Naruto:A New Path

Cursed Seal.... Level 3?

"This doesn't make any sense…" Shikamaru muttered with a frown on his face.
It had been a few minutes since his group had taken the chance to sneak into the base. Kiba took the lead with Choji right behind him, Ino walked behind the Akimichi with a wary expression on her face and lastly, Shikamaru walked behind the group. This formation had been set up in case of trouble. Kiba could easily tell them if an enemy was coming, Choji could overpower anyone who came their way and if they went past him then Ino could use her family jutsu to stop them all together. The Chunin was walking behind the group since he would be the one to analyze any kind of problem, if an enemy ninja appeared then he would be the one to make a quick plan.
Since they had entered the base Shikamaru had gotten a serious case of déjà vu. The base was an exact replica of the last one he had been to, the halls were the same dimensions, the same snake pattern adorned the floors and walls, and there was a scarce amount of light. He couldn't think of a reason as to why the bases were all similar, it would make it easier to move around since he was familiar with it but it was still rather odd. There had to be some kind of reason for this and he couldn't think of one, it worried him.
His frown deepened when he noticed that they were approaching the end of the hall. A single metal door could be seen at the end of the hallway, meaning that Kiba had been right. Earlier, Shikamaru had asked him to follow any scent that appeared unnatural.
"What now?" Kiba asked with a frown on his face, "There's some scents inside of the room. I'm sure we can't just walk in."
Shikamaru sighed and crossed his arms. "This is a real bother…" he turned to Ino, who had a worried look on her face. It didn't surprise him in the slightest, he was a little worried himself, his friends were facing a large number of Sound ninja after all. "How good are you in genjutsu?"
Ino snapped out of her daze, turning to the lazy Chunin. "I'm not sure," she admitted, already knowing what Shikamaru was thinking due to being teammates, "Kurenai-sensei has only taught me a few genjutsu. I guess if I had enough time then I could hold off the people in the room for a few minutes."
A smirk appeared on Shikamaru's face, pleased at the circumstances. "That's more than enough time," he turned to the rest of the group with the smirk never leaving his face, "Here's what we'll do."
"Die!" Katsu exclaimed in glee as he flew towards the group of Leaf ninja.
"Spread out!" Naruto ordered as he leapt away from the water he had been standing in, his team doing the same. He landed on the cliff's wall and ran at the Sound ninja with his blade on hand. Charka ran down the blade as the Chunin jumped to Katsu's flying figure.
The Sound ninja smirked and leaned to his right, avoiding the blade but not the chakra. A large cut graced his right shoulder, making him snarl in anger. He turned to Naruto but was suddenly attacked by a flurry of punches. The Sound ninja used his wings to cover the attacks but growled when he felt small bites on his back. Bugs covered most of Katsu's back, taking as much chakra as possible. Shino stood on the cliff's wall with his arms extended, sending more bugs towards the Sound ninja.
Lee continued to attack at the man's wings but found them to be too hard, blood came out of his knuckles but he wouldn't let up. He turned an eye to his right to see Neji running towards the man in a fast speed. The Hyuuga leapt at the Sound ninja and landed a hard palm-strike as the man's side, making him scream in pain. Katsu squirmed due to the attack, unknowingly giving Lee the opportunity he needed.
"This is it!" Lee exclaimed as he threw a punch between the two wings. A loud cracking sound was heard as his fist broke through the wings and struck the man's chest.
' Dammit…!' Katsu thought as he struggled to breath.
Neji struck at the man's right arm, cutting off one of his chakra coils. He followed by a kick but the Sound ninja used his left wing to knock him aside. The Hyuuga was struck by the wing and slammed towards the cliff's wall with a cry of pain.
Lee immediately replaced Neji and continued to attack endlessly. The Sound ninja's defenses were going down with every strike, the bugs had taken their toll on his body and it was starting to lose a considerable amount of chakra.
' I can't win against all of them at the same time,' Katsu figured as his wings continued to block each of Lee's attacks.
A small blue light shone on the dark cliff, lighting up the face of the blue-eyed blond. Naruto's right hand held a charged up Rasengan as he gave a blank look at the man. Without a word the Chunin, using the cliff's wall as leverage, launched at the Sound ninja with his right arm held back.
Katsu's eyes widened, he knew that the attack would be the end of him if he didn't do something. 'I have to use it…'
he decided as he watched the Leaf Chunin closing in on him, 'I won't die here Lord Orochimaru. I can't!'
Naruto's eyes widened when he felt a sudden spike of chakra coming from Katsu. It felt dark, evil, powerful, it felt like Orochimaru. He gritted his teeth and extended his right hand, he would kill him before that chakra came out. As he inched closer he saw Katsu's expression go from worried to confident.
"I'll kill you!" Dark purple chakra surrounded the man before enveloping him in a kind of orb. Shino's bugs were instantly incinerated before the force of the chakra blew Shino and Lee away.
