34

Kisame – Uh? An update less than a month after the last chapter?

Itachi – Yes. It's been a while since it happened.

Shikamaru – Will this be a recurring thing? I only agreed to this gig because I thought I barely had to do anything.

Itecahi – We never know when it comes to Phoenixsun… Anyways, here's PHD's chapter 34.

Kisame – Hey! Stop skipping me!

Leaf Typhoon

Fortunately for the Uzumaki, instead of going for a kunai, Sakura's hand went for his collard, bringing the spiky haired boy closer to her. "Naruto… I swear… If you…" Whatever the Haruno's threat was, it was left unsaid when a huge explosion thundered through the forest, strong enough to cause the ground to shake.

"What was that?!" Lee immediately asked.

All anxiety disappeared from Naruto. "I don't know… But it came from the movie set."

Instantly, the three Leaf ninjas moved to surround the two civilian girls, with Naruto and Sakura both drawing out a kunai.

"Wha… What's going on…?" A worried Shion asked as she looked at the direction of the set where a tower of smoke could be seen rising into the sky.

The three shinobi did not even bother to answer the blond girl; instead they continued to scan their surroundings. Naruto's Sharingan move back and forth from side to side, as they searched for any signs of movement. "Let's start making our way back to the…" The spiky haired boy started to say before suddenly coming to a halt and his head snapping to the side. Immediately, his teammates turned to face the direction he was looking at.

A long figure among the trees walked calmly towards them. As it got closer, the genin could see it was a bald man with most of his lean body covered in bandages. Wrapped around his shoulder was a Hidden Rock headband with an X carved across the village's insignia.

"Argh… There are three of them…" The man complained in a rough voice as he stepped into the clearing. "Damn it! I told Gentan to set it off sooner." He swore under his teeth.

Naruto cautiously glanced back at his teammates. "You guys take the girls and step back… I'll distract him while you go around us." He said under his breath. After a couple of seconds of hesitation, the other two Konoha nins nodded in approval.

"I don't suppose you kids want to step aside and let me take girl, do you?" The bandaged man asked halfheartedly, receiving a glare from the younger ninjas. "Argh! I'm not in to the mood to entertain a bunch of brats…" He complained before, in one quick and sudden movement, sending a pair of kunai flying at Leaf genin.

Naruto readied himself to block the projectiles with his own kunai when his Sharigan caught sight of the pieces of paper tied to the blades. "Explosive tags!" He immediately called out before grabbing Yukie and jumping out of the way while the others followed suit with Lee grabbing Shion.

A second later, two sizeable explosions went off where they had been standing.

Once back on the ground, Yukie gave her protector a look full of fear and worry. "What's going on?!" She asked.

Instead of answering the young woman, the blond boy looked up at his enemy just in time to see another set of kunai flying towards him, not wanting to leave it to chance, the Uzumaki focused on the blades with his Sharingan. "Amaterasu…" He whispered and the kunai were instantly covered in black flames that detonated the tags at a safe distance.

The Rock nin was taken aback. "Oh… So you are Uzumaki Naruto…" He said as he looked at the blond boy and noticing his peculiar Sharingan. "Well, that changes thing." He added with a noticeably more jovial tone as he cracked his knuckles.

"Remember the plan." Naruto said to his teammates before suddenly dashing towards the Rock nin, his kunai still in hand.

"What are you doing…?!" The Uzumaki could hear Shion shout as Lee started to pull her away.

The bald man grinned before doing a quick set of hand seals and slamming his palm on the ground. "Teikoku Niwa no Jutsu!" He called out.

Naruto barely had time to see that crimson colored scriptures appeared on the man's bandages before the ground exploded underneath him. The boy was flung into the air, but managed to spin himself right side up and land safely, however he immediately noticed there was something wrong.

The large rocks thrown into the air by the explosion had not fallen back to the ground and instead they stayed hovering in the air. The same marks on the Rock ninja's bandages were glowing on them. Suddenly, the rocks shot towards the blond, forcing the genin to jump away to evade them as they came crashing down all around him.

