Maelstrom EXE.

"Normal speech"

"Tailed Beast speech"

[Talking from the PET]

Chapter 9: Double or Nothing

Naruto and Tamamo arrived at one of the three islands, particularly the western one. He reached the sandy shore and placed the fox girl down from his back although she was pouted a bit at that.

"I wish I could stay on his back a little longer," thought Tamamo while trying not to whine.

"Now that we've arrived at the island, let's go look for the temple and search for any clues leading to the Moon tablet," said Naruto while scoping out the area for any signs of enemies.

"Okay Maelstrom-kun," said Tamamo happily.

The duo made their way from the beach and past the palm trees to enter the forest ahead of them, Naruto and Tamamo took to leaping along the branches of the trees to get around quickly. It took some time when Naruto landed on a branch and gestured for Tamamo to stop with the fox girl landing next to him.

"What's the matter?" Tamamo whispered to him.

"Look over there," Naruto pointed for her to look.

Ahead of them is a large clearing and built on it appears to be a temple of eastern design adorned with coral reefs, shells among other sea themed decoration. In the center is a large grey statue depicting a giant serpentine dragon which is coiled around a giant pearl atop a circular pedestal, however there are also fishmen patrolling the area.

"We'll need to clear them out first before anything else," said Naruto.

"But how do we do that?" asked Tamamo curiously.

"I'm somehow surprised that you aren't spamming your shadow clones to sweep the enemies out," said Kurama with a quirked eyebrow.

"True, but I want to reserve my chakra in case we run into the others or if worse data ghosts. That last one we faced showed just how tough the past fighters were," thought Naruto then h snapped back into focus "I got an idea, first we trigger some confusion amongst the guards before rushing in to take them while they try to gather themselves,"

"Okay, Maelstrom-kun,"

"Yo 'Naruto', I'll be needing the bombs," said Naruto.

"Coming right up, Multiple MiniBomb battle chips in, and download!" C-Naruto held many battlechips in between his fingers and proceeded to rapidly insert in them into the PET, Naruto cupped his hands together for the spherical bombs to materialize on them. He tossed them into the air then proceeded to grab each one and throw in direction of the shrine grounds as they exploded and threw up clouds of dust.

The fishmen growled in confusion of the sudden attack, Naruto and Tamamo immediately rushed in to engage the enemies. Naruto conjured multiple cyber shuriken and flung them to strike a few of the fishmen while others deflected the projectiles before rushing at him with their cutlasses brandished, Naruto quickly unsheathed his chakra blade and the Vorpal blade then he constantly clashed steel with fishmen and quickly evades to avoid being overwhelmed. He backflipped several times to create some distance then threw both blades simultaneously to cut down some of them before returning to his hands.

Tamamo was constantly striking the enemies with her clawed fingers and at times switch to a barrage of kicks, she dashed sideways to avoid a thrust of a spear from one of the fishmen then she summoned her mirror to bash it hard then slammed a powerful palm thrust to send it careening into some of the into its compatriots. Tamamo took out a spell tag "Charm: Frigid Heaven!" she threw it at the fishmen which then encased them in a large block of ice, she twirled round with her tail enlarging to smash the both them and the ice into smaller pieces before facing the next incoming group of enemies. Several of the fishmen opened their mouths wide to spew powerful streams of water at the fox girl but she managed to outpace them with her acrobatic skills whilst using her mirror to deflect any from potentially hitting her. In midair, Tamamo tossed several spell tags into the air and launched the first batch to unleash multiple fiery explosions then taking hold of the second batch "Curse: Chaos Heaven!" she threw them to trigger large vortex of razor sharp winds to slice through a majority of the fishmen.

Naruto himself was busy at his side as he had summoned the Aurum Blade and shifted its form to the Tiger Claws for speed and maneuverability to weave in and out of the group, he dashed backwards to evade a slash whilst rapidly firing plasma shots in retaliation "Hang on, I'm sending a chip on the way! Boomerang battlechip in, download!" C-Naruto inserted a chip as Naruto's right arm transformed into an attachment with a v-shaped bladed boomerang latched on to it then he threw it towards the fishmen to slice through them "FireHit battle chip in, download!" Naruto's fists ignited in flames before lunging at the remainder of the fishmen to unleash a barrage of fiery punches to take them all out.