Naruto's Rasengan met the man's chakra in a powerful collision. Wind kicked up, whirlpools formed on the water and parts of rocks were chirped off the cliff. Neji, Lee and Shino had to shield their eyes from the two attacks, too much wind and light came from the collision and it was almost impossible to see.
Naruto gritted his teeth as he tried to get through the vile chakra. His eyes widened when the Rasengan began to disperse but he wouldn't give up his only chance. He began to pour more chakra onto the Rasengan, making it spin even faster than before and grow in size. The orb of spinning chakra began to dig into the man's purple chakra, much to the relief of the blond Chunin.
The Rasengan continued to dig into the purple orb of chakra until another type of chakra began to leak out of the man. Naruto stared in disbelief as a wave of black chakra enveloped the man before pushing against his attack. The Rasengan was enveloped by the black chakra and grew on size as it began to shake uncontrollably.
"Shit…" Naruto growled out as the attack became harder and harder to control. It was already too unstable with his added chakra and the black chakra had only made it worse. He watched as the Rasengan began to waver before it exploded on his hand.
The Chunin was blown away by the explosion and slammed against the cliff's wall in a painful thud. He fell from the wall and landed on a small ledge back-first. Naruto groaned in pain as he slowly sat up and raised his head to meet Katsu.
Black chakra erupted from his body with such ferocity that it kicked up large gusts of air. Neji, Lee and Shino stood on the entrance of a cave with worn out expressions on their faces, but their determination still glimmering in their eyes. This is what made Konoha shinobi great, it wasn't their individual power but their shared belief. They would not give up under any circumstances and would fight until the end.
The black chakra began to die down, giving the outline of a beast where Katsu had been standing. The four Leaf ninja gasped when they saw how the Sound ninja had changed. His wings had expanded as had his now deep black hair, his fangs had grown past his chin and his eyes had turned a deep purple. He had grown large claws on his hands, black fur now covered his upper body and he had grown a long black tail.
Katsu gave a crazed smirk, black chakra swirling around him. "What's wrong Leaf ninja?" he mocked in a much deeper voice. He extended his arms towards the sky and laughed, "This! This is my power! The power of my master!" Naruto, Neji, Lee and Shino dropped to their perspective taijutsu stances in anticipation. "I'll show you the power he gave me!"
Naruto narrowed his eyes as he took out his blade and held it tightly, wind chakra flowing through it. He moved to attack but as soon as he did, Katsu appeared right in front of him with an amused smirk. Before he knew what happened, the Sound ninja grabbed him by the face and slammed him against the cliff's wall.
"What's wrong you trash?" Katsu mocked as he drove Naruto into the wall once again, never letting go off his face, "Can't you fight back?" The Sound ninja laughed as he continued to knock the Chunin against the wall, blood spluttering out of the blond each time the back of his head met the rocky wall.
Neji, Lee and Shino leapt at the Sound ninja in desperation, Naruto wasn't even struggling under the hold anymore. Katsu smirked and raised his chakra, making it swirl violently around him. The three Genin were blown away by the evil chakra and could only watch as the man continued to slam their friend against the rocky wall that was now dripping with blood.
Naruto could do nothing as the man continued to hurt him, he didn't have the strength anymore and his head felt like it would explode from the amount of pain he felt. He could hear the man laughing as he drove his head into the wall, he could also hear his friends trying to attack the man but he knew it was in vain. Nobody could save him now.
"Foolish human," the Kyuubi's voice echoed throughout the blond's mindscape. An image of the fox's smirking face appeared on Naruto's mind, "I won't die against such a lowly opponent. I am the Kyuubi! I command you to keep going!"
Red chakra leaked out of the Kyuubi and made its way onto Naruto's system. The Chunin tried to resist it but the fox had put way too much chakra to control. In cases like this he would simply use his own chakra to lessen the effects of the fox's influence over him but he didn't have much chakra at the moment. The fox knew this.
"I have given you some of my power,"
the fox growled out. Naruto could feel the chakra closing his wounds and enveloping him on the unwelcomed warmth, "Now go and kill the fool that dared put my life in danger!"
"Die!" Katsu exclaimed in glee as he drove Naruto into the wall once more. His eyes were closed and his body was limp, this was surely the killing blow.
Naruto's eyes snapped open, catching Katsu off-guard. Red chakra flared out of the jinchuuriki and he glared at the Sound ninja. "You foolish trash… DIEEE!" the jinchuuriki roared in anger as his red slit eyes flared in anger and the red charka enveloped the area around him, burning Katsu's skin before knocking him away from the Kyuubi-container.
"What are you?" Katsu asked himself as he watched Naruto roar in rage.
