IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVEEEEEEEEEEE! It's been 18 month to the day. To those who have been patiently waiting, I thank you dearly. I won't offer any excuses, just go ahead and enjoy the return of the story.
Return to the Fray
Wednesday, May 18, 20XX
After School
Shujin Academy
As the bell rung, Ms. Kawakami sighed and shut her book. "Alright class," she said tiredly. "Remember there will be a quiz on the reading on Friday. Be sure to prepare properly. Class dismissed." Ms. Kawakami walked out of the classroom. As the rest of the students stood up and began shuffling out of the classroom. Naruto turned to Akira and Ann. After leaving the Starlight Reprieve, he decided it would be best to tell the others in person. He'd been fidgeting in class all day, waiting for the day to be over.
"So, to the skyway?" he asked. "I'm curious how your talk with Yusuke went." To his surprise, Ann's face twisted into a deep scowl, while Akira just sighed and shook his head. He notched his eyebrow. "Wow, that bad huh?" He hadn't expected anything but a repeat of the last time, but obviously something had gone down. Morgana poked his furry head out of the desk and hissed.
"The scoundrel! How dare he prey upon Lady Ann's chastity!" Akira shoved him in his bag.
"Not the time Morgana," he said quickly. He looked around to see if anyone had noticed before looking at Naruto. "It's probably best we explain everything else at the skyway." Their phones all buzzed in unison at that moment. Naruto pulled his out.
"Looks like Ryuji's already headed there. Come on, let's move." As the group left the school building, they missed Makoto walking down the hallway. Her eyes narrowed in on Naruto with the others.
Shibuya Central Station
Skyway
The group found Ryuji leaning against the wall of the skyway. "Sup guys," he said with a wave.
"Hey Ryuji," Naruto replied. The rest of the group situated themselves along the side of the walkway. Naruto sat on the railway and looked at the others. "Alright, so spill; what the hell happened yesterday between you and Yusuke?" Akira sighed.
"Well…"
Tuesday, May 17, 20XX
Madarame's Studio
Yusuke lead Akira, Ann, and Ryuji toward a small room where an easel and a stool was set up. "I must confess, I expected it to just be you and I, Takamaki-san," he murmured.
"W-well, they just wanted to tag along and see what a famous artist's studio was like," she replied. "Also, I felt just a bit nervous with just the two of us." Yusuke sighed.
"Very well, but they must remain silent while I work. I won't endure any distractions."
"No worries, we're just here to make sure ya don't do anything perverted to Ann here," Ryuji said.
"Cease such strange notions. Ann does not interest me as someone of the opposite sex in any way." Ann seemed to wilt a bit before sighing at sitting down. Yusuke sat down behind the canvas. "Now, let's begin." Minutes passed by as Ann sat in place, while Akira and Ryuji sat watching Yusuke. The young artist quickly immersed himself into his own world, focusing on nothing put the canvas and his paint. After over two hours, Morgana poked out of his bag and looked at Akira.
"We're never going to get him to lower his guard and spill the dirt on Madarame at this point," he murmured.
"Well, it's not like we can do anything about it. He's not responding to anything," Ryuji replied. Morgana frowned.
"Maybe I can sneak around outside and find something?" Akira pursed his lips for a moment.
"Fine, but be careful. We don't know how Yusuke or Madarame would react if they find you." Morgana purred pridefully.
"Please, that's an if that'll never happen. I'm off to explore then." Morgana quietly slipped out of the bag and padded toward the open door. Another hour later, Ryuji finally put down his brush and sighed.
"Done already?" Ann asked in surprise. Yusuke shook his head.
"My apologies; I'm having issues keeping focused today. If you don't mind, let's resume this another time." Ryuji scowled and stood up.
"Are you serious? We waited hours for this!" Yusuke looked taken a bit.
"For what?" he asked. Ann sighed.
"The truth is, Kitagawa-kun, we wanted to ask you something else as well." Ryuji folded his arms.
"Yeah, about those rumors about your sensei." Yusuke rolled his eyes. "Really, again?" Ann stood up as well. "That painting in the exhibit, the one you wanted to move past…was that yours?" Yusuke's eyes shifted away to the floor. Ann frowned. "I thought as much." Ryuji stepped forward.
"You know your 'sensei' only looks at his pupils as tools, right? As long as he can steal their work, he doesn't care if he has to beat it out of him." Yusuke looked away.
"I'm not sure what you mean," he hedged.
"It's alright," Akira said. "If you can't go against him that's fine, but at least admit the truth." Yusuke paused for a moment before narrowing his gaze.
"Fine. We are indeed sensei's artwork. But so what? I give my ideas to him freely. You can hardly call that plagiarism. It's just a phase of artist's block he's going through, that's all." Yusuke's voice remained defensive. Ryuji frowned.
"Then why the hell do you stay? His other pupils are all gone! Don't let him roll over you like that!" Yusuke clenched his fists.
