Naruto : a hero's journey

The air in the stadium was thick with anticipation. The crowds were roaring, louder than they had been for any of the previous matches.

Satoru could hear the shouts of encouragement and the clamor of excitement as he and Sakumo stood in the center of the arena. Among the crowd were not just their peers, but higher-ranked shinobi—chunin, jonin, and even the Hokage himself, who watched silently from his seat.

Satoru's heartbeat echoed in his ears. His body felt unnaturally still, but his hands, were shaking. He clenched his fists, trying to calm the tremor. 'What's wrong with me?' he thought, glancing at his trembling fingers. Was it fear? He didn't feel afraid, not consciously, but his body told a different story.

Sakumo, standing across from him, noticed. "If your hands are shaking in fear," he called out, his tone calm yet commanding, "you can still give up."

Satoru didn't respond, because it wasn't fear that made him tremble—it was something far deeper, something he couldn't quite put into words.

he simply smiled. 'Fear? No... this is excitement,' he realized. The prospect of fighting Sakumo, of testing his skills against someone of his caliber, thrilled him in a way that was both exhilarating and unnerving.

The referee stepped forward, raising his hand. "Let the final match... begin!"

Satoru opened a scroll and brought out his katana, Sakumo unsheathed his.

"Lightning style: lightning step!" Sakumo weaved seals and rushed towards Satoru, he swung his sword in an upward arc and satoru blocked it with his own.

Satoru parried Sakumo's sword to the side and striked him , Sakumo's feet light up with a buzz and he instantly moved away.

Sakumo this time ran with the buzz in his feet and lightning started accumulating around him.

He neared Satoru and again swung his sword , this time his sword had that lightning enter it and clashed with Satoru's sword, after a stalemate, the lightning in his sword shot towards satoru and struck him in the chest.

He fell to the ground spasming and incapable of moving his body, sakumo rushed him for another swung,

POOF!!!

Sakumo saw a burst of steam and satoru dissappear, he turned to his right and was kicked in the stomach, he skidded to a stop and blocked Satoru's sword.

They traded strikes and parried each other's blows but failed to damage each other.

Sakumo after all this fighting, accumulated enough lightning for another strike.

Satoru taunted him with a certain finger, they both ran towards to each other and swung their swords.

'The moment his sword nears me, I'll launch the lightning. He will be unable to block my attack,while I step back to dodge his.

Satoru's sword neared very close to Sakumo's right shoulder, the lightning strike hit Satoru, but before he went down he smirked, his sword changed appearance,

It became longer, Satoru's cleanly cut sakumo from his right shoulder to his left side of his hip.

Satoru was flung away by the lightning strike, which only led to a deep cut in the shoulder and it became more and more shallow, as it reached the hip, it left only a cut like a papercut.

Sakumo screamed in pain as he held his shoulder, 'At least I dealt him some damage to him, an eye for an eye.'

POOF!!!

He saw Satoru dissappear into smoke, he then heard a voice from from the place where Satoru was hit with the lightning the last time.

He saw Satoru turn off the invisibility and he was using mystical palm jutsu to heal himself.

' I had to inflict injuries on myself to replicate the urgency I felt when healing that flower, it was much harder to do when it's replicated artificially. Now that I have memorized that feeling, healing is partially in my grasp.'

Sakumo looked at the injury he inflicted on Satoru, the burn was only partially healed.

Sakumo walked to him, "how'd you do it? That trick, was it genjutsu?"

"I would tell you, but I want to keep it a 'Texture-Surprise' Hahahaha!"

"Fine, keep your secrets, damn wizard!" Sakumo said, smirking.

Satoru threw his sword away, "No weapons!"

Sakumo threw his sword as well, " Straights hands, are we?" They both enhanced themselves with chakra.

Satoru darted forward, his fists a blur as he launched rapid jabs at Sakumo's chest and head.

Sakumo blocked with his forearms, sidestepping a follow-up kick aimed at his ribs. He watched Satoru closely, searching for a weakness.

Seeing no gap, Sakumo stepped in, deflecting Satoru's punch and driving his elbow toward Satoru's ribs. Satoru twisted just in time, spinning low to sweep Sakumo's legs, but Sakumo hopped back, keeping his stance firm.

Satoru pressed, delivering a series of kicks. Each was faster than the last, trying to catch Sakumo off-guard.

But Sakumo calmly dodged, countering with a sharp thrust of his palm. It connected with Satoru's shoulder, forcing him back a step.

Satoru gritted his teeth and rushed again, but Sakumo was ready. When Satoru threw another punch, Sakumo caught his wrist, pivoted, and slammed his fist into Satoru's side.

Satoru winced but spun with the momentum, pulling his arm free and landing a quick backhand strike to Sakumo's temple.

Sakumo staggered slightly but recovered, his eyes sharp. He fainted a jab, causing Satoru to block high, and then kicked low, sweeping Satoru off his feet. Satoru hit the ground hard but rolled quickly, springing back to his feet and launching a roundhouse kick. Sakumo ducked, then drove a knee toward Satoru's gut.

Satoru blocked with both arms but felt the force of the impact. He slid back, breathing heavily, before charging again. His fists blurred as he unleashed a rapid flurry of punches and kicks.

Sakumo parried, absorbing the blows, then stepped in, using a gap to drive a powerful palm strike to Satoru's chest.

