ORANGE WINDS and BLUE ASH
Disclaimer: Yo everyone, it's me again, GreenBar17 this time with a little something, something for my favorite peoples. No spoilers, but all I'll say
It involves Naruto (as usual, I mean duh).
It is a crossover, which I've discovered are m second favorite type of fics; the first being readings, especially for crossovers (I absolutely adore those).
Lastly, I think this is the first of this branch of fanfiction, I'm not sure though. If it is, I'll be making fanfiction history as the first man to write such.
Lest I forget, I don't own Naruto, yada yada, I don't own the xover anime this story touches, all the other legal jargon, try again next time lawyers. With that out of the way, onwards to our new adventure
Chapter 1
The shrill scream of the alarm rang in my ears, jumbling me out of my thoughts causing me to drop the files I had been holding captive. I stood up, pushing back on the swivel chair, I checked out the window to see if whatever might have caused the disturbance was within the immediate or seeable distance of the company. No sign of any, meaning it must be further out; I turned back to the office, my eyes raked over two nearby forms, one having just entered the room. She stood by the door, dark hair, toned body figure, hair swept behind the ear one the left side and with purple eyes staring back at me.
"Come on Shinra, we need to move the Lieutenant has received word on the situation, there's a large fire on-" I listened intently until she was cut off. Rudely, I might add.
"Let's go already, no point wasting time talking when we'll still be depeached (debriefed)" there he was, the other occupant of the room, blonde, a crop of hair sticking up his head suspended by a small band, blue eyes, smug look on his face and in his grasp, a wooden sheath for a dormant blade. Also did I mention stupid? If I didn't let me add then, very, very, very, so very stupid. In a short while, thanks to the power of short-range time skip, we were all aboard the matchbox, that's our response van. Manning the wheels was Vulcan, the red-haired engineer. He looked better, seeing as Lisa finally started to respond without breaking into sobs or fits. In the passenger's seat was the second in command, Lieutenant Hinawa, looking normal as ever and his usual weird hat. The last man seated in the front coach was Viktor who, as usual, was spouting off some nonsense, our solo-scientist. Panning into the rear portion of the matchbox, separated from the front by a thin metal wall and a sliding peephole the rest of the company all mentally preparing from the coming challenge. Against the left; Maki, who our blonde pain in the ass had interrupted, sister Iris, our blonde-haired nun who carried out the prayers and Tamaki, aka on cat-girl, who was still on suspension from company one. A story for another day. On my side, I sat with Captain Obi, decked in his full gear and regrettably Arthur. There was someone else who I failed to notice, having been deep in thought since I boarded the vehicle.
"YOU!" I half screamed, finally taking note and facing said person, I asked in a confused voice "why are you with us?" It turned out to be princess Hibana, the captain of company 5 whose butt I whooped a few weeks ago. Yet instead of anger, instead of hating me, she seemed to develop a crush on me, a very possessive crush; one that I found that out the hard way.
"You heard the reports, if it' as bad as they say, then you'll need all the help you can get." The dark-skinned, pale-rose haired woman turned to face me, a small smile playing on her face "besides, I can't trust these muscle heads to keep watch over my Shinra now, can I?" she finished. A grin tore my face, the well-known full mouthed, sharp toothed grin that signified my nervousness not happiness. As the drive continued, princess Hibana looking every bit serious, kept on leaning into me, I scooched over, she followed, there was no turning back; I could only hope for something to distract-
"Arrgh" this time I screamed, kneeling on the floor of the matchbox. Captain Obi grabbed my shoulders trying to ease me, the girls stopped their small talk and leaned into my face all clearly worried, whereas Arthur just nodded and whispered something that sounded suspiciously close to 'devil's disease'. The peephole opened and the Lieutenant's voice poured in
"What's going on back there? Everyone okay?" he asked, his glasses glinting against the low light illuminating the interior of the metal van.
