not even giving the medic ninja time to scream in pain from the torn limb before his head became a bloody smear on the ground, his body slowly followed, confirming Mole's report that the attackers were merely highly powered blood clones.
The leg in his grasp fell apart into clumps of clotted blood onto the ground and the boy rubbed his hand on his pants to get them off, as he knelt beside his two unconscious DARK operatives, feeling for a pulse. There was a pulse, thankfully, but his senses told him that their chakra was in disarray, like they were under a powerful genjutsu.
Genjutsu.
His senses reached out to the near Chill ANBU and they too were under a genjutsu, one so strong he didn't think he could cast it off with his low chakra levels. He snapped his fingers and Eagle and Raven rushed over to him from investigating the attackers' disappearance, gathering their blood samples and storing it away so that they could send it back to Marsh for the village's lab technicians to research on it. They could send it to Wave but the village was still growing, as such they had the money to spare to buy state-of-the-art equipment but they were still training those to work in the labs.
"They're under genjutsu," Naruto simply said and Raven, a master of genjutsu, slapped his hands together and muttered.
"Kai!"
OOOOOOOOOOOOO
10:00 am
Ichiraku Ramen Stand
Konoha
Yakumo impatiently bounced in her stool, waiting for her order of ramen and looking around the semi-busy stand for someone. To her right sat Hinata, leaning her back to the counter. Yakumo's eyes flicked to the boy beside Hinata, Sasuke, and he shrugged at her silent question. The young Uchiha looked to the entrance flap of the stand and frowned heavily as a blue-haired man with tanned skin entered and sat down beside him, the Uchiha and Hyuuga took this as a sign for them to also sit down. The man smiled at them and ordered a bowl of ramen.
"Master Naruto sends his regards. He couldn't be here himself be—"
"He has an important mission to Kumo. We know," Hinata cut in and glowered into her bowl of ramen. "How is sensei?" Sasuke too turned to the man attentively, as well as Yakumo, and the Konoha students of Naruto waited patiently for the man to tell them about Naruto's current state.
Daku, under an illusionary disguise, smiled a little at the students and turned to them, propping his right arm onto the counter to keep him steady. "Master Naruto is fine; he just wishes he could be here himself to see you two off." Yakumo sighed and prodded her noodles, suddenly losing her appetite. "But he promises to be in Suna for the last part of your exams. Gaara has already reserved a room in his home for him."
"That's nice of him…" Hinata trailed off sadly as she swirled around her broth and ramen slowly, disappointment evident on her face.
"Master Naruto also said I should give you three of this letter—" he had not yet finished before Sasuke hopped to his feet in surprise.
"Sensei sent a letter?" he asked, gaping slightly and Daku nodded in amusement, pulling out a light blue envelope with a Six Village alliance stamp on it; a small square with an illustration of a gleaming silver training with billowing smoke puffing from it, symbolising the alliances close connection and trust through the establishment of their trains.
Sasuke refrained from snatching the envelope from Daku's hand, looking over his shoulder to Hinata, the leader of their group, and gently taking the letter from the seal creature when she nodded for him to go ahead. It was Naruto who had appointed her as the leader of his Konoha student team; she was his first student as well as the strongest. It was tough for Sasuke, seeing as he was used to being the strongest in his generation, but Naruto rarely ever did anything without a reason, as their teacher had once ordered them to spin on their heels for thirty minutes straight, Sasuke thought the command was pointless and merely just a punishment but after the session, and throwing up everything in their stomachs, they all realised, to their absolute shock, that when their chakra was depleted, leaving just a small puddle in them, they would not feel resulting vertigo. They kept up the spinning every day to increase their tolerance.
Going back to the issue at hand; the Konoha students had been told to wait at the ramen stand by the Hokage and this usually meant that Naruto wanted to visit the village. The two genin were about to leave for Suna in about two hours and had thought that Naruto wanted to see them off, maybe even taking a break from his mission to do so, but it was Daku who came.
