Alright! 7th chapter!
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So, let me get this straight...you want to fly on a magic carpet to see the king of the potato people to plead for your lives, and your telling me you are perfectly sane!?-Red Dwarf, Mr. Rimmer
Disclaimer! I don't own Naruto, any affiliated characters, nor do I own Elric. I also don't own Red Dwarf.
...ON WITH THE SHOW!
"Blah"-person speaking...'Blah'-person thinking..."Blah"-Demon speaking...'Blah'-Demon thinking..."Blah"-Memory speaking(they don't think)
Leaves of Steel, Chapter 7
5 km east of Konoha, 7:42 PM (the same day as he arrived)
The rain was beating down upon the hood of the albino man, and the back of his horse was beading water. Traveling at a steady pace, Elric and his mount swiftly approached the village hidden in the leaves. Elric's eyes were weary, and his grip on the reins were weakening.
"Kawska," muttered the pale man, "Let's rest."
The horse whinnied in agreement, and moved to the side of the road. Kawska found a nice stream to camp by, and let Elric down there. The steed went to get some water, as Elric pulled out miniature tent and stable models. He set them on the ground, and waved his hands. The models grew, and fit perfectly into the space.
Elric wearily stepped inside, then cast a minor spell on the area, sealing it off from the naked eye. Kawska moved to his stable, and drew runes into the ground. The mystical symbols glowed, and a trough of vegetables popped into existence. Night fell.
Naruto's apartment. 6:30 AM
Naruto hopped out of bed, his body felt amazingly light.
'Maybe I should test out my new metal control' thought the blond-haired dynamo.
He raised his hand, and tried to move metal out. The metal came rocketing out, and floated a few inches away from his pal in a messy ball. Naruto foucsed, and pushed the ball across the room, trying to keep it level. It worked perfectly, too perfectly. The metal ball slammed into his wall. Naruto lowered the power, and moved the ball back and forth, until he could control its speed.
He moved his hand, and the ball followed. He clenched his fist, and the ball collapsed. He opened his hand, and the ball expanded. Naruto lowered his hand completely, while keeping the ball exactly where it was. It all came so easily.
Naruto moved the ball around with his mind, spinning it around the room. He changed its shape, into that of a kunai, and slowly brought it to him. Naruto grabbed the kunai, and spun it around.
'This kicks SO much ass...' he thought, while turning the single kunai into a short-sword.
The blue-eyed boy summoned another orb out of his left hand, finding it just as easy to control. He moved both simultaneously, and started bringing out more and more.
'Thanks for all the metal, Ibiki-sensei' thought the child in memoriam of his late teacher.
Naruto constructed and deconstructed a metal wall, faster and faster, each time. He added spikes, notches, anything he could. Naruto pulled a sword out of the wall, and turned the wall into spiky armor. Naruto pulled all the metal slowly into his pores as he heard a knocking at the door.
Naruto ran to the door, and opened it, finding the sandaime waiting patiently there.
"Yo! What's up old man?" Naruto greeted the Hokage.
"Naruto-kun, I understand you wanted to talk to me? May I come in?" The mighty Sarutobi asked politely.
"It's your village, come on in!" said Naruto, a smile on his face, as he retreated to the kitchen to cook up some ramen.
Sarutobi stepped inside, sighing as he saw the mess Naruto called his apartment.
"Naruto-kun, Elric-sama has contacted me. He will be arriving today to begin your training. He also told me that you have Ibiki's skills lying dormant in your mind. Have you found them?" inquired the sandaime.
"Yeah, I found something Ibiki-sensei named 'Blurred Hands', I found all of it. The memories are shattered into pieces, it takes a while to find them. I also found all of his chakra, I feel GREAT!" shouted Naruto happily.
"That's interesting Naruto-kun, for you to have found the exact skill I was going to help him improve." the Hokage began, "But, as Ibiki has passed on, I will teach it to you, in his stead. We will leave immediately...after we have some breakfast!" said the Hokage, as he knew that both he and the boy were very hungry.
