Hello there! This be the Dragon speaking! But of course you knew that, eh? Well get ready for an other chapter, because now the calm before the storm ends!
Last thing before we go diving into my story. Special thanks to:
"Deta Asserve-Weaver Of Dreams" , "AnimaAmore" , "willam and jack and jake" , "infinite darkness117" , "Kaminari Wolfblood" , and "Cyborgnetics", who reviewed my last chapter and gave me a boost to write this chapter. AND VEEEERY Special thanks to "Van the Rogue Soul Drinker" , who helped me out with picking some songs and has been encouraging me to write more!
Now come my friends, let my give you a glimpse of my world.
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Chapter 10: New Toy
On the day after the concert, all over the village one could find people talking about the concert. Despite the fact that only a relatively small amount of people showed up as far as grand outdoor concerts go, the people that did show up were spreading the word about it all over town. Soon everyone in the village was well informed about the concert, and some parts of it had even become over-exaggerated (for example, at no point did anyone faint from the happiness of hearing the music, as one rumor claimed). In any case, it seemed that the Gorillaz had made a big splash on their first official grand concert in Konoha, and few people talked about it with more excitement than those that were present in the VIP section, who got the best view out of everyone.
It's worth mentioning that Anko and Kiba almost fainted along with half of the crowd when Dell came out for the first time to do his rapping for a few of the songs. Though later they got over it, it still freaked them out every time Dell scaped Russel's head to sing. Who knew that they were afraid of ghosts, eh?
At any rate, Naruto was arguably the most excited out of the bunch, considering he had had a song dedicated to him by them. Needless to say, he was the envy of almost everyone who had seen the concert, particularly from a few people of the female portion of the crowd who had already started to fall into their fan-girl modes.
As a matter of fact, 2D already had a fair number of people that wanted to jump his bones if they got the chance. Not that many could blame them, considering that after nearly 3 years of harsh training he, and his band-mates, had gotten into great shape. The change was most visible on 2D, who had gained a lean and defined muscle structure. Combine that with his angelic singing voice and his ability attract all eyes to him when he was on the stage, and it was easy to see how he had already attracted the attention of several women and girls in the crowd.
With the huge success of the first concert in Konoha, the Gorillaz had started to become the local stars of the village, and they had plans to expand their success beyond the reaches of the village which had already started to take place. But currently, they had other things to take care of before continuing with those plans, namely presenting their very first military project to the Hokage and a few select other individuals chosen by the Hokage herself.
All four of the Gorillaz pushed along a seemingly heavy object on wheels towards the line up of observers that stood in the clearing of Training Area 23, a secluded and distant training grounds from the Village that was guaranteed to offer privacy due to the seals that surrounded the clearing. When they were just a few meters away from line up of observers, the band members stopped pushing the object and came around to stand before their audience, which consisted of a few key members of the village. The line up consisted of the most prominent clan leaders, like the Hyuga, the Nara, and all other clan leaders of the graduated Konoha Nine that were present in Konoha, the Hokage, Jiraija the Toad Sage, the two elders of the Village, Danzo, the head of the interrogation department Ibiki, and the elite jounins Kakashi Hatake, Gai, Kurenai, and Asuma.
Therefore, it wasn't an exaggeration to say that most of the village's most important and powerful individuals were gathered in the lineup to see this new military project. However, the Gorillaz were hardly intimidated by their attention, considering the line of work that they had in the past as muscicians, dealing with important figures and performing for them was not something that was new to them.
With that in mind the self proclaimed leader of Gorillaz, Mudoc Nicals, took a step forward with his usual confident stride and grinned at the members of the small audience before him for a minute before proceeding to start the presentation.
"Welcome! Welcome all to our first military project presentation." Murdoc said cheerily as hurried his hands in anticipation, "You may have heard of us or perhaps not, but in any case we are the Gorillaz. I am Murdoc, and those three are Russel, Noodle, and 2D." Murdoc said as he signaled with his hand at each of the band members respectively. "Today we have an interesting presentation in store for you. We call it 'Project G'. Russel, if you please..." Murdoc said as he spread his hands wide and stepped aside with a shallow bow to allow the observers a better view of the object on wheels as Russel pulled off the white tarp that covered it with a flare.
