This is Ryu Kotei saying sorry that you had to wait so long as I was having trouble with how the fight that will test the Crystal Gems' ranks, but after seeing "The Return/Jail Break" and somehow getting a random idea in my head, I was able to figure out the fight.

On a final note, I do not own Naruto, Steven Universe, or Powerless. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto, Rebecca Sugar, and Linkin Park respectively.

"Believe in Steven!" normal speech

"Believe in Steven!" thought/mind speak

"Believe in Steven!" demon speak

Chapter 23: Contemplation and Tests

*Konohagakure*

Pearl was running through the streets of Konoha in a frantic search for Naruto after the blond disappeared when she had confronted Sakura.

"Naruto!" Pearl called out as she was looking down every turn there was, "Naruto, where are you?"

Said blond was on top of the Hokage Mountainside as he looked over the village below him. Naruto would remember the times when he would climb up here and watch both villager and shinobi go on about their day, unaware of either a deadly future or even the world outside the village walls. Naruto would always feel like an unsung protector that none had ever seen before.

But that was three years ago…

Normally when he was up here, Naruto would sit on the Fourth's head, his father's spot on the mountain, but this time he was sitting on top of the Third's head with many thoughts running through his own head.

Why would the Third not reveal anything about his parents?

Why didn't the Third tell him that there WAS an Uzumaki Clan?

What else was kept from him?

Naruto let out a sigh as he decided to vent out his troubles into the wind…

You hid your skeletons,

When I had shown you mine.

You woke the devil that...

I thought you left behind.

I saw the evidence,

The crimson soaking through.

Ten thousand promises,

Ten thousand ways to lose.

And you held it all,

But you were careless,

To let it fall.

You held it all,

And I was by your side…

Powerless.

Naruto then thought back to whenever he would spend time with the elderly man who had become a grandfather to him. All the times Naruto had confided to him many times when it was possible, the look of pride on the Third's face when Naruto would tell him about how hard he had trained, and of course having a bowl of ramen alongside the elderly man.

Now he was wondering about why the Third didn't tell him…even a small white lie or even a reason as to not tell Naruto who his parents were, Naruto would have even accepted that it was for his own protection that the identity of his parents could be revealed to him at the time.

But now here Naruto is, knowing about his parents as it was told to him that his own father had sealed Kurama inside of him from the Lions and how his mother was like by the very Kyuubi itself.

What more did Hiruzen Sarutobi keep from him?

I watched you fall apart,

And chased you to the end.

I'm left with emptiness,

That words cannot defend.

You'll never know what I became,

Because of you.

Ten thousand promises,

Ten thousand ways to lose.

And you held it all,

But you were careless,

To let it fall.

You held it all,

And I was by your side…

Powerless…

Naruto never noticed a set of eyes watching him as he let out his troubles.

And you held it all,

But you were careless,

To let it fall.

You held it all,

And I was by your side…

Powerless…

*ROAR!*

Naruto quickly got to his feet as a large dog-like creature began to attack him.

"Don't know where you came from," Naruto said as he summoned his claws, "but don't think I'm afraid of you!"

A growl escaped from the creature before it leapt towards Naruto with its sharp and deadly claws ready to dig themselves into the blond ninja's flesh. Naruto quickly caught the beast in its leap before tossing it to the side before rushing towards it with a claw ready to slash. Sensing the attack, the dog-like creature used its hind legs to try and kick Naruto, but the blond blocked the attack with his left arm before slashing the beast with his clawed right hand.

The attack landed at Naruto's claw had cut deeply into the creature before the beast somehow turned into a black puddle.

"Not so tough, are ya?" the blond taunted as he shook the beast's blood off of his claw, "One strike and you're a puddle of goop."

*growl*

Hearing the sounds of growling, Naruto looked around to find four more beasts, each of them similar to the one he had just taken down.

"Four against one?" Naruto smirked confidently, "I've faced tougher watermelons and they gave me a better fight than your friend."

More growling alerted the blond to five more beasts walking out of the nearby rocks, each of them looking threateningly at Naruto.

Although his confidence faltered slightly at the numbers, Naruto held his smirk while slightly berating himself for leaving the others.

Hope they can find me…

Not too far from Naruto's location, Amethyst, Kiba, and Akamaru were looking around when the sound of fighting had attracted their attention.

