Greetings NYFNU fans! Once more your favorite Spiderman/Naruto crossover by the Dark Patrician has come to improve your day! But first a few items that need to be addressed:
Why has it been so long since the last chapter? Answer: A.) I have a life and B.) I put up the last chapter on Christmas Day 2010…and did not receive any reviews for about 3 weeks, thank you Bazerkerking for breaking the drought. When I don't get reviews, well frankly I lose interest. And C.) for those of you who don't click on my name and go to my author page, I have posted two one shots in the Doctor Who section that I enjoyed working on and updated Chikagami: The Blood's Mirror.
Anyway, enough note onto the chapter. I don't own Spiderman, Marvel, or Naruto…somebody else does, although I could be persuaded to give up my attempts to own them if I got some working Doc Ock style tentacles.
Chapter 4: The Spaces In Between
(First person POV)
I'm not going to lie, I enjoyed that. There is nothing quite like completely decimating an adversary to make a man feel alive. Speaking of adversaries, I looked down at my fallen enemy, Neji Hyuga. He has such potential and yet it is all wasted on his worship of fate and hatred of the Main Hyuga House. Not to say that Neji's hatred was wasted, but rather unfocused like a campfire compared to a blowtorch. Both can accomplish many things, but the blowtorch burns hotter and more direct.
I glanced over toward the referee; Genma I believe was his name. My looking at him seems to have snapped him out of his stupor at the sudden victory as he remembers his job and begins his announcement, "Winner of the match, Naruto Uzu…"
"Octavius-Smythe," I interrupted.
"What?" Genma asks confused.
"That is my new last name, please abide by my request."
"Very well," Genma replied with a questioning undertone. "Winner of the match, Naruto Octavius-Smythe." The crowd's reaction was just as confused as Genma's reaction to my new name. The Konoha natives were relatively quiet while the out of town attendees cheered at my victory, makes sense, the foreigners didn't know they were supposed to hate me like Konoha does.
In this situation, the old me would have been laughing, waving, and jumping around in childlike celebration. The new me chose a more dignified response, nodding my head in thanks in the general direction of those I saw cheering. Number 6 retrieved my trench coat and draped it over my shoulder as I crossed my flesh arms. I walked toward the contestant holding area intent on giving the viewing audience one more show; instead of taking the stairs, I walked directly toward the wall. My upper two tentacles stretched forward and latched onto a section of the wall above me and pulled upward lifting me into the air. My lower two tentacles stretched forward and latched onto the wall above the first two and working in concert, my four tentacles carried me up the wall (think Doc Ock climbing the walls in Spiderman 2). My climb ended with two tentacles wrapping around two of the pillars in the contestant's viewing area and pulling me over the railing and safely onto my feet among my competition. All four tentacles released from whatever they had attached to and retracted taking positions to defend me from any attack.
"Hello everyone," I said pleasantly. "Funny how we all seem to end up sitting in the same area isn't it? So, how's everything?"
"Troublesome," Shikamaru replied. "First I'm in this stupid tournament, then they drop my fight with the Sound ninja, and now you've shown up with a new last name and weird powers."
"Indeed," Shino stated. "Why have you changed your last name to Octavius-Smythe?"
"To honor the men who saved my life and brought me into their family after my brush with death," I answered simply. Both of my former classmates looked at me as if they wanted to ask more questions but I cut them off by asking, "So where's Sasuke? He show up yet?"
"Not yet," Shikamaru answered, "And he better show up soon, most of the crowd came to watch him fight Gaara." If one listened closely, one could hear the grumbling from various parts of the stadium:
"What's going on? Hurry up and start the next match!"
"How long are you going to keep us waiting?"
"Bring on the Uchiha!"
"PBTTTTTTTT!" That last sound was not actually spoken but expelled by the guy that ate too many beans. Medics had to rush to that corner to recover those who passed out after the gas attack.
"Confucius said, 'The wise do not approach the dangerous,'" Shino recited, "perhaps Sasuke has taken that advice and will not fight."
