~NRK~
The continuation of his challenges came the next day, Naruto finding himself back in his 'challenge clothes' as he liked to call them.
Back in the men's changing room, he chuckled as Abel spoke of his own Freezing ideas.
"So, like, i-if you can freeze the air, and walk on it, wouldn't that basically mean you can fly?" Came the carrot top's question of excitement.
"Well, yes, but freezing the air itself isn't possible," Eugene said but his eyes trailed to Naruto who chuckled. "Yes?"
"Well, I can't do it," Naruto said, getting a relieved sigh out of the second-year brunette. "That said, why not just bring a set of metal plates and throw them? That way, you could freeze them in the air and land on 'em?".
The older Limiters looked amazed by the idea.
"I-If we could," Eugene's mouth dropped in thought, swallowing at the possibilities. "Maybe even more than just some thrown objects! What if we froze debris and stopped ourselves from falling off of, say, a cliff?!"
"Now you're thinking with creativity, Eugene-senpai!" Naruto said with a grin before he got up, the blare of the speakers their cue to go. "Alright, let's win this thing!" He said with a pumped fist.
The group left the locker rooms, the non-fighters wearing their school uniforms.
"Freezing the debris," Eugene brought out a little notepad and wrote down the idea, the others chuckling. "It may be hard to do but, say if you focused your Freezing on a smaller area?"
"Actually, about that," Naruto said as they became the target of many stares. "I've noticed that it's way easier to use Freezing if it's a smaller area, ya know?"
"Yes, I've noticed as well," Eugene said with a nod. "It's fascinating how we've truly never explored our abilities. I'm honestly a bit embarrassed," he said with a nervous smile.
"Hey, better late than never, right?" Naruto asked as they made it to Chiffon, the third-year smiling at him. "Alright, Chiffon-senpai, I'm ready for just about anything."
"Then you'll want to know that, by the end of the week, you'll be facing some off the highest-ranked Pandoras of the third years," the boys, and their Pandora friends, stared at her. "Yup, Ingrid, the Rank 7th, Creo, the Rank 5th, and Arnette, the Rank 4th, they've all got slots for the entire days," Chiffon counted off from her phone. "Man, that's back-to-back days, Naruto-kun. That's gonna be rough for you. The only silver lining I can see is that Ingrid wants just you and Satellizer while Creo and Arnette want both of you along with your Limiters," she directed that last part at Satellizer and Rana.
"Hmm, I'm recognized-de arimasu," Rana said with a sagely nod as Naruto snorted.
"Hm, ya know, I'm honestly surprised Satellizer-senpai hasn't gotten a challenge yet," Naruto said as Kazuya nodded.
"Oh, she did," Satellizer blinked in confusion. "You don't check your mailbox, do you?"
"Hold on… Why the hell do they put my letters in front of my damn door?!"
"Naruto-kun, that's not important."
"It is to me!" Naruto huffed as Rana and the others giggled. "Ya know what? Fine, who the hell is up next?" He asked the crowd.
Two individuals came up to him and Naruto noted the inevitable had arrived, a Pandora with a large shield on her left arm, and a Limiter, had come.
"I expected this but not this early," Naruto said with a sweatdrop. "No time wasted, huh?"
"Non," came the guy behind the girl as the Pandora huffed. "We want your skillz, see?"
"If we should win," the Pandora said. "I want you to teach my Limiter some of these skills of yours."
Naruto blinked while he tilted his head. "Hold on… I would have done that regardless!" He shouted at her, getting a confused blink from those in the line. "H-Hold on, how many of you are trying to fight me for that?"
The entire line raised their hands.
"... hahahahaha!" Chiffon started laughing uncontrollably as Naruto chuckled nervously. "That's hilarious!"
"My God," Naruto facepalmed. "... Ya know what, since there's no fighting today, every Limiter who's looking to get some training in, step up!"
The group watched from the side as Limiter after Limiter came forward before Naruto took the assembled Limiters to a corner of the room.
"Hey, Chiffon-senpai!" Chiffon tilted her head. "You have like some sports balls we can work with?"
"Hmm, there should be some in the closets by you!"
"Thanks! Come on, men! We've gotta assess you, bastards!"
~NRK~
Sister Margaret raised a brow at this particular development.
'He seems far more open than I was ever expecting,' she thought.
Margaret had assumed that Naruto might want to hold onto his secrets for now but he seemed far more willing to help despite his current situation.
'A model Limiter,' she thought with a smile as Naruto retrieved his teaching implements. 'It'll be interesting to see this from the beginning.'
Surely, it'd be interesting to see his ideas of 'the basics'.
~NRK~
"Alright, so first things first, I want to test three things," Naruto began in front of his willing students. "How fast you can freeze one of these balls."
He bounced the volleyball onto the floor before freezing it just at face height.
"Your reaction speeds," he ticked off another finger. "And how far you can spread your Freezing fields. Once I have an idea of how well you guys are at that, we'll see where to begin with you."
Finding their own places in the crowd, Kazuya, Abel, Arthur, and Eugene paid attention.
"Now, we'll be doing the freeze test first," Naruto said as he gestured to the ball cart he'd taken from one of the large closets. "Take a ball, I don't care how big, and try and freeze them after they bounce once and before they go past your own height."
Many followed the instructions to a 'T', Kazuya and Arthur the last to pick up theirs after Eugene and Abel.
"Do it now!"
Many bounced the balls raised their hands out.
"FREEZING!" Came their collective calls and Naruto hummed at how quick some of them were.
Over half were good at locking the balls in place, for a bit, before they slowly fell out of their grasps while the others, who he assumed were Freshman in new pairs, barely did it for seconds and far above their heights.
"We'll keep practicing this for the next twenty minutes," Naruto ordered. "If you all want a better challenge, try and bounce it against the wall at yourselves!"
Things followed with much more ease than he'd been expecting.
