"Kazekage-sama, every civilian in the village has been evacuated. But... we couldn't recall all the shinobi who were on mission. Therefore... the force we could gather to defend the village is only about three thousands counting all the genin."
Gaara closed his eyes. "I see..."
"Kazekage-sama..." another jonin in the room raised his voice, "...may I ask... how large is the invading force we're going to fight?"
Gaara threw him a sharp, piercing look. "Do you want me to tell the truth or the sugar-coated lie?"
Everyone in the room gulped. Their Kazekage never showed fear or concern about anything when it came to fighting. For him to say words like this, the problem should be much greater than they thought.
"Baki-sensei!" Gaara suddenly barked.
"Y-yes, Kazekage-sama!" The aforementioned jonin's eyes widened, and he answered the sudden command with a rather shaken voice. Gaara looked straight into his eyes.
"You are always the jonin I trust the most in this village. But the mission I'm about to give you now is one that will decide the fate of the village. Are you up to the task?"
"Of course, Kazekage-sama!" Baki nodded with the utmost firm tone in his voice. Gaara nodded.
"Very good. Then..."
He pulled out an envelope from his drawer and gave it to the jonin, who took it with widened eyes. "Please bring this letter to Konohagakure and give it to the Hokage as quickly as possible. Do not get caught, do not stop until you reach Konoha, and don't let it fall into the hand of the enemies. Hokage-sama will understand it when he reads it. Do you understand?"
The jonin's eyes widened. Usually, a message from village to village should be sent by hawks or similar trained animals, but for a Kage to order a mail to be delivered personally by a high-ranked shinobi...
"Yes, sir!" he answered, and disappeared in a flick of wind.
"Good. Then everyone else, let's go outside to meet with our troops; we should prepare our best to defend against the invaders before they come here... which will be in about three hours."
"Shinobi of Sunagakure. I have a question for you: do you love this village?"
The voice of Gaara, amplified by chakra, echoed across Sunagakure. Every shinobi at the square stopped their arguments and turned towards their Kazekage. One person in the crowd yelled up.
"Of course we love the village, Kazekage-sama!"
Gaara nodded, satisfied. "Very good. Then, I trust that all of you will do everything you can to protect our village if someone would invade her?"
"Yes!"
Gaara looked around the crowd. All the faces he had known, the faces of the people whose relatives might have been killed by him during the time he was still a crazy maniac, the faces of all the Sunagakure citizens he had sworn to protect in order to redeem himself, now were looking at him with trust in their eyes. He closed his eyes for a brief moment, and when he opened them again, he said.
"Our village is going to be attacked by an unknown force in three hours. I don't know who is behind this sudden attack; if it was the Akatsuki who was attacking, I would have faced them myself, but they are bringing an army of thousands, which means they do not just intend to capture me, the jinchuriki of Sunagakure, but they are also going to destroy our village. I alone have no way to defend our village against that massive army."
In the crowd, murmurs of shock and fear started to spread. Everyone was taken aback from this sudden declaration; they couldn't even expect someone would dare to attack a Great Village so suddenly, without even a declaration of war, and with such a great force... Within the rank of the genin, loud sobs could already be heard.
Then suddenly, Gaara did something no shinobi of Sunagakure could expect. He bowed.
"So please, shinobi of Sunagakure! Please, at this moment, forget all the hatred toward each other and toward me, and lend me your strength to protect our home! Let's unite all our power, and at least in this battle, we will work together, as protectors of our home village!"
Those words coming from Gaara sent a surge of emotion through the entire Sunagakure's shinobi force. Everyone was completely taken aback before the utmost humble words of their Kage; some murmurs were starting to emerge. Then suddenly, a voice boomed from inside the crowd.
"We believe in you Kazekage-sama! We will do anything in our power to help you and the village!"
Just like a trigger, hundreds and hundreds of cheers started coming from the crowd. They echoed through the air, rumbling the whole village. And a smile appeared on Gaara's lips.
"Very well! Then everyone, prepare yourself as quickly as possible and get to your position! We will fight with all we have, and WE! WILL! WIN!"
"YES, SIR!"
Then, when every shinobi had already returned to their positions, Gaara looked up the night sky. You just come here, Akatsuki. I can forgive you if you try to capture only me... but if you dare do anything to harm this village... I, Gaara, will knock you all down!
"Sasuke?! Sakura?! How can you two be the ones testing me?!" Naruto asked, pointing at his two friends in shock. Sasuke just answered him with a smirk.
"Why shouldn't we be? After all, we are both jonin now; we have more than enough authority to be your examiners... or..."
Just like reading the Uchiha's mind, Sakura continued without even missing a beat. "...are you afraid of us?"
"Sasuke and Sakura both reached jonin after your departure only two years, Naruto," Hiruzen smiled, walking up. "I can assure you, their ability now is nothing less than that of Kakashi and Guy... or maybe even more. Especially if they are allowed to work together," he finished, stressing at the word 'if'. His eyes twinkled at the two jonin, and they blushed.
"Huh?" Naruto donned his foxy thinking face. "Why do you say 'if'? What does that mean...?"
The Hokage's eyes twinkled even more. "Oh, after they started dati..."
"Master! Stop that!"
Naruto nearly choked, both in surprise when he heard the word coming from Sasuke's mouth, and in laughter upon seeing the flustered face he could never imagine on the Uchiha.
After finally managing to calm himself down, he breathed out. "S-so... you and Sakura are dating? A-and your master is jiji himself? Wow... I really missed a lot of things during those three years huh..."
"You are going to miss even more if you underestimate us in this test, Naruto," Sakura flexed her bicep muscles, and grinned confidently. Sasuke didn't say anything; he just cracked his knuckles in anticipation, his Sharingan flared up to life. Naruto grinned back.
"Oh yeah? I also always wanna see how good the students of baa-chan and jiji actually are here."
"That brat..." Tsunade rubbed her nose bridge. "Still insolent as ever..."
Hiruzen grinned. "Then we're not going to hold it back any longer... Let the test begin!"
Baki slumped down to the ground. He had done his best to get past the enemy line, but he was also nearly killed in the effort to do so.
"This is not good... I don't know if I can even get to Konoha in this state..."
He coughed out a glob of blood. If he failed in this mission, Sunagakure would be doomed, for real...