"You hear that?" Kiba asked as he looked around to find the source, "Sounds like someone's having some fun."

A roar had alerted the trio upwards as a dog-like creature was falling towards them before…

*SPLAT!*

Amethyst looked at the black puddle before she said, "Alright, now we're talking! Ain't a party until someone gets hurt, then it's a riot!"

Kiba looked at the purple Gem with a crazed and shocked look as the girl before him laughed. He was about to mention about how serious the fight had sounded, but he was suddenly hypnotized by Amethyst's laughter and her full-hearted smile.

Holy crap, Kiba thought as he felt a little heat on his face, her laugh…it's…amazing! So full of life and heart.

The Inuzuka Clan member had to admit that even without one of Konohagakure's scariest women around for a mother, he absolutely had no luck of finding a nice girl to be romantically involved with. Sure Hinata is one of the drop-dead beauties in his class, but he knew that the Hyuuga had her eyes on Naruto. Even Rock Lee had girls gawk at him despite a good majority of them wanting to call the fashion police on him. All Kiba was is someone who was too wild and needed a bath.

A tug from Akamaru had snapped Kiba back into the real world with the large canine pointing to where Amethyst was standing.

"Come on," Amethyst egged on with a wave, "there's a party going on and I can tell that Naruto's involved! I wanna join in on the fun!"

"R-Right." Kiba said as he rushed towards Amethyst with Akamaru following not too far behind, hiding his concern for his life-long friend.

A lone, quiet whine was heard as the large canine had recognized that look…

Naruto had just defeated the fifth…or was it the ninth?...beast as two more beasts had appeared.

"Alright, you asked for it!" Naruto said as he pulled his arms in, "Gem Style: Crystal Needles!"

The blond launched multiple spikes towards the creatures with a few of them turning into black puddles when they were hit. Carefully counting the puddles, Naruto realized that he was short one beast and he quickly got into a stance in expectance of an attack.

*ROAR!*

Naruto looked behind himself to find that one of the dog-like beasts had somehow grew wings and was flying right towards him with claws ready to tear him to shreds.

"Naruto!" called out a voice as a familiar spear had impaled itself into the winged dog beast before impaling itself into a nearby stone.

Looking towards the source, Naruto saw Pearl and Hinata rushing towards him.

"What in the world is that?" Pearl asked as she summoned another spear while the creature struggled to remove the one in its side.

"Hell if I know," Naruto said as he motioned towards the many black puddles, "they just started to attack me!"

"So that's where they ran off to," said a smoothed voice as the trio looked to see a pale teen wearing black pants and a grey-black jacket that showed his midriff, "I was wondering what had happened to them."

"You sent them here?" Naruto asked incredulously as he pointed to the trapped beast, "These things were trying to KILL me!"

"My most sincerest apologies," said the young teen with a small smile on his face, "I was training with my unique jutsu not far from here. My name is Sai by the way."

"I'm Naruto Gemm," Naruto said as he kept an eye on Sai, "and these are my friends, Pearl and Hinita Hyuuga. What kind of jutsus were you working on?"

Sai kneeled as he pulled out a scroll and unrolled it on the ground before revealing a hidden compartment in the scroll. The pale teen then pulled out a small brush and dabbed it in the compartment to reveal that inside the small hole was ink. Sai then quickly and flawlessly drew a picture of one of the beasts that Naruto had defeated before forming a hand seal.

"Ninja Art: Super Beasts Scroll!" Sai said as the drawing suddenly came to life and became full sized before everyone, "You like it?"

"It's really quite something," Pearl said as she looked at the dog-like beast before her until she motioned towards the one impaled by her spear, "but what about that one?"

Sai still had his smile as he said, "An artist is only limited by the amount of imagination he possesses or by the moment of inspiration."

Forming another hand sign, the two ink beasts dissolved into puddles of ink as Sai said, "I won't keep you for real long as I'm sure you have other matters to attend to. I'm actually surprised that a coward like you would have the balls to fight my beasts."

"WHAT WAS THAT!?" Naruto shouted out as he went in to punch Sai, but missed at the pale teen jumped away.

"I'll see you around…" Sai said as ink began to swirl around him, "…Naruto-kun."

The teen then vanished out of sight, much to Naruto's chagrin, with Pearl and Hinata looking at the spot Sai once was.

"Wierdo." Naruto quietly muttered as his claws vanished while Pearl placed a calming hand on his shoulder.

