Naruto Shippuden - part 31

Two weeks had passed since Naruto and Xanna had their encounter with Team Samui and all of that time was spent back at the valley.

They knew that the only thing left to do was take out Madara, but they weren't going off half cocked and risking everything so close to the end.

Keeping this in mind, one would think that they would be devising clever ways of defeating the man, but it was not so. They already knew how they were going to end it, they only needed some time to get fully used to their new situation.

It wouldn't do to be unprepared in battle after all.

Naruto had spent almost the entire time sitting in a meditative lotus position, his focus being entirely inwards.

Neither Xanna nor the Gedō Mazō were anywhere to be seen, which was to be expected given that they were inside him.

In point of fact, both were now one and the same. Naruto and Xanna had decided that they couldn't afford to be leaving anything to chance, so they had drained everything out of the Gedō Mazō, to the point that the Juubi's ancient spirit had dispersed into nothing. With Naruto greedily sucking up its immortal life force with all eight gates open and being completely drained of the infinitely self regenerating chakra of the Bijuu, it couldn't sustain its existence anymore.

It was pretty funny to think that what was basically a god(or what was left of one), had died like a chump. Then again, a lot of people had died like chumps when going against Naruto.

As soon as that was done, Xanna had taken up residence in the now truly empty husk. Unfortunately, she hadn't been able to do anything much with it. No shapeshifting or taking human form or anything of the sort. The most she had been able to do was walk(more like lumber) around a bit, which was more than what the Juubi had managed, but hardly impressive. Clearly, the Gedō Mazō would only be restored once it had the combined chakra of all nine Bijuu.

After that, Naruto had completely removed the Reaper Death Seal from his body and created a new one.

His old seal was great for sealing chakra and with some modification, natural energy, but it was no good for anything physical.

It didn't take him long to make it really. Though complex, it was well within his ability and it even involved some space-time meddling to make it functional. How else was such a huge thing supposed to fit inside him after all?

That question had also made them realise that the Rinnegan must grant some kind of instinctual understanding of Fuinjutsu...to a certain point. Now that he thought of it, that chakra absorbing trick of the Preta Path was almost definitely a Fuinjutsu as well, along with some other things he'd seen the Rinnegan do.

That kind of pissed him off actually. After all the work he'd put into learning Fuinjutsu, having some dumbass Uchiha be capable of using it just because he had a pair of fancy swirly twirly eyes was really annoying. Though Naruto was willing to bet his left nut that Madara had no clue about the finer points of the seals that he was capable of using courtesy of the Rinnegan, which was incredibly stupid in his opinion. Using powers that you didn't understand properly was often a recipe for disaster.

Case in point: Obito.

He could use an insanely powerful space-time technique because of his eye and it got him killed in the end because he had no idea that it was possible to counter it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto stood on top of Hashirama's head in the valley of the end, gazing around contemplatively. He was dressed in his usual get up of open black leather coat with no shirt undearneath it. His hair was gathered in a low ponytail that hung down to his thighs, though he fully expected it to get loose in the coming battle. The necklace that Tsunade had gifted to him sparkled occasionally in the sun as it hung from a cord around his neck. He had the same style of comfortable black leather pants on as he usually did. The only real difference in his appearance was the fact that he was barefoot.

His mastery of Mokuton and Senjutsu was now such that it simply felt more comfortable if he had direct skin contact with the earth. It wasn't as if he had to worry about stepping on sharp rocks considering how tough his skin was these days and the way that shoes dulled his senses was discomforting. As long as he was in direct contact with the ground, he could feel every living thing in a truly massive area, provided that they too were touching the ground. His life force sensing worked without it, but in that case it only in the immediate area.

The vast emptiness that he could feel in the deserts of Wind Country was rather unpleasant and Naruto resolved to fix that after this battle. He'd taken a lot from the world while he'd been weak and needed to keep Xanna alive, so restoring life to that barren place would be a good way to give something back. It felt nice, to be able to do something that wasn't massively selfish once again.

But that was for later, right now, there was a battle that needed to be fought.

He couldn't help feeling nostalgic even though the memories he had of fighting Madara here decades ago weren't his. This place was oddly appropriate as the site of their final battle.

He was quite sure that Madara would also appreciate the irony of getting his ass kicked in the same spot twice. At first he would probably think that it was appropriate to have his victory where he had previously suffered defeat, but that would change once he started losing.

Well, might as well get things started.

Naruto took a deep breath, felt the powerful chakra in his body rising to the surface, overpowering the suppression seals on his coat and allowing it to be felt far and wide.

"MAAAAAAAAADARAAAAAAAAA!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"MAAAAAAAAADARAAAAAAAAA!"

The head of the man in question snapped up as he felt the enormous chakra presence suddenly slam into his senses. It was so huge that it was actually somewhat difficult to pinpoint an exact location, but he managed it after a few seconds of focusing.

The Valley of the End.

Madara smirked. How appropriate.

Though it made him wonder what the point of calling him out like that had been. From what he could tell, Uzumaki had just wasted enough chakra for several S-rank techniques just to make himself heard. He wasn't anywhere close to the Valley of the End after all, which meant that the shout had probably been heard by most of the Elemental Nations.

Oh well, it would certainly fit with Uzumaki's usual way of doing things. If he wanted an audience for his defeat, then Madara certainly wasn't going to stop him. At least it would bring a lot of people to the same spot so that they would be easier to put into the Infinite Tsukuyomi...well it wouldn't really matter, but if everyone was there he could gloat a bit first.

