The Dragon Dilemma
I don't own Naruto and Zoids
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"Talking"
'Thoughts'
/-- Scene change
)-()-( Different point of view
?-? Flash back
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Chapter 15
Both Sakura and him were waiting for Naruto and Kakashi for about an hour now. Both weren't really paying attention, for they were use to being bore out of their minds for about three hours, so he was stunned when their old teacher, Iruka, is standing before them and gained their attention by making a throaty noise.
Sakura asks, "What's wrong?" The chunin does look worried and says, "Something happened to Naruto, Kakashi asked me to inform you that you don't have to wait for him." He stiffens and demands, "What happened?" Iruka sighs and says, "A group of villagers and some ninja set fire to Naruto's house with him inside. The Third Hokage managed to save Naruto and is currently busy with the mob that had been watching the house burn down. Kakashi is busy making sure nobody tries anything against Naruto." He nods, dumbfounded that there were ninjas willing to help kill their team mate. His mind is reeling that most of what Naruto told him was reality for the blond.
Niether noticed that their old teacher had left, they were too busy trying to accept the fact that a mob consisting of villagers and ninja tried to off their team mate. After standing there dumbfounded, he begins to walk away, he didn't know where he was going just that he wanted to be alone.
)-(Shadow)-(
He moves through the dark areas of the village in hopes of encountering his friend and partner. They had arranged that it so that once Naruto finds a new apartment, that the blond would meet up with him and tell him where it's located. Because of this, he was beginning to get worried about the blond child.
A pair of passing villages passing him were exchanging news, the elder was speaking to the younger, "I can't believe Lord Hokage saved that demon from that burning house! He shouldn't have been allowed to live pass infancy. Now the Third is disbanding the council until further notice." He growls and steps out from his hiding place, furious that they were speaking ill of Naruto. The pair look stunned and froze, he soon kills the pair without any remorse.
He looks at where the hospital is located and knows that Naruto would have been taken there. 'It's time for us to leave.' Were his thoughts as he once more steps back into the shadows and waits for night to fall before making his move to retrieve his partner from the hospital.
)-(Kakashi)-(
Watching as the chest of the blond genin rise and fall were really the only sign that Naruto was alive. According to the staff, all the monitor machines were all being used and that they have none to spar. He didn't have much energy to argue, more worried about protecting Naruto then anything else. He was lucky that Iruka had been in for a visit with one of his students and he asked the chunin to find the members of his cell and tell them what happened and that there will be no missions today.
He can't believe how fragile the blond boy was as he watches the sleeping preteen. It truly was hard to connect the boy before him to the huge winged beast that the boy had transformed into during the battle with Orochimaru. "How is he doing?" The Third's voice asks softly from behind him. "His lungs are being repaired by the fox's charka; he had breathed quite a bit of smoke. Nothing else seems to be wrong." He answers without turning around.
Either of them spoke for a few minutes, each lost in their own little worlds until the Third Hokage breaks the silences hanging in the air. "I've disbanded the council until further notice. Those that were part of the mob are currently in custody and I have Ibiki interrogating them for more information concerning who's all part of the conspiracy and what their alternate plans are." Old man Sarutobi informs him. He looks over at the Hokage and can see beyond the Hokage get up to see the tired old man that's behind the title.
He looked over at Naruto and then back at the Third. "I might as well go grab something to eat." He says and gets up off the chair he's sitting on. The Third doesn't look his way as he leaves the room.
)-(Shadow)-(
Night has fallen about three hours ago. He's standing below the window where Naruto is resting. He opens up his back, his black wings stretch open and he activates his jets. He doesn't enter through the window where Naruto's resting, but through the wall below that room. He then bursts from the floor, scaring the two ninjas that were on guarding duty. He lands before Naruto's bed and takes away the blanket.
He has mixed feelings about the fact that Naruto isn't hooked up to any equipment. He opens up and the wires warp around Naruto's legs and then begin to pull the sleeping blond towards him. As the blond draws closer, more wires snake their way around the blond. Soon Naruto's within him and as he turns to jet out of the room; the two ninjas recover enough to attack him. He growls irritably as kunai clink off his body. He swats the one trying to attack him physically with his tail, sending that one into the other.
He faces the window and rams through the wall with no real problem. He ascends higher into the air as he flies off into the night with his friend and partner. Soon he makes it to the Liger Zero and fuses with it, sending Naruto into the cockpit without any trouble. Bonded to the Liger's core, he pilots the Zoid away from Hidden Leaf, heading north for now. Not caring about where they're headed as long as they get far away from Hidden Leaf.
