Maelstrom EXE.
"Normal speech"
"Tailed Beast speech"
[Talking from the PET]
Chapter 8: Double the Data Trouble
With a soft groan, Naruto opened his eyes to find himself laying on the bed in his room. He was about to sit up when he felt certain weight on his left side, he pulled the cloth to reveal Alice with her arms wrapped tightly around his arm as if afraid to let him go to which he smiled softly upon recalling everything that happened yesterday and how he was able to change her mindset despite almost getting erased from existence.
"If those two are capable of altering reality around them, makes me wonder who else is able to do the same," said Kurama.
"Who knows but we would need to be ready when that time comes," thought Naruto, he gently prodded the sleeping Alice so as to wake her up "Wake up Alice-chan, it's morning now,"
Alice slowly sat up and let out a cute yawn before looking around and smiled happily upon seeing the blonde "Good morning, Naruto,"
"Good morning to you too, how are you feeling right now and is Alice okay?" asked Naruto.
"I'm okay…" Alice reached under the pillow to bring out the picture book "…and I'm sure that Alice is okay too. I'll wake her up now," she closed her eyes in concentration as the book began to glow before levitating away from them before letting out a bright flash of light before fading to reveal Black Alice standing before them.
"Are you okay 'Alice'?" asked Naruto with concern for her after the battle they had.
"I am fully recovered, so there's no need for you to worry," 'Alice' responded, though a small smile graced her lips from how the boy was worried about her, something rather new and yet refreshing for her.
"That's good to hear, though we need to work on giving you a name of your own. Calling you both Alice is definitely going to confuse me and anyone else," said Naruto thoughtfully.
"A name for 'Alice', then what will you call her then?" asked Alice curiously.
"Hmmmmm, let me think of one…" Naruto was deep in thought about what name he could call Black Alice when he recalled one when he was browsing through a bookstore back in Konoha in search of the latest comic issue "How about Shiori? It means 'Poem' where I came from?"
"Shiori, that's a nice name! Don't you think so?" asked Alice happily.
"I like it, it's really nice," the now named Shiori smiled more brightly now.
"I'm glad you like it," said Naruto with a smile of his own. That's when he felt the link to the PET come online and the clone called out to him.
[There's another message concerning the tourney boss!] said C-Naruto.
"Got it!" Naruto activated the holoscreen with the message icon on it and opened to read the contents carefully before closing it up "Looks like we're going to begin the tourney later in the afternoon,"
"Can we play together before then?" asked Alice hopefully.
"Sure, maybe a game of hide and seek around the school," said Naruto with a smile, much to the girls' happiness.
Later on, Naruto and the girls made their way out of the dormitory and began their game of hide and seek with Naruto being the seeker. The game was rather fun and quite challenging for Naruto as he searches for Alice and Shiori, making him feel as if he was playing against himself as the game went on and couldn't help but feel for those who used to chase him during his pranking days back at Konoha. Naruto was quietly moving around with his senses sharpened to keep an eye out for any sort of irregularities when he detected a slight distortion hidden behind a tree nearby and smirked while thinking that they had exposed their hiding place. He took off at high-speed to appear on the branch of a tree close to the other one and stealthily positioned himself on a branch right above the distortion.
Grinning mischievously, Naruto jumped off to pounce to grab the unsuspecting Alice "Gotcha, Alice-chan!"
"Kyaaah, please don't hurt me!" a female screamed out in fear, causing Naruto to let go and stand back in surprise as the voice sounded rather familiar, he watched as the distortion faded away to reveal someone before him.
She is a girl with long flowing purple hair reaching to her back and a pink ribbon on the side of her head, she was an attire consisting of a neck belt, two strips of belt covering her large breasts, and three more over her torso. She also wears what appears to be a striped bloomer with brown panty hose and a pair of high heel shoes. What caught Naruto Naruto's attention the most was that her face looks similar to that of BB and Sakura, and the arms resembling that of giant talons which reminds him of Chouji when he uses the Partial Expansion jutsu on his arms.
"Another who looks like BB and Sakura, just what's up with that?" thought Naruto though he could barely look away from the size of her breasts, then he snapped back to attention when he saw the girl quivering in fear and went to help her "I'm really sorry about that, I didn't mean to scare you. I thought you were someone else I was playing a game with,"
The girl stopped shaking and looked back at Naruto who was looking back at her with concern "…you mean you won't hurt me?"
