Chapter 16
The clone dubbed as Naruto-1 was laying low as the Gremory team was scouring the forest for him.
They'd never find him at this rate, not unless he was close enough for Koneko-san to use her sensor skills to find him.
Their last clash was meant for the clone to study how they fought and then make counterattacks for them, fortunately for him...their attacks were full of weaknesses.
Easily exploitable ones at that.
Those weaknesses had to be revealed to them or they willbe used against them.
Like in about...oh...a few minutes?
By yours truly of course.
The best way to find out about your weakness...was to have it used against you blatantly.
He had their best interests at heart after all, as allies in their 'Kuoh Pact' he would help them.
It totally wasn't true that he was getting his kicks by poking fun at their fighting skills...
Honest.
With a grin, he made a familiar hand seal that made the shape of a cross. He didn't need jutsus to beat them really...but if he wanted to have the most fu-...he meant help them out in the best way...he had to show them...
Show them just how bad it was that they showed a ninjatheir weaknesses!
"Kage bunshin no jutsu!"
The 'Two Great Ladies' of Kuoh Academy were currently floating in the air, looking around for their quarry.
"Damn it...how did he get away?" Rias questioned with an annoyed frown.
Obviously they lost their quarry.
"He was quite fast Buchou. Honestly, I'm surprised that we managed to follow him as long as we did. What with the canopies and all." Akeno replied while looking around. The crafty clone was jumping from tree branch to tree branch while using the canopies to cover his escape.
Was he playing the waiting game or something else?
Rias didn't reply, she just looked down to check on Yuuto and Koneko.
They were a bit more tired than them, running took more energy than flying. So they were resting for a moment before returning to the chase.
As Rias was checking on her cute servants on the ground, she failed to notice something come flying out from the canopies towards her.
Fortunately someone else did.
"Buchou! Watch out!" Akeno cried out while pushing her king out of the way of the projectiles.
She was successful, as both teenaged girls narrowly dodged the small rocks that were set against them.
But they weren't the only ones under attack...
Several rocks that had suspicious tags on them were sent towards Koneko and Yuuto, while they were distracted with what was going on in the air.
By the time either of them realized what was going on, explosions rang out near them which forced them to move out of the widespread destruction.
The entire group was left in disarray as flying rocks continued to pepper the flying king and queen, which prevented them from fighting back. Meanwhile, explosions forced the knight and rook away from one another due to the danger of providing a perfect target opportunity.
Just as was planned.
The Naruto clone decided to really drive his point home however.
Two clones more clones appeared next to Naruto-1 and began working together to form a rasengan...
But no ordinary rasengan...
"Futon: Rasengan...!" Naruto-1 whispered as the orb coalesced on one of the other clone's palm.
Now for their plan's fruition!
Naruto-1 nodded to the clones to continue as he backed away and dashed to find a safe location. He was a clone that would pop if he took damage after all.
The remaining clones then began to work together to destabilize the wind inside the jutsu...
Just a little more and...
"Akeno! Are you ok!?" Rias shouted out towards her best friend as they reformed back together after dodging the numerous projectiles.
"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you Rias." Akeno said gratefully, forgetting about their gap of social standing for a moment due to the circumstances.
Rias nodded at that and glared towards where the rocks came from, she could take a good guess on who threw them...
She was about to use her Power of Destruction to destroy the tree which no doubt housed their target but...
Before she was able to, the tree exploded and a tornadoformed right on top of it!
She gaped at the gale-force winds that appeared all of a sudden, where the hell did that come from!?
The elemental forces began to pull her in and about as her wings were getting caught in the powerful suction of the wind.
She quickly turned around in order to find Akeno and coordinate a counterattack, but she couldn't find her.
No doubt she was caught in the winds herself and sent flying somewhere due to the sheer power behind it...not even mentioning how it thoroughly caught them off guard.
She had no control over her flight and was at the complete mercy of the winds, she wasn't even able to concentrate on using her demonic energy to get herself out of this mess...the winds were very distracting.
It didn't help that the winds carried sharp wind blades that attacked her body and left superficial but still painful wounds. It was a constant attack that kept getting spun around inside the artificial tornado.
As she was trying to find a way out of her predicament, she spotted something punch their way through the winds...
She widened her eyes...it was the Naruto clone!
She tried to use her wings to move out of the way, but he was moving too quick to dodge even if she wasn't handicapped as she was.
She clenched her eyes shut...this was going to hurt.
But instead of the painful blow that she was expecting, all she felt was a pair of arms snake their way around her. Keeping her arms bound close to her body.
She opened her eyes in shock to stare at a face that had a toothy grin plastered all over it.
"Sorry Rias-san...better luck next time! You'll get your test scores afterwards! Until then...take a nap!"
That was the last thing she heard before she felt a hard chop hit the back of her neck, knocking her out instantly...
Naruto-1 watched in satisfaction as the king was carried away from the slowly dying tornado. The clone was no doubt going to take her to a safe place so she didn't get caught in the crossfire.
Well, the king was taken out, he didn't know much about chess but he assumed that was pretty good right?
Now to mess with the other members of the Gremory team, let's see how they did in such a bad situation.
After all...if he was their enemy right now...then he would milk this advantage dry.
Good thing he wasn't eh?
"Hey! Boss-1!" a blond clone called out to the original clone that the original made...originally.
Yeah, he just confused himself with that one too.
"What's up? Everything ready to go?" Naruto-1 asked with a grin, he wanted to get this show on the road.
The other clone nodded with a grin. "Yep! All that's left to do is spring the trap! But...we actually have a little bit of a problem."
Naruto-1 raised an eyebrow, what could possibly be the...?
"Some of the clones got bored and decided to start sparring with one another to pass the time...they are kinda destroying pieces of the forest right now..." the clone said with a sweat-drop and dull eyes.
...
"...Seriously...?" Naruto-1 asked with a stupefied sigh, seriously...the only problem with clones that could think for themselves...
Wait. Did he just call himself a problem?
Nevertheless, he better fix this problem before it spills into the lesson he was trying to teach here.
Kiba Yuuto; the knight of Gremory Rias was currently scouring through the forest to find his comrades.
They were all separated by a surprise attack, which was no doubt the strategy of their sparring partner.
