Journey of the Maelstrom Rider
Chapter 5: A Shared Occupation
As the light finally died down, Naruto and the others opened their eyes to see that they were still in the room with the backdrop no longer blinding them with the light but then they felt that something has changed.
"Do you guys think that we're in a new world?" asked Naruto curiously.
"The only way to find out would be to step outside and see for yourselves," Yamato pointed out, getting nods of affirmation from the rest.
Stepping out of the studio, the group found themselves standing at the sidewalk of a city in the night time, rather sharp contrast compared to the Hidden Leaf village when it comes to the level of technology and they haven't even started exploring the place yet. But there was one small thing that needed to be brought into account.
"Whoa, what's with the new threads?" asked Naruto confusedly, looking down at himself. The others noticed that they were wearing new clothes.
Naruto was wearing an orange pullover hoodie with a large red Hidden Leaf Symbol on the front, blue pants, and a pair of black high-top sneakers with white soles and orange shoelaces. Also, the new camera hung around his neck.
Rock Lee wore a green tracksuit with white stripes, a pair of grey colored gym shoes, and his hands were still wrapped in bandages.
Hinata wore a purple-blue jacket, white blouse with cobalt blue shorts, black stockings, and a pair of brown ankle boots.
For Yamato, he was wearing a camouflage-colored coat with white fluff, a gray undershirt, black pants and black shoes.
Yamato noticed a piece of paper sticking out of the pocket of Naruto's new hoodie and took it to read its contents "According to this, the first Decade was given a role and outfit every time he enters a world. Narutaki had tweaked the studio a bit to do the same for us whenever we enter a new world,"
"Even though I'm not wearing my normal outfit, I must admit that these ones give me the same feeling," said Rock Lee, looking at his tracksuit with a nod of approval.
"Yeah, I'm totally digging the new threads," Naruto glanced at Hinata's outfit and blushed a bit "And yours suit you really well,"
Hinata blushed beet red "O-Oh, th-thank you…,"
"Now then, let us explore this place and learn more about it," said Yamato, leading the way with the rest following him.
Apparently, the new clothes weren't the only things that they were given as the group were also given the basic knowledge of the world, being able to read the English language and know what is this or that.
"Amazing, to think that there are worlds this advanced in terms of technology. Perhaps it could due to making up for lacking inner energies like chakra," said Yamato in wonder, seeing someone drive a sportscar past them with incredible speed.
"Everything looks nice," Hinata added.
Rock Lee hummed thoughtfully "I wonder the kind of fighting style they have in this world,"
Naruto shrugged "Who knows? But I wouldn't mind trying out the food while we're here and…hm?" he stopped as he suddenly heard something "Did you guys hear that?"
"It seems to be coming from the alley over there," Yamato pointed at said alleyway.
They quietly went to the alley and peered inside to be greeted with the scene of guys dressed radically and seemed to have a theme of possessing a symbol of a purple dragon on their clothes as they were fighting a group of men dressed in a black ninja garb and glowing red eyes.
"I never thought that there would be ninja in this world, I'm curious as to why they're fighting those people?" asked Lee curiously.
Yamato then frowned "I think we're about to find out," he glanced over his shoulder to see several ninjas having landed behind them with tantos in hand and poised to attack "It appears that they don't intend to leave behind witnesses,"
"Let's look at it this way; we get to see how strong these ninjas are compared to us," Naruto cracked his knuckles and stood at the ready.
Rock Lee's eyes burned with excitement "Yosh, time to exhibit my youth!"
"Please be careful," said Hinata softly.
The ninjas lunged at the group with Naruto and co wasting no time to respond with their own attacks. Naruto was skillfully weaving in and out of the range of their tantos then retaliate with critical body shots, with enough force to knock them down once he discovers that they don't truly possess the physical defense compared to the enemies back home. Hinata used her Gentle Fist to disable their bodily motor function, making the others rather weary of her.
