Haruto stood there looking at the pink haired dragon slayer before him. The rest of the Guild were watching from the sidelines and bets were being placed. The winning ration was 100:1 in Haruto's favor. Everyone of the members placed their money on Haruto as they waited in anticipation for the fight to begin. Lucy looked around in confusion as she looked at the field where Haruto and Natsu stood facing each other. She knew that Natsu was strong, but she had not seen anyone take out an entire port before so she was a little worried for Haruto. But then what she heard about Haruto being one of the strongest in the entire Guild still surprised her as she never expected someone around her age being so powerful and one of the strongest in the strongest Guild in all of Fiore no less.
"Natsu, I will allow you to take the first step in this dance." Haruto said as he crossed his arms and gave the pink haired teen a bored look.
"I'm fired up!" Natsu exclaimed as his fists ignited and he took off towards the blond, "Fire Dragon's: Iron Fist!" Natsu announced as the flames around his fists grew larger and he rushed towards the redhead and brought his fist towards the redhead. Haruto, seeing the incoming fist raised his hands and caught it, easily holding the dragon slayer in place. Natsu proceeded to bring his other fist to attack the redhead but Haruto had predicted the movement and yanked Natsu forward and kicked him in the stomach before sending a sweeping kick at the dragon slayer's feet knocking the young man to the ground.
Haruto looked at the pink haired dragon slayer with a bored look before hopping backwards and allowing him to recover. It would be disappointing if the dance ended now of all times, he had not been able to see Natsu's growth in power as of yet and it would be a waste of a fight. Natsu recovered quickly and got up on his two feet before moving magic to his lungs and gathered his magic from there.
"Fire Dragon's: Roar!" Natsu released a torrent of flames from his mouth as it rushed towards Haruto who looked at the size of the flames in a bit of surprise as he had not expected the dragon slayer to grow this strong since the last spar he had with him. Haruto merely sighed as he formed a fire technique of his own. "Fire Release: Majestic Destroyer Flame." Haruto released his own wave of fire from his mouth as it met the incoming fire attack midway and the two clashed, both fighting for dominance.
Soon enough both flames died down and neither won the fight for dominance much to Natsu's disappointment and Haruto's surprise. Utilizing the surprised look on Haruto's face, Natsu rushed the redhead once more with his fists ignited and he hoped to get the redhead by surprise. "Fire Dragon's: Sword Horn!" Natsu covered his entire body in fire as he rushed forward and tried to headbutt the redhead. Haruto raised an eyebrow at the attack and grabbed his Gunbai out. This is new, I wonder how my Gunbai works against it. Haruto thought curiously as he brought the Gunbai before him and pushed chakra into it.
Natsu crashed against the Gunbai as Haruto watched in wonder. No progress was made as Natsu continued to push against the fan with little luck pushing forward. "Uchiha Reflection," Haruto added more wind chakra to his Gunbai and soon the attack that Natsu had attempted backfired and a blast of fire occurred pushing the pink haired dragon slayer back. Natsu tumbled back slightly, but he regained his footing but not quickly enough to block or counter Haruto's incoming Gunbai. The fan flew into the air and slammed against Natsu's stomach knocking him back further before being pulled back.
"You have improved, Natsu." Haruto commented as he smiled slightly, "But you are still no match for me."
"You just watch Haruto, I'm gonna beat you to the ground right here!" Natsu exclaimed as his fists both ignited.
"Fire Dragon's: Brilliant Flame!" Natsu formed a fireball between his two ignited fists and threw it at the fan wielding redhead. Haruto watched the fireball come towards him and placed his weapon behind him once more as he formed a Tiger sign and spat out a horse sized fireball of his own. "Fire Release: Grand Fireball," was the name of the technique, it was one of the techniques that were necessary for Uchiha's to learn as a right.
The two fireballs met and clashed, but neither seemed to win the confrontation much to Natsu's frustration. Being hot headed, Natsu rushed forward and brought his fiery fist against Haruto's face. Seeing the incoming attack, Haruto easily moved his head to the side and allowed the fist to fly by. Before slamming a chakra enhanced palm against Natsu's stomach and knocking the air out of him and hopped into the air and delivered a kick to Natsu's face. Crashing to the ground, Natsu groaned and got up and prepared one of his strongest attacks against the redhead. He knew that he could not beat him with normal Dragon Slaying Arts, so he had to bump it up a level.
