A Growing Affection

Chapter 81: The Blood's True Form

Naruto watch as the sword descended, passing through Kitsune like the  staff-blade wasn't there. As the weapon reached his body, he flinched  involuntarily. He had to resist the urge to close his eyes as the blade  penetrated his skin.

And passed through the other side. Uzumaki  was amazed when the sword passed through him without cutting him,  without leaving a mark, without have any sort of impact that he could  see or feel. Instead, Madara collapsed to one knee, suddenly panting  heavily. A bewildered look crossed the teen's face, as the immortal  lifted his head again, glaring at the teen.

Despite the attack  only being a mental construct, Madara could have sworn he felt the  demon's teeth slicing him in half. Just as the pain became too intense  to bear, Uchiha was back in the real world, once again facing the boy.  His body still burning with agony, it was all he could do to keep from  collapsing completely. But with each ragged breath, the phantom pain  faded, and he raised his eyes to study the youth. Naruto looked utterly  baffled, which gave Madara a small comfort. The Akatsuki leader decided  not to reveal to the boy what he had experienced, mainly from spite, but  also in case the inventive teen could find a way to turn it to his  advantage.

Madara started to contemplate his options, but Naruto  did not give him the chance. He closed the distance to the immortal,  Kitsune still raised from his attempt to block Susano-o. He swung  downwards at an angle, aiming to shatter Madara's right shoulder. Uchiha  shuddered from the effort, but turned away from the attack and pushed  the weapon away.

'Think,' Madara admonished himself, recalling the  words he had drilled into his sons, 'Avoid and learn. Do not waste  energy. Let your opponent give you the chance to kill.'

The  Akatsuki founder knocked away another strike, annoyed that he had  allowed Orochimaru and Naruto to get under his skin to the extent that  he was fighting like a common ninja. He stepped away from a kick, and  ducked under the easily readable follow-up punch and slash combo.

'He  is faster than my body, but not faster than my Shin'en Sharingan,'  Madara thought, 'If I read his moves correctly, I can defeat him.'

His  eyes took in every twitch of Naruto's muscles, and he continued to  deflect or dodge all of Naruto's strikes even as the younger fighter  ramped up his attacks. Uzumaki stabbed forward, and Madara twisted past  the pole. The Leaf Chunin tried to follow up with a snap kick, but  Madara caught his leg and pushed him away. The teen recovered quickly  and charged in again, but still he could not connect, to his growing  annoyance and desperation.

"Darn it!" Naruto bellowed as Madara  gently knocked aside his elbow, and leaned back far enough that the  blond Chunin's head-butt missed. He swung Kitsune wildly at the  traitor's neck, and Madara snorted in amusement as he sidestepped the  amateurish move.

"This is worse than fighting Kakashi," Yukihana's  son continued, as the tip of Kitsune passed within inches of Uchiha's  stomach. He continued the momentum from the failed strike, shifting the  staff-blade to an underhanded grip in his left hand.

"Dodge this!"  he challenged, instantly creating a two-foot diameter sphere of roiling  chakra in his now empty right hand, "RASENGAN!"

Madara looked thoroughly unimpressed as he tapped the teen's forearm, sending the attack wide.

'Got  you,' Naruto crowed silently. He shifted his weight to his back foot,  and rotated his body, swinging around Kitsune, now wrapped in the  Rasenblade. The sword rocketed towards Madara's spine, threatening to  bisect the first Uchiha. Unfortunately, the immortal anticipated the  attack, and stopped the fox-faced young man cold by catching Naruto's  elbow with his right hand. The defensive fighter was forced to expend  some of his chakra to increase his speed and strength, but Madara felt  it was worth it for the angry yet worried expression on the Leaf ninja's  face.