If that was his goal, then it was imperative for the knight to regroup and plan for a counterattack.
Yuuto stopped for a moment and closed his eyes, allowing for his hearing to guide him to either friend or foe. Wherever the sound of battle was...it was very likely he would find both of his objectives.
It would be faster than sensing for them at least, he simply wasn't that good of a sensor in general.
After a moment of silence, he heard something, the muted sounds of battle coming from...
"There!" Yuuto said with confidence, before running towards where the battle was raging.
When he finally made it to the clearing where the battle was taking place, he stopped to stare.
"...What is this?" the knight asked with an incredulous stare.
He was sure that his question was quite justified due to what he was seeing right now...or rather who was fighting right now.
"Ha! Do you really think you can defeat me!? The great Naruto-27-sama!?"
"Pfft! You're just a cheap copy of Boss-3! That's why you suck! Boss-3 has to take care of the pervert...you should join him!"
"You both talk a lot of shit...but in the end...I'll be the one to take the original Boss' ramen!"
""Like hell we'll let you!""
Yuuto had no idea what the fuck was going on...
But he immediately had to move out of the way as several metal weapons were being thrown at one another at alarming speeds between the clones.
Unfortunately for him, those metal weapons were veered off course due to the fact that they were impacting one another. Thus some of them were heading towards him!
The knight immediately used his immense speed to redirect some of the metal weapons that were going to hit him, getting quite a few.
Key words; quite a few.
While some of them were moving at speeds that he was able to respond to, some of them were way too fast for him to stop with his blade.
The end result of those failed attempts were several nicks across his skin and clothing from the sharp weapons.
He grit his teeth as the pain from those cuts began to overwhelm his senses, the pain was excruciating...! So this was the warrior known as Uzumaki Naruto...!?
To think that he would use his clones in such a manner...he made them act like petulant fools in order to catch him off guard for an attack...
His respect for the whiskered blond had skyrocketed due to his uncanny tactics.
But before he could create a sufficient plan to combat these clones, they exploded in *POOFS* of smoke.
Yuuto narrowed his eyes, unsure of what to make of the sudden destruction of his enemies.
"...Heh. Glad to see my clones caught you off guard. Totally part of the plan!" a voice crowed from inside the remaining smoke that was left from the deceased clones.
Another Naruto emerged from the smoke with a wicked grin on his face, obviously playing the part of an evil mastermind.
Although he looked the part...inside was an entirely different story.
'Gotta make it look intentional...gotta make it look intentional...gotta make it look intentional...no way in hell will I ever admit that I didn't do it on purpose! I'll take it to my grave if I have to!' Naruto-1 thought while he began sweating bullets.
He would ignore how his clones were acting like idiots, he had a reputation to maintain here.
"...Are you the original Naruto clone? It's quite confusing after a while you see." the bishōnen said while lowering his center of gravity for quick movement. Just to be sure.
Naruto-1 grinned at his fellow blond. "Yep! I'm here to hammer the lesson that I'm trying to teach home."
The blond clone then lowered his own center of gravity while crouching, all with a smirk adorned on his face.
"But before we begin...let me ask ya something. Among Rias' Peerage...you're the one which specializes in speed right?"
Yuuto nodded his head warily.
Naruto-1 then gave him a pleasant smile in response.
"Well then...what will you do..." the clone started.
Then in front of the knight's eyes...the blond clone vanished without a trace and without a sound.
His sense of touch was telling him that someone had a hand placed on his shoulder...
*POP*
But only after he felt that hand did the air that Naruto-1 displaced flood back into the void...that was made from the blond's movement.
He moved so fast that the air couldn't keep up with him.
He didn't know much about how gas particles in general worked...but he knew that gas particles in an open space...on average...can move far faster than sound...!
The size of Yuuto's eyes was similar to the size of dinner plates, that was insane...!
"...When there is someone faster than you?" the clone finished with a grin.
Yuuto immediately tried to stab his sword into the clone's torso while he was distracted, but all he felt in response was a hand wrap itself around his wrist. Stopping the blade from completing it's deadly intention.
"Ya see, the problem with the way you fight is obvious. You are a speed fencer who can use swords really well, but not only do you over-rely on your speed to defeat your enemies...you rely on the swords themselves to do any damage." the clone continued while casually twisting Yuuto's arm behind his back and pushing him to the floor.
The bishōnen grit his teeth in pain as he was pushed to the floor with his arm held captive behind him. The clone then began to sit on him in order to hold him down presumably.
"Besides the obvious question of 'what will you do if there's someone faster than you?'...there's also the question of 'what will you do when there is someone who can take hits really well?'. Unless you begin to take these questions seriously, you will get overwhelmed by people who can think outside the box ya know?" the clone finished while bringing his arm up for a chop.
"Welp, lesson learned. You will get your grades at the end of class. Take a nap."
With that, Kiba Yuuto felt a hard chop onto the back of his head and closed his eyes for the rest of the sparring session.
Despite the seemingly pleasant atmosphere inside the forest, there were quite a few exceptions to this serenity. A young teenaged girl that was running at top speed was among those exceptions.
That girl was Toujou Koneko; rook of the younger sister of the current Maou Lucifer and an excellent hand-to-hand combatant. More specifically, the hard-hitter of the team.
Although recently, she hasn't been able to utilize her immense strength effectively. Mostly because of the annoying strategies of her sempai.
She could very much sympathize with the Student Council now.
More importantly though, instead of focusing on fighting the blond menace...she had to focus on regrouping with the rest of the Peerage.
Unfortunately, it was rather difficult to sense her allies' whereabouts. Unless they flare their power she won't be able to find them, the only other way is to use her enhanced nose...
But she wasn't anywhere close to finding anyone close through that either.
So she had to find everyone the old-fashioned way, by running around and searching for them. If they were close then she should be able to catch their scent...
"Koneko-chan! Thank goodness I've found you!"
Hazel eyes turned to face the source of the voice and the smell...
"...Buchou!" Koneko said with relief, glad to see her kingsafe and sound after the surprise attack.
The high-class devil emerged from the forestry with a happy smile etched on her face, obviously glad to see her. But her positive expression fell away to a more serious one.
