Mid-Childa Naruto
aka: Mischief Fragment - Mjolnir

a possibility raised by Greylle
Archived by Solitare and reposted by TheBeardedOne.

The plan was to drop this. Time restrictions and there are a few magic-Naruto stories already out there. i haven't run into one quite like this though, and plot details just keep fitting themselves into place. Which is why it's been separated out from the Omake and put here.

Various characters from various series. Mainly Nanoha and Naruto.

branching off the Mischief Fragment plotline -


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Chapter 1: Enter The Orange Storm

"I know who we can get to monitor him, and she's completely worthless otherwise so it's a perfect use for her," said one of the clan heads deciding Naruto's fate.

"I don't get it," said Naruto, inside a bunker that had walls of three feet of reinforced concrete. "Why'd they lock me in here? With you?"

"locked up alone with naruto..." whispered Hinata to herself.

"I don't get it," repeated Naruto, going off to one corner of the cell to think about this.

Hinata tried to figure out how to put this. "Well, you see, it's... my father decided..."

"Eh?" asked Naruto, focusing on Hinata.

Which embarrassed her MUCH further so that she started curling up and went quiet.

"What is it, Hinata?" asked Naruto. "Why would they lock us in here?"

"I... that is..." Hinata just went ahead and fainted from the force of her blush.

"Eh?" said Naruto, leaping over to grab the girl before she could hurt herself hitting the hard floor. In fact, it was a good thing Hinata was already unconscious or she'd have slipped into a coma from being held like she was.

hey, she's pretty cute, came some whisper from Naruto's subconscious.

"Huh? Who said that?" asked Naruto, not fooled for a moment.

Uhm. The Demon Fox. Yeah, that's right. I'm the Demon Fox that's sealed within you.

"I got a Demon Fox sealed within me?" asked Naruto. "Funny. You don't sound like a Demon Fox."

So I got Multiple Personality Disorder, so sue me, griped the little voice.

"The Ninetails is schizopanic?" asked Naruto.

Close enough, said the little voice. Ahem. The girl is obviously sick.

"She's sick?" asked Naruto, going into a panic. "Ohmygosh! WhatamIgonnado?"

Learn a special supersecret new jutsu! whispered the voice.

"Oh? A new jutsu!" asked Naruto, going from panicked to excited. "What do I need to do?"

First. Put the girl down.

THUMP!

On. The. Bed.

"Oh, sorry," said Naruto, realizing his mistake and correcting it. "So what's this new jutsu?"

I'll have to flash teach you, said the voice with a hint of regret. Sadly, there's no time for the usual insanely-painful-yet-strangely-effective training methods usually used for it. As to the name, it's called magic.

"Ma-gu-ikku?" asked Naruto, sounding it out. "What's that? Oh, 'magic' - like pulling a rabbit out of a hat?"

No. Sleight of hand is already a common ninja skill.

"Onmyoji?" asked Naruto.

No. There are ninjas who do that too. Not in Konoha perhaps, but they are most definitely out there.

"Well, how about -" began Naruto.

That's already a ninjutsu specialization too. So is Blue Magic, which is sort of like the Sharingan actually...

"So what is it?" asked Naruto.

Well, without getting too technical, it's based on the Mid-Childa system. You'll be able to cast spells without your tool, but it's WITH your Device that you'll be able to pull out the higher level power.

Naruto scratched his head. "I didn't get a lot of that. So these spells are like jutsu?"

Yes, that's basically it. Now I need to know what kind of role you want.

"What do you mean 'role'?" asked Naruto predictably.

Well, you want to be a Hokage, right? So what KIND of Hokage? Do you want to be someone who throws huge amounts of damage at your opponents? Do you want to be able to help your friends and associates to do better? Do you want to be a healer who can help your team and agents recover from wounds and ease their pain? Do you want to be an information-gatherer who can sit back and figure out the answers, so that those you send on missions have a better chance of surviving? Do you want to be a stealth specialist who can find problems and quietly remove them?

"Can't I be all of that?" asked Naruto, a little overwhelmed and aware that if he made a choice he might not be able to change it later.

No, not really. Not within a human lifetime. You can have a number of 'jutsu' that do a lot of things, but you'll only be able to keep practice up and get really good at a much more limited field. Being a generalist means that you'll never get to the higher end of one of the specialties.

