Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Mega Man Zero.


Dreams about the Past

"Uzumaki Naruto, the Fire Daimyo has summoned you and the Konoha representatives here today to discuss the delicate issue of how to deal with the aftermath of the Fourth Great Shinobi War," the spokesman for the Fire Daimyo declared.

To be honest, Naruto wasn't in the mood to discuss anything, especially with nobles who had done nothing but hide behind ninjas and civilians.

The war had been won, but many of his mentors and friends had died. Tsunade, Kakashi, Gaara, Shikamaru, Sasuke, Sakura…to name a few.

Over the last few months, Naruto had thrown himself into his training to assuage his guilt. Perhaps if he had been stronger, his dear loved ones wouldn't have had to die. And of course, the constant training kept him distracted. Training with over five hundred clones each day, Naruto clawed his way up, higher and higher to the heights that had never been achieved by shinobi.

If only he hadn't been such an idiot and had done this earlier…

"Yes?" Naruto asked in a flat tone, keeping the irritation in his voice to a minimum.

"Effective immediately, you will be anointed as the Rokudaime Hokage!"

Naruto's eyes widened slightly, but he immediately narrowed them again and bowed. "Thank you. It is an honor to be considered, but I will have to refuse."

In the past, Naruto would have been elated to achieve his childhood dream, but the cost had been too high for Naruto to rejoice too much now.

"This isn't a request, Naruto-kun," the Fire Daimyo spoke for the first time as everyone in the room became quiet.

Naruto looked at the noble in confusion. "What do you mean? How can you force me to be the leader of the village?"

"Naruto…" Homura warned from where he sat.

But Naruto hadn't meant any disrespect in that particular question. He was genuinely curious as to what led to this development.

"The fragile peace that we desperately fought and spilt blood for is being threatened once more," the Fire Daimyo sighed dramatically.

Naruto looked at the man angrily. How dare the pompous noble claim that he suffered through the war? Naruto had to take a few deep breaths to calm down.

The spokesperson translated. "The other nations and hidden villages appear to be mobilizing in an effort to move against us."

"Impossible!" Naruto cried. "Everyone fought together. We were all comrades!"

He expected this from civilian nobles who knew nothing about the sacrifices they had to make during the war, but not from the Tsuchikage, Raikage, and the Mizukage.

"Naïve!" Homura thundered. "Naruto, no matter how much goodwill you have for others and others have for you, others may not feel the same! Don't assume that everyone is as pure-hearted as you are!"

"Well then…is it greed? You're saying that they're attacking us because of money and land after a war in which we fought for peace and survival?" Naruto asked incredulously. "What use is money when half the world is dead? There isn't a scarcity of resources at all! Or are you saying that they are motivated by fear? They have nothing to worry about when the entire world is sick of war! We have no reason to attack them. None of these this is making any sense."

Koharu clicked her tongue. "Why Hiruzen and Tsunade favored you so, I will never understand."

Naruto growled. This whole meeting was testing his patience already and this old hag was just making it worse. "Get to the point…"

"It may be the case that we don't want war, Naruto-kun," the Fire Daimyo said although he didn't sound too convincing on the matter. The man slowly fanned himself. "The other countries don't believe that. They simply believe we are biding our time to regain our strength. It's fear of what we could become in the future, not fear of what we are now."

"There have been reports leaked to other villages that you are training incessantly. They fear that this is a sign that Konoha may be preparing for war," Homura added. "With all the bijuu sealed in the Gedo Mazo and all the previous Jinchuuriki dead, you are the undisputedly strongest shinobi alive."

Naruto didn't even feel a small bit of pride at that. There was no glory in being the strongest when that strength didn't translate into results.

"The other villages and nations will not stand for this. Even without the Kyuubi inside of you, you still have portions of the Kyuubi's power, making you the only human weapon in the Elemental Nations. With your vaunted Sage Mode and the other abilities you gained through and after the war, you have become the target of fear and suspicion."

Naruto's jaw dropped. "You're telling me that I'm the cause of this war?"

"Essentially correct," Koharu answered. "Handing you over to any other village is out of the question, so it is time for Konoha to make a bold statement and set you on the seat of power. If Konoha and the Land of Fire go to war against the other villages and nations, you must be at the front lines upholding the Will of Fire!"

There was a pregnant pause in the room before the Fire Daimyo spoke.

"Arise, Rokudaime Hokage!"


Naruto woke up with a jolt.

The details of his dream were rapidly fading away but Naruto was sure his dream had been about his village.

His dream was an encouraging sign that his memories were clearly in his mind, but was frustrating at the same time because it proved that Naruto didn't have complete access to those memories for whatever reason.

Sighing deeply, Naruto tossed and turned in his bed in a futile attempt to go back to sleep.

After several minutes he gave up and got out of bed.

After washing up and changing, he took the lift to the floor with the Trans Server. Naruto didn't even bother to check the coordinates for the Trans Server. All he knew was that he had to get out.

Naruto arrived on top of a small, forested cliff. The vegetation around seemed to be mostly organic but some of the plants did show signs of modifications. The modified plants appeared to be some sort of techno-organic form of life. He couldn't feel nature chakra at all to confirm if they were alive or not, but nature chakra was more or less undetectable by even the most skilled of sensors.

To his shock he found Ciel sitting on a rock looking at the rising sun.

"Ciel?"