"Koneko-chan, have you seen Yuuto and Akeno? I'm afraid that the tornado that Naruto created have separated all of us..." Rias said with a downcast expression, seemingly upset that her plans were foiled.
Koneko nodded with a frown and clenched her fists. "...I'm sorry Buchou...but it's rather difficult to find anyone unless they flare their demonic energy. But that's fine isn't it Buchou?"
Rias gave her rook a curious stare. "Why is it ok Koneko-chan? We need to form up in order to properly fight Naruto you know?"
The young silverette stared at her king for a moment before replying.
"...Because you're not the real Buchou...!"
With that cry, Koneko jumped towards the 'Rias' in front of her with a launched fist. Hoping to take out the impostor before 'he' could do anything.
But 'Rias' gave her a foxy grin and grabbed her wrist, stopping her attack cold before it could connect.
"Very good Koneko-chan! You saw through my disguise! Tell me...what gave it away? I could've sworn that my acting was decent enough." 'Rias' said with an intrigued look in 'her' eyes.
"...You looked like Buchou...you act like Buchou...but you don't really smell like her." Koneko said with a monotone voice, while trying to wrench her arm free.
'Rias' widened 'her' eyes and then chuckled, so Koneko had an acute sense of smell huh...?
Looks like 'she' was wrong about Koneko, she wasn't a sensor...she just had better senses than her peers.
'Rias' then went up in a *POOF* of smoke, with the whiskered blond taking her place once the smoke receded.
"Smart. Bet that you not only have a good sense of smell...but that most of your senses are enhanced as well right? Makes me curious..." the Naruto clone said with a wondering look on his face.
But before the crafty clone could get any ideas, the young devil twisted the wrist that was being held captive and grabbed Naruto-1's offending limb. Once that was accomplished, she pulled herself using his arm in order to propel her towards the clone's face!
Naruto-1 merely grinned in response and bent his back to dodge the blow and then let the girl go, allowing for her own momentum to send her sailing over him.
She recovered admirably as she set herself into a roll and got into fighting position again.
The blond clone nodded approvingly. "Good job, you have a good head for hand-to-hand combat. But even with a good head on that front..."
Naruto-1 then twisted his wrist and received a small metal knife from his cuffs, he then used the metal object to cut a thoroughly obscure rope behind him.
Koneko looked on in confusion until she saw two tree trunks hurtling towards her!
"...Wonder how you'll fare against this?" the blond continued, seemingly ignoring the large objects sailing towards their position.
The petite girl reacted immediately, she jumped into the air in order to dodge the tree trunk that was sent hurtling into the ground. From there, she smashed the other massive log that was heading towards her.
She allowed a small smirk to adorn her face in satisfaction, now all she had to do was deal with...
"Looking for me?"
Koneko's eyes widened as the voice came from above her rather than below her.
But before she could do anything about it, she felt a hard blow hit her upside the head and send her back towards the ground.
She managed to recover enough to fall on her hands and feet, but only once she reached the ground did she notice that the ground was littered with pieces of paper...
Pieces of paper that were on fire...
She wasn't even able to utter a word as the chain-explosion set off and engulfed her in fire.
Himejima Akeno was woken up by an explosion.
Not literally, but the sound of one did knock her out of her unconscious state.
Violet eyes blearily took in their surroundings as the queendid her best to gain some sort of cognizance of her surroundings.
What happened exactly...?
Oh. Right.
She was hit by a surprise attack by their blond enemy. Who knew that the little fox had it in him?
But now she knew that none of them had a chance of defeating the whiskered menace without the entire Gremory team working together.
It was somewhat humiliating to accept that fact though...if it was the real foxy-kun then she could understand...but a clone?
She wouldn't accept something like that so easily!
Determination in hand, she spread her bat-like wings and flew towards the sky to find her comrades as quickly as possible.
The second she reached the sky, she spotted a rather sizable trail of smoke a ways away, that must be the explosion that she heard a while ago...
Considering the circumstances, the possibility was high that one of her comrades was currently engaging the wily blond.
If so, then she'd better hurry to help them.
With as much speed as she could muster, she headed towards the devastated piece of the forest, hoping she wasn't too late.
Koneko gasped as she gripped her damaged arm and knelt on the floor, she took some pretty heavy damage from those small explosions.
Rook or no...she sure as hell felt that.
"Lesson for Koneko-san." a masculine voice drawled out, with footsteps to help punctuate the imminent danger that the young devil was in.
"It'd be a good idea for you not to depend so much on your enhanced strength and endurance. Seriously, while you are a very good close-range fighter...you are also verypredictable. Add to the fact that you aren't too fast and you should know that anyone who can predict your attack pattern or are faster than you would beat you easily." Naruto-1 said with a frown.
Koneko didn't respond, she was too busy trying to get back onto her feet. She was obviously at her last legs here.
The clone simply walked up to the white-haired girl and patted her head.
"...Though you held out admirably. So far, you're the one who has managed to truly use their head in this fight. Be proud of that. Now rest for a bit." Naruto-1 said with a smile.
He then chopped the back of her neck and knocked her out instantly.
Another one down it seemed.
He glanced up to the sky and felt the presence of the last member of the Gremory team.
One Himejima Akeno.
He placed Koneko onto the hands of a clone which was on standby, moving her away from the fight about to happen.
After waiting for a moment, he saw the tell-tale signs of someone approaching the area using bat-like wings...
Finally, the last member of the Gremory Rias' Peerage has arrived; the queen.
Naruto-1 gave her a flourish with a smartass grin on his face. "Welcome Akeno-san! Congrats on being the last member of your team left standing! Mind giving up instead of fighting though? I'd much rather finish giving you lot your grades than beat you up."
Akeno just revealed a slightly bitter grin at the information. So she was the last member standing huh...?
But her eyes revealed her determination to keep fighting.
Seeing this, the Naruto clone sighed. He shouldn't be surprised, but he could've hoped.
He supposed he knew the feeling though, this must be how ero-sennin and Kakashi-sensei felt whenever he wanted to keep fighting them, despite how thoroughly outclassed he was as a kid.
Fine then, just like them...he'd honor Akeno-san's wishes as well.
He brought out a hand and made a gesture towards the violet-eyes girl.