Eyes were widened and eyebrows were raised once the tarp was removed, giving way to a few mutters from the crowd as they observed the cause of their reactions. Before them stood a what they would describe as green metallic chariot on thick black rubber wheels with a metallic cylinder-like protrusion on top.
To someone more familiar to the world from where the Gorillaz came from, on the other hand, would have recognized the object as a car, more specifically a Geep, almost exactly the same as the one that the Gorillaz had used in their video "19-2000". However there was one big difference between the original Geep and this new one at first sight: on the metal bar that rose from the outer sides of the back of the two front seats (A/N: if you don't know what metal bar I'm talking about, it's the one that Russel leans on during the whole video of 19-2000) there was what a military savvy person would identify as a three foot long turret machine gun.
Taking a careful look, one would notice that the upper metal bar were the turret rested had been made some what thicker than the original one in the 19-2000 video, its sides had even been re-enforced to support the weight of the gun with ease, and additionally, the back of the Geep had been elongated so that one person could stand and man the turret without getting in the way of the other people in the back, giving whoever was at the back also more leg room.
That said, the small gallery of observers didn't know what to make out of the metallic machine that was parked in front of them. It had a certain aesthetic appeal to it, and it certainly looked sturdy and powerful, but it's purpose was still a mystery to them.
Grinning slightly, Murdoc let the the observers think for few seconds just before the question he had been waiting for finally got asked by man with long black hair and pupil-less pale lavender colored irises.
"Well? What is it?" Hiashi Hyuga asked in his usual neutral tone, "And what does it do?"
Murdoc's slight grin turned into a full blown toothy smile and clapped his hands together.
"Well, since you ask, let me show you." Turning on his heel, Murdoc motioned the gallery of observers to come closer. Once he was close enough to touch the car, placed a hand on its hood and tapped it with his knuckle, causing a metallic sound to be emitted.
"ladies and Gentlemen, THIS is a State of the Art armored vehicle of war. We are talking about a Titanium and steel alloy armor with specially crafted ceramic tiles beneath it on the fuel tank and engine to dissipate blows, angled armor to displace blows and missiles and other projectiles, camouflage paint coating for fighting in all areas were there are plants and trees, high powered lights to blind enemies and illuminate dark areas, and half inch thick plastic and fiber glass windshields with silica core which makes it of a similar hardness to quartz, and therefore harder than hardened steel but more flexible than both quartz and steel. It also has a high power engine of high efficiency due to the special high-performance fuel we use that has even been treated with chakra to give it more juice, allowing this baby to ride two hundred and sixty kilometers per hour without turbo and three hundred with turbo, it has a built-in nigh unbreakable impact resistant frame work that could save the crew from impacts that could shatter a whole block of houses, a mini turret machine gun that can fire four hundred bullets of .80 caliber per minute continuously and with enough force and speed to leave holes through the enemy big enough to throw a ping pong ball throw it. Additionally, this beauty of a war machine can carry up to seven people, four at the back, and three in the front, plus their supplies, and with still enough room to fit comfortably. Oh! And let's not forget that it's equipped with two projectile explosives bellow it, plus it has four-wheel drive, a short distance radar that will pick up anything within two hundred meters, and, as a bonus, radio-cassette music player."
With that, Murdoc concluded his rant and closed his mouth with a satisfied clicking noise, and turned back to glance at the observers, who, although they looked impressed, they were also staring at him blankly. A moment later he realized that most of them probably hadn't even understood a third of his terms. He face palmed,and groaned.
"Murdoc-San," Kurenai said, "I have no idea what most of those words mean but it sounds impressive."
"Let's just show them." Russel said simply, barely managing to keep his voice level and not laugh at Murdoc in front of the most powerful people in the Village.
"Fine...whatever," Murdoc replied as he pinched the ridge of his nose, "that was part of the presentation anyways."
