Naruto: The Weapon Master

Chapter 34: The Chase is On!

Shikamaru was currently thinking about the situation that he and Neji were currently in when he took note of Jirobo preparing to attack, causing him to scramble to his feet and wave his hands in a placating manner.

"Whoa, hold up there! We're here to negotiate, not to fight! Why do we just talk about this like reasonable people?" asked Shikamaru.

Kidomaru smirked in response "Then let's not forget about your friends, shall we?" he suddenly jerked his other hands forward, at that moment, Naruto along with Kiba and Chouji were suddenly pulled out of the bushes and into the clearing. However Kiba thought fast and threw a smoke pellet onto the ground to trigger a cloud of smoke in between the two groups. But Kidomaru didn't stop smirking "Nice try, but it won't do you any good. My threads are so thin that you can barely see them but at the same time are very strong, so I still got your friends,"

Sure enough, the smokescreen began clearing to reveal Naruto and the others still being binded with the aforementioned threads much to the blonde's annoyance as he prepared to cut them loose with a wind enhanced kunai.

Shikamaru thought back on what Kidomaru said and came upon a realization "So that double trap you had set up…was actually a triple trap. I gotta say you must be the smart one of the group,"

"And now you're going to be the dead ones!" Kidomaru made to approach but soon found himself unable to move much to his shock with the same going for the others "Why can't I move?"

Naruto smirked in response "You aren't the only ones with a smart guy in a group, Kiba purposely set up the smokescreen as a cover up so that Shikamaru can snag you with his Shadow Possession jutsu!" he then took out a kunai and empowered it with wind chakra before cutting the threads of himself and the other two.

"I appreciate you making me look good in front of my squad, guess stuff like this isn't really troublesome," Shikamaru sneered at the group.

But things turned when Sakon began smiling, causing them to become a bit wary "Very impressive, I would even be more impressive if I hadn't mastered that jutsu,"

Naruto's hand slowly approached the Tsukiotoshi strapped to his waist upon hearing that but he was unprepared as a volley of shuriken suddenly flew out of the bushes behind them and struck Shikamaru, causing him to lose focus and the jutsu was disengaged. Jirobo smiled at this and immediately made his move.

"Earth style: Earth Dome Prison!" He slammed a palm to the ground, causing it to quake as the earth suddenly rose around Naruto and the group and encasing them in a dome of earth with no way out for them.

"What is this?" asked Neji, trying to analyze the situation.

"Seems like a barrier of some kind and we're stuck in it," said Shikamaru, nursing his wounds and making sure to stop any bleeding.

"Now what do we do?" asked Kiba.

"It's obvious that we need to find our way out of here," said Naruto.

Neji went to examine the dome itself "It appears to be nothing more than a dirt wall,"

"Even so, there must be more to it than just that," said Shikamaru cautiously.

Kiba scoffed in response "Hmph, a wall is a wall and there's no wall I can't punch a hole through,"

"I guess so, we certainly need to do something to get out of here despite the risks,"

Kiba took a crouching position with his claws bared before lunging at the wall "Tunneling Fang!" he spun rapidly like that of a horizontal tornado as he slammed into the wall and proceeded to burrow his way through with dust and stones flying about. He soon stopped only to reveal a medium sized indent on the wall and jumped back to the ground only to look and be surprised at what he and the rest are seeing.

"The damn wall is repairing itself!" said Shikamaru in surprise as the very thing is happening before his eyes.

"So it's more than just a dirt wall, Byakugan!" Neji activated his jutsu for further examination and was taken aback at what he's seeing.

"What is it, Neji?" asked Naruto.

"I just found out that our chakra is being absorbed into the wall, this must be another aspect of the jutsu,"

"Oh great, now we're in a really bad jam. We need to find a way out of here and fast before we lose all of our chakra," said Kiba with a frown.

Naruto himself was thinking about the current situation "From what we know so far, this dome is absorbing our chakra to maintain its structure which means that the guy who performed the jutsu must still be here to keep it active. Hmmm, I wonder if…," he turned towards Neji "Can you use your Byakugan to look outside the dome?"