"It's alright," Pearl gently said before she had a look of concern on her face, "but you really worried us when you had ran off like that."

"Sorry, I…" Naruto meekly said as he looked away with a hand instinctively covering one of his gems, "I just…panicked when Sakura grabbed my wrists. I wasn't sure what she was going to do when she had them."

"Don't worry," Pearl said as she ran a hand through Naruto's hair, "Garnet and I will always be there for you and protect you no matter what."

Naruto looked at his girlfriend's beautiful face before the two of them gave each other a comforting kiss, unaware of Hinata's growing sadness.

The blond ended the kiss as he then asked, "Now how about we forget what happened here with a nice soak at the hot springs?"

"That does sound nice." said Pearl as she held Naruto's hand, allowing him to lead the way, before she looked at Hinata, "You coming?"

"S-Sure." Hinata said as she hid her sadness before following the couple, berating herself for not acting sooner.

Unaware to the trio, Sai had cleverly hidden himself behind a large tree nearby as he held one of the golden spikes that Naruto had launched.

Taking a look at his reflection on the spike's reflective surface, Sai said, "Quite interesting. I can feel not just chakra, but an even more purer form of energy from inside; this is similar to Lord Sasuke's power. I shall send this to him along with what information I had collected."

Sai quickly sealed the spike along with a scroll containing the notes he had gathered before having the ink that made the seal change into a bird. The pale teen watched the bird fly off before going back to his mission: observing Naruto and the Crystal Gems.

The sun was setting as everyone had made it to the hot springs for a much needed soak.

"This is really nice." Naruto said as let himself sink deeper into the hot water, "Just what the doctor ordered."

"You said it," said Steven as he had a towel resting on his head, "I kinda wished that Beach City had something like this."

"It's a great place to relax after a long day of either missions or training," said Kiba as he had his arms resting on the rocks at the water's edge, "plus it's really popular with tourists and a majority of the women here."

"Kid's right," said Jiraiya as he also sat at the edge, more closer to the bamboo wall, "You never believe who all visits this place."

"I'm actually surprised you're not trying to peep into the girls' side, Pervy Sage." Naruto said as he shot Jiraiya a threatening look.

"Considering who decided to join the other Gems," Jiraiya said as he shot the wall a look as it was tempting to try and peep into the other side, "I'm not looking to facing death once more after the last time she was there."

In the girls' side, Tsunade chuckled as the other girls looked at her.

"What's so funny?" Pearl asked with curiosity as to what the woman thought was funny.

"I was just remember what I had told the last guy who tried to peep in on me for that stupid book of his." Tsunade answered calmly as she remembered that certain day.

"Let me guess…" Garnet said as she only had her glasses on, "that last person was Jiraiya."

"What did you do to him?" Amethyst asked with a chuckle.

"I did what any woman here would do to him," Tsunade said with a small smile, "I beat him up for trying to peep in on me."

"What's stopping him from trying it now?" Lapis asked as she eyes her surroundings.

"Me of course!" the Godaime said with a chuckle before she turned her attention towards Garnet, "So how has Naruto been doing?"

"He's been doing alright," Garnet said as she felt the humidity in her hair, "we've had our little disagreements and spats, but he's handling his new life as a Crystal Gem pretty well."

"Yeah," Amethyst quickly agreed as she chuckled at some of crazy memories involving said blond, "Naruto sure knows how to make things more interesting with everything that's been thrown at him. I still remember that HUGE battle he and Garnet had during his test!"

"I will admit that I was surprised with how Garnet decided to test Naruto by having him fight her." Pearl said as she remembered just how that battle had went, "Naruto has the uncanny ability to think up of plans right on the spot and even change them so unexpectedly! And the skill he possesses with combining jutsus with his Gems…he's amazing!"

"He's always been unpredictable." Tsunade said before she looked at Pearl, "So I understand that you're dating Naruto, right Pearl?"

"Yes, we are," Pearl said with a bit of a blush, "and even though we have our disagreements and a few bumps, I still love him with all of my heart."

"That's all I need to hear." Tsunade said as she got out and wrapped a towel around herself, "Well, I need to go take care of a few things before they get out of hand. Oh, and one more thing Pearl…"

Said Gem turned and looked to see Tsunade give a large boulder a sharp punch before heading towards the changing room. Nothing happened at first until the large rock began to crack before crumbling to reveal a statue of Pearl.

