Naruto: Tales of Ashihara
Kakumei – Arc 3: Naruto Next Generation
.
Chapter 68- The Jujutsu Master
.
Boruto Hyuga is standing on a roof over the dead end alley where Seal Fire is trapped in a cloud of gunpowder thrown upon him by Mirai Sarutobi. He keeps his Byakugan active and waits to see the mercenary's reaction.
"Heard me right?" shouts Mirai to the man in the mist, after her first warning. "Answer our questions now, or I'll light this powder on!"
Boruto takes a closer look at the enemy's face and notices, to his surprise, a little smile that he's trying to hold back.
"He's laughing?" he says to his senpai, who's just as confused as him.
Discovered, Yubo Kumi laughs out loud and carelessly takes a few steps forward while reaching for his shuriken pocket under his silver cloak.
"He's moving!" yells Boruto to warn Mirai.
"Uh? What are you doing?" she questions. "I'm telling you, I'll set the fire on!"
"You don't need to, I'll do that myself." answers Seal Fire as he pulls a lighter from his pocket and lights it on as soon as he gets it out from under his cloak.
"Watch out!" yells Boruto to alert his colleague.
The gunpowder cloud is set on fire and explodes, causing all the walls around to collapse. Mirai, who had time to cross her arms to take cover thanks to Boruto's warning, is repelled back and falls to the entry of the alley where she quickly gets on her knees. Boruto falls with the collapsing roof but properly navigates through the debris and lands behind the remains of the wall that separates him and the enemy who's focused on Mirai and attacks again.
Kuchiyose – Bakuryugeki (Summoning – Dragon Bomb)
From a scroll, Seal Fire summons and releases a dragon head shaped fire bomb. Before Mirai can stand up, she's struck by it, bursting out of the flame wall that is still raging through the annihilated alley. The dragon explodes upon contact and sends Mirai flying through the street until she hits a wall and falls nearly unconscious. The wall partially shatters, causing debris to fall down on her and block her against the ground.
Considering himself rid of the first opponent, Yubo is startled by a loud sound next to him. Boruto Hyuga just repelled all the debris between him and his adversary, also chasing the fading fire by the way. The young ninja looks aside to see Mirai, lying belly to the ground.
"Uh? Senpai!" he yells, before having his focus brought back to the enemy as he finally sees him clearly after the burning ashes settle. There he sees Seal Fire, hidden under his silver cloak, totally unaffected by neither the explosion or the fire.
"I know your faces." says the bounty hunter. "The Hokage's son, and the 3rd's grand daughter. Collecting your corpses will be duly rewarded."
To these words, Boruto doesn't flinch. He simply shrugs and accepts that he now has to take action.
.
Somewhere else in the village, the other mercenary, Rock Breeze, is still running away but thinks she already lost her pursuers. Her hopes are however quickly washed away when she sees Inoue Yamanaka emerge from behind a wall in front of her. The young girl brings her hands together and attempts to use the Shintenshin no jutsu on the mercenary. But Hachi, who keeps running straight forward, doesn't let this happen. She leaps forward somersaults to give enough momentum to her leg that she crashes in the ground.
Iwa-ryu – Doryuheki
The shock of the collision between her heel and the ground causes a stone wall to emerge, forced out of the soil, in the way of Inoue's jutsu. Hidden behind the wall, Hachi jumps up and lands on her hands on top of it. Seeing her enemy again, Inoue quickly tries to correct her aim but Hachi pushes herself up and forth with her arms, somersaulting off the wall to fall on the young ninja girl.
Rock Breeze sees the oddly calm face of Inoue, unfit to the situation, and guesses that she could be falling into a trap. Attentively looking around, she finds Izuna Uchiha who jumps off a roof and leaps toward her on the right. Having seen him, she lowers an arm and gets a kunai out of her pocket. While the kid is still far enough, she raises her hand and readies to throw the weapon to him. Fortunately, Inoue's role isn't complete in the duo strategy.
Shinranshin no Jutsu (Mind Disturbance)
Distracted by Izuna, Hachi doesn't see the Yamanaka use this high level jutsu of her clan, in a much easier way than it was intended to. By attempting to take control of her target's movements without leaving her body, Inoue manages to at least disturb the mercenary's mind enough to keep her from throwing the kunai, which leaves Izuna uninterrupted in his offensive.