"Nothing serious, you all up front just focus on getting us to that inferno. I'll handle things back-"
"Move" Hibana shoved the captain away none to softly and hauled me to the much comfier seat after that she had me rest, settling my head against her laps. I'll have to admit, it did feel nice.
"What was that Shinra? Why'd you suddenly scream?" I tried to remember the cause of my incapacitation, my mind still fogged with nonexistent pain as I tried my hardest to focus on what I had seen.
"I felt an edolas-link, with… with SHO" I shouted again sitting up straight and with so much force I nearly knocked into the company 5 tag-along. A few weeks ago, we fought the white-clad in the nether; I met my long-lost brother, got beat up, beat him up, got through to his brainwashed mind, then took a sword to my chest and lost him again after they re-brainwashed him. They escaped, taking my brother with them and till this time, they just went quiet. No artificial infernos, no infiltration of companies, nothing.
"Calm down Shinra" I heard the captain's voice burst through my bubble of muddled thoughts "what did you see?"
"It wasn't very clear, but I could see a few members of the white-clad surrounding him in some sort of star formation but mostly all I could feel was his pain, he was in so much pain." I could feel my face scrunch up desiring to charge to wherever they were and obliterate them.
"Was there anything else?" Captain Obi asked me, prodding for substantial information. I could see what I said affected had everyone in the vehicle even the normally indifferent Hibana. I was about to nod negative when I remembered something, my eyes widened.
"Yes, it was faint, but I could hear a chant. They were saying 'come forth demon', they were forcing his power to open a portal, that was the pain we felt."
"Sounds like they were trying to call another demon from hell. Hmph, how cowardly, the samurai-knight shall have you by this bane (blade)" we can all guess who said that.
"We can talk about that later, right now, we have an inferno to deal with." The lieutenant called from beyond the wall.
We filed out from the van and almost immediately came face to face with our first challenge, two infernos were charging right at us, the slightly bulkier one hanging behind. The captain charged forwards approaching the faster one. When he was within striking range, the inferno suddenly spat a geyser of molten rock. Hard pressed to dodge, the captain was seemingly enveloped by the volcanic spray. "Captain Obi!" I couldn't recall who exactly it was who screamed, but it jumbled everyone into action. I flew towards the blackened bodies that were once human, fire blasting out my feet transforming me into a human rocket, I kicked at the one responsible for the assault, stemming the flow of molten rock. When it cleared the Captain was revealed; standing behind the protective wall of his shield looking no worse for wear, though the same could not be said about the shield. In the background, Iris started the prayer.
"The flame is the soul's breath."
Princess Hibana's giant flowers sprung up, ensnaring the bulky inferno within its flaming branches.
"The black smoke, the soul's release."
Maki had her Tekkyo, her secondary fighting units powered by her second gen creations, sputter and flare and had pinned the nimble inferno with a powerful slam.
"Ashes thou wert and art, may thy souls return to the great flame of fire."
Captain Obi dashed to the pinned inferno, slamming his damaged shield into its core killing it, at the same moment, I executed a flying spin kick drilling through the chest of the one laying within the confines of the princess' creation.
"Lato"
"Well that wasn't so bad" Arthur spoke from the back "Let's head home and get ourselves a celebrate (celebratory) dinner." Everyone turned around to get back into the matchbox but while I slowly flew down, I spotted something in the peripheral of my vision. We were at the docks I soon noticed a little way from the wooden bridges leading to the unused and unusable ships lining the waters edge. Lieutenant Hinawa had stopped also, causing everyone to stop as well.
"What is it? Vulcan asked, prodding his shoulder.
