Ugh, 2020 sucked, and 2021 has been busy at work for me on top of having to move. I'm glad I managed to get this out before it was a year between updates, hopefully the next chapter will be out quicker.
"We're just lucky that Bowsette-Sama gave us a supply of those double cherries so you could get this done," Naruto said to his sister as she held an icepack to the sites where Toto-sai had just yanked out two of her fangs.
"It only took one fang for Nenshousaiga; why did he need two for me?" Naruko groaned as Hinata sent healing chakra into the fox girl's gums.
"Because I had Kyūbi's fang as a base for Nenshousaiga, but her fire yōki is not compatible with your ice yōki," the smith yokai said as he tapped at the fangs to get a feel for them. "In the long run, this is good for you since you'll be relying on your own power instead of your mother's."
"Meaning, eventually, I'll need my own original sword made from just my fang?" Naruto asked, getting a nod from Toto-sai. "Oh joy!"
"Just track down the version of me dwelling in your time; he'll probably complain but knowing your mother she probably paid him already for a second sword for when you outgrew Nenshousaiga," the smith said as he started making sketches for Naruko's possible weapons.
(0o0o0)
"A pair of daggers?" Naruko asked as she examined the weapons Toto-sai had for her a few days later. The two daggers had blades of white metal with blue hits that were adorned with a silver snowflake and seemed to radiate cold.
"Yes, Tsuraraken (Icicle Fangs)," said the smith. "Small light weapons that will serve you well offensively and defensively. Your body is built more for flexibility and speed than Naruto, so giving you a giant ice blade would be counterproductive to you developing yourself separately from Naruto. Quick strikes with two small blades will make it easier to defeat enemies quickly as the cold saps their energy and makes it hard for them to move."
"I guess that makes sense," Naruko said with a sigh, picking up the two weapons. She frowned as her fingers felt a small depression on the center of the cross guard just big enough for her thumb. "What's with this depression?"
Toto-sai grinned as he waved his hand. "Channel yōki and chakra into it," he instructed. Naruko's eyes narrowed before following his instruction. Her eyes widened as the cross-guard snowflake's branches grew out, forming four long spikes on either side of the dagger. Blue chakra and yōki sprung up between the blade and spikes, leaving Naruko holding a blue and white hand fans. Naruko stared in surprise for a moment before grinning and stopping the flow of chakra, causing the fans to revert back into daggers.
"Sneaky, I like it," she said before flowing just chakra into the daggers, grinning at the large wind blade that formed. "Okay, let's see how this work," she exclaimed before launching into a basic dagger kata Ranma had made Naruto learn for close range combat in small enclosed areas.
Naruko went through the kata and several other basic two kunai forms the Academy taught their students for defense. Finally coming to a stop, she grinned. "I like them, they feel like extensions of me," she said before smirking at Naruto. "Up for a spar, brother?" Naruto's answering grin had Toto-sai rolling his eyes and shooing them out of his cave.
(0o0o0)
"Well, I think I've got the hang of this," said Naruko as she relaxed from her combat stance. Naruto mimicked her, staring around the feudal era clearing they'd been using to spar. Scorch marks and clusters of ice showed where elemental attacks had missed their targets and a few nicks on the twins' clothes showed where weapons had almost scored hits.
"Good, I'm hungry," said Naruto before both their stomachs growled, causing them to laugh as they started tree hopping towards the Bone Eater's well to get back to modern Japan.
(0o0o0)
"Why do I smell blood?" Naruto asked as the twins approached Kitsune-sou. Speeding up, they skidded through the front gate to see Hinata tending to Kei and Yuri with the help of Yuna and Rikku. The oni sisters were covered in burns that both kitsune recognized as from a highly charged ofuda or other blessed items.
"We were ambushed when walking home with Kimi-chan from school," said Kei as soon as she saw the other set of twins. "They had baseball bats wrapped with ofuda, super soakers filled with holy water, and airsoft guns filled with soybean bullets."
"But having a friendly miko to help us means we'll be good to go in less than an hour," said Yuri as Hinata nodded in agreement.
"Then the Usubi family has just an hour to think they've won," said Naruto before taking the phone from Hoshika as the housekeeper brought it to him. "Taro-Sama? Your granddaughter's guards are here with me and just filled me in. I can guarantee you that two hours from now the Usubi will be wishing they never came to Nerima."
(0o0o0)
The guards at the gate of the Usubi compound were on guard for almost anything besides a giant toad landing in front of them and lashing out to send them crashing into the wall. The gate was similarly taken out, allowing Naruto, Naruko, Hinata, Kei, and Yuri to charge into the compound, the yakuza grunts in their way caught off guard and sent flying into walls or one another.
Each pair of twins stuck together, Hinata already having her Byakugan active and slipping through the chaos to find Kimi while the kitsune and oni provided a very visible distraction.
