chapter 8

You … are definitely not what I expected out of a dragon." Naruto's voice was quite clear in the small forest clearing. The crisp, night time air blew softly against the blonde-haired boy's form. He was standing completely upright as he faced his future opponent.

"I could say the same about you." Ophis frostily said while staring at the shinobi. A mere 10 meters separated the duo as they stood in the same clearing that the brutal slaughtering of the deer had taken place, a fact that Naruto was slowly becoming aware of. Evidence of the killing could be seen in the random splotches of blood and flesh that were splattered on the tree trunks and the ground.

"So you are indeed the "Infinite dragon God". Nice to finally meet ya!" The chippy tone in the teen's voice threw Ophis for a slight loop. Wasn't this the same boy who had been running from her for the past several days? Why did he sound so happy?

"..Nice to meet you as well.." The young girl said hesitantly. Naruto nodded at the greeting before taking a look around the clearing. His eyes immediately locked on to the blood splatters that could be seen clearly in the night.

"So, you mind telling me what happened here? Seemed like someone made quite a mess." Naruto said while placing both his hands behind his neck. Ophis stared strangely at the boy for a mere second before indulging in his request.

"I merely got rid of an annoyance. However, I grow tired of this banter. I came here with a purpose and that purpose does not include this mindless talking." Ophis voice was frost-like in tone as she stared down the boy in front of her. His lackadaisical demeanor did not shift in slightest by the harsh tone used by the dragon. If anything, the shinobi seemed to be amused by the girl's tone.

"Oh, is that true? Well why don't you tell me what this purpose of yours is." The light-hearted tone used by the boy lit a tiny spark of irritation inside Ophis' mind. He still wasn't taking her seriously.

"My home has been invaded by a pest going by the name of the Great Red. I require your assistance in driving this beast from the dimensional gap. In return for your services, I will reward with a great power that will allow you to rival a god." Ophis finished off by flaring a bit of her power.

Naruto stared silently at the girl for several seconds before unfolding his hands from behind his head. The boy's smile grew softer as his eyes locked with Ophis'.

"Nah, I'll pass." The casual tone and smile that the boy had had honestly made Ophis doubt he heard him correctly. She honestly hadn't expected for the boy to be denied.

"I warn you, if you refuse I will have to kill you. So I ask once again, will you join me in my conquest to banish Great Red from the dimensional Gap? "

"My answer is still nope." Anger at the denial began to slowly boil inside the dragon as she looked on the lax blonde. Tiny wisps of her power began to flow around her form as her self-control began to wane.

"Very well. If that's the decision you have made, so be it." Ophis casually raised her arm as a dark ball of energy formed in her hand. Naruto had no time to even examine the foreign energy before a small snake exited the ball and came shooting towards the blonde. The speed at which the snake was travelling at was enough to even surprise the blonde-haired shinobi. Fortunately for his health, he managed to quickly get over his astonishment and dodged the agile reptile by side-stepping the attack.

Unseen by the blonde, the snake quickly turned towards the blonde's back in mid-air once the blonde dodged its initial assault. The creature released a sort of strangled hiss from its mouth before flying at Naruto's neck and sinking it's teeth into it.

Ophis watched in a mixture of boredom and slight disappointment as the blonde began to writhe and scream in pain. The boy's skin began to crack and rip apart as his body failed to contain the almost limitless power of the infinite dragon god. The blonde attempted to rip and tear as his skin as more and more the power poured into its body.

"I must now restart my search. How troublesome." Ophis muttered as the boy's body exploded in a large mass of black snakes that slowly slithered their way back to their master. The girl was so sure of her victory that she didn't even notice that the same boy that she had just "killed" was now standing behind her. She quickly became aware of this fact when Naruto's fist slammed into her jaw.

Now Naruto knew that he wasn't the physically strongest person in his world. Rock Lee, Guy, Kisame, Bee and A were all perfect examples of shinobi who, in his base form, could utterly humiliate him in a strength contest. They niche was strength and they mastered that aspect of combat to a T. But that didn't mean he was weak by any measure when he wasn't in his six sage paths mode, using Kurama's chakra or accessing senjutsu. His speed and strength were still ranked in the level of a kage.