He crawled toward a tree stump and sat down. Wiping the blood on his mouth, he formed some hand seals.
"Summoning Jutsu..."
A small weasel popped out in a burst of smoke, and gasped in horror when she saw the state of her summoner.
"Baki-sama! What happened to you?!"
"This is not the time to ask..." the Suna jonin breathed out. He reached into the pocket of his flak jacket and pulled out the scroll Gaara gave him.
"Tatsumaki, you are the fastest weasel in the world, who can move with the speed of wind... Please, you have to bring this to Konohagakure, to the Hokage as quickly as possible... I can hold the enemies back for a while, maybe about half a day or so, enough for you to reach the Leaf to get reinforcement..."
The weasel's eyes widened. "No, I can't do that! I need to help you..." she started, but Baki stopped her.
"Please, Tatsumaki! The fate of Sunagakure is lying in your hand! You need to do this, for the sake of our village, our citizens... gagh!"
He couldn't finish the sentence without coughing out another glob of blood. The summon was trying to say something else, but the look in Baki's eyes completely stopped her words in her throat.
"All right, I will go to Konoha as fast as I can!" Finally, she said. "But please don't die before I can bring reinforcement to you, okay?"
The weasel was nearly in tears when she said those words. Baki chuckled, and rubbed her tiny head.
"Yeah, sure. I'm not going to die that easily, you know."
The weasel nodded, and disappeared in a gust of wind. Baki looked at the direction his summon had just disappeared to for a few seconds, before sighing and checking his weapon pouch.
"Let's see what I can do now..."
Tsunade raised an eyebrow when Naruto slipped into his fighting stance. "He is not going to use that chakra aura thing he has?"
Jiraiya chuckled. "Why do you think Naruto should go for that so soon, Princess? The fight hasn't even begun yet."
"She has a point, you know," Hiruzen, standing next to him, pointed out. "He would need more than that if he wants to fight Sasuke and Sakura with a stance full of holes like that. Are you sure he isn't underestimating his opponents?"
Jiraiya chuckled again. "Actually, the whole point of our training was to make him not to rely on that form too much. You are also a fighter; I bet you understand what would happen if you got drunk on a power which was not your own. And trust me; Naruto won't even need to use that power."
It seemed Sasuke also had the same thought as his master and Tsunade. "Are you just going to attack us straightforwardly and casually like that?" he raised an eyebrow. "You're underestimating us too much, Naruto. And you won't be able to lay a hand on us if you don't come at us with intent to kill."
Naruto grinned. "I already knew that hiding against you two is useless. Besides, who said I'm underestimating you?"
Then with a roar, chakra blasted out of Naruto's body like a storm. It whipped around; even the spectators standing far away could feel it thrashing at their faces.
"What... what is that?" Choji choked out. "Is... is this the Kyuubi's chakra...?!"
"No," Hiruzen answered him; his face was still as calm as ever, but his eyes were narrowing. "This is only Naruto's chakra... but to think he could reach such a level in just three years..."
Then, suddenly it died down as if nothing happened.
'Be careful Naruto,' from inside his head, Goku warned him. 'I can feel something very different about those two. They are definitely not someone you can underestimate now.'
'Yeah, I know. Oh, and by the way, can I ask you guys not to interfere with this fight?'
Naruto's request made every Tailed Beast startled. 'What are you talking ab...?' Shukaku started, but Naruto immediately cut in.
'I want to fight them with my own power. I want to show them I got stronger on my own, not because I relied on your power all the way. And to be honest, using your power in a mock battle like this is kinda overkill, you know.'
What Naruto had just said made the Tailed Beasts stop complaining.
'All right, but if there is something bad happening to you, we will definitely step in, understand?'
Naruto smiled. 'Yeah, thank you all. You are the best.'
Then he smirked at Sasuke. "How about that, huh?"
Sasuke smirked back. "We'll see..."
Then, faster than Naruto could blink, the Uchiha closed the distance between them and delivered a quick punch at the jinchuriki. The force of the punch was not great, but the dangerous thing about it was the very high speed and its aim at the weakest hole in Naruto's stance. If the punch could land on its target, it could definitely be something that could end the fight immediately.
But Sasuke's eyes narrowed when Naruto blocked the attack without showing even a slight effort.
I see... so he's using a style similar to that guy in Kiri... deliberately showing his weak point to lure his opponent to attack that point and ignore other places... but that's not enough to defeat me!
The Uchiha immediately switched his target, this time aiming at a point less dangerous but much harder for Naruto to block. But to the Uchiha's surprise, Naruto matched his strike with a strike of his own.
So he could even fight like that, huh...
Sasuke was sent back a few steps by the sheer force of the strike Naruto used. And the jinchuriki immediately took that chance; this time, it was him who closed in for a kick aiming at Sasuke's ribcage. With the Sharingan, the Uchiha could see the attack quite clearly, and he ducked to dodge it.
What he didn't expect was that Naruto's leg suddenly stopped in midair, and the jinchuriki's heel was brought down at the blind spot of the Sharingan: his back. Even the Byakugan with the 360-degree vision still had the deadly blind spot at the nape of the neck; the Sharingan, with only the front vision available, of course couldn't see the sudden attack incoming. And at that range, Sasuke could not dodge, either.
Ino's eyes widened. "Isn't that the move Sakura used in the chuunin exam against Neji?!"
"I got you now!" Naruto yelled triumphantly.
But...
"Heh, nope."
On the ground, Sasuke suddenly started to spin. Not like the Rotation technique of the Hyuuga clan, but on his back, like a break dance artist performing. The momentum of the spin allowed him not only to dodge the drop kick of Naruto just in time, but also to deliver the first hit: a kick to Naruto's supporting leg. That hit made Naruto stumble ahead a few steps, but he managed to regain his balance immediately.
At the other side, Sasuke had also managed to stand up. He kicked the ground, making a distance between them, and weaved through hand seals.
"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!"
The huge fire ball in the shape of a dragon head blasted out of his mouth and rushed towards Naruto. Not even stopping to think, Naruto raised his hand. A Rasengan started forming in less than a second, but it was different from a normal Rasengan. It was glowing a blue much deeper than Naruto's normal chakra, and had some kind of swirl ripping around it.
