Chapter 48

Naruto chased after his rogue comrade, frowning at how he was pushing himself. Granted, even he had removed almost all of his resistance for this mission, but for Sasuke to match the speed he was going at with majority of his resistance removed was rather troubling.

And he felt a bit guilty for feeling this, but he felt excited.

The thought that he might have to use his full power to fight Sasuke gave him a rush that brought a feral grin to his face. For too long he had wanted to have a fight where he could give it his all. He had given it a thought that the coffin that housed Sasuke was part of some sort of process that was supposed to release the full power of the cursed seal. And Naruto knew just how powerful Sasuke was with the seal. He daresay that it would have required every trick in his arsenal to stop Sasuke with the first level of the curse mark, without resorting to Kurama's chakra. But now, he had a feeling that the upcoming fight will be much more challenging.

There was quite a reasonable amount of distance between him and Sasuke, due to the latter having an early start. But as he was catching up, he frowned as he sensed the chakra signature stop in front of him. Why would Sasuke stop? Did he know that Naruto was in pursuit?

Deciding not to let the opportunity slip, Naruto turned full throttle, rapidly closing the distance between him and Sasuke. His eyes widened when he saw Sasuke come into view, but narrowed when he actually deduced just where the two of them had arrived at.

A flash step sent him onto the head of Senju Hashirama, just as Sasuke was once again starting to walk away. Straightening up, he spoke in a normal voice that clearly reached the Uchiha. "I hope you know that I won't let you leave like this, Sasuke."

The Uchiha froze in his tracks, and Naruto watched as he slowly turned towards him. Alarm bells rang in his mind when he took in his appearance.

Sasuke pretty much looked like when the power of the curse mark flowed in his chakra network, but there was a clear difference. Sasuke's left side was covered in black marks, like before, but his left eye had changed, having a black sclera and a golden iris, which gave him a rather menacing look. Not to mention the sick smile that he was sporting. It made him look very deranged.

For a fleeting moment, Naruto's mind recalled the meeting he had with the last person he saw before leaving the village for pursuit.

Flashback

Naruto was briskly walking towards the village gates from where Shikamaru had taken off in pursuit. He was currently in the process of gaining the mindset for the retrieval mission. There was a chance that he might have to kill Sasuke, and Naruto did not like that. If it was possible, he would try his level best to bring him back alive, even if he had to break every single bone in the Uchiha's body.

The thought of killing Sasuke did not appeal to him.

Just as he arrived at the gate, he took a deep breath and let it out. "Be quick in what you have to say, Sakura."

He turned around, a frown gracing his features as he looked at his former teammate. Sakura looked terrible- there were noticeable bags underneath her eyes due to lack of sleep, there were tear tracks on her face and even now, she looked like she was barely holding any more tears at bay.

"Naruto," her voice broke as she bit her lip, holding back the tears desperately. She then continued in a whisper, "Please bring Sasuke back. I beg you."

Naruto sighed as he looked down, contemplating on what to say. He had a suspicion that Sakura's feelings for the Uchiha were not those of a typical fangirl, but it only added to her misery if Sasuke did not care to return those feelings. He decided to be blunt with her, for if he lied…she would never forgive him.

"I will bring Sasuke back, Sakura," he told her with a straight face, and it hurt a bit to crush that glimmer of hope that made itself known on her face, "But not for you."

Sakura's lip trembled. "W-What?"

"I will bring Sasuke back because it is my duty to do so as a shinobi of Konoha. Because I have been ordered to do so."

The bluntness of his words caused the tears to finally flow again. She near shouted at him, her words a mixture of rage and disbelief. "Why?! Why only because it's your duty?! Why not because he's your friend, yours and mine teammate?!"

Naruto pursed his lips together. "I'll be frank with you Sakura. Hokage-sama has ordered me to get Sasuke back by any means necessary. Not only that," he continued despite the growing horror on Sakura's face, "But Hokage-sama has given me very specific instructions to bring Sasuke back…..regardless of whether he's dead, or alive."