"I'll see what I can do, Byakugan!" Neji activated his Dojutsu once more and looked around before finally speaking up "I located him, he's currently right in front of us,"

Naruto smirked in response "Thanks, that's all I needed to know,"

"What's on your mind, Naruto?" asked Chouji confusedly.

"A way to get us out of here and fast too," said Naruto as he approached the place where Jirobo would most likely be situated, then he reached into his ninja pouch and took out something that the rest recognized.

"Naruto, is that…," asked Shikamaru.

"The Sword of the Thunder God once belong to the Second Hokage? The very same one, I recovered it during one of my missions and Hokage-jiji allowed me to keep it, provided that I placed a seal on it which automatically summons itself back to the village should someone try to try it again," said Naruto while holding up the sword's hilt.

"How's it going to help us?" asked Kiba.

Naruto simply smirked "Just watch," he placed the hilt against the wall and closed his eyes in concentration as he channeled his chakra into the blade then he activated the weapon as it unleashed numerous streams of yellow electricity which arced throughout the entire dome. They heard a pained scream from the outside and seconds later the wall burst outwardly to reveal Jirobo having been knocked away a couple yards with his body twitching from the electricity.

"I see what you did there, you wanted to locate where he was and then used the Raijin blade due to the elemental advantage that lightning has over earth to attack as well as break out of the jutsu," said Shikamaru.

"That was totally awesome Naruto, thanks for getting us out of there," said Chouji gratefully.

"Looks like he's by himself, the others must have gone on ahead," said Shikamaru.

"You're correct, but they haven't gone too far so we can still catch up," said Neji after a quick scope around with his Byakugan.

"Then we better hurry and catch up with them,"

"Ugh…do you really think that I would allow any of you to go anywhere?" they turned to see Jirobo back on his feet and glaring at them "I must admit that I'm impressed that a bunch of losers were able to escape my jutsu,"

"What did you say?!" Kiba made to charge at the man if not for Naruto pulling him back by his hood "What's that for Naruto?!"

"Calm down, Kiba. Taking this guy head-on without a plan won't do us any good," said Naruto with a frown.

"Not to mention that the guy's baiting you to attack him," Shikamaru added in agreement

"You're not as dumb as I thought," Jirobo slammed a palm on the ground, launching a shockwave in their direction, causing Naruto and co to quickly jump out of the way. He charged towards Naruto with a fist reared back and lashed out with a punch, the blonde saw the oncoming attack and dashed sideways but Jirobo was far from done as he launched one punch after another with Naruto constantly tilting his upper body from side to side whilst backstepping till he saw an opportunity and swiftly took a step and performing a double palm thrust into Jirobo's stomach, sending him flying backwards from the strike "Why you little brat!"

"Hey, I'm the guy who helped mess up your boss twice. Do you really think that you can beat me and my friends so easily? Then you must be the dumb one of the group," said Naruto with a quirked eyebrow.

Shikamaru then landed next to Naruto with the others in tow "Naruto listen, we're running out of time messing with this guy and need to catch up with the rest of his group before they cross the border. So we'll need to split up,"

"You sure about this? I can tell that these guys are no joke," asked Naruto.

They felt the ground shaking and turned to see Jirobo holding up a massive boulder over his head "Earth style: Sphere of Grains!"

"Move!" Shikamaru called out before they jumped out of the way moments before Jirobo threw the boulder at them. They looked to see that the enemy is gone before feeling the ground shaking again "Look out, here comes another one!" then suddenly a hand burst out from under the ground beneath Shikamaru's feet as he was grabbed by Jirobo and held upside down before the others.

"Shikamaru!" Chouji called out in worry of his friend.

"So you're the one in charge of this ragtag team huh? When you got an idiot for a leader, the whole team suffers. Know what I mean?" said Jirobo, causing Naruto and Chouji to grit their teeth in anger at his words "So why don't I do you all a favor and get rid of him for you!" he twirled Shikamaru and tossed him aside.

"Partial Expansion jutsu!" Chouji quickly bloated himself up "Human Boulder!" then he rapidly rolled to intercept and managed to get to Shikamaru before he slammed into a tree trunk.

"Thanks Chouji!" said Shikamaru in gratitude.

