The next morning in the Hidden Leaf Village…
Misato, Karin and Rei were together, going through the shopping district, when Karin stopped.
Karin put her hands on her head and rubbed her temples. "There is a big chakra signature heading this way. It feels kind of like one of the Angels, yet kind of like a tailed beast with a hint of human in it."
Misato and Rei looked at each other. The SEELE's new forms were made from a mix of Angel A.T. Field and tailed beast chakra, and they use to be human, so it made sense that a mix between the three things is what one would feel like, so both girls called, "SEELE!"
Karin nodded. "I think so, too, but the big problem is that he feels as strong as Shinji and Naruto put together!"
Then, down from the sky, six giant-sized purple fireballs then rained down from the sky. When they hit, they melted the ground below them and made the village shake. There were screams of panic and terror from the villagers who were racing for the Tokyo-3 half of the village's safe houses.
In the military base, Yamato got off the ground which he was knocked to when the ground shook. "Damage report!" he yelled.
Maya rubbed her head as she got off the ground and back at her console. "Sir, the blasts welded the Eva launch pads shut! We are unable to launch the Eva's!"
Yamato rubbed the back of his head. "So, what ever hit us has a plan in the works. On monitor."
The main monitor then came on, showing that above the village was what looked like a man-dragon hybrid.
Yamato and all of the military staff's eyes widened. " A dragon!"
In the air, the dragon spoke, his voice heard by all. "I am SEELE-05, the dragonic destroyer! I have already destroyed one village before you! I am here to do what my brothers couldn't put an end to the troublesome Leaf Village and Tokyo-3!"
On the ground stood Naruto, Shinji, and Shikamaru who was dressed in black pants, a black long sleeve shirt and black flak jacket with an earpiece on his right ear.
As Naruto called out his staff and Shinji drew his blade, Shikamaru hissed. "That's my line!"
Naruto looked to Shikamaru and said, "Leave the dragon to us, Shikamaru. You get out of here."
Shinji covered his sword in black flames. "Yeah! Leave the monster-slaying to us!"
The two then raced off at a high speed, leaving Shikamaru behind.
Shikamaru smirked. His teeth were fang-like. "Please! He stole my catchphrase! You think I'll let him go without facing him?" He then went through some hand signs at speeds too fast to make them out. "Shadow Merging!"
He then merged into his own shadow, becoming one with it. The now-solo shadow had glowing red eyes as it sank into a nearby building's shadow. "I'll just use this stealth jutsu to be one with the shadows until I figure out dragon boy's fighting style and weakness. Then, I'll strike!"
With Naruto and Shinji…
They chased the dragon to his landing point the Forest of Death.
Naruto looked around the forest, thinking back to when Sakura, Sasuke and himself were still a team. He thought back to the Chūnin exams, the last place that the three would do a mission together. Well, it was a test, but you get the point.
Naruto let out a sad smile. "So many memories! If only I knew then what I know now."
Shinji was spinning, his black flame-covered sword around in his right hand as the dragon landed. "Focus, dude! We have a dragon to slay!"
Shinji made the blade on the sword of Kusanagi grow as he gave a wide, blazing Amaterasu slash at the dragon!
But, to Shinji's shock, the dragon simply grabbed the flaming blade between his right index and middle fingers, the Amaterasu flames not even effecting him. Shinji's jaw dropped as he made the blade shrink and return to him. "WHAT THE HELL!"
The dragon man chuckled evilly. "Please. I am a dragon, a being born a master of flames. Do you really think fire in any form would hurt a being the likes of me?!" The dragon then let loose with a mountain-sized ball of purple flames.
Naruto quickly called upon the power of his Preta Path to make the Blocking Technique Absorption Seal Barrier, but unlike the other times he used it, he only held the fire ball back. The chakra that made up this fireball was unlike anything he had ever faced. His body had no idea how to absorb it at first.
But, over time, the fireball did shrink slowly little by little as its chakra was slowly converted to normal human chakra by Naruto's body and absorbed. Before long, Naruto couldn't keep it up. He had to drop the barrier.
Thankfully Shinji had summoned his Susanoo and blocked the fireball with the Yata Mirror!
Shinji stood in the middle of his Susanoo, the Yata Mirror in its left hand and a water-like Chakra blade in the right. "OK, now. Bring it on!" Shinji then made shadow clones.
The clones and their Susanoo's rushed the dragon.