"SWEET! I get to learn a powerful technique from the Hokage! I'll beat Sasuke in no time!" yelled Naruto, as he walked in with the ramen he had started before he answered the door, as well as some dango he got from the dango store owners, a gift from yesterday.
'He has dango!' thought the old man, his affection for the dumplings had been passed down from him to Orochimaru, to Anko.
Sarutobi cleared his throat as Naruto handed him a bowl of ramen as well as two skewers of the lovely dumplings. Sarutobi reached pulled out a scroll and summoned a pair of Ivory chopsticks.
"A gift from the fourth Kazekage." the sandaime informed the confuzzled boy, as he began to eat, "Itadakimasu." he said at the same time as the boy.
Naruto cleared his throat to draw the attention of the Hokage.
"Look at this!" Naruto said in excitement, as made metal chopsticks appear from his pointer and middle fingers, then grabbed them to start eating.
"Amazing, Naruto-kun! Have you finally gotten the hang of it?" exclaimed the surprised sandaime.
"Yeah!" said the boy proudly, "I got some practice in this morning, after I found the mastery in my mind."
"How exactly did that happen, Naruto-kun?" asked the Hokage politely.
"In my mind there is a war going on between my good and bad memories and dreams. The only ones who fight are the ones that have battle skills. My bad memories appear as skeletons, and Ibiki-sensi's are zombies. Whenever I kill them, I get the skills they had, the skeletons stole mine from me when I killed Ibiki-sensei. I think I automatically get the ones that aren't battle skills, like the Kyubi's resistance to fire, and Ibiki's torture skills." Naruto said intelligently.
"You have Ibiki's torture skills!?" screamed the Sandaime, "Why didn't you tell me!?"
"I just did..." muttered Naruto sullenly.
"Sorry Naruto-kun, didn't meant to yell at you." Sarutobi apologized, "Are you ready to go train?" he asked, finishing the last of his Dango.
"HELL YES!" screamed Naruto, who then saw the Hokage cover his ears, "sorry, I mean yes." apologized Naruto.
Naruto sent out metal clips, which he attached to the dishes, and lifted them to the sink.
"Pretty cool, Naruto-kun. Maybe next time you could use that to clean up your home..." joked the sandaime, as the two left for the Hokage's training grounds.
Sandaime's training grounds, 7:48 AM
"Naruto-kun, please show me how good you've gotten with Ibiki's 'Blurred Hands' technique." asked Sarutobi of Naruto.
Naruto concentrated chakra to his hands, and shouted, "BLURRED HANDS!".
Naruto's hands glowed bright grey as he tore into a training post. Wood splinters went flying, as Naruto delivered over 1800 punches to the post in only 18 seconds.
'Holy crap! Naruto-kun is just as fast as Ibiki was...are those metal spikes protruding from his gauntlets?' thought Sarutobi excitedly.
Naruto pushed more metal through his gauntlets, and made giant blades. He cut down the pole in multiple places without losing any speed.
"How's that, old man?" proclaimed Naruto.
"Amazing Naruto-kun! Now, I want you to perform another trick for me. Perform this seal, (Sarutobis showed Naruto a modified Tiger/dragon seal) while focusing your chakra into your hands." commanded Sarutobi.
Naruto did as ordered, and his hands began to emit fire, which didn't harm him in the least.
"Cool..." exclaimed Naruto, as the sandaime summoned another pole.
"Now, Naruto-kun, combine this with blurred hands, to make 'Rapid Flames', a heavy damage melee attack. strike the pole and see what happens." the sandaime requested.
Naruto focused more chakra and called out, "Rapid Flames" striking the pole, each hit severely burning it.
"The enchantment I just showed you was one that the fourth Hokage invented, 'Searing Hands'. It was his dream to someday combine it with his all-purpose skill, the Rasengan." monotoned Sarutobi.
"Why was that, old...ol...sandime-sensei" Naruto began to realize that if the old man was going to be his teacher, he would have to address him as one.