The gesture meant one thing.
'Come at me.'
Akeno obliged.
Her body began to glow as lightning began to crackle around her body, she was preparing to fight.
Well...looked like it was up to him to bring the fight up-close and personal again.
The queen brought her hands down towards the clone and created a magic circle. Lightning emerged from it and shot towards the ground with ill intent.
Naruto-1 moved out of the way of the incoming elemental attack and moved around to pick up some rocks, to utilize as projectiles. He flashed into the forest and back out of it in order to get a very specific rock as well.
The reason he was using rocks instead of...say...his kunai, was rather simple.
He had a limited supply of kunai and shuriken...so he really didn't want to waste it in something like this.
That...and he figured that it was safer. He didn't quite trust their abilities yet, so he didn't want to seriously hurt them or anything.
So he managed to gather enough rocks and quickly threw them towards the devil in the sky. But before they could reach her, she obliterated most of them with her lightning magic.
After dealing with the blond's most recent attack, she prepared a more powerful lightning-based attack by concentrating her demonic energy...
"Got ya!"
Akeno widened her eyes as she felt someone push against her from behind. It was...
"...Naruto! But how...?" Akeno wondered with wide eyes as she stared at the blond clone that was pushing her towards the forest ground.
"Heh! Another problem with the mindset in the Gremory group...and the wizard-types specifically! You don't pay attention to your surroundings enough! If you don't know that there is a danger...then you assume you're safe. But someone crafty like me can use that against you!" the Naruto clone cried out with a massive grin on his face.
The clone was one of those rocks that she didn't destroy!
Naruto-1 watched as his clone sent Akeno crashing to the forest floor, it was time for him to finish the job he guessed.
He raced towards the recently made crash site. Once he arrived, he saw a somewhat ragged Akeno that was unsteadily getting back to her feet.
"I'm sure that I don't need to mention another weakness with how you fight right? Despite getting improved defenses and speed as a queen...you never use them. You may as well be a bishop for how closely you stick to ranged attacks. If you improved onto either defense or speed...then you wouldn't be hurting as much as you are now." Naruto-1 said with a frown.
He was hoping that the physical pain was drilling it into their heads right now. If they wanted to improve...they couldn't stay this one-dimensional.
Akeno gave him a shaky smile in return. "Fufu...to think that foxy-kun would be giving me a lecture about how to fight...how do you say...it's rather surprising and refreshing."
"Heh. Well I'm glad that you think so. But you should know that you definitely can't win now right? So..." Naruto-1 replied before trailing off.
The queen gave him a confused look before several fast objects flew past her and began to circle around her. She couldn't even try and concentrate any demonic energy to retaliate as she felt something bind her body.
She looked down and noticed that she was bound by several wires!
"...Let's end this now eh?" Naruto-1 continued as if he never stopped.
Akeno chanced a glance behind her and saw...
"...I was wondering where you went." the raven-haired devil said as she stared at the grinning visage of the clone that brought her down. She assumed that he popped like what the blond said they would do when they received any damage.
Seems she did assume too much.
"Alright, I think that's a wrap! Let me just knock you out now..." Naruto-1 said lazily and began walking towards the captive devil.
Akeno tried to concentrate her demonic energy towards her palm and possibly get herself out of this predicament, but the clone holding her down noticed what she was doing.
So he pulled the wires.
Now both clones knew that there were some...unsavory stuff that some people were into. His trips with ero-sennin pretty much helped the whiskered blond with that idea.
But this was the first time that he heard someone moanfrom being constricted by wire.
Akeno had the decency to blush a little at the somewhat inappropriate timing, and gave both clones an apologetic smile.
"Apologies boys...it just comes out at times."
Neither of the clones responded, they were too busy giving the queen deadpanned looks.
...That was some kinky shit right there.
"...Yeah. Knock her out." Naruto-1 said while covering his face with the palm of his hand.
...There was just nothing that could be said about that. It was best to just...pretend it didn't just happen.
The clone did his job and chopped the back of Akeno's head and took her body to the rest of the collected Gremory bodies.
...That actually sounded much worse than he meant it to, but that was besides the point. The day's training with the Gremory team was finished.
Time to check up on the other teams!
Mio was concentrating heavily on finding an opening against the juggernaut that was her psuedo-brother. Maria and herself have been trying desperately to find one.
They hadn't found it yet.
Maria was sliding back towards the red-headed half-devil after another unsuccessful assault.
The dubbed 'Naruto-2' was literally just standing there and scratching the back of his neck. Seemingly not taking them seriously.
Well...she supposed that he had a pretty solid reason to do so.
"Mio-sama...we have to find an opening somehow...but I think I have an idea on how to make one." Maria said with a serious expression on her face.
Mio glanced at her guardian and nodded, when she was serious...she was actually very dependable.
"...I need you to jump up and down very quickly and distract him."
"Fuck no." Mio shot down the suggestion quickly.
She knew exactly what Maria was planning with that distraction of hers...the fact that she was staring at the red-head's chest was all the information she needed.
Maria clicked her teeth. "Damn. Well fine...be like that. Then can you at least take off your shirt...?"
"Maaaarrrriiiiaaaa...!"
The Naruto clone was watching in slight amusement as their planning session was falling apart. He was having fun.
Although he wasn't having fun just because of the funny antics the duo had, it was also because they were...surprisingly...doing pretty good.
It wasn't like he was fighting them at full strength, but he was taking them more seriously at the very least. Yet they managed to avoid any crippling attacks so far.
Mostly because they...
"Distraction success! Take this Naruto-sama!"
Maria created a magic circle and released several magic bullets towards the clone.
Immediately, Naruto-2 smashed his foot into the ground and created a rock pillar to defend himself. It did the trick, as the magic bullets were unable to completely pierce the rock formation.
But it also allowed for Maria to close the distance and engage in hand-to-hand combat.
At least that's what it seemed.
Before Maria could enter into combat range, she dodged to the left and allowed for the two fireballs that was following behind her to reach him.
So she used herself as a smokescreen for the fireballs huh? He definitely approved of this tactic!
This was why they managed to hold out despite him being a clearly stronger opponent...their teamwork worked reallywell.
Maybe it was because unlike the Gremory team...they truly faced life-and-death struggles while they were on the run.