(0o0o0)
Hinata smirked as she saw two guards not responding to the fighting going on outside the compound besides nervous glances around them and crawled along the ceiling above them before dropping and taking each out with a neck chop. Opening the door, they had been guarding, Hinata smiled as she saw Kimi sulking in a chair. "Hello Kimi-chan, ready to go home?" she asked the girl.
"Are Kei and Yuri okay?" the girl demanded.
"Yes, I was able to purge the energy from them and they started healing immediately," Hinata said. Putting her fingers to her lips, she let out a loud whistle.
(0o0o0)
Naruto and Naruko's ears both twitched as they each heard a piercing whistle from inside the compound. "Hinata-chan has Kimi, let's give her an exit!" Naruto yelled. Kei, Yuri, and Naruko all nodded, leaving their individual piles of groaning bodies and focusing on the main gate of the compound where about a dozen thugs that barely rated Chūnin to Naruto and Naruko stood guard. The thugs all had mass produced katana with ofuda on the sides of the blade, meaning none of the four were looking forward to getting cut. But the thugs were just as nervous, their arms and knees visibly shaking as the two sets of twins turned their attention to the men. They'd just seen the two kitsune and oni reduce a hundred men to piles of groaning bodies and those four were now focusing on them.
"Let's start with a classic," said Naruko as she flipped through hand signs and mist filled the courtyard of the building formed from the water left behind as fire and ice techniques were used in close quarters. "Suiton: Kirigakure no Jutsu!"
The Yakuza thugs could only gape as a thick fog sprung up and the four-ninja faded away from view.
"Eight targets," Naruko and Naruto's voices echoed through the mist. "Liver, lungs, spine, clavicle vein, brain, kidneys, or heart, which one should we go for?" The thugs flinched visibly as Naruto and Naruko released killing intent at them through the mist. The smell of sudden unexpected bowel and bladder release from the killing intent were enough to guide Kei and Yuri through the mist, allowing the four ninja to knock out the thugs one by one until the last one standing threw down his blade and ran screaming through the mist towards the compound entrance, only to smack into an ice pillar left behind by one of Naruko or Kei's attacks and knock himself out.
"Damn, that was creepy," said Kei as the mist faded away.
"Yeah, it was one of the first jutsu an enemy used on me and it left a lasting impression," Naruto said. "Best of all, the high chakra requirement means I was able to pump tons of chakra into it without worrying about control, then work on control over time."
"It's even easier for me since I have water as my primary affinity instead of fire," Naruko said as she casually grabbed a thug trying to attack them and slammed his head into a wall.
Kei nodded as she casually twirled her kanabō, sending two more goons tumbling down the hall. "Maybe you could teach me the basics of the technique?"
Naruto easily parried a charging thug's sword with Nenshousaiga and then sliced the blade to pieces before kicking the man down a hall to knock three others off their feet. "Probably, but the main problem is having a good understanding of how to make the mist and move in it since you're blind as well unless you have a Byakugan like Hinata-chan."
"You aren't exactly the stealthiest, sis," Yuri teased as she finished pinning four thugs to a wall with fire arrows. "At least I snipe foes from a distance while you're drawing all the attention."
"Hmph, at least I'm not afraid to use my strength!" Kei exclaimed while grabbing a thug and suplexing him into the floor.
"Strength is good, but all the strength isn't any good if you can't hit your target because you're slow," Naruto drawled as he wove around a series of punches from a thug before delivering a single punch to the man's stomach to knock him out. "Sarutobi-jiji had a saying,: 'If you lack heaven, seek wisdom, be prepared. Gain knowledge and prepare yourself for the missions. If you lack earth, run in the fields, seek advantages. And if you have both heaven and earth you can succeed in even the most dangerous mission. These rules will guide a person's extremes.'"
"And translated from fortune cookie speak that means?" Yuri asked as she caught a katana blade in her hand and melted it, sending the thug who had attacked her running away screaming in terror.
"Heaven means wisdom, earth means strength," said Naruko before sending a wave of ice across the floor of a hallway, causing the yakuza charging towards the group to slip and fall, slamming into an ice wall she raised to keep them contained. "You have to have both brains and brawn to be a good Chūnin."
"Makes sense to me," Kei mused, her kanabō smashing through a barrier of tables a group of thugs had tried to use to form a defensive position.
(0o0o0)
Hinata hummed as she lead Kimi through the inner part of the building, finding their way mostly unobstructed thanks to the ruckus outside. The few thugs they ran into were easily dealt with by Hinata, leaving a trail of groaning bodies behind them as well as a few that made inappropriate comments about Kimi and got to experience a Jūken kick to the crotch and then slammed through a wall by Hinata. The Hyūga heiress hid a scowl from the girl as her eyes saw several underground holding cells with people inside that would need to be evacuated after she got Kimi back to Kei and Yuri for evacuation. Her eyes suddenly spotted a large yōki signature moving towards them. "Kimi-chan, stay behind me and hold onto this," Hinata ordered as she handed Kimi an ofuda that formed a barrier around the younger girl. Kimi stepped back as a white-haired woman rounded the corner and stared at them. Hinata could see the aura of a much taller and older- looking oni woman and braced herself for a fight at the barely restrained bloodlust the woman was emitting.
