Here you go guys. Wrote this in one day, so I hope you're all happy. It was exhausting.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Asobi ni Iku yo!/Cat Planet Cuties.
"Go scouting..." the blonde grumbled to himself as he leapt from the roof of one building, easily clearing the street several stories below. "Why so I have to be the one to scout out the territory? The place is huge, there aren't any significant chakra signatures, and Gaara's whole...sand eye-ball...thing would have been much better for this..." This was ridiculous. Sure, he had his clones, but they were a lot easier to spot than Gaara's sand, and up in the air, there was no significant cover, like the trees back home. He just knew that sooner or later, somebody was bound to see. With all the people down below, walking the streets and in the strange, metal vehicles of various shapes and sizes. Naruto shivered. He'd seen some of those up close. They were all way to small, if you asked him. Naruto wasn't claustrophobic by any means. But dear Kami above, Naruto just wouldn't feel comfortable crammed into one of those tiny metal contraptions.
The city itself was massive. Tokyo, he believed it was called. Buildings reaching toward the clouds, built from glass and metal, expanded further than Konoha. And this city had vastly more people. It was almost terrifying, the sheer numbers. The only ease for Naruto was that nobody had enough chakra to do...anything. Nobody could possibly be a threat. He didn't need his Sage training to tell him that. The strongest people in this whole city were himself, Gaara, and Kakashi. How did they protect themselves? What could have possibly caused them to not have Shinobi? How could they live like this.
"Damn it...Sensei's probably off trying some food...Gaara's holding down the fort...Why do I have to go out and learn about these people, they're not a threat to us!" he growled out. "Our concern should be getting back home! We can't just accept the fact that..." He couldn't even spit the rest of the sentence out. It sounded dirty just thinking about it. How had it come to this? It was supposed to be a simple mission. Gaara, despite being Kazekage, had requested their support on a scouting mission into enemy territory. Hah, seemed whatever spirit that kept fucking up Naruto's life had a sense of irony. But they couldn't just give up. They needed to get organized and figure out how to reverse this. He could try to come up with some sort of space-time seal array. Sure, maybe he wasn't as skilled as his father, but he could try something, damn it!
His ear twitched as he heard something. Multiple somethings. Loud somethings. Like the detonations of exploding tags, but only somewhat smaller. Turning toward the sound, he began moving towards it, moving as fast as he could. Though he couldn't feel chakra, this could potentially be some action to distract him. Leaning out over the ledge, he looked down into the alley below, and quirked an eyebrow. "What the hell?"
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Bad to worse. The black hair of the girl whipped from side to side as she dove for cover. This was supposed to be a simple operation. Get in, eliminate all targets, and get out. Unfortunately, the high civilian population forced her to forgo her enhancement suit. While this made movement and stealth easier in the heavily populated zone, avoiding panic and potential casualties from crossfire, it made her far more vulnerable to enemy fire. But then, this was what she had trained years for. She could manage just fine without the armor. "Apport!" In a flash of light, a revolver appeared in her hand. Peaking up from her cover, she fired three quick shots.
One struck the shoulder of one of her many targets, but didn't take him down. Another sunk into the wall behind him, while the third would have caught him between the eyes had he not dropped back to cover, the shot grazing right over his head. The girl ducked back to cover as a shot whizzed passed her left shoulder. She grit her teeth. Too much time in that damn suit. It was making her careless. Again, she moved up and fired off a few more shots, this time bringing down one of her targets with two solid hits to the chest. Using the distraction, she moved up her cover, ducking behind a dumpster. Ejecting the spent rounds, she loaded the chambers with new bullets. As she turned to again return fire, she didn't realize one of her targets had made his way out to the street and back around, coming in from behind. Too late, she felt his presence, saw his shadow, heard his chuckle as he prepared to empty his clip into the back of her skull.
"So much for the legend of the famed 'Charmed Momiji," he uttered. Despite knowing she had been out-flanked, the black-haired girl was not about to go down without fighting. As she turned and saw her attacker, something else flew into her field of vision. It struck her assailant's hand, knocking the gun to the side, removing her from its aim as the man reflexively yanked the trigger and put a hole in the side of the dumpster. She took a split second to see that she had been saved by...a shuriken? And in that split second, a boy with bright blonde hair seemingly appeared from nowhere, knocking the gun from her target's injured hand and slamming his head into the wall, dropping him into unconsciousness.
