15 Chapter 15

It took until lunchtime before the clones had reunited with a sort of placated Ino and Sakura. One of the clones had just hung out with Ino and the other had given Sakura a few more tips on tree walking drills, especially doing things like running and fighting.

By the end of it, Ino felt a lot better about being rejected and Sakura was a whole lot more comfortable in her own skin and interacting with Naruto. They also both agreed to be cordial enough to not kill each other on sight. Which was good enough for now.

Meanwhile, the original Naruto kept up his training, using the preta path to take in Natural energy. Now that he was consciously doing it, he found that he could take on even more than before. So much so that he felt the tip of his fingers turn into stone.

He'd immediately released it after that and his fingers thankfully turned back to normal.

He needed some time to get used to it, it seemed.

"Naruto-san!/Naruto-kun!" both Sakura and Ino called out as they approached him. They then glared at each other.

"Naruto-san?" Ino mocked, "trying to jump the gun a bit, are we?"

"Oh I'm not the whore who's throwing myself at him," Sakura shot back, "Why don't you dial back that horniness a little bit, hm? And please address him like a person you met a few days ago rather than a person who's dick you want to–"

"Whoa there, You two!" Naruto interrupted, "Aren't we trying to make up here?"

The clones next to them popped and the rush of memories of what had occurred entered in Naruto's mind. He processed it within a second, having used the jutsu so long that it became second nature to him.

"Wow, they were rather…productive," Naruto muttered to himself.

The two were still glaring at each other.

Then as if summoned by the very heavens themselves, Kushina and Hinata showed up, surprising all three of them.

"N-naruto-kun!" Hinata called out, one hand waving at him, the other holding a picnic basket. Then she caught sight of the other two girls. "Ah! I mean Naru-kun!"

"Hinata-chan!" Naruto said as he waved back. "It's alright, they both know that my name is the same as that of a fish cake topping."

Kushina snickered, obviously pleased with herself over her choice of naming him that.

'Hinata-chan?!' Both Ino and Sakura thought.

They both looked towards the normally shy but incredibly sweet girl and instinctively knew that in the unaddressed race they were having, she was very much in the lead.

Lunch that day featured two girls sniping at each other, a boy who was munching down on some delicious onigiri, one girl trying her best to not observe his reactions from the food she made for him, and a mother deep in thought about how her son's future love life was going to look like…and was planning the first few lessons to give him in her head.

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~ The duel ~

It was night. In the Hokage's personal training grounds, Naruto and Hiruzen stood, facing each other. The strange thing about this specific training ground was that it was actually just an abandoned section of the town due to a sewage leak decades ago, right at the very edge in the backside of Konoha. People had actually lived there before. Since the incident however, even though the smell had cleared, the old residences refused to move back due to having newly renovated homes paid for by the Hokage. Now it serves a realistic urban area of combat for those who booked it or for the Hokage to use freely…as he did now.

"You should have ran when you had the chance, boy," Hiruzen said, engaging in playful banter.

"For your sake or for mine?" Naruto quipped back, "Don't worry old man, I'll take it easy on your old bones. Wouldn't want your joints to ache after this."

Hiruzen chuckled.

Kushina stood in the distance, observing them. She bit her fingernails nervously, scared that something might go wrong. She wore her jonin uniform which she hasn't adorned since her retirement more than a decade ago. She saw fit to wear it once more now that her son was back in her life. Who else was going to have his back?

"You know the rules?" Hiruzen asked.

"Hai," Naruto nodded, "Nothing fatal, nothing too dangerous, just checking what we each can do. Got it."

Hiruzen nodded. "Then Kushina, if you'd please."

Kushina took in a shaky breath. "Alright, you two ready?"

Both nodded.

"Then, begin!"

Neither of them moved.

"Any reason you wanted to start on a roof of all places, old man?" Naruto asked.

"Oh…well," Hiruzen pretended to think about it, then he smirked "It's so I can do this!"

In the span of half a second, hand signs blared. "Ninja Art: Tile Shuriken."

Naruto was surprised at the speed in which Hiruzen could execute a jutsu. He'd heard of legends of his grandfather figure when he was in his prime. The god of shinobi, knowing thousands of jutsu with the ability to discern a jutsu's nature from a glance.

He was of course nervous in facing him, but most of all, he was excited.

He caught each of the tiles with his right hand before neatly placing them down on the roof in which they belonged. "Oy, oy, old man, don't go destroying property for no good reason."

Hiruzen chuckled, impressed. "Ha! Good reflexes, brat."