Sakura put her hands on her mouth in growing dismay and horror. The mere thought of Sasuke being dead at the hands of Naruto…

"Please don't tell me you intend to kill him."

Naruto pursed his lips. "I don't, but it might be difficult to get him back alive. He left on his own free will, not to mention he's probably being guarded by some of Orochimaru's finest."

He turned and started walking away. "I won't get my hopes up if I were you, Sakura. But I won't stop you from praying for a miracle."

Flashback end

By now, Naruto had hardened his resolve, shoving the memory of his meeting with Sakura to the back of his mind. He could not afford to get distracted right now.

He didn't know why, but a sense of familiarity shot through him as he considered his and Sasuke's positions. It was almost as if…..they had been here before.

Naruto decided to speak first. "Do you have a reason as to why you deserted the village, Sasuke?"

Sasuke's answer was detached, as if he no longer cared what Naruto said. "I'm done fooling around with the leaf….and you, Naruto. Konoha cannot make me strong enough for what I need to do."

Naruto had to admit that Sasuke was partially right in the regard. With what happened with Uchiha Itachi, the village wanted to keep a close eye on Sasuke to prevent it from happening again. Konoha's history with powerful Uchiha shinobi was not good at all. "Regardless, you are coming back with me to the village, whether you like it or not. My team did not risk their lives for nothing."

Sasuke tilted his head, as if he was merely curious. "You think you can force me to come back, Naruto?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed at how Sasuke so casually disregarded the fact that lives had been put on stake to get him back. Sasuke continued, "I don't think you fully understand the power that I now possess, Naruto."

And it was true. Ever since his seal had been enhanced, Sasuke could tell that he was substantially more powerful than before. He was sure that he could take on Naruto and win, but he knew that he would have to work hard for it.

"You sure do lack your brother's resolve."

That froze the blood flowing in his veins. In a low whisper he snarled, "What did you say?!"

Naruto knew what he did was low. Itachi was a sore spot for Sasuke, and hitting it like the way he did was cruel of him. But he needed Sasuke to see reason before he proceeds to fight him. "Your brother got strong inside the village, Sasuke. You know that he didn't need any outside help to become as strong as he did."

"SHUT UP!"

Sasuke yelled, but made no move to attack Naruto. "You know nothing!"

But Naruto pressed on. "Shodai, Nidaime, Sandaime, Yondaime, Sannin, Hatake Sakumo, Maito Dai, Kakashi, Gai….all of these are some of the most powerful shinobi in the world, Sasuke. Do you think that they became powerful by seeking outside help?"

"Make your point already, dammit!"

"My point is, all of these Shinobi are a product of Konoha, just like your brother was. They were not weak, just like your brother. You can become strong as well-"

"Konoha has held me back enough. If that village can't give me the strength I need, I'll take it from elsewhere." Sasuke trampled over Naruto's words as if they hadn't even been spoken. He was sick of this!

Naruto was starting to get annoyed now. "You must have dropped a few brain cells somewhere if you think I'll let Orochimaru have that body of yours."

"I don't care."

Sasuke spread out his arms. "If you think that you can make me come back, then I dare you to try."

He was practically inviting him to fight him. Naruto could feel his heart beating faster as adrenaline started flowing. This was his chance to really go all out, but he had to be careful. Sasuke knew how he fought, and he would no doubt be avoiding his palm strikes that Naruto frequently used to slap the Hiraishin mark on his opponents, or just any sort of seal. This would be a completely different type of fight, a fight that was based partially on the mission, and partially to see who was the most powerful between them. Naruto had proved himself superior time and time again to Sasuke, but Sasuke seemingly had an edge now. And to be frank, Naruto wanted to drag out the fight simply to pitch himself against the Uchiha, to see where each of them stood.

Let the fight begin.

Naruto made eye contact with Sasuke under the pretense of glaring at him. Sasuke was about to taunt him further, when he felt himself freezing up. Immediately recalling a similar incident where Orochimaru had done the same thing, the name of the technique sprang to his mind.

'Kanashibari no jutsu!'

Before he could flex his chakra to free himself, Naruto had rocketed forward and had ruthlessly slammed him into the wall behind him, his hand pressed against his throat and holding him up.