"Eep!" The girl jumped up in fright and turned around.

Naruto just stared blankly at the girl, whose face was rapidly turning red.

"What are you doing out here?" Naruto finally asked, after a minute of just staring at the pink-wearing girl. She had seemed like someone who always followed the rules to the letter so to see her outside of the base in what was more or less an unauthorized personal trip was a surprise.

"I should have figured you would eventually catch me on one of my outings," she murmured, as she turned around and looked out in the distance where the sun was beginning to rise. "Seeing how you came here without even thinking about how you were going to go back, you're quite the curious and adventurous type, aren't you?"

"I have a portable Trans Server that I could use to go back and I didn't feel like putting up the effort in trying to sneak past the guards you have up around the base to get some fresh air," Naruto explained as he walked to her and sat down on the large stone next to her. Naruto took in the sight of the trees, the rocks, the clouds, and the brilliant sun peaking over the far mountains. "It's beautiful…"

"I often come here when I have a lot on my mind," the girl commented in a soft tone, explaining why she was there. "Reploids can appreciate the beauty of nature, but it isn't quite essential for them as it is for humans."

"This doesn't seem like you at all. Isn't it dangerous to be outside the base like this, especially without any escorts?" Naruto wasn't really scolding her. He understood her feelings perfectly. After all, he too had left the base to get some fresh air. Living underground for nearly two weeks without end made him claustrophobic. The girl had done it for years. She must have been going crazy.

She didn't answer his question directly.

"This place is called Area Zero, the only area outside of Neo Arcadia that can sustain human life."

"I thought life was impossible outside Neo Arcadia," Naruto said slowly.

The girl nodded absentmindedly. "For the most part, it is. Area Zero is more like a pet project of Neo Arcadia to try to repair the planet; it's one of the few areas where Neo Arcadia has succeeded in restoring nature to its original state. But because of that, Neo Arcadia combs this place almost every week and destroys anything that might even harm the ecosystem."

Naruto frowned. "If this area was under heavy surveillance, then how did you find this area in the first place? You can't just teleport yourself wherever you want to go, right? You have to have coordinates and a warp zone or Trans Server…"

The girl smiled lightly. "It's not hard to obtain coordinates when you're part of the government, Naruto. I told you that I was special among humans. With my abilities, I rose within the ranks of Neo Arcadia really quickly. You might even say that I was Neo Arcadia."

Naruto just remained silent as Ciel sighed and went on. "There's no warp zone here but…I visited this place during a scouting mission in the early years of the Resistance when we were looking for places to live and hid a portable Trans Server in the ground beneath that tree over there. Unfortunately, because of the heavy attention Neo Arcadia gives to this place, this place wasn't any good for a hideout," she added wistfully. "When I was young, I was much bolder and didn't fully think of the ramifications of my actions, so I always used to do things like running away from the Resistance Base to spend time out here alone without anyone finding out. I grew wiser and more cautious over the years, but I could never seem to let this particular habit of mine go completely." Ciel sighed and looked up where the brightest stars were still visible. "Does it make me a bad person that I'm playing with fire like this? So many friends paid with their blood so that I may be here today, yet I'm squandering their sacrifice by indulging myself."

"Who knows?" Naruto answered noncommittally. "I'm not an expert on moral law. Aren't you supposed to be the smart one?"

Truth be told, Naruto had often felt the same way in the past. He always considered it much easier to give than to receive. Receiving, especially something as precious as the sacrificial life of a comrade, often felt like a burden.

The girl let out a small laugh even if Naruto's joke had fallen flat.

"In any case, what brings you here at this hour, Naruto? Half the Resistance is convinced that you're stalking me, but surely you wouldn't give up sleep just to follow me around, would you?"

Again, Naruto noticed that she was trying to pass off her own embarrassment of having been caught by teasing him. Naruto mentally smirked at her amateur move. When he was younger, he might have scowled and vehemently denied that he was doing such a thing all the while forgetting about the situation. He was not that dumb anymore. War made him grow up and quickly, too.

"I want to clear my head. You see, I had a dream about my past," Naruto answered honestly while keeping his composure. "Like with most dreams, I forgot a lot of the details immediately after I woke up, but I still remember more than enough."

"Not pleasant dreams?" Ciel said hesitantly. Naruto could tell she was curious about his past, but was intentionally holding back from asking too many questions out of respect for his privacy.

Naruto let out a hoarse laugh. "I can't ever remember having pleasant dreams from the day I became a ninja and I don't think it has to do with my current memory loss." He chose to lie down on his back on the large rock and look up as he spoke. "I had hoped that things would change for the better in this world, but it seems that the cost of life is pain. That hasn't seemed to have changed even after a thousand years."

Naruto was fully taking advantage of Ciel's generosity of not prying by being intentionally vague about his dream. He didn't bother telling her any of the specific details that he did remember. The details were irrelevant at this point and Naruto wasn't completely comfortable revealing certain things about himself just yet.

Ciel shook her head. "No, I suppose it hasn't. The scientist in me rationalizes it by saying that life is a struggle for finite resources. The more life there is, the scarcer the resources become. But that's just a nice way of saying that people are inherently greedy, distrusting, and fearful of others."

Naruto chuckled darkly. "Those specific words actually sound very familiar. In fact, I was always scolded for being too naïve and trusting. No matter how many bad things happened, I kept choosing to see only the best in others and hoping that things would work out. Sometimes they did, but more often, they didn't. But what can I say? I'm an idealist."