Rock Lee on the other hand was really getting into the fight, engaging them in the numbers and proving to be far superior in terms of Taijutsu, it didn't help matters that he had been shattering their weapons with his bare fists. Yamato was also picking them off one by one, proving exactly why he's a Jounin without need of using jutsu.
"This is getting annoying, they just keep coming!" said Naruto, punching a ninja in face with a growl of irritation.
"They are proving to be quite relentless…," Rock Lee retook his Strong Fist stance "But we can be just as determined to emerge victorious!"
"In other words; Keep it coming!" said Naruto with a challenging grin.
The ninjas prepared to attack once more when a voice suddenly called out "Damn Foot Ninjas, you guys just love to be pains in the necks. Good thing I can play the same role!"
Everyone turned to see what appears to be a male with black hair wearing a skull-like white mask, gray long-sleeved hoodie, a pair of blue jeans, and a pair of hi-top sneakers. Strapped to his back is a golf bag containing all sorts of sticks and clubs meant for sports as he was currently wielding a baseball bat in one hand and a golf club in the other.
"And he winds up!" the masked stranger swung his bat to send a ninja flying "Fore!" then he swung the golf club to put another ninja in a similar situation.
"Who is he?" asked Hinata confusedly.
"It appears that we have a mysterious ally in our midst," said Yamato.
"Well, let's not slack on our own side," Naruto attacked a ninja with a flying kick and attacked another with a series of punches and kicks.
"Agreed!" Rock Lee went to engage a ninja.
It didn't take long for the ninjas to lay down in defeat while some others were forced to retreated, leaving the Leaf Shinobi and the masked stranger behind in the aftermath, the latter turned to speak to them.
"I gotta say, you guys got some serious moves. You must be new around here since I haven't seen any of you in these parts of the neighborhood.
"I guess you can say that, today's our first time here and we've just gotten a taste of the lifestyle here. Care to give us the downlow on what's with those ninjas and why they were attacking those guys?" asked Naruto.
"Well for starters, those punks are called the Purple Dragons and crimes is pretty much their job around here and I had to keep a leash on them every now and then. And those ninjas are called the Foot, those guys are really bad news with their main boss called the Shredder is the nastiest of them," the masked stranger explained.
"Any reason for why they were attacking this gang?" Yamato inquired.
The stranger shrugged in response "Who knows but what I do know that they've been the reason why crime levels having been going up like crazy and running me ragged trying to stop them,"
"How unyouthful, using their ninja training for crimes unbecoming of a ninja!" said Rock Lee angrily.
The stranger cracked his neck a bit before sighing "You guys better head somewhere safe, it's gonna be a busy night for me. See ya when I see ya," then he walked off, leaving Naruto and co behind.
"What should we do?" asked Hinata.
"I say that we seek out these Foot ninjas and teach them the right way to be a ninja!" said Rock Lee with fire in his eyes.
"Maybe so, but this doesn't exactly require our involvement," Yamato pointed out.
"Or that could be the case, remember that I'm going on this journey to learn what it means to be a Kamen Rider. And one thing about being a Kamen Rider is to not look the other way when innocents are in danger," said Naruto, taking out a Rider Card and looking at it thoughtfully.
Yamato sighed at this "Very well, we'll take to the rooftops and seek out these Foot ninjas and figure out their intentions,"
"Yosh, let us go forth and exact justice!" said Rock Lee enthusiastically.
At his words, the Leaf Shinobi leapt high into the air and proceeded to move across the rooftops in search of the Foot Ninjas. Soon enough, they started locating groups of them thanks to Hinata using her Byakugan to track them down. Stopping them from attacking civilians, robbing money from shops and attempting to destroy monuments. They had just finished stopping the Foot ninja when Hinata suddenly perked up at something when using her Byakugan.
"What's the matter, Hinata-chan?" asked Naruto.
"I'm sensing strange energies at the bank which we had passed, they aren't human at all," said Hinata unsurely.