"That was rather simple, Naruto-kun," Rana asked as she and the other Pandoras in his group came up to them. "Simple but effective-de arimasu."
"Yup, some people don't really get how simple some training can be," Naruto said with a shrug as Rana nodded. "I'm betting you're trying to get some training of your own in, huh?" He asked.
"Of course-de arimasu!"
"Well, I did just come up with an idea," Naruto said as he raised a hand to an empty area before an assortment of orange hexagons appeared in a circle that was twenty meters in diameter. "I want you to do kata in my Freezing field. Consider this an improved version of weight training but you're under way more stress."
"Yes-de arimasu!" Rana ran off to the girl's locker rooms.
"H-Hold on, like, the hyperbolic time chamber?" Came one Limiter's call of excitement as a good few of the others looked excited by the idea.
"Basically," Naruto said with a grin as Rana came back out in her sports ware. "Once you guys are further along, we can see if you all can't control how heavy your fields can get. Trust me, you can tonnes of stuff with just that. Chiffon-senpai would know."
"I do!" Chiffon said with a grin, encouraging the Limiters more. "Trust me, you could open a whole new door if you can master that."
"And even if you can't, I've got tonnes of other creative uses you guys can try," Naruto said with a grin. "Hell, after we've done the bare basics, we'll even try some of them out before you all leave."
"YES!"
Naruto snickered at the collective call, very happy with this arrangement.
"Hmm, this seems interesting-de arimasu," came Rana's words as she inched into the field before freezing as force came down on her foot. "O-Ow!"
"Take your time, Rana-chan!" Naruto called out before going over. "Come on, let me lighten up the intensity, you all can try if you want!" He told the Pandoras with little care.
Then he saw the tidal wave of girls and nervously laughed before holding out both of his hands and expanding the Freezing field.
"T-This seems m-manageable-de arimasu!" Rana called out as she stepped in before her body was pulled down. "D-Do kata!" She told herself before going through all the forms she knew very slowly.
~NRK~
Margaret was shocked to see Freezing used in this way.
'There's no doubt in my mind,' she realized with a grin. 'This boy is going to become a great man in the future.'
Even if it was only this much, this likely brought ideas to the student body.
Creativity had been lacking, it seemed!
~NRK~
Creo swallowed as she looked at the field, the urge to go over there held back by the barest of threads that were her pride.
Arnette didn't have such hesitation, rushing in before she jogged around the perimeter of the now fifty-meter, in diameter, circle of Freezing.
"T-This is tough!" She announced as she and a few of the other third-years jogged. "But I like it! Abebe! Hurry up so I can do this on my off time!"
Her blonde Limiter whose platinum blonde hair was wavy, and came over one blue eye, laughed nervously as he caught the ball he had just barely from his face, Eugene grinning at him.
"P-Please don't!" He squealed before being besieged by balls. "NOOOOOO!"
"Snrt!" Arnette snorted as Abebe ran from his fellow Limiters. 'This… This isn't so bad,' she'd come to realize.
She hadn't expected this little training thing to happen but it'd been interesting to see how open this Naruto guy was about teaching the Limiters.
When she thought about it, it only made sense, yeah? They had to be the best they were and life-or-death resided in their future.
She frowned at her thoughts.
Was she going to try and enforce punishment on him? Well, not punishment, per se, but she thought the rules might need enforcing.
With the time they'd had to think things out, Arnette had actually gone on and gotten the testimonies of the fight that started all this… And had cringed when she read what had been said.
And, from the rumors of Miyabi being on probation were true, that meant that, yes, she'd been about to… She'd been this close to a sexual assault charge and Arnette felt sick at the thought that she might be trying to enforce such a thing.
She frowned before she pushed her body further, the weight in the air giving her something to think on.
Well, one question she avoided.
Should she be enforcing rules that allowed such an event to almost take place?
Naruto blew a whistle he'd found on him, the Limiters stopping as he lowered the intensity of his Freezing field on the girls, one hand holding it up.
Walking over after he'd finished completing it, he nodded to the young men.
"Now! I want to test reaction speed!" He said as he went into the closet and rolled out a machine that got a few nervous chuckles out of his fellow Limiters. "Remember, no pain, no gain! Besides, they'll be softballs! I wouldn't do something crazy to you!"
With some assistance from Arthur and Abel, Naruto nodded as they got the machine loaded up.
"For a while now, I always wondered why we didn't have, like, perception training," Naruto said as he ushered the group of Limiters back from the machine by thirty yards. "I feel like, from what I've seen of videos about the Novas Crashes, those tentacle things are fast as hell. I think you all should work on your reflexes. Whether it's to dodge, block, or even freeze one of those attacks, this is probably the best training you could be doing, I think."
"Hmmm, I have to agree," came Garou's words of affirmation. "We have seen the videos in class but we've never really had reflex training, Mr. Uzumaki."
"Well, might as well now, yeah?" Many agreed with the spiky-haired one. "So, this thing has a few settings and I want you all to try and freeze three of the balls that come out. When we're done with the current person, the next guy's up and the former guy can bring the balls back around," the group nodded. "Alright, who's first?"
There was excited but nervous energy about the Limiter group.
Garou, Eugene, Abel, Abebe, Kazuya, and Arthur chuckled before stepping up.
"Yeah, I like you guys, real go-getters," Naruto joked. "Well, tall dude, I want you to go first, that cool?"
"Sure," Garou answered as he stepped up before Naruto moved forward and used some chalk to line the tatami mats. "I see, a difficulty for the difficulty?"
"Basically," Naruto nodded. "I don't want to set this thing any higher than 50 mph, I doubt, even as a softball, that'll feel nice," many nodded furiously at the consideration. "So, I figured giving you guys less time to react would be better… Maybe."
"It might reach the levels of above 50 mph if we get too close," Abebe noted with a nervous swallow as Eugene chuckled, the blonde taking several steps away from his dark blue-haired comrade. "Y-Yes, this is a good idea!" He said with an eye on Eugene's grinning visage.