"Finally showing respect, eh Naruto-kun?" inquired Sarutobi, "If you want to call me sensei, Naruto-kun, call me Sarutobi-sensei." he finished.
"Okay...Sarutobi-sensei." affirmed the blond-headed boy.
"Sadly it wouldn't have done anything, and that's the silly part. If you want, I'll teach you the rasengan when you become chunin." said the sandaime, hesitant to make commitments.
"I'll hold you on that! Now step back, I have an Idea!" shouted Naruto, forming the Tiger/dragon seal.
'What is he going to do?' wondered the third Hokage, 'just like his father...'
Naruto formed countless metal vines, which began to glow red-hot.
Naruto then shouted "Flame's Tongues!", and launched the vines, tip-first, at the newly-formed wooden post. The vines were moving as if they were the blurred hands, striking 100 times in a single second.
The post, after the attack, was covered in smoking blackened spots.
'Holy crap,' thought Sarutobi, 'he already used it in a new move, just like his old man.'
Naruto smirked proudly at his achievement, as he circled around the log. He pulled the vines back into his body, cooling the metal with his chakra.
Naruto exclaimed to his sensei, "Watch this one! I learned it from...from...an odd voice...but still!" shouted Naruto as he spread his hand open.
Vines again shot out of it, and buried themselves swiftly underneath the entire surface of the log, the thin metal hardly produced a bulge.
"FLAY!" shouted Naruto, as the vines burst the bark of the log off, and returned to his hand as quickly as he sent them out.
"Impressive, Naruto-kun! Tell that voice 'thanks'!" the sandaime said.
"Hey, Sarutobi-sensei!" Naruto asked, his mind racing with possibility, "Would it be possible to have my metal make hand-signs?"
"Well, Naruto-kun, nobody's had the opportunity to try." answered the Hokage, after some careful consideration.
Naruto made a hand on the end of one of the vines, and had it make the burning hands seal. It worked perfectly. Naruto's original hands had the burning effect too.
"Sarutobi-sensei, could you teach me a very long seal sequence?" asked Naruto hopefully.
"Sure thing, Naruto-kun. How about a reflex jutsu? It can give you an 900 increase in reflexes, but it is 150 seals, making it very impractical in combat situations. However, I can see why it may work for you." Sarutobi responded warmly, happy to see the jutsu he developed over 40 years ago be able to be put to use.
Sarutobi pulled a summoning scroll, and pressed a single finger upon it. A mahogany box popped in, from which he withdrew a scroll, unrolling it to its full length of 14 meters.
"HOLY CRAP!" screamed Naruto, as he saw the length of the jutsu.
Naruto made 298 vines, each becoming a hand. the hands went over their respective signs on the scroll.
"Naruto, this technique is forbidden, and has no name. As such, don't inform anyone about it, okay?" proclaimed Sarutobi.
"Hai!" shouted Naruto, as he ran along the length of the scroll, moving each pair of hands into its seal.
"Naruto! To release it, you must perform it backwards, be careful!" shouted the sandaime as Naruto reached the end of the scroll.
World's speed at 1/10
Naruto reached the final seal, and conformed his hands to its shape. Naruto moved chakra to all of the hands quickly, first to last, and the light he saw turned grey. His reflexes were now 10 times their norm.
Naruto began to return his vines, but they came very slowly. He moved chakra to them, and they sped up as he just used blurred hands. All of the vines returned, and Naruto began to run around. His body felt heavy like lead, as he found that it was moving in normal time, while he saw things 10x as fast. He did a back flip, and landed it perfectly, accomplishing not just a 360 degree spin, but a 720, two entire rotations.
Naruto quickly ran back along the scroll, this time taking the place of the first seal, as his vines took the rest. Another chakra pulse, this time from last to first, and time began to move normally.
World's speed at 1
"Did it work, Naruto-kun? I have no way of knowing, except the way you were acting." Sarutobi said, amazed that Naruto got it the first try.
