Hi again. So the first chapter got good responses. So here is the second chapter.
I will go through some episodes relatively fast because Naruto won't follow Steven around always. Steven does his own thing which is canon most of the times and Naruto does his own things.
Like always, I don't own the original works of Naruto or Steven Universe, this is just some fan fiction by a fan for other fans, with the intent of broadening the imagination of the stories to other readers.
Also, sorry I did change the name of the story, I just didn't like it after a while and I felt it could have been done better
Also, if you see something like "(*)" it means that I recommend a certain theme or a song to listen too while you read to get the full experience of the action. The theme will be written at the end of the chapter. The theme belongs to its owners; I just recommend you go listen to it while reading this chapter at some point.
Chapter 2: Red Eye, Yellow Star
It was a relatively good sunny day where we find Steven leaving his house and going to search for his new friend Naruto, it had been several days since the incident with that centibeetle and Steven hadn't seen him since.
He had searched around town and even asked about him but the boy always seemed to be one step behind him with folks saying that he was there an hour ago or just like 10 minutes. It's like Naruto disappeared without a trace.
"Ugh! I give up! Where could he be? It feels like I've been searching around town forever." Just as he said that his tummy started to stir up. "All this searching is making me hungry. I guess I'll search for him after getting some lunch." Said the boy as he left for home.
Just as he left the town to go to the beach he suddenly heard a low rumbling followed by a huge truck horn being blown behind him.
Steven ducked out of the way and saw a truck pass him. "Hey! Watch where you're going!" Steven called out but noticed that the truck was headed to the Lighthouse on the hill. "That's strange. That place is supposed to be abandoned. Why is a truck driving all the way there?" he wondered as he climbed up as quickly as he could.
As he got up, he noticed that out of the truck 4 men got out and started to move the contents out. They were big boxes of things, some big, some medium.
As he looked around he saw that a crew of people was working on the house, specifically replacing the wood entirely with bricks and mortar.
Finally he saw the person signing the papers for the truck was the man he had been searching for all day.
"Naruto!" he screamed as he ran as fast as he could to the man,
Naruto blinked and turned his head at the call of his name and noticed the boy running up to him. "Steven? What are you-?" he didn't get to finish because Steven had invaded his personal space and hugged his leg like a lost puppy.
"Naruto?! Where have you been? I haven't seen you in days! I searched the whole town and you should have visited and-..." Steven's barrage of questions were stopped by the sound of snickering from the other workers who stopped to laugh at the man's predicament.
"Grrr…" Naruto growled at their laughing. "Alright, fun's over! Get back to work!" he said as he turned to his little problem. "Steven, it's only been a few days and I've been busy setting up my new lighthouse." He said shaking the boy away.
"Really? That is so awesome! Can I look?!" he said already running inside but was caught before he could breach the door by the blond holding his shirt.
"No! You can't!" he said looking down with a frown. "I haven't finished refurnishing everything yet." He said causing the boy to have teary eyes to crumble his resolve. Naruto cringed but looked away. "But, when it is over, I'll have a house warming party and you can come along. How is that?" he asked.
"Awesome! I can't wait! I can bring the music! My dad is an awesome musician!" said the boy enthusiastically.
"Really? Then I'll have to save a seat for him and his music. " said the blond with a smile.
"It will be awesome! Hey Naruto, can I ask you something?" he asked a bit sheepishly.
"You already did, but go ahead." He said giving the boy a curious look.
"Why did you decide to move in the Lighthouse? Didn't you say you were just on vacation?" asked the boy.
"I did, but I don't believe in hotels or motels or whatever, Can you imagine what other people have done in there?" he sneered looking away.
Steven looked confused. "Ohhh, you mean like eating in bed or making a mess!?" asked the boy innocently.
Naruto smirked and rolled his eyes. "Ugh… yeah, something like that…"
"Noooo… my secret lair!" they both heard from a distance and saw a big tall kid with a strange mop-like hair of blond noodles running for the lighthouse but getting tired along the way.
"Great…" sighed Naruto. "Run along Steven, I'll be busy all day…"
"Oh, okay. Then bye"
"Bye, Steven."
Steven walked past the young man who ran and started talking to his friend. Steven wanted to stay but a wave from Naruto told him that he shouldn't.
Naruto got out of the way entrance to the light house but lifted his right arm up and stopped the guy, with a face palm, in his tracks like a brick wall before he could enter the house.
"Woah there, big guy. You can't get in there yet, the new floor is drying up now. I can't let you leave marks." Said the blond unfazed.
"What have you done, man?! This is my secret lair where I do all my research!" said the guy looking angry.
"A secret lair? in the lighthouse?… on the tallest point in town?… you need to recheck your definition of 'secret'." said the blond looking at him through half-lid eyes. "Sorry man, I got the paperwork to this little patch of land and the house. As long as I can get it to work and flash it in storms and sound the alarm for a tsunami or something, the lighthouse is mine." He said watching his every move.
The boy palmed his face. "I should have known it! I should have known the Man would drag me down! They knew I was on to something! That explains why you are here, you took all my research! Well too bad because it's all in here…" he said dramatically pointing at his head.
Naruto gave him a strange look. "Riiight, I can see that there's something (wrong) in there… So I take it, you're the guy who all this belongs to." He said as he pointed to a stack of boxes and blackboards with writing on it.
The guy's face light up as he ran to the boxes and started to check all the papers."It's all here! Phew, I thought I lost all of you!" the boy started to hug the boxes like they were his loved ones.