Naruto gazed intently as he held Sasuke by his throat. That was one of his fastest flash steps, he had to admit. And yet, judging by the lack of surprise, Naruto knew that Sasuke had managed to see him, to a degree. As if he knew that Naruto would do that.

Naruto's sense rang a second before Sasuke's knee came up to bury itself in his gut. Or what would have been his gut, had he not jumped back.

Sasuke sprang forward to engage Naruto in a furious bout of taijutsu. His sharingan had activated the moment Naruto had frozen him, and he knew better than to underestimate the blonde. Naruto was fast, faster than Sasuke, but the perceptiveness of his sharingan allowed Sasuke to either dodge or block hits by the smallest of the margins.

Before a rhythm could be established in the fight, Naruto spun a kunai in his right hand and slashed at Sasuke, who mentally cursed and jumped back reflexively, failing to avoid the slash completely and as a result, a small tear appeared on the front of his shirt.

Naruto gave Sasuke no time to think as he went on the offensive. But Sasuke was willing to take risks, it seemed. Naruto was slightly impressed when Sasuke allowed a punch to penetrate his guard, right into his gut. But Sasuke retaliated right after Naruto's attack, throwing a punch and successfully connecting it to Naruto's cheek, sending him backwards.

Sasuke coughed up blood due to the force of the punch.

The timing of those two attacks was such that each was thrown back by the attack of the other. Naruto threw four shuriken at Sasuke with deadly accuracy, which Sasuke jumped to the side to avoid, since he didn't have any shinobi tools for himself. However, Naruto showed off his own ability to predict his opponent as well. As soon as Sasuke had jumped to the side, Naruto was right up in his guard, his left fist slamming into his ribs. Sasuke coughed up blood once more, knowing that even though they hadn't cracked yet, nasty bruises will be forming in the area.

And that thought sent him into a rage, knowing that Naruto was holding back on him. Naruto could have easily broken them, yet he held back, and that was insulting!

Sasuke's sharingan managed to predict Naruto's attack for him to avoid it just in time, but it failed to see that Naruto was setting him up. He winced at force behind the 540-kick his left hand blocked, but was caught off guard when his legs were swiped off beneath him.

Naruto took full advantage of the maneuver his shadow clone did. Sasuke's legs were swiped with such force that he was horizontal in the air for a moment, which was all the time Naruto needed. Catching Sasuke by the heel, Naruto spun once and threw the Uchiha down, right into the water. He then jumped down onto Madara's finger, watching the splash.

Sasuke surfaced in seconds and pulled himself on top of the water. He carefully took note of the receded curse marks. "Face it Sasuke, you have a long way to go until you can match me."

Sasuke snarled at the taunt. "You have yet to see anything. And stop holding back on me!"

Naruto narrowed his eyes before jumping down to meet Sasuke halfway. Neither gained any advantage due to their mid-air position, except for pushing each other back. Naruto pulled two of his special kunai out, one held in a reverse grip and the other in a normal. He then dashed towards Sasuke, the other boy doing the same.

Due to Sasuke not having any tools of his own, he was at a disadvantage and was hard pressed to dodge the deadly strikes. His sharingan was working overtime to predict Naruto's strikes, only partially succeeding. Not only that, but his arms were aching in protest from blocking Naruto's blows, and the force behind them.

Naruto might be built for speed, but he sure wasn't lacking in the strength department.

Naruto dodged a punch and a roundhouse from Sasuke, going into a handstand and spinning to land a vicious double kick to Sasuke's face. Sasuke recovered quickly however, spinning low and trying to trip Naruto. Naruto flipped forward to avoid that, and Sasuke used the momentum from his spin to throw forward a high kick to Naruto's head. Naruto saw that coming and was able to counter it with a high kick of his own.

But he got slightly disbalanced by performing two counters such as those, back to back. Sasuke took advantage of that and landed a three punch combo to Naruto's ribs, following it with a knee to the stomach. But Naruto caught his bearings and blocked any further attacks, catching Sasuke's wrist and pulling his arm to the side, leaving an opening. Slapping Sasuke's other arm away, Naruto buried a fist into Sasuke's gut, making him cough blood once more.