"Water Style: Rasengan!" he yelled, and threw the sphere of chakra. Water and fire clashed against each other, and the sudden change in temperature made a loud "bang" noise, like a cannon being shot. The two shinobi backtracked and glared at each other.
"Turned out you're not that bad, eh," Sasuke said within breathes. Naruto grinned back.
"I told you."
"I'm sure a taijutsu specialist like you can see what Naruto was doing before, right, Hinata?"
The timid Hyuuga girl was startled when Jiraiya asked her the question. "Ah... right... As I saw, it seems Naruto-kun didn't fight in a certain style at all... there is no style I know which could change from flexible defense to powerful attack by sheer strength and then defense again that fluidly, even the Gentle Fist..."
"More like... he is using a combination of multiple different styles."
Jiraiya turned towards his teacher. "So you realized it too, eh sensei?"
"Of course," the Hokage nodded. "But I didn't know that you could teach someone like Naruto a style like that. You aren't exactly the material to be a taijutsu master, right?"
"Well, you are absolutely right," Jiraiya chuckled. "But don't forget that I wasn't the only master of Naruto. I obviously couldn't do that, but someone," he hesitated a bit at this part, "who is very close to him could. He and Naruto, somehow, managed to combine the style of many shinobi the brat had met in the past to make that style."
"I see..." Hiruzen smiled, rubbing his chin. "No wonder... I could see the style of that boy from Kiri, the power of Lee and Gai's Strong Fist, the flexibility of Sakura's own style in his style... Naruto has grown into a formidable shinobi, indeed."
"Heh," the Toad Sage smirked. "I already told you."
"But you shouldn't feel comfortable yet."
The two elder shinobi turned to Tsunade, who had just spoken up. The legendary medic grinned.
"You still haven't seen my student performing, right?"
"But I'm sure that's not everything you can do, hn?" Sasuke said, his Sharingan still not leaving the jinchuriki's face.
"Of course not," Naruto answered with a grin. "And I know that you are holding back a whole lot, too; am I right? It's time for you to show me your real strength."
Sasuke didn't retort. Instead, he turned to Sakura. "You have seen enough, right, Sakura?"
The pink haired girl smiled at him, and cracked her knuckles. "Yeah, I have seen enough to understand how he is right now. It's time for me to join the battle."
Sasuke smirked. "Then..."
He pulled his left sleeve up. Under the fabric, on his skin, was a tattoo of a sealing array. Having been trained thoroughly in sealing jutsu, Naruto could realize immediately it was a storage seal, with another seal to bind what sealed inside the array to the owner indefinitely.
And Sasuke slapped his right hand on the sealing array.
In a puff of smoke, something appeared. It looked like a small hatchet, but with two blade-like prongs at the top instead of one. But however Naruto looked, they were both too small to act as a kind of weapon in any way. And at the tip of the hilt, there was a suspicious notch sticking out in a strange way, with a big, blue orb Naruto didn't know what kind of gem it was at the point connecting the "blades" with the hilt. And right below it, there was a strange cylindrical construct Naruto didn't know the uses. In general, the thing looked too weak and fragile to be an effective weapon.
"Using a weapon, huh? Then I guess I will have to use my own weapon too."
The jinchuriki activated his own storage seals, and in two puffs of smoke, the pair of swords Iruka gave him on his birthday fell into his hands. The twin blades, one long, one short, fit on Naruto's hands just like they were made for him.
Naruto and Sasuke glared at each other for five seconds. And at the sixth one, Sasuke charged.
Naruto was completely taken aback. A hatchet wasn't something made for a thrust like what Sasuke was doing. And yet, the Uchiha was charging at him with the notch of his "hatchet" aiming at his stomach.
"What are you...?"
Sasuke's mouth curled up, and from his lip movement, Naruto could see him whispering.
"Flare, Takemikazuchi."
[Yes, Master. First form: Susano'o Guren.]
A voice, a female voice, came out from the weapon Sasuke was holding, and from the tip of the notch, a blade made of blue lightning chakra suddenly sprouted out and lengthened with a dangerous speed, threatening to impale Naruto in the stomach in one second. Not even having the time to think, Naruto immediately coated his blades with wind chakra and bashed the incoming blade upward. The blade of lightning and the blade of wind clashed against each other, making a disturbing noise.
But the move didn't even manage to halt Sasuke on his way. With just a flick of his hand, Takemikazuchi, which was being bashed up, changed direction in midair and aimed a downward slash at Naruto's left shoulder. With his left hand already on the air to stop the previous attack, Naruto couldn't pull it back fast enough to block this strike. At this rate, his left arm was going to be hacked off.
"Hrgh...!"
Naruto quickly leaned back, and with a quick burst of chakra from his feet, he pushed himself back, right in time for the chakra blade not to cut him in half, but not enough to avoid a cut at his chest. His jacket was slashed open, and blood spurt out on the ground, and Sasuke's clothes. Immediately, his healing factor started working and fixed the damage to his body.
Then Sasuke blurred away, and in his place now... was Sakura, with her fist cocked back.
Oh shi...!
Naruto immediately focused his chakra. In a blink of an eye, three great swords appeared between him and the pink-haired kunoichi as a shield to block the attack. And Sakura's fist crashed against the chakra-made steel blades.
The three swords were torn apart as if they were made of paper. The shockwave coming from Sakura's punch was so great it blasted a whole patch of forest behind Naruto away, even though where they were standing was at least meters away from the forest. Naruto himself was blown away like a ragdoll, even though the punch didn't touch him; he crashed into the ground with a sickening "THUD".
"Holy crap... What the hell did you teach her, Princess?"
Those were the only words Jiraiya could choke out upon seeing the scene in front of him.
Instead of answering, Tsunade gave him a question. "Have you ever heard about the Limit Break theory, Jiraiya?"
"Hmm?" The Toad Sage pondered. "I think I heard about it before..."
Then his eyes widened. "Wait... Don't tell me...!"
"Yeah," Tsunade admitted. "I already told her that way of training was completely insane, but she insisted on it so much I had no choice but to help her. Outside of medical training, she pushed her body past her limit every single day, to the point she couldn't even move a muscle during the first weeks doing that... and for some reason, it worked. Gradually, her body became much more powerful, and combining that with my special chakra control skill and her mother's Reinforcement technique... yeah, I can safely say that she has become one of the most dangerous shinobi of this whole village in terms of pure physical power. Hell, in this village I think there are only two people who can catch up with her now, which is Rock Lee and Might Gai of Team Gai."
