Hello again, I'm back and it's time for Naruto and Lum's match! I hope you all enjoy the chapter!
(Marshalanime does not own Naruto or Urusei Yatsura)
"And now, at last, the game of tag upon which the future of the Earth depends is about to begin!" the announcer called out into his microphone. Behind him and throughout the city were cheering crowd, come to witness for themselves this historic event. "The entire world is watching this event live via satellite" the man announced as several camera crews had their equipment pointed at Naruto and Lum as the two competitors waited in the empty street for the starting signal.
Waiting patiently Naruto stared with Lum, a grimace on his face as his mind kept drifting to last night, 'Damn old pervert. How the hell does he expect me to concentrate on the match after he goes and says something like that?'.
The sun had set quite a while ago and the moon was high in the sky. The two shinobi had been jumping around the city for hours with one simple goal, to get Naruto as ready for his game of tag as they could. To help with this Jiraiya had stopped in at some random nick nack store and had picked up a cheep pair of horns that he could wear on his head. Once that was settled he told the blond to take them from him and ran for it.
Coming to a stop on someone's roof Jiraiya turned around and held up his hand. "Alright Naruto, that's enough" the man told the teen as he two landed on the building.
"What!? You can't be serious!" Naruto yelled at the man, a single clenched fist raising up in front of his chest. "I still haven't touched those stupid horns and you want to call it quits!?" the blond questioned the man as he pointed at the red, plastic horns sticking out of Jiraiya's white hair.
"What's the point of training if you're half asleep during the match because you stayed up all night?" Jiraiya pointed out to the blond. Jiraiya was certain that Naruto would be just fine tomorrow, but the look on the blond's face said that he still wanted more training. The kid will probably pester him all the way back to the house if he didn't do something, fortunately he was quick to come up with an idea.
With a grin forming on his face Jiraiya turned his back to the teen. "Weeeell, I can't give you anymore training for tonight, buuuuuuut..." Jiraiya began, pausing for a few seconds for Naruto to take the bait.
"But what? Come on, out with it Ero-sannin!" Jiraiya heard the blond blurt out, confirming that he had gotten the blonds interest.
"I wont give you training, but I can give you an incentive to win tomorrow" Jiraiya told him with a confident grin as he folded his arms over his chest and sagely nodded his head. "You see, I've heard some interesting rumors lately, rumors concerning you... From what I understand Homura and Koharu have been digging throw some old laws and regulations" Jiraiya said.
"And what's that got to do with me?" Naruto asked, quickly losing interest as his head and shoulders dropped.
"You wouldn't have to ask if you'd just wait till I finished" Jiraiya told Naruto as he turned at the waste to look at the blond. "They're not exactly pleased with the way you and Kushina are living outside the village. They're looking to bind you too the village through an arranged marriage" the old man said, immediately getting a reaction from the teen as Naruto's head jerked up and he took a few steps back in shock. "If you grab that girl's horns tomorrow I'll make sure they pick out a babe for you! What'd ya say, pretty good motivation don't ya think?" Jiraiya said with a big, slightly goofy grin, a grin he kept up to the point Naruto hit him over the head.
"Motivation my ass!" Naruto shouted immediately after his fist collided with Jiraiya's head and knocking the fake horns off his head. Of all the idiotic things Jiraiya could've said that was by far the most idiotic.
"The hell was that for!?" Jiraiya shouted back at Naruto as he hit him in return.
Quickly raising his head back up Naruto glared at the toad sage. "You damn pervert!" Naruto gritted out as the two of them got in each other's faces. "I'm too young to get married, especially to any girl you'd pick out!" Naruto yelled at the man.
"Why you ungrateful little..." Jiraiya muttered. "If that's how you feel then I'll be sure to pick out a wife for you if you LOSE! How's that!?" the white haired man shouted at the teen.
'Damn it all' Naruto thought to himself as his full attention turned to Lum. He was sure that Jiraiya wouldn't actually go through with that should he fail to grab Lum's horns today, but on the off chance he was wrong about that Naruto was going to put his all into grabbing that alien girl.