Since Naruto hadn't seen Hiruzen's fight with Orochimaru personally–only the result of it–he didn't really know what to expect.

"How about this?" Hiruzen said, "Earth style: Great Mud Ri–"

Naruto was already behind him.

"Too slow!" He snickered.

His kick sent the Hokage flying. Despite being old, Hiruzen assured Naruto that he could still take a punch from Tsunade herself and survive–and Naruto was using nowhere near that level of physical strength. He had a handle on his asura-path-gained strength from the last couple days of training.

Naruto smiled, thinking he had gotten a shot in already and noticed almost too late that Hiruzen substituted with a mud clone.

He sensed it before he heard it.

"Fire Dragon Bomb!" He heard from his side.

Two shadow clones appeared beside him silently–a trick he learnt for Itachi–and tossed the original into the air, dodging the fire and mud bombs, disintegrating the shadow clones.

In the air, however, Naruto was practically caught with his pants down, an easy target to shoot at.

"Shuriken shadow clone jutsu!" Hiruzen shouted.

People often wonder why a few ninjas bothered to shout techniques and the truth was that it mattered little. They normally did cast silently but most, if not all the time, the jutsu reached the target before the sound waves did…It was also more theatrical, like in this case, especially during these types of duels where a show was being given. It seemed that Hiruzen was getting a bit of a performance going. They had an audience in Kushina after all.

So before the first syllable even reached Naruto's ears, he was already dodging the barrage of shuriken.

One struck him, however.

Hiruzen smiled. "Got you, brat!"

Naruto popped out of existence.

"A shadow clone! When–" Hiruzen couldn't finish as he felt a pair of arms bursting out of the roof underneath him, grabbing his legs and dragging him beneath, down to the top most floor of the house. Hiruzen felt everybit of the roof as he was pulled through.

Hiruzen barely had any time to recover when he landed before he was engaged in taijutsu with 4, 5, 6 Naruto clones?

The old kage struck back with unparalleled proficiency…but with every strike Hiruzen got in, a burst of smoke would fill the air, blocking his vision, and yet another two Naruto's came through it.

'He led me into a close quarters area, using the shadow clone smoke to block my vision and potentially even choke me out, as well as surrounding me and attacking from all sides. That's smart, but–'

"Fire style: Fire Dragon Flame Bombs" Hiruzen roared.

The entire house was turned to dust within a second. Sarutobi, having silently cast a water jutsu on himself, was unharmed in the air, before he landed like a quiet assassin.

When the smoke cleared, Hiruzen narrowed his eyes, knowing that the jutsu wasn't enough.

'Where are you, brat...Aha!'

Hiruzen spotted a shadow behind the smoke and debris and he immediately fired at it. "Water style: Liquid Bullet!"

The person dodged, and immediately shot towards him, revealing that it was the original Naruto. Once again, Hiruzen found himself locked in a taijutsu battle, exchanging strikes and manoeuvring around his opponent as he did the same to him. Hiruzen had gotten past his guard a few times and his strikes didn't make this Naruto pop, confirming that it really was the original.

After a few minutes of close quarters engagement Hiruzen was astonished that Naruto was slowly but surely gaining an advantage, putting the God of Shinobi on the defensive.

'This kid's got a knack for discerning and adapting to Taijutsu styles and striking habits, rendering my monkey style less and less effective the longer the fight goes on for.'

After receiving a rather vicious headbutt from the blonde ninja, Hiruzen leaped backwards.

"You alright old man?" Naruto asked, a smirk on his face. In fact, a smile hasn't left his expression ever since the fight started.

"I'm calling for help with this one," Hiruzen chuckled before his hands blazed once more, "Summoning Jutsu: Monkey King Enma!"

An explosion of smoke appeared in front of Hiruzen just as Naruto arrived to interrupt him, the boy struck…but a giant hand caught his fist.

"Hm? Why are you calling me to deal with a brat, Sarutobi?" Enma grumbled after the smoke cleared, "Have you truly fallen so far as to need my help with disciplining the young?"

"See for yourself first before you talk crap, Enma," Hiruzen retorted.

Enma's fist swung, and with his immense strength, launched Naruto through multiple buildings.

Kushina, who watched from a distance, winced and clenched her fists in concern, but chose to remain where she was, believing in her son.

"See?" Enma said, "Barely any sweat. I can't believe you–"

A punch landed on Enma's face that almost made his skull reverberate like a bell. It sent him flying even farther than Naruto had just a moment ago, though in the other direction.

