Demon, Launching
Naruto looked up at the mobile suit and sad smile spread to his face. "It's a shame that I won't be able to pilot it."
Everybody else in the room when silent, Sakura couldn't understand it, those two were suppose to be the pilots of the new mobile suit, Kakashi had told Neji that he will be piloting the Luster, but now Naruto was saying that isn't able to pilot the Demon.
"What do you mean you aren't able to pilot the mobile suit?" Sakura asked, her curiosity getting the best of her, the gaze of the other five people in the room went down to the floor as Naruto tuned around to face the pink-haired girl. "Oh, it's nothing really," Naruto said give Sakura a grin, but the girl immediately knew it was just to hide his sadness. "You see I did something about a week ago, and the council decided that I couldn't be trusted to pilot the new Gundam, the real reason that I'm in this ship is because I have to go to LEAF headquarters back to receive my punishment." Naruto finished, trying to make the matter sound worthless.
"But, what did you do?" The girl asked, her curiosity winning once again, Naruto's face show that he didn't wanted to talk about the subject. "It's nothing, just forget it, the council will decide on another pilot for the Demon soon enough." The blond placed his hands behind his head and started to make his way out of the storage room, "Shikamaru, come on let see how long does it take me to piss Kiba off." Both Shikamaru and Neji turned around and followed the blond out.
"Is he serious?" Sakura asked watching the retrieving bond's back. "Yeah his quite serious," Kakashi said as he glanced at the three boys. "I think if he wanted to, he could drive Kiba into committing suicide." Kakashi finished lazily. "What? No, I mean about the Demon, does the council really doesn't trust him with it?"
Kakashi's face darkened immediately, "The council is been stupid." The captain said. "At least the majority, they just don't like Naruto, but I doubt that they'll be able to another pilot that would be able to use the Demon better than Naruto, or at all." The silver-haired man said. "What do you mean? I thought that this was the first time he saw the new mobile suits." A confused Sakura said.
"Well you see, this is the first time they see the Gundams, but they've been running simulation with their data for a while, and it shows that the Demon is really hard to control, not even Neji was able to do much with it, only Naruto is capable to pilot it," Kakashi said. "After all the Demon was practically made for Naruto."
Sakura stood there, thinking on what had happen, what the blond and the captain had said, "Well, Hinata I think we better get to the bridge before Kiba decides to kills himself, Sakura? Iruka? Are you coming?" The silver haired man asked. "Yes" Sakura responded as she and Hinata started to make their way out. "No, I'll just stay here in the hangar." Iruka said, "We have to get the Luster ready for when it's needed." Kakashi just nodded and follow the girls out of the storage room.
When the three of them entered the bridge, Sakura took a moment to look around, the only adult in the room was Kakashi, there were two other girls beside Hinata in the bridge, a brow-haired name Tenten, and a blond name Ino, both girls had pink uniform just like Hinata's.
Sakura's gaze turned to look at two black-haired boys at the sides, one was Shino, he wore a pair of sunglasses and a white uniform, the other one was Lee, he was an enthusiastic boy that seemed to have a crush on Sakura, he had been hitting on her for three days, and wore a blue uniform.
After that, Sakura saw Kiba, he had black spiky-hair and wore a blue uniform. Kiba seemed upset about something, since he was swearing under his breath, Sakura's eyes adverted to the other side of the bridge, there she saw Naruto and Neji standing next to a sitting Shikamaru, both-black haired boys had smirks on their faces while the blond was chuckling.
"How long did it take?" Kakashi asked as he took the captain's seat, "Nineteen seconds," Shikamaru answered, the smirk still on his face, Kiba sent a glare at the black-haired teen before returning to the monitors. All the guys in the bridge stated laughing, except for Shino who only smirked, and Kiba who kept on swearing.
"So Shikamaru, where's Chouji?" Naruto asked trying to hold back his laughing, "He ate a week's worth of food in one meal, so he was put on kitchen duty with specific instructions to not eat the food, according to him, it's unbearable being so close to the food and been unable to eat it, so his a little touchy right now." Shikamaru respond lazily.
Sakura noticed the mischievous look that came to the blonde's face as soon as he heard Shikamaru's answer. "So, he's in a bad mood this day. Well I think I'll head over to the kitchen now." Naruto said with a smirk on his face while Neji just rolled his eyes, and Shikamaru whispered. "Troublesome."
But before the blond could step out of the room, the alarm in the bridge went off. "Sir, the radars have picked up a SOUND spaceship coming straight towards us." Shikamaru exclaimed. "The must have follow our ship." Naruto said as he turned around.
"Sir, we detected mobile suits coming towards us." Lee said as he checked all his monitors and radars. "Can you identify them?" Kakashi asked. "They're Ginns," Lee responded. "And there are TEN of them." Lee exclaimed.
