Two figures, standing across each other in a big clearing, carefully eyeing their opponent. One being blond haired ninja with ANBU styled clothing, his mask covering his expression while his white cape revealing only a glimpse of his red armor, his muscled body staying hidden. The other, possessing shark like features, blue skin and a forehead protector with four waves cut in the middle. He was wearing a black cloak with numerous red clouds on it, a big sword with golden handle and bandaged blade resting on his back, his bloodthirsty grin threatening to split his face.

"Kisame…" Was only acknowledgement the shark like looking man got. Kisame's grin faltered a little, hearing the jinchuriki speaking to him without an ounce of fear, his voice emotionless. Deciding to do the best thing he knew, he started to taunt the blond. "What's up brat? Already giving up? I would assume so, when your voice sounds so dead." His grin once again came full force to his face as he mentally patted himself for such an impressive verbal assault. Only to settle into a frown once all he got from his opponent was silence.

Naruto on the other hand was silently analyzing his situation, pervy sage was probably not so far from his position but it would prove troublesome to look for him, also seeing that Kisame was alone he thought that Itachi would probably end up fighting the sannin. The only option left was to fight Kisame and retreat if the situation got dire. Pervy sage should be able to handle Itachi so he would come and help him after his fight. With his mind settled Naruto steadily slid into his new taijutsu style, which was a mixture of his pursuits so far.

His right hand stretched forward with its palm open, his left hand relaxed near his left hip in a half tiger seal while both of his knees were bent and right one was in the front. He also sent a little pulse of chakra into his eyes, silently activating his bloodline limit as to not alert his opponent. He also mulled over the fact that his gravity and restriction seals were still active and with them his speed was hardly jounin level, but he settled on fact that with them released in battle he will gain one more surprise over Kisame, also the fact that Kisame was ordered to capture him and not kill him was playing into his cards. Every preparation done, he waited for his opponent so the battle could start.

Kisame didn't need to be told twice in order to go fight, his frowned face once again changed, this time into an expression of crazy bloodlust, he decided that he didn't need samehada for this brat, he may have changed his attitude and clothing but he couldn't be any better than year and a half ago.

Deciding to end this quickly he charged straight on Naruto, his fist cocked backwards. His speed weren't that impressive as his massive size had been rather bulky and not so agile, but it still went over the jounin level and could catch most of them off guard. Naruto wasn't the one of them, his reflexes and sharingan allowed him to predict his opponent easy movements and he prepared to strike. Just as Kisame came into the striking position he threw hard but direct blow, sensing the victory from seeing the blond staying still he didn't notice a shadow creeping up on him. His fist landed but didn't stop on the tough flash, as Naruto burst into smoke, Kisame keeping his trajectory because of gravity couldn't do anything as Naruto's palm landed a wind enhanced blow into his back, sending him crashing few meters away.

Naruto stood still, watching the result of his elemental taijutsu while being quite satisfied with himself. Kisame couldn't believe that the little brat tricked him, but now he paid for it, his cloak was shredded and his back hurt as hell, that hit must have injured his spine a little, he thought. Quickly grabbing samehada he started to feel the pleasure of its chakra being injected into his body, healing the wound. Once again standing up, looking straight into his opponent's eyes he angrily shouted "You are going down brat! I shouldn't have underestimated you before, but now you are a dead man!" Either Naruto didn't hear that, which was very unlikely due to the volume of Kisame's voice, or he simple choose to ignore the slightly crazed man.

Seeing that Kisame chose to draw out his sword Naruto calmly sent his left hand under his cape to recover plain white scroll preparing to summon his mother's sword. Opening the scroll and biting his thumb, he smears the blood across it and a puff of smoke arises, indicating the release. Once the smoke cleared, a beautifully made katana was now resting in Naruto's right hand. Its hilt was black with a carved red snake along the handle, the guard was simple yet it really fitted the sword, It was round and had a darker shade of red as its color, so dark that it actually perfectly blended with its black hilt. The blade in itself was only slightly curved at the tip and three feet long, its color once again darker shade of red, even though anyone could now recognize it as red.