Naruto quirked an eyebrow at that "Of course not, why would I?"
The girl sat up with her arms laying side by side "It's just that every time I meet someone, they always end up hurting me when I didn't do anything bad,"
"You mean you've been bullied for no good reason? Point me towards those guys and I'll teach them a lesson!" said Naruto angrily, if there's anything he absolutely hates then it's rapists and bullies regardless of rank, he will smash their heads to the ground.
"It's okay, they don't bother me anymore afterwards," said the girl in an attempt to calm him down.
"But it doesn't make it any better, anyways my name is Maelstrom exe," said Naruto, making sure not to slip up like last time.
"It's nice to meet you, my name is Passionlip," said the girl with a shy smile.
"Well same here, so what brings you out here?"
"Well I was walking when I saw you and wanted introduce myself to your but I felt hesitant and ended up hiding,"
"Well that's kinda weird but I gotta admit that you're pretty good at hiding, like you're a ninja,"
Passionlip smiled bashfully "Thank you, that's very nice of you to say,"
Naruto simply gave a fox grin in response "So what's your job, it's pretty obvious you aren't part of tourney since you're not in the roster. I would have to watch out for those arms of yours if you were,"
"Maybe but I don't really like fighting that much, plus these hands make things a bit difficult to handle without breaking them by mistake," Passionlip looked at her hands sadly.
"Sounds like a total bummer, but with enough practice I'm sure you can do it," said Naruto assuredly to which the girl smiled at.
"Hey Maelstrom, don't forget that the game is still going on," said C-Naruto.
"Oh right, I forgot!" Naruto shot to his feet and looked apologetically towards Passionlip "Sorry but I need to go look for someone,"
Passionlip felt sad inwardly at the blonde leaving, seeing how he was nice to her unlike the others behind him due to her "I understand, but I hope to see you again,"
"Maybe after this next round, I'm sure you hang around here. See ya Passionlip-chan," Naruto waved her goodbye before running off to search for Alice and Shiori.
"Goodbye…," Passionlip spoke softly, it was just like she had thought. He truly was different than all the others that she and the others had met before. His eyes withheld pain and loneliness but yet there was the sparkle of life which has a stronger presence over the negativity. Everything from his actions to his personality describe him to be someone that appears inattentive but can suddenly become unpredictable to both friends and foes from what they've observed of him from the start of the Grail War, and there's also that red energy which seems to trigger but will or when in a difficult situation for it is unseen in any other Netnavi "…I can only hope that you don't fight me or the others, I don't want you to go away forever,"
Back with Naruto, he was eventually able to find Alice but not Shiori who pretty much lorded her victory over the cyber ninja much to his displeasure. He had the girls return to the dorm room to wait for him to get back while promising to play another game with them later on. He was making his way towards the entrance of the Sakura labyrinth when he saw the nun whom he had bumped into on his first day, the woman smiled upon seeing him approach her.
"Hello Nun-san, it's been a while," said Naruto with a smile.
"Indeed it has Maelstrom-kun, I've been hearing of your progress through the tournament and I must say that I'm impressed,"'
Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly," Gee thanks, I just try my best is all,"
"Quite true I must say, though I must warn you that things will become more difficult as you progress. I advise that you exercise great caution especially around the game masters," said the nun seriously.
"What do you mean, you're talking about BB right?" asked Naruto curiously.
"Yes, she among a few others had been observing you before sending the invite to bring you here for reasons unknown, perhaps there is something unique about you which they want," said the nun seriously, causing Naruto to flinch inwardly at what she could be implying. Might BB and these game masters be after his chakra and maybe Kurama which was why they invited him?
"I…I'll be sure to keep an eye out for anything weird around me, miss um…,"
"Please just call me Kiara Sessyoin," said the nun with a smile.
"Okay, then I need to get going," Naruto walked away with the nun seeing him leave with a smile on her face "What do you think about all this Kurama?"
"She wasn't lying about BB having an interest in us but I suspect that she isn't telling us everything," said Kurama.
"What do you mean?" asked Naruto.
"It's like I said before, there's more going on in this tournament than we were allowed to know. We need to be vigilant for anything which might happen,"
"Roger that," Naruto nodded in affirmation, he eventually arrived at the Sakura tree where the remainder of the contestants were already gathering, Tamamo saw him arriving and happily skipped over to him.