Soon enough, the entire temple was clear of enemies as Naruto and Tamamo can now feel less vigilante for the meantime.

"Well that's all of them, now we can take a closer look at this shrine,"' said Naruto.

"Yup," Tamamo nodded in affirmation.

The duo began to examine every part of the shrine the best they could and so far they haven't found anything which could give them any kind of clues which might lead them to the pieces of the Moon Tablet.

"I'm not finding anything useful around here, what about your side Tamamo?" asked Naruto.

Said fox girl was checking out the dragon statue outside "Nothing here either…hm?" she leant on the statue when it suddenly rotated sideways "Maelstrom-kun, come and take a look at this!"

Naruto walked out of the shrine to approach with a quirked eyebrow "What is it?"

"The statue seems to be able to rotate, it might mean something,"

Naruto gazed at the statue thoughtfully "Hmmm…you might be right, let's rotate it and see what happens," Naruto created a few shadow clones and together they began to rotate the statue a few times when it suddenly locked in place then slowly sank into the ground and stopped with a click as the giant pearl began to glow with a blue aura. The island rumbled slightly then stopping.

"Well that did something, but the question is what?" said Naruto.

"Maybe if we did the same for the two statues in the other islands, something might happen," said Tamamo.

"Sounds like the best lead we got, so let's for island #2," said Naruto taking out the map to plan a route to the destination.

"Okay!" said Tamamo, giddy at the thought of being carried across the sea again.

The duo returned to the shore where Naruto marked the direction before putting the map away and beckoned Tamamo to get on his back again, something she was all too happy to do so as she hopped onto his back and wrapped her arms around his neck much to the blonde's surprise.

"Well what do we have here? A girl who actually wants to be carried by you, I dare say that you got to do something that perverted toad sage would never get to do and one upped him," said Kurama with a sly grin.

"It's not like that Kurama, there's no way I'll ever be a super pervert like Pervy Sage…though you got a point there," thought Naruto, inwardly agreeing in the end.

Naruto channeled chakra to his feet once more before running on top of the seawater as fast as he can without tiring himself out. It took them some time but they soon arrived at the next island, the duo traversed the forest and reached the second temple. This one's building structure is similar to the first temple but it comprised entirely of wood as it was built atop a lake. Naruto and Tamamo were also to locate the second dragon statue, and sure enough there were fishmen patrolling the area with a new addition of hulking humanoid sharks equipped with armor and spiked maces.

"There's the next statue, let's clear these guys out then we can activate the second statue," said Naruto.

"I'm ready when you are, Maelstrom-kun," said Tamamo.

"Then let's go!" Naruto charged forward with Tamamo close behind as they quickly entered the temple grounds, attracting the attention of the aquatic soldiers. Naruto crossed the idle and index fingers of each hand together "Shadow Clone jutsu!" he created a squad of clones to rush at one of the sharkmen who swung his mace at them but they quickly evaded the attack, the first two clones performed a dual high kick at the enemy's torso to make him bend over then third lashed out with a backflip kick to knock his head up "Bronzefist battlechip in, download!" Naruto's right hand was equipped with a bronze gauntlet as he swung at the sharkman to smash him to the ground, dispersing him into data. One of his clones grabbed him by the arm and flung him sideways before being hit by a powerful water stream by a fishman, Naruto performed a one-handed sideflip before conjuring several cyber kunai in both hands then launching them to take his target down "Chakra Blade Wave!" Naruto unsheathed his chakra blade and channeled chakra through it before swinging it to launch a blue crescent wave of energy to slice through several more of the fishmen.

"Don't look now, but it looks like the vixen is in a bit of a pinch," said Kurama urgently.

Naruto looked over his shoulders to see that Tamamo was fighting several fishmen and evading their cutlasses but the sharkmen weren't making it any easier for her with their spiked maces "Darn it, I gotta help her!"

"I'm on it boss! Areasteal and Mettaur Guard battlechips in, download!" C-Naruto rapidly inserted the battlechips into the PET, Naruto warped from where he stood too reappear next to Tamamo then he went down on one knee and slammed a palm on the ground as a large helmet shaped shield to encase both of them, the sharkmen swung at the shield but were knocked back upon impact.

