A/N: I do not own Naruto or Zoids
Part 1: Teeth of the Liger
Chapter 9: Eyes of the Hawk – The Panzer Armor!
As soon as it registered with Naruto that Sasuke was standing right next to him, he dove out of the way. As he landed, he turned and whipped a kunai at Sasuke who dodged it easily. By this time, Sakura, Neji, and Tenten realized what was going on and they reacted. Tenten immediately summoned her armor and went after Suigetsu while Neji and Sakura looked for an opening to attack Sasuke. After narrowly dodging Sasuke's shuriken, Naruto realized what Neji and Sakura were doing, and he yelled at them.
"I'll handle Sasuke, you guys find the rest of his team!" he ordered.
"But…" Sakura tried to protest before being interrupted by Neji.
"Sakura, he's right." Neji told her. "Sasuke's no match for Naruto, but we need to find the other two before they try to help Sasuke."
"Alright." Sakura said, defeated. "Good luck, Naruto!" she yelled as she and Neji left.
"You too Sakura!" Naruto yelled back before focusing on Sasuke.
"It seems that Neji doubts my powers." Sasuke commented. "And I thought he was the smart one."
"He is the smart one." Naruto responded. "I'm going to smash you into the ground."
"Like any of you weaklings could defeat me." Sasuke said.
Sasuke activated his Mangekyo Sharingan as he leapt into the air and started forming hand seals.
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" he called as Naruto began a counter attack.
"Wind Style: Cyclone Spear!"
Sasuke's eyes widened as Naruto's Cyclone Spear launched right through his fireball towards him. To make matters worse for Sasuke, the attack somehow carried his fireball with it, creating a cyclone of fire that was heading right for him. At the last second, a jet of water extinguished the flames. Naruto was surprised until he saw Suigetsu with his hand raised towards them. The rescue didn't come without a cost as Tenten brought one of her blades down and severed Suigetsu's outstretched arm.
"Fire Style: Fire Dragon Jutsu!" Sasuke shouted, causing Naruto to snap his head back to the battle. A dragon of fire was now flying towards him at high-speed. Naruto barely had enough time to form the hand seals for an appropriate counter.
"Wind Style: Wind Dragon Jutsu!" Naruto shouted.
A second dragon, this one made up of a spinning tornado, rocketed towards Sasuke's fire dragon. As the two collided, Sasuke smirked, thinking that his fire jutsu would overpower Naruto's wind one. He was shocked then, when Naruto's dragon blasted his own out of existence and continued towards Sasuke, who dodged it at the last second.
"What's going on?" he thought to himself. "Fire jutsu are supposed to be stronger than Wind jutsu."
"Don't worry Sasuke." Naruto told him. "You'll be unconscious before you figure it out.
"Let's see how well your wind jutsu stand up to this!" Sasuke shouted as he activated a jutsu with his Sharingan. "Amaterasu!"
Jet black flames streamed right towards Naruto who once again used a counter to save himself.
"Wind Style: Slipstream!"
Naruto disappeared as the flames hit and he reappeared behind Sasuke, who found that he couldn't move.
"What?" Sasuke growled.
"Don't try to escape, Sasuke." Naruto told him. "It won't work."
Unfortunately, Naruto had to cancel the jutsu to deflect a kunai thrown by an enraged Karin, who was then re-engaged by Sakura. Sasuke used this brief distraction to kick Naruto in the back, sending him flying. He was about to use Amaterasu again when he himself was sent flying by a kick from Liger.
"You guys would be so screwed without me." Liger said to Naruto.
Sasuke landed on his feet and glared at Liger with a copious amount of killer intent.
While Sasuke and Naruto were battling, elsewhere in the village, Kakashi found himself fighting back to back with the Raikage.
"I must say it is an honor to battle alongside you, Lord Yotsuki." Kakashi said as he killed another enemy.
"I too am honored to fight with such a legend as you, Kakashi." the Raikage answered. "I'm always impressed when I hear of your exploits."
"I'm flattered." Kakashi told him.
"I must say though that I'm most impressed at your Chidori and Lightning Blade." the Raikage continued. "I would very much like to see it sometime, perhaps now?"
"I think I can do you one better and show you my newest Chidori-based attack." Kakashi said.
He killed another ninja, and then leapt a few yards away so that he was staring down a cluster of Red Vipers. The Raikage, still alert of his surroundings, watched Kakashi closely as the Copy-Ninja began to form several hand seals.
"Lightning Blade Storm!" Kakashi called out. Several shadow clones appeared, forming a ring around the group of Red Vipers. Suddenly, the sound of thousands of chirping birds was heard as lightning formed in the right hand of each of the clones. Once the Lightning Blades were complete, the clones all rushed forward and unleashed the deadly attacks on the ninjas, killing all of them instantly. The clones dispersed, leaving Kakashi standing next to a group of corpses.