After some moment of silence, he answered "nothing, just thought I heard something"
"Lieutenant" everybody turned attention to me as I hovered in the air "you might not have heard nothing" I finished without ever turning to face them. They all turned, following m line of vision to the horizon… and finding nothing. Tamaki rounded to me "Really Kusakabe? Trying to give everyone a scare or are you just… being…" she trailed off, watching as a small rock bounced and rattled of its own accord, a silent rumbling sound rising. Returning her line of vision to the horizon, it looked… closer? Or was its borderline darker? The rumbling intensified and soon we could make out the shape of an inferno, no lots of infernos, probably over twenty all blasting their way to the shores.
"What in the world, that's unreal!" victor exclaimed "how in the world are there so many of them in one place!"
"How could there even be so many!" Vulcan yelled, already setting up his numerous ranged weapons.
"I don't know but we better get ready cuz here they come" the captain screamed at us just as the first one touched down also being the first to receive the Lieutenant's bullet to the chest and breaking into ashes. I noticed, they now had their heads turned towards us, like they had been distracted by something else. Two larger ones, built almost like golems lumbered towards us while the lither figures moved at a much faster pace. Company 8 moved out, Arthur drew Excalibur, taking advantage of the Lieutenant's cover fire dashed at the golems, I took on the few that were enabled to fly; Iris busying herself with offering a lengthier than normal prayer. Hibana's presence really did come in handy, looking down I noticed multiple infernos trapped with her fiery beautiful creations thereby making them easier targets for everyone else to put to rest.
In a little over 30 minutes we were done, Tamaki lightly panting, along with Maki 'I, I think that's the last of them, now let's leave so we won't have to worry about anymore showing up." Immediately she finished, the ground rumbled much more forcefully than the first time, the sea violently churning, such that we could see it from afar. We all rounded on Maki who was now looking sheepish.
"C'mon, why'd you have to jinx us like that" Vulcan sighed out. We retook our fighting stances, spinning around to find an even bigger horde staring back at us, and more still dropping on the docks. It was no western movie stand-off, as we were manned just above the single numbers and they were more than triple that. The burning figures simply stared at us, not even making a hostile move; they looked upwards completely disregarding us.
"Now's our chance" Tamaki dashed towards the first line, her twin cat tails swishing behind her.
"Tamaki, wait, don't rush to rushing into a rushed battle" I paused listening to my own words "great, now I sound like that Kareem guy." With a vertical spin she smashed into the closest two, tails smacking them into the ground. Maki dove in to provide what little back-up she could; taking advantage of her mental control over her twin units to keeping the swarming fiery zombies at bay. It didn't take long till they were overwhelmed, 4 infernos charging for every one they pushed back. Tamaki stood back to back with Maki tails striking at any who got to close whereas Maki simply chose to grab'em and punch'em.
"How do we get out?" Tamaki yelled, barely heard over the roar of the flames.
"I've got something big, but after that we'll need to move fast. Duck" Tamaki crouched low and Maki slammed her twin units into each other, super-charging the engine creating a literal flashbang with more bang and less flash. The closest infernos were blown back sailing over their other brethren who mindlessly continued towards the girls.
"Maki! Tamaki! Grab on." I yelled flying low, my outstretched hands were quickly taken by the previously stranded girls. Pulling them away from the flaming bodies, soon we were back with the group, standing before the captain who wasn't too happy with Tamaki's rash decision.
"Tamaki, don't do that, they outnumber us five to one" a swishing sound, a side glance "scratch that a dozen to one, going ahead of your teammates could be devastating" Tamaki had the decency to look down in shame "Maki, good thinking going in to support her, but same goes for you too understood?"
"Yes! Captain Obi" "Understood Captain Obi"
"That's cute and all, they way you teach our rookies, but we still need to take care of these infernos, if nothing at least to stop them from moving inland" the cool even tone of Hibana sang as she swam forward, not a movement wasted "how on earth are we to go about th-"
"Formation 7: Sun wheel" flat-toned, without a single inflection despite its objective, the voice of Shinmon Benimaru was easily recognizable. Company 8 plus one turned to see the captain of Company 7, their next-door neighbors sailing overhead on his usual flaming mop-like staff drop into the crowd of infernos. Almost immediately, a quarter of the surrounding infernos crumbled to dust much more of their numbers scattered in different directions; some breaking apart after a while. In less than ten seconds, the unmoving enemies reduced by sixty percent. The strongest soldier of the fire force had arrived. He walked back to his comrades, delicately punching any attacking stragglers sending them flying off the docks and miles into the ocean. Delicately.
