Thank you for your reviews:
MIDKNIGHT the fallen one: hahaha yeah, you got me! I got it from Raziel in Legacy of Kain. I think the dudes too cool for me not to mention.
Loki: all will be explained in the third part, dude, so please keep reading.
UsanMusho: Sasuke is reasonable here. Naruto literally handed his ass to him, it's a very humbling feeling. He respects Naruto more than anything.
KamiKageRyuuketsu: fuck you too bro! and I don't want to see you bitchy ass here anymore ass wipe!
DragonPony022: next part. If I jammed everything into this chapter I'll have to publish it next year or something.
On with the story!
I DO NOT OWN NARUTO
Sequel to 'The Blonde Swordsman' Part two:
East wing, Imperial Palace, Chixi capital, Imperial Empire.
Most of the time Naruto wondered how he always seemed to get into this sort of mess. He briefly speculated that it was in his Uzumaki genes but he later blamed it on the fact that he sporadic bursts of bad luck from time to time. Like the time Kimiko senior asked him if the dress she was wearing made her look fat, she was 8 months into her pregnancy that time and he said the first thing that came to his mind: 'yes'. He thought Kimiko's violent swears and body strength couldn't get any worse but he was proved wrong on that unfortunate day.
"This isn't what it looks like!"
"Unhand the empress, Master Naruto!"
"I didn't kidnap her, she's just asleep!"
"I would not like to repeat myself! Unhand the empress now!"
Before the moment, Naruto had just gotten off the carriage and had been escorted into the Imperial Palace where he had met the Empress; a seemingly 22 year old woman that wore a royal purple dress that was speckled with red roses, there was a lengthwise slit going up to her waist on her right leg that opened to reveal golden armour and a trench knife sheathed into the a chink in the centurion-like armour. Her hands were also covered in the same gold material as her leg but the gloves were clawed. The woman had jet black hair and smart glinting teal green eyes, she also had a slender build that made him wonder how she could carry so much armour around and not be sluggish but walk with so much grace and purpose.
As he entered she had been reclined on her obviously expensive throne, tinkering with something he didn't know or even recognise until a strange looking silver wolf nipped her heel. "Oh hello," she said to him, smiling widely, "you must be that guy that helped kill those pesky demons,"
He bowed his upper body at her and pushed his daughter to do the same instead of gaping wide eyed at how wide the receiving area of the palace was and how many guards (mainly vampire-like soldiers and centaurs') surrounded them, "I guess so, Empress-sama,"
She tutted and rose from her throne, the five white wearing elders and one man about her age collectively gasped. She ignored them and glided to him gracefully until she was about four feet in front of him. she was a head shorter than him and had a healthy tanned skin, "no need for that, Mr Naruto, just call me Aia," she waved her wrists and most of the guards left them, "my full name is Hiragana Aia Kasi, but you can call me Aia or Aia-chan in your eastern way,"
"We easterners call those in authority '–Sama'"
"Yes I know that, but I insist there be no formalities between us,"
"As you wish…Aia-chan," the blonde power house allowed his eyes to drift around the glorious palace and all the servants that swiftly moved around, "you've got a nice kingdom, Aia-chan,"
"Yes it is pretty cool," she motioned for him to follow her out of the massive entrance door, "Quinn! Show our honoured guests daughter to her room!"
"You won't mind if I have my clone follow her would you?" Aia cocked her head to the side in confusion and he slapped his forehead before he made a rock clone with two hand seals.
She gasped and happily clapped her hands together, her metal gloves clicked when they came together, "marvellous! Simply amazing! What else can you do, Mr Naruto?" the man waved at his daughter as she followed after the butler with his clone dutifully holding her hand.
"Just 'Naruto' is fine and I'll show you later," they were walking down a random street in the capital state of Chixi. The woman was nodding and smiling to the passing citizens, of course there were some soldiers trailing after them and he could sense some shadowy people stealthily following after them. Oh yeah and there were four wolves made out of platinum, gold, silver and bronze stalking behind them, "not to be rude but I expected you to be…"
"prissier, snobbier?" she jabbed his ribs with her purple long sleeve covered elbow that had gold armour underneath so it was understandable why he winced, "I was brought up right. My parents, rest their soul, were blacksmiths and engineer each. So I have humble beginnings and a fairy tale end. Kind of like…you really,"
He smirked down at her flustered face and raised both eyebrows, "you've been stalking me," it wasn't a question, it was a statement.
She twiddled her fingers and kicked a random stone away, "just a little! I was curious okay!" she waved her arms over her head dramatically, "I mean, you can kill a demon! I can't do that, so you have to understand!"
Naruto hesitated before he pat her head to calm her down, "no harm done. You didn't attack me or my daughter so I'm not offended," she sighed under his hand before she coughed and slapped it away, "I am the Yondaime Hokage's youngest son, Aia-chan; I wasn't exactly born poor,"
"But Mr Minato and Mrs Kushina, with all due respect, weren't exactly model parents. Your bodyguard, bless her soul, was more of a mother to you,"
"I guess so," they were walking past an arable farm and the kind woman stopped to kick a soccer ball back to the farmer's children, "what else do you know about me?"
She looked at him from the corners of her eyes, "that you beat the Great Sage's mother and sealed her up into the moon,"
"I had help,"
"Yeah, throwing that huge rock back into the sky. I'm sure you would have been able to do it yourself but you were tired," she looked up at the clouds and smiled, "Kimiko also had a mother once," Naruto sighed and clenched his fingers to fight off the tears, until he felt her metal gloves holding his hand, "I'm sorry I mentioned her,"
"Don't worry about it," he pulled his hand from her grasp and furrowed his eyebrows when he noticed the disappointment in her eyes, "any problem?"