Sasuke handed the letter to Hinata and the girl neatly opened it, her heart thumping nervously and her hands just barely trembling anxiously. Yakumo looked at the letter too, biting her lip and Sasuke leaned in to look as well, cutting Daku out of their circle just to see what their teacher had written. Daku smiled graciously at Ayame as she dropped off his order and he began slowly slurping the noodles, allowing his master's students to read the letter.
Dear Hinata, Sasuke, and Yakumo,
I apologise for not being there in person but, as you may know, I have an important task that cannot be compromised but I promise I will be there to watch the last part of the exams, which I am sure you will be in.
About the exams, I do not want you two (Hinata and Sasuke) to hold back or get overconfident. I have taught you better and you know what happens if you underestimate an opponent, and I'm sure you are all aware of what I will do when I find out that happened. You are each strong, even Yakumo, and I want the world to see the product of your months of struggle. This is not about me or displaying the things I can teach but about you guys.
Hinata, you've grown immensely under my tutelage and you have shown me that as long as there is life in your body you will not give up, I'm proud of you for that. Don't let anyone dictate your life to you.
Sasuke, there are few people I can say this to and you are among the few; you're fighting spirit and yearning to improve is awe-inspiring. I'm proud of you. Don't let anyone look down on you.
Yakumo, you are the youngest of my students and you continuously impress me with your drive to better yourself; you are not a weak little girl anymore. I'm proud of you. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
I'm proud of all of you, more than I can express on paper, and I believe with every fibre of my being that you will both be promoted and that you will soon join them, Yakumo.
Well, I need to go now, the camp is just about packed up and we're heading to Kumo now. I'll try my best to finish the mission and meet up with you guys, I'll even bring my genin team to watch; they want to see you guys.
See you three in Suna,
Naruto Uzumaki.
Leader of Wave Country.
By the time they were done, the ramen bowls that had been served to the genin, and academy students, were now cooling down.
Hinata set down the letter, fire burning in her pale byakugan eyes and she looked at her fellow Konoha students of Naruto, their faces in grim determination as they nodded at each other. The Hyuuga handed the letter to Yakumo and she slipped it into her backpack.
Daku tilted the bowl of ramen into his mouth and smacked his lips in pleasure. "Master Naruto also said I should tell you that he has a surprise for your three if you succeed in getting to the third stage." He patted down his pockets and pulled out a brown wallet, slapping a few notes onto the counter and motioning from himself to the three students. "I'll pay for your ramen. Don't worry about it."
"Th-Thank you…" Yakumo stuttered slowly, still trying to process the straightforward letter, as was their teacher's habit.
Daku smiled warmly and ruffled Sasuke and Hinata's hair playfully, pulling them out of their shock-induced silence. "Good luck." And he left before Sasuke could punch him for messing up his hair. The Uchiha hurriedly swallowed his ramen, as did the rest of the students, just before they got off their stools.
"Let's go make sensei proud," Hinata said and fist-bumped Sasuke, throwing an arm over Yakumo's small shoulders and walking out of the stand to report with their teams.
OOOOOOOOOOOOO
Kumo's Main Gate,
Kumo,
Lightning Country.
"This one is dangerous, kitten." The Nibi echoed to her jailer and Yugito mentally nodded as she looked at Naruto from the side of her eyes. The boy was lazily walking beside her, his hands behind his head and looking at the entrance gate they were proceeding to. His guards were scattered around and Yumi, floating before them in his wheelchair, was whispering with a Chill dark operative. "That chakra beam attack was no joke."
'Seriously. I didn't think it was that much of a big deal but the lightning attack could have killed that glasses guy if he didn't switch.' She shook off the intimidation and it was then she finally took in the Wave leader; he had messy blonde hair and bright, intelligent blue eyes that sparked with subtle mischievousness. He was in black ninja pants and blue sandals with a long-sleeved dark blue shirt, with white and black striped sleeves. On his head was a wide-brimmed light blue leader's hat and his customary light blue leader's cloak blew lightly in the wind with each confident step he took.