"Thank you Maelstrom-kun, now it's my turn," Tamamo stepped forward as her body emitted a purple flaming aura with two large concentrations on her hands and was hovering a foot from the ground "Higan-bana Sessho-seki!" She thrust her hands forward to launch a large purple sphere of magic energy which exploded in a wide radius upon impact with one of the fishmen, many were destroyed into pixels while the others suddenly turned green and collapsed before following the same fate as the rest.

"Okay, now that we're…," Naruto stopped in midsentence and quickly summoned the Aurum Blade and pointed it over his shoulder to fire a plasma shot, then there was the sound of groaning for a moment before silence "…alone, let's twist the next statue," he created another group of shadow clones and together they rotated the second dragon statue several times until it locked in place then slowly sank into the ground and stopped with a click as the giant pearl began to glow with a blue aura, the island shook again and a bit more violently than the first one before going still once more.

"We only got one more to go," said Tamamo excitedly.

"Yeah and I bet the security is gonna be tougher than the last two," said Naruto.

"I'm sure we can handle them too, let's get going already," Tamamo grabbed Naruto's hand and started pulling him back to the shore.

"Looks like someone's looking forward to being carried again, at this rate she'll stay on your back and never get off," said Kurama teasingly.

"Cut it out Kurama, it's not like that!" thought Naruto with a pink tinge on his cheeks.

"I beg to differ,"


The duo returned to the shore and plotted their route to the third island before crossing the seas once more until finally arriving at their next destination. Naruto and Tamamo went into the forest to search for the temple, but it seems like this one is a bit harder to find to find unlike the last two. Naruto created several shadow clones to scout the area more thoroughly, after explaining to Tamamo about the passive ability of the jutsu for better understanding.

"This might be a little more difficult than before," said Naruto with a small frown.

"I'm sure we can handle whatever comes our way," said Tamamo cheerfully, getting the blonde to smile as well.

"You're right, no time for negativity," Naruto feel a memory flow into his mind and realized that one of his shadow clones hand just found something interesting "Come on Tamamo-chan, one of my clones found something which might be useful clue for us,"

"Lead the way,"

Naruto went on ahead with Tamamo close behind as the duo leapt through the treetops for some time until landing in a small clearing before a tall cliff with a waterfall before them, this was where the clone was before it dispelled itself to send its memory to the original.

"This was where the clone dispelled itself," said Naruto.

"But what is there to find here?" asked Tamamo.

Naruto looked around the area for anything out of the ordinary and so far wasn't coming up with any ideas, then he recalled something that Kakashi told him during one of their training exercises. He looked at the waterfall and examined it closely before noticing something beyond it…a cavern entrance hidden behind the cover of the waterfall.

"Looks like Kakashi-sensei was right again, sometimes you just gotta look underneath the underneath both literally and figuratively," Naruto muttered.

"Huh?" Tamamo tilted her head cutely to the side.

"There's a hidden entrance behind the waterfall, it must lead to the third temple," said Naruto.

Tamamo blinked in surprise "So that was it, then let's go!"

Naruto and Tamamo went past the waterfall and through the hidden entrance, they walked through a tunnel which was dimly lit with glowing crystals until reaching the end as it led into a large cavern with an underground lake where they found the third temple being built over it, and sure enough it is being guarded by fishmen and sharkmen.

"Same routine like, but watch out for surprises," said Naruto.

"You got it," said Tamamo in affirmation.

Naruto and Tamamo rushed forward while launching the Chakra Blade and mirror respectively as spinning projectiles towards the enemies whilst rapidly closing the distance to engage them in close combat with their weapons returning to them. Naruto rolled on ground to evade a heavy swing of the spiked mace from a sharkman then slashed at the torso with his Chakra Blade before summoning the Aurum blade while pulling the trigger to rapidly fire plasma bullets then finished up by performing a cross-slash with both weapons. He quickly ducked as Tamamo leapt overhead and slammed into a fishman with a flying side kick then she manipulated her mirror to fly around her and strike her target consecutively before tossing a spell tag to unleash a wind vortex for extra damage, the fox girl twirled round to evade a slash from her left side and retaliated with a four-hit punching combo and a roundhouse kick to knock it away from her as a volley of cyber shuriken flew past her to finish it off.

