Naruto The Twin Swords

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Chapter

Broken Alliance

Part 4

( ): Thoughts

((" ")): Holy Talon's voice

(( )): Kyuubi's voice

...

Valley of the End...

Naruto was quick to avoid several attacks from Sasuke as the former Konoha ninja attacked with a great deal of anger as well as signs that the Cursed Seal was now under his control. The blonde Chuunin was able to deflect and evade those blows and as Sasuke came in for a stab, he retaliated. The blonde ducked from the attack and quickly slammed an elbow right into Sasuke's gut, forcing him back and allowing Naruto to quickly move forward and slam the flat side of Holy Talon right into Sasuke's face. The blow was enough to send the Uchiha youth reeling but not enough to knock him out as he quickly recovered his footing and slashed at the blonde, which made Naruto use the flat of Holy Talon to block the incoming sword strike. The clashing of the swords was heard as Sasuke quickly came in to try and land a punch at Naruto who blocked the incoming attack and hit back with a kick to the stomach.

Sasuke blocked that as well and they soon moved back to get some space, Sasuke quickly ran to the side and Naruto did not hesitate to follow the Uchiha and as they reached the end of the statue of the First Hokage who had pursed Madara Uchiha, The two leaped into the air as Sasuke turned and fired several shuriken at Naruto who quickly dodged them before firing his own kunai at Sasuke as the two of them continued to fall downwards. The soon clashed with one another in mid flight and several slashes and thrusts were exchanged between them with their swords, Sasuke with the stolen Dragonsteel sword and Naruto Holy Talon. The two quickly moved back, landing on the water while using water walking.

The two of them were hardly idle however as Sasuke finally used his Sharingan to even up the odds into his favour and came right at Naruto at full speed. Naruto however focused on the feet movements of Sasuke and quickly began to counter him. Apparently Gai thought it would be best that Naruto had some of the basics in fighting Sharingan users if he was ever able to face off with Sasuke, only that had been for the time that both would be competing to prove themselves as worthy Jonin.

So even if this was not the purpose that Gai intended, the training proved enough to even the odds as Naruto began to counter Sasuke's attacks. He blocked an incoming slash to the side by moving Holy Talon to his side with the blade down before moving the sentient sword upward at an angle to deflect Sasuke's strike before moving Holy Talon into a slash of his own in the middle which forces Sasuke on the defensive. The blonde Chuunin however was hardly finished with Sasuke in this battle as he quickly charged at him and lashed out with a leaping slash aimed at Sasuke who blocks with his own sword, only for Naruto who quickly moves from a two handed grip to one handed grip and uses his free hand to grab Sasuke's wrist that held the sword and used it to get closer and land a serious knee strike into his former team mate's face.

"GAH!"

Sasuke's cry of pain and rage was easy to understand as Naruto quickly spun in mid strike to deliver a devastating axe kick with his other leg to hit Sasuke right in the shoulder. The Uchiha cried in pain once more but quickly retaliated for the double attacks he suffered as he grabbed Naruto's leg and quickly moved the blonde off of him and quickly got himself into an advantageous before releasing the blonde and landing a punch into Naruto's chest. The blonde's vest handled that but Sasuke followed by using his elbow to strike at Naruto's face, the blonde evaded the strike and quickly turned to lash out a kick that hit Sasuke and forced him back. The two of them faced one another and then charged with blades flashing out.

CLANG!

The two swords smashed hard into one another as sparks flew and both fighters glared at one another. They pushed one another back and forth, but Naruto, having developed his physical strength and endurance alongside his stamina had won out and pushed Sasuke back, forcing him to flip back to avoid losing his balance. This enraged Sasuke as he knew that while Naruto was not as bulky in muscle mass, he was now physically stronger than before compared to him and thus engaging in a protracted fight with the blonde was not a wise idea.

Still he had no intention of letting himself look weak before the blonde. Naruto's sad but determined look was the kind one usually gave to former allies who they now regretfully had to fight. But the Uchiha was having none of that, too far gone at this moment in anger and the desire for power and in his mind retribution to care. The Uchiha felt the Cursed Seal begin to take over once more, but this time he did not refuse the power it gave him and soon the flame tattoos came back and he charged at Naruto his body now unleashing the corrupting violet flames.

Naruto could see it all and he was angry at the sight, to think that it had come this far, part of him wanted to beat Sasuke to a bloody pulp and worse for what he had done, but the other part also reminded him that he had a duty to bring him in to stand trial. Yet once more another part of him told him to make sure that he got all the facts right from Itachi about the massacre that had reached this point in time. What reason would Itachi have for committing the massacre that shaped Sasuke into this vengeful monster before him and the traitor to the village that had been his home?

He would have to make sure that he was going to find Itachi again and demand answers and hold Sasuke alive long enough to get the truth out of him. But for now he had to bring Sasuke in first in order to do all of those things that he wanted to do even if it was perfectly clear that the Uchiha was not going to make the whole thing easy for him. The two once more attacked one another with several slashes and thrusts aimed at various parts of each other's anatomy. Naruto quickly evaded a slash aimed for his neck before he ducked and kicked hard into Sasuke's side.

The blow sent Sasuke back as Naruto quickly charged with a stab aimed at the Uchiha's torso. Sasuke managed to block it but not the following punch to the face. The blo sent Sasuke reeling and this was the opening that Naruto needed and slashed out with Holy Talon...and the blow he unleashed connected right at his former team mate and friend.

"AAAAAAUUUGGGGGHHHH!"

Sasuke roared in pain as Holy Talon cut into his flesh and spilled blood this time around, showing that the Holy Dragon Sword now considered him to a truly evil foe who had to be stopped, even if meant resorting the lethal means, this also angers Naruto gretly as this only adds to how far Sasuke had fallen. The Uchiha glared at Naruto deeply and did not hesitate the attack once more. Their swords clashing once again as they began to unleash blows at the highest speed they could unleash on one another.

The two continued to clash with one another until Sasuke revealed that he had indeed picked up a new skill...apparently despite being in that prison, Sasuke had not been idle as he suddenly coated the sword with Lightning and then turned the weapon into a lightning covered blade and lashed out at Naruto.

The blonde gritted his teeth as the clashing blade unleashed several arcing branches of lightning surrounded him and even hit him, causing his nerves to go numb for a bit. He managed to power through the attack and managed to get some space and decided that he would need to ramp it up and counter this new technique his way. He quickly moved back and then channelled his Wind Chakra into himself and then began to use the signs.

"FUUTON! KAZE YOROI!"

The wind currents quickly began to surround the blonde as he used his chakra to create the wind suit of armour. The action proved to be accurate as the wind deflected the Lightning Chakra that arced all over the area as they clashed with one another and if witnessed by another ninja, would have compared it to a certain Kage's Lightning Chakra Armour. Sasuke glared as the Cursed Seal amplified his power as he began to try and force Naruto back, while using his own chakra to try and increase the cutting power of the sword he had stolen.

Naruto likewise used his chakra to enhance his own strength, reserving his Dragon fire for more potent moves as they continued to attack one another with greater intensity. The Wind Chakra helped counter the Lightning chakra covering Sasuke and his sword as they moved to fight even more than before. Sasuke quickly stabbed the sword into the ground and channelled it towards Naruto who quickly countered the move by stabbing Holy Talon into the ground and unleashing a blast of Wind Chakra.

The end result of the combined move was seen as pillars of Lightning clashed with pillars of Wind and the Valley of the End was as s sight to behold. Both ninja quickly moved towards one another with Sasuke charging in with the sword coated in Lightning Chakra and Naruto charging with Holy Talon covered in Wind Chakra.

...

Back with the others...

...

Shikamaru was not pleased with the situation he was in as he had tried to evade the Ogre summons that were coming to end his life. Tayuya was more than willing to add to the mess he was in as she was using her Flute to unleash more Genjutsu into his brain and fighting both the Genjutsu and the Ogre Summons, he used his own Jutsu to get an edge but the woman made it harder as she was well aware of the limits of his range. And how she did that was to have her Ogres move in to keep him from getting enough time to complete his Jutsu, yet it was not enough as she also made sure to constantly move so it would be harder for him to be pin her down.

After some quick manoeuvring though, he finally managed to subdue Tayuya's Ogre summons and that gave him the chance he needed to end her quickly. He quickly used several Light bombs to give him more shadows to use and thankfully the bombs plus the fake Explosive Tags that he tossed alongside the Light Bombs on Kunai had managed to force the Oto Kunoichi in the right spot and soon he began to use his Jutsu to kill her quickly.

"You bastard!"

Tayuya shouted out in rage as the shadows surrounded her and soon they began to choke her. Shikamaru knew that he had to hurry, there was no telling how much chakra he had left in him to do this once and for all before something went wrong. But soon he spotted something happening to the woman before him, the tattoos that told him of her use of the Cursed Seal glowed and soon he was having a very bad feeling.

The second he saw the transformation of Tayuya into her Cursed Seal's second form, he knew he was in trouble. And soon it was proven right as she was exerting more strength in her body and forcing him to use more of his previous chakra to restrain the woman. And no doubt she knew it as she was now giving him one very vicious grin.

(Damn it...this is troublesome, I am running on empty here...but the very second I release her, she's going to attack.)