Naruto chuckled. "Alright, do you guys want me to demonstrate, or are ya just trying to jump right in?"
Garou cupped his chin in thought. "... A demonstration never hurts," he said with a nod, moving out the way so Naruto could step up to the closest line.
"Anyone here ever work a baseball machine?"
A Limiter ran up to the machine, nodding to the blonde.
"Do it whenever-" Naruto said before his 'non-occupied' hand snapped out and a softball froze in the middle of the air. "Someone's trigger happy," he said to the guy behind the machine.
"I-It's been a while since I've used one of these things."
"Alright, two more," Naruto said as dropped the ball, the item bouncing against the floor harmlessly. "Bring it!"
The boy behind the machine let off two more in consecutive shots, Naruto stopping both before he turned to the Limiters behind him.
"You see-"
"Shit!"
Naruto raised a hand behind him and snatched the ball out of the air, face blank as the other Limiters balked. "Alright, who's next?"
Garou stepped up with assured steps, staying at the farthest line.
"Please be kind to me," he told the Limiter behind the machine who chuckled nervously. "Please."
"G-Gotchu, fam! Now, what does this button-"
"NARUTO!"
"Got it, got it," Naruto rushed over with a laugh along with many of the others.
Garou did well, getting to the second line on his third go with the barest amount of distance between his face and a ball.
"Very close," Eugene said with a grin and a clap as Garou held his chest in relief. "Come, who's next?"
Things progressed well enough, with most of the Limiters being able to catch the ball at the farthest line.
"Alright, I liked that," Naruto grinned. "That's a good line to go up from, ya know?"
"Agreed," Abel said with a hand on his chest, Kazuya laughing on the floor next to his seated form. "That was so close."
"Indeed," Eugene said with a grin. "What's next?"
"Freezing distance," Naruto said with a nod. "After that, we'll just try out stuff and see how you all fit with different ideas. Now, this is pretty simple, let's see how far your Freezing goes. I want to see how many of you can reach the wall all the way across the room."
"That's far!" Abel shouted and the Limiters all nodded in unison. "Geez, I think only Mark and Leo can do that."
"Well, you'll always stay as strong as you are if you think like that," Naruto said with a wagging finger. "Now, Garou, you go first. Don't try and spread it too far around, keep it in a straight line."
"Interesting," Garou said before nodding, stepping up, and undoing his tie before he raised his hands. "Freezing!"
Blue hexagons raced down from the wall they were on towards the opposite one before stopping at the 75% mark.
"Come on, Garou! Push it!" Came Creo's call from the side, the chocolate-skinned Pandora going through a series of punches in Naruto's Freezing field. "Come on!"
Garou grit his teeth as he tensed his hands further, the blue hexagons pushing forward past their previous max and hitting the 85% mark.
"Alright, that's enough!" Naruto called him off, Garou wincing as he fell to his rear. "Remember, while I'm all for you pushing your limits, you should also make sure to know how far beyond you're going," Garou nodded as he let out a hot sigh. "Good, get some rest. Kazu, you're up!"
Kazuya breathed in a long breath, his previous 'scores' having been pretty good at locking the ball in place but he stayed on that third line with the baseball machine.
He breathed in before stepping near Garou as Naruto helped the taller teen out the way before coming back to the front of his friend.
"Alright and…. GO!" Naruto brought his arm down.
Kazuya threw his arms out. "Freezing!" He commanded and felt his body surge with power before dark blue hexagons rushed out towards the wall.
Naruto nodded, noting that they stopped at the 60% point. "That all you got?" He asked him and their eyes locked. "I said, that all you got, Kazuya Aoi?"
Those words, the fact that Naruto called him out by his full name, had Kazuya's eyes narrowed further before he pushed for as much as he was worth.
"ORYYAAAA!" The lines between the hexagons brightened before he surged forth to the 75% mark and fell onto his butt, letting out long gasps. "Ha… Ha…"
"Hehe~ Nice," Naruto nodded as Arthur grinned. "Come on, next!" He helped his friend up and out the way before returning to his former position.
They ran through the others with most only getting past the 50% mark, with Arthur being one of the few to hit the 70% mark, before Mark, Attia Simmons' Limiter, came forth.
"Alright, dude, let's see what you can do," Naruto asked with an interested gleam at the gloomy-looking sophomore. "Uh, do you always look like you're having a bad day?" He asked nervously as Mark's head fell.
"H-Hey! That's one of his few good points!" Came Attia's shout from the 'Pandora Training Circle'.
The Limiter chuckled nervously as Mark's head slumped further.
"I-It's alright, dude, seriously!" Naruto tried to cheer him up. "Come on, the others are pretty impressed with your range, let's see it!"
Mark's head came up with a chill smile as he raised his arms.
"And… Do it!"
The entire group balked at the speed of the Limiter's Freezing fields, hexagons slamming into the wall opposite wall before climbing about halfway up.
"DAMN!" Naruto balked. "Geez, dude, you must have crazy long-range support!"
"I do," Mark said proudly as Eugene and Abel chuckled behind him. "This is one of my good points."
Oh, now Naruto just felt bad for the guy.
"That's right, Mark! Teach that Freshman who's the boss!" Came Attia's cheers from the side, embarrassing the gloomy one who hid his face from the friendly laughter all around.
Naruto chuckled. "Alright, chill for ten minutes, alright?!" He asked the group before walking over to Rana's area. "Everything alright over here?" Naruto asked the girls.
"Y-Yes!" Satellizer stammered out as she and Genessa did the world's longest lunges to the opposite end of the circle. "A-Ah!" She made a hurt noise as she placed her foot down before picking the other one up.
"T-Take it easy, Satellizer!" Genessa said as she, too, inched forward. "Ha… Haa… God, this is so hard!"