Enma flew through multiple walls, pillars, and stalls before landing in a house and having it collapse on him.

It was a good thing that Hiruzen gave strict orders for his subordinates to not disturb him during his training and for Kushina to set privacy wards around the training ground before the fight, because the sound of those collisions alone would have already caused a major commotion by now.

"Ho! That was a good punch, Monkey-san, don't mind if I return it in full…and more!" Naruto said.

Hiruzen gulped, catching sight of the boy. Enma was renowned for his physical strength, to the point where even late Hashirama would hesitate in getting in a fist fight with him.

Yet this boy…despite only knowing very few ninjutsu, Naruto knew more than enough to dispatch most of the shinobi Hiruzen could name just from the way he was fighting now.

Watching Naruto fight through the boy's perspective in his memories was one thing, having the boy as an opponent in front of him was another thing entirely. The kid was downright terrifying.

The boy took a breath, and Hiruzen almost felt heavier as the pressure of the air suddenly intensified.

'Senjutsu!'

Hiruzen could read the telltale signs.

He channelled his own chakra, cracking the flooring beneath him…though it was nowhere near what he was facing.

The boy exhaled. "This should be enough."

Enma burst back from the building he was embedded in.

"What the fuck was that?!" Enma shouthing, "Felt like I was hit by Hashirama!"

"Oh it's only just beginning, Monkey man," Naruto said.

"Don't call me that!" Enma shouted as he rushed forward, clashing with Naruto.

In the entire span of Enma's existence, when the monkey king–aptly nicknamed Wukong–and mighty fist hit something, that something always gave out or at the very least moved.

Naruto…didn't move.

Enma gaped at his fist which was held in place by a boy who seemed to not even be completely into adulthood yet.

"What the fu–"

Enma was sent flying again.

Before he could become another crater, however, he shapeshifted into a bo staff and flew towards Hiruzen.

When Hiruzen caught him, Enma gasped, trying to catch air…which was weird as a staff.

"Who–who is this kid, Saru?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Hiruzen replied.

"What's the plan?" Enma said.

Hiruzen observed as Naruto breathed in and out. "He doesn't know many ninjutsu, it's the only advantage we have. We have to drown him with it."

"Gotcha" Enma said, transforming back into monkey form.

"Fire Style: Fireball jutsu!" Hiruzen shouted, forming the hand signs necessary to perform the jutsu.

"Wind style: Great Breakthrough!" Enma joined, enhancing the fireball.

Naruto snapped his eyes open and dodged, moving far quicker than Hiruzen ever thought possible. It was like he was fighting the green beast of Konoha, Might Guy, the most renowned taijutsu specialist in Konoha's history when most of his gates were open.

"Again!" Hiruzen shouted to Enma's nod.

More combination jutsu were thrown. Wind and Fire. Oil and fire. Water and Wind. Earth and mud.

Right at the end of the volley of combinations, they went back to the fireball and great breakthrough combo, having corralled Naruto to a corner from the previous casting of jutsu.

But instead of dodging like he did the last few, Naruto smiled. "Guess what old man?"

His rinnegan stared at Hiruzen like he was the person standing between Naruto and the last bowl of ramen in the elemental nations.

"I had the last couple of days to come up with a few new tricks." Naruto said, holding his hand out. His Rinnegan blared even more purple than before, almost glowing.

The jutsu reached him right at that moment.

"Preta path."

As if sucked by a vacuum, the giant–wind–empowered–fireball was absorbed into Naruto's outreached palm…

…

Hiruzen and Enma gaped.

"What was that about a ninjutsu advantage?" Enma muttered.

Hiruzen had already known how capable Naruto was from his memories but he had to make sure that the boy was still in tip top shape after losing his fox companion. It seemed that he need not have worried.

"That's enough," Hiruzen said, "the test is over."

"Eh!?" Naruto said, almost tripping on his own feet, "but I just got started! That was such a cool segway for me to use a rasenshuriken!...even though I wouldn't have thrown it at you…"

Hiruzen chuckled at the boy's disappointment. "I am no match for you, boy, even if I was ten years younger."

The words meant a lot to Naruto, seeing as how his eyes widened from it. Young Naruto had looked up to the Hiruzen of his world and sought to be like him. Hearing praise from the very man himself…it was fulfilling.

"Th–thanks…" Naruto responded awkwardly.

"Now your second physical test will begin," Hiruzen continued.

Naruto choked. "My what?!"

"Your second test!" Hiruzen informed him, "Oh, didn't I tell you?"