"I saved as much as I could, everything else is already on the way to the dump, so don't come crying to me if some piece of trash is missing." He said as he picked up a random paper. "So, as I was gathering all your stuff and cleaning up, I looked over it and tried to piece it together: you're saying that the world is being "taken over" by 'string' people?" he asked very skeptical.
"That's snake people! And yeah, I have even documents to prove my findings…"
"…Uhm, I don't know about that… but I'm interested in your second theory: sentient rock people are invading the planet…" said the blond. "Tell me about it…"
"You want to know about my research?!" asked the boy as his eyes widened as he tried to grab the man by his sides but found hand on his shoulder stooping him.
"Easy man, not so close. Just take it easy and start from the top…" said Naruto pulling up a chair and listening intently. "But first, what's your name?"
"Ronaldo, Ronaldo Fryman…" said the now identified dorky man.
When Naruto told him to go over everything, he did not expect the guy to literally start spouting up every random thing he found in dramatic style like he did. Although he did have some interesting ideas, namely: that in the past, these rock people were influencing mankind, that cultures from all around the planet showed writings and drawings of gods that did not look entirely human, that monster sightings have been around since the more than a 100 years ago if not a thousand years based on some of the descriptions. It really looked like there was some meat to his theory.
"Ok, okay. I get it. You can stop now…" stopped Naruto. "Ok, but what do these rock aliens want then?" he asked.
"Isn't it obvious? There's only one reason why they would come to a planet! To invade it and add it to their galactic empire!" Said the boy looking like it was the hidden secret of the movie plot.
"Ok, and where are they now? What happened to them?"
"I don't know, we don't know everything yet. But the answer is out there." Said the boy dramatically.
"Right, okay look kid, I'm willing to finance your research…" said Naruto.
"Y-you are?" a smile started spreading on the guy's mouth.
"Yeah, because I agree, there is a mystery to be uncovered here…" said the blond getting off his chair."But I can't let you stay here. I have plans for this place. So for now, you can keep your research here, but find a new place to do your thinking, give me a call and I'll see if I can set you up with a new 'lair'. Here's my phone number…" Naruto and Ronaldo exchanged contact information.
"Now, if there's nothing else, I still have work to do, so go search for your new 'lair' or something." Naruto dismissed him walking back inside.
"Hey mister… I never got your name!"
"It's Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki the…" Answered the blond a bit apprehensive but stopped in his tracks. "Never mind, just 'Naruto Uzumaki' for now."
"Mister Uzumaki, why are you interested in my research?! Everyone else laughs at me and treats me like I'm a weird…"
"Let's just say that I'm a believer in that old saying about fools and idiots who laugh at them." He said giving the kid a pad on the back. 'Not to mention, other things.' He thought to himself.
Timeskip – Sunset
We find the lighthouse looking like it had gone through a complete change; it now looked better than new. Everything had been reinforced, the little room that the tower had been attached too had been demolished and a new one built with bigger space and stronger construction material like bricks. He kept the cellar, for some reason he got a cold vibe from it, like it did not want to be changed.
It now needed something that he couldn't really speed up, time. Time to dry and harden and we find our blond in bathtub outside looking at the sunset.
"Ahhhh, nothing like work hard and relax harder. With a great view…" He said with a sigh letting the hot water relax his body. He started massaging his arms, his gut and chest as his hands. "It's a good thing that water still feels good." sighed as he let the water soak his chest even as he started to wash his hair.
He looked at the sky and his eyes narrowed at a blinking dot. "What is that?" he wondered. He sighed and relaxed in a position before closing his eyes. As he did, his eyes started getting a green pigmentation before his eyes opened and they turned emerald green with horizontal pupils.
As he did so, he could suddenly feel everything around him like radar had gone off. He looked at the blinking object and his eyes narrowed.
"Naaaarutttooo! Hey Naarutoo!"
Naruto turned his eyes to the running ball of joy that was coming his way and sighed as he covered his face and his eyes returned to normal.
He turned to see Steven and the purple girl run up the hill to his house. "Hi Steven. What are you up to?"
"Me and Amethyst are going to town to get some fried bits!" answered the boy.
"Hey dude, so how's the water?" asked Amethyst waving her hair back with a smirk.
Naruto smirked back. "Why, the water is very fine, thanks for asking."
"Woah! A hot bathtub outside?! How did I never think of that?!" asked Steven holding his head in wonder. "This is so cool, you can take a bath and watch the stars at the same time!"
Naruto chuckled and smiled softly. "Well, that wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but you make a good point." He returned watching the sky and seeing a strange blinking light, but turned to Steven. "So what do you need, Steven? As you can see I'm a bit busy here." He said pulling out a cold beer and taking a sip.
"Oh yeah, me and Amethyst are going to get some deep fried bits from the Fry shop. Want to come?" asked Steven.
"Bits? What are those? Some kind of coins?" he asked lazily curious.
"No, they're like the really fried fry bits at the bottom of Frybo's fryer." said Steven with stars in his eyes. "They're the best…"
"Wow, that sounds extremely unhealthy. So no thanks. I'm just going to chill a while longer." He sighed as he let his body sink into the water and relax.
"Aww, well I'll see you later." Called Steven waving away.
"Bye, Steven." Returned Naruto.
"Hey, when you're done with this, can I have it?" asked Amethyst, getting an idea for the tub.
"Nope, sorry, but this baby is going into my bathroom." He said decidedly.