"Is it?" Chiffon asked, running around the circle with Arnette at her back. "That… So…!" She said as she lapped around, Arnette grinning as she chased after the Monster of the West.
"... You want some heavier weight, Chiffon-senpai?" Naruto asked with a sweatdrop. "You're honestly ridiculous."
"If you would!" Chiffon responded with a smile.
Naruto breathed in before he raised both his hands before he expanded the field to go from one end of the wall to the other, a 100m thing that inched near the boys.
"And, for the harder route," he straightened his hands out into knife-hands, a darker set of orange hexagons around the entire field. "Done! Try that."
Chiffon grinned before she jogged over to the dark orange 'lanes'.
"Hmmm," she grinned before inching her foot forward into the color. 'How strong-'
Her foot dug into the tatami mats, much to her shock, the 17-year-old brunette blinking before she grinned and pushed more of her foot forward.
Arnette rested her hands on her knees, seeing the Monster of the West as she gasped for air.
"S-She's crazy!" The ponytailed redhead said in disbelief. "H-How the hell are you n-not tired?!"
"Mmmm, I don't know~," Chiffon said with a smile as she lifted her foot, the force of the hexagons beneath giving her a good challenge. "Hm, hm, hm! I like this one, actual challenge!"
Naruto rolled his eyes at her while Rana giggled next to him, a kick sent out in the air.
Well, at least she was amused.
Ten minutes passed before Naruto clapped his hands. "Alright, I'm gonna need these hands, ladies!" The blonde said as he clapped his hands and the field turned off.
Many of the Pandoras collapsed to their butts with gasping breaths as Dr. Schmitz came out with a larger-than-average cooler for the obvious situation.
"I got cool water~!"
"Yes, please!"
Naruto chuckled before catching the one thrown his way, the Limiter group coming up and grabbing some of their own.
Those with Pandora passed them some, getting thankful nods from their female counterparts.
Naruto, Kazuya, and Arthur passed the waters to Rana, Satellizer, and Genessa, the three women nodding as they drank greedily.
"Puwah!" Genessa let out a sound of satisfaction as she wiped off her lip, Arthur already passing her another water. "Thanks, hun."
"No problem," he said as he sat down with a breath. "I have no idea he does it," Arthur said as the Set looked at Naruto and Rana, the two laughing at something. "I just realized it, Naruto's been holding this up the entire time," he whispered to his redheaded partner who stopped mid-drink of her water to stare wide-eyed at the blonde.
"I-I didn't even notice!" She whispered back, mouth dropping in disbelief. "W-Where the hell is all this stamina coming from?!"
"I-I don't know. I mean, Naruto did say he eats up a lot of energy easily," Arthur answered. "He's got no body fat, Genessa!"
"U-Unbelievable!" She squeaked before calling out Naruto. "Since when can you have zero body fat!?"
"... Oh, eh," he shrugged, hands behind his head. "I've always been like this, it's why I can eat so much, remember?"
"Y-You don't make sense!"
"Guilty as charged!" Naruto said with a laugh. "I've been told a lot," he joked as Rana snickered.
Kazuya and Satellizer smiled. "So, what kind of stuff are you going to try out with the group?"
"Well, for one, to see if they can also do what I'd originally called 'Force Style' but 'Rebound Style' sounds good now," Naruto said with a grin. "Using Freezing and breaking it are two different things, trust me. Think of it like overcharging a battery, which releases all that pent-up energy and stuff. It's useful but damn if it isn't mentally, and physically, taxing. That said, as you all know, it's a damn useful skill."
"Noted," Abel with the older part of their friend group. "You do it so easily, though. Is there a way past these limits?"
"No, not really. I guess it's just a limit you have to increase over time. Exercising and meditation help," Naruto said as he sipped his water. "Now, getting it to the proper part of your body is a whole other thing. That took me an entire year to get right, you don't understand. You have to get really familiar with your body and stuff."
"S-Sounds difficult," Kazuya said with a stutter as Satellizer nodded. "I thought you were a self-proclaimed idiot, though?" Satellizer snickered at that along with the others.
"And I am, don't go asking me for help on a test," Naruto said, waving away that idea. "But I'm good at knowing my body, lots of exercising, meditation, and just looking at pictures of yourself will do you good, actually," he said, walking to a wall. "Trust me when I say this, when you can pull off breaking a Freezing field…"
He placed his hand against the wall and a spiral of his personal field sprung out.
The group watched curiously until a loud 'CREAK' reached their ears.
The area was silent when Naruto removed his hand and a large spiral indentation resided in the wall.
"You become far more powerful than you could possibly imagine," he said, turning to the group with a grin that was both terrifying and awe-inspiring. "Trust me, a Limiter could become just as powerful as any Pandora."
Elize's clipboard fell out of her hands as her mouth dropped along with the others.
W-What the actual hell?!
~NRK~
Sister Margaret got up before tidying up her office and jumping out the window.
It was official, she had to at least try this idea.
~NRK~
"Ah, ah, ahh," Abel choked on his water as Naruto leaned against the wall he'd destroyed with so much as a touch. "... The fuck?" He uttered in shock.
"I told you, didn't I?" Naruto said with a set of determined eyes. "I'm as prepared as I could be," he said and his words hung in the air for all to process.
Many swallowed at the indentation while others, Limiters mostly, were very interested in this prospect.
"Now that I call my Frozen Spiral," Naruto said with a grin. "I say this a lot but I'll say it again. Most Limiters lack creativity, it's painfully obvious and I wanted to make sure I never ended up in a position where I can't handle myself."
The blonde said all this while not being aware of the fact that half the Pandoras who'd wanted to challenge him had already mentally given up.
Rana stared before she grinned. "That's amazing, Naruto-kun! I didn't know Limiters could even do something on this scale-de arimasu!"
