Code: Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Buso Renkin, but I do own Buso Nin.
Ben: No you don't. Buso Nin is just a combination of the two. The licenses are still there.
Code: You always ruin my fun. -frown-
Ben: You're boring.
Code: GAH!
Ben: On the side: img72(dot)imageshack(dot)us/img72/2695/minitokyocouplescansbuslp3(dot)jpg – An image of Kazuki's Busou Renkin, as these things are really hard to describe.
Busou Nin
Chapter 2: Discovery
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"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them." Galileo Galilei
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"Ugh . . ." Naruto groaned. Sitting up, he looked around. "I'm . . . in my apartment? The last thing I remember was falling asleep on Tokiko-chan's table."
'She had to carry you here, ahou. Seriously, think about your actions before you do them.'
"What . . . what time is it?" he yawned, stretching out the kinks in his body.
'Ten o'clock, ahou.'
"WHAT?! I'm going to be late for school . . . AGAIN!" Naruto roared, shooting out of bed.
He ran out of the apartment as he pulled on the black top of his gakuran, cursing all the while.
'Shit! Shit! Damn it! Oh, and by the way, you use the word 'ahou' too much. It's too boring now.'
'Ahou! It will never get boring if you always act like one! Now scram!'
'Shut up-oof!'
"Hey, watch where you're-"
"Okakura! It's fine. This is my new friend, Uzumaki Naruto."
"K-Kazuki?" Naruto mumbled dazedly. "W-What happened?"
"Heh, you ran straight into Okakura, he's one of my friends," he said, grinning. "Need a hand?"
"Yes, please."
Kazuki helped his blond friend up, who immediately dusted himself off. There were two others, one very large guy and a skinny guy with glasses. Okakura's haircut, on the other hand, made Naruto want to run away. The huge stick of hair that stuck out in front reminded him horribly of Lee and Gai's haircuts. It even looked just as slick and shiny as theirs did . . .
"Uh, you guys are going to be late," Naruto warned. "I'll see you later, Kazuki!"
"W-Wait!"
"Huh?" Naruto stopped and turned around to look at Kazuki questioningly. "What?"
"Uh, well," the brunette began, "do you remember going into the haunted factory yesterday, by any chance?"
"He made a huge commotion, talking about how he died trying to protect you and a strange girl!" Okakura cut in.
"Okakura!"
"Kazuki's right," the skinny guy said, "you shouldn't talk about stuff that's Kazuki's own business."
"Come now, Rokumasu, give me a break!" Okakura protested. "He freaking fought me while he sleep-walked!"
"Would've killed you too if it hadn't been for Daihama," Rokumasu muttered, pointing a thumb at the tall and large guy to the side. He reminded Naruto of Chouji, except that the Akimichi was slightly wider and had a higher body-fat composition. Nevertheless, it looked like Daihama was a physical powerhouse.
"You must've been dreaming, Kazuki," Naruto reassured. "If that dream was true, then you'd be dead. Simple as that."
He ran off, attempting to get to homeroom in time.
"Hey, let's go after him," Okakura suggested. "We're going to be late if we don't at least match his speed."
"Oniichan!"
"Hey Machiro!" Kazuki shouted, waving.
xxxx
"The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes." William James
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He could feel Tokiko's presence. While she hadn't mentioned what she planned to do, it had something to do with the school, or someone who attended or taught there. Were there Homunculi hidden within the school itself? The last time he'd checked, there hadn't been any disappearances within the school itself, meaning that for now, there was no danger to the average student. It was now the lunch break. He'd seen Kazuki get in trouble for losing his briefcase, which had been dropped in the abandoned factory. He'd seen him get told to weed the back garden. And now, he was leaning against the small water tower, with Tokiko on top of it. The two of them could see Kazuki complaining to his friends about the injustice of weeding the entire back garden himself. What a peaceful life he lived.
"The search hasn't been successful."
"I figured as much. You only know how the Homunculus looks, right?" Naruto asked. "That might be the problem. If it's hiding in human form, then it'll become a lot harder to locate it."
"True," she conceded, pulling out a cell phone. "You shouldn't stay up here for too long, or you might get found out," she warned as she began tapping at the buttons of the device.
As Kazuki and his friends prepared to leave for class, the brunette's cell phone began ringing, telling Kazuki that it had mail for him. Using the improved vision that all shinobi eventually developed, he could see the Kazuki open it up to read the message 'Treasure your new life'.
"How predictable," Naruto commented.
"Shut up."
The two of them watched Kazuki look confusedly at the cell phone screen for a few seconds before running to catch up with his friends. Naruto supposed it was time for him to go as well, and he sure as hell didn't want to be late for class after one late-coming to the homeroom class and one near-lateness.
"Wait a minute," Tokiko called out, before he could make the leap down onto the raised walkway.
"What is it?" he asked, turning his head around. "As you can see, I've got to get to class."
"I have a question. Why are you becoming involved in this? You don't possess a Kakugane, yet your technique is very much related to Renkinjutsu. If that Homunculus had stayed in those flames, it surely would've died."
"The reason . . . is personal," he replied, avoiding her question. "There's just something I need to accomplish, concerning Renkinjutsu. If it means I have fight through hordes of Homunculus, so be it. I can handle them."
"Meaning," she deduced, "you either have different methods of fighting or different techniques than the ones that you've already displayed."
"Yep. I specialize in Ninjutsu."
Naruto hopped off of the roof and onto the walkway, before sprinting through the door on the opposite side.
"Ninjutsu?" she repeated after he'd disappeared from sight. "Don't tell me that he's . . ."
xxxx
"Learning is the discovery that something is possible." Fritz Perls
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"Ugh, I screwed up," Naruto grunted as he walked across the school.
'Right. You told her that you use Ninjutsu. Way to blow your cover.'
'Shut up, baka-kitsune!'
