AN: And I am back again. I apologize for the long wait, due to having lost my home and having to move into a hotel and feeling drained from work, I haven't had a ton of time to work. However I have this chapter ready to go and am working on the next one soon. Hopefully I should have the next one ready before the second week of August. Now on to the reviews, and there are a lot of them.
RedHotMito: It has yet to be decided if this will be a harem story or not. The poll on my profile will close one week after I post the next chapter. If this doesn't become a harem then the pairing will be Mizore. That was the specifications for this challenge.
Jebest4781: I might. I'm still thinking on the matter and trying to decide who will wind up with whom.
EpicJargon: Keep in mind that werewolves are the fastest of the youkai. Naruto is strong and fast, but he has yet to get a good grip on his powers and is still holding back enough to not kill anyone that he fights. I will show you how much of a limiter he has on himself in the next chapter.
TheMagicManWithThePlan: I do kind of have a theme in mind, but I'm not set in stone on anything. A lot of the fics I write tend to lean more towards the justice will always find a way(With the exception of Naruto: Dark Empire). I will consider your advice and try to improve my writing with it.
dragonheart967: I thank you for the critique. I know that I didn't write a perfect opening chapter, but I tried to make it as close to that mark as I could. I don't normally use line breaks, I know I should but I usually forget to add them in once I post the chapter. I admit that I did miss some things looking back on it, and should have done a bit better with the opening chapter, but I will learn from my mistakes and try to make better works later down the road. Again, thanks for taking the time to point these things out to me.
ChargerBoiFlash: Ok, I will admit that these opening chapters will seem a bit rushed, but that is because I really can't think of how to make most of these low level bullies last longer then a few paragraphs. Later in the fic, sure things might take longer, but no guarantees to that. Now for your questions, Naruto is gaining more control over the Jubi, but the demon isn't making his life easier, so it is a constant struggle to learn more about the demon. Second I am not going to reveal what all the abilities will be, but I will say that he will be using the Tailed Beast Cloak like Bee and almost every other Jinchuruki. Finally Naruto won't show his full strength until he meets an opponent that he feels is dangerous enough to merit his using it. He is now essentially on the road to being a god, as strong as the Rikudo Sennin once he gets the powers down, so no, he won't just go all out on someone just like that.
Rio-kun ehhh: Since I seem to be getting the rushing thing quite a bit I will try to slow it down. As for the comdey, well that isn't really my forte, but I will try to add something in to make it more substantial.
CrusaderSupreme: If this ends up being a harem then I will consider carefully who will be added in and who will be not. Some people won't be in it due to other pairings that I might have in mind, or because I just don't see them fitting very well with Naruto. When the voting is done I will announce the basic harem and from there add or subtract girls as things go, depending on where my muse takes me.
Atsirk Enoh: That is the question isn't it. I'm just going to leave that hanging since I don't want to spoil anything.
*Phew* Man a lot of you reviewed. And I am well pleased with it. Now one last thing before the story starts. This is the half way point for the poll and while I will not give numbers, the harem is winning. So if you don't want this story to be a harem story, or you want to make sure that it is please go to my profile page and vote. Without further adieu, here is the long awaited fourth chapter.
Art And News
Naruto yawned as he climbed out of his bed and started getting ready for the day. It was monday and he detested this day more then the others. As he went about his morning rituals he stopped at the calendar and made sure to mark off another day. Once finished he made his way to homeroom where he saw Moka reading a different book then normal.
"Hey Moka-chan." Naruto smiled as he sat down next to her and looked at the book "An art book?"
"Yeah." Moka smiled "Ishigami-sensei agreed to help me with a project I'm working on after school, so I won't be at the Newspaper Club this week."
"Ok." Naruto replied "Have fun with your work." With that class started and when the final bell rang Naruto was sitting in the club room when Gin walked in.
"We have a serious story!" he exclaimed, being serious for once "There have been seven disappearances in the past two months, all of the beautiful women."
"Ok..." Naruto muttered.
"Other then their beauty there is no connection that they can determine between them. So we are going to investigate and rescue them!" Gin exclaimed. Naruto and the other two girls just sighed at this, realizing what Gin was doing. Sighing Naruto took the profiles from Gin and began looking over them, reading all the details and letting his shinobi training kick in to see any patterns that the untrained eye might have missed. Frowning in the end he set them down and looked at Gin.