Naruto finally stopped rolling on the ground... and burst into smoke.
Shadow clone? But when did he...?! And how did he even...!?
"Forming hand seals with just one hand?!" Now it was Tsunade's turn to be startled. "Where did he even learn that?"
"Well, just know that during our trip, we stayed at Kirigakure for quite some time," Jiraiya answered. "And Kirigakure is famous for shinobi who can form hand seals with just one hand... and one of those happened to be the brat's friend, you know."
"I have to admit, you really made me surprised when you did that sudden substitution with Sasuke, Sakura."
Behind! But when did he even...?!
Sasuke snapped his head back and swung up, right in time to block a heavy strike coming down his head from the shorter sword on Naruto's right mechanical hand. He winced under the sheer force of the strike; he didn't even think the artificial appendage could have that kind of ridiculous strength.
But Sasuke wasn't the student of the Professor for nothing. Using the force of the strike as the momentum, he twisted out of the way, and now Naruto was the one who had to block the strike coming down his neck by the very same short sword he had just used to attack Sasuke. The two elemental blades once again clashed against each other.
But...
"Heh."
Sasuke was startled when the blade of the longer sword on Naruto's left hand suddenly surged forward, aiming at his left thigh, and at the same time, the pressure under his blade suddenly increased tremendously.
"Hoh, that's a move from the famous Niten Ichi-ryuu..." Hiruzen mused when he realized the kenjutsu style Naruto was using. "Never thought I would live to see someone using that style again..."
Shit...! Even with the Sharingan, I can't...!
Luckily for him, he had Sakura on his side.
With a deafening battlecry, the kunoichi slammed her foot down, and the ground heaved. Both Naruto and Sasuke felt their bodies being tossed violently upward, and thanks to that, Sasuke was able to avoid the deadly slash coming at his thigh. The blade soared under his leg harmlessly, and his sword was released from the lock with Naruto's other blade.
"Ack...!"
Glancing at the girl, Naruto's eyes widened when he saw her forming a tiger seal.
What is she...?!
"Genjutsu: Bringer of Darkness."
Genjutsu?! No matter, there is no genjutsu that can affect me...!
Then Naruto was startled when he saw darkness covering him. What?! How?!
'This genjutsu is a very advanced one which manipulates the light signal coming from your eyes to your brain!' Matatabi warned him. 'It is not something you can dispel just by scrambling your chakra wildly, so be careful!'
Oh, great...! I didn't expect Sakura could become that powerful...!
Losing his vision against someone as powerful as these two, even in just one second, means death. He needed to do something...!
Of course! I can try sensing their emotion to figure out where they are... but... that means I have to use my Chakra Mode... wait. There is another way...
He landed on the ground. Staying firmly on his feet, he closed his eyes.
Half a second later, when they snapped open, there were orange pigmentations around them.
And everything appeared, more than clear in his senses. He lashed out, knocking Sasuke who was trying to deliver a sneak attack at him from his left away.
"Did he just... enter perfect Sage Mode in half a second?!"
Now even Hiruzen was shocked. Jiraiya chuckled.
"Now that's what I called a student surpassing his own teacher. Actually, Naruto asked me and the Sages of Myoboku to..." he paused a few seconds to find a suitable answer, "train him in Sage Mode just about a month after we left the village. It was hard, but he absorbed the knowledge even faster than I could imagine. As you all know, in order to enter and maintain Sage Mode, the user needs to have a total understanding of his chakra, as well as the ability to perfectly control the input and output of it. That's why most users of Sage Mode have very good chakra control, and have to stay still for a long time in order to gather chakra, as just a slight imbalance would ruin the process and bring irreversible consequences. But..."
He paused again, but this time just for dramatic effect.
"One of the advantages of having something like Naruto's prosthetic arm is that he has to practice chakra control constantly."
Now!
Nature chakra was sent into Naruto's sword, and he slashed at Sakura, who was standing a few meters away. Even if he couldn't touch her physically, Sage Mode allowed him to hit enemies from a distance with powerful, undodgeable strikes of nature chakra. And that figure over there was definitely the real Sakura, the source of the genjutsu; if she was hit, the genjutsu would be dispelled...!
But it seemed Sakura had expected that to happen. At the same time as Naruto swung his sword...
"SHANNAROOOOOOOO!"
...she also threw her own punch.
A deafening explosion ensued.
Sakura didn't have incredible speed as Lee or Sasuke. But she had extreme power to compensate for that.
Yes, the pink-haired girl now had the power to match a strike of nature with her own punch. And she was doing that while maintaining an S-rank advanced genjutsu created by the First Hokage.
The force of the explosion was so immense it sent Naruto stumbling a few steps back. But it also managed to break Sakura's concentration on the genjutsu, and light returned to Naruto's eyes.
"Urgh...!"
There!
Not wasting even a second, Naruto regained his balance and closed the distance between him and Sakura. He delivered a quick slash at the girl's torso, with the clear aim of taking her down before she could do anything else.
But...
"Earth Style: Earth Flow Wave!"
Naruto was thrown off his path when the ground under his feet heaved once again. And it seemed Sakura had practiced this strategy for quite a long time, because she almost didn't lose her balance at all. And that was the chance for her.
"SHANNAROOOOO!"
The cartridge was loaded into her gauntlet with a loud "crack". Then with a very fast Jet Step, the girl closed the distance between them. Naruto's eyes widened; if that punch landed on him, then Sage Mode be damned; he would definitely have to stay on hospital bed for a month...!
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
A clone popped into existence next to him on the air, and managed to push him aside before eating the whole punch of Sakura to the stomach. It was dispelled violently, and Naruto winced when the memory of the clone rushed back into his head.
But now, Sakura was exposed; he can finally land a hit on her...!
No, not quite... she still has...
And just as Naruto expected, right before his foot even touched the ground, Sakura had changed her direction with another Jet Step right in midair, and was now descending down his head with a deadly drop kick. But this time, Naruto was already expecting it, and by launching chakra out of his own feet, he managed to shoot himself away before Sakura's foot landed on the ground and made a crater under it.
