Naruto: The Unwoven Threads of Fate

"Alvarcus." Orochimaru pins me in an intense stare. He's tired of waiting to find out what happens next. "I have waited long enough. Tell me what happened or you will regret the consequences. An increase in training will be the least of your worries."

"Alright jeez!" I awkwardly try to adjust in my chair but my bloodsoaked coat is completely stuck to the back of my seat. This coat, this whole outfit, is trashed. "Like you weren't going to step up my training regardless of whether or not I fought a jonin."

"Yugito Nii is far more than just a jonin." Orochimaru begins to lecture me. I think it's a form of a defense mechanism, a way to push the sheer audacity of my actions aside for however brief a period of time. "One of the strongest shinobi in Kumo, trailing behind the Raikage and Bee. She is a force of destruction, one who has completed many impossible missions with flying colors. On top of all that she's a near perfect jinchuuriki and you baited her so she would spar you!"

"That's not even remotely true!" I scoff out like it's insane.

"Alvarcus." Orochimaru angrily growls at me.

"Okay, maybe a little true?" I helplessly shrug in a what can you do about it manner. It only made him more mad. "Right! So storytime before you get more mad at me! I promise it ended well! Or… sorta well? Well-ish? You could call it well if you squint from a distance in the middle of a sandstorm while it's a moonless night."

"And we're not even to the part where the Sound Three died." Orochimaru sighs in resignation. "When will you be addressing that? And why they're all over you while you're at it."

"I mean, I could just skip to that part if you want." I offer him. "Totally glossing over me vs Yugito, but hey if you really want me to I can."

"Just…" Orochimaru has dropped his head into his hands, they're covering his face like he thinks that not seeing me will make things better. I think I gave him a stress induced ulcer. "Tell me what happened with the jinchuuriki."

Flashback, the Day After the Dinner Date

"How are we going to do this?" I boredly ask Yugito as we stand a few meters away from each other. I'm idly kicking around a stone while she's studying me, learning how I move. She's preparing as much as possible before our spar.

We mutually agreed to wait until now to have our spar for a couple of reason. Neither of us felt like fighting in our fancy clothes. Neither of us felt like doing anything strenuous on the first night. Okay so mainly Yugito really wanted to go out to a bar or seven, that was totally the biggest reason we waited.

But our waiting had an unexpected side effect. In hindsight it really shouldn't be that unexpected, but what can you do? The Sound Three and the rest of the Kumo shinobi are here to watch. We've got ourselves a crowd of adoring fans.

"Up to you." She graciously allows me to set the terms for our spar as a cocky smirk plays on her face. "Just be prepared to hit the ground. Hard."

I'm going to wipe that smirk off her face. Preferably with liberal amounts of fire and just a dash of insanity.

"Alright then, since you're so generous I will gladly set the rules." I send my own smirk at her as I start to unnecessarily stretch my legs out. "Obviously lethal force is forbidden, neither of our bosses would be happy if we killed each other. This is a spar between you and me, that means neither of us will attack anyone else. That also means that no one will jump in and interfere, should your posse or mine break that rule then the other person is the victor."

"Simple enough." Yugito sharply nods once to symbolize her consent so far. "Anything else?"

"Yes." This is where I'm going to make it interesting. "Other than the previously stated rules absolutely nothing is off limits."

"Oh? Are you sure you want to make that rule?" Yugito taunts me, trying to get me to admit that I'm scared of the bijuu she has or just of her own prowess. "You're giving me permission to use my full strength against you? You do know that I can fully transform into the Nibi right?"

"Into Matatabi." I correct her. "And yes, I am well aware of that fact. I want to see how I measure up against an almost perfect jinchuuriki. Yet you're forgetting that I'm also letting you know that I will be using everything at my disposal. It may sound like bragging, but it's quite the arsenal."

"Duly noted." Yugito smoothly slides into an advanced taijutsu stance, or at least one suited to her specific abilities. She looks almost catlike with her fingers curled like claws and the way she's lowered to the ground as if she's ready to pounce on her prey. "Shall we begin?"

"This is not going to end well." Sakon groans out in resignation. "How are we supposed to tell Orochimaru-sama that we let his child fight a jinchuuriki?"

"Well… shit. I didn't think about that." Kidomaru admits as his eyes dart from fighter to fighter.

"You're not alone in that boat." Haruku grimly cuts in. "We have to tell the Raikage that we let this happen too. She's supposed to ask him questions not kick his ass."

"You won't have to worry about that." Jirobo tries to comfort the bigger man. "Alvarcus is definitely not weak. I wouldn't be surprised if he won."

"We'll just have to wait and watch." Knits ironically says because she hasn't bothered to look at either of the two fighters for more than two seconds.

"Okay jinchuuriki." I taunt Yugito as I refrain from taking up my own combat stance. "Whenever you're ready."

