Disclaimer: I don't own the Naruto franchise or any of its characters.
My Pa tre on is back online for those who want to read THREE chapters or THREE WEEKS ahead (chapters 53, 54, 55) and support my endeavor to become an author. So if you can't wait for the next update—check out:
P a treon . com (slash) PaladinKaladin
Ino gulped. "H-how long have you been there?"
Naruto grinned.
"Not for much longer."
The blond eyed down the trio who circled around him, not standing still for even half of a second, not allowing Naruto's eyes to have a smidge of rest. Naruto waited patiently for one of them to begin combat first, not wanting to go ahead in fear of sudden retaliation which he may not be able to cope with.
The issue when fighting three versus one was mainly the issue of numbers. Sure, Naruto could rectify that with a numerous amount of clones. Then came the variety of techniques that these three had at their arsenal. Especially Team Ten, who were all hailing from some sort of clan that each boasted their own unique ability. Choji with his size-changing attribute, Shikamaru with his infamous shadow-possession technique, and Ino with her mind jutsus—all three were a culmination of decades of practice and fervent hoarding of jutsus that led to the powerhouse clans that they belonged to.
Meaning the very unfortunate person dumb enough to fight all three at once should never have been fighting such a one-sided battle in the first place. But, of course, Naruto was different. He believed that the pure strength he had would be enough to overpower the enemies he was facing. While the three certainly had a unique assortment of abilities that managed to somehow gel well with each other, they each were lacking something Naruto had in abundance.
Raw power.
Shikamaru stopped suddenly, his hands already taking position. The shadows under him groaned and struggled against his wishes, before finally caving in and trudged forward with immense speed towards their blue-eyed target. Alongside the moving shadows were Ino and Choji, each holding kunai of their own in their hands. They threw the kunai right at his current position, forcing Naruto to either more or take the hit directly.
He did neither.
The kunai were fortunately thrown at differing speeds. Choji's strength eclipsed Ino's own, meaning his kunai reached the destination faster than Ino's did, giving him proper time to avoid both without much hassle. He caught the first kunai with his bare hands, and knocked aside the second with the butt of the handle that was now in his possession. Easy enough.
The shadows were next.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
His clones ran forward without any hesitation, eager to bring an end to the Nara's machinations. Ten or so of them dashed forward, the most Naruto could make in that short period of time. Choji, however, put an end to that thought as fast as possible. The large boy grit his teeth and pulled his hand back. The otherwise normal arm suddenly ballooned outwards and struck forward, smashing through four of the running clones as they turned into smoke. Five more the clones were paralyzed on the spot as Shikamaru's shadow randomly branched outward and caught them in his trap.
That left only one clone. And as Naruto always preached, never underestimate a clone. Especially a clone of Naruto Uzumaki! A perfectly thrown shuriken laced with lightning chakra spun and rotated through the warm air and straight for the motionless Shikamaru Nara, who was forced to retreat to the side and interrupt his technique in the middle of its journey.
It was Naruto's turn to attack.
He decided his first target would be Ino, who was certainly the weakest of the three. While the blonde did have her fair share of unique abilities, they were not suited for one on one combat. Isolating her from the rest of the team would be crucial in eliminating the girl from the fight as fast as possible. It wasn't as if Ino was a major threat—no, but simply lowering the number of enemies from three to two would be useful.
The girl's eyes widened at how fast he made movement towards her, already beginning to jump backwards with her hands guarding the front of her face. Choji had noticed his movement and ran to intercept his path, but Naruto was simply too quick for either of them.
And once he got close to Ino, Naruto wouldn't hold back. He learned the hard way that holding back was the first step to losing.
His roundhouse kick flashed through the air and went around her guard, making contact with the side of her torso with immense force. To her credit, Ino managed to minimize the damage as much as possible by loading her body with however much chakra she could manage. While she couldn't react to the attack itself, she knew it was coming, and did the next best thing in a logical attempt to prevent further injury.
Ino grunted loudly with pain as she was launched towards the side. What the hell! He hits as hard as Asuma sensei!
Choji shouted a battle-cry as he rushed forward in defense of his teammate.
Naruto immediately noticed how loud the Akimichi before him was. Choji normally was a relatively quiet person, only increasing in volume when he was seriously mad, something which happened rarely. Nothing had happened of serious nature for him to randomly yell like that. Nor was he an idiot to shout and telegraph his next move for his enemy.
That meant they were planning something.
A distraction.
Naruto's eyes darted towards Shikamaru's last-known position, and immediately noticed his glaring absence. How did I not see that before? He asked himself out of anger.
All-Seeing Eye!
A sphere of chakra emanated from his body in all directions. This move was incredibly risky considering the charging Choji who refused to slow down at all. But his gut instinct told him that Shikamaru was planning something which should not be taken lightly at all.