That's why the blond was very surprised when the girl in front of him didn't even flinch when his fist impacted against her cheek. If anything, the girl seemed to actually be relieved that he was alive and fighting back.

"I'm glad to see you're at least making this somewhat interesting." The girl muttered as Naruto jumped away from her body. Azazel's warning was repeating itself in Naruto's head as the small girl casually turned towards the boy and began to look him up and down.

"How did you manage to avoid my first attack? My snake detected no abnormalities when it bit into you."

"Oh, it's really a lot simpler than you would imagine. First you simply mol-" Ophis' focus was taken off the boy when she felt another force slam into her cheek. This time, the force was much stronger, strong enough to actually lift the girl from off of her feet. The dragon god's feet left the ground as she went sent flying across the clearing and slamming head first through a tree.

"That's gonna get her angry. That's gonna get her very, very angry." Naruto muttered to himself as he felt a build-up of the same dark energy come from near the broken tree. Not even a second later, the remnants of the tree exploded into a countless number of wooden shards as Ophis rose back onto her feet. A dark bruise that was quickly healing could be seen on the girl's face alongside a small grin. A small amount of amusement could be seen dancing along the girl's lips as she focused her stare on the blonde boy.

"You're one of the few people who have actually managed to harm me, even if it's in this weak form. You should feel proud of that." The energy surrounding Ophis grew more intense as she took several short strides towards the blonde. Naruto quickly summoned several kunai in his hand and sent them flying towards the girl. The shinobi was met with immediate disappointment as he watched his kunai dissolve on contact with the energy.

"Better make sure I avoid that." Naruto muttered to himself as a large snake manifested itself from out of Ophis' energy. The snake leveled it's head towards Naruto, shooting a dark gaze at the boy. Its eyes were glowing red as it wrapped itself around the body of its owner.

"It's like if Orochimaru had a daughter with a creepy dragon. Definitely not a good combination." The snake released a loud screech into the night-time air before charging towards Naruto. The snake's speed was almost blinding as it reached the boy in under a second. The snake unhinged it's jaw before snapping it shut around the shinobi … or what was actually a log. Unseen by the snake, Naruto once again escaped the creature's wrath with a quick use of the replacement technique.

Ophis' attention was quickly brought towards the ground when she heard several thumps beneath her. Her eyes immediately fell upon the bladed weapons that had a strange piece of paper wrapped around it. The piece of paper sizzled as it slowly ate itself up.

"How curi-" Before the girl could finish her sentence, the handmade paper tag exploded in a brilliant fireball. Naruto, from his position almost a hundred yards away, whistled appreciatively as the giant flame reached its way up towards the sky.

"May of overdone it a bit with those explosive tags." Naruto said as the flames continued to reach higher and higher into the sky. He had taken out a small portion of the forest with that explosion.

"Think otherwise." Naruto's eyes widened dramatically when he heard a feminine voice behind him. Before he could even react, he felt a strong force wrap around his body. The teen had to hold in a scream as he felt his body begin to suddenly burn.

"We're going somewhere where you can't run. I need to see your full capabilities." Ophis said, completely unharmed from his last attack, as she looked upon her captured prey. The snake construct she made earlier had wrapped its body around the blonde and was constricting the boy's movement.

Before his very eyes, Naruto watched as the air began to distort. The distortion started off small, almost unnoticeable at first, but quickly grew larger and larger. Before long, the air was rippling violently as if it was attempting to rip itself apart. The process continued for several seconds before everything in the clearing grew still.

Without warning, a large portal ripped itself into existence in the middle of the clearing. Naruto didn't even manage to take a good look at the rip in time and space before he found himself thrust face first into it.

"You won't be able to run from me here. This is my home." Ophis muttered to herself before stepping into the portal. The tear closed up after her, leaving the clearing in silence once again.

"I feel like Gai just body slammed me into the Hokage monument." The blonde released a groan as he slowly picked himself up off the ground. While he was pulling himself off of the strange material, he noticed the tell-tale signs of his tailed beast mode surrounding him.

"I don't remember activating this."

"That's because I did it for you." A small smile popped on Naruto's face when he heard the voice of his partner ring out in his head.

"I'm glad to see you're awake, sleeping beauty. I was beginning to wonder if you just went up and died in your sleep."

