Hi people, Shadow is here again with this new crossover story that I've been working on. This is going to be Naruto x Steven Universe crossover.

I am not a die-hard fan of Steven Universe, I think it's very smart show; it throws in some very deep ideas hidden in a shell of childish innocence. Kids will like it, adults will like the ideas it throws out there.

Anyway, after getting up to date with the show, I can say that I've become a fan of it, What do I like about it? Well the characters are awesome: I do prefer the gem characters because they are more interesting, the story is also a slow build-up where you feel like you are introduced to this Universe at a slow pace. Personally, I prefer the episodes that have more to do with the gems than the humans, so this story is going to focus more on that(sorry fans of all human characters), that's not to say that it's not going to have some of the human characters, just that it's not going to go that way.

Finally, this show has a lot of potential for crossover ideas. Sure the gems are genderless, but that means that can be either too. Rose Quartz got over it.

Finally, if you have questions ideas, opinions, critique post them in a review and if I can answer some of them, then I will. For pairings, I really haven't thought that far ahead yet, Naruto has to work a lot on trust issues.

Like always, I don't own the original works of Naruto or Steven Universe, this is just some fan fiction by fans for other fans, with the intent of broadening the imagination of the stories to other readers.

Chapter 1: The Visitor

Our story starts on a sunny day on a bus in the interstate where the bus traveling in the state of Delmarva to Beach City, Easter United States. Inside the bus, the driver looks at its occupants, not many just a dozen tourists that frequent the city for its beaches every now and then and a face he never saw before: it was young man maybe early 20s, average height and slightly shaggy spiked hair under a straw hat to cover his face from the sun. He had a pair of plastic glasses on his face with dark lends that reflected the color blue. On his body he had a Hawaiian shirt (classic) with a lot of orange on it and palm trees and a sundown, a pair of white shorts, finally some sandals on his feet.

Either the young man had some very classic tastes in summer wear or it looked like he got his ideas from some old movies.

As they approached the station, everyone started to get off the bus with the young man last.

"Hey dude, sorry to bother you, but do you know any place where I can get some good food?" asked the blond as he stopped to get his huge backpack from the luggage storage.

The driver looked at him and scratched his head: "Well it depends what you're looking for stranger. Beach city has a lot of seafood restaurants like the Crab Shacks or you could just stop by the Fish Stew Pizza or the Big Donut." He pointed at some places.

"Thanks mister, I'll see you around." He said as he decided to go get a few donuts.

As the young man entered the donut shop, he saw a lot of kinds of donuts everywhere including some sweets too. And at the counter he quirked his interest at the odd due manning the shop: a stubby blond girl that manned the cash register and a tall skinny boy with a curly brown Mohawk and hollowed earlobes was opening new boxes and restocking the store.

The girl noticed him because as soon as he entered she welcomed him."Good morning and welcome to the Big Donut."

"Thank you. Do you have any bacon and maple donuts?" he asked.

"Yes, how many would you like?" she asked taking in his appearance.

"I'll have 3 of those and 3 mozzarella and hotdog rolls, and finally a couple of vanilla and strawberry filled donuts. All of them to go." He finished.

"Right away." She fished all the donuts and put them in a bag.

"Thanks, keep the change." He said handing her a twenty dollar bill.

"Excuse me for asking, but what brings you around these parts? You're not one of the usual visitors."She asked a bit curious.

"Yeah, I'm on vacation." He said as he took a bite out of the bacon donut. "This is a great donut."

"Thank you. We just got them this morning. Well, there's not really a lot to see in Beach City, it's a pretty small town of about 2000 people." She said.

"Yeah, you can't even call that a city." Said the young man manning the boxes. "You'll be finished seeing everything by tomorrow."

The girl cleared her throat and gave a dirty look to the young man. "Don't listen to Lars, the beaches and mountainside sights are pretty cool." She said trying to not act like Lars just insulted their customer.

"Thanks, I'll be sure to check them out." He returned with a smile while taking a bite out of another donut.

Suddenly the door opened to a small chubby boy with a brown curly hair and bushy eyebrows. He had a pink t-shirt on with a big star on it and a pair of genes and sandals on his feet.

"Hi Lars! Hi Sadie!" he said as he entered the shop. "How are you guys?"

"Hi Steven, We're restocking the store. What are you up to?" asked the girl now identified as Sadie.