Yugito realised, again, that Naruto was putting on a friendly air like he didn't want to make her uncomfortable and for good reason too; he was a level nine and a half fuinjutsu prodigy that had taken down numerous powerful opponents, some with skills and jutsu he had personally created. He was the leader of Wave Country, a slowly rising economy that was poised to become a major shinobi settlement if it kept going in the direction it was going, and was the main spokesperson for the Six Village/Country Alliance despite his age because he had shown on many occasions that he was older than his age indicated. Everything he had and everything he had done he had clawed tooth and nail for.
Any sane person would want to steer clear of him after hearing of the things he had done and the things he could do but that wasn't his intention.
She didn't realise she had been full-on staring at the other blonde ninja until he brought it to her attention. "Penny for your thoughts, Yugito?"
The woman coughed and shook her head. "How are you so strong, Master Naruto?"
The boy sniggered and shook his head in exasperation. "I'm beginning to get tired of answering that question."
"My apologies—" she was cut off with a dismissive hand gesture.
"It's that nearly everyone I meet asks me that question." He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder to his students, who were walking behind him and answering questions from Baboon, a DARK operative, about Kumo from the book Naruto had said they should read. "Even they asked me."
"People rarely see a leader as young as you, Master Naruto," Yugito said respectfully.
"I had the right support."
"He's talking about Brother Kyuubi," Nibi said. "Didn't know that bastard had it in him."
"From your silence, I take it the two tails have told you who I was talking about."
Yugito nodded with a small smile. "She says he's a bastard."
Naruto laughed and Kyuubi grumbled. "If I'm a bastard then she's a horny piece of feline shit." He sat back on a normal tree in the mindscapes forest and crossed his arms in a huff.
"What did he say?" the two tails holder asked and she shared a smile with the fellow blonde.
"He said she was a pervert." Both jinchuriki winced at the mad yelling from their respective beasts before they turned them out and rolled their eyes.
The procession reached the gate of the village and was instantly greeted by the hulking form of the Raikage, A.
The mountain of a man, his body throbbing with muscles thicker than Naruto's head, reached forward and shook Naruto's hand firmly. The boy suppressed his wince as his hand was crushed in the older male's solid grip but retorted straight away as a seal on his elbow flared to life; A grinned widely at the strength behind the handshake.
"You're much taller than I imagined." The white-haired man said. Naruto stood almost level with the man's height, only a few inches shorter. Naruto didn't know how to respond to that, besides widening his grin and crushing the man's hand back, it was like a contest to see whose hand would crumble first and he would rather die than concede.
"Lord Raikage," Yugito said dully and the man slowly let go of Naruto's hand, the boy hesitantly returning the favour, keeping a vigilant eye on the man to see if he was tricking him.
"Oh right. Welcome to Kumo, Lord Naruto."
"Thank you, Lord Ay." He motioned to Yumi and introduced her. "This is Lady Yumi Chou, leader of Hidden Chill. She was injured from an earlier attack, which is why she is in my wheelchair." The Raikage noted that the 'wheelchair' was more chair than a wheelchair, but still gently took the woman's hand and shook it, making sure not to apply the strength he had used to shake Naruto.
Yumi didn't like being left out of the strength competition and summarily squeezed the man's thick hand, eliciting a small yelp of surprise from the stacked Kage before an impressed smirk crossed his face.
He released her hand as Naruto continued, motioning to the three others behind him. "This is my genin team, Inari Kaiza, Noriko Manzo and Kamlyn Hoshi." The three students bowed courteously and the hulking Kage waved.
"You're all welcome to my village." He led them into the village and dismissed Yugito. The Raikage walked between both leaders towards the Kage's tower with his hands behind his back. "I apologise for not sending more ninjas to escort you here; we were swamped with mission requests that needed to be urgently performed."
Naruto shook his head and said. "It's fine. We came earlier than scheduled."
