Hi guys. Hope you're having a good day so far!
If not, hopefully this chapter cheers you up just a little.
Enjoy!
A few hours later, Choji was back in the park that he was training in for the past few days.
The grass was green, and the smell of autumn flowers filled the air. Children were playing, the geese were honking, and Choji felt the prickly feeling of the monkey bar under his palms.
Also, he was losing feeling in both of his arms.
"Little boy, you're not getting down there until I tell you to."
Choji was on the verge of tears.
"You dare use my techniques on me- I mean your own allies?"
"...Sorry, masked-man, I have no excuse," Choji said, hanging on for dear life.
Under him was a bucket of ice cold water, which Naruto put down to "motivate" the boy to stay hanging.
"From now on, I forbid you to use your power to fight back unless you absolutely must."
"Understood, sensei… I'm sorry again, I lost control," Choji said.
Sensing sincerity in his voice, Naruto decided to play around just a little bit more before letting him go.
"To be so drunken by power, you almost hit your friends! Have I truly failed you, young disciple?"
"No! You haven't! You were the best teacher ever, you're my hero, masked-man!"
"Stop calling me masked man, little boy."
"What should I call you then? Can I have your name?"
"... Keep calling me masked man, little boy."
"Yeah… you wouldn't have a mask if you were going to tell me your name, would you, masked man?"
"Correct, very astute, little boy. My final lesson before departing with you is this. True power shines greatest when hidden! So you must use it only when absolutely necessary. As Sun Tzu said, seem strong when you are weak, and weak when you are strong."
"Of course! That's why Naruto always sleeps in class, even though he could dominate the entire school!"
"Exactly, little boy. I shall depart now."
Naruto walked up to Choji, and gave him a few pats on the shoulder. "Good luck out there, disciple. I wish you nothing but good luck and fortunes.
"You too, sensei. Can I get off now?"
"No."
"When can I get off then?"
"When you figure out how to, I'm leaving now. Later nerd."
With these words, Naruto zoomed out of the park, leaving behind a confused Choji.
It was only after he had left that Choji realized that the masked man had put a handcuff on his left arm to the monkey bar.
"NOOOOOOOO COME BACKK!""
Taking off his mask, Naruto headed towards his mother's Taekwondo gym. It was Friday, so it closed early, which was perfect for what he needed to do.
Really need to get a better mask… it's too bland and uncomfortable.
Opening the door to the gym with his key, he threw off his shoes as he entered his mother's workplace.
If all goes well, I won't need to use it again, anyways…
"Oi, Dog-cunt, wakey wakey," Naruto said, jerking the boy back to the real world.
Kiba blinked, the face of Naruto Namikaze inches away from him. The room's lights were off, so the only illuminations were the rays that poked through the dark curtains of the room.
Goodbye legs, it was nice knowing you guys with full functionality…
"What the hell happened? Why was Choji about to body slam you?"
It was at this moment when Kiba realized that Naruto had probably not seen most of it.
He explained everything that had happened, not missing any details. Kiba didn't have any reason to lie, given that Naruto could find out that he was very easily.
"Go home now Kiba, second chances don't come by that often."
Scurrying away, Kiba limped towards the elevators. A few minutes later, Naruto himself stood up, stretched out loud, and made his way home as well.
He recalled the events of the past few days. Although initially he had no intentions of helping Choji out to the extent that he did, he was happy with the outcome. So long as he kept half an eye out for what happens in the classroom, something like this wouldn't happen again.
Drifting into thoughts as he passed the familiar concrete streets, the urban hustle of cars, workers, and friends were drowned out.
The only reason why he wore that mask was to rid himself of the possibility of his parents/classmates finding out that he was now some sort of "hero figure" in his school.
He still stood by the idea that it really shouldn't be his responsibility to take care of everyone in the classroom, but Sasuke seemed to disagree with that.
Naruto, however, had learned the hard way that taking care of everyone also meant that you'd lose a part of yourself eventually. He'd already promised to the Doc that he'd try to make it through the remaining years of highschool without causing a disaster, and he'd already broken it twice; he wasn't going to do it again.
He hated breaking promises.
With these thoughts in mind, Naruto approached the intersection a few blocks away from his location of departure. Waiting for the signal to turn red, the sun shone down on the streets of Konoha. The buildings were a mix of vintage and new, the apartments made of bricks mixing with the sleek design of start-up company buildings. The people were constantly in a hustle to get from place to place.
As the light turned red, Naruto moved forward and into an alleyway, a distinct smell of natural gas intensifying as he approached the garbage bin.
Man, why did everything smell so… intense? Was it part of the serum?
His senses were always acute, but this was a whole other level.
Better get used to it quickly; I don't want to have to wear nose plugs for the rest of my life…
He pulled out the black mask that he had used to disguise his identity for the past few days.