"Aww, come on. Do you want a trade? I got loads of other stuff!" returned Amethyst with a smile.
Naruto smiled and waved her away. "Sorry Amy, not today."
"Who's Amy?" she asked with a confused look, maybe she didn't like his nickname.
"Hey Amethyst!" called Steven from a few yards away. "Come on, it's going to close."
"Coming, Steven!" Amethyst returned before turning to the blond. "See you around…" she said with a wave.
After they left, Naruto sighed. "That boy has an abnormal amount of energy. Heh, he kind of reminds me of someone."
As he did, his chest seemed to vibrate before a seal started to appear on his chest stretching over his whole chest and stretching down to his stomach. "Not me though."
Naruto turned to the object he felt earlier and felt unnerved. "I better check it out."
After drying his body and changing into some clothes he got up to the top of the light tower and used a pair of binoculars he found inside the lighthouse. "Shit, it's some kind of giant ball heading for the town! I have to tell the mayor to evacuate."
He used his phone that he got a day ago and called the Mayor. "Hello Mayor Dewey, this is Naruto from the lighthouse."
"The what? Oh, right! The Lighthouse! I remember you. What can I do for you, my boy?" asked the mayor.
"I am calling to report some kind of strange object falling from the sky; it looks like it could be coming close to beach city!"
"WHAT?! Then, what does it mean? What is it?" asked the mayor a little distressed.
"I don't know, sir, it could be a satellite, a meteor or a balloon for all I know. But I would recommend that you sound the emergency alarm for everyone to evacuate the city until it has passed." Said the blond following the ball and narrowing his eyes. He knows what it was, but the mayor didn't have to know.
"Are you sure about this, son? If it turns out to be nothing, a whole lot of angry people will be on our hands! Not to mention the press!" said the mayor, cowardly.
"Yes mayor, I am sure there is an immediate danger."Naruto rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration; the mayor was a coward, not really a bad man, but a cowardly one at that". I will take all the blame if it's a hoax and you can take all the credit if I am right." He finished offering what he suspected the mayor wanted to hear.
"Ok, then mister, it's on you. God help us, if you're right." He finished.
Soon he heard the sound of the alarm going on and he noticed activity on the streets, first people looking confused then the words started sounding. "Evacuation, evacuation. This is not a drill! Evacuation, evacuation. This is not a drill!..."
He noticed that the people were already starting to move and run in their houses to get their things. "Good, now let's go see if Steven and his gems have anything against that Red Eye or if I have to blow it up."
As he ran down to the beach he spotted them. He pulled out the binoculars and checked it out and saw two of Steven's guardians the tall curvy one named Garnet and the petit pale one known as Pearl were using a telescope to spot the falling object as well.
"It looks like I'm not the only one that saw it." He saw they lips moving talking about the falling object. "Where is Steven?"
Naruto climbed down and saw Amethyst holding up Steven in full sprint to the other gems.
"Good timing." Said the blond as he hurried up and caught up to Amethyst. "Hey, are you guys in a hurry?" he asked keeping up with them.
"Yeah, we can't really talk right now!" said Amy trying to ditch him.
"Would it have something to do with that giant thing in the sky?" asked the blond.
"Uhahaha, what 'thing'?" asked Amethyst trying to fake ignorance. "I don't see no 'thing'."
"Really?" asked the blond. "Would you like my binoculars to see it?"
"Look, I don't have time to explain, we have to get to Garnet and Pearl and do something about it. Now go away!" said Amethyst trying to wish him away.
Soon they reached the beach and Pearl was looking through a telescope at the object wondering at its size. "I never knew these things were so big!"
"Garnet, Pearl!" called Amethyst closing the distance.
"We saw, some of us are trying to protect humanity." Said Pearl looking displeased at Amethyst's lateness. "Where were you?"
"Eating fry bits." Returned Amethyst simply earning a grown and a face palm look from Pearl.
"Can I see?" asked Steven looking into the telescope. "Whooaaw! It's a giant eyeball. Awesome!" said Steven in wonder.
The object was as round as a ball and the plating opened revealing 6 red crystal formations moving around and focusing on him in a hexagon pattern like a mechanical eye form a sci-fi movie. The "Eye" had an ethereal glow about it and it was moving closer to their location.
"NOT 'awesome'!" said Pearl raising her hands. "It's a Red Eye."
"'Red Eye'? It's going to infect us all!" said Steven in panic.
"That's 'Pink Eye', Steven." Returned Garnet calmly earning a laugh from Amethyst.
"It's going to crash into Beach City and crush us along with a bunch of oblivious, innocent people. We have to stop it!" said Pearl determined to stop this threat.
"What are we going to do?" asked Steven, a little worried.
"The only thing powerful enough to destroy it is a light canon that belonged to Rose Quartz." Said Garnet adjusting her glasses.
"My mom?"
"If Rose were here, this would be so easy." Said Amy a little worried.
"I know." Said Pearl with a hand to her chest. "But she's not and the cannon is missing. We have to find another solution." She finished trying to think of a plan.
"If it belonged to my mom, I bet my dad knows where it is." Said a hopeful Steven with stars in his eyes. "He can help us save the day!"
Pearl avoided eye contact with Steven and strained to give him an answer. "Greg… is 'nice', Steven. But I doubt Rose would trust someone like him which such a powerful weapon." Pearl said forcing those words with some resentment.
"Your dad is kind of a mess, Steven." She said with the bluntness of a rock.
