Pushing Through the Limit Chapter 21: One Thing After Another (Patreon)

“C’mon brat, keep up,” Anko called out as she jumped from tree to tree.

We had been traveling this way for a few hours now. At the start, Anko had announced that she wasn’t going to hold back on my account and instead, she was going full speed. That wasn’t too much of a problem for me. I could safely use Kurama’s chakra for hours on end, more than that, once I used it, I would be more than fast enough to keep up with Anko.

However… I wanted to see how well I could keep up with her without using Kurama’s chakra. As it turned out, I still had a way to go before I could move as fast as Anko did effortlessly. As it stood now, I was just able to match her speed. It was great training though.

“And we’re here,” Anko announced as she came to a stop.

“Finally,” I replied, shooting a quick glance at the building while I caught my breath. It didn’t look like anything special, only a large building built into the side of the mountain.

“Does the little Jonin need a breather?” Anko asked mockingly.

“I’m good.” I forced myself to breath calmer. What had been Anko’s average pace had been me pushing my base speed to the maximum. “Let’s get this mission started.”

“No need to rush,” Anko smirked. “This mission is expected to take a minimum of two days. We made good time.”

“The longer we take, the more we risk vital information being destroyed,” I replied. With Orochimaru dead, I’ve no idea on how whoever’s managing this hideout will react.

“Good point. So how do you wanna handle this?”

“I thought you were taking charge,” I replied.

“Me? I’m just a Tokubetsu Jonin. You on the other hand are a full Jonin!”

Ah, I see. She was bitter about me becoming a full Jonin. Well, if she wanted to be childish about it, I might as well prove that I have more than enough power and skill to be a Jonin. Turning my gaze to the building, it was large, didn’t have many windows, there was only one main entrance that happened to be a pair of large steel doors and the entire building was made from solid stone.

‘Kurama, what do you make of the building?’

“It’s filled with negativity,” Kurama replied. “There are about a hundred people in the building that are filled with hatred and pain and there’s one person that’s filled with fear, self loathing and madness. There also seems to be a few people in an underground network of tunnels.”

‘Alright, thanks buddy.’

Kurama let out a grumble as I got to work.

Placing my hand on the ground, I released a small pulse of earth style chakra to get an idea of what I was working with. Kurama was right, there was a whole network of tunnels connected to the building with one major tunnel that seemed to branch out for several kilometers.

“You don’t have a plan, do you?” Anko asked. “I’ll tell you what, if you ask me nicely, I’ll help you out.”

“That’s alright, I was just examining the area,” I waved her off. Creating several clones, one sank into the ground while the others all took positions around the building. “Alright, my clones are going to prevent anyone from escaping and they’ll help create a diversion while the two of us enter the building and look for any valuable information… along with collecting someone.”

One of my clones walked up to the metal doors and punched it hard. It wasn’t enough to break it open, but it did dent it, more importantly, it made a lot of noise.

“And how are we supposed to get it?”

Silently walking up to a wall, I placed my hand on it and pulsed pure earth chakra through it, causing it to crumble. “After you.”

“So you can use earth style chakra,” Anko noted as she stepped through the hole.

“ I can use a bit more than just earth style,” I snorted as I stepped in after her. It took me less than a second to realize that the small room I had just broken us into was a jail cell, complete with metal bars keeping us from being able to access the rest of the facility.

“What’s the plan now?” Anko smirked.

“The same as it always was,” I replied cheekily. A rasengan spun to life in my hand and I gently nudged it against the lock, grinding it to dust within seconds.

“Earth style and the Rasengan, I’m starting to see why you were promoted,” Anko commented.

I chuckled good naturedly as we entered the hallway. All the guards had rushed to the entrance to deal with my clones, but seeing as this was primarily a research facility, there weren’t that many. Doctors on the other hand...

“Shhh,” Anko whispered as she held the man’s mouth closed, keeping him form screaming out, his hands stapled to the wall with a pair of Kunai. “Listen to me very carefully. You’re going to tell me where you keep all the documents and notes you have from all the experiments that you’ve done here, or…” Anko trailed off before using a Kunai to cut a line up the man’s face, stopping just before his eye. “Or we’ll have some real fun.”

The man whimpered something and Anko release his mouth.

“What did you say?”