He was right.
His senses begged him to move to the side, and Naruto eagerly obliged. A shadowy branch pierced through the ground beneath him and into the open air, crawling upward, seemingly begging for some sort of grasp into his body. Another branch formed once more, from beneath him again, but this time he didn't need his technique to know what was happening. He dodged expertly with a turn of his body, dashing sideways to avoid any further attempts of attack.
Choji was there, this time.
His hand was burning with chakra as he faced Naruto.
Naruto simply raised an eyebrow. He surprisingly has a lot of chakra as well.
Activate Gentle Fist! He didn't look at the notification, keeping his attention solely on the boy before him.
Yeah…I know how to deal with that.
Naruto didn't allow Choji to begin his technique. The second chakra began to flow through his hand and started to inflate as it always did, Naruto stabbed his palm into the posterior compartment of his arm, disturbing the chakra flow in that region completely, and preventing any continuation of the technique. He would have continued with his onslaught if it weren't for Ino throwing a multitude of shuriken at once at him, forcing him backward and giving Choji's enough time to load his other hand towards him.
He grit his teeth. "This is starting to get annoying."
And it truly was. Everytime he began to gain an advantage, he was simply forced back by one of the other opponents. The main issue was Shikamaru, who was gearing up to be the MVP of the other team. The spiky-haired boy remained a bit further back as always, using his shadows to maneuver Naruto into worse positions and to support his teammates as well. The shadow-possession technique happened to be truly versatile.
"You're the one who made the bet," Ino retorted from a bit farther away. She clutched the side of her body with one hand, clearly still injured from the earlier hit she took.
"Fair enough," Naruto acquiesced with a nod. "I'll have to end this soon then."
Choji rolled his eyes. "Pshh…you've been saying that for a while now."
Naruto raised his hands, going through a series of hand signs taught to him by none other than Sasuke Uchiha himself. "Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu!"
A titanic ball of fire churned in his stomach and roared into existence from his mouth, directed by his hands and towards the trio who stood before them. They all dashed to the sides, eager to avoid the jutsu as fast as possible. The grass underneath the blazing ball of fire shriveled up into blackness, destroying the natural green of the training ground. He didn't particularly feel bad, however.
Naruto finally realized the problem he was creating. The reason as to why he was finding it difficult to defeat the three of them. They weren't particularly strong on their own, in fact, Naruto knew for a fact that none of them stood a chance against him one on one. The issue was that the Jinchuuriki was trying too hard to find a perfect solution. He was trying to find a way to completely eliminate the entire team at once without any casualties on his part, but that was simply unrealistic. When fighting three people with such differing fighting styles, it was highly probable that he would end up taking a hit or two.
In his hubris, Naruto began thinking too deeply on how to defeat them. When in doubt, he should rely on the two things that brought him thus far to begin with.
Sheer determination and brute force.
So that's what he would do.
The stream of fire had separated Choji from Ino and Shikamaru. Perfect!
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto said as fast as possible, summoning six clones to deal with Shikamaru and Ino. Shikamaru's shadow possession was ideal for fighting against the doppelgängers, but Naruto didn't particularly care about how well the clones would perform—he just needed them to waste as much time as possible.
Trusting in his creations, he decided to head for Choji.
Choji seemed to expect his movements, and began to grow larger and larger into a ball of sorts. He tucked his head into himself and started to roll forwards—Naruto wouldn't let him gain any more speed than that. He brought his hands forward and caught the outstretched leg of Choji which wasn't perfectly tucked in like the rest of his body. It showed that the Akimichi had still yet to perfect his jutsu, leaving major areas of weakness out in the open.
Naruto tightened his hold on Choji's leg, pulsing chakra through his wrist as he pulled Choji out of his turtle shell and back into his normal form, struggling slightly against the weight he was forced to bear. Using pure strength to guide his movements, Naruto threw the boy onto the ground with a large thud.
He threw a lightning charged kunai into the ground right next to Choji. "You would have died right here. I consider this a surrender."
Choji nodded in agreement, albeit reluctantly. "Fair."
Naruto brought his eyes to Shikamaru and Ino, who seemed to have been done with the clones he had sent their way.
"CHOJI!" Ino shouted with rage. Naruto found himself slightly confused with how the anger was focused on himself. That's not a good sign….
She launched herself forward, seemingly forgetting about the searing pain that plagued the right side of her body. Shikamaru grunted as he noticed her sudden movement, not at all sticking to the plan they had rehearsed before her fight. The loss of one of their teammates was enough to drive them into a frenzy. Unlike Team Seven, Team Ten didn't have many intensive missions. Which was perfectly normal—in fact, it was Team Seven which had drawn the unlucky cars with the mission to Wave, which was by all means a disaster. However, the mission did put Team Seven in several threatening situations that got them a valuable opportunity to gain experience. Team Ten didn't have much of that.