"Very impressive." the Raikage commended.
"Thank you sir." Kakashi responded. "But if I may sir, I'd like the chance to witness one of your legendary techniques."
"I don't know if it'll top that, but I suppose I could indulge that request." the Raikage answered. Without even using hand seals, the Raikage enveloped his whole arm in lightning. "Watch closely Kakashi." he said.
All of a sudden, he thrust his arm into the air, causing the lightning to blast high into the air, before raining down in a downpour of lightning bolts which killed over a dozen Red Vipers.
"I call that my Lightning Style: Electric Torrent Jutsu." the Raikage said as the last of the charred corpses hit the ground.
"That was incredible!" Kakashi exclaimed. "You definitely live up to your reputation, Lord Yotsuki!"
"Who do you think you are?" Sasuke snarled.
"Think nothing." Liger responded. "I know that I'm the one who's going to beat the tar out of you."
"Stay out of this." Naruto told Liger as he appeared next to him. "Sasuke's mine."
"Alright." Liger said. "Let me know if you need a break."
"He's not going to get a break!" Sasuke shouted. "Chidori!"
Sasuke's hand was enveloped in lightning as he started rushing towards Naruto.
"Just like old times." Naruto muttered. He summoned a shadow clone, which started to manipulate the blue chakra that appeared in Naruto's palm as Naruto held his arm back. The chakra took on the shape of a sphere and the Shadow Clone disappeared.
"Rasengan!" Naruto shouted as he ran to meet Sasuke.
The two attacks met, creating a large explosion. Both Naruto and Sasuke were sent flying backwards, Naruto being caught by Liger. Naruto then summoned another clone to form another Rasengan when Sasuke got to his feet.
"Susanoo!" he yelled.
Suddenly, the mighty yamabushi appeared and thrust its sword at Naruto and Liger who jumped away from it.
"Don't get pierced by the sword!" Naruto shouted to Liger.
"I don't intend to!" Liger shouted back.
Naruto attacked the Susanoo with his Cyclone Spear, which was deflected by the shield. This was only a distraction though as Liger leapt towards Susanoo with his claws shining.
"STRIKE LASER CLAW!" he shouted.
Liger was shocked when he found out that his mighty Strike Laser Claw wouldn't cut through the sword. Sasuke took advantage of this by having Susanoo thrust its sword at Liger. Fortunately, Naruto used a Shadow Clone to push Liger out of the way.
"You alright?" Naruto asked.
"I'm fine." Liger answered. "We have to find a way to get rid of that thing."
"It's no use!" Sasuke said triumphantly. "The Susanoo is invincible!"
"Wouldn't be the first time I defeated something invincible!" Liger yelled back. "Step back, Naruto. I'm tearing that thing apart!"
Naruto took a few steps back as Liger removed his bag and tossed it over his shoulder, where it came to rest up against a wall. Liger's eyes turned golden as he held his arms out.
"He's transforming!" Naruto thought.
"What's going on?" Sasuke asked himself.
The glow in Liger's eyes turned emerald green and enveloped him as his bag began to glow the same color. Armor rocketed out of his bag and equipped to Liger. Then the glow faded, revealing Liger's third armor.
Sasuke and Naruto were awestruck by the metallic olive green armor. The armor covering the bottom half of his face was similar to the Schneider armor, but instead of fins, there were two dark green box-like objects. Inside each of these was a pair of silver cylinders. Two large boxes covered Liger's shoulders. Each one had a sort of hatch on the front and two on the outer side. A fourth panel with an "X" was below the two side hatches, and two more silver cylinders were projecting out of the front of the boxes. Similar armor covered his hips. The forearm armor encased his arm completely in thick green armor as did the shin armor. However the most prominent part of the armor was the two huge black objects hanging on his back. They consisted of two long black pipes, the top one about twice the size of the bottom one, and were connected by black plates. Two hose-like metal tubes ran under the bottom cylinders connecting the tips of the tubes to the black boxes at the ends. In between the black objects, attached to Liger's back, was a series of green ridges, each one higher than the one behind it. Each of the six ridges had five silver cylinders inside.
"Very few things can withstand my Panzer armor." Liger said confidently. The black tubes on his back swung up over his head on a pair of green arms, coming to rest in front of Liger and pointing at the Susanoo. He took hold of two handles that swung down from the bottom of what Naruto now realized were cannons. A black rectangle with an orange lens rose out of the top of Liger's right cheek armor and swiveled into place in front of Liger's right eye as two black skid-like stabilizers folded out of the calf armor and landed on the ground. He used the orange lens to aim the cannons at Susanoo as the insides of the cannons began to glow gold. It seemed that gold-colored particles were being sucked into the cannons.
