Here's the other half of this fic, I haven't written any more so it's pretty useless to ask for more, sorry. I pretty much wrote this one about...5 months ago...?
I had it on a memory stick, which I lost and refound, after which I got a little bored of this story... Well, have fun...I guess. I don't think I'm that good.
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Godaime Hokage sat in her new chair, enjoying the felling of power that came with it. "Homura, tell me, how is the biological weapon experiment going on?" Koharu said from her chair with glee. "The disease was contracted to the signified targets without them noticing, just as planned, then in 27 hours they turned into human flesh hungry zombies with slight incises to their stamina, strength and speed, during the few days they have however failed to show any abilities to sense people, so in short, his experiment was a failure. But don't throw a fit now sister, it is expected that there will be failures in experiments. And it only means we have to try again." Homura said, as if talking to a five year old sister who needed explanations. "You're right, brother dear. Have them do another sample of the two tailed Jinchuuriki's blood. Too bad we couldn't her, but at least we have a lot of her blood." Koharu said snuggling into her chair, it had been recently washed, to make all the old smells go away. "Yes, now that I think about it, it is rather lucky that the Nine tailed Jinchuuriki got away, other wise we would have killed him before finding out about the Ancient Illusionary Dragon Five Consuming Seal, and its powers." Homura said with a warm smile. "Yes, but we still need to catch him, won't we brother." Koharu said with a warm smile back.
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Naruto sneezed rather violently as he cut off a ghouls head with his kunai. "Who the hell would be talkin'bout me? Meh, must be catchin a cold." Naruto said throwing the kunai in the air twirling making all the blood fly off. "25 down and five left."
Said and scanned the area around him. Nobody was around there, Naruto grunted, it would be hard finding the last five, as the village was not big in city standards but it held a lot of hiding places in it. Naruto took a step when he noticed something, somebody was following him again. The last followers had stopped when Naruto had entered the village. Naruto turned around so his back was facing the stalker and lifted his left hand as if to swipe away some sweat on his forehead but as he let his hand go down he made it into the half ram seal conjuring Chakra, "Shunshin no Jutsu." Naruto thought making a cloud of smoke appear. Naruto had turned around and in the cover of the smoke jumped behind the stalker, who turned out to be a human wearing a black pants and shirt covered by whitish gray, fore-arm, fore-leg and chest armor and a white face mask that looked like a bird. One thought crossed Naruto's mind: "AnBu…" Naruto mentally swore his luck as he did an axe kick at the shoulder, it connected at the off guard AnBu making him stumble down, but the AnBu jumped up quickly falling into a fighting position, though by the time he did Naruto's foot came crashing into his chin, followed into the side of his head above the ear. As the AnBu was off guard again Naruto took the liberty of concentrating Chakra into his hand, and then forcing it fast into the abdomen of the AnBu; Crushing the mail and making the AnBu spit blood inside his mask. The AnBu Double over in pain allowing Naruto lift his foot for another Axe kick again, and making it crash down on the back of the AnBu's head, Making the AnBu's head crash into the ground, smashing the mask, making it's shards dig into his face. The AnBu swore loudly as Naruto jumped back, the AnBu stood up shaky, and fell down again, unconscious. Naruto took a look the AnBu's face, he musta be in his forties judging by the Gray hair he had. Naruto shrugged and took some ninja wire and tied the man up, nit like they taught in the academy, but in the Naruto style, even Jiichan had had problems getting out of the knots Naruto made. After that her checked the man throughly, finding some new kunai and shuriken which he took and some scrolls and a book.
" Mission details and Jutsus yes, awesome, and what's this last tone...Huh, no title… what the heck?" Naruto spoke looking through the stuff. "It's called a bingo book." The Anbu said not surprising Naruto much, the breathing and the heartbeats of the AnBu had changed a second ago. "Oh? What's it do? And from what village do ya come from?" Naruto said, there had been no symbol on the uniform, nor did the AnBu have a headband. Sure the AnBu in Konoha looked like this but it could be like that in every village. "It's a list of nuke-nins and other enemies of the village, each village has a different one. And for Village, call it Konoha if you want but it ain't Leaf anymore I say." The AnBu said rather displeased. "Oh…Konoha, so is my picture in here?" Naruto said and began flipping through it, "Uamino, Uchiha, Umino, Uzumaki, here…" Naruto said flipping through the names. "Name: Uzumaki Naruto, Titles: Demon Fox, Level of Skill: High Chuunin, wha, bull shit…" Naruto reacted seeing his level. "I must be kage level already…" Naruto gloated to himself and to the brooding AnBu. "Level of Skill: SS and is to be captured and brought to Konoha ALIVE. Known Jutsus: Henge no Jutsu, Kawarimi no Jutsu, Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu." Naruto read the one part again. "SS…" Naruto repeated with starry eyes. Naruto looked for more information, but found none other than a full body picture, that had been taken in his academy years. "Well, what can you tell me about this village and what has happened here?" Naruto asked looking at the tied man.
"Read the Scroll with the Mission details you idiot and leave me alone." The man said brooding. Naruto hmpfed at the man and picked up the scroll and read it. "Wha? Kill all experimental targets if attempt to leave mission area. So you guys did this, and didn't even attempt to help them…" Naruto said looking at the man with hateful eyes.
"No, the Hokage did it, I simply followed her orders on the threat of death." The AnBu man said giving an angry look to Naruto. "Look, Kyuubi." The AnBu man said looking up at Naruto who looked back. "For some reason you seem to care for one village and want to blow another one up, seeing the current situation the village is at it wouldn't seem like such a bad option… but anyhow. There are more AnBu coming here now, we've killed the five who escaped so they are all taken care of, but the AnBu coming here are planning to kill the rest of the villagers as the Hokage ordered to leave no eyewitnesses. So go back to them and tell them to leave, and for Kami's sake, kill me already if you ain't gonna interrogate me." The AnBu man said.
