Okay, let's keep moving into chapter two shall we! Now that the set up has been taken care of it's time to get our heroes into this story.
I hope you all enjoy the chapter!
(Marshalanime does not own Naruto or Wakfu)
On the road to Emelka was one of its more frequent visitors, an old enutrof in a green and off white robe that looked to be patched up over and over again. The top of his head was mostly bald with only a ponytail in the back remaining. Fortunately he made up for his lack of hair with a thick, full beard that he had styled with two parts on either side of his mouth being segmented off from the rest using green hair bracelets trimmed with yellow. He carried with him his trusty shovel, designed with a hook so he could easily hang his bag from it.
As he made his way to a large stone bridge that's allow him to continue on his way to Emelka the enutrof stumbled upon two tofu squabbling over a kama. Doing as any sane enutrof would he made short work of scaring the tiy birds off before slamming the wooden handle of his shovel down next to the gold coin and sending it up into the air.
"If even those darn birds start seeking wealth..." the man muttered to himself as the coin tumbled around in the air above him. Pulling his coin purse out his expression quickly brightened at the sound of the Kama joining the others. "My purse gives my live meaning" the man said with a small chuckle as he held the bag close to his chest.
So caught up with his new bit of wealth that the enutrof was taken by surprise when someone tried to get his attention. "Ah, no! Finders keepers!" the man blurted out, moving his purse away from this new voice as he looked for who ever it was that ruined his good moment. What he found were two girls riding atop two dragoturkeys.
The girl in front who got his attention was young cra girl that looked to be in her mid to late teens. Not much could be made of her appearance thanks to the dark brown clothes and cloak that covered everything but her face, but one could see that she had blond hair, jade green eyes, and a sporting a few freckles below each of her eyes.
On the dragoturkeys behind the cra was a sadida girl who looked to be a little younger than her companion. A little more could be seen of this girl do to her being barefoot with large leafs wrapped around her shins rather than the baggy pants the first girl wore. Like most sadida she had dark skin and light green hair and her eyes were a beautiful brown in color.
"Uh, hehe. This is the road to Emelka, right?" the cra girl asked with a small, nervous chuckle at the seeming misunderstanding.
Though the old man had been initially wary of the two strangers, his attitude soon changed when he spotted the gold used on the saddle and rains belonging to the sadida girl. Something that didn't go noticed by said girl as her eyes narrowed ever so slightly at the greedy man. "Um... Yeah!" the man responded as his eyes gleamed with possible riches.
"That's right! You know the way? Because if you don't I can guide you! It'll only cost five kamas, plus the meal" the enutrof offered, only to me immediately turned down by the cra girl as she and her companion took off down the bridge. As the sadida girl said her goodbye to the old man, said old man ran up to the beginning of the bridge with a hopeful expression. "I'll give you a deal on the meals! The innkeeper's a friend of mine, come on!" the man called out to the two though his happy look quickly turned sour when he was ignored. "Hmph. More damn broke tourists from nowhere" the man muttered to himself before he too started down the bridge, starting to sing a little tune to himself to lift his spirits.
"Get ready Yugo! The next batch of peppers are coming your way!" Naruto called out to the younger boy as he tossed a few peppers into the air and pulled out two kitchen knifes. With honed skill the golden blond teen sliced the vegetables perfectly before using the flat side of the knifes to send the ingredients over to his little buddy.
"Got it!" Yugo called out with a wide grin as he jumped up and knocked the sliced peppers into the cooking pot.
It was a nice feeling to be back in the kitchen helping Yugo and Alibert. With everything that's gone on in his life Naruto hadn't the time to stop in and spend time with the father/son pair like he use too. Walking up to the boy Naruto was donning a grin just as wide as Yugo's as he held out his hand for a high five.
Compared to his friend Naruto was quite a bit taller, but that shouldn't be of any surprise given the age difference. Like always he wore his Konoha headband that kept his golden locks from walling in front of his blue eyes. Aside from that he wore his usual orange pants and orange and black jacket, though in the heat of the kitchen he left it open, showing off his black shirt. His right sleeve was rolled up, showing a burnt orange, armored bracelet that seemed to resemble a fox's head in way, with his wrist and hand coming out of an open mouth.