"Whatever. I'm glad to see you still need me to help you fight your battles. What in the hell did you get yourself into now? Just the atmosphere of this place would have seriously harmed or even killed you if I hadn't activated the tailed beast mode." A frown appeared on Naruto's face at this information. This was the dragon's home and just being in it was enough to kill him in his base form. He would have to be careful maneuvering his way through here.

"Apparently I'm in a fight with a dragon god who wants my help in taking back her home from another dragon. So basically, same old stuff." Kurama snorted at how utterly nonchalant the boy was acting about the situation. In all honesty, he shouldn't of been that surprise. This was Naruto he was talking about after all.

"Though, this place is beautiful. I can see why she would want to fight for it. Just wish I didn't get dragged into it." The dimensional gap truly was a beautiful place. Countless amounts of vibrant colors danced around the blonde. There seemed to be no end in site to the beautiful background.

"Trouble always seems to find you, no matter where you go. By the way, you may want to get out the way." Naruto looked up and saw the same snake from before shooting towards him. Tired and slightly agitated from his trip, Naruto quickly summoned a rasengan in his hand before jumping towards the beast. The blonde crossed the distance between the two in a matter of a second as he thrust his arm towards the snake. The spiraling sphere of chakra slammed into the snake's head, stopping it in it's track. The creature released a loud scream as the chakra sphere carved its way into its body. Before long, the snake could not keep its form together and was forced to dissipate due to the damage that had been done to it.

"Don't think it's over." Naruto twisted his body and yet another snake, this one much larger and quicker, heading towards him. The blonde released a load groan before bracing himself for the impact.

The snake slammed head first into Naruto's awaiting hands. The boy latched onto the beast's jaw, keeping it shut as the beast attempted to swallow the boy whole. Naruto's own chakra and the strange energy the snake was made up of seemed to be in a sort of power struggle as Naruto continued to restrain the beast.

The power struggle quickly turned in Naruto's favor when a shadow clone appeared behind the snake. The clone grabbed onto the snake's tail before pulling on the beast's rear, sending it whipping away from the original and high into the air. The snake released a loud hiss as it was forced airborne. Before the beast could gain control of itself, several clones appeared above it with their legs raised high into the air. In perfect unison, the clones brought their legs down on the snake's body, reversing its full momentum. The reptile was now streaking towards the ground as the full force of several Naruto clones fueled it's descent.

The snake slammed mercilessly into the earth, cracking and splintering the ground beneath it. The creature let loose a soft hiss as it attempted to crawl its way out of the mini-crater it had just made. Its retreat was stopped when several over-sized shuriken slammed into its body. The snake's movement became erratic as it tried squirm its way out from under the weapons. Unfortunately for the snake, it ended up losing the battle as it was forced to disperse due to the damage that had been done to its body.

"Don't want to alarm you but there is another snake heading your way." A large scowl appeared on Naruto's face as he looked at the sky and saw Ophis forming another snake from her body. An agitated growl ripped its way through the teen's voice as he saw the creature began to grow larger and larger.

"I'm tired of these goddamn snakes." Naruto muttered to himself as six magenta quickly settled on his body, indicating that he was now in his six paths sage mode. The boy's narrowed yellow eyes were focused on the God. Two chakra arms materialized out of Naruto's back as the boy's feet slowly lifted from the ground. A massive rasengan appeared between the two chakra arms as Naruto took off flying towards the dragon god.

"His power … It's grown even greater." Ophis thought to herself as she watched the blonde's new form dance around his body. The two new arms that had sprouted out of the ninja's body were interesting but nothing too out of the norm … well at least when it came to Ophis. On the other hand, the giant sphere of chakra was something the dragon would definitely like to avoid.

"Rasen-absorption!" Ophis was caught off guard when a new arm came shooting out of Naruto's back and grabbed her by the waist. Before the dragon could react, the chakra arm guided her lithe form into the giant rasengan, slamming the small girl into the S-rank jutsu. Ophis had to actually hold in a small grunt of pain as she felt the attack grind into her body. The sphere of chakra had broken through the layers of her skin and were now grinding against pure nerve and muscle. This had been one of the first time the dragon god had ever been injured in her human form. The fact it had been by a human made the surprise even more shocking.