Looking back, it was pretty fun; intercepting a gang fight, and helping a poor boy with his bully. Even if the Doc found out, he was sure that Sarutobi wouldn't blame him for what he did.
He was just about to drop it into the pile of black garbage bags when he felt the same tingling sensation that he had felt throughout the week.
Only this time, it was as if it were dialled to 1000.
Walking back to the main street. He scanned his surroundings. His instincts were going haywire, and he wasn't sure why.
Left.
Instantly, he looked to his left, and focused his eyes.
About 200 meters away, a bus was swivelling through the street, causing cars to blare their horn and move out of the way as the vehicle drifted from lane to lane, ignoring traffic signs and causing civilians to stare.
I hate my life…
Naruto quickly considered his options, bouncing on his feet a few times before throwing his backpack into the alleyway and putting the mask back on.
One last time. I swear.
Moving through the people on the streets, who were slowing down to see what was going on across the street from them, Naruto ran between them with minimal effort and approached the nearest bus stop.
Is it going to stop here?
The bus skid to a stop, crashing into a few cars in front as it placed itself diagonally in front of the bus stop. Naruto hid behind the booth of the bus stop. Many people were staring now, some pulling out their phones to record what was happening.
Is the driver having a heart attack?
Naruto focused his senses, listening into the conversation inside the bus from far away.
"Move the fucking bus, old man!"
"Why are we stopping? We're not there yet!"
"P-please! I have children at h-home-"
The horrible sound of bones breaking made Naruto cringe as the bus driver screamed.
To Naruto, the situation became much more obvious now. It was probably some vagabonds looking to hijack a bus of all public transit vehicles for their own purposes.
A bus? Seriously?
In any case, as necks started to turn, Naruto used the cover of a parallel parked silver Honda Civic to approach the diagonally parked bus.
From the outside, some people were beginning to realize what was going on.
Some were dialling 911, some were taking videos, and others walked away, not wanting to get caught in the carnage.
Naruto quietly slipped through the window, right next to a terrified woman and her infant child.
She widened her eyes as a black-clad man in a mask crawled through the window next to her seat. He didn't particularly look friendly, but it seemed like the only person who noticed him was her; everyone else in the bus was either terrified of the situation, or were the ones terrorizing the good citizens of Konoha.
"Who-"
"Shh!"
Naruto shushed her, a finger on his mouth hole.
"It's okay, it's okayy! I'm a nice guy, just keep quiet, okay? I'll try to get rid of these guys," he whispered.
The woman nodded, clenching her baby close to her, hanging on to what little hope she had left provided by the new passenger.
"Did you call the police yet?"
"N-no… they took away our phones…" she whispered. Sniffling her nose as she tried to wipe away her tears. "Please… my daughter's only 10 months old…"
The inside of the bus was as filthy as he imagined it to be as he quickly analyzed his surroundings. Was that a poster about an adult store?! The passengers mostly had their heads down, terrified of what was going on as one of the assailants moved the moaning driver out of the way and took off.
Five guys to take down, huh?
They were wearing jeans and a blue jacket, their faces covered with bandannas and sunglasses. Besides the fact that they were the only ones standing up, they were easily recognizable.
"You guys all stay down! If I see any of you guys move, you're getting thrown out the bus with your neck sliced open!"
Naruto groaned as the woman beside him started shaking, sobbing silently.
Not because he particularly was annoyed by the woman, but because when the mother started crying…
"WaaaaaAAAAA!"
Can I quit this job? Where's the return save button…
The baby started crying as she sensed her mother's fear. Her voice started rising harder as Naruto tried to quickly quiet her down.
"Hey hey! It's okay, it's okay, please stop crying, please stop cry-"
"Someone shut that baby up!"
Naruto continued to try to control the baby as the mother desperately tried to as well, her hands shaking as she patted the baby on the back.
One of the criminals approached Naruto's pair of seats that he shared with the woman and the baby, his eyebrows visibly furrowed between his awkwardly middle-parted brown hair.
"Shut the baby up, or it's going through the window."
The woman panicked harder, shushing her baby with tears in her eyes.
The gleaming blade inside the man's hand glared into Naruto's eyes, its sharp edges thirsting for blood. His leather gloves grasped around the black handle, pointed directly towards the baby.
"I don't know if you've ever had to deal with a baby before, but they're not exactly fully sentient. Then again, you're hijacking a public bus, so I'm not too surprised that your brain doesn't grasp the simplest of concepts."
"Why you egg-"
Naruto grabbed the man by the collar, and threw him out of the open window.
He was caught by surprise, letting out an uncharacteristically girly scream as he landed on his stomach, his nose, legs, and a few ribs breaking instantly on
impact.