"You were right about the no obvious connections. I'll start poking around and see what I can dig up." Naruto stated as he stood up.
"We'll help!" Kurumu and Yukari exclaimed.
"Aren't there other articles that need to be written?" Naruto asked with a grin as he watched the two deflate at the statement "Relax you two. I'll be back in an hour or so. I just want to see what I can dig up."
Walking out of the classroom he made his way to each of the clubs that the girls had belonged to and began asking around about their interests and hobbies, finding that while some were connected to one another, others had no connection to some of them what so ever. This continued for several days until he finally managed to get a decent lead. Five of the girls had the same art class, and the other two had often ditched their class to go to the same art class.
"Probable cause to poke around." Naruto stated as he went to the classroom and saw Moka was there, working on a painting and that Ishigami was there instructing her. Suddenly he saw a girl burst in with a smile on her face.
"I ditched my club to come hang out with you Ishigami-sensei!" she exclaimed.
"That's wonderful dear." Ishigami smiled as the girl walked in to work on some project of her own.
"That teacher seems rather nice. But so far she is the only common denominator between them all. I'll wait a bit and then snoop around her classroom." Naruto thought as he went up into a nearby tree and observed.
It took a few hours before he saw everyone leave the room and Naruto made his move. Walking into the hallway he quickly picked the lock and was in the classroom, looking around for any evidence that Ishigami had anything to do with the girls disappearances. Soon he found her office and again started picking the lock. As he finished he heard the girl that had ditched her club and Ishigami returning to the classroom. Acting quickly Naruto went into the office, locked the door and quickly henged to look like one of the eisels that were in a corner. Soon Ishigami unlocked the door and led the girl in and she had a wicked smile on her face. Before the young student even realized what had happened Ishigami's dreadlocks transformed into snake like creatures that bit her several times, turning her into stone.
"She a gorgon!" Jubi exclaimed.
"Bad?" Naruto asked.
"Kid, gorgon's are dangerous creatures that can turn anything into stone. Luckily for you this is one of the descendants otherwise all she would have to do is make eye contact with you and you'd be screwed." Jubi explained quickly.
Ishigami soon moved the statue into a large storage closest where Naruto could see other statues of girls in there. Smiling to herself she turned and walked out the door. Sighing Naruto released the henge and after checking to make sure that Ishigami had left he opened the door. Walking carefully out he stopped when he heard the sound of hissing. Leaping to the side he saw the snake hair trying to bite him.
"I knew that there was a rat in here." Ishigami chuckled "Your youki gave you away little snoop."
"Really need to work on surpressing it." Naruto complained.
"Well you won't have to after I make you a part of my collection. I normally don't take boys, but you are a rather handsome specimen." Ishigami chuckled "Now just hold still and it will all be over quickly."
"Try me." Naruto growled as he made the shadows in the room lift off the ground "I'm more then you can handle."
"Is that what you really think?" Ishigami asked with an evil grin as she removed her bandana, giving her hair free movement "You don't stand a chance."
"Ishigami-sensei?" Moka called as she opened the door to see the scene before her.
"MOKA!" Naruto shouted as the snakes headed right for her. Naruto reacted before he could think things through and leapt in front of the snakes, taking the bites that were meant for his friend.
"NARUTO-KUN!" Moka screamed as she saw him turning to stone.
"Kick her ass." Naruto groaned as he pulled off the Rosario, just before turning to stone. The next thing Naruto knew he was laying in the Infirmary, laying on a bed with the sounds of light breathing.
"Ugh... What happened?" Naruto groaned.
"You were a chivalrous idiot." Jubi replied "You took the bite meant for the vampire and she in turn beat the shit out of the gorgon."
Naruto slowly sat up and saw Moka sleeping in a chair near his bed. As he stepped out of the bed he saw her eyes shoot open.
"Naruto-kun!" she exclaimed as she hugged "You're ok!"
"I've been better." Naruto chuckled as he heard the door open and saw Kurumu and Yukari rush in.
"NARUTO!" they both shouted as they hugged him too.
"Glad to know I'm loved." Naruto chuckled.