"We ran out of Cookie Cats, so I'm making another run." He said. The boy then saw the man that he wasn't familiar with. "Hi sir, my name is Steven, Steven Universe."

The man wiped his hand on a paper napkin and held out his hand. "Hi Steven, my name's Naruto Uzumaki, but you can just call me Naruto."

"Wow, that is a big back-pack!" said the boy with stars in his eyes. "Do you have some kind of super armor suit in there?" he asked smiling innocently.

The blond quirked an eyebrow at the curious, fun-loving boy and smiled. "Nope, just some stuff for my vacation. I'll be staying in Beach City for a couple of weeks."

"Cool, there are lots of things to see like the Donut Shop and the Stew Pizza Shop and Fun Land, and… and the Beaches!"

The blond smiled at the nice boy and petted his head with a smile. "You're a good kid; let me get you something for your help."

Steven's eyes lighted at the nice man's words and if eyes could turn into stars, his would have. "Whaaat?! Anything?" he asked to make sure.

"Anything." Smiled the blond.

Sadie smiled at the exchange between them, it looks like Steven made a new friend and it didn't take long at all. Meanwhile Lars was rolling his eyes at the exchange.

"So what will it be, Steven?" asked Sadie, already expecting the answer.

"2 Cookie Cats, please." Said Steven with a big smile on his face.

"Make it 3." Said the blond giving the boy a smile.

Sadie checked her counter. "I have nothing left here; you should check the freezer, Steven."

As Steven turned to the freezer designed to look like a cat he noticed it was empty.

"NOOOOOOO!" Steven let out a call of loss of panic making the blond turn to the boy in alert.

"What!? What's wrong, Steven?"

"This can't be happening! This has to be a dream!" the boy ran past Naruto and grabbed hold of Lars in a panic. "Lars! Lars, tell me I'm dreaming!"

"Get off me man, I'm stocking here." Returned Lars pulling himself away from Steven who proceeded to collapse on the floor in depression.

"I'm sorry Steven, I guess they stopped making them." Said Sadie saddened by the boy's loss.

"'Stopped making them?' Why in the world, would they stop making them? They're only the most scrumptious and delicious snack ever made. Don't they have laws for this?!" said the boy in despair and shock.

The blond watched the exchange and Steven's outburst and decided to try to calm him down. "I'm sorry Steven, this kind of thing happens all the times. But hey! Think of it this way: they went out when you liked them the most, at least they didn't try to change it into something you might hate, right?"

The boy seemed to get it as he tried to hold back his tears. "I guess, you're right." He turned to the empty fridge and let a tear fall down his eye. "It's better to have known and lost, then to have never known at all."

"Weeeell, how about you try something new? A new spot is open now, right?" he looked in the fridge and saw something kids might like. "Like these ones?" asked the blond pointing at the lion themed snacks.

"Oh no, not Lion Lickers. Nobody likes them. They don't even look like lions!" said Steven looking at the snack in dejection. "Kids today…"

"That's my line, kid." Said the blond with a chuckle.

"Well, if you miss your wimpy ice cream so much, why not make some with your magic bellybutton!?" asked Lars snarky at the boy's exaggeration.

"That's not how it works, Lars!" said Steven defensive.

While Naruto wanted to respite Lars for being a jackass at Steven's preferences, he couldn't help but hear the words. "Magic bellybutton?" asked the blond with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh yeah, he means my gem." He raised his shirt to show that where his bellybutton should be, there was a pink gem cut evenly on all sides with a pentagon at the center.

The blond squatted to see it clearly and make sure his eyes weren't lying to him. "That's just crazy." He eyes saw his own reflection in the gem and felt the need to reach out and touch it, but he held back the urge. It was a personal part of his body. "I have to say, that's something I never seen before. You're a strange one Steven Universe…" finished the blond getting back up.

Steven felt dejected by the comment feeling like he was looked down upon because he was special.

"But that's not a bad thing." He said patting the boy's head who looked back up at the man's face who took off his glasses to show that he had clear blue eyes."Don't ever let it get you down." he finished with a smile.

The man turned back to Sadie and Lars. "Can we take the freezer?" asked the blond. "A little memento."

Sadie was a bit taken back but gave Lars a look who just shook his shoulders. "Well, since Steven is our best customer, sure, I guess." The freezer was very small anyway, it was only meant as a promotional device.