'After all I have done for you-'
'All you want to do is be free of the cage and wreak more havoc!'
'. . . While that may be true, I still hold the key back to your world in my paws. If you choose not to go along with my plan, you can say goodbye to ever seeing your friends again.'
'Bastard . . . blackmailing me like that . . .'
'Call it what you like, you walking piece of flesh, it is just the means to the end.'
'Shut it.'
He closed the mental connection to cut off any smart-ass response from the demon, and instead went to work searching through the school. Even with his minor knowledge of Homunculi, Naruto was finding it nigh impossible to find one that was well-entrenched at school. It would make it harder to distinguish the good or bad teachers and students, so he had to be doubly careful. One problem . . . he wasn't a careful person.
"Gah," he muttered as he bumped his head again trying to quickly escape a teacher's room. What was with these teachers? They stayed so late after school and were prone to randomly enter their god forsaken classrooms. "I'm never going to say that preparing a back-up or escape plan would be a bad idea to Kakashi-sensei anymore, if I ever get back."
"What are you still doing here, Uzumaki?"
Naruto turned around to spot the same darkish gray-haired teacher that had told him to hurry up on the first day.
"Shouldn't you be home by now? It's getting late."
He noticed the briefcase with a snail key chain attached to the handle. Mita, the teacher, was carrying it along, and obviously looking for someone, but who? The briefcase was Kazuki's, which the brunette had dropped in the abandoned factory in his fear and hurry to attempt to save Tokiko. So . . . why did Mita have it? Did he go to the factory to retrieve it? How did he know it was there in the first place? Naruto felt his eyes narrow slightly, but put on an embarrassed smile.
"I went to the bathroom, and, eheh, I got lost when I came out."
"That does sound feasible," Mita admitted. "You did transfer here yesterday, and you wouldn't have had much time to explore the school and know your way around like all the other second-years." He straightened his jacket before turning around to walk off. "If you see Mutou Kazuki, tell him that I've found his briefcase for him."
"Y-Yes sir."
Turning around, he pulled out a cellphone which he had brilliantly stolen from a store. A store. With cameras and security guards. Sometimes being a shinobi rocked. Anyways, he hunched over it as he located Tokiko's number in the address book. Naruto began tapping into it, writing up his message. If his suspicions were correct, then it'd be a matter of time before Mita found Kazuki, and attempted to eliminate the teen.
'Might have located the Homunculus . . . Ginsei High, hurry.'
Satisfied, he sent the message and tucked the cellphone into the pocket on the inside of his gakuran top. Naruto sprinted after Mita's trail, but it was made harder when he realized that he couldn't smell the teacher. Without that, he couldn't accurately follow the teacher as he could with all others. Switching tactics, he placed his briefcase on the floor and strained his ears to their maximum sensitivity, listening carefully. Amongst the silence of the empty school, he heard the clapping of shoes on the floor. There! He was heading outside! Picking his briefcase back up again, he ran to the nearest open window and hopped off. Third floor or not, he was a shinobi, and he landed safely and quietly on the floor.
xxxx
"The greatest discoveries have come from people who have looked at a standard situation and seen it differently." Ira Erwin
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"Agh," Kazuki moaned as he lay on the floor, his upper body only being held up by his hurting arms. "It's finally done." He was at the side of the school, only buildings and walls surrounding him and creating a sort of alley. Pulling on his gakuran top and heaving his backpack onto his shoulder, he looked around for a bit at the school. He'd never been here this long, so the change in lighting kind of spooked him out.
His wandering eyes eventually settled on the horizon, a building in the hillside.
"The haunted factory in the hills . . ."
The 'nightmare' appeared in his thoughts, and the picture of himself being skewered through the heart sent shivers down his spine.
"For some reason, I've had no luck since yesterday . . . well, except for meeting Naruto."
Kazuki was about to go and report to the staff lounge that his work was done, so that he could go home and eat dinner, when a voice sounded out.
"Where are you going? Have you finished what I asked you to do?"
He turned to see Mita strolling slowly towards him, something in the teacher's right hand. Mita stopped about ten feet away, gazing at him in the last vestiges of light, which kind of creeped the brunette out. He decided that he wanted to be home as soon as possible.
"Well, for the moment."
"For the moment, huh?" Mita repeated, looking at the tied bags of weeds that were placed next to the wall. "In any case, it doesn't matter." He lifted up the object and tossed on the floor, which eventually slid over to Kazuki's feet.
The familiar snail key chain caught his red eyes.
"My briefcase!" he exclaimed in surprise. "Where was it found?" He was half hoping that it was somewhere in the P.E. Room or in the bathroom.
"The abandoned factory in the hills," Mita informed as he began walking forward towards the high schooler.
"Huh?" Kazuki let out. "The abandoned . . . factory?"
"Yes, it was left behind . . . by the guy who interrupted my meal yesterday." By this time, Mita was not more than three or four feet away, and Kazuki could hear a sort of crackling noise. Mita's skin seemed as if it were cracking, a multitude of blue lines appearing on his body. In fact, it was even appearing on his clothes! This was . . . unreal . . . this couldn't be happening. His body fell flat on his butt, his surprise showing clearly on his face.
"That means you, Mutou Kazuki," he clarified, his voice becoming deeper.
'What's happening?'
"Kazuki, why are you still alive? You should've died when I made that hole through your heart." Strange spines were coming out of Mita's back now, and Kazuki felt his own eyes widen, his heart beat rise sky high, his breathing quicken.
'I-I see . . . I-It's a dream! It has to be a dream, because if it isn't, I wouldn't . . . no, couldn't be alive right now!' he thought, even as he unconsciously began trying to crawl backwards.
"Well, it doesn't matter. Since you're still alive, I'll make sure that this time, I kill you!" he roared, his body deforming rapidly and arching up towards the sky, taking on the form of a large cobra.