"Amethyst!" returned Pearl with anger at her subtlety.
"I'm just saying." She returned patting Steven on the back. "Even if she did leave it with him, he probably broke it or lost it, or dropped it in the ocean by now."
"True." Said Garnet with a sigh.
"No way, I'm sure he's just keeping it somewhere safe." Steven for his part was a very calm person. Not many could take someone talking down his parent like that. "I'll go ask him."
"We can handle this, Steven." Said Garnet.
"It wouldn't hurt to ask, though." Said a voice. They all turned behind and saw Naruto approaching.
"What the-? What are you doing here?!" asked Amy surprised.
"It's not so hard to spot you people…" he said.
"How long have you been there?" asked Pearl a bit irritated.
"No long, just before that 'it's going to crash into Beach City and crush us all' part." He said as he crossed his arms. "You don't have to worry about the people, I called the mayor and had him sound the emergency alarm, by this time the people are already evacuating the city."
"How come we didn't know he could do that?" asked Pearl.
Garnet shock her shoulders not knowing.
"Well, that's one good thing you did." Said Pearl in her usual tone avoiding eye contact.
"Yes, good work." Said Garnet in her usual calm tone behind her glasses.
"But we still have that thing to worry about." Returned the blond.
"We can handle it." Said Garnet turning to Amethyst. "Ready?"
Returning with a nod, Garnet picked up Amethyst, jumped up in a spin and threw Amethyst like a projectile at the Red eye. Amethyst glided with a battle cry in the air like Superman before she hit the Red eye like a fly hitting a windshield and slid off.
Everyone cringed at the performance before Naruto broke the tension. "Oookay, if there is a small chance that Steven's father has this weapon, we should take it."
"Agreed." Said Garnet.
"Right, come on, Steven." Said the blond getting in a sprint.
"Wait for me!" said Steven running after him.
"Ok, good luck…" returned Pearl still a little shocked that Amethyst didn't even budge the eye.
The gems were left to try to solve the problem on their own while Naruto and Steven sprinted towards the city.
"Where does your dad live?" asked Naruto.
"In his van, at the car wash?" returned Steven.
"In his van? Doesn't he have a place to live or rent?" asked the blond.
"No, he likes his van too much. He said that he and mom used to spend all the time in it." Returned Steven.
Naruto gave Steven a look before saying. "Wow,.. well, how far is it?"
"Just a… little bit… more." Said Steven already feeling out of breath.
"No time for a breather Steven." Returned the blond picking up boy and putting him under his arm. "Just point me in the right direction."
In no time they were at "It's a wash" car wash and Steven ran to the van parked outside.
Naruto stood back and let Steven do the knocking.
"Dad, it's me! Daad! Are you in there?!" called Steven knocking on the door to the van.
Naruto looked at the van and could hear some breathing that sounded like light snoring inside. "Maybe he's asleep."
"Then, wake up!" he called louder pushing and knocking himself in the van before a hand stopped him.
"Easy Steven, don't hurt yourself." He said holding the boy back. "Does this van have a car alarm?" he asked looking it over.
"Yeah." Returned Steven. "Ohhh, you want to trigger it?"
"Yup. Stay back a little." Naruto walked to the edge of the car and bending down he grabbed the car and lifted it a few inches off the ground with little visible effort.
Steven had his mouth open at the display of raw power before the blond let the car go to fall on its back wheels and bounce a couple of times.
"(ALARM!)" in no time the alarm was set off and Naruto could hear movement inside the van, he backed away and waited.
No sooner did he stop before the doors burst open and a middle aged man with a bald top head burst out with some kind of pan in his hand.
"You! Just what do you think you're doing?!" asked the big guy.
Naruto looked at the large man and his pan and smirked. "Easy there, killer. I'm not here to rob you." He said as he lifted his hands, but Steven ran in front of him.
"Dad, calm down. It's me, Steven!" said the boy trying to act like a shield to the blond.
"Steven?" wondered the man trying to shake his sleepiness away and stop the alarm on his van.
The man put the pan down and after a moment of recollection he gave his son a hug.
"What happened? Who is this?" asked the man looking at the blond man.
"Dad, this is my new friend, Naruto." Said the boy happily introducing the young man.
"Yo…"
"Your… friend?"
"Yeah, we had to wake you and we triggered the alarm on the car." Said Steven.
"The name is Naruto. Sorry to wake you, but it was urgent." Said the blond holding his hand up for a shake.
The man gave it a look before he took the handshake. "My name's Greg, Greg Universe. Sorry, I almost waffled your face." He finished a little embarrassed.
"Don't worry about it." Naruto had a better look at the man, he had a bald top head but the rest of his leftover brown hair reached to his legs, he had a fuzzy beard of a lighter shade. He had on a white undershirt and some grey sweatpants; he also had some noticeable red sun burns on his face and arms.
"What are you guys doing up so late?" asked the father.
"What do you mean? Te sun just went down an hour ago." Said the boy.
"Oh…" blushed Greg. "It was a slow day at the carwash." He said rubbing the back of his head.
As they talked a few cars rushed past the carwash.
"Where are they going in such a hurry?" wondered Greg.
"They're evacuating the town." Answered Naruto.
"What?! Why?"
"Because of that eyeball!" said Steven pointing out at sea where now a visible round ship that looked like an 'eyeball' floated.
"Wow!? When did that get there?!" asked Greg in fear and wonder.
