Chapter Eight: The Return of the Omnitrix
Naruto went and got his picture taken, which could have very well gone two different ways. On one hand Naruto considered taking an elaborate photo complete with face paint that would have made him look like a clown, based off a look the Fourth Hokage had donned at one point, but that would have taken so long to accomplish, even with the transformation jutsu. On the other he could have just fallen in line and taken a photo in his normal attire. Naruto would have wore his orange jumper, but the new outfit he had been given with the Omnitrix had grown on him and he decided to wear that to the event.
Handing it to the Hokage, Hiruzen accepted it with a smile, thankful that Naruto didn't try to pull any shenanigans. However, as Naruto handed him the photo the door burst open revealing a young boy with short spiky brown hair charge in. Thanks to Naruto's connection with the kyuubi, Naruto's reflexes had been enhanced slightly, and everything moved in slow motion. It was cool, Naruto didn't even know that he had this potential.
Kyuubi, you doing this?
Partially. Your reflexes are already decent, but with my influence they can become far more enhanced. Hearing, smelling, sight, all your senses I can improve, so when you don't use my chakra, you can still have that level of awareness.
Cool... wait, is that a throwing star in his hand? This kid can't be serious.
The child was wearing a yellow shirt with a red leaf village symbol on it, grey shorts, and a long blue scarf that he should be tripping on every five seconds. Naruto noticed the small chip in his tooth that made its appearance as the kid's lips parted ever so slightly, and unconsciously laughed. Did that happen from a fall, and more on the hilarious side, was it from the scarf? The kid was wearing a grey helmet with a hole on the top so his hair stuck out through it, with an orange frowning face sticker on the right side while a red circle was on the left.
"Old man! I challenge you! I'm gonna beat you and become the fifth Hokage!" the boy declared as Naruto's senses went back to normal and the kid brought his arm back to toss the projectile at the Hokage, only to trip over his own feet and collapse onto his face. Naruto tried not to laugh at the sight, and sighed in disappointment.
My grandson, another headache. Hiruzen thought to himself as a ninja appeared in the doorway gasping at the sight of the boy on the ground.
From the look of it, Naruto concluded this was a member of Hiruzen's family. "This your grandson, Lord Third?"
"Yes, this is my grandson Konohamaru."
"Ugh, what happened? Something tripped me," Konohamaru groaned, rubbing his head as he got up. Glancing over at Naruto, who was way too far away and unarmed to have done anything, the boy immediately blamed him for it.
"Honorable grandson, are you alright? Also, there's nothing for you to trip on, it's pretty flat." the ninja in the doorway pointed out as Konohamaru walked over to Naruto, grunting out of annoyance.
"All right. You're the one who tripped me, aren't you?"
Naruto sighed. "You tripped over your own feet."
"I WATCHED YOU DO IT!" Konohamaru lied through his teeth.
Naruto stood up, and just like that Hiruzen saw the impatient prankster sneak through that wall he'd been putting up and grab onto Konohamaru's scarf.
"LISTEN DORK, I DIDN'T TRIP YOU!"
"Hey, you! Let him go right now, he's the honorable grandson of the honorable Third Hokage!"
"How many times you gotta say honorable in a second in order to prove a point about how honorable something is?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow, his tone changing within a split second. Hiruzen had to stifle a chuckle. Naruto looked back at Konohamaru who now had a smug smirk on his face.
That's right, that's stopping him, just like all the rest. Ha! Now that he knows who I am, he won't dare lay a finger on me.
"What's the matter tough guy, thought you were gonna hit me! Afraid because the Third Hokage is my grandfather?"
The blond laughed. "I don't care if he's your freaking grandMOTHER. Besides, it wouldn't be a fair fight if I hit you. Come find me when you're a couple years older, and don't trip on your clothes." Naruto scoffed, letting him go and pushing him into the chair.
Konohamaru couldn't believe it. Instead of backing down, Naruto had both kept the passive route and made his point that he didn't care who Konohamaru's family were.
"Lord Hokage, sorry to have caused you any trouble. Can I be excused?" Naruto asked, innocently, as he locked eyes with the ninja nearby, seeing a look of hatred behind those shades. That look is just like everybody else's, just because the kyuubi is inside me.
He left, although he felt the presence of the young boy following behind him.