"Hmph, and here I thought I was doing you all a favor. Talk about ungrateful," said Jirobo.

Naruto began cracking his knuckles as he took a step forward "You really got some balls in between those legs to be talking trash about us, think it's time that they got popped," he was about to attack when he heard Chouji call out to him.

"Leave him to me Naruto, this guy's mine!" said Chouji with anger in his eyes.

Naruto turned back with a look of concern "But Chouji…,"

"He's mine I said," Naruto let out a sigh, he could see that his friend's mind is made up and is not willing to budge an inch, Chouji reached into his pouch and took out a smaller brown one and held it out to Shikamaru "Here Shikamaru, take this bag of food pills,"

Shikamaru was at first confused then he realized what the Akimichi was planning to do "Chouji, you're not gonna…,"

Chouji tossed it over with a smile on his face "It's okay, I got my secret weapon,"

"Yeah but…,"

"Do you think that I'm going to wait forever?" Jirobo charged towards the group with every intention to harm them, Chouji reached into his pouch again and took out a transparent plastic casing containing three pills colored red, yellow and green much to his confusion "What are those, they don't seem like regular food pills,"

"First is the green spinach pill," Chouji opened the case to pop the green pill into his mouth and ate it then stood at the ready, Jirobo got ready to smash through the boy to attack the others…only to be shocked to his very core when Chouji stopped him dead in his tracks.

"What?! How is this possible?" thought Jirobo.

"Whoa, he suddenly gained a rapid boost in power! Could it be from those pills?" thought Naruto.

"Apparently so Naruto-sama, it must be a secret recipe from his clan," said Chinami.

"All of you, get going while I hold him off!" Chouji called out to the others to leave.

"Chouji…," Shikamaru appeared conflicted to leave his friend alone with the enemy.

"What has the five of us joined together for? If we lose Sasuke, we'll be just what this guy says we are…a stupid idiot of a leader and his band of rejects!"

Shikamaru remained silent before finally speaking "…you better catch up with us Chouji, you hear me?"

"Don't you die on us man, I don't wanna eat the barbeque without you around," said Naruto with a forced grin.

Chouji nodded in affirmation "Yeah! So get out of here already!"

"Alright guys, let's move it!" Shikamaru called out before taking off with the rest following after albeit with hesitance.

"Once I finish you off kid, your friends are gonna be next!" Jirobo grunted out in annoyance.

"That's not gonna be easy like you think!" Chouji began pushing against Jirobo to the point f him being pushed with his feet being dragged along the ground until he managed to get a proper footing, what he wasn't expecting was for Chouji to grab hold of his rope belt and throw him along the ground and slamming into a tree trunk "So far so good,"

Meanwhile, the remainder of the retrieval team were making their way towards the other members of the Sound Four and the captive Sasuke. Shikamaru passed the bag of food pills around for the others to consume and recover the chakra lost when they were trapped by Jirobo. That was when Neji decided to ask Shikamaru about something.

"Those three food pills which I saw Chouji hold, they seem to be some last-minute trump card. Will they be enough to help him win?" asked Neji.

"Yeah, he did say that he had a secret weapon on him," said Kiba.

"Don't worry about it, Chouji's got a plan since he brought along the Akimichi clan secret Triple Threat. Pills that grant a person explosive power, there are three of them; green, yellow and red. The amount of energy that each pill contains is absolutely massive," Shikamaru explained to the team.

"…but there's a catch isn't there? Otherwise you wouldn't have hesitated to leave him behind," said Naruto.

"Yeah, the side effects can be very troublesome which is why I'm hoping that he ends the battle before being forced to take the red pill,"

"It could be that the pills can be life threatening if consumed too much," said Kurama with a frown.

"Then I hope that he uses the ring before then," thought Naruto.

Back at the fight, Chouji was panting slightly when he suddenly felt a lot of pain in his stomach and knew this to be the side effect of eating the pill and gritted his teeth to bear the pain.