"While, you were sleeping…" said Naruto like it was obvious. "I told the mayor to sound the evacuation alarm. I think that guy can't distinguish an alien spaceship from a rubber balloon." Sighed the blond.
"AGHhaaaaaaaa!" Amethyst's scream interrupted them as she was thrown again at the ball causing the blond to quirk an eyebrow.
"This has to make sense… in some way.,," sighed Naruto.
"That's why we came to see you dad. We need mom's Light canon to blow it up!" said Steven quickly.
"Wait! Is that a magical thing?!" asked Greg in a worry. "The gems told me not to get involved with magic stuff. T-they said it could be dangerous, or interfere with what's left of my hair." He said in a hurry trying to keep out of it.
Naruto watched the eyeball and saw some activity to it, like tiny panels moving. "I hate to tell you this Greg, but I believe three things right now: One, that it's not magic, it's very advanced science; two, going smooth might be something to consider; and three, that eyeball is starting to do something." Said the blond as it could be seen that the ball was moving and firing a harmless scanning beam over certain areas.
"What's it doing?" asked Steven,
"I think… it's searching for something." Said the blond with narrowed eyes. "Steven! We need to hurry, I don't think we have a lot of time." He said a bit serious
"Dad, we need mom's canon. You have to know where it is, like a cave-dungeon or a cloud-fortress or in a clam at the bottom of the ocean." Named Steven excited.
Naruto rolled his eyes at the boy's giant imagination. "Or maybe where it's buried or something."
"Well, I don't know about all that, but I know where it might be. Come with me." Said Greg taking them for a walk just a street away to a storage unit complex.
"A magical storage unit!" screamed Steven in excitement.
"Huh, not exactly. But some would say there is magic inside." Said Greg with a wink.
Naruto chuckled while Steven gave him a blank look. "Greg, you old wizard!" Said the blond giving Greg a pat on the back. "Don't worry, Steven. You'll get it when you're older."
Steven looked between the guys and wondered what the joke was.
"So you think it's inside here?" asked Naruto.
"Yeah, this is just where I put some things that don't fit in the van."
"Really?" Naruto wasn't really surprised about the storage unit, what he was wondering was how Greg, a grown ass man, was still living in a van while he had this space instead.
"Yeah, Rose also used to leave some of the stuff she found in here. So there's a chance that it's here." He said lifting the door up revealing a stacked storage unit with lots of boxes, mattresses, even furniture.
"I don't see anything like a cannon." Noted the blond. "(Sigh) we're going to have to pull all these things out."
"Maybe I can fit in and see if it's in the back." Said Steven.
"Steven, these boxes might look light but they could be full of heavy stuff that could crushed or injure you." Said Naruto looking at some of the boxes.
"But you said we were in a hurry. Pleeeasee! This is like a cool scavenger hunt." Pleaded the boy with puppy dog eyes.
Naruto sighed. "Greg, do you have a helmet or a big pot and some clean rags?" he asked.
Greg came back with a pot. "I don't have a helmet on me, but I have these cleaning rags and this pot, how will this help?"
"Like this…" Naruto tied the first rag to the top of Steven's head, flattening his curly hair; then he put another four layers of rags over it, then the pot. "There, an improvised helmet."
"Why not just the pot?" asked the boy.
"This isn't a cartoon kid, you need padding to… why am I even explaining this now? Just get going already, I'll start moving some of this stuff out of the way." 'Why am I the only adult here?!'
As Naruto removed some of the boxes and Steven managed to squeeze through, Greg held on an improvised rope made out of extension cables that was tied around Steven. He said it was to pull Steven out in case of trouble, the blond wondered how would Greg even pull out Steven without injuring him if Steven got trapped in the pile.
"Geez Greg, do you own everything but the walls of a house?" asked the blond as he pulled out some boxed and as the regular stuff started to pile up he was starting to see some of the oddities that Greg collected.
Greg chuckled at the young man's remark; he wasn't used to having some male company after all these years. "Well you know, the years pass by and I saved a lot of money on electricity, taxes and construction." He turned to the blond and to his surprise he saw Naruto pull out even some of the heavier stuff without problems, this was surprising; he only ever saw such raw strength from Rose. "Wow, you're strong."
"Thanks, I work out a lot." He said finishing pulling out the first layer.
While that was happening he heard Steven rummage through some stuff until he stumbled on Greg's old recorded CDs. "I found some of your old songs!" called Steven.
"Wow, I couldn't give those things away." Said Greg, shaking his head. "You know, before I ran the carwash, I used to be a one-man band, I traveled the whole country."
"Really?" asked Naruto with some surprise in his voice.
"Yeah, I saw most of the cool big cities and even though it wasn't much success, it was a great adventure..." said Greg with a sigh of great memories. "Then I came to play a concert here, in Beach City, and no one showed up except… Rose, Steven's mom."
"Wow…" said Naruto taking a pause.
"And then we were always together after that…" finished Greg.
"That's awesome, Greg. I'm really happy for you." Said Naruto taking a small break, he could see Steven now at the end, so if anything happened, he could jump to him. "If… you don't mind my asking, what happened to your wife?" asked the blond.
"Ohhh… well… that's a bit complicated." Said Greg, wondering if Naruto was really trustworthy enough to reveal Steven's secret. Well it wasn't such a big secret, since Steven couldn't help but talk about it, but Naruto was a stranger. On the other hand, the guy was helping him and Steven and the Gems and Beach City right now, a guy like that didn't just fall out of the sky every day. "Naruto, I need to be clear with you, you know about the Gems, right?"
