Chapter 113: Bad Choices
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 113: Bad Choices
"Wait! Take it outside! You'll destroy everything!" the manager shouted.
The large man, Hanma, glared at Naruto.
"This kid looks nimble and fast. If we fight outside, he'll have the advantage..." He tensed his muscles, and they swelled to twice their size, his shoulders now nearly touching both sides of the narrow hallway.
"There's nowhere to run here." With that, Hanma charged at Naruto.
Naruto watched as the giant stepped over the unconscious bodies of the men he had just defeated. The sound of their bones breaking was loud, but Hanma didn't seem to care about his co-workers. His focus was entirely on crushing Naruto.
"Take this!" A powerful straight punch was aimed directly at Naruto's face.
Naruto dodged by moving his head aside, or at least it seemed like he had dodged, but he felt an impact on his cheek and was still sent flying backward.
"Haha! How'd you like that? I'm not so easy to avoid," Hanma laughed.
"Your arm grew..." Naruto patted his cheek. He had noticed the trick. His dodge had been perfect, but just before Hanma's punch landed, his forearm had grown, forcing Naruto to miscalculate the space necessary to avoid the hit.
"Yeah, that trick always gets ninjas. You lot are lacking in creativity when it comes to chakra. You see..." His body swelled again. " I may not know your ninjutsu, but I can control my muscles completely."
"I see... that's interesting, but that trick won't work on me again. So I hope you have something more than that. " It was clear now that chakra usage wasn't as secretive as the academy had made it seem.
Naruto also recognized that Hanma was using a form of taijutsu.
'There's probably a sizable black market for ninja manuals,' Naruto mused. With the number of missing ninjas out there, it wouldn't be that surprising if some of those decided to make some money by selling their village's secret methods.
The manager stood at the other end of the hallway, completely covered in blood and trembling.
"You should've let me go when you had the chance..." Naruto muttered. He didn't enjoy senseless killing, but he would repay any attack on him in kind.
With that, Naruto turned and left the building.
No one came after him as he walked away, which didn't surprise him.
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He wandered the city streets for over an hour, eventually visiting another gambling house without incident.
However, the story he heard there matched what he had been told earlier. Tsunade had visited the previous year, played several games of dice, lost a significant sum of money, and then disappeared without paying.
Eventually, Naruto decided to rest in a quiet part of the city and take some time to think.
"And they want that woman to become the next leader?..." Naruto wondered if the elders truly knew what Tsunade was like. Everything he had found so far, did not give a pretty picture of that individual.
"Hurry! This way!" Several armed men ran toward him.
For a moment, Naruto thought they were coming to arrest him for killing the large man at the gambling den, but it quickly became clear they had no interest in him.
"Make way, boy!"
"Move!"
Naruto stepped aside, watching the squad of soldiers rush past and take a set of stairs leading to the city's outer walls.
"Did something happen?" he asked, not expecting an answer. However, a kind-looking soldier stopped next to him.
"Young man, you shouldn't go near the walls right now. A giant monster has appeared and damaged part of the Shogun's castle!"
"A monster?" Now Naruto was truly curious.
"Yes, a giant snake!"
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