Despite the months of frustration, he couldn't help a slight anticipatory grin from forming on his face. The battle was bound to prove interesting.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Oh dear, you appear to have cracked poor Hashirama's head. Xanna commented with amusement.

They just don't make statues like they used to. Naruto replied, shaking his head in mock sorrow as he jumped away from the crumbling statue. All it takes to break them is some chakra enhanced screaming.

He is coming. The demoness said, feeling the rapid approach of their enemy as he came within range of their combined sensing. It is as we suspected, he has made himself the Hachibi Jinchuuriki. No doubt he has begun to fear what we would be able to do should Gyuuki have remained in the open.

With good reason. Naruto replied with a smirk. Though I am surprised that the idea managed to penetrate his arrogance.

He must have gotten so bored while we kept him waiting that he actually started thinking again. Xanna reasoned.

At least we won't have to search for your errant sibling. Considering the gamble we are taking right now, it would have been quite inconvenient if the idiot had the foresight to hide it instead of use it for a power boost.

Xanna made sniffing sounds, as if she were on the verge of tears. It sounded horribly fake. Would you not have loved me anymore if I looked like a giant dried up statue forever?

Of course I would still have loved you my dear. Why, if that happened, I would take you on dates all the time, I'm sure we could have found a tea house that serves portions appropriate for something the size of a small mountain.

That would certainly have been an...amusing experience.

Oh, what's this? Naruto asked ironically as he wiggled his toes in the grass, feeling the approach of many human lives through the earth. It seems that the audience is also coming, though they will almost certainly miss the opening act.

Good, everything is falling into place.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Two long haired men stood in the Valley of the End, facing against each other with the wind dramatically ruffling their hair. One was wearing red armor of an old design, with a gunbai and kama crossed on his back, while the other was cloaked in black with the hilt of a great nodachi peeking over his right shoulder. Both were standing in identical positions with their arms crossed and disdainful blank looks on their faces, staring into each other's eyes, standard Sharingan into slitted gold-orange.

Madara was standing that way because that's how he always stood.

Naruto was standing that way because he was being an ass...and because he felt that this innately infuriating stance was definitely something that he would be stealing from Madara. He mentally called it the 'Troll Pose no Jutsu'.

Just as Madara was about to lose his patience with the silent staring contest and say something, Naruto uncrossed his arms and pointed the clawed index finger of his right hand at Madara with a grin spreading over his face. He couldn't help it, he was going to enjoy beating the crap out of this guy.

"Lets dance."

The Uchiha's eyes widened slightly in surprise at having his catchphrase stolen, but a tiny smirk soon followed.

"Yes, lets." There was no need to be overly wordy right at the start.

The two powerhouses ran at each other without drawing their respective weapons, both obviously more interested in a Taijutsu battle first.

At first, Madara had a slight advantage due to his Sharingan, but that rapidly evaporated as the holes in Naruto's defense closed up and the battle degenerated into high speed blocking and evading. Madara quickly noted how very similar Naruto's fighting style was to Hashirama's.

As he blocked another powerful punch with his forearm and returned with a kick that was blocked by Naruto's shin, Madara realised that there was a single distinct reason why Naruto was a superior Taijutsu combatant in comparison to Hashirama.

Hashirama's blows hadn't felt like the hammer of god.

If it wasn't for the Asura Path enhanced toughness and strength granted to his body(something that he could use even without the Rinnegan being active), Madara was sure that his bones would already be cracking. The fact that Naruto seemed perfectly capable of shrugging off his return blows despite the massive strength behind them meant that Taijutsu wasn't going to be deciding anything here. His Sharingan had already seen that any damage inflicted on Naruto was healed far too swiftly for it to matter.

Apparently coming to a similar conclusion, Naruto decided to spice things up a bit and spat a stream of slimy looking liquid towards Madara's face. The Uchiha easily saw it coming and leaned away so that it flew past him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the ground sizzle and melt where it landed.

That was the Rokubi's acid slime. Madara realised, having seen the Bijuu chakra infusing it. He actually succeeded in pulling the chakra out of the Gedō Mazō. Without the Rinnegan he couldn't have split it again, which must mean that he has the combined chakra and abilities of eight Bijuu inside him, I'll need to watch out for that.

At the same time as he was reflecting on this, Madara was also leaping backwards and making rapid hand seals.

"Katon: Gōka Mekkyaku(Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation)!"

Naruto looked at the approaching wall of fire and almost scoffed. Sure, it was a fancy fire technique, but it didn't do any good against a powerful enough water user.

"Suiton: Suijinheki(Water Release: Water Formation Wall)!"

A vast torrent of water spewed from Naruto's mouth and crashed against the wall of fire, extinguishing it and creating a lot of steam.

Feeling a flash of aggression from the side, accompanied by Madara's powerful life force, Naruto drew the Kusanagi and slammed it against the approaching kama, using his superior strength to push the sharp tip away from him, glaring the Uchiha right in the eye as he did so, noticing that they were already transformed into an Eternal Mangenkyo.

While Naruto was busy pushing away the kama with his sword, Madara swung the gunbai with his other hand towards the blond's neck with the intent of breaking it.

Naruto's arm rose up and blocked it, making Madara's eyes widen when he noticed the coral that had grown on the arm to form a shield with which the blond had blocked the edge of the gunbai.