Tayuya soon managed to free enough of herself and soon used her flute again despite Shikamaru' attempt to stop her, and soon she caught him in a powerful Genjutsu and this gave her the chance to break free. Shikamaru was not in a very good situation and it seemed that he was about to be attacked while in the Genjutsu as Tayuya, now freed from the Shadows that the now incapacitated Nara heir had once summoned. She glared at him and reached out with a kunai.

"You managed to restrain me you little shit, but now you are dead!"

But before that could happen...

Tayuya was caught off guard when the blade end of a spear blocked her kunai and before she could react a massive blast of wind smashed hard into her in that very instant, she was sent flying backwards and managed to catch herself on a tree to see just who had arrived to stop her from killing her target. And it was none other than Temari of Suna and Meer herself.

...

Shikamaru managed to get some air into his lungs and began to fight off the effects of the Genjutsu and turned to see to his surprise none other than Meer coming right at Tayuya with her halberd smacking hard into Tayuya's stomach, making the Oto Kunoichi cough up blood, even if she was in her Cursed Seal's Second Stage. She was not alone however as a massive blast of wind suddenly came out of nowhere and send her back to the ground with a lot of force.

That revealed none other than Temari who apparently had decided to ditch her old outfit and try something new for a change. But it was fairly obvious that she was here to take down the Oto Kunoichi and was not in the mood to waste time. She did however give Shikamaru a smirk.

"Nice seeing you again, hope we were not too late in coming along to help you out."

Meer also nodded while moving her halberd into a striking position.

"You get your head together while we work on relieving her of said head."

Tayuya however was having none of it as she managed to get herself to her feet.

"You two fucking bitches think you can take me on?! Then bring it!"

Temari, and Meer glared at that and did not speak at all, letting their counter attacks do the speaking for them while Shikamaru could not help but watch as the three warrior women clashed with one another. And once more he could not help but comment to himself, hopefully in a lower tone of voice so as not to be heard.

"This is such a drag."

But he was not going to stay down for long, there was no way he was going to sit on his ass like this and not get some hits in to help them out. He quickly checked his chakra reserves and knew that he was low once more...having used up a fair deal in restraining Tayuya's summons and Tayuya herself who was now in full blown Cursed Seal release mode

Shikamaru was quick to evade the attacks of the Ogre Summons of Tayuya and she was more than willing to try and ambush him and use a Sound Genjutsu to catch him off guard and allow her Summons to finish him off permanently. Naturally however, Meer and Temari were more than able to force them away from the Konoha Chuunin and he managed to use this to recover some of his strength as well as his chakra and when he got enough he moved in to help both Temari and Meer.

(Damn it...my chakra's not fully recovered yet, but there's no way I am going to be sitting this out.)

The Nara Clan heir quickly ran a few plans through his head and quickly got up to move in order to place himself into a good position to launch an attack of his own. But he made sure to do it carefully as his low chakra supply would leave him very vulnerable. He was soon able to get some distance from the battle zone and he moved to using his Jutsu again, but only when he got an opening.

(I may have to use that Jutsu of my family again...damn it, I might not have enough chakra for that now, but I have no choice.)

But before he could do so Meer moved to give Shikamaru something. The something that Meer gave him turned out to be a pouch from her side and it was a bit of bread which she then explained.

"Take it, it is specially made in the same way your friend Chouji's pills work but only restores chakra, not burns calories!"

Shikamaru did not hesitate and ate some of the bread, and quickly he felt his chakra begin to increase and so far no harmful side effects. That was what he needed and soon he used his Jutsu once more on the female Oto ninja.

He waited for the right moment and then used his chakra just as Tayuya was going to use her Flute again while firing out some of his special Light bombs. Temari and Meer spotted that and quickly realized what was going on and moved back to block their eyes.

That move was enough to finally restrain the Oto Kunoichi and allow both Temari and Meer to move in for the kill as it were. The boost of chakra was more than welcome but Shikamaru knew that even with the boost he was not in any shape to fight so it would have to fall on Meer and Temari to finish off Tayuya.

"Damn you! Get away from me you fucking bitches!"

Meer snarled at that and so did Temari, neither of them were in the mood to be listening to the taunts and insults from Tayuya, even if the Oto Kunoichi was in her full Cursed Seal Mode. Temari was well aware of this style of fighting as she had been told by Kin about it and quickly unleashed a massive blast of wind.

Tayuya quickly had her Ogre Summons move in to defend her since she was still restrained by Shikamaru and they took the blast of wind from Temari. But before they could react and attack the two women before Shikamaru, the Konoha Chuunin managed to use his recovered chakra to secure the three briefly at the very same time, a risky gambit since he had used up more of his chakra restraining Tayuya. This was the kind of delay that both women needed as Meer charged at one and then used the butt of his spear and used it as a vaulting pole

"SILENCE!"

Meer shouted in anger as she quickly closed the distance to Tayuya and before Tayuya could act...

SPLISH!

Tayuya looked down in pain and saw that Meer's winged spear had pierced through her body and she could only gasp in shock at this as the Steel Lancer used her strength to push the weapon and then impale the Oto ninja on a tree. The pain of the wound forced Tayuya to lose control of her Cursed Seal and she began to revert back to her old self, she glared defiantly at Meer who merely snarled and lifted the now impaled Oto Kunoichi and tossed her to be stapled into a tree.

Tayuya spat out a wad of blood as Meer reached inside a special pack on her back and revealed several sections of a spear and assembled the weapon, and once done, she was armed once more.

This was the exact moment that Temari summoned her personal Animal Summon as a large weasel like summon armed with a powerful large sickle.

"Now you are gone!"

The result was the utter destruction of the forest before the still surprised Chuunin as the animal summon unleashed by Temari made short work of the trees that and caught Tayuya in the vortex of wind that cut like blades. He covered his eyes but not his ears as the winds howled all over the place and he was not in the mood to look at the results just yet as the winds were murder on the ears.

Soon as the wind died the forest was turned into a mess and Tayuya was there, dead and back in her old human form and with the spear still buried deep in her body. Shikamaru soon released his Jutsu and fell down to the ground, only for Meer to reach him and help him up.

"Don't you dare pass out on me yet."

"Give me...a break...I'm beat..."

"Shut it lazy boy, you are going to tell us where the others went, medical team is on the way."

"F-fine..."

Shikamaru did his best to stay conscious now, the last thing he wanted was this troublesome woman shaking the innards out of him to keep him awake.

(Women are so troublesome...)

...

Elsewhere...

Rock Lee was quite surprised to see none other than Gaara appear to block the incoming attacks of Kimimaro and got an even bigger surprise when several green flames came right at the Oto ninja before him and Gaara. He did not need to guess on who had just arrived in the battle and he smiled at the fact that he now had help in this battle with Kimimaro. The Oto ninja was less than pleased by this as he gazed at the new arrivals and quickly used his Kekkai Genkai to unleash several bone bullets from his fingers at them. Gaara created a shield of Sand to block the attacks and then unleashed his own variant of the attacks as spheres of sand that had the density of diamond flew from the barrier.

Kimimaro avoided the attacks but was soon greeted by a combined attack of both Rock Lee and his girlfriend as both Taijutsu Expert and Firedancer unleashed a combination of kicks and punches at the Kaguya survivor. Kimimaro was annoyed greatly but was not going to give up and continued to fight to the highest level of his ability, though it was clear that he would have to revert to using his Cursed Seal at some point as the two were proving to be a problem. Gaara's presence in the battle only added to that as he supported the pair.

Rock Lee and Valena dodged several more slashes from Kimimaro with Valena quickly landing a powerful dual kick to Kimimaro's side and while he did block her following up kick with his bone blade, Rock Lee quickly came and he had to evade a series of punches and then managed to block an incoming side kick to his head...only for Lee to quickly move forward and knee him in the face.

The blow sent Kimimaro reeling but only for a while as he snarled at the Konoha Taijutsu specialist.

"You!"

Kimimaro lashed out with a slash from his bone weapon that would have easily cut through Lee's neck had he not leaned back and then ducked to flip backward and launched a kick at Kimimaro from below. The Oto Ninja however quickly moved back to both avoid the kick and position himself to attack Lee...only for Valena to come in and unleash several blasts of green fire at him, first with several fast punches and as she landed unleashing several overhead kicks to unleash more of the fire. This naturally angered Kimimaro but he kept himself focused on what had to be done and he attacked the Firedancer who proved to be able to hold her own, ut he was not deterred in the slightest and quickly used a combination of a feint with is finger bullets to force her to dodge and then he leaped in towards her, flipping and before she could react, he discarded his bone blade and summoned another one to stab her in the leg.

"GAH!"

Valena cried out, even though the bone blade had not bitten deeply into her leg as she had managed to evade, the pain inhibited her somewhat and also made her open to attack, just what Kimimaro was hoping for. Only the quick arrival of Gaara's Sand which came from the ground as spikes to force Kimimaro back made it possible for her to fall back and assess her wound.

It was not threatening at the moment but like any injury it would slow her down and make her more vulnerable. And for a Fire Dancer like her, vulnerability equaled liability in battle. She was not keen on giving up though and when Lee came to her side, she spoke to him to assure him that she was all right.

"I am fine Lee. Focus on him for now...I will patch myself up."

