Naruto : Uchiha : Chapter 25

"…but everything…" the voice said in a cold voice making him stiffen when he saw a strange hooded figure with a straw cloak sitting on a tree and launched his kunai at it. The figure caught it in his finger by it's hole and shook his finger in a 'not so good' fashion.

"Your potential lays hidden…" he whispered suggestively, confusing the blonde boy with his words. Naruto could feel a foreboding feeling in the back of his mind at seeing the figure who was hiding his appearance expertly in the shadow of the tree so he could not see him.

...

"What do you mean? Who are you?" he asked him, taking out a round of shurikens in his free hand to be ready for anything and the figure cackled.

"Who I am is not important, but your hidden potential needs coming out now. But certain conditions must be met to do so…" he spoke in his same childish tone once more throwing him in for a loop.

"What conditions? What potential are you going on about?" he asked him to milk everything he could from the man who laughed evilly.

"The potential that can only be found when you would lose someone you love right in front of your very eyes…" he whispered, leaning forward with a waving finger to make his point. Naruto couldn't help but shudder at whatever psychopath he had come across.

"Today you'll achieve it…" he whispered suggestively, once more baffling out the blonde boy.

"Your friend, that girl…" he whispered and Naruto's eyes widened in horror. He only had one female friend. He looked at the man with such hateful eyes, it almost made him shudder and lick his lips at the same time.

"What have you done to Tsunade? I swear if you have done anything to her…" he threatened the figure on instinct getting yet another childish laugh from him while he waved his hands up in defense.

"No need to get all riled up on poor old me, I come in peace…" he spoke childishly, making Naruto snort inwardly though he tried to gauge what the man wanted right now. He was much more than what he seemed to the naked eye.

"Then why mention her when you come in peace?" he asked him seriously, to know what he was talking about.

"Well anyone would mention a person who was abducted by some shinobi of a rival village ne?" he asked curiously and Naruto's kunai dropped in shock.

"What?" he asked in a whisper but the figure heard him and grinned seeing his horrified eyes.

"That girl, I saw a man take her from a clearing. All tied up and gagged, slung over his shoulder like a sack…" he trailed off feeling a cold metal on his neck. He glanced back to meet the cold eyes of the blonde and saw the boy he was talking to right now disappear in a puff of smoke, making his eyes widen momentarily.

"Shadow clone?" he thought and heard a small whisper in his ear that made his grin widen to ever epic proportions.

"Where is she?" Naruto asked coldly, and the man couldn't help but feel glee on his insides.

"The southern edges of the village, he must have crossed them by now and moving on towards the borders of the country. I would hurry it up if I were you…" he whispered before Naruto saw him disappearing right in front of his eyes as if he wasn't ever there in the first place.

"Who was he? Was he telling the truth? What should I do?" he thought, his mind jumbled up with a million doubts and questions right now while his hands shook in fear of what might happen to her.

"Should I go back to the village for help… no would take too much time and the man would escape cleanly without a trace seeing how far I am. There's only one way then…" he thought before blurring from the branch he was on a moment later and rushed past branches, blasting several off on his way with huge bursts of chakra from his feet.

He saw the trees coming to an end and jumped down on the ground, running at blazing fast speeds, as fast as his legs would go while pumping them with chakra to keep his muscles going without tiring even a little.

"You're going the wrong way gaki…" a voice spoke from his side only to see him the strange figure hiding in that cloak of straws from before.

"You won't be able to catch up with that man no matter how you see it…" he spoke wisely making Naruto glance at him dangerously.

"Watch me." he spoke calmly, before the figure saw that the blonde was running for a huge cliff. Naruto increased his speed twofold and jumped down with a start, opening his arms to twirl himself in mid air while the figure stood on the edge, completely dumbfounded at the actions of a certain Uchiha.

Though when he looked down, he saw Naruto taking out a kunai in his hand and embedding it in the rocky surface to slow down his fall and grinned.

"Interesting, most interesting…" he cackled and disappeared into thin air yet again.

Naruto's hair flailed around with the air passing through them when his kunai snapped in half from the force it was experiencing. He took out another in both of his hands and embedded them in the rock at the same time with all the force he could muster.

It worked. His speed slowed down and he buried them into the rock right to the hilt to get blocked by a small boulder in there and halt his motion momentarily, and he placed his soles on the rocky surface only to let out a burst of chakra to kick himself back and back flipped to land on the ground while skidding backwards and stopping himself by burying his kunai which were chipped off to the point of no return now.