The Sanbi's coral and water element. Madara realised, now understanding how his opponent had been able to use the water technique without any kind of hand seals. His mastery of the Bijuu chakra is impressive, doubly so as he has no Doujutsu to aid him.

Madara himself had easily subdued and mastered the power of the Hachibi, but he could admit that it would have been far more difficult without the Rinnegan and its power over all chakra, including that of the Bijuu.

After another brief exchange of blows from their weapons which resulted in a stalemate, Naruto's cheeks bulged and he started spitting out highly compressed balls of air, forcing Madara to dodge around to avoid them. The air balls blasted holes into the surrounding rocks, trees and tore trenches in the earth.

That must be the Ichibi's wind element. Deciding that he had enough dodging, Madara swung his gunbai at the next group of air balls and reflected them back at his opponent with even greater force.

His eyes widening slightly in surprise, Naruto freely let Xanna have momentary control as she responded to the situation by blasting a stream of extremely hot blue fire at the approaching wind, overpowering it and once again sending it back to the Uchiha.

Madara responded by raising a thick wall of wood to block the flames, the chakra enhanced wood easily up to the task.

The battle lulled as they stared at each other accross the fire now burning merrily in between them.

"I guess that's it for the warm up then." Naruto said while cracking his neck, not even slightly winded by the recent exertions.

"You are proving to be a quite interesting Uzumaki, I haven't had this much fun since I danced with Hashirama." Madara replied, just as fresh as his opponent.

"Hang on a second." Naruto said, raising one hand and apparently focusing on something else, his bare feet digging slightly into the ground, sensing something through the earth.

Madara narrowed his eyes slightly in interest and suspicion. He didn't doubt for a second that the blond was ready to defend himself at a moments notice, but he wondered what had caught his attention. Is he sensing the approaching shinobi? Zetsu made no mention of any significant sensing ability, certainly nothing good enough to sense them at this distance.

Meanwhile, Naruto had located the thing that had caught his attention, two things even. Both of them radiated a strong life force, a life force that felt almost identical to Hashirama's, though weaker.

"Oh, you've been a bad boy Madara, bringing friends to a private party." Naruto tutted, making Madara's eyes widen slightly as he realised that the blond must have sensed White Zetsu and Spiral Zetsu, whom he had brought with him as a 'just in case' measure.

How could he have sensed them? The only reason that I can sense them is because I created them, to anyone else they should have been indistinguishable from the environment while they are hiding. Madara wondered to himself.

Naruto had by now taken hold of the two life forces trying to hide in the earth in an invisible grip and ripped the life out of them. Had they been human, he would have required direct physical contact, but whatever those two things were, they were more like humanoid plants than humans and therefore easy prey as long as they were in contact with the earth anywhere around him.

Madara's eyebrows creased in confusion as he suddenly felt his two minions die without any apparent cause. He wasn't particularly upset by their deaths, but he very much wanted to know how Uzumaki had killed them.

"How did you kill them? And how did you even know they were there?"

Naruto gave Madara an infuriatingly self satisfied grin and replied with a similarly self satisfied tone of voice.

"Fuck you, that's how."

Madara glared back and considered how to continue the battle. Obviously things would need to be escalated if the stalemate was to be broken, but he still wanted to gauge Uzumaki's skill level a bit more before going all the way.

This meant using the powers of the Mangenkyo Sharingan. Tsukuyomi would be useless due to the Bijuu inside him. From what he could see, the Kyuubi(or what used to be the Kyuubi anyway) was cooperating with the blond and would be able to break the illusion easily.

That meant Amaterasu and Susanno.

"Amaterasu(Heavenly Illumination)!"

"Fūka Hōin(Fire Sealing Method)!"

Madara watched in surprise as the black flames he had summoned were rapidly sucked into a seal that Naruto had forced into existence in the air with nothing but his dense chakra as a medium. When all of the black fire was gone, Naruto released the technique, allowing the seal to disperse, taking the Amaterasu with it.

"So sorry, but that annoying campfire of yours won't be very useful against me." Naruto mocked, securing the Kusanagi on his back again.

Madara showed no outward reaction to the ease with which his most powerful fire technique had been countered. Obviously, Uzumaki could have done the same to block his earlier fire technique, but had chosen not to for whatever reason.

The Uchiha was suddenly engulfed in the large form of his incomplete Susanoo, towering over Naruto even though it was only formed from the waist up.

"You know," Naruto began talking in a contemplative tone of voice, not the slightest bit concerned about this new development, he had plenty of ways to bust that thing open after all. "I still think it's complete bullshit how you can summon this giant skeletal turkey with your eyes. It doesn't make any kind of sense."

Madara didn't really care if Uzumaki thought that his ability to summon Susanoo was 'bullshit', so he just manifested four arms on it, each one wielding a glowing blue kris type blade and prepared to slaughter the blond. He didn't really think it would be that easy considering how evenly matched they'd been so far, but it would be a good way to see what Uzumaki was capable of.

Naruto rapidly dodged away from the attacks of the giant four armed specter and created a powerful, dense Rasengan in his right hand. Instead of trying to charge the chakra construct with it, he made sure to empower it with Senjutsu and hurled it at Madara's Susanoo.

Susanoo's ribs cracked, but unfortunately did not break from the force of the thrown Rasengan.

Shit, not enough power behind it. Naruto cursed as he kept away from the glowing swords of Madara's chakra construct.

I did tell you that it would be too weak to destroy Susanoo. Xanna chimed in.

