A/N: Bwahahaha! I'm so glad you're all enjoying this story! Events have been progressing at a rapid pace as of late! In other news, I finally found myself a job. Even had orientation today. It'll be during the mornings and afternoons, so my update rate might not be what it's been these last few months, but I'll be damned if I don't try my darndest to get all these chapters out to ya'll! And on that note, someone gave me a rather quaint-if unintentional-idea dear 'ol Broly. So heeeeeere we go!
...onto the next chapter of Imperfection! On a side note, I'm sure most of you are wondering as to the rest of Naruto's family here. Well this chapter will answer that and then some. Once again, I own nothing! But first, lets establish something, since a few folks seem to be confused about what I'ed thought to have established already. To resolve this I'm going to list the current maximum of those in this chapter at present as to transformations for clarification. No power levels per se, because that can get away from ya'll way to easily. Here they are:
Goku= ?
Vegeta= ?
Gohan= Ssj3
Broly= ?
Naruto=Ssj 4 (Imperfect)
Super Eighteen=High Ssj3 (Energy Absorbed)
Super Seventeen= ?
There! Now no one can make anymore mistakes regarding terms of strength! Since we've finally settled that...
...away we go! Its onto the World Tournament and Buu! Eighteen finds her remedy in this chapter! I feel like I've been neglecting her as of late, and since she really is the core of this story, I ought to give her a little more screentime; hope you enjoy it!
"I've been waiting a LONG time for this!"
~?
Feel
"Can't you do something?"
"Shush and let me think." Bulma frowned down at the schematics, her weary hands ghosting over the parchment for what felt like the umpteenth time, searching for anything she might've missed under the watchful eye of Naruto and company. It felt like an effort in futility; probably because it was, but she wasn't about to tell that to an angry Super Saiyan.
Naruto hadn't released his transformation yet, he still looked quite menacing with those eerie white-gold eyes. Eighteen looked positively dour by comparison, her own blue orbs downcast, shoulders hunched. Bulma felt just a tiny pang of sympathy for the cyborg. She might've gotten a rocking new body out of the deal, but losing the ability to taste and touch...that just sucked.
"Say what you will about his methods, but the guy was a genius." shaking her head, she pushed away from the table. "I'd say she's about half as strong as you are now. The energy she absorbed hasn't dissipated either; its like its trapped in her circuits or something, a constant feedback loop...
"Man, Doctor Gero really was a genius. I mean, look at what he did with the two of you!" She waved at Naruto and Samui. "He brought you back from the dead with just your DNA, and now... you're better then ever! With schematics like this, I could probably give you the Super upgrade too, Samui...
Blue eyes glittered. "Do it. Although..."
Zangya snorted in agreement, her teal eyes snapping eastward. "Good point. I wouldn't want to end up like him, either...
All eyes fell on the only other male in the room.
"Hmm? Huh? What?" Super Seventeen blinked at the sudden attention, pushing his long hair out of his face for what felt like the umpteenth time. "Hey, its not my fault I ended up like this. Might as well make good use of it, right? Besides," he proudly placed both hands on his hips and thrust out his chest, "I look awesome! Cool! Hell, I feel like I could enter the tournament and wipe the floor with you guys!" At Naruto's grunt, he quickly had to backpedal.
"Well, ah, I might have some trouble with you...
"Just so."
Zel, not understanding and thinking her uncle quite "cool" indeed, actually laughed. That was all it took to set the others off.
"Neh, mama," Hinata blinked, "Uncle Seventeen's being weird again."
"Weirdo." Atsui said.
"Definitely a weirdo." Akatane nodded her grave agreement.
"Wha?!
"Don't talk to the strange man, kids." Samui sang. Zangya's hands formed a tend over her mouth, stifling a giggle.
"HEY!" Seventeen cried. "Bro, help me out here!"
Naruto tilted his head away, trying to hide the ghost of a smile. "Sorry, you're on your own."
"Traitor!"
Eighteen bit back a retort at the levity, knowing her brother wasn't to blame for the unusual circumstances that led to his new form. The mad doctor's supercomputer had strove to do to him what had been done to her; with disastrous results, on the computer's part. Not only had the programming failed to take hold, but he'd broken loose almost immediately after the union with his cruel counterpart. Seventeen was Seventeen, after all. He valued his friends. His freedom. And he showed no mercy to his enemies.
Currently the rusting remains of Super Sixteen and Doctor Gero's supercomputer were occupying one giant, smoldering crater in the wilderness.