"Kill you? Fuck no!" Naruto said chopping the man in the neck knocking him out. "Bitch." Naruto said sneering comicallywhile he picked up the Jutsu scroll with a sly look. "Okay, gotta evacuate the rest of them." Naruto said to himself and dashed towards the mayors house. He arrived there in five minutes threw the door away scaring the people inside. "We need to leave, all the ghouls are dead so it's safe, but not for long, people are coming here to kill you guys." Naruto shouted getting several confused looks from all the people, one who had heard wrong stood up and shouted. "They are coming to rescue us!" But Naruto silenced him fast.
"No, they're coming here to kill you so there will be no witnesses for this experiment. I have this scroll I got from a Konoha AnBu, we need to go NOW!" Naruto shouted, most people nodded and shakily stood up, while some didn't bother to even move, either due to old age or despair, in many cases both. Hattori walked up to Naruto. "What shall we do?" Hattori asked. "You lead them out of here, I'll stay here and remove any evidence of the way you walked and stall them. Here. Its proof of Konoha's crime." Naruto said handing the Mission details over to Hattori. Hattori nodded and walked to the people who still hadn't gotten up with a few other men and lifted or convinced them up. Naruto nodded and helped them as well. In a few minutes they were on the edge of the town and began walking east, towards the closest Village to Asther. Naruto ran back into Asther and looked around. Perfect. Serpent, Tiger, Monkey, Boar, Horse Inhale, Tiger: "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" Naruto blew a large breath of fire and let it catch onto something and then turned around. Soon the entire village was on fire with Naruto running after the villagers, hiding and removing their footsteps and other marks of their presence, today, they had all died in a fire.
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AnBu report on dead control experiment #01. Page 4.
Also there was a report of a Shinobi entering the test area, but this was left unchecked due to low count of AnBu available. The same day however the village was burned to the ground, either by the experiment subjects or the alive villagers in an act of suicide, we know not.
Total death count: 100
Test result: Succeeded in using the dead, failing in the area of life sensing.
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Naruto looked behind him with slight worry, he scanned every inch of the surrounding area and sighed, if only for the moment, the villagers would be safe. Naruto picked up the pace he was walking at until he was at the front of the group walking, next to Hattori. "Where are we going?" Naruto asked not letting his eyes rest on Hattori for longer than a split second. "To the nearby village, they will gladly help us, and they are trustable so we can hide there…" Hattori said with hope in his voice. Naruto nodded and slowed his walking pace falling behind the group again. "There might be AnBu patrolling the surrounding area, so for them to get out I might need to fight, and we might be being followed, though I can't fell their presence around either. Genjutsu " Naruto thought, getting slightly paranoid. Naruto put his hands in the Tiger seal and whispered: "Kai." As one would expect nothing happened. Naruto however analyzed the situation rather badly.
"They have either got a Genjutsu user that is above my level of skill, which is very low. Or they haven't put a Genjutsu up…" As Naruto looked around nervously he failed to notice that the little girl he had found earlier was falling behind from the rest of the group. "Ano… Niichan?" She said making Naruto jump, "…Yeah?" Naruto said getting over hi momentary panic. "Grandma said I should thank you. So thanks Niichan." The girl said with a smile. Naruto looked at the child before him, smile even after her parents were killed, like a light in the shadow, and in one fell swoop, all of Naruto's fear and anxious thoughts were gone. "You're welcome." Naruto said smiling equally brightly back. "I'm Suzu." The girl said looking up to Naruto, who was short himself but still towering over her. "And when I grow up I'm gonna be so big and long nobody can ruffle my hair." Suzu replied getting a hearted laugh from Naruto.
"Same here, I'm Naruto and I'm gonna be tall and strong when I grow up." Naruto said with a real smile on his face, not one of his smirks he gives in fights or one of his foxy grins, but simply a wide smile. "Hey are you tired from walking for so long?" Naruto asked as he saw Suzu trip on a pebble, she nodded and blushed slightly in embarrassment, making Naruto laugh while he picked her up with no effort and placing her sitting on his shoulders, giving her a whole new view of the world. "Whoa…I can see so far away from here." Suzu said with a smile and a laugh, catching the attention of the others before them.
As they saw Suzu smiling on top of the smiling Naruto they smiled, kids would remain kids no matter what. And so they walked, with small hopes litting in their hearts, luckily they meet no AnBu along the way, which Naruto found odd but spoke none of it. They reached the neighboring village in a matter of days, food was no concern as Naruto hunted for them. As they entered the village they were greeted with confusion, as they had heard that they had been all killed in the fire, however after they were told the story they seemed somewhat unbelieving but agreed nonetheless to let them stay and hide in the village, the same day Naruto left, leaving goodbyes to Hattori and Suzu.
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Naruto took a deep air of the moist morning air with a smile, he was somewhat happy for the first time in a long time. "Just because revenge is on my list doesn't mean I should ignore every good thing in life, no matter how much bad there is." Naruto said trying to condense his feelings into words. "No, uh…Even if Jiichan is dead, he would want me to live happy. Yeah that sounds better…" Naruto mumbled walking down the road. He had found out that he had been almost in the heart of The Country of Fire, only a few miles east from Konoha, it was a miracle he hadn't been caught, though the experiment thing kinda meant that all other ninja would be told to stay away from there so kinda lucky. "Konoha was behind the thing that happened there… but how could they have controlled so many people? Genjutsu?" Naruto asked himself while walking. "Meh, whatever, now's the time to check the other scroll…" Naruto said pulling the Jutsu scroll from his left knee pocket.
"Le'see…Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu… hm makes victim see their worst nightmare, nice. Uh…user needs to be at the range of 5 yards from the victim for it to work? Fuck that. Next. Doton: Doroku Gaeshi, makes wall of dirt rise up to defense? Well…dirt? Not really to comforting to be protected by a wall of dirt..." Naruto said looking through the hand seals.