"So what If I want to help my master!" His voiced raised. "Don't you push your self-righteousness and try and victimize me!" He seemed to calm down a bit. "All I want to is support Sensei as his student, is that so wrong?"
"Well, no but-" Ryuji began. However, Yusuke cut him off.
"Just leave, and don't come back…or I'm going to sue you for causing a disturbance in my home." Ryuji stepped forward.
"Hold it!" growled. Yusuke sighed.
"Fine then." He pulled out his phone and made to start dialing. "You two invited yourselves to this meeting. Takamaki-san was the only one I called to model." Akira put a hand on Ryuji's shoulder.
"Calm down, everyone," he said. "He's right. We did come without a proper invitation." Ryuji sighed and stepped back.
"But still…" he muttered. Yusuke smirked.
"Well, at least one of you has some form of manners." He lowered his phone. "I'll cease my report to the police…on one condition."
"What's that?" Ann asked. Yusuke turned to her.
"Please, continue to be my model, Takamaki-san?"
"Why? Wasn't it not working out?" Yusuke shook his head.
"I was being modest for your sake. However, if you're willing to bare it all, I no longer have worries." He stepped forward, a firm resolve in his eyes. "I'll put everything I have into making the greatest nude painting. For a moment, silence reigned in the room.
"W-w-what?!" Ann shrieked. "Nude? Are you serious?" Yusuke closed his eyes and smiled.
"Oh, I never dreamed I'd be able to make a nude painting with my most esteemed muse. I should get more supplies." He looked at Akira and Ryuji. "Of course, I'll not have you come back and disturb us again, and I'll need you to keep quiet about what we've discussed."
"Wait a second. When you mean nude, you mean like, without clothes? Why'd we jump to there already?"
"Because those are my terms," Yusuke replied. Akira took this time to step in.
"How about no," he said firmly. "Ann has no need to model for you like that." Yusuke narrowed his eyes.
"So would you prefer I resume calling the police?" Akira stared at him
"Go ahead. I'd love for you to explain how you solicited Ann for a nude portrait. That will surely go over well." Yusuke's eyes widened.
"That's…" The two stared at each other for a moment before Yusuke sighed. "I see. I suppose that was a bit much." He looked down. "Still Sensei will need a new piece soon, or else, there will be some…inconveniences." Ann, having calmed down a bit, looked at him.
"Inconveniences?" Yusuke caught himself.
"It's nothing," he said quickly. He looked at Ann. "I still must beseech you Takamaki-san. Please, be my muse! Your body will become my masterpiece. Sensei is busy with the exhibition during the afternoons, so I have those free. If you reconsider, please reach out to me." He glanced at Akira. "Thought without those two." Ann bit her lip. Akira shook her head.
"If Ann is willing to model, then she'll come to you. We'll go now." He grabbed Ryuji's shoulder and half-dragged him out of the room. Ann's gaze lingered on Yusuke for a moment before following.
Present
Naruto just shook his head. "Well, damn. That was pretty ballsy of you Akira." The curly-haired teen just shook his head.
"I wasn't about to subject Ann to being probed like that," he said firmly. "Even if he didn't have any perverse intentions behind it." Ryuji scowled.
"Yeah, but it left us with no leads. Even if Ann did the nude modeling, he's not gonna give us any dirt on Madarame now." Ann gave him a fierce glare.
"There's no way I'd do it even if he was going to tell us!" she said. Her face softened. "But still, from what it sounds like he needs to submit a piece soon, probably before the end of the exhibit I don't like the sound of the 'inconveniences' he was talking about." Akira folded his arms and sighed.
"We still haven't really found much direct proof of Madarame's guilt," he said. "We'd still be trying to change a person's whole life on speculation." He glanced at the others. "Are we really going to take that chance?" Naruto gazed at everyone's contemplative faces.
"Well, I guess there's no time like now to tell them about Yuri," he thought. "If you're looking for something more concrete about Madarame, I've got something." The others all turned to Naruto. Ann stared at him, her eyes wide.
"Wait, you managed to get something on Madarame?" she asked. "When did you do find that out?" Naruto smirked.
"I did some digging through my own connections yesterday while you guys were visiting Yusuke." Akira's eyebrow notched up.
"What kind of connections?" he asked.
"Let's just say I've got some sources that like to keep their ears to the ground and their eyes " Morgana's furry head tilted, his eyes sparkling.
"So you have access to other sources of intel? Well done, Naruto! Now that's how a phantom thief works!" The whiskered blonde nodded, smirking.
"Enough suspense! Spill it already!" Ryuji said eagerly. "What kinda dirt did you find on that old geezer?" Naruto's smirk fell and was replaced with a serious gaze.
"I managed to find one of his other former pupils and ask what happened. And it definitely answered the question of if he's a manipulative asshole." The other's eyes all widened.
"So, the rumors are true?" Akira asked. Naruto nodded grimly.
