Konoha's Dream Team

Chapter 15

Ninth Platoon, consisting of Yamashiro Aoba, Akimichi Chouji, Yamanaka Ino, and leader Namiashi Raidou, didn't have too much trouble trying to locate the Fifth Platoon, given that a massive forest had shot into the sky rather suddenly, visible for miles. So, they weren't exactly hard to find. After all, for the last five minutes, the forest had been rocked by what could only be described as earthquakes and tidal waves.

They were surprised, however, when they reached the team at the outskirts of the massive forest, only to see that they were missing a member.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Chouji said as the Ninth Platoon landed in front of Team Seven and a dead Akatsuki member. "Where's Naruto?"

"He's fighting this freak's partner," Sasuke said, nudging the Akatsuki member with his foot. "He needed some space to-"

Sasuke cut himself off when the ground shook something fierce, and he looked toward Naruto's location to see a large cloud of dust rising in the distance.

"The enemy is strong," Kakashi picked up for Sasuke. "In order for Naruto to use some of his more destructive jutsu, he needed some space."

"What, we're not going to help him?" Ino asked in surprise. "Things could be going badly for him!"

"If things go south, Naruto will come to us," Sasuke said simply. From the sound of it, he had complete confidence in Naruto's abilities.

"Hey, hey!" the dead Akatsuki member barked suddenly, making the members of Ninth Platoon jump in surprise. "Don't underestimate Kakuzu! He'll beat the crap outta that blonde brat, then he'll come here and waste you all!"

"He's not dead?" Raidou asked in amazement. "His neck is clearly broken!"

"Yeah, this guy is a bit hard to kill, it seems," Kakashi said with a nod. "An-"

Kakashi was the one who was cut off this time. A massive explosion was heard in the distance, another massive cloud of dust rising from the trees.

"And his partner is pretty tough as well."

–

Despite his body consisting of nothing but those strange tendrils, Kakuzu seemed to have the same weak points as any other human being, judging by his grunts of pain whenever Naruto's fists impacted with vital spots.

Unfortunately, he was dense as hell. Normally, a human would have exploded upon getting punched by Naruto, but this guy was just knocked back, and he packed a massive amount of power as well! His hits were close to Naruto's own in power, and they weren't even powered by chakra!

Kakuzu had pulled back his tendrils again. Realizing that long range didn't work too well against Naruto, he had put everything into his physical power, and taken human form again. But with all that packed under his skin, he became incredibly dense, and Naruto was sure that some of the tendrils had become springs inside his arms, coiled and released whenever he threw a punch.

So it was no surprise that Naruto's nose was broken as he, panting, stood across from Kakuzu in one of the water-filled craters that had cleared most of the forest Naruto had created.

"Well, you're resilient, I'll give you that, brat," Kakuzu said, breathing heavily as well.

Oh yeah, and he had a metric fuckton of stamina, just like Naruto. A victory through attrition would take waaay too long.

"Thanks..." Naruto muttered, releasing a steadying breath. "Seriously, though, I'd like it if you could just go down already..."

Kakuzu didn't respond to that. Instead, his legs tensed up, and a nanosecond later he shot toward Naruto like a rocket. The blond barely dodged the right hook thrown at his face, then leaned back to avoid a follow-up left. He ducked under another right and shot forward, smashing his forehead into Kakuzu's chest and making him stumble back. Then he went on the offensive for the umpteenth time that day.