The ninja who was in charge of Konohamaru, Ebisu started lecturing Konohamaru, but was unaware that he had snuck away after Naruto.
Naruto kept walking even though he knew Konohamaru was behind him, using a poor sheet that was in the pattern of the fencing nearby. It would have worked if it weren't for the fact he could see the boy's hands, and the sheet was sideways so the pikes weren't facing the same direction. Also, hiding under a sheet on the ground didn't help either. Naruto just laughed.
"Alright, you can come out now kid. It's so obvious it's pathetic." he called out, watching Konohamaru lower the camo sheet with a smirk.
"Hmm, saw right through my disguise huh? The rumors about you are true. You're good."
If it weren't for the fact Naruto needed to go see Ben and Azmuth to start his training with the Omnitrix, he might have been amused by this little shenanigan the Hokage's grandson was pulling. "Alright, I'll be your apprentice and you'll be my trainer."
"This is a joke, isn't it?" Naruto asked, crossing his arms, hiding the Omnitrix underneath his sleeve.
"No! I need a new trainer. Please boss?"
"Boss?"
"Yeah, you're the boss!"
It was clear to him that the kid wasn't going to just walk away, and if he wouldn't listen to that snobby Ebisu, then maybe he'd take it from someone closer to his age. "Come on, let's go talk real quick."
He took Konohamaru to one of the training grounds that were empty and cleared his throat. "Why do you want to be the Hokage?"
"So, so people will see me as Konohamaru and not just the honorable grandson. My grandfather named me that after the village so it should be easy to remember, but..." he paused. "It's always 'Honorable Grandson.' Nobody sees me as Konohamaru."
Naruto just smiled. "So I'm nobody huh?"
"Huh?" Konohamaru replied, confused.
"Nobody sees you as Konohamaru right? Well, I see you as that. A proud member of the Leaf village, and when the day comes, a great ninja." he explained, putting his hand on the boy's shoulder.
He could see the boy sniffle as he held back tears of happiness. "Look, I'll just tell you right now you're not gonna become Hokage just by wanting it. You have to work to earn that right." This caused Konohamaru to look up angrily at him.
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
"The Hokage is supposed to be the strongest in the entire village, right? You say that by beating your grandfather that you'll just become the Fifth Hokage. You're telling me that right now there is nobody in this village that can beat you in a fight. That if every single ninja in this village teamed up against you that you could beat them on your own?"
"No, I just figured that if I could beat Gramps," he began, but his train of thought broke as he realized he probably couldn't even beat his teacher Ebisu.
"Listen, you can still become Hokage," Naruto explained, earning a spark of hope in the boy's eyes. "If you really want to become Hokage, it's gonna be a hard path. One that's full of blood, sweat, and tears. It means you'll have to become strong, get people to believe in you. Believe it," Naruto chuckled as he heard the fox groan in his head. That's right you grouchy fox, I said it! BITE ME!
I'll do it when you free me from this cage!
"I'm talking about this from a place of experience, alright? For as long as I can remember, people have ignored me, mistreated me, looked at me like I was the plague or something. I had to work to get anybody to believe in me. I've messed up along the way. I mean, I'm still just a kid. There's still a long ways to go before I could ever hope to achieve my dream. I know what it's like to want to be respected and seen for who you truly are. I do, but it's not as simple as beating your grandpa."
"Then what do I do?"
"You need to work for it. Study hard, work to gain people's trust. Become a ninja, practice your skills. For example, you need to have good chakra control, and for that you gotta practice. You could try to climb trees with only your chakra and feet while walking straight up the trunk of it."
Konohamaru mumbled something about it being impossible, which made Naruto laugh. "It's not impossible. Jonin, like your teacher Ebisu, he can do it. I'm still working on it myself. If there's anything I can tell you about becoming Hokage, it's that there's one thing you'll have to do. You'll have to beat me."
"Hmmph." Konohamaru scoffed at him as he straightened his back. "You know what, I'm not gonna be your apprentice. If you want to be Hokage, that means you're in my way. From this point forth we'll be rivals."
"Okay. I'll be waiting for that day when you're ready, and we'll find out which one of us will become Hokage. But first... I need to teach you something to embarrass Ebisu and get him off your back for a while."
Konohamaru had heard about Naruto having a special jutsu, and when Naruto told him about the 'Sexy Jutsu' he knew that he had to learn it. "When can you teach me it?"