"It could be that, these actions were meant to draw the attention of the law enforcement from their true objective," said Yamato.
"Then we'll head over there and put a stop to the bank robbery," said Naruto.
Heading over to the bank, the Leaf Shinobi made their way inside the bank thanks to Naruto using Fuinjutsu to basic unlock the doors without leaving any traces. Upon entry, they heard the sounds of fighting and rushed to come upon an interesting sight.
"Am I going nuts or are there four humanoid turtles fighting a warthog?" asked Naruto in disbelief.
"Your eyes do not deceive you, there really are turtles fighting a warthog," Yamato pointed out.
Sure enough, there really are four anthropomorphic turtles wearing colored bandannas and wielding various ninja weapons were engaging a large anthropomorphic warthog wearing a red vest, dark brown baggy pants, a gold chain and a pair of yellow sunglasses as he wields a chainsaw and assault rifle.
"Why are you robbing the bank Bebop, what is the Shredder up to?" the turtle with the blue bandanna and wielding a pair of katanas demanded.
"Wouldn't you shell heads like to know?" the warthog retorted.
"Of course we wanna know, which is why we're asking ya," the turtle with the orange bandanna and pair of nunchucks pointed out.
"Why ask when we can simply beat the answers out of him," said the turtle with the red bandanna and twin sais.
"Either way, we'll be getting some answers," said the turtle with the purple bandanna and bo staff.
"Not before I smash those shells of yours!" said the warthog.
"Guess we now know who's the good guy and who's the bad guy," said Naruto thoughtfully.
"Then let us leapt into the fray and ally ourselves with these fellow shinobi!" said Rock Lee.
"Lee wait!" Yamato called but was too late as the boy had already lunged at the warthog.
"Dynamic Entry!" Rock Lee called out as he attacked with a flying kick.
"Dynamic wha-," warthog was interrupted by a foot to the snout before being knocked back, then sat in pain and anger "Who's the wise guy that kicked me?!"
"It was I; the Leaf Village's Handsome Devil, Rock Lee!" said Rock Lee with a good guy pose.
"Where did he come from, Donnie?" asked the turtle with the Sais.
The turtle with the Bo staff shrugged "Don't know, never seen someone like him before, Raph,"
"I doubt anyone would have those bushy eyebrows of his, don't you think so, Leo?" the turtle with the nunchucks pointed out.
"Not exactly a great first impression there, Mikey," the turtle with the dual katanas scolded.
"Darn it Bushy Brows, you should have waited for us!" said Naruto as he ran up to his fellow shinobi with Hinata and Yamato in tow.
"Sorry, but I was unable to wait much longer to aid them," Rock Lee reasoned.
"We understand, but please be more patient," said Hinata gently.
"Geez, there's more of you?" asked Raph.
"Yeah, just know that we're here to help you against him and the Foot Ninja. It's understandable for you to not trust us immediately, hence we shall prove by our actions," said Yamato.
"Looks like you shell brains got some backup. Luckily, two can play this game," Bebop whistled loudly before multiple Foot Ninjas appeared in puffs of smoke "Now, back to smashing those shells of yours,"
Music Start: Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus OST; Suck a Sage ~ Chipp's Theme
"Alright piggy, show me what you got!" said Naruto as he dashed low to the ground towards the mutant warthog.
"I'm gonna saw you in half!" Bebop revved his chainsaw a couple of times before swinging it onehandedly at the blonde ducked low to evade and slid in between his legs to get behind him then countered with a flying dropkick to the back to make him stumble towards Rock Lee who wasted no time to inflict a combo of rapid punches before leaping away when Bebop snapped back into focus to attack with his chainsaw.
"Grrrr, eat lead you punks!" Bebop took aim with his assault rifle and fired rapidly in an arc, forcing everyone to take cover.
"Everyone, get behind me! Wood Style: Domed Wall!" Yamato slammed both palms on the ground to make large wooden pillars to rise and interlinked to form a half-domed wooden wall for the others to take cover from the bullets much to the shock of the others, especially the turtles.