"Shotgun battlechip in, download!" C-Naruto inserted a battlechip into the Pet, Naruto put away the Chakra Blade for his arm to transform into a small cannon then he took aim at the enemies and began firing a salvo of energy shots which pierced through the first ones to strike the ones behind, some of the fishmen launched streams of water at Naruto but Tamamo intercepted the attacks by having her mirror hover before her to block them. Naruto ran past Tamamo towards the enemies as he created two shadow clones at both sides, they proceeded to create a Rasengan on each hand as they ran until they were completely formed "Rasengan Barrage!" he rammed the first spiraling sphere into sharkman's torso blow him away and slam into others in his path, then he rammed the second into a fishman for the same result.

"A few more of these guys left to take down and we're…huh?" something caught Naruto's attention from the corner of his eye and turn to see something bubbling in the lake then something burst out from the water to reveal to be a giant green sea snake as the reptile hissed loudly before looking down at the perpetrators with a hungry look in its eyes "Snakes…why does it have to be snakes, especially of the supersize variety?"

"As much as I want to feel amused about all this, look sharp!" said Kurama urgently.

Naruto instinctively leapt out of the way as the snake lunged at him with its jaws wide open "Oh hell no! one of your cousins ate me, another tried to eat me, but you're not gonna eat me!" the snake simply hissed and slithered towards him, Naruto continuously dashed backwards and was constantly flinging cyber kunai and shuriken but they didn't seem to be damaging it as much as he thought, he rolled out of the way to avoid another chomp but the serpent was relentless.

"Maelstrom-kun hold on, I'm coming!" Tamamo took out several spell tags from her sleeve "Curse: Thunderstorm Heaven!" she threw them to trigger a large electrical discharge upon contact with the snake, causing it to hiss loudly in pain before turning to glare at the fox girl before charging at her. Tamamo ran around the stalagmites to slow the snake down but it easily smashed through due to its size and was catching up to her, the snake was just about to chomp at her when it hissed in pain again, Tamamo turned round to see that Naruto was standing atop the snake's head with his Chakra Blade stabbed deeply into its skin "Maelstrom-kun, be careful!"

"I know!" Naruto called back, the snake began thrashing about wildly to shake Naruto off but he held on and was pushing the blade further inside then unsheathed the Vorpal Blade to stab with it too which made it thrash even more wildly "Come on snakey, is that all you got!?"

"Look out, behind you!" Tamamo called out in alert.

Naruto looked back for his eyes to widen in shock as the snake was backing towards the cavern wall to smash into it, he pulled out both blades and leapt off in time then landed on the ground with a roll.

"Phew, that was a close one," said Naruto.

"Don't look now, but here it comes again!" said Kurama urgently.

"Already on it!" Naruto sheathed the blades and waited for his clone to send in a battlechip "Yoyo battlechip in, download!" his right arm transformed into an armament as he launched a bladed yoyo towards the snake and had the rope wrap around it then he quickly dashed towards a stalagmite to wrap the other end around it for support. The snake struggled to break free but Naruto held strong and summoned the Aurum Blade to shoot at it constantly, Tamamo was quick to join in by throwing her spell tags for elemental damage with the snake getting far more damaged, however it managed to break free by snapping the rope but was moving slowly "Now's the time to finish it off! Cannon triple battlechips in, download!" Naruto's left and right arms transformed into green cannons as he held together over his head and they fused to form a large green cannon, Naruto took aim at the giant snake with the cannon charging up energy "Program Advance: Giga Cannon v1!" he fired a large beam which instantly deleted the snake.

Naruto let out a sigh of relief as the cannon dissipated into pixels and his faceplate retracted "I'm glad that's over and done with,"

"Me too, we haven't found the Moon Tablet yet and we're getting a bit tired from all this," said Tamamo.

"True, now let's twist the last dragon statue and see what happens next," said Naruto, then he created another group of shadow clones to rotate the statue as it locked in place like the others but this time the tremor is so much greater than the previous two "Let's get out of here in case this cave collapses!"