"I never would have thought that the first pill would hurt this much, I gotta finish this battle fast!" Chouji wrapped ropes of kunai around himself as Jirobo managed to get back to his feet "Partial Expansion jutsu!" then he bloated himself once more before withdrawing his arms, legs and head within himself "Spiky Human Boulder!" he quickly rolled towards Jirobo who quickly jumped out of the way for the tree to be knocked down from the impact then he turned to continue his pursuit of the target.

"He's upped his rotation and destructive power by using those stringed kunai like spikes," thought Jirobo as he faced his opponent, he crouched low and slammed his palms on the ground "Earth style: Terra Shield!" a large slab of earth rose from the ground between him and Chouji to serve as a barrier, he heard a slam on the other side and thought that he was stopped successfully but then the wall crumbled to reveal Chouji burrowing through much to his shock and raised his hands to stop him only to be pushed again like before. Jirobo used all his strength to stop Chouji but some of the kunai were able to stab several parts of his body.

"Did I get him?" thought Chouji, his attacks should have at least caused enough damage to limit his opponent's mobility. Then he noticed something strange…he saw some strange markings appear on Jirobo's face and parts of his body as he glared back at him.

"Don't think that this is over, you little punk!" Jirobo reared a hand back to strike "Shattering Palm!" he slammed a palm into Chouji's stomach with such force that it sent him flying with a scream of pain as he was forcefully reverted back to his normal form and sent tumbling backwards to a stop.

"What was that, he got so strong all of a sudden," Chouji as he struggled back to his feet.

Jirobo spoke up with a sneer "Hasn't anyone told you? In a team of five, there's always someone who's simply deadweight! The guy who is the butt of everyone's jokes and when thick comes to thin, he's the one to serve as cannon fodder. And guess what, that person is you!"

Chouji glared back in return, those words made him remember how everyone looks down and critique him for every little thing, mostly his weight. That momentary distraction costed as Jirobo charged in and launched a barrage of attacks with the Akimichi defending the best he can but the overwhelming strength for his enemy and the side effects from the pill impeded his efforts and sent tumbling back once again.

"Heh, a loser to the end. Sure, you had some backbone but it didn't last long at all, you're the eponymy of failure. But you can't be blamed, after all you should blame your stupid leader for choosing you, that blonde spiky brat would have made a better leader than him," said Jirobo tauntingly.

Hearing that only served to anger Chouji instead, Shikamaru chose him to be part of the retrieval squad because he believed he could count on him. Naruto himself didn't even attempt to be the leader because he too believes in Shikamaru, and both of them had entrusted him to hold this guy back while they continued on with the mission with the belief that he would catch up with them.

"They believe in me, I can't let them down by losing to this guy!" thought Chouji as he stood up once more and took out the plastic case to eat the yellow pill "Second is the yellow curry pill," his body surged with even more chakra compared to the green pill.

Jirobo scoffed in response however "Not a bad amount of chakra, but a far cry from even being called a snack.

"We'll see about that, fatso!" Chouji smirked upon seeing Jirobo's face twist in anger, feeling a certain sense of satisfaction.

"Don't call me that!" Jirobo charged towards him to attack.

"Partial Expansion jutsu: Arm!" Chouji's right arm began enlarging to gargantuan size much to Jirobo's shock and was unprepared for the smack which sent him tumbling along the ground. Chouji reverted his arm and now enlarged his leg in an attempt to stomp him deep into the ground but Jirobo was quick to roll out of the way. Chouji charged in once more with an enlarged fist which Jirobo tried to catch but was being pushed back and breaking through several trees till he skidded to a stop.

"You little brat, Shoulder Charge!" Jirobo dashed at Chouji with intention to slam into him with great force, Chouji reverted his arm and quickly enlarged his other hand to catch him with the impact forcing him as his feet dug trenches along the ground till he was able to come to a stop. Chouji lifted Jirobo into the air and slammed him into the ground "And now to finish this!" Chouji jumped onto one of the nearby tree branches then into the air as high as he could and formed a handsign "Super Expansion jutsu!" he enlarged his entire body to the size of a giant and descended with an obviously powerful body slam which impacted with a loud boom.

….all of a sudden, Chouji felt himself being lifted into the air despite the difference in size much to his shock and the dread was further confirmed when he heard Jirobo's voice underneath him.