"Impressive." Pearl said before she saw the statue beginning to crack until it crumbled into dust, turning the Gem's skin even more paler at the implication and message.

"I like her." Garnet said with a small smile as she understood the message, "You better treat Naruto right or she's not the only one you have to worry about."

Pearl sunk deeper into the water while Amethyst laughed out loud at her predicament with both Naruto's mother and grandmother.

What have I gotten myself into…

*Training Ground #7*

A few days had passed as Naruto and the Crystal Gem stood before Tsunade, Shikaku, Ibiki, Teams 10 and 8, Iruka, the Konohamaru Corps. and Sakura as today is where the Gems will be tested.

"Alright," said Tsunade as she looked at both groups, "we are gathered here to test our newest allies, the Crystal Gems along with Naruto Gemm to determine their rank among our shinobi. I shall watch over the test along with Jonin Commander Shikaku Nara and head of the Torture and Interrogation Department Ibiki Morino in order to evaluate the skills of both Naruto and the Crystal Gems. This test will go as long as need to in order for the three of us to gain the information needed so that we can assign their ranks. Is that understood?"

After seeing the confirmation she needed, Tsunade raised her hand into the air.

"HAJIME!"

Tsunade, Shikaku, and Ibiki quickly jumped away as Choji, Asuma, and Kiba and Akamaru rushed in with Naruto, Amethyst, and Lapis Lazuli charging in for the interception.

"Hope you're ready for this, Naruto!" said Kiba as he and Akamaru began to spin rapidly in the air, "Fang Over Fang!"

The two became miniature twisters as they charged towards the trio while Choji used his Expansion jutsu to enlarge both of his fists. Amethyst summoned two whips from her gem and swung them towards the two twisters, wrapping them with her weapon, before she jumped in the air. With a twist of her body, Amethyst tossed the two twisters straight towards Choji, causing Kiba and Akamaru to crash into the Akimichi before the trio rolled on the dirt from the counter attack.

"Not bad," Kiba said as he quickly got to his feet before rushing towards the purple Gem, "but let's see how you try this! Tunneling Fang!"

Kiba leapt into the air and formed a twister aimed at Amethyst, but intercepted when a claw attached to a golden wrapped itself around the Inuzuka.

"Crap, not again!" Kiba said as he saw that the chain was from Naruto this time before the blond threw him into the forest, making the Inuzuka crash wildly on the ground.

Choji was able to get to his feet while Akamaru got up and looked to where Kiba was thrown.

"I'm okay…" Kiba groaned out as he was a bit stunned as he had crashed into a few trees.

Choji looked to see that Amethyst still had her two whips while Naruto had his claws out, both of them with a confident smirk on their faces.

"Hope you have a plan for this, Fatty." Amethyst said as Naruto quickly lost his confidence as it was soon replaced with fear.

"Amethyst…" Naruto said as he felt a threatening aura from Choji, "…you just had to unleash THAT can of worms!"

"I'M NOT FAT!" Choji roared out in rage, "I'M PLEASANTLY PLUMP AND BIG-BONED!"

The Akimichi quickly expanded his body and rolled towards Amethyst and Naruto. Acting quickly, the two jumped to the side to avoid the attack before seeing Choji turning around and rolled towards Amethyst, this time with kunai wrapped around his body.

"Gem Style: Hooking Claw!" Naruto said as he launched a claw attached to chains from his gem and grabbed Amethyst and pulled her away just in time as the Akimichi had just rolled over where the purple Gem once was.

"Thanks," Amethyst said until she saw Asuma charging towards them, "but we can't relax just yet!"

Asuma was about to jump in the fray with one of his trench knives ready to attack Amethyst, but was intercepted by Lapis when the blue Gem charged towards him as she was armed with a navy blue trident with light blue points. The jonin had to jump away to avoid the girl's attack before using a Substitution Jutsu to dodge another attack aimed at his head from Lapis when she used the other end of the trident. Sensing an attack from behind, Lapis formed her wings and took to the air to avoid an attack from Asuma.

"Well this is interesting," Asuma said as he turned to face Lapis, "never fought a flying person before."

"Hope you're ready for a few more surprises," the blue Gem said as she tightened her grip on the trident, "because I'm not going to go easy on you."