"He's been doing it for years apparently. A few years back, when this person was in high school, she won an amateur art competition and got his attention. He approached her and got her to sign up as his pupil, making her think he'd help her become a full-fledged artist." He pulled out his phone. After scrolling through it for a few seconds, he pulled up an image. It depicted a painting of a vast starry sky juxtaposed over a sloping field. A lone person walked along a constellation pathway through the long path towards a small moon. He turned it around so the others could see. They all gathered around to look.
"Damn, that is pretty awesome," Ryuji said.
"Indeed," Akira agreed. "You can really sense the feeling of unimaginable vastness from it." Morgana strained his head from Akira's bag, trying to get a glimpse.
"Come on," he whined. "Let me get a look at it!" Ann stared intently at it.
"It is beautiful," she breathed. "I remember seeing it with Yusuke at the exhibition. I think it was called 'Heavenfield' or something like that. Yusuke said probably one of Madarame's most distinguished pieces." She turned to Naruto, as a look of horror dawning on your face. "Wait, don't tell me…" Naruto just nodded.
"This was her maiden work, that she put all of her heart and soul into. And he just announced it as his own. After that, she left." He looked at all of them with a hard gaze, his blue eyes almost blazing. "Madarame's nothing but a douchebag thief that claims the blood, sweat and tears of his pupils as his own accomplishments, and he has the balls to pretend to be modest about those stolen. And it seems pretty clear he's doing the same to Yusuke. Now, I can understand Yusuke wanting to protect his sensei and surrogate father, but in the end, he's never going to escape his grasp if nothing changes. He'll never be able to express himself openly as an artist." The Uzumaki folded his arms. "I don't know about you guys, but I think that's reason enough to step in. What about you guys?" Ryuji was the first one to step forward.
"I knew it! That guy sounds like a total asshole. He's just the kinda dick that we should take down." Ann looked down.
"Kitagawa-kun looks up to Madarame so much…" Her eyes narrowed. "I'm not just going to sit by and let Madarame take advantage of him!"
"If Lady Ann's in, then so am I," Morgana called out. "And besides, I've still got to figure out the secret behind the emergence of all these Palaces." The feline stared up at Akira who still had his eyes closed as he cupped his chin with one hand.
"What about you Akira?" he asked. "We agreed we'd do things unanimously after all. And you are one of our leaders, after all." Ryuji and Ann both looked to the spectacled teen, waiting to hear his response. Naruto held his breath.
"He's been the most on the fence about this than anyone else," he thought to himself. "If he doesn't accept this, then I'm not sure what else I can do." Akira finally opened his eyes.
"It's clear at this point that Madarame is abusing his influence. After hearing Naruto's story, I'm not going to sit back and let him continue to do that to others." His eyes gleamed behind his glasses as a smirk crept up his face. "Let's steal his Treasure and make him confess!" The others all nodded, each of them with similar grins. Naruto resisted the urge to let out a sigh of relief.
"Alright, there's no time to start like the present. Shall we head over and start the infiltration?" he asked. Ryuji pumped his fist.
"I've been waiting for this forever! Let's get going already!" He dashed off down the skyway. Naruto looked at the others.
"Anybody else have anything to do?" The others all shook their head.
"I think we're good to start today," Akira said. Morgana tilted his head.
"Didn't we all follow Lady Ann last time? Does that idiot even know where his house is?" Just then Ryuji made it back to the others. He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"So uh, where was his house again?" The rest of the group all shook their heads and sighed in unison.
Central Street
The group stood across the street from Madarame's atelier. "Alright, you guys ready to roll?" Ryuji said. Naruto grinned.
"I've been ready for ages, Ryuji." Morgana hopped out of Akira's bag onto the railing he was leaning against.
"OK, so our goal is to infiltrate the Palace by the end of the exhibition," the feline said. Ann nodded firmly.
"That way, Kitagawa-kun won't be punished by Madarame if he doesn't have a painting ready. I think the exhibition ends on June 5."
"Then that's our deadline. We'll need to have our calling card ready for a couple days before," Akira said. He opened the Metaverse app on his phone. "Alright, let's start the mission!"
"Location found, beginning navigation." The app's voice chimed as the black and crimson ripples began to pour out from the phone, engulfing the party.
Metaverse, Madarame's Palace
The group found themselves once more in the parking lot outside the golden museum. Ryuji just shook his head at the gaudy glitz of the building, shining in the floodlights. "Damn, just much of an ego does this guy have?" he muttered.
"I'm sure the inside is even worse," Naruto said. "Now, let's get a move on." The others nodded. They quickly vaulted over the wall as they did before and made their way through the garden area. As they hopped across the stone pillars to get to the skylight, Akira's eyes narrowed.
"Looks like there are some patrols in the area now," he pointed to the other side of the hedges, where a couple spindly guards roamed, armed with flashlights. Morgana hopped on Naruto's shoulder so he could see.
"Good call Joker," he noted. "Madarame obviously seems to be the cautious type, so we should be prepared." Naruto frowned a bit as they leaped to the wall and started climbing toward the skylight.