Naruto took his stand, with his legs positioned same as in his taijutsu style, his right hand however went up to his face, horizontally running along the ground with its tip pointing out at Kisame, while his left hand settled in the same position with his hand outstretched and showing 'come on' gesture at Kisame.

Kisame growled at the jinchuriki for taunting him and couldn't resist it, with samehada prepared to strike he quickly closed the gap between the two fighters his strong arms making vertical slash towards the blonde teen. Naruto seeing Kisame's intentions clearly leaned to left and lashed out with his own strike, intending to puncture kisame's leg to immobilize him. Kisame seeing this move grinned and used his sword as a stand point while his momentum took him over it, making naruto miss.

"You've gotten better brat, maybe this will be a challenge after all!" Kisame once again let his mouth express the way he felt. Not one to await, Kisame once again charged. He sped up towards Naruto, this time surprising the blond with his acceleration, intent on shaving him to the bone. Once before him, he went for a vertical slash only this time Naruto met him with his own, there was a loud clang and then Kisame kicked the blond right into his naval, effectively sending him through the clearing.

While Naruto got a bit winded from the hit, it wasn't anything major, what really set off his sixth sense was that the wind chakra he used in his sword didn't work the way it was supposed to, it disappeared the moment he met Kisame's sword, but why?

Pondering on this for a moment he suddenly gotten flashback of him summoning nine-tails chakra only to get it devoured by the bandaged sword, he mentally smacked himself for not realizing that samehada absorbed chakra like he did ramen. Checking it out with his sharingan he noticed that there was a chakra network right inside the bandages, even though much different from a human it was pretty strong.

Forcibly drawn out of his musing he quickly jumped up to avoid being smashed by Kisame, Naruto landed a few feet away silently pondering what should be the tactic for rest of the fight. His opponent however didn't feel like letting his prey alone and once again ran up to him, he started with diagonal slash only for naruto to once again jump back, not stopping, Kisame started the relentless fight of slash and run, with him attacking Naruto while he only dodged.

After a while Kisame got tired of this, even with his strength and speed being better than the blonde he still couldn't hit him, it was like he knew where he would be and it pissed Kisame as hell. "Okay brat! It is time to take this fight a level higher!" Once the words left his mouth it again turned into maniacal smile showing off his pointy, sharp teeth.

Going through the hand seals Kisame prepared one of his signature jutsu. "Suiton: Bakushouha (Water seal: aquatic shockwave)" He started to spit loads and loads of water forcing Naruto to take a shelter in the higher places, like trees. After only few seconds the clearing was completely flooded and the two shinobi were once again facing each other, this time on water. "This is my kingdom jinchuriki, you should give up." Kisame once again taunted only to get no acknowledgement from his blonde opponent, irritating him to new levels.

"I will tear that stupid mask off your face! You will bow to me you insolent brat!" His mind clouded with fury he started to once again move towards his opponent, however Naruto had other plans, crossing his fingers he called forth one shadow clone with just enough chakra to stall Kisame. The real Naruto then crossed his hands and started to concentrate.

"What the hell are you thinking? That your little clone will kill me?" Laughed Kisame, seeing the action that his opponent has taken, not one to lose time he engaged the clone in a full out sword battle, clearly winning but once again not able to hit his enemy.

Naruto, using the time his clone offered him started to slowly release his gravity seal as to get used to the normal gravity, even if little. Once that was done he undone his restriction seal and stretched his legs to get a feeling into them. Seeing that his clone was still holding albeit barely his hands rested in a tiger seal "Ninpou: Meisaigakure no jutsu (camouflage concealment)", his figure slowly disappearing from sight.

Kisame attacked with his sword, swinging from left to right only for the elusive clone to once again escape, getting really frustrated Kisame runs through five hand signs quickly and a spear of water pierces the clone from behind making him go out in smoke. Kisame started to franticly turn around looking for his opponent only to find the clearing submerged in water empty.