"I told you, it's all just being creative," Naruto said with a nod and crossed arms. "There's actually tons of ideas I have for Freezing but I have to focus on a few for now because I'm perfecting them," Naruto focused on Arnette and Creo. "And, trust me, those techniques are meant for me to take it to whoever wants these hands."
The redhead and snowball head grinned in defiance, getting a chuckle from Naruto.
The doors to the room opened to reveal the form of Sister Margaret, the principal walking forth with a speculative smile.
"Hm? Sister Margaret?" Elize blinked as Chiffon hummed. "I'm surprised to see you down here."
"That's understandable, I'm usually recovering from long trips in my office," Margaret Lindman said with a nod to the students. "How's your training sessions going, everyone?"
The lot of them gave some form of an affirmative response, something Margaret nodded at.
"I get the feeling you were looking for me," Naruto said with a hand rubbing the back of his head and a grin. "Sup, Principal Margaret…"
"Good evening and goodness," the principal looked at the damage and Naruto began sweating bullets. "That's a lot of damage, young man."
"F-For what it's worth, I don't do that often!" Naruto said with an immediate set of waist-level bows. "Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!"
"Hmph, the Pandoras do a worse than this all the time," Margaret waved off his worries. "Honestly, if the school couldn't pay for this we'd be in more trouble than you think."
"... Ya sure?"
"Crystal."
"Oh, thank God," Naruto let out a sigh. "So, what can I do ya for, ma'am?"
"Hmph, I wanted to actually sit in on these lessons of yours," Margaret said.
"Well, 'lessons' isn't wrong," Naruto rubbed the back of his head before turning to the group. "You all down for Friday afternoon training sessions-"
"YES!" He leaned back from the collective agreement.
"O-Okay!" Naruto said with a nervous smile as Elize and Margaret chuckled. "Well, yeah, it's lessons, now. And, sure, I don't mind."
"I'm curious about these other methods."
"Well, I'm keeping a few in the pocket for now," Naruto admitted and Margaret nodded to that. "Maybe after this whole thing is over with. Right now, I've got a total of two techniques to myself that'll stay with this blonde."
"I'm curious, is your father like this as well?" Margaret asked curiously.
"Well, he's the guy who taught me how to use rebound, at least with theory," the blonde said with a shaky smile. "Trust me, I suffered for this," he said.
"Theory is not this boy's strong point," Abel declared with many others shaking their heads as well. "It'd be scary if you were."
"Noted, you clown," Abel grinned at the blonde's words. "Dammit, he's getting used to me. Oh well, now, for the final stuff we're gonna try, Eugene came up with a few of these, Chiffon-senpai."
"That so?" Chiffon asked as she turned to see her Limiter laughing nervously with a hand at the back of his head.
"Naruto's skills just got my creative juices flowing," he said. "It's all rudimentary ideas, though. Nothing like… Well," Eugene gestured to the harmed wall.
Naruto chuckled a bit. "It's all ideas that could end up useful if we can get them to work," he said as the group got up. "Now, the most basic of ideas I've had is to use Freezing on, like, random upturned stone, dirt, cars, or the like to act as mini-barriers in times of emergency. Hmph," the blonde looked down at his feet before slamming his foot through the in-between of mats and nodding as he grabbed one of the uplifted ones. "Now, who wants a go at hitting this thing?"
Chiffon stepped up and Naruto felt a lot of his confidence die.
"... Ya know what, screw, let's do this thing," he said with a determined stare before he applied his technique over the tatami mat, the sight of a little hexagonal square shield the image. "Actually, this is a whole other thing, notice that this moves, right?" Naruto showed them by spinning the object in the air, the not-in-the-know looking confused. "It's got Freezing applied to it, doesn't it?"
Many eyes widened in shock at his grin.
"Yup," he popped the 'p'. "I guess I'd call this Isolating Frost, the ability to freeze an object by only applying Freezing to that object. You're not freezing the space around it if those words are right," Naruto looked at Elize, who laughed.
"Yes, think of it as how the earth and other planets work," the doctor said. "Each has their own form of gravity even though space, at large, applies no such thing on them, which allows such big bodies of mass to move."
Many in the STEM fields looked amazed by the process. "A-And this is teachable?" Asked a Limiter student.
"I mean, I'm trying to teach it," Naruto said. "But, like I said, this crap takes a long time to get down. Most likely, you won't get it until your next year if you keep at it. And, even then, it's mentally taxing so I'd suggest picking two, or only even one, techniques to focus on. Now, we've kept senpai waiting long enough, I'm afraid she'll just attack me if we keep talking."
"... I was considering it," Chiffon said airily and Naruto felt a cold sweat develop on the back of his neck as she got into a loose resemblance of a boxing stance. "Now, en garde, Naruto-kun."
He attached the 'Tatami Shield' to his arm before getting into an ironclad stance.
"Come at me-"
She lunged at him and Naruto felt a waterfall of sweat appear on his forehead. Oh shit.
Chiffon had already appeared in front of him with an arm reared back.
Naruto made sure to step in, as well, tensing his arms-
The crack that echoed and his body flying back were the results.
Naruto grit his teeth as his feet hit the floor and he dug them in, digging troughs into the tatami mat floor and coming to a stop with a long breath as he held onto his 'frozen' shield for dear life.
When the dust from his recovery cleared, Chiffon blinked at the sight of an in-tact tatami mat.
"Oh~"
Naruto grinned as the shock rode throughout his body. "Surprised?"
"Yes, I am," Chiffon said with a smile as she raised her arms, and Volt Texture formed over them. "Should we try this… harder?"
"Oh God," Naruto swallowed. "N-Now, hold on, senpai! There's a whole other process to this that I need to show before it's too late!" Chiffon stopped, tilting her head in confusion. "Elize-hakase, please explain!"
