"..." Breathing heavily, an injured Naruto fell to one knee, blood trickling from his chest. He watched as the ground beneath his feet trembled. He jumped, anticipating the rock walls that nearly crushed him. However, he only managed to put himself in Kakuzu's path, who was above him and delivered a powerful blow to his face, sending him crashing to the ground and creating a crater.
"If we had wanted, you'd already be dead." Landing, the masked Akatsuki member watched with pity and disgust as one of his strongest former comrades slowly crawled out of the crater, trying to stand. "What happened to you, brat? Even when you were a 14-year-old kid, I was sure you could have killed Deidara, Sasori, Hidan, me, and even given Kisame a hard fight in one-on-one combat. But look at you now... bleeding out on the ground like wounded prey..."
"..." With his head down and breathing heavily, Naruto raised his gaze and looked at the immortal duo with frustration. What had he done all these years? Just wasted time, running around like a fool. Now he was bleeding out on the ground like a miserable animal. "I'm useless..." he growled, feeling his vision blur. The blood loss and having a large part of his chakra sealed had led him to this—to his own death.
"Come on, my student, it's not time to give up..."
"..." Naruto's eyes widened for a moment when he heard his sensei's voice. Stunned, he looked up to find a smiling Shisui Uchiha. He was simply sitting there with his arms crossed and an amused smile on his face. "Am I dead?" he asked in an empty tone, looking around. Everything had gone dark.
"No, but you're close. You've had a rough day, my little grasshopper," the Uchiha said mockingly, looking at his apprentice's condition. "Looks like my student is getting a beating. I'm disappointed, yes, but surprised, to be honest. You were never one to give up easily..." Thoughtfully, he rubbed his chin, smiled even more, and snapped his fingers. "Although I remember you giving up when your little sister ate more ramen than you! Oh, that was sad, beaten by an eight-year-old girl. But forget that. I'm here to give you a pep talk so you'll get your butt moving and beat those two useless idiots," he said enthusiastically as he stood up.
"..." With a sigh, Naruto simply slumped into a sitting position, staring at the ground. "You were never good at that..."
"Well, excuse me for not being a speaker who brings out the best in others. I'll leave that to your little sister. She certainly knows what to say." Shrugging, the young man with dark blue hair approached and sat beside his student. Putting an arm around Naruto's shoulders, he pulled him closer. "Let's recap. A League of Villains came to the camp, among them two old friends from your former job. They killed several people, attacked your new friends, and now, after the beating—no, rather, the humiliation—they gave you..."
"As talkative as ever, sensei. Sometimes I doubt you're an Uchiha," Naruto said, smiling weakly. He couldn't help but be affected by his teacher's big smile.
"Hey, we're not all that bad. We have Itachi, Mikoto-obachan, Satsuki-chan, and... well, ahem, as I was saying, it's time to get down to business." Nodding to himself, he stood up and walked in a random direction.
"I have the Kyūbi's chakra and a large part of my own sealed. I doubt I can even open the Inner Gates to continue fighting. I don't see a scenario where I can win," the teenager said with utmost seriousness, but Shisui just kept walking, raising his right hand to say goodbye.
"You never needed any of that, Naruto. You don't need words of encouragement or help, just remember why you're fighting... I hope this is the last time we see each other so soon. I want to see you again in a few decades and hear what you've accomplished..." The Uchiha's silhouette slowly faded away, but not before smiling and giving Naruto a thumbs-up in approval. "See you, my little student..."
"..." The light surrounding Naruto faded away, as did his master, who simply walked toward the horizon and disappeared. "Remember why I'm fighting?" The teenager's silhouette was consumed by the darkness, which made his body disappear, leaving only his bright blue eye, which slowly closed.
...….
The immortal duo moved with their objective accomplished: defeating and kidnapping the jinchūriki of the Nine-Tails, who was now being carried by Kakuzu. The masked man looked analytically at the barrier the Uzumaki brat had raised. It would take him several minutes to get out of this prison.
"What do we do now?" Hidan questioned lazily, dissatisfied with the outcome of the battle. His desire to kill the Uzumaki had obviously been thwarted by his partner, as they needed him alive. "We should return to where the brats are. If I can't stain my scythe with the Uzumaki's blood, at least let me use some of the brats instead."
