The first figure visible through the thick haze was Anko, although few would recognize her. She stood up from her cramped position to the shock of the Konoha shinobi and the sound four alike. Orochimaru was pleased with the new appearance of his former subordinate and was anxiously waiting to see Sasuke's new form. The most noticeable difference in Anko's appearance was her skin, which had gone from soft and fleshy, to a grayish purple color that resembled her hair color and seemed to be made of scales. She had bright yellow cones under her eyes, like Kiba, except that these ran down the length of her face, as well as her arms, in the form of stripes. From the outsides of her forearms, grew two scales which seemed more like a square turned on its corner. These were about a foot from her body at their longest point and were the entire length of her forearm. Judging from the gashes in her coat, they were extremely sharp and probably capable of causing major damage. Her nose had pushed up slightly in the front, as if someone had punched it, and her canines had elongated into fangs, which became visible for the first time as she liked her lips of a bead of sweat, which had accumulated due to the heat. Her eye lids opened, much too quickly for someone who had been entrapped in a claustrophobic container, revealing golden yellow eyes, whose pupils had transformed into slits, just like a snake. Ridges, where her eyebrows once were, shaded her sensitive eyes from the harsh light and she took a shuddering breath, still acclimatizing herself to her new body.
A mighty gust of wind swept through the area, evacuating the dust and smoke that still lingered about, revealing what was once hidden. There stood Sasuke, transformed by the power of his seal and his demonic heritage, into a new form that oozed power and chakra. Two enormous black feathered wings folded back down on themselves, after clearing the air around the body they were attached to. His skin was lined with thick lines that all stemmed from the center of his chest, which had grown so much muscle mass that it had ripped the shirt he had been wearing, to pieces which hung from his shoulders. His hands had grown boney, resembling claws, complete with sharp talons on their tips. Two horns which resembled a bull's grew from the sides of his forehead, before turning and pointing straight foreword. This made his hair fall over his eyes, obscuring the red of the sharingan behind pitch black locks. The final addition to the new ensemble was the migration of the cursed seal of heaven from his neck to his left bicep. Instead of the three tomoe, the marks now resembled a stylized `S' with another`s' imposed behind it.
Upon seeing the transformation of his seal, Orochimaru's eyes widened in shock, this was not supposed to happen! Somehow, he had broken the connection which had been formed when the former sannin had marked the boy. The Sasuke that stood before him was no longer a pawn of his.
Sasuke felt his internal devil take control of his body, immediately after he had emerged from the blackness of his unconscious mind.
“Finally! I am free, free to avenge the injustices I have suffered!” Devil spoke shakily, testing out Sasuke's voice for the first time. Looking over at Naruto's prone body he began to walk towards it, only to be stopped by the transformed Anko. The lids around the Sharingan narrowed.
“You have your own revenge, allow me to have mine!” Devil's personality had made Sasuke's voice deeper and more menacing than should be allowed on a twelve year old. When Anko didn't move Sasuke tried to walk around her, but Anko stood tall, protecting her son, even if she wasn't doing it consciously.
“What iss the point of fighting an unconciouss opponent?” Her voice had picked up a hiss in this form, making her sound more like her sensei. “Can you not feel it? He will awaken sssoon, wait until then.” Making eye contact with her adopted son, Anko saw the resignation in his eyes as his posture shifted to a neutral stance. Seeing this, she too blurred out of existence, showing off the speed she had gained in this form, and reappeared behind Orochimaru, who had been fast enough to dodge the initial slice from her Spiegel blade like appendages, but still took a deep slice to his cheek.
Sasuke eyed the two closest figures to himself and his true opponent. Chouji was a bit worried about the new form of his comrade, who was leaking chakra enough to surely be felt back in Konoha. Jirobo was looking on in shock; this brat's power was many times his own. Thankfully the second level of the cursed seal had a built in predetermination to follow orders from Orochimaru, so Sasuke would more or less be brainwashed. What Jirobo didn't know would cost him.
In a flash of black Sasuke reappeared in front of the fat sound nin, grabbing his face in his clawed hands and actually lifting him off the ground with one hand. Flames spread over the body of the captured ninja so fast that no one had a chance to react before Jirobo had been reduced to a smoldering pile of bones and ignited human oils.
“Tell the fox that I will be waiting for him at the waterfall on the boarder. If he doesn't show up in ten minutes, I will return and kill everyone I see.” The demonic Sasuke ordered Chouji to relate that message, although the Akimichi was a bit confused as to what he meant by fox, but would risk his life over it. He nodded, but had to hold down a shudder as his eyes connected with the Uchiha. Sasuke turned his back to the entire situation and walked a few paces away from Chouji, before his dark wings spread open to their full seven feet span, before making a mighty sweep downwards, propelling the boy into the sky and towards the valley of the end.
Once that happened, all hell broke loose. Orochimaru and Kabuto attempted to follow after the boy, but were stopped by Anko and Jiraiya. Neji made a pass at his opponent, Kidomaru and was able to connect with a Rokujuu Yonshou. He was about to finish off his opponent, but was shocked to find that Kidomaru had been secreting a substance over his entire skin made of chakra that blocked his attack. He followed as the boy lead him towards the edge of the surrounding forest to continue his assault. The Oto ninja, who had initially written off his opponent, was now a bit worried. He hadn't suspected that the white eyed brat could pierce his body armor.