"I thought it odd that nobody seemed to be coming from the inner building, it appears you've been a naughty girl," the woman said with a smirk. She was dressed in biker leathers and twirled a chain in one hand. The other hand held a kama in a casual but firm grip. "I'm going to enjoy breaking you in before putting you up for sale!"
Hinata said nothing, simply letting her miko power mix with her chakra, a mix of blue chakra scalpels and miko energy forming around her hands. "Try it, hag," she taunted.
"You should respect your elders, brat," the Oni woman growled.
"And I do, but as far as I know, you're just an old rotten hag someone should have exorcised a long time ago!" Hinata taunted.
"Tell me, child, does the name Ibaraki Dōji mean anything to you?" the woman asked.
"You mean the yōkai that couldn't decide their gender and got their arm chopped off by a simple samurai?" Hinata answered, though she had a bad feeling where the line of questioning was going.
Reverting to full Oni form, the woman gave Hinata a fanged grin as her kama and chain morphed into a kusari-gama with a weight on the chain the same size as Hinata's head while the sickle blade looked more like a dragon fang attached to a long pole. "That's me," she growled. "The queen of the Oni!"
"And I'm the Grand High Poobah of Timbuctoo," Hinata retorted, causing Kimi to let out a snort of laughter. "You are not the scariest thing I've faced in my life." After seeing Orochimaru in action, the boogeymen of her childhood had lost the ability to scare Hinata.
"Cheeky brat!" hissed Ibaraki.
"Are you going to talk me to death?" Hinata asked before tilting her head to the side to avoid a strike from the kusari-gama's weight. Ibaraki's eyes widened as Hinata's hand snapped up to grab the chain in the mouth of one of her chakra lionheads and yanked the Oni queen towards her. "For the Queen of the Oni you're pretty weak if a young girl like me can yank you around," Hinata teased. "Kimi, duck! Hakkeshō Kaiten!" Ibaraki's feet left the ground as Hinata activated her family's ultimate defense and reeled the oni queen in like a fish on a hook before slamming the oni through several walls as Kimi threw herself flat on the ground. Dust and smoke filled the corridor and Hinata stared down the chain where Ibaraki was concealed by dust and darkness.
"Foolish girl," hissed Ibaraki. "Let's see how you like this!" dark lightning shot up the chain faster than Hinata could untangle and drop it, causing her to scream in pain as her nerves felt like they were on fire. The only reason she didn't take more damage was reinforcing her body with her miko energy as if she was going to perform another Hakkeshō Kaiten.
(0o0o0)
Naruto and Naruko's ears all suddenly went stiff before both of the twins dropped to all fours with a cry of "Hinata-chan!" and charging off through the hallways as a gold and silver blur.
"If she's fighting, she found Kimi-chan!" Kei growled, slamming the last thug in her way into a wall before charging along behind the kitsune twins, easily able to follow their path due to the run over yakuza thugs that had been in Naruto and Naruko's way.
(0o0o0)
Hinata gritted her teeth to keep in the whimper of pain in that was trying to escape past her lips as Ibaraki's lightning assault ended, leaving smoke rising from Hinata's body and tears from Kimi's eyes as she saw the places where Hinata's jacket had burned away from the lightning.
"Hmmm, most humans get nice and crispy when I use that attack, you're tough if nothing else, girlie," said the Oni Queen.
"Most people you face haven't endured the training I have," Hinata growled.
"I'll admit, you're much tougher than larger and older humans I've dealt with," Ibaraki conceded. "But I'm still going to break you."
Any further banter was cut off as a blur shot past Ibaraki's face, severing a few strands of her hair and digging into the wall with a thud. The Oni queen's head whipped around to see a quivering kunai buried in the wall while Hinata was now smirking and looking behind the oni. Ibaraki spun back just in time to hear a "BLAZING/FREEZING DYNAMIC ENTRY!" before Naruto's left foot engulfed in flames and Naruko's right foot engulfed in freezing cold wind both slammed into her face and sent her crashing through the wall.
"You two, okay?" the twins chorused as they landed on their feet, keeping their eyes on the hole in the wall.
"She's Ibaraki Dōji, Queen of the Oni," Hinata said. "I don't think that was enough to take her down!" Hinata's warning was true as a wave of fear and killing intent slammed into the three shinobi, causing Naruto and Naruko's tails to stiffen.
"I've always wanted a kitsune tail scarf," Ibaraki growled as she stepped back through the hole in the wall, now looking slightly bruised.
"Why did the two of you leave us behind?" Kei demanded as she skidded around the corner only to freeze at the sight of Ibaraki, causing Yuri to crash into her sister. "Ibaraki-Sama?" the red-haired oni girl squeaked out.