"Hiya Maelstrom, are ready for today?" asked the fox girl cheerfully.
Naruto smirked back "You better believe it, ready for anything!" causing her to giggle.
"I certainly hope you are, Maelstrom-san. I expect you to be at peak condition," said Nero, Tamamo frowned a bit at her appearance.
"Why do you two need to be concerned about a monkey like him, he has nothing to show unlike a superstar like me," said Elizabeth cheekily.
"At least he doesn't go insulting everyone like you!" said Tamamo angrily.
"Hmph, he's bound to lose anyway," the gothic girl scoffed at him.
Moments later, there was a bright flash of light and BB was standing before the group once more, she took a glance at Naruto and smiled at him, making the blonde feel rather awkward but remained attentive to what she was about to say.
"I welcome you all to the third stage of the Moon Cell Tournament and wish to congratulate you for advancing this far," said BB.
"It is to be expected of a king such as myself to reach this level with ease, mongrels could barely keep up with me as it is," said Gilgamesh arrogantly, making everyone frown at him.
"This guy is really getting on my nerves here," thought Naruto angrily.
"He'll get what's coming to him soon enough," Kurama growled in anger.
"In this stage, there will be an addition of rules and the remaining competitors will be placed in pairs in a tag-team battle. The rules still apply to the combatants when acquiring the moon tablet pieces," said BB much to the surprise of everyone listening.
[Wait a minute, so you're saying that our Netnavi will be partnered up with another in this stage? So if both were able to get the complete tablet then they can advance right?] asked Kuro with a small frown.
[I guess that seem to be the case, Kuro-san] said Gil politely.
BB nodded in affirmation of the statement "that is correct, now I will randomly shuffle the Netnavi to be paired for the challenge," she thrust out a hand to project holographic portraits of Naruto and the others then waved to make the portraits mix up several times before spreading out to display the matchups for all to see.
Maelstrom exe and Tamamo
Nero and Elizabeth
EMIYA and Gilgamesh
"Looks like we're partnering up, Tamamo-chan," said Naruto with a foxy grin.
Said fox girl was giddy with joy as her tail wagged at blurring speeds "Indeed we are! It's like fate is bringing us together in matrimony, I'll prove to be the best waifu ever!"
Nero frowned upon seeing that the blonde Netnavi ninja wasn't going to be her partner and was further annoyed that he was partnered with that fox girl instead. Reluctantly, she turned towards her assigned partner.
"As much as I dislike this scenario, we may have to work together in this upcoming task," said Nero.
"Hmph, I guess I'll have to allow you to be my co-star…for now," said Elizabeth with a pout.
[I hope we can work well together] said Gil.
[Okay, but not sure I can say the same for our Netnavis though] said Kuro. Gilgamesh and Archer were currently staring at each other intently with neither side making a sound for a while until the former spoke up.
"You better not get in my way mongrel, for it will be your last," said Gilgamesh.
"Hmph, right back at you," said Archer.
The entrance to the Sakura Labyrinth became active, the BB spoke up to regain their attention once more "The third stage is set, I wish you all good luck,"
"Got it, let's go Tamamo-chan!" Naruto dove into the entrance with the fox girl soon following afterwards.
"Right behind you Maelstrom-kun!" said Tamamo excitedly.
The duo emerged from the portal to find themselves standing in what appears to be coastal area where they are standing on the shores of the mainland with waves crashing onto the sand but ahead of them are three small islands ahead of them over the vast ocean, all in all a very beautiful place to behold.
"Well looks like we're here, now to find where the moon tablet pieces are before the others do," Naruto took a glance at Tamamo and noticed that she was pouting a bit "What's the matter?"
"If I knew that we would be somewhere close to the beach, I would have brought along my swimsuit," said Tamamo, puffing out her cheeks in a cute manner. Naruto unintentionally imagined the fox girl wear a two-piece swimsuit and blushed at the sight of it but shook his head to get it out of his mind.
"Let's stay focused Tamamo-chan, we need to find the pieces first before anything else," said Naruto.
"Okay," Tamamo grumbled a little before following after Naruto when he picked a random direction and walked off to search for some useful clues.