`That brat is too dangerous to let in close; I'll have to finish him off sniper style.' He formulated his plan while making sure that the kid was still following him.
Neji was hoping to catch up quickly, he didn't know how long it took to reform that silk armor, but if he wanted to connect with tenketsu, and not silk, he should act quickly. Making up ground quickly, Neji pulled even with the spider boy and proceeded to attack him once more, his speed flowed into the sixty-four hands easily. He landed hit after hit, but something was off. Kidomaru was trying to catch his hands. He was off, but every time Neji struck, his hands kept coming closer to catching Neji's. On the fifty-seventh of sixty-four strikes, Kidomaru caught up. Seemingly from no where, an extra pair of hands burst from the boy's shirt and caught Neji's arms at the elbows. Taking the opportunity, Kidomaru spat his chakra fabricated web and was able to encase Neji in the sticky substance, though it took almost all of the chakra he could reach to do so.
“Bastard cut me off from my most of my chakra. He's no threat now though; I can kill him at my leisure.” The tan spider man was about to leave, when he heard the sound of silk being sheared. He spun around and was shocked to see Neji stand up from the remnants of his impromptu sleeping bag.
“If sixty-four hands weren't enough, how about this?” Neji asked as he attacked his opponent, who was still rooted to the ground, with his newest technique.
“Hakke Hyaku NijÅ«hachi ShÅ!” (Eight Trigrams One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms)
After the first few blows, Kidomaru had basically taken a Rokujuu Yonshou, but still Neji pressed on. He didn't stop until 128 tenketsu had been closed, on top of the previous fifty-six, leaving him with even less chakra than Lee.
From his prone position on the ground, Kidomaru had no choice but to activate his cursed seal, in an attempt to force some chakra through his coils. It was successful, but all it did was open his tenketsu, it barely added any chakra to his reserves.
`Damn kid is going to make me go level two? I'll kill him for this!' Kidomaru felt the rush of chakra as he ascended into his second stage, his skin became much darker, and his arms grew in muscle mass. He grew horns on his head and some horn like appendages on his elbows. His hair grew out and turned white, to match his white fangs. Neji was shocked at this transformation, never having seen the transition to level two, just the result. This was the only opportunity that Kidomaru needed to summon a large spider and escape into the trees. Neji paid the arachnid no heed; he just hurled an explosive kunai at the summoned creature and made to chase after his prey, but was stopped by three more spiders. If they hadn't looked exactly like the one he had just squashed he might never have taken a second to think about it, but these miniature spiders were clones of the larger one which now had a large hole in it's abdomen. Peering at the arachnid through his byakugan, he noticed that from the hole, hundreds, if not thousands of these miniature spiders were pouring out.
They were easy enough to destroy, as they couldn't really stand up to a jyuken strike, but their never ending numbers forced Neji to use the 128 palms attack multiple times and he lost track of his six armed opponent for a critical second.
Kidomaru had stationed himself on a tree branch about twenty yards away from the Hyuuga boy who had pushed him this far. Secreting more of the chakra thread from his body, he made a bow, made of the same type of thread as his body armor, and proceeded to fabricate an arrow from the same material. He was able to sight his target easily and drew his string back, in preparation for the shot. As Neji's body was twisting around the smaller arachnids, Kidomaru let loose his bolt with accuracy that would make Tenten jealous. Neji spotted the shot through his byakugan and seamlessly switched from offense to defense. His kaiten blew away the spiders that were trying to latch onto him and deflected the arrow with ease.
Kidomaru cursed the boy's defense. He prepped another arrow and waited for Neji to slow down. As soon as the kaiten began to die down, he loosed the gold arrow from his bow, aimed directly for Neji's neck.
Neji just managed to see the lethal dart out of the corner of his enhanced sight, but could do little to prevent it from piercing his body. However, where it pierced, he could change. By purposefully stumbling to his left, the arrow sliced through his right shoulder, tearing muscle and tendon easily. Neji knew he could no longer perform the advance jyuken techniques that labeled him as a genius and saw only one way to end this fight. It would require the use of his left arm, since his right hung at his side, useless. Neji's sight retracted from the binocular mode that he used so often and turned into his own body. Upon finding the first of his specified targets, he applied the jyuken to his own body, specifically his head. The apparent suicidal move caught Kidomaru off guard and he let the tension on his latest arrow, a spiral tipped head that would pierce anything, kaiten included, slack. Neji then proceeded to disappear in a blur of motion that caught the arachnid off guard. Neji's path towards his opponent was far from straight, but he appeared for an instant in the vision of Kidomaru, which gave the sound ninja just enough information to guess at the Hyuuga's next position. Sure enough, Neji appeared directly in front of the startled boy and delivered a palm thrust to Kidomaru's chest, which liquefied his heart and passed through his body and destroyed the tree he had been resting on. However, as the final strike had been delivered, Kidomaru had unleashed his attack, which passed cleanly through Neji's stomach, a serious wound that may prove fatal if he couldn't receive attention soon.
Neji fell to the ground from twenty feet in the air and landed on his front, cracking some of his ribs.
“Ugh, I never thought that f-forcing open a gate would be so hard on my b-body.” He breathed out before the pain of his injuries forced him into blackness.