"That's not his style," I countered. "Sasuke loves testing his power too much to pass on the chance of fighting one of the most powerful genin in the tournament." I noticed Gaara staring at me out of the corner of my eye. Nobody said anything else as we all waited to see what would happen to the absent Uchiha. I took advantage of the wait time until Sasuke's match to inspect my tentacles for damages. The tentacles were in relatively good shape only a few small scratches and dents, nothing debilitating but at the same time it was impressive that the Jyuken could cause even a little damage to my father's legacy. The dents and natural curvature of the tentacles caused an interesting warping in my reflection, but despite how warped the face was I could still see my reflection's black eyes staring back at me smiling.
"No wonder you fought so fast, you wanted to get back to looking at yourself in the mirror," a familiar voice teased in my head via implant.
"You're just jealous you've never had a stadium of girls getting wet over your arrival Father," I replied to one of my fathers, Alistair Smythe.
"There was that one time at the robotics seminar in Amsterdam when I…"
"I do not wish to know of your youthful indiscretions Smythe," my other father Otto Octavius, creator of my tentacles, interrupted. "Can we just go to the post-fight analysis?"
"That ass put up a good fight, but in the end he was no match for our upgraded gauntlets," a gravely voiced man commented, "nice fighting Naruto."
"Thank you Shocker," I replied. "Although we may have to increase the padding a bit, I could feel the vibrations from that last punch numbing me all the way to my shoulder."
"After this silly tournament, we shall look into adjusting it, but maintaining the balance among the various abilities and their requirements is no easy feat." Otto cautioned.
"Agreed, how was the feed from the ocular implants?" I asked.
"A little static when you first activated Otto's tentacles and whenever you used Shocker's abilities," Alistair answered. "Why did you use both abilities anyway?"
"To see how they would react to Neji's Kaiten," I replied. "And to see how well they would react with your ocular upgrade." No doubt, some of you are confused as to what I'm talking about. During my two weeks in the chasm, Alistair began the process to slowly give me his transformed state's powers and abilities, making sure a thousand times a minute that in no way would I be stuck in the transformed state for the rest of my life. Alistair may be a brilliant scientist but I swear he can be such a mother hen at times. I finally managed to convince him to install the small head up display (HUD) that would place itself in front of my eyes without anybody noticing, clear glass versus his yellow tinted ones. This display would overlay what I saw with information from tiny sensors embedded within myself that would constantly scan whatever they were pointed at or whatever was around me. In the case of Neji, these sensors tracked the pattern of Neji's Kaiten and were able to successfully predict where and when I needed to strike to penetrate the so called "Ultimate Defense."
"And the fact that displaying this power would scare those around you who might do you harm into thinking twice didn't factor into your decision?" Otto asked sarcastically.
"Little bit," I answered smirking. "The people here have looked down on me for years, a display of power in defeating one a member of Konoha's most respected clans should show them that I am a superior being."
"If I could have everybody's attention!" Genma shouted after conferring with another shinobi. "One of the contestants for the next match hasn't arrived yet! Therefore, we will push this match back and begin the next one!"
"An interesting development," I commented out loud as those around actually gaped in shock.
"Crap!" Shikamaru swore displaying the most emotion I had ever seen on his face, "This means my match is getting closer."
"The next match: Kankuro vs. Shino Aburame! Please enter the arena!" Genma shouted, specifically toward the contestant section. There was a pause of about ten seconds before Kankuro answered back loudly enough for Genma to hear but not quite shouting, "I forfeit!" As several of us around the Suna genin in black stared in surprise at his actions, his attractive sister Temari opened up her fan and floated down into the arena on a gust of wind she created.
"Winner Shino Aburame! The next match: Temari vs. Shikamaru Nara!"