The hit sent Satoru skidding backward, coughing as he struggled to catch his breath. Sakumo, calm and composed, waited for the next move, his gaze never leaving Satoru.

"Ran out of juice? You look like you need a rest." Sakumo taunted.

"Let's add ninjutsu, that's my domain." "Choose whatever you want, I'll beat you up."

Satoru weaved handseals for wind style:Breakthrough, a high pressured gust flew towards Sakumo who weaved hands seals for Earth style: rock gloves

He blocked the winds from hitting him, the moment it ended , Sakumo punched with all his strength.

Satoru side stepped the heavy rock glove and used his momentum against him. Satoru threw him to the ground and dug his nails into Sakumo's shoulder wound, making a scream of pain to come out.

Sakumo backhanded Satoru with his glove, making him fall on his back.

He stood up and pursued Satoru, who was trying to make distance between them.

Satoru made few clones surround him, they all ganged up on Sakumo, they were punched but all attacks would just phase through. Satoru used them to trick him and land many enhanced blows on him.

'Wait a minute, clones don't have a shadow.' Sakumo thought, 'this should work, it's the only large scale jutsu I know.'

Water Style: Wild Water Wave, the water wave blasted towards all directions wildly washing away all the clones and the original one.

"Hahahah! Thanks man, I didn't you were chill like that!" Satoru used the water spreading into the ring as a medium to use Texture-Surprise.

He poured chakra into the water and covered the entire ring.

The entire ground became pitch black! Satoru had changed the color of the floor.

He made more ordinary clones, sakumo now had no way to differentiate among them.

Unlike Satoru who was conserving chakra and enduring attacks, Sakumo didn't put any restriction in using it.

He punched a clone just for it to phase through, he was then punched in the gut, knocking him over, just to have many clone move around and disorient him.

He clenched his right shoulder while trying to escape the horde of Satoru,

He looked at his shoulder and saw it had patches of blue spots around it.

He felt nauseous and dizzy as he felt some poison take effect. Satoru sneaked him and tried punching him.

His punch was caught and he took satoru in a chokehold, the grip was too weak to actually choke him but it was enough to keep a exhausted satoru in place.

"I'm probably going to pass out any moment now," sakumo said taking deep breaths, " but, I don't plan to lose." he took out some paper tags and stuck them on Satoru and activated them before he could escape.

A small explosion occurred, and Sakumo was found passed out. Satoru was few meters away, coughing out some dust and debris, his clothes were burnt.

He stood up while sakumo couldn't, making him the winner.

He walked over to him and injected the antidote, then he stumbled out of the ring and walked off.

Satoru stood there, covered in sweat and blood, his chest rising and falling with deep, heavy breaths. He couldn't hear the crowd's cheers or the whispers.

His gaze was locked onto Sakumo, who was lying on the ground, his body marked with cuts and bruises from their intense battle.

Satoru's eyes, wide and slightly unfocused, were filled with an unsettling calm. It was over. He had won. But why did it feel like something else had awoken inside him?

He took another deep breath, feeling a strange sense of satisfaction in seeing Sakumo's injuries. His muscles ached, 'What is this feeling?' he thought to himself. He had fought Sakumo with every ounce of his strength, but now, instead of relief, His body craved more. More blood, more violence. It wasn't about the fight anymore—it was about what the fight made him feel.

The crowd cheered his name, but Satoru barely noticed. He clenched and unclenched his fists, trying to shake off the urge, 'Is this what I wanted?' He had wanted to win, but at what cost? The idea of watching someone—anyone—bleed like that again felt disturbingly tempting.

Suddenly, he felt a presence next to him. The Hokage, standing tall and calm, looked at him with a knowing gaze. The old man didn't speak right away, but Satoru could feel the weight of his eyes on him. The Hokage had seen this before—this hunger, this danger.

Leaning in, the Hokage whispered softly but firmly, "The path you're on... it's a dangerous one, Satoru. Be careful, or it will consume you."

Satoru blinked, his trance broken for a moment. He looked up at the Hokage, his breath still heavy.

He had been walking this path for a while now, hadn't he? He wasn't even sure where it began.

Was it the entrance exams? His training? Zen'in clan? The blood on his hands didn't feel foreign—it felt natural, almost comforting.

And yet, he smiled at the Hokage. Not out of defiance, but out of understanding. "I know," Satoru replied softly, his voice barely audible amidst the noise of the stadium.

But the smile on his face wasn't one of joy. It was a smile tinged with acceptance—of both the path ahead and the darkness that seemed to follow him.

______ ____________ _____________ ___________

[ author's note : if you are confused about the fight, here is the explanation:

Lightning step : it allows the user to accumulate and store extra/wasted chakra in the form of lightning. User can use it to passively increase their movement speed or get massive speed boost temporarily by releasing all at once. The lightning accumulated around the user can be thrown as a projectile as well. Sakumo didn't learn the speed part yet.

Texture-Surprise: it uses the physical change and illusory change of transformation and clone jutsu respectively. He can create visually deceiving objects by combining them together, it usually requires a medium like water to cover the object to maximize the deception. It can be used to make visually and physically deceiving illusions.

Satoru had used Texture-Surprise to make himself invisible and changed the end of his sword to make it seem like it was shorter.

Satoru has not learnt to heal overnight , he just learnt the feeling of what it is and how it can be done. He took minutes just to heal his nerves partially along with his skin.