As a man stepped out from the side and raised a starting pistol into the air the crowd collectively held their breath. In a mater of seconds everything will start. "On you mark! Get set!" the man yelled out as Naruto and Lum readied themselves for the match in these last few seconds. The moment the trigger was pulled Naruto bolted from the starting line, headed straight for Lum. However, Lum was quick to move as well. She wasn't going to underestimate him after how easily he grabbed her yesterday and the moment the gun went off her feet left the ground. To everyone's amazement she was flying up into thr sky, and away from Naruto.
"You can fly?!" Naruto loudly asked the girl as he ran below her. This wasn't exactly something they had planned for.
"You should've done your homework" Lum responded with a confident smirk as she flew around above the blond. It didn't matter how fast he was, he'd never grab her horns if he can't reach her. With that said, her confident smirk briefly turned into a panicked expression when the blond jumped up toward her. It was only quick reflexes that allowed her to pull up in time to avoid him, his fingers brushing against her foot before he fell back to the ground.
'Damn, so close' the blond thought as the announcer said something similar. Looking up he could see Lum rising out of reach. This was probably going to take longer that anticipated.
'This is for the sake of the Earth, so no holding back...' Naruto thought as he brought his hands together. Lum and the crowd fell into confusion for a brief moment as the blond disappeared in a cloud of smoke, only for all of them to be stunned when two identical blonds ran out of the dispersing cloud. Locking arms with his clone Naruto let himself be spun around before being launched up towards Lum.
"This is incredible folks! Never in my live have I seen such incredible feats!" the announcer yelled out as Naruto rocketed towards the alien girl.
Off to the side Kushina let out a sight, a small smirk on her face. "So much for keeping that a secret" the woman remarked, though she didn't seem to have any anger or annoyance in her voice. In fact, it seemed Like she was almost pleased about this.
"It was only a matter of time" Jiraiya commented as he and Shinobu stood next to the red haired Uzumaki, watching the match along side her.
As Naruto came flying at her Lum dove down. "You can clone yourself!?" the girl asked in complete surprise as the blond went over her, his hands reaching out in a vain attempt to grab her.
"You just didn't do your homework" Naruto told her, giving her a smirk as Lum gave him a slightly annoyed glare.
As Naruto started to descend he flipped over so he'd land on his feet, and when he did land it was on top of a street lamp. Without wasting time Naruto Lum found herself being approached by more than half-a-dozen Narutos. "I've got you now!" Naruto shouted out as the group of clones soared right for the green haired alien.
Lum wouldn't be able to fly her way out of this one, they'd reach her before she could move out of the way. Thinking quickly the girl came to only one option. As the blonds got close Lum's body started to spark with electricity. In a show of dazzling light, bolts of thunder shot out from her body and spread through Naruto and his clones. One by one each clone popped and disappeared until only the original was left. Trying to endure the electricity Naruto stretched out his hand for the girl's head, but ultimately his momentum was lost and he started to plummet to the asphalt road below.
"Naruto!" Shinobu cried out, leaning as far out over the barricade as she could as the blond crashed into the road. She'd known for a long time now that Naruto lived a dangerous live but she'd always tried to push it to the back of her mind, telling herself that Naruto would always come back after a mission. Seeing him get hurt like this felt like she had a vice tightening around her heart.
"Is this the end of today's event folks!? Has our hero fallen at Miss Lum's thunder!? What will happen to the Earth!?" the announcer shouted out through his microphone as everyone watched Naruto with baited breath, waiting to see if he'd get back up.
"Okay... so she's got a few more tricks... Big deal..." Naruto muttered to himself as he started to push himself onto his hands and knees, lingering arcs of electricity jumping around his body as he did so. Pushing himself into a kneeling position Naruto's head tilted up to look at lum hoovering above him, a smirk playing across his face, 'I've got some more tricks myself'.