As payback for the punch combo, Naruto released Sasuke's wrist and struck a punch right into his chin. The force was so great in lifted Sasuke of his feet for a moment. Sasuke tried to push the pain aside, but before he could do so, a foot slammed into him, once again in his gut, throwing him almost a dozen feet back.

Sasuke recovered, however, mid-roll and was back on his feet, just in time to dodge the three-pronged kunai that would have pierced his thigh. Before he could perform handseals for a jutsu, his sharingan caught another kunai tearing towards him. He hastily jumped back, his hands starting a seal sequence.

"Katon: Goukakyu no jutsu!"

In his haste, however, Sasuke forgot for a split-second, only remembering when the fireball made its way towards Naruto, what the function of the kunai was.

Sure enough, Naruto flashed to the last kunai he had thrown, and shunpoed to land a flying kick right in Sasuke's face, who had just landed on the ground. The kick sent Sasuke flying further back, sliding on the water.

Sasuke grunted in pain as he flipped onto his feet. This fight really wasn't going in his favor. His blows were doing jack to Naruto, while the other's blows were slowly wearing him down. Either Naruto had some armor on inside the uniform, or the Kyuubi was healing the damage from Sasuke's blows, or the guy just had really high pain tolerance.

Flashing through seals, Sasuke had electricity crackling in his hands. "Chidori!"

Grinning maniacally, he dashed forward, fully intending to drive the lightning blade through Naruto. Although a part of him knew that Naruto would have a definite counter to him.

Sure enough, Naruto dashed forward himself, a rasengan appearing in his instantly. Both of them clashed and the force expelled was such that, that water swirled under their feet and raged around them. Both Naruto and Sasuke were trying their damn hardest to push the other back, and push they did.

Both of them were thrown back from the backlash of the collision after a few seconds. Sasuke flipped in the air and crashed into the water, submerging for a few seconds. Naruto was lucky to have landed feet first on the water and was sent skidding back a dozen feet.

He stood up in a stance, senses spread in case Sasuke tried to attack from under the water. But the Uchiha emerged from the water, heaving deep breaths as he stood up, glaring at Naruto.

'I really thought the rasengan would be stronger against that. Guess I'll have to do something about this.'

'He countered my chidori at full power.'

Naruto looked at Sasuke with an unreadable look on his face. Then without warning, Naruto flashed through seals. Sasuke instantly copied them, but cursed the fact that he wasn't able to achieve the effect Naruto did. Clearly, this wasn't the full sequence.

Two drills of water sprang on his sides and barreled into him. He was able to avoid one, but the other crashed into him and sent him flying onto the bank rather painfully.

Sasuke coughed as his chest screamed in protest. 'That really hurt! I can't copy his jutsu if he's not using the full sequence, and he knows that! Worse, I don't know water or air manipulation!'

In his pain, Sasuke failed to take notice that a Hiraishin kunai was buried right behind him. Naruto had thrown it right when Sasuke had crashed on the ground, to prevent him from knowing about it.

So it stood to reason that Sasuke was shocked and had no counter against the football kick that Naruto smashed into his gut, right after flashing in front of him. The force sent new waves of pain coursing through him, as well as sending him skidding back a few feet.

"You can't beat me, Sasuke. Not with what you have."

Naruto's words caused Sasuke to pause, looking up at Naruto with silent rage. In response to his rage, the curse mark was activated and it spread over Sasuke's entire body, as opposed to one side. Not only that, but for the first time, Naruto's eyes had some alarm in them as he gazed at Sasuke. Not because of the curse mark, but because of Sasuke's eyes.

A third tomoe appeared in both of the eyes. Sasuke's sharingan had finally, fully matured.

Sasuke snarled in response, not knowing about the change in his eyes. "We'll see about that!"

Speeding through handseals, a horde of fireballs made their way towards Naruto, who neatly dodged every single one of them. He was barely prepared, however, for Sasuke to be standing right where he was, after he dodged the last fireball.

