Chapter 48

"I was thinking that you might have run away. That would have been unfortunate." Son sat on top a tree branch as he ate a mango. He would have dragged Naruto out to battle if he had run away.

"I had no reason to run away. I am not afraid of some bruises." Naruto walked towards the group feeling relaxed since he had taken care of everything and he just had to catch the criminal scum.

"Well, that's good because you will be getting many of those." Son smiled as he jumped down and landed in front of him.

"How are we doing this? You got the stat advantage."

"Nothing difficult…. Master, bestow upon us your blessing." Son turned to Sanzo who was sitting on a cloth laid out on the grass while Sagomon was standing on the side and Cho was eating like always.

"I have asked Miss Kara for permission and you can fight in the park." Sanzo told him and Naruto could feel someone watching them from above.

Once she said that, Naruto saw her mutter something and golden symbols hit Son. Just like that, his power was pushed down to Naruto's level.

It was an impressive scene for Naruto. He had never seen something like it. Seeing it, he was once again reminded of his desire to learn more about sealing and go beyond his family's legacy.

Sanzo was one of the best experts in the field.

Most of her skill set was just different type of fuinjutsu.

"Miss Sanzo, I have a selfish request. Could I have some guidance in the field of seals?" Naruto asked as it finished in a moment.

Such skills would make life so much easier.

She had skills to stop people from committing evil.

She had skills to seal away the evil desires.

She had skills to block power and so much more.

"It is a complex field, Naruto. Are you sure that you want to divide your attention so much?" Sanzo had a smile on her face like always, though it was covered by her dress and only her eyes were visible.

"I can handle it."

"Hmm, I shall grant you some basic texts. You can look for me when you are done mastering those basic skills." Sanzo didn't mind since she accepted Naruto as a force of good that would help the world regardless of the difficulties involved. He had a strong role to play so this was just indirectly helping the world.

"Master, can we start now?" Son asked as he was getting impatient from the wait.

"Please take some distance first and act civil." Sanzo had them take distance and activated the barriers of the city while Kara watched the battle from a nearby building with interest.

Naruto had been slated as one of the most important figures for the future and she agreed with that assessment. She had watched his battles but none of them were serious.

He treated everything like a target, not a real foe.

It was really interesting for her since it felt like he might get to her rank, even without his digimon. The Ancients even without the digimon were Mega rank because they weren't really human anymore.

They had become digimon through the constant usage of the Hyper Spirit evolution.

Taking that into account, Kara was far from human and was strong as a Weak Mega digimon at her current age. She was sixty years old.

This was good news for humanity but that didn't last long since the Ancients couldn't have children anymore.

There was too much of a power imbalance between them that it would kill the mother and they didn't have time for raising children anymore.

Kara and her kind could also only have children with digimon since there was no human that could match them.

It hadn't worked out well and there had been complications.

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Naruto stood 100 meters from Son. Both of them had no armor or weapons since that would give Son the advantage.

Feeling the air, even Naruto was excited about the battle. It would be his first true battle.

He had fought digimon and human fighters, but there had always been the stat difference and experience.

Son would be his first opponent that had lived longer than him and had the same stats. It was unfortunate that he couldn't use his Clone style with his low reserves, he could only make few clones instead of thousands, but it was still good enough for now.

He could use the opportunity to increase his skill level and get a feel of the older digimon's skill level.

"You can use a weapon, if you want." Son stretched his body and gave him the option.

"I prefer my hands."

"I like that as well, though I prefer hitting with my stick. It gives a satisfying feeling."

"Well, sorry that I don't have a legendary weapon."

"I accept your apology." Son chuckled and went with his sarcastic response.

With those words there was silence for a moment before an explosion took place as both fighters clashed in the center.

Naruto felt the power of his opponent's body and it was nothing less than impressive. He had not met anyone that could take his physical strength since practicing effectively.

"Speed" Naruto muttered as he kicked with his left

Son saw it coming as he blocked the move with his right before punching Naruto.

Naruto reacted by moving his head and bashing it into Son's face but the foe pushed against the ground to get his knee up.

Naruto moved his arm to pull Son causing him to stop the knee attack to tackle the hold.

Both fighters were going from one move to another before they broke up with each getting hit to the face.

Naruto landed safely breaking the force by using his hold on the wind while Son kicked the air causing his body to stop and land on the ground.

"Impressive, very impressive. This is first fight after time a human has stopped so many of my attacks and kept up with me."

"Aw, you are making me blush. Now let's get serious since that was enough warming up. Use your energy since I am going to use my powers to fight." Naruto cracked his knuckles and took a stance

Son felt the change in the aura as his foe seemed to grow bigger in his senses.

'He isn't strong as a Mega but he gives the feeling of one.' Son concluded from just this initial clash as even though nothing had exploded, this fight without control would have caused the park to disappear from the initial collision of their arms.