The dragon man avoided the blades of the army easily as his claws found their way past their copy Yata Mirrors and into the clones' skulls, dispelling them.
Then, the dragon noticed something. The ring-eyed boy was not standing by Gendō's brat like he was a few moments ago.
The dragonic man turned to see Naruto behind him, his staff held in his right hand, his left hand covered in an orange cannon-like machine, clearly made from the Asura Path. He then called out "Asura ATTACK!" The cannon then fired a high-powered blast of chakra at point-blank range.
The force of the blast sent Naruto flying back, but he was able to use Wood Release to grow tree roots around his legs to root himself into the ground and stop himself.
Once he stopped, he kicked his legs free from the tree roots and headed over to the blast site. Shinji was protected by the Yata mirror just fine, in the middle of a crater that covered 40% of the forest of death.
Shinji dropped his Susanoo and hopped out of the crater to Naruto. "Did you have to do point-blank?"
Naruto adjusted his straw hat as he said, "I had to make sure that he couldn't avoid the shot." The cannon on his arm then fell apart and fell off his arm. He looked at his left hand and closed it for a moment. The Asura Path's powers always felt strange to him.
They then gasped in shock as they heard a roar of rage!
They both then turned to see the SEELE dig itself out from under the crater! Its clothes looked burned and he looked dirty. He was missing some scales, as well, but other than that, he was unharmed.
Shinji then spoke up. "He lived through what was basically an impact! OK! This is bad!"
Naruto then slammed his hands onto the ground and used the powers of the Animal Path to summon a skyscraper-sized spider with an orange control rod in its head with eight Rinnegan eyes. "This will keep him busy. Right now, we need to regroup, Shinji!"
The two then dashed off as the spider went for the SEELE.
As they dashed off, they saw a human-shaped shadow with glowing red eyes. "Guys! Over here! It's me!"
The two then dashed towards it and said, "We told you to get out of here, Shikamaru!"
Shikamaru chuckled. "Please. As long as I'm merged with a shadow, I can't be hurt. I can't use jutsu until I drop this one, either, but I have a plan for you guys. All of your attacks up until now have generated heat, like Shinji's sword attacks and Naruto's Asura attack."
A mini close-in flashback played of when the dragon grabbed Shinji's black fire-covered sword blade between his fingers. Now that it was close in, one could see a spark generated on the area that the flames touched, hardening them for a split second."
The mini flashback ended. As Shikamaru continued. "Heat makes his scales harden into more powerful armor. Then, when he was hit by Naruto's Asura attack cannon, some of his scales were missing, so I believe that the missing scales overloaded."
Shinji put a hand to his chin. "So, you're saying that we turn up the heat! I don't think the village could survive that!"
Shikamaru chuckled. "Shinji! You're looking at this at face value! If heat hardens his scales, then cold might weaken them, allowing you to deal some damage, but that is unproven for the moment."
Naruto looked at his staff and smirked. "I can do cold. Let's hope that this idea works, Shikamaru, because he just finished off my spider!"
Meanwhile, with the dragon…
He stood in the middle of the crater. The now-dead giant spider's ripped-off body parts lay around him. In his right clawed hand, he held the control rod for the thing. He then crushed it in his hand as he said, "Well, now, that was a nice warm up!"
The dragon man then took to the air. "Now that the boys are gone, it's time to do what I'm really here to do." He then fired off another large fireball into the crater, making it become deeper until what little ground that was at the button caved into an underground tunnel.
This made the ground shake once more. Shikamaru then freaked out.
Shikamaru spoke. "Guys, I just got word on my earpiece. He broke into an underground tunnel connect to one of the still-in-progress back up launch platforms. It's not finished, but it still leads right into the Eva hanger! He's not after you two! He's after the Eva's!"
Naruto then switched into Tailed Beast Chakra Control Mode and said, "Shinji and I will hold him off. You get the others to their Evas'."
Shinji, then, likewise shifted into his own version of Tailed Beast Control Mode. His version glowed silver with a purple outline. "Let's hope that this works!" The two Jinchūriki then raced off at super-high speeds.
Shikamaru then vanished into the shadows to go and find Rei, Asuka, Tōji, Kensuke and Hikari.
Will our heroes get to the Eva's before the dragon? Will our tailed beast-powered duo be able to hurt the dragon? Find out in the next chapter.
To be continued…
