Chương 25: Chapter 25

While this was a good move, they had fallen right into Izuna's trap, or so he thought.

Unknown to Izuna Naruto who had already deduced where they were had actually come up with a plan. He knew there was little chance that the plan would work so he was expecting it to go off rails at any point and he was more than ready to start improvising his fight in close combat.

Naruto and Mito were nearing Izuna. Mito raised her susanoó sword to strike Izuna. Just as Mito was about to make contact with Izuna, Naruto teleported Mito to his own Kamui dimension before being caught by Izuna. Izuna chuckled. So Naruto had figured it out after all. His trap was going to work with both of them here. Izuna held Naruto by the collar using his left hand and Izuna smiled and said, "You sent her off. That's quite unexpected of you. So you surrender now?"

Naruto had a wide grin on his face and said, "Nah, whose here to surrender? I didn't walk into your trap. You walked into mine. FUIJN!"

Naruto caught Izuna's left hand with both his arms and a pitch black seal matrix made it's way onto Izuna's hand. Izuna recocnised it instantly as the Sokuji sesshō kiseichū Fuijn. It's seal matrix was designed to look like a paralysis seal to any amateur. It even worked as one and if they tried to break it the way they tried to break a paralysis seal, the actual seal would surface engulfing the person's entire body and scouring through their chakra network like a parasite effectively killing seal was developed by Izuna and Minato as a last resort against kage during the third great war. But Izuna was no amateur. He knew this seal inside out. He had built a fail-safe inside the seal to break it down. Izuna was watching the seal unfurl millisecond by millisecond searching for his fail-safe on the seal as he took a few glances at the dumb grin on Naruto's face that made him proud that he did this on impulse or that he had actually had a plan in his mind. As the seal unfurled Izuna started to notice that this was not the Sokuji sesshō kiseichū Fuijn. There were intricate differences here and there and the fail-safe was nowhere to be found. It was in fact a completely different seal. His son had been working out on his fuijnjutsu. Good for him. Izuna decided that the seal was too dangerous to be left alone like this and he switched into his Sage of Six Paths mode and used sen-chakra and yin-yang chakra to neutralize the seal. Naruto who was also watching this unfurl millisecond by millisecond grinned wider. Izuna was confused with this look his son was giving him. Then when the seal grew more rapidly as he fed yin yang chakra to it, he noticed that it wasn't a seal at all. There were only nine truth seeker orbs levitating behind Naruto's back. The 'seal' on his arm was the tenth truth seeker orb which was feeding off his chakra. Izuna instantly jumped back letting Naruto and his 'seal' of a truth seeker orb stay back. He had fed Naruto's orb quite a lot of chakra. He couldn't believe that he had fallen for a trap like that. Not once in his entire career as jonin and hokage had he fallen into a trap like that unintentionally. He had tread into many traps intentionally in the past to make a point and to destroy a chunk of the enemy military but not once had he been caught off guard like that. Izuna was experiencing two very distinct feelings right now. His heart was swelling with pride for his son who had trapped him for real, caught him off guard. But another part of him was angry on himself for falling for something like that. The pride in him won with the anger making sure he would quadruple his training henceforth.

Izuna smiled and looked towards Naruto to find him swirling out of existence, the grin still on his face. He said, "A good fighter knows when to retreat. So do I."

Izuna just smiled as he saw Naruto go into his own Kamui dimension. Naruto was the brightest mind Konoha had produced in generations and today just gave more proof of that. He always had a way out of things. Izuna then stretched his arms and legs and activated his spcae time dojutsu to access Naurto's kamui.

Meanwhile,

Mito arrived into Naruto's kamui in a swirl and fell down on the ground face first. She was not happy. Her susanoó sword was just about to make contact with Izuna and Naruto sent her here. What was he thinking, taking on Izuna all by himself.

Just as she thought this Naruto swirled into existence beside her. He was grinning widely. She asked him, "Oi, knucklehead, what happened to you?"

His expression turned from extremely happy to unbelievably stoic. He turned to her and said, "We need to go to your kamui dimension. I have instant access only to mine. Dad'll come here soon. This battle is now a pursuit and tou-san is chasing us through space-time. We need to leave, Now!"

Mito was frustrated but did as she told and the two of them were soon in her kamui space time.

Naruto relaxed a bit. He then smiled and told her, "I actually caught tou-san in a trap. This time I caught him off guard. He didn't let me trap him. I trapped him for real and managed to get a portion of his chakra."

Mito said, "He let you trap him. You still haven't learnt have you?"

Naruto shook head horizontally and started "I am telling you, I got him for real. You should have seen his face. It was one of true surprise. He didn't let me trap him this time. He was truly caught off guard."

Mito said, "If you say so. I have a bigger question for you. Why didn't you let me take a hit at him? I was this close to getting him?" She said so by showing the length of about half a centimeter with her fingers.

Naruto said, "For one, he would have completely destroyed you. You know he is the fastest there is. You were open to attacks almost completely. For two, we were in his kamui meaning he had perfect control over the entire place. You must have noticed the dimension being saturated with his chakra. There was absolutely no way we could have won if we stayed back over there. You knew that right?"

Mito twitched and said, "Of course I did. If I didn't connect I would have come here directly." She had clearly not known that they were in Izuna's kamui space time before. How had he known that part? It was probably obvious to him, he had the Rinnegan after all. He was working to help her. She felt good that Naruto wanted to help her but the major part of her mind did not like what was happening. Naruto was leaving her behind. He would always walk ahead of her, he had always been stronger than her. While she trained with him, he always held back. Not once had he gone all out while she went all out every time. She sparred Izuna alongside Naruto but it was always Naruto who rescued her. Just like he did today. He had always been more observant than her even without the Rinnegan. He noticed things quicker. She felt that she was holding Naruto back. He could probably achieve greater heights without her. Just like today. Naruto had been able to successfully trap Izuna for real when she was not there. She felt like she didn't deserve to fight alongside him.

She said, "Naruto, I want to tell you something."

Naruto who had been going on about how happy he was to have been able to trap Izuna stopped and turned to her. He said, "I am listening."

She said, "I think you should go solo."

Naruto who had been cheerful till then lost all of that happiness. He looked shaken. He asked, "What do you mean? You don't want me as a team-mate? Does this have anything to do with me asking you out? Do you not like me?"

Mito said, "No Naruto, of course I like you. Why else do you think I agreed to go out with you? That is not the reason I want you to go solo. Every-time we fight, I feel like I am holding you back. You always save me. I am useless at he end. You end up doing all the work. You even do better without me. Even today you did so-"

Naruto stopped her there and said, "Mito-chan, never say that again. You don't hold me back and you have no reason to feel so. You are the most awesome kunoichi of all time. So what if dad has beaten you a few times, it doesn't matter. You will eventually get stronger than him. He will be the one who needs saving later on. Why do you feel bad about that? And for the record, I have always done better with you standing and fighting beside me, supporting me and making me stronger. I would have trapped him even if you were still over there. That would have made no differrence whether or not you started there. Besides I came here almost instantly. If not for your leading attack, I would have never been able to succeed. I succeed constantly because of you. You mean everything to me. I am not half as strong as I am with you, when without. You have given me strength and a reason to grow stronger. I love you. I need you. So please, never again say that you hold me back or anything along those lines."

He then hugged her. She didn't say a single thing and just returned the hug.

They stayed like that for a while and then Izuna reached Mito's kamui and then said, "I'm sorry to interrupt you, but this battle must continue."