Naruto turned to look at the man and he could see a serious look. "I've met them, I know that there's something strange about them."
"Well, Steven's mom was one of them, she was a Crystal Gem, too. Her name was… Rose, Rose Quartz."
Naruto's eyes widened a bit at this information.
"And she really wanted to have a child… so she shapeshifted a womb and we had Steven. " said Greg with a smile and some tears forming up in his eyes as his voice lowered so as to not be heard by Steven. "B-but, as we got closer to the birth, Rose said that because Steven was half gem, he would need a gem of his own to survive, so… Rose… she gave up her physical body and let her gem attach itself to Steven."
Naruto's eyes widened as he walked over to the now sad father and patted his shoulder. "It's okay, Greg. You don't have to go there. Come on, we have some work to do…" said the blond as he gave the man a break to gather his motivation.
"For what it's worth, Greg, she sounds like a great person." Said Naruto.
"She really was." Finished Greg as he let out a chuckle. "I don't know what a magic lady like her saw in a plain old dope, like me." Sighed Greg in sadness.
"Don't sell yourself short, Greg. It takes a special kind of man to have the guts to follow his dream." Said Naruto getting back to making a path and almost catching up to Steven. "She saw something great in you; your son loves you, isn't that enough?"
"Thanks. I really appreciate that." Said Greg.
"(CRACK)" Steven called back in worry. "Ugh, dad, I broke a photo."
"It's okay buddy, if every pork chop was perfect, we wouldn't have hotdogs." Returned Greg reassuring his son. "Just don't get cut." Returned Greg as he saw a laser beam of light that came his way, Naruto pushed Greg inside the storage unit and the beam passed them but not before stopping for a second on their location.
Both Naruto and Greg sighed. "Boy, that thing is giving me the willies."
"Dad, dad! Naruto! I found it! Look!" as they turned the saw the fait pink glow from a giant-looking pot.
"Wow." Said Greg in surprise.
The thing was as tall as Naruto and huge, Steven could fit in it if he was a little less chubby. The barrel was a light pink color, narrowing down from bottom to top; it used two pink gem rocks as a support with no visible power source.
Naruto went to it and wrapped his hands around it before with a little effort he pulled it out of the storage unit. "This thing weighs nearly half of a ton; we're not carrying this to the beach." He said shaking his arms
"Then how? It's too big for the van." Said Greg as a small toy cart rolled next to Steven.
"No, we're not doing it Steven." Said the blond as he could almost read Steven's idea. "It's not going to work, but you are on the right track. You guys find some rope or something to tie it with, I'll be right back."
As he finished, Naruto got into a sprint and spotted a hardware store with a pick-up truck outside and he saw the owner outside.
"I need your truck." Said the blond approaching the man.
"Sorry, sir. We are closing early because of the city alarm." Returned the owner giving the blond a look before turning to lock the door to his shop.
"I know, but this is a matter of city safety." added Naruto stopping behind the man who turned to see that Naruto had a very serious look "I. Need. Your truck." Said the blond with a bit more force.
"(Gulp) Well, it's for the city…" he said with a nervous smile, pulling out the keys.
Sooner than you can say eyeball, the blond was in the car. "Don't worry, any damages will be paid by the mayor." Returned the blond while the business man sighed feeling the tensions disappear.
"Ok, like you practiced." He said as he managed to get the truck started and with a bit of effort, he drove it to Greg's storage Unit.
Greg and Steven saw the Pickup and were happy to see Naruto but a bit surprised by the car.
"Cool truck, Naruto. Where did you get it?"
"I borrowed it." Said Naruto with a bit of nonchalance getting looks from Greg and Steven. "It's an emergency. Greg, you drive." He added throwing the keys to Greg while he let down the tailgate.
With a bit of effort they managed to get it on the back of the truck and tied it with some rope and cables. Naruto didn't like that some of the flimsy cables tying it down but he could see the eye was now huge and it was focusing on the beach. It looked like it narrowed down its target.
"Ok you two drive in the front, I'll be in the back to steady it." He said getting between the canon, which was on its legs, and the cabin.
"Will you be alright?" asked Greg, a bit concerned.
"I'm sure, let's hurry!"he finished.
As they drove in the city it was a pretty smooth ride with every car almost out of the city.
"How is it looking back there, Naruto?" asked speaking through the small window.
"Canon is still here, eye is still there, Amy is still flying everywhere. So yeah, still the same." Said the blond.
"It's okay, Let me put on some of dad's old music. You'll love it." Offered the boy.
"It-it's nothing much really…" said Greg with a bit of hesitation.
"Go for it, Steven. Might as well…" he said as some wheels started turning in his head.
Soon some kind of soft rock music started playing, it sounded like a young Greg singing about driving his van into someone's heart. 'Wow, this guy has a love affair with that van.'
As they almost got there, Naruto made a clone with some premade instructions and sent it away.
Seeing that the town was mostly empty now, Naruto turned towards the eye who was now shining a red glow, he felt the wind picking up 'It's pulling its target towards it like some king of gravity weapon.'
As soon as they touched the beach, they were met by Garnet and Pearl with Amethyst washing out of the water. "Hey, is… that?" she voiced their thoughts.
"Huuahh! He really had it." Said Pearl in wonder.
Naruto got off quickly and started to cut the ropes and the cables through a quick chakra infused Kunai. "Garnet, a little help?!"