"Where are you brat? Ran away with your tail between your legs?" Once again Kisame taunted, trying to find out the hiding blond as he knew that Naruto never gave up. Naruto, while hiding behind some trees that were exceptionally high, thought about some kind of plan. His opponent was very strong and he suspected that even with his now Low-kage level speed it would do little difference as Kisame was very good with his sword and getting near him would be suicide. Smiling to himself he went through twenty hand signs and his hand landed right on top of his armor glowing blue with chakra. For a while intricate patterns appeared right where his hand touched only for them to disappear a second later.

Kisame smirked, he felt the slight chakra spike a while ago a now knew that his opponent was nearby, unfastening his light weights near his ankles he dropped them down, and let them flow down the small lake he created, now calmly waiting for his opponent to appear, a concentrated look alien to his face.

Naruto crept up on Kisame from behind still using his jutsu, his sword poised to pierce his heart he moved to strike, but he soon found himself eye to eye with Kisame who was once again smiling gleefully while his sword blocked Naruto from progressing any further. "Thought you could creep up on me, didn't you brat?" Kisame shouted right into his face, only for Naruto to chuckle and spin around using his sword for a vertical strike, Kisame seeing that he was too slow with his big sword ducked under the hit and shot up with his leg, trying to hit Naruto into his stomach. Naruto seeing this smirked and while it seemed as if Kisame was going to land a hit, Naruto turned into water.

Kisame seeing this wrote it off as substitution with water clone, while not noticing a single paper slowly descending toward the bottom of lake. His intuition told him to jump and they were right as if he wouldn't , his head would have been chopped off, Naruto seeing that Kisame jumped sealed his sword into a storage pattern on his right arm while quickly going through several hand seals. "Fuuton: Daitoppa (Wind release: Great breakthrough)" Adding more than necessary chakra, the wind has gotten even more furious , speeding towards Kisame while devastating the surroundings. Kisame seeing this destructive attack held samehada in front of him, hoping to reduce the damage, but it was futile as he was send a great distance away his body heavily cut.

Naruto allowed a small smile to grace his features, however it quickly disappeared as the Kisame he hit became water that blended with the lake it was pulled out of. His keen shinobi sense told him that Kisame used water clone as a decoy while preparing some kind of plan, 'Didn't think fish-face was one to think about the things he does, although this complicates the situation a bit, hopefully I will be able to surprise him with my seals'. Once again summoning his sword, he spun around parrying an attack that would have cleaved him in two, this got naruto on defensive, and while he couldn't get Kisame off him tail, he successfully dodged or parried everything Kisame threw at him, but just as he was about to leap away from another attack, he slipped on some piece of wood flowing on the water under him, Kisame saw this and used this opportunity to strike, hefting his sword upwards a quick and strong slash across his targets legs was all that could be seen, but naruto only burst in water.

'Arrghh, how can he manage to substitute himself so fast? He was surprised that he slipped I know it, so how? And what is this odd light trickle of chakra that my samehada always absorbs when he is about to be hit?' Kisame thought, His opponent was much stronger and cunning than he expected, he may even push him to his limits. But Kisame grinned, no one could beat him in water, in there he was the king and the triumph card he had was unbeatable, not even yagura in his prime could get out of there, unless he transformed into his bijuu form fully and took Kisame by surprise.

His musings were cut short as a sword stabbed right next to his head, cutting off strands of his hairs, 'That was close' Thought Kisame, thanking his sense, however this was no time to rest as naruto got suddenly aggressive in his fighting style and Kisame started to dodge strikes left and right. Naruto on the other hand congratulated himself as Kisame just fell right into his trap.

Naruto swung his sword horizontally across Kisame's midsection, only for him to duck, just as expected. Our blonde hero used the seals he has been inventing and substituted himself with water, leaving only a small paper to slowly descend towards the lake's surface. Kisame panicked as he saw the blond disappear, but he grunted in pain right afterwards as through his hip came forth black sword, he quickly created a water clone and substituted himself, the damage wasn't small, but nothing samehada couldn't really handle, the thing was that Kisame didn't know what the jinchuriki did in order to get behind him, it was all a blur for him and he couldn't even sense him!