Okasho
Izuna punches the disturbed mercenary's face with his chakra coated fist, and dislocates her jaw before sending her crashing violently in the ground. Hachi falls and doesn't stand up. Izuna lands on the ground next to Inoue, and turns around to look at her.
"Thank you for having my back, Inoue!" he gladly says.
"… Y-You're welcome…" says Inoue, who quickly looks away and hides her blushing face as she remembers her last conversation with her sensei, during which Naruto used the same words to describe her relation with Izuna..
The young Uchiha, not noticing the strange behavior of his teammate, goes to see the woman he just struck down who, to his surprise, is already coming back to her senses.
"Already awake?" he says, wondering if he held back too much.
Hachi tiredly raises her hand and catches her jaw that she tries to put back in place manually. As soon as she's done, Izuna catches her arms and spreads them open to prevent her from moving. Still feeling fuzzy from the hit she took, she doesn't find the strength to try to break free of the boy's hold. Inoue comes closer, holds the palm of one hand against the woman's forehead, and makes a hand seal with her other.
"I'll try to check her memories for any clue about her motivations and employers." says the young Yamanaka.
Just as she prepares to use another of the clan's jutsus, the mercenary suddenly opens her eyes widely and starts screaming in pain. Intuitively, Izuna grabs Inoue's shoulder and hides her in his back to cover her from what is possibly coming. Unexpectedly, Rock Breeze's throat blasts open, as if it was cut through, and all her blood splashes out, killing her immediately.
Inoue makes a shocked face, startled by this sudden turn of event. She starts to search around for the person responsible for this attack, but finds something more worrying. Izuna, standing right in front of Hachi's dead body, stands still and trembles, covered in a stranger's blood. Uncomfortable at this sight, he starts to breathe hard and panic. He's trying to hold back a scream of trauma, when Inoue jumps in front of him and grabs his face by the cheeks between her two warm hands.
"It's ok, calm down." she says, trying to ease her friend's mind. "I'm here… Breathe slowly…"
Izuna looks at her, feels the warmth of her skin against his, and slowly focuses his breath. He calms down, and raises his hands to hold them against hers. After a short moment of silence, peacefully looking into each other's eyes, the Uchiha feels his Dojutsu activate uncontrollably. Witnessing a human being's death for the first time, his red eyes grow from the emotion and make him discover his own contempt for human loss.
Inoue looks into his eyes and sees now 3 tomoes in the left eye, and 2 in the right. This is 1 more than the last time she saw them. She stays looking at his pupils, amazed. Izuna holds her hands and takes them off his cheeks to look at her palms. Seeing them stained with the blood on his face, he feels guilt, and steps away. Inoue is brought back to reality when Izuna's eyes turn off. She shyly turns away and looks at the mercenary's corpse.
"She's…" says Izuna, with a sad trembling voice.
"It looks like a cursed seal's doing." Inoue tries to guess. "Like those that the Root of Konoha used to make sure their subordinates wouldn't leak information."
"Do you think the same may happen to Boruto and Mirai's opponent?" asks Izuna.
"Maybe… We should get back to them." suggests Inoue.
.
Hidden and watching the events from the top of a water tower, Voodoo is holding a kunai in his hand raised at his neck's height. After slitting his own throat with this blade, he has absolutely no sign of harm. Now sure that Hachi is dead, he puts his hand down and turns around to see what happens on Yubo's side.
There, Boruto has engaged in combat. He is dodging the mercenary's projectiles and continuously gets close enough to strike his opponent. He has no trouble with avoiding harm, but didn't get to harm through the silver cloak of Yubo until now. Considering this, he tries something different.
Hakke Denki Kusho
This time, he infuses lightning chakra in his palm and hits Seal Fire's cloak to spread electricity through the cloth, but it doesn't. Yubo is pushed a few meters back, amused by the pointless efforts of the genin. He runs forward again and tries to kick his opponent away. Boruto reacts in time and calmly deflects Yubo's kick before leaping away by himself to avoid his second leg.
Mirai, who's stuck under debris, is trying to focus on the fight and analyzes the enemy's mantle. It looks like a fireproof suit made of aluminized material, but it has to be more than that. Lightning doesn't seem to get through either, even though aluminum should be highly conductive. This suit is what kept him safe from the flames earlier, but to be able to tank explosions and lightning, it got to have some ninjutsu seal inside.
