Chapter 6: N:RTK. 6. Setting The Stage and Suiting Up.
Disclaimer: This fanfiction is a creative work inspired by the Naruto universe created by Masashi Kishimoto. It is not intended for profit or to infringe upon any copyrights associated with the original series. All recognizable characters and settings belong to their respective creators.
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Last time on Naruto: Road To Kage. Chapter 5: Finally Face to Face —
"Okay then Satoru, I agree to your terms, no outsider will be called in. But I need you to fight the first hokage and go all out to show me what you truly are capable of."
His eyes widened when he heard that he would get to fight the first hokage. Even though it would just be spar and he would be severely holding himself back. Just getting the honor to fight this legendary figure excited and made his blood boil.
"Think of it as you're staying behind to cover the retreat of your team, and you are up against an elite chunin level opponent." She said, explaining the scenario of the fight.
"Understood." He replied with a huge smile on his face.
Now continuing —
"So you ready to do this Satoru?" Mito asked with smile, inwardly feeling excited to see just what the kid could do.
His [Custom Explosive Seal] had already surpassed her expectations, to think someone whose not an Uzumaki would figure out how to use sage chakra to power seals.
Even among the Uzumakis it was a closely guarded secret, known and studied only by the main branch due just how absurdly powerful sage chakra made the seal.
"No." He replied with a deadpan face as she had asked something stupid to him.
"What do you mean no?" She asked back with furrowed brows.
"Mito-sama, no disrespect but that's clearly not enough information to set the stage for a proper spar." He said with an exasperated tone, massaged the bridge of his nose.
"Okay, so what do you wanna know kid?" She asked with a commanding tone with her hands on her hips, though inwardly she was happy to see how maturely he dealt with the situation.
"Well, for starters, I want to know what my win and lose conditions are? Because obviously I'm not beating the First."
She nodded at hearing him say that, at least the kid wasn't delusional like the stuck up Uchihas, despite his absurd talent in fuinjutsu.
"So what do I need to achieve to secure a definitive victory? Because just impressing you is too vague."
He finally asked after explaining his thoughts, she felt like he did so more for tsu-chan's sake so she would be able to follow their conversations rather than her's and that was a point to him in her book.
"Hmm, what do you think should be your win condition for you then?"
She asked back, throwing the ball back in his court to see how he would deal with it. But it was mostly because she left lazy after that nice soak in the hot springs.
"You mentioned that Hashirama-sama would limit himself to the power level of an experienced chunin."
She nodded in confirmation.
"What if.. in the fight against me if he displays a power that can be considered beyond the level of an elite chunin then it will be a win for me?" He asked after thinking for a few seconds.
She thought over it for a bit and agreed with a nod, seeing that he had her approval he continued with more confidence.
"Also you mentioned that I need to hold off this "enemy" for my team to escape, then maybe a time limit under which I would need to be defeated in makes sense."
"If you do agree to this win condition then time limit can be set by you."
He suggested his final win condition while he thought about the question he was going to ask. It's answer would decide whether he was going to win with ease or was it going to cost him an arm and a leg, quite literally at that.
"Hmm, okay.. Anything else?" She asked as she thought about what time limit would be good, as she knew Hashi-kun might have trouble holding back. So, she'll have to be on her toes to save the kid in case her husband hit him too hard.
"Umm, you said I need to stop an elite chunin rank ninja so that my team could escape. Will the fight start off with me facing him straight away?"
"Or will I be given sometime to set up a few traps? If yes then how long would that be?"
"Or will I be given some time to set up a few traps while the enemy is still trying to reach my location? If yes then how long would that be?"
"I do want to see you use your seals as traps. Hmm, you've got yourself atleast 30 seconds. It might be more but don't push your luck." She hummed in thought as she deliberately chose a time frame that would be short enough to force him to think out of the box.
He clicked his tongue in annoyance, "that's not a lot of time, but it will have to do."