Yugo was an energetic kid with blond hair that went past his ears and poked out of his hat. His hat was blue and was rather large for his frame, what with it being longer than his torso. Its design was a bit unique, covering everything atop his head starting from just above his brown eyes and having two ear of horn like parts coming out of the top before stretching down his back and ending with a clump of white fur. His shirt was yellow and sleeveless with a brown string and button holding the collar together and a pouch located near the bottom of the garment and below the white belt he wore. He wore blue shorts along with blue sandles.
"You two never cook normally, do you?" a deep voice asked after the two blonds completed their high five.
Holding his right arm up in front of his chest Naruto stared at his bracelet with an amusement expression. "You're just upset because you don't get to taste our good cooking" Naruto told the thing as Yugo's tofu, Az, flew over and landed on the young boy's head.
"We'd let you eat if we could Kurama" Yugo added.
"I don't need your pity" the bijuu replied. Oh how he wondered how he could've fallen to this. He was the strongest of the nine bijuu, it took only a single tail to cause title waves and a single bijuudama from him could take out a handful of mountains. Yet here he was, his only means of interacting with the world being through this damn bracelet that his previous host got for her son. It was humiliating.
As the two blond's started to chuckle the sound of the front door opening and closing, soon followed by a "Greetings Mr. Mayor!" from a familiar voice let the two of them know that an old friend had found his way back to their town.
"Sounds like Ruel's back!" Yugo happily said as his head turned to where the public area of the restaurant was.
"It sure sounds like it" Naruto added with a small grin.
Alibert, a muscular man with a strong jawline, a thick, brown mustache that fell around the corners of his lips, and a large chief's hat that like Yugo's fell along his back, was refiling one of his customer's drinks when his old friend came into his establishment. With that grin of his Alibert was quick to respond to the enutrof with a "Holy albino gobball! Ruel Stroud!". Moving over to meet the man in front of the counter Alibert gave him a knowing look as he asked "You've come to pay off your tab at last?".
"Alibert, it's a good day so please don't spoil it" Ruel told the man, finding the remark less than amusing.
In one swift move Alibert pulled his old friend into an embrace with a hearty chuckle. "Have a seat, you old crook" Alibert told the man as he pulled away from the hug. Turning and heading behind the counter he asked the man how he was doing.
"Oh, nothing special. Just getting by. You were right Alibert, it's no good to live a life shoveling around like that" Ruel told his friend as he placed his shovel and back to the side and sat down at his usual spot. In fact, Ruel had used that particular spot so often that Alibert took the trouble of getting a small plague with "Stroud" engraved on it pu on that part of the counter.
"I think I'm going to hang my shovel up like you, and open a restaurant in Bonta, or maybe assemble a gobb-ball team again" Ruel told the man as he rested his left elbow on the counter and briefly looked up at the ceiling in thought.
"But right when you need to get kamas out of your pocket you're assaulted by doubt, aren't you?" Alibert asked with a small laugh, giving the man another knowing look.
"Ah, great. I open my heart to you and all you do is laugh at me!" Ruel remarked, disgruntled at how accurate his friend was. As he turned his head away and placed it in the palm of his left hand Ruel heard his friend give another chuckle.
"I know the tune, you old crook. You've sung that song daily for the last ten years" Alibert cheerfully told the man and got a grumpy 'Hmph' in response. "Yugo! Naruto! Add a plate of stew for this poor enutrof" Alibert called into the kitchen.
"No problem, Dad!/Coming right up!" the two blonds quickly responded, getting some good old laughs from Alibert and Ruel.
As Alibert turned to tend to other things Ruel commented "You still haven't told me how you got that kid of yours". In response Alibert simply turned his head back to the old man and raised his eyebrow at him. "Ah! It wouldn't be with that cute eniripsa from Amakna who always was tending to your wounds, perchance?" Ruel asked, trying to dig up some juicy information. "Uh... Fails, Folus, Folis?" Ruel tried to remember her name, all the while Alibert was giving him an amused look.
"Phillis" Alibert corrected the man, letting the name roll off his tongue. "If I tell you, will you pay your tab?" Alibert playfully asked the man, immediately making the old man lose interest.
"Ah, there you go again. It's really an obsession!" Ruel told his friend.
"One stew coming up!" Yugo cheerfully said as he and Naruto started going through their normal routine, skillfully dicing up ingredients and tossing around this and that along the way to a finished product.
"Careful Az, wouldn't want to get caught in the crossfire!" Naruto warned the tofu as it flew around dodging what ever the two threw around. Az had been through this before, though that didn't stop him from getting hit on the head by a slice of salami, sending it crashing into one o the shelves as Az went tumbling into an open bag of flour.