"Impressive." A brief look of shock crossed Naruto's face when he heard the same monotone voice speak out from above him. The girl should've been screaming and yelling in pain while the rasengan shredded every layer of her skin, muscle, nerves and bones. Instead, she was just casually remarking on the power of his attack.

"Get out of there!" Kurama's warning came too late as Ophis' made her move. The same dark energy from before surrounded the girl's body, causing the rasengan to destabilize. The injuries that had been inflicted on her only a couple of seconds ago were completely healed in an instance. The sphere of chakra that had just been attacking the girl now dissipated uselessly into the air as Naruto could no longer keep its form.

Before the blonde could retreat away from the girl, a large shock wave emitted from the girl. The shock wave slammed into the boy's body, throwing him backwards for hundreds of yards. Naruto's chakra arms were ripped from his body as the force behind the attack ripped through the blonde's body.

Naruto's flight came to a rather messy stop when his body impacted against the ground. The shinobi slid for an extra dozen yards as he went tumbling along the ground. He finally came to a stop when his back slammed mercilessly into an old ruin, sending it crumbling to the ground and on top of the blonde.

"I feel like Gai, Tsunade, A and Madara mule-kicked me in the chest." Naruto's audible groan could be heard as he pushed the debris off of himself. The boy could feel his bones mending themselves back together from the damage that had been done by the attack.

"I told you to get out of there."

"If your warnings could come just a little bit sooner, that would be so much more helpful."

"Well here's a new one, there's a massive buildup of energy coming from the girl right now. You better look out." Naruto's head turned towards the girl, eliciting another groan from the boy at what he saw.

The dark energy that the girl possessed was now surrounding her body in the ethereal form of a snake. A snake that was close to a hundred meters long and had the wings of an European style dragon. Rows of midnight black scales could be seen faintly glowing along the construct's body. It's eyes were glowing a dark purple as it's gaze was settled on Naruto.

"Kurama..."

"Yup."

"Full synchronization?"

"Yup."

"Glad we're on the same page." Naruto's clapped his hands together as he closed his eyes. In his mindscape, the nine-tailed beast was in a similar position as the two partners began to sync their minds and powers together.

Ophis watched from within her construct curiously as the energy around the boy began to fluctuate. The cloak the boy had donned was now changing in size and shape. Two rabbit ears appeared on Naruto's head as his feet once again left the ground. His chakra cloak continued to grow as the boy flew higher and higher into the air.

"Synchronization complete! Nine-tails chakra mode: Tailed Beast Transformation!" Naruto's voice took on a much deeper and guttural tone as Kurama's chakra flowed freely and fully through his body. The untamed power of the strongest tailed beast was now under his control.

"This form always feels the weirdest. I feel like I have the biggest sugar high in the world yet my mind is as clear as ever." Naruto muttered to himself while giving his muscles a small flex. Every fiber of his body was currently being pumped with the purified bijuu Chakra.

"Less talking, more focus on fighting the giant dragon in front of us. It's time to stretch my limbs. " Kurama's voice was an echo in the blonde's mind. This was the tailed beast's favorite form. No limits, no hiding behind a seal, no distractions. Just his partner and him going all out at their full strength.

"Right." Naruto stated before slamming his fist together, flaring his chakra to its highest point while sending a powerful shock wave out from his position. Waves of dust and debris were picked off from the ground and sent into the air by the wave.

"This power…" Ophis muttered after she was forced to stabilize herself from the force of the blast. This wasn't anything like what she expected. The power she had originally felt coming from the boy was just the tip of the iceberg. What she was feeling right now completely outshone everything she had felt before.

Ophis was snapped out of her musings when she saw an orange flash appear out the corner of her eye. The girl attempted to turn her head, and by extension her construct's body, but was too slow to avoid the massive right hook that slammed into her construct's body.

Just because she couldn't see the punch didn't mean she didn't feel it. This hit was much more powerful than Naruto's initial strikes. The punch threw the dragon's construct off balance as it went rocketing down towards the ground. The dragon slammed into the ground, sending dust up into the air as it cracked the ground underneath it.

"Fox beats snake all the time! Believe it!" The happy tone mixed with the boy's rather rough sounding tone made for a strange combination that would've creeped out most people. Fortunately for Naruto, he only had an audience for one and that one was currently face first in the ground … or so he thought.