Despite his coming to the rescue, Naruto soon found her gun trained on him. "Who are you and what are you doing here?" She demanded. Despite being grateful, this was no place for a civilian, even a very lucky one like him, to be playing hero. Not only would it only serve as a distraction, but he could get hurt. Both options seemed to be proven true at once as the shock of her targets, the runners of a smuggling ring she had been tracking, wore off. Naruto shouted as a bullet sailed into his arm and out the other side. As he clutched his arm in pain, the girl he had heard identified as Charmed Momiji reached out and yanked him into cover with her.
"Apport!" she cried, and a first aid kit materialized in her hand, much to Naruto's amazement. There was no chakra spent on whatever jutsu she had used. So what was it? Even bloodline limits nearly always required chakra.
"Don't bother, I'll be fine in a little bit. But you need help, and I'm not taking no for an answer!" She responded by instead pointing her gun at him with a glare, noting him tensing up.
"If you don't want a few more holes in you, I suggest you do as I say. We at least need to stop the bleeding, and then you need to clear the area. As you can see, it's not safe," she became surprised when in a swirl of leaves, he seemingly vanished. "What the hell?" she thought. Hearing a commotion from behind, she rose and began to blink owlishly as she counted each of her targets, unconscious and strung up by their heels in what seemed to be a thin wire. They looked like a group of Christmas geese. And standing next to them was the blonde, giving her what had to be the cheesiest grin she'd ever received in her life.
"Told you I could help," he pronounced. "Seeing as I bagged all of these guys, care to tell me why? Name's Naruto, by the way." The girl was still speechless, mouth agape. "No, no, it was no trouble," Naruto deadpanned. Suddenly, she threw her gun back up, causing Naruto to adopt a look of horror and drop to the ground. With several quick, decisive blasts, each of her targets went from captured, to eliminated. As she radioed it in, turning to walk away, she felt a hand grab her shoulder, and a sickening pull in the pit of her stomach. Suddenly, she was no longer in that alley, but atop the building, nearly stepping off the five-story ledge. Luckily, the arm that had grabbed her yanked her back, as she came face to face with the blonde, who gave her a hard look. "Tell me that that was part of a mission. I detest killing, but IF you were supposed to kill them, I'll let it slide for now."
Now she was nervous. This guy...he was unlike anything she'd ever seen before. But that ability he had. Could he be...like her? "My job was to eliminate them, yes," she said, knowing how much trouble she'd be in if anyone found out she was talking about a mission to a potential hostile. Luckily, the blonde seemed to relax. "They were part of a massive smuggling ring."
"Smuggling what?"
"Drugs, weapons...people...If the money's right, they'll take the job."
Naruto frowned. Not really a good reason to kill someone, but still, it was her mission. He may not like it, but sometimes you just can't fight orders. In a flash, the first aid kit was back in her hand, and he raised a brow as she grabbed his arm. She began to bring up some antiseptic to clean his wound, but released his arm in shock. While the exit wound was still healing, the entry wound had already closed and a layer of unblemished skin had formed, not even leaving a scar. Naruto just smiled, rubbing the back of his head. "Well, this seems to be twice now that an 'I told you so' is warranted." She just seemed to stare for another minute. "So, is Momiji a codename or something?"
"I'm sorry, I've already said too much," she replied. Naruto just nodded in understanding. Secrecy was a ninja thing after all. Rolling up his sleeve, he bit his thumb, smearing blood across a strange tattoo. In a puff of smoke, a new weapon had appeared, a three-pronged throwing-knife, the hilt wrapped in some form of paper or parchment, and marked with marking like the tattoo on his arm. Flipping it around, but being careful of the blade, he held the hilt out to her, and she tentatively took a hold of it.
"Well then, Ms. Momiji, I have some people to meet up with. If you ever need my help again, this will call me to you." Her eyes widened as he took a step off the ledge, running as the boy, no older than her, dropped. But looking over the side, she saw nobody. Bringing the blade to her face, she examined it carefully. This thing was hand made, very well too. She'd have to look into it, find out who had made it, so as to maybe find out the identity of her savior. She blushed. What? Had she really just thought of that blonde as her 'savior?' What had gotten into her? Sure, he had handled himself well, aside from getting shot...and her was cute, but-
"No, no, bad Aoi!" she berated herself. Despite everything, she had to make sure she remained professional. Whoever this person was, he displayed power, different and yet similar ones to her own. He had interfered, even with good intentions and results, with an Immigration Bureau special operation, and he was part of a group, potentially with similar abilities. Not good. She noticed that the clean-up crew was inbound, and as such, she needed to get down from this building. She took another look at the blade. "Naruto..." she whispered.