"Ha-aa-aaaaaaaah!" Kazuki screamed in panic as he got to his feet quickly and ran the opposite direction. He inhaled and exhaled rapidly and loudly as he ran as fast as he could, trying to outrun the monstrosity that was chasing him. Just as he got to the corner of the school, Mita lunged, narrowly missing. Kazuki continued running, and Mita, not put off by the miss, continued on at an even faster pace.
"I-It's not a dream! It wasn't a dream!" Kazuki repeated to himself. "Then I . . ."
At that moment, his cell phone rung. He pulled out and quickly flipped it open.
"Who is this?!" he half-yelled into the phone.
"We'll be there in three minutes tops, just hold out until then!" a female voice said.
"What is that thing?" Kazuki demanded. "Who are you? What the hell is going on here?!"
Mita used his distraction to lunge again, but Kazuki narrowly dodged it by sidestepping and changing direction at the last second. The resulting crash sent the phone flying out of his hands, and he was forced to juggle the phone around comically as he ran, trying to catch it and keep it from falling and breaking.
"It's difficult to talk and run at the same time," the voice said again, sternly. "I'll get to the point."
"Please, go right ahead!" he begged.
"The thing that's chasing you, is called a Homunculus. It's a monster that hides within a human and eats humans as their primary food source."
"Eats humans?" Kazuki repeated disbelievingly.
"I was following them to this city, but then you got yourself involved."
"Them? Got involved?! How did I?!"
"I see," the voice said after a pause, "you still haven't remembered everything."
"Remembered what?" he demanded again. He wanted explanations, yet the only thing he'd really learned was that the thing chasing him ate humans, and he certainly didn't want to become food for it.
"Anyways, don't stop running! To conceal their existence to others, Homunculi will never let a witness live. They will come after you, even if they have to follow you to the end of the world."
"Tch!"
"Once you've become involved, there's nowhere for you to run!" the voice warned.
Kazuki sprinted towards the next corner, but stopped abruptly after turning the corner, just narrowly missing from colliding into his sister. His sister?! What was she doing here?! She let out a yell, which dissipated quickly.
"You scared me! What's wrong? What happened? You look scary."
"Mahiro," he panted out, "what are you doing here? Why are you here?"
"Well, you were late coming home," she said with a smile, "so I came to get you."
'Damn!' he cursed in realization, 'She'll get involved!' He could feel the slight trembling of the ground, caused by Mita's rapid movement. If he didn't do something immediately, she might become caught in the entire mess, and possibly even killed. No . . . it couldn't come to that. He wouldn't allow it. She was his sister, and he would protect her with his life.
"Run, Mahiro!" he yelled, placing a hand on her shoulder, trying to reassure her of something she had no knowledge of. "I'll hold him off!"
"W-What? What are you talking about?" she asked confusedly, raising her hands in front of herself protectively. "What's wrong, Oniichan?"
He ran to a pile of junk and picked up a good sized pipe. Perhaps this would be enough. Kazuki ran past her and her yell of "Oniichan!", yelling for her to run as he prepared to charge Mita . . . only to find that he wasn't in sight. The ground trembled and the sound of ground breaking met his ears. He gasped and felt time stop as a snapping noise sounded behind him.
Mita completely swallowed her up, and the large snake mouth opened to reveal Mita's human head on an elongated neck.
"It sure is difficult moving around on an empty stomach," he said, satisfied. "That makes up for having to starve yesterday!"
Kazuki gripped the pipe tightly and screamed in rage as he whirled around. He began hitting Mita's head left and right repeatedly with the pole, screaming, "Give her back! This has nothing to do with her!"
"Give her back! Give her back! Give her back!"
"Don't get cocky," Mita said smugly, while Kazuki's pipe was bending, having been stopped by the unmoving head. His tail flashed out, knocking Kazuki several feet away and sending the pipe flying onto the floor. The high schooler lay face down, and he appeared to have either entered unconsciousness or given up. Oh well, it was all for the better, it'd be much easier to eat him right now instead of chasing him further. "This body, made from Renkinjutsu, doesn't react to any power other than Renkinjutsu itself!" he proclaimed.
By this time, Kazuki had been able to sit up, though it was taking a toll on his stamina.
"Renkin . . . jutsu?"
Suddenly, his heart pulsed with a strange sensation, and he grabbed his chest with his hand. It continued to pulse like that, and the world around him seemed to blur. He could remember everything. Everything from being skewered, to Tokiko's words to him. Unfortunately for him, any memory of Naruto being with Tokiko seemed to be a blur. Nevertheless, he stood up on shaky legs."
"Oh? You're not giving up?" Mita questioned. "You should've been dead last night, just accept your fate!"
"Give back Mahiro!" Kazuki growled.
"Stop sleep talking!" Mita replied mockingly, reminding Kazuki of the excuse that had been created, that he had just been dreaming. "Resign yourself to being consumed by your sister," he finished with a creepy smile.
"Tch, you BASTARD!"
Kazuki rushed forward, once again taking up the pipe. Mita, on the other hand, wasted no time in withdrawing his head and sending the large snake head charging to meet his adversary head on. Instead of being knocked away, the brunette had managed to jump and thrust the pole into one of the snake's glassy eyes, but just when he'd thought he'd done it, Kazuki was thrown onto the floor.
"You still don't understand do you, idiot?" Mita questioned angrily. The spines next to his head elongated, and he was just about to impale Kazuki, when . . .
'Fuuton: Daitoppa!'
Powerful winds crashed into Mita from behind, sending the large snake reeling. Several large gashes appeared on the back, and was painful enough to cause the Homunculus to whirl around angrily to find . . . no one. There was no one behind him. Then who-
'Kaze no Yaiba!'