"Do I have any information on the enemy I am facing? Like chakra nature? Whether they are a sensor or not? Do they prefer nin, tai or genjutsu? What village do they belong from?"
"Woah.. woah stop.. damn kid, one at time."
"I can repeat them. I'm sorry, Mito-sama, I tend to speak my thoughts outloud, when I get too excited." He replied with a sheepish smile as he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.
It's fine and to answer your questions – yes you do have some information about enemy, he is a chunin. He is known to use water and earth release but don't bet on it, he prefers ninjutsu and taijutsu.
"The enemy is a sensor as well," as she said that, Satoru who was writing all this down on a small notepad, raised his hand to ask a question as if he was in class.
'Aww, he looks so cute when he does that.' She thought to herself, while she maintained a poker face and calmly gestured for him to ask his question.
"Mito-sama, will I be in range of detection while I am setting up my traps."
Her eyes widened slightly at his astute observation, because it was an information that she didn't want to provide upfront. It was so that he would be caught off guard and will have to display more trump cards to win against Hashi-kun.
But it seemed like the kid thought of everything and made sure to check all his boxes.
"Yes, from the moment you start setting up your traps you'll already be in range of his detection." She replied giving him confirmation, but also withholding any more information from him.
He seemed to understand it as well as he didn't ask any further questions regarding the issue.
"I see." He simply nodded his head.
"As for the time limit, it will be around 10 minutes."
"Got it." He said with a head rest on his tented fingers as if in a thinker's pose like those from the Nara.
This time he turned towards Hashi-kun and asked with a serious look on his face after he pondered on his question for a minute.
"Hashirama-sama, could I ask you a question?" He asked with a hopeful look in his eyes.
"Sure, Satoru-kun. What do you wanna know?" He asked back in a chipper tone.
"If you were to be hit with multiple explosive seals like the one I displayed a few minutes ago, what kinda damage would you suffer if you couldn't dodge it for some reason and had to endure it head on?"
"Hmm.. if I took it straight to the body, I would definitely suffer severe burns, but I heal so fast that I'll probably recover in a few minutes. If I am actively trying to heal myself then maybe a few seconds."
Satoru-kun just nodded his head and wrote down something on his notepad like what Hashi-kun just revealed to him about himself wasn't something mind blowing. But maybe it was because he expected something like this from his Hokage.
"Though even if the seal were to explode in front of me I still think that I am fast enough to raise an earth wall or even encase myself in wood to shield myself from the fire."
"Oh, how could I forget about that.." Satoru admonished himself as he hit his head lightly.
"Will you be using wood release?"
"No, I don't think it will be needed in this friendly showing, and don't worry I won't immediately blitz you, take your time and show us all you've got."
Hashi-kun replied with a kind smile, though she wanted him to take Satoru a bit more seriously as it would be better for his future development and let him see just what kind power is wielded by those that stand at the top of the shinobi world.
"Hokage-sama!" Satoru-kun exclaimed with a 90° bow, "I beg you, this isn't just a chance for me to prove my worth to Mito-sama but also a valuable opportunity for me to learn."
"Till now I have only sparred against fellow academy students. I want to see just how big the chasm between me and an actual Shinobi is after 9 months of hellish training."
"My stats might have improved but real battle experience is something I still lack. So, please I request you to fight me seriously, while still limiting yourself to the level of a chunin."
"I know, I am asking you for a lot. But as an orphan, I don't think I'll ever get a chance like this again, if I fail here."
Hashi-kun lost his smile, as he looked at Satoru as a Shinobi rather than a cute kid who was also a fuin-jutsu savant for the first time in their conversation.
He had a determined look on his face, as he replied, "I won't be holding back then, I hope you'll cover your skill as I will be attacking you from all angles. Good luck Satoru-kun."
"I wouldn't have it any other way." Satoru replied with a smile as he took out a scroll from his backpack and sheepishly smiled as he said, "I will just quickly change into my battle suit."