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Not long after Neji had left the group, Naruto had awoken, as promised by his mother. His eyes flickered open and began searching his surroundings. He didn't recognize the area as being foreign, so he must still be in Fire country, but he was no where near Konoha. He stretched his arms out, to shake off the slight bit of rust he felt from not using them in a while and proceeded to stand up. His attention was snapped when he noticed the transformation his mother had gone through. The snake had lied to him! Naruto began to move towards Orochimaru, in an attempt to help his mother and punish the snake, but was stopped by the voice of Chouji.
“Naruto, um Sasuke-“
Upon hearing his brother's name, Naruto spun and looked at the young Akimichi.
“What about Sasuke?” He ordered.
“Sasuke, well he transformed into some kind of dark angel thing, and he tried to attack you, but your Mom got him to wait until you woke up, and then he said he'd be waiting for `the fox' at the waterfall at the valley of the end, and if you didn't appear in about eight minutes from now, he'd return and kill everyone.” Chouji spoke very fast, he wanted to go help Kiba who had disappeared with the pale boy, Sakon a minute ago.
Naruto nodded and sped away from the battle field towards his brother, not sure of what to expect.
Upon noticing his perfect vessel escaping, Orochimaru once more tried to make an attempt to follow the boy, but was stopped by Anko, who took the head off the lump of mud he had to use to escape. Without his arm, Orochimaru was useless against his former subordinate, who thanks to his seal, was fighting on sannin level easily, and his old sensei. Having no other choice, he tried to escape by disappearing into the ground, but was stopped by Anko, who had pushed her own arms into the ground and drug him back out.
“The only esscape you'll have today isss death!” She hissed before once again attacking her former sensei, only for him to turn into mud and try to counter attack with the Kusangi, which wasn't very effective against Anko's new scales. Her skin was more like carbon steel than flesh, and made her very difficult to injure. He needed a distraction to escape, and he needed one fast. When he saw the only member of his elite guard that was still in the area, Tayuya, he had found his distraction.
He raced over to her, a move which forced the Konoha shinobi to protect Shikamaru, and bit his hand, drawing blood, as if he were going to summon something. But instead of Manda or another of his snake summons, his blood covered the cursed seal and he had his distraction. By undoing the seal, Orochimaru had turned his subordinate into a bomb that would be equivalent to releasing all eight of the celestial gates at once. The resulting release of chakra created a crater that was quite deep and what must have been at least fifteen feet wide. This provided enough of a distraction for the snake traitor to escape into the ground, as well as knocking Shikamaru into a tree, bruising a number of ribs, as well as scattering the Sandaime some thirty feet towards Neji. Not being able to massacre her target had snapped Anko's mind somehow and a need for blood took over. The problem was that her eyes landed on Jiraiya as the target of this bloodlust.
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Chouji had indeed managed to find Kiba and Sakon…as well as his twin brother Ukon, who happened to live inside his brother's body. Even though Kiba and Akamaru had used the JÅ«jin Bunshin, (Beast Human clone) turning Akamaru into a second Kiba, they were having a difficult time dealing with the twins, who had grown opposing horns, as well as armor over different sides of their bodies. Kiba had succeeded in separating the two from each other, but was having trouble landing a decisive hit on them. Chouji quickly moved to help his fellow genin, and used Bubun Baika no Jutsu (partial multi size technique) to enlarge his palms and managed to slam Ukon into the ground. Unfortunately, the strange boy got up from the crater; more annoyed than damaged and turned his attention to Chouji. Moving so fast that he only appeared as a blur, Ukon landed a series of punches to the young Akimichi's stomach, an attack that Chouji was able to neutralize by transforming his entire body with the baika no jutsu. (Multi size technique) Moving into his next attack smoothly, Chouji curled into a ball and steam rolled at his opponent. Ukon was forced to jump out of the way and had turned around to gloat, only to see the giant bowling ball come back at him. Having no time to leap away, he was forced to dive to the side in an attempt not to be crushed completely.
Showing a bit of maneuvering that didn't look like it belonged on the big boned, Chouji immediately spun around and succeeded in rolling over Ukon, stopping to add pressure for good measure. However, Ukon was more resilient than he looked, and used a technique similar to the inner decapitation to escape. He had taken damage, nothing life threatening, but annoying none the less. He had to recuperate inside his brother's body, probably for no more than ten minutes, but it was too long for his tastes.
Kiba wasn't faring any better than Ukon, and was in a large bind. He just couldn't land a hit on the slippery Sakon; even with the Gatsūga (Double piercing fang) he hadn't been able to do any damage.
“Akamaru, I know we haven't perfected that technique yet, but I think it's our only hope right now.” Kiba asked for the input of his canine companion. The transformed dog just yipped in approval, and the two performed a quick series of hand seals before being enveloped in a large cloud.
“Like I'm going to give you the chance to perform any moves!” Sakon sneered and charged blindly into the cloud, only to receive the full brunt of a massive paw swipe. He caught himself against the tree before he could be damaged even more and eyed his opponent now. Where there were once two pathetic genin, there was now a two headed wolf that had to be two stories tall. Its slobber was running from one of its maws onto the ground, making the ground slicker than ice.
“Here we go!GarÅga!” (Double wolf fang) This time, the spin of claws and teeth was so large that even in his cursed state, Sakon had immense trouble avoiding becoming a chew toy. He was surprised when he felt cuts on his armored skin begin to open after avoiding a close strike.