The boy and the blond soon found themselves walking through the Beach City.

"Feeling better?" asked the man.

"Yeah, I guess. So where are you from, mister?" asked Steven curious.

"I told you Steven, call me Naruto. And I come from all over the place; I guess I'm a traveler in some way. I never stay in one place for long."

"Why? Is traveling that fun?" asked the boy.

"No... Well it is, it's just that: I'm looking for something. Something that I lost..." He said looking forward. He didn't know why he was telling the boy so much already. Maybe it was just his strange innocence.

"Something lost? Like your car keys or your phone?" asked the boy.

"No Steven, that's what's weird about it, I don't know, I just feel misplaced, like I'm supposed to do something, but I don't know what..." Naruto finished looking around the city.

"Of my gosh, you mean like something you forgot like when Pearl tells me to clean my room and I say 'Ok Pearl in 5 minutes' and then I play some more for 10 minutes and I can't remember what she wanted me to do?!" asked the boy trying to make sense of what the man meant.

"Uhhhm… I guess… maybe… what?" Naruto answered a little dumbfounded.

"So, did you have any luck? Anything I can do to help?" asked Steven trying to offer his limited assistance.

"No, it's okay kid. This is something everyone has to do on their own. So don't worry about it, ok?" returned Naruto feeling that he was already dumping too much on this little boy. "So tell me more about this Beach City. If I'm going to stay here I want to know some things." Wanting to brighten up the mood, Naruto decided to let the kid talk.

Steven went into maybe a 15 minute explanation about what is there to see in the city. Naruto caught every 3rd or 4th word in his story but some names did seem to stand out more than others, namely: Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl. Those were unusual names that he can't remember ever hearing.

He wanted to ask more about it but found that they were already at the beach.

"Well, here we are." Said Steven facing a house built at a base of a huge statue of a humanoid monster that looked like a woman with apparently a few hands carved into the mountainside facing the ocean. It was truly something to be marveled at if it didn't look so beat-up in some places. On top of it was a lighthouse that looked abandoned.

"You live here?" he asked a mixture of confusion and amazement.

"Yeah me and the Crystal Gems." Said Steven sounding like it was the most obvious thing he ever heard.

"'Crystal Gems'? is that like a name of rock band or something?" asked the blond looking at the boy.

"No, they're not. I mean, they do know how to play musical instruments but they aren't a rock band. They are my friends and guardians, they teach me a lot of things and help me train to become a Crystal Gem too some day." Answered Steven as he started to walk to the house. "Come on, you have to meet them?"

Naruto saw the boy move and followed him but at a less hasty pace deciding to take in everything the boy said. "Wait, guardians? Where are your parents?" he asked.

"Well, my dad runs the carwash in town and my mom, well she's not around… I never got to meet her." said Steven looking down in sadness.

It was the first time Naruto saw this happy boy show any trace of sadness and he felt responsible for bringing it up. "Hey Steven, I'm sorryfor…" No sooner had he said that the sounds of struggle starting to be heard from the inside like a fight. "What's that?!" he said dropping his backpack on the stairs followed by his hat.

"It must be the gems!" said Steven trying to run for the entrance.

Too bad that Naruto held him in place with his hand and took the lead. "Stay behind me, Steven! This could be dangerous!" he said in a serious voice and went for the door and opened it calmly.

"What the fu-!?" As he pushed the screen door open he was immediately bushwhacked by some kind of giant green centipede monster that had the mouth in the shape of a beetle's mandibles with a strange eye inside.

As the beetle lunged at him trying to get at his tasty face, Naruto caught its mouth for advancing further and used his leg to push the bug away into the room and away from himself and Steven. "What the heck is going on?"

As he finished that sentence he saw things that might just give him nightmares namely an infestation of giant bugs in the room and three female looking warriors that were fighting them with whips, spears and giant gauntlets.

"Wow, coooo!" Steven said passing him to have a closer look.

"Steven!" he called out but one of the beetles fell from above and it tried to constrict him.

"Sup' Steven." Said a purple short one with light purple hair a whip with some gems fighting them.

Meanwhile a white and baby blue themed colored girl was using a spear and almost in a ballet dance she was swatting 4 bugs away, while a dark skinned red themed lady that towered over the others were fighting them with her gauntlets like a boxer.