The other three band members soon nodded and climbed inside the vehicle while Murdoc guided the small crowd back to a short distance away from the vehicle and a second later he got the thumbs up from his three teammates, and he began to explain the vehicle in a less confusing manner.
"The vehicle is built with an angle surface, so blows won't hit full strength and they might even just slide or bounce off its armor. The armor itself is very strong and hard to damage. Watch."
Murdoc stepped forwards and threw a handful of regular shuriken at the armored war machine, all of which bounced of its metallic shell and windshields without even leaving a scratch. He then proceed to throw kunai with explosive tags attached, and the explosions, while each was large enough to blow up a person, didn't even put a dent on the armor of the Geep.
Turning around with a grin still in place, he offered to the guests a try of their own, to which a few stepped forward and used the fire bullet jutsu, the water bullet jutsu, and the earth dragon bullet bullet, all of which either slid off the Geep's armor or broke off once it hit the vehicle, and the three band mates that were riding inside were still intact. Pleased with the results, Murdoc found that the observers were impressed with the performance given their mutters and wide eyes, so he proceeded with the presentation.
"Now, see that long metal thing you see on the main support bar?" Murdoc addressed the observers as he pointed to the turret, "That's a turret. It's a low flat armored gun. It fires bullets at very high speeds." Murdoc dug into his pocket and pulled out a long metallic object as thick as his thumb that had a conical head and presented it to the small crowd as he continued, "And THESE are bullets. Think of them as miniature kunai that fly ten times faster than your average Kunai."
He tossed the bullet to Jiaiya who examined it for a moment before passing it on to Tsunade. While the guests took turns studying the bullet, Murdoc signaled his team mates to get ready to show off the Turret, to which Noodle nodded and got in position while Russel took the driver position with 2D taking his position at the rear, right beside Noodle, readying the bullets to be used. As soon as every one of the members had seen the bullet, Murdoc signaled his team mates the "get set" signal, and turned to his audience with a mischievous grin.
"And THIS is what this little guys can do to the enemy." Turning his head to give Jiraiya a nod, Jiraiya made a hand-seal and half a dozen target practice dummies appeared in a line in front of the Geep at distances ranging from thirty to sixty meters away from the Geep. Obviously Jiraiya had helped them set up some targets with his famous Fuiin Jutsu seals.
The guests barely had time to look at the distance between the targets and the turret skeptically before Murdoc cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, "FIRE!"
What followed his shout was a soft 'click' as the safety pin of the turret was plucked out, a sound which was almost instantly drowned out by the storm of noise that followed as a hail of bullets was fired from the Geep towards the targets. Even with the silencing device that Russel had fashioned for the turret, which made the turret sound more like an Uzi submachine gun rather than a three hundred pound turret, the sound of a of the gun easily reached the ears of the observers, startling a few of them with the noise. Less than half a minute later, the gun's cannon made a fizzing noise as it stopped rotating when Noodle released the trigger with a smile on her face. By then, at least two hundred bullets had been fired, and more than half had hit their target, leaving the target dummies looking more like Swiss-Cheese than firing targets.
Once the firing stopped, Murdoc was given the thumbs up by Russel, and he guides the curious group of observers to the test dummies.
It was safe to say that the observers were impressed. VERY impressed. Each target had at least twenty-some hits in several locations of their body. More often than not, their chest had several wounds that would have killed a man either from damage to internal organs or cause them to bleed out, a couple had practically lost half of their head, three of them had lost half an arm or a leg completely, and all the wounds bullet holes went straight through the targets.
At first glance, the damage was impressive from the front. But the once the observers saw the back of the targets... The true power of the gun was much more clear. While the front of the bullet wounds had a decently wide and neat hole, the back of the wound, were the bullet had excited the body of the dummy, the hole was easily twice or maybe even three times the width of the of the hole were the bullet had come in, and as if that wasn't enough, the foam and cloth which had been used to make the torso of the dummy had been torn from the inside out, as if the bullet had grabbed on to the insides of the dummy when it was half way through and tried to take it with him as it flew through the dummy at insane speeds.
"Wow..." was all the Jiraiya could say as he inspected the damage. Even A and S ranked Ninja would have to be careful when getting close to that machine. The speed at which it was firing those bullets was no joke.