"Hybrid Cannon…" Liger said as a loud beep confirmed the lock-on, "Fire!"
Two gold beams of energy blasted out of the cannons as Liger was sent skidding backwards, the stabilizers keeping him on his feet. The beams slammed into Susanoo which exploded. They continued through and flew past Sasuke, the aftershock shredding his shirt and lacerating his flesh. Sasuke was sent flying backwards and slamming against the rubble of the part of the wall that the Hybrid Cannons destroyed. Sasuke then collapsed at the foot of the rubble in a bloody heap.
The firing of the cannons caused all of the fighting to stop, giving Karin and Suigetsu an opportunity to make their way to Sasuke where they were joined by Jugo. Naruto hurried over to a panting Liger and was joined by Sakura, Tenten and Neji.
"What was that?" Sakura asked. "It was incredible!"
"That was my Hybrid Cannon." Liger said, still trying to catch his breath. "It fires two shots of concentrated energy, but leaves me and the armor very overheated for a few minutes."
"Sakura, do you think you could help him speed up the process of cooling down?" Neji asked.
"Yeah," Sakura said as she formed a few hand seals, "Water Style: Tranquil Palm Jutsu!"
The technique caused crystal-blue water to cover Sakura's hand which she placed on Liger's forehead. The water seemed to wash over Liger's body before disappearing leaving Liger completely dry. Revitalized, Liger straightened up as the cannons returned to his back.
"Suigetsu," Jugo said, taking on the role of leader with Sasuke out of commission, "hold them off while we get Sasuke somewhere safe."
"With pleasure." Suigetsu said as he stepped forward. He started forming hand seals as Karin and Jugo leapt away, Jugo carrying Sasuke. When Suigetsu formed the last seal, he activated his jutsu.
"Water Style: Aqua Army Jutsu!" he called out. He then began to multiply into well over a score of clones.
"Those clones are made out of water." Neji commented, looking through his Byakugan. "Normal attacks won't work and using Ninjutsu will only waste our chakra. We need to figure out a way to evaporate all of them at once."
"Leave that to me." Liger told them. "Stand way behind me."
Naruto, Tenten, Neji, and Sakura all leapt about thirty feet behind Liger. Once they were a safe distance away, Liger activated the Panzer's secondary weapons. Transparent blue screens slid upwards out of the armor's face-plates and came to a stop at eye-level. A circular targeting reticule appeared on the middle screen as Liger's armor opened up. Every one of the hatches on his armor opened, revealing dozens of silver cylinders. The ridges on his back extended outward a few inches from his body. Then, every one of Suigetsu's clones appeared on the two side screens in front of Liger's face. Small, green, diamond-shaped targets appeared over each of the clones. They turned orange as each was targeted. When the last clone was targeted, the center targeting reticule turned orange as well.
"Okay, here we go." Liger said. "Burning Big Bang!"
Every one of the silver cylinders rocketed off of Liger, sending dozens of missiles at Suigetsu's clones. Suigetsu was too stunned to try to dodge the missiles and each one hit its target. The ensuing explosions instantly evaporated the clones, except for the missile that hit the real Suigetsu. He screamed in pain as his body was torn apart by the missile, leaving his burnt remains to crumple to the ground. Clouds of steam rushed out of Liger's armor as the hatches closed back up. Liger was now sweating profusely and Sakura ran to him, intending to use her technique again.
"It won't work this time." Liger told her. "I have to jettison the armor." He did exactly that, the Panzer armor producing a cloud of steam and then disappearing as it left his body. A large cloud of steam rose off of Liger, who took his black tank-top off to cool down.
"Good thin Ino's not here to see that." Sakura thought to herself as she turned away to hide her blush. Tenten was not as classy, however and she was openly staring at Liger.
Liger looked around and was unable to see any of the Red Vipers.
"Ah, man." he complained. "I scared them off."
"Not all of us!" Jugo yelled.
Liger and the ninjas quickly looked to the top of the wall where they heard Jugo's voice from. Wanting to finish the battle, Liger leapt at the wall, using his claws to climb up it at a fast clip. Naruto was the first to follow, and then Tenten, Neji, and Sakura went too. When they reached the top, they saw Liger and Jugo glaring at each other. Karin and Sasuke were nowhere to be seen.
"You killed Suigetsu and nearly killed Sasuke." Jugo growled. "Now you'll have to face my almighty Cursed Seal Stage Three!"
"That doesn't sound good." Liger thought to himself.