The Gremory team may have overall experience in fighting in their specific fields, especially when compared to Mio. But the duo in front of him truly worked like a team.
They covered each other's weaknesses well and chained their attacks together without any hesitation.
He was actually a little jealous! Why couldn't team 7 be like this damn it!
The clone was hit by the incoming fireballs which hit the ground and created a tree-sized pillar of fire. Though he emerged from inside the the flames completely unharmed. Unfortunately for the two of them, he was pretty damn good at withstanding fire-based attacks.
But just as he moved away from the attack, Maria came in and attacked him again. Most likely to buy time for Mio to launch another attack.
But just like most people in this world...neither of them had a good grasp of their environment!
So it came as a shock for Mio when another Naruto came charging towards her from her flames!
Since the flames weren't too much of a threat in a short amount of time, he made a kage bunshin inside the pillar of fire and brought Maria's attention towards the original clone.
This left Mio wide open!
The succubus realized her mistake soon enough and tried to back-pedal to help her charge, though Naruto-2 wouldn't give her the chance to!
He quickly caught her arm and threw her away from Mio and separated the duo from one another.
In response to the tactic, Mio tried to use a lightning spell to push the incoming blond away. But she didn't have enough time to gather her demonic energy...!
"Got ya!" the Naruto clone cried as he threw a fist towards the unprepared red-head.
Maria ran back towards the battlefield, intending to help her charge, but was met by the visage of Naruto-2 again instead.
"It's over now. Mio's just been knocked out and without her, you're left wide open to my own attacks. So before I knock you out...got anything to say?" Naruto-2 asked as if he was asking for her last words.
The succubus just gave him a tired grin. "I got one I suppose...make sure your clothes are safe when you shower tonight Naruto-sama..."
The blond clone immediately knocked her out after that.
Damn...he has to hide his clothes when he showered now...that crafty Maria would no doubt steal his clothes in retaliation for this.
The other clone he made earlier was carrying Mio on his back and motioned for them to head back to the resident healer.
Wonder how everyone else was doing?
*CLANG*
*CLANG*
The hero and the 'unknown' were clashing against one another in a shower of sparks.
They were both using their sharp weapons to fight against one another, a katana against a kunai specifically.
They met again in another clash of blades with their faces inches from one another.
Playful blue was facing off against serious yellow.
Though the hero's yellow eyes had an interesting addition towards them...
It had cross-hairs over the yellow pupils.
This was the manifestation of Yuki's Sacred Gear...True Sight. She figured that in order to stand a chance against her closest friend, that she would need to use everything in her disposal.
Which was why she was trying to retain eye contact with her sparring partner.
It seemed that Naruto was content to let her.
It turned out that Naruto was very much content to let her Sacred Gear work it's magic.
Unlike practically everyone else, he was already well-versed in how Yuki fought. He fought her once before after all.
She showed him everything he had to know about her fighting style, so there was really no point in testing her like the others. Not only that, but compared to the others, she had relatively fewer weaknesses.
While she depended on her speed to overpower her opponents, she didn't over-rely on it...she used her elaborate sword-play as well.
While she depended on her blade to do any sort of damage, the blade had the ability to make those annoying green waves which could stack upon one another.
That Sacred Gear of hers was also another fall-back option when cornered.
He may not have gotten the clones' information about the other sparring sessions yet...but if he could make a guess...he'd say that Yuki has probably got the best chance to beat him among the entire group.
That wasn't saying much yet, but the girl had her bases covered and she wasn't one-dimensional.
Good for her.
So this spar was more about improving what she was good at rather than pointing out her weaknesses.
Which was why he was using his kunai to face against her Sakuya.
As they continued their clashing stalemate, Naruto allowed for the hero to push him back and overextend herself a bit.
Enough for a counterattack.
He allowed for her blade to push against his kunai and then as she was beginning to lose strength due to her extended posture, he pushed Sakuya away from him and stabbed his short blade towards her torso.
After a quick recovery, she parried the blow away instead of facing the strength behind it and realigned her center of gravity for another bout.
The shinobi obliged by slashing his kunai in a quick motion.
The hero countered by using her gauntlet as a shield and aiming for a piercing blow with her blade.
Instead of countering it, the blond twisted his body away from the blow and caught the flat-ends of the sharp object between his arm and torso.
From there, he enhanced his kunai with wind chakra and made for another slash against the hero. Knowing full well that only her sword can stop the cutting power of his enhanced little knife.
But instead of dodging as he expected, she responded by bringing up her captured blade and using it's hilt as a defensive measure.
After that maneuver, she brought her foot up and smashed it towards her friend, attempting to knock him off her sword.
But instead of smashing it into him, he caught the offending limb before it could have hurt him and held it steady.
Yuki only gave him a small smirk despite the fact that he thwarted her plan.
She then used that leg to push against him and wrench Sakuya away from Naruto.
Yep, she was definitely the best fighter among the group besides himself.
They were back where they started when they began the battle, both fighters staring one another down and their weapons brandished.
Naruto grinned at Yuki, she's improved. Not too much in ability...but in mindset.
She's far more creative in her attack pattern when compared to the last time they fought.
"Not bad Yuki! But..." Naruto began, before closing his eyes and preventing her from retaining eye contact with him.
"...Can you keep up with me without your Sacred Gear?" the shinobi finished, he wasn't exactly an expert when it came to fighting without using his eyes...but he was good enough not to let it be a huge problem.
The hero groaned at this tactic, there goes her use of True Sight...
Hearing her groan, the whiskered blond merely grinned and charged at the hero again. Intent on finishing their battle so that he could check up on the others.
Kage bunshin are known to be able to form their own personalities and thoughts once formed by their creator.
But that personality tends to be based off of the creator's personality.
This often makes for some...interesting instances when clones are left to their own devices for too long with nothing to do.
Naruto-3 being that prime example.
Whereas Naruto-1 and Naruto-2 were at least having fun, sparring and getting a little exercise...this clone in particular got the short end of the stick by...baby-sitting essentially.
So he decided to make his own fun.
"Issei! Dodge!"
Issei desperately moved out of the way of the projectile eraser that was sent speeding towards him.
That shit hurt when it hit him!