“I-If I tell you anything, Orochimaru-sama will hurt me worse than you e-ever could,” The man whimpered.

“Is that a challenge?”

I let out a sigh. I had neither the time nor the desire to watch Anko torture someone. “Hey Anko, I’m going to have a look around while you’re busy with… that.”

“Whatever,” Anko waved me off. “Just don’t get yourself killed.”

Creating a clone to watch her back, I walked to where Kurama sensed Jugo’s room was, pausing briefly as I heard the steel door finally collapse. Maybe I should have just gone with a full on assault instead of trying to be sneaky about it.

A thousand clones storming this place would have it taken over in little over a minute and we wouldn’t have to do all this cloak and dagger crap. On the other hand, I was trying to prove a point to Anko and myself. I wanted to prove that I was capable of taking this building down without having to resort to overwhelming power.

It wasn’t long before I found what I was looking for. A giant metal door filled with locks and chains. Opening the small grate, I peeked in to find Jugo sitting on the floor, faced away from the door, his arms wrapped around his legs.

“Who’re you?”

“Uzumaki Naruto,” I replied immediately. “I’ve been sent here to retrieve anything important and demolish this building.”

“Oh,” Jugo replied. “You shouldn’t do that, Orochimaru will be mad… and I’ll be let out.”

“Orochimaru’s dead,” I said, creating a rasengan to grind through the metal locks. “And I’ve deemed you important, Jugo.”

“What?” Jugo’s head snapped up and for the first time he looked at me. “You can’t let me out… I… I NEED TO REMAIN HERE.”

“Sorry, can’t hear you over the sound of me letting you out,” I grinned as the final lock fell to the floor.

The door slowly creaked open, Jugo gave me a horrified look before his curse mark grew across his body.

“I’m free?! I’ll… I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU,” Jugo roared as he charged at me.

Kurama’s chakra flowed through me and I entered the initial state and dodged out of the way, avoiding Jugo’s mad tackle.

“Damn,” I whistled. He was really impressive. Jugo had no training in the Shinobi arts at all, but what he lacked in skill he made up for in raw power. With no training, he would likely be able to overpower some Jonin, but as he was now.

“STAND STILL AND LET ME KILL YOU,” Jugo yelled as I jumped backwards.

“Even if I did, you wouldn’t have enough strength to kill me,” I replied calmly. Jugo was powerful, but he was also out of control. “Especially if I get serious!”

Rushing down the hallway, I was finally able to lead him outside, where clones were busy with the guards.

“He’s escaped,” One of the few guards left called out, before a Kunai pierced through his throat.

I winced, but only at how painful that looked. It did bug me a little that I was killing all these people, but at the same time I realized that I couldn’t save everyone and that these people had all worked for Orochimaru, keeping his prisoners and helping with his horrific experiments.

“DON’T LOOK AWAY FROM ME!”

“Right, him,” I muttered. Seeing as we were no longer in a narrow hallway, I had stopped seeing Jugo as a threat.

“I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!”

Faster than Jugo could see, a massive orange tail grew from my back and wrapped around his body.

‘LET ME GO, I’M NOT DONE KILLING YET!”

“That’s enough, Jugo,” I said calmly. “What you’re currently wrapped in is the Kyuubi’s tail, there is literally no way for you to escape it.”

Jugo fought with everything he had, but in the end, he lacked the strength to break free. Slowly, the curse mark receded and he was left panting.

“How’re you doing there buddy?” I asked. “Have you calmed down yet?”

“Y-Yes,” Jugo panted, looking at me hopefully. “You can stop me!”

Dropping him, Kurama’s tail sank back into my body.

“Yes. You’re strong, but not that strong… Besides, I’ve already decided on bringing you with me, so there’s no getting out of this.”

Before I could say anything more, Anko blurred into existence.

“What the hell was that, brat? I heard you fighting and the next moment one of the Kyuubi’s tails suddenly sprouts from your back?!”

“Well I am the Kyuubi’s Jinchuriki and I needed a way to keep Jugo from trying to kill me,” I explained nonchalantly. “Also… meet Jugo, he’s going to be returning with us to Konoha, Tsunade will likely find him interesting, seeing as he’s the origin of the curse mark.”

And then Jugo decided to chip in.

“He’s the what?”