Elize blinked as Margaret chuckled before the doctor hummed. "Yes, you see, Naruto is using Freezing on the coordinate of the object, ignoring the space around it. But, due to that, it holds a finite area. Any new force, vector, and, likely, action, that happens to it will cause a form of implosion on a small scale."
"Block senpai!" Naruto shouted as he threw his 'shield' at her. "No, seriously!"
Chiffon hummed before doing as asked, the 'shield' making contact a moment late-
Her eyes snapped open as she was sent flying backward before she slammed into the wall near Naruto's 'scar' on its surface.
"Oof!" She let out a small grunt, staring in confusion as she was thrown back to the wall? "... Naruto-kun, what just happened?"
"Well, it's as the Doc said," the blonde explained with a sigh and a stretch, arms only slightly bruised. "It's all that force you pushed on it," Naruto said with one eye open. "Things get really screwed-up when you keep on stacking attacks, yeah?"
Chiffon blinked as she disengaged her Volt Weapons. "... You are honestly quite peculiar, Naruto-kun," she said with her hands on her hips and a small pout on her lips. "Mmm, you can't go around surprising girls like that."
"Look, you were getting impatient," Naruto said with a sigh and shrug. "But, yeah, sorry, I totally don't mean it by the way."
"Rude."
"That aside," Chiffon pouted more as he focused on the group at large. "That's one of the skills I want the Limiters to try for the next five minutes. Pandoras, can you offer the Limiters around them either your Volt Weapon or give 'em a mat?"
The group started moving, the sub-groups spreading out as Naruto walked up to his friends and faculty.
"So, Arthur's the furthest along, try following his example, fellas," the blonde said as they all got the chain head of Genessa's Volt Weapon. "This skill also depends on imagery. Imagine the item in your hands being wrapped by, like, foil or actual ice. It helps with covering it."
"I see," Elize grinned as she wrote down on her clipboard. "As you said it's simple but this also helps them separate the world around the object and object itself! If you use that imagery, you're only focused on trying to copy your imagination."
"... Yeah!" Naruto said with a thumbs-up as the others chuckled or snorted at how obvious it was that he barely got what she was saying. "You heard the doctor, do the Freezing. Meanwhile, Rana-chan, I want to test out some stuff with you Seimon Hakkyoku-ken. I want to see how strong it is."
Walking a bit away towards a wall, Naruto applied Freezing to it.
"I want to see how far we can increase your power," the blonde said as Rana grinned, the girl slamming her fists together and bringing her Volt Weapons into existence. "Let's try it normally and then we'll work our way up."
"Hmph! Let's do it\-de arimasu!" She said before getting into her sacred art's stance.
"Go whenever, alright?"
Rana nodded, looking at the wall before she stepped in and slammed her fist into the wall of hexagons.
She winced as she saw a large crack appear but that was it, a set of small fractures being her result.
"A-Ah," she winced a bit more as she looked at her fist. "T-That hurt more than I thought."
"Oh, sorry," Naruto apologized as he looked at her fists, the blue-haired girl blushing as he held them. "I was trying to not have the entire wall blast back at us… It's a work in progress," he admitted before Rana saw a rotating orange hexagon above her knuckles.
Then her eyes widened as the pain fell away quickly. Naruto released her fist and she flexed it a few times before looking at him with awe.
"Y-You can heal-de arimasu?" She managed to keep her disbelief down but her tone spoke louder than any shout. "N-Naruto-kun?!"
Naruto chuckled, winking at her. "Remember? Natural Energy?" Her eyes widened. "It also increases your healing rate without worrying about using up your lifespan. It uses the world's energy to reinforce your body and all that good stuff."
Rana had known it before but she was repeatedly reminded of how outstanding of a Limiter specimen, hell, of a person that Naruto was.
She grinned softly before lines ran up her gauntlets. "I'm going to hit it harder-de arimasu!" Rana announced to him with a grin that he smirked at.
"Go at it. We don't have much time so go as fast, and as safe, as you can."
Rana nodded before she took in a deep breath and got into stance once more before she locked onto her next move.
She skid forward an imperceptible distance before tossing her fist into the barrier.
"Enga!" (Burning Fang!)
Naruto watched as she tossed her entire being into a body blow that slammed into the wall and he grinned at the large crack in the barrier, the hexagons deformed around her impact area.
"Sup, Satellizer-senpai, Ticy-senpai, Chiffon-senpai," Naruto said as the three came up to him and Rana. "Looking to take tries at this, too?"
"Will this 'backfire'-" Chiffon asked with a smile and twitch of the fingers. "As well?"
"Well… eventually?" Naruto offered with a shaky grin. "I figured we'd move onto the next step soon so the amount of damage won't be that bad."
"That's irresponsible," Ticy said with a flat look as Naruto laughed nervously.
"Well, training can come in all forms," Chiffon said after some thought a grin appeared on her face, horrifying her fellow third-year. "Naruto-kun, the rebound is going to come from just this area, yes?" She specified to the entire area of the Freezing field.
"Yeah… Oh, I see where this is going," Naruto agreed before a grin appeared on his face, mimicking Chiffon's. "Rana-chan, Satellizer-senpai, Ticy-senpai, what would you all say to some 'defense training'?"
"... I don't like where this is going," Ticy said as Satellizer looked interested.
"What kind of training is it?" The blonde Pandora asked and Naruto grinned.
"Well, you know how the rebound works," Naruto said, getting nods from the three he said the names of, Chiffon grinning already. "Well, I'm currently having Rana-chan try and see how powerful she can make her blows, the recoils gonna suck but what if you tried to actually take that hit? To see if you can remain standing or find a way to block it?"
The three's eyes widened in disbelief. "T-That sounds like a bad idea!" Ticy insisted. "I-If we can use enough force, no, just the number of blows will cause a horrid reaction!"
"Well, yea, if you want to," Naruto suggested and Ticy's eyebrows twitched. "I'm not forcing anyone to do anything, Ticy-senpai. It's only if you guys want to, especially if you understand the dangers."