She nodded and watched him leave in a direction of a few bushes that would give him enough privacy so he could change in peace. She decided to give her hubby a run down before he took things too far.
"Hashi-kun, no maiming or permanent damage, if you break my student you'll be the one who has to heal him.
"Hoh.. student.. already huh?" He asked with a teasing grin as he used his wood style to restore the training ground to how it was before. "Well, he definitely has the talent for it."
Meanwhile Satoru was busy brainstorming, as he took his time changing his clothes. He needed every second he could get to think about how he was going to stop Hashirama's blitz.
'That warning about attacking from every angle was definitely a hint and recalling just how many times I've seen a MC in Naruto burst through the ground to surprise their enemies. I am willing to bet money that Hashirama is going to try the same trick with me.'
'Thank god, I was able to finish my suit on time.' He spent the entirety of his savings into crafting it, it was mainly because he couldn't just add seals onto his clothing for some reason.
Well he could but it wouldn't last long or be stable enough for his needs. He had drawn a storage seal on a piece of cloth, rubbed some minced meat over it and stored it in a safe box, along with a mice.
It was an experiment as he wanted to see what would happen when the seal was damaged. The box was a precautionary measure to contain the damage in case the seal destabilized and imploded.
He was glad he did because the safe was badly mangled when he went to check it after 2 days. If he learnt how to cause such damage on purpose and in a controlled manner, there would be few who he wouldn't be able to kill.
After some trial and error he found a way that he could use seals on clothes but it had to be "applied," in a very tedious way. Despite that he gritted his teeth and did it anyway, because he was gonna need all the advantage he could get if he wanted to impress Mito and become her disciple.
He had to soak chakra conductive fibers in a special mixture of his blood and ink and then sew the pattern of the seal onto the cloth.
At first he was skeptical if it would even work if the seal was damaged in a fight or if the seal would prematurely activate on its own.
After testing he found that it took a lot of damage until the seal was almost unrecognizable because of the damage, and only then would the seal stop being functional.
Thankfully the damage to the cloth didn't prematurely activate the seals so he was good to go. With the experiments taken care of, he had spent the majority of his time of the final month leading up to this fight just prepping.
Creating the suit, creating new seals, crafting a new bow for himself made out of chakra beasts materials that he bought from the Ninja market, more taijutsu conditioning training, chakra control training and mental fortitude training.
It had paid off, his chakra pool, body conditioning, his chakra control had all gone up a rank from an academy trainee to that of a genin. But he knew most of it could be attributed to the [Fake Sage Seal] that was slowly raising his body's potential.
There was a belief in his previous life that if you give enough prep time to Batman, he could defeat anyone.
He knew, he was no Batman but he wanted to try, so he really pushed himself in seal creation and the things he came up with even blew him away. It was why he was so confident that he would impress Mito, after all who wouldn't be if they saw a 6 year old sage.
In both the palms of his hands he had a wind palm and fireball jutsu seal, a storage seal, and on his fingers something he hoped he didn't have to resort to, because while it did pack a punch. It would also hurt him very.. very BAD.
He took out the array of trap seals he had made, swung his bow behind his back. As for his quiver, he didn't have one, he just summons them from the storage seal in the palm of his right hand.
After he was finished dressing up, he went back into the clearing to see Senju Hashirama in his battle armor. He inwardly squealed like a weeb fanboy at seeing in person and a huge grin came onto his face.
"Looking good, kid. Are you finally ready to do this?" Mito asked happily, excited to see her future disciple/apprentice in action.
"Yes!" He replied, taking in the sight of the new forest that had taken place of the singed wasteland that he had created with his explosive seal.
The placement of the trees and bushes, how dense the foliage was, any choke points or places where he could place his traps and lure Hashirama in, or even the directions where he could be attacked from.
"Good, your time starts now." The moment she said that she took Tsunade from Hashirama and left using the [Body Flicker Technique].
