Invention and The Kyuubi's Strategy

In Konoha

3rd Person

*Crash*

*Boom*

Screams filled the streets of Konoha as large snakes, presumably belonging to Orochimaru, rampaged through the village. Despite the best efforts of the present shinobi, they were failing to take down the reptilian attackers.

"We're outmatched! This is beyond our capabilities!" Ibiki exclaimed, his anxiety evident. The shinobi wondered if they would even survive this ordeal.

But then, a sudden voice boomed out:

"Summoning: Watchtower Demolishing Jutsu!" A massive cloud of smoke appeared, and when it cleared, a frog wielding two unsheathed swords stood atop one of the snakes, seemingly victorious. A strong gust of wind blew in every direction as the ninja shielded their eyes from the commotion.

All gazes were fixed upon the figure standing atop the frog, and relief and reassurance spread across their features.

"The Jutsu used is..." Ibiki's expression visibly brightened at the sight of the person.

Standing on the frog was a tall, muscular man in his adulthood, with fair skin and waist-length white hair that was tied into a ponytail, and two shoulder-length bangs framing his face.

With a broad grin, he spoke up. "Long time no see, Ibiki... My, my, has only your body grown up? I can't bear to watch!"

"...Jiraya-sama," Ibiki said.

"Did someone say the legendary Sannin, Jiraya!?" A random ninja shouted. Jiraya chuckled at his reaction before turning to the other snakes, taking a weird pose and flashing a toothy grin.

Jiraya exclaimed, "You call yourself snakes, yet you're frozen in your tracks by the glare of a frog!"

Jiraya's thoughts raced as he witnessed the scene before him. Orochimaru had finally accomplished what he had been striving for. Ibiki joined him on the frog, positioned just a few meters away from the man.

Jiraya's face grew stern as he asked Ibiki, "Where is the Sandaime?"

"He's at the test arena," Ibiki replied.

Jiraya's expression hardened further, "I see."

'Don't go dying on me, old man,' he thought to himself. Suddenly, he felt a familiar energy emanating from the forest. Although the power seemed to be under control, Jiraya knew that it could only belong to Menma.

Jiraya quickly dispatched the snakes and instructed Ibiki, "The arena is under attack. After finishing up here, gather all available personnel and head to the arena."

Ibiki questioned, "Will you not accompany us, Jiraya-sama?"

"No, I have to be elsewhere," Jiraya replied as he dispelled his summon. They landed gracefully and Ibiki shunshined away.

As the wind blew, Jiraya stood tall, his hair flowing freely in the breeze as he gazed into the distance.

He thought to himself, 'I'd better hurry. It'll take me about 10 minutes if I go at maximum speed.' He then vanished from sight.

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Menma stood stationary, frustration evident in his eyes.'So annoying... He isn't even attacking and I'm having this much trouble.' Menma thought, he and his clone standing side by side as they prepared for the second act of the fight.

Lowering their stances the two then DASHING in a wide arc, the rapidly closed in on the stranger, their arms floating idly behind their backs, equipped with 2 kunai, the clone spun on his heel ROCKETING them at the stranger who's gaze was trained on the real Menma who was also rapidly approaching. Leaning back to avoid the projectiles, the real Menma flipped into a cartwheel simultaneously catching the weapons, engaging the stranger in combat.

He swung with deathly accuracy, trying his darnest to at least pierce the skin of the masked man to which almost all of his stabs and slices were swiftly dodged or parried, never being punished for any slip ups he made.

The stranger only dodged when needed to, parried whenever any lucky strike came too close for comfort, only pushing the boy whenever an opening was discovered, the boy's frustration increasing more as time went on much to the man's amusement.

Ducking into a back flip when he saw another palm about to touch his arm, Menma's clone attacked the man from the left swinging a kunai at his liver, mere inches from meeting its mark, the clone, for a split second saw a slight reddish glow emanate from the lone eye socket of the masked man, before the hand that held his weapon was caught, stopping the clone dead in its tracks then increasing his grip on the limb.