"Is he just paranoid? Or did he somehow find out about the probe?" He heard Saiken gurgle in the back of his mind.
"Never fear, Naruto! With Saiken as your partner, we shall eliminate anyone who dares to interfere with us." Naruto smirked to himself. For being a slug, he had a surprising amount of pride.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Saiken." The group made it to the open skylight. Morgana pulled out his rope again and tied it off. He looked at the others.
"Alright, from here on out, we'll be in the Palace proper. Everyone, be careful!" The others all nodded. One by one they descended the rope into the initial room they'd started at before. Naruto glanced around, scanning for any Shadows.
"There doesn't seem to be any guards around here at least." Ryuji grinned.
"Awesome, this is going to be a breeze then." He started walking towards the entrance to the next room. Ann frowned.
"Don't be too hasty Skull; we don't have much to go on right now regarding the set up." The delinquent waved him off.
"It's fine, Joker. We've already been through this area before." Naruto frowned.
"Wait a second; wasn't there some kind of mechanical device on the sides of the doorway?" He looked and saw the metal devices parallel from each other. "Just like a trip wire," he remembered. At the same time, Akira's eyes widened.
"Wait Skull!" he called out. However, Ryuji had already stepped through the doorway. A low screeching alarm started going off. Two of the spindly guards rushed from other ends of the area. Naruto sighed.
"Thanks a lot, Skull," he replied pulling out a kunai. The delinquent had the sense to look sheepish. The guards arrived at the entrance and spotted the group.
"Intruders! They're after Director Madarame's works!" one of them called out.
"We must stop them!" the other said. After shuddering for a moment, they both exploded in spurts of black ink. Each of them spawned a group of different creatures. The first set composed of a pair of green misshapen humanoid figures, which stood a little over half the size of a normal human. Their eyes were just white spheres which sat in black hollows in their head. They had no fingers or toes at the end of their limbs. The only clothing they wore was a white fundoshi like sash. The other group was a trio of flittering fairy creatures. They wore white Chinese qipaos which contrasted with their red skin. Their blonde hair fell on the sides of their head past their neck. Behind them, their iridescent wings flapped delicately. They'd almost seem beautiful, if not for the malicious grin on their faces. The red fairies lifted their arms.
"Agi!" they chanted together. Small fireballs appeared over their outstretched hands. Naruto's eyes widened.
"Head's up!" he warned. The group all dodged out of the way as the fairies launched the fireballs at the group. Naruto could feel the searing heat as one of them passed behind him. "Nope, definitely do not want to want to get hit by that," he muttered as he got to his feet. The green figures started stamping their stubby feet.
"Ooooooooraaaah!!!" They all began to glow with a red aura around them. Naruto just sighed.
"And now those guys are powered up as well," he muttered. "That's just perfect!" He evaded another fireball and looked to the others. "Ryuji, Morgana, can you guys keep them busy? The rest of us can take care of the flyers! Don't get those guys get close!" The two nodded and moved to intercept. Naruto pulled a couple shuriken from his pouch and arced them at the flying creatures. He managed to tag one of them, who shrieked in pain and fell to the ground, dazed. Ann scowled deeply.
"If they like throwing fire so much, let's give them a taste of their own medicine! Carmen, Agi!" The elegant summon appeared and dismissively sent an orb of flames from her lit cigar at one of the remaining airborne targets. However, upon contact, the fiery projectile just bounced off its body, redirecting back at Ann. The cat burglar yelped as the flames hit in the chest. The flittering fairy just giggled.
"Hee hee! The cat got its tail burned!" Naruto rushed over to Ann.
"You OK, Panther?" he asked.
"I'm fine; that just caught me by surprise," she replied. Akira narrowed his eyes.
"Alright, if fire's not an option, let's try cooling them off! Andras, Bufu!" The ethereal owl-man appeared behind him. With a wave of his hand, a small barrage of ice shards appeared and rocketed toward another one of the fairies. She screamed in agony and dissipated into inky particles.
"Good one, Joker!" Naruto called out with a smirk. Just as he was about to toss another couple of shuriken, a loud thud got his attention. He glanced over to Morgana and Ryuji. The skull-masked teen seemed to be stumbling about wildly with one of the green figures chasing after him, while Morgana narrowly dipped under a punch from the other. He grimaced. "Looks like the others need help." He looked at the Akira and Ann. "I'll go help them out. Panther, just use your gun!" Ann got to her feet and nodded. She pulled out her gun and started returning fire.
His eyes widened. "If more Shadows show up, things are going to go downhill, fast," he thought to himself. The blond quickly burst forward, his feet thumping. He leaped over the misshapen figure, which was taken aback by his entrance. Just before Ryuji could trip the sensor, Naruto grabbed him by his vest and threw him backwards toward Morgana. Spinning around, he turned to face the Shadow. "Saiken, Frei!" The giant slug appeared behind him.
"One exploding bubble, coming right up!" The biju spat out the vibrant bubble at the enemy. The green humanoid's body rocketed back, blown off his feet by the assault. Naruto ran over to Ryuji.
