Naruto:Making Of A Hokage

The Power of Sage Mode

A younger Naruto landed hard on the ground, letting out a cough as his back hit the floor. He let out a series of pants as he spreads his legs and arms, closing his eyes as his whole body ached in pain; most likely because of the bands Jiraiya had made him wear on his wrists and ankles. Going up against a sage was bad enough, but doing so while wearing bands branded with seals to increase their weight drastically was too much for him.
"Are you done already brat?"
Naruto growled after hearing his master's voice, not having to see him to know that he had a taunting smirk on his face.
"Dammit, Jiraiya-sensei! It's not fair that you're using that weird transformation of yours!"
Jiraiya's smirk widened as he crossed his arms while Fukasaku and Shima looked at the boy sheepishly. "Stop whining Naruto. You wanted to get stronger, right? Well, if you fight against me in my strongest form then you're progress will be that much better," he explained and, seeing as his student refused to meet his gaze, decided to annoy him, "You know that you'd be standing right now if you weren't so stubborn on using the fox's chakra, right?"
Naruto sat up, grunting slightly as he did so but managing to glare at the older man. "I told you that there's no way that I'm using it ever again," he gritted his teeth as he pushed himself off the ground and finally stood on shaky legs. "There's no way I need it's chakra when I've still got a bit of mine."
"Let's keep going Jiraiya-sensei," Naruto dropped into a fighting stance, sweat trailing down his face as he panted, "I'm not done yet."
Jiraiya had grinned at the display and it wasn't until that night that Naruto had an idea of what was going on through his master's head.
That was the day in which Jiraiya had turned over his training to Fukasaku, having told him that he was ready to learn Sage Mode.
"End this now, huh?" Mayu repeated with a glare. "You're getting a bit overconfident. Don't think that whatever technique you're using is going to give you an advantage over me."
"Enough talking," Naruto frowned as he tightened the grip on his katana, "I have to go help the others and can't afford to waste much time here."
The fight began anew with Naruto swinging his blade and creating a powerful gust of air that pushed Mayu back a couple of steps. She gritted her teeth before quickly jumping high in the air and sticking to the cave's ceiling to avoid any other wind jutsu. Once safe, she ran through hand signs but stopped mid-way as shock showed on her face. Naruto had appeared right before her, his eyes icy cold, as he brought his blade down on her.
Mayu, being a quick thinker, dropped from the ceiling at just the right time to avoid the blade, at least, that's what she thought. Blood stained her face, she followed the spot where it was coming from and, much to her confusion, found that her left side was covered in blood, as was her arm. She let out a growl as she landed safely on the ground just as pain began to set in. Wincing in pain, she racked her brain for any sort of explanation as to what had happened. There was no way that the blade had reached her, she had dodged, she was sure of it. Not even the wind covering the blade had touched her.
"Sage Art: Devastation!"
She was broken out of her thoughts after hearing Naruto's voice. Her eyes quickly found the gust of wind coming her way but, instead of dodging, she opted for preparing an attack of her own. She had already taken the blunt of his other jutsu and figured that this one wouldn't be trouble. Mayu brought a thumb to her mouth and bit on it, drawing blood, before scraping it on her left arm.
Her whole arm shone brightly as she brought her other thumb to her mouth. Naruto's jutsu was upon her now and, having expected it to do nothing more than push her back, Mayu was taken off guard when feeling several blades of wind cut through her arms and legs. She cried out in pain and quickly extended her left hand out in front of her, creating a bright blue wall of light that kept any more of the wind from getting to her.
"I underestimated him…" she growled when seeing several blades of winds hit against her chakra shield. It didn't take much longer for Naruto's attack to die down and for Mayu to take down her shield and bring her left thumb to her mouth. She bit down on it before scraping it on her right arm, making it shine brightly as well.
Naruto watched Mayu's glowing arms with a careful eye. He noticed that her left arm had a really light bluish glow while the other didn't. What this meant, he didn't know, but at least it told him that whatever technique she was using, was different in each arm.