The duo continued on their trek along the sandy berm until reaching a rocky area with a tall cliff wall facing the ocean, they were drawing close to the sea cliff when suddenly something burst out from the sea and landed before them. It revealed to be a green-scaled fishman donning armor made out of hardened coral, the armored creature growled at them as it brandished its spear with the tip resembling that of a marlin's long beak, then more of the fishmen with colors varying from red, green and blue jumped out from the sea as well and stood with the first while armed with cutlasses.
"These guys look like they mean business, are you ready Tamamo-chan?" asked Naruto while unsheathing the Chakra blade and the Vorpal blade before taking a battle stance.
Tamamo giggled a bit before stretching a hand forward to summon a medium sized ornamental mirror which proceeded to levitate around her "Ready when you are!"
Both nodded at each other then charged towards the enemy who charged right back at them. Naruto rapidly attacked and defended against the first of the fishmen before dashing sideways to evade an incoming thrust of its spear and retaliating by throwing the Vorpal blade with it barely grazing the armor as the fishman moved to the side. The opponent flung the spear at Naruto only for him to dodge it but was caught off guard when it opened its mouth to fire a powerful stream of water, Naruto raised the chakra blade to block the attack but was slowly being pushed back from the pressure.
"Hang on boss, I'm sending a chip over to you!" C-Naruto reached into the holster to grab a battlechip "Here we go! Elec Sword, battlechip in and download!" then he inserted the chip into the slot of the PET. Naruto's left hand transformed into a blue energy blade with arcs of electricity coursing through it, he dipped the sword into the water which caused the fishman to be electrocuted and disperse into pixels, the blonde cyber ninja turned towards the other fishmen charging towards him and charged right back. He ducked and dashed to dodge the slashes then used the elec sword to zap them should they make contact, so the fishmen attempted a ranged attack tactic to fire jets of water at the ninja "Invisible, battle chip in and download!" another battle chip was inserted and Naruto immediately disappeared from sight, the enemy looked around for any sign of the ninja but suddenly some of the fishmen screeched out in pain with multiple slashes appearing all over their bodies with some of them disappearing into pixels due to high amounts of damage inflicted. Naruto reappeared with the Aurum blade and Vorpal sword in hand and aimed the former to fire when suddenly the weapon began to glow much to his confusion then it faded to reveal a pair of red knuckle dusters with long claws similar to that of tigers, then information about them flowed into his mind.
"I see, this is a new form of the Aurum blade…the Tiger Claws. Time for a little test run!" Naruto dashed towards the remaining fishmen and slashed rapidly with the claws, one of the fishmen attacked him from the side with its cutlass but Naruto flipped over to evade before landing behind and striking with a cross slash to take it down. He took aim at the others and fired energy bullet rapidly, despite the shots being weaker than in blade form it was enough to finish them off "I'm digging the claws, let's me really get up close and personal,"
"It's mediocre in the least, I'll need to help you train in them more," said Kurama.
"Sure, though I wonder how Tamamo is doing?" thought Naruto before turning to where the fox girl is.
Tamamo was currently engaging her group of fishmen in close quarters, she was darting in and out of their attacks as if she was dancing from an outsider's point of view. The fox girl found an opportune moment and controlled her mirror to swoop in an arc to knock them away from her before she rushed up to one of the fishmen and proceeded to unleash a combo attack of punches and kicks before willing the mirror again to smash its head to the group. Tamamo reached into her sleeves and took out spell tag with an inscription drawn on it "Curse: Spirit Theft!" she threw the tag to hit the fishmen before a blue aura floated away from them and was absorbed by her "Now I'm energized!" she dashed towards and rapidly alternated between them as she continued her assault before somersaulting into the air and bringing out two more spell tags "Curse: Fiery Heaven!" then threw them to unleash a large vortex of flames, burning the remaining fishmen away. She turned away to see Naruto walking towards her, apparently done with his own battle.
"Those are some pretty slick moves Tamamo-chan, no wonder you were able to get this far in the tournament," said Naruto admirably.
Tamamo looked away to cup her cheeks with her hands as she blushed "Awww, you're just saying that…hm?" she noticed something laying on the rocky floor and went over to pick it up, revealing to be a scroll "What's a scroll doing here?"
Naruto walked over to take a closer look at it "I'm guessing that one of the fishmen must have dropped it after being defeated by us, let's see what's inside,"
Tamamo nodded in affirmation then unraveled the scroll to reveal what's inside, it appears to be some sort of map illustrating the three islands which has a shrine built on each on each of them though the appears to another built in the middle of the sea and surrounded by the islands. Naruto and Tamamo were carefully examining the map and trying to figure out what it means.
