Naruto: Tango with Death

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By the time I finished my training and completely recovered from it with the help of my technique, the sun had already gone down, making me grumble.

Normally, I would come here much earlier, and train on my other aspects, such as Senbonsakura, when I finished recuperating from my exercise.

However, today, because I spent most of the afternoon playing with the boys and even spent time to buy Naruto a gift for his birthday, the night fell before I could finish my training.

And since I was on the outskirts of the village, the forest had turned almost completely dark as only the glow of the moon illuminated my surroundings, making it too dangerous to train.

I didn't want to sprain my ankle or something because I trained too late.

Still, I guess I had a good time today, so I can forgive them…

But as I was in the middle of my silly thoughts, I suddenly heard shuffles not far, and immediately looked over in panic.

I wasn't supposed to be here, and if someone had caught me, I could be in trouble.

And as I feared, there was indeed a figure rapidly approaching, but as they finally entered the moonlight, my fear immediately multiplied by a hundred time.

The moonlight revealed a man, he was tall, and his arms looked larger than me. But what really troubled me, was his headband.

This wasn't someone from my village.

And going by the despair on his face, he wasn't here on peaceful terms.

Suddenly, I saw his body tilt forward, it was a very subtle movement, one I would have missed in any other situation, but here, today, right now, I wasn't allowed to, and so as soon as I did, I rolled backwards.

And the moment I did, the enemy ninja disappeared from the spot, only to reappear where I was a moment ago, his fist slamming into the now empty ground.

But before I could feel any kind of relief, I felt like a class 100 earthquake shook below me as I was sent flying several meters back, and slammed into a tree.

Mind you, I'm fucking seven, and despite all my training, slamming my back into a tree made the world turn incredibly bleak as I lost my breath and felt my consciousness start to fade.

But I couldn't fall asleep, because stopping now, meant death.

Biting my lower lip so hard that blood came out, I kicked the tree I had landed on with as much force as I could muster, jumping off right on time as the Shinobi slammed into it once again.

To my shock, the fist broke the whole tree like it was a centimetre thick wood plank, but that was a whole ass tree three times bigger than me!

The punch from earlier was already scary as it shook the very ground, but it was hard to understand the power behind it. When I felt it, I thought a single hit would injure me severely.

But now, I understand that if this man hits me, his fist will drive right through my guts.

I felt panic, I was on the verge of crying at this fucking unfair world… fuck, I'm already crying!

Damn! Damn! Damn!

My thoughts were brought to a stop though as I saw the enemy ninja, whom I now identified as a ninja from Iwa, Konoha's eternal enemy, quickly go through handsigns.

I quickly jumped, barely dodging a boulder… Argh, fuck!

A pain like never before shook me as I realized I hadn't been fast enough. I don't know which fucking jutsu the ninja had used as he wasn't crying out loud his every damn move, but it had raised a huge boulder from the ground and sent it flying at me, and a mere tap had injured me.

As I landed several meters away, I cried in pain once again as I felt my left foot buckle. The fucker had at best sprained my ankle, and at worse broken some bones. And that was a graze.

My earlier sobs had now turned into a breakdown, I was scared, in panic and felt death coming. But still, no matter how unfair the god damn world was, I had been trained, so as I saw him once again move, I jumped up.

Despite only being able to use one foot, I somehow jumped fast enough to narrowly dodge a deadly punch, which would have exploded my head as easily as a watermelon, and landed on a branch.

Amidst my tears, I looked at my assailant, the Iwa ninja, who had momentarily stopped.

The battle, or rather one sided beat down, stopped for a moment as we looked into each other's eyes, me crying and him…

I realized once again how badly Kishimoto had portrayed this world.

This man did not show any of the craziness the usual villains showed in the anime, this wasn't an eccentric clown who would overreact at any action from his opponent.

No, I wasn't reborn in a circus. This man was a born killer who had been trained for his whole life to kill his enemy, and going by his age, he had probably gone through the Third Ninja War.