With that in mind, Naruto quickly ran through hand signs before extending his two arms. "Sage Art: Twin Dragon Jutsu!"
Mayu found herself gasping in surprise as two dragons made up of wind shot towards her but, not allowing herself to fall for another attack, she rushed forward and jumped over the first dragon that crashed against the ground, creating a small crater and kicking up a cloud of dust. She didn't have time to rest as there was another dragon coming her way and reacted quickly by extending her left arm and taking the attack head on, much to Naruto's puzzlement. He briefly wondered if she would end up getting her hand chopped off but was proven wrong when his attack disappeared into her open palm.
"W-What?!" He let out in surprise as Mayu pointed her right hand at him and fired back the chakra without wasting any time. Naruto could do nothing as the blast of chakra struck him on the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. He sailed through the air before crashing against the cave's walls, his teeth grinding together as he bounced off the wall but regained his composure and landed on the ground with a bit of trouble.
"That was only the beginning Naruto."
Naruto let out a breath as an idea struck him. "That's right… she has no idea," he muttered to himself with a confident grin before sheathing his blade and dropping into a taijutsu stance, "I'll be done with this in no time."
Deidara growled as he stood atop his large clay bird. Smoke from the burning trees below filled the area and the jinchuuriki had not hesitated in taking advantage of that by using it to hid in. The whole situation was a bit pathetic, he admitted to himself, having trained to counter the Sharingan he hadn't bothered with the idea of doing anything to help him see in these situations.
"Get out here already, yeah?!" He yelled out impatiently, having had enough, "this is getting annoying!"
At that moment, Fu broke out of the smoke, eyes focused as she flew straight at the Akatsuki member who, seeing this as a chance, sent a horde of birds to take her out. The jinchuuriki smirked and let the attacks hit her, making Deidara's eyes widen in realization.
"That was a clone. Where's the real -"
He was cut off as a fist struck the side of his face, knocking him off his bird and making him fall helplessly towards the ground but, not one to be bested so easily, he swung his left, his cloak fluttering furiously as the clay bird he had been using shot up in flames, making Fu gasp out in surprise.
BOOM!
Fu flew off just as the explosion went off but didn't get away unharmed. Her eyes shot close in pain and parts of her clothes had been burnt into crisps. "I'll have to move faster," she growled to herself before coming to a stop and looking for the Akatsuki members, easily spotting him atop a new clay bird. "This is getting annoying, I'll take him out now."
Green chakra flared around her, creating a few gusts of air as her hair spiked slightly and her eyes turned a darker shade of orange. She didn't usually use so much of her bijuu's chakra but the fight demanded it. It wasn't every day that she had to fight someone that actually had a chance to kill her.
With grim determination, Fu took for the smoke once again. Thanks to her bijuu she could see in the heavy smoke which gave her a considerable advantage when fighting someone in the air. She just needed to focus on a single attack and hope to take him out but she couldn't get the timing right. The Akatsuki member would only leave his bird when she got too close but he would set off the explosive in order to give himself enough time to create another. Long range fighting was also out of the question since it led to a game of cat and mouse between her and the clay birds.
"I'm going to have to improvise…" she told herself bitterly, "I don't like to improvise."
"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!"
A large torrent of water shaped like a dragon, crashed against the large sea-serpent's snout as Ino and Shikamaru ran through the swamp. The kunoichi glanced back to see if her attack had done anything but, once again, found that it didn't even slow it down.
"Just how is it able to stay here for so long?!" She looked at her teammate with a frown, "Isn't this one of Naruto's summons?"
"Who knows?" Shikamaru answered as he kept a steady pace, "There could be something that they're using to keep that thing here for so long and there's no way to know how sea-serpents act, summoning wise."
Ino cast a worried look at the lazy ninja, "Shouldn't we look for whatever it's keeping it here first then?"
"It doesn't really matter now," he answered with a shake of his head, "If there's something keeping it here then it should have a set range and considering how long we've run for, we should have gotten past that range already."