"Oh," said Naruto.

Hang on. All specialties of magic require some work on your mana levels, and in this world that means your chakra coils and reservoir. Also need to boost your intelligence a bit, particularly in the whole memory-retention area. Besides, it'll be funnier that way when everyone's expecting you to act like an idiot and you perform a Crowning Act Of Brilliance or something.

Naruto staggered as something changed. After blinking back tears caused by some very unpleasant sensations though he felt fine. "Okay."

Now, what role you choose will indicate what Device you get. What'll it be?

Naruto decided to just go ahead with it, he might not understand everything as well as he should but it was a chance at things turning out better than they currently were. Full steam ahead and all that sort of thing. He spoke his choice.

Naruto staggered, flickered in and out, and when he reappeared he had changed.

Toltiir nodded and decided to take a break, focusing elsewhere for awhile. Naruto was now, as far as biology and memories were concerned, one year older.

As far as a few dozen individuals from Mid-Childa and a few other dimensional planes were concerned, they would remember him as well.

Naruto Uzumaki was now an agent of the Time/Space Agency, a sort of "posse member" or deputy-agent. Whenever an appropriate menace was detected, he might well end up getting tapped for duty. Of course, because he HAD (as far as their records or memories were concerned) told them about the whole ninja thing - it would end up with the Agency contacting the Hokage about a mission. Going through the appropriate channels was something they well understood after all.

So Naruto was a year older, three point nine inches (or 10cm) taller, physically a bit more toned up. Inside, he'd already (as far as he or certain others were concerned) faced: zombies, lost logia, monsters, assassins, switchblade-wielding killer squirrels, mutant snakemen (yuan-ti), hunny-loving pooh bears, dragons, depressed donkeys, teenage alien ninja mutants with mohawks, frost giants, fire giants, man-eating carp, and (perhaps the most frightening and deadly of all) the Princess Of Najirea.

Not that he made enemies out of all of them.

The god of mischief, in the meantime, had just put together a Menace Of The Week that was going to test out the young hero, provide a mission, and incidentally provide much silliness. This would be even more fun than the Master Pervert and his lingerie-stealing weasel-ninja minions! Well, mostly.

"Hinata-chan?" asked Naruto, trying to gently shake the girl awake.

Toltiir paused before deciding to tweak things just a little more on his way off to manage some things over at one of the other related planes. Just a little tweak.

.

.

two days later:

Sakura sighed and looked around the room. Sasuke wasn't paying any attention to her. Not unusual. Naruto wasn't paying attention to her, which... wasn't that unusual either though there had been a time that was NOT the case.

"What are you reading there, Naruto?" asked Sakura, revealing exactly how bored she was.

"A book," said Naruto, frowning thoughtfully.

Sakura rolled her eyes at the idiocy of the response. "What kind of book?"

"A friend of mine, Yuuno Scrya, loaned it to me," answered Naruto, still not looking up. "It deals with some useful utility spells."

"Che," muttered Sasuke in a dismissive manner.

"You're reading some fantasy story?" asked Sakura. "Can't you study something useful?"

"Hmf," said Naruto, frowning more and tracing out something on the page.

Kakashi opened the door and looked over the assigned group. This group looks like another failure. Brooding emo boy, check. Fangirl type, check. Hyperactive knucklehead... no. Bookworm apparently.

"So you're the three genin I'm stuck with," said Kakashi aloud. "I have to say - I'm not impressed. Meet me on the roof."

Kakashi got to the roof and discovered Naruto was already there? Did he use a bunshin or something? Maa, whatever.

Sakura and Sasuke reached the roof a moment later, Sakura glaring at Naruto as she did.

"What was the big idea jumping out the window?" Sakura demanded.

Naruto turned another page in his book, not looking up. "I got here, didn't I?"

"Well, suppose we start with introductions, shall we?" asked Kakashi.

"You're kind of suspicious, why don't you go first?" asked Sakura.

"I'm Kakashi Hatake, and I don't really feel like telling you about dreams, I like a lot of things, and there are a number of things I dislike. You're next, angsty-boy."

"Sasuke Uchiha," said Sasuke, brooding. "I dislike useless fangirls, betrayers, my Uncle Genma, takoyaki, and generally have little patience with abject idiocy. I have nothing in particular I like, that I might be willing to mention in current company. My goal is to kill a certain someone in an extremely violent or humiliating manner, preferably both."