The glowing rubble continued its barrage as Naruto danced his way through them. It did not matter whether the boulders crashed on the ground or the spiky haired teen deflected them with his kunai or with a kick, the rocks would simply rise up again and resumed their assault. Eventually, the boy got tired of the onslaught and jumping around. "Kakougan Kangoku no Jutsu!" He shouted before three triangular granite walls rose in front of him, blocking the rocks.

Suddenly, the ground right behind the Leaf nin exploded and a large rock shot straight towards the blond from the rear.

Naruto turned around, but he could only watch as the boulder flew towards him. The Sharingan user was about to summon Susanoo, hoping that the avatar's ribcage could materialize fast enough to protect him, when suddenly the rock exploded and Lee landed right in front of him. "You need to be more mindful of your surroundings, Naruto-kun." Lee said amicably.

"And you were supposed to stay with the girls." The spiky haired boy shot back.

"Sakura and I were worried about you… This man knows who you are, so we thought it would be best not to leave you with him." The taijutsu user explained, giving the younger nin a smile and thumds up.

Sighing in defeat, Naruto simply turned to face their opponent.

The Rock nin smirked as his army of floating boulders arranged itself around him. "I guess two of you should put up more of a challenge." He stated. "I am Idou Gareki, formerly of Iwagakure, try not to disappoint me." The man said before thrusting one of his arms forward. Immediately, the group of rocks shot towards the two genin.

Neji struggled to breathe among the dust and smoke as he continued to help the movie crew out of the wreckage caused by the sudden explosion. In his peripheral vision, the Hyuuga could see Tenten providing first aid to some of the injured and Shino directing his bug to break down some of the larger pieces of rubble.

"This is just like the set of Bloody and the Nukenin all over again!" The movie's director was complaining as members of the staff pulled him out from underneath a pile of lumber and steel pipes. Despite some bruises and cuts the man had fared miraculously well and was virtually unharmed.

The black haired boy gave a weary sigh and went back to his rescue efforts as his mind went over what had happened. It had not been a single explosion, but several charges had gone off in succession throughout the set with devastating effect. What bothered the chunin the most is that he had scanned the surroundings that very same morning and he had not seen anything, neither bombs buried nor signs of dirt having been displaced, meaning whoever set the explosive did it throughout the day and right under their noses without him or any of his teammates realizing it.

Everything let to one conclusion: they were dealing with an enemy shinobi.

Neji cursed himself. He was supposed to be the leader on this mission, yet he had gotten complacent and had failed to prevent this catastrophe. Sure, Naruto suddenly getting drafted into the movie had not helped the Hyuuga's focus, but, at the end of the day, he should not have let his guard down the way he did.

After a couple more minutes of clearing rubble, Shino walked up Neji. "I have taken care of all the large pieces." The Aburame informed in his monotone.

Nodding at the information, the older boy activated his Byakugan to make sure no one else from the film crew was trapped underneath it. Once he was satisfied with his findings, the chunin turned to his teammates. "I'm going to go check on Lee and the others." He stated. "You guys stay here and make sure that everyone is…" Neji suddenly halted as his dojutsu caught something coming down from above them.

Suddenly, a large mass came crashing down onto the middle of the destroyed movie set with enough force to make the ground shake. The shockwave caused by the impact push back most of the dust and smoke left behind by the explosions thus leaving the newcomer in full view of all those present.

It was a man several heads taller than a regular person and revoltingly fat. He had tan skin and wore cloths that were obviously way too small for his impossibly large frame.

Neji immediately noticed two things about the stranger. There was a Hidden Mist headband with an X carved over the insignia wrapped around the man's thick wrist and there was a malicious grin on his face.

"Oh my… It seems many roaches managed to survive my little goodies." The man commented with a gleeful tone as he surveyed the destroyed movie set with a hungry look in his eyes.

Glaring at the stranger, the Hyuuga prepared his fighting stance. "Shino, get everyone out here… Use your bugs to help those that can't move by themselves." He ordered with authority in his voice and the younger boy immediately followed. "Tenten, you'll be my support." Neji added and through his Byuakugan he could see his teammate reading her scrolls.