)-(Sasuke)-(
It's been a whole year since that small, black dragon Zoid abducted Naruto and they have yet found any leads as to where either of them were. After about a month, most of the disbanded council had met in private and decided to have Naruto classified as an A ranked missingnin. Of course the Third and others disrupted the meeting and captured those that were participating in the illegal meeting. They were striped of their ranks and dishonoured, though some members of the village tried to defend their actions but they were silenced once the Third mentioned that they would share the same fate as the ex-council members.
Things settled down for about two months before some villagers hired missingnins to break the ex-council members out of the building that they had been imprisoned in. It was then that news that Naruto is the carrier of the nine tailed demon fox that attacked Hidden Leaf all those years ago leaked out to the younger generations.
Funny how none of the kids shared the same view of Naruto as their parents, it seems that the younger ones believed that if Naruto was truly the fox demon then Naruto would have destroyed Hidden Leaf once the blond was able to use charka. Some of the real young kids even thought it would be cool to have something that powerful inside them, to make them super strong, not that he blames them, he would give an arm or a leg for the privilege for it would help in his quest to kill his elder brother.
Sadly, once he researched the topic, it seems there's a reason why a new born is able to survive once the demon's seal within them, for adult's charka pathways were very much set and would break under the strain of having a demon sealed within them. For the infant's charka pathways weren't really formed and therefore can adapt to having demonic charka within them.
The chunin exams had been called off, surprisingly not by Hidden Leaf but by Hidden Sand, Hidden Rain, and Hidden Mist. It seems that every Hidden village is busy collecting Zoids as well as battling with them. He just can't keep the smirk off his face as he thinks about the kind of battles Shadow Fox and him have been in.
He just tones out the argument that Ino and Sakura are currently having as they walk through the village. Their mission was simple, deliver the message scroll to one Tsunade, who is one of the Legendary Sannin. He thought it was a piece of cake truth be told, that is until they learnt that nobody knows her current location and the reason why they received this was simple, most of the jonin were busy searching and piloting Zoids back to Hidden Leaf.
Also the existence of Zoids is now common knowledge for the last four months. How it happened was debatable and just down right confusing when he tries to think about it. All anyone will agree on was that a group of unknown Ninjas that were piloting two Lightning Saix and two Konig Zoids were chasing this white Liger Zoid. Two Sound nin pilots, three Earth nin pilots, one Mist nin pilot, six Zoids being piloted by non ninjas, and lastly two Leaf nin pilots. The Leaf ninjas' one of the Zoids that they were piloting had been a Gun Tiger and Sabre Tiger, the Sound's Zoids were Killer Dome and Hammer Rock, the Mist's Zoid was a Saicurtis, the Earth's Zoids were two Iron Kongs and Rev Raptor, and lastly the non-ninjas' Zoids were two Shield Ligers, Saberlion, Geno Saurer, Red Horn, and Command Wolf.
To say that is was a huge mess is an understatement, it was… it was… ok he didn't know what it was but he's kind of disappointed that he hadn't taken part in the disastrous battle that took place. He bet that he would have at least taken out the Red Horn within the first three minutes of the battle. Gallingly, it was the white Liger that came out of that battle with the least amount of damage. Nobody knew who had been piloting that Liger or any of the other four Zoids, though those that had been piloting the latter abandoned the Zoids soon after they had been disabled. Leaf claimed one of the Lightning Saixs though and the non-ninjas fought tooth and nail to keep their Zoids by banding together.
It was during them trying to clean up the aftermath of the battle did someone found the scene and then blabbed to people in the nearest town about what they saw. It didn't take long for the story to spread through gossip. He's not going to even think about some of the stories he heard, for there're pure fictional.
He snaps out of it at a sight of a casino. He motions for the two extremely annoying girls to quiet down. Once they had he then walks into the casino to ask if they know where Tsunade is, for it's his turn. He scuffs as he remembers the five other towns they stopped at in hopes of finding this 'Famous Sucker.'
)-(Naruto)-(
He shakes his head at the broken bodies of three members of the Akatsuki. The red chakra of the demon fox fades and he looks at where Shadow had been. He sighs in relief as he two blue glowing eyes appear from the shadows. He relaxes and Shadow growls, "The library isn't booby trapped." He nods and he's tired from the fight, killing never sat well with him, even if the Akatsuki wouldn't haste to kill those that get in their way. He's only lucky that he had more then a few tricks up his sleeve that the group didn't expect him to know, let alone perform.
'I just hope we find what we're looking for. I hope that fur ball enjoyed that fight, for if things work out, it'll be the last time I'll ever need to kill someone.' He thinks as he follows his best friend and partner down the tunnel that leads to the library.
To be continued …