"I appreciate your understanding," The man gruffly replied before he looked at the injured village leader. "I think it's best if you get some rest before we begin speaking about the alliance."
"The day is still young; we can begin talking about the alliance." Naruto looked over to Yumi and said, "Unless you wish to go and rest; your wounds are especially grievous." Yumi had told him that as soon as she got to the Sound attackers, she had been put under an extremely powerful sound-based genjutsu by the redhead; from there she could barely remember what happened until she came to from crashing into the ground and being stepped on by one of the smelly monsters.
Naruto had already sent back word to Wave on what to do.
The woman scoffed. "This is nothing. Let's just talk about the alliance."
With her blessing, they proceeded into the tower to the Raikage's office.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Hidden Sound,
Grass Country
This whole situation was bringing Daku back to his master's retaliatory attack on the destroyed Hidden Star.
The dark shadow in his blue-haired disguise leisurely walked towards Sound and as he walked his form flickered before he completely transformed back to his normal self, his vulpine red eyes sparkled sinisterly from behind his blue camo turban and he cracked his fists, with two stone batons slithering out from his palms, the tips glowed white with fuinjutsu.
No one noticed the initial attack but the retaliatory strike.
The seal creation repeated this to himself, as a constant, annoying reminder that there were still people that wanted his master dead. And this frustrated him to no end.
Didn't they see that his master was all-powerful?
Didn't they see that his conservative nature was more of a blessing and not to be taken lightly?
Didn't they see that if his master commanded for the world then he, Daku, and all of DARK, would gladly bring it to him?
Didn't they know that his master was being merciful by allowing Iwa and Sound to prepare for the war? That he could command merely his Wave shinobi to roll over his enemies and they would do it with smiles on their faces and songs in their hearts.
They took his master for granted, and Daku hated it.
The monster's eyes smouldered with righteous rage as the village appeared before him, carefully guarded by both missing ninjas and Sound shinobi.
His turban unfurled slowly and the cloth flew behind him like two wings, flapping erratically in the wind, like they had minds of their own, and exposing Daku's Kyuubi form.
A burning blue flame with two bright red stones etched with vulpine irises floating where eyes were meant to float. The air tensed ominously and the grass around the beast quivered, shaking under the increase in the atmospheric pressure as Daku's true form was revealed. The tips of his seal-reinforced stone batons began smoking as the loyal servant of the Wave leader channelled more Kyuubi chakra into them. Beneath the fire creature, who looked more demonic than human, an Uzumaki spiral slowly formed, spinning out from beneath his feet and expanding three feet away from him. The whirlpool glowed red and Daku crouched into a sprinting stance.
The demonic seal creation growled menacingly and lunged into the hidden village, Naruto's order still in mind despite the haze of fiery thirst for blood and death.
'Destroy half of the village and kill the key shinobi.'
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Raikage's Office,
Kumo,
Lightning Country.
"Tell me, Naruto, why does your Six Village alliance want to ally with my humble village?" Ay asked as he leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers together over his stomach and looked fixedly at the eerily calm leaders before him.
Naruto shifted in his chair and crossed his right foot over his left knee, leaning back into the chair he had been offered in front of the Kage's desk. He raised an inquisitive eyebrow and cocked his head to the side, briefly sharing a look with Yumi, still sitting comfortably in his wheelchair, before returning his gaze to the heavily muscled man, who looked back with a knowing smirk. "You mean besides the obvious fact that Kumo houses the strongest ninjas and your textiles are to kill for?"
"Oh, stop with the flattery," The man said and waved laxly, returning his hands together but this time placing them behind his head. "Be real with me, Wave leader, Chill leader; why do you need Kumo when it is obvious you don't?"
Naruto still didn't give in but Yumi, after casting a glance at the main alliance spokesman interjected, "What do you mean we don't need to ally with your esteemed village?"