Multiple blades of wind fell from the sky and slammed itself into Mita, piercing his body. He became blinded in pain, and screamed. Mita's vision turned red and turned to eat Kazuki. He would at least eat the boy and flee, and he made to do so, until someone landed in front of him.
"Huh? You are . . . ?!"
"Busou Renkin! Valkyrie Skirt!" Tokiko announced, holding out the Kakugane to the side.
Like before, the hexagon separated and dissolved, re-materializing into the four scythe-like blades.
"What?!" Mita exclaimed. "You're last night's . . . Che!"
Mita shot forward, but several dozen shuriken hit him in his large, cobra-like back, making him falter.
'Now!'
Tokiko's blades shot forward, all four piercing evenly in a square shape, breaking apart the entire body because of the amount of force used. Mita's head was left in the air, and he began moaning in pain while the rest of his body was sliced and diced into pieces.
"Death Scythe Busou Renkin . . . I see,"
A horizontal slash to his neck.
"you're . . "
This was followed up by two blades entering either of his eyes diagonally.
"the Renkin no . . . Sen-"
She ended both the battle and his speaking with a final thrust into the marking on his forehead, causing him to fade away into dust. Mita's stomach region faded away, and revealed an unhurt Mahiro, who seemed to have fallen unconscious. From shock or the claustrophobia, Naruto wouldn't know. So as not to reveal himself, he turned around abruptly and left the side of the rooftop.
"Mahiro!" he could hear Kazuki exclaim.
xxxx
"When it's time for us to die, let us not discover that we have never lived." Henry David Thoreau
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His blue eyes snapped open as he heard her jump out of the window. It was time for phase two of her plan, eliminate all Homunculi in the factory. Naruto jumped off of the roof and into the treetops, keeping speed with Tokiko. She noticed him and gave him an apprehensive look, the final warning. If he went any further, he'd be in this all the way. Naruto didn't mind, this was something he needed to do.
"You didn't have to be so harsh with him," he began as they began running up the hillside, mentioning her short talk with Kazuki about not following her. "All he wanted to do was to help, even a little bit."
"I don't need help, and I especially don't want someone innocent like him to become dragged into all this."
"If you don't need help, then why are you putting up with me?"
"Because you wouldn't listen to me even if I told you to screw off," Tokiko said with a pointed glare. "You're annoying that way."
'How touching, however, you are nearing the factory. Stay alert.'
'I might be clueless about a lot of stuff, but I'm definitely no pushover when it comes to combat, Kyuubi. Butt out.'
"Be prepared for anything," Naruto warned in advance. "They might have something up their sleeves."
"Why else would I have willingly brought you?" Tokiko retorted. "You seem to be the type who can prepare for everything."
"Anything, not everything," he corrected.
"That's the same thing," she protested under her breath, not willing to let her partner know how frustrated she was with him at this point.
"The conversation is besides the point. Let's do this."
"Right, don't get in my way."
"Tokiko-chan, if I ever got in your way, it'd be because I had a death wish."
"That's good to hear."
Naruto slammed open the doors, his and Tokiko's bodies being silhouetted by the moonlight. Though he could be stealthy at times, now was not one of them. They were here to wage war against monsters, outnumbered and in a bad position. Luckily enough, it was in situations such as these that his brilliance in combat strategy was displayed. Today's matchings . . . him and her against a large room filled with Homunculi. Just perfect. The only other partner was Tokiko, so he could go and bust out the entire variety of Ninjutsu that he knew and employed so effectively along with Kage Bunshin.
At least, that's what he'd been thinking until they saw hordes of ape-like Homunculi. Hordes and hordes. There had to be at the very least one-hundred and at the most several times more. The factory floor was large, and the Homunculi smaller in size, the end result being an overly crowded factory floor filled with monsters that looked just about ready to pounce at them at any moment.
"Bullshit!" he swore.
"I believe you may have just jinxed us, blond one," Tokiko growled through gritted teeth. Her eyes flashed dangerously as she released her Busou Renkin. "It doesn't matter, slaughter them all . . . Unless you're not up to it."
The challenge was issued, and all that was left was for him to accept it.
"Bring it."
Fifty Homunculi jumped into the air while double that amount rushed them by foot.
'Katon: Karyuu Endan!'
Like before, the flamethrower-like dragon washed over the Homunculi, melting the ground with it. Its white hot flames burned anything that came within three feet of it, and melted anything within one. The concentrated stream of fire felled fifteen heavily-crowded Homunculi, but more took their place. If anything, this reminded him of his battle with the Ame shinobi during the Chuunin Exams. He'd whack and whack at the clones but more would always appear and it'd be an everlasting cycle until he was worn out.
"Die, you foul beings!" Tokiko roared, her blades moving rapidly and cutting the Homunculi into pieces. Though she wasn't killing as many as Naruto was, she was using less stamina in comparison. Even still, she fought with a ferocity that he'd never witnessed before. Her eyes had a deadly sheen to them, and all feeling had been withdrawn leaving the eyes to look as though they belonged to a heartless killer. After finishing the dozen that had come after her, her blades fell into a ready stance as two dozen more leaped at her.
"Prey!"
"You're the prey!" she growled, cutting down eight more who had taken to the sky.
Naruto reached into his top and pulled out six shuriken, placing three in each hand. Turning his body slightly to the right, he whirled to the left. His left arm shot out, then his right, until his body was now turned to the left. The six shuriken flew at the several dozen Homunculi, and would not be able to stop the entire horde unless he did something to even the odds.
'Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!'
Six multiplied into eighteen, then fifty-four, the end result being hundreds of shuriken that pierced through the monsters. While normal shuriken wouldn't have killed a Homunculus, the Ninjutsu version, similar to Renkinjutsu as it was, could.
'Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.'