"Hmm," Rana tapped her fists together, hummed at the pain she felt but nodded at the amount, knowing she could handle a few more punches. "... I don't think I will, this time-de arimasu."
"I-I want to try," Satellizer said, surprising the three other Pandoras. "There's not really much I can do to improve outside of exercising, right?"
Chiffon commented about many other things she could do, but Naruto beat her to the punch with more of his amazing creativity.
"I'm curious, senpais," Naruto spoke up. "Volt Texture control, like, how good is the reinforcement way?"
"Hm?" Chiffon blinked but felt a smile coming onto her face. "By using Volt Textures, we, overlay them around our bodies. This allows us to improve our performances."
"... Yes, I can work with that," Chiffon felt some excitement slip in. "Senpai, how good are you at using Volt Textures?"
"W-Well," Satellizer blushed a bit. "I'm not the… greatest in my year. T-Though I can make it so I don't need my glasses and make myself more powerful."
"The basics," Ticy said with a nod before turning a frown Naruto's way. "Out with your next insane idea, I'm curious to see how this goes."
Chiffon giggled, Ticy's attempts to hide her high interest were too cute to miss.
"Well, you guys use your stigmata to enhance yourselves by using Volt Texture, right?" Naruto asked, getting nods. "Okay, but have you tried, like, either doubling up on the layers or, even, adding a direction to it?"
The four looked confused. "Hm, explain further, Naruto-kun," Chiffon asked. "What do you mean? In the sense of doubling, we kind of do that but it can push our stigmata too much."
"Well, you saw what I did over there," Chiffon froze as the understanding hit her. "Like, what if you could rotate your Volt Textures around your fists, Rana-chan?" The girl balked. "Or vibrating for your blade, Satellizer-senpai?" Satellizer's eyes widened. "What's your weapon, Ticy-senpai?"
Ticy was left stunned at the idea he was suggesting. "It's a smaller blade like Satellizer's… You really are full of crazy ideas, aren't you?" She asked and Naruto laughed.
"The best ideas!"
"Hmph!" Rana and Chiffon chuckled.
Naruto certainly wasn't boring, that was for sure.
~NRK~
She observed the channel in confusion, interest, and slight annoyance.
"So this is the troublemaker, Ingrid?" She asked the Rank 7 redhead whose mouth was set in a snarl at the screen. "... Ingrid, you need to calm down, reacting the way you are is not going to help," she insisted as her dark blue eyes locked onto Ingrid's bluish-green ones.
"You don't understand, Elizabeth, he's becoming more than just a threat to this school's rules!" Ingrid tried to make her see reason. "Naruto Uzumaki can't be allowed to stay here or else he'll infect this university with his madness."
"..." Lower-back-length platinum blonde hair splayed out, two of the long bangs coming down to her chest swishing a bit as she turned to look at Ingrid with a look of confusion. "... Ingrid?"
"... It's nothing, Elizabeth," Ingrid closed her eyes before she got off her fellow third-year's bed, Elizabeth's peach skin shining in the rising moon and stretching as she shot the lower-ranked Pandora a look. "I'll be handling this situation myself."
Elizabeth Mably's, the 2nd ranked Pandora in the third years, purple nightgown shifted as she crossed her arms and legs.
"I hope you don't do something… drastic, Ingrid," Elizabeth said to the girl at her doors. "You're already in a position to handle them, don't be rash."
The redhead considered her words for barely a moment. "I won't be," was all she responded with before leaving.
Elizabeth sighed before picking up her cellphone.
"... Mmm, Andre, it's me," she smiled as she heard her Limiter's voice over the line. "Could you come over for tonight, I've found a bigger headache, and being in your arms always helps."
She got the affirmative from him and hung up.
'Ingrid, for the love of God, don't.'
~NRK~
Watching the groups wrap up, Sister Margaret let out an amused grunt as the blonde at the center of it all helped them wrap up.
"Remember, work on trying to freeze little things in an instant! NO animals/living beings! Anything else goes!"
She shook her head as Elize wrote down more in the 'Uzumaki Freezing Journal' as the doctor dubbed it.
"It's rather astounding that we got to have the pleasure of having Naruto-kun here," Elize said with a giggle as she wrote down a few footnotes. "I don't know what the future holds for him but I know he'll do great things. Being able to make peace with one's opposition isn't something most people can do. I… I don't think Naruto EVER had any bad will for these girls…"
"He's young but wiser than it seems," Margaret said with a nod. "He understands conflict, it seems. He urges those around him to perform more and better just by being a standing example of his ideologies," she watched as Naruto froze a big ball of… balls, the groups pushing it to roll over to the closet. "Hm, hm, he's capable, willing, and strong. We need more people like that," the nun said with a hum of thought.
Elize chuckled, thinking the same when Margaret borrowed her pen and wrote something down with a smile.
"Hmm, it'd certainly be an interesting name," she muttered to herself before writing down something else. "Hmph, here, Elize. Tell me how you feel about those three names."
A title?! For Limiter?! Why that'd be a big ch-
She should remember to not underestimate the Sister as she looked at the three phrases below and nearly collapsed.
True-Limit Skills
Alternate Freezing
Max-End Skills
"I think the second and third are good ones," Margaret said with a smile as the doctor choked. "Perhaps asking him for a name wouldn't be a bad idea?"
Elize Schmitz was sure she was documenting a miracle.
High-End Skills for Limiters?!
~NRK~
"Make sure to get some rest," the Tibetan girl said as her eyes fluttered closed many times. "You had… To do the most, today."
"I know," Naruto responded with a grin. "I'm just gonna get some meditation in and then come back, promise," he said, patting her shoulder and Rana's eyes fluttered closed one last time, not opening again for the night.
He'd left Rana in his room after that and went into the forest.
She'd been adamant but had also been one of the most tired from their training and had been easily put to bed with no issue.