Kakashi look took a second to think over the situation before he turned to Neji. "Go and get ready, we're going to launch the Luster." Neji just nodded and walked out of the room. Kakashi turned to look at the rest of his crew. "Everybody else, level one battle stations." The captain said, his face had no trace of laziness.
Neji entered the hangar, instead of his white uniform, now he was wearing a white and black pilot suit. The preparations for the Luster were finished and Neji was about to enter the cockpit when he turned around at looked at the hangar's floor to find his blond companion looking up at him.
Naruto looked at Neji in his eyes and gave him a nod before he gave him a grin and a thumbs-up. Neji just nodded to the blond and gave him a smirk; the black haired teen climbed into the cockpit, close it, and began the Luster's configuration sequence.
The hangar was completely clear as the Luster began to advance towards the launching platform, and its door began to open. "All systems check." Tenten's voice was heard in the hangar. "ZGY-X77 Luster, clear to launch." Neji started the Luster's engines. "Hyuuga Neji, Luster taking off."
Naruto made it to the bridge just in time to see the Luster flying off from the Raikiri. "Incredible." Lee exclaimed as the Neji activated his Gundam's armor, changing its color from grey to black with white outlines.
The SOUND mobile suits begun attacking as soon as the spotted the Luster, Neji was able to dodge the blasts form the Ginns' riffles with ease. As the Luster got closer to the group of mobile suits, a large energy been came out of its right arm, the first Ginn was helpless as the Neji made a circular motion and cut the enemy mobile suit in half.
"Wow" Was all Kiba could say at the Gundam's performance. Immediately Neji set both of his mobile suit's arms into blaster mode, unfortunately all nine remaining Ginns scattered to dodge the attack. "That must be LEAF's new weapon." One of the SOUND soldiers alleged. "If it's nine on one I think we can take it." Another soldier said.
All nine Ginns started to shoot their missiles towards the Luster; Neji instantly backed away and send the Luster's missiles to intersect the incoming ones. The smoke cause by the missiles gave Neji the cover to use his saber and stab one of the Ginns right through the cockpit. "Bastard" One of the enemy soldiers as the other eight Ginns started to shoot at the Luster.
Now Neji was in a predicament, blast came form eight different directions and he could barely keep up. The black-haired teen tried to use his missiles to stop the attacks, sadly all missiles were destroyed, and the moment the Luster stopped moving three blasts connected, one on its back and the other two on its chest.
"He's getting his ass kick out there." Naruto said clenching his fist. "We never expected that the first fight will be against such a large number of enemies." Kakashi said with a worried look on his face. "They're still too far away for us to do anything." A frustrated Shikamaru said. "And if he get closer or try to run away we will have to deal with their battleship." Shino added.
As the Luster kept on dodging the enemies' attack, Neji was able to get a clear shoot at one of the Ginns. Immediately Neji changed both of the Gundam's arms into blaster mode and targeted the enemy mobile suit, one blast destroyed the Ginn's rifle while the other went straight through the chest, causing the mobile suit to explode.
Unfortunately the explosion distracted Neji long enough for a barrage blast to hit the Luster, instantly Neji tried to go back on the defensive but it proved difficult with the nonstop assault, and since the Luster wasn't equipped with a shield. "Damn." The black-haired teen swore, as the Luster's left arm was damaged.
"This is not looking good." Ino said as they watch what was happening on the screen. "Neji niisan." Hinata whispered. Kakashi was starting to worry; Neji was having a hard time dodging seven different attacks. It was at this moment that something caught the captain's attention. "Where's Naruto?"
Immediately, a transmission from the hangar came to the bridge. "Kakashi we have a problem." It was Asuma, the Raikiri's engineer. "What is it?" Kakashi asked. Instantly, an image of Naruto appeared in the bridge's screen, he was wearing a blue and white pilot suit, and it seems to be in the Demon's cockpit.
"Damn right, you have a problem." The blond shouted. "You better open those doors before I blast them open." Kakashi sighed before looking at the teenager in the screen. "Naruto you can't be there, you're in enough trouble already." The captain said. "I don't care, Neji's in friend and I'm going to help him, don't think I'm bluffing, I will destroy the door if you don't open them." Naruto said raising the Gundam's rifle. Kakashi sighed in defeat. "Very well, commence launch sequence." The captain said. "But sir" replied Lee. "You heard him, and you know that he'll do it if we don't open the doors."
In the hangar, Naruto had finished the configuration sequence and setting up the Demon in the launching platform. "All systems check." Tenten's voice was heard in the platform once again. "ZGY-X79 Demon, clear to launch." Naruto started the Gundam's engines. "Uzumaki Naruto, Demon launching."