But somehow, at that moment, while I was crying from both the pain and the fear, I felt myself… calm down, as I realized something.

It was either him, or me. As simple as that. That was the truth of the world. My new truth.

My crying quickly stopped as I regained control of my breath, and the pain started fading. Good, the adrenaline was kicking in.

Fuck, I'm going to kill you!

I don't know whether the Iwa Shinobi noticed the change, but he stopped the stare down as he began weaving handsigns, no doubt about to throw a deadly jutsu at me.

But before he could finish them, both of my hands went to my pouch as I threw two kunais at him. My aim was off, I wasn't very good at throwing them, but it mattered not as I succeeded in stopping him, forcing him to dodge.

I don't know if I should feel happy, but my opponent finally showed an emotion, anger, as he understood the kunais would have never hit him.

Despite this, I did not stop as my hands once again went for my pouch, and this time I took out a bunch of leaves and threw them at him.

His eyes narrowed as he jumped at me, his speed much slower this time. He was cautious, he had experience.

So as he came in contact with the leaves, he immediately retreated with a cry of pain as they starting cutting into his flesh.

The wounds were ugly to look at, my Senbonsakura was far from finished, and although I was now capable of applying a cutting power to all of the leaves, it was somewhat lacking, resulting in them cutting only a little into his flesh before stopping. It almost looked like he had turned into a branch, with the leaves sticking out of his wounds, and were it not for the blood, maybe this would have looked fun in another situation.

The man growled as he ignored the pain and jumped at me once again, so I threw another bunch of leaves, those ones completely harmless, but he didn't know that, while once again jumping again, and this time the man jumped out of the way in time to dodge them, allowing me to jump away.

Immediately as I landed on the ground, I grabbed into my pouch, but felt nothing. I was out of leaves. In my panic, I had thrown way more than I intended to.

The Iwa Ninja seemed to understand too as his killing intent rose, his face was turning scary too as the injuries from the leaves were starting to make him bleed enough to cover a good part of his body. For a short moment, maybe a hundredth of a second, he seemed to turn into a bloody demon from hell.

Despite my bad situation, I had completely stopped crying, and my brain turned scarily analytical as I looked at the trap I had began setting up.

Seeing his foot once again shift, I knew an attack was coming, and so I jumped, several kunais in hand.

Unfortunately, it seemed I was finally not quick enough as I felt an iron grip onto my injured leg, instantly stopping me as I felt my leg pop from the sudden restraint.

Looking down, I saw the Iwa Ninja, grabbing my left ankle, his killing intent at an all time high. Seeing he was about to pull me over and finish me with one of his deadly punches, I threw all of the kunais I had in hands. We both knew that at this point blank distance, I wouldn't miss.

The Iwa Ninja was not phased though as his experience kicked in and he stopped his attack as he slammed me into the ground, making all of my kunais miss him, and my ankle still in his grip.

I spat out a mouthful of blood as I felt my insides shake, I definitely had internal injuries. My back, which was slammed into the ground, was sending jolts of pain so intense so I felt like dying. My leg, which had been dislocated and my foot, which had been nearly broken, were in an even worse state.

Well, I guess feeling the pain is good, at least I'm not paralysed…

Coughing another mouthful of blood, I found moving my body almost impossible, and barely managed to tilt my head to look at my enemy.

He had finally dropped my leg, but now stood over me, his tall body blocking the moonlight from shining on me. I looked around, feeling a sliver of hope someone would come to help me, but I was only met with darkness. I was alone. Only I could save myself.

As I looked back at the Iwa Ninja, for the second time he showed an emotion as his killing intent receded a little, and he said, "You were impressive, kid. But it's over."

However, in front of a quasi certain death, my deep black eyes did not show anymore panic, or fear. Instead, they were filled with killing intent as I said with a voice as cold as ice, another mouthful of blood leaving my mouth, "DIE!!"

I clenched my fingers, and my trap sprung open.