"You OK, pal?" he asked.
"Come on, I'll fight all three of you!" Ryuji slurred a bit, stumbling forward. Naruto frowned.
"Damn, he's either got a hell of a concussion, or those Shadows did something to him."
"Unfortunately, my dear Naruto, I do not have anything to aid your ally," Saiken gurgled. The Uzumaki sighed.
"That's more Morgana's territory." He looked over to Morgana, who was still dodging the other Shadow. He spotted the one he had knocked down getting back on his feet as well. "Mona, leap back!" The feline nodded and jumped back away from the green humanoid, which started to chase after him. "Saiken, Masukunda!" The large slug nodded and spewed out the emerald haze, which washed over both of the stubby-limbed Shadows. Their already jerky movement slowed down as they tried to move towards the others. Morgana rejoined the Ryuji and Naruto.
"Thanks for the assist, Shinobi." Naruto nodded.
"What happened to Skull, Mona?" The little thief furrowed his eyebrows.
"He tried to hit one of the Shadows with a Zio, but it powered through and hit him with a special punch of some sort. Let's get the idiot back on his feet." Morgana raised his hand. "Zorro, Patra!" The suave swordsman appeared behind him and swished his sword, sending out sparkling particles over Ryuji. The delinquent suddenly shook his head and stood up straight, whatever clouding his head now gone.
"Damn, what the hell happened?" he asked.
"You got clocked, that's what happened." Naruto replied wryly. He crouched down, seeing the Shadow Morgana had been fighting amble toward them. "Alright, let's put these guys down!" He rushed the Shadow, easily avoiding the clumsy punch. He slashed at the creature's legs with his kunai, causing him to stumble. He then jumped back, "Your turn, Mona!" Morgana smirked.
"Alright Zorro, let's follow it up. Garu!" He sent an emerald air blade towards the Shadow. The blade cut clean through its body. The green runt let out an excruciating wail of pain before bursting into darkness and evaporating. Ryuji smirked.
"Alright, payback time!" He rushed at the remaining figure, swinging his pipe down on its head. An audible crack could be heard as the green man's head slammed against the ground from the force. The still body faded away. Naruto turned to look at Ann and Akira to see the one he'd knocked down turn into a mask and merge with Akira's. Ryuji smirked. "Looks like you guys managed to clean up," he said. Morgana narrowed his eyes.
"No thanks to you, idiot!" Ryuji scowled.
"What the hell did I do?" Akira pointed to the doorway they'd come from.
"It looks like there's some kind of motion sensor there. When you passed through, it triggered an alarm for the Shadows." Naruto shook his head.
"I noticed those things the first time we were here, but I wasn't sure what they were." Ann leaned closely.
"I think I can kinda see it," she replied. "But it's definitely hard to see. These weren't active the last time we came through though."
"That just means that Madarame is on alert," Morgana said frowning.
"What the hell? We haven't even done anything yet!" Ryuji asked.
"He just might be wary by nature," the feline replied. "Regardless, it's clear we have to be much more careful now."
"More like paranoid," Naruto thought to himself. "But he didn't strike me as the type to be overly cautious for no reason. What's he really hiding?" He shook his head. They'd find out soon enough. Akira glanced around at the others.
"We should keep moving; we don't want the other patrols to stumble over us just standing there." Naruto nodded. He walked over to the other set of motion sensors Ryuji had almost tripped that lead further into the exhibition hall. He saw that the bottom most set weren't active, creating a small gap at the bottom. "Hmm…" he thought aloud, "If we're careful, we could slide under here." Naruto backed up a few steps and then ran towards the sensors. When he was within a few feet, he ducked down and slid underneath the lasers. He popped out on the other side. "Alright, your guys' go." The rest of the phantom thieves all looked on in surprise. Morgana grinned.
"Stylish as always, Shinobi," he commented. He approached the sensors and dove forward. With his small stature, he easily cleared the gap. At the last second, he flipped over and landed on his feet. He turned around. "What are you guys standing around for?" he asked. "We'll have to get through this if we want to move forward." Akira shrugged and took a running start as well. He seemed to easily duck into the slide and clear the gap, popping up beside Naruto. He turned around.
"It's not as hard as it looks," he said. "If you don't feel confident though, just go ahead and crawl underneath." Ryuji and Ann both nodded. While his running start was jerky, the delinquent managed to generate enough momentum to make the slide. Ann's slide was smooth, her latex suit giving her less friction. Naruto couldn't help but notice how her chest bounced from the motion. He quickly looked away before she could notice.
"Damn it Ero-Sennin!" he thought. "I will not give into you!"
"Give into what?" Saiken asked curiously. "You were just admiring your ally's form. Is there something wrong with that?" Naruto sighed.
"It's nothing Saiken," he replied quickly. The group continued through the exhibition hall, evading the patrols and sneaking through the gaps in the sensors. Eventually, they made it back to the lobby area.