"Tha fuck? These hand seals are seriously fucked; you can't use tiger before a combo of ram and bird, it would like totally fuck it up cuz that'll just make the chakra lost energy. Fuck this, next: Kanashibari no Jutsu, three hand seals and makes the target paralyzed, now were talking." Naruto said wrapping up the scroll and putting it back into his pocket. Naruto stopped walking and closed his eyes and made a ram seal, "Gather chakra into you're eyes and include killing intent into a concentrated mix." Naruto said slowly opening his eyes. "And activate by looking into the eye of the victim and doing the seals for kai." Naruto said looking around for… well anything with eyes. Luckily Naruto saw a fly in front of him (Snigger by author) As the fly seemingly was looking into Naruto eyes, Naruto did the seals for Kai releasing the chakra and Killing intent pent up in his eyes. The fly stopped cold in it's tracks and fell from mid-air paralyzed.
"Whoa…" Naruto voiced in awe pocking at the fly. "Are you gonna be alright?" Naruto asked getting slightly worried, its not like he wanted to kill the fly… much to Naruto's relief the fly twitched ad recovered in a matter of minutes. "You had me worried, sorry." Naruto said waving of to the fly continuing to walk towards the docking city of Parm. From there he would get a ride to an island near water country. Hopefully he would get to practice his Kanashibari before then.
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Naruto jumped to the branch in front of him and stopped there, in front of his opening a view of the ocean, and the city Parm, where from he would get a boat ride to Mist. "Whoa… that's the ocean…" Naruto said marveling at large puddle of water. Naruto hoped down from the branch with a small thud followed by a loud scream making Naruto jump in the air in surprise. "Who are you? What do you want, I have no money, leave me alone!" A young man with short brown hair and glasses shouted to the still surprised Naruto before running away. "Huh? What the heck just happened?" Naruto mumbled as he got up, Naruto dusted himself and shrugged.
"No matter, better be going." Naruto said and began walking towards the city wall, unlike the last villages, this city had stone walls around it, meaning Naruto would be forced to climb over them as he couldn't simply enter through the gates due to Guards probably having him in their warning posters. But the problem was that the walls were pretty high, and he would have to get over the without being seen, meaning he would have too be quick. "Troublesome…" Naruto mumbled punching the wall lightly in annoyance. Naruto looked up to the to mentally counting how long it would take to climb up by using Kunai in manner similar to hooks but quickly discarded that idea due to the facts that it would be both slow and loud and it would leave clear marks behind, alarming any passing guards. Naruto sighed and walked away from the wall, walking back into the thick green foliage of the forest, he walked for a few minutes until he heard the sounds of people shouting.
Naruto followed the shouts recognizing it as an argument, Naruto followed the voices until he came near a clearing where four people were, two boys sitting on the ground panting and cowered sweat, and a third, a girl arguing with another boy, who was considerably younger than the others. "Shut up! You can't do anything right you big bully!" The youngest, a boy wearing blue shorts and a few sizes to big T-shirt, topped with long neatly combed black hair. The older of the two arguers, a girl popped a vein and lifted her fist menacingly, she had similar black long hair and a scarlet dress, with ninja sandals and knee holsters on her feet and a Konoha headband neatly tied around her fore head. The two boys sitting on the ground sighed, the other had orange hair in long spiky bangs, that did not have enough 'badassery' to defy gravity with a headband tied around his hand, his clothes seemed the standard Konoha Shinobi's with a knee holster and an extra pack on his belt. The other had short brown hair with a pony tail in the back and the same clothes as the previous boy, ony this one was slightly taller. Naruto hid himself carefully behind the tree, because this seemed like the most interesting thing around for the moment.
"I'm a bully?! Who's the one who was going around kicking sleeping dogs for fun yesterday?!" The girl shouted back making the boy step back in shock but quickly retaliated with something Naruto decided to leave out. "Soap opera's never were my thing…" Naruto thought and turned around to leave when he stepped on a twig, Naruto mentally cursed and jumped into the tree along with doing the ram seal.
"Henge!" Naruto thought turning into a leaf while leaving out the cloud of smoke, Naruto landed on a branch above him soundlessly as a barrage of kunai flew into where the twig had just broken. After a second of tensed silence the boy with the ponytail came ever so slowly looking through the bushes. Soon followed by the three others. The girl grew a new vein and bonked the smallest boy on the head rather hard, "See what you did, you made us all tense and shit, it's you're fault we even got ordered into this stupid mission!" The girl shouted while fisting the boy until the two others stopped her. "Stop being so harsh on you're little brother will you, right now we need to find out what caused that noise…" The boy with the orange hair said almost whispering. "Pfft, as if, I say we continue on our training, if Shobu didn't notice anything than the sound was made by just some little animal…" The girl said motioning with her finger at the boy with the ponytail who blushed for some reason.
"Haru-chan you flatter me…" The boy, apparently called Shobu said. The orange haired boy sighed whisper-mumbling something about 'Damned Lovebirds for teammates…' That only Naruto was able to pick up. After the trio of ninjas left for the town talking about lunch leaving the fourth person, the kid there. The kid sniffed the air for a moment before looking up at the branch Naruto was hiding on. "Who's t-there?" The boy asked quietly, hoping nobody there. Naruto mentally cursed again but kept his cool and Henge. The boy swallowed and asked again; "Who's there… I know you are there…" he boy said drawing a kunai from his pocket in what most people would consider stealthily but what a Shinobi would call nervously. Naruto sighed mentally and scanned the area with his senses, not finding anybody but the boy near he decided to drop the Henge. As the poof of smoke appeared the boy shouted in surprise while falling back on his behind. Naruto still on the branch greeted from his crouching position with a happy face a lifted open hand and a cheerful:"Yo." Promptly, the boy passed out. Naruto jumped down and checked the boy for any injuries before moving him under a tree into a more comfortable position.
As Naruto left the boy he noticed the kunai, it was engraved in both gold and silver in incarnate patterns, Naruto picked it up and took a closer look in what could be called interest. Naruto noted both the markings of Konoha's leaf spiral and a family crest, as he moved his finger over the blade, he noted that it drew blood without even pressure being applied. As Naruto heard a groan behind himself Naruto turned around and greeted the now awake boy with a grin. "Yo, your not gonna pass out on me again, are you?" Naruto said looking at the boy appraisingly while twirling the kunai around in his hand. "N-no… sir." The boy said with a guarded look with a glint of wanting for the kunai in Naruto's hand. Naruto noted it and asked again, "Is this a family heirloom or something, it's a very good kunai, though in the hands of a kid like you it'll only hurt you yourself." Naruto said twirling the kunai in his hand again. The boy was about to say something but chose not to, in fear or something else, Naruto knew not.