I noticed Shikamaru pause and mutter to himself about forfeiting too so I decided to offer my two cents. "Which would be more troublesome Shikamaru?" I asked. Fighting one girl now or an eternity of nagging by two girls: your mother and Ino?" Shikamaru visibly paled at the thought of his mother nagging him for the rest of his life over this issue and reluctantly makes his way down the stairs.
The two fighters stood across from each other put on about twenty seconds of frantic swinging of weapons at each other and then leapt to opposite ends of the stadium to fight a battle…of math. Yep, nothing says 'We're awesome ninja,' like watching two shinobi do math in their heads. This could be very long and boring, I wonder what the others are doing?
*Scene Break*
The medical wing of the stadium is located along the outer wall of the structure to allow a degree of peace and quiet from the fighting within. It was in a private room of the medical wing where Neji Hyuga listened to his uncle tell him the story of how Neji's father sacrificed himself to protect his brother, the head of the Hyuga clan. I watched unseen outside the open window as Hiashi told his story and handed Neji a scroll, presumable written by Neji's father to back it up. But nothing surprised either Neji or myself more than the head of the Hyuga clan actually physically getting down on his hands and knees to beg forgiveness from his nephew.
"Please, raise your head," Neji instructed, tears on his cheeks. Hiashi Hyuga stood up and the Hyuga duo talked for another moment before Hiashi left the room, leaving Neji alone. My ex-opponent walked over to the window, looked at the birds in the sky and began talking to himself, "Father, is a person's destiny like a cloud with an inescapable flow or can a person choose the flow he wishes? I don't know. But I want to grow stronger…but I don't know how. Should I stay with the clan and strive to become the strongest Hyuga of them all? But my opponent thoroughly destroyed me and negated the Jyuken, should I talk to Uzumaki about he would help me fly?"
A better opening, I could not have asked for.
"I go by Octavius-Smythe now," I stated, watching the same birds. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Neji give a slight start as he hadn't noticed me. "How are you feeling?"
"My ribs are a bit tender," Neji admitted. "What did you hit me with?"
"Multiple concussive vibration waves within a localized area," I explained. Neji looked at me with a puzzled look on his face. "It's complicated to explain," I admitted. "Mind if I come in?" Neji nodded and stepped away from the window to let me climb in. "I came here to talk to you about what you said in the arena, I thought about it and after seeing this display I just wanted to say…"
"I'm sorry," Neji cut me off with his apology. "I should have let go of my rage and not taken it out on you."
"No," I answered. "You shouldn't have taken it out on me, but you shouldn't let go…not yet. I wanted to say, I'm sorry, you were right. After seeing what Hiashi Hyuga just did, I'm convinced you were right."
Neji looked at me confused, "But everything he just said and did…"
"A very good job of acting," I interrupted. "He must have been planning this for a while."
"I don't understand…why don't you believe Hiashi?" Neji asked.
"Let's break it down," I began stating. "Fact, your father died taking the place of your uncle to satisfy Kumo's demands. Fact, the loss of your father has caused you to adopt a hatred of the Hyuga clan to almost rebellious levels. Fact, the Main Branch of the Hyuga clan hates rebellion…or any form of change really," I added as an afterthought, "Especially in their clothes, any time I pranked one of them they'd just throw whatever clothes they were wearing at the time away."
"That was you?" Neji asked with a subdued mix of surprise and awe. "The branch clan saw that as a bright spot of their existence watching the results of those pranks."
"Thank you for the compliment, but we're getting off track. Where were we…ah, rebellion. Fact, Hyuga in the past have been executed for far smaller crimes than nearly killing the clan heiress. Fact, you're still alive. Why? Fact, with your victory over Hinata you've become a high profile target. Fact, you are without a doubt one of the strongest Hyuga that clan has ever produced, especially if you recreated their signature techniques through simple observation. Fact, while the Hyuga hate rebellion they hate embarrassment more so. Do you realize what this all means?"
"That you like using the word 'fact' a lot?" Neji asked somewhat confused.