Not letting Naruto catch his breath, Sakura closed her distance again with another Jet Step and launched punches after punches at him. Unlike the taijutsu trade with Sasuke, Naruto couldn't afford to block any of her punches, even in Sage Mode. That's why he was being forced to dodge frantically right now. With his supreme reflex from Sage Mode, he could do that without too much effort, but he knew he couldn't dodge forever. And there's no way for him to counterattack in this state.
"Haaah!"
With a loud cry, chakra exploded from Naruto's body like a storm, throwing Sakura away. Naruto landed on the ground and quickly backtracked; there's no reason for him to stay close to this dangerously violent girl for long...
"Blitz, Takemikazuchi!"
[All right, my Master. Load cartridge. Second form: Akidachi.]
What..?!
Naruto immediately dodged to the side right before the blade of lightning could skewer him from behind. He took a few steps back and carefully rated the problem.
On Sasuke's hand wasn't the chakra katana he saw before anymore. The handle of the weapon was now much longer, and the blade had retracted into a shorter, but broader and curved, form. The two prongs on the hilt of the katana were now hugging the root of the blade instead of spreading out, and under them now the cylindrical construct Naruto had seen in the katana had also changed shape a bit, becoming bigger than before. And for some reason, there was now a rope tied into a bow right below the construct. In short, the katana had become a naginata.
With an incredibly quick movement, much faster than before, Sasuke thrust the spear at Naruto's mechanical hand. It struck, and the sword in the hand flew away in a brilliant arc, stabbing into the ground before fading away back into Naruto's seal. The Uchiha spun the naginata in his hand and retreated back to where Sakura was standing.
"A sentient multi-form chakra weapon, utilizing the Masamune cartridge system, huh..." Jiraiya mused. "Where did he get that? Who was the one making it for him?"
The Third Hokage grinned. "Will you believe me if I say he made it himself?"
Jiraiya shot a blank stare at his teacher. "You're kidding me."
"Nope," Hiruzen shook his head. "I have to admit, Sasuke has a brilliant brain, just like that of Tobirama-sensei. Not only did he learn the chakra materializing technology Tobirama-sensei used for his Sword of Thunder God in just two years, he also managed to figure out the concept behind the making of sentient weapons like the Samehada of the Mist and the Masamune cartridge system in Sakura's gauntlets through research, and replicate and even improve them to a far more advanced form in that weapon. And that form change is his own innovation; even I didn't know where he pulled it from... And I have to say, that isn't even half of the things that weapon can do."
Then he shook his head. "And people call me a genius..."
Jiraiya couldn't say anything else. He just stared at the battle in front of him with a shocked expression still lingering on his face.
"I didn't think you still have such a trump card hidden..." Naruto gritted his teeth.
Answering him, Sasuke slipped into a stance Naruto never saw him using before. The blade of the naginata was pointed ahead, and Sasuke's body itself was lowered to the point it looked similar to that of a sprinter who was ready to leave the starting point on a starting block.
"On the contrary..." he said in a low voice, "...this is nowhere near my trump card!"
Then Sasuke moved. In a single step, he closed the distance, and the naginata was thrust at Naruto mercilessly. With the enhanced reflex granted by Sage Mode, Naruto dodged the strike quite easily, but to his surprise, another strike came just as quickly, and another one, and another one... and another one...
Shit...! Even with Sage Mode, I can't keep dodging like this...!
A naginata is usually used for slashing. But with a blade made of lightning chakra, it can easily be used for stabbing also. Even Naruto didn't know if a blade made fully of lightning could pierce a senjutsu-enhanced body, and there was no way he would test it on himself.
He would have to disarm Sasuke, even if he had to break that weapon...!
Holding the remaining sword by both his real and mechanical hands, Naruto delivered a downward slash at the naginata with all of his strength, enhanced by Sage Mode. If this slash couldn't blow the weapon away from Sasuke's hand, then at least it could still do severe damage to it...!
However, Sasuke quickly spun the spear and blocked the strike. And to Naruto's shock, it was his weaponwhich was chipped a bit from the collision, not Sasuke's. The recoil sent him stumbling a few steps back.
"What the...?!"
"You think I didn't learn anything after all of my swords were broken during battles?" Sasuke stopped, pointing his naginata at Naruto. "Let me tell you; Takemikazuchi was made from the scythe of that dead Akatsuki member."
Naruto's eyes widened. Hidan's scythe... Adamantine... So that's why...!
"That's right," Sasuke continued. "And if you don't have anything else to show me, you are going to fall under Takemikazuchi's blade!"
He pressed on again, and this time, Naruto retreated. He didn't want to waste the remaining of his Sage chakra, as he would need it if he was going to do what he was going to do.
"Blade Storm Projection!" He yelled, and fifty kunai appeared on the air behind him and launched themselves toward Sasuke. The Uchiha's eyes widened, and he leapt back and spun his spear, deflecting the kunai. But that opening was enough for Naruto to keep a safe distance between them. The jinchuriki breathed out; if he can just keep doing this, he might be able to wear Sasuke down quite a bit before delivering the decisive strikes himself...
"Don't even think that only you can have range attacks! Takemikazuchi!"
[Load cartridge. Combination successful. Plasma Style: Crescent Slicer.]
Plasma...
"...Style?!"
Hiruzen smirked at the gaping mouth of Jiraiya. "Yes, it is Sasuke's exclusive advanced nature. He heard about the concept from Naruto, and has been trying to replicate it by himself to little avail. When he created Takemikazuchi, he added in a feature which allows it to do multiple tasks at once... which also coincidentally allows him to use it to replicate the process to make advanced nature chakra. So far, he can do it with two elements. Lightning and Fire, ionizing air molecules to an extreme level... make Plasma."
The contraption lying below the blade of the naginata slid down, revealing a bigger-than-usual revolver cylinder under it. As quick as its activation, it slid back into place with a "snap", and Sasuke raised the weapon high above his head and swung. A crescent wave of white, extremely hot plasma was launched from the blade, destroying all the projected weapons on its way and rushing toward Naruto. Even from afar, Naruto knew that the attack couldn't be blocked by any means. He immediately jumped aside, and the plasma wave soared past him and cut a long trench on the ground before dissipating.
Then a pair of hands came out from the ground and grabbed his legs.