"Dragon Slayer's Secret Art: Crimson Lotus: Exploding Flame Blade!" Natsu swept his arms in a circular fashion and a torrent of flames shot towards Haruto who looked at the fire in wonder. He had not heard of this 'Secret Art' before and it intrigued him, so he decided it would be best to see where the attack went. The torrent of flames reached Haruto in a matter of seconds before consuming him and a barrage of fiery explosions occurred at the spot where Haruto once stood. Once the flames died down, Natsu and the spectators spotted a wall of wooden branches.
The branches receded and soon Haruto could be visible to everyone once more, he had no a single scratch on him from the attack that Natsu had just dealt. His wooden wall had been able to stop that fiery attack as it was nothing and that was shocking. Who would expect wood to stop fire? It was highly impossible due to the wood's likeliness to burn, but Haruto had managed to pull it off and the wooden wall he had created stopped Natsu's explosive flames much to the shock of both the spectators and Natsu alike. But the feat had driven Natsu further as he panted slightly and moved towards the redhead to attack him head on once more. After delivering the attack, his magical reserves were low.
"Natsu, looks like it's my win again?" Haruto asked as he stared at the boy in the eyes.
"What do you mean, I can still fight!" Natsu said as he moved towards the redhead with his fists on fire once more.
"You never learn do you?" Haruto asked as he dodged a few punches before intercepting one of the punches from the pink haired dragon slayer and threw in a few punches of his own. Natsu stumbled back a bit but he still held strong, but Haruto decided to end this fight now.
"Wood Release: Wooden Fist Technique." Haruto said as a large fist made of wood shot from the ground in front of Natsu and knocked the pink haired teen into the sky before Natsu fell onto the ground in a 'thud'. The idea of his technique was simply to piss off his grandfather. During his training he was trained by Zetsu in learning how to master Wood Release and so he decided to create a technique for revenge. He was young and revenge seemed like a good idea at the time and so he did it. The idea of it was simply to sucker punch his grandfather, and so that was what he had done to Madara who was not amused at the results. Because of that, Madara punished him by simply and utterly destroying him in their daily spars and went on to train the boy to the ground. Not a single moment to rest, though he was an Uzumaki and his stamina was astounding and even inhumane, he could not keep up with his grandfather though the man was beyond old and he still ran circles around him with the help of the chakra from the Demonic Statue.
It was astounding what the chakra stored in the Demonic Statue could do to someone. The chakra allowed his grandfather to live for so long, but with a large portion of it, it allowed him to strengthen his life force and thus continue living and sparring. But the chakra could only go so far, and when it was time for the plan to move forward, Madara had died of old age already and passed on his will to his grandson. With Madara's will, Haruto along with the Akatsuki brought forth destruction all over the Elemental Nations and captured their intended targets, the Jinchuuriki of the Nine Bijuu. Though they did not capture the Kyuubi and the Jinchuuriki Naruto Uzumaki, Haruto deemed them ready to begin the next phase of the plan. And like that, Eleven shinobi single handedly began the Fourth Great Shinobi War. During that short time before the beginning of the next Great Shinobi War, Haruto had met Naruto in battle once more and the Uchiha steeled his heart and fought his brother. He never wanted his brother to suffer from this, but it had to be done. For peace, for the betterment of the world he would have to give up his life. That was his resolve. At one point during these events, Haruto was lost. He was human after all, he could feel pain. The death of his perverted Godfather. Jiraiya the Toad Sage of Konoha died before his hands. That was the point where he began questioning himself, killing off family had saddened him greatly, though he did not wish to show it every one of the Akatsuki knew. Haruto hated showing weakness, it was one of the things that he had developed during his time with his brother in Konoha. He had failed one promise, he would not fail another and yet he found himself breaking all the promises he had made with the ones that he was close with.
Natsu got up but he was beaten up all over, and he never expected a wooden fist to attack him so the redhead's previous attack caught him off guard. Channeling his magic to his fists once more, they ignited and Natsu prepared to charge the redhead. Haruto stopped his train of thoughts and stared at the charging mage and shifted his gaze directly to Natsu's eyes. Once the two made contact, Natsu was placed in an illusion instantly and soon he collapsed onto the ground once more. Haruto quickly created a clone and it picked up the downed form of Natsu and disappeared into the Guild. Haruto ignored the cheer of the spectators and simply disappeared in a plume of smoke. It was that time of the year once more.