"Awesome. What are these things?" asked Steven as the others were trying to clean up the beetles and pull them away from the doors or break them into puffs of smoke.

"Sorry Steven, we'll get these centybeetles out of your room." Said the thin tall one as she pulled a bug off the ground and held it in place as it struggled to get free. "We think they were trying to get into the temple."

"Aww, you don't have to get rid of them." Said Steven as he got over his initial shock pretty fast. "They're really cool."

"Nope! Nope! No, they're not!" said Naruto as he pulled the one on his head off only for another to start crawling up his legs. "Ok, that is getting too close!" he finished as he lifted his left knee and connected it to his left elbow catching the bug's head between them, the bug screamed only a little before it puffed into a cloud of smoke.

He then turned to the one he held in his right hand and decided to throw it in the ground and stomp on its head causing it to puff away too.

"Oh hello." Said pale lady noticing the human at the entrance only now. "Steven, is he one of your friends?"

"Yeah, it's a bit of a long story, we met at the Donut Shop..." said Steven feeling that Pearl's change of tone could only mean one thing.

"It's good to make new friends, Steven. But you should always tell us if you decide to invite them over." Said Pearl trying to scold him for his mistakes in an educative way.

"Sorry Pearl, I didn't think this could happen right now." Said Steven looking a bit sorry.

"Uhm, you guys, these things don't have gems!" said the purple short one while she poofed one in a wall.

"That means, there must be a mother nearby. (Boom)" Said the tallest one before she punched a bug away like it was a bother. She then turned to the Naruto and gave him a hard look. "Could you please leave? This isn't a very good time for visits."

"I can see that. Bye Steven." Said the Hawaiian shirt wearing man as he waved at the boy who saw the man leave pretty fast.

"Wait, Mr. Naruto!" Steven ran out the door while the gems stayed behind to finish cleaning up. Naruto was already picking up his backpack and hat. "I'm really sorry about what happened. I really wanted you to meet my family and make a good impression and then maybe we could have eaten more donuts and shown you around some more places because-..."

Naruto put his hand on the boy's head with a smile. "Is there an "off" switch around here?" he joked with a laugh. "It's okay Steven, don't worry about it. I have to admit that I wasn't expecting that when you said your life was different. You have some pretty badass friends in there. Next time, maybe we'll meet on better terms" he finished picking up his stuff and moving out. "See you around, little man."

"Bye, come back again, no wait, I mean don't come back until I tell you to… I mean… See you later!" stuttered the boy watching his new friend leave.

Steven entered the house and saw that the girls were finishing up the last one with Pearl twisting one's head to the side.

"Wow, talk about bad impressions. Who was your new friend, Steven?" asked Amethyst swiping her whip at the last one.

"A cool friend, I met him at the donut shop. His name is Naruto and he's on vacation in Beach City." Said Steven putting down the freezer he had on his back.

"That would explain those clothes he was wearing."Said Pearl before turning to Steven. "Steven, I know you want to make friends, human friends, but it's better if you don't bring them home anymore. What we do usually is dangerous to them and getting too involved is going to get them hurt if we aren't careful." Said Pearl trying to make the most rational conclusion.

"But-"

"Steven." This time it was Garnet. "You can visit your new friend, but for both his sake and all of ours, we should not get him involved more than we need to. Trust me, when humans get involved in gem problems, it doesn't end well for them." She finished as wise as she could.

"Oookay." Said Steven looking down.

"Tough luck Steven, but at least it doesn't mean you can't see him again." Said Amethyst trying to liven him up.

"You're right! I'm sure he'll come around sooner or later." Said Steven as before he started to check his fridge and saw that it had been stacked with his favorite cookie cats.

The gems revealed that they had gone to get him the last ice cream treats they could find for Steven. Garnet claimed the idea was hers, Amethyst felt like everyone had the same idea while Pearl being the ever fair and neat one paid for the snacks and maybe avoid being branded as thieves.

Steven, in his joy, sung the complete commercial of the Cookie Cat: a story about an interstellar cat fleeing a galactic war that left his family behind and who now sought refuge at the grocery store. It sounded a bit lame and generic, like the story of some cheap sci-fi story. But the boy seemed to love it like it was something incredibly awesome to him while the gems cheered because he was happy.