"Do what you want... but leave the giant woman, the rabbit woman, and the dragon alive. Those animal similarities and powers are undoubtedly valuable..." the masked man spoke calmly, his gaze becoming more curious for a moment. "Also, that brat who can manipulate matter and create things—that's an invaluable skill that every village would be more than willing to pay a large sum for." Holding the teenager over his shoulder, he stared intently at his companion, who simply shrugged.
"That greed will consume you! Jashin-sama despises those who value material things above all else!" he growled, maneuvering his weapon with his right hand. Bored, he simply continued walking alongside the masked man.
"I don't give a damn about your imaginary friend with a god complex. We have to move fast and finish our contractor's order." Without further ado, the immortal duo headed toward the edge of the barrier to collect their compensation for the mission. "...?" However, they stopped when Naruto's body twisted and he broke free from Kakuzu's grip, falling to the ground. "You don't know when to give up," the masked man growled in frustration as he watched the Uzumaki crawl across the ground, slowly getting to his feet.
"Maybe we should cut off his arms and legs. That would save us a lot of trouble," Hidan said with amusement at the idea of leaving the teenager as nothing more than a torso. "Hey, this is no longer funny. Just stay still," he said, firmly gripping his weapon as he watched the Uzumaki stand before them.
"..." Without saying a word, Naruto simply formed a hand seal. His eyes were obscured by his hair as he breathed slowly and peacefully. This caused the two Akatsuki members to tense up. Something in the atmosphere had changed, and neither of them was willing to wait and find out what it was.
Pulling a kunai from his sleeve, Kakuzu threw it forcefully, embedding it in the teenager's chest and causing him to stumble for a moment. Then it happened. His body exploded into hundreds of crows that flew directly at the surprised immortal duo, who had to raise their guard as the birds circled them and released loud caws that stunned the two rogue ninjas.
"You fucking vermin!" Hidan shouted angrily as he used his scythe to destroy the crows that were trying to tear out his eyes, but every crow he killed turned into mist before reforming.
"It's a genjutsu, you stupid religious fanatic." Kakuzu had no trouble breaking the illusion for both himself and his partner, causing the crows to vanish. They now found themselves facing the Uzumaki, who was drawing a symbol with his blood on a small piece of paper. "That's..." Narrowing his eyes gravely, the rogue ninja didn't recognize the seal. That was worrying. "Brat, you don't have access to the Nine-Tails' chakra. I sealed a large part of your chakra. You're injured and have lost a lot of blood. If possible, I wouldn't want to have to drag around a corpse..."
"..." Without giving an answer, Naruto simply looked at the sheet of paper in his hand, then let go of it, allowing it to be carried away by the gentle current of air. "Fūinjutsu Uzumaki: Ha no Rasen." With those words, the blond disappeared with a Shunshin.
"..." Hidan stared boredly at the sheet of paper that had reached them, but he had to raise an eyebrow when it 'exploded,' scattering thousands of papers carrying the same seal. All the papers were caught by a strange current of wind that swirled around the immortal duo. "Is that all? A blizzard with confetti, how boring—" The silver-haired man was cut short when a sword wielded by the Uzumaki carved a large gash across his torso that nearly severed him in half. "You son of a bitch!" Choking back a cry of pain, he used his scythe to attack the brat. "To hell with bringing him alive! I'm going to kill him!" Smiling wickedly, he slashed with his scythe, cutting the teenager in two.
He disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"What...?" Hidan couldn't even process what had happened before receiving a hard blow to the face that nearly knocked him down.
"What the hell is this?" Unlike his companion, Kakuzu could see that dozens of clones of the Uzumaki were emerging from the seals left behind, all armed with weapons that also came out of the seals drawn on the papers spinning around him. "I must disperse them," he thought, forming a hand seal to perform a Wind Release technique, but his hands were cut by the scythe of one of the clones.
[ If you want to read advance Chapters then go to Pat reon and support me there as I have already uploaded advance Chapters there.
PAT REON I'D:- Skythe ]