Tsunade nodded dumbly in agreement. "Impressive."
Smiling widely, Murdoc allowed himself to bask in the shock of the observers for a moment before he proceeded onto the last demonstration: Driving the thing.
Clearing his throat to get the attention of the small crowd, Murdoc began his little speech. "Now, the last test... Driving it. Any volunteers? They can take four more people at most." a wicked grin crossed appeared on his face and Kakashi could have sworn he saw a glint in his eye for an instant.
"I'll go." Kakashi said stepping forward.
"YOSH! Then so shall I!" Gai shouted as he struck his 'Nice-Gai' pose, obviously eager to match his eternal rival even in this.
"I would also like to try it." A third voice spoke up, which, surprisingly, belonged to Danzo. This shocked a few people in the crowd, but no one commented on this. "This… thing looks like it might worth my time."
Murdoc's eye twitched at the condescending and haughty tone of voice which danzo used to describe the Geep, but bit his tongue to avoid snapping at him, and instead addressed the crowd. "No one else?" Murdoc said as he looked around the group of people, some of them eyeing the vehicle with a weary eye.
"Great, okay." Murdoc nodded, and pulled out a small flat screen from his jacket's pocket, only about as large as the surface of a book. "While those guys go for a ride we will be able to observe them with this screen in real live-time."
Murdoc set the screen on the ground and clicked a button, and a two dimensional hologram of the vehicle and its riders appeared, making it look like there was a twenty inch flat screen television floating on the air and giving the crowd a crystal clear view of the vehicle.
"We call this device the 'Holographer 2000', courtesy of Jiraiya and 2D." Murdoc said at the flabbergasted faces of the crowd, save for Jiraiya that was puffing out his chest proudly, and for once, he had every right to feel proud. The little device was a mix of technology and seals, and the only one of its kind so far.
"Now that we are set here, if you three could get in the Geep then we can get started with the last part of this demo." Murdo said at the three volunteers who promptly entered the rear of the vehicle while 2D and Noodle hopped up to the front of the vehicle, with 2D taking the copilot seat to the right And Noodle seating her self in the seat between Russel and 2D. Noodle quickly instructed the three guest riders on the safety measures, and the three guests followed the instructions of the girl to put on a seatbelt, though Danzo did so eskeptically, not seeing the need for it.
"Ready?" Murdoc asked, getting the thumbs up from his three band members and words of agreement from the two jounin and a court nod from Danzo. Needless to say that Danzo's attitude irritated Murdoc to no end, and by now Murdoc was hoping that to Danzo either got scared out of his wits during his little ride or that he have an accident that would cripple his manhood Permanently. Nonetheless, Murdoc forced a smile at the man and gave Russel the go ahead.
"Oh, and 2D, sing a little tune for the guests." Murdoc added offhandedly before he backed up and gave Jiraiya the thumbs up, to which the Sannin replied with a nod before flipping through a list of hand seals and slamming his hands on the ground.
"Earth style! Construction of Mayhem! Unseal!"
A moment later the area around the clearing shook, and a road made of greyish orange stone rose from the ground in a ramp, which leveled out into a flat road at about a height of ten feet from the ground. The road wandered off into the forest at one edge of the clearing and reappeared on the opposite end, ending in a ramp that was a mirror image of the first ramp.
Russel turned the keys of the armored vehicle, causing the machine to roar to life. Grinning like the cats that caught the cannary, the three Gorillaz operating the vehicle gave the rest of the observers a quick salute and Noodle turned on the Music system of the car and incerted a caset that read "Gorillaz" and switching through the songs until the sound track for "19-2000" came on with a catchy beat.
A moment later Russel stepped on the gas, the machine roaring even louder in response and causing the vehicle rear up on its hind wheels at a forty-five degree angle as it lurched forwards towards the ramp at increasingly high speeds, leaving a cloud of dust in its wake. At the same time, three wide-eyed men yelped in surprise at the rear of the Geep as they were pushed against their back seats due to the sudden acceleration of the vehicle, arms sprawled to their sides as they instinctively braced for an impact that didn't come.