Ciel nodded. "That much is evident. You wouldn't be helping us if you weren't." Ciel turned and smiled brightly at him although Naruto realized it was partially forced. "I think that's a good thing though, Naruto."

There was a long pause between them. Neither of them said anything for several minutes and just took comfort in the other's presence.

Ciel began, "I'm here actually because—"

Naruto answered for her. "Guilt." Naruto felt the girl tensing next to him. "Am I wrong?" The girl didn't answer. "The air itself is my playground, Ciel. I can sense my environment through small changes in the wind. There are gravestones and a small energy knife about thirty feet behind us."

Ciel didn't deny it. The girl sniffled and let a few tears drop. "I lost so many comrades, Naruto…and…and…"

He nodded. "You're afraid to lose another one." The real reason why Ciel was here became crystal clear to him all of a sudden. Naruto decided to be blunt. "What's my next mission?"


Ciel grit her teeth. "I've been struggling with this for days about whether I should send you on this mission. It's been on the missions list for some time now but…" she drifted off and sighed before selfishly telling Naruto what she wanted him to do. "Anyway, I want you to destroy the Disposal Center, where they retire our comrades one after another. Today is the day that they are scheduled to retire several of our comrades who were caught. They're were charged and convicted of being a Maverick without so much as a fair trial."

"Why didn't you tell me that earlier? I could have left sooner…"

"I…I didn't want to be too demanding," Ciel answered. "You're already helping us without any compensation. I wanted to give you all the time you had to prepare."

"To help me prepare? Or to assess my performance?" Naruto asked not unkindly.

She winced. The blond boy seemed to understand and read her in a way that no one else did.

"Both," Ciel admitted. She got the feeling that Naruto had already known the answer before he even asked the question. For such a brash boy, he could be surprisingly deep at the right moments. She half-wondered if the brashness was just as a mask that allowed him to hide his inner thoughts.

"I see," Naruto said gently. "No one has ever come back from this mission, huh…"

"No," she shook her head. "As I already mentioned to you, the Reploid Disposal Center has set schedules on when they retire Reploids. We've sent rescue forces many times, but they always failed. In the end, we just ended up losing more comrades."

"And so you're here," Naruto concluded. "You're wondering if you're going to be adding my name to the gravestone next." Ciel didn't respond and just continued to shed tears silently. "Hey…" he said gently, "don't go killing me off just yet. I'm stronger than anyone you met so far, right?"

"There's a B-rank Reploid in there, Naruto! One of the elites! Yes, if you had absolutely no chance of survival, I wouldn't be asking you this but…but…" she trailed off.

The older boy sighed from his spot next to her as he continued to look up. "Ciel, I appreciate the thoughts, but I already promised that I would help you on my own accord. Don't feel guilty or burdened because of a choice that I made."

Ciel's breath hitched at those words. They were pretty much the same as Passy's last words to her. She only felt that those words wouldn't be lead to the same outcome for Naruto as they did for Passy.

But at the same time, she felt a surge of gratitude in her heart and nodded. "Thank you," she murmured softly. "I'll try my best to believe in you, then. Even if the retirement date is set for this morning, there is plenty of time left for us to prevent any loss of Reploid life. Please destroy the enemy facility, Naruto."

"You can count on me," Naruto replied in a somber tone, a direct contrast to how he normally reacted. He hopped off the rock and took her by the hand to help her down. Let's first go back to the base."


A few hours later, Naruto found himself packed and ready to go. As Naruto left the underground Resistance Base, Naruto heard Ciel giving him instructions over the wireless communicator she had attached to his portable Trans Server.

"Naruto, we can see you on our cameras right now. If you continue to directly east at top speed, you'll see a guarded restricted zone in about two hours! The Reploid Disposal Center is at the center of the restricted zone. Good…good luck, Naruto!"

Before the mission began, Naruto left her with one final comment. "I promise the Reploid Center will be destroyed, Ciel. I won't die. You better believe it."

Two hours later, Naruto found himself somewhat worried that he would run out of energy fighting hundreds, perhaps thousands of enemies. He knew he had a lot of chakra, but he couldn't fight an all-out war by himself indefinitely. For some reason, his stamina wasn't what it used to be and Naruto had to account for an enemy of unknown strength at the end of all of this.

To compensate, he entered the restricted zone and approached the Disposal Center in as stealthy of a manner as he could. In this case, Naruto used a transformation technique to disguise himself as a Pantheon.

Less than a minute later, Naruto had to jump behind a vehicle to avoid a buster shot from several Pantheons.

"Damn it!" Naruto cursed as he body flickered repeatedly to dodged the numerous bullets.

Naruto punched through the metal armor of a blue Pantheon. Without pulling his arm out, Naruto lifted his arm to use the now-dead Pantheon as a shield against several buster shots. Feeling the Reploid's body heat up, Naruto threw the Reploid at a group of charging Pantheons just as it blew up from the accumulated energy from the buster shots.

Naruto body flickered behind another Pantheon, twisted its body to make it face towards the other Pantheons, and disappeared just as quickly as the Pantheon fired at several other Reploids.