Asuma smirked as he got into a stance and said, "Wasn't counting on it."

In a different part of the area, Pearl and Garnet were facing off against Kurenai, Iruka, Hinata, Ino, and Shino as Garnet was already holding off against Kurenai and Iruka.

"You're pretty strong Garnet." Iruka said as the Gem had her gauntlets out, "I wouldn't be surprised if Naruto became as strong as you are in the future."

"Just don't be too surprised with my son's power." Garnet said with a smirk as she jumped towards the chunin and threw a punch. The Gem missed as Iruka jumped away in time to see the woman's fist dig into the ground and caused the ground around it to collapse from the sheer force behind the attack.

What power! Iruka thought as he could only imagine the kind of damage that kind of attack could do to a human body, Guess I underestimated her too much.

Kurenai soon jumped in with her hands in a sign and smirk as she said, "With that much raw power, I doubt she could escape my genjutsu."

"Believe it or not," Garnet said with a smirk of her own, "I'm just as mentally powerful as I am physically powerful."

The Gem leapt towards both ninjas with full speed behind her jump and struck both Kurenai and Iruka with a clothesline with enough force to knock them back without hurting them badly.

Pearl was staring down her three opponents with her spear behind her back while the ninjas before her were in their own fighting stances.

"Three against one…" Pearl said as she brought her spear out from behind her and tightened her grip, "but from what Naruto had told me about you, Shino Aburame, is that the fight's more likely thousands against one."

"Naruto had told you about us?" Shino asked as swarms of his clan's beetles swarmed around his hands, "Has he told you any of our village's other secrets?"

"Only about his friends and how they fight." Pearl said as Ino then rushed towards her with a tanto ready to slash at her while Hinata jumped in with her hands ready to strike.

Pearl quickly jumped to the side to avoid Ino's attack while moving her spear around to block Hinata's. The pale Gem suddenly jumped into a twist and landed behind Hinata to avoid a swarm of beetles aimed right at her. Sensing another attack, Pearl turned around in time to block Ino's tanto as staff and blade clashed.

"Rotation!" Hinata called out as Ino jumped away in time as the Hyuga girl spun around and formed a dome around herself. Pearl didn't see the attack as she was knocked into a nearby tree, but quickly got back up and stood her ground.

The sound of furious buzzing alerted the Gem to a huge swarm of beetles flying towards her, all ready to crash right into her. The swarm soon made contact as they swarmed around the base of the tree as Shino adjusted his glassed.

"Not bad," Shino said as he turned around to face Pearl as she was behind him, "I see that you know the Substitution Jutsu. I'm guessing Naruto taught you and the others a few jutsus."

"Of course," Pearl answered as she summoned her holograms, each of them having a spear of their own, "but that doesn't mean we know a few tricks of our own."

"I wouldn't expect any less from an opponent such as yourself," Shino countered as Ino and Hinata stood next to him, ready to counter any of Pearl's attacks, "but one should never underestimate or overestimate their opponent as the battle had really just begun."

With Steven, the young half-Gem was breathing heavily on his knees as he was up against the Konohamaru Corps. and Sakura at the same time. Steven got up as he had his shield out to block their attacks before countering with his own, but their constant attacks and numbers had given his opponents the advantage.

"Get it together, Steven!" Steven quietly said to himself as he soon saw Moegi jumping towards him while Konohamaru and Udon were coming at him from the sides, "Here goes! Substitution Jutsu!"

Konohamaru and Udon looked to see Steven in the air with his shield shining in the sunlight before they crashed into a pile with Moegi. Steven rolled as he landed on the ground before charging towards Sakura, shield ready to strike. Seeing the attack, Sakura quickly created two clones and rushed towards the charging half-Gem. Steven saw the three Sakuras run around before they charged towards him with two of them rushing towards him with an attack ready while the third Sakura jumped above him.

Acting quickly, Steven made his shield vanish in favor of surrounding himself in a bubble just in time for the three Sakuras' attacked to connect. While two of the attacks phased harmlessly through to bubble, one of the Sakuras that were in front of Steven cringed as her fist had made contact with the bubble's hard surface.

"Engh!" the rosette grunted as she held her throbbing hand, "That bubble's harder than rock!"

Steven chuckled a bit before seeing shuriken bounce off his bubble as the Konohamaru Corps. just stood there, trying to formulate a plan to get through Steven's defense.