The kunoichi didn't answer, instead she focused on the rumbling that came from the sea-serpent's movements. It was really close and she was sure that they wouldn't be able to outrun it for much longer. She scowled at the thought.
"Please tell me we're close to your trap."
Shikamaru frowned in response. "It's close but-" He stopped midsentence when a beam of chakra shot between them and exploded into the water, knocking them back a couple of feet. The two were submerged in the water before coming out while gasping for air and seeing the sea-serpent rushing towards them.
The Nara grinned bitterly, "Looks like we have to move a bit faster."
Ino glared at the incoming sea-serpent and quickly pushed herself into a standing position on the water. "I'm tired of this thing, let's just deal with it here. You said that whatever is keeping it here is out of range so if we just do enough damage, we'll get rid of it."
"Fine," Shikamaru muttered in a bitter tone. It wasn't that he didn't agree with Ino but, if the trap wasn't used, then he would be the one to deactivate it and clean everything up. Just thinking about that was enough to put him in a bad mood.
Naruto and Mayu ran at each other at a fast speed. The blond threw a punch that was easily sidestepped but didn't let up and punched at her with his other hand. The Akatsuki member didn't have trouble in ducking under the blow and throwing a jab of her own but Naruto disappeared before it made contact and appeared right behind her. She cursed under her breath and spun while throwing a kick that was easily caught in a tight grip.
"Take this!" Naruto yelled out as he flung Mayu towards the cave's walls. "Sage Art: Drilling Wind Ball!"
An orb made of compressed spinning wind formed on his hand as he pointed it at Mayu, who had stuck to the cave's wall to avoid damage. His eyes narrowed on her before he fired the attack, letting the orb of wind shoot towards Mayu who, before having time to react, gasped in pain as the attack struck her stomach.
"W-What?!" Mayu gasped out as the ball of wind dug into her stomach before it burst into a powerful wind that shot her upwards. A snarl escaped her mouth as she flipped in the air in order to land safely on the ceiling, panting slightly while feeling a throbbing pain on her stomach. She had a feeling that if it weren't for her body armor, the attack could have easily pierced her stomach.
Her teeth grinded together as she charged in at the Leaf ninja, watching as he prepared himself to attack but, seeing this as an opportunity, she smirked and jabbed at him with her right arm. The chakra surrounding the arm shot at the blond who quickly leapt away from it but was taken aback as it followed after him in the form of a giant arm.
He was momentarily reminded of himself using the fox's chakra but he quickly dismissed the thought when seeing another arm made up of blue chakra moving towards him.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
A clone took his place just as the blue arm wrapped around the clone that vanished upon contact. He gave a thoughtful look before running through hand signs and taking aim. "Sage Art: Rapid Liquid Barrage!"
Hundreds of liquid bullets shot out of the blond's mouth and struck the red arm, pushing it back but not slowing it down. The arm, he noticed, absorbed each of the bullets and gained size, much to his relief. This was the opportunity he was waiting for. He knew that he had this fight in the bag.
He landed on the ground and smirked as he unsheathed his katana and, drawing on its stored chakra, swung it at the incoming attacks. The result was a large wave of blue chakra that impacted against the two arms, destroying the blue one but making the red even larger, just as he had hoped.
Mayu gritted her teeth, furious at having her left chakra arm destroyed, and used the remaining arm to try and reach for Naruto who, with a smirk in place, stopped dead on his tracks and let the arm wrap around him.
A feeling of dread coursed through Mayu's chest as she absorbed Naruto's chakra. There was something very wrong with the way he kept the smirk in place even though she had caught him. The feeling intensified when she saw her chakra arm turn a deep shade of green and the tips of the fingers on her right hand slowly turning into stone. Her eyes widened as the same feeling began to course through her whole hand and, without thinking twice, she reached behind her back and pulled out a small blade.
Her eyes hardened as she ran the blade through her wrist, taking Naruto by surprise as he watched her hand, turned to stone, fall and break into pieces on the ground. It didn't take long for blood to cover the area as Mayu moaned in pain while clutching her arm painfully. She closed her eyes as she reached into her kunai pouch and took out a seal tag.
