'Whatever,' Naruto rolled his eyes as he prepared to leap off the branch. 'Try not to talk to much while I'm working.'
'No promises.'
Remaining as silent as possible, Naruto let himself drop to the ground, and slowly walked up towards where Kōmei was standing. For a moment, he wondered how he should do this, quiet and ninja-like or brash and Naruto-esque.
Well, he had never been one for the subtle approach, so it looked like he would be doing things Naruto-style.
Walking out into the open, Naruto gave a low whistle that managed to catch the attention of the other two people within the vicinity.
"Who's there!?" shouted a startled Kōmei, turning around towards the source of the whistle, his head swiveling back and forth before landing on Naruto.
"This is quite the party you have here," Naruto commented lightly, a small smile playing on his lips. "A tactician and a Cursed Warrior, all we need now is the hero and we can bring this little conspiracy to an end."
Kōmei took a step backwards. "Excuse me?" he asked, his voice sounding quite bewildered. Whether the tactician planned on elaborating his question or not became a moot point when the sound of steel sliding out of its sheath brought all attention onto the Cursed Warrior as he unsheathed his blade. Without hesitation, the figure cloaked in white samurai armor jumped, leaping high into the air before descending upon Naruto.
The whiskered shinobi jumped back, moving well out of the range of the sword as it descended upon the ground with a loud rumble. Kōmei decided that it was time for him to bolt, and soon took off running into the forest. Naruto thought about sending a kage bunshin or two after him, but figured it wouldn't matter in the end and decided to focus all his attention on beating the person clad in armor.
Rushing forward with a burst of speed, Naruto charged the Cursed Warrior. The figure before him reacted with impressive speed, raising his weapon in preparation to strike at Naruto as soon as he got within reach. However, as the whisker marked shinobi reached his opponent's range, he shifted his stance, running low to the ground and allowing the sword to pass overhead.
The low whistling of the blade as it cut through the air filled Naruto's ears. Several strands of hair were sliced off his head, drifting along lazily in the air as they began their descent. In the palm of Naruto's right hand, a Rasengan formed, the swirling maelstrom of blue energy signaling his intent to end this fight in one blow.
It was not to be. When his first attack missed, the Cursed Warrior jumped back before Naruto could smashed the Rasengan into his armor clad chest. With a growl, Naruto dispelled the blue ball of compressed energy and prepared to reengage the armor clad warrior.
He shot forward once again, summoning two kunai into his hand and tossing them at his enemy. They didn't do anything, merely clanking off the armor as if they were made of plastic. Naruto frowned, he had been hoping the man would try to dodge or at least block his attack, but wasn't deterred from his course of action, just because his distraction had done nothing didn't mean he couldn't make do.
At least, that's what he thought until the samurai wearing figure made his first move of the night. The Cursed Warrior held his sword above his head with his left hand, the tip of the blade pointing towards the night sky. He began to twist it around in a circular motion. At first, Naruto planned on shooting forward in a burst of speed and taking the man out before he could complete whatever it was he was hoping to finish. Such thoughts were dashed when a large gale of cutting winds picked up, forcing the Konoha shinobi to stop. The winds, which began whipping the air around him intensely, soon formed a whirlwind of cutting winds around the armored figure, a protective barrier so thick Naruto couldn't even see the figure within it.
"This is so not cool," Naruto cursed under his breath. It wasn't that he couldn't defeat these winds with his own attack; he had finished his wind manipulation training after all. No, he had a dozen ways to break through that measly little barrier. The problem was that all of his attacks would also kill the man inside, who he needed to interrogate if he wanted to learn anything. It sucked, but it looked like he was going to need more finesse than he normally used for this battle.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Well, maybe not finesse so much as a distraction, which the large puff of smoke followed by nearly three dozen clones bum rushing the whirlwind did quite admirably. The mass produced copies didn't attack the whirlwind so much as simply bashing into it face first. It was a sight that would have been comical for anyone not partaking in the battle. Too bad no one but Naruto and the Cursed Warrior were around to see it.
Clone after clone smacked into the wind barrier, which held strong, cutting into the chakra copies and dispelling them in a puff of smoke. The armor wearing figure inside of the whirlwind watched on as the doppelgangers committed mass suicide with impunity. It was almost like all the kage bunshin this kid made were sociopaths!
However, whether Naruto's clones had sociopathic tendencies or not they did their job admirably. The Cursed Warrior was so busy paying attention to the blond copies that continued ramming themselves against the wind barrier that he never noticed the cracks spreading out along the ground from underneath him.
At least, he never noticed them until the ground split open with a loud crack and the original Naruto burst forth. The armor clad figure had no time to do so much as even dodge before the spiky headed blond smashed him in his masked chin with a powerful upper cut. Due to the weight of his armor, the Cursed Warrior merely stumbled back, rather than flew back. But that was fine; in fact, it was exactly what Naruto wanted.
Once more a spinning ball of destructive energy formed in Naruto's hand, and without giving the Samurai clad warrior a chance to recover, he thrust the ball directly into his enemy's torso.
With all the power of a drill, the Rasengan tore into the armor, shredding it to pieces before the man was sent flying into a tree. It was only due to the fact that Naruto had lowered the power so as not to kill him, and the armor itself taking the brunt of the attack that he had not managed to die. As it was, the Cursed Warrior still found himself slumped against the tree, utterly defeated.
"Ha..." Naruto sighed as the remaining clones that had not gotten a chance to kill themselves via running into a whirlwind made of cutting wind blades dispelled. "Not quite my style, but at least it did the job."
'I agree,' Kyuubi made her presence known once more now that the fight was over. 'You certainly won't be earning any style points for that.'
'I don't need any comments from the peanut gallery, thank you very much,' Naruto said, causing Kyuubi to huff. Having better things to do than get into an argument with the red haired female locked within his stomach, the whisker marked ninja walked over to the slumped warrior.
The man had certainly seen better days. While Naruto could not see much thanks to the armor covering most of the guys body, the nasty looking spiral markings on his stomach more than made up for it. Of course, considering a normal powered Rasengan would have shredded the warriors stomach, he should probably consider himself lucky.
"Now," Naruto murmured as he knelt down next to the masked figure. "Let's see who you really are." His hand reached out towards the helmet and face mask, intent on taking it off so he could see who he would be interrogating. However, he was forced to jerk his hand away when purple smoke began emitting from every hole within the Cursed Warrior's armor, "What the hell!?"
Naruto watched in shock as whatever that smoke was literally melted his captured enemy into a green, viscous liquid. Skin shriveled and liquefied, bones hissed and melted, and the man's internal organs turned into goop. It was an altogether unpleasant sight, and not one Naruto had ever wanted to see before.
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