Her shoulders lowered and she looked away from him, "no…no problem,"
"I know that look, Aia-chan," she shrugged, "I'm not good with all this female mood things but…have you ever had any assassination attempt?"
Aia looked at him sharply and glared, "my mood has nothing to do with assassination attempts; my people wanted me to be Empress,"
"That's good and all but-" he caught an arrow that flew to the woman's head, "we were being followed since back in the palace. Come out or I'll flush you out!" the guards all rounded the unfazed Empress and took a turtle like shield formation to cover her while the blonde slipped out, "last chance!"
Naruto's senses went crazy as the sun darkened and pale suit wearing men (and women) calmly walked out and surrounded the organized soldiers, "greetings Namikaze Naruto, you may not know us by our individual names but we are the Children of Yami." The man he was talking too was too busy trying to get his mind under control and at the same time catch the massive hand that had wanted to crush them with a stone/lava hand, "I am Hazy Frost, Yami-sama's fifth-in-command and you have a chance to allow us to kill the Empress and take her throne or we would take both your souls to Yami-sama,"
The man that spoke was taller than the rest and his skeleton mask had a brick red lower jaw as opposed to the normal skeleton masks the others around them wore. Naruto flooded the closed fist with lava, killing the one inside and pulling the hand back into the ground as well as who was inside. "Still not interested. I know you followed that Zenith guy, so you know you don't stand a chance against me,"
The leader of the fanatics chuckled hollowly then snapped his fingers. His underlings sped forward, literally blurring to the centurion dressed soldiers and thrust their arms through the shields and into their chests, sucking out a white, wispy something Naruto assumed were their souls leaving the Empress in the middle, glaring bloody murder at them and in a stance he didn't recognize with a crystal bow staff in her hands and her four wolves barking madly at the men. "unlike last time we have a hostage," without warning the Empress ducked down and swung her staff over her head, beaning the two fanatics that made to grab her shoulders so hard they fell down and didn't stand up again, she then slide a bit back from a mad grab for her hair and savagely punched the attackers gut, then using the staff to clear him from his feet and bashing him again on the head. More of the attackers came down on her and the blonde war veteran knew that she wasn't well prepared to fight off so many.
Naruto tapped his foot on the ground and Aia was sucked in, with her wolves, and popped out on her feet beside him. To her credit she didn't even flinch but she did smile at his wink, "did you forget what kekkai genkai I have?" he allowed his signature flaming red hair and eyes to burst into life.
The man cursed quietly, "you are still too outnumbered to effectively protect her," he cursed again when the man made four clones without hand seals that too stances around the black haired lady, "attack," he droned and walked away.
"Aia-chan these guys suck out souls. You won't be able to counter that," true to what he was saying the dozens of masked fanatics tore off their lower jaws, revealing their black void-like mouths and proceeded to suck. The flaming red haired man clapped his hand and a shockwave threw them all back before Aia's soul could be sucked out while his clones and the woman's wolves went about and gave them swift deaths. He puffed out some black smoke from his nose and any sign of him using his kekkai genkai to the max was gone. He chuckled when the lady threw herself at him with a bear hug,
"That was so cool! You were like," she lowered her voice to what she thought he sounded like; "'did you forget what kekkai genkai I have?' and you were like poof and the whoosh! And he was like 'ugh! My spleen!'" she was hopping on her feet and poking his chest, "you have to show me some of your ninja jutsu someday," he nodded and stepped back as she whistled shrilly, the four wolves bounded to her with slight clinks in their joints and stood before them, their tails wagging around joyfully, "Xiao, go back to the palace and inform Mr Bryce about these poor bodies,"
The bronze wolf bowed and bounded back to the palace, "I can't sense it-them. They aren't alive?"
She smirked and rubbed the platinum dogs head lovingly, "I made them when I was a child. Matter of fact everything I'm wearing-besides the clothes-I built from scratch before I became a war lord and improved them along the way,"
She clicked her gold clawed fingers and he saw a faint white sheen coat them before she flicked it, her sheathed trench knife in the chink in her legs armour came straight into her hands. She twirled the knife and the bow staff in her hands and he watched as the staff shortened and disappeared into her hands while the knife shot back into the leg chink. She smirked proudly at him and moved around without moving her legs. To his credit he didn't gape, "incredible…"
She turned around and stood on one leg while the other faced him and he saw three small wheels retract back inside her boots. She turned back around and put her arms behind her head, "I can do a butt load of other stuff too," her gold clawed fingers then elongated and sharpened, making it reminiscent to a spiders legs but he was certain that it still kept the collective strength of the expensive metal and the woman's own.
"So your some sort if techno girl or something,"
"Precisely," she whistled idly as she played with a strand of her hair, "I was-am an inventor, it's just that I don't have much time for my own stuff anymore. I only really summoned you to come to meet you; this is the longest I've done my own thing."
"You're handling yourself great,"
"yeah and I'll have to go back to reading border security reports and tax reports and new building reports and whatever when you go back home," she looked away and blew away some hair from her mouth at some hair between her eyes, "if only I had a…you know…" she looked back at him and sweat dropped when she saw him picking his nose,
"You know what?"