"Dodge right, NOW!" Naruto didn't hesitate at all as he quickly forced his construct's body to the right. Not even a second later, a highly concentrated beam of Ophis' energy came blasting by Naruto. Even though he had dodged the blast, the blonde was forced to cover his face by the sheer force of it.

"Do not get hit by that! Do not!" Kurama screamed as a continuous salvo of energy blast coming shooting from Ophis' mouth and towards Naruto. The blonde made good use of his construct's agility as he dodged each of the blast.

"She's preparing something big. Get to her before she can let it off." With a single nod, Naruto leapt into action. The blonde sidestepped yet another one of Ophis' breath attacks before taking off towards the girl. Several over sized snakes crawled from out of Ophis' construct as the girl took several steps back. The snakes immediately went slithering towards Naruto as their creator prepared her attack.

The snakes leapt towards the dashing Naruto with their jaws ready to bite into the boy and his partner. Without a single word needed to be uttered, one of construct's tails came shooting forward and pierced the first snake's skull, forcing it to disperse.

Another snake tried its hand at attacking the boy. Another one of Naruto's tail came forward and wrapped around the approaching snake. The snake was raised towards the Avatar's mouth before the jaw closed down on it, ripping the snake construct apart. The snake let out a strangled hiss as it's now bisected body fell to the floor before dispersing into a countless number of much smaller snakes.

The final snake didn't even manage to make its move as an impromptu tailed beast bomb slammed into it. Poor snake.

"Brace yourself!" Kurama's voice roared out in Naruto's head. The blonde felt a quick wind shift coming from his right, alerting him to the presence of something massive. The boy drove all nine of his tails into the ground before turning, just in time to take the full impact of Ophis' charge.

It was only with the strength of all nine of his tails and his own two legs that Naruto wasn't sent flying from the impact. Instead, he was merely sent skidding back several dozen meters as the dragon continued to drive itself into the fox avatar.

The dragon's charge was halted when another chakra arm sprouted out of the fox's midsection and grabbed onto it's opponent's neck. Naruto withdrew his tails from the ground before wrapping them around the beast's midsection. With a quick side-step, moving himself out of the dragon's path, Naruto lifted the Ophis' construct from the ground, throwing the dragon over it's shoulder before slamming the God down onto the ground.

The dragon god was offered no rest as all nine of Naruto's tails slammed full force into its body, driving it deeper into the ground. The fox avatar's fists soon followed as the beast's paw slammed into Ophis. The dragon's face was greeted with yet another fist as Naruto pounded the God into the ground.

"Prepare a full powered tailed beast bomb, Kurama!" Naruto mentally spoke to his partner as he grabbed onto the dragon underneath him. Within a second, Naruto could already feel the buildup of positive and negative chakra behind the jaw of his avatar. Ophis' construct struggling increased as Naruto opened the maw of his avatar and exposed the complete tailed beast bomb.

"Release the bea-" Before Naruto could unleash the devastating attack on his opponent, a large tail wrapped around his neck. The appendage pulled backwards, forcing Naruto's head up as he released the tailed beast bomb, letting the technique disperse harmlessly into the air.

Naruto began to claw at the tail wrapped around his neck as Ophis slowly rose from her crater. For the first time since Naruto had seen the girl, a full blown grin was on the god's face. The wide smile looked out of place on the girl's face as her construct's form danced around her.

"Your power is unbelievable for an average human. Enough to defeat both of those pesky dragons. I cannot let this power slip from my grasp. Whether you want to or not, you will be mines." Ophis' voice had taken a demonic tone as she continued to grasp at the fox's constructs neck.

"Not if I have anything to do about it." Naruto punctuated his stalemate by sending all nine of his tails extending towards the God. The dragon was sent reeling back from the force of the impact, releasing Naruto from its grasp. The boy tensed his body as he prepared to take off towards the girl but was stopped by his partner.

"Stop Naruto, hold on for a second." Naruto froze as his partner's voice sang out in his head.

"What is it, Kurama?" Naruto eyed Ophis as the girl slowly recovered from his punch.

