The Path Of a Hunternin

Pit stop

It was a scorching hot day in Bird Country and nature was taking advantage of it. The plants used the energy of the sun for their feeding and animals would be at the river hunting for fish. It was a pretty quiet day, except for a few distant noises of metal clashing against metal. Suddenly, a small yet increasing in size fireball could be seen coming towards the once peaceful river. The animals scattered away as the little fireball pretty much tripled in size. One human wearing a mask looked at the attack's destruction before turning back to his opponent.

It was now close to six months since Naruto managed to defeat Mishimoto, Suna's missing-nin with the aid of Temari and now here he was at the verge of eliminating the last one of the B ranked list. The guy's name is Katsu, yes a fitting name for the insane fire techniques he uses and Naruto was cursing himself for not knowing any Suiton jutsu to counter the damn imbecile. His Fuuton jutsus were unusable as they were weak in comparison to Katon and his own Katon techniques doesn't even come close to the man's ability with the element, so the only advantage Naruto had right now was the extra chakra capacity and his physical abilities which were twice as better than six months before.

"Well hunter-san, it appears we are at a stalemate. I can't hit you with my techniques and you can't come any closer. Now, I know better than to underestimate the hunter-fox while in battle as I know many did in the past and ended up in a body bag." – Said Katsu to which Naruto looked at the man, trying to seize him up. The name hunter-fox was earned after one of his pray that managed to escape from his clutches for a while. Naruto managed to capture him in the end, but not before he managed to spread the word that Konoha had a new hunter-nin that was slowly extinguishing the bingo book.

"Naruto, I know you're just waiting for his chakra to vanish, but that won't happen, his control is very good for that. We will have to use that technique" – Said Kyuubi, earning a sigh in dismay from the blond. He knew the fox was right, but the technique he referred to was never attempted before in the midst of battle. Not to mention that the technique's after effects would cause a lot of damage to Naruto's skin. However, since Kyuubi managed to heal him in the end, he guessed the worst it could happen is immeasurable pain. I know I'll regret this later on, but here goes.

Charging chakra to his feet once more, Naruto vanished in thin air and charged against Katsu with a direct attack. Katsu immediately began his share of hand seals before gathering as much air as he could before releasing the Katon Dairyuuka no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Jutsu). Immediately, a huge fire dragon appeared and charged against the hunter-nin who breathed a little bit, before focusing on the tiger seal for his new technique called Katon Enkou no Yoroi (Fire Release: Flame Armor Jutsu).

Immediately, Naruto focused some of Kyuubi's chakra through his tenketsu and expelled it from every tenketsu, thus enveloping his body with flame, before facing the dragon head on. Katsu couldn't believe what this hunter-nin did and believed for a second that he had a death wish. Didn't matter, though, as with the hunter-fox now dead, not only himself but the rest of those who no longer belonged to Konoha could go on with their lives without being hunted. However, just as he turned his back to the onslaught, he suddenly felt something piercing his neck. It lasted only one second and Katsu was dead.

Naruto's body was burned all over and his clothes had gone up in ashes. The pain slowly ebbed away, but the blond couldn't help but grind his teeth in annoyance as Kyuubi was using his chakra to heal the burning. God, I hate this jutsu, remind me why I created it in the first place? – Thought Naruto, earning a snicker from the fox living inside of him.

"For these type of situations, maybe? Or maybe, you became a sadist since you left that pitiful village, so you decided to harm your body at the worst way possible? Either way, you finally managed to finish the B ranked section of the book. The A ranked ones will be much more powerful than those you fought thus far. I'd suggest you take a little time to train and maybe even acquire a third element to use in case we run into someone with a stronger element than yours, like either Suiton (water) or Doton (earth). I happen to know more about Doton techniques, so after you're able to manipulate the element, I could teach you" – Explained Kyuubi, earning a sigh in dismay from the blond.