CSA Version 8ParallelEternity is Not What it Seems
Parallel
Original Summary: Quatre has always known that he was different from the other Gundam Pilots, and not just because of his Space Heart either. When seven familiar people arrive unexpectedly, the other Pilots discover exactly how little they actually know their beloved blonde. GW/Naruto X-over KakaNaru 1x2 3x5 Implied Kaka04
New Summary: Quatre has always known that he was different from the other Gundam Pilots. When seven familiar people arrive unexpectedly, the lives of the boys will never be the same again as Quatre, Dorothy, and Relena set out to undo the past and renew the future. GW/Naruto X-over KakaNaru 1x2 3x5 Implied Kaka04
Chapter 20: Drive
"The next match is between Nara Shikamaru and Uchiha Sasuke!" Genma called.
Naruto's lips curved slightly as he passed Sasuke on the stairway leading up to the competitor's balcony.
"Good luck Sasuke," he murmured.
Sasuke snorted derisively. "Keep your luck, dobe. I don't need it."
Naruto chuckled, "I suppose not. Nevertheless, Good luck."
Sasuke's only response was a slight shove against Naruto's side, pushing him towards the competitor's balcony. Naruto caught sight of the almost smile on Sasuke's face, and knew that in the end, the Uchiha appreciated his faith in his abilities.
Naruto, instead of making his way onto the competitor's balcony, made a left turn after he left the stairway. At the end of the hall, he made a right onto another stairway, and went up three flights, and turned right down a long hall, and turned right down a short hall that opened into the Hokage's Balcony.
The Sandaime and the false Kazekage, looked up. Sarutobi's aged face split in a smile when he saw the Kazama.
"Ah, Kazuki-kun," Sarutobi said, "That was an excellent match. The use of the Shukuchi to get behind Neji-kun was inspirational."
"Indeed," the Kazekage said, "Your battle with the Hyuuga was like poetry in motion."
Naruto bowed and murmured, "I thank you for the compliment, Hokage-sama, Kazekage-sama. However, the Shukuchi's main use is to move to the point of best offense or defense in the split second when the opponent is not looking, to give the illusion of moving instantaneously. It is a speed based foot work exercise, and I simply used it to exploit Hyuuga-san's weakness."
"Modest and skilled, if all Konoha ninja are like you, Kazama-kun, then I can see why Konoha is among the strongest of the Hidden Villages," the Kazekage said silkily.
Naruto's eyes flashed briefly gold, and he lowered his eyes in feigned modesty and said quietly, "The strength of the Hidden Leaf lies in her ninja, and each ninja's strength varies, Kazekage-sama. One should not judge all other Konoha-nin by the actions of a Konoha genin, whatever their lineage."
"Well said, Kazuki-kun" Sarutobi said. "But I do believe, Kazekage-sama, that the second match is starting. Here are two of Konoha's most valued bloodlines, the Nara and the Uchiha. I'm sure they will show us a good fight."
"I look forward to it," said the Kazekage.
As the match below began, Naruto unobtrusively slipped out of the balcony and vanished in a puff of chakra smoke.
"Is everyone ready for a big fight?" Naruto asked as he slipped into the living room of his house.
In the living room were the other four pilots, who were quickly loading guns, stuffing extra cartridges and full magazines into pockets and storage pouches and shoving guns and shuriken and kunai into holsters and throwing on the protective flack jackets and hitae-ate which, up till now, they rarely wore. Extra kunai and shuriken were being tossed at high speeds from one pilot to the next, until Naruto grabbed them out of the air before someone fumbled a throw or catch and got hurt, and tossed them onto the glass table that the four pilots were sitting around.
"I think we'll all have a hell of a time, Q-tra," Duo said cheerfully.
"It'll be nice to be in action again," Wufei said, "Assassinations and bodyguard missions are all good for staying sharp, but there's nothing like a full blown battle to test our capabilities."
"Preparations complete," Trowa said quietly as he stood up. "Pilot 03: mission ready."
"Pilot 05: Mission Ready," Wufei said, slinging his katana onto his back.
"Pilot 02: Mission Ready," Duo said after a while.
"Pilot 01: Mission Ready," Heero grunted, rising to his feet.
Naruto smiled slightly and said, "You all know where to go. Trowa, how's our guest?"
"He's fine," Trowa said shortly, "He won't be allowed to move too much lest he burst his stitches, and it would be best to evacuate him on the off chance that he's still unconscious if something happens to the house."