Yeah yeah. Naruto said back, lamenting that they couldn't use one of their far more powerful combination moves yet...that might actually get lucky and kill Madara after all, which was something they didn't want happening quite yet.

It would ruin the plan and it wasn't worth the risk, no matter how minor it was. The fight would escalate by itself soon enough anyway, so there was no need to take pointless chances.

Besides, it wasn't as if these glowy swords were any real danger to him. He and Xanna had made quite sure to only give Madara the illusion of a chance to win, in reality they'd pretty much removed the possibility of him winning before ever coming here.

They couldn't be a hundred percent certain of that, given that they didn't know about all of the Rinnegan's powers, but they were pretty confident about it.

Seeing as the Rasengan hadn't worked, Naruto decided to try something a little different.

He manifested a multitude of chains which swiftly bound and restrained the arms of Madara's Susanoo. While this was happening, a grinning Naruto charged towards the chakra construct with the Kusanagi drawn, its blade glowing a bright blue-green due to being reinforced with Senjutsu. That little trick had taken some figuring out, as natural energy wasn't very keen on interacting with lifeless objects, but it could be done as long as it was melded with chakra.

It was well worth it though, as Naruto observed the amputated Susanoo with a wide grin. It made the blade so sharp you could almost cut yourself just by thinking of touching it.

"Now that's what I call 'a disarming maneuver." Naruto snickered, much amused by the sight.

"Do you honestly think that you've accomplished something with this?" Madara asked disdainfully and regrew Susanoo's arms.

"Not really, but it was pretty funny." Naruto said, still snickering before getting serious again. "Either way, how about you try this on for size?"

The Kusanagi's blade suddenly extended towards Madara, who moved to block it with Susanoo's chakra blades, but much to his surprise, the rapidly extending blade bent around them as if it was made of paper instead of metal.

Ah, the wonders of Senjutsu.

Unwilling to test the durability of Susanoo's ribs against the Senjutsu enhanced sword which had already proven sharp enough to cut its arms, Madara fled. As he had half expected, the blade continued to chase him, until he used his gunbai to smack it aside, which also served to disrupt the Senjutsu chakra in the blade and caused it to retract back into its normal nodachi form.

Madara was once again thankful for his gunbai. His favored weapon was a one of a kind masterpiece. Far more durable than its frail appearance would suggest, it could also reflect any chakra used against it, which had proven itself incredibly useful many times already.

Naruto raised an eyebrow as the Susanoo once again flared to life around Madara, wondering what the Uchiha was up to this time. Honestly, once you had a good enough way of destroying that thing, it wasn't as awesome as it looked.

Instead of forming sword again though, Madara called forth a group of large, spinnning tomoe that flickered with the same blue aura as his Susanoo.

Naruto recognised the Yasaka Magatama technique from Hashirama's memories and knew that it could be a rather troublesome thing. Those things could chase him around and they were damned hard to block.

Fortunately he had just the thing.

"Mokuton: Mokujōheki (Wood Release: Wood Locking Wall)!"

Thick roots formed a dome around him, filled to the brim with chakra to make them stronger and more resistant. When the Yasaka Magatama smashed into it, it easily held against the assault.

The Mokuton was interesting like that. You'd think that rock would be harder than wood, but the special chakra powered wood was in fact far more durable. It would take an attack that was far more powerful than the Yasaka Magatama to break through it.

Madara released the technique once he saw that it was useless and stared impassively at his opponent, not showing his surprise at the blond's use of Mokuton.

"How did you come to possess the Mokuton Uzumaki?"

"Well, mommy and daddy got adventurous one romantic night and decided to have sex on the largest tree they could find. In a bizzare sequence of events, some tree sap got mixed with dad's sperm when he got mom pregnant. Now, this particularly tree still had Hashirama's chakra in it, so I eventually manifested the Mokuton." Naruto explained with a dead serious look on his face.

Madara said nothing, but he knew that he had just been told 'fuck you, that's how' once again.

Deciding that they'd played around long enough, Madara activated the Rinnegan and formed a two sided Susanoo, each of which held a different hand seal, while he held the third.

"Tengai Shinsei (Heavenly Obstacle Quaking Star)!"

Naruto quirked an eyebrow at the giant meteor that was coming at him. I guess Madara is just about ready to get serious.

It was about time. Xanna said impatiently.

Well then, lets see how he deals with my counterattack. Naruto replied to his wife with a smirk and drew the Kusanagi again.

Throwing himself at the meteor, Naruto focused a great amount of Senjutsu chakra enhanced wind into his sword, the extremely chakra reactive metal absorbing it quite easily. When he was nearly there, he swung the Kusanagi at the meteor with a powerful arc, sending a thick and easily visible wind blade right through it.

"Ittoryu: Senpō: Wakusei Bunkatsu (One Sword Style: Sage Art: Planet Splitter)!"

The meteor split cleanly along the middle and Naruto flew in between the two halves, sheathing the Kusanagi on the way. Knowing that he was going to need more strength for what he was planning to do next, He activated the strength enhancing seal and opened the first five gates as well.

The half which was on the same side as Madara, he kicked and sent flying towards the general direction of the Uchiha, while he sank his claws into the other one and grabbed it tightly.

Madara had taken to the air as soon as he'd summoned the meteor, so as not to get hit by his own attack and he'd been quite surprised to see his opponent cutting it in half. He did nothing but raise an eyebrow as one half of the meteor was sent flying at him but came up short because Naruto hadn't kicked it hard enough.