That seemed to knock Garnet back to reality as she and Pearl quickly ran to the van and unloaded the canon.
"Gem life signs detected! Commencing sterilization." Said a voice from the eye as it started to pick up with more power, wind was starting to pick up fast, the sand was starting to turn into a sandstorms, and even Steven's house was starting to lose some loose boards.
"We need to use it now!" said Garnet.
"How do we start it?!" asked Naruto looking for a match, some button or lever.
"I don't know how it works! It was Rose's!" said Pearl in a loud voice.
"WHAT!? You DON'T know how it works?! Why, the hell, did you ask us to bring it here then?!" said the blond stopping his search and looking at the eyeball.
"I didn't think you'd actually find it!"
"Calm down, you two!" said Garnet staying cool. "If I remember right, the canon is activated by a code or a phrase that only the owner knows!"
"Then what is it?!"asked Naruto.
"Target locked."
"It's too late!" said Amethyst as the gems summoned their weapons and ran in front of the humans.
"This is it…!" said Pearl as she charged her weapon.
(*)
As the machine started focusing its power on one spot, no one noticed a glowing yellow star soar through the sky before it turned in midflight and rammed in the Eye from its blind spot with enough power to hurl it away a few meters and leave a dent.
"What happened?" asked Pearl as she saw the eye just move and now it was turning away from them.
"Something attacked the eye from behind!" said Garnet as her sight caught something moving.
"But what was it?!" wondered Amethyst.
"Status: attacked, recalibrating targeting." Said the ball as it rotated its focus away from the beach.
The unknown flying attacker was now hovering for a moment until the eye fully turned his way. He put his hands together and the aura, which gave his glow, started to form into a glowing ball.
He accelerated and as the eye started to its gravity weapon, the star accelerated even faster and struck one of the crystals that made the eye. He left a big crack in it with an explosion before he turned away as to not get caught in its vacuum.
The eye seemed to contemplate its situation. "Damage sustained, not critical. Changing to attack formation 3." As it said this, hatches started to open on the ball and advanced turrets appeared.
They all charged and started to fire freely at the target.
The star quickly started to fly above the eye, avoiding energy beams one after the other.
As the beams got closer, he turned up and got some height before turning and gathering some energy in his hands, threw his own fire at the eye but instead targeted the turrets that were firing at him.
Back to gems and the humans. They watched the exchange with interest before the blond grabbed Garnet's shoulder.
"Garnet! What is the password?!" he asked, gaining her attention and everyone else. "We need to get this cannon firing if we want to survive."
"I'm not sure, we never thought we'd need to use it again. It could be anything." she said.
"Then what do we do? We keep guessing until we get it? Ugh, table, ball, fish!" asked Amethyst as she started to spill some words.
"Stop it, Amethyst." Said Pearl pulling her away. "It's not going to be something random. It has to be something familiar. Like Crystal Gems, Rebellion, Save the world!..."
As she kept trying Steven turned to his father. "Dad, do you know?"
Greg shook his head and shoulders, not knowing.
As they were trying to figure out the cannon, the Eye lost almost half of its turrets and sustained some damage on its outer shell.
"Damange extensive on secondary weapons. Attack pattern 4: Release boogie hunter." as it said this, the eye moved away and a door to the inner core opened revealing a small unmanned ship that took off after the star attacker.
The star warrior saw it coming and took off in the clouds with the boogie after him and the eye following them. The star warrior burst into a fury of yellow energy as he gained some distance before the boogie aircraft light up and burst into its own thrust.
Seeing its target in range, the boogie opened a ramp and two missiles with crystals at the tip flared to life in a green fire after their target.
The star warrior turned to see the missiles approaching and turned a sharp almost 90 turn. The missiles turned in a much wider turn but still followed the flying star, although a reasonable distance was now between them.
As the missiles were approaching the warrior turned his sights to the boogie and flew towards it with the missiles behind him.
Back on the ground, the eye was still following the show, and the gems and humans were still trying to figure out the password for the cannon.
As they were trying to brainstorm something Steven came up with an idea. "I don't think mom would chose just any word to activate the canon. They had to mean something."
"But, the gems tried everything. What could it be?!" asked Greg in fright. This was getting very intense.
"Maybe, it's Steven!" said Amethyst, in realization.
"You do have Rose's gem. Maybe you can do it." Said Pearl desperate to try anything at this point.
"Rose was the only one who could make the work, so maybe that passed to Steven like Rose's shield." Said Garnet logically and hopeful.
"But we still don't know the password! What do we do?!" asked Steven, turning to the cannon and begging it to start.
"Damn it, it looks like the show is almost over." Said Naruto as he saw what just happened.
A few moments ago, the star warrior managed to catch the boogie, it was a matter of agility and speed in the air and the star warrior proved it by catching it in a turn
The boogie sensing danger accelerated and did some spins to get its intruder to release. He did not; in fact, he manifested some kind of chains from both hands and latched onto the aircraft. What followed was truly a sight, with his flight and strength working together; he pushed the boogie in a direct path towards the eye, with the missiles close behind.
The eye, seeing the danger coming, changed its strategy again. "Warning, danger imminent, switching to attack pattern 5." It said as the center of the eye started gathering energy from the core.
Seeing the gathering of energy, the warrior let go and as soon as he did a massive red beam of energy fired from the center of the eye. It blew up the aircraft and the missiles. The explosion was violent and the warrior was caught next to it, receiving some damage himself.