"Dammit!" Naruto yelled out as he sprinted towards Mayu, attempting to keep her from healing the wound that would surely lead to her death. He was in front of her in an instant and, just as he brought his blade down on her, green chakra erupted from the seal and knocked him back several feet.
Clouds of dust kicked up as the whole cave rumbled from the amount of chakra coming out of the seal. Naruto was forced to shield his eyes from all the debris while cursing himself for having been too slow. He had had no idea that she would cut out her hand so, him being surprised by her action was a complete understatement.
The clouds of dust died down to reveal a panting Mayu clutching her arm with a look of agony on her face. Blood stained good part of her midsection but it wasn't pouring out of the wound anymore, in fact, her arm was starting to heal already.
"I'll kill you…" Mayu muttered as the look of agony left her and was replaced by pure uncontrollable rage, "I'll kill you!"
Naruto let out a sigh as he dropped into a taijutsu stance, the orange pigmentation around his eyes disappearingl, a sign of Sage Mode ending. 'Looks like I reached the time limit already… I better not use so many jutsu next time.'
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Hundreds or Naruto clones filled the area while the real stayed perfectly still behind them.
Mayu, being furious, swung her left arm horizontally as it glowed a bright color blue. Her chakra shot out of her arm, creating a large serpent made up of chakra that impacted against the area before the clones. The result was a powerful explosion that took out most of them without any trouble. The Akatsuki member watched her attack's aftermath before swinging her arm vertically this time, creating another serpent that shot above the clones before crashing down on them in a big explosion.
Smoke filled the cave, blocking the two from view, something Mayu was thankful for since she needed to give her arm a rest before it could attack again. This weakness would be counteracted by her other arm but she didn't think that it could handle the strain.
"Sage Art: Devastation!"
Now knowing better, Mayu jumped high in the air and stuck to the cave's sealing and watched as the gust of wind crashed against the cave's walls, her breathing heavy before she let out a gasp.
"Sage Art: Giant Rasengan!"
Two Naruto clones leapt at her with the giant attacks on hand. Mayu quickly dropped from the cave's ceiling as the attacks crashed against it in a powerful impact. She landed on the ground and growled as she looked for the original Naruto before her eyes widened in realization, he was nowhere to be found which meant that the last attack wasn't aimed at her.
She looked up to see the two clones smirking as their attacks collapsed the cave. "Dammit!" Mayu quickly rushed for the exit but was blown back as soon as she got close, courtesy of the real Naruto's wind jutsu.
Naruto kept a frown in place as the cave collapsed, burying Mayu and, hopefully, whatever the Akatsuki had used to try to extract Gaara's bijuu.
"Should I get away from here?"
He glanced back at a clone that, before Naruto had used his attacks, had gotten Gaara out of the cave. It currently carried the unconscious Gaara on its back as Naruto mulled things over.
"Yeah, that sounds good," he nodded, "Go back to the Waterfall Village or drop him off with Temari and Kankuro if you run into them."
The clone gave a firm nod, "You got it boss."
Naruto grinned slightly as he watched the clone go. It was always great to have the clones follow orders without giving him any attitude, he could actually count the times in which he had gotten in a fight with them over the smallest of things.
"Enough of that," Naruto shook his head, to rid himself of those thoughts, and let out a short breath, "Let's see… I could go look for Ino and the others but…" A worried look crossed his face as he finally came to a decision, "No… I've got to help Fu."
He took a step forward but stopped, eyes widening as what remained of the cave was blown into bits, rocks and trees were blown away as a violent wind shot from where the cave had been. Naruto had to block his eyes from the strong wind but managed to make out Mayu standing in the mouth of the cave, red chakra engulfed her whole body and what remained of her Akatsuki cloak fluttered with the violent wind.
"This is me pushed to the very limit," Mayu spoke in an icy voice, her eyes were set on the Leaf ninja as she stomped a foot on the ground.