"I got it!" Konohamaru said as he turned and smirked towards Steven with his hands in a sign, "Transform!"

A plume of smoke erupted from Konohamaru's feet as Steven got into a stance, ready to expect whatever the genin was going to throw at him.

As the smoke cleared…

"Hey there," said a young woman with long black hair and smoke just barely covering her delicate areas, "how are you doing?"

A bright red blush formed on Steven's entire face as he quickly covered his eyes, not realizing that the protective bubble surrounding him had popped due to his surprise as the nude woman before him. This allowed Sakura an opening as she kicked Steven while Moegi violently punched the woman, turning her back into Konohamaru, causing the both of them to collide into each other. The force of the collision had knocked both Konohamaru and Steven out cold as the two laid on the ground with stars swirling before their faces.

Pearl had managed to catch a glimpse of what had happened as she blushed a bright blue and screamed, "WHY WOULD THAT BOY CHANGE INTO SOMETHING INAPPROPRIATE LIKE THAT!?"

"It just a jutsu that Naruto had 'invented' and taught Konohamaru." Sakura said as she tied up Steven with rope, not noticing Pearl's fury, "I don't even see why Naruto would not only have that perverted jutsu, but teach it to a young boy as well."

Pearl quickly dodged an attack from Ino and Hinata and looked at Naruto, who had just barely dodged and attack from the still enraged Choji, and yelled, "Naruto Gemm-Uzumaki! We are going to have a little talk about the jutsu you had taught that boy once we get through this!"

Kiba and Akamaru jumped out of the forest as Kiba said, "Someone's gonna get whipped!"

Before Naruto could counter, Kiba and Akamaru rushed towards the blond with their jutsu while Choji was rolling right towards him.

"Wonder how Naruto will get out of this." Tsunade said as she carefully watched each fight after Steven and Konohamaru were brought to her by Sakura before the rosette rejoined the fight by aiding Asuma with Lapis.

"Remember that this is the same kid who had beaten Neji Hyuga and Suna's jinchuriki during the Chunin Exams." Ibiki said as he carefully eyed Naruto, "Who knows what goes on in his mind."

Naruto looked at the situation before him and smirked as his claws began to glow brightly. The light soon faded to reveal that the claws and shoulder armor had vanished while the spikes only reached up to his elbows in rows that were curved towards his body. The spike then began to slowly rotate around the blond's forearms before picking up speed until each individual spike were invisible to the untrained eye as Naruto soon got into a boxing stance.

"What's that?" Iruka asked as he, Moegi, and Udon were now fighting Amethyst.

"That's one of Naruto's new forms that he calls Jet Mode." Amethyst answered with a smirk, "It makes him crazy fast and pretty powerful as he uses pure speed in his attacks. While our fusion, Star Sapphire, uses her speed to get by opponents' defenses, Naruto's Jet Mode uses the force of pure speed to crash right through."

As if demonstrating what the purple Gem had revealed, Naruto suddenly vanished in the blink of an eye before reappearing as he punched Choji.

*BOOM!*

Everyone looked in surprise as the Akimichi was suddenly launched into the forest with the explosive sound reverberating through the area.

"Holy crap!" Kiba said as he and Akamaru ended their jutsu and faced the blond before them, "I didn't even see him going by!"

Amazing! Tsunade thought as she saw the spikes on Naruto's forearms slowing down a little bit while Naruto shook his head, To use that much speed is incredible! But from the looks of it, Naruto's Jet Mode has a few drawbacks.

The medical genius knew that by using such speed would undoubtingly give the person a case of tunnel vision, similar to how Kakashi had explained how Chidori would work, along with the amount of force behind such speed could also damage the human body from the skin down to the bone. Tsunade also noticed that Naruto was breathing heavily after dodging a few of Kiba and Akamaru's jutsus, this also meant that Jet Mode was also literally taking Naruto's breath with each burst of speed, no doubt due to how fast the spikes were spinning.

Garnet smirked as Naruto had knocked Kiba and Akamaru out and was about turn her attention back to Iruka and Kurenai when she suddenly couldn't move.

"Shadow Possession successful." said a voice as Garnet was forced to turn around and saw Shikamaru with his shadow somehow stretched and connected with her own, "I really don't like fighting girls, however I'm not going to underestimate you considering that you have probably have more power to even become a Kage without any form of argument. I'm just capturing you so that you would be left open for any attack."

