"What are you two doing here?" Naruto asked as he landed beside Temari as she had been resting behind a boulder

"Naruto?" Temari was confused as she just saw him fly

"How?"

"Transformation jutsu"

"Oh!"

"Now, why are you here and you seemed to have gotten out of a fight?"

"We tried to get inside the temple but were repelled and then someone strong went inside so we decided to retreat. Why is she here?" Temari questioned as she looked towards Konan

"She is my partner and guide, you don't have to worry I have it under control." Naruto assured her that there was no problem

Kankurou knew that Naruto will enter so he joined the talk, "The guy uses shadows and seemed to be very good at controlling them. The shadows were exceptionally strong and from what I saw they have the force of 1000s of tons."

"Thanks for the info; I will see what I can do." Naruto said as he turned to Kankurou and then looked at Temari one more time

"Take care of yourself and don't let the despair overpower your soul." Naruto said as he felt the pain deep inside her heart and turned around to walk to the temple as he had limited time

"Have you heard of anyone like that?" Naruto asked Konan to fish for information on his foe

"No, it could be one of those old types of fighters that train in the wilderness away from civilization or just someone very good at hiding." Konan replied while trying to remember any clues related to the topic

"Hmm, if it is shadows and if it works like the Nara clan then it shouldn't be a problem now as I can just absorb it." Naruto muttered as he walked up the stairs and each step made him feel a weight on his body, and the danger senses were going haywire

'What kind of monster is it, I shouldn't be so vulnerable?' Naruto was alarmed at the reaction

"Be careful, this could be very dangerous."

The moment they entered the gate, poison was sprayed at them but Naruto used the wind to disperse it. He wasn't willing to test his mettle against unknown poisonous substance in the field.

When the scene cleared they could see clearly that the place was like a maze and it seemed to have some way of making it hard to sense chakra and life force within the building.

'Is that sea stone?' Konan thought as she looked at the building closely and saw the glow. The stone emitted nature energy which interfered with chakra and made it very hard to find anyone using sensing techniques or homing.

'I see he has been hiding in a different continent.' Konan concluded as the sea stone was not something local to their continent but a foreign item.

Naruto on the other hand was analyzing his surroundings and moving slowly and cautiously. His mind was slowing down, his heart was in pain and he wanted to just rest but he knew time was not on his side. The fatigue was getting to his head and he was beginning to question his choices.

"Naruto, it is alright. You can cry and you can rest for a day. A single day won't make anything worse." Konan saw his weakened expression and understood what he was going through as it was something she had experienced when Yahiko died

Naruto looked at her and just shook his head, he was being hard headed and punishing himself.

"I am okay."

"Is that so, then how about you entertain me then?" A voice interrupted them and Naruto saw a man made of shadows and he couldn't make out his appearance as he was just a mass of darkness that move fluidly

"What are you?" Naruto questioned with wariness as he took his defensive stance concentrating his eyes on the foe

"I am the Hunter of Fighters. I like killing strong opponents as it gives me joy so you should be honored to be considered a prey."

"I don't want such an honor so shove it where the sun does not shine." Naruto responded as a laser was shot of a robotic hand appearing on his shoulder but the laser just went through the enemy

"Nice, a very fast attack but it is quite weak." The man replied as countless tendrils rose in the air and rushed towards Naruto and Konan

Naruto stood in front of her and activated his absorption, which cancelled the move.

"Quite an annoy ability but not really a big problem." The man muttered as he rushed at Naruto

Naruto saw a shadow lance appearing in the foe's hand and piercing him, the speed was too much and he wouldn't be able to avoid it.

'Almighty push' Naruto aimed his hand at the foe and blasted him with 10% of his chakra

10% of Naruto's chakra being a monstrous amount and so in his humbleness, Naruto ended up causing immense destructive force to be out in the world. The building was blown up and the force traveled for miles, causing sandstorms to appear.

"You shouldn't use too much chakra with that ability or else you might destroy what you want to protect." Konan warned as he could end up using the 360 degree force field version that Pain used to raise Konoha

"I will be careful." Naruto muttered as he entered sage mode to enhance his body even more but before his clone could even pop up to give him the sage chakra, Naruto found a lance piercing his stomach

"That was a good move but still not enough, try a bit harder. You need to learn to affect the space time if you want to stand on my level, conventional shit is worthless." The man said as the lance wiggled inside Naruto's body and he could feel pain like no other as the tendrils extended across all his body

The man didn't seem to want to kill as he just caused Naruto pain and covered them in a dark barrier.

"You beat one of my puppets, it was a nice shot. You almost got that got me curious but you still need to grow so I will let you live as you are a prey and I like mine fattened up." The man said as he tapped Naruto which caused a seal to form on Naruto's back while the man disappeared without a trace

"The man has already escaped it seems he wasn't willing to take a chance of facing me."

Naruto fell to the ground unconscious as the fatigue and pain caught up to him.

a.n Hope you enjoyed