Disclaimer: I don't own Infinite Stratos or Naruto.
Infinite Maelstrom
Darkness fell quickly and quietly as the citizens of Konohagakure no Sato began their nightly rituals. Lights dimmed or were extinguished as shadows claimed the streets. Chilled winds danced through dark alleyways and around the darkened buildings. Nocturnal animals prowled the silent night.
A lone figure skirted the remaining lights. It jumped from shadow to shadow. Shrouded in darkness the figure approached a large tower casting its shadow across the villager.
A sudden flicker of a candle flashed across the shadow coated figure. Golden blonde hair with a single crimson streak and a pair of cerulean blue eyes with sea green flecks glinted in the darkness. An orange jumpsuit glowed in the shadows the figure hid in. The distinctly male face contorted with a brief fear. Noticing that no one had noticed him, he continued on his path.
Silently cursing, the blonde quadruple checked his surroundings. 'Damn it Naruto,' he thought to himself. 'You could have been seen!'
Naruto soon arrived at a tall building near the tower. He quickly scaled it using windows and missing bricks. After he had ascended to the roof he gazed at the obstacles standing between him and his objective. 'Tall foreboding tower, check, large wall, check, several black clad, animal mask wearing figures, check, damn it.'
Glancing over the edge of the overhang he noted the animal masked guards that were idly standing watch over the front entrance, not for the first time he had to wonder how it was these guys got their ranks, he had no doubt that they were tough in a straight up fight, but even he knew that if things were being done right then you would never fight in the first place. Idly he looked over the pair and marked where the best places would be to put a kunai to either kill or disable the guards, putting to practice one of the many target and anatomy classes that he had attended, well, that he had spied on after being kicked out.
"Senbon to third lumbar vertebrae, to the subclavian artery, kick to the femoral artery," the list went on, he continued to think out loud as target dummies superimposed themselves over the two ANBU standing at the front gates. Two more ANBU approached them. While the first two were brown haired and of average build, the newcomers had purple hair, and distinctly feminine builds. A quick glance and he recognized the two females, and he began to wonder what else they were hiding from him. Shaking those thoughts from his head, he turned to his target. Gauging the distance between him and the target, he then pulled a rope attached to a padded grappling hook. Twirling the rope silently, he pondered, 'A brand new academy student could throw and hook a grappling hook from most of buildings near the tower.' He let the hook fly. The hook soared through the air in a perfect arc.
Naruto smirked as the grappling hook caught on the edge of the tower. Quickly and quietly he attached the rope to the roof he stood on. The golden blonde started to crawl along the rope at a surprising speed.
After reaching the roof of the tower the blonde pulled out four kunai, and a length of standardized titanium-alloy wire, and bound two of the knives to his feet, and put the others in his mouth. He, in one swift movement, propelled himself off the edge of the tower. Expertly he twisted in the air, moving like an acrobat. He deftly drove the blades attached to his feet into the plaster wall, with a practiced ease he removed the kunai firmly clutched between his teeth and drove them into the wall in front of him. Slowly he began his decent, only a minute later; he approached a window from above. Pulling a small pocket sized mirror from the pouch on his hip. He nearly fell from his vantage point.
The Sandaime Hokage had passed the window apparently on his way home. After calming his pounding heart the blonde used his mirror to check for any others in the hallway. None were approaching from either side.
The whisker marked teen gently opened the window, careful not to make a sound. Slipping in and positioning himself into a hand stand, carefully he slipped the kunai off his feet; he then flipped into a crouch.
Slowly creeping along the empty path he began to worry, no one had come, certainly this was a blessing, but the guards should begin to shift soon, he had to hurry or get caught.
Soon he reached the Hokage's office; stealthily he made his way to the Hokage's vault. The vault was hidden behind a bookcase; the vault door itself was roughly seven feet in diameter with a seal placed at the center. The door looked to be made from heavy steel.
Naruto using precaution that didn't fit his "mask of stupidity," stepping around the trap seals that decorated the floor. Scroll filled shelves lined the walls. Standing directly opposite the door was a large scroll, written in kanji on the white slab of paper that attached next to the opening flap, were the words "Scroll of Sealing" in bold black brush strokes. His eyes glanced at the ring of traps surrounding the shelf.
Naruto grabbed the scroll with a speed unknown to the academy students he was classified as. After removing the scroll the orange clad thief noticed the trap seal array beneath it. He let forth a string of imaginative expletives that made the elderly Hokage raise an eyebrow at the teen's extensive vocabulary.
"Naruto," he called, startling the much younger male, bringing about yet another string of imaginative expletives. "What are you doing here at this time of night?"