Ten Kage Bunshin appeared next to Naruto, who then ordered them to form a defensive circle. While they fought and held off the Homunculi, he bit his thumb and went through the hand seals of the jutsu he was certain could wipe them all out. Naruto slammed his right palm onto the floor, and a series of markings coiled out from the impact, which then summoned up a loud explosion and large quantities of smoke. When the smoke dissipated, a large gama was revealed.
'Kuchiyose no Jutsu.'
The gama was nowhere near the size of Gamabunta, however, standing at ten feet in height, it was still a large size – medium for the average summoned gama.
"Oil!" Naruto demanded as he prepared a Katon jutsu.
The armored gama complied, breathing in deeply and exhaling large amounts of flammable oil.
'Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!'
Instead of shooting it as a fireball, he used the first variation of the jutsu, which caused fire to come out at a steady rate. What would normally create a static fireball was sucked up by the oil, igniting it and sending burning destruction in the form of napalm towards the Homunculi. Those that were caught were left dead or dying, as they tried desperately to put out the fire by rolling on the ground. The gama turned slowly counter-clockwise while Naruto continued spewing out fire to combine with the oil. In two minutes, there was a large circle of destruction in which at least eighty or so Homunculi lay dead.
"That should teach-oof!"
Naruto was knocked off of his summon, who turned around swiftly and hacked off the Homunculus that had jumped him.
"There are too many!" Tokiko called out to him as she cut down another dozen with her Busou Renkin.
"I can see that!" Naruto retorted, resorting to Taijutsu to fend off the enemy. All of his Kage Bunshin had been destroyed, so he had to think up a new plan to destroy the constantly renewing ranks of Homunculi. Ninjutsu worked well enough, but not even he had a jutsu that was the right strength to take them all out. The only one that he knew could surely take them all out was the Fuuton: Rasenshuriken, but that would also take the factory down with it.
Then, he was reminded. He still had the Oodama Rasengan. It was several times more destructive than a fully formed Rasengan, but was also several times less destructive than its counterpart, the Rasenshuriken. As long as the factory's supports held out for the duration of the jutsu, the two of them might be able to end this battle and get out alive.
"Right!" he resolved, dispelling his worn out summon. 'Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!'
Once again, a multitude of Bunshin appeared in a circle, but this time, he gave them orders to utilize any means to kill or stop the Homunculi. He'd need more than just stalling to complete a stable Oodama Rasengan, even if he had to order his Bunshin to use Ninjutsu. While they began shooting off his small arsenal of Katon and Fuuton jutsu, he worked on the jutsu.
He held out both of his hands to create and compact the jutsu while the Kage Bunshin that was his partner held out his hands to insert some of Kyuubi's potent chakra, multiplying the strength tenfold.
"I don't know whatever the hell you're doing, Naruto, but it'd better be useful!" Tokiko yelled angrily, retreating to a position next to him. "There's way too many of them to call this a simple base!"
"Well, what constitutes as a base?" a Kage Bunshin asked, sending a flurry of fireballs towards incoming airborne targets.
"A base would normally rank so with about five Homunculi, while ten to fifteen would be overly large. However . . ."
"What would this place rank up as?" another Kage Bunshin questioned, throwing several element-enhanced kunai into the face of a Homunculus that had come too close. "A fortress?"
"Not even close. This would be called an army!" she replied, cutting two in half as they tried to attack the real Naruto from behind. "I don't know how the hell they amassed such a huge force without the rentai's knowledge!"
"So, this is the pair that Mita spoke of last night," a large person on the other side of the factory room said, grinning. "They're amazing."
"Done!" Naruto announced. "Get behind me!"
"Huh? Behind you?" she repeated, turning to look at him.
"Just do it!" he roared as he jumped into the air with his Kage Bunshin.
Four Kage Bunshin placed themselves into a rectangular formation, each of them going through hand seals swiftly. Finishing, they clapped their hands together and held them out against the air.
"Shishienjin!"
A large rectangular barrier rose, closing itself off and leaving the real Naruto exposed.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Tokiko exclaimed.
"Just shut up and watch! Oodama Rasengan!"
Just as every Homunculi jumped into the air to meet him, Naruto slammed the pulsing orb into the top of the barrier, having ordered the four Kage Bunshin channeling the jutsu to concentrate its strength there. The resulting explosion ripped apart every visible Homunculi within fifty feet and blinded everyone in the room, even himself. A loud crushing noise was heard as the ground beneath cracked and broke under the pressure of the jutsu clashing with the barrier. By the time the debris had settled, one could see that the top of the barrier had been cracked extensively, and some parts had even begun falling apart. Tokiko stared at him with her mouth hanging open and her eyes wide. As Naruto fell down, his Kage Bunshin first dismissed the barrier and then themselves, so that he wouldn't kill himself on contact.
"What did you do?" she asked slowly.
"A real pain in the ass jutsu," Naruto groaned in reply, falling to his knees. "No matter how many times I try that, it's hard to gather so much chakra while condensing and rotating it at the same time. It really takes a toll on my mental stamina."
"I see," the figure said from his position in the wall. The blast had knocked and pressed him into it. Such force, even for the backlash. "You, girl, you're the Renkin no Senshi. The boy, however, is a strange one. No Busou Renkin, only the use of strange and powerful techniques that would be more common amongst the more advanced Homunculi."
"Don't compare him with you monstrosities!" Tokiko snarled.
"Do you really think that just the two of you can win just by barging in like that?" he questioned as the crackling noise of a transforming Homunculus met their ears.
"We don't need any help," she retorted. "Come!"
"As you wish!" he roared in his fully transformed state. He was a huge ape, a little bit larger in size than the ten foot gama that Naruto had summoned earlier. "It's just what I wanted to do!" He raised his fist and prepared to smash the two into smithereens.
Tokiko's eyes widened marginally at his frontal attack, and even more so when she felt something grab onto her leg.
"I got her, Saruwatari-san!" one of the Homunculi exclaimed. His body had been almost completely destroyed, save for the torso and the arm.