"Dudes, did that guy just control wood to block the bullets like some sort of magician?" asked Mikey in disbelief.
"I believe he did, I know we've seen our share of weird stuff. But this is a whole new level of weird," said Donnie.
"Speak for yourselves, I'm not gonna lose sleep over this after all we've been through," Raph retorted.
Meanwhile, Naruto frowned at the sound of the bullets striking the wooden wall as he reached into the ninja pouch which was still strapped to him in spite of the sudden change in clothes "That gun's gotta go. Bushy Brows, go in for an attack the moment I disable that pig's weapon,"
"Leave it to me!" said Lee with a thumbs-up.
After taking out a shuriken and channeling wind chakra into it, Naruto leapt out from behind the wooden dome and performed a curve shot to send it spinning through the air and slicing through the assault rifle like knife through butter with the half of it clattering to the ground.
Seizing the opportunity of the mutant's state of disbelief, Rock Lee charged in quickly before leaping high into the air "Dynamic Action!" he somersaulted towards Bebop and attacked with a combo of punches and kicks before the mutant warthog snapped back into focus yet again and was quite angry about it.
"You punks are just as annoying as those stinking turtles!" said Bebop angrily, next thing he knew was that he got whacked right upside the head courtesy of a laughing Mikey and his nunchucks.
"Aww, and here I thought that we had a good relationship going this whole time!" said Mikey playfully.
Raph lunged at Bebop whilst withdrawing into his shell to barrel right into him like a makeshift cannonball before coming back out with a sneer "Mikey's right, smacking you around has always been a thing going on between us!"
Leo and Donnie were dealing with the Foot ninjas that were trying to overwhelm them with numbers but were managing to push them back. Leo was skillfully disarming them of their weapons whilst Donnie was dealing some whacks upside their heads or certain parts of their bodies. A Foot Ninja was sneaking behind Donnie with a katana raised to strike him down when a voice suddenly spoke up from the side.
"Gentle Fist!" the Foot ninja was blindsided by a palm strike to the stomach and was knocked down to the ground where he laid there twitching. Donnie turned to see Hinata and was a bit weirded out by the sight of the protruded veins around her pupilless eyes.
"Uh, thanks," said Donnie.
Hinata nodded in response then she turned to see more Foot ninjas appear to confront them "Please allow me to continue to be of assistance," she stepped forward and took a ready stance "Gentle Fist art: Eight Trigrams 64 palms," the first Foot ninja lunged to attack but "2 palms!" she moved quickly and took him down before turning to the others that followed up and continued her assault.
"4 palms!"
"8 palms!"
"16 palms!"
"32 palms!"
"64 palms!"
By the end of her assault, a majority of the Foot Ninjas laid sprawled out on the floor around Hinata with Leo and Donnie looking on in shock.
"It's like she came straight out from a video game," said Donnie in awe.
"Mikey would be over the moon with this, I just know it," said Leo with a sigh, they were snapped out of their thoughts by Bebop's angry yell.
"I'm gonna blow all of you to hell!" everyone turned to see Bebop holding a cluster of grenades which he then tossed into the air towards them and began moving away from the potential blasting range.
"Oh geez, this isn't good!" Raph growled at the current situation.
"We're gonna be blown sky high!" said Mikey in a panic.
"I got this!" Naruto rushed forward while taking out a scroll which he quickly unfurled with one hand and formed a handsign with the other "Void Seal activate!" the seals on the scroll started glowing before proceeded to vacuum the grenades into the scroll until they were all in and he rerolled the scroll with a handsign.
"What the?!" Bebop couldn't believe what just happened before his very eyes.
"If that's what shocks ya, then get a load of this!" Naruto sped through a set of handsigns "Wind Style: Air Bullets!" he took in a deep breath before spewing bullets of air that slammed into Bebop like a barrage of powerful punches till he crashed into the opposite wall of the battle with his chainsaw laying away from him.