Dust and rubble kicked up as the area beneath her feet exploded, creating a large crater. "Using this shortens my life span considerably but I will use it to kill you. Screw the Akatsuki and whatever its real goal is! I don't care about any of that. If killing you ruins their plans then so be it. You will die by my hand Naruto!"
Naruto sheathed his blade as his yellow eyes set on the opponent, "Fine, let's end this Mayu. I've wasted enough time with you already."
Temari kept a worried frown as she and Kankuro sprinted through the swamp. They were on their way back to the large boulder in which they had separated and the sounds of battle echoed through the swamp. That could only mean that they had found whoever had kidnapped Gaara, she only hoped that they had found him safe.
"Don't worry," Kankuro spoke, as if sensing her worry, "I'm sure Gaara's safe. He isn't the Kazekage for nothing, you know?"
Temari looked to the side worriedly before she suddenly stopped dead on her tracks, Kankuro doing the same behind her after hearing an approaching sound. The siblings looked at each other before glancing back ahead to where the sound was coming from. She took hold of her fan's handle, eyes narrowing as the sound grew closer until a rather unexpected figure emerged from the trees.
"Naruto!" Kankuro exclaimed in shock before taking noticed of the person slung over his back, "Gaara!"
Temari's eyes widened as she and Kankuro rushed to the Naruto clone and took Gaara from him before laying him down on a dry piece of land. "What happened?" Temari asked as she looked over her unconscious brother.
"They tried to extract Gaara's bijuu but, from what I can tell, he still has it," the Naruto clone did his best to explain as quickly as possible. "I'm not sure how far they went but Gaara will be fine," he went on before crossing his arms, "I guess I don't need to tell you to get him out of here as quickly as possible, right?"
Temari nodded as she and Kankuro exchanged glanced, her brother giving her a firm nod, "Kankuro, I'll leave Gaara to you."
"As if you needed to tell me that," Kankuro joked as he picked up his brother and gave the Naruto clone a grin, "Get my sister back in one piece, will ya?"
Temari rolled her eyes, "I'm more than capable of taking care of myself idiot."
The Naruto clone smiled at the exchange but quickly went back to business, turning to Temari and giving her a serious look. "We need to go to the others, they might be in trouble."
"Got it," she responded before the Naruto clone led her towards the battle site.
Kankuro watched them go before turning towards where the Waterfall Village was and glancing back at his brother, "You're safe now Gaara."
"Sage Art: Rapid Liquid Barrage!"
Hundreds of liquid bullets shot at Mayu, whistling through the air before finally making it to their target but, much to the surprise of Naruto, the attacks were absorbed by the chakra gathered around her. The Leaf ninja cursed under his breath and opted for a frontal assault, closing the distance between them in an instant and throwing a punch at the enemy's face.
Mayu easily dodged the strike but let out a grunt of pain when feeling the attack land on her face. Her eyes narrowed in confusion before throwing a punch of her own though Naruto easily ducked under her arm and punched at her stomach, making contact and pushing her back a few feet but, not being done yet, Mayu found her footing and leapt at Naruto with her right leg brought back, ready for a kick.
Naruto caught the kick but let out a yelp of pain when feeling the red chakra burn his hands. He quickly let go and jumped away to put a bit of distance between them, his breathing a bit heavy and hands aching. It didn't take a genius to know where she had come up with such an odd technique, it was obviously a recreation of his past usage of the Kyuubi's chakra. How she came up with something so close to the original he had no idea but, what he did know, was that time was on his side. If it really lowered her life span then she probably couldn't hold the technique for long.
' That's good,' he mused with a hint of a smirk, 'I've got two hidden clones gathering natural energy so I can just attack until she goes down.' Naruto set his eyes on Mayu, his smirk disappearing as he took in her appearance before his eyes widened in realization.
"You did something to the Kyuubi's chakra when you caught me that one time."
"You're quite right," Mayu smirked, "Why would I waste a golden opportunity like that? I mean, a jinchuuriki unconscious right before me, it would have been criminal not to get a reward from it."
