If you couldn't guess from last chapter. I kind of have a potty mouth.
There are several things Naruto despises about the Kyuubi's chakra.
It burns every time it flows through his veins and scorches up his coils. It makes him so filled with rage; he feels like he's going to burst, and each time, with the feel of invigoration, his vision goes duller, redder, like he's on the verge of knocking out.
And it has a taste.
It tastes of burnt spices. Strong, tear-jerkingly so, and bitter, the way that scratches in his throat and makes him want to roll on the ground, pour water in his mouth to hopefully get the rancid off his tongue.
It's disgusting.
Every time, Naruto despises when he calls it up, and regrets even as he knows he needs it.
But he still does it again the next time it's required.
The blade doesn't shatter on his skin like he expects. It doesn't cut up the skin any more than it has, but it hits with a blunt force on his windpipe that nearly makes him wheeze.
Luke's face goes slack. Naruto takes the opportunity to punch it with vigor and chakra backing it up.
Again, it doesn't go as he expects. Luke staggers, then spits out a blob of fresh gloopy blood, but that's it. He doesn't get sent flying like his thinner body frame convinced Naruto, and none of his shiny, pearly teeth get even that bit rattled.
"Mean punch," Luke says, rubbing the blood dripping from his lips on his cheek till it fades. "But you're sending it too much. If I wasn't surprised, I might've dodged and you would have been off balance. Then boom, counterattack."
The Kyuubi chakra concentrated on his neck must be more than he thought, for a growl finds itself escaping from his lips.
Before he can think, before the red can settle on his vision, he's moving.
He throws a punch to Luke's unguarded stomach. He sidesteps. Naruto's stepping down to regain footing and turn when Luke launches a fist into his face.
And fuck it's fast.
His nose pops like cherry soda and he hears the bone lining the bridge crack. It echoes in his ear whilst drumming and bouncing around in his head, alongside his brain.
"Like that," Luke says with a teaching, demoralizing, smile. "It's important to keep your cool in a fight. You shouldn't have rushed in. What if that had been my blade?"
It's so, so hard to stop himself from closing the distance, but the image present in the corner of his vision of Bianca and Nico terrified as they run to an alley makes it a smidgen easier.
Naruto breathes in all of the rage. Calm, he whispers to a body that wants nothing more than to destroy.
He feels for the burning, bitter energy that runs from head to toe, grabs it and yanks.
With the breath in, he's flooded with vile chakra. With the breath out, it's sealed right back in a little box in his stomach.
The chokehold of anger disappears along with the Kyuubi's deep and taunting voice.
Naruto smiles, demented as he can. "I've been having a pretty stressful week, so sorry if my unwinding is going to be a bit painful for you."
Luke looks impressed but says nothing, and just gets into a picture-perfect stance that would have academy instructors swooning.
Naruto puts his fist in front of him. "Get out of here," he commands Bianca and Nico. They're children, scared and confused children, so they shakily nod and run off.
"Self-control is important, but not enough for a win." Luke says finally. His legs are tense by his side. His eyes trace back and forth on Naruto's frame, waiting. His breath is bated.
He's cautious. Good.
Naruto crosses his fingers, muscle memory more than deliberation, and ten— twenty clones form into existence.
They take over the street.
Shock fleets over Luke's face again, but it's briefer, more… expectant..
Naruto lets himself become part of the crowd that charges with loud voices. Luke whirs about, with the sword Naruto had almost forgotten about, slicing and dicing the clones to smoke.
Two drop at the same time, then Luke is moving between a horde faster than Naruto can see. He cuts through them with ease. His blade, the steel side— only the steel side— shines in the light as he strikes clones down.
It's beautiful in a murderous, tensing way.
He makes a smoke field as he walks. He smiles, and it looks sickeningly encouraging, stepping on a clone's head, not flinching anymore at the burst of smoke, and launching to the next.
Who happens to be the actual him.