"What's you're name?" Naruto asked looking appraisingly at the boy. "U-Ukito, Karamasa Ukito…" The boy said with a glint of pride evident at the mentioning of his last name. "Oh, well here ya go, just don't cut yourself with it." Naruto said throwing the kunai next to the boys hand scaring him slightly. "Take care Ukito." Naruto said standing up to leave. "Wait!" Ukito shouted somewhat hastily. "Hmm?" Naruto hmmed back. "T-teach me… teach me how to use this kunai!" Ukito shouted while bowing to Naruto. "…" Naruto looked at the boy and shrugged sitting down in front of him in a cross legged position. "Why should I? Tell me." Naruto said while burying his face in his palms. The boy looked surprised as Naruto asked why. Ukito ever so slowly sat down in front of Naruto. "My family… are Shinobi and so am I going to be, but not for another year and because of that my cousin has been ordered by the family council to watch and teach over me, but because she thinks I'm a nuisance… she hates me don't teach me anything… and if I don't become strong enough by the beginning of the Academy then my parents will scold me…" Ukito ever so slowly explained. "Shobu and Shin both teach me sometimes but Haru-Oneesan doesn't… and… and…" Ukito continued, and was on the verge of tears by the and… and… and… part.
Naruto looked somewhat lost on what to do so he did the natural thing for him, punched the kid on the top of his head, somewhat making the boy stop his crying. "Okay, I'll teach you some basic Taijutsu. Nothing more, as for anything else ninja mattered you need chakra and weapons and to learn that you need to go to the academy." Naruto said mentally bonking himself for his stupidity. Ukito visibly brightened up at the promise. "But, you have to promise me a few things. One, you are to never, ever tell anybody that I taught you some stuff, I'm here on a secret mission you see, so nobody can know I've been here. Okay?" Naruto continued and Ukito nodded vigorously.
The next few hours the duo did some basic stance training, after a few hours of sweating at the strain the low stance was putting on him Ukito began questioning the meaning of standing still, in a low and agonizing position for hours to which Naruto answered simply: "This training is like the foundation of a house, if the foundation is weak, than the house will eventually crumble, and it will also make you slowly more adept to the strain Taijutsu will cause on your body." After which Ukito was silent for the rest of the day, they changed from a low guard position to a high Guard to a few aggressive stances, changing from one foot to the other. After the sun set the two finally stopped, Ukito fell down on his butt for some rest covered in sweat and visibly shaking from the strain. Naruto instead looked fine, not even tired yet. "I don't know if we can train tomorrow but if we can then wait for me here at say… midday, I'll give you signal to follow, 'kay?" Naruto said walking away.
"Okay, bye!" Ukito shouted to him barely waving his arm after Naruto who simply waved lazily. Ukito fell back letting his muscles relax, "Incredible…I barely moved at all and yet I'm more tired than ever…" Ukito mumbled closing his eyes, only to open them as his cousins loud shouts for him were heard. "Better get back, she might have been worried." Ukito thought aloud slowly standing up, wobbling from left to right until he was completely up, he began walking towards the voices.
Naruto sighed while walking, he had been thinking for the whole day and he had no ideas on how he would get in yet, he had amused the idea of using a Henge but discarded the idea quickly, Parm was an important docking city meaning there would be several Shinobi on guard there, and they could possibly spot his Henge and cause a ruckus, which was the last thing Naruto needed right now.
"Sigh What am I gonna do… I can't stop here, and the only way is to the guy Kirin in the Water country… and to get to Water country, than I need a boat, and to get a boat I need to get to Parm…Troublesome…" Naruto sighed sitting down against a tree trunk while pulling out all his stuff: A few kunai along with a few handfuls of shuriken. A few empty scrolls, a few ten meters of ninja wire, the Jutsu scroll, Zero, a few explosion seals…Nothing truly helpful. Naruto closed his eyes and scrunched his forehead in annoyance. The best way to get in at the moment in Naruto's head was to cause a huge ruckus somewhere else and then sneak in, but how… Naruto jumped up after picking up all his stuff and walked around for a while until he climbed up a tree and place himself between two branches to sleep, he'd think about it more tomorrow.
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Naruto woke up as the fist rays of the sun hit his eyes, Naruto groaned and turned around, due to being in a tree he fell… headfirst. "Ouch…stupid sun… waking me up…" Naruto grumbled. Naruto stood up dusting himself while grumbling some more incoherent curses. Naruto looked at the sun, it was barely shining over the sea in the horizon meaning it was still really early. "I need to train a little bit so I guess it's okay." Naruto thought aloud silently apologizing the sun for calling him some nasty things. Naruto began with a light jog through the forest, but due to the thickness of all the plant life it was more like a constant game of dodging, "like a hail of kunai" Naruto mused while spinning around the twig gracefully.
Naruto continued this until he got bored, or more specifically it became too easy. Naruto reached for his knee holster pulling out several shuriken and jumping into the air over a bush, Naruto twisted and turned in mid-air in what could be called inhuman grace as he threw the shuriken at a tree trunk. Naruto landed with an almost soundless thud followed by several thuck sounds revealing all Shuriken had homed to the target. Naruto grinned imagining it being an enemy as he pulled Zero handling it like a curved sword making a quick dash fro the trunk, and cutting the tree with relative ease. As the tree began falling Naruto jumped up, and kicked himself away from the tree while snatching the shuriken with almost untraceable speed and returning them to his knee holster. A loud boom came as the tree hit the ground followed by the ever soundless thud of a Shinobi landing. Naruto grinned until he realized what he had done.
