Naruto Gojo(Discontinued)

24

Chapter 24: A Father’s Sorrow

Naruto let out a slow breath. 

"Let's see if this new skin is any thicker than the last one," Naruto challenged, shifting his weight slightly forward onto the balls of his feet.

Sasuke vanished. 

The water where he had stood didn't just splash; it vaporized, leaving a dry, circular depression in the river that instantly collapsed inward. Sasuke 

aimed a devastating right cross at Naruto’s face. 

Naruto shifted his head to the left. The scaled fist whistled past his ear, the sheer pressure tearing a gash across his cheek. 

Sasuke didn't overextend. Utilizing the bizarre, serpentine anatomy of State 3, he violently dislocated his own shoulder and elbow mid-swing. His arm snapped like a whip, the forearm bending at an impossible, broken angle to bring a backhand strike crashing toward Naruto’s head. 

Naruto recognized the shift the moment Sasuke’s arm popped. He dropped his elevation, bending his knees to duck under the unnatural backhand. Stepping inside Sasuke’s guard, Naruto drove a rising palm strike directly into the Uchiha's rib. 

CRACK.

The scales rippled, trying to disperse the kinetic energy, but Naruto infused the strike with pure, dense Cursed Energy. The impact bypassed the exterior armor, sending a violent shockwave through Sasuke’s internal organs. 

Sasuke gagged, blood spilling past his fangs, but the State 3 mutation had suppressed his pain receptors. He didn't pull back. Instead, he unhinged his jaw and lunged forward, attempting to sink his venomous fangs into Naruto’s exposed neck. 

Naruto leaned back, dodging the bite, but Sasuke used the proximity to wrap his long, scaled legs around Naruto’s waist. He locked his ankles, squeezing with enough constricting force to snap a tree trunk in half. 

"Got you," Sasuke hissed, his yellow, slitted eyes burning with manic triumph. He raised both hands, dark purple chakra condensing into a pair of silent Chidori blades. He drove them down toward Naruto’s throat.

Naruto didn't panic. He pressed his left palm against Sasuke’s thigh. 

"Red."

A micro-burst of repulsive force detonated between them. The blast shattered Sasuke’s grapple, violently throwing his legs off Naruto’s waist. As Sasuke’s upper body pitched forward from the broken hold, Naruto pivoted on his right foot and unleashed a devastating roundhouse kick aimed at Sasuke’s jaw.