"From the looks of it, the shrines on the islands seem to be good places to check out for the moon tablet pieces," said Naruto.
"Me too, but I don't really understand about the fourth shrine in the middle of the sea…" Tamamo looks out to the sea with confusion at the absence of the supposed shrine "…when it's not even there,"
"Maybe it sank to the bottom of the ocean, can't really tell with how this place was set up for us but for now we should make our way to one of the islands…starting with the one on the left," Naruto pointed at said island ahead of them.
"But how would we get there, it will take too long to even swim there?" asked Tamamo.
"Actually I have a way of getting us there…but it will have to require me carrying you there," Naruto blushed at the end of his sentence.
"Eh?!" Tamamo herself blushed at what he was saying.
"I-I'm not going to try anything perverted, just going to carry you to the island is all!" said Naruto, trying to clear up any misconceptions and avoid getting hit in the head…he has enough of those from Sakura and Tsunade already!
"For someone who created the sexy jutsu, you sure can be innocent at heart," said Kurama with a smirk.
"That was meant for pranks, there's no way I'm ever going to be a pervert like Pervy Sage!" thought Naruto defiantly.
The fox girl couldn't help but giggle a little at how the ninja was acting, she kinda finds it cute in a way "Okay Maelstrom-kun, you can carry me to the island,"
"Alright then, hop on,"
Naruto went down on one knee with his back to Tamamo who was excited inwardly climbed on to be carried piggyback, she snuggled into his warm back and couldn't help but notice that the scent emanating from him is like that of a fox just like her…maybe he has an affiliation to them given the whisker-like marks on his cheeks, she giggled a bit from being tickled by the spiky hair.
"Are you hanging on, Tamamo-chan?" asked Naruto.
"Yup, now show me how you're to get us there," Tamamo replied.
"Alright then," Naruto approached the sea and channeled chakra to his feet before stepping out, soon he was walking on top of the seawater much to the surprise of the fox girl.
"You can walk on water?!"
Naruto looked over his shoulder with a foxy grin on his face "That and a lot more, better hold on while I take the scenic route to our next destination," then he immediately started running across the sea towards the first of the three islands to begin their search of the Moon tablet pieces before the others would get to them first.
Meanwhile in a dark room, BB and Passionlip along with third person still hidden in the shadows were looking at the monitors which were displaying the actions of the competitors as they searched for the required relics, but their eyes were settled on Naruto as he carried Tamamo towards one of the islands though they weren't pleased with him carrying the fox girl.
"How lucky that she gets to be carried by him," said Passionlip with a cute pout.
"Well she certainly won't be doing so for long if I have anything to say about it," said the shadowed girl.
"That's enough Meltlilith, we need to focus on the current matter at hand," said BB sternly, silencing Meltlilith "Apparently Kiara has made contact with Naruto-kun for the second time and informed of something which is making him keep his distance from us,"
"Could she be trying to expose the truth about us and the Moon Cell? That will go against the contract made between us," said Meltlilith with her eyes narrowed.
"I may not be so sure, but we need to make sure that there is no room for errors in the system. There can only be one who will access the Moon Cell and make a wish…no one else. We should also be prepared should the need to face him in the battlefields come," said BB.
"Hai/H-hai" said the two girls, although Passionlip was feeling unsure of the plan. She didn't want to fight and possibly delete the blonde ninja for he was the first who wanted to befriend her and not hurt her unlike the others before him.
"Please don't believe what that woman told you, Naruto-kun," thought Passionlip worriedly.
"Hmph, been wanting to fight him and see how strong his love is. I wonder how it would feel on this body of mine?" thought Meltlilith
"Remember that it must all go according to plan…," said BB as the light in her eyes were slowly darkening with the same going for the other two.
This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Naruto has taken in Alice and her caster whom he named Shiori into his care, then later encountered Passionlip whom he befriended along the way. Later on, he was placed in a tag-team matchup with Tamamo as his partner as they entered the next stage and are currently en route to the next area in search of the Moon tablet pieces. But what was this warning that Kiara told him about which could possibly involve his chakra and Kurama? And what plan are BB and the two other game masters talking about? Stay tuned to find out more.
So read and review as always.
This is Hussbek from Ghana
Signing out.
