Alright! 8th chapter!
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In response to my reviewers...It's party time!
Disclaimer! I don't own Naruto, any affiliated Characters, nor do I own Elric. HOWEVER...I DO pwn them at SSBM...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 8
Hokage Monument: 4:30 PM
There were gash marks all over the nearby trees, rocks, ground, even at the bottom of a riverbed. Clearly, Naruto must have been training. Elric watched over his training as he read a book.
'I can't believe Konoha has such GREAT books!' thought the albino, 'I'll have to remember this author...Jiraya...If I'm not mistaken...'
"Elric, look! I got it!' shouted the blond child, holding a small clump of metal in his hand, containing the pressure of metal.
"Alright, Naruto. Try that tree." Elric pointed at a medium-sized birch.
Naruto slowly brought his hand level, about 5 meters away, from the tree, and formed chakra into the already unstable ball. The shaking became worse, but Naruto kept it steady, as cracks began to form in the spheroid.
"KAI!" he shouted, releasing his stasis on the ball, as it sped towards the tree. Coils of metal hung off of the ball, and the entire ball exploded as it reached the fourth meter. At this point, Naruto focused a cone of pressure around the ball, and directed every fragment to the tree's heart. Naruto stood back to admire his handiwork, a konoha leaf imbedded into the bark.
At that point, a bird flew up to Elric, a message tied to its leg. Elric took the message, unfurling it, and casting his gaze upon its papery splendor. The ink was 1, maybe 2 minutes old, tops.
"Naruto, Sarutobi requests our presence. We must leave this for another time." stated the anti-barbarian bluntly, "But...Before we go, time to think up a name for your move, however corny it may be!"
Naruto sweat-dropped, he didn't know why Elric was so weird...
The pair left, and arrived at the tower at 4:50.
Hokage's Tower: 4:51
Elric and his student entered the Mission Assignment Hall, only to find they weren't alone. Team 7 was there, none except Kakashi knowing who the Albino was.
"ELRIC-SAMA!" squealed the open pervert, jumping in front of the surprised man, eyes glittering, "Are you here to help me learn more Jutsu!?"
Elric would've paled, had he been able to become paler, "Ka...Kakashi? Is that you? What...what is that?" inquired Elric of the orange book in Kakashi's hand.
Kakashi leaned in towards Elric, and whispered, "It's Icha-Icha tactics...why do you ask?"
Elric slightly raised a pocket covering enough to let Kakashi see HIS orange-colored book, "Where can I get MORE!?" Elric demanded of the silver-haired copy master.
Kakashi nonchalantly slipped Elric a hastily drawn map to the bookstore that Kakashi visited frequently. Elric promptly ran off like a giddy schoolgirl.
The sandaime cleared his throat, drawing attention from Kakashi, Sakura, Sasuke, Sai, and Naruto.
"Uzumaki, Naruto, you are to be paired with team seven for this mission, where you and team seven will be escorting Tazuna-san to his home in wave country. Any objections?" stated the Hokage in a officious voice.
"Just one, who are we escorting?" asked Naruto, yet to see the client.
The sliding door opened, and a drunk, smelly guy walked in, yelling about being escorted by kids, or something. Naruto raised an eyebrow at being called "short" by the old man. Naruto promptly formed a kunai into his hand, and had it fly around the old man, at high speeds, before coming back to him.
"Who are you calling short!?" yelled Naruto angrily, taking the kunai back into his wrist, which was concealed by his metal gauntlets.
Tazuna pulled back in fear, before the Hokage shouted, "Naruto...don't attack the clients!"
Naruto grumpily said, "Hai, Hokage-sama..." before he went to see the mission specs.
A "C" rank...protect from bandits, etc...Hatake Kakashi assisting...this would be easy. Naruto signed his name and thumbprint.
Main Gate, 5:35 PM
Elric waved Naruto and his group off, secretly casting a fireball proxy on Naruto, allowing for a cast when in danger. 'Hope he doesn't kill the bridge builder' thought the albino before returning to his new Icha-Icha tactics book.
Meanwhile, in the bushes, inside of the city...