Steven was indeed really happy and thankful for their consideration. As he started to eat the first one, a small glow started to shine from his gem.

All were in shock, this was one of the few times it happened apparently: Pearl was trying to keep him relaxed but Steven was shacking like a leaf, trying to think how to keep the shine from not leaving. He desperately wanted to summon the weapon from his gem like the other Crystal Gems had. Maybe today would be the day, but the gem already fizzled out.

Steven sighed in failure. "Can one of you just explain how to summon a weapon?"

"Oh, I'll go first!" said Pearl, happy to be the first.

Scene Change

Pearl decided to take Steven to one of the most beautiful places she knew to get Steven in the right mood namely under a huge cherry blossom tree that was shedding its pedals.

"Pay attention to these pedals, Steven." She pointed at a petal. "The petal's dance seems improvised, but it is calculated in real time based on the physical properties of this planet. With hard work and dedication, you can master the magical properties of your gem and perform your own dance!"she finished pulling out her own weapon to show the boy. "Like so."

Steven looked lost for words looking at the petals around him and watching them fall.

The next person to volunteer was Amethyst. She had a whole plan in mind, then she threw it all out and decided to take him to the Donut Shop and have him buy one for her, as payment/favor.

While she was munching on the donut, she saw him play with some petals that kept falling on the ground.

"Did Pearl tell you the petal thing?" asked Amethyst.

"Yeah, I need to practice really hard so I can dance like a tree. I think." He said a bit unsure.

'Listen Steven, all that practice thing is no fun." She said munching on a donut. "Whenever I need to summon my weapon, it just happens!" she said pulling her gemmed whip out and cutting a dumpster in two with it. "See? I didn't even try at all."

The boy rubbed his head in more confusion.

Garnet was the last one to share her experience. Steven respected her advice the most, mostly because she always seemed to know what to say right, like she knew the future and plan for the outcome. She was also the most intimidating of the gems, tall with a quite literal hourglass figure. They're location was at the top of the mountain over the giant statue with several arms and behind an abandoned lighthouse.

"So I'm supposed to work really hard and not try at all?" asked Steven hoping for clarification to this confusing advice.

"Yes." She said simply like it was that easy… "Oor, you can link your mind to all existing matter, channeling the collective power of the Universe through your gem which results in… " she lifted her arms high and in a flash of light, two gauntlets incased her hands. "At least, that's my way of doing it…"

Needless to say, Steven's mind had left the building.

He only came to several dozen minutes later after Garnet had already left wishing him luck in finding his way.

What did his mind register? Naruto was there waving his hand in front of his face asking:

"Hey Steven! Can you hear me? Did you hit your head, buddy?" asked the blond snapping his fingers in front of his face.

"Wwhaa-?" mumbeled Steven getting out of his self-induced trance. "Naruto? What happened? How long was I out? Where's Garnet!?" he asked in quick succession.

"Easy, Steven. Take it easy. I don't know any of those questions. I just came up here and there you were on the ground looking at the sky. You gave me a scare…" he said as he pulled out apple and offered one to him. "Here, want one?"

"Oh! I remember I asked Gems to give me some advice in summoning my weapon and I was here with Garnet." He said as his eyes widened.

"Summoning a weapon? Garnet?" he asked confused.

"Yeah, yeah. Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl, you met them at my house. Together, we are the Crystal Gems and we protect Mankind and do cool heroic things." Steven said excited. "But all the others can make weapons with their gems and defeat monsters and stuff, but me… I can't. I'm supposed to work real hard like a petal but not think at all and connect myself to the Universe and booom!" he finished rising up and doing a dramatic pose like in comic books..

"Okay, little man, slow down and tell me everything a bit more slowly." Said the blond getting maybe half of that.

Steven then sat down and ate his apple while explaining things a bit more slowly. Not everything though, only that the Crystal Gems are like superheroes and they use magical weapons that can be summoned from their gems and that even though he has a gem, he can't summon a weapon at all. Then he went to tell him about how all the gems tried to explain their ways of summoning their weapons and what goes through their minds.

Naruto seemed to be taking it well. "Wow. Those ladies are crazy…" he said with a sigh.

"No, they're not!" said Steven defending them. "It's just me, (Sigh)I don't know how to do anything…" he said sadly.