Naruto mentally cursed as he continued wrecking havoc on the Neo Arcadian forces. Unfortunately, his infiltration plan hadn't worked so well. It seemed like the Pantheons, the degenerate blue clones of X, did have some sort of intelligence. They were easily able to differentiate between a transformed Naruto and one of their own and now Naruto was spending valuable time fending off waves of enemies.

Naruto decided to try hiding but it appeared that once the Reploids had gotten a lock on him, there was no fooling them apparently. Genjutsu didn't seem to affect them for too long and Naruto didn't even have time to take out a scroll and brush to use fuinjutsu because of the vast numbers the enemies had. He was too busy just trying to avoid all the buster shots.

"Damn it! There's just no end to these things," Naruto complained as sliced through another enemy with his energy kunai.

Naruto hurled an energy shuriken at several Reploids in the shape of a spiky ball and then jumped up as high as he could to put some distance between himself and the enemies.

Grabbing onto a chain hanging down from a large crane with his legs, Naruto flew through hand seals while hanging upside down. "Screw stealth and conserving energy. These Pantheon Hunters are annoying the crap out of me. Katon: Hisei Endan (Fireball of the Fire Spirit)!"

Naruto blew out a huge white-hot fireball that engulfed the dozens of Neo Arcadian Reploids below him and reduced them to nothing but ash. Even the concrete on ground itself was charred black.

Naruto smirked victoriously but groaned a second later when he heard the alarms in the area go off.

Dodging several buster shots from a dozen Pantheon Flyers, Naruto cursed and started running as fast as he could without enhancing his body with chakra.

"Damn it! I hate my life!" Naruto cried.


"Ciel?" Ciel turned around from the monitor to see her close friend and fellow scientist.

"Cerveau-san?"

"You can't keep standing in front of a blank monitor like that, Ciel," he admonished her. "You'll just worry yourself to death."

"He's human, Cerveau-san," she replied, "I know that he has incredibly powers, but he's on a mission that no one has even come close to finishing. He'll be facing hundreds of enemies and at least a B-rank combat Reploid at the facility. It's different from defeating a single Golem or even the C-rank enemy that had been guarding the factory."

"Noted," Cerveau admitted. "But there's nothing you can do at this point. And Naruto probably feels that way, too. He is either maintaining radio silence or has turned off the radio, probably to prevent you from worrying. You need to get a hold of yourself."

Ciel looked down in front of her. She had been tightly clasping her hands in front of her and her body had been shaking the entire time.

"Ah…" Ciel sighed as she forced herself to relax. "My apologies…"

Her mechanic friend shook his head. "There's no need to apologize. We're all worried. But we can't let it eat away at us. Look, you already set the system to alert you if Naruto sends a message. And you have to remember that you're human, too. You can't stress your body too much and do all-nighters like you've been doing for weeks."

Cerveau had a good point, but Ciel couldn't simply ignore her duties. She couldn't afford luxuries during a time of war. Moreover, this was a war that she herself had started by creating Copy X to replace the original X who had gone missing. It was her responsibility to see this crisis through no matter how much she suffered.

"I…" Ciel began.

"No arguments," Cerveau firmly stated. "Here," he grabbed her arm. "I'm going to take you down to see some of the others. It's been a while since you've spent quality time with the children."

"W…wait!"

Cerveau didn't relent and dragged her by the wrist downstairs to the main hall used for major announcements. She was surprised at Cerveau's behavior. Normally, like her, he was very passive. There was something going on here.

Ciel didn't have much time to think because she was tackled by a young Reploid girl holding a white doll.

"Ciel-neechan!"

Ciel wrapped her arms around the young girl.

"Alouette-chan! Everyone!" Ciel looked around to see all the Reploids in the Resistance—at least those who weren't out on missions or had assignments around the base—in the room. "What's going on?"

"Happy birthday!"

"What?" Ciel gasped as people cheered for her and even brought out a mechanical, unfortunately not edible, cake with fifteen bright candles that lit up intermittently.

"Ciel-neechan! Thank you for giving me my doll. I never really got to thank you after you sent it to me!"

Ciel smiled at the young Reploid girl. Alouette was one of Reploids considered too energy intensive to keep around during the current energy shortage and was immediately labeled as a Maverick. The young Reploid girl suffered heavy mental trauma and Ciel had hoped a bit of kindness would help the young girl to open up. Fortunately, given the happiness that Alouette was exuding, Ciel's plan had worked.

"Of course, Alouette-chan. I'm glad you like your present. How are you doing with the others?"

"Menart-baka is still playing pranks on me, but I'm getting along well with Perroquiet-kun! He's really nice to me!"

Ciel laughed. It was an open secret to all the adults in the Resistance Base that the young Reploid boy and aspiring scientist had a huge crush on the girl. It was no wonder that he was extra nice to Alouette.

Ciel set the girl back down on the ground. "Well, you be a good girl now and run along."

"Okay!"

Ciel spent the next thirty or so minutes greeting everyone else in the Resistance. She smiled as she received the mostly strange and random presents, but some sweet and useful—the thick hooded pink winter sweater some of the Reploids who had been domestic Reploids in Neo Arcadia was particularly nice—from her Resistance comrades.

Cerveau had been right. She really hadn't spent time with her friends—her family—because of her work. She had been far too obsessed with missions lately and in the last few months before they found Naruto, too absorbed with finding Zero.