Naruto launches a kick before Luke can touch the ground. It connects with a thumping bone-on-bone sound. Luke grunts, stepping back. A couple of clones try for his back but Naruto blinks and they're all gone.
Then Luke locks eyes with him and glares.
He strikes with his pommel. Naruto dodges under.
Maybe it's the fact he dodged, or maybe Luke is just pissed, but Naruto thinks Luke knows he's the real one.
Luke strikes again. The blade skims across on his face. Barely missing his eye. It gets everything else.
Blood flows. It stings like wasps on his face.
He would curse in any other situation but Luke tries to take the opportunity to get a killing hit.
His wild punch misses by a mile. Luke grabs it and flips him over. To harsh pavement that cracks.
Luke is exceptionally skilled and tactical, so it doesn't surprise him when he attacks while his breath is still being wrenched from him.
The blade moves way too quick for him to track. It's not a blur, but a faint idea of a sword striking.
Seconds, maybe less, before it hits is when he can really react, and by then it's too late to dodge to the side or grab the hilt.
He does the next best thing.
He pulls his hands in front of his face. One reaches in time, the other doesn't.
His blood once again hits the floor while the squelch rings in his ears.
Then he feels it.
And it hurts. Like really fucking bad.
It's a sensation of loss of feeling mixed with a burning heat that feels like fire crackles where his skin splits. It's agony wrapped up in a present on his palm.
Naruto doesn't remember it hurting anywhere near as much the two times it's happened before. Maybe, he thinks, because the steel side stretches from his knuckle halfway down to his wrist, while a kunai just forms a hole.
He grits his teeth and kicks out, catching Luke cleanly in the chest.
Pain flashes in his eyes, and he's sent staggering back. Naruto wonders if he was fortunate enough to get him in the solar plexus.
He uses the mere moments where they both don't charge to wipe the blood on his face that starts pooling into his eyes then grimace at the copious amount that leaks off his arms and faucets off his neck.
He's already getting woozy. If Luke is lucky, Naruto will just die from blood loss.
They both brace and lunge.
It's a dangerous tango they dance to., scrambling for advantage in the busy street. His strikes are robust and forceful, but Luke has a sword. One slash he doesn't account for and Naruto is dead.
He dodges a swipe to the middle of his head, into a pile of clones, the last pile.
"Hiding now?" Luke asks.
The clones war cry in response and barrel towards him.
The clones make a pitiful yet inspiring attempt. Luke blocks a punch with his heel, somehow, and flips about to drive that same heel onto another clone's shoulder.
His hand reaches into a pouch of one. And as he kicks it away, his fingers wrap around a kunai and bring it to his side.
He goes duel-weilding for a singular moment, a singular clone. Then he launches the kunai through the first clone's face.
At some point after a few minutes of slaughter, a clone snatches Luke's sword out of his hands in some kind of revenge tactic and throws it right into the real he's grasp.
That's a mistake.
A stupid, stupid mistake.
Because then Luke knows who's the real one, and the glancing look down at the blood is only extra confirmation.
It's dumb as well because knows he can't use a sword. He's thought before it was cool, and he's tried, and he's failed. Badly.
Luke, though, is a swordsman.
He awkwardly shifts across with the blade, striking for Luke's head.
He dodges so easily that Naruto figures, as his face gets punched in, that he's moving in slow motion.
Luke deconstructs every novel idea he thinks he has. He breaks the attempt at a fighting style to pieces, then punches on his face to punish them.
He steps back. For some reason, he still tries for the sword strike.
Luke minutely moves out the way, strikes him in his neck, steals back his sword and aims it to split his head in half.
The hit to the neck doesn't allow him to react, because all Naruto can do is try and breathe.
It would be a simple kill. His body would slump on the ground. Luke would stand victorious. Maybe Bianca and Nico would be upset. Maybe.
And he'd be dead—
—if Luke had noticed it.
In the chaos and numbers, Luke didn't notice two clones stay back.