"Okayyyy," said Kakashi, who wasn't expecting that much wordiness but understood the sentiment. "Next would be you, bookworm."

"Naruto Uzumaki, genin ninja and journeymage, artillery-spell specialist," said Naruto, putting away the book carefully. "I like ramen, some dragons, big explosions, tweaking jutsu and spells, and my fiancee."

"'Spells'?" asked Kakashi.

"'Dragons'?" asked Sasuke.

"'Fiancee'?" asked Sakura.

"I dislike collateral damage, friendly fire incidents, not having backup when I REALLY find myself in over my head, and people dissing my fiancee," said Naruto. "She's got some blood pressure problems or something, I'm not sure what, but she's a nice girl and according to damn near everyone at the bureau who took a look at her - she really does like me. So unless you want a thunderbolt dropped on your head at some point - don't diss her."

"Gone off into fantasyland, dobe?" asked Sasuke.

"You diss me, that's fine, people do that all the time," continued Naruto with a nod towards Sasuke. "Just don't go after her. According to Captain Harlaown in the Bureau, Hinata's got self-confidence issues and I need to work on getting her over that."

"Fantasyland," repeated Sasuke with a smirk.

"Sakura Haruno," said Sakura by way of introduction when she decided the byplay had ended. "And I like..." (blush) "and my dreams are..." (blush, fidget) "and I dislike annoying uncool boys like Naruto!"

Kakashi sighed, wondering if these three were going to fail worse than the last batch. Oh well, might as well get on with it. "Tomorrow there will be a little test -"

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.

"Hey, what can you tell me about Kakashi Hatake? Know anything about him?" Naruto sipped at his broth. Ah, ramen. Perfect recovery fluid for mana/chakra depletion.

Teuchi looked over from where the noodles were boiling. "Kakashi? The famous copy-nin, Sharingan Kakashi?"

"That's probably him," agreed Naruto between bites of noodles. "I just got assigned to his squad. Some kind of survival training or test going on tomorrow morning."

One of the other customers snorted. "Aren't you supposed to not eat before Kakashi's test?"

"You got to eat regularly to keep your chakra and mana up," said Naruto, waving the point off with his chopsticks. "Besides, he said not to eat 'breakfast' - this is dinner. And before I head off tomorrow I'll just get an early morning snack or something and bring along some juice. If he's gonna work us until we drop or something, cause he was talking about making us throw up, then something like that'd be okay."

The customer in the jonin vest stared at Naruto as if a dog had just walked up and started singing enka.

"What?" asked Naruto, checking to see he didn't have any noodles on his face.

.

.

"So you were late until we've only got two hours to get those bells from you," noted Naruto.

"Right, and in order to get them, you'll have to come after me with killing intent," said Kakashi.

"Ah, that explains it," said Naruto, nodding. "I was wondering why you were going out of your way to be annoying."

"Like you know me?" asked Kakashi.

"Kakashi Hatake, aka Sharingan Kakashi, alias 'the infamous Copy-nin Kakashi', alias the son of the White Fang, Scarecrow of the Leaf, sometimes known as the Rival of Maito Gai. No girlfriend, though apparently one of the women in ANBU thinks you're 'hot' or something. Favorite word: teamwork. Favorite foods are salt-broiled saury and miso soup with eggplant. You least like fried foods or really sweet stuff. Accomplished over a thousand missions, almost fifty of them S-Rank. Major expert at ninjutsu, expert taijutsu, jonin-level genjutsu. Your speed at hand-seals is said to be nearly as fast as the Third. Graduated from the Ninja Academy at age five, made chunin a year later, jonin at thirteen. Joined ANBU after a tragic unrequited love triangle-"

"That's enough," interrupted Kakashi, who then paused. From someone with dead-last Academy records, that was some pretty good intel. And... which girl in ANBU? "You researched me?"

"You didn't give us a lot of details yesterday," said Naruto with a shrug. "Missions can succeed or fail based on how much information we get, so I figured that was part of the test. Was I wrong?"

"No, actually you passed that part of the test," said Kakashi, covering any surprise at this by development with the lie that he had expected it. "I was just surprised you did so well."

"WHAT?" screeched Sakura. "Nobody said we were supposed to do research!"

"Always look underneath the underneath," lectured Kakashi. "You should know that. You are a ninja now, right?"