`The vortex from that attack is actually able to cut through my armor! I couldn't survive a direct hit if I wanted to!' He realized. He was forced to dodge another tornado of dog, sustaining more injuries, negligible though they were. This time, his movement didn't go so smoothly and the branch he had landed on broke off, sending him crashing onto the slobber drenched ground, making it impossible for him to regain his footing in time to dodge Kiba's next pass.
“Kuchiyose: RashÅmon!” (Summoning: Rashomon) The voice of Ukon summoning the strongest defense available was relief to Sakon, even though the gate wouldn't be as strong as if it were summoned by both of them.
The monstrous tornado struck the demonic gate and pushed against it, testing to see which would stop first. The gate cracked right down the middle and Kiba continued towards Sakon, only to hit nothing. The boy had been able to regain his footing and scamper away to his twin brother. The two joined back together, still in their cursed forms, but weary and sore. Summoning the Rashomon gate had taken nearly all of Ukon's chakra and Sakon was banged up from his encounter with the Garouga. Neither one was physically injured greatly, but they were pushed into a corner, with no way out except escape. However, escape was not to be.
“Kamaitachi.” (Cutting whirlwinds) Temari's attack impacted the conjoined twins, cutting into them, but not killing them. Gaara would take care of that.
The two never really knew what hit them as the sand crushed the life from their bodies. Kiba and Akamaru had separated into their original forms due to lack of chakra and Chouji had followed Ukon towards the battlefield arrived just as Gaara was finishing the twins off. Both were glad to see reinforcements, especially Gaara and his brothers. Temari hadn't changed, except for her clothing, which had gone from lavender colored battle kimono, to a black one with red trimmings. Gaara had changed the most of the two. During his stay in Konoha after his fight with Naruto, the Sandaime and Jiraiya had managed to add more layers to his seal, changing it from a two point seal to a much more stable double-reinforced three point seal. The rings around his eyes weren't as visible, what had once been an inch thick ring of black was now more of an outline, nearly indistinguishable from eye liner. He had gone from the loose fitting clothing he had worn to much sturdier clothing; including full black pants a brown shirt which had the thin outline of white running across his chest diagonally, and a small piece of leather across his stomach. He had changed in innumerable ways since his fight with the boy he considered his first true friend.
“Where is Naruto?” He asked in the same voice he had always had.
“He's fighting Sasuke, Orochimaru abducted both of them, plus their mother, and something happened to Sasuke, he looks like some kind of evil angel now. He threatened to kill everyone if Naruto didn't fight him at the valley of the end.” Chouji supplied as he handed Kiba a soldier pill, to replenish his strength. “By the way, where is your brother?”
“He's off looking for the main group, with those puppets of his, he'd be better off helping to move the injured, since it looks like we got here a bit late.” Temari answered, seeing as Gaara had already headed towards the direction that two fighting chakra signatures could be felt.
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Jiraiya was not having an easy time fighting Anko. First of all, she was family, and not even the most perverted author of the most perverted book series, would fight family. Secondly, she was really, really strong in this cursed state. He had forgotten completely about Kabuto after Anko had attacked him; the small fry wasn't going to be much of a threat during this fight. Anko moved fluidly and swiftly, her speed had surpassed the speed that ninja were able to move at by many times, and initially, had Jiraiya remembering his old student, the fourth. She might not be as fast as the Hiraishin, but damn if she wasn't in second place. If he hadn't helped the fourth create the Hiraishin, he would be in a world of hurt, but as it was, he was able to keep up by using his chakra to boost his speed, not unlike unlocking the first gate, but without the negative side effects.
As demonstrated previously, the scale blades on Anko's forearms were just as sharp as a kunai, and she wielded them much more naturally. The force behind her blows was greater than Jiraiya had seen in any kunoichi besides Tsunade, and he got the scary feeling that she hadn't shown nearly all of her trump cards. She had proven capable of taking one of his punches, not a mean feat at all, and not feeling a thing, as well as countering almost every earth technique he used. He was reluctant to use fire techniques for obvious reasons, but was running out of ideas that would end this confrontation without hurting his granddaughter.
A gut opened over his eye for his mental wonderings, courtesy of Anko's new blades, and he was instantly pulled back into the fight. He had exhausted all of his jounin level techniques and only had Kage level moves left in his arsenal. The problem with this was that they would almost assuredly kill the women, something he would not do, even if it did cost him his life. Molding the correct amount of chakra, he threw his hands to the ground and performed one of his largest scale attacks.
“Doton: Yomi Numa.” (Earth type: Swamp of the Underworld) Purposefully, the sannin limited the depth of his swamp, making it just deep enough to entrap Anko up to her waist. However, this didn't keep the serpent mistress for long. She took to the mud and water very easily and rose to the top, despite the weight of her wet clothing and the mud on her skin, she moved just as effortlessly as before, but before she could make the edge of the swamp, Jiraiya took advantage of the flammable gas that had been bubbling from the depths of the muck. Using a simple fire technique, he entrapped the charging women in a ring of fire that held her long enough for Jiraiya to complete his next technique. It was a variation on the Doton Kekkai: DorÅdÅmu (Earth Release Barrier: Dungeon Chamber of Nothingness), in that it created a dome of earth that would leach the chakra of anyone or anything trapped inside, but it was much faster acting at the cost of the ability to regenerate. It could drain a genin in a matter of five seconds, and a normal jounin in less than forty five seconds. To make sure he could keep the dome up long enough to drain Anko's chakra down to a safe level, he intensified the fire before erecting the dome. To keep Anko's tainted chakra from his own; Jiraiya moved the leached life force to a nearby tree, which grew before his eyes. He kept the barrier up for two minutes, longer than anyone had ever been subjected to the draining power for. He noticed the tree had stopped growing, and took that as a sign that Anko was nearly out of chakra. When the mud fell into the swamp, he was relieved to find a severely weakened Anko back to her normal self, panting on the surface of the swamp.