Oh shit! I nearly forgot Sakura! But how did she...?
Naruto's eyes widened when he realized what was going on. It's not like Naruto didn't sense Sakura's chakra. It's that he couldn't. Even with Sage Mode on, he couldn't sense any chakra coming from Sakura at all. The girl had become so adept in chakra control she could suppress her own chakra completely, even during a jutsu, something thought to be impossible for a human to do.
And Naruto realized immediately what the pinkette was going to do. He quickly reached into his weapon pouch and pulled out something.
A tri-pronged kunai.
Tsunade's eyes widened. "Is Naruto going to do what I think he's going to do?"
Sasuke's eyes narrowed when the kunai left Naruto's hand and flew at him. "Are you kidding me?" he snorted, and deflected the knife easily with his weapon.
"Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu!" Sakura yelled, and Naruto was pulled into the ground...
...before disappearing in a yellow flash.
"What...?!"
"Ha! Flying Thunder God Jutsu, suckers!"
A few meters away from Sasuke and Sakura, where the Uchiha had deflected the kunai to, now stood Naruto, who was holding the same kunai, not one but eight of them, and twenty other similar ones were hovering behind him.
"Eat this!" Naruto roared, and threw all the kunai on his hands towards Sasuke and Sakura. At the same time, the kunai behind him also shot forward like tiny missiles.
"Like hell you will..." Sasuke started, but Sakura was the one who reacted first. She clapped her hands together in a Snake seal, and a huge stone slab burst out from the ground, blocking every kunai flying toward them.
Nice thinking, Sakura! If he can't get any kunai near us, he won't be able to teleport...
"Heh."
Then suddenly Sasuke felt his face being kicked brutally from the side. He was sent flying, his back crashed at the ground painfully.
"What... the...?!"
"Okay, now this is just ridiculous. How did he even do that?!" Hiruzen asked in shock. "In order to teleport to his enemies, both Minato and Tobirama-sensei had to utilize a special formula seal! How could Naruto use the jutsu without it? I didn't even see him touching Sasuke directly!"
Jiraiya didn't answer. He just smiled triumphantly and returned his attention to the fight.
"Wait a second..." Tsunade suddenly spoke up; her eyes widened. "Could it be...?"
The Toad Sage cut in. "I would rather you didn't speak it up out loud, Princess. That is the secret behind Naruto's inheritance; it is not wise if anyone else hears about that."
Hearing that, the legendary medic didn't say anything else.
So that's why he allowed himself to be cut by Sasuke at the beginning of the battle. But seriously... forming a summoning contract with himself, then, using the hemoglobin in his blood as a beacon, summoning himself to whenever he wants... So simple, yet so brilliant... why didn't anyone in the world think about this? And in order to do that without even using a hand seal...
"Hehe... you really did choose an excellent apprentice, Jiraiya," finally, she chuckled. "I have to say, I'm really impressed with you right now."
Jiraiya grinned back. "And you still don't want to go on a date with me..."
"Don't push your luck, idiot."
Meanwhile, the members of the Konoha 15 standing in the training ground were all gaping in disbelief.
"Holy crap..." Choji breathed out, his eyes were both as wide as two dinner plates. "All three of them... That can't even be considered jonin-level anymore!"
"Yeah..." Shikamaru drawled. "That's not even ninja fighting anymore. It's just like seeing three monsters beating the shit out of each other. What a drag..."
Even though what the Nara boy said was offensive, no one could even find any word to argue with that. This level of power, on all three shinobi of Team 7, now far surpassed any jonin they had seen before; even Kakashi, even Gai...
It was just like seeing that battle of the Hokage, the Mizukage and Jiraiya against Orochimaru and his three zombie Kages again...
Naruto-kun... Hinata looked at the jinchuriki with newfound admiration. You have become so strong...
"I'm not done yet!"
Another tri-pronged kunai soared past Sakura's neck in just a nick of time, and Naruto appeared next to her in another yellow flash right before delivering a punch enhanced with nature chakra at her back. Now it was Sakura's turn to be sent flying; she was slammed into the air right next to Sasuke painfully.
With only one jutsu, Naruto had taken back the advantage in the battle...!
"This is the end!" Naruto roared, teleporting to Sasuke's side again and throwing his last punch with nature chakra at his chest. If this could land, it would be the final blow...!
But before his fist could reach the Uchiha...
"I'm done holding back."
...his wrist was caught in midair. By Sakura's hand.
With a very quick and professional movement, Sakura twisted his left arm back and locked him in place. He tried to struggle, but the grip was so strong he couldn't even move his arm.
"The Flying Thunder God jutsu doesn't actually increase your speed; it only enhances your attacks with the surprise element which people usually mistaken for speed," the voice of Sasuke rose in front of him. "Its disadvantage is that in a battle of high speed, just like the Chidori, you will need extremely fast reflex and speed on your own to keep up with the movement if you want to use it in close range fights as effectively as the Fourth Hokage, which you could only have with that Sage Mode of yours. Yes, of course I know about Sage Mode," the Uchiha added, to Naruto's surprise. "And another thing is... you are not allowed to let yourself be caught physically, or you will bring them together with you wherever you teleport to, and the surprise element would become moot."
Sasuke had also stood up. "And unfortunately for you... when it comes to speed, no one in Konohagakure can surpass me now."
He raised his right hand, and lightning chakra started gathering.
"Don't be so sure, Sasuke."
And Sasuke and Sakura felt blades nicking their skin. Clones of Naruto were standing behind them, holding their swords right next to their necks. And all around them, swords, kunai and shuriken of all kinds were hovering menacingly, ready to fire anytime.
"Being like that, and you still managed to hold us in a deadlock..." Sasuke chuckled. "You really are the most unpredictable shinobi of Konoha, Naruto."
Then, surprisingly, the Uchiha let his jutsu dissipate.
"I think that's enough for you to give your verdict, right, Hokage-sama?"
From the audience, Hiruzen walked up with a smile. "Indeed. Considering what I saw today, I can safely say that considering fighting ability, you are already worthy of the jonin rank, Naruto. You haven't even used your most powerful jutsu, and yet you managed to fend off two of my most powerful jonin in the force, fighting them to a stalemate. And I must say, you really learned a lot during your training trip. I guess both of you would agree with that, aren't you?" he looked at Jiraiya and Tsunade, who smiled.