Apart from the enemy's gear, Mirai is also captivated by Boruto's attitude. Her young colleague has shown very little concern about this battle, as if it was nothing but a little game to him. He has no difficulty with reaching the enemy and avoiding damage, and just calmly tries to figure out what would work against him.
"This cape's hitting on my nerves. Guess I'll just have to keep beating you until it works." Boruto says, pissed off by the guy's durability, to Mirai's disappointment.
"I'll get you down before!" yells Yubo who pulls out another open scroll.
Bakuryugeki
He releases a new dragon bomb that heads towards Boruto, but that the Genin is ready to block.
Hakkesho Kaiten
Boruto emits chakra from all his tenketsu and spins around to shape it into a shield all around him. When colliding with the shield, the dragon explodes but doesn't pierce through. The blast destabilizes Yubo, which Boruto sees with his Byakugan. He stops spinning and gets in position for an ultimate offensive, in which he still limits his effort.
Hakke Rokujuyon Sho
Boruto rushes to his target and strikes with a gentle fist. 2 strikes first, 2 more then. 4 others twice faster. Then 8 more with his speed doubled again. Yubo feels the gentle hits aiming for his tenketsu, and doesn't feel anything at first. He just stands still laughing while Boruto's speed increases exponentially. But suddenly, when Boruto adds 16 more consecutive strikes, the mercenary's smile is washed off from his face. This time, he felt his chakra pathways being disrupted.
The swift that the genin accumulated and the power of his Taijutsu is breaking through the chakra containing cloak. Quickly, as Boruto readies for a final set of 32 hits, Yubo takes action to get him away. Unable to use his chakra already, he can't use any jutsu or scroll to get out of this situation. Boruto grins at his enemy's embarrassment and leaps forward to begin his last set, but underestimates the bounty hunter's arsenal.
Out of options, Yubo Kumi pulls out an actual traditional flame thrower from under his cloak and fires at the genin. Taken by surprise, Boruto can't interrupt his leap or change his trajectory, and therefore is about to get struck by the fire stream. Still he finds a way to save himself.
Shugohakke Sanjuuyon Sho (Protective Hakke 32 Palms)
He delivers the last 32 hits of his offensive, but uses them to shape and arrange the chakra from his hands into a shield that covers him and prevents the fire from reaching him. Unharmed, he's however pushed back by the flame thrower and sent to land by Mirai's side.
"BORUTO!" yells Izuna who just arrived at the scene with Inoue and witnesses his friend being thrown away by the flames, overreacting before noticing his teammates's defense.
With his attention drawn by this scream, Yubo turns around and sees the two genins who defeated Hachi. Not willing to engage in a four to one battle, he makes a hand seal and aims his weapon to quickly get rid of the newcomers. Boruto sees his friends being targeted by the enemy who's about to combine his tool with his Ninjutsu, and hurries to stand up in panic. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the Hokage's son is blinded by a purple flash rushing in from behind him.
Shiden
A flash of lightning blinds everyone, and when it settles, Yubo pukes out a puddle of blood and widely opens his eyes in pain. Takeshi Minamoto, the early Jonin of Kiri, just ran in too quickly to be seen and stabbed all the way through Seal Fire's heart, killing him on the spot. The purple lightning completely overpowered the silver cloak's isolation and easily ripped through.
"NOO!" screams Izuna, seeing the bounty hunter breathing out for the last time.
Takeshi pulls his arm out of his target's chest and steps away, leaving Seal Fire to fall dead on the ground. He pulls his mask down from his face and looks at Izuna, happy to see him again.
"Takeshi?" whispers Boruto, not sure if this is real.
"Hi, Friend!" the Minamoto says to Izuna.
The young Uchiha doesn't answer. He just stays, confused by the Kiri-nin's ease of mind, as if he didn't just end somebody's life.
"You… just killed him…" he says, trying to wake his friend's guilt.
"Yeah! That's what I was here for." simply answers Takeshi, really unbothered by his actions, and far past his first time.
"So you're a hunter-nin now?" asks Inoue, who just notices the new outfit and his gray armor jacket.
"Yes. I was promoted to Jonin last month, and just joined the mercenary hunter corps." he explains. "Lord Mizukage sent me here for a mission. This dude here was Seal Fire. My target."