"What are you two brats doing here?" Ibaraki asked, her eyes locked onto Kei and Yuri, who were both trembling.
Yuri took a deep breath before answering, "We're the assigned bodyguards for Kimi-chan and these three helped us recover and come after her as soon as possible."
"An impressive devotion to your duty," Ibaraki said. "But give me a reason I shouldn't break all four of your girls and sell you off to the highest bidder?"
"I can give you two," said Kei. "One, you'll piss off Chiyo-sensei and she'll be sending hit squads after you until one of you kills the other. Two, you owe our mom a debt and she gave us authority to cash it in if we had to. So, you're going to let us take Kimi-chan out of here and back to her family."
Ibaraki's eyes narrowed before she nodded. "Very well, the two of you can take the girl and leave without me pursuing you. But just the two of you!" Naruto, Naruko, and Hinata didn't miss the cruel smirk that the oni queen sent their way.
"Get her out of here," the three Konoha shinobi said at the same time. Kei grimaced but scooped up Kimi in her arms and ran with Yuri keeping a fire arrow drawn and ready to cover her sister.
"And now it's just the three of you to deal with," Ibaraki hissed as she smirked at the twins and Hinata.
"Bro, I think she's underestimating us," Naruko said, her daggers sliding out of forearm holsters and into her hands.
"I think you're right, sis," Naruto agreed, his hands closing on Nenshousaiga's hilt. His eyes narrowed before there was a light chime in the air as the guard of the katana struck the sheath, causing a vein to throb on Ibaraki's forehead.
"You little punk, you're challenging me? The queen of all Oni?" she hissed.
"I've faced several of the Bijū; you've got nothing on them," Naruto said as he took a step forward and blurred forward in a Shunshin. Ibaraki's kama snapped up as she parried an upwards iaijutsu strike from Naruto, then she slammed the weighted end of the chain to the side to make Naruko leap back from her attempt at a flanking maneuver. A stomp on the ground sent a shockwave at Hinata, forcing the Hyūga girl to leap to the ceiling and halt the charge she'd been making to get inside the oni's range and deliver a Jūken strike. "I guess you're not just an old hag resting on your reputation," Naruto said as he landed back on his feet and held Nenshousaiga ready. "There's a working brain inside that head and good reflexes."
Ibaraki's teeth were clenched so hard sparks ground out between them and the Oni queen suddenly blurred forward to grab and ram Naruto through several walls and into the compound's courtyard, causing Kei, Yuri, and Kimi to spin around as they exited. Kei clearly wanted to leap to Naruto's aid, but the feeling of Kimi tightening her grip on the ice oni was enough to help Kei keep her cool and keep moving. "Alright little fox, I'm going to flay you alive then roast you!" Ibaraki hissed as she grew to three stories tall and raised Naruto up to the level of her eyes while holding him in her fist. Her scythe had now become a simple kama, though the blade was at least six feet long and had dried blood encrusted on it.
Naruto coughed some debris from the wall out of his mouth and glared up at the oni. "Lady, that felt like a love tap compared to some of the stuff I've endured! The Breaking Point training was worse!"
Ibaraki's eyes widened as Naruto pushed her fingers apart, leaving him standing on the palm of her hand. "Your yōkai parent was certainly strong to gift you with such strength, but it will only take you so far," hissed the oni queen.
"I may get my raw strength from my mom, but my dad was the one who taught me how to keep on getting up and never give up," snarled Naruto. "I'm sick of all you old time yōkai who keep looking down on hanyō like me!" Naruto knew that the only reason he had survived most of his encounters was his enemies just viewing him as a weak half breed and having no knowledge of how his jutsu and ninja skills worked. Otherwise, they would have crushed him as easily as Jiraiya or Tsunade could. They had also tended to rest on their reputation for past deeds, not growing stronger or training over time.
A surge of ice as a glacier erupted around Ibaraki's right foot and engulfed her leg up to her knee marked Naruko's rejoining the fight, the silver kitsune sprinting up the ice as easily as she walked on the ground. Ibaraki's free hand swung down with her giant kama, managing to slash the fox girl in two, only to see Naruko erupt in a small glacier that trapped the giant weapon. The real Naruko and Hinata leapt out of the opening in the wall each holding the end of a thick chain that they used to jerk Ibaraki's free foot out from under her by running on either side and snagging her ankle. Caught off balance, the giant oni released her trapped kama to stabilize herself, only to get a giant ball of flashbang tags tossed right in her eyes by Naruto. Screaming in pain as the tags detonated, Ibaraki instinctively grabbed at her eyes and sent herself toppling backwards onto her back. Naruko immediately sent more ice to lock her left leg down while Hinata leapt clear, seeing Naruto ride the giant oni queen down as he clung to her hair with his feet planted on her forehead as she hit the ground on her back, the thud of her landing a mini earthquake.
