Extraordinary Feats

The teams split up to help different parts of the village. Everyone was doing their part. Things were going smoothly, despite the fact that the volcano could erupt any moment. Most of the villagers got on the boats at the adjacent lake, while a few stayed back to assist with the evacuation.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake, and a large explosion echoed throughout the skies. Everyone looked towards the volcano, as they saw a much bigger cloud of ash forming. Within a few seconds, the ground shook again, and another explosion occurred. This time, lava began to shoot out of the volcano, causing everyone to resume panic mode. Fortunately, most of the villagers were already evacuated, but there were still many left behind. Ash and rocks began to fly towards the village. Team Guy, the taijutsu-based team, along with Shivaroku, scattered around the village and began to punch or kick the rocks away. Team Kurenai, assisted in the continued evacuation, using her plant jutsus to grab as many people as possible and put them on the boats. Ino helped as well by guiding other stragglers towards the docks. Asuma and Choji tried their best to push the boats off the shore. However, rocks continued to fly, and some of them were heading towards the boats. Asuma and Choji sprung to action as they ran onto the water and began punching the flaming boulders away, defending the villagers.

The ground began to shake even more, as multiple explosions occurred. This time a large amount of lava began spewing at the village, but there were still families left to save.

Reluctantly, Asuma said, "Guys there's no time, we need to head to safety!" Kurenai's and Guy's teams agree and start heading out onto the water.

However, Shivaroku still believes he can save everyone. He absolutely needed to save everyone. Instead of heading towards the water, Shivaroku bit his finger to draw a little blood and then performed a summoning jutsu. Out of the smoke emerged a golden sentient cloud. All the Shinobi were in shock at such a summoning, confused at how someone could summon a cloud. Shivaroku ordered Nimbus to get the other families that were still out in the open. Instantly Nimbus sped to the stragglers, lifted them up, and carried them towards the boats already on the water. Nimbus had to make a few trips, but it had the speed to do so.

"Shivaroku there's no time! Let's go!" yelled Asuma.

"The village is still in danger, if we let the lava and ash overtake it, everyone will be homeless! Don't worry about me, my Nimbus can help me escape if it gets too much!" yelled Shivaroku back.

"Don't be stupid! How the hell are you gonna hold lava back?!" yelled Choji.

Shivaroku then instantly got an idea, then looked at Choji with a smile.

"MULTI SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!" yelled Shivaroku as he made the appropriate hand signs for the technique. Instantly, almost 50 clones appeared as they formed a line in front of the village. A few of them created mudwalls to block the hot ash. The rest stood on top of the walls, put their hands together, and began to charge a Kamehameha.

"What the hell is he doing?" asked Kiba.

Asuma responded, "I don't know but we have to help him. You kids stay here, that's an order. Kurenai! Guy!"

Kurenai and Guy nodded and sprung to action. In the meantime, the Shivaroku clones released their Kamehameha towards the lava. "This definitely would not have worked without the shadow clone technique. Thank goodness I learned that and can create so many," thought Shivaroku.

The blasts were holding back the lava, and Shivaroku had more than enough chakra to spare. It seemed that the volcano had stopped erupting, but lava continued to flow. As more lava piled up, it began to push the Kamehameha blasts back, and ash started rising above the walls, making Shivaroku start to feel like he was in trouble.

"Water-style jutsu! Wave wall!" yelled Kurenai as she landed next to the original Shivaroku.

"Wind-style! Wind blast!" yelled Asuma as he landed on the other side of the original Shivaroku.

"4th gate OPEN!" yelled Guy as he sped around the area, breaking all the flaming boulders and debris flying at them.

Giant waves of water formed in front of them, supercooling the lava until it became solid rock. Then massive gusts of wind pushed the ash higher up, eventually making it spread and disperse. The trio endured for a few minutes, until all the lava turned solid, and all the ash disappeared. Once it seemed they were in the clear, Shivaroku's clones disappeared, and the mud walls returned to the ground.

"They did it!" exclaimed Ino, triggering cheers from all the villagers.

"…Amazing. I've never seen anything like it," said Neji, referring to Shivaroku's actions.

"Indeed. He did quite well, but of course our senseis helped out too," said Shino.

"Man that guy is strong…damn, guess he should be my rival too," said Kiba.

"How many rivals are you going to have? You haven't even caught up to Naruto yet," retorted Shino.

"Hey, Naruto's not all that great! Besides, I can do that too…someday!"

"Yes, indeed! Shivaroku is powerful! He not only has great physical strength but also a youthful passion that allows him to help people!" yelled Lee as he pumped his fists in the air.

"You can say that again, wow he just got 10 times hotter!" said Tenten, as she started to space out from imagining herself with Shivaroku.

"Why are you all so impressed? He put himself at risk AGAIN. He should have followed Asuma Sensei's orders. Because of him, all our sensei had to step in and risk their lives!" shouted Choji.

Ino responded, "Choji calm down. I'm sure they had a plan. Besides, Shivaroku said he would be able to escape if he needed to. It may have been a bit reckless, but everything worked out in the end."

"That doesn't matter. He's so selfish!"

"How is it selfish to try to save as many people as possible, huh Choji?"

"It's selfish because he tried to do everything on his own again."

"That may be, but he risked his life to save everyone else, and he made sure we were all safe too. If anything, that's the opposite of selfish." Choji wanted to respond to Ino's words, but he felt that it would be a waste of time, since she would disagree with him anyway.

Back at the far end of the village, Shivaroku was squatting down as he was slightly out of breath. "Man, I used up quite a bit of chakra," said Shivaroku.

"You did. You managed to save both the villagers and the village…but you should've listened to me. There was no reason for you to risk your life," said Asuma.