He couldn't quite keep the shock off his face however, when he saw the blond grabbing onto the second half and throwing it at him. It was obviously straining him, as he could see veins bulging all over Naruto's body from the effort, but it was still a sight to see.

What incredible physical power. That is a strength far greater than what he showed earlier. Madara thought to himself. He knew that such a feat was beyond him. That half of a meteor had more than enough power behind it to pulverize his Susanoo and flatten him along with it and it was far too large and travelling too fast to avoid.

Fortunately, he had other means of defending himself.

"Shinra Tensei(Heavenly Subjugation of the Omnipresent God)!"

The powerful opposing gravitational force hit the rock and negated its momentum while simultaneously crushing it into harmless smaller rocks.

The two combatants now gazed at each other and Madara raised an eyebrow when he saw that his opponent was hovering in the air just like him. That would at least explain how he had even managed to throw the giant rock while in mid air.

"So you've learned to fly as well Uzumaki?"

"What a...stupid question..., of course I did. It's far too useful a technique...not to learn." Naruto said in between pants, still feeling strained from the effort of what he'd done, though his energy was returning rapidly. He'd closed the gates already and deactivated the strength seal...there was honestly no need for either just yet.

He must have somehow learned it through the Nanabi's chakra, that Bijuu is capable of flight. Madara reasoned to himself. The Nanabi flew through the use of wings, but it was not too far farfetched to believe that Naruto had found a way to fly without forming chakra wings. Either way, that meant that the battle could be fought anywhere, be it on land, water or in the air.

Naruto wasn't really interested in aerial combat though and descended back to the ground. The Valley of the End was starting to look pretty beaten up at this point, what with meteors being thrown around and all.

The spikes of shock and fear he'd just felt coming from several directions could only mean that the approaching shinobi had seen the meteor.

They would arrive soon.

Madara also landed on the ground and once more crossed his arms, simply staring at Naruto impassively.

"Well, are you gonna do something or not?" Naruto asked with a grin. For all that this was the most important battle of his life, he was actually having fun.

"You've been a rather impressive opponent so far Uzumaki, but this is where it ends for you." Madara stated and focused his Rinnegan on the blond.

"Rinbo: Hengoku (Wheel Grave: Border Jail)!"

Naruto and Xanna had only a moment to be confused by the odd technique before a massive force suddenly slammed into Naruto's face and broke his nose, sending him flying until he crashed through the ground and into the nearby lake.

"The fuck was that?!" He asked as soon as he got himself out of the water, his nose already healed.

His answer was another powerful impact from the side that once again sent him flying.

That felt kind of like a fist hitting me in the jaw. Naruto thought just before he felt himself being kicked in the back.

There is something hidden from our sight here. Not chakra though. Xanna said, straining her senses to figure out what this could be.

It has no life either and I can't feel any kind of presence at all that belongs to the natural world.

Naruto took another few of the powerful hits while they tried to figure out what the hell was going on.

"It is useless Uzumaki, you did well so far but you have no defense against this technique." Madara declared confidently, having not even moved from his previous position the entire time.

"we'll see about th-GNH."

Naruto extracted himself from the hole in the side of a small cliff and shook his head. It was a dangerous technique to be sure, but Madara didn't seem to understand that it was also useless. No matter how many hits he took, he'd just heal and with Xanna supplying an infinite amount of chakra, there was no danger of running out of juice.

I think I know what's going on. Xanna said while Naruto stayed in a wary, guarded stance. I can sense a shadow of Madara's malice every time you take a hit. He is somehow projecting duplicates of his shadow into the place between the Pure and Impure worlds. They can see us, but we can't see them.

Fuck, I was really hoping to avoid using that particular technique. Naruto said back with a scowl, knowing that he had only one thing in his arsenal to counter something like that and it was definitely not the kind of thing that he was thrilled about using.

"Well congratulations you twat, now you've forced me to go this far." Naruto said with an irritated scowl, making Madara crease his eyebrows in confusion.

Could he have figured it out? Madara wondered. The possibility was remote, but he wasn't willing to discount it.

Naruto meanwhile stabbed his claws into his palms hard enough that he started bleeding on the ground rapidly. What really caught Madara's attention though, was the fact that the blood was almost black instead of the usual red.

"Gedō: Makyō (Outer Path: The Haunt of Wicked Men)."

Madara's eyes went wide with shock when a darkness that only he could see began spreading outwards from the pool dark blood on the ground. Soon shapes began taking form, though they writhed and shifted as if unable to decide what they wanted to look like. It was easy for him to feel the utter malice and hunger radiating from them.

Without warning, they suddenly launched themselves at his shadows and clung to them. Madara instantly knew that he could not allow any of his shadows to be dragged back towards the blood pool at Naruto's feet. His shadows may be individually stronger than the spirits that the blond had summoned, but they were great in number, so he wasted no time in calling his shadows back.

When they felt that Madara's shadows were gone, Naruto and Xanna worked together to drag the things they'd summoned back where they belonged, though they resisted viciously.

"So you've sealed the Gedō Mazō inside yourself and through it called forth a host of damned souls to counter my technique?" Madara asked rhetorically with an arched eyebrow. "How wonderfully mad of you, I did not expect this in the least, so dangerously risky it is."

"Yeah well, that technique was really annoying and they don't call it the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path for nothing." Naruto replied with a grin, hiding just how disgusted it made him feel to use that technique. It felt like he'd dunked his soul into raw sewage.