Lee nodded and promised her that they would win together, making her smirk as she moved back to let them deal with Kimimaro. As Lee and Gaara continued to fight Kimimaro, they both wondered just how was Naruto doing in his battle with Sasuke. Both Shinobi had no doubt that the blonde had encountered Sasuke at this point and no doubt they were fighting one another. So all they could hope for was that they were able to come to his aid soon.

But naturally, they had to deal with the one person blocking them...Kimimaro.

As for Valena she quickly got out a small potion for healing and downed the drink and soon the magical fluid began to help knit her wound as the flesh began to mend and the pain subsided. But the process was not rapid so he she could only hope that Lee and Gaara were able to hold their own until she got ready to fight once more.

Rock Lee quickly closed the distance with Kimimaro and began to unleash more punches and kicks which the last of the Kaguya Clan managed to block but Gaara was quick to support Rock Lee by using several sand shields to block Kimimaro's use of his Bone Bullets while Valena and Rock Lee moved away from the sand and attacked the Sound Ninja once they were able to get some breathing space. Kimimaro was not the least bit pleased but focused himself in fighting the two ninja who were now coming at him though the strange human like being was just as skilled if not more so than some he had fought.

But that hardly meant that he was going to give up as he engaged the three fiercely, doing what he could to deal with the Konoha ninja and his apparent female partner, and the Suna ninja. He had of course been kept up to date on the recent events and recognized the one with the sand abilities and the massive gourd as Gaara of the Sand, and the Jinchuuriki of one of the Tailed Beasts. He however was not going to let that fact intimidate him as he attacked once more and was soon engaged by Rock Lee and Valena.

Rock lee managed to land a blow to Kimimaro though the man was far from out of the fight and attacked with his own flurry of stabs and slashes with his bone sword though Valena unleashed a blast of fire to force him away. The Oto ninja turned to attack the elf Firedancer in retaliation but was blocked by Gaara who was hardly idle as he unleashed several spears of sand at the ninja, this allowed Lee to finally reach into his pocket and take out a bottle.

He knew that this was going to e a bit risky, but he had to do what he could even if he personally had doubts that it can be effective. But with the battle being this fierce, there was no time for him to have any form of doubt or hesitation in him. He can only hope that Gai-sensei understood just why he had taken that bottle.

...

Gai could not help but shake his head a bit at the discovery, but unlike his usual actions, Gai looked a bit worried and that confused the others near him and it was Tsunade who asked the question on their minds as well as her own.

"What's the problem Gai?"

"It seems that Lee had taken something I had hoped he would not bring, I had recently left a bottle of sake nearby here and he apparently grabbed it even though I strictly told him not to take a bottle with this mark. He may intend to use it to get drunk and then use the Drunken Fist style. I know this because I have marked that bottle specifically to warn him not to take it."

Tsunade had heard of the style but was not that familiar with this branch of Taijutsu as few ever used it.

"Drunken Fist?"

"Basically it's a fighting style that replicates the gestures and movements of someone who is drunk Tsunade-hime. Therefore it requires the user to drink any alcoholic beverage that makes them more relaxed and limber. This makes the movements much harder to predict and make them willing to attack in several angles that normally would be hard to do. Plus the alcohol helps make their actions even more difficult to predict even by high level Taijutsu users due to the fact it has no basis. Unfortunately it does have some weak points."

"I can guess that being drunk is in itself one?"

"Yes."

"Yes, I discovered Rock Lee's affinity with Drunken Fist purely by accident Tsunade-sama. As you know, the Drunken Fist is a very unpredictable but powerful style of Taijustu not many are skilled in using due to the fact that one has to drink alcohol to use it. I had taken them to a bar one time to celebrate but apparently Lee had ordered a sake bottle and drank it, unaware of his choice. By the time I realized that he had drunk it, he began to lash out and destroy much of the bar in a drunken state in trying to impress me. He showed such affinity to the style that it caught me off guard and it took me, Neji, and Tenten to restrain him."

"I see...how did that turn out?"

Gai rubbed his chin and replied.

"I told him about it and explained to him what I discovered, his natural affinity to it is one of the reasons I believe that Lee takes more to Taijutsu than Ninjutsu and Genjutsu. I did tell him that one can actually control the unpredictable nature of the Drunken Fist, and that style can be effective, but the style can only be unlocked to full potential if one is able to control their drunken state to focus the unpredictable style to fight a foe, so far Lee has not used it since he has admitted that he has no idea how high his tolerance for alcohol is and does not want a repeat of what happened as he began to recall the damage he did. But this is something that worries me."

Tsunade kept in mind just what Gai had said earlier and realized what he was driving at.

"He plans to use it consciously?"

"I do not know, he never has much opportunity to use it, I do not doubt Lee's ability to use the Drunken Fist Tsunade-hime, but his lack of control in that state can be a bit of a weakness. I can only hope that if he has to use it consciously he would focus solely on his foe and fight said foe instead of attacking his comrades. Not to mention that he is not placed to a point that he ignores dangerous injuries."

Tsunade shook her head at that, this mission had just become a lot more complicated and she did not like that one bit.

...

Back with Lee...

He knew that he was going to take a risk using the Drunken Fist if he took the sake, but it seemed to be the best option to even up the odds now that Kimimaro had used his Cursed Seal. And even though he was fully healed and much stronger than before, he was not going to take risks when it came to fighting the last of the Kaguya Clan. Valena was holding her own as her Firedancer style was unknown and Gaara's use of his Sand abilities was evening up the odds. But the fact that the Oto ninja was not going down and was still more than able to fight them all. And if he had now used his Cursed Seal then the situation would only get worse.

Thus with that in mind, Lee did not hesitate to down the drink and soon he alcohol took effect and he began to move rather erratically and before anyone could react, he charged right at Kimimaro who defended himself. But he was suddenly caught off guard when Lee evaded his attack and managed to unleash several attacks that were...confusing. He was therefore surprised by the suddenly unpredictable style Lee was using. He blocked a kick meant for his side, only for the Taijutsu user to suddenly drop down to the ground and suddenly push himself up to both his hands and unleash spinning kicks from a hand stand position.

(What the heck is this?)

Lee was not going to stop as he began to push his attacks faster and stronger while moving in such a way that even when Kimiaro attacked, his blows were intercepted and countered at the same time. Valena and Gaara were not far behind either as they also came in to attack Kimimaro, though it was mostly Lee who took to the offensive as they knew that going all out on their end could endanger Lee as he was close to the Oto ninja and any powerful attack that was a lot more wide spread could lead into him being caught in the attack and be in an even worse state. Lee however was proving himself to be more than able to handle himself for the time being and so both Valena and Gaara moved to using their respective talents to keep Kimimaro off balance.

As for Lee, he was having a hard time in a sense as the Oto ninja was no slouch even though he was suffering several more impacts from the now drunk ninja from Konoha. he was aware that he had low tolerance to drink but even if he was in a drunken state he managed to focus on attacking the Oto ninja. But already Kimimaro was now thrown off his game as Lee's unpredictable attacks were doing a good number on him and soon he was hit several times more. Gaara and Valena were more than willing to move in and attack the ninja when there was an opening to them both. And right now it was working for the three of them as more of their attacks landed on Kimimaro. However it was not long before the man got wise and fought back, forcing Lee to stop his drunken offensive and he quickly attacked Valena and Gaara, firing several finger bullets at Gaara to distract the Sand user before engaging Valena, who quickly evaded some of his attacks and managed to block some of his more serious attacks, her speed allowing her to match the ninja and after trading some blows with him managed to create a sword of her own, but of pure green flame and used it to counter more of the fast moving close ranged stabs and slashes he sent her way.

Lee managed to arrive in time, but as predicted his drunken state made him unpredictable as he actually kicked Valena aside before landing a kick on Kimimaro. the Elven woman was none too pleased by that but she moved quickly to the side and soon lee was attacking Kimimaro again who had gone back to trying to kill the Taijutsu master. Valena was able to get some space and checked where the drunken Lee had hit her, it was not that bad a hit, but she was certainly going to give him an earful for that, for now though she turned her attention back to Lee and Kimimaro as the two clashed and soon Gaara got into the act as soon as he could by attacking Kimimaro who had moved back to get some room when he managed to force Lee back. Gaara's attack comprised of a massive wave of Sand that suddenly had several copies of himself come out from the sand and engage Kimimaro in hand to hand combat. Thus Kimimaro was under full assault on multiple sides as the Sand copies of gaara were using the sand they were composed of to attack with weapons and not merely kicks and punches.

The ninja managed to evade those attacks but had been tagged by a few blows, and Lee capitalized on that as Kimimaro managed to destroy a pair of sand copies of Gaara, but their destruction covered Lee and he landed a killer of a haymaker on Kimimaro's face. The blow was soon followed by lee landing a powerful kick into Kimimaro's chest, But the Oto ninja was not out of the fight as his ribs erupted from his chest and finally wounded Lee. It seemed that the spilling of his blood in combat would break Lee's drunken haze...added to that fact was that in the whole battle, Lee had begun to burn much of the drink out of his system and this meant he was losing the boost the alcohol had given him. As soon as that happened, the situation was now in favor of the lone Oto ninja...still the battle from before had made it clear to Kimimaro that he could ill afford to treat the three as simple threats he could wipe out with no trouble and effort.