His arms ached with the huge strain he had put them through but he paid it no heed and started running again. He jumped from boulder to boulder to pass the small stream quickly and just as he did, he was out of the village's borders.

He ran up to see the start of the forest and hopped up on a branch to begin his chase yet again. He smiled a small smile of relief when he saw a small patch of a footstep on a branch and knew he was now right on tail of whoever the abductor was. The man must be in a hurry if he hadn't cleared off his tail and confident that no one would follow him. But his mind was completely jumbled up by the figure from before.

"Why is he helping me? What the hell does he want?" he thought, but shook the thought off. He would have time for that later, right now he had a man to stop.

A man with a face mask covering his face along with full black clothes for stealth hopped from branch to branch straight towards the Rain country's borders. He smiled behind his mask, the information about the small slips in security of the Leaf had been spot on and now he had the Senju heiress on his shoulder.

Then they could rebuild the Senju clan in Kumo and use her offspring or even the girl herself for making perfect jinchurikis. The Raikage was going to be smiling in glee at having her in their midst with the Leaf unknown about her loss until it was too late.

SWISH…

He jumped sideways, but howled in pain when three shurikens got embedded in the back of his left thigh. Tsunade wriggled in her bonds and her screams were muffled by the gag tied over her mouth. He looked back to see the forest completely empty and growled behind his mask.

"You have some nerve Leaf scum, I am a sensor myself. You cannot hide from me…" he shouted in the seemingly empty clearing but got no response in return.

SWISH…

His ears caught the sound of another sound of metal whizzing in the air and he ducked when a lone kunai went past where he stood a moment ago, only to growl in annoyance and look around furiously.

Finally, his senses tingled and he grinned. He turned around to see Naruto falling down from a branch over him, a kunai in his hands to embed it straight in his skull. He launched a volley of shurikens himself while mentally sighing in relief that he was only dealing with a little child so he could get this over with quickly.

Naruto's arms and legs curled up to cover his front while the metallic stars got embedded in each of his limbs. Tsunade shouted in her gags and wriggled wildly at seeing what had happened only for her eyes to widen when Naruto disappeared in a puff of smoke and a small log fell in place of where he was a moment earlier.

"A substitution?" the masked man growled, once more looking around when he turned around and blocked a kunai ladden hand with his forearm, only to meet the cold blue eyes of his attacker.

Naruto slashed at the man's waist who jumped back quickly to dodge it and the blonde followed him just as quickly, not letting up his charge and give the man any time to reprieve.

The jounin took out a sword and parried his twin kunai strikes expertly with small glancing blocks as if they were mere annoyances. But he had to admit the boy was fierce and relentless in his slashes, that were being executed with perfection laced in them.

"You damned brat, leave while you still can before I put you into an untimely grave…" the man growled, having to fight with one hand while the other had supported his captive on his shoulder.

The jounin finally had enough and pushed back, slashing at Naruto a vertical strike who blocked it with a cross guard over his head with his twin kunais.

The blonde winced at the brute force behind it and was forced to one knee, skidding back when he saw the man letting out a kick with his right leg and blocked it by crossing his arms in a cross guard.

Naruto cursed inwardly, the man was too strong and experienced with the only disadvantage that Tsunade was on his shoulder.

While he on the other hand, could not use his arsenal of ninjutsu comprising mostly of Fire jutsus and Shadow clones that would only drain him quickly and leave him open for the kill from how exhausted he already was after the long chase to catch up to the man for three hours now.

He ducked under a horizontal slash and rolled away from a vertical one that followed it, while the sword was embedded in the ground with a small cloud of dust to show the force behind it would cleave him straight through if it made direct contact.

The jounin had to give some points to the brat, no matter how annoying the pest was in his eyes.

"You're good brat, but how long can you keep this up. Better give up and I'll make it painless…" the man taunted while Naruto paid no heed to the man, but he was right in his assumptions. He was tiring himself out quickly and at a severe disadvantage on his hands.

Ninjutsu was no where near sights for this fight lest he burn Tsunade along with the man when he caught the man in a trap with his clones, for which he had no where near enough chakra to pull off the numbers that would need.

He was at a severe disadvantage at taijutsu since the man was a jounin, having the experience and advantage of strength over him.

The only thing keeping him alive was his agility and speed and that too was failing quickly as he was forced to dodge another swing of his dodge and the man was adapting to his style slowly yet surely.

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