"Try to seal her arms, Hinata-chan!" Naruto yelled, tossing several sealing tags to his girlfriend. Hinata easily snatched the tags out of the air and empowered them with her miko chakra before starting to run along Ibaraki's right arm and smacking the tags on the various points her Byakugan saw yōki gathering. "Sis, keep her legs locked down!"
"I can only get one arm!" Hinata yelled as she ran out of ofuda.
Ibaraki roared in outrage and swung her left arm to swat any of her tormentors and Naruto was forced to leap into the air to avoid the giant fist. His eyes widened as Ibaraki's tongue shot out and grabbed him, wrapping around him in a steel- like grip and yanking him towards her suddenly enlarged mouth, clearly intending to eat him.
"Oh no you don't! Hyōton imitation: Aisusō (Ice Style Imitation: Ice Saw)!" yelled Naruko as a giant snowflake shuriken formed above each of her hands before being launched forward as giant buzzsaws that would have sheared through Ibaraki's tongue if they'd been launched a few seconds earlier.
Naruko and Hinata's eyes were wide as Ibaraki's mouth closed, a visible bulge in her throat as she swallowed Naruto. "Hmmm, tasty, been quite some time since I tasted kitsune," growled Ibaraki.
Naruko was fighting as hard as she could to keep from going berserk as her yōki howled for vengeance. Nothing however was holding Hinata back as she leapt up above Ibaraki. "Tsūtenkyaku (Heavenly Foot of Pain)!" hissed Hinata as she brought her heel down in a drop kick to Ibaraki's stomach and released all the chakra and miko energy she had focused through her foot. Ibaraki felt as if she had just been punched in the gut by someone of equal size to herself and couldn't keep from retching up the contents of her stomach and Naruto, who struggled to his hands and knees while covered in stomach acid.
Naruto gasped and shook himself like a dog before freezing as his eyes locked on a small skull lying on the ground between his hands. "That's a kid's skull," he growled, glaring up at Ibaraki, who was gasping for air.
"Yes, I only eat the most tender flesh," wheezed Ibaraki with a smirk before shattering the ice holding her down and rising back to her feet.
"Disgusting," growled Hinata as twin lion heads formed around her hands.
"I'll bind her, the two of you finish her," said Naruko as she focused her chakra. "Uzumaki Hijutsu: Hyō Kongō Fūsa (Uzumaki Hidden jutsu: Ice Adamantine Sealing Chains)!" Iicy blue chakra chains erupted from her back followed by more from her tails that wrapped around Ibaraki and yanked her to slam face down on the ground.
"Jūho Sōshiken (Gentle Step Twin Lion Fists)!" hissed Hinata as she blurred forward, the lion heads around her hands seeming to roar as she lashed out with each one aiming for one of Ibaraki's eyes. The oni queen screamed in pain as Hinata's chakra and miko energy ruptured the sensitive organs to leave her blind.
Ibaraki knew that with her current size she was a sitting duck with her eyes slow to heal and shrank down to normal human size, speeding up her regeneration. Her eyes recovered just in time for the world to spin as she looked up at her headless body collapsing to the ground to reveal Naruto behind it with Nenshousaiga in a strike position. "Hiraishingiri (Flying Thunder God Slash)!" said Naruto as he flicked his blade to remove Ibaraki's blood.
(0o0o0)
"Stay behind me Kimi," Kei said as she used her ice to create ice walls on either side of her and keep back the yakuza thugs wielding baseball bats wrapped with ofuda, super soakers filled with holy water, and airsoft guns filled with soybean bullets that had attacked the girls earlier to grab Kimi originally.
"This time we know their tricks and we won't let them grab you again!" Yuri nodded, leaping to the top of one of the ice walls and aiming fire arrows at the thugs. The three had been making their way outside the compound from the main courtyard when they literally bumped into the head of the Usubi family as his bodyguards and anti-Oni troop escorted him to safety. The head looked to be in his thirties and had the body of a typical salaryman.
"Eeeeheeeeheeeeheeeeheeeeheeee, now in addition to the brat we have two oni to put on the market!" the boss cheered.
"Only if you want to die," growled Yuri. "Even if you defeat us, we've already passed on the info of your organization and our comrades will rescue us!"
"We beat you two bitches once, we're going to do it again!" taunted the lead thug, only to look up as a whistling sound split the air. The thugs found themselves boxed in by giant four bladed shuriken as Naruko and Hinata landed on the ice walls holding shuriken and kunai.
"I think you might want to reconsider your position," Naruto said as he stepped out onto a roof holding Ibaraki's severed head by her hair where all the thugs could see it.
"Wha.. how did you kill Ibaraki-sama?" shrieked the Usubi patriarch from behind his screen of bodyguards.
"I cut off her head," Naruto said calmly before releasing his killing intent at the patriarch and his thugs. All the men saw a vision of a giant nine tailed fox towering over them and ready to feast on their flesh, causing them to pass out from fear as well as soil and wet their pants.
"Now for the fun part," said Naruko.