The man's grin almost looked crazed as he set his eyes on the Leaf chunin. "Are you going to play with me, little boy?" He asked.

Instead of answering, Neji simply lowered his stance, extended his arms, and send chakra to the tip of his fingers. The next second, the Hyuuga shot towards his opponent at blinding speed.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" A dozen copies of Naruto appeared from a cloud of smoke and launched themselves against the floating rocks, smashing them left and right.

Gareki directed the boulders by moving his hands. The rocks encircled the clones and smashed themselves against them, dispelling the copies in another cloud of smoke. However, the Iwa ninja's victory was short lived as a green blur shot through the cloud.

Lee appeared before the older man with one of his legs raised over his head. "Konoha Otoshi!" The taijutsu user exclaimed as he lowered his legs with tremendous force.

The Rock nin was forced to quickly direct his floating rocks to place themselves between him and the Leaf genin. However, the young man's kick was so strong that it simply cut through the wall of stone like it was a knife through butter, forcing Gareki to jump back to avoid damage to himself.

Watching the bandaged man forced on the defensive, the real Naruto smiled to himself as he approached from behind and his hands went through a set of seals. "Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" He exclaimed before breathing out a large fireball towards his opponent's back.

Looking back, Gareki saw the blazing inferno about to consume him. Gritting his teeth in frustration, the man brought his hands up in a defensive stance. "Teikoku Niwa: Busou!" The Iwa shinobi shouted right before the fireball connected and he was swallowed by a giant explosion.

Naruto stood back from the cloud of smoke and waited for the results of their attack when suddenly a large fist made out of rock shot through the dust towards him. Immediately, the blond summoned Susanoo. A giant skeletal fist collided with its stone counterpart and a powerful shock wave swept through the clearing from the impact, carrying all the dust away.

Lee landed next to Naruto as the younger boy's chakra avatar faded away and the two genin looked at their enemy.

Gareki stood there completely unharmed. The older ninja's arms were now fully covered by rocks that formed a giant set of limbs with the same red markings glowing along its length. "I have to admit, I did not expect you two to force me to bring these out." He commented before swinging one of his colossal arms forward, forcing the pair of genin to jump out of the way lest they be crushed by the large stone fist crashing down where they had been standing on.

The earth trembled and Naruto saw how the impact had been so strong that the stone fist crumbled into rubble. Unfortunately, to the spiky haired teen's dismay, the limb immediately reformed itself like nothing had happened.

Giving himself a few seconds to think about the situation, the Sharingan user turned to his friend. "I'll keep him focused on me and you move in as soon as you get an opening." The boy stated, receiving a nod of approval from the taijutsu user.

Immediately, Naruto charged at the bandaged man as he summoned Susanoo's ribcage and arms to counter the older ninja's rock appendages.

Skeletal chakra met rock once again as Naruto and Gareki traded blows via proxy. The blond directed his avatar's right fist at his opponents head, but it was blocked by one of the bald man's rock arm, the boy then had to bring Susanoo's left arm up to catch the Rock ninja's own attack.

Seeing a chance, Naruto quickly willed the chakra construct's right hand to grab Gereki's free arm before the Iwa shinobi could pull it back. With both of the older man's stone arms captured, the Sharingan users simply had to wait for Lee to make his move.

On cue, a green blur appeared behind Gareki. "Konoha Senpuu!" Lee exclaimed as he readied his spinning kick.

"As expected…" Gareki murmured as a smirk appeared on his face. Suddenly, several of the boulders that made up the rock arms shot out towards the back, catching the black haired genin by surprise in an onslaught of flying grabble.

"Lee!" Naruto screamed as his teammate was flung backwards by the barrage of rocks that hit him.

The smirk on the Iwa ninja's face widened, "Hey, brat! Don't lose focus in what you're doing!" The man pointed out as he freed his rock arms from the distracted blonde's grip, and then delivered a powerful punch at the chakra avatar's ribcage.