Aia glared at him and looked away, "nothing,"
He looked at her intently making her a tad bit nervous, "I wonder; how did you help win the war?"
She glared at him, "what? Is it so hard for you to believe a girl helped end the war?" her voice was low and menacing, add in the fact that she had re-summoned her staff and he was certain she would lunge at him if he didn't say the right things,
"I didn't say that, Aia-chan. Remember, you had people research about me and found out that all the women I've ever had contact with in fight or at my former home were exceptionally too strong for me to underestimate them in a fight. My kaa-san, my birth mother, my female team mate, some of my academy teachers, even the Sage's mother was incredibly strong." She lowered her staff and stepped back, "don't forget Kimiko senior, now that woman was fire incarnate." It was a humbling feeling that despite all the country levelling jutsu he had as well as his so far unparalleled skill with his sword, a frying pan to his head from his lover when she was alive and he would be mumbling to himself in the corner. And when she lifted up her axe, he knew that day that seal less clones were a man's best friend, "I have a healthy respect for females. I just was curious."
She opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by her silver wolf barking and half the soldiers in the capital coming down to their location. One of the normally dressed people that accompanied them ran over to her and was frantically checking her for any wounds, "your majesty! Are you alright?"
Aia swatted his hands away and stood straight, "I am fine; I was well protected," nodding at Naruto. The man had long bleached blonde hair that stretched down to his lower back. He was wearing the same butler suit as the man he and his daughter met in the access point but this man's suit had a long penguin tail on the suit, "I'm sure you know Mr Naruto, Mr Bryce. Mr Naruto, this is Mr Bryce Vigil, the Head butler."
Naruto nodded at the man but the man glared darkly at him, "you are the cause of this,"
"What?"
"You are the reason the Empress was attacked! Isn't it strange that her first assassination in 3 years came to be only when you were around to save her." Bryce winced when the royal woman clamped down on his shoulder and squeezed lightly, letting her claws dig in a bit.
"None of your preposterous speculations, Mr Bryce."
"But-but your majesty!"
"Go and arrange proper funerals for these poor souls," understanding a dismissal when he hears one, Bryce nodded and pompously waked past Naruto. Now that most of the guards stayed back to watch over the queen she couldn't address Naruto without the proper respect, "duty calls Mr Naruto, I'll tell you how I helped win the war at a later time. Meanwhile some of my guards would escort you back to the palace,"
When she said later Naruto thought she meant the next day. What she meant by later was…
"Aia?" Naruto whisper-yelled when he opened his appointed room's door that night. She shoved past him and closed the door when he hesitated, "what are you doing here?"
"I want to tell how I helped win the war,"
"This is 2 in the morning. Cant this wait until tomorrow?"
She ignored him and strode purposefully to his desks chair, "I couldn't sleep."
"and I was the first person you chose to come to out of everyone in the entire palace!" he looked out of the door nervously when he caught himself yelling, thankfully the guard rotation wasn't around anywhere near his door, "do you know what everyone would think if they caught you in the guests room with the guest?"
Aia was wearing a black shirt that was a size too big and baggy black pants that when combined with her jet black hair made her invisible to the untrained eye, "right now I don't care what anyone says. The only one my age in the palace is Bryce and he's a kiss ass!" he rushed over and shushed her, she Spartan kicked him back, "do not put your hands on my mouth! I will yell if I want too!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Please stop yelling," he was frantic; he wasn't in the mood to start any sort of scandal in friendly territory, "please Aia-chan, I'm sorry,"
The woman glared at him, "fine," she rummaged through her pockets and brought out a small contraption, she began tinkering with it and sighing to herself, "I apologise for rudely interrupting your night, Naruto, I just wanted to know how having someone close to my age that's not my servant and that can speak freely to me would feel like. I just feel trapped in my own kingdom with everyone either bowing to me or running to please me. You're different; for the first time in a really long time I was happy talking to someone freely." She said all of this without looking at him, "so I apologise, ok?"
Naruto's shoulders slumped in understanding and his face softened. He drew up another chair and sat down before her, putting his feet on the desk, by her hands. "There's no need to apologise. I know how it feels to be looked up to but to never be free to express myself,"
She let her legs stray to his white sock covered feet and sniffed slightly, "your feet stink,"
He stretched his feet till they whiffed past her face, "I can't smell anything, can you?"
She slapped his feet away from her face and went back to what she was doing, Naruto mentally sighed in relief when he noticed she wasn't wearing her gold armoured gloves, "If I were to be totally I would say that I don't know too much about you. I know the main things and all but you're an interesting person,"
"I could say the same thing about you,"
"That's true but you can go to anyone in my whole kingdom and find out my life history. Against my better judgement all the Empires schools teach it in their history classes. I had to have my assassin corps sneak into konoha's file storage and copy anything there and I'm sure it wasn't complete,"
Naruto looked at her curiously. If her 'assassin corps' could sneak past chakra sensors, ANBU operatives, security seals and boundary seals then they were a force to be reckoned with. "So what do you propose I do?"
"Tell me one of your many adventures,"
"Tell me yours first, then I'll tell you one of mine. Deal?" she dropped the crazy looking machine she was tinkering with and fully faced him, she nodded, "have you read about when my team and I freed spring country from tyranny?" she nodded, "what of when we saved demon country from a demon?" she nodded, "what of when my team and I went to Suna to rescue the Kazekage from the Akatsuki?" she shook her head and he motioned for her to tell her own story,
Hiragana Aia Kasi was the last born of nine children, all boys, to Mr Hiragana Unijo and Mrs Hiragana Tam. Her parents were the town's blacksmith and engineer respectively and were reputed throughout the whole of Stormalow, a sea side town, for never failing in any task they were set to do.