Walking back to a familiar clearing, Naruto stretched his body out before finding himself sitting beneath a tree.
Wearing a pair of blue shorts, with an orange tank-top on his upper half, he crossed his legs and closed his eyes, kept his back straight, and brought his fists together in his lap.
Naruto felt the energy of the world around him slipping into his body. His arms, legs, chest, and head felt the Natural Energy and allowed it to take its hold.
Focusing inward for a moment, he felt the energy move about his body before hitting those seven spots in his body.
As it turned out, the chakra in this world was more of a physical/mental limits thing instead of being energy they literally used. That said, it was odd to think that there were the same gates here but not only did people need to do large amounts of training to open them but they had one less than he knew of.
The Eighth Gate, the Gate of Death. This gate could give you power that'd kill you from the inside out but the sheer power you got out of it was crazy!
So, when he looked inward, he found those seven gates… He thinks, anyway.
These things had grown over the years ever since he was able of using Freezing. He noted that he got stronger the greater they grew and his father had gotten it looked at by their personal doctor/scientist.
As it stood, he was full of stigmata tissue that grew every time he absorbed Natural Energy and did something with it in a certain amount.
And, yeah, they'd tested it out a bit and it basically only gives him the new ability to help heal people. That was it outside of making his abilities greater.
So they took it easy and didn't have him use it much but the amount of changes has been… interesting, especially since he'd gotten his whisker marks because of them with no Kurama around.
He probed each of the seven points before humming as he turned his attention outward.
"You want to say something, don't you, senpai?" He asked the surrounding area. "Or, really, senpais."
"?!" One of the two figures who came out of the treeline made a shocked sound as their identities were revealed.
"... Oh, aren't you Mark's Pandora?" The blonde asked as he saw Attia who coughed into her fist. "So you were a third year, huh?" He asked simply, getting to his feet as he felt the death glare from the red-haired girl next to the teeth-kissing Attia. "And you must be the person who's been giving me death glares every time we've been in the same room."
Ingrid stood there in a small white halter top and skin-tight shorts of the same color. Her eyes were trained on him and Naruto already readied his rebound underneath his feet.
Attia kept a neutral expression even as she remembered her Limiter's words.
"Is this really the best option, sis?" Mark asked with a worried expression as Attia donned her school uniform. "I know it's not literally against the rules but to try and coax him out at night seems… Especially since I've seen the registry on the clipboard by the door of the room. Doesn't this feel off?"
It did. Attia wasn't a fool, she knew that Ingrid was pushing even some of the Rank 6's boundaries with all this. What would Elizabeth say to this? Attia had a feeling the Rank 2 would be pissed if she found out.
"I… I'll make sure it doesn't get that far, I promise," and she meant it.
As she'd thought yesterday.
These people were not the enemy. They were students in need of a thrashing, sure, but they were still people. Their people.
… And the more Attia thought about it, she grew to have more second thoughts.
"... Alright then," Mark nodded, wearing his school uniform. "I'll help but, please, he's not even a bad kid."
She knew that.
"... Naruto Uzumaki," Attia spoke up and stepped forward.
Naruto felt some empathy for this girl, he could feel it from here.
Her hesitation, second-guesses, about this little scenario of theirs.
"I'd like to offer an olive branch," Attia said, head looking back at her fellow third-year to gauge her reaction.
She grimaced obviously at Ingrid's expression, the redhead did not look pleased.
"... Senpai, you seem like a cool person, Mark's a pretty cool dude," Naruto said as he crossed his arms. "But I can't abide by the idea that what happened to me, to Satellizer-senpai, would be something you'd allow just because of something like rules."
Oh, fuck, don't bring that up! Besides the 'rules' issue, she didn't want to think about the true beginning of this whole mess that Miyabi's whore ass decided to push on them.
No, she didn't want her underclassmen, Pandora or Limiter be damned, to be sexually assaulted! She wasn't a monster! That said, she'd come too far, gotten too carried away, to not follow through.
Oh, how she wished she'd actually looked further into this situation before passing judgment.
"The rules are there to protect order, boy," Ingrid said and Attia grimaced. "Anything that might have happened would have been dealt with appropriately."
"I love how you think you get the right to say that," Naruto said with a glare. "You're not the one who was in it. You're not the one whose friend, who already has a fear of being touched, might need to go to therapy. Quite frankly, senpai," the blonde's tone got heated as Attia's eyes widened and a cold ball formed in her got. "Keep saying shit like that and you'll get that damn ass-kicking you want."
Ingrid's ears were deaf to most of his words, her Volt Weapons, a pair of bladed tonfa, forming in her hands.
"This is your punishment for breaking the rules of West Genetics," she said coldly as she leaned forward. "You will be an example for the rest of the student body."
Naruto's eyes narrowed before he got into a loose stance, bouncing back and forth off the balls of his feet.
"I'm gonna smash your rule-loving face into the ground," he answered back.
Two pairs of blue eyes opened wider before their owners reappeared in the middle of the distance between them.
The Rule Lover, Ingrid Bernstein, vs the True Justice, Naruto Uzumaki.
~NRK~
No words, only know that I'm gonna do a chapter for this fic ASAP.
Though, I hope you've all noticed that the third-years are far more… reasonable. While I'm sure that Satellizer literally trying to kill Miyabi is something that needs to be punished… Did they really need to be the ones to try and defend Miyabi's 'honor' in this case?
That's a slippery slope that is brought up in this chapter. Is that the kind of event they're willing to enforce just because a rule was broken? Is this not a different case seeing as, even if they don't know about Satella's condition, sexual assault is fucking serious. Add on, in this story, that it was both blondes who almost got taken advantage of and I believe they'd have to look more into the situation.
And, as always, Ingrid's a bitch in this portion of the canon for so many understandable but horrible reasons. We'll be seeing how this goes tomorrow.
Words:
~NRK Out~