Zero…Ciel thought, mood suddenly reversing. She had thrown away the lives of her comrades for something that hadn't even been a real possibility. She should have known better than to rush into a place simply because of high-energy readings.

But at the same time, they had no other options and no time to spare. It was incredibly fortunate that they had at least found Naruto.

Her mood dipped even further as she was reminded that Naruto was currently on a dangerous mission while she was here celebrating her birthday.

"Happy birthday, Ciel," Cerveau finally said, walking up to her, after the initial celebrations were done.

Suddenly remembering her suspicions that she had on her way down to the main hall, Ciel took Cerveau to the side privately as everyone else eagerly chatted and laughed at the stories being told by the old Reploid Andrew. "What's going on?"

Cerveau chuckled as he handed Ciel a silver necklace with a long turquoise gemstone. "Naruto's present for you," Cerveau said, as her eyes grew wide in surprise. When did Naruto manage to find something like a gemstone? "That's a relic of Naruto's past, in case you were wondering," the Reploid engineer explained. "From what he told me, this crystal was destroyed and repaired at some point. I'm sure he's exaggerating, but he said it was worth several mountains during his time. Or maybe he meant that in an abstract sense because he said that someone he loved like a mother gave that to him."

She felt touched by the sentimental gift and made a note to thank Naruto if…no…when he came back. Ciel looked appraisingly at the beautiful crystal. "There's…there's some sort of energy coming from it…" she said in an awed tone. Tearing her eyes away from the blond ninja's present, she looked at Cerveau. "You still haven't explained what's going on, Cerveau…"

Ciel was tempted to sigh as Cerveau laughed sheepishly. It was clear that her Reploid friend had been trying to sidetrack her with Naruto's present. "Well, you see. It was Naruto's idea." He frowned. "Naruto felt that you were being overworked and that a fifteen-year-old girl was still a girl. For humans who are mortal, birthdays are a big milestone. Naruto seemed furious when he heard that we haven't celebrated any of your birthdays since we escaped Neo Arcadia."

"But we don't have the time and energy for things like this! If I were still a girl in Neo Arcadia, then yes, I might have the luxury for something like this. But we're fighting for survival here, Cerveau-san! And…and…even right now! Naruto is out there suffering for my sake for something I am to blame for! It's too much to ask for all of you to be happy for my sake when you may all be retired at a moment's notice!"

"Is it really too much to ask?" Cerveau replied bitterly. "It's true that we're living with fear, but it should be moments like these that make life worth living for, right?"

There was a long silence between the two of them.

"Naruto…" she said slowly, mind slowly putting the pieces together. "Naruto asked you to do this to distract me…" She paused. "He…he must have somehow looked at the missions list and saw this particular mission was set on my birthday. That must have been why he seemed to know how I was feeling this morning when I talked with him…"

"You talked to him this morning?" Cerveau asked curiously. "It must have been really early because Naruto came and talk to me at 0700 hours to plan this so you wouldn't worry—" Cerveau clapped his hands to his mouth.

"So Naruto did plan this stunt to keep me occupied and not just because birthdays are important, didn't he?" Ciel asked, deciding to go on the offensive…more to cover up the fact that she practically had gone on a secret excursion with the ninja than to seriously accuse her friend. There were already ridiculous whispers and rumors going around in the Resistance Base and Ciel didn't want to add to those.

Cerveau steeled himself and crossed his arms. "Well, I'm not going to confirm or deny anything. But I will say that Naruto seems to be the type of person who thinks of everyone else before he thinks about himself."

"Yes…he definitely does seem like the type…" She looked down. "I…I hope he comes back."

"You and me both, Ciel."


It had taken some time and effort, but Naruto managed to shake his pursuers. Naruto had decided to bite the bullet and summon a few hundred shadow clones to create mayhem as he quickly slipped away. The sudden increase in the number of intruders must have thrown the sensors of the Pantheons off because they initially had seemed confused and unsure of which clone to follow.

And with that, Naruto was able to return to his original strategy of remaining stealthy and slipping by all the guards, this time, of course, not relying on a transformation.

"Touton Jutsu (Transparent Escape Technique)," Naruto whispered as he disappeared from sigh.

He jumped over several spiked pits and strategically killing scouts and finally reached the facility undetected and without any more issues.

"Hm…" Naruto pondered out loud as he looked at the bolted shutter doors. He dropped the Touton Jutsu as it prevented him from performing any other techniques while the jutsu was active. He was inevitably going to get into a big fight so stealth was pointless at this point. "This is definitely the place based on the coordinates," Naruto rechecked his device showing his location relative to where he was supposed to go, "but I expected the area to be better protected. It makes no sense for Neo Arcadia to guard the outer regions so much and not important sites like the Reploid Disposal Center." Naruto shrugged. It was either a trap or it was possible that the Reploid guarding this place was just that confident about his or her strength. At this point, however, it didn't matter. Raising his senses to be on guard for any ambushes, Naruto raised his now-glowing hand. "Here goes nothing! Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere)!"

Boom!

The outer door broke down revealing a long passageway.

Not sensing any enemies around, Naruto continued running down the hall until he reached an inner room where the retirement of Reploids was no doubt being carried out.

The inner door opened as soon as he touched it.

"Welcome intruder," he heard as the door opened, "I have been awaiting your arrival for some time now. My name is Aztec Falcon. Harpuia, the Guardian of Wind, sent me to clean up the trash here."