The commotion alerted everyone inside the bus, including the four terrorists remaining, one driving the vehicle.
The woman next to him in particular stared at him with surprise.
"I didn't think I'd have to do this twice in one day… Y'all ever learn that manners," Naruto said, grabbing onto the handle of one of the many metal rods in place for passengers to hold onto.
"Maketh," Naruto grunted, bending the metal.
"Man?!" with a huge tug, Naruto pulled a part of the metal out of place, a makeshift baton in his hands.
"I'm giving you exactly one chance and ten seconds to drop your shit and get outta here before I wipe this dirty-ass bus with the inside of your asshole, asshole."
With his newfound weapon, he found himself up against one against three. His breath hastened in his mask, an uncomfortable, moist feeling forming ever so slightly on his lower face.
In the corner of the bus, a slightly overweight boy with glasses turned around with the phone facing him.
"Yo whaddup guys, SkinnyPenis618 here back at it again with ANOTHER live stream. Today, the craziest thing happened! First I became a hostage in some sort of hijacking situation, and this dude with a mask showed up and started throwing those bad guys out of the bus. Anyways, I did some martial arts when I was a kid, so I'm going to go right ahead and try to rate this fight."
The man closest to him took off his sunglasses, revealing one scarred eye.
"You're either an idiot, or stupidly brave. But then again, those two are essentially the same thing," he said, putting a hand into his pocket. "But can your knight in shining armor act last when I do this?"
He pointed glock-18 towards Naruto's mask, right between his eyeballs.
Eyes widening, for a second, Naruto was ready to throw his hands in the air in a universal sign of surrender, but he remembered something crucial from not too long ago.
Wait… I've done this before.
But even with the fact that he had dodged a few bullets, he didn't know how he did it, and so he wasn't sure if he could do it again.
This better work…
"Yap."
"Then you die."
BANG.
BANG.
BANG.
The gunshots echoed inside the bus, a light ringing noise forming in Naruto's ears. Most of the victims in the cart had now put their hands over their ears with their heads down. Many were starting to cry, as they believed that a murder had just taken place.
However, Naruto's instincts had screamed for him to move in three different directions with infinitesimally small intervals. His body moved almost too smoothly, moving before the bullets even left the cartilage.
His own panic, however, arose at the last second for the third bullet, and Naruto moved too erratically; betraying his own instincts had cost him a wound as the bullet grazed his left arm.
"Holy shit folks! Did you just see that dude dodge them bullets? Damn, this is a 100% real scenario guys, I swear, like and subscribe if you want to see more content like this!"
Naruto felt his skin break as nerves screamed in his left arm.
The man in front of him looked bewildered beyond his belief.
"How on Earth did you do that?!"
"No idea, bro."
With his dominant hand down, the man was now completely unaware and confused. So, Naruto swung his own makeshift weapon at the man's temple.
Temporarily stunned from pain and dizziness, he was unable to do anything as Naruto grabbed his collar and threw him out the window as well.
A second uncharacteristically girly scream was drowned out as the bus moved forward.
"What the fuck is going on back there?"
The driving criminal screamed back to his partners, who were too busy staring down Naruto to respond.
They both had knives, while Naruto held the metal baton in a reverse grip in front of him.
The same feeling of clarity he felt when fighting the jumpers last week returned to his mind as the entire world came into hyperfocus.
He could feel the sweat under his mask, the cries of the hostages around him, the rumbling of the engine under his feet, and the cold metal under the palm of his right hand. Everything was so… intense!
He liked this feeling.
"Yo what's that?" the black-haired man asked, pointing at the ceiling.
"Heh?" Naruto looked up at the ceiling, expecting a bird or something to have landed on the transparent roof-window.
"It's a distraction, turd blossom."
The man to his left charged, his knife out in front of him aiming for Naruto's heart.
Looking back just in time, Naruto's inner mind exploded with thoughts.
Wha… What the heck?
Naruto's opponent smiled sadistically as the boy stayed unmoving while his knife grew closer and closer towards his target.
…it's so obvious?!
Naruto saw the knife head towards his heart with confusion. It was as if he was moving in slow motion; it was so slow!
Easily moving to the side and dodging the knife, Naruto grabbed his extended arm and pulled him forward, putting him off balance. Grabbing the man's head in an inverted headlock, Naruto used his own weight to slam his head into the bus floor with the combined force of his and the man's weight.
DDT (Wrestling)
A move in which the attacker grabs the defender with a forward/inverted headlock, falling down backwards to drive the defender's head into the floor.
While on the ground however, the last delinquent swung with his own knife, which was met by Naruto's metal rod.
A clear clanging noise reverberated, followed by the horrible noise of metal scratching on each other.