"So I am a jonin now?" Naruto asked, excited. Hiruzen smiled at him.
"Nope. You will need to do a written test first before I can decide your promotion."
"Aw, man!"
Everyone laughed. Hiruzen threw a scroll at him. "I'm kidding. Here you are; your jonin flak jacket. Although we will have to take care of quite a bit of paperwork, but I guess I'll just give you a promotion for the heck of it. You already fulfilled all the requirements anyway. Oh, and since one of a jonin's jobs is to take care of a team of his own, just prepare yourself for when your own team comes to you, Naruto."
Naruto paled. Everyone else laughed even harder.
Right at that time, Fuu, together with Kakashi and the other jonin of the village walked into the training ground.
"Ah, there they are," the Hokage turned back to Fuu with another smile. "I believe your test also finished, right?"
"Yes, Hokage-sama!" Gai gave his trademark "nice guy" thumb-up. "Fuu-kun has shown us a most youthful spirit today! Not only did she manage to fend off both me and Kakashi at the same time, she also showed the most magnificent cooperation with her Tailed Beast! And she even managed to convince everyone that the Tailed Beasts are not simply tools for destruction, by showing them one of the most elegant and beautiful fights ever!"
Hiruzen looked at Kakashi. The cyclops gave him an eyesmile.
"That's right, Hokage-sama. I would say, she totally deserves to become a jonin as soon as she completes her own Chuunin exam."
"Eeeeeehhh?!" Fuu groaned. "I still can't be promoted straight to jonin immediately? I hate exams!"
Everyone broke into laughter again. Hiruzen grinned at the girl.
"Don't worry, Fuu, the next Chuunin exam is going to be in next month. With your level right now, I'm sure you will be able to blitz through it easily. After you complete it, I will promote you immediately to jonin as per Gai and other jonin's recommendation. Now, I guess everything's done here. Everyone can already dismiss."
When everyone was leaving, Tsunade waved at Naruto. "Brat, come with me. There is something I want to show you."
"Finally... Konoha... I'm finally here...! Baki-sama... Please hold on just a little longer...!"
Naruto blinked when he saw Tsunade leading her to a place at the back of the hospital. "Why are you taking me here, baa-chan? Don't tell me you want me to have a check up like before I left..." he trailed off, and shuddered.
"Frankly, I'm actually considering that," Tsunade said bluntly, and Naruto paled. "But actually, there is something I want you to see. It's something I want to give you as soon as you get back to the village. Come here."
The pair walked into a corridor Naruto had never been to at the times he had to go to the hospital before. Tsunade walked to a double door at the end of the corridor and pushed it open.
Inside was something Naruto could call a laboratory rivaling even that of Orochimaru. Strange machines and pipes and wires of all kinds filled all the walls of the room, and many doctors wearing white blouse were busily working on them. The only thing that might be different was that the room was much brighter and livelier than the ones in Orochimaru's dungeons.
Tsunade walked towards a doctor at the corner, who Naruto realized was Doctor Ishida, who usually took care of him when he was sent to the hospital. The doctor turned around, and smiled when she saw the pair coming.
"Ah, Naruto-kun, welcome back! And Tsunade-sama," she bowed at the legendary medic.
"Is everything still going as planned, Ishida?" Tsunade asked in a sharp voice. The doctor nodded.
"Yes, ma'am. If everything's going according to the plan, the recreation will be completed in about a week. But I think you should let him have a look at it first... in case he doesn't want it..."
Tsunade nodded. "That's what I'm thinking of, too. Shall we?"
Dr. Ishida pushed a button on the machine she was working on. The wall next to it started folding up, revealing a smaller room behind it. In the room, there was a strange machine with a container-like device... and inside it was an arm.
"No way..." Naruto marveled at the thing in front of him. "Is that...?"
Tsunade scratched her head. "Well, yeah. When I reattached your left arm to your body, I... kinda took some cell sample from your flesh, skin and bones to research. And I managed to grow and construct the cells into... well, that arm. It is, basically, a recreation of your own right arm using your own cells. It can be considered a masterpiece of medical science, coming from your one and only," she puffed her chest out, which made her huge breasts bounce in a strange way.
"So this is why you didn't allow me to recreate my own arm using Creation of All Things, huh..." Naruto glanced at her. The legendary medic sighed and bopped his head.
"Do you even know how a human arm is structured? As far as I know, your jutsu requires you to know thoroughly about the structure of the thing you want to create, not only the form, but also what are inside it, the blood vessels, the nerve system, the chakra network, etc. Had you tried to recreate it yourself, the arm you would get would have just been like this one," she tapped his mechanical arm, "lifeless, stiff, unable to utilize chakra at all. It might even have less use than a block of wood."
'She has a point, you know,' Kokuoh in his head said. 'Your knowledge about human anatomy is still not enough to create additional limbs or organs for yourself. Creating additional limbs requires you to have not only understanding about how they are structured, but also about how they connect to the rest of the body, how they work, how they are supposed to grow together with your body, and many things else."
'Then how does Fuu-chan always grow wings to fly on her own?'
'That's because she uses my own physical wings as the blueprint to create them, Naru-kun,' Chomei answered for Kokuoh. 'Nothing is better to be a blueprint to create something than that exact something, right? And she never uses those wings for an extended time, remember?'
'Huh, when you say it like that...'
'Besides, whenever you managed to recover from near fatal attacks, your organs were not totally, utterly destroyed like your right arm, so using whatever remained, Kurama could base on the cell structure of them to replicate the structure to the cellular level, and what remains of them to hypothesize the general structure of the organs in order to regenerate it,' Kokuoh added in. 'But like I said, there is kinda nothing of your old arm left in this world anymore, so... And even things like that would have their own drawback. Just a single mistake could have caused horrible cancers in the organs...'
Naruto winced. 'You really didn't need to say it like that, you know.'
"So why do you need to ask me about it?" Naruto blinked at Tsunade. "It's your present to me, and it sounds so great; I would accept it even if you don't ask me, right?"
The legendary medic hesitated. "Well... the truth is, even with all the cells I collected from you and all the technology provided, I could only grow them and shape them up into the form of the arm. There was no other way to make it... well, alive and possible for a living body to use... so uh... I kinda had to... splice in some cells from the body of my grandfather. I'm pretty sure there wouldn't be anything bad happening, but to be honest, I'm not quite sure what effect it would have on your body."