"No!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Well, you'll be facing another today. Another who has seen your training and has gotten to know you rather well these past couple of days."

"Sorry, son," Kushina said as she shunshin'ed to them, holding back a smile at her son's expression. He looked like he just bit into a sour lemon. "I wanted to see what my son is made of, too!"

"Eeehh" Naruto said, slumping, "I don't want to fight my mom…"

"Well you don't have a choice!" Kushina said, rushing him.

"Eh! Wha–we're starting no–"

He got kicked in the chest and was sent flying.

Adamantine chains shot out of Kushina's back and wrapped around Naruto…It was a good thing that he substituted with a clone before it was smashed into a building.

"Oh that was clos–"Naruto got out before another set of chains burst out from the ground and latched onto his ankle.

"Naive!" Kushina bantered.

He was sent flying through multiple buildings.

For some reason Kushina was less worried about her son's injuries when she was the one tossing him through multiple buildings.

Naruto coughed up dust. "Alright–If that's how you want to play it."

He channelled sage chakra…

…And found out that he couldn't.

"Wh–What?" he said, mind boggled. There was nothing wrong with his technique! it was just…there was no natural energy surrounding him.

"Surprised?" Kushina said, landing a few metres away from him. "I didn't just set up privacy wards around the block, but chakra blocking wards as well."

Naruto raised his eyebrows in surprise. "But–but that's impossible. No medium can contain chakra energy for long unless they're a sage."

Kushina shrugged. "Oh I know, but the talisman will hold for a few minutes. That's more than enough. In the meantime–"

Kushina didn't finish as she rushed him once again. Naruto cursed, having his major powerup jutsu taken away from him.

He dodged, and suddenly he felt pain flaring as he was struck in the back.

"What, did you forget about me?" Hiruzen snickered.

"I thought it was just a duel," Naruto complained as he landed, skidding to a stop.

"Too bad," Hiruzen laughed, "think of this as a scenario designed by your enemies to specifically bring you down."

"It's not the first time that happened," Naruto muttered, before having to dodge yet another set of chains.

With his nature chakra blocked, Naruto had no choice but to rely on his own skills and adapt.

It was him against two chakra monsters in an Uzumaki and a Sarutobi.

…Too bad for them, he was something of a monster too.

Pure, dense chakra rolled off of him as he concentrated. The tiles on the floor cracked with the pressure. The same was happening around Hiruzen and Kushina as they, too, channelled their chakra.

Should anyone have been nearby, they would've been terrified at the clash of titans that they were witnessing.

"Shadow clone jutsu!" Naruto shouted

And hundreds upon hundreds of clones appeared, almost like a horde of bloodthirsty assassins had been summoned from thin air.

They called him the one man army in the war for a reason.

The following minutes saw both Hiruzen and Kushina working from multiple angles to get rid of the assaulting clones. To their dismay, they found that the clones worked together far more cohesively and effectively than any team of ninja could. One often jumping in front of another to act as a shield to their attacks and allowing the back ranked clones to get a strike in.

It was like fighting a single hivemind of Naruto's, working in perfect unison.

Soon, the two veteran shinobi found themselves fighting back to back.

"Aren't we supposed to be the ones pressing him, Hiruzen?" Kushina shouted amongst the chaos.

"Why don't we make shadow clones ourselves?" Hiruzen complained.

"I can't make this many!" Kushina retorted back.

"I can't either!" Hiruzen said. "We're fucked!"

"Language!" Kushina scolded, "don't swear in front of my son."

"He's seventeen, not two!"

One Naruto joined in on the fun…right within their vicinity…which shouldn't be possible from the dome of destruction that Kushina's chains and Hiruzen's elongated staff was creating around them. "Yo! Seems to be a party here!"

The two turned towards the sound of the extra participant in their conversion, baffled.

"How did you–" Both Kushina and Hiruzen said but were once again interrupted.

Because that Naruto exploded.

'Speaking of tricks I've learnt from fighting Itachi,' the original Naruto thought from a distance away.

Both Hiruzen and Kushina flew away from each other, being launched by the blast of the explosive shadow clone.

They both landed on their feet, only receiving surface scratches.

"It's time to take it up a notch," Kushina stated.

"Agreed," Hiruzen responded.

The amount of chains Kushina sprouted doubled–no, tripled as it swung around her like dangerous whips, exploding all shadow clones in her vicinity, far faster than it did before.

Kushina was S-ranked for a reason.

Hiruzen, too, began speeding up, his staff swinging around his body wildly, extending and shrinking itself as necessary.