Purposely falling back, the clone used the weight difference to its advantage falling on its back, colliding roughly with the dirt, feeling that the grip on its arm slightly loosened. Gritting his teeth, the clone used every ounce of strength it could muster into its feet, before EMBEDDING them into the man's chest, kicking him into the air as he ripped his hand free from the stranger.

Menma then began areal combat with the masked man, looking as if they were suspended in the air. Shifting his body to dodge the punch Menma sent his way, the stranger dodged every attempt the teen made to injure him, as the clone joined in the slight glow that shine from his mask increased ever so slightly.

'This child is more fun I thought' he thought grinning under his mask.

Beginning to fall back to the solid landscape below, the blue skies shone brightly on the clashing figures. Blood, sweat and saliva surrounded the worn out teen as they fell to the ground.

Blocking an elbow strike from the clone, the mask man, finally switching to offence, clenched his fist tightly SLAMMING it into the jaw of the clone before he could even react causing it to disperse.

He spun adding momentum then buried his fist into Menma's stomach, the teen gasped for air, now mere feet from the ground the man grabbed Menma's leg then HURLED him into the forest.

Landing silently branch, he gazed as the bloodied body of the teen cleared yard after yard of trees, cuts and bruises accumulating all the while. Luckily the teen managed to gain his footing pushing off a tree trunk, leaping from tree to tree before coming to a stop on the ground and hunching over holding his stomach as he coughed up blood.

'You alright, brat' the kyuubi asked totally not worried about his container.

Wiping the blood from his lips he looked up and replied.'Yeah, I'm fine, just a few scratches.' Slowly straightening his back.

'Stop acting tough.' The kyuubi said then shared more chakra with the teen healing most of his injuries.

'So what do you plan on doing now, brat. One on one and circling him didn't work as you've clearly seen...well... felt...Got any more ideas?'

The teen pondered for a while then shook his head due to him running out of ideas.

After a moment of silence the fox then suggested."... I've got something, though its not guaranteed to work since its never been done before..."

'What is it?' The boy asked

'What if we make the perfect clone?'

"Are you seriously joking at a time like this? Everyone all knows that's not possible." Menma responded, crossing his arms and frowning slightly.

'You have a better plan?' The fox bit back. Menma's frown deepened even further."Hmph." Grinning in triumph the fox continued,

"As I was saying, I've been entertaining the idea for a while and came up with a sort of in field test to see just how well this idea could work. The first step requires you to visualise a clone and it needs to have a low amount of your chakra."

Menma, although reluctant, complied and summoned the clone according to the instruction."Now what?"

'Now... We experiment. Place your hand on his shoulder.' Nodding, Menma lifted his arm, gently placing it upon its shoulder.

'Now I'll give you some of my chakra then you will transfer it to the clone.' Feeling a warm aura slowly spread through his body from his stomach, Menma focused and channelled it up his torso and into the arm his arm then through his fingers forcing the energy into the clone.

"There's no way this will work" he scoffed

'We won't know until we try'

His already faintly present chakra inside the clone acting as a heart was then slowly overtaken by the dark reddish chakra of Kurama. The beast's chakra flowed freely through the clone's chakra points then making way up to its brain.

The now dark reddish chakra completely replacing that of Menma's with its own, the clone slowly opened its eyes showing its blood red iris and a slit pupils, a feeling of warmth radiated off the clone as if the warmth inside was seeping through its pores.

With the instructions of the kyuubi, Menma had managed to create the perfect clone, now inhabited by the beast, it repeatedly folded and released its fists to familiarize itself with the body then slowly looked around locking eyes with the teen.

"It... Actually worked..." Menma said in disbelief.

"Quite interesting isnt it, brat?" Kurama's voice replacing what would be the clone's. Looking the fox dead in its eye the boy could only sigh in defeat and nod.

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The wind that blew towards him provided a bit of life to what was already an eerie scene.

'Hiding? No, he isnt the type. Running away? Off the table, he isn't dumb enough to attempt that.'