Naruto looked at the boy and sighed as well. He hated to see good people down like this. "Look, Steven. I know you want to be cool like them, but… but maybe you just have to find your own method." Said the blond making the boy look at him. "You can't copy how other people do things, it's not only difficult, but you'll never succeed in copying everything they think or feel at that moment. Look at me, when I was a kid, I didn't know how to do anything everyone else did either, so I tried to copy what they were doing, but I could never do it right like they did. They laughed and called me a failure, but despite everything they said, I never gave up." He said leaving the boy to take in the information.

"Wow, you must have had a pretty harsh life." Said the boy with tears in his eyes.

Naruto cringed seeing the boy get too emotional all of a sudden. He was expecting wonder from the boy, but for some reason Steven only heard that part of his past.

"My point, Steven…" he said looking at the boy seriously. "… is that each person is different and each person blooms into their true self when the time is right and by their own means, not by force or copying others. So keep trying, never give up and when you stumble on your way, you will know." Naruto finished leaving the boy to figure out his own thing.

Naruto on the other hand opened the lighthouse and began to check it out.

Later that day

"I think my best bet is to recreate what happened the last time my gem glowed."

Steven after hearing what everyone's advice decided that he needed to recreate the exact conditions of when his gem started to glow, so he had everyone in his house do exactly what they were doing in the morning, to a bit of an obsessive degree. So after putting everyone in the exact positions they were in, he went for the frozen cookie. And after taking a bite, and singing the name… nothing happened.

"Aww, it was funnier last time." He sighed and checked his gem… nope nothing happening. "(Sigh) maybe I'm not a real Crystal Gem." He sighed in failure.

Pearl got down on her knees to look in him in the eye. "Don't be silly, Steven. Of course you are." She said putting her hand on his shoulder.

"And, you're fun to have around, even if your gem is useless." Added Amethyst making Pearl angry. "I mean, you're one of us, Steven. We're not the Crystal Gems without you." She said trying to placate them.

"That's right. Gems have to learn how to control their powers too, Steven. I'm sure that you will find your own way to control your powers. But never doubt that you are a Crystal Gem." Said Garnet with a smile.

Steven smiled. "Yeah, yeah, even if I don't have powers, I still have all of you guys… and cookie cats!" he finished with stars in his eyes. He took a big bite out a cookie and then his gem started to grow fast from just a wisp to a full on flash followed by a shield manifesting in front of him like a projection from the gem.

It was pink with a light blue outer layer and with a vortex pattern on it leading to light pink triangle in the center. It was also completely round and huge, almost the size of Steven himself.

Steven opened his eyes and just noticed the shield in front of him. "Oooh! What?! I get a shield?!" he looked in wonder and got ready to jump for joy. "Oh yeah!"

His joy however caused his gem to give one last blast of energy blowing the shield away from him and it zigzagged through the house in a torrent of destruction before finally jamming into the television, destroying it.

The reactions: Pearl was palming her face, Amethyst busted out in a laugh and Garnet, well she didn't look phased. Steven on the other hand looked a bit embarrassed and sad that he just broke his own TV.

Steven slowly looked at his ice cream. "Did you see? I get my powers from eating ice cream!"

"What's in these things?" wondered Pearl.

Suddenly the house started to shake from a slow tremble to full out tremor. And everyone saw shadows on the window from small ones to a huge big one. "What was that?"

A few minutes ago with Naruto

As Naruto was looking around the lighthouse, he saw that someone might have already been living there or spending his time, but he did not find any beds or people so, for all intended purposes it was empty. "This would make a great spot to call my own: it's abandoned, sheltered from the elements and a great view of the city and the sea."

As he got ready to leave he heard some noise bellow in the seller. "Is someone here?" he asked out loud. He got a flashlight out and took off his glasses. Soon he was in the dark seller.

"Oh, it's you guys." He said with a sigh seeing it was more bugs like the ones from earlier in Steven's house. He counted 5 maybe. They all noticed the new source of light and they started to growl and approach him.

"Sadly for you guys, there's no reason to play it safe here." He said as he pulled out a kunai from his pocket and 3 shuriken from the other.

"Take this!" he threw the shuriken at three of the bugs and one managed to close his mouth and get scraped while the another two had their eyes impaled by the shuriken. They screamed for a second before they proofed out leaving the shuriken on the ground.