(0o0o0)
Taro strode through the halls of his family mansion and threw the front doors open to see Kimi, Kei, and Yuri climbing off of a toad the size of a car. Kimi saw him and she bolted to him, hugging him around the waist as he patted her back. "Grandpa, I was so worried they would make you give in to their demands!" she sobbed.
"It would have been worth it to get you back safely, Kimi-chan," said the yakuza patriarch. "I'm just glad your mother and father are on vacation right now; your mother would have stormed the place to get you back and caused a gang war."
"Mimi-Sama is scary when she gets mad," Kei and Yuri chorused together.
"Especially for a purely mortal woman with no yōkai ancestry and just a bit of spiritual power," Kei added.
"You might want to get Kimi-chan trained, we got it in with one of the local shrines," Yuri said.
"I'll definitely consider it," said Taro before glancing at Naruto as the fox boy dismissed his toad summons. "You have my thanks once again Naruto-kun, I'll have your payment delivered tomorrow…" he cut off as the squeal of tires heralded the arrival of a four-door sedan that pretty much drifted through the compound gate. "Dammit, Tatsu," he groaned while rubbing his nose.
The doors of the car both flew open at the same time, Naruko stumbling out of one to start retching into a nearby bush while out of the other stepped the captain of the Nerima Metropolitan Police, Tatsu Nobino, a look of fury on his face. "Taro, why didn't you tell me Kimi was kidnapped?" he demanded as he strode towards the Yakuza patriarch.
"Because I knew you would have tried to bring the entire JSDF down on the Usubi clan and Kimi might get hurt in the confusion," said Taro. "There's a reason your son and my daughter left Kimi in MY care instead of yours when they went on their anniversary trip."
"She's, my niece!" hissed Tatsu.
Taro rolled his eyes before tugging his son in law to a corner of the estate so they could talk, while Naruto went over to where Hinata was helping Naruko by holding the fox girl's hair out of her face. "We don't normally get carsick," Naruto said.
"We're either normally the ones in control of a vehicle or the driver is sane," muttered Naruko. "He kept driving like a mad man and I could do nothing except hang onto that little handle above the door convinced we were about to get killed. Having the ability to anticipate how you're going to die if the completely normal human driving makes a single mistake or reacts a second too slowly is NOT fun!"
"So never let a normal human drive like crazy while we're stuck as passengers, huh?" Naruto asked for clarification, getting a rapid nod from Naruko after she finally stopped heaving.
Hinata sighed as she used medical chakra to ease Naruko's nausea. "Well, once you calm down Naruko-chan we can head home," she said. "I'll set up an aromatic bath for you that will help you relax and sleep."
"Will you cuddle in the bath with me?" Naruko asked in a hopeful voice, only to yelp as Hinata flicked her forehead.
"No, you need to recover," said the pale eyed girl while Naruto snickered.
"Don't worry, sis, I'm sure Hinata-chan will cuddle with you some other time," Naruto said.
Hinata let out a huff. "I can't help it if the two of you make the best fluffy blankets around," she muttered with a blush on her face.
(0o0o0)
"This is the third time I've caught you staring blankly out the window Naruto, is something wrong?" Urd asked a few days later as she once again noticed Naruto's attention wandering during her chemistry lecture. "You normally have a better attention span than this, you didn't even react until I was talking directly to you!"
Naruto groaned and rubbed his head. "I'm sorry, Sensei, but there's a scent on the wind that has the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. Something big is coming and I just know it's going to be trouble."
Urd considered Naruto's reply before lightly smacking his head with the book she'd been reading from. "I know you can focus on multiple things better than that, so don't let me catch you so distracted again!"
Naruto grumbled as he rubbed his head but kept his focus on the lecture until his ears suddenly caught the sound of a high-speed projectile just as Urd moved in front of the window. Lunging out of his seat he tackled the dark-skinned teacher to the ground just before an arrow with a message tied to it shot through where her head had been a second before, causing the whole class to let out cries of shock and scramble to get out of their seats and cower on the ground. "Hinata, can you see the shooter?" Naruto demanded.
"I see a yōkai of some kind racing away on a motorcycle and they have a bow slung on their back!" Hinata replied. "No other hostiles in my range!" Naruto grunted and made his way to the arrow, removing the message and reading it while Hinata and the rest of Hotaru's students were clustering around a visibly shaking Urd.
"What dad level of craziness are you caught up in now Naruto?" Akira asked as Naruto's eye brow started twitching.
"Apparently my killing of Ibaraki Dōji has her son challenging me. It's a battle to the death in Aokigahara. The challenge letter will take me there at 7 tonight." The whole class froze for a second before a massive shout of confusion had everyone with sensitive hearing rolling on the ground in pain.
"A duel to the death in the forest of suicides? It sounds like the plot to a horror movie," Kasumi muttered. "And given what's happened in the last two years since you came to Tokyo Naruto, I'm almost sure he's going to sic all the ghosts of the people who committed suicide there on you!"