"Ehehe… I better get the hell out of here…" Naruto realized scratching his head, not even a cloud of dust remained as the redhead-blonde Shinobi blurred. Naruto continuing on until he realized the sun was not up yet, meaning most humans were still asleep, even Shinobi. Naruto stopped running turinig it into a slow jog until he came to the beach, a few miles north from Parm.
Naruto realized he hadn't had a bath in quite a while… so…"Why not…" Naruto thought taking of his clothes in a split second, by the time his clothes hit the ground, Naruto was already in the water. After swimming around for a while in the still cold water Naruto got up from the water and emptied his pockets from his pants and jacket and washed them, after which he placed them on a branch to dry. Naruto placed the rest of things in the shade of a large rock while he continued to swim. After a while Naruto began thinking about Chakra and it's uses. "…I wonder what happens if I pump a rock full of chakra…" Naruto said while picking up a pebble from the ocean floor with his toes and then taking it with his hands. "Hmm…" Naruto hmmed while making a half ram seal while the other hand channeled chakra into the round and smooth pebble. A weak blue glow appeared around the pebble until Naruto could no more fill it, as it was completely stuffed already. Naruto noted that after he stopped channeling chakra in the stone it began leaking all the chakra out, Naruto on a complete random decision decided to try and stop it from escaping. So Naruto began experimenting on how to keep the chakra inside the stone, it took him a few hours and lots of failures to stop it from leaking, he had now created a bubble of chakra on the inside of the pebble making all the rest stay inside, he had tried first doing it on the outside only making it leak out faster. Naruto fingered and touched the pebble around in his hands while eyeing it expectantly, nothing however happened for a few minutes so Naruto frowned. Meh, he had just wasted lots of time for nothing... Naruto grumbled while throwing the pebble away. Turning around to go and dry up and put on his clothes, Naruto however was stopped as a loud boom and a rain of water fell on Naruto. Naruto slowly turned around, seeing the spot where he had thrown the pebble on completely like it had been. "…" Naruto wasn't sure what to make out of it so he picked up another pebble and channeled it full of chakra and set a new bubble around it form the inside.
Naruto eyed the rock suspiciously as he aimed on a large rock sticking out form the water, he threw it, the stone flew as if in slow motion until it hit the stone…BOOM another boom sounded and both the pebble and the rock blew up in a bright blue flash. Naruto gasped as the pieces of the rock fell like rain on him. "It…it's like a explosion seal…" Naruto stuttered as realization hit him. He had all his life known of explosion seals yet never even questioned how it worked. It wasn't taught in the academy and the only way to get explosion seals in Konoha was buying them from special stores. The potential… he could load anything small enough with large amounts of chakra turning even a small pebble to a lethal weapon.
Ever so slowly, a huge grin appeared on Naruto's face followed by the words. "That was kinda artistic, yeah…" Naruto stepped slowly out of the water in deep thought as he sat down on a flat and smooth rock. After a while of thinking and a very sore brain Naruto decided to stop his musings and get dressed. Naruto put on his clothes and took all his stuff putting them in their respective packs and pockets. Naruto looked up and noticed that the sun was up and shining already. Naruto stretched slightly before he began walking towards where he thought the kid…Ukito was it? Was waiting, might as well teach him today as well. After reaching the place, well he walked a little bit to much to east so he almost missed it but the loud noises the girl produced helped Naruto find to them quickly. There they all were, with Ukito sitting closest to the bushes with a patient look on his face. Naruto snuck behind him and tapped on his back making the boy slightly surprised. "Haru-Oneesan, I'm going for a walk okay?" Ukito asked from the girl radiating darkness and evil for some reason. "HMM? Sure, but don't get lost. Now get lost!" The girl shouted making the four boys, on in hiding, wince.
Ukito nodded and walked into the thick bushes and greeted Naruto wordlessly to which Naruto nodded and began walking away with Ukito following. They walked for a few minutes after which Naruto began jogging. Ukito followed after running hoping to do his best today. After running for fifteen minutes Ukito stopped, sweaty and panting. "Okay, now lets stretch." Naruto said and began doing some basic legs loosening, Ukito after catching his breath began following suit. "Stretching before and after every training session is really important, it makes the muscles recover and strengthen faster and lessens the risk of getting injuries. Okay? Remember this good, and the more advanced Taijutsu moves require some agility." Naruto explained while watching in amusement as the tried to get his head to touch his knee like Naruto could. "Stop, don't ever try to force it, only stretch so much that it begins to feel, not more, if you stretch it to much you'll just end up snapping it, which is bad." Naruto continued making Ukito stop, "You'll become more agile as you continue doing this." Naruto explained and moved on to another stretching position. They continued stretching for a half an hour or so until they both felt relatively lose and jiggy. After that they began doing basic puches with uto showing first and then instructing and correcting any mistakes in Ukito's stance.
They continued on like this for another hour until Ukito needed a rest from strain, after a fifteen minute break they began doing some practicing some basic front kicks, with Naruto demonstrating, instructing and correcting Ukito. After doing this Naruto began doing a basic kata consisting of the former moves and other simple steps, they did it again, again, and again until Ukito could do it. "No, no and no. your not supposed to be 'performing' it, you are supposed to imagine that you are fighting against multiple enemies…" Naruto explpained making Ukito confused and thus making Naruto sigh. Naruto took the beginning stance and did a quick punch.