"I can't do it right now. I've got somewhere to be. How about we meet here tomorrow at four o'clock? I'll be free around then."
Konohamaru's eyes burned with determination as Naruto began to leave. "See you then, Konohamaru."
"Just you wait, boss."
It pleased Hiruzen to see the development Naruto had gone through in the last few months, even the past few days. Whatever had gotten into Naruto's system was working wonders. He remembered back when Naruto didn't pay attention to class, rudely spoke to any adult that spoke to him, and ran around causing so much trouble. To see Naruto show restraint against Konohamaru was a promising sight, but not only that. His actions with Mizuki was what truly caught Hiruzen's eyes. It took seeing Mizuki's desire for the forbidden scroll to realize the importance of someone taking Ben's mantle as the user of the Omnitrix. He had watched through his crystal ball and watched Naruto and Konohamaru's talk, and couldn't help but smile at the sight.
"He's on the path to finally becoming a true ninja... and whatever else he might need to become."
Naruto met Ben where they had agreed on, the training ground Naruto had been at all yesterday. Azmuth was there too, eagerly awaiting this moment.
"Hey!" Naruto greeted, gaining a wave from the Galvan. "Sorry if I'm late. Had to deal with something."
"Actually, it's totally alright. Like I told you, Azmuth and I had to work out a last minute issue that popped up," Ben assured him. "So, you excited?"
"You bet I am! I've been waiting all day to get started!" Naruto jumped out of excitement, earning looks of amusement from the two.
"Alright. Ben, I'll let you take this for now," Azmuth called out to his assistant, as the Galvan sat down on the log he was near.
Ben walked over to Naruto and pointed at his wrist. "Okay, kiddo. Go ahead and tap the face plate on the Omnitrix."
Naruto did as he was told, tapping the face plate, and watched as it lit up and a hologram of an alien appeared on top of the screen. "This is just one of the forms you have available. As of the moment you have ten to choose from, but as time goes on you'll have more unlocked. Go ahead and swipe in either direction and when you find one you want to use, push down on the screen and see what happens."
He scrolled through the options, until he found one that looked interesting and pushed down on the face plate. The watch emitted a green flash of light, engulfing Naruto's body. His body became stiff and hard, as his skin shifted, forming into rocks. Naruto's entire body became warm, and was increasing rapidly. His head burst into flames and Naruto held his arms out as the light dissipated. Where Naruto had been standing a moment ago, now stood a tall fiery humanoid with red stones making up his body, with fire surrounding his head, with the symbol of the Omnitrix visible on the center of his chest.
"Whoa..." Naruto chuckled, right before he realized his voice sounds different. "Hey, what's with my voice, Ben?" Then as he looked at his hands, he nearly started panicking. "I'M ON FIRE! Wait, but it doesn't hurt?"
"Well, isn't it ironic that you turned into my first alien? Naruto, you just transformed into an alien I like to call Heatblast."
"Heatblast?" Naruto asked.
"I have a knack for naming my alien forms." Ben shrugged, as Heatblast just looked at himself in awe.
"The name of these aliens are Pyronites. They reside on a star where the temperature's heat is on par with the sun."
"Uh, maybe don't try to go into the water with this form, okay? It'll weaken you enough to where an enemy could get the advantage and kill you."
"Alright," Heatblast nodded. "What can this guy do?"
"They can manipulate fire. Pyrokinesis is the technical term." Ben explained.
"Like how some ninjas use fire jutsu? Cool."
"Yeah. It's pretty cool until you almost burn down a forest on accident." Ben explained, his face turning red out of embarrassment.
"Wait... this is the alien that did that?!" Heatblast laughed. "I can see why though. How can I use my powers?"
"Alright. Concentrate and let the heat build up in your hands, like it's a breath. Draw in the air around you and when it's ready, release it."
Heatblast turned to face a post near the stream and aimed his hand forward. He felt his hand start to form a ball of fire, and when it was big enough, he launched it forward and charred the post. "Sweeettttt... I can get used to this!"
"Yeah, that's not all Heatblast has up his sleeve. You'll learn his secrets in time. Using Heatblast, you should be able to create enough heat and force to make yourself float off the ground."