"I never thought that I would have to go into the second stage against a weakling like you," said Jirobo "Slamming Palm!" he lashed out with an attack which was more than enough to send Chouji flying high into the air and forcefully reverting him back to his normal size before crashing to the ground.

Chouji painfully sat up and was shocked upon seeing Jirobo's newest appearance, his skin had changed color to brownish-red with warts all around his face, shoulders and forehead, his mohawk has grown into a long spiky mane that reaches his shoulders, and he gains yellow eye irises with dark eye sclerae "He's completely changed forms and that hit was way stronger compared to the ones before!"

"I'm afraid it's all over for you now, in my second state, I'm capable of dishing out ten times more power than ever before,"

Chouji struggled to his feet but couldn't help but wince from the painful side effects of the second pill "It really hurts, I never would have thought that the pain would be this intense!"

Jirobo approached the Akimichi with a smirk on his face "Now it's time for me to teach you a final lesson," he reared a leg back and drove it into Chouji's stomach, kicking him away a couple feet away "Weaklings are better off playing ninjas with their friends instead of taking on missions like these…hm?" Jirobo noticed something on the ground and picked it, Chouji looked to see him holding a bag containing the last potato chip which he took from Naruto and Shikamaru this morning "Well what do you know, you had a snack all this time and you weren't nice enough share. Don't mind if I help myself to it," he took out the last potato chip and ate it with greed "Come to think of it, the second state consumes a lot of chakra so I might as well take yours to replenish it!"

Chouji struggled to his feet as Jirobo slowly approached him "If he takes my chakra now, I might have to use the red pill. But if I do…I'll die, there's gotta be another way," then he noticed something glistening in the sunlight and looked to see the ring on his finger "The ring that Naruto gave to me and the others, he said it would give me a powerful weapon when I call on it. Hope it will help me out more than taking the last pill," Chouji held out the ring before him and called out "Equip!" the ring glowed brightly for a few moments before fading away to reveal Chouji wearing a pair of what appears to be demonic red gauntlets resembling disproportionately swollen fists reaching up to the forearms whilst glowing with energy. "Wow, this is amazing!"

Jirobo was surprised at first but then responded with a scoff "So what you're using a weapon, it won't change a thing! Now stand still so I can absorb your chakra!" he charged towards Chouji who took a boxer's stance whilst bouncing lightly on the tips of his toes "Shatter Palm!" Chouji weaved to the right then immediately moved in for the counterattack.

"Brawler!" he unleashed a three hit punch combo with each strike leaving behind fiery trails and triggering small explosions. Jirobo stumbled back a bit in pain from the sudden increase and glared at his opponent "You little brat, Crushing Knee!" he lashed out with a upward thrust of his knee, Chouji's eyes narrowed in focus "Snake Eye!" he quickly stepped backwards to evade the incoming attack before zipping forwards to land a powerful right hook to the face and triggering a stronger explosion to sending him flying.

Jirobo skidded along the ground then glared at his opponent with growing frustration, this wasn't supposed to be happening, the Konoha ninja was meant to laying on the ground before him and yet is actually fighting back "I refuse to lose here, Earth style: Earth Dome Prison!" He slammed a palm to the ground, causing it to quake as the jutsu was being activated.

Chouji frowned at that "Don't think I'll let you box me in like before!" he raised one of the gauntlets above his head as he began to gather energy within it "Eryx Charge; Slam!" he smashed the fist into the ground, triggering a more powerful quake to cancel out the jutsu and also making Jirobo lose his balance for him to rush up to the enemy and unleash another Brawler combo with the last one having been charged to knock him back several feet.

"YOU LITTLE PUNK, I'VE ABOUT ENOUGH OF THIS! I'LL DESTROY YOU HERE AND NOW!" An enraged Jirobo rushed towards Chouji with a fist reared back to attack.

"Same here," Chouji responded in kind by charging back with a fist reared back as well, they met in the middle and lashed out with their attacks.

"Slamming Boulder!"

"Eryx Charge; Mighty Swap!" they collided fists the first time, triggering a shockwave upon with the second one with a similar result but it was the third attack that Chouji dodged at the last moment to land a jab onto Jirobo's face, effectively breaking his nose and knocking him to the ground with his skull ringing like a bell.