"One enemy from the front." Naruto said and turned around doing a spin ending with a kick. "An enemy attacked from behind and you evade and retaliate." Naruto explained as he spun around and punched an 'enemy' again. "Understand? It's not an act, it's a simulation…" Naruto explained. Ukito slowly nodded. Ukito took the stance once again, though slightly hesitantly this time and began, however this time he tried to see himself punching somebody and seeing the enemy approaching him, only to be pushed back by Ukito. "Hmm better already…" Naruto noted looking at Ukito go. After doing the kata again and again slower fo a few hours they had a break, with Naruto thinking about what to teach next and Ukito laying down on the ground in exhaustion. "Why don't we call it quits for today?" Naruto said looking on the sweaty and beat form of Ukito. "Y-yeah…sure…" Ukito said while closing his eyes and promptly fell asleep/passed out. Naruto shook his head and stood up to go hunting, fifteen minutes later he came back with a rabbit ready to be cooked. He started a fire and began roasting it, after an hour or so Ukito woke up to the wonderful smell that was the rabbit. Naruto noticed that Ukito was up, "Nice to see you're conscious… you want some rabbit?" Naruto said pointing at a piece of meat over the fire, Ukito hesitantly picked it, and took a small bite. "Oh come on, take a big bite!" Naruto shouted looking at the boy nibble away his food while taking a huge bite himself, Ukito slowly followed suit. They both ate in silence after which Ukito bid good bye and left. Naruto lay down and sighed. Back to inventing a way to get in… Naruto Closed his eyes reviewing the situation mentally again, "Okay, my goal is to gain strength and kill the old guy for killing Jiji, and to gain strength I need to find a guy named Kirin in the Water country, but to get there I need a boat ride… and now I need to teach that kid complicating things even further…" Naruto thought unable to notice a man approaching him, Naruto noticed the man only first when the man shouted in his ear:" WAKE UP YA BUM WHEN I'M TALKIN TO YA!!" Naruto's eyes flung open at the volume as he jumped up almost hitting heads with the person shouting at him, "What the hell is your problem?!" Naruto shouted back for the firt time looking at the person, he was a tall man, no boy who was wearing a dark red leather kimono/jacket with a big collar reaching up to his nose and round orange sunglasses. His Hair was short and dark brown with a white stripes. He was wearing dark grey baggy pants and big heavy black boots with metal enforcements, on his back was a huge back pack with several poles tied to it.
"Me? None of ya biznez brat, now tell me where is the city of Parm?" The boy answered back clearly annoyed by Naruto. "That way you damn bastard, can't you let people be alone?" Naruto answered equally annoyed back. "No when I'm lost, thank you and fuck off…" the boy shouted back and began walking the way Naruto had pointed to. Naruto grumbled some more and sat down cross-legged and handed. After a while of thinking Naruto decided to train a bit to went out some frustration. Naruto walked a clearing and began to do some basic Taijutsu routines consisting of punches, blocks, kicks and parries, slowly moving up on the level of difficulty, until he was doing the most advanced moves he knew. Naruto flipped backwards while delivering a snap kick to a tree ending with a spiraling palm blow, after which he did a jump roundhouse followed by knee breaking low-kick finishing with a scorpion back kick making a deep dent in the tree. Naruto let out a breath and swiped away some sweat.
"I need to wash myself again…" Naruto commented while beginning to walk towards the sound of a waterfall, finding his way there quickly Naruto took of his clothes and washed them, and then jumped in the shallow river for a swim, he swam around in the cold water letting all the stress go away. After a few minutes of relaxing Naruto finally got out of the water and shook his head to get a much water as possible out of his hair, after which he did the ram seal and summoned some chakra, after getting a sufficient amount, being relative to the amount needed for a Henge Naruto simply released it from every tenkutsu. Resulting in all the water flying off him, with the exception of the water in his hair, which was still damp. Naruto put on his clothes and walked into the forest. "Tomorrow I'll do it, I'll teach the kid a few more basic moves and then I'll carry out my master plan." Naruto mumbled with a grin as he walked away from the river.
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The day passed with Naruto lying around sleeping and thinking about some random things until he got hungry at which point he hunted for some food and cooked it, followed by some more sleeping. At the morning Naruto woke up and headed for the place where he usually could find Ukito, and to his surprise Ukito was there already waiting, alone no less, albeit he looked somewhat tired presumably from waking up at the crack of dawn. Naruto grinned and walked behind the still drowsy boy and pate dhim in the back making the boy jump twelve feet in the air and scream, as he landed he looked pissed at the older boy laughing his ass off. After the two stopped they walked off, and slowly began jogging to warm up. After a warm up jog they found a good clearing with short grass where they stretched and did the kata that they had done yesterday. After that Naruto took a stance and Ukito followed suit, "Now I'm gonna tech you the five basic parry's."
Naruto said to which Ukito nodded. Naruto began with a out moving hand parry meant for punches also giving an opening in the enemy's defense. It took about an hour or so before Ukito could actually get it right, even though it was still to weak to actually do any good, Ukito would need to train for a few weeks to actually get the power needed to perform it correctly. Next they did an inward parry which gave a way to escape or move behind the enemy, for thins one it took Ukito only about half an hour, after which they moved on to a upward parry which was used rarely but still was an important, due to it's easiness Ukito got it down in half an hour again. The next one was low parry meant for blocking round house kicks, this one however took two hours for Ukito to learn. The last one they did was a knee lifting parry that could be used as an attack as well.
This one was the only one not really needing any finesse but only power and speed in the knee lift so they moved on from it in fifteen minutes. The next hour they spent doing randomly the afore mentioned parries, after which Naruto began doing a second kata, which Ukito memoried. After doing the kata a few times they took a pause at a river where they drank and washed their faces. "What's next sensei?" Ukito asked cheerfully making Naruto look at him oddly. "Sensei…?...okay… We're gonna do some light sparring to give you an idea on how to actually use all the moves you've learned." Naruto said standing up, with Ukito following suit, albeit nervously. They Sparred lightly until mid-day when both were hungry beyond human limits, Naruto caught some fish and cooked it, they ate in silence. After they finished eating they did some theory, consisting of how he should react in different situations or different ways to mentally attack one through taunts or gestures.