'And there you go,' Kurama facepalmed. 'Hashirama cells; answer to every question...'
"That's why I want to ask you about it before doing anything," Tsunade continued. "I understand that you wouldn't be very thrilled with the idea of using someone else's cells in your own body... not to mention it's something I kinda had to desecrate my grandfather's tomb for..."
Naruto pondered about this. The idea of having a real arm, a working, biological arm for himself was a very tempting one, and with a very powerful addition to it to boot...
He knew what a human body can do when enhanced with cells of the First Hokage. It was the very thing that made a 19-year-old Obito with half of his body crushed powerful enough to fight on par with his father, the legendary Yellow Flash of Konoha. It was also the thing that gave Madara the Rinnegan and made him, thanks to the brilliant and stupid idea of Kabuto, powerful enough to crush the whole Shinobi Alliance under his feet.
And he actually needed a way to improve his Wood Style, too. The truth is, Naruto had been practicing Wood Style for a while with the instruction of Saikyo. Combining two elements together was what he could do easily now; and with the slug's ability, he could theoretically add the element of "life" into the mixture of chakra. But so far, the best he could do was making a bean sprout come out of the ground. The level he was at right now was not nearly enough to bring to a battle. If he accepted that arm, maybe he could do something to improve it...
But still... the idea of having Hashirama's cells implanted into his body disturbed Naruto as much as it tempted him. If he did that, he would be no different from Orochimaru, Kabuto or Madara.
What should he do...?
'To be honest, I think Naruto-kun should just accept the arm.'
Everyone turned to Matatabi, who had just said.
'Just think about it in a pragmatic way. Doing that might be immoral, I agree, but it's not like we have a choice, right? Naruto-kun has learnt how to control himself very well with that mechanical arm during the three years, but allowing him to continue using it when we have a powerful, suitable replacement which is arguably much better than it is just stupid. And besides, if we need to fight someone like Madara in the future, more power means more advantage for us, right?'
There was silence when everyone digested this. Finally, Naruto said.
"Well, I accept, baa-chan. I will take that arm. But are you sure there won't be anything dangerous happening to me if I do that?"
Tsunade nodded. "I'm sure. Well, there might be some small problem with the movement of the arm right after the implant, but it will be fine with enough practice..."
"There is no time for that, Naruto!"
Everyone turned towards the entrance, where Sakura was standing, breathing heavily. The pinkette gasped out.
"Lord Hokage told me to find you and bring you to his chamber as fast as possible; I think there is something urgent going on!"
"Jiji, what happened?"
That was the first question Naruto asked when he arrived at the Hokage chamber.
Hiruzen stood up and gave Naruto a sheet of paper. He didn't smile.
"Read this, Naruto."
Naruto took the paper from the Hokage and read. His eyes darkened with each word he read.
Hokage-sama.
Sunagakure is under attack from a force of at least 10,000 troops, which I suspect was sent by the Akatsuki. I'm really sorry that I have to ask this, but please send reinforcement as soon as possible.
Regards,
Gaara of the Sand, Kazekage
"Then why are we still sitting here?" he exclaimed, throwing the sheet of paper down. "We have to go help Gaara immediately!"
The Hokage nodded grimly. "That's why I'm calling you here, Naruto. Your first mission as a jonin would be to provide assistance to Sunagakure as soon and as much as possible. Accompanying you would be..."
Right at that time, the door to the chamber opened again, and Kakashi and Sasuke walked into the room.
"So, a mission for Team 7 again, huh," Naruto grinned.
"Kakashi will be the leader of the squad during this mission," the Hokage continued. "Remember, this mission is not something I will accept failure of. Do everything you can, and..." he finished with a grim tone, "come back alive."
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Definition
Plasma Style
This is the Advanced Nature Manipulation Sasuke developed during the three years training with the Third Hokage. This advanced nature chakra is formed by combining Fire and Lightning chakra to create an ionized to the max environment in which Plasma is formed. Due to not having the skill to combine the two chakra elements naturally, Sasuke has to depend on his weapon, Takemikazuchi, and her ability to multitask to combine the elements and create the necessary condition for Plasma to exist. The extreme heat and penetration power of this element make jutsu using it very powerful and nigh unblockable.
Plasma Style: Crescent Slicer
Classification: Ninjutsu
Rank: A++ (due to the use of advanced nature chakra)
Class: Offensive
Range: Mid-range
A jutsu utilizing Plasma Style. Using Takemikazuchi, Sasuke delivers a slash at the direction of his enemies to launch a wave of plasma towards them.
Water Style: Rasengan
Classification: Ninjutsu
Rank: S
Class: Offensive
Range: Close to Mid-range
A variation of the Rasengan created by Naruto Uzumaki. Adding Water element into the original Rasengan, Naruto creates a sphere of extremely condensed and spinning water chakra which, when coming into contact with the enemies, would explode and unleash a very powerful force. After the three years of intense training with Jiraiya, Naruto can now use this jutsu with one hand.
Earth Style: Earth Flow Wave
Classification: Ninjutsu
Rank: B
Class: Defensive, Support, Offensive
Range: Close-range
By sending Earth-element chakra into the ground, the user of this jutsu can manipulate the hardness of the ground, changing the fighting environment in whatever way they want. This jutsu is very useful if the user needs to take his or her enemies by surprise.
Flying Thunder God Jutsu
Classification: Ninjutsu, Space-Time Ninjutsu
Rank: S
Class: Support
Range: Close, Mid and Long-range
The jutsu originally created by the Second Hokage, later reinvented and utilized by the Fourth Hokage and his son, Naruto Uzumaki. By making a summoning contract with himself, the user can then summon himself to any place in the range of the jutsu which has traces of his blood. It makes the user look like he is teleporting to where his enemy is standing. During their time, the Second and Fourth Hokage made "jutsu-formula" to mark their enemies, but that actually was just a misunderstanding: what made them able to teleport to where they marked was the fact that the marks were written by their own blood. However, the user can also exploit the blood used for the technique for other uses, such as making seals with the power to teleport even things like Tailed Beast Bombs to other places, like the Fourth Hokage did during the battle with Kurama in Konoha.