In less than half a minute the vehicle was already cruising down the highway at top speed without turbo, swerving and driving around with seemingly reckless abandon but with exact precision and control of how turn and where to do so. Of course, the fact that they had asked Jiraiya to model the current road after the one they used in the 19-2000 did help.
2D cleared his voice and relaxed against his seat as if the insane driving show wasn't even occurring and began to sing easily.
"The world is spinning too fast,
I'm buying them Niki shoes,
To keep myself tethered
To the days I try to loose
My mama said to slow down
You must make your own shoes
Start dancing to the music
Of Gorillaz in a happy mood
Keeping my Groove on."
By now the car was approaching a giant loop, much to the awe of the observers and to the horror of the three guest riders who by now were pale skinned from the fright.
"Here we go!" Noodle sang out as she glanced back to three guests, who despite just being scared within an inch of their lives had to smile (save for Danzo, of course) at Noodle.
"Get the Cool, Get the Cool shoeshine
Get the cool, Get the cool shoeshine
Get the cool, Get the cool shoeshine
Get the cool, Get the cool shoeshine"
Once the group had managed to survive the loop without incident, the three guest rider let out a sigh of relief that they hadn't realized they had been holding in finally feeling somewhat at ease. Until they looked up ahead to find that at least a hundred meters worth of road had disappeared up a head, leaving a huge gap and only a ramp of sorts to cross it. They started to try to say something, but by then Russel had hit the turbo button on and in a flash they were at the ramp.
And all the while 2D kept on singing without even flinching.
"There is a monkey in the Jungle
Watching our vapor trail
Caught up in a conflict between his brain and his tail
(Oh yeah yeah)
And if times elimination
Then we have nothing to loose
Please repeat the message
It's the music that we choose
Keeping my groove on."
Then Noodle took up her part easily. "Get the cool, get the cool Shoeshine
Get the cool, Get the cool shoeshine
Get the cool, Get the cool shoeshine
Get the cool, Get the cool shoeshine..."
By now, already past the massive loop, the impossible turns, and the massive gap, Kakashi had finally began to enjoy himself and the music, while Gai was just beginning to calm down, but Danzo was still tense and pale.
However there was ONE last obstacle to the run. One that had not being planned. A minute later one massive carnivorous spider from the forest appeared, easily twelve feet in height.
Undeterred by the new entity, the Gorillaz sped forward, not without first clicking a particularly bright red button, which caused the vehicle to rise on an unseen hydraulic system and two missiles to rise from underneath it. A moment later, Noodle clicked the button again, and the missiles launched themselves at the spider, consuming it in an explosion of fire, smoke, and green goo, through which they just sped through without hesitation.
Less than a minute later they reappeared at the opposite end of the clearing that they had set off from, stopping neatly right in front of the guests once again. Naturally, they were greeted with cheers and applause for their show.
And almost no one noticed that Danzo was as pale as a ghost for the first time in a very long time.
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Meantime, Naruto was on his way to his favorite ramen stand, with a certain little red fox hanging off his shoulder lazily while he walked.
"Do you think they are going to have an other concert soon?" Naruto idly asked the fox as his mind wandered over thoughts of music and ramen.
"Probably." The fox replied to him simply, "They were talking about storming the shinobi world with their music, so I imagine that for that they need more concerts."
"I don't think they will have to try too hard to do that..." Naruto replied, "To storm the world with music I mean."
"I don't think so either." Kurama replied lazily, "So far it's been success after success. Though that's not a surprise, I suppose. The music of this land that has been created by the rest of you humans has been pretty static and stale for the last three hundred years."
Naruto looked at the little fox in surprise. "Three hundred years?"
"That's right kit. It's little wonder that everyone is drooling at their music. Three hundred years of the same stale and slow style of music, with almost identical voices singing the same songs over and over tend to make anything new exciting. And considering that they are the best of the best there are plus they are fresh blood in the music industry here… Well, it would be hard to resist for most people."