'What kind of tricks are you playing, Uzumaki Naruto?' Kisame thought, the wound already healed, as it only took few seconds to fully stitch together. Naruto didn't waste his time, he didn't want his opponent to analyze his attack so he formed his favorite hand seals: "Kage bunshin no jutsu (Shadow clone technique)" Ten clones appeared by his side and circled Kisame, Naruto made a mental check: 'Only five more seals left, I couldn't do more because they are pretty hard to inscribe, I have to use them wisely and try to defeat Kisame with this move, otherwise it could become really bloody if he figures them out'.

The clones of Naruto tensed as did Kisame, in one moment everything was blur for a normal civilian bystander, but from the ninja point of view Narutos charged at Kisame, Our blue haired shinobi didn't waste any time and with three hand seals unleashed four undetected sharks right at the clones' backs, three of them died but one manage to escape and bite right through one naruto that burst into smoke, Kisame cursed at his misfortune, and due to close proximity of the clones had no other option than to fight them with taijutsu.

He smirked as an idea came up to his mind, dropping into a stance he started to spin and the water surrounded him in a whirlwind, even though the clones had sharingans, this happened way too fast and only three of them could dodge this powerful defense, once Kisame dropped his shield, he blocked a diagonal strike across his chest with samehada, but had to quickly jump up as another sword came after his legs, he couldn't really sigh in relief as his arm induced with water chakra blocked another sword aimed at his head, his eyes widened as he felt wind once again on his back propelling him towards water in high speeds, as fourth Naruto was standing right behind him with wind powered palm.

Although naruto expected it, he still narrowed his eyes when Kisame once again turned into water, this fight was prolonging and when Kisame shutted his trap and started to concentrate he was hard to hit. One Naruto ducked only for the second to get his head cleaved off by samehada, the remaining three clones jumped back and formed a triangle formation.

Naruto gritted his teeth, even though the clones were not really taking anything out of him he wanted to at least wind Kisame with them, as every wasted chakra could mean his end later, he once again focused on his opponent and soon thought up a plan, his mind working over time he propelled himself with wind chakra against Kisame, the blue man was surprised by this by quickly shot up his sword up to his defense, once again engaging the man in sword fight he let his clones watch and use any opportunity to step into the fight and kill Kisame.

Meanwhile naruto was having upper hand in his fight, even though Kisame was more experienced fighter, he couldn't match naruto's speed and prediction abilities, so everything he could do was dodge and parry which was slowly wearing him out, as dragging his big sword around was such a hard work. After few seconds Kisame got lost in their sword fight, naruto of course didn't think anything of honor, he was a ninja so backstabbing was on daily plan for him, his clones used the distraction their original created and moved in for the kill, the swift jab by left one Kisame noticed, but he couldn't do anymore than to once again parry it, but that is just what naruto wanted, using his other clone he simultaneously attacked from both sides and pierced Kisame right through the stomach.

Kisame cried out when he felt the pain in his stomach, he wasn't wounded this much a very long time, he had to get serious or this jinchuriki might even kill him, he snarled and while doing it, spat out globs of blood, he let his chakra violently lash out and with his high affinity to water it turned out into big water shockwave that blew naruto away and popped his clones out of existence.

Naruto looked satisfied with his work, he knew that it wasn't honorable to stab Kisame like this, but ninjas weren't samurais and killing targets with subtlety was their primary goal. He didn't know if Kisame was able to get out of this but he was still prepared for whatever could the Akatsuki member offer.

His sharp eyes locked onto Kisame's mangled body and he slowly started to approach him, ready to kill the blue faced man.

'Yes, that is right, come right into my trap you blonde idiot' Kisame mentally chuckled while samehada healed everything but superficial injuries as to not let anything known on the outside. He was surprised, he had to admit that, the blonde shinobi has been anything but what he expected him to be, his speed and strength were kage level for sure and his intelligence was something he couldn't defeat, but still Kisame was S-ranked shinobi, he didn't lose, he will win, it just took more time…

When naruto was close enough, he felt a large chakra spike, even though he was on high alert he didn't see this coming, a giant man with shard features grabbed him by his ankles and dragged underwater, the last thing he saw above the surface was the water that fell out of kisame's clone.