Aia, being the last born, had to fight for any and everything. From a very young age she had taken to following her parents around to their places of work and immediately fell in love with anything that had to do with technology. The first day she had successfully created her first robot wolf, a small yipping machine, cemented her place as the go to girl whenever the TV broke.
She had also passively observed how soldiers from the warlord Stormalow fell under would come over and harass anyone they saw for the measly coins in their pockets. It was when those soldiers came to forcefully recruit all her nine older brothers into the warlords army and when the some heartless soldiers form the man's army came to their house and informed them that all of them had died when they went to raid a neighbouring war lord did she make it her ambition to stop the cycle of death. She was 4 years old at that time.
Her parents weren't the same after the breaking news. Her mother became too sickly to go back to the town's garage and her father was too disheartened to go back to his workshop. The two had taken it upon themselves to keep their only surviving child as far away as possible from anything that was too dangerous which sadly included her inventions.
Aia had to sneak out at night to their humble garage to painstakingly invent her ideas. It was finally when she was 15 years old that did she know as a certainty that she was ready to take over. She had been naturally gifted with a combination of her parent's brains so it came as no surprise that she had taught herself how to punch and kick while she was in her sliver armour and plain purple dress.
She again snuck out of her aging and still depressed parent's house to the garage where she carefully fixed on her armour. She looked at her reflection from the side of a large scrap of metal. Her black hair was in a messy bun and her face was devoid of any emotion.
Her inventions were a whole decade ahead of anything the war lord had at his defence. This meant that all it took for her to gain control of the man's territory was for her to let loose her silver feral wolves into his defences and fire small explosive eggs into at anyone that came at her. Those bombs dug into the soft tissue and blew up not too long later. She came upon the war lords room and made sure his head had been turned into paste before she walked over to his desk and sat down, waiting till dawn for the pandemonium to calm down.
The next day, the whole country would announce that there was a new war lord, a female one that had brought with her iron wolves in her defence and burrowing bombs.
She had instructed her new territories best minds to fully equip her army with her type of armour and added in her own tweaks such as retractable cables from their wrists that could pull in their targets. That was one of the many hidden abilities her soldiers had.
Her parents took the news that she had conquered the country well and they happily chose to retire in their house.
Aia personally marched with her soldiers into other countries with massive contraptions. There were massive tanks and motorized bicycles (motor bikes) with long tubes that shot out black seeds of death at anyone the user fired at. She not too long after took control of the neighbouring war lord's country and expanded her army. She made sure not to neglect her citizenry by assigning her most trusted soldiers to look into their needs and making sure to correct them. She made sure to personally inspect the outcomes to make sure there weren't discrepancies'.
News about a female war lord that had total control over two territories spread and invasions came from all sides. The other war lords didn't take into account that Aia didn't completely focus on the attack aspects of her army but the defence aspects too. They were in for a surprise when they came to her solid stone walls and metal creatures bolted out from compartments under the ground and barrelled through their ranks.
A colossal sized metal elephant trumpeted to the sky and crushed half of Baron Tumour of Woodland country's men into the ground, a metal rhino ran the survivors through with its horn before it hit its head onto a tree, removing the dead men from its horn. It seemed almost impossible seeing all the animals in the safari untiringly defend Aia's territories.
The 18 year old woman came out to inspect the carnage and launched out simultaneous attacks to the war lords territory, claiming them under her banner with the people willingly laying down their arms after she came riding in on a metal horse that breathed fire, her wolves trailing obediently behind her.
A year later she had complete control over all the Empire with all the unique people coming to her incomplete palace to pledge their allegiance.
"What do you think you and your people can offer to the Imperial Empire, Mr Sable?" Aia droned to a bowing man across from her. The man, Sable, was a centaur. His horse half was pure white while his human half wore a long white jacket, and he was shirtless under, revealing his chiselled chest and rock solid six packs. He was kneeling in front of her with his weapon, a bow and arrow, in a guard's hand.
"We offer you our services as your archers; we are unparalleled in that aspect."
"if you pledge you loyalty to the Empire and myself we can fully indoctrinate you into the Imperial army," she cleaned out her ear and looked at the little gunk that came out, "we can have you fitted out with the armour and replace your bow and arrows with cross bows, if you don't mind,"
"It would be fine, your majesty," she clicked her now gold clawed fingers and an archer in centurion armour marched out smartly from behind her throne. The archer silently motioned for Sable to follow and they left through a door far left to her throne.
The next person to step through her massive in construction doors was a tanned woman that nervously shuffled to her. She wore a colourful dress gown and black slippers that weren't seen from under the dress. Her hair was also black that cascaded down to her heels. The woman knelt down and bowed to the newly instated Empress, "humble greetings, your majesty,"
"Rise, kind woman, and tell me what you seek,"
She did so nervously, "I am called Sunny Smile and I am here to pledge the loyalty of my clan to the Imperial Empire and offer our unrestricted services," Aia raised a delicate eyebrow at her, "my people and I specialise in cloth making. We can make the softest of silk from the hardest of materials."
"You and your people would be a valuable addition to my Empire. Tell me Miss Sunny does your clan have a home?"
