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 22
They had trouble from both the Stone nins and Sound nins, though the Sound nins were worst for the simple fact that they all had cursed seals as well as numbers. He wonder's if it was fortunate that they weren't piloting Zoids, but then from what he heard through the grape vine, Orochimaru wanted quantity over quality. That might explain why all of the Sound ninja they have encountered all had cursed seals, to make up for the fact they were poor ninjas without it.
He turns his head to look at Ambient, the red Organoid just returned and has blood on his tail spikes once more. He didn't doubt that Ambient took pleasure in killing things; he figured Ambient was getting great satisfaction as well as a type of revenge out of killing Stone and Sound nins, especially considering that it had been ninjas that had kept him locked up for a little over a year. He watches as Ambient walked towards him, ignoring the looks from some of the other Leaf nins.
Anko had maded a comment when Ambient showed up the first time with blood on his spikes, what her works summed up was that she liked Ambient's 'style' and ever since then, Ambient seemed to take a liking to the crazied Jonin. He doesn't know how long he'll be Ambient's chosen partner now that the dragon Organoid was taking a liking to Anko, he wondered what kind of trouble the pair would get into.
He sighs mentally and wonders when he began to pay attention to the personal lives of the people around him. 'I think it started with Naruto…' He muses to himself as he keeps his amusement inside, looking calm and detached on the outside. He still loathed showing emotion; he just didn't feel comfortable with it, since for the longest time, he had been focused on avenging his clan.
Now he has the task of reviving it and he just felt … in adequate. For one thing, he's yet to find himself really attracted to any girls around him. Also, he has stopped and admired some guys on the simple fact that they looked 'hot.' He wonders if the blame of his inability to be attracted to girls might not be blamed on all of his fan girls, their behaviour might have made him wary of the opposite gender. He decides to talk with a medic ninja once he gets back to Leaf. If he's lucky, he might be one of the few that likes both genders, that is something he decides to hope for.
He blinks once as Ambient stands before him and then turns, motioning that the Organoid want's him to clean the blood off. He digs around in the bag he had unconsciously pulled into his lap once Ambient entered his line of sight. He digs out some of the cleaning soap that's specially made to get rid of blood; he also finds the rag he has within the bag. He puts some of the soap onto the rag and begins to whip away the fresh blood. He has long since grown use to the scent of blood, this being the eleventh time that Ambient has done this.
He finished in twenty-five minutes, a bit of a personal record; the last one had been twenty-nine minutes. He gets up, holding the bag that had been in his lap, and heading off to clean off the bloody rag. Hinata follows after, wanting to fill up here bottle with fresh water. He didn't mind the company; Hinata never did chase after him and often stayed out of everyone's way.
He did study Hinata a bit more as they were kneeling by the stream; he frowns slightly as he wonders why Hinata wears such baggy cloths. He never met a female ninja that didn't flaunt their sexuality, but it seems that Hinata feels very uncomfortable about being the center of attention. He long since concluded that she had a low opinion of herself and of her worth, which he privately decided her family weren't trying to help her over come. He bets that most of her clan couldn't help but wonder how such a timid person could be born into their family, especially as heir to the main branch of the clan.
He mentally sighs and returns to finish cleaning the rag. Once he's done, he notices that Hinata was busy staring off into space. He moves quietly before and puts his free hand onto her shoulder. "We should be heading back." He says softly. Hinata snaps out of whatever she was thinking about and nods, he lets go of her shoulder and takes the lead. He can hear Hinata's foot steps behind him as they walk back towards the campsite; he wonders who'll get stuck cooking super for all of them as they go.
)-(Shadow)-(
He cocks his head to the side as he watches Tobi and Naruto spar; both had grown bored and felt the need to do something. So here they were, sparring with abandonment over a gorge. If he hadn't known better, he'd say that they have some kind of grudge against each other for they really weren't pulling their punches.
He just followed them as they leap around like crickets, meeting briefly mid air to exchange blows. They weren't throwing kunai or throwing star around, saving them for later. So they stuck to the odd ninjutsu and mostly to taijutsu. They have been going at it for a good fifteen minutes and they didn't look like they were ready to slow up or quit. He just hoped they didn't become exhausted after this fight, they still run the risk of being ambushed by either Sound or Stone.
He did notice that Naruto will most likely need to get his hair cut and perhaps re-dyed. It wouldn't hurt for some fresh cloths either, for Naruto's now a teen and will be experiencing growth spurts and other bodily changes before Naruto reaches adult hood. He wonders just how tall the blond will be once he's fully grown and filled out.
He observes Tobi unrolling of one of his drawing scroll with an ink beast drawn on it. He watches as Naruto makes a single hand sign and five water clones appear as the ink swarm of birds launches themselves off the paper and into the air. The six Narutos each take out a kunai and prepare themselves for the attack as the swarm of birds draw closer. Without a single battle cry or other signal, the Narutos as one, leap out of the way of the swarm.
The ink birds transform into six flocks, going after the six Narutos. The six defend themselves from the ink flocks, he watches as the dead birds burst into wet ink once they're destroyed. About two minutes after some of the ink birds getting destroyed did one of the flocks destroy one of the Narutos. He watches as that flock then joins with another in attacking another Naruto.
He glances around for Tobi, he founded the masked nin taking a bit of a rest as the older nin's creations attack his blond friend. Not that it'll do much against the blonds' stamina, the fox demon was also most likely helping to re-energize Naruto too. This means that this wasn't really going to slow Naruto down too much. He watches as Tobi finishes with his breather and begin to make his move towards the now three blonds.