"I counter his ghosts with my clones," Naruto said. "I'm more worried about what kind of tricks he has planned by choosing the battlefield."
"Naruto, that arrow had enough yōki hatred packed into it that it would have hurt me severely," said Urd as she grabbed his arm. "That was a very powerful yōkai and they're out for blood, don't underestimate them!"
Naruto nodded, getting the message that even a goddess like Urd would have been injured by the hatred infused in the arrow. "Don't worry sensei, if they're challenging me like this, they have no idea of the full range of my abilities."
"Naruto, this is the Oni who became famous for his attempt at a sneak attack and you didn't notice that arrow until it almost hit me," Urd said in a cautious voice as the door slammed open revealing a panting Belldandy and Skuld who slumped with relief when they saw their sister was okay. "He probably has that forest rigged up with traps and allies for you."
"Yeah, I wouldn't put it past him, but I'm not letting a guy lurk around in the shadows taking pot shots at me," Naruto said before holding up the challenge letter which had a red demonic sigil pulsing on the bottom. "As soon as I touched this paper, I got a light paper cut and this sigil activated. Even if I destroy the paper, I'll still be warped to Aokigahara." Glancing at Hinata he shook his head as she started to open her mouth. "And I can't bring anyone with me, the sigil is one person only." Hinata froze for a moment before leaping up and running out of the room, a trail of tears visible in the air behind her. The rest of the girls glanced at one another before rushing after her.
"Maybe being so blunt that she couldn't come help you wasn't the most tactful way to phrase things," said Thyme, causing Naruto to groan and rub his forehead.
"Yeah, but if I hadn't told her immediately, she'd have been angry and sad. Ugh, I'm just going home to get ready, I need to go loaded for anything I can anticipate," the blonde said with a sigh as he headed to his locker before heading back to the Kitsune-su.
(0o0o0)
"Hold on a moment, Naruto!" Gosunkugi appeared at the school gate just as Naruto reached it. "This isn't just a kitsune thing like what you've been dealing with lately," he said. "Kidōmaru has been around for a long time and there have been several subjugation missions sent out against him. He survived all of them and has at least one tribe of namahage working for him. He's big, tough, and will eat almost anything without caring if it's alive or dead, but preferring the first."
"Yeah, and he's not above endangering others to get to me, so I have to take him down or die trying," said Naruto. "His next attempt if I run away instead of facing him could very well be a bomb or drive by shooting."
Gosunkugi rubbed his forehead before sighing. "Okay, at least let me give you some ofuda I made yesterday," he said as he handed Naruto the talismans.
"Thanks, sensei!" said Naruto before leaping over the roof tops.
(0o0o0)
"Hinata, you seem more worried than normal about Naruto going to this fight," Ryeka said as Kimiko, Cinnamon, Miyuki, and she found Hinata crying her eyes out in one of the girls' bathrooms. "You never seemed worried about him before, what's different about this time?"
"It's the timing," said Hinata as tears slipped out of her eyes. "Before, Naruto was lucky, but tonight he's going to be in a life-or-death fight at the worst possible time!"
"Worst possible time?" asked Miyuki in confusion as Kimiko stiffened.
"It's his human night, isn't it?" the inu hanyō girl guessed, causing Hinata to nod.
"We've been hiding it and faking it on various nights to keep anyone from guessing, but dumb luck is going to reveal it before he defeats all his cousins," said Hinata. "I have the utmost faith in Naruto-kun, but knowing he will lose a good portion of his strength with no back up makes it hard to keep the thought he might die out of my head."
"But this is Naruto, he almost always has a plan for bad encounters or a seal to give him an edge, surely he has something planned if he got attacked on this night before!" Cinnamon tried to reassure Hinata.
"Yes, and I helped him with it, but it's never been tested," said Hinata. "I'm worried my part will fail and Naruto-kun will die!" She found herself pulled into a group hug as the rest of the girls murmured comforting words.
"Look, go back to the house and stay with him, nobody will blame you for skipping the rest of the day," said Ryeka. "We'll tell the teachers where you went and why."
Hinata sniffled once again before nodding and hurrying out of the school with only a brief stop at her locker to grab her things.
(0o0o0)
"Kidōmaru... you're working your way through quite a few legendary yokai, Naruto," said Jiraiya as he watched Naruto work with several Hiraishin kunai to modify the seal matrix on them. "Add in your cousins, Danzaburo, and Ibaraki Dōji to the count, you've been punching quite high above your weight class as a seven tailed Hanyō kitsune. I think after we get home, I'm putting a bet on you making Jōnin within a year with your parents."
"You do realize that once he's back and goes on a mission where he uses the Hiraishin and Rasengan together he's going to get a ranking in the Bingo Book, right?" Rōshi countered as he idly read the daily paper. "Heck, he has one just from being Ken's kid! Onoki just didn't want the Kitsune Queen stomping through his village because Naruto got killed by an Iwa assassin so he specified Live Capture only so if someone did manage to kidnap Naruto Onoki could just hand him back."