Chouji looked down at his opponent with anger "A lot of people tend to hold grudges for many things such as eating their food without their permission, that first punch to the face was for eating the last of my favorite snack. The broken nose was for calling me names like fatso and loser, but you did something much worse compared to the last two that there's no way I'll ever forgive you! You insulted my best friend Shikamaru who believed in me more than anyone else besides my dad!" one of the gauntlets began gathering more energy by the second "How dare you! Eating the last of my favorite food and calling me names wasn't enough, you had to go and insult Shikamaru…and for that, I'll obliterate you!"

Jirobo quivered with fear at the sight of the blood red aura surrounding the gauntlet, if that is to land a blow on him… "I've got to get out of here, but my body won't move!"

"This last attack will be your punishment!" Chouji leapt high into the air with the fist reared back to strike and a large spectral version appearing next to it…

"WAIT! NO! PLEASE DON'T DO IT!" Jirobo's frantic pleas fell on deaf ears.

"ERYX CHARGE; STOMP!" Chouji plummeted down with earth-shattering speed and power as he drove his gauntleted fist into Jirobo's chest, easily smashing through the ribcage and effectively crushing his heart whilst forming a crater around him from the impact. The Sound ninja was reverted from his second state as he laid there unmoving with his chest visibly caved in from the impact, signaling his death.

Chouji took a couple steps back before collapsing to the ground and panted heavily as the gauntlets disappeared into the ring as he laid there in exhaustion "*Pant**Pant**Pant* I did it…I won…," Chouji smiled tiredly at the feeling of victory "I need to call the others," the ring responded to his thoughts and glowed slightly to contact the others.

"Chouji, is that you?" asked Naruto through the rings.

"Yeah, it's me, I was able to beat him,"

Kiba's voice was heard next "For real?! That's so dope, Chouji!" Akamaru barked in agreement with his partner.

"Yeah man, guess it's double for the barbeque for you man," said Naruto.

"Glad to hear that Chouji, what's your condition?" asked Shikamaru.

"I'm damaged to a certain point and the side effects of eating the green and yellow pills haven't gone away," said Chouji, hearing a sigh of relief from Shikamaru.

"I see, then it's best that you stay behind and recover,"

"But…,"

Neji interjected "He speaks the truth, Shikamaru told us of the effects of the pills. Right now, you aren't in a good condition to assist us further,"

"They're right Chouji, you already played a big part in this mission by taking out one of the enemies which increases our chances of accomplishing this. This is an achievement you should be proud of," said Naruto.

"Just hang tight until we get back, so you can tell us how you took that guy down. He was really getting on my nerves with him talking trash,"

"…okay guys, I'll be waiting for you," Chouji finally relented.

"Don't worry Chouji, we'll be back soon," said Shikamaru before ending the transmission.

Chouji slowly got to his feet and stumbled away from the newly created clearing and went to sit against one of the trees nearby, there he reminisced on his past and how he used to be picked on before meeting Shikamaru and becoming best friends. He recalled something his father once told him.

"Let me tell you something son, none of those boys have as kind a heart as you do and someday, you'll have a group of friends who see that quality inside you and respect you for it. You'll find friends who believe in you, who trust you with their lives, cherish those friends Chouji,"

Tears began streaming down Chouji's cheeks as he cried "You were right dad, I waited for a long time but I was finally able to make some true friends. Everyone…please come back to me alive okay?"

Weapon/Gear List

Eryx = DmC: Devil May Cry

This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, I've been racking my head over which weapons the characters would be using during the arc…and I'm still doing so while trying not to Mary Sue despite any weapon capable of doing so but then again which weapon won't be badass? I hope that the Chouji vs Jirobo is to your satisfaction as the next chapter will be the Kidomaru vs Neji which I'll be running simulations for the most suitable weapons.

For those wondering if the mission will be a success or failure like in canon...all I have to say is stay tuned for more chapters in the future and on a side note that I'll finally be working on the next chapter of the Maelstrom Exe. Be sure to read and review as always.

This is Hussbek from Ghana.

Signing out.