"What the hell is going on here? What's making all these infernos gather like moths to a flame?" (pun intended) He called, and even hearing his voice over the roar of the unliving it had its ever-present flat tone.
"We're yet to find out but it looks like it's all coming to a climax, look." His answer came from the lieutenant.
Another pause, another stance and Benimaru punched a line straight through the unorganized ranks of fire bearers. Calmly walking up to the fire-fighters, he joined them looking into the air where a ring of white smoke had formed and continued to spread out in a faint sheet. The seemingly natural phenomenon soon began to certify in fact that it was anything but normal; the center seemed to thicken with a non-existent material, a slight (measured from their relative position) heat wave extending from its position every few seconds and, perhaps most notable, the grounded infernos began levitating, those capable of flight, moving along a little faster.
"Shinra"
"Yes Captain" I turned to him
"See if you can get up there and get some intel, but stay out of range of whatever that is."
"Roger sir, expect me soon" as usual, my feet ignited but this time I forewent using the tiger fist power boost. As I flew upwards, I noticed the heat higher up was more concentrated, capable of singing my skin and I had to force my way through the strongly heated air. Infernos above me had begun to glow a bright red on their upper facing sides, and I noticed the first set to get close to the low-lying cloud broke apart some 20 meters due to intense heat and pressure. I slowed, simply hovering watching in morbid fascination as an approaching inferno hit, arcing its back against an unseen barrier screaming; whether in pain or due its nature, I could not tell, it slowly broke apart as the pressure got to strong yet the heat shield held it back. A shimmering dot of light sparked, enlarging into a large beam in a short while. My eyes widened considerably and on instinct, my fingers formed the special gesture that exponentially increased my fire power, I blazed towards the docks with a scream even as the light grew brighter.
"What do you think is happening up there, I'm starting to think this incident and Shinra's white-clad vision are interrelated" Hinawa asked standing beside Obi.
"Don't know, do you think it was a good idea to send him alone" Obi returned frowning as he considered the connection.
"Of course, it was meathead! If he gets hurt, I'm totally blaming you and taking revenge" Hibana looked a breath away from smacking the non-powered captain.
"Have no fear, the devil is component (competent) enough to not die, he knows Heaven would reject him…again." Arthur spoke, looking pleased with his 'insult' while everyone looked at him like an inferno just came out his butt.
"Uh, does he know he just complimented Shinra?" Tamaki whispered to Iris, who only giggled.
"Anyone else see that light" Victor asked drawing attention to the original subject "I think it's Shinra, he's coming in pretty fast."
"Get outta way!" behind him a beam of light sped to their area. Scrambling away from the edge of the docks, they all managed to clear the area just before the light, which was actually a pillar of superheated and ultra-condensed fire slammed into the area, winds, debris and water being tossed in all directions. Shortly after, it stopped, carving out half the docks and leaving a gaping hole in the water, allowing visibility all the way to the waters bottom, which was slowly being filled up. Above the light beam receded and a huge ball of fire sank towards the earth. Without prompting, I was in the air ignoring cries for me to hold on. I caught up to the slowly descending fireball, and I had to literally pick my jaws up.
"Captain Obi, the fire, there's a kid in it." My previous expression was repeated by the gathered crowd, save Captain Benimaru, as placid as ever, Captain Obi with an unsure frown and Princess/Captain Hibana with a crooked smile.
"Well, let's meet him" she made a large flowery construct to catch the earth-bound ball and as it settled down to the ground, the flames receded and we could see his features.