Ino's lack of clarity made her movements even easier to predict than usual. She was sloppy as she engaged in a brief Taijutsu match with Naruto. He ducked her first punch, simultaneously docking her in the chin with a jab. Her next kick was already off-balance, and Naruto simply moved his left leg and tripped her downwards. He would have eliminated her from the bout as well if it weren't for Shikamaru's shadows making their move.
Naruto had learned from his mistakes, however.
He wouldn't be letting her go that easily. Instead of fleeing the site of battle and re-engaging again, he simply leaned downward and carried Ino in his arms.
The blonde spluttered and blushed red as he dashed backwards, carefully avoiding the shadows that threatened to take control of him. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?"
Naruto released her the moment he was out of the range of the Nara's technique.
He didn't give her an answer.
Ino, however, did have something up her sleeve. Her hand reached into her utility belt and threw something out with surprisingly high velocity.
The kunai soared through the air, its razor-sharp edge catching the light of the setting sun. The explosion seal wrapped around its hilt pulsed faintly, its intricate symbols glowing an ominous red. Naruto was close—just a moment more, and everything would ignite. Time seemed to stretch as the kunai reached the apex of its flight. The seal shimmered brighter, then flared in an instant, blindingly vivid. A deep, resonating crack split the air as the explosive chakra unleashed its fury.
The explosion erupted midair, a sudden sphere of fire and force expanding outward. Flames roared hungrily, devouring the space around the kunai. The shockwave rippled through the sky, scattering fragments of the weapon like embers caught in a storm. Heat waves shimmered, distorting the landscape in their wake, while plumes of dark smoke coiled upward like serpents reaching for the heavens.
Naruto didn't budge an inch.
For a heartbeat, silence followed the blast, broken only by the faint hiss of dissipating energy. The world seemed to hold its breath, the air thick with the acrid scent of scorched metal and singed earth. The kunai was gone, but its devastation lingered—a fiery exclamation point in the stillness of the battlefield.
Naruto eyed the burns lingering on his arms curiously.
His eyes hardened on Ino.
Deactivate Iron Skin.
He grabbed a hold of her arm before bringing a kunai to her throat. "You lose."
She gulped, nodding.
That left only Shikamaru.
[Ding!]
[Archiving Complete!]
[Skill: Monkey Staff Efficiency Lvl 1 Unlocked!]
Naruto's eyes briefly looked over at the notification before bringing his attention back to the fight. That brief moment was all Shikamaru needed. The shadows extended even further than their previous limit, shocking Naruto. How? That shouldn't be possible—
Ino cheated.
The blonde had thrown a parachuted kunai into the air even after she surrendered. The shadow that the floating weapon formed onto the ground acted as a base of support for Shikamaru's to continue even further.
Naruto chuckled.
The shadows took over his form, paralyzing him on the spot.
However, it would merely end in a draw. Naruto didn't have any weapons on him that Shikamaru could grab onto, something which he had purposefully done in case this situation had occurred. Shikamaru could say that he would win by technicality (ignoring the fact that his teammate did cheat) in a hypothetical situation. He could keep this technique up until further support would arrive, resulting in his loss.
Naruto felt somewhat dissatisfied. Sure, he had barely used any of his key abilities. Abilities like Black Flash and Rasengan were simply overkill, though.
This, on the other hand…
Shadow Walk.
He disappeared.
Straight into the shadow that connected him and Shikamaru together. It was never before easier to use an ability in his life. The tendril of darkness between them acted as a road, giving him a clear passageway towards the Nara.
Everything was perfect.
In a half second, Naruto reappeared behind Shikamaru, who couldn't even fathom what just happened.
He kept a kunai to the Nara's neck.
"Game over."
[end]
My Pa tre on is back online for those who want to read THREE chapters or THREE WEEKS ahead (chapters 52, 53, 54) and support my endeavor to become an author. So if you can't wait for the next update—check out:
P a treon . com (slash) PaladinKaladin
Hope you enjoyed!
Yes, that does make Naruto somewhat immune to Shadow paralysis. Shadow Walk is a perfect counter to the Nara clan—good thing he's a good guy, eh?
Question of the day: Do you prefer Naruto or Naruto Shippuden? For me, even though I think the original Naruto was better in most aspects, I still prefer Shippuden simply because it's the payoff from all the buildup of the original series.
Make sure to follow, review, and favorite to keep up with next week's chapter and support the story!
Chapter 54 is releasing on Tuesday, 28th of January. Around 2 PM Washington DC time.
Follow so you don't miss it!