Chapter 2: Origins

"Oh man... Did anyone get the number of that bus that hit me?" Naruto mutters to himself as he slowly regains consciousness.

"Well I see you're awake." A female voice spoke. Naruto opens his eyes, looks towards the source of the voice and sees a beautiful blonde lady with an impressive bust size and a diamond shaped mark on her forehead, wearing a green coat over a loose white dress blouse, black pants and sandals. "You've got quite a constitution kid. Nobody has ever recovered as quickly as you have, especially after just establishing a contract with an advent beast. How are you feeling?"

"I feel fine I guess. Ummm... Who are you and where am I?" Naruto asked tentatively.

The blonde lady quirks an eyebrow at Naruto but answers anyways. "You're at the medical bay of Konoha Academy. Iruka brought you here after you passed out. As for who I am, the name's Senju Tsunade. Headmistress of the academy."

Naruto sat up in shock. In front of him stood one of the three persons who revolutionized rider tech. And she is the very head of this academy.

"M-My apologies for my unseemly appearances Tsunade Sama. I..." Naruto started to apologize before Tsunade cuts him off.

"Skip it kid. Sarutobi Sensei has told me all about you so I know you're not the type of person who gives respect to just anyone you meet. I'd rather just earn it." Tsunade told the teen rider, causing Naruto to scratch his head in embarrasment.

"Ehehehe... I suppose I DO have a problem with authority which I'm tryin' to change." Naruto replied. "It's just that you're one of the Three Originals and I was kinda' nervous that if I DON'T show you that proper respect, you'd kick my ask into the next century."

Tsunade had to smile at this. "If I didn't know you, then I probably would have. Just remember, you have Sarutobi Sensei to thank for that." She admitted before her expression turns serious. "Now that you seem alright now, I want to know exactly what went down at the forest. I've already heard Iruka's report but I'd like your take on the whole situation. And don't leave a single detail out of it."

Naruto nods then starts narrating how he came across Iruka's battle with Mizuki and how he decided to assist Iruka after he heard Mizuki's statements. He also told Tsunade about how Kyuukiri had come to his rescue after Mizuki overpowered him and how he had established a contract with the advent beast in order for him to gain the power to help defeat him.

Tsunade had stayed mostly silent during his explanation except for a few question regarding minor details. After Naruto finished his story, the blonde headmistress had a grim look in her beautiful face. "So it's true then. Mizuki DID betray us and with the kind of power he displayed, the situation is even worse then I initially thought."

"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked curiously. Tsunade gives her fellow blonde a shrewd look before answering. "Well I suppose that you DO deserve an explanation since you were almost killed by Mizuki. Follow me." She said, ushering Naruto out of the clinic and into an empty adjacent room where, after pressing a few hidden keys on the wall, a doorway opens with stairs going underground. The stairs lead to a smal, dark room with an aluminum bed on the midde and cabinets full of chemicals and various equipment.

In the aluminum table were various bits and pieces which, upon closer inspection, Naruto discovered to be the remains of some sort of beast.

"What's this?" Naruto asked.

"What you see here is what's left of Mizuki." Tsunade stated plainly, causing Naruto to suddenly pull back in disgust. Tsunade then proceeds to pick something up from Mizuki's remains on the table. "More importantly, THIS is what I wanted to show you. Recognize it?"

Naruto narrows his eyes at what Tsunade held. It was a broken, tiger-striped USB-like device known as a Memory. "Yeah. That's a Memory which, from the looks of it, contained a tiger's dna right? That would explain Mizuki's monstrous form. I've seen punks inject themselves with that piece of crap before and it's like a drug. You get addicted to the power boost but it eventually destroys you because raw foreign DNA is not meant to fuse directly with the human body except through the use of another medium such as a Memory Driver or any other such devices."

"Very good. It would seem that Sarutobi Sensei taught you well." Tsunade stated, genuinely impressed by what the blonde had said. But Naruto wasn't finished yet though.

"The ordinary, run-of-the-mill tech that thugs like to use is bad enough and shouldn't even be out in the streets. But Mizuki was abnormally strong even for a transformed and no ordinary memory can grant him THAT kind of power, right? So what the hell is that thing?" Naruto asked.

Tsunade nods at this. "Good question kid and pretty perceptive of you to notice the difference. But in order to answer your question, I'll have to give you a little history lesson. Ever wondered why me and my friends were known as the Three Originals, hmm?"

"Well... I suppose it's because that you three were the first riders who battled the monsters who invaded that world." Naruto ventured before suddenly realizing something. "Wait a minute here... The monsters appeared like 50 years ago which was roughly the same time the first riders came out. If that's the case, then you're..." Naruto then starts retching. "Ohh kami... I actually thought that a grandma like you was hot!"

Tsunade drove a knuckle upside Naruto's cranium with a large tickmark on her forehead and leaving him a smoking mess inside a newly formed crater in the room. "I'm STILL hotter then most women two decades my junior and I age more gracefully too. Besides, I can also still mop the floor with snotnosed brats like you."

Tsunade took a deep breath to compose herself. "But you're partially right. Me and my friends WERE the first riders who actively fought against monsters. But more then that, we were also the ones who came up with the original theory that we can utilize the monster's strength to combat them. And though we had very different interpretations, it is a theory which all current ridertech are based upon."