In his distracted state, Naruto had lost some of Susanno's stability, and the potent strike not only sent the Jinchuuriki flying back, but also shattered the chakra construct all together.

It took the blond all of his efforts to land on his feet, but the hard work paid off because there was already a second blow coming towards him and the spiky haired boy managed to jump out of the way.

Gareki continued his offensive, sending punch after punch and pushing the younger ninja further back.

Not wanting to lose any more ground, Naruto swiftly summoned a pair of shadow clones in front of him to block the incoming punch and uses their back to jump high to the air before the disappeared. While airborne, the blond gathered chakra in his right hand and hurriedly formed a Rasengan, thrusting it forward as his upwards momentum faded and he started to return to the ground.

More than happy to meet the challenge, the Iwa nin directed one of his punches upwards, straight into the blonde's attack.

A giant explosion went off in the forest as Naruto was thrown back like a ragdoll and Gareki's rock arm was shattered by the force of the collision. Unfortunately, just like last time, the bandaged man's artificial limp immediately reformed and wasted no time before crashing down onto the fallen genin.

From his helpless position on the ground, all that the spiky haired teen cool do was wait as a giant, stone palm was about to squash him, but at the last moment the boy felt a hand grab his jacket and pull him out of harm's way. Looking to his side, the Uzumaki saw a bruised and exhausted Lee.

"Nothing is working… Naruto-kun…" The older genin commented. "Everything we throw at him has been useless since he can just get more boulders from the ground…" He pointed out.

The Jinchuuriki had to agree. Gareki had essentially shrugged off all of their attacks and looked no worse for wear than he did at the start of the battle. "We have to hit him with something so big that he can recover from it… But it has to be all in one fell swoop." The younger boy said.

"Do you have a technique like that?" Lee asked as he looked at his friend.

"One…" Naruto responded but hesitated for a second before continuing. "But it requires a great deal of concentration and it would take me some time before is ready…" He said. "Plus, I haven't fully mastered it yet…" The Sharingan users thought, but decided to keep that part to himself.

The taijutsu user gave his teammate a strong nod. "Yosh! Then I will keep Gareki busy while you prepare your attack." He declared.

Naruto gave the older boy a worried look. "Are you sure you want to do that, Lee?" He asked. "Because I'm not even certain if my jutsu will work."

Smiling, Lee gave the blond the thumbs up. "Don't worry, Naruto-kun, I have complete faith in you!" He stated as a small twinkle accentuated his smile. "Just have a little faith in me." The young man added before turning around and charging at the Rock nin.

Left behind, the spiky haired teen took a deep breath to prepare himself. Closing his eyes for a second, Naruto summon Susanoo, drawing forth as much of the construct as he could. Bones were covered by musculature, which was in turn covered by wood-like skin. Once Susanoo was ready and stable, the blond started to gather chakra into his hand and formed another Rasengan, this one far more refined that the one he had created earlier. The genin the willed the chakra avatar's right arm to move closer and put its large hand right in front of him, on which the young man placed the Rasengan.

Once the Uzumaki made sure that the sphere of chakra was secure in Susanoo's palm, the boy took a deep breath. The easy part was over. Next, as Lee continued to dodge Gareki's attack, Naruto brought both of his hands close the spinning sphere and started to pump Wind chakra into the Rasengan.

Flashback

Naruto and Kakashi stood in the middle of a training ground with over a dozen pieces of paper littered around their feet. Some of the papers seemed to be disintegrating, others seemed wet, more looked scorched, but by far most pieces of papers seemed cut up.

"Well, that settles it. Your highest affinity is with Wind chakra, though Fire was a close second." Kakashi pointed out as he examined all the scraps of papers around him. "But it seems your body is vehemently against Lightning Release." He added.

For his part, the blond shrugged his shoulders. "I told you…" He said. "After the Chunin Exam I tried to copy the Chidori, but, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't generate the Lightning chakra for it… I had to modify the jutsu and replace it with Fire chakra." The genin informed his teacher.

