Chapter 9
Naruto liked to sleep, it was relaxing and gave his mind a break from the daily worries; not to mention he wanted to forget about the watermelon incident that had occurred two days ago. Sometimes he just couldn't understand Steven's powers. At the moment however, it was nighttime and sleep wasn't exactly an option as he watched Lion going up to Steven's bed before promptly laying on top of the boy. "Well there goes my sleep for tonight." He said as he was about to get up and get the pink animal off of Steven.
"Steven!" Pearl suddenly exclaimed effectively scaring the blonde. Needless to say, she ran up to Lion as fast as she could with Naruto in tow, the blonde simply yawned. He'd trained Steven all day, and somehow he'd found himself tired. "Steven! Steven! Steven!" she grabbed the boy's legs and began to pull. Naruto looked to Lion who simply looked to Pearl and then back to him. "Lion let him go!" Naruto sighed before nodding. With that, Lion lifted up allowing the boy to breath and crash into Pearl.
"Looks like I'm not going to sleep tonight." Naruto said as he helped the two up.
"What-What happened?" the young Gem questioned.
"Lion was sleeping on top of you for god knows what reason." The blonde said "So, care to tell us why he was suffocating you?" he questioned.
"I don't know, he's being a little clingy today, but that's because I'm his favorite- whoa." Lion pulled Steven to his mane "See; wait why are you two here?" he questioned. Before Pearl could stumble around words as an attempt to justify why she was here, Naruto promptly answered.
"She likes to watch you sleep sometimes."
"A lot." She admitted.
"I'm here because I wanted to try and sleep tonight, but that's not going to happen now." He explained 'Granted sometimes I do the same, but that's really rare only because I get bored.' The blonde silently stated.
"Alright, it time for everybody to leave Steven alone, I'm a growing boy and I need some rest." The half Gem stated before falling onto his bed only to open his eyes a few seconds later to see Lion standing right next to him. "Lion that means you to." He stated before closing his eyes once again, and for a second time he opened them; this time Pearl had joined Lion in watching Steven sleep.
"That's enough of that." Naruto said as he ushered the two away from Steven. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some business to attend to now that I won't be sleeping tonight; goodnight Steven." He said before turning into a hawk and flying out of the open window. 'Pearl really needs to find a hobby, this is the twelfth time I've needed to do this.' he sighed before going back to sleep.
Beach City – Two Days Later – Nighttime
The boy hadn't been sleeping very well since the little incident with the stream, Steven had seen something in the stream. The others had simply written it off but chose to travel to each and every location with a warp pad that they'd used, minus the Communication Hub warp pad after Sugilite had destroyed it. Then there was the argument between Steven and Pearl, and he hadn't taken sides for good reason. This brought up his current position; sitting in front of the warp pad with Steven. "Why are you even bothering to sit here with me when you think I'm wrong?" Steven questioned.
"I never said that I thought that you were wrong, in fact I believe that you saw something; that and no chances can be taken." Naruto stated "You're a Crystal Gem Steven, and your opinions matter to me as much as theirs." This seemed to cheer the young Gem up a bit. "That and I got a message from—" something crashed through the roof and onto the floor. The two looked to the object in shock, it was a solid light blue orb. Steven began to laugh as he got up. The unknown contraption stood with tiny legs that weren't really attached to its body.
"You were the thing in the warp stream!" he stated as he looked to the hole in the roof "You did come from space." The orb said nothing as it tried to maneuver around the boy.
"I think it wants to get to the warp pad." The blonde said as Steven picked it up only to be kicked in the gut by, it's small legs before a hatch of sorts opened up and promptly sprayed an unknown liquid at the boy. Thankfully it missed and Steven threw it onto the side of the Warp Pad right next to Naruto. Picking the thing up, he smirked. "Steven come on, we're gonna see where this thing is going." He said ushering the boy to him before putting the now damaged orb down. Though it had no eyes it saw that the warp pad was damaged, spraying it's liquid onto the crack, it was promptly fixed much to their surprise. With that, they warped with the small robot.
Warp Hub
As they flowed through the stream, Naruto held onto Steven very tightly as more and more of the small robots that were all around them. "They're heading to the Hub, but why?" Steven questioned though not getting an answer from Naruto. Suddenly the two were pushed outside the stream and into the cold abyss, Naruto silently berated himself for not paying attention. Seeing that there was a stream close to their right, he held the young Gem close as he tried his best to propel himself to said stream. Thankfully when he got close enough, two gauntlet clad hands grabbed both him and Steven. "Garnet!" he exclaimed in surprise as Naruto let the boy go whilst still holding the orb.
"What is that?" Pearl questioned upon seeing the orb that Naruto held onto in-between his feet.
"Proof that something out of our control is happening, and that Steven was correct."
"Steven, I'm sorry I should've listened to you, you're a Crystal Gem too." Garnet said rubbing under her visor "So that's what you saw." The boy nodded as the five of them continued through the stream upon they were onto of the warp pad only to see many more of the orb robots. Letting the one he held down, they watched as the many robots sprayed the Home World Warp Pad with liquid.
"What are they doing to the Home World Warp?"
"There's like a million of them!" Amethyst exclaimed. With the Warp completely covered, the liquid hardened before breaking into nothingness, revealing a completely fixed Warp Pad. "They fixed it?"
"What does that mean?" the young Gem questioned looking to Pearl; her distraught look said only one thing.
