Naruto Shippuden: Rise of the Uzumakis
  Part: 1
Chapter 38: Battle of the Giants!

The Leaf Ninja and the Uzumaki Clan continued their stare-down as they were waiting to see who would make the first move towards the Water Scroll that was sitting smack-dab in between the two groups.

Naruto knew that his opponent, for the time being, would have to be Sergei’s rock giant while his friends would have to take on the Uzumakis.

Draiko then decided that enough was enough. It was time to make a move.

“Ichigo, fire smoke arrows at them!” he yelled.

“Aye, sir!” Ichigo replied as he fired three of his arrows at the Leaf Ninja. Once the arrows made impact to the ground in front of the Leaf Ninja, a massive cloud of smoke covered them.

“Kenji, go!” Draiko ordered.

“You got it, boss!” replied Kenji as he then used his speed to circle around the Leaf Ninja, causing the smoke to completely surround them in a vortex that greatly obscured their vision.

“Sergei, you’re up!” said Draiko.

“Yes, sir!” Sergei called out from the top of his rock giant. He then ordered his rock giant to charge the Leaf Ninja, trying to dish out a devastating blow, but the smoke vortex was suddenly blown away by the roar of Naruto in his Fox-Mode.

The force of the roar even knocked the rock giant off balance before being tackled by Naruto.

It wasn’t long before everyone seemed to make a run for the Water Scroll. Both sides dishing out their own attacks, while at the same time trying not to get squished by the two fighting giants.

Both sides seemed to always have the edge until either Naruto or the rock giant would cause a massive disturbance, causing the ground to shake with every step or attack they unleashed. This either caused the Water Scroll to bounce out of reach, or cause the ninjas to lose their balance.

Meanwhile, Naruto’s fight with the rock giant got even fiercer as the two seemed matched. That is, until Naruto stopped using his brute force to fight the giant. He then started to use the Nine-Tails’ tails as spears as all nine of them pierced the rock giant multiple times, breaking it down piece by piece until it seemed to crumble to the ground.

Naruto grinned with satisfaction as he turned his attention to the others as he set out to assist his comrades.

When Draiko and his team saw this, they scattered around the area so as to not get hit all at once. It seemed more like a game of survival than a game of retrieval as the Uzumakis were too busy trying to dodge Nine-Tails-Mode-Naruto’s attacks rather than trying to get the scroll. This irritated the hell out of Draiko as he saw the Leaf Ninjas getting closer and closer to it.

As Draiko tried his best to think of a plan, Naruto finally caught sight of him and made a mad dash towards him.

“Draiko, look out!” yelled Ayane.

Draiko quickly turned to see the giant Nine-Tails-Mode-Naruto charging at him full speed. And when it looked like Naruto was about to reach him, a sudden blow to Naruto’s face quickly knocked him off balance and onto the ground with a huge THUD!

The Leaf Ninjas watched in shock as it turned out the rock giant had regenerated itself and sucker-punched Naruto.

Even Naruto was surprised at the return of the rock giant.

“What!? But how!?” Naruto exclaimed.

Sergei, who was still on top of his rock giant, began to laugh. “Foolish boy! Did you think defeating my rock giant would be that easy? As long as there’s any kind of earth element in the area, my rock giant can regenerate from any attack!”

“Is that so?” Well then, I guess I’ll just have to blow the whole thing to smithereens!” Naruto yelled as he lunged at the rock giant, only to be sucker-punched again from behind.

“Now what!?” yelled the confused Naruto, as he turned around to see another rock giant standing behind him. “What the-!”

“Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, if my rock giant loses any part of his body, not only does he regenerate that lost piece, but the piece itself will begin to regenerate an entirely new body!” boasted Sergei.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!” complained Naruto as he stood back up to face the now two rock giants, who were ready to continue their fight with him.

As Naruto fought the two rock giants, Draiko sought his chance to retrieve the Water Scroll. He ordered his team to distract the Leaf Ninjas as he made his way to the scroll.

Draiko then began to maneuver his way through the area towards the scroll before being shot at by one of Hinata’s, now more powerful, Vacuum Palm blasts. Although she missed her target, with her new chakra power up, the force of the blast was enough to throw Draiko to the ground as he was pummeled with shattered rock and debris.

Hinata then took this chance to get the scroll as Draiko did his best to dig himself out of the rubble he was in. Unfortunately for him, Hinata’s speed was also increased and she was successful in getting to the Water Scroll first.