...

Elsewhere...

Kiba and Akamaru were badly injured but hardly out of the fight as Ukon and Sakon were still reeling from the actions of the pair. The Jutsu that the two had used to fuse together into a massive two headed dog was devastating to the Oto ninja siblings, but their counter had been enough to not only stop the assault but had severely injured the two. This had been the opening that Sakon wanted and had somehow managed to separate himself from his brother and infect Kiba.

Needless to say it was bad indeed for the pair and it was even more grating to Kiba to see his partner helpless like this, and to make it worse, the bastard was trying to hijack his body and use him to hurt Akamaru. This was hard for Kiba but he was not going to let that stand. Much to his now unwanted passenger's surprise, Kiba grabbed a kunai nd instead of stabbing Akamaru as he wanted, Kiba stabbed himself and in a vital area that induced heavy bleeding in BOTH of them. Thus in the end the Oto ninja was forced to releases Kiba and return to his brother. That did not mean that things were looking up for the pair as Kiba managed to reach Akamaru and move away to recover...even though he knew that it was pretty bad. He was now bleeding badly and was still injured, with Akamaru in no better shape than he was. But he was not going to let those two kill either or his partner. The only good thing is that even if left, the brief connection had inflicted pain on Kiba's foe so he could be given an opening.

Sadly it was not going to last long and now both he and Akamaru were in danger of being finished off as the now transformed brohters were right behind the two. And with both of them badly injured the way they were, they were not going to get very far. So it left Kiba to do the one thing not many ninja did unless they had no choice and were ready to sell their lives dearly...a last stand.

But now the Konoha ninja found himself and Akamaru with allies...in the shape of Kankuro of Suna as well as Liara. The Druidess was quick to fire several arrows from her own bow to force the conjoined Oto ninja twins away from him and Akamaru while Kankuro moved in and landed nearby.

The brother of Gaara grinned at the two and spoke.

"Hang back and heal a bit, I'll handle this one. My sister and Gaara are here as well though I think Gaara had the advantage of speed over me and Temari."

Kiba coughed and while he was the kind of guy who disliked being interrupted from a fight, he was also wise enough to know that with his wounds and Akamaru being hurt his badly, the two of them would be in serious trouble right now.

That however did not mean that he could not ask a question.

"How come...you guys are here?"

Kankuro decided to reply to that.

"We got a call from the Hokage Tsunade-sama about the mess you guys have with Sasuke and we moved in to help since Suna and Konoha are allies. Plus, when we heard about it, Gaara insisted we go as fast as we can and my sister was no different. So here we are, don't worry, I happen to like that Naruto guy after what he did so it's my turn to pay Konoha back."

Kiba nodded and did not resist Liara who began to heal his and Akamaru's wounds, but not before he spoke to Kankurou.

"I will be right back with my partner to help, I am not out of this fight yet!"

Kankurou nodded and replied.

'I get you...but don't be surprised if this guy's dead long before you get here."

"You think you can kill us?!"

The Sand Shinobi and Puppet user snorted as he faced Sakon and Ukon.

"I don't think I can kill you two...I KNOW I can kill you!"

The two factions suddenly came towards one another as Kankurou sent out his Puppet to engage Sakon and Ukon as the conjoined siblings were more than ready to fight to the last. But Kankurou was not going to make this battle easy for the conjoined brothers and he proved that to be true as he summoned is puppets and began to go all out on his attacks while Liara was healing Kiba and Akamaru who warily watching the conjoined ninja brothers. There was no doubt in the Druidess' mind that she had to do all that she could to get Akamaru and Kiba to health though after looking at the young puppy she was not the least bit pleased by what she was seeing as his legs were suffering torn tendons and some cracked areas of his bones.

Kiba was not in any better shape himself, as his exhaustion was evident and his current injuries only added to the whole mess. So as much as she knew it would be a blow to his pride as a ninja he had to sit this one out.

It was not long however before Kankurou managed to deal with the two Oto ninja and trapped them in his puppet that unleashed it's arms. Those arms soon flew out and exposed poison coated blades which launched blades first back into the body and soon impaled the two brothers. Liara ignored the screams that soon fell silent as Kiba and Akamaru were healing now as the Suna Shinobi moved over to them.

"That guy and his brother are no longer an issue, how bad?"

Kiba replied.

"Not...enough to kill me...I owe you a debt, I intend to repay it one day."

"I'll hold you on that, better send out one of my puppets though to tell the rest we're here. All we can hope for now is that the others in this little party are going to be all right."

...

So far Gaara and Lee were doing well but she recalled that they had yet to fight Kimimaro with him using his Cursed Seal as so far he seems only to be fighting with his Kekkai Genkai. The concept was both interesting and worrying to the Elven Fire Dancer but she placed that aside as she felt well enough to once more engage Kimimaro alongside Gaara and Lee. The three fighters however kept in mind that Kimimaro was not using the full might of the Cursed Seal and no doubt would only use it if he felt that he had no other alternative left to him. Still the efforts were taking a toll on them since even with the advantages provided by Lee's use of the Drunken Fist, the ninja was still doing well...though Valena was soon noticing that something seemed off about his movements.

It was not long before all three got the break they needed as Kimimaro stopped his attacks to summon the chakra needed to finally go into his new form through the Cursed Seal. It was a double edged sword but they had no other choice as this gave them a chance to recover and prepare...even more so when they saw that Kimimaro was ready to fight them again once his transformation was complete.

...

Kimimaro's new form was...for the lack of the better word...

Disturbing...even more so when he actually ripped out his own spine from his back, turning the thing into a bone whip...much to the disgust of the three before him...though Gaara was more controlled with his emotions. Lee and Valena on the other hand were not the least bit pleased by the sight before them as the now dark brown skinned Kimimaro had many bones outside of his skin as the blood that came frm the bones piercing his own skin and flesh was now healing. Lee had heard of the Kekkai Genkai of the Kaguya Clan yet to see it in action was not pleasant.

He recalled from Zabuza that the ability was so rare even among the clan in question that it was almost relegated to myth. But it was clear now that from his battles with Kimimaro prior to this transformation that there was nothing mythical about this Kekkai Genkai. And even though he lacked the use of chakra in other fields even he had felt the foul chakra in the air, not like Gaara's but something else.

Valena on the other hand commented on the sight verbally.

"By the Dragon Lords...what is that?!"

"Calm down Valena-san, we can handle this...believe me."

That calmed Valena's nerves, but it apparently had the polar opposite effect on Kimimaro as he snarled in anger.

"You think you can beat me with my Cursed Seal in this stage?! I shall rend you into nothing but slivers when this is over!"

Gaara tensed himself alongside Lee and Valena as Kimimaro charged at them and they were soon fighting with the transformed Oto ninja at full throttle. Gaara knew that this was not going to be an easy fight, even more so now as Kimmimaro was no longer taking heed of the attacks being fired at him. Lee and Valena moved in and managed to land in some blows but the now transformed Oto ninja was able to counter them and Gaara quickly created several sand shields to defend them.

Lee quickly moved to Valena's side when Kimimaro came for her and tried to skewer her with his bone sword, he lashed out with a kick that deflected the blow from her and allowed Valena to attack. Only for their foe to use his other sword to block her counter attack and he also managed to force them back from him through sheer strength.

Both recovered but Lee was now the target as he had to dodge several of Kimimaro's finger bullets and when he got up, he saw Kimimaro coming in with his own spine on his hand like a spiked whip. Valena came in and unleashed a large burst of fire into his side, forcing the transformed ninja to escape the attack and redirect his attention on the Elven Firedancer. Valena evaded the whip attacks but had to duck when he fired some finger bone bullets at her once more. She also unleashed a powerful blast of Dragon-fire to the ground to launch her away from several more attacks. This soon allowed Gaara to launch several spears of diamond hard sand at the transformed ninja. Kimimaro evaded the attacks quickly but Gaara was not far behind to counter that move and save the others from Kimimaro's attack though it only served to enrage the ninja as he had no plans of letting them get away from him so easily. Valena was quickly evade several more attacks but had to defend herself from a kick from the now transformed ninja as he managed to use the slight gap in reaction time to get into range. The Elven woman gritted her teeth from the impact but managed to get her footing again and was saved from an attack by Lee who managed to land a kick on the side of Kimimaro and avoid the incoming attack

The battle was becoming a lot more intense between the three warriors and their lone foe, even though it was clear that the transformation had taken it's toll on the Oto ninja. It was not long before Gaara was forced to use one of his devastating Jutsu to put an end to his foe and keep the two out of the way as Lee was beginning to tire and so was Valena. However even though the sand he used kept them from being skewered by the massive number of summoned bones and had buried the Oto ninja and was no doubt crushing him right now, the Oto ninja came out from behind Gaara and was carrying a MASSIVE bone spear made from multiple bones ready to end the life of the young ninja and potentially kill the other two.

...

But just as Kimimaro was about to attack Gaara and end the Shinobi, Valena came to Gaara's aid unleashing a massive blast of fire into his face while Lee managed to find enough strength to move Gaara away from attack and then both Lee and Valena attacked Kimimaro with two powerful kicks, using what strength they had left in them both to force him back. This gave Gaara the chance he needed by summoning his chakra again and creating a diamond hard halberd and then he slammed it into Kimimaro's chest point first...skewering the Oto ninja in the area just bellow the heart. Both Lee and Valena then did a dual strike kick on the pommel of the halberd...driving the weapon all the way through Kimimaro.