Music End
With all of the Foot ninjas down for the count, everyone turned towards Bebop who was propping himself back to his feet with a black duffel bag tucked under his arm before glaring balefully at them.
"You dweebs think you got the best of ol Bebop, do ya? Well, youse are all wrong!" the mutant warthog spun round and punched a large hole through the wall, making everyone back up to avoid getting hit by the flying debris "Cause Bebop's the best there is!" he turned to run but bumped his head against the wall and dropped the bag as he disregarded it and took off.
"And the little piggy ran wah wah wah all the way home," said Raph in amusement.
"How unyouthful of him to turn tail and run!" said Rock Lee in disapproval.
Donnie went to examine the duffel bag "But look at what he dropped," he unzipped the bag to reveal its contents.
Leo peered into it and frowned "Cash, and a lot of it. But why go through all this trouble to rob a bank and yet abandon the money in the end?"
Raph shrugged "That pig's not exactly one with brains, others do the thinking for him. Imagine what someone like him would have done with this loot,"
"Hello, Rupert's pizzeria?" everyone turned to see Mikey making a phone call with a bundle of money in hand "Yeah, I'd like to order 2000 extra-large cheese and pepperoni specials, and 5000 orders of breadsticks for pick up please,"
"Ahem…,"
Mikey turned round to see the deadpanned expression shared by everyone as they stared at him. Donnie stepped forward and held out the open duffel bag, not needing to say what is obvious.
"Uhhh…never mind, wrong number dude," Mikey ended the call and placed the money back with a sheepish look on his face.
"Now that's over with…," Leo faced Naruto and the others "Care to tell us who you guys are again and where you come from?"
"Yeah, I doubt we need Donnie to figure out that you guys aren't exactly from around here," said Raph sternly.
Yamato nodded in understanding "You would be correct that we aren't from here but rather from another world,"
Mikey's eyes sparkled with excitement "Whoa, you dudes are ninjas from another world? That's so cool!"
"So, what brings you all here?" asked Donnie curiously.
Naruto spoke up "That would be because of me, I recently obtained a special power and I'm on a journey to mastering it. By the way, the name's Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, but you can just call me Naruto for short,"
"I am Hinata Hyuuga, it's nice to meet you," Hinata bowed in a polite greeting.
Rock Lee gave a thumbs up "I am Rock Lee, nice to meet you in your springtime of youth!"
Yamato nodded "I am Yamato, nice to meet fellow ninjas of this world,"
"Nice to meet you all, my name is Leonardo but I go by Leo," said Leonardo.
"Hello, I'm Donatello and I also go by Donnie," said Donatello.
Mikey waved at them eagerly "I'm Michelangelo but you dudes can call me Mikey!"
Raphael crosse his arms with a grunt "Name's Raphael, just call me Raph if you don't want to waste your breath on the last three words,"
Then they started hearing the sound of police sirens heading towards their location.
"It's best that we don't stick around when they show up," Donnie advised.
"Then we can relocate to the studio which is basically our base of operations," Yamato offered.
"Sounds as good as any other option," said Leo in agreement.
Everyone went through the hole made by Bebop and took to leaping across the rooftops right as the cops show up to find an open safe, people dressed up as ninjas sprawled all over the floor and a duffel bag full of money.
"This is just one of those days…," one of the cops grumbled.
"Yeah, I normally prefer to have a cup of coffee before tackling these kinds of weird stuff," said another, recalling several citizens telling them crazy stuff like seeing gangsters fighting against giant turtles wielding ninja weapons and all those kinds of nonsense.
Sometime later, the group arrived at the studio and went inside after making sure that no one had seen them thanks to Hinata using her Byakugan to scout the area and giving them the okay to enter.
Going over to the parlor and taking their seats, Donnie was the one to resume the conversation with a curious question.
"You said you're on a journey to master a power given to you, just what kind of power is it? Asked Donnie curiously.