He and Xanna had discovered the ability to access the Outer Path during the two weeks they'd spent in meditation in order to get used to the fact that she now had a physical body and having it sealed into Naruto. While they couldn't reach into the pure world to resurrect anyone(not without the Rinnegan at least), they could reach into what was basically hell.

Madara had by now returned to a more ready position instead of the 'Troll Pose no Jutsu' and had taken to staring at Naruto as if he could figure something out by doing that.

Simultaneously, both of them clapped their hands together and unleashed the same technique.

"Mokuton Hijutsu: Jukai Kōtan(Wood Release Secret Technique: Nativity of a World of Trees)!"

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Despite the fact that there was a war going on between the major and minor powers of the Elemental Nations, there were some things that took priority.

Seeing two men engaged in a vicious battle while gigantic tree roots scythed through the air like the tentacles of some massive parasite was one of these things. The fact that both were infamous enough to be easily recognisable and that neither was supposed to have the legendary Mokuton(yet both apparently did) certainly helped.

By the time the remaining four Kage and their elite troops plus Jiraiya all got to the same spot, The battle had escalated to the point where random explosions from Ninjutsu were a fairly common sight.

By mutual unspoken agreement, the war was put on hold due to...extenuating circumstances. Another mutual unspoken agreement was to leave the bulk of their forces well out of the way, both to avoid having them become collateral damage and to prevent any fighting between them.

"What the hell is going on?!" A bellowed over the thundering sound of cracking wood when Naruto punched one of the larger roots into oblivion.

Jiraiya very quickly summarized the situation, along with the underlying reasons for the conflict between Madara and Naruto.

"Why weren't we told of this? Both of them are threats to the entire world! A Kage summit should have been called." Onoki demanded.

"Tsunade kept it quiet at Naruto's request. He convinced her that fighting Madara openly would only result in a lot of pointless death. She agreed with him that with the power of the Rinnegan, there was no point in confronting him with force, so she trusted that Naruto would find a way to defeat him." Jiraiya explained.

"No doubt just a front so that Uzumaki could act unhindered." Onoki spat cynically.

"Jiraiya-sama, do you have any suggestions for what we should do now?" Mei asked diplomatically.

Jiraiya only had a brief perverted thought pass through his head, despite the fact that usually he would have been drooling at the sight of such a sexy woman. All the crap that had happened ever since Naruto's defection had a negative impact on his mood and he could barely muster the enthusiasm to perv on a woman these days.

His answer was forestalled by a very loud sizzling sound that was the result of Naruto spitting a torrent of highly corrosive acid all over the trees that Madara had summoned, causing them to melt rapidly.

"For now, I think it would be best if we didn't get in between them. They're probably aware of us already and I don't think we'd live long if we tried to join that battle." Jiraiya said grimly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Madara grimaced as the Kusanagi slammed down onto his shoulder plate, opening a rent in the armor, though thankfully not cutting deep enough to injure him. The armor was just as much a masterpiece as his gunbai, able to channel chakra to make it tougher and even having a limited self repair ability, but it couldn't stand up to the force that Naruto was putting behind his blows.

He quickly disengaged and blew his opponent away with the gunbai, seeing that the blond was scowling in irritation at the fact that his hit had been blocked. If not for the armor, that hit would have taken his arm off and disadvantaged him severely until he could use the Rinnegan and the Hachibi's chakra to grow a new one.

He had already lost his kama and now only had the gunbai to defend himself with, but that was fine. The kama wasn't up to scratch for this battle...but he would definitely be taking that sword once Uzumaki was defeated.

It was incredibly inconvenient that the black chakra rods which he could create through the Outer Path were of no use in this battle...Naruto could create them as well, making them no more useful than sharp metal poles. If he could have used them to disrupt the blond's chakra, then the battle would have been long since over, but it just wasn't that easy. Anyone that could summon the chakra rods was also able to prevent their chakra from being disrupted.

"That armor of yours is really pissing me off." Naruto said with a scowl that turned into a grin as he curled one hand into a claw shape and pointed it towards Madara.

"Jiton: Jiki Sekai (Magnet Release: Magnetic World)!"

Immediately, Madara felt the armor plates attached to his clothes being pulled away from him. Being unable to come up with any counter, he simply removed as much of it as he could by himself. Though the top half of his undershirt was torn off along with the armor, but at least he had managed to save his pants.

It would have been rather embarrassing to fight in his underwear.

"There, now that's better. This way I can cut open your fish white belly." Naruto, grinning at the prospect.

Madara glared at Naruto from where he was standing, the many tree roots that each of them had been controlling going still. This battle was being far more difficult than he had anticipated. Naruto was matching him move for move and didn't seem to have any trouble doing it. What he lacked in precision he made up for with brute force and durability. No injury that he sustained would stay on him for more than a few seconds before it healed.

Granted, Madara was also healing by siphoning off the Hachibi's chakra, which put them at a stalemate. If he was perfectly honest with himself, Madara was having the time of his life with this battle, but they'd been fighting for nearly two hours already and the only thing either one of them had to show for it was the destruction of the environment.

"You've certainly proved that you know how to dance Naruto, but how will you deal with more than one opponent?" The Uchiha spoke, this time using Naruto's name as his respect for the blond had risen massively during this battle. He'd at first thought the blond a coward for hiding from him for so long, but that impression had been overridden during the course of their battle.