The transformed Oto ninja could not help but gasp in pain as the weapon excited his body and he fell back into the ground, surrounded by the bones that he had used to force the trio into such a confined location for him to finish them off. The bones soon retracted as he began to lose his life both from the weapon imbedded in his chest but also from the sickness that had now accelerated to the point that the halberd that pierced him would not have been needed to end his life.

"Y-You..."

Gaara as well as Valena and Rock Lee looked at the dying Oto ninja. But with both of them exhausted it was no wonder that both Lee and Valena were too exhausted to remain active as the bones disappeared and Gaara laid them down. The Sand Shiinobi moved the two aside to safer ground and let them rest as he returned his attention to the dying ninja, who was now looking his way as Gaara spoke to him calmly.

"This is sadly your end...serving someone like Orochimaru is bound to lead to death, but someone else's hands or ours. You had a chance to turn away from that path."

"S-save your mercy lecture...Jinchuuriki...I know what you are...and I spit on your words. I CHOSE this path for my own reasons. None of them should be your concern. You may have won...but at least I did my duty...for my master!"

Gaara looked at the dying ninja and decided that speaking to him was no longer something that he could afford to do. But right now he had to send a signal to his sister, brother and the other ninja on where he was. All he could hope for now was that the battle between Naruto and his former comrade Sasuke would be resolved in a somewhat better way than his battle alongside Valena and Lee against Kimiarou had been.

...

Back at Valley of the End...

Naruto moved quickly as Sasuke unleashed several fireballs at him as he began to tap into the chakra of the Kyuubi, having managed to gain the Kyuubi's aid via the agreement from before. Naruto was quick to make the most of this. He avoided the fireballs and quickly fired several kunai right at Sasuke who blocked them before they could hit him. The blond had no intention to remain as the target for too long as he closed the distance despite Sasuke unleashing more of his fireballs at him. The Jutsu they had both used before had now dissipated but the damage to the area around them was very extensive right now as sections of the walls were torn and charred along with rocks and dust all over the place.

Sasuke was enraged by this as he was now using the Cursed Seal willingly yet it seemed that the blonde Shinobi was becoming more and more powerful than him. It enraged Sasuke but he managed

"Come and get me dode!"

"Gladly Teme!"

Naruto quickly evaded the next bunch of attacks from the raven haired Uchiha youth and quickly fired several shuriken once more to both wound and distract Sasuke, who cut the weapons. But they did better at the latter than the former as he quickly slashed several times at Sasuke in different speeds and angles. All of which kept Sasuke guessing as Naruto began to combine what he knew of the styles favoured by previous Dragon Champions, and combining them with the Kenjutsu styles. This random battle style made Sasuke become more determined to defend himself better and strike back at Naruto though the blonde was not going to let that happen without a fight

The pair of ninja were cutting loose as Sasuke alternated with using long range throwing weapon attacks with Jutsu and then close range attacks with both Taijutsu and Kenjutsu as well. Naruto was more than willing to do likewise with his own brand of attacks. He knew that speed, reaction time, timing, position, and more apart from strength, and endurance were going to win the day in a fight like this. He dodges a powerful slash that would have taken his head off as he moved back.

He then moved to using his hands to steady himself as he landed a kick on the underside of Sasuke's arm and that move forced the sword away. The movement also landed a kick right into Sasuke's lower jaw which sent him backwards and he rubbed his chin in pain as Naruto quickly moved himself to a crouching position. Sasuke wasted no time and quickly unleashed a stream of fire from his mouth and Naruto quickly countered by unleashing several shuriken made from water.

"TIDAL SHURIKEN!"

The two attacks collided with one another and a massive blast of steam came out to blanket the area in a haze of mist. Sasuke finally managed to get a fully matured Sharingan and did not hesitate.

Naruto however revealed part of the result of his training under Gai...

Sasuke attempted to use a Jutsu but Naruto did likewise and that forced Sasuke to back off. However Naruto actually charged in and landed a heavy and powerful shoulder charge and quickly landed a one-two punch combination and followed it with a grab and dragged Sasuke to him, landing a knee to the stomach and then using the same moment to land another knee right into the face.

"GAAAAH!"

Naruto was not done just yet as he landed on the ground and suddenly grabbed Sasuke's arm and then yanked Sasuke to him and then in that same moment, slammed an elbow strike and followed that very same blow with a back hand blow to the face and then quickly turned to land a spinning back kick into the face of Sasuke.

The attack enraged the Uchiha greatly as he turned to get his footing back and then unleashed another blast of fire at Naruto. The blonde leaned back to avoid the blow and quickly used his arms to block an incoming driving kick from Sasuke and he forced Sasuke back. Sasuke however was now out of the fight just yet as he fired some smoke bombs at Naruto who moved back to get some distance. This allowed Sasuke to close the gap quickly and land a blow of his own on Naruto's face.

The blonde winced a bit at the pain but was hardly out as he quickly moved backwards, using the momentum he started and leaned backward to flip and landing a killer rising flip kick on Sasuke's chest and landing his second leg onto his chest as a double strike.

Sasuke coughed out some of his blood but got some space between himself and Naruto. He knew that he was going to need something serious to even the odds, as even his fully matured Sharingan was not going to cut it in this fight. While he could predict Naruto's movements and attacks to an extent, Naruto was not to be taken lightly as he was far more seasoned and more capable than before. That left only one other option for him and that was obviously to use the Cursed Seal, his time in that container had allowed him to finally override the seal Kakashi had used on him.

But Naruto, well aware of how far Sasuke had fallen was not going to make the whole matter easy for Sasuke to accomplish. Even though he was unaware of the direction his former friend and team mate's thoughts were going, Naruto was not going to let him go. The two clashed once more with their swords and after trading slashes with one another alongside thrusts with their swords, the two engaged one another once more with Jutsu this time around.

Sasuke however decided to move back and as Naruto came into strike, he quickly revealed a number of light bombs and smoke bombs from his previous position, all of them were already ignited and ready to detonate. Naruto quickly covered his eyes as the weapons detonated and he quickly summoned the essence of the Dragon Champion he had summoned when he had been in the Chuunin Exams, but then Holy Talon spoke to him.

(("Master, he has not left the battle field, but he has...transformed."))

(Transformed?)

Naruto did not take long to realize just what Holy Talon drove at and the same thing could be said for the Kyuubi as it spoke to him as well.

((That Uchiha brat is using the Cursed Seal...willingly this time, this should be interesting.))

Sure enough, as soon as the smoke cleared and Naruto was able to open his eyes, he saw just what the two were telling him, and he was less than pleased by what he was seeing.

...

Naruto growled as he looked at the now fully transformed Sasuke, the whole image made him disgusted as Sasuke grinned maliciously at him while in that new form of his. But Naruto was not going to let this stop him from catching and bringing back Sasuke for what he did. He saw that Sasuke was not going to go down quietly so he decided that it was time to really raise the level of this conflict. And he quickly spoke internally to the Kyuubi.

(Looks like it's time we up the ante...I need your power Kyuubi and you can get to fight with him as well.)

That made the Kyuubi smirk evilly through the bars of his cage in the blonde's mind.

((Finally...))

Sasuke was charging in to attack Naruto but then to his surprise, there was now a bloody red shroud of chakra surrounding Naruto and he was forced to defend himself as Naruto lashed out with much greater force. He growled at the sudden increase of speed and power in the strike told him that something was not right in this. He had begun to understand how Dragon-fire worked for Naruto but this red chakra was different, he saw Holy Talon's eye glowing to create some form of film on itself which made him wonder why was it like that.

That is until he felt the anger, bloodlust, and rage coming from the chakra and he did not understand it at all. Such power was supposedly evil and thus Holy Talon would never tolerate such a power near it, let alone hold it! But somehow Naruto...that blonde idiot could!

(How is that possible?! He should never be able to hold it if he has such a foul aura about him!Damn him! That power is not his! It should never be his at all with such a foul energy about him! What is it!)

The thoughts he had in is head gave way however when he was now clashing with Naruto in a fierce clash of swords. His stolen sword indeed was the only one who could match Holy Talon's raw physical power but he knew that he lacked some areas of swordsmanship so he had to rely on other methods. One such method was his own ability of flight, granted by his wings and he intended to make the most of this new found form's ability.

He quickly flipped over Naruto but as the blonde turned to slash at him, Sasuke quickly placed his plan into action as he flapped the hand like wings behind him to get distance between him and Naruto. He quickly used his new form's flight abilities to unleash several barrages of shuriken and also fireballs, forcing Naruto on the defensive, which allowed him to dive in to attack him with the sword he had with him. The two clashed hard and fast and Sasuke quickly attacked with a combination of a slash and a stab that Naruto evaded to be sure but Sasuke waited for this as he quickly got back into the air and began to unleash several mid air attacks with his sword and also his Taijutsu skills. It was not easy as most of his attacks were not ideal for aerial combat of this caliber, but Sasuke was quick to advance.