Naruto-3 decided to flick erasers at him in order to improve his reaction time, speed, pain tolerance...yadda yadda yadda...and have some fun.
...In that order.
Though he did notice how fun it was for the person throwing the eraser rather than be on the receiving end of it.
"Hey Issei! If you want me to stop...you gotta at the very least touch me once! I'll take it easy on you! Remember that this is all for your sake in the end! You will definitely thank me later!" Naruto-3 called out to the perverted boy before flicking another rubber projectile towards him.
Issei was once more knocked off his feet with the eraser and onto his back. Although he knew that the blond meant well...at the moment he really just wanted to hit the bastard once.
He definitely wouldn't thank him later in life either...no...when he got stronger he plotted to get his revenge against him.
Another worthwhile dream to aim for!
But until then...
"Dodge!"
Another eraser smashed him in-between the eyes and knocked him onto his back again.
He was in for a painful training session...
If it wasn't for the fact that he remembered the traumatizing experience of feeling Asia's nearly dead body on his arms...he'd probably give up by now.
But he couldn't give up. More important than his dreams of vengeance on the evil trainer in front of him...he had to protect Asia!
He promised damn it!
"You...do you think that I will lose to this!? I won't lose to this torture session! I will beat the shit outta ya when I get my hands on you!" Issei shouted out with a clenched fist.
Naruto-3 just smirked at this exclamation. "Well...you got a long way ahead of you if you want to do that. But at least you have the fire to get there."
The clone then gave the perverted boy an annoyed look. "Despite the torture session I'm giving you, I've had worse you know? My teacher threw me down a massive cliff in order to help me learn to use a power that I had no hope of getting before. Would you like me to start doing that? Maybe you'd even like me to humiliate you emotionally and physically like my first teacher!?"
Issei paled at that information. There was training worsethan this? Just what kind of monsters were Naruto's teachers exactly?
"...Please don't."
"...Yeah...yeah I thought so. Now quit complaining and dodge the erasers. You have a lot of training to catch up on!"
Asia was watching in trepidation as a procession of blond clones were carrying the bodies of their recent victims.
She couldn't help but be intimidated by the sight, ignoring the fact that there were even more versions of the teenaged boy walking around, ignoring how they seemed unharmed despite defeating their sparring partners...
There was also the fact that they were all seemingly converging towards her from all directions.
So by the time most of them had arrived to her, she was pretty much a nervous wreck.
One of the Naruto clones decided to try and wake her from her seeming nervous breakdown and snapped their finger in front of her face.
It did the trick.
"Ha...Haaaauuuu!?"
...Kinda.
"Woah woah! Calm down there Asia-san. We were just wondering if you could heal those who got hurt. If you please." another blond clone said while trying to speak politely.
That finally snapped her out of her nervousness.
"Ye-yes! Please place them down on the mats so that I can start please." Asia said with a slight accent in her voice.
The clones nodded and gently placed their victims on to the many mats on the floor so that they could get treated by Asia.
So far it was only the Gremory team, Mio, and Maria who were accounted for. So the Naruto clone that led the charge against the Gremory team was about to order the other clone to disperse their chakra, in order to give their information to the boss.
But before he could.
"...Wait..."
Naruto-1 blinked as he felt someone grab his jeans, he looked down to stare at a pair of blue-green eyes.
"...Heya there Rias-san. Didn't expect to see you awake so soon. You doing ok? Not too badly hurt?" the clone asked with a comforting smile.
The combat was over, no need to be hard on them afterwards.
"...I'll live. The only thing that really took a heavy hit today was my pride." Rias grumbled, ashamed that she lost to a clone...a clone.
It wasn't something that you could really live down.
Naruto-1 just patted her head in his condolences. He knew that the boss meant it when he said that he'd never let her live it down.
"But...even though the thought that I would lose this battle had occurred to me...I didn't think I'd lose so badly. So...when you're...I mean when you have a chance...can you..." the red-headed devil stumbled over her words, trying to convey something to the clone that she wasn't used to.
The clone could take a guess.
"No worries Rias-san. That was the entire point of this, you'll get the full review when I make sure everyone gets here. Though I think that the boss would like that chance to talk with you. I also suppose that you don't really want your Peerage to hear this talk either...?" Naruto-1 asked hesitantly, she seemed to be someone who liked to have her dignity whenever she could. So if her Peerage essentially saw her getting tips from someone younger then her...
"...Yes please."
He called it.
Naruto-1 nodded and then gave Naruto-2 a meaningful look.
He caught on quickly.
They dispersed their chakra and allowed themselves to *POP*, sending their information back to the boss.
Naruto was facing off against Yuki once more, prepping himself for another bout of blades-work.
Although Yuki looked pretty exhausted by this point and was covered with little cuts.
Compared to her, there was no indication that he was in a fight at all.
But it seemed that she was determined to score a hit on him as she gulped in another lungful of air and prepped herself to charge him again.
But he raised his hand in the universal symbol of 'stop'.
He just got information from two of his clones. It was time to go back.
"Yuki. I think this is good enough for today. Now that I got the information from the other clones, I can say that you are ahead of the class by a large margin. Congrats!" Naruto said cheekily before putting his kunai away.
The hero said nothing, she was too busy catching her breath and not falling over in exhaustion.
The shinobi walked up to her and put his arm around her shoulder with a grin.
"Need some help?"
Yuki glanced towards her friend's eyes. She smiled at the helping hand, she was pretty tired.
It was a good tired though.
So the two trudged off back towards where everyone was waiting for them.
It took a while for them to reach the little psuedo-medical center. But they made pretty decent time considering that Yuki was limping a little.
By the time they reached the group, the sun was beginning to set and mostly everyone was patched up by the resident healer.
Though the only one awake was still Rias at the moment, staring up into the sky in thoughtful silence.
Naruto dropped off Yuki into a mat and thanked Asia for her help, he decided that this was the best chance to talk to Rias-san in private.
So he walked up to her and sat down near her supine form as she was staring into the slowly appearing stars.
"...Well. I'm ready whenever you are Naruto. How bad was it?" Rias asked with a slightly self-mocking grin.
The blond couldn't help but wonder if she was being too hard on herself.