"Honestly, compared to Kamoshida's Palace, this place seems almost…normal," Ann mused.
"Well, except for the creatures of darkness stalking the hallways," Akira said with a chuckle. They walked towards the Wellspring of Inspiration exhibit and stood in front of it.
"Alright everyone, beyond this point, we're in uncharted territory," Morgana said. "We've already seen that the Palace is already on alert, so let's not make any careless mistakes." The others nodded in unison. The walked past the statue and up the stairs at the end of the corridor towards the next exhibition hall. They emerged from into another hallway with more cognition paintings. The walls this time were higher up and were dyed in red. A couple of corridors were cordoned off by the velvet ropes you'd normally see in movie theaters.
"This place feels like a giant maze," Ann murmured.
"It does, doesn't it?" Morgana agreed. "Joker, you've still got that map we picked up, right?" Akira nodded and pulled the brochure out of his jacket, unfolding it. He scanned the paper carefully, plotting out the route.
"Hmm…alright, it's this way." He led the thieves through the twisting pathways of the exhibition. Ryuji scowled as he gazed at all the paintings.
"Has this old geezer really ripped off all these people?" Naruto's eyebrow furrowed as well.
"So many victims," he thought to himself. His fists unconsciously tightened into balls. Akira glanced at the former ninja.
"Everything alright, Shinobi?" Naruto looked up.
"What? Oh, everything's alright, Joker," he flashed his foxy grin for a moment before his eyes widened upon seeing a pair of guards emerge ahead. "Quick! Duck to the side!" The group quickly scattered, lining up on either side of the doorway. Naruto peered around the corner, checking out the guards. They were loitering in front of one of the cognition paintings near a junction of the corridors, with no seeming intention of moving.
"Damn it," Ryuji muttered. "And just when we were starting to make headway." Morgana put his paw to his mouth and shushed him.
"Quiet Skull! We don't want to bring more of them on us." Ryuji scowled.
"Hey, you're being just as loud as I am, furball!"
"Will the two of you be quiet for a moment?" Ann hissed, glaring at them. Ryuji and Morgana wilted under her angry stare. Akira sighed and turned to Naruto.
"Think you can sneak up and see what's going on?" The blond nodded silently. He waited for the guards to glance away before darting ahead and hiding behind the next wall. He listened in to the guards as they conversed.
"So, I wonder what tripped the alarm?" one of them asked.
"Who knows? Probably just a rat or something. Still, until we get the all clear from the guards back there,we'll have to stay here and make sure nobody gets past us."
Naruto scowled. "Sounds like it's going to be difficult to get them to move." He looked around. "I might be able to cause a diversion if I use my wall-walking skills to create an ambush." Just as he was prepared to go back to the others and give his report, a laugh from one of the guards interrupted him. He turned around to see what the source was and stopped cold. The guards were staring at one of the cognition paintings, depicting a familiar face. Her hair was cut short in the picture, but the hazel eyes hidden behind a half-lidded, somber stare and ponytail gave it away. Naruto noticed in the corners of the cognition painting, a smattering of stars decorated the edges.
"Remember when this work was added? Curator-sama was quite pleased with himself that day." The other guard let out a cruel chuckle.
"Ha! I remember. The material used for this piece was exquisite."
"Not like they were good for anything else though. They should have been honored to support Madarame-sama's brilliance!" The two guards snickered together. Naruto gripped his fists until they turned white. Once again, a memory of his first mark resurfaced. He could feel Saiken's worried presence.
"Is something the matter, Naruto?" the slug asked. The blond shook his head.
"It's nothing Saiken. We're just going to have to clean up these guys." Naruto steeled himself and snuck back to the group. Ryuji raised an eyebrow.
"Well? What'd ya find out?" he asked eagerly. "Think we can distract them?" Naruto shook his head.
"No, those guys will have to be taken down. There's no way of getting around that." His face was set in stone, a hard determination on his face. Akira looked at Naruto for a moment, before glancing at the guards. He frowned for a second before pulling out his knife.
"Alright, if you think we can't bust through without a fight, then let's take them down." The others got out their weapons as well, with hardened gazes behind their masks. The group charged out and confronted the two guards who whirled to meet them.
"Huh? Intruders?!?" One of them exclaimed in shock.
"They must be the ones who triggered the earlier alert. We must protect Madarame-sama's masterpieces!" The guards ripped off their masks and burst into darkness. From the pool emerged two of the green blocky dwarves, three of the red fairies, and a couple newcomers, a pair of blue-skinned female dancers, with wispy silk streaming around their bodies. The dancers acted first and began to twist and turn, the gauze around each of them glowing either blue or white briefly. The skins of the other Shadows took on the same glow for a moment before disappearing. The dancers sneered a bit. Naruto frowned.
"What did those guys do? It had to be something." He looked to the others. "Be careful on what you do, we don't know what happened." The others nodded. Three fairies cackled menacingly and looked at the Uzumaki.