"Damn it, hiding in the bodies!" she said aloud in realization. "Damn it Naruto, can't you do anything right?
Naruto was in the same predicament, though he was in the process of making a few more Kage Bunshin to deal with the threat.
Saruwatari continued on, fist moving faster and faster.
"It's painful to have no support, isn't it, Renkin no Senshi?"
Tokiko cut down the Homunculus that was holding her down with a yell, but was grabbed immediately by several more arms.
"You . . . !"
Faint footsteps were heard by Naruto, who turned his attention to the door. Only one other person could possibly know about what was happening in the factory, and only one person would be stupid enough to charge in without any knowledge of weaponry to defeat a Homunculus.
'Shit, he can't possibly be . . . ?!'
Quickly, he killed the last few Homunculi that had latched onto him with his kunai and leaped into the air, launching a salvo of enhanced shuriken towards the location of the hidden Homunculi that were holding Tokiko in place. The weaponry cut through the several layers of dead bodies, killing the living ones as well. Just as Saruwatari had reached her, the door broke open and Naruto hit and stuck to the ceiling.
Kazuki roared as he rushed in, eyes filled with burning determination. Both Tokiko and Saruwatari looked at him with shocked expressions as he clutched his chest, where his heart should be.
"Busou Renkin!"
The material of the Kakugane dissolved and exited his body, reforming into a large, pointed lance with a long red sash connected to the side of the lance's pointed edge. The handles were like a lance's, but the blade of the lance itself, was humongous. At its widest point, it was almost as wide as his own body.
Continuing his roar, he charged at Saruwatari, thrusting his Busou Renkin.
"W-What's this?!" the Homunculus exclaimed, reacting quickly to the assault and bringing both of his palms together to stop the lance from piercing his marking. Kazuki kept placing large amounts of force on the lance, regardless, and began a contest of strength with Saruwatari. "So I'm not the only one who'd prepared an ambush! You want to match strength with me? How amusing!"
Both he and Kazuki began yelling, letting out their force of will, as the lance began trembling with the amount of brute force that was being applied to both sides.
"Pierce, my Busou Renkin!"
The red sash began glowing a brilliant golden color in response to this, and Tokiko felt her own eyes widen yet again.
'His sash . . . is turning into energy?!'
The grin on Saruwatari's face disappeared quickly when he felt the beginnings of the lance push into the marking. It disappeared completely when the force of the energy behind the lance pushed forward, splitting the Homunculus' upper body entirely in half, with Kazuki flying past, also because of the force.
"So strong! Why is it so strong?" Tokiko exclaimed. 'To be able to defeat a strength-oriented Homunculus in its own main attribute, just who is this guy?'
Suddenly, Kazuki began flailing in the air as he realized that there was nothing stopping him from his midair traveling except for the wall that he was rapidly approaching. His efforts went unnoticed as he slammed face first into the wall, sliding down pathetically. Kazuki fell flat on his back once he reached the bottom of his slide, sending up a cloud of dust, causing Naruto to smirk to himself. So much like himself . . .
Tokiko looked up momentarily at Naruto with a questioning expression, but was met with a single gesture: a finger to his lips. He didn't want Kazuki to know of his involvement? She supposed it was rational, as they had just become friends. The friendship might strain or be strengthened by the discovery of Naruto's presence, but it seemed that the blond didn't want to take the chance . . . not just yet. Looking down, the Homunculi remains were now dissolving. The death of the leader who had created them from humans had been the severance of their last connection to this world. Now they could truly pass on to the afterlife.
Naruto himself was impressed. Already, Kazuki could summon up the Busou Renkin and go head to head with a Homunculus . . . or maybe it was just a fluke, because of the surprise attack. Nevertheless, he decided to leave quietly, so as not to gain attention to himself should Kazuki look upwards.
"What about your younger sister?!" he could hear Tokiko scold.
xxxx
"When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves." William Arthur Ward
xxxx
'What did she mean?'
xxxx
"What about your younger sister?!" she scolded, walking up to his fallen body.
"Don't worry, I sent her home," Kazuki reassured, using the end of the lance's handle as a support to stand up. "I sprinted for thirty minutes to get here, but I'm still fine . . ." He then tipped over, falling onto the floor.
"You're dead on your feet,"Tokiko stated, almost deadpanning if not for her personality. "Why did you come? Didn't I tell you not to? Didn't I?"
"I couldn't just pick one option!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Mahiro is important to me, but . . . I couldn't let you come here alone."
Tokiko looked surprised for a moment, if only to react to his fervent desire to protect everyone he knew, even herself. He surely was a copy of Naruto or something, because the two seemed to act almost identically. The differences were minor, and the two could very well have been passed off as brothers if they had the same hair color.
"I wasn't alone," she sighed. "Someone came with me, but he's already left."
"W-What?!" Kazuki exclaimed, his eyes turning into small dots.
"Anyways, look beneath your feet."
He did so and let out an involuntary moan and a step backwards when he saw the skulls and skeletons scattered across the floor.
"T-This is . . . !"
"I've already told you," she said in a matter-of-fact tone. "This is their way. Humans are their food source. Also, it seems to me that this isn't their only base. We annihilated the ones here, but there are probably more hiding within the town itself. I've checked all the hunting grounds, but it never occurred to me before that they'd be so well entrenched."
"Why would such monsters . . ."
"The situation is worse than I thought," Tokiko said aloud, voicing her thoughts. "Here alone were hundreds of Homunculi . . . Next time, seriously, don't get involved. There is a high probability that you will d-"
"No, this is even more of a reason for me to not stay away," Kazuki said stubbornly. "If they're hiding within the town, then everyone will be in danger. The Kakugane that you gave me, I have that power. I can fight." He turned and looked up at the lance he was holding, as if to prove his point.