Cautiously he approached the worn figure. Finding nothing wrong, he moved her off the swamp, so she could conserve her energy. After a few seconds, Anko looked at the old ninja with an appreciative look.
“Thank you, for stopping me, I guess the new seal level was too much for me to handle so soon. Please, leave me here and go check on my sons, Naruto doesn't have the second level to his seal, Sasuke will be too strong for him to defeat, you must stop them.” She pleaded. Jiraiya was about to protest, when Sarutobi showed up with Kankuro who was supporting an unconscious, but no longer bleeding Neji with one of his puppets.
“Go, Jiraiya, you are stronger than I, and you can feel the difference in their chakra levels. You must go stop this before Sasuke can kill his brother.” Sarutobi ordered his former student. Not wasting a moment, Jiraiya sped off towards the Valley of the End.
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Naruto had made good time on his way to the valley, he still had three minutes, and he could just begin to make out the form of his brother, sitting, cross legged, by the river at the end of the waterfall. Stepping onto the bank, opposite Sasuke, he looked on as the tattooed form opened its eyes and looked at Naruto.
“So you came. I was expecting to have to go back and drag you here.” The demonic boy chided.
“Cut the crap!” Naruto yelled. “I know you want revenge against the Kyuubi, so why do you target me, I am not the fox!”
“Because you harbor the murderer, your life sustains it, and if I kill you, I will do what not even the Fourth could do!” Devil bragged before standing up and adopting a fighting stance. Naruto looked dejected but took his own stance none the less.
The devil inside Sasuke struck first, disappearing in a blur of darkness and landing a crushing straight punch to Naruto's sternum, driving the wind from the boy. Shakily Naruto rose to his feet and attempted to pinpoint his brother. Even with his sharingan activated, it was nearly impossible to read the movements of the demon he was battling, and Naruto suffered three more punches and a snap kick to the side of his ribs for his efforts.
“Get up, I realize that I am holding back thefox'schakra to make my job easier, but you are not trying at all.” Devil was openly mocking him now, but Naruto didn't know what to do. Stepping onto the surface of the water, Naruto drew some up to his face to wash some of the dirt off, without realizing that he had done it instinctually. He looked back at the visage of his brother, and decided he couldn't sit back. He focused on the water beneath his sandals, he felt the way it rocked back and forth, as well as the way it pushed him away from the fall. Once more the water rose to do his bidding without his immediate recognition. When the gravity of his actions finally sunk in, Naruto was shocked, never before had he shown this much affinity with water.
`This must be part of the `complete' senshin.' He thought before once again returning to the fight.
This time when Devil charged him, Naruto drew the water around him and used it to intercept the demon. Sasuke's primary chakra nature was fire, just like every other Uchiha, thanks to their demonic heritage, so water was more effective than any other type of attack.
Thinking back to Kakashi's fight with Zabuza, Naruto remembered a technique he had wanted to try out, but hadn't had the time to learn. Using his new found command over the liquid of life, Naruto formed the water in front of him into a raging wall of water and crashed it towards Devil.
“Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu.” (Water release: Great Waterfall technique) He whispered, awed by the fact that he had perfectly performed a jounin level technique without hand seals on his first try. The water washed over his opponent, who simply used his black wings to block the brunt of the attack and was only pushed backwards a little.
Naruto decided to experiment with the other half of his ice bloodline, the wind nature component. Inhaling a large breath of air, he infused chakra, and spat a ball of air at his brother, once more without hand seals.
This time, Devil was ready, and since fire is will beat wind, like rock crushes scissors, he simply created a flame in his hand and batted the attack away, creating a sizeable explosion. Naruto returned with another wave of water, but this time he followed it up and charged the winged figure.
Devil leapt into the air and spread his wings to shake off the accumulate water. He then dove at Naruto, pushing the boy under the surface of the water with force enough to create a large void on the surface. While underneath the water, Naruto had the upper hand and managed to grab the legs of his adversary, keeping both figures underneath for a longer time. Devil managed to kick his way free after a few seconds, but was gasping for air by the time his head resurfaced. Naruto surfaced not long afterwards, looking the better for the moment. While the battle was waged on the water, he was in control. Sasuke realized this and used his superior speed to reappear at Naruto's side before he landed a devastating roundhouse kick, sending Naruto crashing into the sides of the valley. He followed that up by grabbing Naruto's face and driving him farther into the rock wall until the small gouge that Naruto's body created collapsed, burying the boy.
Stepping back, Devil admired his handiwork, before spreading his wings and taking to the sky once more, just in time to see Naruto's hand appear from under the ground. The two boys eyed each other down again, with Devil blocking Naruto's path to the water, and thus his only advantage. Thinking of his satetsu, Naruto tried to create a javelin or something long to throw at the flying figure, but was surprised when a bolt of lightning instead struck the ground from his hand instead. Seeing that his power over water and wind was good with lightning also, Naruto began to summon lightning bolts from his hands and shot them at the flying figure. As fast as he was, not even Devil was fast enough to escape the bolts, and fell to the ground, dazed. Moving quickly, Naruto disappeared into the ground, once more without the aid of hand seals, and pulled the shocked boy into the ground.