"Watch out!" Yugo called out as the two blonds took notice of the falling bottles. As Naruto dove to try and save the glass Yugo stretched his hand out on reflex, unintentionally creating a blue portal above Naruto's hands and catching the falling bottles in it. The two blonds were understandingly surprised by this development. Never before had Yugo displayed any kind of magical talent and so for a moment the two of them shared a confused look.
"Since when could you do that?" Naruto asked, looking over his shoulder at the boy as he propped himself up into a sitting position.
"Are you sure I did that?" Yugo asked as his attention turned to the palm of his hand. Turning it away from himself he thrust his hand out, trying to replicate what he did with limited success as a bit of wakfu left his hand. Giving it another try Yugo managed to create another portal between himself and Naruto, resulting in the bottles he'd previously saved flying out and breaking all over the older blond.
"Oops" Yugo let out with his cheeks turning red in embarrassment as he say the annoyed look on Naruto's face, along with the multitude of liquids covering him and slowly turning into a thick green goo as they mixed. "Sorry about that" Yugo apologized as they heard Alibert ask if everything was alright.
"Everything's fine! Just something we have to clean up later!" Naruto called out to the man as he stood up. Turning his attention to Yugo Naruto told the boy "Well worry about this later. For now, finish the stew while I wash this crud out of my hair".
"Right" Yugo responded as the two turned and walked away from the mess of liquid and broken glass, neither of them noticing Az hoping out of the flour bag with a blue, translucent feather sticking out of his backside.
It didn't take much longer for Yugo to finish up the stew for their paying customers, and one non-paying friend. Though his flashy trick of tossing each bowl neatly to each customer did result in Ruel's stew covering his face. Not the biggest problem in the world but it did mean that they had go and cook up another bowl for the man.
"And there you are! Once again, I'm sorry!" Alibert told his friend as he gave him a new bowl. "Then again, I'd really be sorry if you were a paying customer" Alibert tacked on.
"I forgive you!" Ruel happily said as he pulled a wooden spoon from his sleeve. "Artists can be forgiven of anything, Alibert, and the greatest of all artists is you!" Ruel told his friend, giving his spoon a twirl before dipping it into his stew.
"Hahaha, you vile flatterer, you!" Alibert told the old man. "Well, I'm gonna fetch you some desert" the restaurant owner said as he turned to head into the kitchen.
With a smile Ruel watched his friend go as he thought 'If I could pay for all my meals with flattery I wouldn't be so thin'.
Just as the man put his first spoonful of food into his mouth a loud crash caught his attention, and soon Alibert was back with Naruto and Yugo in tow. As the two blonds ran out from around the counter to see what was going on the front door was bashed in, being sent flying into the building by their unwanted customer.
Standing in the open doorway was what looked like a monster, a tall muscular thing with grey skin that stood with its back hunched over and its knees bent. It had long orange hair that touched the floor behind it. Two bangs, shorter then the rest of its hair fell down over its chest with pieces of string tying off the ends, similarly to the mass of hair behind it. It wore a white, sleeveless shirt with flaps on the front and back that extended well beyond its hips, and along the front of the shirt was a long, thin cross-like design sharing the same red color as the areas around the neck and arms. Below that it wore a pair of black shorts that stopped mid-thigh and further down the legs were near knee-high boots that matched the shirt in color and design. Its head was square-ish with a protruding lower jaw with large grey canines sticking straight up. Its ears were long and pointed and its eyes were pure white and partially concealed below a thick brow. On its forehead was another eye, though this one had a big black iris and was impeded in a red object of some kind.
Without a word this thing walked further into the building, its feet bringing an audible impact each time they came back down to the floor. As it looked around everybody watched it with baited breath, save for Naruto and Yugo who looked more annoyed than anything. Everyone cowered behind their menus when it looked at them, until it's gaze was drawn by four golden gobb-ball trophies sitting on a shelve.
Pausing for a moment the creature soon made its way over to the shelve, scaring the couple sitting below the trophies as it reached out to grab one. Holding the trophy in its hand the beast brought it up to its face, admiring it. "That's nice! That... shinny!" the monster got out, enthralled by the gleaming gold.
"Drop that, you big dumb thing, we've got better things to do!" the eye on its forehead reprimanded the beast as it narrowed. "Carnage... It's carnage time!" the eye called out as it widened, only to be covered by a white cloth.