"We were so worried about you." Kurumu sobbed "You've been unconscious for almost a day."
"I have? It's Friday already?" Naruto asked in shock.
"Yeah." Yukari replied "After Ishigami-sensei bit you your were a statue. Gin figured out that it was Ishigami-sensei doing this and we rushed there in time to see Inner Moka beat Ishigami-sensei. But you were still a statue after she was unconscious. It took almost a day for you to turn back to normal."
"Damn." Naruto whistled as he glanced over to the side he saw a painting covered by a sheet "What's that?"
"Oh. This is what I was working on with Ishigami-sensei." Moka replied as she unveiled her painting. It was a portrait of Naruto and how he looked on the first day that they had met. Looking over it he realized how mysterious that he had been then, how closed off to the world he had been becoming and he felt a smile stretching his lips as he realized that he had made some very irreplaceable friends.
"It's great Moka-chan." Naruto smiled "What did you plan on doing with it?"
"I was going to give it to you. Since we've known each other you've let me drink your blood all the time and I felt that I should give you something in return." Moka smiled as she handed him the painting.
"Thanks." Naruto nodded "I'll hang it up in my room."
Moka smiled while Kurumu glared at Moka for coming up with such a thoughtful gift. That night once Naruto was dismissed the four of them relaxed in Naruto's room, laughing and enjoying the night, along with the fact that Naruto was going to be alright. The next morning they paid for it though, having to work on the newspaper to be published by monday.
"Come on guys! The Ishigami incident was thursday! If we don't have this out soon then what kind of newspaper are we?!" Gin shouted at them as he sat at the teachers desk, sipping his coffee.
"This would work faster if you helped us." Naruto remarked as he finished setting an article.
"I am helping. I'm supervising." Gin replied.
"You mean being lazy." Yukari stated as Gin face fell.
"JUST GET TO WORK!" he shouted. Sighing they continued working when Nekomone entered, carrying a box.
"Hello everyone, how's it going?" she asked.
"Pretty well." Naruto replied as he started working on the next article.
"Well I brought snacks for all of you, so take a break and enjoy." Nekomone smiled as she set down the box and the four took a look inside to see fish.
"Um Nekomone-sensei, these aren't even cooked." Kurumu stated.
"They taste better that way." she smiled in reply. Naruto simply shook his head as he picked one up and used his fire to cook it, and soon was being passed more by the other girls.
"Please cook ours too." Yukari pleaded. Sighing Naruto proceeded to cook the fish and they began to eat with vigor.
"Oh by the way Kurumu, this was left outside the door for you." Nekomone smiled as she handed the sucubus an envelope. The girl was all smiles as she opened it and then frowned at the contents before putting them back in envelope and setting it off to the side.
"I'm sorry guys, I forgot that I had to do something really important today." Kurumu smiled in apology as she ran off.
"Wait Kurumu!" Moka shouted after the girl as she ran off. Naruto frowned at this, knowing that there was something wrong with this picture and decided to keep an eye on it.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." Naruto muttered as he made two clones, nodding at one of them to follow after Kurumu while the other started to finish up Kurumu's articles.
"When did you learn to do that?!" Gin exclaimed.
"I've been able to do that since I was 13." Naruto shrugged "It's not that big a deal."
"NOT A BIG DEAL?!" Gin exclaimed "If you can make copies of yourself we could increase our work speed!"
"And get more confused at the same time." Naruto replied calmly "In a brawl, sure tons of them is useful. In delicate situations like this, less is more."
"So they're solid?" Moka asked as she poked the clone.
"Yep. Can take a single good hit before they disappear. But I can make hundreds of them so it doesn't really matter." Naruto replied with a shrug.
Kurumu soon arrived at the Monster Tree and saw a person sitting in the lower branches.
"You're the one that sent me the letter?!" she snapped.
"I am." he grinned "I needed to get your attention some how."
"My attention?!" Kurumu hissed.
"Yes. Don't you remember your promise?" he asked "Don't you remember me, Nagare Kano?"
Kurumu blinked at the name and tried to remember, but found that she couldn't since she had flirted with tons of boys and in hopes of finding her Destined One. Nagare soon got the hint that she didn't remember and filled her in that she had promised him a date if he would take great photos of her.