"No," I answered slightly annoyed. "For all accounts you should have been killed by the Main Branch the moment the Second Stage of the Chunin Exam ended; and yet, here you stand. Why? Because everybody knows who you are and how powerful you are. It would make the Hyuga clan look very bad if they killed the member that is looked at as the strongest of the future generation. So, instead of killing you they need to bring you back into line."
"Then why does my Caged Bird Seal remain inactivated?"
"Because a beaten dog will try to bite its master," I replied. "Instead of pain the main branch is trying a paradigm shift."
"A what?"
"Changing from one way of thinking to another." I explained quickly. "You had this image of your father being thrown to the dogs, but now suddenly they introduce this image of your father 'rebelling,'" I added air quotes here for emphasis, "against his masters to nobly sacrifice himself to save his brother. A pretty convenient story, one that makes me wonder why it hasn't been told to you sooner."
Neji's eyes widened as he began processing my explanation.
"Answer: They didn't need to change your way of thinking, yet. They were willing to overlook you because you hadn't done anything yet. Then, all of a sudden, you prove yourself superior to the clan heiress, in front of witness including the Hokage. Now, they can't kill you because the Hokage knows that your death will take away what could be a valuable resource in the future. So instead, the Main Branch invents this tale of your father's death complete with 'proof.' How old were you when he died Neji? Four? Five? It's been almost a decade, if they had proof of his noble death, why didn't they say anything sooner?"
*Scene Break*
I was right, it was long and boring. I'll spare you the boring details of the match, if you're interested I'm sure you can look up the official transcript of the fight. I did learn three very important things during the course of that fight though: one, Shikamaru is a genius especially after taking advantage of a hole I apparently left behind; two, I have a dozen games stored in my HUD; three, Shocker is addicted to FreeCell.
"No," Shocker growled, "Put the red four and black five on the red six you freed up and then move all the ones that were under that onto the red ten."
"But if he does that," Alistair countered, "Then there will be two more cards that will have to be removed before he frees up the Ace of Spades."
"So? Most of the spades are…"
"Mein gott!" Otto snapped, "A wonderful display of tactical thinking during a battle is occurring in front of our eyes and you three are more focused on that silly little card game!"
"Sorry," all three of us mumbled as I shut down the program.
"Besides," Otto added as an afterthought, "You should have moved that moved the red seven to the free cell and moved the cards underneath it so the two and three of diamonds could be removed from the game."
"Now he tells us," Shocker grumbled. Before anybody else could comment, a very familiar voice (my own) entered my head, "Beck here, pick up successful. I see Gargan and he's going for his pick up. Awaiting end of first round to begin Phase Two."
"Understood," I replied. "Beck and Gargan continue business as usual. Fisk, begin Operation Daedalus at earliest convenience."
"Daedalus?" Smythe asked. "How do you know about him?"
"My fathers filled my head with knowledge of math and science, Uncle Wilson decided he should fill my head with all the rest," I answered. "Being a philanthropist apparently requires one to know many things about art, culture, and literature."
"I still don't like how close you two have gotten." Smythe complained.
"Relax father, he is not the same man who wronged your biological counterpart. Besides his lessons on reading people, cunning and deception far surpassed anything that the Academy taught…though, I suppose that as a Konoha shinobi, we are supposed to have more honor than to lie and deceive our enemies." I mused.
"That particular ideology seems counter intuitive to the traditional roles that a ninja performs," Otto commented. "However, we must save our discussion for another time, it appears this battle has reached its conclusion." I focused fully on the field below, during my discussions, Shikamaru had forced Temari right where he wanted her in his Kagemane no Jutsu or Shadow Possession Technique. Both of them had their right arms raised in the air and then….Shikamaru forfeited. Yep, long boring math related shinobi fight ends in one party giving up after they trapped the other party. I think I'll miss Shikamaru, I better remember to buy a couple flowers to throw on his grave after Ino and his mom finish with him.