"This will be over in moments." Yugito promises as she moves so quickly that to an untrained eye she'd be little more than a blur.

But my eyes are far superior to most.

She attempted to slash at my leg to limit my mobility. She didn't make it that far. The instant she was within my range I lashed out with my left arm and wrapped my fingers around her neck. With practiced ease I lift her up just enough so that her feet don't touch the ground then I slam her down to the earth below with a staggering amount of force, enough to form cracks around her.

"I told you before." I say as I release her and jump away from her before she can retaliate. "You would be wise to never underestimate an opponent, no matter how young they are or how confident in your own skills you are. Do not hold back against me or you will lose."

"You're faster than I expected." Yugito admits as she casually rises up from the ground. She's not harmed at all from my slam, she's barely even dirty. "Stronger too."

"Will you quit limiting yourself or do I need to push you further?" I bluntly ask her. "Come at me with your real skill, show me why the Raikage picked you to come meet me. Come jinchuuriki, display the power of Kumo!"

"You want to see just how good I am? Then I'll show you." She calmly says from behind me. I didn't see her move at all, one moment she was before me the next moment she tried to stab a kunai into my thigh. I blocked it with one of my own, just barely. I didn't expect her speed to be so extreme. I'll have to adjust my own to match.

We don't stop there, we quickly exchange a furious set of blows. I swipe at her eyes, she nimbly bends out of the way and lands a light cut on my left hip. She darts in to try and run my leg through and I swat her kunai away while grazing her shoulder in return. Trade after trade we dance around each other, neither landing anything more than a superficial wound. Cuts and scrapes are meaningless in a battle of shinobi, we are trained to ignore such petty wounds.

Finally, after a solid five minutes of our furious dance, we break apart. She has a dozen or so new tears in her clothes and less actual wounds that managed to break skin. I have significantly more than her, almost double.

"How unfortunate." She cockily smiles at me while twirling her conspicuously blood free kunai around. "Though I must commend you, I thought this would be over in a flash. You're holding your own surprisingly well."

"I agree, you haven't even touched Matatabi's chakra yet you can trade blows with me. That is not something to dismiss, I wasn't holding back my strength as much as I usually do." I idly flip the kunai in the air, letting it complete three full revolutions that send the small amount of her blood on it flying before catching the handle once more.

"You're holding back on me?" She narrows her eyes at my implied insult to her. After all, why would a thirteen year old hold back against a jonin? Not to mention a jonin jinchuuriki of all people.

"Like you weren't doing the same." I accuse her. "I watched your movements. You had sudden bursts of speed to block me whenever I managed to exploit an opening. Then once the blow was intercepted you reigned in how fast you move. You're still holding back."

"Forgive me for not wanting to outright slaughter a kid." Yugito admits without shame. "You may say you can take it but I have to make sure first. So far you've proven you can at least survive a little bit against me. That being said any of those nicks and scratches I landed on you could have been much more severe."

"Hmm?" I look down at my clothes, sure enough they're spotted with cuts and tears. "I liked this outfit. You've ruined it. At least I got you back."

"I tagged you more." She points out while pointing at my aforementioned ruined attire. "A lot more."

"True." I hold my kunai out so she can see it and the few drops of blood that remain clinging to the blade. "But I drew first blood."

"No you did- oh." She looks at her own kunai. It's shiny and clean. "How curious. I felt it graze flesh. How did you manage that?"

"Trade secret." I condescendingly tell her. "Perhaps you'll find out if we continue. Who knows, maybe you'll finally push me to do something interesting."

"Interesting eh?" Yugito's hand swiftly darts into her hip pouch and flings a kunai at my head. "How's this for interesting!"

I casually tilt my head out of the way of the projectile and see something unexpected. Trailing on a piece of string behind the kunai is a tag. Suddenly the tag sparks and throws off a blinding white light. She flashbanged me from less than an arm's length away.

"Bitch!" I stagger backwards under the sudden influx of light and bring my arms up to protect myself from her follow up attack. She doesn't disappoint, not even a fraction of a second later she's standing off to my right with a kunai ready. She plans on firmly laying it against my throat to force me to submit.

But that's not what happens. As her hand darts forward mine springs up and grasps her wrist, stopping the blade centimeters from my neck.

"What?" Yugito snarls out in rage. "I saw it. You got a faceful of that tag, even your sunglasses wouldn't protect you from that much light."

"You're right." I calmly tell her as I kick her in the gut, sending her flying away from me. "You caught me off guard, I didn't expect that little trick. But my eyes adjust quicker than most, I was only blinded for a mere instant. Nowhere near enough time for you to do anything significant. My staggering was only so you would come in close and I could tag you myself."

"What!" Yugito's eyes dart down to her stomach, the spot where I kicked her in search of the tag. "Where is it- OOF!"