"Alright. Well, first off...you didn't do terrible." Naruto said, trying to start off on a good note.
It didn't seem to work though, as the Gremory seemed to just deflate at his attempt at laying it gently to her.
"By the Maous...Naruto...just tell me the truth." Rias grumbled before getting up into a sitting position.
Well...she asked for it, he supposed.
"Ok. Your teamwork is decent but your coordination was terrible. You attacked as if you were individuals rather than one working unit, like a team should be. This is especially bad when all of you depend on teamwork in some way to fight stronger opponents. Not only that, but your tactics Rias-san..." Naruto began with a frown.
She wasn't that worried about her abilities to make plans though. She was taught well by her teachers as a child to make excellent...-
"They suck."
Wait...what!?
"Wh-! What do you mean they suck!? The formation and the tactics used against you, especially in the beginning of the fight, were standard operating procedure with the pieces that I had on hand! So how could they-!" Rias began before getting cut off.
"That's the problem Rias-san. That was standard...whatever the hell you just said. It's something to be expected from your opponents due to who you have working with you. So standard and so expected...that I was able to figure out how best to counter it." Naruto explained with an annoyed look on his face.
Rias' eyes widened in shock at this logic. So precisely because her tactics were so standard...they were easy to counter?
"I'm not saying that you have to be like me...who can make the most ridiculous plans on the fly. Nor do I mean that you have to be like a certain lazy genius at home. But you need to think about this kind of stuff, otherwise even though your Peerage has a lot of power...someone who knows how to use their power or team more effectively could beat you." the shinobi finished.
Rias stayed silent for a while. Now that she thought about it...she never adventured further than what she was taught by her teachers. She always assumed that she knew everything that needed to be known about battlefield ideas and plans...
Yet someone who was doing terrible at school at the moment was teaching her about something relatively simple...but something she never thought about.
She was already seeing the benefit of the spar with the whiskered blond, despite her severely bruised ego.
Seeing that Rias wasn't going to say anything, Naruto decided to continue. "Another thing about the tactics you used...it's way too blunt don't you think? You and your Peerage literally did nothing but try to destroy my clone. You never tried to take the bells at all. Something straightforward isn't bad, but can you at least try to use a little variety here?"
The high-class devil could only look away at the admonishment, obviously feeling foolish now that her actions were relayed to her after the fact.
"Now that we dealt with that...we gotta talk about the powers that you and your Peerage use."
Rias glanced up to look at Naruto warily. "You yourself admitted that my Peerage has a lot of power. So what can possibly be the problem?"
The blond grinned at her, taking the challenge behind her question. "Easy. You and your Peerage...despite having great power...are waaaaaaay too overspecialized."
The red-head frowned at that, overspecialized?
"Rias-san, if someone managed to get close to you or Akeno-san and happens to be a close-combat specialist...what would you do? If either Kiba-san or Koneko-san faced off against a fast magic-user...what would they do? The fact that none of you have any real way to deal with something outside of your field of specialization is just a very bad idea no matter how you look at it." Naruto said with a frown and a pointed look.
"Huh? But that's how most people fight Naruto! Most specialize in one thing and one thing only! You can't seriously expect me to learn another style of fighting so that I could cover my weaknesses better! Especially when I could just work with my Peerage to cover our weaknesses." the high-class devil protested hotly.
But the whiskered teen shook his head. "That argument would make sense if you actually covered each other's defenses well. You just attack piecemeal and attack when one of your members are in trouble...there's more to teamwork than that. Chaining in attacks, messing with the enemy formation to help with those in the front line, support abilities...those kinds of things."
"Besides...who says that you gotta follow what everyone says you're supposed to do? I'm not saying that you should learn a new style of fighting at all, I'm just saying that you should try to cover your bases better. Like...maybe work on getting your speed better, that way if someone manages to get through either your knight or rook...then you could at least dodge them and buy yourself some time." Naruto said with a deadpanned look. Seriously, this wasn't anything new here.
He seriously didn't get what was so confusing about this. He wasn't the sharpest knife in the...knife drawer and even he knew this.
Hell, just to prove the point...!
"I hope you realize that even my twelve-year old self had a better grasp of this idea then you, right? I had very few techniques to call my own and I was only any good in close-combat, but I used my wits and made creative uses of my small amount of abilities. Seriously...I was even the dead-last of my class and I knew this, so I don't get how you can't." Naruto complained while scratching his head.
What the blond didn't notice was how pale-white Rias had become after he finished that sentence.
"...Wait...there are more of you...?" Rias asked with a hesitant tone, unwilling to believe that there are more people like Naruto running around.
The shinobi looked at her, confused, but decided to answer her honestly. "Yep. A whole lot of people like me. Why?"
She didn't respond for a moment, she was too busy dealing with the implications of his words.
"...And...you were the dead-last?" Rias asked with an unintentional hitch in her voice.
Naruto didn't understand what was going on, but he wasn't afraid to tell people that he was once a dead-last. After all...he was without a doubt the best of his class now.
"Yep! The person who barely passed the test that was given to him. Even then, sorta failed it...I kinda got the right to get a team based on a whim now that I think about it..." Naruto wondered with a sweat-drop coalescing.
Yeah now that he thought about it...
*THUD*
Naruto blinked as he glanced at the formerly conscious red-head. What the hell happened to her?
...Maybe she needed some rest. No, maybe they all needed some rest.
So he stood up and was about to address the group...
But before he did so, he quickly grabbed a kunai and flung it towards the forest at a specific location.
...
He didn't hear any cries, all he heard was the *THUNK* of wood getting hit.
Was he imagining things...?
Well, good thing no one saw that then. The last time he made a mistake like that was when he nearly killed a poor defenseless snow rabbit in his first C-rank mission.
So...no one had to know about this one.
The whiskered blond chanced a glance at his fellow blond, who was currently nodding off due to the amount of energy she was expending healing so many people.
Yeah, time to get some shut-eye.
"Asia-san! Once you're done, I'm going to use my clones to take everyone inside the mansion. You should get some rest too ok?" Naruto called out to the nun.
The only response he got was a sleepy affirmation, man...she was out of it.
He began to pick up all of the unconscious bodies of his allies using clones and personally helped Yuki up so that they could get some rest.