The red chakra wrapped around Naruto, taking the shape of a fox with a single tail. The jinchuuriki growled in anger before launching at the Sound ninja. Katsu saw this coming and threw a punch. Naruto caught the punch, making the Sound ninja scream in pain as his hand was being burnt by the red chakra. The jinchuuriki punched at Katsu but he used his wings to cover the blow.
The jinchuuriki's eyes narrowed as he applied more force onto his hand, the red charka growing even hotter than before. Katsu gritted his teeth as Naruto tried to get past his wings. The jinchuuriki's fist began to break through the wings, making the Sound ninja scream in pain.
Naruto smirked in amusement as he heard Katsu scream. With one last push, his fist broke through the wings and crushed against the man's chest, making him scream in agony. The jinchuuriki then took hold of the man's ankles and jumped in the air before he hurled him to the cliff's wall, kicking up a large dust cloud.
The jinchuuriki waited for his prey to move and his smirk grew when he saw black chakra coming out of the dust cloud, the fight would be interesting after all.
"Is that really Naruto?" Lee gasped out in disbelief. He along with Neji and Shino could only watch the fight, it was clearly out of their league.
"My bugs are terrified of his chakra," Shino informed with a frown on his face.
"His chakra has changed…" Neji observed with his byakuugan active, "His normal blue chakra is almost gone but his body is being overwhelmed by a weird red chakra."
Lee frowned. "What does that mean?" he had no idea how you could have two different chakras, "I'm sure whatever it is, it's not very youthful."
"I wish I knew what it meant," Neji admitted, "We just have to wait and ask him about it."
"It appears so," Shino agreed with a nod.
Ten Sound ninja stood on their base with impatient looks on their faces. They could hear a battle raging outside but their superior, Katsu, had told them not to interfere. It was rare for Katsu to give an order, since he preferred to ignore everyone, but when he did it was better to obey otherwise you'd be dead. It seemed like someone had attacked the outside of the base and nobody had gotten in since there had been no signs of movement.
Shikamaru, Ino, Choji and Kiba walked through the group of Sound ninja as quietly as possible. Ino had casted a genjutsu on the ninja but it would disperse if they were touched by someone. This genjutsu replayed a person's last five minutes and since they had been on guard then it appeared as if nothing was really happening. This was one of Kurenai's original jutsu and she had decided to pass it down to Ino. Or course the jutsu was a lot stronger than this, since this was only a less powerful form of the genjutsu.
The team found a door and sighed in relief, they had gotten through without much trouble. After getting an okay from Kiba, Shikamaru entered the next room with his team in tow. They found themselves in a large room filled with large glass containers with bodies inside, the room was well lit and several odd machines filled the room.
"What is this place?" Kiba whispered to Shikamaru.
"I'm not sure, I think it's a lab…" Shikamaru responded in a sarcastic tone that went unnoticed by Kiba. He looked around the room and saw no sign of danger, they would be safe for now. "I want you guys to spread out and look for any kind of paper talking about the Cursed Seal of Heaven. We only have about four minutes until the Sound ninja are out of the genjutsu, get moving."
"Right," the three Genin chorused as they moved to search for any sort of research paper.
Shikamaru stayed near the door, if any other ninja showed up then he would know about it. His plan had been a pretty straightforward one but it seemed as the only choice since fighting would only alert other enemies of their location.
A loud crashing sound echoed through the base, accompanied by a small tremor. Shikamaru frowned, there had been sounds of a battle going on outside and he wanted to help as soon as possible. He could tell that they were having trouble since all of the tremors and crashes were a dead give-away that it was not a Genin level battle.
"Found something!" Ino cheered with a smile on her face. On her right hand was a worn out notebook and her left hand held a few pieces of paper.
Shikamaru nodded in relief. "That'll be all," he announced, taking Kiba by surprise, "We have to get out there as soon as possible. As troublesome as it is, they need our help outside."
"What are you talking about?" Kiba asked in slight anger, "We can't just leave like that, there might be more important papers here!"
"We don't have a choice," Choji answered with a serious look on his face, "If our friends are in trouble then we have to help them. Besides it's not like we're leaving empty-handed."
"Fine but don't blame me if we get in trouble," Kiba retorted with a frown.
"Let's get going," Shikamaru ordered with a determined look.
Naruto's red slit eyes narrowed on the dust cloud in front of him. Black chakra was leaking out of it, prove that his prey was still up for a fight. Part of him knew that he shouldn't be acting like this, that it was the fox's doing, but the other part of him didn't really care.
"I'll kill you!" Katsu roared as he launched out of the cave at an incredible speed.
In an instant he appeared before Naruto and threw a punch. The jinchuuriki saw it coming and caught it on his hand before using his other arm to punch at Katsu's chest. The man saw this coming and used his left wind to knock his arm away, catching him off guard. The Sound ninja smirked and delivered a crushing blow to his ribcage. Blood splattered out of his mouth as his eyes grew wide. Before he could react, Katsu's elbow met his chin in a hard blow. The Sound ninja then kicked at the jinchuuriki's chest. The impact made the jinchuuriki fall into the river in a large splash.