He makes his equivalent of a snort as the real Naruto appears behind the masked nin, revealing that the other Narutos to be clones. The clones and ink birds finish each other off, leaving Tobi and the true Naruto alone on the battle field once more. The two were trying to finish this, for they weren't pulling away from each other like they had in the beginning.
A punch there sent one into a large rock, a kick from him sent the other into the ground hard, a few seconds later a palm knocked the air out of that one and a follow through of a kick sends Tobi towards the edge of the gorge, and Naruto breathing heavily from the same spot where he had kicked Tobi from. Tobi struggles to get up off the ground, wiping some sweat and dirt from around his eye. Naruto takes a defensive stance, after taking a few calming breaths. He would have rolled his eyes if he could as Tobi creates some clones of himself.
Soon the clones engage Naruto in combat, Naruto had some how gotten two kunai out of his pouch and had one in each hand. He found that they were air clones as Naruto destroys one of the nine clones. Naruto grunts in pain as one of the clones hits him in the kidneys. Naruto retaliates by destroying two of the Tobi clones.
'There goes any thought of trying not to get exhausted. I guess I could always just bond with Rogue Liger and stump on the attacking nins.' He thinks as he continues to watch the fight between Naruto and Tobi's clones. For as Naruto finally cuts down one of the Tobi's down to one, the ground under Naruto crumbles and hands pull the blond into the ground. The one Tobi that Naruto had been facing vanish, leaving the real Tobi sitting on a rock behind Naruto. "I believe I win." Tobi says in a tried and amused tone.
Naruto grunts and then sighs, "Just get me out of here." Tobi helps Naruto get out of the ground. Soon the pair comes walking towards him; they were reviewing the fight in a good natured way. He just turns and takes the lead as they head towards where they left the liger. He hears the rumble of the two human's stomach as they come within view of the Zoid.
He wouldn't be the least surprise if they were ambushed right now, he truly wonders just how much luck Naruto and, perhaps Tobi, could produce. They have yet to be ambushed and the few times there had been a patrol in the area, it was usually them doing the ambushing if they thought they could get away with it, which was everytime. 'And that's been five times.' He muses to himself.
Soon Naruto and Tobi were under Rogue Liger, resting even though they were hungry. He picks up the packs and takes them to where the two humans were. He considers something and then decides to risk it. He figures that Tobi was most likely to wake if anything dangerous approached, since it seems that Tobi's habit, which most likely served him well in the past and most likely in the future. He settles himself on the ground within a few feet of Naruto. He then lies down and curls up. He then goes into what's his equivalent of slumber.
)-(Tobi)-(
He's been waken by the emptiness of his stomach. He glances over to his young blond companion and notices the black metal dragon just a bit beyond Naruto. He smiles slightly as he returns to looking at the blond. He resists the urge to move some strands of hair from the teen's face. He sighs softly, easily seeing his old mentor within the demon carrier.
A bit of old fury stirs up as he remembers some of what he's heard of how Leaf had treated the teen. He wonders what his reaction would be if he ever came face to face with his old team mate. He didn't see why Kakashi hadn't tried to take Naruto in as a baby, to look after him like his own son. He shakes his head, guessing that Kakashi had been busy trying to lose himself in doing missions after the Fourth died.
He had to admit that he's surprise at how well train Naruto is, considering the blond never had a real teacher to help him get as good as he is. He glances over at the black Organoid resting a few feet away. His stomach demands food and he looks around for the bags, only to find them just a few feet away. He gets up and walks over to his pack; he pulls out some nutrient bars and began munching on them once he removed his mask.
Once the edge of his hunger is gone, he checks out what time it is. He blinks, surprise that it's only noon. He then begins to start on lunch, taking things out of Naruto's pack to get to the dry meat that the blond has stashed away. He takes out a scroll and soon a large pot appears. He picks it up and walks towards the spring they found a bit south west of where they were.
As he waits for it to fill, he muses about other things, like what he'll do once he kills Orochimaru off or how he'll be able to found his own village. He had promised Zabuza a place in that village. Then there was the fact that he'd most likely run into Kakashi somewhere down the line. He shakes his head as he picks up the filled pot.
He once more glances at Naruto once he finishes setting up the cooking fire. He drops some spices, dry meat, and some roots and mushrooms they found last night into the water. He wonders what will happen once Naruto and Shadow close the gate, he did have this theory that all the Zoids would disappear, returning where they came from. Not that he has a problem with that; ninjas had been coming to depend on them a great deal. Though Zoid are usually awarded to high level ninja like Chunin and Jonin, they would be better equipped to defend themselves from other ninja attempting to steal their Zoid.
Naruto stirs as the soup begins to boil. He doesn't turn around as he listens to the sounds that Naruto getting up off the ground and then walking towards him. "How long have I been napping?" Naruto asks as the blond sits down to his right. "Not long, I only got up about fifteen minutes ago." He informs the blond. He watches as Naruto moves a strand of hair from before his eyes. They waited in silence as their lunch continues to cook, he enjoying the company of the young teen that resembles his mentor and teacher greatly. He hopes that whatever happens once they parted ways that the blond will have some fond memories of him. He prays to whatever god that would listen for Naruto to make his dream a reality before stirring the soup.
To be continued …