The only one unaccounted for was Issei, and he trusted his clone to get him home.
...Hopefully.
"...Uh...Iseei?...You gonna be ok?...Oh geez...I hope I didn't kill the kid...come on then, let's get you home."
"...Urgh...just kill me already..."
Bleary pink eyes slowly opened up to stare at the ceiling.
Where was she...?
...Oh yeah.
Training.
Training with Naruto.
Terrible idea. Horrible idea. Never doing it again.
She was hurting in places that she didn't know existed at the moment.
Really...all she wanted to do was stay down and fall back asleep in this nice and cozy bed...
...Wait. Bed?
Mio looked around and noticed that she was inside her appointed room inside the mansion. When did she get here?
She was about to shrug it off when she felt her stomach rumble.
She was hungry.
"...Damn it." Mio grumbled as she did her best to ignore the aching feeling of her body and leave her bed.
She stumbled outside of her room and traversed the massive mansion in search for the elusive kitchen.
All she wanted was a quick bite and she was lost in this stupid place. It seriously sucked right now.
After what felt like hours but was probably no longer than ten minutes, she found the kitchen.
As well as the source of her current aches and pains.
"...Naruto." Mio said quietly, her annoyed expression seemingly becoming more sour at the sight of the blond.
Naruto immediately froze up, as if caught in the act of something very bad. He turned to face her with a slightly shaky smile.
"Well hello there sleepy-head. How are you right now?" the blond said with his best attempt at a cheery smile.
He couldn't be more suspicious if he tried.
"...What are you up to Naruto?" the red-head asked with a scowl, she really didn't want to deal with his antics right now. His antics was what caused her so much trouble earlier today damn it!
Naruto genuinely looked offended by the question. "Hey! I'll have you know that I am not always up to something dattebayo! Why can't you place more faith in me as your nii-chan!?"
That did it.
She was exhausted, aching all over, hungry, and knew that whatever Naruto was up to...she'd have to deal with it somehow.
That was simply the general trend that she discovered after a while.
Now he used the single most embarrassing thing that has happened to her in recent memory.
Her face was expressionless as she walked towards the blond with twitching eyebrows.
Then she went and pinched her psuedo-brother's cheeks.
"Whatever you're up to...you better cut it out or I swear...I'll-!"
She didn't get to finish her sentence.
Soon after she pinched the cheek of the blond in front of her, he went *POOF*.
He was a clone.
Bad.
That was really bad.
That meant that whatever Naruto was up to...he was already doing it.
If she didn't stop him soon, then her morning...no...everyone's morning would be consumed by it! She had no doubt!
To save everyone's sanity...she had to stop Naruto now!
With that in mind, she was about to leave the kitchen to search for the elusive blond...
"Wait."
Mio stopped and turned to see another Naruto waiting for her with a deadpanned expression.
That was faster than she thought.
"...I know that you're about to go searching for me out of a weird sense of responsibility for my actions...but don't. You'd never find me. But I also know that this plea wouldn't work since you're way too stubborn to stop. So how about I just show you what I'm up to and you let this drop once you find out that this isn't a prank or anything." the teenaged boy explained before extending a hand to her.
Offering to show her the way.
She glanced at the hand, trying to make sure that the hand didn't have any traps waiting for her.
Man, he must have done a real number on her during training to make her so paranoid.
"...Fine. Please do." Mio agreed, accepting the compromise.
Naruto nodded in agreement and led her outside the mansion...and back inside the forest.
Mio's eyes were wide in wonder and astonishment.
"Now do you see Mio? This isn't for pranks...this is mytraining."
...This was Naruto's training?
Mio was referring to the large open space, a perfect place for a small battle.
The perfect place for practically hundreds of clones to practice and train.
There were hundreds upon hundreds of Naruto clones that were training harshly under the moonlit sky.
This was...incredible. There simply was no other word for it.
So all of the information that they gather...they transfer over to the real Naruto huh...
"...Say. You're not the real Naruto right? Where's the real one?" Mio asked while glancing at the 'Naruto' next to her.
The blond clone grinned. "Boss is doing some personal training at the moment. Follow me."
The duo walked past some clones that were doing training, and the half-devil couldn't help but stare at what some of them were doing.
Some were using a single hand and concentrating heavily on doing...something to the small leaf on top of that hand.
Some were clasping their feet together and concentrating on doing...something.
She had no idea on what they were trying to accomplish exactly, yet another mystery to the blond.
Though after passing by these clones, they finally reached the real Naruto.
He was currently concentrating on something in-between his hands...
"...So pretty." Mio said with wonder, looking at the small blue ball that was in-between his palms.
The ball then dispersed into nothing as Naruto looked at Mio in surprise, seemingly having no idea that she was coming.
"Uh...heya Mio. I sorta thought that you were just gonna check that I wasn't up to no good and leave. Didn't really expect to see you here." the shinobi said sheepishly.
Oh yeah. She was hungry.
But...
"...Naruto. What you're doing here is...incredible." the red-head breathed, incredibly impressed with what she saw before.
It was like seeing a parade or fireworks for the first time...it was something truly extraordinary. Seeing all of those copies work towards some goal, all to help out the original to better himself.
But more importantly than that...was who was doing the training.
She may no act like it, but she always saw Naruto as something...higher.
Someone who didn't need to try hard, didn't need to be tough, didn't need to act strong...cause he was strong.
He was overwhelmingly strong, so strong that the concept of him needing to train at all was...strange.
Yet here he was.
It was...inspiring. Seeing someone so strong train to get stronger.
"Heh. I know right? I can be so awesome sometimes that I surprise myself at times." Naruto practically bragged while sniffing his nose.
She shook her head, he always managed to bring down people's perceptions of him accidentally, especially with his cocky attitude.
But...it was so Naruto of him to do that.
"...Hey. Do you mind if I...stay a little bit? I won't get in the way. I'd just like to watch." Mio asked with a hesitant tone.
The shinobi grinned at her question. "Sure. Why not? Just stick with me though ok? The clones could be trying more dangerous things later."
Mio gave him a happy smile at his acceptance and settled herself down to watch Naruto make another of those pretty spheres.
She may miss a late night snack...but this wasn't a bad replacement.