Tamamo nodded in affirmation "Okay!"

The duo rushed out of the cave and made their way back to the shore, it was there that they saw something unbelievable…something was rising from the sea! Naruto and Tamamo stood and watched as the wonder rose completely until revealing it to be a large rocky island covered in coral of different colors, but it didn't end there as the tide began to recede and reveal a long sandy bank leading all the way to the island from where they stood like a bridge of sorts.

"So it wasn't that the island sank to the bottom of the ocean, but it was rather hidden underwater," said Naruto in wonder.

"And those statues are what made it to rise to the surface, now that I think of it all three of the dragon statues were in the direction of the fourth island," said Tamamo.

"Quite the puzzle if you look at it from a certain point of view," said Kurama.

"That's good and all but we need to go and check it out quickly, all this commotion would have long since attracted the others and we need to get there first before they do," said Naruto.

"You're right, let's hurry!" said Tamamo.

The duo quickly ran along the sand bank and arrived at the island, they searched around a bit before locating an entrance to a cave which they entered and walked through a tunnel until it ended at an underwater passageway to who knows where. Naruto was precautious enough to send in a few shadow clones just in case of traps, it took some time for Naruto to map out the proper route with some help from Kurama. Naruto dove in with Tamamo following him as they swam through the underwater passage as quickly as they could before surfacing at the end to pass through an entry into a massive circular chamber supported by large pillars made of coral, at the end is a shrine like the ones before and there they saw the complete Moon Tablet placed on it.

"We found it!" Tamamo hopped happily.

"Yeah, let's go get it!" Naruto and Tamamo began walking towards the shrine and were hallway there when a voice suddenly spoke up from behind them.

"I would suggest not approaching that shrine just yet," they turned round to see none other than Nero with Elizabeth standing next to her and squeezing the seawater out of her clothes with a frown.

"Mou. Why did they have to hide the tablet someplace wet?" Elizabeth whined a bit.

"How did you two get here?" asked Tamamo.

"They must have followed us here, I should have noticed we were being tailed," said Naruto with a small frown.

"That's quite astute of you Maelstrom-san, it seems like we're all at an impasse…however this is also an opportunity from a certain perspective," said Nero.

Tamamo tilted her head in confusion "What do you mean?"

"It's like I said before, I've been wanting to cross blades with you for quite some time and now the opportunity has finally presented itself," Nero held a hand out as there was a red flash of light to reveal her holding single-edged crimson sword designed to resemble a flame and a golden arm shield.

Naruto tensed at the sight of the finely crafted weapon, he hasn't forgotten about Nero expressing her desire to fight him as he felt the same way for others including herself though he wasn't exactly expecting to battle her at this time, he glanced sideways to see Tamamo looking just as tense as he is. There's no doubt that they're going to have to fight in order to stake their claim on the Moon Tablet.

"Well you two have had your fun in this tournament, but now it's time for you to get off the stage to make room for this Idol to steal the show," said Elizabeth haughtily as she summoned a dragon lance in hand, with everyone frowning at her in annoyance.

"It would have happened in the end, so I guess better late than never. So let's have a great battle," Naruto unsheathed his chakra blade and took a combat stance.

Nero nodded in approval "Umu, I finally get to witness your artistry in battle,"

"I'll take her on, she's been asking for it for long time till," Tamamo stared intently at Elizabeth, all those times the self-proclaimed idol had been making fun of Naruto and the others and she has the opportunity for payback.

Music Start: BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle OST; Queen of Rose (Rachel Alucard's Theme)
Nero rushed towards Naruto and attacked him with a diagonal slash of her sword, Naruto quickly created a shadow clone behind him for it to cup its hands together then Naruto jumped backwards to land on them before being tossed into the air to evade the strike and the clone was hit instead, Naruto descended with a downward slash only for Nero to dash backwards to evade the attack but he followed up by throwing the chakra blade like boomerang and followed after it whilst unsheathing the Vorpal blade. Nero deflected the incoming blade with a half-spin then quickly raised her sword to block the follow-up from Naruto. Both sides struggled to push the other back until they broke away and stood a fair distance apart, Naruto sheathed his blade with the chakra blade having reappeared in his sheath then he crossed his arms together and conjured multiple shuriken in his hands.