“Orochimaru used my body to create the curse mark,” Jugo announced, drawing an even more startled look from Anko.

“What?!” Anko started.

I could only sigh. It seemed Shinobi couldn’t handle it when you do something completely unexpected in front of them, like use the chakra and tail of a thousand year old force of nature or letting them know that the mark on their neck originates from a person that has a tendency to turn into a rage monster.

“Alright,” I sighed. “It looks like our mission is mostly over. Anko, did you find the research?”

“The research… Right, I found it, but I didn’t finish sealing it.”

“Well you go do that then and afterwards we can destroy the building… after figuring out what to do with the prisoners.”

“What’s to figure out?” Anko snorted. “They’re all comprised of missing nin and bandits. We just need to get rid of them.”

I stiffened and then nodded. Killing people in a fight wasn’t that bad, they were trying to kill me too after all… but killing prisoners who lacked the means to fight back… I didn’t feel great about that.

I must have looked nervous, because Anko’s face softened, before she turned and entered the building.

“…I have a request,” Jugo began. “You said that Orochimaru is dead and your village has an interest in me.”

“Yes,” I nodded slowly. “So what’s your request?”

“I have a friend that was a subordinate of Orochimaru. He… He’s sick. If Orochimaru is truly dead, then there is no one to look after him.”

“So you want me to go fetch this friend and bring him back to Konoha?” I asked already knowing the answer. This friend of his was likely Kimimaro, the leader of the sound five. I suppose I could convince Tsunade of his worth… who knows, she might even be able to cure him.

“Yes,” Jugo nodded. “If you would do this one thing for me… then I will comply to any and all of your demands. Konoha can experiment on me all that it wants.”

I rubbed my chin lightly. “Alright,” I accepted. “If he’s still alive, I’ll go fetch this guy… but I’m first going to have to clear it with the Hokage.”

“Thank you.”

…PTL…

It took less than ten minutes for Anko to return, a confident smirk sat upon her face as she flicked a scroll towards me. “All done, let’s go home.”

“Wait, what about the–“

“Already taken care of,” Anko replied before several explosions rocked the ground and the building collapsed in on itself.

“You’re burying them alive?” I asked, horrified.

“Pfft, no,” Anko snorted. “I already took care of them. The explosion was just to handle the building.”

“But… why. I could have… should have helped.”

Anko’s eyes softened. “Not everyone can kill in cold blood, brat. You seemed to be stressing about killing those prisoners, so I went ahead and did it first! Think of it as my gift to you for becoming Jonin.”

She killed them because she saw that I was uncomfortable with the idea of killing helpless prisoners… that was kind of sweet in a really fucked up way. “Thanks Anko.”

“Don’t thank me yet, brat. Since this is your first official mission as Jonin, you can handle the paperwork,” Anko smirked and pointed to the scroll she had thrown at me.

That wasn’t unreasonable. I could always use shadow clones, so finishing the report would be easy. I thought she was going to request something unreasonable. “Sure, no problem.”

“Also, I want a fight,” Anko continued. “I’ve spent my entire life training to kill Orochimaru and you went out and stole that from me.”

And there was the unreasonable part. I didn’t mind it so much and I suppose it still worked towards distracting me from my actual problems.

“Fine,” I sighed. “But not here. Maybe after we get back to the village, I want to have gone on at least one mission where my clothes haven’t been destroyed.”

“Then what are we waiting for, let’s go home,” Anko cheered and made to leave.

“One second,” I interrupted. I dispelled any shadow clones that were still around and made two more to handle anything that could have survived Anko’s explosives. The last thing I needed was someone deciding to follow in Orochimaru’s footsteps. “Hey Jugo, you alright to travel?”

“Yes,” Jugo nodded.

Jugo was quite a quiet guy... I suppose I would be too if I ran the risk of randomly going berserk and killing everyone around me.

“If you feel that you’re missing out, I could help with that.”

‘No thanks,’ I thought suddenly.

“Are you sure. You need problems in life, if you get everything you want the minute you want it… then what’s the point of living?”

Wait a second. ‘Are you watching Adventure Time in there?’

“There’s nothing better to do and you’ve been moping about your love life for the better part of a day.”

‘I’ll Talk to Tsunade when I get back.’