Naruto stared at the bird-like Reploid in mild shock. "You've been expecting me?"

Naruto instantly went on guard. He was loud and obnoxious in his youth, but even then he was excellent at hiding when he wanted to be. It couldn't have been the Pantheons as they were still chasing his clones around. It couldn't have been those strange video cameras that Ciel mentioned. Initially, Naruto had been under a transformation, which should have fooled the cameras even if the Pantheons weren't. Then, later on, Naruto had been cloaked under the Touton Jutsu, which was a ninjutsu that warped light around him, after giving the initial wave of Pantheons the slip. That should have been more than enough to fool the video cameras. Even the Pantheons he had met during the second half of his trip had been unable to detect him when he finally activated the technique.

Yes, Naruto knew that the moment he had destroyed the doors, his cover was blown. But that didn't explain how this Aztec Falcon knew he was the one coming. The bird Reploid didn't even looked phased or shocked.

To think that someone managed to catch him without him noticing…

Sighing, Naruto put his hands into a familiar seal and dispelled all the clones running around the periphery of the restricted area. They wouldn't be needed anyway and Naruto could use the extra chakra.

Aztec Falcon cawed in derision. "Fool! I wasn't expecting you specifically, but you Resistance trash always send someone to die whenever a retirement is taking place." The bird Reploid pressed a button on the wall. "You've come further than most, however. And I don't know how you managed to fool over five hundred Pantheon hunters who seem to think there are hundreds of intruders on our border's edges instead of a single one here, but you're just in time! I'll dispose of you along with the rest of the garbage below us!"

Naruto slowly felt the floor vibrating and moving down slowly. Naruto maintained his balance with practiced ease. Well…it was a relief that Aztec Falcon didn't have a way to spy on him, but that did nothing to solve the situation he was in.

Naruto quickly looked down while keeping an eye on the bird-like Reploid.

"Help! Help us! Somebody, help us!"

"I don't want to die!"

"Help!"

Naruto couldn't see the Reploids, but was sure that it had to be the members of the Resistance Force that Ciel was talking about along with few other newly accused Neo Arcadian Reploids.

Naruto readied himself and got down in a battle stance.

Instantly, Naruto jumped back and latched himself onto the walls as Aztec Falcon charged at him with great speed. "You have five minutes before your friends die, ha ha!"

"Five minutes?" Naruto repeated slowly, as if digesting the information. "That's more than enough time!"

"Die!"

Naruto hopped across the room as Aztec Falcon leapt upwards towards him. He turned in the air and tossed several energy shuriken towards the bird.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Naruto saw the energy shuriken bouncing off the bird's sharp metal wing-like arms. "You fool! Toys like that aren't going to damage me at all!"

Naruto ignored the bird and continued to hurl more shuriken at the Reploid. That's right…just keep being an arrogant ass. It'll only make things easier.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

Ping!

"Arrg!" Aztec Falcon stumbled as one of the shuriken embedded itself deep in his back. "Impossible!"

Naruto only smirked in response. Naruto had thrown the last shuriken to deflect one of the earlier ones he had thrown and redirect its path, causing a series of ricocheting of several of the shuriken, and finally leading to the hit. Normally, Naruto would have used chakra strings to guide the shuriken, but the material that the energy shuriken were made of didn't mix with chakra very well.

Naruto narrowed his eyes and focused on the situation at hand. Judging from how Aztec Falcon had protected itself and how it was stumbling from the hit to its back, Naruto figured that the only invulnerable spots were the Reploid's arms.

Naruto ducked under several lightning charged blades that were hurled at him. And a lightning type as well…perfect!

Ciel had told him that Reploids were classified by letter ranks: from S to F. Naruto had noted that it was similar to how his village ranked its ninjas and missions. Most Reploids C-rank and above specialized in a single elemental nature. There were a few exceptions, of course, like Guard Orotic, but if the dense lightning armor now surrounding Aztec Falcon's body was any indication, that wasn't the case here.

Wind countered lightning and wind, even after all this time, was still Naruto's best and favorite element.

Hands flying through hand seals, Naruto cried out, "Fuuton: Reppuu (Wind Release: Gale)!" He leapt forward along with the pressured burst of air and got inside the bird Reploid's guard as the Reploid tried to weather the onslaught of wind by using one of his arms as an anchor. Naruto thrusted his arms forward as the wind completely discharged the lightning surrounding the Reploid's body. "Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere)!"

Crash!

Aztec Falcon slammed into the wall.

Naruto jumped back cautiously to observe if the Reploid was dead from a safe distance.

"Grrr…" Aztec Falcon groaned as he stood up. "Not bad, for Resistance garbage…I am going to enjoy tearing you apart…"

Naruto whistled in surprise. "You Reploids sure are tough," he remarked as he prepared another Rasengan. Guard Orotic had managed to weather dozens of Rasengans by continually replacing his damaged arms. Aztec Falcon seemed to be far more inherently robust and would need more than a single Rasengan to keep him down. "You're faster, stronger, and more durable than I expected."

"'You Reploids,' you say?" Aztec Falcon growled. "You speak as if you're not a Reploid yourself. Do you claim to be human?"

"Yup!" Naruto smiled as he dodged a lightning-charged swipe. "One of the most kick-ass, awesome, and handsome humans you'll meet, but yeah, human."