"We do not, you grace,"
"Good, then I want you to have them move to the new capital." She clicked her fingers again and a soldier marched out from behind her throne, "take her and show her where her clan can settle down when they arrive," he saluted and walked out with the happy Sunny Smile. Aia slouched into her throne and sighed tiredly, she then perked up when her doors were thrown open only to slouch back again when she saw that it was a boy about her age, Bryce. "What is it, Mr Bryce?"
The man slid to her feet and bowed lowly, "news from the Demon forests up North,"
"Another list of dead people will not make me pleased, Mr Bryce,"
"No, no, no your majesty! I bring good news! The demons, all of them, have been killed!"
She sat up abruptly, "then why is this hero not before me?"
"He went as soon as he came, the towns folk said he just took his money and left for his home in the east,"
She glared into space for a while before she spoke, "at least tell me you got his name and description,"
"I did your grace. He is an Eastern man that goes by Naruto and he is a blonde man with peculiar cat-like whiskers and sky blue eyes so deep the towns women swooned at the memory. They said he had complete control over the earth and of fire too."
Aia hummed and briefly imagined him, "you've done well, Mr Bryce, go back to your station and you will be rewarded by me personally tomorrow," he bowed and ran out of the room, "Nightshade!" a wisp of lavender smelling breeze wafted past her nose and a man slowly rose up from the ground and bowed deeply to her,
"Your majesty,"
"I have a job for you. You may have help from trusted members of your clan if you wish. I want you to go to the east and find out all you can about a blonde, cat whiskered man called Naruto who has blue eyes. He has control over the earth and fire so it shouldn't be hard zeroing in on who he is. Make sure he doesn't find out of your presence. Also make sure not to make any hostile approach. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, your grace,"
"Wonderful, this is a mission that is classified under the Imperial Empresses Seal. So you report only to me. Understood?"
"Perfectly, your highness,"
"Nice, go on and do your thing, Mr Nightshade." The small breeze blew past her hair and the man sank back into the ground, there was no sign of his presence besides the rapidly reducing scent of lavender. She then slumped into her chair and patiently waited for the next person to pledge his or her loyalty to the kingdom on behalf of his or her clan or group.
"And that's how it has been for three years," the woman said, "I'm just glad that I had the intuition to make a competent council and subordinates to handle most of my work load. Right now, I have 6 night shift secretaries sifting through the files that aren't protected by my Imperial Seal. They'll give me the summarized report tomorrow,"
He lightly tapped her arm with his right foot in some twisted way of telling her he felt for her, "you're doing great so far,"
"I guess so," she slapped his foot away and rolled her neck, "your turn,"
Naruto made sure he was comfortable in his chair before he started:
Flash back
(This isn't how he told the story. This is how I'm telling the story)
Members of team 7 and team 9 all rode on Naruto's lava board.
It was made up of a solidified portion where they could stand on and the deadly flames shooting off under and behind it that propelled them through the desert at almost impossible speeds. The blonde that had conjured the lava board stood calmly at the front with his flaming red hair and eyes scanning the wide desert for any sign of the Akatsuki members that had taken the Kazekage. His and the accompanying team 9 crouched on the board and also stuck themselves too with their chakra.
Kakashi and Neji too were scanning the desert for the attackers but had too came up short, "Naruto!" the stoic boy turned to him fractionally and raised an eyebrow, "head straight to Suna! We'll get the general location from there!"
"Hai sensei!" he shifted the board bit by bit till he was sure that the place he was sensing the pandemonium from was a few miles in front of them,
Team Gai were observing the flaming haired boy. The Yondaime's son was an enigma to all even his team but it was undeniable that despite graduating as the dead last he was the strongest chunin in the village. From Neji's and Naruto's fight during the chunin exams it was obvious that he held back a lot of power.
"Get ready! Suna up ahead!" Naruto yelled and true to his words the gate to the village hidden in sand popped up close to before them. The boy slowed down the lava board until they were directly in front of the gate,
Kakashi stepped forward to the gate keepers, "we are the ninjas that were sent to help out in recovering the Kazekage, are there any injured?"
"Many apologies, Konoha ninjas, Kankuro-sama was poisoned and is being treated by Chiyo-sama as we speak,"
The teams ran into the village towards where the Suna gate keeper had pointed out was the hospital and when they got to Kankuro's room there (do I need to say that he was poisoned like in canon? He was.) And all hell almost broke loose.
"Sakumo!"
"Wait, what?"
"Sakumo!"
"Wait, what?!"
"Chiyo-obaa-sama, he's not Sakumo Hatake! He is Kakashi Hatake!" the voice of one Baki, a jounin of the village hidden in the sand yelled out as he held back the incredibly old woman from tearing into the still confused Kakashi.
"Oh silly me! I must be getting too senile," everyone in the room, even the heavily breathing poisoned puppet user, until the ever logical voice of Neji broke through the heavy silence,
"We came to assist in any way we could, Chiyo-sama,"
"We don't need any leaf help, thank you very much," the woman snorted,
"It doesn't look like that," Kakashi said and pointed at Kankuro who was getting paler by the minute, he shoved Sakura forward, "Sakura here is being trained by the Tsunade Senju in the art of being a combat medic. She knows a lot about poisons and their antidotes." The pink haired girl nodded, "let us help out, Chiyo-sama,"
Chiyo was about to yell for the Konoha ninjas to leave but was cut off by the silent blonde male stepping forward, "I think you should agree, Chiyo-sama,"
"Oh? Who are you to tell me what to do?"