'He's planning something.... What it may be, I'll have to wait and see.' The man thought to himself as he stood on the branch patiently awaiting the teen's arrival.

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"Now, before we start the plan, do you have any questions?" He asked

"Yeah, this thin reddish layer around you what's it about?"

"Did you feel the slight change in the temperature when I took over the clone?"

"And?"

"It protects this body from all physical damage, but only for a limited time frame, the warmth is my chakra that escapes this body as proof that its active and fully functional."

"I call it Aura, unfortunately I am unable to control the escaping chakra, all I do know is that when it is depleted the clone is susceptible to disperse in one hit."

"So basically aura makes you impervious to all damage?"

"Yes... But no, I can still feel the impact of the attack, its just that the damage won't affect the clone enough for it to disperse."

"Alright... So what's the attack plan?" He said switching the topic.

The fox smirked and said."We charge him."

"But that plan failed."

"That's the thing, he won't expect it. He would expect you to try and sneak attack him like before. But if we plan out our moves and charge him...There's no telling how deadly we could be." He said his smirk deepening.

"Hmph... Fine, how do we go about the frontal assault?"

"I say we charge through the trees and take him by surprise."

"Haa... Fine! Lets get this over with." Menma said rubbing the bridge of his nose then readying himself, waiting on his clone to do the same....

After a few moments of silence Menma glanced to the side, seeing that Kurama was standing and looking at him with a teasing smirk. Irritated, Menma almost lost his cool on the chakra infused clone.

"Why are you just standing there? Hu.rry.up!" He said with a smile radiating a menacing aura.

"Pfft, calm down kit... I never said you'd be running did I?" Kurama jested, with a frown Menma looked at the fox expecting answers.

"Think about it if we ran through the trees, then how do you expect us to gain the speed we need if we're constantly twisting and turning in between?"

"Then how will we reach him?"

"If your clones were to launch you through the trees that have wide enough gaps for you to slip through boosting your speed, you could fly out of the tree line with at minimum half the speed of sound." Kurama spoke, sparking a ray of interest in the mind of th ninja.

"Fine. We're wasting time anyways, lets just get this over with." Menma decided to relent not finding the passion in himself to argue about the plan.

Stepping back a few feet Kurama began the launch sequence, Dropping into a low stance bringing his left leg to the front, in a 90 ° angle as he straightened out his right into a low diagonal.

"For this to work you need to be extremely focused and quick with summoning your clones. I know with you may not get it on the first or second attempt, but try not to make it so we get it on the 20th okay?" He asked, opening his arms and bringing them to the right side of his face.

"Come at me."

Menma did as he was told somewhat eager to see just how much thought the fox put into his little plan. He stepped back a few feet then DASHED towards Kurama almost instantly covering the distance between the two, eyes locked onto the palms of the fox.

Menma leapt towards Kurama who gathered and condensed wind into his palms, Menma then transitioned into a dropkick, his feet finally making contact with the palms of Kurama, who shifted his body along with the momentum of the jump, from his left leg to his right.

His eyes locked onto his target through the foliage, he pumped chakra to his arms and legs strengthening them then BLASTED Menma through the trees at great speeds. Liking the power he felt through the clone, Kurama jumped up to a branch and darted from tree to tree.

Seeing that he was about to hit a tree Menma summoned a clone again, without hesitation it clutched the teen by the ankles and spun on an axis propelling him to the top of the trees. Menma felt his speed increase he was soon above the trees so he summoned another clone above, parallel to him.

Menma rotated clockwise bringing his feet to the lower part of the clone's stomach moments before THRUSTING even faster through the foliage, now a ways away from engaging with the masked man once more.

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Still standing atop his perch, his black cloak styled with red clouds flowed freely in the subtle breeze. The previous Crimson flare in his solitary eye now non-existent, overtaken by a deep shade of black, looking towards the direction he sensed the boy then tilting his head upwards towards the sky.

'He's coming.'