Better -or worse in Eighteen's opinion- he had escaped with no ill side effects. He could feel. And damnitall, she hated him for that. If she'd known he was keeping secrets, she would've hated him even more. Seventeen had decided not to make any mention of the two empty coffins he'd seen before he'd blown the lab sky high. The near loss was still wearing hard on everyone...
That there might be more out there was not a pleasant thought, and he was determined to be ready. He would tell them, he told himself. Just not now.
"So there's nothing you can do?" Naruto tried again, turning his attention back to Bulma. "Nothing at all?"
"Well, I wouldn't say that-
Naruto twitched, his good mood evaporating "Blast it woman, do you have something or don't you?!"
"Whoa, there! Don't get all Vegeta on me!" Bulma laughed genially, fanning her face. "Its too early for that."
"Bulma...
"Alright, may-be," she said at last, hitting on something by her smile. "Naruto, you gave her that huge blast at the end of the battle, right?" Eighteen gave him a glacial look and the scientist snickered. "Oooh, she probably didn't like that, did she?"
"No," the cyborg folded her arms, "She did not."
Naruto blanched, finding himself powerless beneath the weight of his wife's stare.
"In my defense, sweetheart, your psychosis nearly killed me."
"Not my fault. Blame the bitch. Whom I deleted by the way," she effortlessly poked a hole in his defense with her razor sharp logic and a finger to the chest. "Then I told you I was myself, and you still blasted me. Come to think of it, I believe you said you owed me a favor...right girls?" Zangya was physically fighting off laughter by now, her shoulders shaking as she tried not to let it show. Samui's mirth was more restrained, evident only by the slight twitch of her lips and the way her eyes shone.
"Hmm, good point. I think he should have dish duty. For a month."
"Hey...
"Laundry, too!" Zangya chirped!
"Oi?!"
"What? Have you smelled your clothes after a workout?" her nose crinkled. "Blech!"
By contrast, the children simply watched, confused. The reborn shinobi glanced at Seventeen and found his brother merely smiling, content to leave him hanging as he'd been hung. Yup...he wasn't winning this.
"Alright, alright, alright!" Naruto threw up his arms, conceding the fight. "We've established that I'm a terrible husband. Can we please get back to the matter at hand?"
Eighteen's scowl softened at that. Perhaps she'd been a little too hard on him.
"Naruto, I-" Her hand moved of its own accord, cupping his cheek to show that she was sorry. Nothing. Only numbness. She flinched slighty and withdrew.
"What do we need to do?" she asked.
"Try giving her a bit of your ki, Naruto." Bulma prodded, launching into scientific jargon almost immediately. "I'm thinking it might have something to do with the flux capacitors generating a reverse feedback look into her nerve endings and by absorbing and expending your energy, she just might remove the blockage all that excess power initially created, without too many ill effects...
That went waaaaaaaaaaay over their heads.
"Eh?"
"Just do it!" When he extended a hand forward, however, she snapped at him. "No! Not like that in your base state! As a Super Saiyan!"
The whiskered warrior balked, but reverted regardless. "Alright, here goes. Ready?"
Eighteen nodded, gulping slightly as he turned to face her.
"Ready."
"Alright, everyone out!" Samui barked, recognizing the glint in their eyes. "Lets give these two some time alone." When the kids began to complain she and Zangya ushered them outside, Seventeen bringing up the rear. It was a kind a gesture Eighteen thought, but her attention remained fixated firmly elsewhere. Bulma remained, fiddling with equipment and other strange devices that she didn't understand.
Still, her husband lingered. Doubt flickered across his face. "Oi, this is dangerous, dattebyo. I don't want to hurt you-
"Just do it, already." she muttered. "I'll be fine."
...okay."
Naruto phased smoothly into his first transformation and laid both hands upon either shoulder, those warm green eyes gazing adoringly into her blue. Then he began sharing energy with his wife. Gently at first, then more liberally, until the slim beauty was glowing with a golden white aura. She looked something like an angel, her hair fluttering upward in an unseen breeze, blue eyes green, her body extremely stiff.
"I'm...feeling something," she managed to say through clenched teeth. "Keep going!"
Naruto frowned, his brow darkening. "Fine. Ha!"
Ethereal blue sparks of ki danced into existence as he jumped into the ascended state, his hair and face gaining a more jagged, severe edge. Eighteen went rigid the moment he changed, her mouth opening in a silent O of surprise as a renewed reservoir of energy filled her veins. Now she felt something else as she stared into those guarded orbs.
Pain.