But then again, so was Naruto as well as his inner resident/prisoner.

Sasuke had little to no warning when he was suddenly attacked by several extending five fingers and clawed appendages coming from the shroud itself and he had no problem seeing what they were going to be used for. He dodges them but is suddenly surprised to see Naruto come at him in conjunction with the chakra limbs he was using. The two clashed with one another once more but Sasuke was not going to give up just yet as he managed to land a kick on Naruto to force him away.

Naruto growled a bit at the attack but was not going to let that stop him from fighting back in full power as he quickly charged at Sasuke and with the same use of the Kyuubi's chakra as well. Only this time around, he surprised Sasuke by using the chakra to grab him in flight and then slam him hard into the nearby rock face.

"GAH!"

Sasuke coughed out some blood but was not going to give up just yet as he channeled his chakra into his body once more and then unleashed a powerful barrage of fireballs at Naruto who quickly deflected them and even used the chakra to form shields to block away the projectiles. Once he was able to do that he quickly charged right at Sasuke as their swords clashed with one another once more. The blows rained down and both Ninja were unleashing all they had on one another.

Naruto felt the Kyuubi's chakra flow around him and briefly he worried that he might be overwhelmed by the chakra coming from his long time resident. But he placed that doubt aside, he had come far from what he once was, he had grown up, and he had improved immensely ever since he had become a ninja, he was not going to let doubt and fear rule him again.

The two clashed once more, this time not with swords as they began to unleash Taijutsu blows with one another, and this time, neither of them were holding back in this battle. Sasuke threw a powerful punch at Naruto who redirected the attack and lashed with his own kick. The dark haired Uchiha blocked the kick and lashed out with his own and Naruto dodged the blow. They moved back from one another but Sasuke quickly clashed with the blonde once again and he was quick to use his new found limbs as one of his wings came out like a massive fist that Naruto had to evade and that allowed Sasuke to launch a powerful blow into the blonde's stomach, Naruto coughed out from the blow but did not let it stop him from smashing his own chakra covered fist into Sasuke's face and that made the Uchiha coughed out blood from that blow

"This ends NOW!"

Sasuke shouted as he unleashed a stream of fire from his mouth which Naruto quickly evaded and then replied to the threat.

"Yes...it will..."

Sasuke roared and tried to take his head off with a Chidori aimed to his chest with killer intent on him, but Naruto was quickly able to avoid the attack and using the Kyuubi's chakra shroud to stabilize the Rasengan, he slammed the attack into Sasuke. The blow was more than enough to cause massive damage to the transformed Uchiha

"GGGGGAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

The blow had been a fierce one and sent Sasuke flying back to the other side of the valley and right into the statue of Uchiha Madara leaving behind a trench of dirt before slamming hard into the statue's legs, leaving a massive hole there. Sasuke coughed out a gout of blood from the blow though he still had his grip on the sword that he had stolen from Naruto. He glared at the blonde who landed nearby and tried to get up, but the blow from the Rasengan which was no doubt fueled by the power of the Kyuubi had done quite a number on him and he was not going to be going anywhere just yet.

"It's over Sasuke..."

Sasuke snarled at that and tried to get up to fight, even if his body screamed in pain. Naruto mentally shook his head at this but ignored his feelings of anger and disgust as they would have distracted him. He was ordered to bring Sasuke back to Konoha to stand trial and that was what he was going to do.

...

But just as he was about to finally restrain the now beaten and injured Sasuke, someone or rather a large group of people decided to get in his way.

(("Master Naruto! Move!"))

The blonde was quick to react to the warning and moved aside, and that was done just in the nick of time as several kunai with explosive tags came raining in from above and forced him to back away from Sasuke and look for the person or persons to have fired those weapons in his direction. He had to cover his eyes to protect them from the blasts' heat waves and the shrapnel that along with the blasts. The attacks were well timed and somehow the explosions did not harm Sasuke, that much could be seen by the blonde Chuunin before he was covering his eyes.

Naruto looked up and quickly rolled out of the way when one of the attackers armed with a spear tried to skewer him and when he was able to look properly, he saw it was a ninja. And not just any ninja...

An Oto ninja, and judging by the way this one carried himself...a Jonin ranked ninja as well.

The blonde wasted no time in fighting the Oto ninja who did not hesitate to kill him as well. The two clashed as the blonde evaded a speak strike aimed right at his leg, no doubt at attempt to main him and render him unable to pursue Sasuke. He responded in kind though by grabbing the spear's shaft above the blade with one hand and then yanked the spear forward and dragging the man with him

"IRON SKIN!"

The Jonin were stunned when their swords sparked instead of drawing blood and there they saw that Naruto's entire body was now metallic. That hesitation was all Naruto needed as he punched them hard, no longer holding back his strength. The blows the blonde unleashed at full power and still under the effects of the spell was more than enough to kill both Jonin and Naruto quickly deactivated the spell. And he did so with very good reason.

Well aware that while this gave him great protection, it also made him a literal lightning rod for Lightning Jutsu users and while he had no idea if there were any Lightning Jutsu users among the Jonin, he was not taking any chances. The deactivation of the defensive spell emboldened the Jonin to kill him and allow Sasuke to escape, the blonde quickly dodged a Jonin slashing at him with a pair of swords but he quickly revealed a long line of specially enhanced ninja wire anbd quickly lashed his sword hands together to render the swords useless before cutting the man in half.

There were more of the Jonin coming at him, two of apparently Fire Chakra users as a pair of massive fire blasts came right at him. Naruto quickly moved away and summoned his Dragon Fire to use a spell, well aware that he had no Water Chakra Affinity to speak of...yet.

"TIDAL SERPENTS!"

The serpent like constructs made from water quickly unleashed a massive amount of steam into the area as both Fire and Water collided. The Jonin quickly moved in to try and unleash more of the fire but Naruto was quickly able to discern their plan and moved closer to them, using Water Walking to close the gap between him and the two Fire users, he quickly sent Holy Talon out in the same move he had used on Orochimaru months back...and the sword quickly tore its way through his would be attackers, he soon appeared from the mist into the path of two more massive flames...

The Jonin smirked in triumph...only for their combined looks of victory to turn into looks of horror as they saw the bodies of their fellow Jonin writhing in agony and in fire from their combined Jutsu...their horror remained on their faces...as Naruto quickly appeared from behind them and he decapitated them.

Naruto turned with Holy Talon in hand and moved to search for Sasuke, the Jonin behind him barely hitting ground as their heads were now rolling down into the water. Naruto quickly scanned the area to try and locate Sasuke but as soon as he finally homed in on Sasuke's potential location thanks to the Kyuubi's chakra...more company showed up. And this was yet again a number of Oto ninja, apparently there were more forces coming right at him and they were going to delay him and kill him if possible.

Naruto was not the least bit pleased at this as he knew that every second he was delayed yet another second the Sasuke would have to get away from him. But it was not long before he became aware that the ones who he had just killed were not alone.

...

"Damn it!"

Naruto swore as several shuriken came at him from another of the arriving Oto Jonin that came at him to try and shield Sasuke who was still bleeding from the injuries even in his Second Level Cursed Seal form. The Uchiha was enraged by the fact that despite his new found powers, Naruto still managed to best him despite being in a bad way as it were. The wounds on his body infuriated the Uchiha and he was not in the mood to let this slide even though he had managed to injure Naruto himself with his own sword. The sword was damaged but still strong and razor sharp but right now he had no choice but to hang back and try to recover more of his strength.

All he could hope for was that he could see Naruto fall so he could finally make the blonde suffer before he ended his life!

But Naruto had no plans on dying as Holy Talon carved through yet another ninja from Oto into two and he quickly dodged several more shuriken came at him. He caught one in one hand and quickly held it in a way that allowed him to use it as his own close combat weapon and quickly proved that be true as he stabbed another Oto nin in the body several times before firing the shuriken at another attacker. The Oto ninja used his kunai to block the shuriken but Naruto quickly unleashed a set of Kage Bunshin along with throwing some more shuriken. The Oto Ninja blocked the shuriken and was soon able to fire some of his spare kunai into the original Naruto as he saw the trick of the Kage Bunshin.

The attacks seemed to hit Naruto, the real one anyway, but to smirk of the Oto Ninja disappeared when the one he thought to be the original poofed away and now he knew that only one of the Kage Bunshin is the real Naruto. One of them fired a kunai at him and he evaded, but then he saw the Kage Bunshin poof. His eyes widened as he felt a massive stab of pain and moved to see that there on his chest was a kunai that came out from his back, and blood flowing out of his wound.

Naruto quickly turned the now slain Oto Ninja's body around and used the bloody corpse to block several attacks from the other Oto Ninja and then the body dropped to show that Naruto was no longer behind the body, forcing the Oto Ninja to look for the blonde.

Sasuke himself was not in the best of moods after seeing that and also watched his own area to make sure that Naruto was not coming at him from an unexpected angle. Naruto did not do that, but unleashed a new spell of his own making.

"DIAMOND GEYSER!"

The Oto Ninja were suddenly hit by a large number of diamond spikes that erupted from the ground and a number of the Oto Ninja were quickly impaled by the spikes and were killed quickly. Those that did survived the attack were not any luckier as Naruto quickly came out with several Kage Bunshin and attacked the survivors while Sasuke finally got the strength to move out of the area as best he could right now. However as he managed to get some distance Sasuke is forced to duck when a body was flying over him and the transformed Ninja looked to see that many of the Oto Ninja were now dead and Naruto was now looking for him.