"Cyber shuriken!" Naruto began flinging volleys of throwing stars one after another at Nero, the red swordswoman was dashing in a zigzag pattern while deflecting any shuriken which might hit her and was right in front of Naruto whilst swinging her sword "Shadow Clone jutsu!" he quickly created a clone to appear in front of him with a pair of cyber kunai in hand to block the attack for him. Naruto maneuvered around them as he summoned the Aurum Blade and had it transform into the Tiger Claws then slashed at Nero, she kicked away the clone and turned round to block the first claw attack with her arm shield then the second one with her sword before pushing him away.

Nero took a stance "Rosa Ichthys!" she dashed towards Naruto and unleashed a three-hit sword combo upon him, Naruto defended himself with the claws but wasn't able to block all of the attacks and so took damage from them "Umu, I see now…you don't exactly have a sense 'style' trained into your body and yet you are capable of performing attacks and tactics without planning beforehand. That is quite exquisite and very rare form of art,"

"I guess I'll take that as a compliment," said Naruto confusedly "Let's see you handle this! Shadow Clone jutsu!" he created a large number of shadow clones before sending them at Nero. She was momentarily surprised before snapping back into focus, she rapidly switched between offense and defense against the attacking clones and was taking them down one by one. Suddenly four of the shadow clones were sliding towards her from four different directions "Na…Ru…To!" they all kicked simultaneously to launch Nero into the air towards the original who had jumped into the air beforehand "Uzumaki Barrage!" he lashed out with an axe kick to which she used the flat side of her blade to block but the impact sent her crashing to the ground with Naruto landing nearby.

"How's that? I'm just getting started!" said Naruto with a smirk.

Nero got back to her feet, looking bruised but smiling nonetheless "Most impressive, but then again I too am yet to battle with my full strength!"

Meanwhile Tamamo was exchanging blows with Elizabeth as she ducked and weaved from the swings and thrusts of the dragon lance before retaliating with her martial arts and the mirror, but the female lancer was just as skilled by using short flaps of her dragon wings to evade her opponent's attacks.

"Lert sügér Tran!" Elizabeth suddenly spun round with her back facing Tamamo then thrusting her lance between her two legs towards the fox girl who quickly somersaulted sideways to evade the attack then she took out a couple of spell tags before throwing them at her target "Le sang des Hongrie!" the self-proclaimed Idol called out before being damaged by the flaming vortex triggered by the spell tag, the flames died to reveal parts of her body burnt and suddenly she began to heal rapidly much to Tamamo's surprise "That was a hot tempo, and here's my verse!" Elizabeth flapped her wings to take to the air and flew about a bit before swooping towards Tamamo with the lance thrust at her. Tamamo dodged to the side but Elizabeth stabbed the lance to the ground and spun around on it to launch a double kick to send her flying back.

Tamamo recovered from the attack and flipped back to her feet and was glaring at Elizabeth, then she rushed in to engage her in close combat once more and attacked with twice the fervor and was able to land some hits on her opponents along which bashing several times with her mirror before knocking the female lancer with a flying side kick before jumping back and taking out a spell tag "Curse: Chaos Heaven!" she threw it to trigger a vortex of razor sharp wind to continuously strike Elizabeth before dissipating after stacking up a decent amount of damage, Tamamo launched her mirror to strike again but Elizabeth used her lance to deflect it "Estet Repülés!" she had her lance hover in the air before sitting on it like a witch riding a magic broom then had it lunge at Tamamo with great speed "Mantra: Aphotic Cave!" the fox girl had the mirror position in front of her to receive the attack, she flinched from the pain but was still able to keep fighting as the damage was reduced upon contact.

"I'm not going to lose to you!" said Tamamo determinedly.

"You're not going to upstage an idol like me!" Elizabeth retorted.

Naruto skidded backwards with slashes and bruises on him and his armor as he turned his attention to Nero was in the same state like him and both were panting slightly from exhaustion but still rearing to go on with this battle. He sent the Aurum Blade away then held the Chakra blade with both hands before charging towards Nero who charged right back at him, they met in the middle and constantly clashed blades with Nero using her skills whilst Naruto relied on his instincts to push back with both sides not giving the other an inch until jumping away for a momentary rest.

