A New Path

Ch. 48 My Ninja Way!

Naruto let out a hiss of pain as he clutched his stomach. A few beads of sweat trailed down his face, mixing with the blood trailing down his mouth and onto his chin. His right arm, now sleeveless, was full of scratches and a few open cuts though nothing major.

A frown etched on his face as he looked over Sasuke's condition. Much to his misfortune, he looked completely fine. The wounds he had inflicted were now closed thanks to the Curse Seal, not to mention the large gap it had put between their power.

"You look a bit worried Naruto," Sasuke mocked, noticing the frown on the Chunin. The Uchiha felt powerful, invincible, nothing could stop him on his current condition. It was euphoric. Like a drug coursing through his body.

Naruto drew in a breath before slipping into his new taijutsu stance, the one Anko had drilled into his brain by making him go through all kinds of dangerous exercises. His eyes narrowed on the enemy as the grip on his blade tightened, wind coursing through it as he pondered on his next move.

He was facing a much stronger Sasuke, one that could pose any non-senior Chunin. The fact that he had just come from a fight with Kimimaro and lost some chakra didn't make things any easier. The only way to beat Sasuke would be to come up with a good plan. Finish him in one shot.

'The only problem is that I don't know how to catch him off guard,' Naruto frowned as he took a step forward. 'Man, who cares anymore. I'll just attack until something comes to mind,' he concluded before breaking into a run.

Sasuke held his ground as Naruto approached. His sharingan could read everything Naruto could come up which left him in no real danger.

Naruto kicked off the water before throwing a punch with his right hand. Sasuke caught the fist with his left hand but the blond used his other hand to push his right arm downwards, getting out of the hold the Uchiha had on him.

The Chunin planted both feet on the water before throwing his body upwards, his head making contact with Sasuke's face. The Uchiha let out a grunt before staggering backwards, giving Naruto enough time to land a punch on his chest though it had no effect as Sasuke simply took the hit before the wings on his back wrapped around the blond.

Naruto cursed as the two arm-like wings picked him up and held him tightly in front of Sasuke, his eyes meeting a single sharingan. His eyes quickly snapped shut, knowing that looking into a sharingan was a very bad idea, before gasping in pain. The grip on his body tightened, his whole body shooting with waves of pain. He gritted his teeth in pain as he focused his chakra.

"You lose Naruto," Sasuke smirked before a wave of pain shot through one of his wings. His single eye widened as blood splattered out of his left wing, wind chakra ripping through it with ease. He cursed himself for having forgotten about Naruto's ability to lengthen the size of his blade and quickly withdrew his hold on the blond.

Wind encircled Naruto's right arm as his blue eyes snapped open in a glare. "Wind Style!" he began as the wind began to swirl violently around his arm, drawing a few drops of blood.

Sasuke had no idea what the new jutsu was and quickly put both wings in front of him as a shield. Whatever Naruto had up his sleeve, he would counter.

"Drilling Fist!" Naruto let out as he drove his fist into Sasuke's wings. His arm shook violently as his arm began to rip through the two wings, gusts of air shooting in all directions as his arm dug deeper and deeper.

The Uchiha let out a cry of pain before dropping the chakra on his feet, instantly falling into the water and narrowly escaping Naruto's jutsu. The Chunin grit his teeth in anger as his jutsu dropped, blood running down his arm due to the cutting wind that had gathered around it.