"You are right, a battle with the opponent holding back is not a true battle. Please be careful as my attacks by pass any defense and will affect your insides. We have introduced ourselves properly so it is time for me to act." Son replied excitedly as he took a stance and pushed off from the ground with left foot and punched straight at his chest followed by elbow strike.

Naruto ducked under the second swing and snapped into the tiger mindset. The other four animal styles of the Shaolin Kempo Karate system, the snake, the leopard, the crane and the dragon, often utilized a block or parry before moving in for a strike. The tiger was the only one whose nature did not significantly involve defense. This animal was at the top of the food chain, the strongest and deadliest in the Kingdom. It went in one direction, always forward, toward the prey. All offense.

No holding back.

Naruto formed his hands as if they were gripping imaginary tennis balls and launched at Gankoo. He dug his fingers into the bicep of the swinging arm and ripped at the muscle, while striking the forearm on the same side, straight in with the heel of the palm, the "paw" as it were. It was a thousand year old battle protocol from the great Kung Fu masters: first, attack the arm that attacks you.

Next, press the advantage decisively. Naruto ripped into Gankoo's face with the middle and forefingers of his right hand, raking along his nose and mouth. With the other hand, he struck the neck and dug his fingers in, grabbing the windpipe. The technique called for him to pull it out, lacerating his throat and killing him. But there were other options. He pushed rather than pulled, momentarily closing the windpipe against itself, cutting off his air.

That is if he was normal person.

Naruto found himself hit in the chest with twin palms and found his bones fractured even after getting coated by his chakra and his heart almost exploded causing him to throw up blood once he stopped his flight.

Looking at Son with a smiling expression, Naruto saw a similar one on his foe as there was some damage to his face and throat.

Son hadn't been the only one using defense bypassing moves since his last attack had destroyed the wind pipe but the man didn't need to breathe and healed instantly.

"Do you want to stop?" Son asked as he appeared in front of him with quick movement and his foot was appearing in Naruto's gaze

"I can still go on, what about you?" Naruto replied as he pushed the ground with his hands and spun on his hands to kick Son like a windmill from low to high.

Finding his leg to be like a pillar, Naruto pushed against it and dodged the attack by the foe before entangling him.

With his legs around Gankoo's waist and his hands around the head, Naruto continued his offence.

Kempo Hands

A double palm heel blow to both ears and Naruto jumped into the air as he spun with Son's head causing damage but let go as the man was about to catch his head.

Landing on the ground Naruto shot an elbow upward into his abdomen, taking his center; rolling into a palm heel strike to the groin; and back into a rising elbow to the underside of his chin; arcing down into another palm heel onto the bridge of his nose. There were no wind ups, no wasted motion; each movement was designed to roll naturally into the next.

His body jerked from one direction to the other, in rhythm to the opposite lines of each attack. The primary strategy of Kempo Karate was to strike an aggressor in opposing directions, so he could not muster his composure sufficiently to counter-attack. It also forced the aggressor's body to lurch into the next stroke head on. The strokes would roll into one another and create a tumbling effect. To an outside observer, it would appear to be one simultaneous tornado of movement, of blinding speed, a blur too fast for the eye to follow.

How did the close fight turn into such one-sided beat down? The answer was simple; Naruto was controlling the earth beneath them to make Son's movement difficult.

Son finally got the hang of this new foe and smashed his head into Naruto's while Naruto was pushed towards him by a golden ball of energy released from his foot.

Hearing the crunching of bones, Son pushed against the ground with his leg and uppercut Naruto with a right and sent him flying into the air.

Naruto was disoriented from the hit as his brain was affected by the attack so before he could react a kick to his face had his neck almost spin around like a beyblade.

He was sent crashing in to the barrier and felt his bones fracture from the impact.

His reaction was slowed down because of the damage to his head but he slapped the ground causing diamond walls to cover him up while blade like wind covered those walls.

Son chuckled as he was damn excited now. This was one of the best foes he had gotten in a fight with.

With a push against the ground, his body was covered by golden lightning and crashed through the defense like the Juggernaut.

Naruto only had a moment to react as his body was covered in golden chakra. He entered the chakra mode and blocked Son with his chakra arms.

The force carried him back and Son blocked his other chakra hand with his tail before releasing a beam from his eyes.

Naruto felt his skin boil from the beam to his face and that was after it had been blocked by his chakra cloak.

Naruto retaliated in turn with a chakra beam from his eyes and released the chakra bomb that he had collected in his mouth.

Before Son could attack him, he released it point blank.

Both fighters were covered in the explosion and both came out with injuries.

Son landed with his body letting out smoke and raised his finger.