Thinking the fight over, Naruto took deep breaths, before being smashed into the ground from behind. Devil stood over the boy, hair sticking up and a furious look on his face, but not critically damaged. He had replaced his body as it hit the ground at the last second. Foolish boy, did you think that a few tricks like those would defeat me?
Naruto was tired; he hadn't started the fight at a hundred percent, and had taken a lot of damage, though no broken bones.
`Must be that white guys limit.' He thought as he watched Devil inhale deeply. Reaching deep into his reserves, Naruto threw his hands to the ground and managed to pull up a large slab of earth to intercept the concentrated blast of intense fire that had been sent his way. Devil, upon seeing his attack slam against the barrier, began to gather chakra into his hand to form a chidori, easily capable of piercing whatever earth technique Naruto had used.
Rushing foreword, his thrust easily penetrated the wall, forcing a weary Naruto to move out of the way quickly, or risk being impaled on his brother's arm.
“It will be such a thrill to end the life of the beast that has wronged me.” Devil chided, seeing the fatigue begin to set in on Naruto.
“Sasuke-kun, you cannot kill the boy! Orochimaru-sama needs him!” Kabuto's voice broke through the haze of the battlefield; he had snuck up to about thirty feet away, earning the grey haired boy a glare from the Uchiha.
“You have no right to order me about. You need to learn your place!” Devil sneered, before disappearing and reappearing before Kabuto's eyes. He shoved his fist through the older teen's chest, ripping his heart from his body, before crushing it and returning his attention to the fox container. Taking a step towards Naruto, Devil was amazed when he was stopped by a hand on his leg.
From the ground, Kabuto rose to his knees, the hole in his chest closing at miraculous speeds, and a new heart forming where the old one was. This shocked Devil so much that he allowed Kabuto to fully rise, before trying to attack again.
Devil was easily at jounin level, but Kabuto was fighting at a higher level yet. Not yet a sannin by Devil's calculations, but stronger than ninety five percent of the jounin he knew.
“Naruto-kun is important to Orochimaru-sama; I cannot allow you to kill him.” Kabuto repeated, taking deep breaths from the strain of the forced regeneration.
“Tell me, how is it that I crush your heart, and yet you live?” Devil asked, perplexed, noticing for the first time that Kabuto's eyes were now red, as opposed to white.
“It is because I am closely related to Naruto-kun.” He cryptically replied. “I am an experiment, done by Orochimaru-sama that focused on DNA infusion into a complex organism. By creating a number of cells that would produce `master copies' of a beings genetic material, Orochimaru-sama was able to add DNA to an organism with trillions of cells. In a way, I am a predecessor of Naruto-kun's limit, but where his is specified to copy bloodline limits, mine was limited to that of a Starfish. This makes it very easy for me to regenerate cells, limbs or even organs, as long as my core isn't damaged or destroyed, and I can move that around as easily as I move my feet. You would have to destroy every cell in my body to completely wipe me out, something that even the great snake sannin would have problems doing.”
Deciding to test the boy's claim, Devil ripped off Kabuto's ear, only for a new one to grow back.
“It seems that you weren't lying when you said you could regenerate your cells easily enough, but I wonder…”
This time, Devil's fist was engulfed with flames as it ripped through Kabuto's head as if it were paper.
“Fool, never give away your weakness to anyone, you assumed me an ally and you paid with your life.” Devil spat at the body and turned around to finish Naruto off, only to see Kabuto's headless body rise in a reflection from the stream.
Considering how complex a head and brain are, Kabuto's head re-grew very fast.
“I told you, every cell in my body must be destroyed to kill me.” He said, riling Devil up even more. Punch after punch, kick upon kick, all manner of hacks and stabs and even a chidori penetrated Kabuto's body, but no matter what Devil did, he just couldn't kill the teenager. By now the pair had moved next to where Naruto was kneeling on the ground, still winded from his earlier battle. Just as Kabuto was re-growing his third arm in as many minutes, Naruto struck.
“Hakkeshou: Rokujuu Yonshou!” (Eight trigrams: Sixty-four palms) He had copied the movements from Neji during their fight at the Chuunin exams, so the movements came easily enough, but actually spiking his chakra at the same time was much more difficult than he had thought.
“Nice try Naruto-kun, but without the byakugan, the chances that you closed off any of my tenketsu are remote.” Kabuto drawled.
“I know that, that wasn't the point. You don't have to see tenketsu to do damage.” Naruto fired back, waiting for his attack to take effect.
“Haven't you been listening, every single cell in my bod- body, would h-ha-have t-t-t-to be de-destr-destroyed.” Kabuto's teeth were chattering as he finished his sentence.
“I may not know a lot about biology, but I do know that ice crystals puncture cell membranes really easily. That wasn't any attack I hit you with, I pushed ice nature chakra into your entire body; every cell in your body is being ripped open by ice crystals.” Naruto informed Kabuto of his fate, just as ice began to erupt from his skin. Kabuto began to list forward and was dead before he hit the ground.