Naruto nodded. "My second match doesn't start for a while yet, so I'll take care of that. Good luck you guys."
The pilots nodded and filed past Naruto out of the living room and out of the house.
"Anko?" Naruto said softly, raising a hand to his ear.
"What is it, Naruto?"
"Is everything in place?"
"Yep. Ibiki's on the watchtower on the Eastern wall, and everything's clear so far."
"Are you free at the moment? We need to move Gekkyou Hayate-san just incase something happens to the house."
"You know, why didn't we think of that? We could have just taken him to the hospital last night after we stabilized him… Sit tight, I'll be there in a sec."
"Roger that, 04 out."
Naruto turned and walked toward the infirmary.
"Good morning, Hayate-san," a cool voice said as the door opened. "How are you feeling today?"
Hayate turned his head toward the door and nodded slightly. "Good morning Naruto-kun," he said. "I feel fine, thank you."
Naruto smiled. "That's good. Unfortunately, the invasion will begin soon. We will be moving you into the shelters incase something were to happen to the house."
"I see," Hayate said, "I'm sorry about the trouble."
"It's no trouble, Hayate," a perky female voice said as the door opened a second time, "This is just the Oracle ensuring the future of the village."
"Don't say unnecessary things, Anko," Naruto chided, "Humans are not merely tools or pawns to be moved about on a chessboard."
"That's not the impression you're giving me," Anko replied.
Naruto rolled his eyes and said, "Let's just move Gekkyou-san to the manor under the Monument. Gaara-kun's match starts soon, and I'd rather not be here when the snake summons come through and crush the house."
"Wait, snake summons?" Hayate said, "You didn't say anything about the summons to the Sandaime!"
"Calm down," Naruto said, "and don't thrash about. You'll burst your stitches. The Sandaime and Jiraiya need to deal with Orochimaru. The summons will be taken care of by Soramaru."
"Soramaru?" Anko asked. "You mean the fox?"
"Yes."
Hayate blinked and realized that he was now in a wheelchair. Naruto grinned happily and said brightly, "Now for the real challenge! How do we get Hayate-san up the stairs?"
Anko sighed. "Hayate, do you think you can walk?"
Yugao and her team of ANBU were surprised to find the Oracle and Anko assisting Hayate, who had been missing since late last night through the village. The Oracle smiled.
"Hayate-san was helping me prepare the village for the conflict that will take place soon, and I'm afraid he was injured rather severely. Will ANBU-san-tachi aid me in moving him to someplace safe where he can recover without the conflict aggravating and worsening his injuries?" Naruto said, his pale eyes gleaming knowingly.
"As the Oracle commands," Yugao said softly.
Naruto nodded and gave Hayate over to the care of the ANBU and departed, making all haste toward the Stadium before the second round began.
"Winner, Uchiha Sasuke!"
Sarutobi glanced at the Competitor's Balcony as Uchiha Sasuke and Nara Shikamaru's match ended, and was faintly worried to see that Naruto, who had left the Hokage's Balcony at the beginning of the match, was still not there. Suddenly, a swirl of leaves appeared at the back of the Balcony, and Sarutobi breathed a sigh of relief as the leaves settled and faded to reveal Naruto.
"The next match is between Sabaku no Kankuro and Sabaku no Gaara!" Genma called.
Kankuro froze in shock. 'Oh hell, no,' he thought. He swallowed harshly and yelled, "I forfeit the match!"
Genma blinked and called, "Sabaku no Gaara is the Winner by forfeit!" This announcement was followed by angry boos from the audience. "The next match is between Sabaku no Temari and Aburame Shino!"
Temari scoffed and opened her fan as the crowd above booed and threw fruit and other projectiles. Well, if they wanted a match, she'd give them one to remember! Besides, how tough would the bug boy be?
As she rode her fan down into the arena, Temari couldn't help the feeling that something awas about to go terribly wrong….
Naruto stood wordlessly on the balcony and looked down as the match began.
It wouldn't be long now, and the invasion would be underway…
Temari swung her fan, sending a heavy gust of wind toward Shino, who melted into a mass of bugs. The Sand kunoichi blinked and glanced off to the side, and her eyes widened to see a wave of kikkai bugs descend on her.
She swung her fan, putting in as much chakra into the attack as possible, "Kamaitachi!"