He didn't have time to relax as the eye fired one last beam of energy at him and in a flash. To the horror of good guys, they saw him get hit by a very destructive weapon and he resisted as much as he could before being overwhelmed and blasted away and he hit the sea in a loud splash.
The eye roamed above the water to search for its target but could find nothing. "Mission update: dangerous life form terminated. Status: 50% power remaining, 10 turrets damaged, boogie destroyed, one main crystal damaged. Action: resume mission while gathering power. Sending updated mission report for archiving."
The eye fired one last small beam at the sky before turning to the beach. Its glowing eye started the same gravity force to pull things into the center hole to some unknown location.
"It's turning back! We have to fuse!" said Pearl in worry.
"B-but didn't you say that if we used that, it would see us as more of a threat and destroy us like that flying guy, earlier?!" asked Amethyst in worry.
"It might destroy the city, but we don't have much of a choice anymore." Said Pearl.
"Yes we do! Greg, you have to know something." Said Naruto turning to the silent bearded man. "Rose left her weapon in your hiding space, in your care. It has to mean something." Sad the blond approaching the man. "Did Rose ever mention something to you?"
"N-no, nothing! I didn't even know this thing was there. I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" said the man looked almost freaked out and overwhelmed by the situation.
Naruto looked into his eyes and he only saw sincerity and fear in them. He knew Greg was telling the truth. "It's okay, Greg. I am sorry. We'll figure something out." He said as he put his hand on the father's shoulder to calm him down. "You did your best today." He said with soft eyes, he felt bad for putting this man in this situation, instead of urging him and Steven to evacuate as well.
Steven saw his father calm down and said with reassurance. "Yeah, dad. You did great today. And you know what we say: if every pork chop was perfect, we wouldn't have hotdogs." Said Steven.
As soon as the last word left the boy's mouth, the cannon started glowing a pink color before the sound of activation spread and the cannon started morphing into something else: namely the cannon started opening up like the plates of an outer shell, like the blooming of a flower. The sound of the weapon charging could be heard now, it was getting louder.
"It's working!" noted Pearl as the cannon rotated on its wheels and hit the ground. It was pretty much acting like a cannon.
'Holy shit. That actually worked.' Noted the blond. "Ohooo…" the cannon apparently didn't have automatic aiming and he saw Steven struggling to lift it at the eye. He ran to the other side and lifted it with Steven, with a bit of difficulty. He didn't have to struggle long as the gems joined soon after to help aim it.
"Hold on, guys! This is it!" said Amethyst helping Steven's side.
"Brace yourselves!" called Garnet as the canon was glowing intensely.
The cannon glowed as an image of a gem in the center formed before it fired a beam that formed into a rose with spines and finally an image of a woman leading star like beams to the eye before it hit it dead center. The impact was so fast that the eye didn't have time to react.
"(BOOM!)"
The beam caused a chain reaction inside the Eye and it blew apart in tiny chunks in every direction, pelting the beach and the coast side of Beach City in tiny chunks of rock and crystals.
"Steven! You just saved most of Beach city!" said Amethyst happily while Steven and Pearl had worried looks on their face.
"Yeah, good work little man." Said Naruto with a thumbs up and a smile at the boy.
"owqhhhHow did you get it to work?" asked Pearl in wonder.
"I just said that thing that dad always said." Answered Steven simply surprising the gems.
Naruto left to check out a piece of the broken eye, as he turned it around he heard a haunting voice. "Message sent..." it died down but he looked at the sky with a foreboding look.
"Wait, what about that thing that attacked the eye?" asked Pearl in fear.
"It was hit by the eye's weapons and fell far off the coast." Said Garnet.
"Do you think it was another corrupt gem?" wondered Amethyst.
"Maybe, if it survived we'll have to keep our eyes out for it. But for now, we have some clean-up to do" Said Garnet. "We fight our battles one fight at a time." They said as they decided to leave it be for now.
After celebrating for a while, they decided that the cannon should stay with the gems in case something like this happened again. Greg returned with the pick-up to the carwash with Naruto and Steven. They helped him put his stuff back and Naruto returned the pick-up to the store.
Naruto, although he had things to ask about, he decided to leave it for now. The next day when Beach City would surely need his help to repair the damages.
Later, after Steven helped put Greg's stuff back in the storage unit, he escorted Steven back to his house before returning to his own, luckily the eye's destruction missed his tower but it did have a few rocks on the garden.
As he jumped up, he entered through an open window and as he turned the lights on he said. "I'm home, anyone he-? (smack!). Aw!"
As he said those words he was met with red rock thrown in his face. "That's for not helping at all, you dick!" said a feminine voice.
As his eyes landed on the thrower he knew that a headache would come. "That hurt, you bitch!" he said as he was met with the face of a feminine Naruto or Naruko looking very angry.
(*) – Fate/Zero – Battle is to the strong.
Okay, now I'm sure you all have some big questions. Good, I want to keep you entertained. You can put those questions in the review or even add some of your own ideas that I might add. Feedback is appreciated.
I wrote this because it's been nagging me to write a good Naruto x Steven Universe fanfic. I like to read them, I think there is a lot of potential to draw from, maybe because I feel like there is empty space to fill in.
I changed what happened in the episode because it was one of the first that I feel did things a bit strange, like not using fusion. And I tried to explain why in a rational way, as in if the eye saw them as a big threat, it would have used more power and resources to destroy them and in turn Beach City.
To be continued…