Naruto raised an eyebrow in an incredulous expression as twenty wood clones rose from the ground around him and each of them activated Susanoo. He was basically surrounded by clones using that bullshit technique.

"Seriously? I gotta say that I'm disappointed in you. This tactic of throwing clones at me is pretty juvenile."

Lets show this fool exactly how outclassed he is. Xanna purred eagerly.

Naruto didn't reply and instead reached out with his arms and hooked his claws into the air. He'd really wanted to use this one ever since he'd learned how to do it, but had lacked the excuse until now.

Madara narrowed his eyes when he saw his opponent's chakra permeate everything around him and somehow pull on the world in such a way that he could almost see it twisting. The skies darkened, the earth shook and the wind started howling.

"Tenpenchii(Natural Disaster Befalling Heaven and Earth)!"

Everything seemed to come to a sudden climax as natural lightning began striking everything, massive tornadoes formed and began to ripping apart all they touched and earthquakes ruptured the earth.

Naruto stopped basically ripping the world a new asshole just before a massive explosion would have happened, but it was all good. Madara's wood clones had been annihilated , while the original had taken to the air and used a shield of gravity to protect himself.

"That was something that only the Ten Tails should have been capable of. How can you possibly use that technique?" Madara questioned, his bland tone hiding his shock. He'd read about the Tenpenchii on the stone tablet which had put him on this course in the first place and it had clearly stated that the Juubi was the only one capable of doing that. Even the Sage of Six Paths hadn't been able to do that.

"I'm glad you asked Madara." Naruto grinned at him. "Fuck you, that's how."

The technique was actually remarkably simple in execution, merely impossible in practice...for most people. All you needed was an incredibly powerful life force, massive chakra reserves, a connection to nature and the skill to use it, or in other words...you needed to be a sage with a godlike life force. After that, all that you needed was to use that life force to pull on the world until it rebelled against you with a series of natural disasters. He'd done a miniature version of it against Nagato completely by accident, which was what had led to discovering the ability to do the real thing once he'd schmoozed the life out of the Gedō Mazō.

Even now that he'd stopped, the skies remained dark with the occasional lightning bolt. It had also started raining and a stiff wind had picked up.

Naruto and Xanna both thought that it added a really appropriate atmosphere to the battle.

Madara's eyebrow twitched briefly in irritation before he brought it back under control. The blond was being incredibly annoying and it was starting to get to him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Meanwhile, the observing Kage had just about picked their jaws off the ground after seeing the Tenpenchii.

"I see that Tsunade left out quite a lot in Uzumaki's bingo book entry." Onoki said scathingly.

"No, when it was released that bingo book entry was pretty accurate." Jiraiya said dazedly, still stunned at what he'd seen his godson do. "I have no idea how he became this powerful in such a short time.

"I do." Gaara's gravely voice broke in, making everyone look at him. "He's demonstrated the powers of several Bijuu already, including the Rokubi, Ichibi and Nibi. He must have all of them sealed inside himself."

"Impossible." Jiraiya refuted. "You can't have more than one Bijuu in the same container. It's been tried before and it always caused the death of the Jinchuuriki."

"But the Kyuubi is different isn't she?" Gaara said as a reminder.

"You're right...the Kyuubi if fully sentient and by far the strongest of the Bijuu and we've seen that Naruto is capable of sealing and unsealing her inside him at will. He may have found a way to have her absorb the chakra of the other Bijuu." The toad Sannin said in realisation.

"Are you telling me that he's the one that killed my brother?!" A demanded with a shout, looking ready to charge in and attack.

"No Raikage-sama." C said grimly, seeing that he needed to speak up now. "I'm sensing the Hachibi's chakra inside Madara, not Uzumaki."

A wasn't any less pissed, he'd merely shifted targets.

"Wait Raikage-dono, attacking now would be unwise. Let them exhaust each other, we can attack when one of them falls, though it will be a shame to kill two such strong and handsome men." Mei said reasonably, causing everyone to sweatdrop at the last part of her sentence.

A looked even more pissed, but settled down for the moment.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just use my Dust Release to vaporize them both?" Onoki snarked.

"Because it wouldn't work." Jiraiya said flatly. "You've seen Madara absorbing a lot of the Ninjutsu that had no physical components such as fire and wind so he'd just absorb your Dust Release. As for Naruto...well, he knows the Hiraishin, so he could just teleport out. If we tried to attack them now, it wouldn't do anything except draw their attention to us."

Jiraiya was still faintly hoping that Naruto would somehow be able to come out of this alive and well, maybe even as a hero but he honestly couldn't do anything other than wait.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto and Madara were once more engaged in a furious Taijutsu battle, though this time it was in mid air.

"Why do you struggle so hard to stay awake in this hellish world? Do you even know how the power of chakra came into the possession of humans?" Madara demanded while using all four of his regular limbs, along with two extra arms courtesy of the Asura Path to fight against Naruto.

"Sure I do, Otsutsuki Kaguya got the munchies for some divine fruit while she was pregnant and her son Hagoromo decided to spread it around after sealing away the Juubi. Personally I think he was kind of a dumbass for thinking that humans would use that power for anything other than war." Naruto responded, retaliating against Madara's six limbed assault as best he could, but he was taking a lot of hits. Not that it really mattered since he was healing almost as fast as he was being damaged.

Madara was almost certain that Naruto's strange rendition of events was just a joke and he knew the true story, probably due to the Kyuubi telling it to him.

