Hey, I'm back, so here is the next chapter. Just a reminder - the poll is still on. You could put your views in a review, or visit my profile, and review anyway :)
Bold writing – demonic or summoned creatures speaking and technique names
Bold italics – demons or summoned beings thinking
Italics – people talking inside other's heads or thinking
Normal – either descriptions or humans
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any affiliated products or characters I do however own Akaken and my other OC's
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
The ground rushed to meet him.
"Hello, my son."
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
"What the …"
The world seemed frozen. He thought wildly that there were metres left... until he hit the canopy of the trees.
"Son, it is time for you to be tested."
Naruto looked towards the voice. There, hovering beside him was a man. He had long silver hair which floated in the non-existent breeze, his eyes sky blue with a caricaturised wind pattern encircling the pupil and dividing the eye in two. He wore tight fitting blue shorts with a mesh shirt and long cloak decorated with patterns relating to wind.
The most striking feature, however, were the six pure white wings that were keeping him aloft.
"T-test?" Naruto stuttered, stunned.
"For my gift," the man said, as if this explained everything. When Naruto looked at him, perplexed, he sighed. "You don't even know who I am, do you?"
"No." Naruto, having finally got over the fact that he hadn't become a smudge on the ground, was wondering if this was Akaken's Shikyotenchi form as he called it. It would fit that he kept calling him 'son'.
"Before you say it – no, I am not Akaken."
Naruto watched him silently.
"I am called by several names. The one your adoptive father uses is Father Sky, a title I have recently become fond of." He paused to allow this to sink in.
"You mean - you are the Light God of... " Naruto began, awestruck.
"Yes, of Wind. Now. I have things to do; and am not quite as good as my Brother at time manipulation. Your test will consist of two parts. This is the first."
With that, Naruto began to fall again.
This time, however, he landed gently on a large rock pillar. Ahead of him were another three and beyond that a plateau. Something gold was shimmering on it.
As he gazed harder, the pillar he was standing on began to shake, tipping him dangerously.
With a cry of shock he leapt towards the next pillar.
About halfway through the jump, he began to lose height. Abruptly, he realised that he wasn't going to make it.
But he was Naruto! The boy created an updraft beneath him. He caught the edge of the pillar and heaved himself up, before looking up to the next column.
It was now much higher than the one he was standing on. He prepared himself to jump just as the pillar began to shake.
He made the height easily before realising he had over-shot.
Seconds before that pillar began to shake, without thinking about it he propelled himself, through magic, towards the last column. Compared to the other two, this one was going to be easy.
He just had to land it right.
The pillar moved sideways.
"Now that,' Naruto yelled in annoyance, "That is cheating!"
Seemingly irritated by the accusation, the pillar moved further to the right.
Naruto growled.
Forcing himself to calm down and think, an idea formed in his mind.
Instead of applying an even amount of updraft to help slow his descent, he used it only on his left. The sudden change sent Naruto into a barrel roll -landing neatly on the final pillar.
Fortunately, this column did not shake.
Looking back, he could see that the pillars he had been on had crumbled into dust.
He stared at the plateau for a moment. There was an odd shimmer around it. Shrugging, Naruto leapt for the plateau – and bounced off. He managed to regain his wits just in time to land back on the pillar.
He looked up at the gleam surrounding the plateau; realising that he would never be able to jump over it.
Then he noticed something peculiar. Birds somehow were able to enter and leave at will.
"So, I will have to use the birds," Naruto deduced.
He looked up and saw one of the birds was flying almost overhead. Without a second thought Naruto leapt up, also calling what Akaken had called a slipstream into existence to guide the bird directly underneath him.
Landing on the creature and balancing on one foot on its back, he called another updraft into existence to help support the bird as well as guide it through the shimmering shield surrounding the plateau.
His plan worked. He leapt off the bird as soon as he was above the plateau, but as he fell he realised that he was too high up to fully nullify the effects of the flight.
"Unless..."
He changed positions so that he was laying flat in the air and than added some updraft over his entire body. The speed of his fall slowed dramatically and he came down slowly, sighing in relief.
A few metres from the ground, he swapped back to his upright position and landed lightly on his feet. Looking around him he saw that he had landed near the gold orb he had spotted. It was about the size of a peach and had two stumps on either side of it.
From here he could see what he couldn't from the first pillar; the orb was floating on an altar.
The altar had some pictograms on it showing a man leaping from pillar to pillar than doing something to a barrier and landing here. The final two images were of the orb as it was now and an orb that looked very similar, but instead of stumps there were wings which were spread out.
Looking up, Naruto stretched his hand out towards the orb. On touching it he found that the orb had a pleasant warmth to it. Then, wavering, it began to sink into his skin.
When only half was showing it moved round to the back of his wrist.
Glancing up in wonder, he was just in time to see two large creatures materialise in front of him.
"We guard the final pieces," they said in unison. They were identical. Both of them were large easily over seven foot and well built, half-bull half-man people. Both carried large axes in their hands and in the other showed one wing. The wings then faded into their skin.