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Naruto, after leaving the scene, had decided to relay what had happened to his team. Dropping down into one of the subway entrances, he growled as his eyes began scouring the wall. Finally, his trained eye picked out the slightly off part of the wall of the tunnel, and pulling away the tarp, stepped into their makeshift base, ground out from Earth jutsu and- "Whoa!" Naruto shouted, as a cloud of sand flew passed his face and back into the gourd on Gaara's back.
"...Sorry..." he grunted, before going back to smoothing out the walls. "How was your mission?"
"Enlightening..." he replied with a sigh as a hand rested on his shoulder.
"Oh? Do tell. Does this story involve an explanation for the hole and blood on your sleeve?" Naruto turned to see Kakashi behind him, his Icha Icha in hand.
"I kinda helped a girl out of a jam. Whatever weapons they were using hurt like a bitch, too." He rubbed his arm as he said this. Sure, his wound had already healed, but that had hurt, damn it. "Keep your guards up when dealing with them. They fire small pieces of metal at freakish speed. I doubt even that shell of sand Gaara keeps on him at all times would hold up. I'm just lucky Kurama gives me extra fast healing." The Kazekage just snorted. He trusted Naruto, but he'd really need to see these weapons in action before he would believe they could pierce his armor. Kakashi looked concerned.
"This girl...what was she doing with those weapons?" he asked.
"She works for the government here, from what I can tell. She was taking out a group of smugglers, and was outnumbered, so I just...helped her out," Naruto replied casually. Kakashi sighed and palmed his face. So much for Naruto remaining unseen, but this was important information. While their jutsu and chakra put them far above any of the civilians around the area, these weapons could do some serious harm to them.
"We have something like these back home. But the way you made it sound, these weapons are far more powerful and accurate than those. We'll need to be cautious...How many of your abilities did she see?" Kakashi asked.
"Just the Shunshin," Naruto replied defensively. "I used my Shadow Clones to help take down the smugglers, but they dispelled before she saw them...oh, and I gave her a Hiraishin Kunai, so that if she needs help again, I can get to her." Kakashi groaned. Damn Naruto and his chronic hero syndrome.
"Anything else to report?"
"She could summon." Kakashi's one visible eye widened in interest at that. "I don't know how she did it without Chakra, but she just said this word, and she suddenly was holding a weapon, and a first-aid kit after that. No smoke, but their was a bright light." The Jonin and Kazekage shared a look, unsure of what to make of this info. Turning back to Naruto, Kakashi made a decision.
"If you used your Sage Mode, do you think you'd be able to locate her?" Naruto raised an eyebrow.
"Not sure. Besides the fact that there really isn't that much nature energy in a city this massive, the city has a larger population than I've ever seen," he replied. "But I might be able to locate my Hiraishin kunai..."
"Do it. This girl could prove to be an ally. Kami knows we could need one depending on how long we're stuck here," Kakashi said. "See if you can't enter Sage Mode and get a bead on your Kunai, or the girl."
"Right," Naruto said, though wasn't very happy. Once again, Kakashi worried more about setting up here than getting back home. He created two clones to try and channel the nature energy. Being underground luckily made it a bit easier, but it was still going to be a long while of sitting still. As Kakashi left the makeshift hut, Gaara decided things were good enough, and sat down to meditate with the blonde. He would need to concentrate for this, and Gaara himself was pretty worn down. How had such a simple recon mission gone so wrong? But then, he thought, how could he expect anything to go right these days. It was times like this he actually missed not hearing the crazed screeching of Shukaku in mind, his demon having been stolen from him by the Akatsuki. Things have been so complicated. Even the Kages like he and Tsunade had to go out and work lower level missions. How did things go so wrong? Why? Why were the three of them here now, in this place.
The three Naruto's sat motionless with Gaara for nearly an hour, trying to scrounge up as much nature energy as possible, and as he thought, it was horribly difficult to do in a city so large. It took everything he had just to get enough to enter Sage Mode. But eventually...Registering the sound of Naruto's clones popping, Gaara opened his eyes to see Naruto's eyes change and a reddish hue to form around them. He could feel how much stronger the blonde had become in this form. It was an almost unreal change.
"We have to work fast, I can't hold this form for long..." he said, his voice sounding somewhat strained. Eyes widening, he managed to grab a hold of the ear-piece Kakashi threw his way.
"Then go. And keep in touch."
A blur leapt from the subway tunnel, flying up to the roof of a nearby building.
Chapter end.
Decided to try this, as there's only one for the category at the moment. So...here you go.
Peace to all my Fans
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