Still, Naruto's clones kept coming but the two shinobi, with their combined might, were destroying them faster than they were being formed.

Soon, there was none left but one.

The original.

While the other two were breathing ragged breaths, Naruto was calmly observing them, thinking of what to do next.

This entire time, he'd been trying to channel nature energy. He could feel it as it was always there, but it was like there was some invisible barrier preventing it from reaching him.

…But it was only a matter of time…

For now, he couldn't really use a rasengan or rasenshuriken, despite his earlier comments to the Hokage, as it very much qualified as a fatal technique, especially if it was a direct hit…kabuto's medical jutsu fuckery aside…as well as obito's hashirama-cell-filled body…and his stupid mask.

Maybe his dad ought to have finished the rasengan before he went off and did something else because way more people survived a rasengan where they really shouldn't have.

Naruto dodged a chain coming at him and blocked the subsequent bo staff strike. The impact jarred him, and both Kushina and Hiruzen were able to take advantage by reigning in a few more blows.

Naruto had left nothing up his sleeve. He couldn't use the rasengan or its variants, nor sage mode, nor bijuu mode as Kurama was gone, nor six paths senjutsu–for the same reason as sage mode (...nor has he been able to remaster it yet, with both the newly granted yin and yang chakra from Hagoromo after all)...

He needed more training time! He simply didn't expect to face both his mother and Hiruzen, nor the absence of sage mode in his repertoire!

The only thing that was left was his shadow clone and since his army was already dealt with, Naruto suspected it wouldn't go any better the second time.

Was this situation curated by the two in front of him? To test what he would do when all his known powers were stripped from him?

This was…unbelievable.

Yet…

Too bad for them, he'd faced worse odds.

He wasn't called the number one most unpredictable ninja for nothing.

'Time to improvise.'

A chain shot at him once more.

"Preta path!" He grunted, taking the impact of the blow but breaking the chain, absorbing the chakra into him in the meantime.

He felt the raw chakra enter him, making him stronger but only by a small margin.

Seeing the futility of using her chains against Naruto, Kushina reached for her pouch and grabbed a few talismans. She threw them at him and since it wasn't activated until it landed on Naruto's clothes, it got past his chakra absorption force field.

"Fuin!" Kurenai shouted.

Naruto felt the seal disrupt his chakra flow, tearing apart his forcefield in the process.

'They even prepared for that?!'

Of course they did, Kushina had been there with him all the way when he was training, perhaps observing him even under the pretence of 'having a meeting' with the Hokage.

Kushina struck with her chain once more and Hiruzen fired a fireball at him from his escape path.

With both techniques flying towards him, Naruto knew that there was no dodging this.

So…he did what he did best.

He ripped the seal off of him at the last moment and with a deep concentration, he channelled a small amount of chakra into his eyes.

"Let's see if this will work," Naruto said, much to the other two's surprise.

Naruto closed his eyes.

Then opened them again.

"SHINRA TENSEI!"

And with that, a repelling force of destruction obliterated everything around him, pushing back the chains, extinguishing the fire…and moving everything that stood in Naruto's way up to 20 metres in all directions, with him at the epicentre.

Kushina and Hiruzen were blown across the training ground, crashing into multiple buildings before regaining their balance and latching themselves to the floor by channelling chakra to their feet.

"Good kami!" Kushina gasped.

Hiruzen only grimaced, shaking off the dust and thinking of the hole in konoha's budget as it would take to repair the training ground.

"Alright!" Hiruzen called out and Naruto heard him from where he was. "The fight is over! For real this time! I have to pay for this, you know!"

"I didn't mean for it to repel that much…" Naruto winced.

'Good thing I chose to underchannel how much chakra it would take.'

Naruto yelped as Kushina launched herself at him.

To embrace him this time.

"Oh Naruto, I'm so proud of you, my baby boy!" She said as she picked him up and spun him around her.

"Mom–What–are–stop–this–is–embarrassing!" Naruto got out in between his choked breaths.

"You've grown so strong!" She cheered, unabated.

"I'm–getting–dizzy–"

"Oh that fight was wonderful! I hope I didn't hit you too hard. But you know what they say, the more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle! So I didn't take it easy on you, and you still handled yourself phenomenally!"

"that's–great–but–I'm–about–to"

It was then that Kushina noticed how green Naruto was becoming. "Oh! Sorry son!"

Naruto was put down.

He fell over and vomited.

Hiruzen could only laugh at their antics.

'Perhaps I needn't have to worry about the future after all.'

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