Boruto listens, and hides his astonishment. While he's still a genin, the one he sees as his rival was already promoted to chunin, and then to jonin within just a few months. He stands up and walks closer to Takeshi, full of determination. Izuna just stays, confused in silence. He's truly unsettled by the little care his friend gives about the murder he just committed.
Inoue looks around to find Mirai and sees the debris that Boruto was standing next to a second ago moving and being lifted up by something underneath. There, she senses her senpai's chakra.
"Mirai-senpai!" says the young Yamanaka, before going to help her out.
Izuna sees Inoue in a hurry. He shakes his head to leave his heavy thoughts aside and goes to help her. Boruto, however, has all his attention on Takeshi. He comes to stand right in front of him. He looks at the corpse of Yubo, and is disappointed. He could totally have defeated the enemy by himself, and with ease, if Takeshi didn't run in. Still, he feels ridiculed by how easy and quick it was for him.
"I had the situation under control." he complains.
"Did you?" mocks Takeshi before giving a more serious answer. "I don't know what you guys are doing here, but this man was my business. I was sent here to kill him and bring his corpse back to Kiri."
"He was threatening our mission." answers Mirai who gets out of the debris. "You're Konohamaru-sensei's nephew aren't you? I had no idea you were such a talented ninja. Already jonin at such a young age?"
"And you must be Mirai." answers the Minamoto. "I'm sorry for interrupting your mission, but I'll have to impose myself here. See, I have a gamble with Suigetsu-sensei. I've bet all my savings that I'll catch more valuable targets than him this week."
"Suigetsu?" exclaims Mirai. "Isn't he the ronin swordsman of Kiri, right hand of the Mizukage? Why would you accept such a stupid bet?"
"I don't know! It happened so fast, I couldn't say no! And please don't lecture me about it. I've had enough of this with Tentoki."
Boruto clenches his fist, annoyed. He feels like Takeshi is ignoring him. He recalls the purple flash that jumped over him minutes ago, and looks at who used it. He must have gotten faster and wiser than 4 years ago. But he too got way stronger. He did nothing but train with his aunt and prepare to surpass him.
"TAKESHI!" yells the yellow haired boy. "Fight me!"
At these words, the Minamoto just raises an eyebrow. Izuna groans in surprise and almost lets the piece of wall he's lifting with ease fall on Mirai's back. But he catches it back in time. Before Takeshi can accept or refuse, Boruto gets in a fighting pose and activates his Byakugan again, not waiting for an answer.
.
From the same water tower as earlier, Voodoo watches the scene and complains to himself.
"So Seal Fire was already targeted by Kiri?" he wonders. Now that he thinks of it, it could be that the bounty and the mission to Konoha was opened by the same person, both in order to get in his way. Him, who was tasked personally to get rid of this landlord by the Chimera itself. Whatever, it is too late for this. Currently, his two associates are dead, and he got a hunter-nin on his ass.
He better run to his safe place and discreetly finish the job, the same way he just did for Hachi. He turns around, thinking to himself that he at least didn't have to activate his curse on Yubo. Just as he prepares to leave, he sees Ao Hyaku leap toward him and try to slice him with a water blade.
Voodoo dodges the blade and lets it get locked in the water tank behind him. He didn't expect it, but it seems like one of the Konoha-nins actually managed to follow in his footsteps. His cover is ruined, now he better get rid of this witness before his identity is discovered. He kicks Ao's arms to get them away from his sword, leaving him unarmed. Then, he pulls out the same kunai as earlier and attempts to slice the chunin's throat.
However, he's stopped by a Sai blade that comes to block his. Denki Tatari leapt in from behind and now uses a second Sai to try to stab him from above. Voodoo raises his head to see her and grabs her hand and weapon's handle before it hits him. Suspended over him, Denki looks at the enemy's hand. It's covered in scars and cuts that look like self-mutilation. Looking back at his face, she catches a glimpse of what's under his scarf. There, she sees his neck, and a remarkable blood red birthmark on the right.
Noticing her confusion, Voodoo firmly holds her hand and throws her over him, hits Ao with her and sends them both crashing on the roof, at the foot of the water tower. He jumps down to follow them, now resolved to finish them both and hoping that nobody else saw him.
Denki and Ao stand up. Ao looks at his girl friend, waiting for her to explain what she thinks she understood.
"Your hand… you cut it yourself, don't you?" she asks the enemy. "And this birthmark on your neck… It's a hereditary characteristic from my clan."