"There were still people in the village. I couldn't just leave them there!"

"Well I understand that but there was no reason for you to save the village itself."

"Why not? Their village was about to be destroyed!"

"Before we left the Leaf, we already made preparations. The villagers were to stay in the Hidden Leaf for a while, and then if they wanted, they would leave and get a new home."

"Oh…I didn't know that…But still, I know what it's like to lose a home. I've seen it too. I know the Leaf would help them, but the villagers would have had to change their entire lifestyles, and they would have lost everything they owned. This is their home, they deserve to have it."

Asuma sighed since he realized that Shivaroku had a point. "You're a good kid, Shivaroku. But please don't be that reckless again."

"Hey I said I had a plan. Besides if things got hairy, I would just have Nimbus pull me out," said Shivaroku with a smile.

"Speaking of Nimbus…how exactly are you able to summon and control a cloud? I always thought summoning required a blood contract between the user and an animal," said Kurenai.

"Well during my training with Master Popo, he allowed me to sign my name on a special summoning scroll. Because I apparently proved myself, he said that I would now be able to summon a flying nimbus, said Shivaroku.

"A flying nimbus? You mean there are more?" asked Kurenai.

"Yeah. The source is actually an enormous golden cloud that stands over Master Popo's tower. Depending on how many people you want to fit on it, I can change the size of the Nimbus…of course the bigger it is, the harder it is to control. Thankfully, though, the one I summoned was big enough to save the stragglers but small enough for me to control well."

"Interesting. I learn something new every day it seems. You're quite the Shinobi, Shivaroku."

"I agree! But I have a question too!" said Guy as he walked over to the trio.

Shivaroku looked towards Guy, awaiting his question, and Guy asked, "What the hell was that jutsu you used to hold back the lava? I've never seen anything like it!"

"Oh, you mean the Kamehameha?"

"The Kame-what now?"

"The Kamehameha. It's a technique that my first teacher, the Turtle Sage taught me. It's supposed to be a focused beam of chakra, mixed in with fire nature."

"But why was it blue?"

"Well apparently focusing the chakra beam causes the added fire nature to get hotter, making it go from red to blue. It's almost like a laser I guess compared to a blast of fire."

"That's amazing! Too bad I can't use ninjutsu, otherwise I would be unstoppable with that technique!" Guy had a large grin and gave a thumbs up to Shivaroku.

Asuma and Kurenai laughed at Guy, while Shivaroku smiled and stood back up as he regained some of his strength. The villagers returned to the shore, but before they reentered their village, they praised Shivaroku for saving them. Shivaroku felt a bit embarrassed, because of the huge amount of people cheering for him. Besides, he felt that he wasn't the only one who helped, so he looked at Asuma, Kurenai, and Guy. Asuma understood what Shivaroku was thinking. He patted Shivaroku on the back and gave a slight nod, indicating that Shivaroku should be proud of his accomplishment today.

After the villagers seemed to get used to resettling in their homes, all three shinobi teams made their way back to the village. It was sunset and time for dinner. Asuma decided to treat everyone to a nice barbeque dinner, which instantly made Choji excited. At the table, Shivaroku astounded everyone with how much he could eat. For them it was like another Choji. Asuma facepalmed, realizing that he would lose even more money now because of this. Choji, though, wasn't impressed.

"Hey, Shivaroku! I challenge you to an eating contest!" yelled Choji, as he pointed at Shivaroku

"An eating contest?" Shivaroku smiled as he asked this. "Alright you're on!"

Asuma made a face of pure dread, as he realized that he would go broke very soon because of these two gluttons. The other Genin were shouting, cheering both Shivaroku and Choji on. After about 6 full course meals, Shivaroku got full and gave up. Choji smiled in his triumph, and tried to prove himself more, but after a few more bites of the 6th course's dessert, he realized he was done too. Somehow after such hostility between Shivaroku and Choji, the two found something they could connect on—food. Was it the start of a new friendship?

Asuma opened his wallet and poured out whatever Ryo he had in there, but he didn't have anywhere near enough to cover everyone, especially after the contest. Asuma then gave a look at Kurenai and Guy, screaming for help with his face, but Kurenai and Guy looked away and tried to weasel out of paying. Shivaroku couldn't help but laugh at Asuma's situation, but feeling that most of the cost was because of him and Choji, he took out his wallet scroll and summoned one of his many wallets. He then set the money on the table, telling Asuma to keep his. Everyone was in shock at how Shivaroku could just casually pay for everything. Even if a Genin saved up money from all their missions, they wouldn't have nearly that much to pay for such a lavish feast.

"How the heck did you come across all that money?!" asked Kiba, accusingly.

Shivaroku scratched his face as a bead of sweat came down the side of his head, and said, "Well um…As a kid I entered a lot of martial arts tournaments, and I usually came in 1st, except a couple times. They pay out a lot."

"Martial arts tournaments? But I thought Shinobi were barred from entering them," said Neji.

"Well yes they are…but I wasn't a Shinobi at the time."

"What a loophole…man I wish I could enter tournaments and win all that money," said Kiba as his face drooped down.

Everyone began to laugh, and Asuma thanked Shivaroku profusely. Shivaroku was a bit embarrassed, as he didn't mean to flaunt his wealth like that. He looked around the table at all the happy faces, making him remember the times he would eat with his dear Grandpa Gohan. Gohan was strong, but he was also so caring and funny. He always made great food and never failed to make Shivaroku laugh. After losing his only family, Shivaroku felt that he was alone for a long time. Roshi and Popo may have been with him, but they were just his teachers. After a mission where he worked together with everyone and a fun, relaxing feast with his new friends, Shivaroku finally realized that he had a new home—a new family.