Tsunade then walks over to a desk before continuing her explanation. "My interpretation of the theory is based on the idea of utilizing a special aspect of a monster to empower the rider. Formidable and little risk of it going out of control but kind of a hassle since you have to somehow 'harvest' that special aspect from monsters." Tsunade then took out a henshin belt with what seems to be a small slot machine as a buckle and held it up for Naruto to see. "That's how I came up with the designs for my Medal System. The photonic blood system and the card capture systems are also examples of tech based on my interpretation of the original theory."

Tsunade puts her belt back into the desk and switches on a projector which shows a picture of a husky, bear-like man with a wild mane of white hair and wore a tacky looking red vest over an untucked white dress shirt, black pants and wooden geta slippers.

"This old fool right here is actually one of the Three Originals, the Hermit Toad, Kazama Jiraiya." Tsunade introduced. "His interpretation of our theory calls for the establishment of a contract with a willing familiar and utilize it's strength in battle. In terms of stability and strength, it's probably the best of all three interpretations of our theory. But because of the difficulty in obtaining a contract with a willing familiar, much less with one that is stable AND strong enough to actually matter, many ridertech which based itself off Jiraiya's system uses lab cloned monsters or even artificial constructs as familiars."

Tsunade then showed a different picture with the projector. This one of a green rider with a frog-like theme and tribal markings on his armor. "As you can see, he is the one who developed the Advent system that both him and you operate on which uses actual Advent beasts as familiars. And can I say that you're also damned lucky you've got Kyuukiri as a familiar because many riders have tried taming it but failed."

"Wow. So I've got an awesome advent beast as a familiar? That's great." Naruto cheered.

"I wouldn't be excited about it if I were you kid. It's still a wonder why it chose YOU and not the others so there's bound to be a lot of unhappy riders out there." Tsunade informed Naruto. "But to continue, the Imagin Train Pass system and the Fuestle system are variations of the tech Jiraiya developed which involved existing creatures as willing familiars."

Operating the projector, Tsunade displayed another person on the screen. A pale, almost albino man with long black hair and striking yellow eyes wearing a lab outfit. Tsunade looked lost in memory as she stared at the image of the pale man before shaking herself out of her thoughts and speaking. "Meet the Snake Sage and the last of the Three Originals, Orochimaru. He was no doubt one of the most brilliant minds I have ever met and was the one who layed much of the groundwork for our original theory."

Tsunade's face then darkens as she continues. "But his interpretation of our theory took him down a much different route then ours did. He believed that in order for us to be effective, we had to be like the very monsters we fought. Sounds familiar to you?"

"W-Wait a minute here... You don't mean that..." Naruto started, his eyes travelling to the broken memory on the table.

"Yes. He was the one who came up with the Memory system and all it's directly related ridertech, including the Memories running around the streets." Tsunade confirmed, switching Orochimaru's image with that of a purple, snake themed rider with scaled armor whose nearly organic look reminded him of Mizuki's monstrous form. "While Orochimaru's heart was in the right place, his interpretation of our theory was flawed and the system he created, while obscenely powerful, had dangerous side effects."

"The addiction to the Memories and the way it weakens your body with each use. Just like illegal drugs." Naruto stated bluntly.

Tsunade nods in confirmation. "And THAT'S assuming you even want to revert back to your human form. If you don't, there's a number of things that can and WILL go wrong." Tsunade then starts ticking off points with her fingers. "The biggest concerns are the rapid deterioration of a subject's mental stability and the threat that the change might become irreversible."

"If it was so dangerous, then why was THAT ridertech released in the first place?" Naruto asked hotly. Tsunade thought about her words before answering. "Because at the time, we needed all the bodies we could throw at the threat of the monsters. It was a different situation kid and times were hard. We needed every edge we could get." Tsunade answered evenly. "Besides that, we helped Orochimaru create the drivers which help regulate the effects of the Memories. We also assisted in the development of other similar ridertech like the Hibiki system."

"How well has that worked so far? His ridertech is now out on the streets hurting people. What has Orochimaru got to say about that?" Naruto asked bitterly.

"Orochimaru was one of the riders lost during the Great Rider War fourteen years ago kid. The same war which took your parents away from you." Tsunade replied somberly which had the desired effect of silencing Naruto. "And not only did we lose Orochimaru, his lab was also attacked and destroyed on the same night. All that work and knowledge that he had acquired over the years went up in flames. Then months after the war, variations of the Memory ridertechs began appearing in the streets."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at this. "That sounds like too much of a coincidence to me. I mean, Orochimaru disappears during the war and all notes on his work is destroyed in an attack only for versions of it to appear on the streets months later? How certain are you that he didn't plan this all along to earn money and power?"

"I don't. But I know that money and power isn't Orochimaru's primary motivating force." Tsunade answered. "Whatever the case may be, we need to keep our eyes open for more of this improved illegal tech and I'd appreciate it if you don't breath a word about it to anyone. At least untill we have more concrete proof."

"Sure. Don't think anyone will believe me anyways even if I did." Naruto grumbled.

"Excellent. Shizune!" Tsunade calls out. A younger woman with short black hair and wearing a black blazer over a white dress shirt, black knee-length skirt and flat heeled shoes enters the room. "Yes Tsunade Sama?" The girl asks.

"Take Naruto to his home room. I believe it's almost time for his class." Tsunade said.

"Understood my lady. This way please." The woman said politely and ushered Naruto away, leaving Tsunade alone in the room with only her thoughts.

"Uzumaki Naruto, eh?" Tsunade murmured with a smile. "Looks like things are picking up in this school."

Author's Notes: Chapter 2 is done. Not much action but hopefully, it'll clear some stuff up. R&R please :)