Ay placed his forearms onto the sturdy desk and looked over it to his visitors. "Well, for starters, it is well known that the Chill/Smoke combination is a new but relatively powerful one. Two jounin ninjas combining techniques could easily result in a strong attack, counter or defence. Yes, I admit I have been closely observing your alliance." He said to Naruto's unsaid question. "Another thing is that your alliances' barrier seal is, for lack of a better word, remarkable. Naruto here allowed the Kumo delegation into his village and was gracious enough to permit them to test the village's defence; a lightning force field spanning over the entire village with sensory seals reaching miles away, even over water. Merely touching the electric field would spell catastrophe for the attacker and, I suspect, you, Naruto, still consider this defence as unfinished."
Naruto smiled. "Yes, and I still have so many things I want to add."
A laugh bellowed out a laugh. "Never in my life have I ever seen a village defence barrier so overpowered."
"Every defence has a backdoor; people just don't know the backdoor of the alliance barrier," Naruto simply said.
"Anyway," The Raikage continued, "Your alliance has the support of four major villages, even the elusive Hidden Rain village, and a load of minor village support, about half of the continent if I'm not mistaken."
"Most of which are trade alliances," Yumi said, clarifying the relationship of some of those alliances.
"Of course." Ay grunted. "Your alliance is still a rising force, but that assessment alone hasn't included your first servant, The Fuinjutsu Monster, Daku." The man rolled his wrist boredly. "In my opinion, this whole war thing between Sound and Iwa is a joke; their chances of winning against your alliance are close to nothing. Leaving Kumo out of it, that is." They could probably stand a chance against ten villages, give or take a few minor villages.
Naruto placed both of his feet on the ground and shrugged. "Most of my comrades know me to be extremely careful. At this point I have too much to lose if I lose; I have a country to lead, I have my friends to protect, I have students to train and I still have a lot to learn."
"So your reason for seeking an alliance with Kumo is purely selfish." Ay pointed out immediately and Naruto didn't miss a beat.
"If protecting what I love is selfish, then I guess I'm the most selfish ninja on this planet." Yumi's neck snapped to the younger ninja in surprise and she gaped at his declaration, the sheer fact that he didn't hesitate to call himself selfish floored both older ninjas. "I never intended for my friends and comrades to be this widespread. Quite frankly, making political alliances as an individual was at the bottom of my list, but a friend of mine pushed me to make the most of myself. Even as life kept kicking me down, I found a family in Wave. I needed to make sure my family was safe so I agreed to join the Six Village Alliance, expanding my family even more. Now I have comrades and friends that can punch life with me whenever it attacks, and I would do anything to keep them safe." He ended his speech by staring steely at the bigger male.
A stared back strongly, the air became tense and Yumi was about to break the silence by changing the topic briefly before the Raikage burst out into laughter, Naruto didn't share in his amusement. "Your mother once punched me for 'mocking' you a few months before you were born."
Naruto's eyes widened. "You knew my mother?"
A nodded his head. "I knew your parents but relations between Konoha and Kumo were still tense from that Hyuuga incident, so we had to keep our meetings secret." As proof, he reached into his Kage's cloak, into a small pocket, and pulled out a small black and white picture. He threw it to the boy and Naruto caught it between his index and middle fingers, like he would when he was going to throw paper bombs, and stared at the picture.
In the picture Minato, laughing uncontrollably, was holding Kushina back by her waist while her arms and legs thrashed violently towards Ay, who was sporting a shiner on his left eye and a bruise on his left cheek. The woman was heavily pregnant but that fact didn't stop her from struggling in her husband's arms, yelling out, what Naruto could guess, was a string of vile swear words. The Raikage, looking to be in his late twenties, was sorely rubbing his cheek and trying to stay as far away from the feral Uzumaki as possible.
Naruto didn't know he had been smiling widely until Yumi gently touched his arm, bringing him out of his thoughts.
"My brother, Kirabi, took that picture. We were about to head out for our annual gambling spree in Tanzuki town but, seeing as I jokingly called you a 'weak little runt', which you technically were at that time, we had to cancel and reschedule it for another day." The man suppressed a wince. "Her cussing still haunts my dreams."