"Me? I'm no one important," The whole room was taken back from Naruto's words and the fact that he said so without hesitation. Clearly he was the Yondaime's son and that alone made him royalty, "but I do know that Sakura is being trained by a leading expert in poisons and antidotes (Shizune). As we speak Gaara is getting further and further away, maybe he's even dead in a ditch somewhere and I don't like brothers dying in ditches," he tilted his head to the side slightly and the old puppeteer got exactly what he meant, "all we came to do is offer assistance to an ally, like you would have done for Konoha."
"Well if you put it like that…"
Not too long later the Konoha ninjas were all clinging onto Naruto's lava board and surfing the sand in the direction that Kankuro hand pointed out was where Gaara was taken to with Kakashi following the chakra trail and Naruto reaching as far out as his senses could for anything that felt malicious or tainted (bijou chakra).
They stopped in front of a closed off cave and after breaking down the massive boulder courtesy of an unrestrained fist from Sakura they came upon a sight that left them feeling both cold and hot. Gaara lay on the ground with the mad bomber Diedara sitting on him nonchalantly until they showed up, "finally showed up un?"
"Get off Kazekage-sama!" Gai shouted 'youthfully',
"If I don't, what would you do?" the blonde Iwa nuke nin laughed boisterously, "you see these jokers, Sasori-dana? All bark and no bite."
"This isn't the time for jokes, idiot," the hulking figure of Sasori's Hiruko puppet stepped out into the dim light, "hello Chiyo-obaa-chan,"
"Sasori?"
"Yes you old hag, miss me?"
"Not particularly. No"
It wasn't loud but Sasori growled angry, "Diedara go back to the base; I have a score to settle." He threw his ring to the mad bomber, "take that back to leader-sama; whether I succeed or not I'm not going back."
Diedara caught the ring sombrely, "so this is it un? Despite the fact that art isn't eternal you were still a good friend. We are friends right un?"
"Just shut up and get out of here, idiot," the Iwa missing nin saluted and summoned some clay from his pouch and crafted out a massive bird. He leaped on and zoomed out before anyone could do anything, "now…" Sasori threw off the bandanna on his Hiruko puppets mouth as well as the Akatsuki cloak to reveal the weapons, hidden and revealed on its body, "who wishes to die first?"
"We can't let Diedara go. Naruto, you go with Neji and Tenten to deal with him," Naruto's stoic face broke out in a small frown and he opened his mouth to tell them he was staying with Gaara, "I know you want to help Gaara, Naruto, but you're the only one here that can fight in the air. Plus you can take on his bombs easily."
It was a direct command from his superior which meant he didn't have any option in the first place, "I'll go but know that if anything happens to Gaara," his flaming red hair turned a hot white with his eyes following suit, "there will be hell to be pay," he didn't wait for what he said to sink in before he sprinted full tilt up the wall to the hole in the cave ceiling, not too long later the other two he had been assigned with pumped chakra into their limbs to try and catch up. Naruto jumped through the hole and kept running through the desert his senses diligently tracking the rapidly escaping mad bomber. He skidded to a stop and turned back to Neji and Tenten who were a ways away and stomped his feet on the ground.
The two genin were then thrown into the air by a stone pillar in his direction and Naruto spat out a large glob lava. He circled around in a 10 metre radius from where he previously was gradually till his board was sturdy enough, which wasn't too long later, and then he escalated up into the air. He shot straight into the air and used his giant rock augmented arms to catch the two screaming genin, he swiftly ignored their glares and crouched down on the board, Neji and Tenten followed, and with a boom of speed he blasted to Diedara. This was far faster than their arrival due to the white flames under the board.
"Neji!"
"Got it!" 'Byakugan!' the signature veins to symbolize that his clan's doujutsu was active popped up and he pointed forward and Naruto nodded. The flaming white haired boy formed the rat and dragon hand seals and the board split into three cleanly, separating the genin from his own board but the destination remained same.
"It's easy! Just think 'up'!" Naruto yelled to the two, Neji nodded and kept crouched while Tenten eyed him sceptically, "I'm still pumping chakra to your boards but it's you two in control!"
"We get it!" she yelled and swerved to the left as the got a bit close to the giant exploding bird,
"Neji-san take the bottom and be ready with a kaitan if necessary!"
"Hai!"
"Tenten-san hang back and wait for him to jump off!" said girl swerved back to the appointed position and sent him a thumb up, they got close to the bird and the only chunin shouted out, "Diedara-san, surrender willingly or I will be forced to take your head back to Konoha."
"Ha! Like a kid like you could kill me un," he threw his arms out wards and a large flock of birds swarmed to Naruto from the freaky mouth in his palms (he wasn't too aware of Neji and Tenten being there), "have a taste of real art un! Katsu!" the clay birds exploded one by one beside Naruto while the boy made well use of his boards manoeuvrability by flipping and turning away deftly before he spat out a ball of fire from his mouth without the hand seals. The ball of fire was dodged with a frantic upward movement. Naruto punched his stone augmented arms to the bird and clamped down on it but it exploded in his hands when the bomber leaped off. Diedara was about to make another clay bird but his pouch was cut off with a freakishly precise kunai, "shit!" was all he could say as he plummeted to the ground.
Neji appeared from apparently nowhere and caught the bomber on his lava board, promptly shutting down his arms and legs from moving, "it's over, Diedara-san,"
"Like fuck it is!" the boy's byakugan widened and he whipped his head to Naruto. The lava release user's eyes too widened and he shot down, "art is a blast!"