'What is he planning?' Lum wondered as she watched the blond staring up at her. She watched as he tilted his head back down and stood up, only to then put his hands together and bring forth roughly two dozen clones. 'This again?' Lum thought with a raised eyebrow as she watched the blonds run around below her until they'd formed a circle. With curiosity she watched as they went through a few more hand signs before taking in deep breaths and blowing out.
At first Lum only noticed a small increase in the wind as it gently blew through her hair, but it didn't take long for its intensity to pick up. From the center of the circle, directly below her thw wind twisted and raged till it finally reached a tipping point and shot straight up, creating a powerful vortex of wind.
With widened eyes Lum watched helplessly as she got caught in the vortex, her arms coming up to shield her eyes as she was pushed up and blown around. Around and around she went as the wind pushed her further into the air. She made a few attempts to push back against the flow but every attempt ended in her being pushed back and tumbling through the currents.
Eventually she was kicked out of the top of the spiral, left dizzy and light headed as she shakily floated around. She was a sitting duck like this but she felt confident that Naruto would never reach her up here so she had all the time in the world to recover. Unfortunately for her she hadn't noticed Naruto running up the skyscraper next to her. Once he was high enough the blond turned and umped from the side of the building, heading right for the dazed girl.
"Got you!" Naruto shouted triumphantly as he slammed into the shocked girl, his hands wrapping around the horns on her head. Due to her dizziness and the sudden extra weight on her Lum started floating, rather rapidly, towards the ground.
"He's done it! He's done it! Naruto Uzumaki has saved the Earth!" the announcer excitedly called out as the people started to cheer and rush over to where Naruto and Lum would land.
As Shinobu rushed off with everyone else Kushina and Jiraiya casually walked along with the others zooming past them. "They really underestimated us when they gave ten days to do this" Kushina remarked as Naruto and Lum descended into the center of the crowd and out of her sight.
"Well, they couldn't have possible known what Naruto was capable of when they randomly picked him out" Jiraiya told her, to which she did have to nod her head in agreement.
As the two competitors neared the ground Naruto had flipped them over so he'd be the one to hit first. With a thump the two came to a stop, and while it had stung a bit Naruto really couldn't care less at the moment as he held onto lum with a big grin. "Hehehe, so long marriage problems!" Naruto couldn't help himself as he blurted that out, he was just so happy.
Though it was meant as nothing more than his personal thought said aloud, that didn't stop Lum from hearing him and misunderstanding. "Marriage?" the girl asked as she looked over her shoulder at the blond still holding onto her horns. "Oh, I get it. OK, if you insist, I'll marry you" Lum told the blond who immediately let go of her and backed away.
"Wha!? N-NO, no! You've got the wrong ide-" Naruto was trying to nervously get out as the reporters showed up at the front of the crowd.
"Is that true!?"
"Mr. Uzumaki, are you really going to marry Lum!?"
"Oh, this is good! This must be the best goodwill marriage ever!"
"He's barely known her for a day and he's already asking for her hand in marriage! What a guy Mr. Uzumaki is, eh!?"
Naruto could hear several of the reporters say as Lum came up to him and wrapped her arms around him.
"Naruto!" the blond heard his friend hiss out as his mind tried to comprehend what the hell was going on. Turning his head in her direction he was swiftly met with a slap to the face. "How could you!?" Shinobu shouted before turning and running off while crying into her hands.
"Wha...?" Naruto dumbly asked as his hand slowly came up to rub the throbbing hand print on his face. All the while Lum was nuzzling her cheek into his shoulder as cameras repeatedly took pictures of them together.
Of to the side Kushina was watching these events unfold, her arms folded over her chest and her gaze hard. "Jiraiya..." the woman said, getting the man next to her to all but jump out of his skin at her tone. "You wouldn't happen to have a part in this, would you?" the woman asked, her gaze never leaving her confused son.
"O-Of course not! How could I possible be responsible for this!?" Jiraiya managed to say, a cold sweet running down his neck as he turned his head away from the woman. Surely he couldn't be blamed for this, right?