บท 24: Chapter 24

Previously, Izuna asks Naruto and Mito to come to The Forest Of Death for training. Naruto asks Mito out.

Now,

Izuna said, " Took the two of you long enough to get here. I know you two can work as a team so I ain't gonna give you the bell test. Instead, you pass. Just show me what you are capable of. HAJIME!"

Flashback, one year ago,

Izuna had called Naruto to training ground three to teach him a few things. Naruto was always happy to learn. When he had arrived, Izuna was standing in front of the Stone Memorial. Izuna noticed Naruto and smiled. He said, "Took you long enough to come. Come here boy. I have a two things to teach you today. You can call one of them ancestral heritage that has been passed down to us. The other is a teleportation jutsu which I prefer to use instead of Kamui. This was my best friend, the Fourth Hokage's signature move that earned him the name 'Yellow Flash' but now let's go to training.

Naruto was doing nothing to hide his excitement. An ancestral heritage and a teleportation jutsu. The Rinne festival just came early for him. Izuna took him to the centre of the training ground and manifested truth seeking orbs. Nine of them levitated behind his back while one floated on his palm. Naruto confused them with bijuudamma and said, "Why are you making a bijuudamma now. How can you even make one in this form?". Izuna merely chuckled and said, " Son, this is not a bijuudamma. This is something greater. This is our heritage which we have received from our ancestor, the First Sage of Six Paths. These are truth seeking orbs. They contain all five natures and along with yin-yang release, can negate practically all ninjutsu. Any healing your opponent posseses shall be destroyed. Even you have had them since the massacre but you don't know how to enter six paths sage mode completely and that's why they never showed up in all our spars. Today I am not teaching you how to manifest these but rather how to reach a complete sage of six paths mode which you have been unable to achieve consciously as of yet. Then we can move on to Hiraishin."

Naruto entered what he had know as six paths mode for a long time. A full chakra armour bright blue and orange as bright as the sun itself. There were six paths markings on him but he didn't have sen-chakra through his veins. It was his own chakra running through his veins. Izuna told him, "You are not a true sage yet. I suppose a life and death situation ought to help you achieve it. Keep it on this time Naruto."

Naruto shuddered and took a step back. He felt something was wrong, very wrong. Izuna then kicked him and kicked him hard. Naruto was thrown off his feet and landed a few metres from his position. He didn't see his father. It was a man in black robes with a white mask on him. Through that white mask, he saw a mangekyou sharingan. He was unable to make out the pattern but he knew it was a mangekyou. The cloaked man laughed and said, "I thought you wanted to kill me. I suppose your will isn't strong enough to kill me."

Naruto stood up and took a look at the cloaked man and then he remembered, this was the man who had burnt his mother. Revenge is best served cold but this man would get a hot BURINING revenge with his body and soul burned. Naruto let his instincts take over and he achieved the true Sage of Six Paths mode with sen-chakra running through him and he had ten truth seeking orbs behind him.

He looked at the cloaked figure and said, " I don't know how I fell for your genjutsu. I commend you but now, I shall KILL YOU!"

He took one truth seeking orb and converted it into a sword. He wielded a truth seeking sword on one hand and an inferno style raikirin in the other. He charged at the cloaked man who had little to no resistence after the truth seeking sword neutralized whatever ability his mangekyou granted him. Naruto made quick work of him only to realize he had actually been in a genjutsu this while and it was his father who had put the genjutsu on him. He got rid of it quickly to see his father claaping. Izuna said, "Well done. You must forgive me for what I did but I figured that I could trigger a complete transformation from you. I was right after all."

Naruto sighed and put his head down and said, "I didn't get my revenge did I?" Izuna said, "Maybe not but you will get him. I know you will. Now that you have manifested the truth seeking orbs Hiraishin will basically be a walk in the park. It's a sealing matrix. You will be able to create your own but for now, you can use mine." He threw a hiraishin kunai at him. Naruto found that after having the rinnegan, hiraishin was a walk in the park.

End Flashback.

Naruto and Mito jumped backwards to the safety of the trees. Naruto's Rinnegan activated and three tomoe swirled into existence in each alternate ripple in his Rinnegan. Five Limbos came into existence beside him. His susanoó flamed into existence. He manifested his fire and lightning armors. He manifested his truth seeking orbs. He threw a kunai at Izuna and used Hiraishin to teleport right in front of Izuna and launched a Chidori at him. Izuna just parried Naruto's attack and then he shot a fireball at Naruto. Naruto got hit by it and he got hit HARD, VERY HARD. He was shot from the centre of the forest to it's circumference. Naruto was in awe. It was as though Izuna's power knew no bounds. Naruto figured it was best he tag-teamed his father with Mito. He went in search of Mito to find her in a battle with a clone his father had sent. She was using everything in her arsenal but she wasn't able to land a single blow on Izuna. Naruto caught the Izuna clone with a Limbo after which Mito obliterated the clone from existence using a Fire Phoenix. She looked at him and said in between pants, "Thanks a lot. Was starting to feel you'd bailed on me."