Strike, Tribulation Lightning

With those words, Naruto found himself struck with golden lightning. He was stuck, paralyzed by it. It was completely different from normal element.

It was eating away his energy and putting pressure on him. It even resisted his control.

Naruto was covered in the golden chakra barrier and Son appeared to his side like a wraith. He could attack using his mystical moves but the monkey just went with physical attacks.

He went with a straight punch to his back, to break his spine.

The barrier didn't hold at all against the new attack and the punch landed on target. But Naruto exploded and Son was hit by a powerful explosion.

That was not all as it was followed by Rasenshuriken hitting him directly and dragging till he hit the barrier, attacking him with trillions of tiny wind blades.

Naruto had shifted to the other side and had a clone take his place. All these moves had drained him but it was good, he could feel his body trying to open up and get back to shape.

It was feeling the need for more power and adjusting.

If he had the chakra levels from the start, he would have been at full power within a month. But his previous chakra level happened because he had Kurama from birth and he didn't have a seal blocking his powers.

"Not bad, not bad." Son clapped as he blocked the attack with his lightning barrier and Immortal Body art.

"Now, take this on for size."

Super Lightning Monkey barrage

Lightning surged in his palms and destroyed the rest of Naruto's attack before unleashing lightning in to the air.

It was too fast and Naruto felt extreme danger from it, death.

Gates open

Naruto cancelled the chakra cloak and opened the gates up to the third gate. Even this was asking for too much. Unlike Lee and Gai, his chakra even now was too much. He had more chakra than Kakashi at this point, that guy could barely open two.

Naruto's strong physical body and powerful control was the only reason he could open these gates. In the previous life he had not even given them a thought because of his enormous chakra.

He would have exploded if he opened two gates.

Nonetheless, it was still too dangerous and it made it almost impossible to use any jutsu since the chakra kept on surging without any control.

He only had few seconds with such power.

Naruto flew like a lightning bolt and rammed in to Son before the attack even came down. There was a huge explosion and the whole area that was the battlefield exploded and was filled with flames as the air caught fire.

Son saw him coming. It was not because he still had stats but a skill. The eyes of the Immortal Sage, made his perception very high.

He blocked Naruto's charge with his arm. His Immortal body art giving him the boost that resisted Naruto's high stats.

In this moment, both were on the verge of Ultimate.

Son's tail coiled around Naruto's neck while he gave a palm strike to his heart.

Monkey Palm

Naruto was unable to react as his body was almost out of energy and the speed charge.

His body went flying back and he focused his last chakra on protecting the heart.

It almost burst from the impact.

Naruto threw up blood and couldn't continue anymore. His foe had many techniques that gave him the advantage.

The enemy was also very good at reacting to all his moves.

His lack of powerful support skills bit him in the ass.

Regardless, it was a very close fight. If Son hadn't reacted at the last moment, Naruto would have finished him.

It was just unfortunate that Son's eyes got him to see and he had a speed boost skill on hand to go with his body enhancement.

"That was one of the best battles ever! I can't wait to see you grow up." Son was filled with respect for Naruto. He had been hurt a lot, outside and inside.

Only his skills had saved him, but most digimon would have died from such a powerful assault.

The guy acted so humble, but he was a beast in battle.

All his moves were sadistic and intended to cause massive pain.

You wouldn't think that was his fighting style from his kind personality.

He had been tricked and quite possibly, bamboozled.

"He is right, you know. That was awesome. I didn't think you would last this long. I bet 10 seconds but you lasted over 5 minutes. That was even better than my record." Cho helped him up and gave him some bread to eat.

It was something prepared by Sanzo and had healing properties.

Sagomon also gave him a respectful nod. He was a rival of Son but Naruto would have done a lot better against him since he was weaker.

That was enough to get his respect.

"You did well, Naruto. Son is one of best fighters in the world, so this was a great achievement. I expect that you will much better after a year." Sanzo gave him compliments while passing him the notes she prepared while the battle took place.

"First time hearing such compliments, nonetheless I am thankful. I don't mind the loss and I learned from it.

Next time, it will be one sided."

"Hahaha, I look forward to that. Let's see if that's a dream or reality." Son laughed heartily as he patted Naruto's back.

Bloody shit

Naruto wanted to curse as Son shifted his shoulder blades, he hadn't even healed yet. He bit his lips, causing them to bleed.

"Son" Sanzo looked at him and he stepped back.

"Sorry, sorry, my mistake."

"Greetings Uzumaki Naruto, I am impressed. I would love to have a spar with you."

Before they could continue, Kara came down from the sky wearing her usual combat dress.

It didn't look like armor but was made from the strongest materials that cancelled 80% of the attack and blocked any low level attacks.

Such luxury was for powerful digimon and top ranked Tamers.

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A.N. Hope you enjoyed