"You should really be worried about yourself, fool! Agi!" They each created a fireball in their hands and launched them all at Naruto in unison.
"Damn it!" Naruto tried to duck and weave around them, but the small corridor made it difficult. He managed to evade two of the fire globes, but the third struck him squarely in the shoulder. Searing pain flashed through his body, far beyond what he expected from the attack.
"Ouch! Ouch! That's too hot for me, friend Naruto! My slime is boiling!" He heard Saiken cry out in pain. Naruto fell to his knees, his free hand covering his shoulder where the burn mark could clearly be seen. Ann's eyes widened.
"I've got your back, Shinobi!" She ran over to him. "Carmen, Dia!" The cigar smoking femme fatale appeared and waved her hand, casting shining sparkles over the blond. Naruto could feel the pain subside a bit.
"Thanks, Panther," he said gratefully. Akira ran out, followed by Morgana.
"Alright, let's give them some cover. We've fought them already, so let's hit their weaknesses." Morgana nodded.
"Great call, Joker. Zorro, Garu!"
"Andras, Bufu!" The feline sent a wave of wind at one of the green humanoids, while Akira sent an ice shard blast at a fairy. The two received the attacks; however, at the moment of impact, the white glow reappeared around the humanoid, and the blue glow around the fairy. The two did stumble back from the blows, but quickly recovered. Ryuji's eyes widened.
"What the hell? Last time those attacks knocked them for a loop!" One of the dancer's lips twisted in a sneer.
"You'll have to do better than that now!" she replied. Naruto grit his teeth.
"That dance they did at the start must have done something to protect them against their weaknesses," he realized. Ann helped him to his feet.
"What do we do now, Shinobi?" she asked. He glared.
"We'll just have to take them down with raw power then. Focus on those dancer ladies!" The green humanoids quickly stepped up.
"Just try and get through us!" one of them roared. The battle entered a bit of a stalemate. The group found themselves under a barrage of fireballs, while the green humanoids focused on them in melee. Naruto could feel the pressure on the party as they attempted to fight back.
"Dang it, we need to break through, somehow!" One of the dancers began a new dance, this time in a more energetic and frenetic form. A silver aura appeared around one of the fairies. She created another fireball, which shimmered with the same Aura and threw it towards Ann. The fireball seemed to home in as she was taking a step, hitting her in just the spot to make her topple backwards.
"Ouch! damn it, that hurt!" she said as she collapsed. Morgana quickly ran over to her.
"Lady Ann! Are you alright?" he said as he helped her up.
"I'm fine. But I swear, that fireball seemed to hit right where it would get me good." The dancer laughed viciously.
"Yes, all you can do is fall to your knees before us!" Ryuji let out a growl of frustration.
"That's it! I've had enough of those stupid dancers!" The skull-masked teen charged forward, surprising the green humanoids and the fairies before they could respond. "Captain Kidd, let's light 'em up! Zio!" The ghostly pirate appeared behind him riding his ship and fired a blast of electricity from one of the cannons. The dancer took the blast and reeled backwards landing in an undignified heap. Ryuji pumped his fist. "Hah! Finally got you good!" He looked around at the other Shadows which had recovered and were looking at him, causing his grin to fall. "Uh, little help?" he said sheepishly. The silvery glowing fairy sneered.
"He he he, you're in for it now!" The fairy said. She started to create another shimmering fireball.
"We can't let Ryuji fall!" Akira called out. He quickly pulled out his gun and tried to shoot at the fairy before it could release the fireball. The whizzing bullet managed to clip the fairy's wing as it passed, causing it to fall to the ground. Akira's eyes widened.
"Use your guns to take down those red fairies!" he called out. Morgana and Ann nodded and pulled out their ranged weapons, felling the other two sprites. The green dwarfs stomped their feet and pulled back their fists toward Ryuji, which began to glow with power. Naruto spotted a bannister connected to the velvet railings one would see in movie theaters along the side of the corridor. He latched onto the shiny pole.
"Oh, no you don't!" Exerting his strength, and trying to add what little chakra he could channel, Naruto whipped the velvet chain around, knocking the green humanoids off their feet as they lost their balance. He grinned upon seeing all the downed people. "Great, we've finally turned thigs around." Akira nodded with a smirk.
"Now let's finish things!" He turned to the rest of the team. "Ann, Morgana, let's get all these guys together on the dancer!"
"Got it!" Morgana used his slingshot to fling one of the fairies towards the dancer while Ann wrapped the end of her whip around the other two and tossed them. Akira turned to Naruto next. "Alright, let's get the green guys next!" Naruto smirked.
"Sounds good to me!" Together they each charged at one of the dwarves, bashing them into the pile with the other Shadows. Akira gave a thumb's up to Ryuji.
"They're all yours, Skull!" A shit-eating grin appeared on the delinquent's face.
