Aftermath (A Sequel to A Flash to the Future)

Chapter 48 - Battle of the Three Legendary Sannin Part 2: Return of the Slug

Tsunade watched as Naruto ran toward jonin. As he ran toward the man at high genin-level speeds, he grabbed a kunai and placed it in his mouth by the handle. Making a cross hand seal, 5 Kage Bushin appeared beside him. At this, they began to pick up their speed, moving at chunin levels. They each crossed each other's paths, jumbling and hiding the original much to Kabuto's dismay.

Said jonin had to quickly pull out a kunai as they clashed. His widened as one of the clones aimed their blade at his throat while the other slid between his legs. He found their strikes harder to evade and counter as they never came or moved in the same way. Barely dodged a kunai that was aimed at the wound in his hand that only missed by a few centimeters. He found these clones harder to fight unlike the last time the boy used the jutsu.

He gasped when one of the three that were left kicked his kunai out his hand before cutting him across the cheek. He felt another slice across the waist before his shuriken pouch fell to the ground. Kabuto growled at this. He needed to get some distance.

When Naruto noticed he was trying to increase the distance between them, he formed five more clones and they all followed him, keeping the fight as close-range as possible. Kabuto didn't like this and began charging chakra into his hands, creating chakra scalpels. 'Shit.' he thought as his clones were suddenly dispersing at one hit from the jutsu. 'Note to self: learn more about iryō-ninjutsu.'

After his last clone dispersed, Naruto was left fighting against Kabuto. He did his best to avoid getting hit by those scalpels, blocking and evading them as best he could. He didn't bother summoning anymore shadow clones because no matter how sturdy he made them to be, they simply would not last against an internal attack, a fact that annoyed him. Their skirmish lasted a good while until Kabuto began to speed up his attacks. This annoyed Naruto because he knew his arsenal was limited due to his circumstances. As a result of these limitations, Naruto received a strike to the thigh, making him groan as he fell to the ground.

Kabuto adjusted his glasses as he tried to calm down his light pants. This brat actually gave him a challenge. He was moving faster than before and his reflexes and movements were clean, precise, and unpredictable. He actually struggled to hold his own in their little spat and that both annoyed and intrigued him.

"Seems like you've been holding out on me, Naruto. You actually gave me a problem." Kabuto stated as he walked to boy the boy that was holding his thigh in pain. "However, it is still not enough to defeat me and you are still that lousy genin who has less skill than my pink toe. And you still will never compare to Sasuke."

"Hm. It seems you have a cracked thigh bone in your left leg from your battle with the snake. How you managed to fight like that with that type of injury, makes me curious." he said, watching the young boy that was now sitting up and lowly growling at him. "In that case, you would have been able move since it was just the bone. However, now it's impossible for you to move. The lateral vastus muscle in your right leg is totally cut off."

Naruto glared at the man. Kurama was offering help speed up his healing process, but Naruto declined. He didn't want to give the bastard the satisfaction He had a high pain tolerance so the deep throbbing he felt throughout his body didn't bother him. He was more focused on Kabuto and Tsunade if anything. He was assessing how Kabuto fought and noticed that taijutsu wasn't his cup of tea. However, he had tactic, strategy, and was evasive and agile in his movements, strengths that he used to his advantage. He was also quite fast compared to others.

Kabuto chuckled as he saw the slight change in Naruto's expression. "Are you scared of me?" he said as his dark eyes gazed into Naruto's. "Do you want to run away from here?" he commented with a devious smirk before he pulled out an information card Naruto immediately recognized.