My heel slams into the back of her neck, forcing her to smack face first into the unforgiving ground. I quickly follow up with two more near crippling blows, one swift punch to the side of her left knee in an attempt to dislocate it and a stomp to her right elbow because that is the arm she's favored for her kunai.

"I lied about the tag." I whisper down to her as I rear back my leg to punt her across the clearing. "Misdirection is one hell of a tool."

My foot sails towards her torso.

It doesn't connect. She rolled out of the way and in a admirable display of flexibility and contorting managed to make it back to her feet.

"Dick." She says as she slowly tests both of the joints that I assaulted. Her leg seems to be fine but her arm is moving slightly slower now. Good, that means I did some damage.

"You're not wrong." I don't allow her insult to get to me, I've been called much worse. "So have I proven myself yet? Will you finally fight me for real?"

"You're just full of surprises." She calmly quips to me. "Fine. No more holding back."

"Good." Finally. Now it's a fight. "About damn ti- oh no. I've been impaled."

"Perhaps you weren't ready for me to truly fight?" Yugito taunts me from my side. The woman is fast, I'll give her that. She also knows how to use it and has a strong sense of revenge too because her glowing blue claws are buried in my knee. She twists her hand causing the claws to shred my knee further. "How's that feel? Painful? I commend you for not crying out for daddy."

"Hahaha! About fucking time!" I laugh right in her face, her expression swapped from vindictive joy to utter surprise. This isn't how she expected me to react. At all. "This is what I wanted! Someone to play with! Someone who isn't afraid to hurt me! Someone who can stand on equal ground with me and dish out just as much as I do! Yes! Let's play jinchuuriki!"

I raise my knee up, ripping her claws out of it in the process, and plant it in her gut. She doubles over as the air rushes out of her lungs. I don't stop there, I plant an elbow in the back of her head that forces her down to a knee.

"Come now!" I land three consecutive punches to the back of her skull that force her closer and closer to the ground. "Where is all that spunk you just had! Where is your confidence now! Where is your strength! You disappoint me! For a mighty jinchuuriki to be manhandled by a lowly Oto shinobi! Disgraceful!"

"Alright fucker. Let's play." A cloak of blue flames bursts to life around Yugito so violently and with so much force that I'm thrown across the clearing and through a tree.

"That's more like it." I say as I roll away from the falling tree to prevent myself being crushed by it. "Are you finally using Matatabi's chakra?"

"No." Yugito says as she stalks towards me while the blue fire continues to rage around her. It's swirling like a tempest of wind would, spinning around her in elegant yet chaotic patterns. The very ground beneath her is charring black from the mere presence of the blistering flames yet Yugito herself remains unscathed. "This is simply an ability of the Nibi's jinchuuriki. The chakra you see is my own."

"Before this battle is over I will make you use Matatabi's chakra. I promise you that."

Present, Orochimaru's Office

"Alvarcus are you mad!" Orochimaru shouts at me. "Why do you insist on pushing her so far! Why must you challenge her! WHY!?"

"Dunno really." I shrug and that only pisses him off more. "It's one of my character flaws, I always end up pissing off people stronger than I am."

"It is a miracle you're still alive."

"About that…" I awkwardly trail off.

"It gets worse, doesn't it?"

"Much worse."

Flashback, The Battle

"I will make you regret speaking those words." Yugito promises as we face off against each other once more.

"And I'm going to make you regret using a flame cloak." I fly through handsigns before she has a chance to react and my cheeks swell. "Wind Release: Pressure Damage!"

The furious gale of wind tears through the air and slams into Yugito. She's not lifted off her feet like the usual opponent is when I use this jutsu against them, I reigned myself in. The point of this isn't to knock her down, it's to feed the fire.

And the fire greedily gobbles up the wind, roaring to an all new blistering heat and roasting Yugito inside of it.

But Yugito doesn't panic, instead she throws the fire off of herself and onto a nearby tree which is quickly consumed in the vicious blue flames. Despite her impressive reaction time and quick response she didn't escape unscathed, she's smoking.

"You're hot." I monotonously point out.

"You're too young for me." She blandly replies without flinching. "Go find someone your own age, didn't you cover that already?"

"No, you're smoking hot." I literally point to her this time.

"Again, too young for me." She idly adjust a stray strand of hair while we talk. "Though I appreciate the compliment."

"I… fuck it." I give up. I'm not going to bother explain it. "Let's play some more."

It's my turn to lunge at her with my fist reared back ready to pummel her face in. As my fist sails towards her face she twists her upper half to let it pass with barely a hair's breadth of wiggle room. She capitalizes on being inside my guard and eagerly buries her elbow into my solar plexus. She doesn't stop there, her claws form once more and she slashes them across both of my thighs digging deep into my flesh. She's trying to stop me from being able to move.

I'm not hindered by her attack, not even a little bit.