"Well, it goes like this…," Naruto told them about the history of the Kamen Riders and how he was chosen to be the Next Decade but needs to travel through various worlds in order to unlock his potential power "…and this is the first world we've come to,"
"Ya sure you need this power? Looks to me like you're strong as is since you're able to easily handle pig brain Bebop," said Raph.
Rock Lee spoke up "I will have to disagree Raph-san, know that there will always be a powerful opponent whom you will encounter in the future. Which is why it's for the best that you are well prepared to face such oppositions,"
"Plus, he can transform into a superhero just like the ones in the comics, how cool is that?" said Mikey in excitement that someone is actually living his dream.
"Way cool," said Naruto with a smirk.
Yamato shook his head in amusement "Let us turn our focus to the current matter at hand, the subject matter being the Foot Ninja led by the Shredder we've heard about tonight,"
"We're all just as stumped as you guys are, we hadn't heard a thing from them for a while then all of a sudden, crime levels start spiking up like crazy and the Foot ninjas are all over the place," Donnie explained.
"But then, why would they rob the bank then abandon the money. It's like they gave up on it too easily," said Hinata.
"That's the million-dollar question which we're trying to find the answer for," said Leo with a small frown.
"Then I hope you guys wouldn't if we lend a hand, we got nothing else doing and I'm on a training trip after all," Naruto offered.
"Come on bro, say yes!" Mikey excitedly urged the others to accept the offer made to them.
Leo frowned in thought before speaking up "We'll have to consult with our father before making our decision,"
Yamato nodded "We understand and will be waiting for your response,"
"Thanks, come on guys. Time to head back," Leo rose from the seat with the others sans Mikey following suit.
"Awwww, come on guys! Can't we just hang out with them for a bit longer?" Mikey whined in protest.
Raph stomped over to grab Mikey by the arm "Now's not the time to be a whiny kid, we gotta head back and let father know what's going on now,"
"In the meantime…," Donnie reached into his belt pouch and took out a turtle-themed phone which he held out to Naruto "We'll keep in touch with you through the T-Phone,"
Naruto took the T-Phone with a nod of affirmation "Cool, we'll be waiting on ya,"
Seeing the turtles leave Naruto slumped back down on his seat as he let out a sigh before speaking to the others "Heh, what a way to start up a journey…,"
"I look forward to working together with them, they radiate the flames of youth!" said Rock Lee energetically.
"Simmer down Bushy Brows, don't burn yourself out before the action,"
"Naruto's right, they basically going to be guiding us through how things operate in this world so we must be ready," Yamato pointed out.
"Um, Mikey-san left this for us. He said that it's a welcome gift," Hinata held out what appears to be a coupon.
"Hmmmm, looks like it's for ordering a free pizza from Rupert's Pizzeria. Let's get one and see how it tastes!" said Naruto excitedly at the thought of trying out food from another world.
"*Sigh*, I just know that I'll be receiving weird looks from Tsunade-sama and the others when I bring in the report," said Yamato with a sigh, life with Naruto involved can be interesting and at times plain weird, and it's disturbing that he's getting used to it.
This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Naruto and the currently selected group of Leaf ninjas have arrived at their very first world and were already floored by its high level of technology compared to the ones back home, they also discover that the studio has the ability to outfit them with clothing and instilling basic knowledge so they could fit into any world without standing out too much.
Hardly five minutes in and the group were dragged into a situation involving ninjas performing various crimes all over the place, but this also led to them allying with a separate group of ninjas although theses ones aren't humans but turtles. Developing an alliance of sorts, the two groups prepare to take on the forces of the Foot and their leader the Shredder, trying to find out what are his true goals…oh the Leaf Ninjas get to try out their very first pizza too.
As you can tell, I'm starting with the world of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and basing the storyline on the TMNT: Turtles in Manhattan game which was derived from the IDW comic series. I'll see what I can do to make things considering this to be a start at the moment. Be sure to read and review like always.
This is Hussbek from Ghana.
Signing out and staying alive.