The crowd quieted down after Shikamaru's forfeit, puzzled at his actions, before those who had bet on the fairly attractive Suna blond cheered loudly at their good fortune. Shikamaru released his jutsu and walked up the stairs as Temari angrily scaled the walls with a blast of the wind jutsu that she had used in the fight.
"Think I could combine wind jutsu with your techniques Shocker?" I asked my yellow clad trainer.
"Probably not," Shocker answered. "The wind would mess up the vibrations."
"A shame," I stated. "Well now let's see if my…teammate…will arrive?" There's a saying, 'Speak of the devil and he doth appear,' just as I had finished my statement. Both Sasuke and my…so called sensei…appeared on the field in a swirl of leaves. "Show off," I muttered aloud.
"As most of the crowd had come specifically to watch his match, it would make sense for him to arrive in a fashion to appease their desire," Shino stated in his usual monotone.
"Let's see if he can really deliver then." I said back to him.
"You doubt your teammate's skills?" Shino asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Usually no," I replied. "However, against an opponent like Gaara most of Sasuke's skills are useless: the sand will block the fire attacks, the fluid nature of his sand shield will act too fast for the Sharingan to react, and his sand armor will absorb most of Sasuke's tijutsu strikes and negate the damage."
"What about Genjutsu?" Shino asked.
"He doesn't know any as far as I know." I answered as I watched Gaara appear in the arena with a sand shishun. "Trying to score inside information about Sasuke, Shino? Sorry to break it to you but I haven't seen him for a month, so anything I know about him is that far out of date. But you should be careful that you don't put the cart before the horse, Shino. You may have won your first match before it started by forfeit, but I doubt Temari will forfeit. She's as dangerous as she is beautiful." Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that Temari cheeks had slightly reddened at my comment. "Of course even if you can squeak out a victory over that beautiful deadly lady, you'll be fighting me in the finals."
"I see that whatever has given you the additional abilities has not altered your self confidence." Shino said, with just the slightest hint of teasing in his voice. "So you would rather fight Temari than myself in the finals?"
"Eh, it would be nice to fight a woman who stays a woman through the entire fight." I replied. Shino quirked an eyebrow at my statement. "I've fought two women who turned out to be men." Shino's other eyebrow raised as well. "Long stories, I'll tell you someday." Genma stood between but off to the side of the two competitors. "Looks like the featured battle is about to begin," I said.
"Indeed." Shino replied.
"Sasuke Uchiha vs. Gaara. Begin!" Genma shouted before he jumped out of the way.
The battle between Sasuke and Gaara was more like the traditional action packed fight that the crowd expects from the Chunin Exams. Gaara showed off the versatility of his sand forming a clone out of the sand, blocking hits with his sand walls or armor of sand, sending his sand to soften impact with the ground after Sasuke connected with powerful strikes an toward the end forming a dome to protect himself with spikes that attacked the enemy. Sasuke on the other hand showed his prowess with the Sharingan demonstrating the ability to dodge Gaara's attack and his ability to copy the fighting style of Rock Lee which had proven effective against Gaara in the previous round.
What struck me as odd was the facial expression of his two siblings showing bursts of fear and anger toward their brother. Temari actually looked furious at Gaara as he stood within his dome.
"Väters?" I asked my fathers within my head. "Why would Temari be mad at her brother for using a technique? Shouldn't Suna want as many of their members to win as possible?"
"If that was true, then why would Kankaro forfeit?" Smythe asked.
"Maybe he knew he'd be beaten," Shocker offered.
"Too arrogant," Smythe countered.
"Maybe he didn't have any techniques that could defeat Shino?" Shocker suggested.
"He's had a month, I'm sure he must have thought of something," Smythe answered.
"Maybe he's conserving his strength," Shocker said.
"What for?" Smythe asked. "What could be happening that would require a ninja to use his full strength later."
"Wait, those patrols we dodged to enter the city…we never took a close look at them. Maybe they weren't patrollers but…" Otto began.
"Invaders," I suddenly stated. "Konoha is being invaded."