On pure reflex, Naruto bent back a full ninety degrees, avoiding the slash at his throat that Sasuke made holding Naruto's own kunai in hand. He didn't have time to wonder just how fast Sasuke had gotten under the influence of the curse mark, because now he was on defensive. He was reminded of the days when he practiced the snake style taijutsu with Anko-sensei.

Sasuke was relentless, but Naruto didn't need to know the pattern of the attacks to deliver a counter. His left hand came up to grab Sasuke's right wrist, stopping the kunai from burying itself in his head. Naruto's left leg came up in a high kick, but was stopped by Sasuke's other hand. Immediately lifting the wrist he was grabbing, Naruto used his free leg to jump, twisting so that his thighs were around Sasuke's neck.

Using all the force he could muster, Naruto flipped back, slamming Sasuke on the ground on his front. He flipped back, but was shocked to see that Sasuke had stood up with him, with seemingly no damage.

The Uchiha smirked. "You might as well give up if that's all you have."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. 'Looks like I would have to go all out as well.'

With a half ram seal, he released all the remaining resistance seals that were activated. It was a level 7, so it should make a difference.

Sasuke's face soured when he realized that Naruto was holding back on him still. "Looks like you have a death wish after all."

With that, he put his new speed to test. In a second, he was in front of Naruto, throwing punches, kicks, jabs, strikes like it was no one's business. He put his everything in his attacks, trying to inflict all the pain he could on Naruto.

But soon his anger and sadistic pleasure switched to irritation and shock when Naruto countered all his attacks without a problem. He knew something had changed because he could predict Naruto's movements better than before, and realized with a start that his sharingan had finally evolved fully. Grinning, he jumped back, deciding to switch to long distance tactics.

Naruto was glad he got rid of the last of his seals, because he would need to be at his peak to counter a fully evolved sharingan, that has been enhanced with an outside source. That short, but intense taijutsu bout had pushed him to his maximum, and had told Naruto that this fight had accelerated to a whole new level.

He gracefully flipped out of the way of the fireball that Sasuke shot at him, throwing some Hiraishin kunai around the area mid-air. He had a feeling he was going to need them.

He immediately flashed away as the hair on the back of his neck stood up in warning, and it was good that he did, because Sasuke had been waiting for him on the spot where he was going to land. Where the hell was this speed coming from?!

His hands came up in a tiger seal, and Sasuke found himself bound with chains made up of water. Both of his hands were held away from him, and no matter how hard he pushed, the chains held.

He looked up in alarm as Naruto did a snake seal and spat a compressed ball of wind towards him. Sasuke did not want to find out the effects of that jutsu, so he did something unusual for the very first time.

He substituted with a piece of rock, without hand seals.

He felt the larger than normal drain on his chakra, but it at least got him out of the way. The piece of rock exploded with a bang, tiny chunks of it being blown apart by the explosive wind. With a few quick seals, he sent another fireball Naruto's way, but the blonde simply flashed away, and Sasuke found himself being blown away by an extremely fast wind.

The wind was so strong that he was spinning high in the air, and as such was unable to correct his position mid-air. Naruto took clear advantage of that by speeding through seals once more.

'Suiton: Mizu Tatsumaki no jutsu!'

One of his heavy hitters, the jutsu's purpose was to catch Sasuke in its grasp and violently throw him away with the force of a tornado. The spinning vortex of water materialized in a matter of seconds at the spot where Naruto guessed Sasuke would land.

Sasuke's eyes widened in alarm when he saw water spinning below him where he would land. He recognized the jutsu as the one Naruto used against Gaara. Just as he landed, he desperately tried to get away, but the vortex had gathered enough speed that the water beneath his feet spun, taking him into the vortex.

Sasuke's head spun as his body was violently spun in the vortex, and then, he was thrown out from it, his body slamming into the rocks and falling down. His muscles screamed in protest as he got up, and he drew even more power from the cursed mark, making his recovery faster, but painful nonetheless.