"You got it, Joker!" He took a couple steps back, whirling his pipe-wielding arm around a couple times before charging forward. As he arrived, he skidded to a stop and pulled back his pipe like a baseball bat! "Going, going…" He swung his weapon with all his might, sending all of them flying away briefly before they burst into black mist. "Gone! And they're out of there!" He turned to the others and grinned. "And don't come back!" Akira looked to the remaining dancer and held it at gunpoint.
"Now, what are you going to do? You're the last one." The others followed suit. The dancer shivered and shank back, clutching the silk to its pale leotard.
"P-Please spare me! I'll do anything!" she whimpered. The suave teen smirked.
"Then, I want you to join me." The Shadow looked up.
"Are you sure? How can I trust you won't abuse me?"
"Anyone who can dance with such grace and form must be treated with the utmost respect," he replied smiling. The Shadow perked up, preening a bit.
"Well, it's good to meet someone who can recognize an artist like myself." The dancer's eyes widened. "Ah, now I remember. My name is Asparas. I shall serve you with grace and poise, my master." The Shadow turned into an ethereal mask and joined with Akira's. Now that all the shadows were gone, he lowered his gun and let out a sigh.
"That was a pretty rough fight."
"Boy, I'll say," Morgana agreed. He plopped down. "That could have gone much worse."
"Hey, at least we won, didn't we?" Ryuji said. "That's a plus, at least. Now we can keep going."
"That's fair," Akira said. "But still, next time Skull, be careful rushing in like that, will ya? We won't always be able to bail you out." The delinquent rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Naruto smirked.
"Still, it was because you took down that dancer that we were able to turn things around, so thanks for that." Ryuji grinned.
"Right? That Shadow had it coming." Ann sighed and shook her head.
"Regardless, I'm pretty beat," she said. "I'm not sure we'll be able to make it much farther." Akira nodded. "That's fair. We've managed to make some progress here, so I think we can call it a day. Let's go ahead and find a safe room to stop at." The others nodded and began making their way past where the guards were. As they filed forward, Naruto stopped and stared at the painting of Yuri. His fists clenched again as his memory stirred again. "I'll stop him," he murmured. Akira pulled back a bit.
"Shinobi, are you alright?" Naruto turned away.
"Yeah, just needed a second. I'm coming." The Uzumaki turned and followed after the others. After a couple more turns, they managed to find a Safe Room.
Naruto's Shadow Guide Entry #15
Name: Fundoshi Greenie (Mokoi)
Description: Short weird green guys with flat heads that wear nothing but a fundoshi around their groin. Don't really want to know them any better than that
Attacks: These guys have a nasty habit of powering themselves up with a yell. Combine that with this stupid punch they have that can make rattle your brains and leave you stumbling about and you have a really nasty enemy
How to beat: Fortunately, they're weak to Wind attacks, so a good Garu from Mona should shut them up. Now, if I had Rasenshuriken, they'd really piss themselves.
Naruto's Shadow Guide Entry #16
Name: Fire-spitting Fairy (Hua Po)
Description: Foot-tall girls with red skin, and blond hair that runs down the sides of their face. Their wings are multicolored, kinda like a soap bubble. They wear Chinese qipao type stuff, kinda like Tenten.
Attacks: Unlike Bushy Brow's teammate though, they just hurl fireballs left and right like they were an Uchiha, bleh.
How to beat: While they are definitely annoying, either a well-placed shuriken or an icicle will clip their wings permanently. Heh, that makes two fire users who got thrashed by projectiles and ice.
Naruto's Shadow Guide Entry #17
Name: Barrier Dancer (Asparas)
Description: Blue skinned dancers with what looks to be purple hair. They've got a tan leotard, and wispy, transparent silk swirling around them when they move.
Attacks: So these guys aren't actually much for attacking. Instead, the blue bastards like to put up elemental walls which lessen damage from a range of elements and protect those who are weak to it from taking the extra hurt from it. They've also an annoying trick to give an enemy that extra edge to get a blow in where it really hurts.
How to beat: While they're quick to protect their allies, they do have their own weakness in electrical attacks. Make sure to hit them fast and hard before they get a chance to guard against that. If they have, you'll have to just hit them with regular stuff. Fortunately, it doesn't look like they've got an answer to a Frei blast from Saiken. Funny we're fighting them in a museum. Maybe that blond Akatsuki guy was onto something with his whole "art is an explosion" thing…
Well, there's the chapter. Again, I'm sorry it's been so long since the last one. There have lost and found jobs, and a 2 and a half year long DD collaboration with a few million words of content, moving into new places, and then of course, COVID. The nice thing is the collab is about don. By the end of the year, I'll be free. So from here on out, my goal is to get a chapter out once a month until it's done, which should be by the end of the year. I've got some fun Omakes based on the Smash and Persona Q side stories in the works. And as far as Persona 5 Royal goes. I haven't gotten a chance to play it, but it's not really going to play a factor. The way I'm planning this story, Naruto's addition is going to be it's own variation. Call it Persona 5 Shinobi. Anyway, I'll see you next month!
PoeticFire, signing off.