For this chapter I recommend listening to Living Legend by Club Danger, Burn it Down and Back from the Dead by Skillet

Chapter 5: Test Part 2

Musket looked at his two opponents as they waited for him to make the first move. Unlike his first fight however he realized he can't wait to see what they're capable of without suffering the consequences.

Musket immediately clapped his hands on the ground as large vines popped out and tried to ensnare Minato and Fugaku who were able to jump out of the way. Fugaku begins to weave hand signs and yells out "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" as a giant fireball comes out of his mouth hurtling towards Musket. He immediately started to sweat at the flaming orb of death before he then remembered a move in his arsenal that could save him as he wiped the sweat from his forehead and once again slamming his hand on the ground. The ground shook for a moment before a giant wall of water erupted in front of him, blocking the fireball with a loud hiss of steam.

'Damn that was close!' Musket thought before realizing he can't see Minato. Wind blew through his hair as the man's signature three pronged kunai landed next to him. Before he could even react, said blond then suddenly teleported next to Musket with an orange ball of energy in his hands.

"Rasengan!"

With a painful crack Musket was sent flying as he felt two of his ribs snap from the blow. 'Damn it, not again!' He began to cough up blood as Musket grabbed at his chest.

Although painful, Musket could tell that hit missed thanks to Musket's reflexes but even a miss like that would be deadly to most. Musket knew that if he didn't do something about Minato's teleportation he would most likely die from another hit.

"That one hurt. Looks like I'll have to focus if I'm gonna survive." Musket let out a cough as he saw blood land on the ground. He looked at the red that carpeted the ground.

Before he could do anything he heard a blast of fire before looking up to see another fireball coming towards him at an even faster speed than before.

'Not good.'

With a wave of his hand the water rushed towards him and changed form to become a dome to stop the fire from reaching him as another hiss could be heard around the battlefield.

Looking at the steam cloud Minato and Fugaku both wondered if the attack did any damage before than having to jump out of the way of a tentacle of water as it tried to grab Fugaku, but thanks to his now red eyes he seemed to be able to see the attack as if it was in slow motion as he performed another round of hand signs. Before he could finish he started to feel his hands become stiff as if a chill formed in the air. Ice started to form around his hands and around his body as he fell to the ground, unable to feel his fingers in the ice.

Minato who had teleported to a tree 40 feet away could see that an area around Musket had started to form with ice around him in a cone of about 30 feet in diameter. Fugaku was in the cone and was beginning to have ice form around him, but just as soon as it was formed the ice stopped and Musket looked to Minato with a cocky smile before suddenly disappearing as if he was made of smoke. Minato suddenly realized what was about to happen as he heard the buzzing of electricity behind him. Turning, he saw Musket with lightning in his hand, before just dodging out of the way of the attack.

Minato continued to dodge Musket's lightning hands before throwing a kunai to his left and teleporting away. Musket seeing this looked at the kunai only to see that Minato hadn't teleported to the kunai he threw before feeling killing intent behind him, teleporting away from the kunai that would have slashed the back of his neck.

Minato decided to go help Fugaku out of the ice using his kunai to break it off of him and using a small flame jutsu to melt any ice on his hands so he wouldn't succumb to frostbite.

"He's strong, I'll admit it." Fugaku said when he could feel his hands again. "But we both know he can't beat both of us."

Minato looked at his teammate with a shocked face. "Are you actually asking for help? Who are you? What have you done with Fugaku?"

Fugaku gave the blond a scowl as he hit him on the head. "SHUT UP! Now listen, I have a plan."

Minato nodded and listened to the plan and agreed to it as they both got up and Minato grabbed many of his kunai, throwing them on the battlefield before grabbing Fugaku's shoulder as both men teleported away.

Musket seeing this knew that the field was now a minefield that could lead to his end before realizing that neither of them were in the field and knew he would be attacked very soon if he didn't move.

At that moment three kunai came towards him as he jumped out of the way. Big mistake.

Fugaku had suddenly appeared behind him thanks to Minato as he launched a few fireballs at Musket. Minato teleported away only to now be in front of Musket unleashing three lightning chakra infused kunai from his hands.

Musket in that split second realized they were trying to box him in and knew he had to do something.

In that moment a giant hand of energy blocked the fireballs as the kunai stabbed into Musket, one in his left arm and two in his right leg, before he fell to the ground. Luckily, he was caught by the hand with it slowly floating him to the ground.

Minato and Fugaku landed and in that moment ran to Musket, Minato with a Rasengan and Fugaku with a flaming hand, "Fire Style: Flaming Claws Vengeance!"

Musket had pulled out the kunai before his right arm gained a black shine as lightning sparked around his arm. He ran towards Minato and the hand in a fist moving towards Fugaku.

Fugaku and the hand clashed with Fugaku being sent flying towards a tree with a thud before dodging another hit but then saw it suddenly disappear. "Hold on a second. This isn't right. That move only hit two attacks, why would it…" Fugaku looked at Minato only to see, thanks to his eyes, that Musket seemed to be shimmering a little. "Minato look out!"

Minato in that instant had heard Fugaku and in a yellow flash was at one of the kunai Musket had thrown away as Musket suddenly disappeared. Minato noticed a shine at his feet as the kunai he was beside had a weird looking glowing glyph on it. Before he knew it, an explosion launched him away into the field with Fugaku running out of the forest knowing he wouldn't be able to defeat his opponent alone.