Before any of us could continue the discussion the sound of chirping birds and electricity filled the air as Sasuke formed a ball of lightening in the palm of his hand, Kakashi's Chidori! Kakashi had ditched me for a month so he could teach Sasuke his own technique! Sasuke charged forward and plundged the lightning deep into Gaara's dome. The world paused for a couple seconds before the peace shattered with an ear splitting yell from Gaara.
"WAAAAAA! MY BLOOD!"
Time sped up as Sasuke wrenched his arm out of the dome as a demonic looking claw swept at him. The dome cracked and dissolved leaving Gaara standing in the center clutching his left shoulder. Without warning, feathers started falling from the sky and I felt myself suddenly falling asleep.
*Scene Break at the hospital*
Neji's face contorted in rage as he realized what I was telling him was the truth as he slowly returned to the man he was before our fight. "I'll kill them," Neji muttered. "I'll kill the entire Main Branch for what they did."
"How?" I asked as emotionlessly as I could muster. "How exactly will you do that?"
"I don't know," Neji admitted, "but I'll do it, just you watch."
"The only thing I'll see is the moment you touch a member of the main house somebody will activate your seal and kill you. The only thing I'll see is a flame that would be extinguished. The fire in your soul may burn hot, but it's uncontrolled, unfocused."
"Then what would you do?" Neji asked in tone that was both angry and annoyed.
"Wait," I answered. "Play the role of loyal servant that they want you to: follow tradition, obey orders, and show respect to those you would rather kill. And while you do that; grow stronger, learn as much as you can about your clan's taijutsu style and do what you can to counter it, learn jutsu and techniques that your clan does not know."
"And what about this?" Neji asked gesturing toward his covered up Caged Bird Seal.
"I have found that by using the nanites within my body, I am capable of slowly destroying any seal placed upon me. In fact, one of the first seals that was destroyed was a seal placed upon the back of my neck which interfered with my higher brain functions. My mind, in an attempt to compensate, produced additional neurotransmitters so that I could function normally. Once the seal was destroyed, my brain functioned normally on its own and the additional neurotransmitters now allow me to perform and process information at a far higher level than ever before. All ready, my IQ is similar to that of the average members of the Nara clan and I suspect within a few weeks I can begin to reach levels similar to that of my fathers." I explained.
"And what about the seal that contains the Kyuubi?" Neji asked.
"Tragically while I cannot completely remove…wait, how do you about that?" I asked, slightly annoyed and surprised.
"All members of the Hyuga clan, regardless of age have been told about the demon's sealing within you as to understand why sections of the chakra around your navel have been orange at times." Neji explained. "I was present when Hinata first asked her father about it."
"So even Hinata knew about the fox," I muttered to myself. "She saw me enough with the Byakugan to know about the chakra, and she must have seen how much I struggled with people in the village, and she's supposed to be one of the kindest girls in the village…so why didn't she try to help me?"
"Perhaps it was an act," Neji offered quickly…too quickly, actually.
"Perhaps," I agreed, "but we are off topic, the nanites cannot remove the Kyuubi seal without causing the beast to be released. But perhaps they could remove your seal, or at least the part that causes you pain."
"Why?" Neji asked softly, "Why would you want to help me after all I have done?"
"You are a victim just like me," I answered honestly. "You and I have suffered because of events outside of our control. You because your father was born second and I because no other baby was born on October 10th. Looking at this world and knowing what I now know, I realized that I needed new allies, ones that I could count on completely as apposed to my useless team. That's why after hearing your story, I knew that you were one of the people that I wanted by my side. Neji, I will help you remove your seal and I will give you power that no other Hyuuga has ever had before and all I ask in return is that you work with me."
"Don't you mean for you?" Neji asked.
"At times yes, I will want you to obey me, but ultimately you will be one of my allies, a partner in my vision of the future. What do you think?"
Neji didn't say a word but just stared at me for a few moments, as if studying me for any signs of deceit.