Naruto slowly turned to face the elderly man. His right hand scratching the back of his head nervously, "Eh-he-hehe-hehehe…" he managed to chuckle in his nervous state. "Ano…" he began. In a quick movement his free hand formed a seal. "Oiroke no Jutsu!" he called out.
He was enveloped in a puff of smoke. The pink tinged smoke faded almost instantly. As the smoke cleared a voluptuous red-head with a single golden stripe, and sea green eyes with ocean blue flecks floating around in them, appeared where Naruto once stood, her well proportioned body stood in all "her" natural glory, her modesty preserved by small concentrated wisps of smoke. The poor, unfortunate, perverted, elderly Hokage never stood a chance as "Naruko" posed sexily, he was launched back because of the force of his excessive nosebleed, he also hit his head on one of the shelves behind him with more than enough power to knock him into unconscious. Another puff of smoke revealed Naruto as he dispelled his technique. "Jiji no ecchi," he muttered as he exited the vault, hauling the giant scroll as he made his escape.
Naruto landed in a clearing only a mile away from the village wall. Tall trees surrounded him, nearly cutting him off from the light of the full moon and the bright shining stars. The blonde sat down and opened the massive scroll. He then immersed himself in reading it. 'Kage Bunshin,' he thought as he read the first technique. 'Bunshin can go burn!' he then continued reading the scroll for other techniques. He turned down "Edo Tensei no jutsu," "Kunai kage bunshin no jutsu," "Chidori," "Rasengan," "Shiki Fuin," and "Mokuton: Chishio Bara." He turned those down because A) he respects the dead, B) he dislikes kunai and shuriken and almost anything related to them, C) 'Who in their right mind creates an assassination technique that isn't stealthy?' D) 'What kind of technique is called "Spiral sphere"?' E) He wants nothing to do with the Shinigami, F) he can't use mokuton in the first place. He continued to pass techniques and items he couldn't, or wouldn't, use.
The paper underneath Naruto's fingers continued to grow older and more weathered as he delved deeper and deeper into the scroll. A four pronged crest caught his eye. A shark, a doe, a white snake, and a lioness formed a square around the kanji "Masuku," pondering whether or not to open the seal, he noticed another seal; eight shapes formed a circle surrounding several kanji. Six winged "suits of armor," a katana, and a metallic rabbit surrounded the kanji for "Infinite Stratos."
Questions began forming within his mind, 'What is "Infinite Stratos"? What do those suits of armor represent? Why is the katana next to the armor? What the hell is with the metal bunny?' in a slight daze his hand reached out and brushed the seal. Naruto noticed that his arm continued to try and move even though his hand was stuck firmly to the ancient paper. 'What the fucking hell?' pushing as much chakra as he could into his hand and arm as he tried to pull away, only for the chakra to be absorbed into the seal, therefore releasing it.
The bright flash of chakra engulfed the area. When Naruto finished blinking the spots from his eyes he noticed a small dark gray choker with eight different colored "studs," white, red, blue, purple, orange, gold and silver, the clasp in back curved upwards and looked to be made from the same material as the rest of the choker. Upon closer inspection each "stud" had kanji engraved into them, "Byakushiki," "Akatsubaki," "Burū Tiāzu," "Shenron," "Rafāru Revaivu Kasutamu II," "Shuvarutsea Rēgen," "Chi," and "Ten." Curiosity getting the better of him he reached out to touch it. The very instant his fingertip touched the object another flash of light engulfed his body and the surrounding area.
Umino Iruka was, to be honest, pissed beyond belief. His date with his girlfriend was canceled because of the village wide search. He suddenly shivered as the image of and angry Ichiraku Ayame ran through his mind. "What were you thinking Naruto?" A sudden flash of light caught his attention. "What?" He ran towards where the flash emanated, only to be blinded by yet another flash from the same location. Rushing even faster towards the source, the brown haired, scarred, Chunin ran as fast as his legs would take him.
Hiding in the shadows Mizuki smirked and followed his "boss," as he tracked Naruto.
The scene Iruka and the hidden Mizuki came across was … odd, to say the least. Laying face first on the ground, next to a closed Scroll of Sealing, was Naruto his body unmoving, a slight glow emanating from his neck. Iruka approached his favorite student cautiously, as the blonde may be pulling an elaborate prank. Gently Iruka rolled the orange clad "Prankster King from Hell" over and took in the boy's face. Eyes glazed over with kanji and strange barely recognizable symbols scrolling across them, mouth open slightly as if groaning, body not moving without outside influence.
Iruka was steadily becoming more and more worried. He gently began to try to rouse the unconscious blonde from his trip to La-la land. Slapping his cheek, no go, shaking him, nothing, calling his name, no reaction, calling free ramen, the unconscious body seemed to glare at him for this attempt.