“Yes, I got it!” she exclaimed in happiness. “Guys, I got the scroll!”

Unfortunately, not only did this get the attention of her teammates, but also the attention of the Uzumakis as they quickly began to make their way towards her.

However, Shino then sought this chance to use his swarm of bugs to encase them in order to keep them distracted. So far it seemed to be working. “Hinata, get the scroll out of here, now! We’ll hold them off!” he yelled.

Hinata decided to follow Shino’s command and took the scroll and started to head for the exit.

“Oh, no you don’t!” yelled Draiko as he emerged from the rubble he was under, activated his Rinnegan, threw out his left and yelled, “Universal Pull!”

Suddenly, Hinata felt the scroll start to lift and being pulled towards Draiko with intense force. But thanks to Kurama’s chakra, her strength was also increased and used it to pull against this.

Draiko saw this and put more of his chakra into his Universal Pull, causing the scroll to get closer and closer to him. And even though Hinata’s strength was increased, Draiko seemed to be winning. No matter how hard she pulled, it just didn’t seem to be enough.

Draiko started to smirk to see that he was winning this tug-of-war with Hinata. But suddenly, Sakura, Kiba, Sai, and Akamaru arrived at Hinata’s side and began to pull the scroll as well.

The added force against Draiko made him start to lose grip on the scroll. He was now starting to feel the strain of the Rinnegan’s power as he felt his body start to go numb, but he couldn’t let the Leaf Ninja have the scroll so easily. He began to use more of his chakra in his Universal Pull as he fell to one knee, trying his best to stay in the fight.

Ayane, who was being swarmed by Shino’s bugs, saw Draiko’s condition and immediately realized what he was doing.

“Draiko, no!” she called out. She wanted to go and help him, but Shino’s bugs prevented that, and it irritated her. She had to break free of these horrid insects and help her boyfriend. And although she waved her arms around and swatted at the thousands of insects flying around her. But it wasn’t until she caught the sight of Draiko’s hair-color. Little parts of it had started to fade and turn white. This was a sign that an Uzumaki was starting to lose some of their life force.

This struck Ayane square in her heart as she knew that the power of the Rinnegan was killing Draiko. She had to do something to stop him and save him from himself. She quickly channeled her chakra and released a massive burst of snow and ice from her own body, freezing the surrounding insects. This gave Ayane the chance she needed to assist Draiko.

Shino saw this and tried his best to stop her, but the strain to hold the other Uzumakis was too much for him, especially since he already used up most of his chakra in this whole fight.

Meanwhile, Draiko’s tug-of-war with the Leaf Ninjas was now taking its toll on him. The more white his hair got the weaker he felt. His vision became blurry as he started to feel loss of his muscle control. It wasn’t until he heard Ayane’s cry for him to stop. He slowly turned to see her sprinting right at him before tackling him to the ground.

This caused Draiko’s Universal Pull to stop and making the Leaf Ninja to fall backwards to the ground.

Seeing that they’ve won the fight and had the scroll in their possession, the Leaf Ninja gathered together and started to head for the exit, but not before informing Naruto of their victory.

“Naruto, we’ve got the scroll!” yelled Sakura.

Naruto quickly turned and smiled at them. “Great, now I don’t have to hold back anymore.” he said. Before aiding his friends, Naruto had now used his full potential to take on the two rock giants as he grabbed both of them and tossed them with ease right at the exit the Leaf Ninjas blocked earlier, but now it was time to unblock the exit as Naruto began to quickly charge his Tailed-Beast Bomb.

Once it was ready he aimed it right at the two rock giants. Sergei saw this and quickly leaped from his position on top of one of his rock giants and took cover.

Naruto then fired his Tailed-Beast Bomb and made a direct hit with both the giants and the blocked exit.

The rock giants exploded into rubble and the exit was finally clear for the Leaf Ninja’s escape.

The force of the blast blew Shino’s bugs away from the Uzumakis but it didn’t matter to him. He quickly called them back to him as he went to rejoin his friends.

As the Leaf Ninja headed for the exit, they were suddenly grabbed by Naruto’s tails and were placed upon his back. This caught them a bit by surprised until Naruto’s human form appeared before them.

“Hang on you guys, I’m gonna be running really fast. Especially you, Hinata. Make sure hold on to that scroll really tight.” said Naruto as he gave her his good-guy smile and wink.

Hinata blushed a bit but nodded in reply as she tightened her grip on the scroll.
Naruto then fused back into his Tailed-Beast Mode and bolted away inside the exit tunnel.