After that three things happened near simultaneously. The first was Naruto smashed his right foot into the knee of what he now identified as a Suisho Bunshin, shattering the knee cap and dispelling the clone. The second thing to happen was him giving a hard yank on the whip, which led into the third thing that happened. Guren, who had not been expecting any kind of attack or retaliation, was yanked off her feet, making the crystal knife she had stabbed into Naruto come out of him rather abruptly, causing a large squirt of blood as she hit the ground hard.
Guren quickly rolled away from the blond shinobi before coming to her feet, and quickly crouching down in a defensive stance. It was largely unnecessary as Naruto was currently in no condition to fight, as evidenced by the fact that he was currently kneeling on the ground with one hand pressed to a rather large, gaping hole in his chest.
"I guess my tactic wasn't so bad if it got you huh?" Guren smirked as she decided to add dirt to his wound, "Or maybe you just suck."
Naruto chuckled a bit, even though it hurt just to breath. "Yeah…maybe, ugh, that'll at least teach me not to open my trap the next time I'm in combat."
'Kyuubi? Can you give me a damage assessment?' asked Naruto as he listened to Guren continue to insult him, knowing that it gave him time to come up with a counter plan.
'It's not as extensive as the damage that was done to you thanks to Gaara in the preliminaries,' Kyuubi started as she fed a small amount of her youki through the seal. 'But it's potentially deadlier, that crystal weapon of hers managed to pierce your lung. Were you still human that attack would have killed you already.'
Naruto grunted a bit, 'How long until it heals?'
There was a moment's pause, 'On its own about four hours. However I doubt that Guren woman you're fighting is going to give you the opportunity.' Naruto could almost feel the smirk on Kyuubi's face as she paused again, 'However that won't be a problem if you use my power. You won't be able to even use one tail due to how injured you are, but it will be more than enough for your wound to heal quickly.'
'Alright then, think you can give me some juice?'
'Of course.'
Naruto smirked as he felt Kyuubi's youki flow through his body, it was only about half a tail but it was an instant relief as he felt his wounds mending themselves. However his increase in power had not gone unnoticed, Guren had felt it too and had stopped her gloating to try and finish him off.
"Shōton: Omiwatari no Jutsu (Crystal Release: The Gods' Crossings Technique)!" A long stream of sharp crystal burst forward and to bind and impale Naruto, only for him to go up in a puff of smoke and a log to take his place.
"Fuuton: Kaze No Yaiba!" Guren rolled to the left as a wind blade passed through the spot she had been standing, leaving a large gouge in the earth. She spun around in time to see Naruto throw another wind blade at her, and was forced to dodge again.
This continued for some time as Naruto began making complicated attack patterns with the wind blades, hoping to coral Guren into a corner so to speak, so she would have nowhere to dodge. However the Shoton user was more than up to the task of dodging as she weaved through the storm of wind blades, jumping, rolling, spinning and flipping out of the way with a dancer's grace. After a few minutes Naruto was forced to stop as he cut through the Guren within his pattern and found out she was a Bunshin.
And just in time to, for almost a second after he had bisected the Suisho Bunshin, Guren appeared in his blind spot and attempted to impale him with a rather large lance. Naruto was fortunate to have already been on the move, rolling to the right as Guren struck out at where he had been.
The blond Konoha shinobi kipped back up on his feet and spun around, aiming his gauntlet at Guren and firing a kunai as well as a barrage of senbon for good measure. However, Guren was not to be outdone as she went through a set of hand seals and slammed her hands on the ground, "Shoton: Kabe No Kesshou!" A large wall came out and blocked the senbon and kunai from hitting her.
A few seconds later it came down, and Guren was forced into battle with three Naruto's who used a good combination of teamwork to try and take her down. Crystal knifes once again appeared on the crystal users forearms, even as she continued dodging strikes from the blonde's clones. Once they were fully formed she let one of the clones come in close and launch a punch at her. However she merely blocked it, using her forearm and more importantly, the knife on it. The clone's hand was split down the middle and before it could scream, it was dispelled.
The other two clones attempted to attack, however it was all wasted as she wove between them and lashed out with simultaneous strikes that took them both out. However the dispelling of his clones had given Naruto a decent smokescreen for cover, as he made liberal use of the Shunshin to appear right next to Guren and launch a kick to her mid-section.
While Guren was surprised by the sudden attack she had no intention of letting Naruto hit her, and jumped back while at the same time kicking out her own leg to knock his off course. The action caused Naruto to stumble off balance, giving the crystal user a chance to lash out with a fist that connected solidly with the blonde's jaw.
However rather than seeing her blade go through Naruto's face, the blond disappeared within a puff of smoke signifying it was a Kage Bunshin.
"Fuuton: Kamikaze Seiken!" the attack came from directly behind her and smashed into Guren, making the crystal user shatter into crystal.
"Shoton: Kasui!" Naruto swore as he jumped into the air, just in time to dodge the large spike that jutted up from the ground. He landed on the ground some feet away, panting from the amount of effort he had exerted to keep up with the purple haired woman.
Before either of them could attack again, the ground began to rumble. Both Naruto and Guren looked over to the left where a large amount of what looked like bones, but were far too large to be in Naruto's opinion, were jutting up from the ground.
"If Kimimaro's gone that far then whoever is over there must be good," Guren commented to herself, though Naruto heard every word. "However it also means whoever he is fighting is also dead."
Naruto chuckled, "I'll believe that when I see it, Gaara isn't just some half pound weakling who can be taken out just like that."
"We'll see," Guren replied as she began more hand seals. "In any event you've been enough of a thorn in Orochimaru-sama's side and it's time I got rid of you! Shoton: Omiwatari no Jutsu!"
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