Turning back to Devil, Naruto noticed that both of the original combatants were nearing the limits of their bodies, Naruto from his transition and Sasuke from his transformation. They charged each other one final time; neither had enough chakra to form any meaningful attacks, for Devil that would have been a chidori, and for Naruto, anything he could have done would have cost him his consciousness. Both landed solid punches, Naruto a right hook, and Devil, a straight jab to Naruto's face. Both landed on the ground on their faces, neither one moving. That was how Jiraiya found them when he arrived a minute later. Checking the two Konoha ninja, he was relieved to find them simply unconscious, and Sasuke returned to his normal state. Taking a second to check on the body of Kabuto, he verified that the boy was indeed dead, and the only regret Jiraiya would have, was that he didn't get a chance to punch the traitor in the face.
“Are you going to stand there, or are you going to lend me a hand?” He asked to the red head standing at the edge of the valley. Gaara looked at the two boys who he was supposed to rescue, and was disappointed in his opportunity to rescue Naruto, like the energetic boy had done for him. Floating down into the valley on a cloud of sand, he created stretchers for Naruto and Sasuke and left Jiraiya to take care of the corpse.
Jiraiya once more summoned the swamp of the underworld and watched as Kabuto's frozen corpse was sunk into the muck, never to be found or recovered. He left the area and headed to catch up with the other Konoha shinobi.
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Days later, Naruto and Sasuke woke up in the Konoha hospital, with Anko sitting between them, holding onto Naruto as if he would disappear if she took her eye off him. After the customary questions about what happened, both were glad to hear that no one was killed and that Neji would make a full recovery from his injuries, thanks to the quick work of the Sandaime.
Sasuke was appalled to learn of his demonic side taking control and nearly killing Naruto on multiple occasions. This sent him into a deep funk that he just wouldn't come out of, even after he was released the following day.
Naruto had explained about his new found ability and wanted to know what had happened.
“If you ask me,” Jiraiya spoke his two cents. “Orochimaru was always too smart to create an incomplete limit like the senshin. It was obvious that there was a limit to the number of bloodlines it could absorb, and he knew that. I guess what he planned was that when the carrier absorbed five limits with a different main chakra nature, than they would become some kind of master over those natures. You mentioned you could easily control water and wind, which are the elements of the Hyoton techniques, the satetsu is made by combining lightning and earth, the sharingan imparts fire nature to your blood, your original nature was wind, was it not, and then the Kaguya clan was earth and water nature. I'd say that you will, with a bit of work, be able to completely control every single element, something that would allow you to learn any new blood limit techniques that would express themselves in the future, as well as possibly create new abilities. That was Orochimaru's true goal, to create a vessel that could harness the power over every chakra nature, and thus be able to learn any technique.”
This idea was met with general acceptance by Naruto and Tsunade, which was good enough for the Sandaime and Kakashi, who had arrived to visit his pupils as soon as he returned from his mission. Everyone but Anko made to leave, and on the way out, Jiraiya pulled Tsunade off to the side and began talking in hushed whispers.
The day Sasuke and Naruto would be let out was sunny, which was exactly the opposite of how Sasuke was feeling. He had taken the opportunity to walk around the village instead of eat lunch with his family.
“Once more, I almost kill my family! Am I cursed? Will I ever be rid of this…this…plague?” He asked himself out loud.
“What plague?” Haku's voice snapped him out of his self-pitying thoughts quickly and he wheeled around, coming face to thigh with the girl. Taking a seat next to the dark haired boy, Haku wondered what was on his mind that would be creating such a funk.
“It's none of your concern!” He snapped, not realizing how sharp his voice was until the words were out of his mouth. “Sorry! I didn't mean to snap like that, it's just that after we were abducted by that bastard, Naruto and I fought, and I wanted to kill him! I nearly became the one thing I swore I never would, and that is my brother!” For the first time since his family was massacred, Uchiha Sasuke broke down and cried. Haku didn't know what to do except comfort the boy until he was done.
After a few minutes, Sasuke's tears began to abate, and his breathing shallowed out to normal.
“Feel better?” The kunoichi asked.
“I don't know. I'm not cured, but I think maybe I can cope now.” He replied, realizing just how close he was to the girl.
“I'd say that's about as good as could be expected right now.” She replied, giving him that smile that he loved.
He stood up and offered her his hand. After pulling her up, he decided to take a risk.
“Would you like to go get some lunch with me?” He asked, with his heart in his throat.
“I'd love to!” She replied smiling that wonderful smile.
That night, every member of the Mitarashi household slept soundly for the first time in nearly a month. They didn't know why, but that would become clearer tomorrow.
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Anko was awoken the next morning by a knocking on the door. She stumbled from bed and answered the door, mumbling about idiot chuunin who didn't know how to let people get their sleep.
After receiving the message from the rather frightened ninja, Anko woke her sons up with the news that they were to meet the Hokage in thirty minutes.
Half an hour later, found the trio stepping into the Godaime's office, not knowing what to expect. As expected, Tsunade was buried behind mountains of paperwork, without Naruto there to help organize; Shizune had been having a difficult time getting the Hokage to finish her work.
“Ah, good you're here.” The blonde Hokage barely looked up from her paperwork. “I don't know how he did it, but Jiraiya has convinced the council and Sarutobi-sensei that the three of you need to leave the village to train yourselves so that we don't repeat the past week. You three will be leaving with Jiraiya for two and a half to three years for your own protection. We can't have Akatsuki getting Naruto, and we can't have Orochimaru getting any of you. There is a great possibility that both groups would use one of you to get to the others. From what the pervert has told me, he's got training planned for each of you, and by the end of it, we won't recognize you.”