Naruto was forced to concede that the fox had a point. It wasn't like there were many musicians to begin with either, so live music was rare for common people. The concerts that the Gorillaz carried out were a welcome novelty for the world in many ways, and helped introduce people to many aspects of music.
As he pondered all this, Naruto's feet automatically carried him over to his favorite ramen stand, only snapping out of his thoughts when a familiar feminine voice interrupted his train of thought.
"Welcome to Ichiraku's Ramen, how can I- oh, hi Naruto!"
"Hey Ayame, what's up?" Naruto asked in his usual friendly manner, "Been busy all day?"
"Well it was kind of a lazy day today..." Ayame said slowly, before a smirk started to tug at her lips, "But I guess the lazy time is done now that a certain someone is here though."
"Hell yeah! You know it baby!" Naruto said enthusiastically and giving her a thousand mega watt smile, a smile that without his knowledge emphasized the word 'baby' and made Ayame blush at the blond teen that was seven years younger than her.
"Eh? Are you alright Ayame? You are a little red..." Naruto said, who despite being younger than Ayame was now taller than her and leaned closer to her face to better inspect the redness.
"Eh?! Oh! No no no, it's nothing!" Ayame rushed to reply, "It's just the, um... The heat!"
"The heat?"
"Uhh, yeah, it's been kinda hot and the kitchen is even hotter!"
"I guess it has been kinda hot... But-"
"ANYWAYS, what will you be having Naruto?" Ayame interrupted him loudly, taking a step back at the same time.
"Oh! Right, give me the usual ten bowls of misso ramen to start up please!" Naruto said brightly, instantly forgetting about Ayames odd behavior and refocusing on his food.
"Ten misso ramen bowls coming right up!" Ayame said with a relieved expression and fled towards the kitchen before she made any other awkward movements or Naruto remembered her blush.
"You know," The nine-tailed fox said to his container, "You are the most thick headed idiot out there."
"Hey! Where did that come from?" Naruto asked, obviously irritated at the fox's comment.
The fox just barked a laugh and jumped on his head, and laid down for a nap, but not without first saying, "I'll let you figure it out."
"...Stupid fox..." Naruto muttered under his breath.
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After a successful day presenting their very first tool of war to the most prominent members of the military council, the Gorillaz resolved themselves to have a hearty meal at the best ramen stand in town: Ichiraku's Ramen. Though with the amount of people that the little stand had, Russel couldn't help but wonder how come the owner didn't expand his business.
As the foursome approached the stand, the smell of the ramen made their stomachs rumble and growl in hunger loud enough to even interrupt the eager chattering between 2D and Noodle.
"Looks like we got here just in time." Russel laughed as Noodle blushed with embarrassment when her belly betrayed her hunger by rumbling loudly.
"No kidding." Murdoc mumbled as he felt his own belly growl again, demanding to be fed with alcoholic drinks and something solid to go with it... Like pizza or ramen.
"Hey guys!"
A yellow bullet crash hugged 2D, knocking some of the air in his lungs out of his body and causing him to double over.
"Hey, what's up Naruto?" 2D replied with his patented show smile, which Naruto returned. It was only a second later that they realized that their faces were really close together.
CRASH!
THUMP!
Immediately the two of them turned their heads to find a knocked out Ayame with a large amount of blood flowing from her nose, and a very red Noodle with a trickle of blood running down from her nose. Blinking, the two guys approached the girls who seemed to immediately regain awareness of the it surroundings.
"Er... Noodle... You okay luv?" 2D asked her, only to have her give a little "eep!" sound and scuttle away to help Ayame up, saying that it was a "girls' thing".
"Ayame... Ayame wake up." Noodle said in a half whisper like voice as she shook her awake.
"Wh-wha...?" Atame replied as her eyes started flickering open, "Did I die and go to heaven?"
"No... It was just an accident. 2D and Naruto got too close by accident and smiled at each-other with those pure and innocent eyes... I think I say an illusion of yellow roses and blue lilies in the background because of that."
"You saw it too?" Ayame said dreamily, "That was the sexiest and most innocent thing i have ever seen. The two hottest guys in Konoha... Smiling like that at each-other... So close they could almost kiss..."