"Heresy!" Aztec Falcon screamed as he slammed his arms onto the ground, charging it with dangerous electrical energy. Naruto leapt back onto the wall and held himself there with his chakra. "Humans do not have such fighting abilities. It is our responsibility as Reploids to protect humans and you, as a Reploid, declare yourself as one? This is beyond even Maverick behavior. This is heresy! Die, heretic!"

Naruto didn't bother responding. The Reploid was going to die anyway, so what business did Naruto have breaking him out of his delusion?

"What to do…?" he muttered as he looked at the charged floor. Naruto did not have a desire to be electrocuted like a carrier pigeon caught in a thunderstorm.

Naruto was beginning to run out of time though and he needed a plan. These higher ranked Reploids were far more durable than he had anticipated and it didn't look like even another Rasengan was going to keep Aztec Falcon down. Some of his stronger techniques were out of the question because of the relatively enclosed space.

Naruto mentally groaned. He really should have learned deadly techniques that also didn't destroy the entire area around him after his encounter with the Golem. He had never got around to it in the last two weeks because he had been too focused on retrieving his memories and later, training those two bumbling idiots in the Resistance.

Who did I piss off to always find myself in these situations? Naruto thought sarcastically.

That moment, Aztec Falcon jumped to his location and punched at his head. Naruto turned his head as the Reploid's sharp arm went into the wall. "Die you heretical Maverick! Die!"

Naruto merely swung himself over Aztec Falcon's metal arm, twisted himself in the air, and slammed a heel on the Neo Arcadian's face.

Thud!

"Ow, that hurts!" Naruto winced and nursed his foot as the Reploid slammed into the ground. Even with chakra amplification, his heel was screaming in pain. "What are you made of? Metal?" Naruto slapped himself for that stupid comment and jumped to the other side of the room as Aztec Falcon attacked him again. "Uh…never mind."

Was there anything this guy was particularly weak against? Naruto was able to neutralize his lightning attacks with well-aimed slashes of wind, but the Reploid's fortified metal body didn't seem to be particularly weak against wind ninjutsu at all. Naruto had initially thought to charge his weapons with wind chakra, but remembered that the weapons did not absorb chakra well. His energy shuriken and kunai seemed to be able to penetrate the armor at least when the Reploid wasn't using his lightning armor, but not enough to cause a fatal blow. And Naruto was running out of weapons anyhow.

The Reploid was completely immune to lightning. Wind simply did not have the penetrating power needed to go through the lightning armor Aztec Falcon had over his body and through the Reploid's fortified metal armor to cut him down. Fire, especially Naruto's fire, was far too dangerous to use in an enclosed room; he didn't want to be roasted along with the Reploid. Earth was weak to lightning and if Naruto wasn't careful to keep water attacks completely pure, water would be weak against lightning as well.

Naruto sighed. He swore that one of the first things he was going to do after getting out of here was create a weapon he could use to pierce these Reploids' armor. That and come up with a more precise jutsu.

Wait…Naruto thought. He had to stop thinking in terms of chakra.

Yes, impure water normally conducted electricity, but—Naruto smirked—impure water also short-circuited machines running on electricity.

Normally, that probably wouldn't have worked, but Aztec Falcon was sporting several holes in his armor from the energy shuriken Naruto threw earlier and the Rasengan it took at point-blank range.

Naruto looked down towards Aztec Falcon who was beginning to stand up after getting knocked to the ground. Naruto wasn't going to give the Reploid a chance to attack again. "Suiton: Suihou (Water Release: Water Gun)!"

Naruto spat out enough to flood the half the room and watch as Aztec Falcon screamed from the electrical energy in his body going haywire.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you!" the Reploid screamed as the water entered the cracks in his armor made by the shuriken Naruto had thrown and the Rasengan that Naruto had hit him with. Sparks of electricity flew all around the room as the machinery inside Aztec Falcon short-circuited.

Naruto took out a pre-prepared scroll. "Suisei Shouin (Water Spirit Sealing Method)!" The water instantly vanished into the scroll, leaving only the kanji for "water" on the scroll. Naruto quickly took out his last three shuriken and placed them in between his fingers. Wrapping his body with protective wind nature chakra and ignoring the pain from where his shuriken cut into his hand, Naruto jumped down to where Aztec Falcon was frozen and slammed his wind-coated fist through the Reploid's core.

Boom!

There was a small explosion in the room and Naruto felt the floor give way as the explosion destroyed it.

He landed with a light thud on the ground of the basement where the retirement was supposed to happen. "Ow, ow, ow," Naruto complained as he stood up and stretched. "Man…the explosion might have hurt me a lot more if I hadn't thought to wrap myself with wind chakra." He looked down at his badly injured palm. "Okay, that was stupid," Naruto commented of his plan to use the shuriken as a way to increase the piercing power of his punch. "Note to self: never try to imitate Chidori with energy shuriken in my fist, although perhaps an incredibly sharp and condensed wind-based version using my hand might work."

He supposed he could have just used a sharp wind based attack to cut through the Reploid's armor instead of the shuriken, but Naruto hadn't known if the water had had enough time to completely sap the Reploid's armor of its electrical power.

Naruto took out a scroll and unsealed something to wrap his bleeding hand around with. "Damn it. How pathetic…the only wound I got was a self-inflicted one."

"Um, savior-san?" one of them asked.