"Damn, he looks weird" and we have Tamaki with the snark. Though, I couldn't really argue with her; he had very obvious golden hair even more so than Iris', and it was extremely spiky making mine look tame in comparison. And his next most prominent factor… he had whiskers, real life whiskers. Other than that, he had a green gem dangling by a cord, what looked to be tattered remains of an orange jacket most likely due to the flames and a fishnet vest underneath that.
"Wow, he looks really beat up, you think it's all from the fire?" He had numerous cuts, parts of the orange jacket dyed a lot darker by blood and was missing an arm. That threw us for a loop, taking in the extent of damage the young man had possibly received.
"Don't know Maki, he might not even be alive" Hibana answered as she squatted next to his prone form poking his cheek with a stick she pulled from Heaven-knows-where. What happened next, occurred so fast even I couldn't keep up. Blue eyes shot open, the stick-bearing arm belonging to the Company 5's woman was grabbed none to gently, and the boy rolled over her pulling her against his body. Before any of us could attack, he jerked his body out of reach, Hibana going along with him. He rolled, tucking Hibana into his chest as he stood with Hibana, her shoulder twisted at an uncomfortably angle and the elbow and hand, lined up and made to bend backwards causing the stick to press against her neck. Now he was standing we could see he was big, easily as tall as Captain Obi, maybe taller, if the distance between us counted.
"How the hell did he manage that with one arm?" Captain Obi asked, an expression of incredulity plastered on his mug and mirrored on ours.
"Could you analyze his skills later and focus on getting me free now! His grip is really strong and is starting to stretch my shoulder to its limit!" The lady was not pleased.
"Yeah, yeah, hey orange, would you kindly let go of your captive" Benimaru drawled as he normally did. He (our new friend) gazed platonically at the landscape and for a moment I entertained the thought that he might attack or maybe didn't understand us.
"Who are you all? And where the hell am I?" scratch that, he did understand.
"I could answer that, if you let me go" Hibana spat out her mood getting worse.
"Shut up-Grk"
"All I did was poke you with a stick, let go, sheesh" mistaking the sudden griping pain that convulsed her captor and caused him to free her for a voluntary release, Hibana took two steps forward before turning about, ready to tear the orange dude a new one but to see him panting, drops of blood leaking from his clenched dentition, coalescing into a puddle. He fell forward but before he reached the ground, she got in the way, supporting his weight with her body.
"Let's get him to a hospital" Captain Obi finally spoke up after several moments of tense silence, moving to relieve the sassy woman of her burden.
"Since that's all taken care of, I'll take my leave" Benimaru turned away planting his single person flight for take-off, he paused turning back "Shinra, if you feel you need more training, I'm always open, you too Arthur" you could detect no hint of sarcasm or delight in his voice as he took off. Heck, there was a hint of nothing in there.
We all shuffled towards the matchbox, tired, thoughtful and apprehensive. But none one noticed the young man's wounds sizzling closed or the flakes of ash which slithering down and made contact with the bloody puddle quivering and lightening.
"HAH!" blue shot open, blazing with unfocused anger, memories sprung hazily as he attempted to deduce his location and circumstance. A shaky hand pushed away the stray bangs of disobedient locks, a soft exhale helping to quell his rising panic. Naruto blearily stood up from his resting abode walking towards the bathroom the memorized layout of his room easy to transverse even while running solely on his subconscious. He stretched out his hand to grasp air where there should have definitely been a door handle. He's eyes shot open, now on high alert, if he wasn't in his room, the hospital or war tent, then where was he? He shoved his arm downwards to retrieve a kunai from his trustee pouch only to discover two things.
First, his pouch carrying his tools along with all his ninja gear including his outfit had been stripped off and probably under lock and key.