Naruto's eye was twitching in irritation upon seeing Sasuke standing up after what happened to him. The rate of recovery that Sasuke was showing was really getting on his nerves. He knew that the curse mark enhanced the subject but this was ridiculous!

He would have to hit Sasuke really hard with to put him down, it seemed.

He was about to do some hand seals when an idea popped into his head. It was a crazy one, but if it worked, it could put Sasuke down, even in his state. It was a plan that lacked any efficiency whatsoever, but more than made up for it in terms of power.

And he had that in spades.

Six shadow clones popped around him. He put his hand in one of his pouches and took out an exploding tag. Not just any tag, but the self-replicating one. Time to initiate the first part of the plan.

Handing the tag to one of the clones, he flashed away to prepare on his part. The clones already knew what to do, and so they made their way down to Sasuke. By the time they had reached, Sasuke had recovered and was mad like no one else. He saw the clones coming and fired off a fireball of epic proportions. One of the clones hung back and formed a bird seal while the others charged straight towards the fireball.

'Suiton: Suijinheki!'

A wall of water sprung up, in which the fireball collided. The fireball turned the entire wall of water into steam, which spread around the area of the clones and Sasuke, who snarled. "Don't think this steam can hide you, Naruto! My eyes can see your every move!"

To prove his statement, he effortlessly dodged a downward axe-kick from a clone behind him. With a near instant reflex, he slammed an elbow into the clone's gut, dissipating it. Another came from his side, and he kicked it out of existence.

Four to go.

He heard them before he saw them, and he effortlessly caught the shuriken out of air, right in his hands. Flipping up to avoid the attack from another clone, he threw one shuriken at it. The clone poofed out of existence.

Three to go.

He threw the shuriken to his right, but only two clones emerged, and both of them avoided it. He engaged the two of them, and unlike before, he had little difficulty in countering their moves. One clone flipped away, while Sasuke took advantage of that and punched the other clone out of existence. Turning around to deal with the last two, his eyes widened in alarm when he saw the clone preparing to spit something at him.

He cut off the chakra under his feet, going underwater just as the clone spit out air, clearing all the steam from the area. Its chakra supply depleted, the clone vanished out of existence.

But Sasuke felt no victory, even as he dodged the attack by going underwater, because right now, he was staring at a smirking clone, ad both of them were surrounded by a large number of explosive tags. Sasuke knew in an instant that this was a clone because as reckless Naruto was, even he would not attempt such a move in a close proximity. Only one thought went through his mind.

Oh shit.

All the tags exploded simultaneously, and Sasuke was tossed high into the air, along with large amounts of water. The force of the underwater explosion was so great that the water, and Sasuke along with it, was tossed high up in the air, high enough to be a head above the heads of Hashirama and Madara.

Sasuke plummeted faster than the water, and took a moment to rage and lament at the fact that he had so foolishly thrown away his hip pouch. He angled his body to crash feet first into the water; his entire body, especially stomach and ribs, screaming in protest of the abuse he had been getting from the blonde. Once the water had relatively settled- waves, but no explosions- he surfaced and looked around, trying to see where Naruto was. Once he was sure that no one was around, he took a moment to breathe. He knew Naruto wasn't gone, the guy wouldn't leave until he had Sasuke with him. Sasuke took a moment to admire the plan that the blonde had come up in such a short time.

He knew that this fight was dragging on longer than he liked. Almost half of his reserves had been emptied, but he still was on the losing side of the fight. That thought caused more power to flow into him; he had this feeling that somehow, a higher level of power he could reach if he drew more power.

But before he could do that, four Naruto's flashed into existence around him in the vicinity of the kunai. Two of them closed in immediately, while the other two provided long distance support by throwing in an occasional kunai, shuriken or jutsu.

Sasuke dealt with the two clones without difficulty and moved towards the other two. But just as he engaged them, something about their movements stood out to him. They were attacking alright, but their movements were complimentary of each other. Almost as if…

His train of thought wasn't allowed to continue as two more clones flashed into existence, and he was hard pressed to deal with them. He was so into the fight, that he failed to take notice of a blonde blur speeding towards their location, running on the bank.