"Hhuh, in the Bingo book since I was a baby... I guess I beat Itachi there," Naruto said after a moment of thought.
"That's not an achievement to be proud of," Jiraiya started to lecture his student before the door to the house opened to reveal Hinata. She had clearly been crying and her eyes still looked suspiciously damp as she glanced at Naruto before she ran up to her room. Jiraiya winced as he said, "Wow Naruto, I'd say broke her heart with that look she gave you, but she also had the look of someone seeing their partner going on an S class mission and knowing that might be the last time seeing them." Naruto flipped Jiraiya off as he leapt to his feet and hurried up the stairs.
"She can't go with him to watch his back and whenever he's off on his own for one of these fights he seems to get hurt more," Roshi countered. "He got lucky with Hanzo and Chiyo being decent and liking him, but this opponent is going for a kill."
(0o0o0)
Naruto took a deep breath before knocking on Hinata's door. He let out a yelp as the door opened only for Hinata to yank him in and grab onto him like she was afraid he was going to disappear. "Hey Hinata-hime," he said as he returned the hug.
"I'm scared," she muttered into his shoulder. "It's your human night and you're being transported there without me to help you and you can only count on Naruko and the toads as reinforcements!"
Naruto held tight to Hinata and she could feel his body trembling slightly. "Hey, I'm the guy who badmouthed Momochi Zabuza, Orochimaru, Uchiha Itachi, and Hoshigaki Kisame while living to tell the tale. I have fought an unleashed Shukaku, been in the middle of a Densetsu no Sannin summons battle, and an Orochi empowered Orochimaru. There is no way an arrogant oni and his tribe of namahage is going to take me out!" He pulled Hinata up, smiling down at her as she dried her tears.
"You better come back to me," Hinata growled before crushing her lips against Naruto's. The blonde's eyes widened as his ears and tails all stiffened before he found himself being pushed out the door which audibly locked as it closed.
"Well, THAT is certainly a great incentive to remain alive," Naruto muttered as he went back down stairs to continue preparing his supplies before suddenly freezing and turning to run back to Hinata's room, slamming her door open and causing her to spin around ready for an attack. "I've got an idea!" he said with his prankster smile on full force.
(0o0o0)
Naruto tried to relax as the clock said he had ten minutes until seven when he would be warped away to the duel and have an hour before the moon rose and robbed him of his hanyō blood. Hinata was still hiding in her room, while Jiraiya and Roshi were standing watch over Naruto but not saying anything as Naruto meditated, gathering Sage Chakra into his system. At five minutes to seven Naruto finally stoppeds and tookakes a deep breath, locking eyes with Jiraiya and the Sannin could see the hint of fear Naruto had's been hiding the whole afternoon. "Hey kid, you got this! You're Uzumaki Naruto and you always come out on top!" he said. Naruto blinked in surprise before grinning and giving Jiraiya a thumbs up just before he vanished in a burst of magic. "Don't make me a liar, kid," muttered the Toad Sage.
(0o0o0)
Naruto materialized and found he had a lovely view of Mt. Fuji. It took him a moment to realize he could see more of the mountain's surroundings thant he should at ground level. Looking down, Naruto grunted. "Now I know how that Coyote feels in those American cartoons Ryeka showed me," he muttered as he took in the Sea of Trees far below him and the lack of any support beneath him.
"I'll admit, this is pretty sneaky," Naruto said as gravity kicked in and he started to plummet towards the earth. "At least, if I didn't know a ton of Fūton jutsu." Naruto released several bursts of wind chakra from his body, momentarily halting his descent and allowing him to start forming hand seals as he aimed at the ground.
"Fūton: Daitoppa (Wind Style: Great Breakthrough) no Jutsu!" roared Naruto as he spat a high-pressure ball of wind towards the ground, knowing it would be a gentle breeze by the time it reached ground level but it would do the job of pushing him up a bit. Naruto's next trick relied on the fact he knew there was water in the air and had practiced using the water walking combined with wind chakra. With a cry of "Kūenbu (Air Waltz)!" Naruto started bouncing down the air as if he was moving between two buildings at ground level, small bursts of water and wind exploding in small shockwaves from beneath his feet each time he moved.
As Naruto reached the ground, he made a sudden upward burst to kill his downward velocity, flipped over, and landed in a three-point landing that kicked up a cloud of dust in the center of a forest clearing. Almost instantly, he could feel an energy field spring up around the forest and grimaced as he stood up and dusted himself off. "I'm going to have to remember that trick, could be useful to take someone up high with Hiraishin..." Naruto trailed off as a red dot moved along the ground and up his body to stop on his chest, more joining it until his body appeared to be glowing red all over. "Oh hell," was Naruto's last word before the sound of gunfire filled the air.
I usually don't go for cliffhangers, but this time you get one. Big thanks to me beta readers for catching some stuff near the end and getting me to make some changes.