Chapter 113: Bad Choices

Disclaimer:

Naruto and all of its characters belong to Shueisha and Masashi Kishimoto.

I own nothing but the original characters I create.

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

-Author notes-

Chapter 113: Bad Choices

"Wait! Take it outside! You'll destroy everything!" the manager shouted.

The large man, Hanma, glared at Naruto.

"This kid looks nimble and fast. If we fight outside, he'll have the advantage…" He tensed his muscles, and they swelled to twice their size, his shoulders now nearly touching both sides of the narrow hallway.

"There's nowhere to run here." With that, Hanma charged at Naruto.

Naruto watched as the giant stepped over the unconscious bodies of the men he had just defeated. The sound of their bones breaking was loud, but Hanma didn't seem to care about his co-workers. His focus was entirely on crushing Naruto.

"Take this!" A powerful straight punch was aimed directly at Naruto's face.

Naruto dodged by moving his head aside, or at least it seemed like he had dodged, but he felt an impact on his cheek and was still sent flying backward.

"Haha! How'd you like that? I'm not so easy to avoid," Hanma laughed.

"Your arm grew…" Naruto patted his cheek. He had noticed the trick. His dodge had been perfect, but just before Hanma's punch landed, his forearm had grown, forcing Naruto to miscalculate the space necessary to avoid the hit.

"Yeah, that trick always gets ninjas. You lot are lacking in creativity when it comes to chakra. You see…" His body swelled again. " I may not know your ninjutsu, but I can control my muscles completely."

"I see… that's interesting, but that trick won't work on me again. So I hope you have something more than that. " It was clear now that chakra usage wasn't as secretive as the academy had made it seem.

Naruto also recognized that Hanma was using a form of taijutsu.

'There's probably a sizable black market for ninja manuals,' Naruto mused. With the number of missing ninjas out there, it wouldn't be that surprising if some of those decided to make some money by selling their village's secret methods.

Hanma charged again, launching another straight punch aimed at Naruto's face.

This time, Naruto wasn't planning to just dodge. He spotted an opening and struck with his knuckles, hitting directly beneath Hanma's arm at the elbow joint.

"Ahhhhh!" Hanma screamed. Though he could bulk up his muscles, his bones remained as vulnerable points. The bones in his right arm were fractured but not fully broken. He stepped back, creating space for his next attack.

"Those ninjas you killed… they were just genin, weren't they?" Naruto asked, his expression calm.

Hanma ignored the question and lunged again, this time leading with his left fist. His hand grew until it almost covered Naruto's entire upper body.

"Die!"

Naruto stepped back and threw a kick to deflect the punch.

Hanma smiled. He had been waiting for that. The moment Naruto moved, Hanma returned his left fist to its normal size and lunged forward with his right hand. It had been a feint.

"You're mine!"

His massive hand grabbed Naruto's face, and Hanma applied all his strength to crush it...only for the figure in his grasp to vanish in a puff of smoke.

"With that half-assed taijutsu style and that muscle trick… even a rookie Chunin would see right through it," Naruto's voice echoed from behind him.

"What?" Hanma turned, stunned to see Naruto standing behind him.

"How did—?"

"Substitution and Clone are just basic jutsu… Let me show you something that isn't basic." Naruto raised his hand, and a Rasengan began to form.

In that moment, Hanma knew he was in serious trouble.

"W-wait!" It was too late to run. He was now the one trapped in the hallway. The only exit would the stairs to the next level but those were too far away.

Naruto completed the Rasengan and closed the distance between them in less than a second.

Sensing the danger, Hanma crossed both arms in front of him and bulked up his muscles as much as possible. His body became a huge mass of flesh, barely fitting in the corridor.

As soon as the Rasengan made contact, Naruto pushed it forward and stepped back.

What followed was a gruesome spectacle as the spinning chakra sphere tore through the gigantic bulk of muscle.

Hanma let out a bloodcurdling scream of agony, but it didn't last long. His vital organs were destroyed, and he died soon after.

The manager stood at the other end of the hallway, completely covered in blood and trembling.

"You should've let me go when you had the chance…" Naruto muttered. He didn't enjoy senseless killing, but he would repay any attack on him in kind.

With that, Naruto turned and left the building.

No one came after him as he walked away, which didn't surprise him.

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He wandered the city streets for over an hour, eventually visiting another gambling house without incident.

However, the story he heard there matched what he had been told earlier. Tsunade had visited the previous year, played several games of dice, lost a significant sum of money, and then disappeared without paying.

Eventually, Naruto decided to rest in a quiet part of the city and take some time to think.

"And they want that woman to become the next leader?..." Naruto wondered if the elders truly knew what Tsunade was like. Everything he had found so far, did not give a pretty picture of that individual.

"Hurry! This way!" Several armed men ran toward him.

For a moment, Naruto thought they were coming to arrest him for killing the large man at the gambling den, but it quickly became clear they had no interest in him.

"Make way, boy!"

"Move!"

Naruto stepped aside, watching the squad of soldiers rush past and take a set of stairs leading to the city's outer walls.

"Did something happen?" he asked, not expecting an answer. However, a kind-looking soldier stopped next to him.

"Young man, you shouldn't go near the walls right now. A giant monster has appeared and damaged part of the Shogun's castle!"

"A monster?" Now Naruto was truly curious.

"Yes, a giant snake!"

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