Disclaimer: Naruto and all of its characters belong to Shueisha and Masashi Kishimoto. I own nothing but the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 59: Sword Skills
They all heard the voice very clearly, but none of the genin was capable of pinpointing its origin.
This meant that the speaker was even more skilled in concealing their presence than the previous one.
"Why don't you come here and see for yourself?" Naruto said.
"If you want our scroll, you are going to have to actually appear and take it from me," he added.
The woman laughed again.
"Good try, but you don't have the scroll… that pink-haired girl does."
Sasuke moved in front of Sakura.
"Stay close to me." He assumed she was going to be attacked at any moment.
"Damn it… where is she?" He could not detect a single sound or smell, but he was sure she was very close to them.
But then… the silence was broken all of a sudden by a series of loud noises.
"I have no business with you, for the moment at least… so go away," the female voice spoke again.
The next instant, they all saw it.
"Naruto!" Sasuke shouted in alarm.
"Move!" So did Sakura.
From between the trees, a colossal snake appeared, and without hesitation, it lunged directly at Naruto.
To avoid being swallowed whole, Naruto had to move back as fast as he possibly could.
But the snake appeared to be very determined to eat him and continued to give chase instead of going after his teammates.
"How persistent!" His sword was still in his right hand, so the next time it lunged at him, Naruto gave it a good slash across its face.
Even then, the snake did not give up and continued to chase him, as if it were in some form of trance.
"There is no way this is a local beast."
This snake was too determined to eat him, despite having been injured. Not to mention that for a creature of this size, Naruto could barely count as a light snack.
The timing was also too precise. Right after she said she had no business with him, this snake appeared and chased him away.
'She is trying to separate me from Sasuke and Sakura. This means that this beast must be under her control.'
He only saw her figure for a second but could already tell there was something off about that woman from before.
'There is no way a genin can control a massive creature like this one and sneak up on us with such ease… did a jonin from the Rain Village manage to infiltrate the exams?'
It seemed like the most likely conclusion at the moment, although he could not understand what her motives could be to do such a thing.
The snake charged again, but instead of retreating like he had been doing previously, Naruto made use of the trees to rise above the beast.
One thing was clear to him... if he wanted to get back and find the other two, he had to kill this thing, so it was time to act.
The snake hissed and opened its mouth, ready to eat him alive as he descended.
"First Step…" Naruto held the sword in both hands and raised it above his head.
"Clashing Stream." Before the snake's fangs could reach him, he completed the first movement of the Uzumaki Sword Style.
It was a seemingly simple vertical slash. But those with a keen eye would be able to perceive some of the insights left behind by its creator on the scroll where it was written.
Naruto had spent two days trying to understand as much as he could, as well as incorporating his previous knowledge into the move.
He had never personally walked the path of the Sword Dao. But for a long time, he became the dao companion of someone who did.
Her name was Liao Ming, and she was a core disciple of a very powerful sect, the Divine Sword Sect.
They would often get together to discuss the Dao and do some dual cultivation. He had been offered to join her sect a few times, but he always rejected it.
He was of course interested, but the reason for this refusal was because he did not want to deviate from his current path.
He had heard many stories about those who tried to learn many different disciplines, and it never ended well for them.
The previous him had been more than content to just observe her and some of the other members of her sect practicing their sword techniques as well as listening to their arguments about the Sword Dao.
So even though he had never personally wielded a sword, he had gained many insights about the mysterious Sword Dao. Even more than he could imagine at the time.
He never learned about this during his lifetime, but his dao companion, Liao Ming, was an unparalleled genius who, after his death, would go on to become the strongest Sword Saint in history and achieve revenge on those who had killed him.
As Naruto finished his move, a part of the snake's mouth received a deep cut that almost went all the way to its skull.
This alone would have been enough to send the beast fleeing and possibly dying later on due to its injuries.
The technique he had just employed was meant to be used on the ground, not in the air, so it didn't even have half of its effectiveness. Still, this was more or less what he had been expecting, and as long as it was good enough to get the job done, it was sufficient for him.
However, at that moment, something unpredictable occurred… a second attack followed his sword slash.
He never planned for this, but his understanding of the Sword Dao had been more than enough to manifest a sliver of Sword Intent.
Naruto watched in awe as this faint wave of mystical energy cleaved the colossal beast in half, with a clean cut that went from its head all the way to the tip of its tail.
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