Kakashi gave a disappointing sigh. "Well, I guess we'll have to… Really? A Fire Release?" He started to say, but did double take when his student's words registered. "You'll have to show me some time…" He added under his breath. "But on the meantime, we should work on helping you hone in your Wind chakra." He proposed.

And so, the two Sharingan users did. For the next couple of weeks, Naruto spent his time cutting leaves and then cutting through waterfalls until he had completely mastered the usage of Wind nature chakra. Thanks to the boy's Sharingan allowing him to regulate the chakra throughout his body, it made the process a piece of cake for the spiky haired teen. However, when the silver haired jounin brought up the notion of combining the Wind chakra with the Rasengan, they hit a bit of a snag.

"Argh! It's impossible!" Naruto exclaimed as his legs gave out and he fell to the ground, his head feeling as if it was about the split open. "This is just like when I was trying to uses Raiton…! It just can't be done! I'm feeling like I'm being pulled in opposite directions!" He complaining as he sat there on the ground.

Kakashi watched his student passively. "Yes… I remember Minato-sensei having a similar problem." He mentioned. "It seems that adding nature transformation while shaping the Rasengan is impossible… If only we had an extra set of hands…" The older Leaf nin commented to himself.

Immediately, Naruto's eyes widened in realization.

Several minutes later, Kakashi stood on the training ground with a very surprised look on his face as he observed his blond student. Naruto had summoned one of Susanoo's arms and placed the Rasengan in its hand, now the boy was well on his way of adding Wind nature chakra into the spherical jutsu. "Well, you are about to succeed on something even your father failed to accomplish…" The silver haired man commented in amazement as he watched little blades appear along the horizontal diameter of the boy's chakra sphere.

A proud smile appeared in Naruto's face. "It's not that hard once you…" Whatever the Jinchuuriki was going to say was drown out by an abrupt screeching sound. Suddenly, the Rasengan started to become unstable and, before the spiky haired teen could do anything to prevent it, the sphere exploded, violently sending its creator flying back.

Kakshi immediately rushed to his student's side. "Naruto! Are you alright!" He asked as he knelt down next to the boy. The explosion had torn the boy's cloths to shreds and his right arm lied numbly to the side.

"Aargh! It feels as if an exploding tag went off next to my shoulder!" The spiky haired boy screamed as he clutched his right side. "And I can't feel my right arm at all!" He added through the pain.

The jounin surveyed the genin's injuries. "This is the nature of Wind chakra…" He explained. "It severely damaged your chakra circulatory system, cutting the flow of chakra to your arm at the shoulder… Come on, we better get you check out by a medic."

Later the night, the two Sharingan users were in one of the room in the Konoha Hospital. The spiky haired boy's right shoulder was bandaged up and he was now having problems putting his new set of cloths over it. "I can already hear Sakura chewing my ear off about this…" The blond lamely commented.

Kakashi watched his student for a couple of seconds. "I think we should shelf the Fuuton Rasengan training." He suddenly stated.

Naruto's face snapped towards his teacher. "Why?! I almost got it!" The boy exclaimed.

A sigh escaped the older ninja. "Naruto, look what happened when you simply added Wind chakra to the Rasengan… A bit more and the damage could have been permanent. You could have lost full circulation to your main arm." The man tried to reason with his student.

"I don't care!" The Uzumaki shot back. "You said it yourself; this is something even my dad failed to do… I want to… I need to see this through!" He said as he looked straight at his teacher.

The look of sheer determination in the spiky haired teen's eyes utterly defeated the jounin. "Very well… But two conditions." The silver haired man said. "First, before we continue working on this, we are going to focus on how to keep you safe… And second, promise me that you are not going to use this jutsu on the field until you have completely mastered it." The man stated.

End Flashback

Naruto was panting. The strain of keeping the Rasengan stable while adding the Wind chakra was taking a huge toll on him. "I'm sorry, Kakashi-sensei… But I need this technique's power right now." He muttered as the sphere stared to make a screeching sound. The boy smiled as the Rasengan started to grow and the blades around it stretched exponentially, making the whole thing look like a giant, spinning shuriken.