"THAT WAS AWESOME!" shouted the blue-yed child, "The strange thing is... I remember how to do the entire thing! Watch!"
Naruto did it again, solely from memory, and turned it off.
"SEE!?" he shouted.
"Great job Naruto, but you need to take a rest, after all, Elric-sama wouldn't like it if you were tired when he arrived." said Sarutobi.
"You are quite right, Sarutobi. I wouldn't like it if my new student was worn out before I got the chance to teach him." said a mounted man, standing just outside of the training area.
The mounted man slid off of his steed and pulled hid hood down to reveal his white skin and hair. He was wearing silk clothing of the purest white, with mystical runes, inscribed in blue lettering. He carried no weapons on him, and was very thin.
"Elric-sama!" shouted the hokage very child-like, "I haven't seen you for 16 years! How are you!?"
"Fine, Sarutobi, have you been well? Where is the boy...ah!" said Elric, finding the boy speechless, "There you are, Naruto! Are you well?" asked the albino.
"I'm fine, Elric-san" answered Naruto.
"I thought I told you to address me as Elric?" puzzled Elric.
"Sorry, Elric." Naruto said, correcting himself.
"I am afraid I must take your student from you, Sarutobi. That is, if he is ready." stated the pale lord.
"HELL YEAH! I'M READY!" shouted Naruto, full of what Guy or Lee would call 'Youthful Exuberance'.
"There is your answer, Elric-sama" began the sandaime, "but before he goes, he might want this scroll." Sarutobi said, rolling up the massive scroll with a single curl of the finger.
Elric extended his left hand, pulling the scroll to it with a blue shimmer, clasping it with his hand. Naruto stood mouth agape.
"Would you like to learn how to do this, Naruto?" Elric asked coyly.
"Yeahyeahyeahyeahyeah!" shouted Naruto eagerly.
"Come on then, we are going to the top of Hokage monument." Elric declared with an adventurous voice, "Sarutobi, could you take care of my horse for me?" the albino asked.
"Sure, Elric-sama." Sarutobi responded.
At the top of the Hokage monument: 3:42 PM
Naruto and Elric had been mediating for an entire hour, after Naruto explained what he had learnt. He had also told Elric of the sword, and the war taking place in his mind.
"Naruto, you may stop now." commanded Elric, "Tell me , what did you feel?" he asked.
"I felt anger, but not from me, from the sword inside. It spoke of power it could offer me, and what I could accomplish. It said it could make me whatever I wanted, even the greatest ninja in the world." Naruto said, imagining the possibilities.
"Naruto, do not listen to its call. It told me the same thing, but it tells only lies. The power it offers is false." Elric warned.
"But, how can I use it to my advantage?" asked the boy.
"Kill the bad memories you mentioned, and drain it of the evil it has placed inside of you. However, you can do whatever you want with the power it gives you, as you are not genetically sick, like I was. You don't NEED its power. You mentioned that it adds to your genetic code the best pieces it finds. Use this to your advantage. Kill if you must, obtain the power you need to destroy this god by any means necessary." stated Elric in a cold tone.
"But, Elric, that would be cruel to others, I would be a murderer! I can't do that!" Screamed Naruto, as the prospect of killing his friends and fellow Ninja crossed his mind.
"Naruto, I have a way past this. If you can kill Stormbringer, you would obtain its power for yourself. You would erase it from existence, but, at a price." the albino said gravely.
"What would that be, Elric?" asked the Blonde shinobi.
Elric's eyes lit up like fire, their blue brilliance twinkling in his joy, "You would gain a second chance at life, but lose your memory, if you so choose at the exact moment you gained the power." Elric said in a cool tone.
"And if I didn't?" asked the boy.
Elric knew this was coming, so he delivered the only true answer, "If you didn't, Naruto, you would destroy everybody you ever knew, ending with yourself. You would become...The new god of the void."
End of chapter 7
The new god of the void, a dark prospect. Prepare for carnage!
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