Naruto snickered and wiped a stray, pleased, tear from his eye. "I've heard she had the mouth of a sailor."
Ay again shook his head negatively. "No, she had the mouth of a sailor's wife's mother-in-law. Trust me." The man banged his fists on his desk as he laughed. Yumi joined in, giggling behind her hands at the titbit of information on Naruto's mother. The man slowly got his cackling back under control and looked at Naruto firmly. "Back to this alliance; I want to be part of it. Not because you are your father's son. Not even because you're your mother's son, but because you are your person. Nearly everyone knows how you got to where you are now and I respect your ambition…"
Naruto reached his fingers into his left sleeve and pulled out a normal-sized scroll. "I appreciate it—"
"BUT!" A shouted, making Naruto pause as he was about to unroll the scroll on the desk. The living mountain of pure muscle rose from his seat and stood tall, casting a shadow over Naruto and Yumi. "Only if you can beat me in a one-on-one fight. No holds barred."
Naruto got off his seat as well, slipping the scroll back into his sleeve, and matched the man's smirk.
As one, they reached forward and the tussle of a handshake ensued between them as they shared a nod.
Yumi could only sit back and palm her face in exasperation.
Authors note
Jutsu list
Chakra Beam: Lightning Resonance: a variation of the classic lightning chakra beam. It is only effective if the user can transfer the lightning through direct contact alone. It is not as powerful as its long-distance counterpart but it is still able to stun those that are not expecting it. The weakness is if the target has wind or lightning affinity, which in that case the effects wouldn't be too harsh.
Wind Release: Wind Tunnel: this wind-based ninjutsu shrouds the user in a vacuum of cylindrical wind like the person is standing in a very transparent jar. It is a defensive jutsu meant to restrain the target.
Chakra Beam: Fuinjutsu: Journeyman's Chain Prison: Naruto was not gifted with the ability to use chains because what chakra density he inherited from his mother was still too watered down for him not to be able to create chakra chains. So, Naruto combined his knowledge of fuinjutsu and his affinity for creating jutsu and formed the journeyman's chain prison.
It uses a tailed beast suppression seal, depending on the size of the threat, and Earth Release: Chakra Beam to manifest earth chains from the ground. He is still experimenting on how to use other affinities for the journeyman's chain prison.
This jutsu is among the many Naruto had called 'Replica-jutsu' with others being Chakra Beam (an improvement of Minato's Rasengan), Chakra high Seal (to replicate the eight gates), Blue Bubble Shell seal (Gaara's automatic sand defence), the Chakra Beam: Earth Coffin (to replicate Gaara's sand coffin). There are still many techniques Naruto intends to replicate.
Chakra Beam: Earth Coffin: created months after watching Gaara crush Rock Lee with a sand coffin. It is not as strong as the original technique but in the right hands, it can certainly rival the original, given that Naruto was able to scrape enough chakra to crush a weakened Kyuubi with it.
Uzumaki Judgement Punch: this is a culmination of Naruto's pent-up rage and frustration towards everyone who kept looking down on him. Naruto had stacked more seals over the chakra beam seals on both of his hands that were independent of the chakra beam seal, like the suppression seal, and among the seals stacked was one that filtered all yang (physical manifestation) chakra out of his chakra, leaving only his yin (spiritual manifestation) chakra to attack. The effect on the target is what Naruto calls 'retribution'. The attack can only be used once because, naturally, no human body part is meant to hold the amount of dense spiritual chakra for that long, especially with Naruto's brand of chakra. The punch attacks the target's yin chakra and since Naruto's chakra is dense enough to house the Kyuubi it is safe to say that it would most likely deal irreparable damage.
Done
That's about that. For now, I guess. How do you feel about this chapter?
Drop a review on your thoughts, would you do so kindly. I hope you're safe wherever you are in the world and I will see you later.
Foy.