Looking up, the blond could see Lee struggling to continue to dodge the Iwa shinobi's attack. The taijutsu user was completely in the defensive by now, jumping all over the place, even on some of the floating rocks themselves, in order to evade them and Gareki's stone arms. He wasn't going to last much longer.

The blond took a deep breath and glanced down at the jutsu screeching in Susanoo's hand. "It's ready… I hope…" He thought to himself before taking a step forward. "This is my strongest technique right now… This has to work!" The avatar felt heavy, but the boy endured through it. "Lee! It's ready!" The young man called out.

The black haired genin landed away from the Rock nin and looked at his teammates. Lee was surprised at seeing the younger boy's avatar carrying a large, weirdly-shaped Rasengan, though the jutsu looked almost proportional in the huge chakra construct's hand. Not questioning his teammate, the older Leaf nin quickly jump out of the way.

"Oh? So this is what you were up to?" Gareki mocked the spiky haired boy as he turned his attention to him. "Very well, let's test this little technique of yours!" He challenged.

Gritting his teeth, Naruto started to move forward, picking up speed little by little, and always mindful of his jutsu's stability. Once the he reached running speed, the young man and his avatar jumped into the air. "Fuuton: Rasenshuriken!" Naruto called out as he willed Susanoo to thrust the hand that carried the Wind jutsu forward.

Full of confidence, Gareki drove his rock-covered first straight into the incoming chakra mass. The moment his punch touched the Leaf ninja's technique, the bandaged man realized his mistake. Instead of crumbling like it always did, the boulders that formed his arm simply disintegrated into a dust far too fine for him to reform it back together. Terror filled the older man's eyes as the Fuuton jutsu continued its warpath undeterred by his punch and hit former Rock nin square in the chest.

Lee watched from a safe distance as his teammate, the avatar, and Rock nin disappeared in a colossal chakra explosion. The taijutsu user had to brace himself in order not to get blow away by the shockwaves coming off blonde's technique. Looking at the dome of chakra that had formed where his friend had been, Lee was amazed by the attack that Naruto had created, but he could not help but feel worried for the spiky haired boy's safety.

In the mass of chakra, Naruto was safe inside Susanoo, but he could see that the Wind Release was ripping the chakra construct apart. Nevertheless, the blond could not let up and willed his avatar to continue to press through.

Eventually, the chakra mass gave out a large, final explosion and the spiky haired boy was expelled out with a tremendous force. All that was left of Susanoo by then was its ribcage, and even that was severely damaged. However, as Naruto crashed down onto the ground, he virtually unharmed.

"Naruto-kun! Are you ok?!" Lee called out as he rushed towards his friend.

Panting in exhaustion, the blond struggled to his feet. "Yeah… Yeah… I'm just… Winded…" He barely managed to say as he accepted the taijutsu user's help to stand up. Looking at the huge cloud of dust that his attack had left behind, the spiky haired teen smiled. "Well, I would say… That was a success." He commented.

Lee returned the smile and nodded. "Yosh! That was a very youthful display!" He commented and gave his teammate another thumbs up.

Still trying to catch his breath Naruto straighten up. "Come on… He mentioned a teammate…" The Sharingan users pointed out. "We have to go check on the others…" The boy said before turning around. Lee following right behind him.

Teikoku Niwa no Jutsu – Imperial Grounds Jutsu (Made up)

Kakougan Kangoku no Jutsu – Granite Prison Jutsu (Made up)

Konoha Otoshi – Leaf Drop

Goukakyuu no Jutsu – Great Fireball Jutsu

Teikoku Niwa: Busou – Imperial Grounds: Armament (Made up)

Konoha Senpuu – Leaf Whirlwind

Kisame – Good! We finally got some action in here!

Itachi – What are you talking about? The previous arc was almost all fighting.

Shikamaru – Don't remind me… I had to blow myself up during it…

Kisame – Blah! Get yourself eaten by a shark that YOU summoned and then we'll talk.

Itachi – Nevertheless, thanks for reading and please join us next time in PHD's chapter 35: Sealed Fate.