'It's different from yesterday,' Tokiko thought. 'This time, you're jumping in even though he knows everything.'
xxxx
'If she wasn't alone, then who was with her?' Kazuki pondered as Tokiko helped him down the hill, his arm slung around her shoulders.
A short distance away, Naruto was hopping through the trees slowly, following them. Kazuki was his responsibility, whether it was in or out of battle. Even so, he'd be damned if the brunette ever found about his own involvement. He was doing this for his own benefit first and foremost, the benefit of others behind that. Naruto knew that that was harsh, but that was the extent to which he wanted to go home, back to friends, back to his way of living, the life of a shinobi.
"I was telling you for your own good," Tokiko explained. "Even if you hadn't interfered, my ally could've helped me out."
"Thanks, but sorry," Kazuki replied, though a little put out by her words.
"That's not to say that I'm not thankful for your interference," she said to quickly mend the situation, "It's just that I'm saying that your assistance wouldn't have made a difference had you or had you not intervened."
"Anyways, it looks like I won't be able to just stand aside for you and your ally to handle everything. I'm going to help you guys get rid of these monsters."
"He was a temporary ally," she protested, when a pebble hit her in the back of the head. Her head turned around slowly, her eyes glowing red under her bangs as she crushed the pebble in her palms. 'Uzumaki, when I'm done with you . . .' "Even if I say no, you won't listen, will you?" she asked, her eyes closed and her walking stopped.
"Right!" Kazuki exclaimed, his head shooting up.
"All right, I understand," Tokiko said as her eyes once again glowed red under her bangs. She let go of him and released her Busou Renkin, training them on his body. "You'll become a trainee warrior, but you must never die before my very eyes ever again. From now on, you must and will follow my orders, understand?!"
"Understood!" shouted Kazuki, saluting with his left hand. "But . . ."
"What now?" she said exasperatedly.
"Well, what is . . . your name?" he asked, tilting his head to the side slightly.
Taken back by the question, she turned and began scratching at the bridge of her nose in embarrassment.
"Oh, right. Sorry. I forgot to tell you."
Kazuki laughed lightly, scratching the back of his head. At that moment, Naruto felt his breathe catch in his throat. That tone of laugh . . . the head scratching . . . the cheerful disposition . . . it was as if he was looking into a mirror, but seeing someone else with the same personality! And yet, Kazuki was also even more clueless than he was at this age. Naruto acted like that at the age of twelve-and-a-half, and that personality became more and more sparse as he grew older and became apparent of the truths of shinobi. His smiling had stopped almost completely with the battle against Akatsuki.
"Listen carefully, My name is Tokiko. Tsumura Tokiko."
"Tokiko-san . . ."
xxxx
"The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery." Mark van Doren
xxxx
"What the hell was that for?!"
"I'm -choke- s-so s-s-s-sorry, -choke- Tokiko-chan!"
Tokiko had pushed him up against the wall when they'd reached their floor of the apartment complex, cutting off his air flow and attempting to choke him. Though her eyes weren't glowing, they held the same danger as the ones she'd shown in the factory, but the disposition was different. She was ignoring his apologies currently, and was watching Naruto's skin turn blue because of the lack of oxygen.
"Don't do it again!" she warned as she let go of the vice-grip that she'd had on his neck.
Naruto began taking deep breaths, his face returning to its normal coloring. His chest heaved up and down as he clutched at his heart, trying to gain back the breath he'd lost from behind choked for several minutes.
"I-I promise."
She opened the door to her apartment and stood in front of it, feeling his gaze upon her. Ignoring this, Tokiko went inside and shut the door, but he continued to stare at it. After about a minute of staring . . .
Tokiko slammed open the door and looked out with an annoyed expression.
"Alright, I get it! Come in already, before I lock the door on you."
Glee was written all over his face as he almost pranced into her apartment room. Though he had his own, hers had the feminine touch that he found more comforting and soothing than his own. Plus, he still hadn't even unpacked anything except for his futon. Naruto supposed he was just lazy, as was stereotypical of men. It was kind of unique for a shinobi, but he wasn't in Konoha, so he could be as lazy as he wanted to be. Glee!
"Anyways, I just wanted to tell you before I go through with it, but I'm moving into a hotel," she informed the blond as the two sipped at their tea. She always seemed to have some every time he visited, though he'd only done so once before.
"W-W-W-What?!" Naruto exclaimed, accidentally spewing out some of the tea he'd been drinking onto the tea table with such force that it cracked under the pressure. "Uh, eheh, sorry," he apologized, seeing the damage.
"It's alright," Tokiko replied, accepting the apology, "It's been too long since I've had that thing anyway."
Naruto paused, staring at her for a few seconds before going up to her and pressing a hand onto her forehead.
"W-What are you doing?" she asked, flushing slightly.
"The Tokiko-chan that I know would never let something like that pa-UGH!"
Naruto lay on the floor, a large bump forming on his head and an irritated Tokiko standing over him. His body twitched every now and then, and anime tears streamed from his KO'd eyes. He supposed he'd been a bit too abrupt with the act of checking for a fever, but she didn't have to be so violent about it . . . boohoo.
"So, why are you moving?" he asked once he'd recovered, an ice pack on his still throbbing head.
"It would place me closer to the school, in case an emergency breaks out," she explained. 'And I'll finally be rid of you as a neighbor!' Though harsh, it was the truth. She'd been planning on moving into a hotel at some point, but his presence had only motivated that thought. "Also, it's slightly larger than this room."
"Really?" Naruto asked, looking around. "I've lived in smaller for years."
"Anyways, I'll be packed up and moved out before school tomorrow. If you please, I need to get to work."
"Oh, right."
He left the room, pausing only to look at her gather her belongings together, before closing the door and entering his own room.
'I've been living next to her for a while . . . How will I feel once she's gone?'