One of the bugs attacked head on and was met by a heavy punch that blew it away in a poof.

Another tried to get the blond from behind but the blond spun out of his way and impaled the kunai in the back of the bug's head making it poof too.

"So, just one on one eh? I have to say, I feel bad taking you guys out, you remind me of my shadow clones." He said as he got ready to attack but he had to dodged out of the way of a acid splash from the bug. As he did, he felt the change for a second before something fell from the ceiling, it was another bug and this one wrapped around his torso and opened his mouth to take a bit out of his head.

"You sneaky little shit!." An orb started to form in his hand spinning like a storm in every direction. "Bite on this! Rasengan!" he hit the ball in the bug's mouth into the eye. The effect was instantaneous, the bug blew into pieces and those pieces poofed away.

Turning to the last bug, the man pulled out another kunai. "Your turn."

The bug seemed to register anger as it looked almost fearful, looking around for any escape. It then seemed to breathe in a huge breath of air and released it into a cloud of acid towards the blond.

"Guahhh!" the man fell on the ground as he felt the acid burning his skin. He trashed back and forth before he poofed in a cloud of smoke leaving the bug confused.

In its wisdom the bug decided to retreat and report back and left to the way upstairs. Everything seemed okay until it reached the top and opened the door.

There it was met with a powerful hand pulling it out and pinning it to the wall.

As it tried to get out of the grip or at least see who was holding it in place, its eye widened when it saw it was the same one that it had killed moments ago, except that this one had three others who looked exactly the same behind him.

"Looks like there was something down there."

"It's those bugs from Steven. They must have found this place nice and cozy for an attack from above"

"We should make sure that there aren't anymore, and seal up any holes they could have used."

"Agreed." Said the clone holding the bug and with the other hand held the mouth closed as much as he could before twisting both hands and breaking it into a puff of smoke.

"I wish we could have contained that thing."

"Sure, but acid spitting giant bugs aren't easy to hold."

"The gems said there could be a mother, so these things are just foot soldiers." Finished Naruto before a trembling started to happen.

"That doesn't sound good." Noticed the blond as he got out of the lighthouse.

As the clones got outside they saw that a giant centibettle with long white mane of hair on its head and huge green gems on its back. Finally on its eye it had its gem which looked like some kind of ball.

"Oh shit…" sighed the blond.

As he was about to form a giant Rasenshuriken to blow it in half, he saw Garnet jump from below and attack the giant bug with a punch.

The bug got angry because it started to focus only on Garnet and followed her back down to the beach.

"Perfect." He sighed. He dispelled his clones and went to the edge to see what was happening.

The three ladies from earlier, Pearl, Amethyst and Garnet, were facing the beast. But it suddenly released a huge stream of acid at them forcing them to retreat behind a hand.

The monster saw them and it started spitting out a limitless stream of acid at their shelter.

"They won't last long. I have to take out the eye." He said going for his backpack and pulling out a few more shuriken and kunai.

"Hey! Leave them alone!"

Naruto's eyes widened "Steven!". Naruto ran over the edge of the cliff and used his kunai to slow his descend down the mountain, seeing Steven face the monster with… the cookie freezer from early?! "What the fuck?" he wondered.

Finally he saw Steven start to eat cookie after cookie instead of running away like anyone with survival instincts in mind.

The monster seemed to be multitasking as it face was now facing Steven, trying to eat him and its tail, which was also a claw, was trying to cut the ladies in pieces.

"Steven, run!" called Naruto as he reached the ground and made a dash towards the boy. Steven was fast enough to listen as he started running.

The monster released a stream of acid melting the ground where Steven had been standing, including his freezer and aiming faster at the boy.

"Gyaaahh!" it suddenly let out a huge wail of pain as four stars got impaled in its eye but not its gem. But it gave the boy enough time to get to Naruto who took the boy over his shoulder and ran for cover behind a rock.

Naruto put the boy down and looked at him: "What the heck were you thinking, Steven?!" asked Naruto a bit more angry than he would have wanted.

"Naruto?! What are you doing here?!" asked the boy in surprise.

"I asked first, kid! What were you doing facing that monster alone like that?" asked the blond taking a look at the monster and seeing that it lost interest in them and it now turned its attention to the gems.