All that happened next went down in half a minute.
Neji flipped off his board and prayed to kami that his body could at least be salvaged after the long fall. Naruto leaped off his own board and guided it under Neji, who looked at him in surprise. Naruto landed on Neji's abandoned board, Diedara's body swelling up slightly from the impeding explosion, he threw open his blue coat and a rock arm shot out of his black shirt covered chest at the Iwa ninja. The hand wrapped Diedara and solidified on him. The Diedara statue thickened till it was roughly about the same size as Chouji at that time before he could breathe a sigh of relief.
The mad bomber missing ninja from Iwagakure was dead but his half exploded body was forever immortalized as a statue that was made residence in the same ANBU training ground Naruto first discovered he had a kekkai genkai.
(He didn't tell the next flash back to Aia)
Naruto allowed a small displeased scowl come to his face as he looked down at his sword arm. It was wrapped up in clean bandages, reminding him of when he had tried controlling Kyuubi's chakra. The skin was still pink. He had channelled the chakra to his arm as well as a lava/stone arm to see what could happen. Needless to say he wasn't quite ready for that possible jutsu yet, "I need another week,"
He was presently in training ground 43, a rocky terrain that greatly favoured his kekkai genkai. He lifted up his katana with his non sword arm and fell into his kenjutsu stance before he made a seal less clone who summoned an identical looking katana with the only difference being that it was obviously made out of stone.
A stray breeze fluttered by the two blondes as they eyed themselves. Then like a light switch they disappeared and appeared in the middle with their swords clashed. The clone back away and slashed sideways but Naruto parried it away easily and parried a slash from the other side. He ducked a stroke and jabbed his katana into the clones belly but it was side stepped. He quickly pulled his sword back before it could be kicked away and rolled away from the axe kick.
The two clang swords again and entered into a blindingly fast sequence on strikes that were dodged and parried by both. It was like watching a lightning storm from above the clouds with the way that the two dance around each other with the occasional spark of metal and imitation metal meeting together. Naruto grunted when a foot connected with the side if his stomach and retaliated with a sharp but strong kick to the side of the clone's knee.
The result was instantaneous. The clone's eyes widened with inaudible pain and the real Naruto used the space of distraction to slide his weapon through the clones head. He pulled it out and swiftly sliced the head off before the body crumbled to the ground, back to its original stone form. Naruto stumbled on his feet from the physical exertion he had to go through before he could take out his clone. His almost inexhaustible stamina didn't count if he was fighting-a lesser powered version of-himself. He steadied himself with his sword and allowed himself to sit onto the ground before he sighed in frustration, "Ok! You can come out now!"
His eyes went to a large rock at the training grounds edge and the spy knew he-or she-had been caught.
Hyuuga Hanabi, after bearing witness to how her prodigy cousin, Neji, was beaten almost too easily in the second round of the chunin exams, knew that there had to be more to the reclusive Yondaime's son. She had previously used a full day to spy on Aimii Namikaze and found out that the girl was too loud and expressive to even be too much of a threat to her quiet and stoic brother. She used the next week to spy on Naruto but had been caught on her third day, "why have you been spying on me, Hyuuga-san?" his eyes were closed and his posture on the ground despite him crossing his legs and his sword on his lap, was relaxed.
"I wanted to see if you were strong," she was Hinata's polar opposite. She was open, not indecently so but she wasn't afraid to say what was on her mind, "Konohamaru told me that you were strong and I wanted to see it for myself,"
"You could have done so without spying,"
"You're not exactly the most approachable person, Naruto-san,"
He shrugged and stood up, his katana in its sheath and the sheath in his hands "I guess so. Next time if you want to observe me training you only need to ask," he walked back to the apartment he had rented in the residential district, he grunted in frustration, "Hyuuga-san, why are you still following me?"
Hanabi came out from behind a fat woman picking out some apples from a store front, "you never asked for my name,"
"I didn't want to know," he made to keep going but stopped and held out his sheath to Hanabi's neck when she was about to attack him, "don't even think about it,"
"My name is Hyuuga Hanabi and I demand you train me," she pushed the black sheath back,
(Do you guys really want me to write his response?) "…no," he kept on going on his way,
"W-wait what?!"
"You heard me,"
"But-but-but I'm the Hyuuga clan heads favourite child!"
"And I could care less. Good day Hanabi-san,"
Needless to say she still stalked him. When she became a genin it wasn't a rare sight to find the girl following the boy in plain sight anytime she wasn't training. It was almost predictable that when he defected she missed his presence and his sarcastic responses.
(The next story is also not part of what he told Aia)
"Can I help you sir?"
"Yes you can. I saw some flyers saying you western guys need some help exterminating some demons,"
Gaiza the bartender looked up at the tall blonde stranger that had strode into his tavern and nodded when he noticed a sword poke out from behind of his shoulders and the lean muscles on his body easily seen because Naruto wore a sleeveless blue shirt and black ANBU style pants with a store bought cow boys hat on his head to protect him from the harsh sun that beat down on the almost ghost town and a long black scarf to cover his mouth and shoulders.
"They're over at the forest south from this tavern stranger. Would you accept western or eastern currency?"