"Truly marvelous, you really are something to behold! Let us see how you will comprehend this form of art!" Nero stood upright with her sword held overhead and swings it in a circular motion, it gradually engulfs in flames "Sing, Fax Caelestis!" she dashed forward at high-speed towards Naruto who raised his sword to defend but she flashed past to stop behind him, suddenly a slash appeared on his armor then he was engulfed in flames.

Naruto went down on one knee with his body being burnt from the attack and bits of data were floating out of him "Darn it, what a move. I wasn't expecting anything like it,"

"Stay focused kit, your body took critical damage!" said Kurama urgently.

"Hang on boss! Recov80 battlechip in, download!" C-Naruto quickly inserted a battlechip into the PET as a white beacon of light shone upon Naruto and he began to recover to the point that he could still fight.

Naruto stood to his feet and faced Nero once more "I gotta admit that's a pretty cool move, but now it's my turn!" he raised the Chakra blade before him and tapped the glowing Konoha symbol as blue chakra surged out of the blade and took shape of a longer variation "Overflow State active, here I come Nero-san!" he dashed forwards all the while swinging the Chakra Blade rapidly to launch multiple waves of chakra towards the red swordswoman who dashed from side to side to avoid them with a few managing to strike parts of her body until Naruto arrived and clashed swords with her once more. Naruto flipped backwards in the air then thrust the blade below for the energy blade to extend towards the opponent but missed as she had moved away before retracting and landed back on the ground "Blistering Blades!" wisps of chakra flowed out of the blade and took on the of the Chakra Blade with four hovering at each side before launching them at the target with great speed but draining the chakra from the overflow by a certain amount.

Nero defended against the assault the best she could but took in some serious damage from the cloned chakra blades. She gazed at the blonde Shinobi and was truly impressed with his tenacity but she wasn't ready to go down just yet! Nero took out a rose then tossed it into the air and burst to shower the place with rose petals much to Naruto's confusion as well as the others.

"What could she be up to?" thought Naruto.

"I don't know but be on guard," said Kurama.

They watched as Nero stabbed her sword to the ground to form a magic circle around her and she began to speak some sort of incantation.

"I shall offer this gift to a full moon... Dancing scatters the flowers, and cleaves open a star! Behold the supreme beauty... and praise it! Aestus Domus Aurea!"

There was a bright flash of light all over the area before dimming to reveal everyone standing in what appears to be a large golden theater and Naruto took note that Nero's sword is now shrouded in flames. Naruto glanced to the side to see that Tamamo and Elizabeth had resumed their battle so he turned his attention back to his opponent.

"If it's anything like Alice-chan's technique, then I bet that this one would have an effect on me and Tamamo," thought Naruto.

"I have set up the perfect scenario for our climatic battle maelstrom-kun, let us see who shall emerge victorious!" Nero declared.

"We'll see!" Naruto unsheathed the Vorpal Blade to dual wield before engaging Nero in close combat, he constantly clashed blades with Nero but then as the battle continued, he noticed that Nero was getting faster and stronger…or was it that he was getting slower and weaker? Naruto jumped back and took note that the Chakra Blade's energy was flickering and the Overflow state was dissipating sooner than it was supposed to, he glanced to the side to see Tamamo looking just as exhausted "Something's not right about this, do you have any idea what's going on?"

"Your power is being suppressed and is making you weaker as the time goes, this must be what this technique of hers does," said Kurama with a frown.

"Is there a way out of this?"

"You need to raise your power faster than it is reduced and defeat her to disrupt the technique, so I'm giving you my chakra!"

"Thanks Kurama, this the power boost I need for these kind of situations like always!"

Nero was taken by surprise when she saw a red aura burst out of Naruto's body and swirled around him in the form of tails before forming a layer around his body, his blue eyes changed to red and became slitted, and his hair became longer and spikier.

