Chapter 44: Across the Omniverse
While Rias was planning and causing chaos in her family and the Underworld, in another universe things were calmer as she ran with a smile behind Sakura, Sai – the new member of her team – and Yamato, the captain and Kakashi's replacement.
Currently, they were heading towards one of Orochimaru's lairs after saving Gaara and getting information from Sasori and, finally, Kabuto. Unfortunately, things had turned upside down when Orochimaru showed up.
After running and jumping a bit towards the huge suspension bridge, Naruto still kept his fox-like smile as he looked at the snake.
"Kukuku~ This is a bit of a surprise, Kabuto," Orochimaru laughed as he looked at his subordinate, but he was attentive to Team 7's movements.
"Although, more surprising is seeing Team 7 here. It's been a while, Yamato... so are you, Naruto-kun. Still sad about Sasuke-kun's defection?"
"Eh, not at all. Why should I care what he does? I'm not his mother to be watching his every move," Naruto lightly replied as he placed his hands behind his head, smiling slightly at the Sannin's attempt to irritate him.
"Eh?"
"Eh?"
Yamato and Sakura tilted their heads to the side in confusion. Orochimaru seemed a bit surprised by the answer before smiling again.
Honestly speaking, he wouldn't say that kind of answer if he hadn't met Rias and Harry. He, of course, decided to talk about that topic to his closest friends. At that moment he discovered many things he had ignored: Sasuke's own feelings, the village's response to a deserter, what it could cause if Orochimaru decided to attack the village again to get Sasuke back; so many things he had ignored before, but now understood. Even more, when he saw Hashirama and Asura's memories he realized that history was simply repeating itself and he didn't want to do that. He was not Ootsutsuki Asura or Senju Hashirama. No, he was Uzumaki Naruto, his own person, and he wasn't willing to repeat the same mistakes as the people behind him.
"What a surprise, Naruto-kun; it seems that the training really did change you. Now, I wonder, how strong have you become?", Orochimaru stretched out his long tongue before licking his lips, eager to find out how far Naruto got with Jiraiya's training. Even if he was no longer a part of Konoha, he still felt that rivalry against Jiraiya, so he was curious to know who had trained his disciple better.
Naruto slowly lowered his arms from the back of his head before his gaze became completely serious and sharp. His chakra was not leaving his body, but a cold wind seemed to manifest itself as his presence seemed to increase.
"Why don't we try that right now?" Naruto said before disappearing from everyone's sight.
Orochimaru's eyes widened as he saw Naruto appear over an unsuspecting Kabuto, slamming his head in with a kick and sending him flying under the bridge. Kabuto's body went limp at the kick, like a puppet whose strings were cut, and he was sent flying at high speed, causing a large crater to form in the ground beneath the suspension bridge.
"I didn't see it... What's with that absurd speed?" Orochimaru thought with a frown, staring intently at Naruto and examining him carefully. The Sannin jumped back as he fired hundreds of snakes from his sleeves. Having seen Naruto's gaze, he knew from experience that he would be the next to be attacked, so he decided to attack first and create a safer distance.
Naruto pulled back his Tantou and chakra surrounded its blade before it moved and cut all the snakes swiftly.
"Why don't you just retreat? Nowadays, fighting is pointless. In the end, no matter who wins or loses, neither will end up with enough information to consider a full-scale battle."
"Kukuku~… It seems you really have become more mature and intelligent, Naruto-kun," Orochimaru chuckled lightly, but he was irritated. Naruto's words were true, no matter if they fought in this place, neither of them would get what they wanted. Team 7 would be left without information on Orochimaru and Sasuke, while the Sannin would be left without information on Kabuto; he was dead after all. But, even if this was so, retreating would prove Naruto right and he would still be on the losing side for not being able to defeat a team of Konoha shinobi.
Seeing Orochimaru's gaze, Naruto sighed with an exasperated expression: "You're not going to retreat, are you? You characters from the past can really be annoying."
"Your time has passed, you should stay hidden inside those hiding places of yours. If you're not careful, you might discover scary things."
"Scary things?... Kukuku... Please don't make me laugh, brat. There's nothing and no one that scares me in this world. Not even tailed beasts."
Naruto scratched his neck as he stretched his head a little. Honestly, he was getting irritated little by little. This wasn't going anywhere, and he wanted to go back to Konoha so he could get some rest. So, to get it over with, he used his new technique: Heavenly Steps.
Nothing could be heard, not even the sound of the wind moving clothes. Naruto simply appeared behind Orochimaru as if he had teleported; A long, pale arm spun through the air as blood poured out of Orochimaru's shoulder wound. And unfortunately for him, Naruto didn't give him a break; he knew of his ability to vomit out a new body, so he continued his attack mercilessly. The blond's Tantou moved fluidly to cut off Orochimaru's other arm and then his legs. Everything seemed to go by slowly, but in reality it was just a blink of an eye.
The Heavenly Steps weren't a normal movement technique. It took a well-trained body to be able to use it, due to the enormous speed it granted and the ability to change the user's perception when moving, causing Naruto to see everything more slowly, as if time was stopping. This was a difficult technique to learn because of its requirements, but extremely powerful when used!