"It's time to pay up." he grinned "Let's go on that date you promised me."
"I never said when!" Kurumu exclaimed.
"It doesn't matter." Nagare hissed "If you don't everyone will see those perverted photos of you, especially your precious Naruto."
Kurumu looked crushed and finally agreed to his demands as he leapt down and started to lead her away. Soon he had led her into an abandoned shed where he had her change into various cosplays for him to take photos of.
"How is this a date?!" she exclaimed.
"This is what I want our date to be! Now keep it up, or I'll show Naruto those photos!" he snapped as he took more photos.
Now the clone of Naruto was already observing this entire situation and was trying to decide if he should help her. Frowning more as he saw that Nagare was starting to get more and more perverted with the cosplays, his chivalrous side finally won out and he struck. leaping down and busting the window, landing in front of the slug.
"I think the nice lady said no." Naruto chuckled "So unless you want me to beat you into the middle of next week, leave."
"Oh ho ho." he chuckled "So you came to protect her? Even though she is such a perverted girl!"
"I am not!" Kurumu cried.
"ENOUGH!" Naruto roared, his youki pouring out, scaring Nagare and shocking Kurumu that it wasn't directed at her, but Nagare "Kurumu is my friend, I will not let you harm her like this!"
"Think you can stop me?" he asked with a laugh as two stalks rose from his neck, emitting a gas that Naruto wasn't sure what it would do but was certain he would be immune. Before he could do anything he was paralyzed and now he realized his mistake as Nagare knocked him over and then stomped on his face, causing him to disappate in a cloud of smoke.
The real Naruto jolted up right as his clone was destroyed and immiedatly went over to the envelope and opened it to see the contents with a dark frown on his face.
"Blackmail." he growled as the others took a look with shock "Let's go, Kurumu needs our help!"
Kurumu was now backed against the wall as Nagare moved even closer when he suddenly heard a hissing sound. Turning the door exploded with a boom and Naruto stood there, red charka enveloping him as his rage became even more evident.
"I thought I warned you." Naruto hissed as he disappeared from sight, grabbing the boy by the throat and smashing him into the wall "That if you didn't leave her alone I'd end you."
"You won't." he laughed as he slipped through his grasp, revealing that he was some kind of slug. Naruto leapt back as he prepared to blast him to oblivion when he saw the gas heading for him and instead switched places with a nearby tombstone, using the Kawrimi technique.
"You can't escape me!" Nagare laughed as he moved closer. Kurumu stared in shock as Yukari and Moka arrived to help too, and something inside of her snapped. Screaming her rage that this person would try to harm her friends she unlocked her true abilities as a Sucubus, creating a mass illusion that even Naruto was trapped in. The Monster Tree came to life, it's roots rising out of the ground and grabbing Nagare, stopping him from escaping.
"I don't care what you do to me, but no one, NO ONE, harms my friends!" Kurumu shouted as she turned into her true form and struck, knocking the boy out and ending the illusion.
"Damn." Naruto whistled in surprise "It's been a long time since I felt a genjutsu that strong."
"You got caught too?" Yukari asked surprised since Naruto explained that since the Jubi had been sealed in him, most genjutsu would shatter as they hit him.
"Naruto!" Kurumu exclaimed as she hugged the blonde who smiled at her.
"You ok Kurumu?" he smiled as he hugged her, letting her get out any tears that she might have.
"Yeah... Thank you Naruto..." she sobbed "You saved me."
"You saved yourself." Naruto chuckled "You were amazing."
"Thank you Naruto... You really are one of a kind." Kurumu whispered "Just know this, no matter what happens you will always have me."
Naruto instantly blushed at this and once Kurumu was calmed down he let her go and smiled as she apologized to both Moka and Yukari about her running off like that.
"Well enough hanging around, we still have to finish the newspaper!" Naruto cheered as they went back to the club room to see the copies of Naruto that he had made before they left still hard at work. Kurumu's jaw dropped at the scene and several images went through her mind, most of them not so wholesome.
"That is a very interesting skill." Kurumu giggled as he face turned red.
"I don't like where this is heading." Naruto sighed as he dispeled the clones "So let's finish up!"
With a cheer the four were soon back to work, with a stronger friendship between them and their sucubus friend.