"Could I have some time to think about it?" Neji asked.
"As long as you promise not to share this conversation with another soul," I countered. Neji nodded in agreement. "Very well, think about what I am offering, my door is open to you Neji Hyuga."
BOOM! The sounds of an explosion filled the air from outside the city walls. Neji and I dashed to the window and looked out to see a giant snake in the distance had just crashed through a wall.
"All units," my own voice said in my ear seconds later, "looks like Orochimaru is launching an attack, literally, giant snakes are attacking, Suna and Oto shinobi are fighting Konoha's, Gaara's freaking out, looks like he's heading for the forest, and that idiot Sasuke is chasing after him. Beck and Gargan units lay low and only fight if necessary. Fisk unit, upon completion of the mission, engage enemy units as necessary. I'll handle the grunt work."
"Understood," I and two other versions of me responded. I turned back to Neji who was looking at me curiously. "Looks like they started a party out there, you stay and heal up."
*Scene Break back with the original Naruto seconds after the scene break started*
What felt like seconds later, my eyes shot open.
"Adrenal stimulation successful," Otto reported in my ear. "He's awake."
"All systems report normal," Smythe added. "Naruto, how do you feel?"
"Confused," I said as I looked around, no longer seeing anybody I had shared a box with. "Where did they all go?"
"We don't know," Smythe replied. "We lost the visual when you went unconscious." My ears picked up the sounds of fighting all over the stadium.
"Huh," I exclaimed. "Sounds like one heck of a party." I looked down into the arena in time to catch Genma slashing a Suna ninja's arm off. "I don't think I like this crowd, they play too rough." I caught a flash of purple light and looked up to watch four purple columns of light flash into existence and form a cube surrounding the roof of the building opposite myself, trapping two individuals inside. My eyes widened as I recognized the duo inside, one clutching the other in a sleeper hold: the Hokage, and Orochimaru. My tentacles stretched and latched onto the level above me and began pulling me upward. As I reached the spectators level, I heard the voice of Kakashi off toward my left.
"…nullify the genjutsu on Shikamaru and track down Sasuke." Kakashi ordered.
"Shouldn't I wake up the others?" Sakura asked, hiding behind one of the seats. Before Kakashi could answer one of the Suna ninja leapt at him, kunai at the ready. I reacted quickly, firing off a blast from the Shocker's gauntlet and knocking the ninja into the wall behind Sakura.
"Naruto!" Kakashi and Sakura shouted.
"Yo," I replied in my best Kakashi voice.
"Naruto, Sasuke's chasing after Gaara. You, Sakura, and Shikamaru, will have to chase after him." Kakashi ordered.
"Can't," I replied, still climbing upward and letting off the occasional blast toward the enemy ninja. "I'm on a mission from a higher authority. But I'll add it to the side quests!" I made it to the roof before Kakashi could respond.
"Mission from a higher authority?" Smythe asked.
"Yeah, myself. No way am I going to listen to that idiot right now." I answered casually.
"And what exactly is this mission?" Otto questioned.
"One that Uncle Wilson would love," I replied as I mentally ordered the tentacles to retract into my body and return to their nanite form. "And you too Shocker, I'm going to find out just how strong your gauntlets are." Before anybody could say anything, I aimed both gauntlets toward the ground at and angle and fired a quick pulse as I leapt into the air. The two attacks collided and caused a shock wave that lifted me higher into the air. I repeated this pattern many times, each time rising further and further into the air until I was far above Konoha. As I rose, I caught sight or rather my HUD locked onto Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro in the clearing before one of Konoha's many forests, Sasuke not far behind. I also spotted a trio of massive snakes wearing bibs for some reason breaching Konoha's walls.
"Time to show them how its done," I opened communication with the clones I made earlier in the day. "All units, looks like Orochimaru is launching an attack, literally, giant snakes are attacking, Suna and Oto shinobi are fighting Konoha's, Gaara's freaking out, looks like he's heading for the forest, and that idiot Sasuke is chasing after him. Beck and Gargan units lay low and only fight if necessary. Fisk unit, upon completion of the mission, engage enemy units as necessary. I'll handle the grunt work."