"If you are worthy - come and take them!" they declared, holding the axes in a two handed grip before them.
Naruto drew two kunai and hurled them at his challengers. Both sidestepped the kunai and batted them down with the flat of their axes, surprisingly agile for their size. One of them charged towards him, raising his axe above his head, the other behind him ready for a horizontal slash if he evaded.
Naruto leapt over them both and, instantly dropping to the floor, he slashed at their hamstrings and rolled away immediately so he was not crushed by their bodies.
He looked back at the two creatures and paled. He hadn't damaged them at all.
One heaved the axe that he had slammed into the ground, where Naruto was just a second before.
"We are the Mother's guards! No mere metal can harm us!" they scoffed scornfully, before charging again.
This time, Naruto stood his ground and used his Kaze Yaiba to cut the blade of the first creature's axe. This creature showed some shock at the loss of the blades on his weapon, but kept charging and swung what was left of the axe like a club.
Surprised, Naruto leapt to the side, narrowly missing the crater that had been created by the monster's club. He looked ahead of him to see the second creature charging in an attempt to decapitate him. Naruto leapt up high. Spinning, he used the wind to increase the speed of his rotation.
He slammed his heel into the back of the creature's head. Then felt something break.
"If I broke his skull then..."
Naruto landed and instantly fell down again. He tried to make it look natural, but his leg was bent at an unnerving angle. Ignoring the pain, he grabbed his leg and forced it into a more natural position.
He moved over to the creature planning to take the piece of the orb. The monster groaned and blearily opened its eyes.
"Impossible. How is it still alive?! I've broken trees with less force than that kick!"
In awe of the thing before him, he regretfully focused wind magic into a kunai and prepared to kill the creature.
"Help!" someone screamed behind him.
Naruto spun. He was stunned to see a young woman on the ground, the other creature charging with its club raised above its head to hit her.
She yelled louder.
Naruto leapt towards her, using his magic.
"Dammit! I'm just not fast enough!"
Then he had a thought. If he was pushing with the wind, perhaps by removing the wind ahead of him he could gain the speed he needed. He tried it gratefully.
It was just like the slipstream Akaken used to help guide his kunai.
"Thank Kami Tou-san thought to tell me that I need to keep at least some air around my body all the time."
Landing near the woman, he picked her up and leapt away quickly, before setting her down and turning to face the creatures.
The one he had kicked had pulled itself up and now they were advancing towards him. He checked his reserves. He had about enough magic left for a shield, and then he would have to rely on something else.
He stood between the woman and the creatures. They were beginning to approach him menacingly.
He called on a little magic to help keep him upright, despite making the shield weaker. He had to.
"Your leg…" he heard the woman murmur. Looking down, he saw that the bone had pierced the skin in several places and he had streaks of blood running down his leg.
"Odd. Why isn't Kokoro-chan healing those?"
He decided to ask her later.
Both monsters swung their weapons at him. He lifted his hands and created a shield with all his magic.
"Run!" he yelled at her.
He closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable.
It never came. His magic ran out, and still - he still felt alive.
He opened his eyes. Kneeling before him were the two creatures.
They had their weapons on the floor next to them and their palms outstretched with the wings in their hands.
"Take them." It was the commanding voice of Father Sky.
"And you," he said, turning his attention to the woman, "May return to my daughter. Please pass along my thanks."
Naruto took the wings. "What are they?" he asked, referring to the creatures.
The father looked at him in surprise.
"Minotaurs, a gift from the mother for this test. It fits that you didn't know what they were, I suppose. We used to use them to break down castle walls - a good head-butt or two and the walls fell down. In any case, you pass."
He extended his hand and the orb with the wings attached floated fully into Naruto.
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
The scene changed. They were back above the forest where Naruto had been dropped.
"It's time to spread your wings and fly!"
He vanished, and time resumed. Along with Naruto's fall.
"Spread my wings..." Naruto thought as he looked inside himself.
The pain was still there, and his leg was still broken. Then he looked where his magic had been and found that he now had a second reserve.
He heard something tear and saw that a pair of pure white wings had hurtled from his back, ripping a hole in his shirt.
He smirked and stretched his wings, pulling out of the dive into a level swoop.
Suddenly he saw a shape drop down just off to his right. He looked over as its wings snapped open.
"Yo," Akaken said. "How did you manage to break your leg?"
He had brought the others down to fly along side them.
"Spinning axe kick on the minotaurs."
"You got minotaurs! He made me climb a cliff with no handholds - then he beat me in a staff fight!"
"Tou-san, how did you get your wings?" Naruto asked.
"First time I killed a Dark Revenant, we both went flying off a cliff. I got my wings before we smashed against the rocks at the bottom... he didn't."
00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Okay, no cliff-hanger and there aren't any Japanese terms in there I haven't used before, so the only thing left is to remind you about the poll...
R&R