After that the First left as well, and he immediately ran towards some dense outcropping of trees and began throwing paper tags at them.
These tags were the latest version of his trap seals, they could not only camouflage themselves to mix in with the environment but even hide themselves from chakra sensors until the very last moment when they were activated.
He threw [Poison Gas Seals], [Sleeping Gas Seals], [Hallucination Gas Seals] and more he knew this would at best serve as a minor inconvenience. But he needed to buy himself every second he could before he had to go head to head with the first.
He made sure to place the seals in a circular formation so that no matter which direction he got attacked from. As long as he wasn't taken down immediately, he only needed to move a few meters and he would be in range of his seals.
He put down his [Custom Explosive Seals], [Smokescreen Seals] that used gas that messed with one's chakra perception, [Flame thrower seals] and his personal favorite that he used for training [Gravity Seal].
But instead of it just being 2 or 3 times the normal gravity, the moment the seal sensed a foreign chakra signature that was not his own it would immediately start exerting pressure on said foreign chakra signature.
Sadly it only worked in a radius of 5 meters and up to a maximum time limit of 2 minutes before the chakra stored in it ran out. He was also working on a gravity seal for his palm that would replicate the effects of [Shinra Tensei] or [Heavenly Push] but unfortunately it was still out of his league.
As he was running around planting these trap seals, he was also throwing around tree logs, so he could use them for substitution jutsu later if he found himself in a jam. He was also counting the seconds in his head.
'23. Gravity.'
'24. Flame Thrower.'
'25. Explosives.'
'26. Poison Gas.'
'27. Hallucination.'
'28. Flashbang.'
He had a few more tricks up his sleeves but prayed for his own sake that he didn't have to resort to using them.
After nodding to himself in satisfaction he bit his thumb and rubbed his bodied finger on his chest as he went through a few hand signs quickly to activate the defensive capabilities of his suit.
He had created a [Kinetic Energy Absorption Seals], though he hadn't gotten the chance to properly test them out yet. But he reckoned that they would at least reduce the impacts of his hits to a manageable degree.
As these thoughts were running through his mind, his instincts screamed for him to dodge and he did just that using a 1 hand seal substitution jutsu to dodge Hashirama's flying kick. It caused a small crater to form, from the force of the impact.
'How the f**k is that chunin level strength? Oh no.' He thought to himself but wasted no time in summoning a kunai and plunging it straight into his thigh.
It's base was wrapped around with an [Anti-Genjutsu Seal] that would flush his chakra with a mix of his sage chakra in three short bursts allowing him to break out of genjutsus casted by someone that was stronger than him.
The best thing was that this sage chakra wasn't used by him so it would just linger in his body and dissipate on its own. And till the time it remained, he was partially immune to genjutsu.
It was good that he did so, because the Hashirama standing in front of him vanished and so did the crater. Instead he heard the First Hokage casually walking up from behind him, though he stopped though the moment he saw Satoru stab himself in the thigh.
"You didn't hesitate. Good. Let's take it up a notch." He said with a smile and immediately went through a few hand signs at speed that could barely see. But he was able to see it was the snake hand sign, so he knew it was an earth release technique.
— To be continued…
In the next episode of F̶A̶L̶L̶O̶U̶T̶
Cough* *Cough*
I meant in the next chapter of Naruto: Road to Kage – Chapter 7: The Fake Sage.
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Word Count: 3,242 words (without the author's notes and disclaimer.)
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{Closing Author's Note: Thanks for reading, this Naruto fanfic is part of my exclusive works that's only available here on pat. reon.
By heading over to Pat reon you'll be able to read up to chapter 18.
There are also other stories over there as well like – I am Iron Man, Hollywood: Head Hunting System and In The Shadows Of The Leaves.
The link is in the author's thoughts section at the bottom.
Anyways, I hope everyone is happy and healthy, this is bye for now but I will be back in a few hours with the H:HHS chapter till then. I hope you have a beautiful day}
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