"Damn you...I will not go back dobe!"

Sasuke managed to get himself to his feet even with the fact that he was suffering from chakra exhaustion which affected him even in his new state. Naruto somehow reactivated that same chakra cloak of sorts once more and began to track him and Sasuke was enraged by all of this even when he moved to deal with the pain of his broken left arm.

Naruto was not going to give up however and began to try and track Sasuke, even though the Uchiha was not going to let himself be caught so easily. But his injuries delayed his escape and soon Naruto spotted Sasuke and moved to secure him, much to the rage of the renegade Uchiha.

He quickly fired out a number of kunai covered in a Fire Jutsu that Naruto used Holy Talon to cut the imbued weapon down and began to move forward to catch the rogue ninja. Sasuke was not going to make it easy though even with his dominant arm now badly hurt, and even though he was currently using the full form of his Cursed Seal. Naruto closed the gap between them, his glare not cooling quickly while he was still covered by the chakra of the Kyuubi.

"It's over Sasuke...you've lost."

"Never!"

Sasuke snarled in anger as he quickly revealed that he was not out of the fight at all and quickly fired more shuriken, but as Naruto cut them the weapons turned out to be carrying attached smoke bombs that quickly exploded and cut the blonde' vision. He tried to wipe the smoke away and this was the opening that Sasuke needed to land a fist into his face while using the massive hand like wings on his back to knock Naruto aside.

But the Uchiha knew that he had to escape now since he was no longer in the best shape to fight the blonde, arrogant as he was, Sasuke was aware that he could not win this fight. And nothing could be gained if he was defeated like this.

Another band of Oto ninja on the other hand were nearby and quickly intercepted the blonde Chuunin to delay him and Sasuke chose this moment to move but not before taking off his Konoha headband that now had a gash on it. The Uchiha sneered darkly at Naruto and soon moved away even if he was still very much injured and moved on to escape. The ninja were not concerned with the history between their target and the pursuer, all they were focused on was to give Sasuke the chance to escape and be with their master, thus they drew their weapons and charged at Naruto. Naruto was not happy with this new force moving in to delay him but decided to focus on them.

The blonde Chuunin did not waste any time as he quickly cut down the first pair to come straight at him with obvious killer intent. The two ninja dropped deal from being slashed by the Konoha ninja and Dragon Champion and he faced off with the next pair. He quickly moved to using the flat of Holy Talon to block one powerful strike to his side by what could be seen as one massive hammer of sorts. Holy Talon took the blow easily and Naruto quickly moved the weapon aside while ducking from the attack of the second Oto ninja.

And where he quickly took out a kunai and charged into his foe quickly to close the distance and jam the kunai right into his foe's throat. Killing him quickly before kicking him aside before quickly crouching down to avoid a swing from a heavy weapon which was a heavy club that was wielded by another arriving Oto ninja that would have splattered his head like a rotten melon had the hit connected. The blonde retaliated by quickly flashing out Holy Talon and cutting the weapon with ease before landing a powerful stab right into the chest of the Jonin who was still recovering somewhat from the sight of the weapon he had before now nothing more than kindling.

The attack tore through the Jonin killing him quickly and Naruto turned to dodge another attack aimed for his head from a Jonin armed with a Kunai. He then landed a powerful kick to the man's stomach that sent him back and Naruto quickly unleashed a shoulder charge that sent the man back and he quickly moved back to fire three shuriken which were actually enhanced with Chakra to cut into the man and that killed the Jonin who did not respond in them.

However, it was not long before that he and Holy Talon sensed something heading their way.

...

"Great...they just HAD to show up!"

Naruto had no problem recognizing the dark energies of Death Fang's minions even from the distance between them as he managed to overpower the last remaining Oto Jonin who had come in to stop him from chasing the still wounded Sasuke who by now had abandoned his Konoha headband. The blonde pocketed it quickly and was now ready to face the incoming force that was now blocking him from pursuing the treasonous Uchiha. This time however the attackers were smarter and unleashed a large number of arrows at him from a distance.

Naruto quickly moved to defend himself.

"DRAGON SCALE DEFENSE!"

The arrows smashed into the shield of energy and once the arrows began to die down, Naruto quickly moved to use his trade mark Jutsu.

"KAGE BUNSHIN!"

Naruto recognized them to be the dark counterparts to the Falcon Rangers, the Black Fang Rangers, and the arrows he dealt with here merely the opening volley as more came at him, Naruto managed to reach out with his senses and detected that those arrows were bathed in Chaos Energy and he had to move quickly. The actions saved his life as the arrows that landed near his original position glowed a deep sickly red and then exploded with the same force as a number of Exploding Tags that were lit and ready for combat use. The blonde quickly moved with his Kage Bunshin and engaged the summoned Rangers and soon was in one hell of a close combat match with a few of them. Naruto dodged one's attempt to stab him in the chest and landed a vicious haymaker into the face of said attacker.

The blow sent the Black Fang Ranger was sent back as Naruto stabbed Holy Talon into the chest of the other one planning to decapitate him. It confused him what they were doing here briefly until he realized that they were not merely here to kill him...but interfere with him getting Sasuke back.

Why that was the case worried him greatly and he suspected that Death Fang had sensed the changes in Sasuke and had interest in converting him for one reason or another. That did not sit well with the blonde as he dodged several more arrows coming at him and then evading another slash aimed at his throat. The blonde had no choice but to cut his pursuit of Sasuke short as he had to fight the minions that Death Fang had sent before him.

All he could do now was fight his way through the forces Death Fang sent and get to Sasuke before he could escape and be with Orochimaru. He recalled the conversation he had with Itachi and he wondered just what exactly was the reason the older brother of Sasuke to say that there was more behind the events leading to the Uchiha Clan Massacre . Even more so when Holy Talon sensed that he was not lying. But that would have to be pushed aside for now as he needed to be alive in order to accomplish that. But as he slew yet another Blood Fang Ranger, he spotted several more forces coming at him.

(Damn it...Reapers!)

They were not the only foe however was several men and women decked in black leather and garnish tattoos in the color of blood armed with wicked axes and swords came raging at him. Their eyes alight with blood red fire and consumed by utter madness and rage.

(("Chaos Berserkers! Damn it..."))

(What?)

(("Chaos Berserkers are men and women who are followers of Chorvax, though they are more aligned with the Dragon Flight known as the Rage Dragon Flight. They feed on the blood and flesh of their victims and at times, even ritually cut themselves to induce a blood frenzy into themselves to make them more immune to pain. They will not be easily stopped master, you will have no choice but to kill them."))

(Why in the name of the Kami would they be here?!)

(("There is no doubt they were sent here to delay you or weaken you Master, their arrival after you fought off Orochimaru's forces in your pursuit of Sasuke is far too precise to be merely coincidence, and I have no doubt that Sasuke himself realizes this."))

(Do you think that it plans to use Sasuke as it's potential Master?)

(("It is a possibility, as Sasuke's fall and corruption is potent, yet not enough to get the full attention of Death Fang. No...I suspect that it is merely bidding it's time and seeking those who can be viable Masters or Mistresses it would be able to see as it's rightful and worthy Master."))

(Damn it...we can't let that happen!)

((I know, but we have to fight them off before we can do anything as well, and we are still not yet at full strength. As hard as it is Master Naruto, we have to cut our pursuit short, we would be of use to no one if we die here."))

Naruto growled in agreement and even the Kyuubi was in agreement, if only to ensure that it did not look weak before these new foes before it and it's Jinchuuriki. And soon the battle was joined as Naruto had no plan on dying until he could find Sasuke, even though he had no doubt that the latest delays that he had to deal with would give his former team mate more time to escape and also get into the hands of Orochimaru.

The blonde was now deep into the fight even though Holy Talon tore through the foes before the pair with some level of ease. But that did not matter to Sasuke Uchiha as he left the area. He had no desire to stay any longer and whatever it was that distracted Naruto was not worth his time to try and figure out regardless. As for the Uchiha, he had his own path to take and he would finally slay Itachi, that much he had in his mind and heart...a heart that was now consumed with hatred for those he felt had held him back from his long time goal.

...

As Sasuke left the battle field, he was unaware that Death Fang had been watching the whole affair in a new lair, apparently it had decided to change locations now and establish itself in a more prime hunting ground. But it's old lair was now full to the brim of it's corruption and it left it that way as it would be an interesting place to breed more of it's pawns. This world indeed was proving to be a rich hunting ground and it would stay here until something else happened.

...

Later...

The rest of the team of Konoha ninja and their Suna allies, at least those who could still fight were on the move to get to Naruto's location right away. Gaara, Rock Lee, Liara, Temari, Meer, Coryin as well as her familiar, and Kankuro were following Kakashi and Asuma's lead. The rest of the Konoha Team minus the mentioned ninja had to head back to Konoha for medical treatment. Asuma had been rather worried for his team and was not happy with the injuries they had, but the fact that they had managed to defeat their foes was a good thing in his books, though he was very worried about Chouji and Shikamaru. The Nara heir was not badly injured but chakra exhaustion was a problem coupled with the fact that he had been fighting multiple opponents for a while. Shikamaru did not argue as he knew with him like this he would be of no help to Naruto so he agreed to be evacuated.