The kikkai scattered and Temari blinked as she felt a wave of exhaustion take over. She looked down, feeling something on her legs, and the last thing she saw before she fell unconscious was a swarm of kikkai bugs on her legs…
"Winner," Genma called, "Aburame Shino! There will be a thirty minute intersession before the Second Round begins."
On the competitor's balcony, Naruto turned around and met Sasuke's dark eyes.
The blonde smiled. "I guess we're up next huh?"
Sasuke smirked. "You're going down, dobe."
Naruto's smile widened and he said good naturedly, "In your dreams, bastard."
Thirty minutes later, the stands were buzzing in anticipation.
It was among the most anticipated matches, a battle between the last survivor of the tragic Uchiha Clan and the last Kazama who also bore the blood of the Magami clan.
Naruto and Sasuke were in the hallway, staring at the door.
For the time being, they were friends, teammates, and rivals, but in a matter of moments, they would be opponents and enemies.
Then, at the end of the hallway that lead into the arena, they heard Genma call, "The second match of the Chunnin Exam Third Exam Tournament will now begin! The first match is between Kazama Kazuki and Uchiha Sasuke!"
The Eastern Gate was bustling with activity. Heero was a little over 500 yards away from the gate, hidden in a niche that was cloaked in a carefully crafted genjutsu set by Duo, who turned out to be a genjutsu type, which was hardly surprising, considering how the braided pilot seemed to be able to manipulate others into seeing and hearing exactly what he wanted them to hear. The Wing pilot was carefully checking over his equipment, listening as Duo and Wufei sniped at each other over the communicators. Trowa occasionally interjected with a dry comment whenever the Shenlong and Deathsycthe pilots said something that was anatomically impossible, even with the application of chakra.
Chakra.
A mixture of physical and mental energy that allowed ninja to perform ninjutsu, genjutsu, and allowed one to manipulate things without actively touching it, and also could be used to heal and increase one's physical strength, thus increasing the damage inflicted by taijutsu …
It was not a concept that the Wing pilot accepted easily, for all that it gave a plausible reason as to how Quatre had periodically done things that even Heero himself had found near impossible to do. At first, he had thought that the Sandrock pilot had been like him, genetically enhanced, and while it was an acceptable idea, considering that all five Gundam Pilots had been genetically altered in some ways, Quatre had done with ease some things that should have been impossible, even for the genetically enhanced.
Well, it didn't really matter much anymore, Heero mused. Because here in the past, the Gundam Pilots were now learning more about the character of the elusive Sandrock pilot than they had in the few years that they had spent fighting and living together…
Duo slipped through the hallways scattered throughout the stadium, occasionally throwing insults through the communicator at Wufei with Trowa occasionally interjecting with a dry comment. The braided pilot had no doubt that Heero was listening in, and that Quatre---no, he was Naruto here, had his communicator off, as to not be distracted during his match.
"Dammit," he whispered, carefully lowering the volume of his communicator, "I wanted to see Q-ball's match…" and quickly turned the volume back up.
He paused and flattened himself against the wall and peered around the corner.
"Ah, this is Zero Two, Target is in sight. Cutting communications now," he murmured.
There was a second of silence before the other pilots answered with a poorly synched, "Roger that Zero Two," and Duo turned off his radio…
Naruto and Sasuke walked side by side down the long hallway that eventually opened up into the stadium arena. The doorway seemed filled with light as the two approached it, and as they came closer to their destination, they could see clearly the arena and the damage done to it by other matches, and the proctor standing in the center. The two teens were calm, almost numb, with anticipation as they stepped into the arena amidst anticipatory roars from the audience. They split up as they reached the proctor, and turned to face one another from the span of three yards.
Genma flicked his senbon from one side of him mouth to the other, and said, "Are you ready?"
Both boys gave a curt nod as they pulled out their kunai. Genma sighed.
"Alright. Begin!" and the jounin leapt back as the two boys flew toward each other, their kunai clashing with a metallic clang, as they flew apart, turned, and flung their kunai at each other. The kunai clashed, and flew off course as the two teens met once more in a flurry of punches and kicks…
TBC……..
The Shukuchi is a speed based foot work exercise in which a person moves in the split second that their opponent either has their eyes closed or their head turned and are not watching them, giving the illusion of having moved instantaneously. The Shukuchi is the basic foot work for the Kazama Clan's Shinken Taijutsu Style.