"Exactly how are you going to do this?" Otto asked.
"Like this," I replied reaching my peak. The nanites within me activated, changing form as the gauntlets retracted within my body only to be replaced by metallic "feathers" which formed wings that reached from a pack that formed on my back that generated an anti-gravity field to my hands which were now covered in metal "talons" to complete the Vulture-motif. "One final touch," I put my hands together to form the familiar hand sign, "Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! (Multiple Shadow Clone Technique)" The cloud created by my technique combined with my position caused the city below to temporarily plunge into darkness as my clouds shadow covered the land. When the cloud dispersed, those below would see the skies full of winged copies of myself.
"Secret Technique: Toomes Flock no Jutsu!" My clones and I shouted as we began our group decent on the city.
Author's Notes:
Should have had this one last chapter but: Auf Wiedersehen Väter translates to "Goodbye fathers" in English. I don't know exactly why, but for some reason I really like the idea of Naruto peppering his language with the occasional moment of German.
The boost in intelligence Naruto receives is similar to what happened to the character of Reginald Barcley in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode: The Nth Degree, it's a great episode I suggest you watch it sometime.
This chapter titles comes from part of the Weezer song "Beverly Hills," don't know why it just felt right.
Finally, I've got a new poll up on my profile which directly connects with this story. "For the Sound/Suna invasion in Not Your Friendly Neighborhood Uzumaki which would you prefer to see?" The choices are: short chapters which will focus on one battle, medium length chapters which will focus on a couple fights, or long chapters that cover multiple fights? Basically, the longer the chapter, the longer the wait time.
Months later: the end result…the voters would prefer a medium length chapter (19 votes)…like this one, I think. Long chapters took second place with 14 votes…just think how long the wait time would've been if I had written a lot more huh? And rounding out the pack in a distant third are short chapters with two votes.
Until next time, my loyal readers.
And now for the Omake, this is my response to the running gag throughout many Naruto fan-fictions of everybody but Naruto knowing about Hinata's crush.
Omake: The Finest Scientific Minds of Their Generation
During his weeks of training, Naruto was exposed to many new ideas and had many of his own questions answered, this is one such question that he had answered.
"What I don't understand is why Hinata always turns so red around me and then sometimes passes out." Naruto commented. "Do either of you have an idea?"
Alistair and Otto looked at each other for a moment before turning back to their charge and Alistair said, "I'm not sure, but we'll ask the others and be back in a few minutes with an answer." The duo of villains disappeared and reappeared within the computer's main processor in a conference room populated by all of the minds that were scanned and held within. Well not literally, ones and zeros can't sit on chairs but for visual effect go with that.
Otto pulled out an empty chair, sat down in it, and announced, "Gentlemen, the problem before us is this…why does the girl called Hinata turn red around Naruto?"
The room fell silent as each individual racked their brains to come up with the answer.
"Naruto. Naruto! WAKE UP!" Naruto shot up from bed as Alistair shouted near his head.
"What! What happened? Are we under attack?" Naruto asked in a combination of frantic worry and sleepiness.
"We've come up with an answer to your question." Otto explained.
"What question?" Naruto asked rubbing his eyes sleepily.
"The one about Hinata and turning red," Alistair said. Naruto looked at his alarm clock and then back at his fathers. "It's four in the morning; I asked you that over sixteen hours ago."
"It was a complicated issue," Otto explained. "The intricacies of the mind of a pubescent female is not something that we are intimately familiar with so we had to extrapolate from pre-existing data."
"And?"
"We would need further testing to confirm our hypothesis, but we believe that Hinata is allergic to you."
"That's good to know," Naruto yawned. "Well, see you in the morning."
"Good night," Alistair replied happily before he and Otto moved to leave the room.