"WHAT?! THAT'S AWESOME!" Heatblast pumped his fist, before a fireball shot into the sky. "Uh, oops... I got a little excited."
Ben's face became pale and Azmuth facepalmed. Did... did Naruto really just make that kind of joke?!
Clapping his hands together, Ben motioned at more posts nearby that they could use. "Hehe, alright. How about you just practice with shooting your fireballs first before we try to have you hover?"
The Pyronite nodded and worked on his aim, while Azmuth and Ben just exchanged looks with each other.
Earlier...
"What's the situation, Azmuth?" Ben asked as he entered Azmuth's mobile lab on the ship. The Galvan looked unusually serious, and that was saying a lot in its own right.
"Something came to my attention when I woke up this morning. It's been how many years since the Omnitrix has been used?"
"Five years. Why?"
"For five years the Omnitrix has been out of the equation and many believe it to have been destroyed. As you know, the Omnitrix, it has a unique signal and energy source. Being dormant for so long, reactivating it might draw in unwanted attention." Azmuth explained, and it dawned on Ben what he might be worried about.
"I don't think Vilgax is gonna come running for the Omnitrix. Last time we saw him he was locked deep in the Null Void with only one arm."
"Yes, but he still has his followers. If they find out, we may have to expect some unwelcome visitors."
"We already activated it, right? When it bonded to Naruto's DNA?"
"It's not activated yet. When Naruto uses his first alien, that's when we will have to worry."
Ben gulped, unsure of what might come after the Omnitrix if it caught wind of its return.
The symbol on Heatblast's chest started flashing red, and as one last fireball was shot, a red light engulfed his body and just like that Naruto was standing in his place.
"Hey, what happened? I was just getting the hang of it." Naruto pouted lightly.
"It's the timeout. The Omnitrix has a timer on it, so you don't stay as an alien too long. Because you have the DNA of an alien species in the watch, there's a possibility of the species' traits taking over until the alien personality consumes you. That's just a precaution."
"Oh, okay. That's scary."
Naruto looked at the watch, seeing the face plate was colored red. However, his attention was taken away as he felt a shift in the air and he looked up, not seeing anything.
"What is it?" Ben asked, seeing the perturbed expression on the blond's face.
"I don't know, just... something doesn't feel right. You don't feel that?"
Azmuth glanced at Ben and wondered if Naruto's ability to use Chakra had any connection to this sensation that was washing over him. What could Naruto have been sensing?
Just outside Earth's atmosphere, hovering above the planet was a large metallic pod making its way towards the surface. "The Omnitrix's energy signal is back online. Tennyson cannot be allowed to wield its power anymore. He can't put a hamper on our plans any longer." a voice came over a radio as the pod hissed and went shooting into the planet's atmosphere.
Naruto looked at the watch and swiped at the screen as it flashed green again. "Oh, better mention this before it becomes a problem." Azmuth jumped up. "Naruto, do not push down on the screen hard. It could cause you to turn into an alien you may not want to use."
Be careful, got it.
Just as Naruto went to press down on the screen, a loud explosion could be heard in the distance, and the three looked towards the source, to see a large object falling out of the sky at them.
"Crap." Ben clenched his fists. "Naruto! Wanna know what that situation was earlier today? This is it!"
Naruto didn't need to know what it was, as he clenched his fists and watched the object land in front of them. The object hissed and opened up revealing a large robot with bulbous red eyes glowing, as it scanned the environment. Its eyes fell upon Ben, scanning him. It recognized him but didn't see the Omnitrix. When it moved to Naruto, it caught the Omnitrix's energy signal and locked onto him.
"Oh it don't look happy to see me," Naruto gulped as the machine stepped forward towards him.
"Hey Naruto. Remember what I told you my signature catchphrase was when it was time to use the Omnitrix?"
Naruto turned to face him, and then smiled as he looked back at the robot, before pulling his sleeve back and chose Heatblast. "Oh yeah. It's Hero Time!"
Alright. There's the chapter guys. Sorry to end it on a cliffhanger but I couldn't resist. I chose Heatblast as his first alien because it was just honestly a classic. If there was any way to start Naruto's story as the next wielder it deserved to include Heatblast. Also, he turned into him again at the end because it was the only one he had trained with at all.
The next chapter will be up soon, and it'll be an action-packed one! So, make sure you guys are ready!