"I don't know." she stated. The warp pad suddenly activated; Garnet grabbed Steven and Amethyst while Naruto took Pearl. The two jumped to the edge with Garnet holding on via digging her gauntlet into the wall while Naruto used his transformed claws. From their vantage point they saw a Gem that they'd never seen before. "Who is that?" she whispered.
"Don't know, don't care, but something tells me that we should get rid of her now." Naruto said looking to Garnet who nodded 'no' for Naruto not to take such an action. The Gem's fingers didn't seem to be attached to her hands. Lime-green skin, pale yellow-green hair styled into a tetrahedron shape. She adorned a sleeveless green V-neck uniform which is mostly medium green, with a dark-green diamond outline around the cut-out of her neck area, meeting together to form the diamond insignia at her solar plexus, with a dark-green portion between her chest and leggings. Her leggings feature yellow diamond-shaped kneepads, and from what Naruto could make out, she was wearing a visor of sorts that hid her true eye color.
"Log date 312, this is Peridot, preforming Earth Hub maintenance check." The now named Peridot said while using her fingers as a screen of sorts.
"Peridot, now we have a name for our intruder." Naruto said only for Pearl to cover his mouth so that he wouldn't talk so loud.
"Repair seems to be a success, all 79 flask robonoids are accounted for; preparing to locate and manually repair Kintergar—" she paused upon seeing that one of the damaged robonoids was trying to climb up onto her, likely wanting help if it was even capable of asking. Peridot seemed to look down at the thing with a form of surprise.
"Aw the little ones are like her babies." Steven said only for Peridot to press her foot onto the small robot, she proceeded to apply pressure.
"No, they aren't." Naruto whispered upon seeing Peridot crush the damaged robonoids under her foot.
"Make that 78 flask robonoids." She said, her face now that of slight anger; it was obvious now that she was quite ruthless. To her, these robonoids were useless when damaged. "Now to access the domestic warp." She said. Naruto could sense her coming down those few stairs, he growled as he was ready to end the new Gem in an instant; he didn't want to take any chances. Pearl held tight, now trying to hold him back.
'Don't even try it.' Pearl warned much to Naruto's ire.
'She could become a threat if not dealt with right now, and her little robots just fixed the Home World Warp; if anything we should at least capture and interrogate her.' Naruto said 'Why are you so against it?'
'We don't know what'll happen if we do capture her, what if she sends out some kind of distress signal that brings other Gems here; I know you mean well, but engaging in a battle isn't an option right now.' She explained only for Naruto to sigh.
'Sometimes, I hate it when you're right.'
'So, basically all the time.' She smirked.
"This site may have been compromised." Peridot suddenly said much to their surprise, Naruto saw that Peridot was holding one of Steven's Crying Breakfast Friends stickers. Peridot quickly got onto the Warp Pad and warped away, but not before leaving an EMP device of sorts that detonated and shut down the flask robonoids. A few moments later they came up upon seeing that Peridot was gone. Naruto looked to Garnet who silently nodded as Amethyst and Pearl began to freak out.
"She's not coming back." Garnet stated
"Not if this thing is destroyed." Naruto said as he and Garnet summoned their weapons. Garnet's gauntlets were now much bigger while Naruto's saber glowed as he pointed it downward; they struck at the same time creating a devastating explosion that annihilated the Home World Warp Pad. 'I won't let history repeat itself.' He silently stated 'But…' he looked to the now deactivated robonoids "These could prove useful." He said before gathering them all up, there was much he could do with not only the robonoids, but the liquid they held as well.
Beach City – Nighttime
Naruto couldn't help but give an exhausted sigh. 'A Gem named Peridot came to the Warp Hub today and fixed the Home World Warp, and I take it that she's the one who's making you be her informant.' Naruto stated.
'Yes, that's her and she just got back with something from Earth.' Lapis said
'Steven's Crying Breakfast Friends sticker, we saw her take it.' the blonde answered 'Initially my first action was to capture and interrogate her, but Pearl wouldn't let me because the risk was too high.' He stated.
'It wouldn't have mattered either way, Peridot's going to continue trying to continue her mission no matter what; but if she finds out about The Crystal Gems then you'll have a problem; she believes that all the Gems on Earth were destroyed.' She explained. 'Things here aren't what I expected or what I hoped…now I think that I miss Earth.' Naruto perked up upon hearing Lapis's words. 'Stars, I wish we could talk face to face and not like this, but at least I have someone to talk to who isn't treating me like a criminal.'
'Criminal?'
'My sudden appearance back at Home World raised a question as to which planet I'd come from, and I did what you told me to do but then she came into the cell and started hugging me.' She said. 'She told me to tell you that 'the gardener awaits'."
'Good, it won't be long now, until you're here and I can explain as much as I can to you.' he said with a smile.
'I miss you.' both their eyes widened at her words 'And Steven of course!' she exclaimed in a panic but as someone who could also feel emotion, Naruto could sense a familiar feeling from Lapis. It was similar to the feeling that Pearl gave off whenever they activated their Bond, and that feeling was developing inside of Lapis every time they spoke. For the next twelve hours they would speak until it was time for Naruto to train Steven; for Lapis it would be what humans would call a 'Date'. Despite the danger still being present, this was an excellent rest from their worries. But in the back of his mind, Naruto was preparing himself for the event to come.
Chapter 9 End