"I've been examining the girl since this battle has started. She's been constantly drawing in energy from this place. An insane amount of energy. Just look at her." Naruto's eyes quickly scanned over the girl's body. Cerulean eyes swept over the hulking form of the dragon standing in front of him.

"There's not a scratch on her. Not even after I slammed her into a full powered rasengan and beat her into the ground. She doesn't even look tired." Naruto's eyes narrowed at the small observation.

"Exactly. This place, its feeding her energy. Every attack we've thrown at her has done nothing but hurt her temporarily. She just seems to heal, no matter how much damage we do to her. We're fighting a senseless battle right now. Even if we pulled out the truth-seeking balls, we can't be sure it'll beat her in this environment. No use pulling out our trump card if it just going to fail." Naruto managed to just dodge another one of Ophis' attack as he continued his conversation with his partner.

"So what do you suggest?"

"Like the girl said from before, this place is a dimensional gap. This place is a gap between the different dimensions of this universe. With enough force, we could rip our way through to the other side. The problem is … we have no way to determine just where we will end up at." The shinobi frowned at the uncertainty in his partner's voice. From what he had gathered, this world he had found himself in was split into 3 different dimensions, heaven, hell and earth. There were pocket dimensions scattered all about, each one created by a God or some creature of unimaginable powers but the chance of him being pulled into one of them were very slim. Getting pulled into heaven or hell and having to deal with their soldiers wasn't really a much better choice but with the circumstances he was facing now, it seemed like his best option.

"Fine. We'll make a tactical retreat. Just tell me how to how to do this." Naruto grumbled out in frustration at having to retreat. Admitting defeat was not something he usually enjoyed doing but this was not a battle he had to fight. No use harming himself over a simple test of his strength.

Without any warning, a large wind began to sweep through the area the two energy constructs were occupying. The wing began to circle around Naruto's form as the boy slowly stretched out his arm. Ophis watched curiously as the wind began to focus around the boy's palm, forming a rather large sphere. To the dragon god's pleasant shock, four blades made of wind attached themselves to the sphere as a loud screeching noise reached her ears. The winds blowing around the two had increased to an almost unbearable point as Naruto continued to hold the powered-up rasenshuriken.

"Sayonara, loli-chan!" Naruto yelled over the roaring winds before sending the S-rank jutsu at his opponent. Ophis had no time to dodge as the attack crossed the distance between the two in the blink of an eye. The dragon god could only brace itself as the microscopic wind blades began to cut into her form.

The rasenshuriken exploded into a countless number of blades of wind that swept over the dragon's body. The blades sliced into her construct's body as the God attempted to shield itself from the worst of the attack. The stream of blades seemed almost endless as Ophis' vision was quickly filled with the deadly wind.

The assault of wind didn't let up for a full minute. By the time the last blade of wind had dispersed, the damage had been done. Ophis' construct slowly fell apart as the God could no longer hold the dragon together. The girl's body and clothing were littered with thousands of cuts and bruises that were already slowly healing.

But all of this didn't matter to Ophis. What mattered was the fact that the blonde haired boy she had just been fighting had disappeared from her site, leaving behind not a single trace of his existence.

"You won't get away that easily. I will find you, Naruto Uzumaki."

A small portal appeared in the sky momentarily before a yellow streak came shooting out of it. The golden streak shot towards the ground before coming to a sudden stop only a foot away from the ground.

"Dear Kami that was close. A warning next time would be greatly appreciated" Naruto muttered to himself as he slowly descended to the ground in his sage of six path cloak. During his dimensional trip, the boy had exited his fox avatar form.

"I'm sorry that I didn't account for your exit velocity when it came to inter-dimensional travel. I'll try my hardest to calculate that for you next time, sunshine." The sarcasm dripping from the kitsune's fox was palpable, even from inside the boy's mindscape.

"I don't appreciate the sarcasm, Baka-kitsune."

"Don't you dare call me that, you brat!"

"I would like to see you stop me."

"Brat"

"Baka!"

"Brat"

"Ba-"

"HALT!" Naruto froze in the middle of his insult as a booming voice reached his ears. A small prick could be felt on the back of his neck as the blonde-haired boy stood stock-still.

"You have one second to explain how you've reached the Sixth Heaven before I eradicate your name from the Book of Life."

"...I have a perfectly good explanation for this..."