Naruto nodded, having his expectations confirmed.

Sakura twitched a few times at the thought of NARUTO having picked up a clue she hadn't. This did not bode well.

"So information-gathering was the first part, bell collection is the second," mused Naruto aloud. "Hmmm. Okay, Sasuke and Sakura. I'll let you go first."

"Huh, why?" asked Sakura.

"Because I got a point for information-gathering," said Naruto as if it were obvious. "There are two bells, three of us. So if you two go together, you've got a better chance."

"That's reasonable," admitted Kakashi. "However it's also wrong. Only two of you will be going on to become genin. The third gets no lunch and goes back to the Academy."

"Well," mused Naruto after another pause, "if I fail - I can always fall back on being a mage. Maybe go and see more of the worlds. Since I have backup options, it still means that Sasuke and Sakura should go first."

"I see," said Sasuke with a nod. "Go play with your fantasy books and dolls then. We'll just take the bells."

"Right!" seconded Sakura. "I'm ready Sasuke!"

"Stay out of my way," said Sasuke as reply.

Kakashi shrugged. It didn't look like this was going to go by his script. "Begin."

Naruto waited and watched as Sasuke tried taijutsu, Sakura tried kunai, and Kakashi demonstrated that he was indeed a jonin and pretty darn good.

When both Sakura and Sasuke were winded, Naruto stood up and dusted the seat of his pants off. "My turn?"

Kakashi glanced at the sun, then back to him. "You think you can do it in less than an hour?"

"Well, your favorite word is 'teamwork' - or so I heard," mused Naruto, tossing something up into the air. "MJOLNIR!"

Lightning crackled around the object, which shifted and grew into a two-handed sledge hammer decorated with yellow hemispheres on the hammer's head where the handle merged with it.

[Set Up]

[Barrier Jacket. Aggressive Mode.]

Naruto's clothing blurred and reformed, now he was wearing a duster-style coat over burnt orange clothing.

"Did that hammer just talk?" asked Sakura with a couple of twitches.

"Summoning!" said Naruto, slamming the butt-end of the weapon onto the ground. Runes formed in midair, rotating in a set of two circles around his weapon.

A disc formed nearby and hung there for a moment, then it jerked and expanded to over ten times the original size.

"Hmmm, that's odd," said Naruto. "Flight mode."

[Flight Mode Active.]

Seeing orange wings form on the hammer and on Naruto's back was a little startling. Seeing him leap fifty feet into the air and just hover there was a little more startling.

Sakura fell to her unresponsive knees and screamed like a little girl when the pseudo-reptilian head came through the disc. Which really wasn't her fault as she WAS a little girl after all. As the head was big enough to swallow her and Sasuke whole in a single snap, having a purely instinctive reaction wasn't all that unexpected.

The head was followed by a neck, and then the rest of the body followed.

"Sparunthakurus?" asked Naruto.

"Naruto?" asked the dragon in a voice that was sufficiently deep that Sakura would later swear her bones vibrated. "I'm sorry, but my son is too busy to play right now. Remedial Elvish lessons."

"Oh," said Naruto. "Well, can you give me a hand then?" He pointed at where Kakashi had just uncovered his Sharingan and was staring. "I'm being tested. I'm supposed to go after him as if my life depended on killing him, and take the two bells off of him."

"He wants you to rip his balls off?" asked the dragon, peering closer at the scarecrow-like figure. "Just when I think I'm beginning to understand humans, they pull something like this."

Kakashi predictably dropped both hands to cover a portion of his anatomy but didn't stop staring.

"Th-th-that's a dragon?" squeaked Sakura, who had gotten her mouth working again.

"It's not a genjutsu?" asked Kakashi, who had really really really been hoping that his Sharingan would have revealed an illusion.

"No, we're supposed to get those bells off his belt for some sort of test," continued Naruto. "Unfortunately, between him arriving late and my team members wanting to demonstrate their mad ninja skillz, we're almost out of time."

"Ah, I see," said the dragon, sitting back on her hindlegs and snapping her wings out in a dramatic gesture.

Sasuke was feeling something he'd never expected to feel before. Envy. He wanted one of those so badly he could taste it. The idea of him atop that dragon, as it snarled and held Itachi down with its claws. Followed by a little crunching noise, of course.