An uncomfortable itching sensation crawled beneath her skin as her body worked to regulate the energy flowing into her. Not enough, nowhere near enough! Pain was all well and good, but that wasn't what she wanted to feel! She wanted everything back! Her hands shot upright, grabbing him by the arms in demand.
"Naruto!"
A vein bulged in his temple, his eyes taking on an almost savage glint. "RAH!"
An explosive grunt heralded the next transformation, long, golden locks taking the place of his spikey bangs, his eyebrows vanishing as lightning crackled. The subsuquent force of his ascendance launched Bulma backwards into the sensor bank, but Lazuli scarcely noticed, consumed as she was in the storm. Even then Naruto never released her, never broke eye contact.
It was the first time she'd seen Super Saiyan Three up close, and quite frankly...it frightened her. But then that fear was wiped away as she took his energy. Super Saiyan two was savage. This...this was raw. Golden wings of pure naescent energy spread across her back to push at the corners of the room, birthed by their shared aura. Her skin was suddenly sensitive now, blisteringly hot to the touch and she squirmed in his grasp, her fingers twitching wildly as she dug them into his forearms.
Dimly, she was aware of her brother stepping inside and hauling Bulma from the room. Good thing.
This time, they both screamed.
"SEEEEEEEEYAAAAAAAAAH!"
Super Saiyan Four roared into existence with a deafening thunderclap, encapsulating them in a sphere of saffron flame as the floor sank -cratered?!- beneath their feet. In that instant, Eighteen felt something give inside of her, an unseen, unknown barriers yielding as this primal power coursed through. Naruto drew her close, the full of his being flowing through her. More than just energy met hers. Memory. Experiences. Love. An emotion so powerful, so intense, so mind-bendingly hers that, coupled with the ki it just meant...
Release.
"YEOW!"
Sensation jolted through her like a live wire, as though her entire body had been asleep this entire time, having finally awoken. Her ki flared with such violent force that if flattened everything in the room, ripping steel end from end, savaging equipment. Destroying everything in its path. Everything but Naruto.
Golden eyes gazed back at her through the outpouring, calm and focused. Staid and bold. Even when the four walls of the room fell down around their heads and the ceiling opened up to the bright morning light, he never once let go over her, nor did his eyes leave hers.
When at last it was over and she could think again, could feel again, Eighteen was slightly startled to find tears streaming down her cheeks. She loved him. She always had from the very beginning, but to actually feel that love, that rich, heady feeling coursing through her veins...it was earthshaking.
"Hey." he grinned down at her. Then that grin faltered and he stepped away, his aura still shining brightly around them. "Um...
"What?"
"I think there were a few...erm... side effects." Naruto was fighting very hard not to smile, but Lazuli could sense the good intentions, and the spike of desire lurking behind it. That was new. To actually feel those emotions, experience them as they were born, it made her happier than she'd ever been.
Then she caught sight of herself in a broken shard of glass amidst the debris.
"Oh...craaaap." Her jaw clicked open.
Blazing eyes of molten gold glared back at her in astonishment, her once long, smooth flaxen locks now dark as a crow's feather; stiff and jagged against her head not unlike that of this super saiyan holding her. And the wings! They were still there, thrumming gently in her aura, ebon feathers of energy spread to either side. She gave them a look, marveling at the new appendages for an instant, wondering how-why-they were still their own existence after that last explosion.
Curious, she stretched the muscles in her back; and the wings beat with them, creating a heavy gust.
Naruto whistled.
"Wow."
"It probably won't last," she hummed, stretching. "But its an improvement, yeah-oh."
Her eyes widened slightly as his inquisitive fingers stroked one of those wings. Eighteen found herself purring.
"Hmm. Sensitive."
"Bulma did say something strange might happen...and there we go.
With a soft thum of sound the strange transformation abated, leaving her as she'd been. Her lips pursed into a small frown, almost dissapointed to be rid of the power she'd possessed. She could still feel his hands on her, a gentle noose wrapping around her hip as though it belonged there,
"Guess it doesn't last. Although," the look she gave him was decidedly racy, "This might."
Eighteen's mouth closed on his hungrily, savoring each sensation. Everything had come back all at once; the lightning-like tingle shooting down her spine as he touched her, the warm wetness of his mouth and his tongue against hers, that delicious tingle spreading between her legs when he she wrapped them around his waist. The sound of his breath, his groan as she began unfastening his jacket, fingers trailing fire down his chest, his own tugging at her bosom, ghosting down her skirt-
"Mama!"