Yanking the cloth of its head the beast turned around to see who had placed it there, finding Naruto and Yugo standing their with peeved expressions.
"Hey you! Do you see this big mess you've made?" Yugo asked the big thing with his hands on his hips.
"If you think we're going to clean up after you then you're dreaming pal!" Naruto told the thing, his arms crossed over his chest.
Clearly it wasn't all that happy to be told that as the monster's expression turned fierce and it raised its left fist to pound these two into the ground as the eye on its forehead cheered on the coming destruction.
"I don't think they're listening to us" Naruto commented as he and Yugo jumped out of the way, watching as the beast's fist went through the floorboards.
"Of course they're not listening, dumbass! Can't you tell that this poor fool let themselves get taken over by a shushu? It should be obvious after all the work your mother went through to get this damn bracelet!" Kurama shouted.
"So that's a shushu then?" Naruto asked as him and Yugo landed between the beast and the counter. "I'll be honest, I was expecting something a little... more" Naruto admitted as the dumb lug glared at them.
"Hey Yugo," Naruto called over to the boy, getting his attention as red chakra started to bubble its way out of his bracelet. "Let's put those new powers of your to the test, what'd ya say?" Naruto asked with a grin as he brought his right hand back.
"Yeah!" Yugo quickly agreed with a grin of his own as Naruto shot his hand forward. The chakra coating the appendage continued to surge forward and shaped itself into a clawed hand and slammed into the beast, pushing it back and pinning it against the wall. The customers were unsurprisingly frightened that by the fight and most of them ended up fleeing as Yugo placed a portal above the struggling beast's head.
As Yugo opened up a second portal for him to ump through, Alibert's eyes widened as he was reminded of the day he found the boy and of the message that accompanied him. It had been written in thin air in a language he didn't know, but when the words flew into him it was as if the person who'd written them was speaking directly into his ear, "This child and this tofu are very important. I chose you to take care of them. Raise them, and protect them with your live. One day, the child's powers shall awaken, and a message will appear to tell him where to find his real family. On that day he will leave to rejoin them. The fate of the world depends on it".
Landing on the beast's head Yugo swiftly reached down and took hold of the third eye. Yanking with all of his might Yugo started to pull the thing off of the beast as sparks of energy started to fly about around it.
"What are you doing, you brat!? Let go of me!" the eye yelled out just before Yugo removed it from the poor soul being possessed. Raising it into the air the boy was surprised when it transformed into a small sword.
With the source of the possession gone the beast's body became limp in Naruto's chakra arm.
As Alibert and Ruel rushed over to congratulate the pair on their victory the beast began to shrink, reverting back to its original form. Where there was once a hulking monster was now a lop girl with the chakra around her being the only thing holding her up. Her hair was still long, though it now only fell to the small of her back. Her frame thin and no where as impressive as her earlier forms, though she did have a nice figure as a girl. The clothes she wore hadn't changes except in size, shrinking down to fit her normal body.
Seeming to wake up the girl weakly opened her pale eyes to see the group in front of her. Feeling herself being freed she watched as the red chakra retreated back into the bracelet. Stumbling her way forward the lop came to a stop in front of the group. "I've absolutely got to tell you, uh..." the girl tiredly said before surprising everyone by falling asleep while still standing.
"She switched channels!" Ruel remarked after seeing that. Though it was probably understandable given how long she may have been like that. "Well, that was a piece of cake" the old man commented as he turned towards the two blonds. "By the way, what was that trick, Yugo? I'd never seen that kind of magic before" Ruel asked the young boy.
Folding his hands behind his head Yugo gave the man a big grin. "Well, it just came to me, like that. It's cool, isn't it?" Yugo responded before dropping his hands back to his sides. "I learned about it while I was cooking" the boy said as Az flew up to him.
Hearing his son, Alibert knew that he couldn't keep that message a secret any longer. Kneeling down the man had a serious, yet comforting look as he placed a hand on Yugo's shoulder. "Yugo, I've got something very important to tell you. When I found you, there was a message in your cradle. It was about your powers and your real family" Alibert told the boy.
Yugo was left speechless by this, wonder what he should say to such information. Though any further discussion about this would have to wait it would seem. From outside the group could hear cries for help. With that taking priority everyone rushed outside to bare witness to tiny black creatures clinging to bits of wood and leafs running around the town and turning everyone they touched into human shaped bushes. Unable to stand back and just watch they rushed out to do what they could to help the townsfolk.