“You better. I won’t have my host whining over a problem that’s so easily solved. All you need to do is tell her how you feel about her. If she’s receptive, she’ll return your feelings and if not, then at least you know where you stand and can move on.”

‘I will,’ I sighed. The fear of rejection is something everyone goes through, but I was running from it when I should have simply confronted it.

A high pitched ringing sound snapped me from my thoughts. It seemed my clones were almost ready to destroy what was left of the building.

“What the hell is that?” Anko asked as she stared at the Rasenshuriken that was suspended between my two clones.

“An S-rank Jutsu that I made,” I grinned. This was the first time I was using it for a mission. “We should all back up, we’re currently in the blast radius.”

Retreating, we stopped about half a kilometer away from the building, standing on a cliff. From this distance we could still see the entire building and the gleaming Rasenshuriken that briefly swelled before the clones popped.

The larger than average Rasenshuriken hovered for a brief moment before it fell. Cutting a hole in the crumbled remains of the stone building without even having to touch it..

“Is that it?” Anko asked, unimpressed.

“Nope,” I replied.

Several moments passed and then the Rasenshuriken finally detonated. Its sound was deafening and a giant white dome grew from the rubble, releasing powerful gusts of dusty wind. It held for several seconds, before the white dome finally broke apart, revealing a massive crater where the building and tunnel system used to be.

“What the hell?” Anko gawked at the destruction. “You made a Jutsu like that?!”

“Yep,” I smirked. “It’s not complete yet, so I can’t really use it for combat.”

“In what world isn’t that Jutsu complete?” Anko yelled, pointing to the newly made hole. “It’s like… It’s like dust release! There’s no surviving that!”

Well that was true, the Rasenshuriken did lack the flexibility that dust release had. The Rasenshuriken cut through things and then rapidly expanded, similar to a bomb, while dust release casually disintegrated anything that entered its range.

“I can only use it with two clones, I can’t throw it yet and it takes a lot of chakra,” I explained the many faults the Jutsu currently had. Without using Kurama’s chakra and lacking sage mode, it had taken a full two thirds of my chakra to create such a massive Rasenshuriken. “And also, it’s a bit slow to charge. The Rasenshuriken is nowhere near ready to be used in combat.”

Anko kept looking between the recently made hole and me, before a determined look crossed her face. “When we have your little spar, you’re not allowed to use that jutsu.”

“No shit,” I snorted. “What do you take me for, an idiot? I’m not going to using anything that could kill you… Hell, I’m actually a bit concerned about using Jutsu at all in our spar, there’re too many ways something could go wrong and I could end up almost killing you.”

“Oh, you’re afraid of hurting little old me?” Anko batted her eyelashes, before chuckling. “Well don’t be. So long as you don’t use… THAT, everything should be fine.”

“If you say so,” I sighed, knowing that I was still going to have to hold back on some of my more destructive jutsu.

…PTL…

The trip back to Konoha had been relatively quiet. Anko and I made idle chatter and Jugo mostly remained silent and wouldn’t chip in unless he was prompted to, there was also the surprising lack of outbursts from Jugo, he seemed relaxed.

It seemed all that was needed to prevent Jugo from going on a rampage was the security of knowing that there was someone out there that could stop him and a less anxiety inducing environment.

We’d even been able to make camp for a night without having to worry about any outbursts from Jugo.

“All in all, I’d say this mission has been a complete success,” I announced as I jumped from tree to tree.

“Savor it while you can, brat. Not all missions are as cut and clean as this one,” Anko replied. “Some are muddied and leave you having to make difficult decisions.”

I nodded silently. I already knew that. My first attempt at using Ninshu on Tsunade had gone disastrously wrong and almost ended up with her marked as a missing nin. If I hadn’t shown her everything, there was a good chance she might have just left and that was not good for anyone.

Bursting through a thick plumage of leaves, I finally caught a glimpse of Konoha and immediately felt a pit of dread open in my stomach.

“Oh what the hell now?”

Thick plumes of smoke rose from several spots of the village.

“Shit, are we being invaded again?” Anko asked.

“I don’t think so,” I replied. There was nowhere near enough damage for there to be a full invading force and there was also the lack of enemy Shinobi stationed in the forest. “Let’s go find out what’s going on.”

We increased our pace and soon found ourselves in front of Konoha’s main gate that was being guarded by Izumo, Kotetsu, Ebisu and a few other I didn’t recognize.