Secondly, and most importantly, his right arm was missing, sheared off just below the elbow. Suddenly memories previously buried surfaced instantaneously, and only his unusually high mental strength kept him from being overwhelmed. Struggling on one knee, singular hand clutching his temple, he navigated the storm of memories. The war, fighting Obito and Madara, meeting his father, fighting Kaguya, meeting his ancestor Hagomoro and getting the Deux Ex Machina power boost that he termed Ashura mode, sealing and surviving Kaguya alongside Sasuke by the skin of their teeth. Then Sasuke turning on them; fighting at the valley of End, losing his arm in the final showdown, 'ahh, so that's when this happened' he thought, seating with and punching Sasuke out of his funk, making him release the Shinobi world from his genjustu. Lastly, he recalled Sakura coming up to them and him ordering her to attend to Sasuke first, he also remembered seeing Kakashi-sensei in the distance before he blanked out. Everything after that was hazy, though somewhere along the line, he could have sworn he smelt a woman's perfume and a light rose color and a lot of heat.
"Deal with that later, right now, I have to find my way out of here, wherever here is" he muttered to himself as he attempted his escape. Surprisingly successful, and without any hitch whatsoever, he treaded silently along the corridors of the -unknown to him- chapel/fire force company building. Walking by an archway, he peeped into the small courtyard to see a blonde-haired girl, kneeling and dripping with water. Though he could only see a profile, what was exposed was enough to make him go red-faced. As if sensing the heat of his blush, or probably just his presence, the younger girl turned around to face the archway.
"Weird, I could have sworn someone was there right now." Iris picked her after-ceremony robes and turned down the corridors, dainty feet pitter-pattering noiselessly as she walked away.
Naruto dropped down from the ceiling, where he had jumped and anchored himself to prevent detection. He was still trying to figure out the place therefore he needed no unfortunate meetings. He stared down the passageway the unknown girl took, "guess I'll be going after her". He shuffled forwards, body still in close contact with the wall. In a short while, he spotted light and hurried towards it. A hallway with several doors on each side, he identified it to be, but where was out? He questioned himself. Peeking into the first room, he saw a bent over figure holding what looked to be a large senbon with a sort of raiton justu coming off its end (to his limited tech-know how). The second portrayed a tall man, hanging upside down from a bar and performing crunches. That would not have been weird save for the fact that he did it while supporting heavy looking dumbbells on his feet. Silently closing the door, he tip-toed to the next and peeked in, not taking note of the fact that the door in particular had an opposite. A glance exposed its emptiness, but off to the side, looking out, he spotted a flight of stairs.
"If I could get to a roof, or window, I could get out of here."
"Hey, how did you get out!" The voice rang directly behind him, activating his honed ninja instincts. He spun on the balls of his feet, twisting his body out of line of any attack and finally threw an open palm into the chest of the questionnaire. Strength unchecked in a slight moment of panic, young Arthur Boyle soon found himself lifted into the air and sailing roughly thirteen feet backwards to slam into the wall of the room opposite the door he previously exited.
Shinra, Maki, Tamaki, Hinawa, Viktor snapped their necks in bid to find out what crashed into the workspace. The dust settled to reveal Arthur, firmly seated about a foot into the wall and a palm shaped crease on his shirt, swiveling eyes met those of their blonde guest, arm still outstretched even as the crash alerted the absent members of the company.
"He just sent Arthur across the entire room with a single palm thrust" Tamaki uttered, a tone of wary awe inflecting her voice.
"We are sooo going to be best friends, him and I" Shinra grinned, displaying his full set of chompers.
Naruto observed the set anxiously, he might have been discovered, lacking an arm, half his usual amount of chakra and outnumbered, but he was damned if he let them take him without a fight. Wordlessly, he adjusted his fighting stance, eyes constantly vigilant as he squared off against the fire fighters. If he was going down, then he would take them with him.
DONE! My first chapter of this story with just over 4800 words, hopefully it'll receive the same love you've shown my other writes.
Peace to you all, stay safe, stay cool.
GreenBar17, signing out.