"I'm leaving today, so this is our last training session…" Naruto said in what he felt was a good moment to speak, "You're…leaving?" Ukito asked, his voice being a mix of sadness and disbelief. "Ya…I've got a mission to finish, and I've used a lot of time on you, you know…" Naruto said with a faraway look on his face. Ukito looked sad for a while before he brightened up along with a Light appearing above his head. "Can't you take me with you?" Ukito said with a hoping face accompanied by a "Huh?!" from Naruto. "You're a Konoha ninja right? So you could take me with you along until we return to Konoha, my parents would be totally okay if they knew that you trained me more than Haru did!" Ukito exclaimed looking hopeful in a giddy way. "Uh… how should I say this… No, just no, and who said anything about me being a Konoha nin, I could easily be an enemy ninja trying to spy on Konoha, if you came with me I could kidnap you and shit, you cannot be so trusting of people…" Naruto tied to explain to the stupefied Ukito. "You're an enemy ninja? Cool, fight me!!" Ukito shouted getting up into his favorite stance. Naruto sighed and realized that Ukito failed to realize that Naruto could whip his ass in Taijutsu with one finger… "Baka…sit down." Naruto said while forcefully pulling Ukito down.
"My point is, I can't take you with me, along with that I am planning to teach you everything I planned to teach you today." Naruto said with a serious look, Ukito nodded slowly, "So are you gonna teach me a legendary super instant K.O move or something?" Ukito asked with sparkle's in his eyes. Naruto sweat dropped "Noo… more along the line of two more kicks and a kata…" Naruto said hoping Ukito wouldn't be too discouraged. "I see… Oh well… lets start already!!" Ukito shouted with unrivaled cheer after his three second gloom. Naruto nodded and stood up, he began with one of his favorite's; The roundhouse kick.
This one took Ukito Surprisingly long as the stance was very precise but Ukito learned the basic of it however. The next was a modified version of the first kick, but with a twist to it. After which they began doing the Kata, this kata was the final one, consisting of every move Naruto had so far showed to Ukito. The rest of the day they went through the kata over and over again along with some sparring. As Darkness fell Ukito waved goodbye and began walking slowly back to wherever his cousin was, Naruto took a deep breath letting all the anxiety built up during the day go away. "Okay… time to try it out." Naruto thought aloud while cracking his neck. He began running along the road towards Parm until he came to the gates where he stopped behind a tree to take a look, there was one civilian guard by the looks of it in front of the gate, which was only half closed. Naruto squinted his eyes noticing the twitch in the guards hand, the guards hand was about to move to his knee… as Naruto realized this he was shocked to notice that the guard was wearing a Henge, and that the guard was almost reaching for his knee holster. Naruto took a step back quietly and turned around to leave.
Before he could however take a step a hand fell on his shoulder into a tight grip. Naruto froze, he was caught. "Who are you and why are you sneaking around at this late, a kid like you should be inside the city walls by now…" A somewhat gruff voice said, clearly being a man. Naruto turned around to look at the man, he wore a Leaf head band making Naruto swallow, the mans words however seemed promising. "Y-yeah, I got lost earlier…" Naruto said lying the best he could. The older Shinobi nodded and walked Naruto to the gate and let him pass through after which he sat back down in a Henge. Naruto breathed out in relief while swiping away some sweat, "Lucky…though it might be a trap…" Naruto thought as he began walking the street, a woman who looked oddly manly walked past him as he thought 'trap'. Naruto walked around for a few hours in the darkness of the night falling while the sun went away, the city was dark only for a while, as soon as it got dark enough lanterns and torches were lit up and light turned on to make it almost like in daylight, the streets were filled with empty sales booths that waited for tomorrow when their owners would return and fill them with their wares.
Between booths were different kinds of bars, Inns and hotels, all promising a warm bed and meal, if one had money of course. Naruto frowned as he realized that his old frog wallet, Gama-chan was still on his night table back in Konoha, he would have to get some money for the boat ride, as he doubted he could sneak aboard and stay hidden for the entire journey, even though he was a ninja. Well in older days ninja equaled thief, burglar, murderer, demon… and the list continued, so Naruto didn't really feel to bad about the idea of pick pocketing somebody, what? How did you think he got money back in Konoha, Sandaime gave him allowance? Hah! The council wouldn't allow that! cough anyhow back to the story… Naruto looked at all the people walking down the streets, either in the same or the opposite direction, simply thinking about their own things or talking with others, not even giving a glance at Naruto, no disdain, no dislike, no hatred. "So… this is what it feel like…to be treated like a human…" Naruto whispered to himself, Naruto smiled slightly while walking into an alley where he took out a scroll and unsealed with a small poof his cloak, he put the scroll back in his poacka dn put on the cloak letting it hide his clothes and hair, as orange and blue clothes were pretty easily noticeable along with his blonde-red hair. Naruto was about to walk out of the alley and back to the street when a man walked in front of him, blocking his way. The man sneered arrogantly as he drew out a shiny bowie knife, Naruto looked at the knife in mild confusion as the man reached out his hand with his sneer widening.
"You GP or your HP." The man said simply making Naruto even more confused. "HP? GP? Huh? What the heck are you talking about?" Naruto asked looking confusedly at the man from the shadows of his hood. The mans sneer turned slowly into a frown while he spit on the ground.
"Money or your hide." The man said trying another approach, Naruto looked confused but then he realized. "Oh…! This is what they call a…mugging, right?" Naruto asked enthusiastically to which the man nodded while playing around with the knife as he looked around for any cops. Naruto scratched his cheek as he tried to remember what Jiichan had said about muggers…"Hit 'em and check 'em for any cash." Naruto repeated what Sandaime's son, a smoker had said while visiting during their talk, Naruto couldn't however remember what Jiichan had said… so… he could as well take to Jiichan's sons advice… cue to Naruto hitting the mugger making a crack audible as the man flew back landing against the opposing wall, passed out. Naruto shrugged and 'checked for any cash' as the smoker had put it. Naruto found a leather wallet with lotsa money in it and jumped up in the air happy.
"Thanks Jiichan, and smoker-Jiisan too." Naruto said while walking out of the alley intending to find a ramen stand. Soon finding one thanks to his incredible ramen radar Naruto proceeded to eat thirteen bowls before leaving behind a money counting ramen stand owner and a giddy waiter who just happened to be the owners daughter.
