Strength From Within (A Naruto Neglect Book)

20

The battle was an intense one. Even in his crazed state, Daidai knew that there would be no way to defeat Minato without playing it smart. It was his place, and he already had hiraishin markings everywhere. Every odd was going towards Minato's favour. It should have been an easy win, if the Hokage hadn't been overestimating his own ability, and underestimating Daidai's.

He thought he was completely untouchable, and since he wanted to enjoy it he didn't go all out straight away. He wanted to infuriate Daidai, he just that little bit better that the boy would feel completely worthless and train harder and turn out the greatest secret weapon Konoha had, one who would mindlessly do his bidding. If he had wanted to get the battle over quickly like he could have done, and Daidai wouldn't have stood a chance. But by deciding to take it slower, it gave him hope and a reason to not give up on fighting.

The first thing Daidai did was release his speed seals. He couldn't have a chance if he was as slow as he was normally. Following that, he made about twenty clones and dispersed them around the area, in the hopes that it would distract Minato from him and give him more of a chance to think. The Hokage decided to go straight for the original, no matter how many times he substituted clones, an advantage of having the home ground already set up with markers for whenever he needed them.

Luckily, stamina wasn't a problem for Daidai, meaning he could keep going and evading while one of his hidden clones thought up a strategy. When it had one, it dispersed, and a few more clones were made to put the plan in action.

"I don't know what you're planning, boy, but you won't win. You're worthless, you will never beat me," Minato sneered, landing infront of him and pulling out a kunai. "Enough with the games. You're not worthy of me using Hiraishin on you. We'll fight like real ninja."

Daidai just growled in response to his words, a slight orange aura surrounding him, and the golden flames surrounding his chakra chain tail flared. He held two kunai, specially made from chakra metal, both that were covered in golden flames as well which obscuring their form from view. Minato's own kunai was blue with wind chakra, and in an instant the two were clashing blades, the flames produced when the two chakras on the weapons connected.

Minato had the upper hand, he was physically stronger, more experienced and was great with kunai as he often used them when doing the hiraishin. He didn't even break a sweat when a clone came and joined in, and simply made a clone of his own to combat it. He didn't think he'd need to conserve chakra since the fight was already won in his eyes. He didn't have massive reserves like the Uzumaki, but they were decent sized and he still had plenty left.

Daidai was starting to calm a little now that he'd started to fight properly, and he still had a large amount of his reserves left too. But they weren't nearly as large as they could be because of his age, and he couldn't simply bank on outlasting the man. He had to outsmart him as well, and that was why he spent countless hours studying and training.

He had set out clones around the area, and all at once they began to fire weaponry at the pair, such as kunai, shuriken and senbon. Daidai had been substituted by a clone mere seconds before they began this attack, and Minato wasn't too worried since he easily blocked them or dodged them with a substitution or Hiraishin. He scoffed at the clone, and hiraishined to where the original was. He hit him with a chakra infused punch, something that had been taught by Tsunade after the Kyuubi attack and before she knew how he had turned out, which sent the boy flying.

He laughed and walked over, using an earth jutsu to trap him in the ground, saying, "I can't believe you thought you could become Anbu with those skills. Your reserves may be large, and you may be fast but your choice of attack is still horrible. All the skills of yours, and I'm yet to really see anything but a clone, substitution and chakra on your blades. Not to mention that your substitution with a clone is obvious to a veteran, not to mention your pitiful attempt to poison me."

Daidai clenched his teeth, his chakra beginning to flare up again, along with his anger. His plan had been to hit the Hokage with a paralysis poison and stop him from fighting, and then beat him up a bit, but that clearly hadn't worked since Minato had blocked everything that was sent at him, or hiraishined out of the way. He wanted him to be distracted, but Minato hadn't been. He hated feeling this weak, the Hokage was clearly treating him like a joke and wasn't even trying. As strong as Daidai was, with all of this withholding of his other skills he couldn't completely let loose, and he certainly wasn't strong enough to defeat the Hokage without them.

The man had only gotten stronger as the years went by and he trained more, he was leagues ahead of where he had been when Kurama had attacked the village. Compared to that experience and strength, only a few years of training couldn't surpass that no matter how much time he skipped due to shadow clones, no matter how many special skills he had. Without ruining everything he'd worked for, he couldn't win. Minato was Hokage for a reason, he was strong and smart and knew how to fight.

Minato had known the outcome from the start. So had Kurama, everyone else in the room, and deep down so did he. But he'd fallen into the trap that had been so obviously placed in front of him. That was what angered him the most, he had dealt himself this fate, he'd failed the people that he cared for. Maybe he was strong, but the lack of battle experience left him unsure of what he had to do in moments like these.

He couldn't give up now, not when he'd come this far. He had to redeem himself. Daidai would fight back until he was well and truly defeated.

'Kurama, I'm so sorry. Forgive me, and help me, I'll make it up to you' he pleaded internally, finally opening up to the nine tailed beast, only to be received with silence, and then pain. Horrific pain in his mind, hot and stabbing and throbbing, causing his vision to falter.

Minato had turned around to walk off, having taken his silence as the meaning that the boy had forfeited. He was ready to grab the contract from Hebi again, the room silent apart from a blood curdling scream that Minato seemed to enjoy. Then once again, silence, as the screaming stopped and the Hokage smiled cruelly to himself because of his victory, until he felt a large chakra surge from behind him. The glow of golden flames erupted from the ground, and chakra chains tore it all up so that the boy could be set free. A pillar of golden flames an wind chakra erupted, a flaming storm that used a lot of chakra and would rip up the whole area. Even some demonic chakra had been included to compensate for the sheer chakra usage. The tornado was sent straight at the Hokage, who escaped only to find it reaching him at extreme speeds. Following in its wake, Daidai emerged, two golden flaming chakra chain tails behind him. He was mostly untrained with these, but Kurama had been at work inside him, healing his broken ribs from when he had been hit. He was pretty much as healthy as he could be mid battle, and each time Minato evaded and the fiery storm caught up Daidai was following too.

"This fight is anything but over, Namikaze Minato," Daidai yelled as the tornado began to run out of fuel. He used it to creat a deadly attack that missed but created a massive explosion, traces of foul, demonic chakra in the air, but not enough to be recognisable as the nine-tails. "I didn't want to do this, but it looks like I might have to reveal a little more than I'd hoped. You better pull out your Hiraishin, because I don't want to waste anything on scum like you either." That was the plan at least, to actually start using some jutsu and work more with his surroundings. It had been a horrible idea to hold back before but he hadn't been thinking. Now he was back to his normal calculating self, and him and Kurama would get through the challenge at hand.

That plan all came crashing down when Namikaze Minato walked over to the sight of the explosion, suddenly began to scream while clutching the back of his head, not a second later collapsing to the ground unconscious.

Daidai was surprised but began hesitantly walking towards him, kunai at the ready. "Oi, our battle isn't over," he yelled, sending a shadow clone over to check if Minato was bluffing. Though seemed the remainder of their battle would have to wait, because only a moment later Daidai too collapsed, unable to handle the strain on his body from the amount of chakra he used. He hadn't thought the chakra tornado would cause as much backlash as it had, and another shadow clone had finished him off.