"W-what is this power? I've never sensed anything like it and it continues to increase. My phantasm might not be able to reduce it enough!" Nero saw him hunch over then disappeared in a blur, her instincts screamed at her to defend as she raised her arm shield in time to block a powerful punch from him and was sent skidding back from the impact "And his strength has increased as well…heh," she looks at Naruto with a smile on her face "Umu, as to be expected from you, continuously coming up with surprises is truly an artwork unique only to you!" she dashed at Naruto with her sword at the ready and proceeded to strike at him with fiery slashes, the now feral ninja summoned the Aurum Blade and had it transform into the Tiger Claws to fit his current 'style'. Two blurs cold be seen colliding repeatedly in the field for several moments before breaking away from each other.

"I believe that the time has come to bring an end to this memorable battle with use of our most powerful attacks, wouldn't you agree?" asked Nero.

"Yeah, fun's over,"

"Umu,"

Nero sent away her arm shield and positioned her sword to side in a slight crouch with the flame blazing strongly, Naruto sent away the Tiger Claws and unsheathed the Chakra Blade to activate it Overflow state once again then took a stance for a single sword strike. Both stared at each other intently for a few moments before charging at high-speed and struck with their best attacks!"

"Laus Saint Claudius!"

"Overslash!"

There was a large explosion then a flash of light which dimmed to reveal that the golden theater had disappeared and everyone were back in the temple. The flames died down to reveal Naruto standing albeit partially scorched while Nero land on her back with her sword laid next to her, she looked at Naruto still smiling.

Music End

"It appears that this battle has ended in your victory and my defeat, I feel no regret," said Nero.

Naruto nodded in affirmation with his mouth guard retracting and Kurama withdrawing his chakra "Yeah but I gotta say that you were totally strong,"

"I'll accept that compliment wholeheartedly, though I might not be able to get my wish,"

"I'm sure you can accomplish it even without the Holy Grail,"

"I see…perhaps next time we meet, we could battle again,"

Naruto gave her a foxy grin "Sure, I'll be ready at any time!" Nero giggled at that then she disappeared in a beam of light. Naruto turned to see Tamamo approaching him while covered in bruises and parts of her kimono were torn but she was smiling brightly "I take it that you won Tamamo-chan,"

The fox girl nodded happily "Yup! She was tough but I managed to beat her by using my noble phantasm for the win, I wasn't going to let her off after all those mean things she said to us! And she was whining about us stopping her from being an idol,"

"Heh that's true, now let's get that Moon Tablet and return to the academy so that Sakura-chan can patch us up!"

"Yeah, I look awful like this,"

The duo approached the shrine and took the Moon Tablet then used it to release a beam of light towards the ground to form a small circular platform with a metallic outline and a glowing bright blue center with the symbol of a moon at a focal point. They stepped onto the portal and felt themselves being transported back to the academy.


This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Naruto and Tamamo has arrived at the first of the three islands where they discovered a strange machination of the shrine situated there and so thought to access the same one in the other islands for a possible lead to the Moon Tablet. After a couple island hopping, battling and triggering mystery switches, the duo managed to uncover a fourth island which they entered and found the Moon Tablet. However, they also encountered Nero and Elizabeth then had to battle them for the right to claim the Moon Tablet before emerging victorious and liable to advance to the next round…with only two rounds left, things are starting to get really heated.


Here's a little something to catch your interest in the future of this story:

Naruto was walking through a street of a town of Victorian design in the middle of the night with a look of confusion. He was in his NetNavi form and yet he's not in the internet either.

"What the heck is going on? One moment I was checking out an interesting E-book for Alice-chan and Shiori-chan then the next minute I wake up here…and what's with these large black and red blocks? I don't think they really suit the scenery here," Naruto passed by one of many said boxes with a side glance, suddenly he saw something rise from the ground before him.

They appear to be goblin-like creatures but their entire bodies are completely black with the exception of their circular glowing yellow eyes. The creatures slowly approached Naruto as he took a step back before unsheathing his Chakra Blade and Aurum Blade with a frown on his face.

"These guys again? They keep showing up everywhere I go," Naruto took a step forward when he heard someone call out from behind.

"Watch out, those Heartless are dangerous!" Naruto looked behind him to see a boy about his age with brown spiky hair and wielding a large skeleton key like a sword.

"Who is this guy?" thought Naruto.


So read and review as always.

This is Hussbek from Ghana

Signing out.