'Naruto-kun! come back safely!' thought the shadowy kunochi before leaping away, leaving a Chibi-Naruto-headed Kunai in her place.
Leaf-to-Wave Road, 5:40
The two Demon Brothers thought that they were unnoticed, and they leapt from their puddle, claws raised. How unfortunate for them that they were face-to-face with an alligator made of ink.
The alligator's jaw fell with a sickening thud...onto wood. I mean, c'mon, battles aren't over that fast...
The demon brothers cut through Naruto, with no resistance. Well, that might have been because it was a kage bunshin...
Naruto careful responded with a choice burning hands attack to the back of their skulls, careful not to show off his metal attacks. He then bound them with their own sharp chain, against a tree.
Sasuke was wondering how 'dead last' could pull this off, while Sakura was wondering the same thing. Kakashi was reading his perverted novel, and sai was going through one thing, ' I guess he has balls...'.
Naruto pimp-slapped the Chunin awake, and held kunai, produced from his pocket, or so it seemed, at their throats.
"So, bitches...You guys want to tell me why you attacked us? Or am I going to have to break your noses?" asked Naruto, Ibiki's investigation skills flowing freely.
The Demon Brothers looked at each other, nodded, and spat in Naruto's face. Naruto dodged, and in the dame movement inflicted a heavy punch to both of their noses, breaking them with a 'crack'.
The two brothers started to cry, and then began to spill the beans.
"Www...we were hired by Gato-san to take out the bridge-builder Tazuna so Gato could control wave country without any problems. Please don't kill us!" pleaded the worthless chunin.
Naruto had no time but to duck, as he sensed a large metal weapon heading towards him. Naruto's head evaded being sliced off, but the same was not true for the two chunin, Their blood began to spurt everywhere as Naruto dashed to rejoin his group.
A voice called from the newly settled mist, "Useless chunin...but you on the other hand kid...you have a future in mass murder...wanna join up?" asked a bandaged man, removing his massive blade with one hand.
The man stepped forward, And introduced himself as the Demon of the Mist, after Tazuna's head, of course.
"Momochi Zabuza..." hissed Kakashi, drawing a kunai in his left hand, "you are an S-ranked Missing Nin from Mist, am I incorrect? If not, then I guess I get to collect the 4 million bounty on your head, posted by the Mizukage himself." Kakashi added gleefully.
"4.5 million now..." corrected Zabuza, "I killed his dog..."
Kakashi pulled up his eye covering to reveal his sharingan to a stunned Sasuke, a astonished Sakura, an disinterested Sai, and an apathetic Naruto. Kakashi bull rushed with a simple kawamari, and unleashed his dogs. The tracking team missed Zabuza, and disappeared due to them only being useful as a surprise.
Naruto readied his burning hands, and initiated a recovered Phoenix Immortal Fire with compressed steel Shuriken inside.
Zabuza dodged Kakashi's kunai, but was hit by raging shrapnel in the leg by Naruto's Newly thought up attack, Rushing Metal: Burning Winds. Zabuza jumped back in pain as a masked Hunter-Nin from Mizu stole some of his throat-space with senbon.
Zabuza fell to the ground, as pale as death, and was immediatly picked up by the masked Ninja.
"Thank you for helping to catch this criminal. I will now bring his body to the Mizukage for my mission completion." the hunter-Nin said before teleporting away.
"Well, that's over with, shall we move on, Mr. 'i didn't want to pay for an A class mission so I lied about who was following me' Tazuna." asked Kakashi sarcastically.
Opposite Shore to Wave Country, 7:00 PM
As Naruto, team 7, and Tazuna moved onto the boat, it began to row toward the other side. Both the driver and Tazuna remained silent.
"So, I suppose you guys want to know why I didn't pay for an A-ranked Mission?" asked Tazuna sullenly.
"Tazuna, we are going to guard you anyways, so don't fret about it. We know you didn't have the money. Just drop the subject." said Kakashi reading his perverted novel.
The rest of the ride was silent. except for Sai asking Naruto, "How did you do that shrapnel-gun thing? That was pretty awesome."
Naruto lied and said, "Those were poorly-constructed shuriken with fire-proof exploding tags."