Naruto gritted his teeth before running through hand signs, "Sage Art: Devasta-" He stopped midway as he recalled her ability to absorb chakra, gritting his teeth in frustration.
"Is seems you finally realize that none of your jutsu will work against me," she extended her left arm and pointed her hand at him, "You don't realize what big of an advantage it gives me."
Naruto stayed still, waiting for whatever she was planning until she finally shot a lightning-like stream of chakra at him. He was quick to jump over it but was taken by surprise when the attack followed after him without losing speed. The Leaf ninja quickly flipped in the air and placed his katana in front of him, waiting for the attack but, much to his shock, it stopped right before him.
' Does it have some kind of limit on how far it can go?' Naruto mused but, just as he leaned a bit closer to the odd attack, Mayu appeared in front of him with a smirk in place. 'Dammit!'
What followed could only be described as a deadly attack. A large portion of the red chakra shot at Naruto before taking the form of a serpent and wrapping around his whole body. He cried out in pain when feeling the chakra begin to burn his skin and knew that he had to think of something before it did anything worse.
Luckily, Naruto didn't have to wait long as an idea sprung in his mind almost instantly. "Sage Art: Wind Shroud!" Wind gathered around his body, effectively pushing the red chakra away just long enough for him to get away and land on the ground without problem. He then used the gained momentum to push himself off the ground and into an all-out charge towards Mayu's falling form.
Mayu smirked from high in the air and gathered all of the red chakra on her good hand, purple sparks came out of it as she prepared to deliver what was sure to be the final blow, "Gouraiken!"
Naruto gritted his teeth as he too gathered chakra on his right arm. Wind quickly enveloped his whole right arm, spinning ferociously around it and tearing parts of his sleeve off as a blue orb formed on the same arm and joined the wind, giving it a blue glow.
"Sage Art: Wind Drilling Rasengan!"
The two attacks met in a roaring clash that formed several shockwaves through the air. Both ninja pushed against the other, neither of the attacks letting up as the two fell towards the ground. Naruto had to bite back a yelp of pain as he landed on the ground, his legs instantly buckling under the attack's power but he didn't let it stop him. He continued to push against it until his attack finally began to break through, much to Mayu's terror.
Naruto gave a battle cry as his attack finally broke through Mayu's, her arm being engulfed by the attack with a sickening noise before he stopped his attack. For a brief moment, Mayu wondered if he perhaps took mercy on her, but the thought left her as soon as she noticed the orb of chakra on Naruto's left hand.
"Rasengan!"
The attack dug into her stomach, making her let out choked screams as blood splattered out of her mouth before she was sent spiraling away. She ended up crashing against a tree and limply falling on the ground, defeated in a pool of her own blood.
Naruto panted as his Sage Mode wore off, returning his eyes to their original color blue. He wiped away a bit of sweat trailing down his face before walking over to the fallen Mayu, noticing that she was still alive, though barely. She probably only had a few minutes left.
Without a word, he turned his back on her and prepared to walk away but stopped at the sound of her voice.
"W-Wait… Don't go yet." Mayu gasped for breath, letting out a bloodied cough as her eyes began to darken, "You completely bested me... so let me. One Uzumaki to the other, give you a warning... as a reward."
"Warning?" Naruto repeated with a frown, "Are you talking about the Akatsuki?"
She shook her head in response, "No. Stop... them, from organizing." The blond ninja could only look at her in confusion, something she seemed to notice, "You're so dense... Well, you'll find out eventually."
Naruto stayed quiet as Mayu's head dropped to the side, signaling her death. He stayed there, quiet, wondering why she had tried to warn him about something when they were enemies but, most importantly, he tried to understand what it was she meant by them .
"Well, I guess I'll find out when the time comes," he gave her body a last look before taking his leave. He took to the trees and made his way to the sounds of battle. Fu needed the help and he was thankful for the clones he had gathering natural energy since he knew that it would be a tough battle.