Anko was about to object, saying she didn't need the training, but the Hokage cut her off.
“I know you're a perfectly capable fighter, Anko, and frankly Konoha needs you to do missions, but there is no doubt that all three of you are targets, and I will not be satisfied until you can defend yourselves from Orochimaru and Akatsuki.
Bowing their heads, the three ninja accepted their assignment and returned to their home to gather and pack their supplies. Sasuke finished earlier than his family and excused himself to go say goodbye to some people. The only people he really had the intention of visiting were Haku and Neji. He decided to visit his rival first, not wanting to break the news to his new girlfriend.
He was able to find Neji's hospital room easily enough; Neji would require a good deal of physical therapy to return muscle memory in his shoulder and to make sure that his stomach wound was fully healed. Sasuke stepped into the room not expecting to find Hinata and her younger sister Hanabi there. Realizing that whatever brought Sasuke to this room was personal, Hinata lead Hanabi from the room before turning to Neji and informing him that they would be back in fifteen minutes.
For a while, the two rivals just started at each other, and then Sasuke broke the silence.
“I wanted to thank you for coming after us, not for me, but for Naruto and Kaa-san.”
“Hn, it was no problem, the only downside was that I didn't get to fight you.” Neji kidded, relieving the pressure Sasuke had been feeling since he entered the room.
The conversation was light from then on out, until Sasuke brought up the training mission. For a minute Neji was silent and simply stared at Sasuke, trying to read his mind. Finally he released a breath of air and resigned himself to this fate.
“Well, I suppose that I'll just have to keep up with you…might be a challenge since you'll have a sannin as a sensei. Of course, I'm so far ahead of you right now, that you could train for ten years and I'd still win.”
Sasuke laughed at the barb. He'd show Neji, two and a half years would be plenty of time to kick his pale butt.
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As Sasuke knocked on the door to the house where Haku lived with Kurenai, his palms began to sweat at the thought that she might dump him because of this arraignment. She answered the door and was pleased to see him; she hadn't expected him, assuming he had a mission since he had met with the Hokage. For some reason, the news of that meeting had become village news, and there were all kinds of speculations as to the nature of the get together. They left the house, and walked along the road talking about just ordinary things, until they reached the topic of the meeting. Haku had inquired as to its nature and Sasuke knew it was time to come clean.
“Hokage-sama is sending the tree of us, Naruto, Kaa-chan and I on a long term training assignment with Jiraiya. We're to be out of the village for up to three years.”
“Oh.”
“Um, I'll understand if you want to break up with me, -“
“What gave you that impression?” She asked, a bit of fire in her voice.
“I, um, just thought that, maybe you wouldn't want to do a long distance relationship?” He answered meekly.
“Uchiha Sasuke, the thought never crossed my mind. I was worried about how I would handle not seeing you for three years!” She replied sternly, but in a way that made him sure she was joking. “Seriously though, if you want to stay together, I'm fine with that, just promise me you'll write at least, three years with no visits and not letters? I think I'd take a page from your mom and cut off some limbs.”
“Of course I'll write, I wouldn't dream of leaving you in the dark like that!” He responded with a gulp, afraid that Anko had somehow rubbed off on the brunette.
They spent the rest of their time together walking around the village and talking, with the odd break for food or drink thrown in.
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Sasuke returned just in time to catch Jiraiya meeting up with his family at their home. Grabbing his backpack, he stood by as Naruto tried to cram more instant ramen into his pack. Finally giving up, the quartet walked towards the gate. Taking one last look at the village, they walked off into the sunset. They never noticed the pair of eyes watching their departure.
“Good luck…Naruto-kun.”
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(A/N: OMG! That was long! I hope you enjoy the fights, I know some were rather anti-climactic, but I tried to make up for it with the Naruto/Sasuke brawl. If you were wondering, I based my vision of Sasuke's demon form off of Devil Jin from the Tekken series, and yes you can expect some Tekken influence in the upcoming chapters. If anyone wants to draw what they think Anko looks like, I'd be happy to see it, I suck at art but if I didn't I'd give you a visual to look at for her transformation. The next chapter starts the Naruto: Shippuden saga, I have some rather interesting ideas for that, but you'll just have to wait a bit.
Because I know some people will ask about it, this is how I see the bloodlines that Naruto has being formed.
Hyoton: Water and Wind
Satetsu: Lightning and Earth, the earth allows the ninja to gather minerals to them, and the lightning allows them to charge the minerals, like repelling magnets.
Sharingan: Straight up fire nature, b/c of the demonic past
Shikotsumyaku: Earth and Water, earth b/c of the mineral thing again, and water b/c the human body is mostly water.
His own nature is wind, plus I'm going to say the Fourth's was too.
For the sake of argument, I'm going to start referring to Naruto's new abilities as `Chakra neutral' meaning he has no predisposition to one affinity or another, and can use them all in any combination. With practice of course.
Thank you for the amazing reviews for the last chapters, it means a lot to hear that people really like what I write. Thanks goes out to my beta Matt, who once again hasn't gotten to see this before I post it (Maybe I should actually wait for the chapter to come back? ……Nah) He is really amazing, and please review!)