Voodoo makes a shocked face. This woman has indeed the same birthmark on her neck. Just out of pure misfortune, one of them had to be a member of the same obscure clan as him. With just this tiny clue about him, they could deduce his origins and eventually, his true identity. This makes it clear to him. He has to kill them.
"So the great infamous Voodoo is from the Tatari clan?" says Konohamaru who comes to land on the roof next to his students. "Which means you're likely a Jujutsu specialist from Yu no Kuni… Denki, Ao, step back, I'll handle him. He's too much for you."
"Konohamaru Sarutobi, the grandson of the 3rd Hokage, and right hand of the 7th himself." tells Voodoo. "It could have been an honor to meet you, if it wasn't so embarrassing. I've been in this business for over 20 years, and never have I been in such an annoying situation. Circled by the leader of the Sarutobi, the 7th's son, the Uchiha son, the Minamoto boy of Kiri and Asuma Sarutobi's daughter…"
Konohamaru thinks of questioning him about what he seems to know about his uncle Asuma, but forgets it and focuses on his objective. He jumps forward and engages Voodoo in a hand to hand combat.
As expected from an S-rank mercenary veteran, Voodoo knows how to keep up in Taijutsu, even when in front of someone nearly 30 years younger than him. He quickly imposes his superiority in strength and makes Konohamaru step back. Not yet about to give up, the Sarutobi crosses his fingers.
Kage Bunshin no Jutsu
He makes two shadow clones that rush to the enemy and try to keep up the Taijutsu fight. Voodoo, acting smart and efficiently, dodges the first clone's punch, grabs his arm and swings him around before throwing him to collide with the second one. Out of the mist caused by the two clones disappearing, the real Konohamaru bursts out with a chakra orb in his hand.
Rasengan
Still putting at use his decades of battle experience, Voodoo grabs the man's wrist and lifts his hand up before the Rasengan hits anything. Held firmly, Konohamaru sees that he and his enemy both have a free hand left. Whatever he attempts, Voodoo will be ready to block it. So he goes for something that won't be blocked. He brings his free hand to his mouth and bites his finger to let out a drop of blood. He then slides between Voodoo's legs to reach the ground with his hand.
Kuchiyose no Jutsu
While Voodoo has his guard down, looking at the jonin sliding between his legs, Enma, the monkey king, appears in front of him and uses his superior strength to force the Rasengan in Konohamaru's hand to hit the enemy's torso. Taken by surprise, Voodoo takes it, lets go off his opponent's wrist and flutters away, crashing into the water tower.
Enma turns himself into the Kongonyoi and Konohamaru stands up to grab him in his hands. The Jonin gets ready to continue the fight and looks at Voodoo who's struggling to stand up. The S-rank mercenary takes a few steps forward after getting down the water tower, and complains.
"It has to be a conspiracy… But who would do that? Crow? No, he has too much honor for such a mischievous plan. Then maybe the Chimera itself, or Killin' Kiss?" he whispers, speaking to his own self, before pulling out a short sword from his back. "It has to be a higher-up or a rival. Who else would know me well enough to trap me?"
Konohamaru doesn't pay attention to this monologue. He instead runs into the enemy once again and they collide their weapons. The durability of the Sarutobi's staff wins. He lets it slide along the enemy's blade and hits his hand. He then takes his sword from him and attempts to strike with both the staff and the blade together.
Voodoo catches the staff with one hand, and with the other, he intercepts the sword's trajectory, letting it stab through his scar covered hand. Konohamaru makes a surprised face, as he sees the cuts on this hand open again due to this shock. Voodoo's right hand gets quickly covered in blood. He pulls his own limb back to get the blade out of the wound.
Knowing what he's doing, Voodoo profits from Konohamaru's surprise. He steps on the ninja's foot to force him to open his mouth, and shakes his hand to let his blood splash over the Sarutobi's face. The Jonin, who didn't expect this, accidentally swallows a bit of this blood and has his vision obstructed. Voodoo kicks him in the stomach to get a safe distance between him and his opponent. Ao and Denki run to get to their sensei's side and look up to see the skin of their opponent change color. It goes completely red, and has a white skeleton pattern appearing over all his body.
"Is this… Shiji Hyoketsu, The Death Possession Blood Curse?" asks Denki, who finds it similar to the special Jujutsu used by Jashin's worshipers.