“Halt, identify yourselves,” One of the Shinobi barked.

“Tokubetsu Jonin Mitarashi Anko and Jonin Uzumaki Naruto returning from an A-rank mission along with a person of interest,” Anko replied immediately. “Now what’s going on here?”

The Shinobi looked among themselves before Ebisu stepped forward. “There was a prison outbreak yesterday. We’ve been stationed here by the Hokage to prevent and prisoners from escaping and to keep civilians from entering Konoha.”

“Wait… Since when did we have a prison?” I asked.

“Since always brat,” Anko snorted. “What did you think we did with traitors, criminals and enemy Shinobi that we capture?”

“Interrogated them and then have them killed?!” I shrugged. It never really came up in the series.

“We do that as well, but not for everyone. Not everyone is dangerous or malicious enough to warrant their death,” Anko explained.

“Then what are we waiting for, let’s go collect those prisoners and report our successful mission,” I said, ready to get this little prison rebellion over with.

“Stop,” Ebisu raised his hand. “You and Anko may continue to report to Hokage-sama, but the third member of your party needs to stay here.”

“Not going to happen,” I replied. “Jugo stays with me until the Hokage orders otherwise.”

“If that is the case, then I will have to command you to stay here as well,” Ebisu said.

“Also not going to happen,” I repeated.

Seeing that Ebisu was going to continue arguing, I brought my hands together and created several hundred clones to both act as a diversion and to flood into Konoha in an attempt to find any of the escaped prisoners.

Grabbing Jugo’s shoulder, I rushed off with him into the village, leaving behind Anko who was laughing loudly.

…PTL…

“Was that really the best thing to do? I wouldn’t mind waiting by the main gate, so long as I was left alone.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I waved him off. “There are too many factors involved with leaving you alone. It’s best that you stay close to me until we get you to the Hokage.”

Jugo silently nodded his compliance.

As of right now, though, we weren’t heading towards the Hokage tower. Kurama had picked up an interesting mix of negativity and extremely diluted sage chakra.

Coming to a stop, I caught sight of something that made me worried. Down in a clearing stood Iruka who was heavily injured and standing in front of him was a muscular tiger looking man.

“The furry is the source of the sage chakra I was sensing.”

‘I’m really not sure I like the language you’re picking up from me,’ I idly thought before jumping into the clearing.

“Damn, Iruka-sensei, it seems like you could use some help,” I commented as I jumped into the clearing.

“Naruto? No! You need to get out of here, go get help now!”

“Well, well, well, it seems today is my lucky day. I can get my revenge of both Iruka and Naruto,” The tiger man said.

“Do I… know you?” I asked, tilting my head.

“You don’t recognize me?” The man asked. “Well, that doesn’t matter, after all, you’re going to be dead soon.”

The tiger man charged forward just as Iruka cried out in fear and I only arched a brow. Faster than either could see, a large orange tail grew from my back and came down harshly on the tiger man, crushing him into the ground painfully before it retreated into my back.

“No, seriously, who are you?” I asked as I stared down at the tiger man’s now broken body. He was still alive, but I doubt he’d be moving anytime soon with his current wounds.

“What?” Iruka asked, unable to make of what just happened. “Naruto… You’re alright?”

“Should I not be?” I asked, feeling frustrated at not knowing who this tiger man was supposed to be. “Iruka, do you know who that is?” I pointed to the tiger man

“That… It’s Mizuki,” Iruka replied dumbly.

“Mizuki?” I asked, staring down at the broken body before me. Wait, wasn’t he the guy who initially tricked me… the first villain of the series. “Huh… I remember him being smaller… more human looking.”

“He drank something and turned into that,” Iruka explained. “It made him stronger and faster.”

Well, if that was true, then it didn’t help by much. With the speed that I saw, I could have beaten him without using Kurama’s tail, but I really couldn’t be bothered to get in a long, tiring fight.

“And you beat him so quickly,” Iruka replied in awe, before wincing from his wounds.

“Well what can I say… I’m used to fighting much stronger people than him,” I replied, motioning for Jugo to jump down. “Why don’t I tell you about it on my way to the Hokage tower?”

“Maybe we can go to the hospital first,” Iruka chuckled weakly.

“Sure,” I smiled.