Luke didn't— doesn't— hear the whirl of wind over the clones yells and the shriek of his blade.
But Luke feels the Rasengan when it's come crashing through and has struck him right in the back.
Naruto staggers away. His vision swims around but he has enough energy to admire the way Luke's face has twisted into agony.
His clones pop around him, sounding similar to the victory confetti in his head.
"Pretty good for a mortal," he hoarsely bites, not lightly, as Luke tries, and fails, to get up.
He walks up, past the hordes of people running away from him— yelling something about 'guns', and grabs Luke's shirt.
Naruto yanks him closer harshly, ignoring the way his neck dolls about, and looks straight in his fading blue eyes. "You're going to answer some of my questions now."
Luke makes a disagreeing noise in his throat. Naruto tuts. "'Kronos' knows something about how I got here, right?" Luke reveals nothing in his face. It's kind of annoying. "Is he some type of time guy?"
Luke's face scrunches up in disbelief, agony, and anger that his master has been reduced to something so belittling.
It rings as confirmation for him.
"So, I'm actually in the past," he says blithely.
He lets his shirt go. White hot rage slow-cooks in his chest. His vision goes a deep crimson while his fingers twitch to hurt.
He brings Luke closer again. Blue eyes practically touch blue eyes. Blonde hairs interconnect and the marks on their faces can reach out and intertwine.
The anger coils in his throat. Rancid and disgusting.
It tastes like burnt spices.
"I'm not gonna turn you over to whatever ninja police thing happens here. I want you to scamper off to your little boss and tell him Naruto Uzumaki says; 'I'm coming for you, and you're going to take me back." He gulps. He's never done this before. "Or else…'"
Naruto drops him on his ass. Luke lands unceremoniously and his body crumples on the floor with blood spurting from his lips.
Naruto starts walking away, his hands waving Luke goodbye, as his eyes dance around the road to the alleyways. He misses olive skin and black hair in his first sweep. When he tries for a second, he's interrupted by steel and bronze slicing into the ground.
Luke leans on his sword as he gets up. He doesn't move to leave.
Naruto raises a brow. "You're not beating me like that— You're not going to beat me at all, ever."
Luke smiles. "You're good, I'll give you that, but next time I'll be expecting."
"You know it's not usually recommended to taunt your opponents with 'next time' when you could be blown off by the wind?"
Luke laughs. It's too genuine. It convinces him for a second that they're old buddies in a ramen stall, then he blanches because this guy just tried to kill him.
"You're a weird one, Naruto. Especially for a mortal." He snaps his fingers together. It rings around the streets like a church bell.
He smells burning clothes, then a column of scorching hot flames take over his form. Before Naruto can worry, the fire dulls out and Luke is gone. Either to ashes or to his base.
He's about to turn, when fire takes over that spot again. "Back already?" He taunts.
The heat dies out. His face drops.
Mediterranean flesh stretches from the ground to triple his size. Muscle, thicker and denser than his entire body, pulses with vibrations while his big feet stomp harshly on asphalt.
The thing's face is completely covered with dark, shaggy hair; caveman style, and his toga, made from some huge cat of some sort, reflects the same origins.
Then he notices the eyes. Or the eye.
Amber like honey. Hungry as can be, and searching— running from side to side, street to street. No pause when he sees him, but only when he looks just to the side of him. "Food!" It bellows at incredible decibels.
Naruto follows the look, hands pressed on his ears, grimacing.
Then his eyes lock with Bianca's.
Her eyes, wide as can be, look up at the cyclops then trace to him. She's expectant, yet worried.
His vision flips and twists while dark shadows creep into his vision like ghosts.
Naruto is tired. He's two seconds from passing out and one bad hit from death.
And he's ready, soo ready, to kick the thing's ass.
The thing lifts up a big wooden club above his shoulder, and starts his trek across the road. No cars hit it, because no cars pass.
The road is clear. People have fled. Perfect
"Oi, ugly."