Both blonde's jerked back as as if they'd been scalded. Hinata was staring owlishly up at them, her pale blue eyes regarding each of her parents curiously, with all the innocence of a child. "Mama," she asked aloud, "Why is Papa taking your clothes off?" They couldn't rightly help themselves after that; they burst out laughing.
Eighteen laughed softly.
"What do you think? Should we tell her?"
"No!"
"She'll have to learn about it sooner or later...
Naruto sputtered.
"No, no, but yes. No but yes, I mean, no as in no, but yes as in yes! No, no as in yes!"
"So...that's a no, then?"
"Aaaargh!"
A week passed, and then, in the blink of an eye, the tournament arrived.
One hundred and ninety four individuals entered the adult section of the World Martial Arts Tournament.
There were sixteen spots.
Of those sixteen places there, one was posthumously reserved for Naruto himself. The remaining places would quickly be snatched up by the rest of the Z-Fighters and others, Goku, Vegeta, Broly, Samui, Eigtheen, Zangya, Piccolo and Krillin, chief amongst them. Even Hercule managed to squeak in at the last. Of course, I was there, too. The champion's belt belonged to no one; it was up for grabs with the zeni.
The junior division's lineup was no less thrilling.
Hinata, Atsui, Akatane, and Zel would be entering on Naruto's end, despite vigorous protesting from the latter. Goku mightily encouraged Goten to do his best. For Broly, Brusell and Fasha. Vegeta remained smug for Trunks and Bra, whilst a disconsolate Krillin quietly pleaded to the gods that Kisa would somehow win the day.
Ah, I remember it fondly, if only for that brief, happy time.
It would be the perfect place to test their limits, to go even further beyond. It was meant to be a day for frolicking and fighting, a day in which the weight of the world would be momentarily forgotten as the world's greatest fighters pitted themselves against one another in a contest of strength. But it was not to be. You see, on that day, something happened. An even so earth-shaking profound, that it shattered the very fabric of reality, taking the planet to the very precipice of destruction.
You think I'm talking about Majin Buu, don't you? He had his own part to play in the chaos that followed, but no, I'm speaking of something much worse. Yes, it was on that fateful day; the last day I saw Uzumaki Naruto-a human being, alive and well, that it all fell apart.
That was the day I-we-lost everything. That was the day...
...everything changed.
A/N: Whoaaaaaaa boy! I told you all hell was going to break loose, didn't I? Who is that mysterious speaker at the end, I wonder?
Will the other Androids be revealed? Will Buu even be a threat? Find out next time, on Imperfection! And to see what Super Eighteen looks like, please go to Salvmakoto at deviant art, and in his gallery you will find a picture of Super 18. I own nothing!
So in the Immortal Words of Atlas...
...Review...Would You Kindly? And of course, Enjoy the Preview! Its...an amusing little pair of tidbits, one of which shows why wives are to be feared. FEARED I SAY!
(Preview)
"Just you wait you fake! I'll show you, I will!"
Naruto cocked his head aside, weathering Hercule's angry rant with a quiet stoicism born of years of changing diapers. And when his rant finally finished, when he'd huffed and puffed himself dry, Naruto laughed. Then he smiled. It was not a pleasant thing, that smile.
"Save it for the ring, champ." the last word dripped with derision as he leaned forward. "Then we'll see who the fake is."
"Hey! Naruto!"
Blue eyes cut back toward the crow, singling out a lone individual. "So you made if after all."
Hercule purpled with rage.
"Videl?! You know him?!"
The female fighter raised her hands in defense.
"Dad, just calm down, its not what it looks like."
"I TOLD YOU YOU COULDN'T DATE A GUY UNLESS HE'S STRONGER THAN ME!"
Videl felt a slow flush crawl up her neck, spreading to her cheeks and...other places. "D-Date?! Daddy, what are you-
Naruto scoffed quietly.
"Well, on that note, I'll leave you to it. See you in the ring...
"BEGIN!"
Naruto gulped, instinctively letting his aura flare, raising a few tiles in the ring. He really didn't want to hurt her...
"Ready?"
"Ohhhhh, yes."
Samui cracked her knuckles, joints popping slowly, smoothly as she strode forward. Then she changed. There could be no other word for it. Naruto frowned, his eyes twitching as the illusion-she'd always been rather good at those-all but faded, exposing a stranger, a very familiar stranger, in her place. With every soft click of her sandals, he felt a pit grow in his stomach. She'd gotten the upgrade. Oh, bugger...
"On second thought, m-maybe we should take it easy-
Too late, Super Samui pounced!
"KNOW YOUR PLACE!"
R&R! =D