Naruto Uchiha: the Last Sage of the Six Paths by JH17

Chapter 3: Root

Naruto walked, hands stuffed deep in his pockets as he made his way to their designated training ground. As he walked through a small forest on the outskirts, he felt a presence above him. As a kunai narrowly missed his shoulder, he whipped around to look for his unknown attacker. "Who's there? Show yourself!" A single Anbu with a white mask dropped from the trees. The mask had three arcing red lines above the eyebrow, and a cat-like mouth in black. Naruto narrowed his eyes at the strange Anbu before him. The man didn't speak, he simply charged Naruto and engaged him in taijutsu. A punch came from the left and Naruto moved to block it, giving the strange Anbu an opening to knee him in the stomach. Naruto's breathing hitched and he struggled to maintain his ground. The torrent of blows didn't end there, the man punched him straight in the nose and Naruto stumbled back as the man kicked him in the chest. Naruto jumped away, desperately trying to catch his breath.

Naruto hadn't studied any taijutsu styles yet, so he was forced onto the Academy's worthless standard style. Naruto failed to block the next two punches, one to his stomach and another to his chest, making deep breaths nearly impossible. Naruto grit his teeth and his eyes spun into the Sharingan. The man made no outward reaction, but paused slightly at the sight of Naruto's eyes. Naruto quickly closed the gap, swinging left and right hooks in quick succession, trying to come up with some kind of strategy to defeat the man. With the Sharingan active, Naruto could actually block a few of the man's hits. However, he still wasn't gaining an leverage on the masked nin."Kyuubi, lend me your chakra." The fox gave a short, indignant "hmph" that his container would need his power against such a weak human.

Red, boiling chakra exploded out from him, until it calmed and simply ebbed at the edges of his clothes, giving him a dark red aura and strong killing intent. Even his eyes changed slightly with his pupil stretching upward into a black slit. It wasn't too much chakra, so only a sensor would notice or someone very close like Sasuke was. The killing intent was also very focused, causing the masked nin to hesitate slightly. Seeing this, Naruto shot forward, looking to gain an advantage and push the man back. He kneed the man in the stomach before hitting him with a right uppercut from his chin. The man was launched a few feet in the air. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he shouted as 10 clones poof-ed into existence. They nodded at their creator, wielding the same red chakra and red eyes. He leapt up under the man and kicked him higher into the air as his clones launched themselves up towards the masked nin. The clones gathered around him and kicked him down, shooting him back down into the ground. As they fell, the clones held a fist out to ensure that they would be able to deal even more damage before they dispelled. "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu(Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu)!" the man called and held a hand sign, sending a fireball into the clones.

Naruto knelt to the side, trying to reign his breathing in with the help of the Kyuubi's regenerative chakra. He watched as the man easily dispersed his clones with a single fireball and went through their memories mentally. "I guess he's pretty persistent. I'll have to use some jutsu of my own." Naruto thought carefully. His threw up a single handsign "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu". A single clone stood next to him, to which he nodded and turned back towards his opponent. Naruto and his clone went through handsigns and shouted "Futon: Daitoppa(Wind Style: Great Breakthrough)!" "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" A massive wave of fire exploded outward, further enhanced by the Kyuubi's potent chakra. The huge wave roared forward to the nin, who flashed through his own handsigns "Suiton: Mizurappa(Water Style: Wild Water Wave)!". The strange Anbu spewed a large wave of water back at the roaring fire. The fire, with some difficulty, swallowed the wave and diminished slightly. It kept on its course however, and went straight for the Anbu.

Naruto's clone dispersed and he narrowed his eyes, looking for the masked nin. Suddenly, a badly burned man shot out from the remaining smoke. Naruto pumped chakra into his arms and legs, and met him head on. A punch thrown by the nin was blocked by Naruto, the Kyuubi's chakra singing the man. He stumbled, giving Naruto the perfect chance to end the fight once and for all. He threw an uppercut straight into the nin's stomach, causing him to lurch forward in pain, before Naruto slammed his head down into the ground with an elbow. The nin was smashed into the ground, breaking his mask and falling into unconsciousness.

Naruto knelt down, breathing heavily. "I really need to train myself in using the Kyuubi's chakra. I think I need to learn some taijutsu too. Kami I'm exhausted." he thought. He realized after the adrenaline died down that the Kyuubi's chakra tired him out quickly. "Perhaps a bit of stamina training would help too." He stood up a bit shakily and created a Shadow Clone. "Take him to the Hokage, I'm going to go tell Sasuke." The clone nodded and walked off with a bit of difficulty due to his creator's current situation. Naruto started walking to the training ground he was supposed to meet Sasuke at when Sasuke suddenly stepped out from behind a tree. "Naruto...who was that guy?" he asked, looking in the direction of the fight. Small fires still raged here and there among the trees, smoke billowing out from the tops. "I don't know, some Anbu. His taijutsu hurt though. We'll have to train tommorow, Sasuke." The raven haired boy nodded and looked back to Naruto and his eyes widened. "Th-those eyes...how do you have those eyes?!" he demanded, now fuming with rage. Naruto muttered a curse and replied "Sasuke, even I don't know. I awakened them during my own...massacre." Sasuke's anger soon subsided, before he let out a dark chuckle. "Seems I'm no longer the last Uchiha."

Naruto smirked a bit and spoke. "I guess so" he said before he fell back, passing out from fatigue.