Naruto smiled and said, "Me! I am thoroughly disappointed if you feel I would bail on you when facing my father. I need you with me. You know from experience that there is now way we can beat him alone. Let's tag-team him."

Mito said, "Correction, I know from experience that we can never beat him irrespective of whether we attack together or alone unless we grow a few hundreds of times stronger. But we can still stand out for longer if we do tag team him, besides what's the worst that can happen if we do tag team him?"

Naruto chuckled and said, "Quite a few things I can think of that can go wrong in a tag-team against him."

Mito sighed, "Stop thinking about it. Let's go. Do you have any strategy this time or are you gonna go first and improvise next as usual?"

Naruto said, "Words of my father, 'Make a plan, expect the plan to go off rails, throw the plan away when it does go off rails, improvise your attacks.' When the plan won't work against him in the first place, why make one?"

Mito said, "You never change. Let's go."

The two of them landed in front of Izuna and attacked him running side by side. Naruto launched a few Kamui shuriken at Izuna which was aptly sent to Izuna's kamui dimension to lurk in there forever. Mito launched a barrage of amaterasu arrows at him. Izuna burnt them using his own amaterasu. Naruto and Mito continually launched attacks at him and they were very synchronized and their attacks complimented and supported each other's attacks. But all Izuna saw in this graceful figthing style of his son and Mito was chaos. Organised chaos but chaos nevertheless. Naruto had never made a single plan to take him down in their quarterly all out training spars in the past four years. He had given up after the first year. Izuna said while countering their attacks, "You have come as usual without a plan I suppose. You may have quoted me on the make a plan, expect it go off rails, blah blah blah. But I did say at first MAKE A PLAN. Not improvise your attacks from the beginning. A true strategist and shinobi never goes into a battle without a plan or strategy to overcome their enemy. While you should expect the plan to go off rails, there are many cases when a brilliant strategist has put down people stronger than him using his brains. Improvisation and strength aren't everything kids. You nedd to have a strategy which you build upon. That way you will get stronger. No matter how many times I tell this to you two, you keep on coming at me without a single plan in mind. Now you shall pay for your insolence because I am tired."

Naruto and Mito shot back upon hearing this. They had only one thing in their mind right now, "SHIT!" They left their offence and put everything they had into defence. They activated all their defenses. Armor upon armor of defensive chakra and a susano'o to complete it for Mito. Naruto kept on going. A mokuton armor below the susano'o, he converted one truth seeking orb into an all body covering armor. Two orbs for full body shields in each hand for his front and the remaining seven to protect his back. A good defense is the best offence. While the converse is also true, Naruto knew that he could mount no surmountable offence against Izuna so defense was his only forte as of now and he would make sure to come out of this in one piece.

Izuna used a transportation seal on the three of them and took them to an unknown location or more precisely his own kamui dimension. Naruto and Mito reeled back after being sucked into this dimension which such force. Izuna was still not in his Six Paths Sage mode quite simply because he didn't need it against them. While he would have activated it were they beyond the tone during which their chakra increased exponentially. He called it chakra puberty. Nevertheless, this was his dimension and he had supreme control over it and everything in it. He was THE GOD in this dimension of his. He pulled the two of them towards him. Naruto used Shinra Tensei to get him and Mito away from Izuna but all of that was in vain. Naruto didn't know where he was right now, else he might have come up with something more useful but Izuna was not revealing this to Naruto anytime soon.

Naruto on the other hand was having a very very bad evening. His father was now manipulating the entire dimension. No wonder Shinra Tensei was not working. The entire atmosphere was saturated with Izuna's chakra. It was as though Izuna was part of the nature and environment in this area. But then it dawned upon Naruto, Izuna was not a part of this environment and nature but this dimension was a part of Izuna. It was most likely his kamui dimension. A truly powerful wielder of kamui had perfect control over their dimension and his father had achieved just that.

Naruto did not brace for impact nor did he strengthen his defenses. His defenses were null and void here against Izuna! He shifted every bit of chakra he had into offense. Mito soon followed suite. Izuna saw the two of them do this and smirked. While this was a good move, they had fallen right into his trap!