Kisame smiled, he got the blond underwater and it was over, nobody could beat him here, he swung his tail, intending to pierce the jinchuriki through stomach and drain all of his remaining chakra, only for that damned water to once again substitute for the blond, this couldn't be his work, he shouldn't be able to notice him in the water, that is when he saw the note, the small paper that explained everything and nothing at the same time. He could only guess that it was some kind of substitution that was automatically controlled, but by what?

Samehada answered for himself, the chakra that his sword absorbed, it must have been some kind of barrier, a sensor that told its central about any breaches. So it was some kind of barrier, the paper obviously command centre that created some kind of substitution when the barrier was breached.

Kisame smirked in victory "I figured out your little trick there Uzumaki, it was pretty crafty but now that I know about it, I can use it to my advantage!" Naruto cursed, the concept about his technique was pretty simple it used a space/time ninjutsu – kawarimi, by creating a randomly generated rift in time/space it allowed the water to freely course through the canal, while the user got transported on the other side, it was only a side effect that it took human shape, probably because the transformation was so fast the water kept shape of its previous occupant. The seal that was placed on his chest being some kind of mastermind that started the process every time the barrier got breached. Simple in theory yet pretty useable in fight, but now that Kisame knew about it he couldn't use it anymore, as even he didn't know where he would appear, only that it was in ten meter radius around the seal, and Kisame could easily use this to his advantage.

"Now you have nowhere to run my prey." Spoke Kisame, being sure that no one could best him inside his ultimate water technique.

'What is he talking about? I can easily swim away' Thought Naruto, not understanding what Kisame was talking about. Deciding that water was indeed the shark-man's territory, he quickly started to swim upwards. Kisame only smirked, the blonde didn't know yet. His body, made exactly for this kind of fight, shot in blinding speeds toward his opponent.

Noticing this, Naruto once again pulled out his sword and blocked the slash of Kisame's tail that would surely chop off his head, seeing no other option but to fight he engaged the fish man in battle. Soon enough Naruto found out two exceptionally important things, one being that Kisame was extremely, and I mean extremely fast in water, while he was kind of like a beginner in chess compared to him and two being that his chakra levels were dropping quite fast for his liking, even though he wasn't almost using them.

Deciding that he couldn't go on like this he created ten strong kage bunshins and chose to tactically retreat, his plan worked... for a while. When he was almost on the surface he noticed one thing, it was getting further from his reach, and just as he was about to speed up with chakra, the memories of his clone's fighting appeared in his mind, it was at that exact time the he noticed the bubble that surrounded him, probably centering around Kisame, what a terrifying technique.

Kisame, now fed with his target's chakra, easily caught up to him, his wicked grin never leaving his face. "Not so strong now eh, nine tails?" He somehow spoke through the water, even though the distortion of his voice was obvious, Naruto could hear it.

Naruto, quite tired by now because of the suction of his chakra, started to think rapidly, he didn't have many choices, either Jiraiya saved him, or he saved himself, but how? His chakra levels were so low he couldn't use high ranked ninjutsu…

"Don't forget about me, ningen!" A voice growled from the back of his mind, Kyubi has been watching this fight and although faintly impressed he saw that his container was about to lose. "Borrow my chakra, and use it to rip this man!" Not waiting for his container to agree, Kyubi himself forced his chakra upon the jinchuriki. Naruto could feel it, the power that came in the form of red chakra, he could also feel the bloodlust, the crazed want to taste blood, but he could still control himself, the water around him sucked the chakra out, but his output was enormous.

Closing his eyes, jut for one moment, he remembered ero-sannin. 'Forgive me for using this, there is no other way' And with that thought his eyes snapped open, those blood red eyes with slitted pupils and three black tomoes, his hands forming handseals in new found speeds. Kisame seeing this was not about to let him attack, but he was too slow, not being able to get to his opponent before he finished.

"Wind style: Black hurricane"