"Ayame... You are drooling." Noodle said carefully.
"Oh, wha-? Oh! Sorry sorry!" Ayame said as she stood up with the help of Noodle and wiped the drool off her face with a napkin.
"Ahem." Murdoc called out from some ways away from a table behind the girls, "Hello? Earth to chicks? Me want food. Now."
"Oh! Sorry about that!" Ayame said in a rush as she hurried to produce a pen and a notepad from her pocket and rush over to take their orders.
Incidentally, for some reason every time she looked at Naruto or 2D, the girl blushed like a tomato and had to look away.
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After everyone had their fill of ramen, the whole group, consisting of Gorillaz and Naruto, headed back to their apartments all the time being followed people. In particular girls. Lots and Lots of girls. But the thing was that, since it was a Ninja village, you didn't just have the regular girls that would follow you meekly and were bad at hiding, you also had the pro ninja girls that were good enough at hiding that they could give a ghost a run for their money. That made going home for the group of friends a somewhat eerie experience, but regardless of that they made it home safely.
Once at home, they held a quick meeting in the room of Murdoc and Russel, where Kakashi and Jiraiya were already waiting. As soon as the door was closed, a slight silver and blue glow covered 2D and the small lizard like body of Ventus materialized on 2D's shoulder.
"Hey Ven." 2D said with a friendly tone as he petted the small form of the dragon king.
"Yo." The dragon replied simply as it settled into a comfortable position on 2D's shoulder and wrapped his tail around the neck of 2D.
"Ventus, how rare for you to join us." Jiraiya said with genuine surprise, "Any particular reason for that?"
The dragon just eyed Jiraiya for a second before letting out a small and amused snort, which produced a small cloud of smoke from his nostrils at the same time, as if to emphasize his action.
"I like to come out from time to time, Toad Sage. Besides, this could be interesting to hear."
Satisfied by the answer of the dragon, Jiraiya turned back to the matter at hand.
"So, shall we start the meeting?"
A general sound of agreement filled the room and they began to talk.
"So," Jiraiya continued, "We have roughly three weeks time before the Akatzuki start to move. In that time, aside from training and staying alert, what are we going to do?"
Unexpectedly, the one to reply was Ventus, and he did so as if it was the most natural thing in the world, not even bothering to look up from his resting place at 2D's shoulder.
"Its simple. We need to do three things, which are spread the influence of the Gorillaz, produce more weaponry, and introduce basic tactics to use that weaponry."
"And how do you propose we do that, eh, scale face?" Murdoc asked with annoyance, obviously frustrated by the inability to see how to do it himself.
"Watch it imp-face, remember who you are talking to." The dragon growled back at him, pining him down with his very positively scary looking reptilian glare. Whether Murdoc liked it or not, he wasn't talking to a run-of-the-mill lizard. He was talking to a dragon, and not just any dragon, the king of dragons. Small or not, that little body still packed some serious power. Once he was sure Murdoc had reflected upon his errors, Ventus proceeded to explain what he meant.
"To do what I have suggested is not that hard actually. First, I believe you recorded a whole album already, isn't that right?"
"Yes, they did. I even helped with a bit of the recording set up." Jiraiya said carefully. "But how is one album going to help much in just three weeks?"
"Just make many more copies of it." Ventus said lazily, "I am sure these guys know how to replicate them. Make a dozen or two, send them to the most prominent cities in the elemental nations, use your spy network to convince those boring radio stations to play them and boom, you are done the first step. That will get people reacquainted with their music and give you time to start mass producing the album."
Blinking with surprise the whole room listened as Ventus continued to explain the plan as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, despite the fact that it seemed air intricate but at the same time straightforward.
"As for the weapons that's not complicated either. Just make something that is simple and effective, don't make it too fancy and use readily available materials so that you can produce a good amount of them. That way people can get used to them quickly and the tactics can be carried out more efficiently, rather than fiddling around trying to figure out how some fancy thing works while the enemy tries to kill them. Its not like we have much time so simple is better. Maybe something like an explosive or projectile of some sort would do."