"Eastern if you don't mind,"
"That's good. It's a thousand ryu per head," he leaned forward and whispered across the counter, "but let me warn you stranger, those freaks are very strong, very fast and very dumb. The Empress can't kill one and that's testament to how strong they are. Good luck,"
"Thank you. Oh and my name is Naruto," he strode out of the tavern and walked to where the man had said the monsters stayed. The town folk there kept out of his way, respecting his very presence while the little kids marvelled at how cool the way his long scarf swished behind him was and how the way his cow boy hat shadowed his face sans his fox whiskered mouth made him look badass (go on, imagine it. I'll wait. Ready? Ok!). He got to the forest and the first thing he did was to form four clones, "box this place off and kill any that try to escape," the clones saluted and went about to do their set tasks while Naruto took a last glance at a rough drawing of the beasts he was being paid to kill.
The demons were stumpy and short with numerous octopus tentacles coming out from its back. It had coal black hands and feet while the rest of its body was bright red that fluctuated to dark red when they were angered. The face grotesque, it had a single sharp, flat canine-like tooth that shot down to its chubby chin from where the incisor was supposed to be. The hands had two fingers that read could open up to reveal a hidden tentacle, its feet had only a single large toe to that looked too much like a thumb. The sole town folk that had survived the last excursion into the forest told him that he didn't see any other noteworthy ability besides its speed and durability.
So in summary, he was running in with a figurative veil covering his eyes.
"Just great," but the bounty was too great for him to resist. He had to make some money to add to their already large coffer back at his and Kimiko senior's house so that they could invest it into their two year old daughter's, Kimiko junior, future. He and his lover had scouted out some schools in Kiri and now that he was in the west he could as well find out if there was any good school. Maybe after he agreed with Kimiko senior. If they moved to the west then Konoha as well as any other hidden village after his bounty would stay away. He nodded resolutely and mentally noted to discuss it with his lover.
He trudged in carefully into the forest and when he was deep enough he let out a loud yell. His plan worked half a second later when he heard chattering and burping from behind the sparse trees in the forest. He caught two fingers holding a trees trunk and slid out his katana in preparation for the onslaught.
Burp! He thrust his lava and Kyuubi augmented katana through a diving demon and pumped in more chakra to burn it clean through leaving only its outer body while the internal was empty. He hummed to himself in thought, 'I had to channel in Kyuubi's chakra into that slice before I could penetrate its belly. Maybe that's why no one could kill them; nothing besides Samehada can take the full brunt of the 9 tails chakra and I was using only half a tails worth. Am I right, Kurama?'
'Very. The old sage told me that my chakra was the most potent of all my siblings and this is another proof that he was right.'
'let's not forget that I also channelled some chakra into that strike,' he kicked off the dead demon and twirled around in a full circle, cleaving off eight tentacle demons with their dead bodies burning up from the remnant lava and Kyuubi chakra,
'Don't get cocky kit; it doesn't suit you,' he grumbled as he watched his host slice off some attacking tentacles and jam his sword down a demons throat. He winced and was thankful that it wasn't him on the receiving end of that attack; the first and last fight they had he had taken a full taste of the katana's steel. It wasn't in the remotest way sweet.
'I know, I know. Anyways I don't have any time to be cocky; Kimiko-hime beats it out of me with her frying pan anytime she thinks I sound so,'
'Or that time she used that rolling pin,'
'Or that book shelf,'
'Or that tree trunk,' Naruto sighed in joy at those 'fond' memories. He jumped away from some tentacles that dug deep into the ground and hacked through the air in its direction, a line of lava flew out and slice them clean off. He made half a dozen rock clones to go out and finish off the others as well as the newly laid eggs in the demons nest.
"That was easy," the town celebrated his 'conquest' by naming the festival in his honour. Word about his power soon reached the Empresses ears and she sent out spies to find out anything they could about the hero that had slayed the demons in the forest of Zurucci.
Flashback end
At the end of his tale the Empress looked drowsy.
'Uh oh,' he sat up and shook her lightly, "you need to get back to your room before you fall asleep Aia-chan,"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm goin'" she stumbled to her feet and promptly passed out on the door when her hand touched the knob,
The blonde cursed and caught her before she landed on the ground, "Aia-chan,"
"One more minute mom…"
"Wonderful," he gulped and hefted her up bridal style, "Aia-chan, where's your room?"
"East wing…gold statue of a wolf…door has my name on…" she softly snored and snuggled into him,
He made a seal less clone with one main job, "you've got this boss," the clone whisper-cheered, "I believe in you," he made a bad impression of a large crowd. Naruto disregarded this and nodded; he ran out of the room and pelted down to the east wing where the only room was for the Empress. He ducked behind a statue when four marching guards walked by.
He kept going but had to stop and cradle the sleeping woman back to sleep when she began struggling. She was hurriedly murmuring commands to an invisible army but stopped when Naruto did what he usually does to his 6 year old daughter whenever she had a nightmare. He stroked her hair gently and whispered to her that she was safe and that everything was going to be fine. He skidded to a stop at the door and sighed in relief when he didn't sense any guards. He swung the door open and the alarms burst to life.
This was where we find Naruto.
Authors note
Not as long as my other stories but I still think it's good.
I inspired the Empress after a friend I hadn't seen in long while. If I were to be completely I miss her very much. 'Aia' means 'royalty', 'Hiragana' means 'rose' and 'Kasi' is my Asian take on the name 'Cassie'. Do you think I over powered her? Remember that no one gets more over powered than this story's Naruto. Her tech savvy was also inspired by my friend only a bit more futuristic.
I like to know what you think guys. Your opinions actually give me ideas for chapters. How were the fight scenes? Did it reach any of your expectations?
Review!
B.j.