Musket looked at the two realizing as long as he could separate them he could win but knew he couldn't do it in the field. Or could he?

Minato got up in a daze seeing Fugaku running to him as he looked to the forest behind him, wondering how he had been tricked like that. "I don't think throwing my kunai at him will be a good idea. He made one of them have some sort of marking on it that exploded in my face."

"Yeah I noticed. What should we do now?"

"I have an idea but the problem is like your plan we need him in the field so we might not be able to…"

"So, we gonna end this or what!" Musket yelled at the edge of the field.

"Well that was easy." Minato looked at Fugaku as they both got up to get ready to end this fight."

The three men looked at each other before Fugaku looked into Musket's eyes. He suddenly felt all his strength fail as he fell to the ground prone. Minato looked at Fugaku seeing he wasn't able to get up and now knew he had to end this now. Closing his eyes, red marks appeared under his eyes. 'I don't have much time to use this so I need to act fast.'

Musket seeing Minato's eyes decided he needed to end this now as his feet suddenly burst into flames. He rocketed forward while his right arm shined black and lightning flickered to life on it.

Minato ran at Musket with a Rasengan in his hands.

Both men ran towards each other with their moves in their hands as they both got within a few millimeters of each other before vanishing, switching places with each other as their moves clashed.

Both moves roared out with the air around them blowing many of the trees close to them out from their roots.

The two tried their best to overpower each other, looking into the other's eyes.

At that moment the pigment under Minato's eyes started to fade and in that moment Musket took his chance as the lightning around his arm sparked to life as it was shaped into that of a dragon that started to advance on the two of them.

Minato looked at the lightning dragon coming toward him before he decided to use the last of the power he had left as his Rasengan grew to a gigantic size. "Sage Art: Big Ball Rasengan!"

At the same time the lightning dragon crashed into the Rasengan with a giant explosion erupting around the two of them. "Dragon Lightning Lariat!"

Hours Later

Musket woke up on the grassy ground. Looking around, he saw Minato looking at him with a smile on his face.

"So how was the nap?" Minato asked while smirking at him while the others stood around him but giving him some space.

"How long was I out?"

Hiruzen spoke up "2 hours. Fugaku was out for 10 minutes and Minato was out for 30. Honestly if this was a mission and none of you had us it would probably be true that at least you two could have died." He pointed to Minato and Musket who both gave shy smiles. "Although I'm very impressed with you. You were able to tie with 2 of our best. Although you did break the rules."

"What do you mean?" Musket was confused at what the old man had said "I didn't use any of my first abilities."

Kushina spoke up upon hearing this "Yes you did. You used that black shiny thing with your arms when you used that last move."

Musket looked at her for a second before remembering his final move. "Oh man, you're right! I didn't even realize I did that! Looks like I finally mastered it!"

Everyone looked at him in confusion upon hearing that as Minato spoke up. "What do you mean you mastered it?"

Musket looked at the man as he began to explain. "Well yeah. You see, the move I used was a modified version of an old friend but since I can't use his version since I'm not as naturally durable as he is I had to modify it and the one I used was an upgraded version of it that uses lightning for it.

Minato curled an eyebrow upon hearing this. "Oh really now. He must have been really strong if he could do that without any help from hardening his body. What was it called again?"

"His was called Allo Lariat and all the variants that he made with them while mine is called Drago Lariat likewise."

Tsume looked at him and then to his living weapon which was beside him licking him like a dog to its owner before then smiling. "I see you like dragons, huh."

Musket gave an emberoused smile to Tsume. "Yeah I guess you could say that."

Everyone laughed at this before Hiruzen cleared his throat, grabbing their attention. "Well I guess I will let that slide and the other time you did it was an illusion so you technically didn't cheat that time either."

"Honestly I'm very impressed and just have to say one thing. Welcome to Konoha as a shinobi of the Land of Fire." Hiruzen handed him a headband with the Konoha symbol on it as he helped Musket up to his feet. "Now then I'll send an ANBU to you tomorrow so that I can inform you more about your responsibilities and rank. I will have an apartment be ready for you until you can afford a home for yourself." and with that he disappeared in a gust of leaves.

"Alright! Well I'm hungry, let's go get my favorite, Dattebane!" Kushina said in excitement.

"Ramen again? Man you need to eat more things then that." Tsume said with a smirk

"What are you talking about? Ramen is the food of the gods. Nothing is better than that. Besides, it's my treat." she said with an evil smile.

"Don't you mean my treat? You always somehow make me pay for ramen when we get it." Minato said with a frown.

"Oh come on, I don't always make you pay."

"Yes you do." Tsume spoke up "You make everyone do it. You even made Fugaku do it one time. Seriously, how did she even do that?"

Fugaku looked at her with a very embarrassed look before trying, unsuccessfully, to put his straight face back on. "Please don't ask."

All the others laughed at this before Musket spoke up. "Well have fun then and thanks for all the help." He turned around to leave before a hand fell on his shoulder as he turned to see Kushina with a large grin. "Where do you think you're going? You're coming too."

Musket looked at her, confused at this. "Why, none of you even know me? I mean we all just meet."

Kushina's smile grew even more when hearing this. "That's why you're going. Otherwise we'll never know each other."

Musket looked at the others who gave him smiles, even Fugaku gave a slight smirk, as he smiled at them, leaving to follow them.

End of Chapter