"If you know that, then why do you keep fighting? The shinobi world is a shameful joke of what should have been. Chakra should have been a gift that would allow people to understand each other but instead, it was weaponized. It would be better if everyone slept peacefully in the Infinite Dream."

"Yeah well, too bad for you that I don't really care about that. In the end, I'm a self centered bastard that only cares about staying with my wife forever and I need chakra for that."

"But you would have her forever if you just stopped fighting and helped me finish the Moon's Eye Plan!"

"That would be like settling for porn when I could have the real deal, who the fuck would do that!?"

Madara growled in irritation at the sheer stubbornness of the blond and finally managed to break through his guard enough to slam his palm on Naruto's chest and used the Human Path to make a grab for his soul. All the accumulated damage that Naruto had sustained had built up enough that he was just that bit too slow to stop Madara.

As soon as Madara tried to grab onto Naruto's soul however, he felt something else alongside it. A powerful and ancient spirit was coiled around the blond's soul and it prevented him from pulling it out of his body. The Human Path had no power over demons.

"His soul is mine!" A female voice snarled furiously and Madara had only a moment to register that Naruto suddenly had the same burning red eyes that he remembered the Kyuubi having before his nose was smashed with a headbutt.

"That was a pretty slick move you tried Madara, pulling out my soul. It might have actually worked if the circumstances were different." Naruto said, feeling quite amused at the way his wife had broken Madara's nose, even if it did heal rapidly.

"Are you insane? Allowing a demon direct access to your soul like that?" Madara asked incredulously, unable to mask his shock.

"She's my wife and I trust her." Naruto said simply, his face developing a grin when he felt Xanna's happiness at the proclamation. Aw yes, someone was getting lucky after this fight and his name was Uzumaki Naruto.

Focus husband, if you take any hits because weren't paying attention you won't be 'getting lucky' for a month.

Madara was slightly confused at the sudden intensely focused stare from Naruto, but shrugged it off.

Seeing as nothing seemed to be working aside from brute force, Madara unleashed one of his favorite techniques.

Naruto whistled as the towering blue form of Madara's final Susanoo appeared, it's massive size almost reaching the dark skies above. He'd been wondering when Madara was going to use that one.

"This Susanoo is destruction incarnate. If you cannot be beaten through skill, then you will be beaten through brute force." Madara intoned ominously.

"Yeah, how about no." Naruto scoffed and prepared his counter-technique. Hashirama's memories certainly were proving useful in this fight. Except for a few surprises, such as that Limbo technique, Madara was being rather predictable.

Alright, lets do this. Just like we practiced, but on a much bigger scale.

I am ready.

Naruto jumped away to give himself more room as well as dodge the swipe of Susanoo's massive sword. As soon as he had some room and time, he started spewing a vast torrent of lava from his mouth, which Xanna had moulded using the chakra formerly belonging to the Yonbi, and then stabbing his chains into it.

"Yōton: Onmyōton: Senpō: Yōgan Genso (Lava Release: Yin-Yang Release: Sage Art: Lava Elemental)!"

Lava to give it substance, Yin-Yang Release to give it form and will and an strong infusion of his own life force to allow him to manipulate it like a puppet despite the fact that lava would otherwise just collapse into a puddle.

The mass of lava started taking humanoid shape, until it was nearly as huge as Madara's Susanoo and formed a sword of lava.

If it wasn't for Xanna taking care of half of this technique, he'd never be able to pull it off. Then again, a lot of what he'd been doing in this fight was actually a collaboration effort, though both he and Xanna were guessing that Madara probably hadn't figured out that he was basically fighting against two people.

"Have fun with that guy Madara, I'll be over here, watching the spectacle and scratching my balls." Well not really, since he actually needed to keep his chains stabbed into his creation and move it with his will while Xanna heated the chains to prevent the damn thing from cooling down and hardening. He just said it to piss the Uchiha off...the battle was coming to a head and he knew it, but he couldn't let it end yet. Madara still hadn't made the fatal blunder that would end the battle.

Madara grit his teeth in frustration at the insane and impossible techniques that the blond was pulling off to counter him at every turn. They'd never fought before and yet Naruto seemed to know almost exactly what he needed to counter him. That wasn't even mentioning the fact that some of the techniques he'd used so far shouldn't be possible, such as this lava elemental. Even with the Rinnegan, Madara didn't think he'd be able to pull something like that off.

Having no choice but to fight the lava monstrosity, Madara moved his Susanoo to engage it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"This is insane." Kankuro muttered to himself in shock, forgetting that he was technically supposed to remain quiet while he was acting as the Kazekage's bodyguard.

Not that anyone was in any state to call him on it, as they stared with hanging jaws at the battle between Madara's Susanoo and Naruto's Lava Elemental. The two chakra creations were slamming their swords at each other hard enough to send blazing hot winds in every direction, causing miniature tornadoes as it encountered the colder wind generated by Naruto's earlier Tenpenchii.

The ground was already looking like a scorched hellscape as the lava elemental's massive feet set everything it touched ablaze.

Eventually, Madara's Susanoo won the battle, though it was only because of superior speed. The Susanoo, being a phantasmal warrior, had no mass and was therefore a good deal faster, which proved the crucial factor that allowed Madara to cut the lava elemental in half vertically.

Not that it helped him overmuch, since Naruto hurled a large, lava infused Rasengan into the back of his creation, causing it to explode all over Madara's Susanoo.