Sakura twitched repeatedly and tried not to pee her pants. The dragon was over fifty feet long with scales that looked like ancient bronze. She hid behind Sasuke and tried to get her shaking under control.

Glaring down at the target, Sparunthakurus (which was just a short but formal name and not her full name of course) let her aura produce the dragonfear and directed it towards the tiny figure of the human target. A minor illusion let her eyes glow a baleful yellow and her teeth glimmer menacingly.

KA-THUD!

Nobody spared a glance for the fainted Sakura.

dingle dingle

Everyone DID glance at where Naruto was now holding up a pair of bells.

"That... what?" asked Kakashi, who glanced back and forth between the DRAGON and the two genin.

"Thanks! Say hello to Sparky for me, would you?" asked a cheerful Naruto.

Sasuke stared, managing to keep most of the shaking out of his legs, or saying something stupid and uncool like "D-d-dragon?" as he instead considered how cool it would be to be riding said dragon and simply have Itachi EATEN. Maybe he could scrape together enough money from an estate sale to make it a mission?

Naruto walked past Sasuke, idly tossing him a bell, and then considered the ungraceful heap that was Sakura.

"I will. Play nice, little humans." said the big dragon as she vanished in a puff of smoke.

"So, do we pass?" asked Naruto.

Kakashi seemed to consider the question for a few moments, staring at Naruto. Then he very calmly and deliberately covered his Sharingan.

The Sharingan had revealed that the fifty plus foot long freaking DRAGON had not been a genjutsu. It had been entirely real as far as he could tell. Further, from Naruto's comments, the dragon was the ally of one of his genin and apparently a mother. With Naruto being a friend of her son. He got that. Really, he did. Might have some problems wrapping his mind around several important parts of the concept, but he got it.

Naruto had leapt up into the air and had just stood there without any apparent support. This was atypical of genin in general.

With a genin who had a) gathered intel beforehand, b) demonstrated pretty damn useful skills, and c) was willing to put his team ahead of himself - normally he would be inclined to pass said genin.

Naruto had tossed something into the air and suddenly held a weapon. Not that unusual, but that he had such a thing indicated some basic proficiency in its use.

There were other considerations though. Giving a slight wave and waggle of fingers at the sudden profusion of ANBU in the dozens, Kakashi considered how best to put this in the most diplomatic fashion.

"No."

"Excuse me?" asked Naruto and Sasuke together.

"I'm pretty sure I never said it was okay to summon a dragon," explained Kakashi. "Sometimes, despite being ninja, we DO have to follow the rules."

"You didn't forbid me summoning a dragon," pointed out Naruto. Who felt that in terms of general coolness, he ought to get extra credit for doing so.

"Plus, you got the two bells, but one of your team is down," pointed out Kakashi.

"I was wondering about that," said Naruto. "You'd think she'd never seen a dragon before."

"Uhm, dobe?" Sasuke held one hand up. "Most likely she never DID see a dragon before. Mythical fantasy creatures?"

"Oh yeah," said Naruto with a shrug. "Not my fault she spends all her time studying and doesn't get out much."

"Now, you've only got a half-hour to complete the test," said Kakashi.

"But I've got one bell, and Sasuke has the other," pointed out Naruto.

"Yes, by summoning a dragon," said Kakashi, shaking his head. "I ought to pass the dragon and send all three of you back."

"So if we defeat you, we pass?" asked Naruto.

"Well..." began Kakashi.

"RING BIND!" cast Naruto, causing magical rings to close on Kakashi's wrists and ankles.

Kakashi blinked.

Sasuke leapt forward, ready to demonstrate what a ninja with several years taijutsu training could do to an immobilized opponent.

B-domf

"Wow, I didn't even notice him exchange himself with a shadow clone," noted Naruto. "Hey, ANBU-san? Can you all back up some? In order to find and flatten my sensei, I'm gonna have to cut loose some."

The various ANBU considered that, then the bulk just vanished into the shadows. The remaining one regarded Naruto, then addressed the air. "Kakashi Hatake. There better be a full report on this. Filed within two hours."

The last ANBU vanished.

Naruto nodded, slammed the butt of his weapon on the ground, causing similar runes to appear in midair around him and his weapon. "Wide Area Search!"

Six yellow globes shot away from him.

Three seconds later, Naruto opened his eyes. "Found you!"