Jugo leapt backwards into the air over the outskirts of the village and started to transform. He turned into his Cursed Seal Stage Two form: Jugo's skin turned dark and his sclera turned black. His elbows grew sharp edges, his nails sharped, and he grew horns at the top of his head that extended to his cheeks. On his back, what appeared to be six jet booster-like appendages grew. Then he ascended to level three. His body turned charcoal gray as the spikes on his back and the horns on his face turned blood red. Then his body grew to an enormous size, finally stopping at roughly the size of the One-Tailed Shukaku.
"Naruto, you need to summon Gamabunta." Neji said. "We'll cover you."
"What's Gamabunta?" Liger asked over his shoulder.
"The Chief Toad of the Toad Summons." Naruto answered proudly.
"That won't cut it." Someone said.
They all turned around to see Kakashi staring at Jugo with his Sharingan active.
"Jugo's too powerful in that state. You'd only get Gamabunta injured or killed.
"Then what do we do?" Sakura asked.
"Our only opt…" Kakashi began to reply before suddenly, everyone except Liger froze. None of them could move, causing Liger to take notice when Kakashi didn't finish his sentence.
"What the?" Liger muttered to himself. "What happened?"
He walked up to Sakura and snapped his fingers in front of her face. She didn't even blink.
"This must be one of those Genjutsu Kakashi was talking about." Liger realized.
He turned and looked hard at Jugo. His perfect eyesight allowed him to make out the form of Sasuke standing on Jugo's shoulder, Mangekyo activated.
"I thought he was out of commission. His teammates must have healed him."
"I don't know how you escaped my Chamber of Death Jutsu!" Sasuke shouted to Liger. "But instead you can watch your friends suffer!"
Liger didn't know what he meant by that until he heard a choking sound from the five ninja next to him. He looked at them and realized they were being strangled by whatever Sasuke was using against them. Intense fury consumed Liger as he turned back to Sasuke and Jugo.
"No one harms my friends and gets away with it," Liger growled before rising to a yell, "NOBODY!"
His claws began shining gold as his eyes started to shine blood red. A continuous gust of wind flowed away from his body in all directions. His teeth changed into a row of fearsome fangs, all shining gold. Liger bent his head back and yelled at the top of his lungs. Then, his yell turned into the fierce roar of a lion as the gust of wind increased in force. The ferocity of the roar seemed to snap everyone out of the Genjutsu. Everyone looked on, amazed as Liger's entire body began to glow golden, except for his eyes, which remained red.
A/N: There it is: the mighty Panzer armor! And I think that the excitement and suspense will continue for those who correctly assume waht is coming next chapter! I know that some of you will be upset that the fight between Naruto and Sasuke wasn't very long, but that was a small teaser for what's coming later. And now, here is a guide to this chapter's Saberdragon-original jutsu:
[Name - Type - User(s) - Description]
Fire Style: Fire Dragon Jutsu – Ninjutsu – Sasuke Uchiha – Fire version of the Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu; not to be confused with Fire Style: Dragon Fire Jutsu which is a more powerful version of the Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu
Wind Style: Wind Dragon Jutsu – Ninjutsu – Naruto Uzumaki – Wind version of the Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu
Water Style: Tranquil Palm Jutsu – Ninjutsu – Sakura Haruno – User's hand becomes covered in crystal-blue water that, when placed on patient's forehead, spreads to the patient's whole body, completely revitalizing it; does not treat chakra exhaustion
Water Style: Aqua Army Jutsu – Ninjutsu – Suigetsu Hōzuki – Creates up to fifty water clones of the user; as long as one clone remains, all others can reform without user's chakra
Cursed Seal Stage 3 – Transformation – Jugo – Most advanced Stage of Cursed Seal; causes user's flesh to take on a charcoal gray color; causes user to grow to roughly the size of the One-Tailed Shukaku
Chamber of Death Jutsu – Genjutsu – Sasuke Uchiha – Causes all targets to become completely immobile; allows user to constrict all captured targets at will; can only be used while user has an active Mangekyo Sharingan; requires collaboration with a being in a Cursed Seal Stage 3
Lightning Style: Electric Torrent Jutsu - Ninjutsu - Lord Yotsuki (Raikage) - Envelopes the user's entire arm in lightning. Once the lightning is gathered, the user thrusts their arm into the air, which releases the lightning. This causes the lightning to rain down in a shower of bolts.
In addition, I would like to thank "omnitrixfreak" for creating the Lightning Blade Storm as a prize for Chapter 4's contest. Here is the rundown:
Lightning Blade Storm - Ninjutsu - Kakashi Hatake - User creates several Shadow Clones which all use the Lightning Blade simultaneously
And for those of you who are having a hard time visualizing Liger's Panzer armor/attacks, then just watch Episode 19 of Zoids: New Century Zero. Just let me know if you want/need a link to the episodes online. Let me know what you think!