Not a moment later the sound of blades cutting through air caught Iruka's attention, a mere instant before he was pinned to the small wooden shack, not far from Naruto's unconscious body, by several kunai, embedded in his right arm, his stomach, pants legs, left sleeve of his shirt, and into the pony-tail right above his head. "What the …?"
Mizuki landed next to Naruto's prone from, a single kunai gripped in his hand, his face curled into a cruel smirk. "I get the scroll and I get to kill the demon too, I'll be a hero!"
"Mizuki, you've known Naruto for years, you know he isn't a demon."
Mizuki's smirk turned into a sneer. "You've always been too naive," he said as he brought the blade down at Naruto's solar plexus.
A hand grabbed Mizuki's wrist, "You were going to stab me, Mizuki-sensei?" Naruto's voice was cold and even, his eyes seemed to drill into Mizuki's soul. The fierce scowl adorning his face drove fear into Mizuki's soul like a sledge hammer.
Mizuki reached his hand free let out a loud cry of "Die, Kyubi no Kitsune!" before swinging the blade down at Naruto's nearly unprotected neck.
Only for the blade to embed itself deep into the ground, the target now mere millimeters away from the edge, Naruto glared at the fool towering above hi as the blade was now all but useless.
Mizuki leapt back as the blonde rose to his feet. The teen brought his right hand up and touched the silver oval shaped protrusion on the dark choker on his neck. A murmured word and the blonde was engulfed in bright silver light.
As the light faded a new Naruto was revealed. Standing at his full height his upper torso was covered by a black skin tight, burnt orange lined, under armor, and a dark grey jacket with a burnt orange interior, left open, revealed his muscled stomach to the world. Dark grey cargo pants with black and burnt orange stitched lining, aided by a black leather belt with a burnt orange buckle and a pair of gray on black combat boots, covered his lower body from view. Attached to the belt were two "L" shaped sheathes, as well as his weapon pouches and several more pouches.
Mizuki drew one of the giant shuriken from the holster on his back and began to spin it at a high speed.
The teen yet again brought his hand to the choker, this time touching the oceanic blue oval shaped protrusion. "Burū Tiāzu," the words barely murmured, yet they echoed across the clearing. Azure light consumed both arms up to the elbow. The light formed what looked to be armor, extending a good three inches; the light formed a rectangular prism around the teen's arms, spiked knuckles and clawed fingertips. The sapphire glow faded to reveal a metal rectangular prism around the boy's forearms along with black, clawed, metallic digits. The metallic "fingers" made a closing gesture and a silver object appeared in his hands, a long cylinder was now pointed at Mizuki, a second smaller cylinder was attached atop of the first one, Naruto peered through this one.
Mizuki raised an eyebrow, clawed gauntlets wouldn't do the "demon" any good, but the silver thing perked his interest. 'What can it do?' crossed his mind before he decided to take it off the "demon's" corpse, he then launched the shuriken. He barely heard the faint click from the other side of the clearing.
Blood splattered the surrounding forest, dying it crimson, it began pooling on the floor, and a soul shattering scream filled the air. The sound of shattered metal died as the scream began. A severed limb fell to the ground with a dull squelching thud.
Iruka could barely believe his eyes when the item Naruto was holding clicked, and a beam of what seemed to be pure condensed energy shot forward and shattered the massive shuriken and blasted Mizuki's arm off at the shoulder.
"Take this traitorous scum away," the blonde spat as he turned to the injured Iruka, confusing the teacher as the gauntlets and the weapon vanished in a flash of azure light.
Mizuki screamed in both rage and anguish as he reached for his other shuriken, with his remaining hand, before both scream and movement were stopped by a hand clamping down on his remaining shoulder. He turned to see a Kuma masked ANBU glaring at him though the small eye slits.
The giant bear masked man motioned for his squad to collect the scroll, and take Iruka to the hospital. He and his underlings vanished in a massive swirl of leaves.
Naruto turned on his heel and headed toward the village, the Senbon hidden all over his body, along with the "L" shaped weapons, clinked as he walked slowly towards the village, his hand reaching up yet again to stroke the choker that encompassed his neck. 'Life from now on will be … interesting.'
Some of this chapter is similar to others, so I put my dedication to those authors that recognized their stories in this.
This is the first Infinite Stratos/Naruto crossover in existence to my knowledge.
This is yet another step towards becoming a fully-fledged author.
Please review. I will only add another chapter to any of my stories if I get 10 reviews per chapter. Flames will not be tolerated; helpful (polite) criticism is 100% welcome, as it will only help me improve.