Steven grabbed his tummy in pain. "Ugh, I thought that I finally had it. I thought I could summon my weapon with cookie cats."

"'Cookie cats'? Are you for real? Ugh, well it looks like the only thing you got out of those is a visit to a doctor." Sighed the blond.

"Ugh,,, doctor!? But we have to save the others!" said Steven, getting back to his feet.

"We will Steven. We just have to distract it long enough for your friends to get out of there." He said as he pulled out his kunai. "So I'm going to sneak up behind it, you watch out for me if it sees me. Give me a sign to get out of there." Said the blond leaving already in an impressive display of cunning.

Steven watched as the blond snuck up on the beast climbed on one of its gems on its back and impaled the kunai between the gems. "Take this!"

"Gyaaahhh!" the beast was surprised by the sudden sharp pain on its back.

"Watch out for its tail!" called Steven as the monster turned its tail to swat whatever hurt it.

Naruto however didn't let go but climbed up more and impaled the kunai between another two gems.

The beast tried to adjust its claw but it was too far up so it decided to roll on the ground to the annoying runt off its back.

Naruto let go at the last second and dodged the beast trampling him.

"Gems, weapons!" called Garnet as the gems summoned their weapons in a dramatic blast of flashes and light.

Naruto saw the display and awed before they all attacked the beast from different angles with Amethyst going for the tail, Garnet going for the head and Pearl finishing off with a spear in its eye.

What followed was a large poof of green smoke and a flash of light followed by the round gem falling down and getting grabbed by Garnet who made a bubble appear around it and made it disappear somewhere

Everyone relaxed as the monster was settled with Naruto slumping on the ground, the gems assessing the damaged and Steven… digging a hole for the ice cream wrappers?

"Farewell sweet cookie cats. I'll always remember the time we spent together." He said with tears in his eyes, putting a leaf on the makeshift grave.

"Are you crying?" asked Amethyst.

"Only a little!" said Steven holding back his tears.

"Well I guess your powers don't come from ice cream." said Amethyst, pointing the obvious.

"Of course they don't come from ice cream. Don't worry Steven, I'm sure you'll figure out some day how to activate your gem." Said Pearl comforting him.

"Yes, in your own Stevenie way." Finished Garnet.

Steven's stomach then started to growl louder and louder.

"I think I ate too much Cookie Cats." Said the boy before he started to throw up.

"Ughh… that is so gross!" said Pearl moving away and looking away. She never liked things like this related to human biology.

"Eww, Nasty." Said Amethyst squinting her eyes and tried to look away.

Garnet didn't show any reaction but you can tell she was frowning.

"That is nasty." Said the blond as he got up. "Well, it looks like going to the doctor is out of the question. You did good Steven, but no more sweets for you. I guess I'll be going then." Said the blond as he got up to leave.

"Wait." Said Garnet calling him. "Thank you, for saving Steven. You did good." Said Garnet with a small smile making the blond raise his eyebrow.

"Kuh, yeah, dude! That was awesome how you climbed that monster and held on like a bull rider!" said Amethyst in her usual hyper way.

"Yes, I admit for a human, that was very brave and extremely dangerous." Said Pearl making the blond squint his eyes at her. She sure knew how to throw in a curve ball in those compliments.

"Thanks, Steven is my friend, so…" he was interrupted as Steven started throwing up again.

"…Really… I'm okay." Said Steven trying to show a brave face.

"Yeeeeaah, well my name is Naruto. Nice to meet you all." Said Naruto waving at each of them.

"I'm Garnet."said the tallest, serious one.

"I'm Amethyst, nice to meet ya." Said Amethyst sounding a little flirtier than she did before.

"And my name's Pearl. Now, let's get Steven inside and get him something." Said Pearl as she forced herself to pick up Steven when he paused from his throwing up and took him inside.

"Yeah, that would be for the best." Said Naruto. "Get him some stomach medicine and throw him in bed with lots of water and a bucket by the side, just in case." Suggested the blond as Amethyst ran to get a bucket and water while Pearl searched for the medicine.

"I guess I should be going too." Said Naruto turning to Garnet. "And thanks, for you know, saving my life." He added.

"Don't worry about it. But somehow I believe you could have handled that monster… some way." Said Garnet leaving with a blank face leaving Naruto to look at her way in confusion

"Yes, today was an interesting day" thought Naruto.

To be continued…