'Ahou, we still need to weasel out information from her!' Kyuubi said all of a sudden, shocking the blond.
'K-Kyuubi! Where have you been?'
'Watching you fight. You did well for a brainless bag of flesh,' the kitsune said. Insult within the sentence or not, it was a compliment that Naruto appreciated greatly. He didn't get those too often, and it was always refreshing to hear someone speak good things of you. 'Anyways, this is what we must do . . .'
xxxx
"Mistakes are the portals of discovery." James Joyce
xxxx
"Finally, I'm done," she sighed. All her unneeded belongings were in the closet. The hotel room had a comfy bed with a nightstand and lamp next to it. Further across was a small table with an armchair. Across the room was a desk, chair, and television. On the other side of the bed and on the wall were clothes pegs for hanging clothes. On the wall opposite the closet was a large window that went entirely from one side to the other, with curtains on either side. For a bit of color, the walls were painted a light shade of yellow, accompanied with a framed and hanged picture here and there. "Well, at least it's quiet."
A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts, and she instinctively went for the knob even though all of her senses warned her against it.
"Hi! I'm your new neighbor!"
"!"
Tokiko was deadpanning with her mouth hanging open, pointing at the cheery blond in front of her.
"You . . . what . . . neighbor . . . what?" she said, unable to form a complete sentence.
"Yes!" he yelled dramatically. "I, too, have packed up all of my belongings and moved here! What a coincidence!"
"Naruto . . ."
"Hm? Yes?"
"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU FOLLOWING ME?!"
"Wuh-huh?! GAH! SOMEBODY HELP ME, SHE'S LOST IT!!! -gurgle- Somebody -choke- help meeeeeee . . ."
xxxx
"There is no such thing as pursuit of happiness, but there is the discovery of joy." Joyce Grenfell
xxxx
Vocabulary
Gama - Toad
Renkin no Senshi – Warrior of Alchemy, Alchemic Warrior
Rentai - Regiment
Jutsu List
General
Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique) – B-Rank – Unlike the normal Bunshin no Jutsu, the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu creates real flesh-and-blood copies of the user. They can fight, experience emotions, and perform jutsu just like the user. When using jutsu though, they have to use the store of chakra that was placed in them during creation. The amount of chakra in Kage Bunshin can be altered. Any information and mental experience that the Kage Bunshin experiences is also passed on to the user when they are killed or dispelled, which makes it particularly useful for missions involving reconnaissance and stealth.
Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique) –C-Rank – The user, after making a blood pact with an animal group, draws blood on their signing hand and performs hand seals. They then slam their hand into something solid, preferably the ground, to summon a creature from another plane of existence. The size and strength of the creature are comparable to the amount of chakra used in the summoning, and the amount of control exercised. Each animal group has a 'king' the strongest of that animal.
Oodama Rasengan (Great Ball Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere)) –S-Rank – This modification of the original Rasengan is awarded the S-Rank because of the difficulty of combining large amounts of chakra, condensing it, and rotating it all at once while trying to place the very unstable Kyuubi chakra into it, making it several times more difficult to perform than the normal Rasengan. The upside to the extra work is the fact that it is many times more damaging, likely to kill anything it comes into physical contact with.
Shishienjin (Four-Man Violet Flame Wall) –A-Rank – This barrier jutsu requires four people to move into a rectangular or square shape, focusing their chakra into a large purple wall of fire. As long as it stands, it cannot be penetrated by the outside, and anyone who tries to do so will be lit on fire and killed. As long as the four members continue to concentrate on the barrier, or as long as a jutsu of such strength comparable to the Rasenshuriken hits the barrier, it will continue to stand unless one of its members is attacked. To counter that, an additional extension of the shield creates a pyramid around the member.
Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique) –B-Rank – The same rank as the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, this is just a variation similar to the Oodama Rasengan, in that instead of cloning the user, it clones the shuriken that is thrown by the user. Though it doesn't have the original and its capability of using stealth or gleaning information, this jutsu is very useful in attacking a large area at one time, to either take out a large group of enemies or to trap a few enemies.
Fire
Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Grand Fireball Technique) – C-Rank – Similar to the Doryuuheki, the user releases pent-up chakra from their gut and manipulates the chakra into flames as the chakra enters the throat, thus breathing out fire. Depending on the force that the flames are expelled, the fireball will either stay put or begin moving on a path of destruction. The size of the fireball is relative to the amount of chakra used in the jutsu, and is one of Konohagakure's most basic Katon jutsu.
Wind
Fuuton: Daitoppa (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough) –C-Rank – A simple Fuuton jutsu, it sends out a powerful explosion of moving air that can level anything in its path with the right amount of chakra. By any means a simple jutsu and easy to withstand with a simple defensive jutsu, this jutsu is best used in an ambush situation to catch the enemy off guard and keep them that way, as shown by Orochimaru's use of it during the Chuunin Exams to separate and distract the members of Team 7.
Fuuton: Rasenshuriken (Wind Release: Spiraling Shuriken) –S-Rank – The half finished product of Naruto's training towards the Fuuton: Rasengan, the Rasenshuriken is on a whole new level compared to the Oodama Rasengan. Whereas the Oodama is a stronger version of the 'sledgehammer' Rasengan, the Rasenshuriken is purely offensive. When it contacts with the enemy, it attacks so quickly and numerously on the microscopic scale that it can effectively render the enemy's body useless, should they live, severing chakra and neural paths. Although it is shaped like a shuriken, it must be used at melee range, just like the Rasengan.
Kaze no Yaiba (Blade of Wind) –B-Rank – Comparably more complicated than the Daitoppa in that the user concentrates chakra into the form of wind into their hand, and then manipulating its shape into that of a sword. As a Fuuton jutsu, it is very dangerous because of its natural sharpness and origin. The user can spawn off more of the blades, so that even when one happens to be canceled, another can quickly take its place.