Naruto was holding back the man with a reverse grip on his left hand, while his attacker was putting his entire weight into his needlessly large knife.
"I'm sorry, little one," Naruto said.
"What-"
Naruto sent an upwards kick towards the man's groin, instantly removing his fertility. There was a horrified look on the man's face as one of his testicles was flattened by Naruto's shin.
He was sent crawling on the floor, whimpering in pain as blood started pooling around his most precious area. He wasn't sure if he should move or stand still, as even the slightest movement sent shockwaves of pain and insanity right into the man's brain.
With the most unfortunate timing in the world, the bus went over a speed bump, the bus shaking hard going over the minuscule hill.
The man screamed as his body was lifted into the air, his voice shrill and deafening.
The driver slowed the bus down as he reached the rendezvous location, and stared back at the state of the vehicle. The hostages were slowly lifting their heads and sending looks or messages of thanks to their saviour, while one of his friends were unconscious on the ground, two missing, and the last one without the ability to reproduce.
He swallowed hard as the black-clad masked man approached him.
"Have you ever gone streaking before?"
A third uncharacteristic girl scream echoed through a street in Konoha as a fully grown man with tattoos covered his private parts while running towards no direction in particular, blood coming out of his nose and mouth, bruises forming on his chest.
Naruto slowly got out of the bus, and noticed that he was now in the Northern half of Konoha. As Konoha began in this turf, the buildings were less developed, but there was a melancholy and romantic mood of the narrow streets and low-hanging electric wires.
"Alright guys, I think you can come out now…"
As Naruto held the door open for people to exit, he heard many words of thanks as the hostages were finally back in a safe situation.
"Ayo dude in the mask! Want to do a quick interview for the views?"
Naruto tilted his head in confusion as a boy in glasses, seemingly similar to his age, approached him.
Oh great, he was filming…
"Not really, go home now kid."
He heard a few people calling the police in the background, which was most definitely his cue to leave; he had no intention of having to come face to face with his parents and explain to them why and how he broke up a gang fight.
Left.
I swear, if I feel "LeFT" one more time…
Naruto peaked to his left, only to see the sight of another hijacked bus coming towards their location. Black smoke was exiting from its back, the stench of burning plastic caught by Naruto's super scent.
However, this wasn't the only thing that caught his attention.
A girl with familiar pale skin and bright red hair, accompanied by her friends. They were laughing, talking about something that was funny for them.
The hell is she doing in Northern Konoha?!
What concerned him most was that the burning bus was headed right towards them, and as far as he knew, he wasn't sure if he could make it.
Body filling with adrenaline, Naruto shot forward so quickly the muscles in his quads and calves tore as he moved at inhuman speeds. His body low and arms behind him for optimized aerodynamic movement, he heard a scream as he crossed the intersection to where his sister was.
Please!
Another scream came from in front of him when one of her friends realized that a burning bus was about to end their lives just as Naruto crashed forward, friction tearing at his legs, side, and neck as he landed on the left side of his body. Ignoring the pain, he quickly stood up on his feet and prepared for impact.
Naruto really didn't have any idea why he was doing this; even he knew that there was absolutely no way he would be able to stop a bus weighing thousands of pounds at 30 miles per hour with his bare hands.
His mind was whirling at mach 10 as the world seemed to slow down, the bus coming right at him.
That enhancer better be good… don't fail me now!
The bus slammed into his arms, his elbow screaming in agony as the joint was put under the force of his muscles against the incoming bus.
His hands felt numb as he scrunched his eyes on impact.
When he opened them, the bus was lifted at a 30 degrees incline, and the interior of the bus was not perceivable through the broken glass.
?
Naruto's mind blanked out as he relaxed his muscles, allowing the bus to crash into the concrete ground with a massive thud, whatever glass that remained intact shattering all over the bus and ground. All four tires were punctured as the bus started leaking oil.
How the hell did I do THAT? Enhancer my ass; this is a literal superpower!
Until now, Naruto was under the impression that he was given a temporary steroid of sorts, but this was on a completely different level.
Just as confused as Naruto was, he felt the stare of four girls behind him as he stood awkwardly in the middle of the street after catching a burning vehicle from murdering them. They either had fallen to the floor, or had their hands covering their mouths in fear.
His instincts were what broke him out of his stunned state.
Danger. Oil.
Naruto looked over at the bus, and noticed that the vehicle was leaking oil. He'd seen enough movies to see what would happen next.
"Everyone, get out! This thing's gonna blow!" Naruto screamed, getting into the bus and warning the people inside the bus.
He stared down about seven guys who were dressed similarly to the ones he just beat up.
Oh great…
Thanks for reading, and as always, reviews are greatly appreciated! ^^.
Next chapter: Kurama, The Nine-tailed fox