"I wouldn't be so sure about my capture." Garnet said with a slight chuckle as a bright line soon traveled down her body and splitting her in half.

Shikamaru squinted to see that both of Garnet's halves then formed into two new shapes. The light vanished to reveal two new girls, much to the surrounding Konoha ninjas' shock about what had happened. One girl had pale blue skin and baby blue hair that covered her eyes wearing a dark blue dress and white gloves with one of them revealing a sapphire gem in the palm of her right hand. The other girl looked like a smaller version of Garnet with the exception that she wore a red headband, a dark red tank top, and brown shorts with a ruby gem in the palm of her left hand. What really surprised everyone was that the two girls were both no taller than Steven save for a couple inches.

"What the!?" Shikamaru said, stumbling back in surprise as he looked at the two girls before him while his shadow retreated back to him.

Naruto suddenly appeared next to the two girls and said, "Guess I should introduce ya to my two little grandmothers, Ruby and Sapphire."

Leave it to Naruto to find something crazy enough to somehow look normal, Shikamaru thought as his eyebrow twitched in annoyance while Ruby voiced her opinion about being Naruto's little grandmother, Troublesome…

Seeing the trio before him in different battle stances, Shikamaru sighed as he said, "You know what…I'll just wait at the sidelines as I know when I'm beat what with Naruto's Jet Mode and Garnet really being a fusion of some sorts, I'd rather not get badly humiliated like this. Just too troublesome."

After Shikamaru left and joined his father on the sidelines, Ruby scoffed as she said, "Wuss. Couldn't face us, even with all those brains in his head."

Sapphire looked at Naruto and said, "You think you can cover us while we reform Garnet?"

Naruto gave Sapphire a thumbs up as he sped off to intercept and attack from Shino and Iruka.

"I swear that gaki is doing this just to annoy me." Tsunade said as she watched Ruby pick Sapphire up and spun her around while Naruto had intercepted an attack from Moegi and Udon by tying the two genin together.

"It appears that those two are separate forms that fit Garnet perfectly." Ibiki said as Naruto quickly intercepted an attack from Sakura and Kurenai, "It looks like that Ruby is Garnet's physical body, which is why she looks almost exactly like Garnet, while Sapphire is Garnet's mental prowess, again as she shares a few of Garnet's traits."

"Which would probably why Naruto would consider the two of them grandmothers since Garnet, in a way, would be their daughter." Shikaku added as a bright light shone before revealing that Garnet was formed once again, "But of course, it appears that fusion just combines their power into one powerful warrior. Ruby and Sapphire are sort of the romanticized version of the relationship."

"We really can't say for sure Dad," Shikamaru said as he watched Garnet save Naruto from an attack from Kurenai and Iruka, "I mean, didn't Gai-sensei mention that Naruto and Amethyst had done an odd dance in order for them to form into Star Sapphire. That means the dance could be some sort of ritual to allow two different Gems to synchronize their powers into one rhythm that summons the fusion."

Tsunade observed the fights to see that the Crystal Gems were still standing, despite being one member short, while Kurenai, Hinata, Shino, and Sakura were left after Iruka, worn out from fighting Lapis alongside Asuma, weakly walked to the side while he and Asuma were carrying an unconscious Ino.

"Alright, that's enough!" Tsunade barked out, getting everyone's attention, "The test is over!"

The remaining Konoha ninja and the Crystal Gems stood before the Godaime as the woman said, "The three of us have the information we needed to make a decision of your ranks. We will notify you within no more than a couple of days."

Shikaku then pulled out a box and opened it to reveal six hitai-ates as the Godaime then said, "Here are your official hitai-ates to show your alliance to Konohagakure. Earlier, Garnet has informed me that you have responsibilities as Crystal Gems so I have given her the same travel rights as Jiraiya along with any of the other Gems or shinobi she brings with her. You are all free to go now."

Everyone nodded and headed off in their own groups, getting ready for what awaits them in the future.

What will happen to the Crystal Gems in the future once they are stated in Konoha's ranks?

Now I know some of you are wondering about what I'm planning for Lapis, Jasper, and Peridot after what has been revealed to us. I do have a couple of ideas going around in my head, but I'm going to see how they would play out.

On a final note, don't forget to rate and review!

Ja ne.