"Eh?" Naruto glanced at the green-clothed Resistance members and the several Neo Arcadians he had just saved. "Savior-san? Oh, no. Don't call me that. My name's Naruto, Toad Sage of Myoubokuzan. Ciel sent me." Naruto froze.

Wait. Myoubokuzan? That's right! I am the Toad Sage! My summons creatures were toads! "Ero-sennin…" Naruto muttered quietly under his breath. He…he was my master! Ugh…I'm still missing something here…something about nature…

"Ciel-san sent you?"

"Yup!" Naruto plastered a huge smile on his face, while making a mental note to think about his newfound memories later.

"Thank heavens!"

"Ciel-san? Who is Ciel-san?" A now-former Neo Arcadian asked.

"She's the leader of the Resistance! She's the one who has been protecting falsely accused Reploids all this time!"

"Eh? The Resistance?! We were told that the Resistance was a horrible terrorist organization!"

"You fool! They're the group that just saved us! It's clear that Neo Arcadia is the organization that's lying!"

"Um…guys?" Naruto asked, feeling uncomfortable about cutting their discussion short. "Hate to cut you guys off, but we need to get back. Enemies might be showing up any second."

There weren't any alarms going off, but the explosion that had blown the building apart was sure to have alerted the authorities.

"Right!" All the Reploids present agreed before they all collectively fell flat on their faces from having unsteady knees.

"Um…are you people in good enough condition to walk back to the base?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow when he saw them twitching on the ground. Naturally, it was understandable given what was about to happen to them, but it wasn't good for the trip back home if they couldn't even walk properly.

"There is no need, Naruto-san," one of the Resistance members told him. "There is a Trans Server in the basement of this building. We can use that to go back."

"Okay," Naruto nodded. "Let's get you guys back home."


"We're back!" Naruto roared as loud as he could as he entered the main hall. "Everyone, welcome several of our old comrades and several new ones!"

There was a huge shocked silence, before the entire crowd erupted in cheers, chanting Naruto's name.

The thirty-two Reploids who had been saved were quickly swept up into the crowd as people rushed to grab them, almost as if to check if they were real.

Naruto stood back, watching respectfully, taking satisfaction in the fact that he did something good for others.

Still, that only reminded Naruto that in this world, even more than he was in his village, where he had been an outcast, was truly alone. He was a comrade to those in the Resistance in name only. Unlike them, he didn't have any sort of emotional attachment to this fight. So in a way, he was still an outsider here. He turned around to walk back to his room so as to not disturb the celebrations.

Naruto froze when he heard a voice shout his name.

"Naruto!" Ciel called out as she threw her arms around him. Naruto was taken aback by the gesture but wrapped his arms around the girl. "Thank you! Thank you so much. I never thought I'd see the day when the Reploid Disposal Center was finally destroyed. Innocent Reploids will be safe for a while…"

Naruto smiled, somewhat sadly. For a moment, he had deluded himself into thinking that someone was happy to see him, not because Naruto saved the Reploids, but because they valued Naruto unconditionally. But even someone like Ciel…while she considered him a comrade…it was more of a partnership than anything more meaningful.

Still, he wasn't one to ruin someone else's parade. "Of course, Ciel. I made a promise that I'd complete the mission, didn't I?"

He gently tried to set her down but the girl only tightened her arms around him more. She didn't appear to have heard his words. "No…I mean…yes you did…but I don't mean that. Naruto, thank you…" she kept whispering, this time much quieter than before. Naruto was surprised to feel tears falling on the back of his neck. "Naruto…I…I…was so worried…thank you so much for returning…to us…and…to me…"

Naruto's eyes widened at her words. Eyes slowly softening as the girl dug her head into his neck, Naruto held the girl close. "No problem, Ciel-chan. And happy birthday."


Author's Note: I made some changes to chapter 2 based on some of the comments and PMs I received. Nothing too big, but still flaws that stemmed from my incorrect understanding of the Mega Man world about the difference between robots and Reploids.

In terms of Naruto's power level…Naruto's base power is somewhere in between a B-rank and A-rank Reploid, although probably closer to A-rank. That would put him almost at the level of the Four Guardians of X. Naruto's strong, but he's essentially fighting against super-powered machines.

As you probably figured out, he currently doesn't have Sage Mode or any particular means to power up. Moreover, Naruto no longer is the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi so he can't simply spam thousands of shadow clones anymore. Sorry, but I didn't want to make Naruto so overpowered this early in the story.

As always, reviews will be appreciated. Thanks!


Naruto's Jutsu List

Technique: Touton Jutsu (Transparent Escape Technique)
Rank: B-rank
Class: Supplementary
Range: N/A
Description: The user uses chakra to bend light around the user's body, making the user completely invisible to everything. The user's presence is still there, however, so the user can be heard, felt, or smelt.

Technique: Suiton: Suihou (Water Release: Water Gun)
Rank: A-rank
Class: Offensive
Range: Mid Range
Description: The user may use a nearby water source or create the water using a significant amount of chakra to unleash a large condensed bullet of water that bursts upon contact to flood the area, which then drowns any enemies in a whirl of raging water.

Technique: Suisei Shouin (Water Spirit Sealing Method)
Rank: B-rank
Class: Supportive
Range: Close to Mid Range
Description: The user seals a certain amount of water into a pre-prepared scroll.