Konohamaru looks up and sees the enemy's new appearance, he then looks around to see if there's a curse circle nearby, but doesn't find any. Voodoo is intrigued by the Sarutobi's reaction, who seems to know about the parent jutsu of his own.
"Don't go looking for a Jashin symbol. I didn't make any." he says. "This isn't Shiji Hyoketsu. It is Tenso Hyoketsu, Transfer Blood Curse. A slight upgrade of my own making."
"How do you know this jutsu?" angrily says Konohamaru.
"Oh? It must bring up some bad memories for you. After all, you're also related to Hidan's last victim." answers Voodoo.
"Hidan of Akatsuki? What do you know about him?" the Sarutobi adds.
Before he can get an answer, Ao Hyaku takes action and leaps forward to blindly attack the enemy. Feeling his sensei being overtaken by his feelings, he just wanted to end this quickly. With the enemy's short sword that he just got off the ground, he tries to slice Voodoo twice. The mercenary dodges the first, just to provoke his opponent and make him put more strength in the second slice that he lets land.
The slice through the shoulder and chest is sent to and felt by Konohamaru, but unlike Hidan's jutsu did, Voodoo doesn't take any damage. Having the opposite activation process, meaning that the target has to drink the user's blood and not the opposite, Tenso Hyoketsu doesn't reflect the damages taken by the user to the target, but rather transfers its totality to another body, leaving the user unarmed.
"What? He's like a Voodoo doll?" remarks Ao, who just now understands the meaning of the mercenary's nickname.
Ao leaps away, unsure of his actions, feeling responsible for what he just did to his sensei involuntarily. Voodoo, now left free of his movements, makes a hand seal with his unharmed hand.
Katon – Jiko Shokyaku
The bounty hunter uses this jutsu to set his own body on fire and transfer all his pain and damage to Konohamaru who now begins to scream, as he's being indirectly immolated. Ao, to make up for what he just did, hurries to "save" his opponent.
Suiton – Mizurappa
He expels a water puddle on Voodoo to turn the fire off. Letting himself be carried by the water, Voodoo loses his grip and falls on the ground. He forcefully tries to drown in this puddle as everything is happening the same way to Konohamaru who's the only one feeling the bad side of it. Not drowned yet, Voodoo stands up and sees Ao and Denki run to get by their sensei's side again.
"We can't do anything against him now!" says Ao. "We have to run away."
"We can't! He could kill sensei anytime now!" answers Denki, stressed by the situation.
Voodoo walks forward and prepares to go on with this fight, but hears a slamming sound that resonates through the ground. He turns around and sees the other ninjas in the distance. Takeshi Minamoto is standing with a foot holding Boruto against the ground, defeated.
The two boys finished their battle, which ended, not much to anyone's surprise, with an easy victory by the Kiri-nin. Inoue is there, trying to get these two to stop now. Voodoo, however, doesn't see Izuna Uchiha and Mirai Sarutobi.
"Can we go now?" he reads on Inoue's lips. "We have to join Mirai and Izuna. Konohamaru-sensei is in trouble. I can sense it."
Just a second later, he hears Mirai Sarutobi's voice close to the roof.
"Up there, Izuna! Follow me." she says.
Not willing to run into more enemies, Voodoo thinks quickly, and makes another hand seal.
Shunshin no Jutsu
He vanishes in a cloud of red mist and leaves Konohamaru, Ao and Denki alone on the roof, before Mirai and Izuna arrive to save them, soon followed by Takeshi Minamoto, Boruto Hyuga and Inoue Yamanaka a minute later.
Denki and Ao, holding their sensei unconscious, look around to find where the enemy may have gone, still uneasy about this blood curse on Konohamaru still being active. But Voodoo left. No matter the dimension of the current situation, he still has to get his mission done.
.
On the borders of the village, standing on a branch with his chakra hidden from any detection, The 7th Hokage, sensei of Team 1, stands and witnesses the action. He sensed everything that happened, and thinks that maybe, this mission has no way of ending well for anyone now.
"An S-rank, huh?" he thinks to himself.
"There's something like less than 10 in the whole world to be on that level. And this guy is the second most wanted." Kurama remarks, inside of Naruto.
"Hm… Even Konohamaru couldn't defeat this guy…" The Hokage adds.
"Looks like you'll have to get involved a bit, this time." suggests Kurama.
.
End of Chapter 68 – Next Chapter: Hidan and Oji