Orochimaru only felt pain as he fell to the ground with his limbs severed and his blood spilling onto the bridge. Naruto just shook his head before kicking the rest of the body off the bridge. Even with his injuries, Orochimaru wouldn't die from such things.
"Well... Shall we go?" Naruto asked his team. Two of them, being Yamato and Sakura, were staring at him in disbelief at what he had done.
. . .
Naruto was surprisingly eating Dango right now. With the trip to another world and not being able to eat Ramen too much, he discovered some new foods that he really liked, Dango being one of them. He was sitting comfortably in the shop's courtyard, where there were some seats with umbrellas; his right leg was over his left knee, slowly swinging as he hummed, completely relaxed.
"U... um... Nar... Naruto–kun...",
Blinking at the sound of his name, he turned his head to the side, noticing Hyuuga Hinata who was standing beside him with a bowl of ramen, as if waiting for his permission to sit down.
"Oh, Hinata-chan. Please sit down, you don't have to ask or ask for permission," Naruto smiled lightly at her. Hinata nodded while blushing a little. She gulped a little at how nervous she was sitting right next to Naruto.
"How has your team's work been going? You're a Chunin now, right?", deciding to start a conversation, Naruto asked with a little curiosity.
"W... Well... We've trained a lot... so we can... do more complicated missions," surprisingly, Hinata didn't stutter too much when she answered. Even she was a little surprised herself. For some reason, she felt comfortable being next to Naruto.
"Would you like to train with me someday?", Naruto asked.
"Yes!", she answered too quickly, and ended up blushing.
"NARUTO!!", an angry shout caught the attention of the two teenagers. It was Sakura, who walked with every step forcefully with a furious look. And if it were before, Naruto would tremble in fear, but he didn't even flinch this time. He knew why Sakura was angry; she killed Kabuto and thus they failed to find out any information. And probably, also because of the fact that he didn't come to Tsunade's office to report some things: like his new strength and speed, or the fact that it seemed like he had killed a Sannin; no, he just went to eat Dango as if nothing had happened.
"Keep your voice down, you're disturbing the customers, Sakura", Naruto frowned a little. Having been traveling on the sea for a while, he began to have an appreciation for quiet and serene places, like the Dango shop where everyone chatted quietly and quietly.
Knowing that she wouldn't listen, he took Hinata into his arms, princess-like, and skipped away, moving away from Sakura.
"Sorry about that, looks like we can't talk anymore for now. Do you want to meet again tomorrow at the same place?" Hinata couldn't verbally answer the question due to her blushing and nervousness at being in Naruto's arms. In the end, she could only nod as she tried to resist fainting.
Smiling, Naruto set her down on a rooftop before running to the office, to talk to Tsunade. As they entered through the window, Tsunade glared at him, annoyed.
"Brat, there's something called a door!"
"And it's faster to use the window. I don't have to wait for Shizune to ask you to enter."
"I heard you killed Orochimaru... How?" Tsunade asked seriously.
"Please..." Naruto rolled his eyes. "If the man died from something like that, I'd be disappointed, many would be, in fact. He's harder... well, flexible? Soft?... Whatever, the thing is, he won't die from having his limbs cut off!"
"And Kabuto?", Tsunade asked frowning, finding Naruto right.
"There...", Naruto handed her a scroll. "His body is sealed inside. I don't know if the Yamanaka can get information out of someone dead, but there it is."
Tsunade pursed her lips; from what she heard from Yamato and Sakura's report, Naruto hadn't even moved far from them. So, how was he able to seal Kabuto's body? The answer was easy: Naruto had secretly created shadow clones and asked them to watch the surroundings. One of them was the one that sealed Kabuto's dead body.
"Why didn't you give this to me when you arrived, Naruto?" Tsunade asked, but now she looked more curiously at the blond. His current way of acting was calmer and more analytical when it came to doing things. He seems to have matured more than she had thought when she first saw him after training with Jiraiya.
Naruto let out a sigh a little annoyed: "If I did that, I would have to listen to Sakura's incessant screams inside this small room. And, despite being a friend, I honestly don't have to put up with her outbursts," Naruto replied before shrugging at the end.
Naruto let out a sigh a little annoyed: "If I did that, I would have to listen to Sakura's incessant screams inside this small room. And, despite being a friend, I honestly don't have to put up with her outbursts," Naruto replied before shrugging at the end.
Even though they were talking about Sakura, her disciple, Tsunade couldn't help but curl her lips into a small smile.
"I see... It seems you've grown, Naruto."
He just smiled in response and pulled out a scroll before unrolling it and taking out a bottle of Sake from one of the seals inside. Tsunade blinked a little before receiving the bottle and opening it to smell the Sake.
"This...", she drank immediately, feeling the burning in her throat, but that soon dissipated with the cold heady taste and fragrant smell of the Sake.
"I hope you enjoy it...", Naruto smiled. That was one of the bottles he took from Shirohige's ship, who had some of the best Sake in the pirate world.
___________________________