Sasuke asked Naruto rudely, "Where did you learn the Phoenix Immortal Fire technique? You are the failure after all..."
Naruto responded happily with a middle finger and a, "Ibiki-sensei!" this time, it was not a lie.
Once they got to wave country, they headed towards Tazuna's house.
Tazuna's Pad, 11:05 PM
Naruto laid his head down upon the pillow and fell into dreamland.
Naruto's Mindscape, 3rd visit
When he opened his eyes he found himself on the battle field once again, with a mob of skeletons camping his spawn point, what noobs.
Naruto launched one sharpened tentacle after another, slicing through one skeleton's skull, making it closely related to swiss cheese. He cut off the legs below the kneecaps of another, using those to simultaneously smash its head in. Naruto launched a Burning Winds attack at a slightly larger one, pulling back the metal afterwards.
Two remained, the first falling to a giant-sized Gauntlet, the second to its comrade's own skull. Naruto watched as the orbs of their knowledge returned to him.
"Henge no jutsu"
"Human-clone instant Kawamari"
"Genjutsu: Burning Blood"
"Vulpine Cleave"
"Vulpine Terror Charm"
Naruto was surprised to say the least when he found out that not only had he recovered 1 of his own, and two of Ibiki's, but also 2 apparently learned by the Kyubi. Naruto produced 20 Kage bunshin, and charged at what appeared to be a very large lizard.
It was a dragon. It had very hot breath. This was found out by one of Naruto's Kage Bunshin, after switching places with the real Naruto. Naruto made a steel muzzle to distract the Dragon around its mouth, while he ran through the Reflex seals, using his vine hands.
The Dragon's throes became slower, and the muzzle retreated at high speeds into Naruto's body. Naruto pulled off a double backflip, barely missing one of the dragon's claws, before land on the dragon's head.
Naruto flipped upwards, and went into a simple fox seal to initiate the Vulpine cleave. Naruto found that once this activated, his hand become covered in the red Chakra, not losing any of it due to the fact that is stayed in his mind. Naruto sliced through the Dragon's head, coming out the other side, along with:
"Metal Mastery, 75"
With that, Naruto woke up.
Tazuna's House: 9:45 AM
Naruto went downstairs to find Sai eating breakfast. Sai pointed Naruto to the plates, cooked by Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter. Naruto began to consume the rice and vegetables, and found that Tsunami must be a very good cook. He ate the food with gusto, then questioned Sai about his powers.
"Hey, Sai?" asked Naruto, "How do you summon those Ink-creatures?"
Sai answered promptly, "By drawing them out like this" Sai drew a butterfly, to have it flutter around the room and out the door.
Naruto took that to mean 'Oh, look at me, I have infinite summons!', so he left.
Wave's Woods
Kakashi called Naruto into the woods, were they were to practice walking up tree with their chakra. Naruto struggled to stay up, as the metal in his body was pulling him down. He eventually pushed the metal along with himself, but he finished at the same time as Sasuke.
"Hey, idiot!" jeered Sasuke, "You want to have a sparring match, to see how much you need to improve?"
Naruto put on a fake smile, "Sure, I'd love to, jerk."
The genin squared off on the forest floor, with Sasuke starting things off with a grand Fireball Technique. Naruto used Rapid Flame to deter the blast, his Searing Sands moving so fast they were a red blur. Naruto made 20 Kage bunshin, and sent them all around Sasuke. Sasuke couldn't land a hit on any of them, as they would block with their hands. Naruto used a modified Phoenix Immortal Fire, with blunt rounded shuriken to bruise and burn Sasuke.
Sasuke's eyes began to spin, and Naruto could see on tomoe in each. Before Sasuke attacked, Naruto held up a mirror.
Sasuke stopped, and, completely out of character, yelled, "YATTA! I DID IT!!!"
quickly regaining his composure, Sasuke said politely to Naruto, "Thank you Naruto, for helping me activate my kekkei genkai. i am going to need to find Kakashi, because I don't know how to turn it on or off...bye!" said Sasuke, as he ran off.
Naruto felt good for helping someone who really needed it. Because Naruto could've whopped his ass with one vine. Again and again.
End of Chapter 8
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