In the forefront of the team was none other than Kakashi who was not the least bit pleased by this turn of events and was silently cursing himself for what was going on. He recalled that prior to him leaving with the team he had a run in with Jiraiya who informed him of Sasuke's escape and his attack on Ino, Hinata, and Sakura. The fact that Sasuke had willingly spilled blood, the blood of his fellow Konoha ninja was really a strike to his nerves, though he did not allow himself to lose his focus in anger. He knew that this was bound to happen as he recalled how much of a hothead the Uchiha youth was despite his calm and seemingly distant self.

But ever since the meeting with Itachi and his close calls with death, Sasuke had become more and more obsessed with power and that was something that he had to stop...for the sake of who Sasuke was...a former student and briefly he wondered if he had it in himself to end Sasuke if he went to the point where it was the only option.

(Can I really do it?)

The white haired Jonin grappled with that thought for a while longer and recalled the guilt Hiruzen carried for not stopping Orochimaru when he had the chance so long ago. It was not obvious to those who had no idea of what transpired when he went to track his former student, and he was one of them initially, but because of the trust Hiruzen had in him, he eventually learned of what had transpired between the two ninja.

The fact that Orochimaru had dispatched the same band of four ninja who he had on his side during the siege of Konoha, meant that this was indeed a bad situation. And he had no doubt in mind that Death Fang would have taken advantage of this right now while they were not looking. He tried to banish such thoughts as he had confidence in Naruto who had sown exponential growth in the past few months, but as an experienced Jonin and a war veteran he knew better than to rely on blind hope without question.

(All I can hope for is that he makes it...and bring Sasuke back.)

Any other thought was ended when they saw blood coming from the water, this made Kakashi freeze and he prayed t the Kami that this did not mean what he feared the most had happened...that Sasuke and Naruto had killed one another. But he forced such thoughts away and he looked at the others with him so he could see if they too were aware of what had happened and what they were seeing before them. He saw that they did and while they were doing their best not to let their emotions get to them, he could tell that they were intensely worried, even more so Temari.

They moved further and soon arrived at the Valley of the End and soon they saw the MASSIVE devastation that had happened in the area. But they also saw the number of slain Jonin who all had Oto headbands. This told them that they perhaps were the cause of the river running that red in the colour of blood as there were a considerable number of them. Kakashi was not happy and the same sentiment was on the faces of the others in the rescue team. All he could hope for was that Naruto was alive and that they would get to him before anything else happened.

Sasuke was yet another concern...

But as soon as they arrived to the Valley of the End, he saw the sheer destruction of the place. The statues of Hashirama and Madara remained standing but a lot of damage was all over the place. He and the others fanned out and saw more fighters in the area. Some of them were vile looking beings and Kakashi's fears were realized when Liara spoke.

"Chaos Berserkers, Reapers, and Blood Fang Rangers...this is not good."

Kakashi was familiar with them thanks to Kaelyn and worried even more as the presence of these beings in the field meant that Death Fang had indeed gotten involved, but was it to cripple Naruto/test him, or was something else involved, which may involve Sasuke? None of them could answer the question and that was troubling to them. They soon moved out to check on the bodies and hopefully find any trace of Naruto. They did not have to wait long though as they all spotted Naruto nearby on a large rock surrounded by many slain Chaos Berserkers, Reapers, and Blood Fang Rangers. But that did not matter to Kakashi as he quickly rushed over to Naruto's side, hoping and praying to the Kami that he was not too late.

...

Kakashi checked the pulse and breathing of his student the very second he was next to him and sighed in relief that despite the situation, Naruto was still alive and kicking. But his wounds were an issue right now plus he looked bone tired. He turned to Asuma who had just come back alongside Temari, Gaara, and Meer in their scouting run.

"Any luck?"

Asuma shook his head.

"No, Sasuke is too deep in the lands now for us to pursue him, I hate to say it Kakashi but without an exact idea where Oto is, we can't risk going any further, knowing what we know now, there are too many places for him to be found in. Plus...we have to help tend to the others as well."

Kakashi nodded and looked to Gaara who nodded as quickly got his sand out and managed to create a gurney to carry Naruto carefully as they did not want to make his injuries worse, thankfully Hloy Talon was still in his grip so it did not weigh them down at all and no doubt was helping in healing him from his injuries. Temari was worried and made sure to go alongside Naruto and help protect him while Kankuro watched their backs alongside Coryin and Liara. Shikamaru was nearby to accompany Naruto and he was also conflicted by the outcome of the mission. But right now they had to focus on getting Naruto back to Konoha and get him fully healed. Temari was not going to let the blonde Chuunin out of her sight until he was fully out of danger's door.

And of course she had her own reasons for this that she would soon discuss with her family when she had the chance to do so in private.

For now, Naruto had to live and she was going to make sure it happened.

...

Author's Notes:

There...the Broken Alliance Arc which is the Sasuke Retrieval Arc in canon is now over and while not in the view of some as action packed, I stand by it and plan to make it stay as it is right now. I will not lie and say it's the best since I have been out of the loop for a while and I have to deal with a lot of errors and flak as before, and I will be working on that all soon enough. But for now, I am pleased how this turned out for the day.

Sasuke's fate here is worse than in canon in a sense and while Naruto does indeed plan to take him back to Konoha, that hardly meant that he is not going to make sure that Sasuke pays for what he did to Sakura, Ino, and Hinata. However, he escapes the battle with the unexpected arrival of the forces Death Fang unleashes to cover his escape. Mind you, this does not mean that Death Fang wants Sasuke as a master, it merely wants to let him live to see just how far he will fall.

...

The Blood Fang Rangers are the dark counterpart of the Falcon Rangers and are known for their ruthlessness and love of inflicting cruelty on their victims who they stalk in both times of peace and war. They are also fierce archers, swordsmen, and also skilled in woodcraft, survival and more. They are skilled also in crafting poisons and have been known to coat their arrows in their horrific concoctions as well as their swords and their arrows are not only designed to pierce and cut, but to also rend and tear, making removing the arrows a horrific experience.

The poisons inflict powerful illusions and worse, plus they also are known to cause massive internal bleeding, can cause massive tissue necrosis and more which fits the cruel nature of the Blood Fang Rangers.

...

Chaos Berserkers owed their origin to a handful of warriors in the lands ruled by the Chaos Dragons who subject themselves into what can be described as the Soul Rage, a berserk state that completely consumes the men and soul of those who use it and become so enamored with slaughter that even among the worshipers of Chorvax and his Flights, they are not trusted and reviled for their inherently unstable actions. But they can be called upon to bring the highest level of slaughter in the field and that is something that Chrovax delights in and so does the other Chaos Dragons who revel in slaughter and outright carnage.

...

Now I have gotten some complaints about how 'weak' Naruto is in this story from one of the readers (yes, you know who you are) and while I can understand it looks that way in the arc, I have my own reasons for using Canon for now. I happen to have enjoyed it and deviation from all of it is not that ideal to me. Change is good, but only if it does not warp the whole thing. Now on the subject of weakness in Naruto's case, I have my own plans for that though I have stated in the previous chapters, namely in the aftermath of the encounter of the Wraith Knight, that Naruto has to grow stronger and be able to fight well on his own terms.

Over-reliance on Holy Talon dilutes Naruto's growth as a person, and regardless of the naysayers, I am quite impressed by how far Naruto in canon has come from the scamp that he was when he was first seen. The battles with Akatsuki, Pain, Madara, the resurrected Kage, Obito, Kaguya and eventually beating Sasuke has in my view shown just how far he has come and all of that was without boosts from other worlds like Holy Talon.

I had no desire to take that away which was why you don't see Holy Talon in action as much, until the battle with Sasuke in this arc. I said it before so it does annoy me to have to bring this up. I do like Over Powered characters once in a while but I also happen to love the idea of a hero who seems to be on the ropes before finally winning the fight that everyone thinks he will lose without question, it made the victory all the more satisfying.

...

What is the point of enjoying a story if we always see the heroes win with seemingly no effort? The bad guys have to be given their due and that is what I see being more acceptable. Perfect heroes are boring and it is a sentiment I feel can be understood...and there are too many Godlike Naruto stories in the site as it is already. I am NOT bashing the writers who make them in any way shape or form since I have done some similar things too, but I merely wish to make my version balanced.

On the sequel which is already working all right, Naruto's growth will be further explored and I will actually take the time to do a full in depth study of the marital arts and more to make sure to add what are the good and bad points for a more unique feel and fit to what I have in mind.

...

On that note, the next chapter will be the time Naruto spends to recover in Konoha before going on the same two to three year training journey with Jiraiya to further enhance his skill set. Yes, I can guess someone would ask, he has trained once more to be a ninja in Konoha hasn't he? So why go on the training journey?

One you can never stop learning, life is like that, there are always new things to learn and experience so no sense denying Naruto that.

Also...his situation with the women in his life is also going to be in for a very interesting turn for all sides of the deal.

Feel free to point out any flaws here since it has indeed been a while since I worked on this.

...

See you all soon!