"Had enough?" Came Katsu's voice as he stared at the river with a smirk.
Lee watched the even and frowned. "I have to help Naruto," he decided as he took hold of his weights.
"If we all fight together then we might win," Shino agreed as he gathered his bugs.
Neji nodded. "Let's put an end to this," he gave a firm nod to Lee as the green-clad ninja took of his weights and let them fall on the ledge, instantly breaking it from the impact.
Lee put on a determined look and launched at the Sound ninja. Katsu's eyes grew wide when he took notice of the Genin. Lee threw a punch at the man's face in a fast jab, making contact with his nose. The man growled and punched at Lee but he disappeared from view before the fist could make contact.
"I'm over here," Lee announced as he delivered a kick to Katsu's back, receiving a cry of pain from the Sound ninja.
Katsu sailed through the air and was painfully reminded that there were still more ninja by a hard palm-strike to his back. He flipped in the air and delivered a hard kick to Neji's chin with a loud popping sound. The Genin sailed through the air and fell on a small ledge with a loud thud.
Bugs suddenly filled Katsu's vision, making him growl in annoyance. He snarled when he noticed that the bugs were circling around him, it was obvious that they had a kind of battle strategy. His eyes widened when a green blur entered the circle and delivered a hard kick to his chest, he tried to catch the Genin but he had easily sidestepped the grab. Lee delivered a hard punch to the man's side before throwing a hard kick to his stomach.
"Enough!" Katsu yelled as he flared his chakra, kicking up a large vortex of black chakra. Lee hadn't been expecting this and was slammed head-first to the cliff's wall, falling onto one of the cave's entryways unconscious.
Shino frowned, the man's chakra had killed a large number of his bugs. It was at this moment that he realized that he relied on his clan's abilities too much. Maybe if he had more jutsu then he wouldn't be so vulnerable without his bugs. But now wasn't the time to think, there was an enemy in front of him, a very angry enemy at that, but he would need to think this through.
"I admit that you managed to wound me," Katsu admitted with a smirk on his face. He phased from view to appear right in front of Shino, "But it won't happen again." The Sound ninja delivered a crushing punch to the bug user's head, instantly knocking him out.
Katsu relaxed his stance but froze when he heard a loud roar. He quickly turned towards the river to see the jinchuuriki launch out of it. Naruto landed on the cliff's wall on all fours and glared at the Sound ninja. The man got over his shock and smirked.
"It's a good think that you're still alive," Katsu admitted in a smug tone, "You're the perfect opponent to test my skills."
Naruto smirked and ran at the Sound ninja on all fours, clawing his way through the rocky wall. As he ran he waved in front of him, kicking up a powerful gust that struck against Katsu. The jinchuuriki took his opportunity and used his chakra cloak to launch a punch of pure chakra at the man. The Sound ninja gasped when he saw a chakra arm launching at him. He quickly jumped away from the attack and ran through hand signs.
"Sound Style: Sonic Wave!" Katsu yelled as he roared in a high pitched voice.
Naruto growled in pain and held his ears in an attempt to stop the ringing on his head. He kneeled on the ground as he cried in pain, his head was throbbing in pain and his chakra cloak began to waver. The red chakra started to leave him as he fell on the ground and clutched his head in pain.
' Fuck…. I can't take any more of this,'
Naruto thought in alarm. He slowly raised his head to Katsu and did a few hand signs, 'I have to get out of this!' The Chunin put a finger around his mouth and inhaled a large amount of air.
"Wind Style: Devastation!" Naruto yelled as a powerful gust of air escaped his mouth. The attack pushed against the Sonic Wave and struck Katsu directly, making him lose his footing and be blown away. The Sound ninja landed against the rocky wall of the cliff and growled in pain.
Naruto panted from where he stood, using the fox's chakra had taken a toll on his body. He watched as Katsu began to stand without much effort. It might have been true that they had landed many hits on him but it was also true that not many of them had damaged him. If things were this bad then he would need to use it after all.
Jiraiya had been surprised when he had fist seen it and after seeing what it did, he found it to be way too unstable and dangerous. Naruto had been ordered not to use it unless things got really bad. The Chunin knew that he would need to use it here if he wanted to stop Katsu.
"You lose Leaf trash…" Katsu chuckled in amusement, "You were strong but it wasn't enough to kill me."
"Who says I'm done?" Naruto responded with a smirk on his face. Blue chakra swirled around him and gathered around his right fist. The wind around him grew violent and enveloped his arm, "I'll show you…" The chakra and wind began to rotate around his arm, chirping off pieces of his skin. Blood filled the Chunin's right side as his face turned into one of determination, "My original jutsu!"