"Mmmmm…. That could work." Kakashi replied after a second of thought. "Given we don't have much time, something that is simple and quick to learn would be best, and if we sell only a limited amount of copies of the album, say a few hundred, we could easily rake in a lot of money from people that would be willing to pay. If we make them signed and autographed by the band members and throw in an exclusive limited time poster then that would make it even more attractive for the costumer I think."
"There you go." Ventus said with a small smile. "Seems like you got some brains kid."
"I'm not a kid." Kakashi replied to the dragon. He might be young for a jouning, yes, but he was already in in his mid twenties and that was hardly considered a kid.
However, to his surprise, the dragon just made a sort of rumbling and huffing sound that sounded suspiciously like laughter. And as it turns out, the dragon was laughing.
"Compared to me, yes you are a kid." Ventus replied simply, "I'm way older than I look right now. You should take it as a compliment that I called you a kid instead of a kiddy, or an egg, because relative to my age, that's closer to your actual age."
As much as Kakashi wanted to argue the fact that he wasn't a kid, he had to admit, the dragon had a point. The creature was milenia older than he was, judging from their stories, the fox and the dragon were roughly the same age. He supposed that from the point of view of a creature that had lived thousands of years, long enough to see volcanoes be born and die with time, he was a kid.
"Well…. That was easy." 2D said cheerily. "I guess I'll see you guys around then, me Noods and Ven are going to go hang out."
"Hang on there, 2D," Russel said as 2D and Noodle started to stand up to depart from the room, "We still haven't discussed what the plan is if we happen to meet the Akatzuki before the three weeks are up and they attack us."
"Simple," Ventuse said once again, turning to face the crowd, and his eyes locked with Kurama's eyes for one split of second, but it was enough to make the fox grin and add his voice to what Ventus was going to say, causing their voices to synchronize as they finished the sentence, "We kill the Akatsuki."
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AND CUT! There you go my friends! The tenth chapter of G.H.V. just fresh out of my computer for all of you to enjoy! HOPE YOU ALL LIKED IT!
Please don't forget to leave a review, Any input is appreciated and it helps get my butt in gear to write more chapters!
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Oh! And here is a review question I got a while back from Cyborgnetics. iT WAS A REALLY GOOD QUESTION so I replied to it and I thought I would share it with you guys, just in case anyone one else was wondering the same thing.
Here it is (the review is from chapter 8):
Question:
"…..there is some things I'd like to know like I was kinda wondering about 2D's migraines, I mean his stash has to end sometime... at least there is alcohol and cigarettes but to the point I didn't notice anything about that or is there some other method?
Otherwise this is a really good story and hope you continue it im interested to see their first real fight in a Mission, but don't think they could be ready for the Akatsuki if my memory serves me next is Deidara and Sasori going after Gaara... Anyways can't wait for the next Chapter...now if i can only find a Bleach one to match the Picture Tite Kubo drew..."
Answer:
"Very good points you bring up. Originally, 2D's Headaches REALLY started after he fell off a tree and smacked his head and lost all his hair right? Well, if you recall, when they transferred into the world of Ninjas they had their brains re-wired so that they were more similar to the people around them. Since 2D's Migraines were an anomaly that was caused by trauma to the head, by re-wiring his brain that got "fixed" so to speak. HOWEVER, he is still more prone to migraines than others, and certain levels of stress will trigger them, though not at the same "Break your head so that it stops" level. Still, they will be bad. And any amount of distraction is deadly in a ninja conflict.
For now I have decided to ignore his drug tendencies. I read somewhere that he [2D] quit drugs for good after demon days (which makes sense, cause otherwise the withdrawal might have killed him during his imprisonment under water due to Murdoc, considering that he was under there for about two or three years or more.), so for now I am just leaving them out intentionally, and maybe I will bring them into play later. I also heard his smoking and alcohol tendencies went way down because of his stress with the whale thing.
On the other hand, Smoking and Alcohol still remain a great part of Murdoc's life stile. We all know Murdoc can't live without alcohol. I plan on introducing this idea later too."
Okay and that's that. Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! This is freedragon, login out.