Naruto walked the street as he rubbed his belly in delight, he walked around mostly aimlessly before he found his way to the docks, the dock was built inside a wall to keep all the ships in safety incase of a storm, it had several piers branching out in a decided pattern to have as many ships as possible to fit in. Naruto looked around for people to ask if there was a boat to Water country, in vain of course, as all good sailors are by this tine of the night in a bar, getting smash drunk. Naruto looked around until he just decided to find somewhere to sleep, Naruto jumped up on the roof of a building and found a shack on the roof, he opened the door finding nothing but old tools inside, Naruto closed the door and looked around, "Looks like I'll be spending the night in a tree again…" Naruto said defeated and jumped down and climbed into a bushy tree between two branches where he promptly fell asleep.
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Nearby a boy no older than fifteen winters old, wearing a red leather coat reaching to his ankles was slowly, wiggly and most importantly swaying back and forth as he walked, in one hand he had a glass bottle with the contents half gone already, in the other he had his glasses, which he slowly put on, after putting the glasses on the boy walked to the tree Naruto was sleeping in and sat down leaning back against it while taking a swig from his bottle, drinking it empty in one go after which he let it fall down next to him on the soft grass, after which they boy began snoring, loudly passing people noted.
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Naruto wok up with a loud yawn, he opened his eyes slowly, letting them get used to the first rays of the sun. Naruto let his mouth go into a smile as he took a deep breath of air and put the hood down and opened the cloak in the front, letting the bitter morning air in his lungs. "Good Morning!" Naruto exclaimed letting himself fall down from the tree onto the soft grass, or so he thought until he felt himself fall on something, or more accurately somebody who began loudly cursing as Naruto got up in a bolt. Naruto took a look at who he had fallen on and to his surprise he recognized him as the rude person a few days back.
"Ya fat bastard, who do ya think ya are wakin me up in the fuchin (Fucking) morning before the god damn sun is even up!" The red coated boy shouted as he got up, Naruto looked slightly taken back by the boys colorful language before retaliating. "Well who the heck do you think you are to fall asleep right where I land!" Naruto shouted not being able to think up a better comeback. "Gah!! Shut up! Yar makin me head 'urt (Hurt)" the boy shouted back holding his ears, Naruto scoffed and walked away leaving the boy be alone. Let the stupid bastard be there lying in his stupid sleeping place… Naruto walked around until he found some signs of where he was, and from there he tracked his way to the ramen stand where he proceeded to eat 5 bowls of ramen before leaving for the docks.
He found his way there by the time everybody else in the town began waking up, Naruto noted this by the fact that people were putting up their wares on stands and booths, or walking towards where ever they worked, "Civilians are always said to be lazy and that they wake up really late unlike good Shinobi, but… that's bull crap, I know only a few ninja that wake up by this hour and yet the streets are crawling with people getting ready to go to work…" Naruto thought while looking at the people walking down the street, tired and drowsy, yes, but so was Naruto. Naruto found himself at the docks again, looking at the men working at their fullest already, though even most ninja would choose to sleep, while singing no less, the song was some tune about getting pussy-cats and yale or something that Naruto didn't understand. Naruto looked at the muscled men heave up large cargo boxes and push with ease things that most ninja could find trouble with. Naruto walked to one sailor who seemed free to have a conversation, "Excuse me?" Naruto asked with his best manners showing.
"Hmm? What do you want kid?" The muscular sailor asked while patting Naruto's head teasingly, probably hoping to rinse a reaction from Naruto. Naruto ignored it, for now. "I'd like to find out if there are any ships going to the Water country here, could you help me?" Naruto asked still in his best manners. "Water country? That's the territory of the Mist village, you don't want to go there, and not by yourself by any chance either, now go home to your mom." The sailor said and turned around, proceeding to ignore Naruto. Naruto took a deep breath and drew back his hand, and delivered a earth shaking punch on the mans back, taking back the man by a slight, though he barely even budged. "I asked you nicely, and I'l ask you once again, where can I find a ship to the Water country, and for the record, my mother is either dead, or I have never had one." Naruto said leaking some killer intent for spicing. The sailor looked at Naruto for a long while, as if appraising him. "For what reason do you want to go to the water country?" The sailor asked finally with a serious look. "I want strength." Naruto said equally seriously back. "…you have already more strength than most people will ever have." The sailor said back, that punch had probably knocked out any less built man easily.
"For my goal… a lot more strength will be needed." Naruto said with his fist clenched so the knuckles were white, images of Sarutobi's dead body, left on the floor flashed through his mind, making him clench his fists even harder. The sailor noted this and looked at NAruto's stone cold face. "Do you have any money? The trip will cost." The sailor said still very serious, "I got some money, don't know exactly how much but if it isn't enough then I can get more." Naruto said reaching to his pocket taking 'his' wallet out. Naruto counted all the money and looked up to the man again. "So where is the boat? I have 50 000 thousand ryo. The Sailor nodded and walked away towards a ship, "I'll talk to the cap'n about it, wait here I'll be back in a moment." The sailor said as he left. Naruto walked to a wall and leaned against it while closed his eyes. After a while the sailor walked back and motioned Naruto to follow him. Naruto followed after, walking over several boats until they arrived to one that looked especially sturdy, and with a large mast along with two smaller ones. A man with hat shadowing over his eyes stood there, waiting Naruto assumed. The two stopped before the man and the man spoke. "I hear you want a ride to Water, and that you have 50 000 ryo with you." The man said, Naruto nodded letting the man continue. "However, the trips cost would be more on the category of 100 000 ryo, but…" The man said talking before Naruto could say anything. "We leave today, so you will not be able to gather enough money by the time we leave, but from the recommendation I got from Grim here about you I have a proposition for you: If you work on the ship like all the other sailors, then I will let you onboard, this includes three meals a day, a bunk, waking up at sunrise and going to sleep possibly barely before sunrise. It will be a hard job, but I will pay you the fee I pay all my sub-ordinates." The man said, Naruto could tell that the man was appraising like the man, apparently named Grim had before. Naruto thought about it and concluded that it was his best option for now.
"Okay, I agree, when do I start?" Naruto asked finally reaching a decision. The man, who Naruto now thought as the captain of the ship nodded before he turned around. "Okay, however I must warn you, some of the sailors will challenge you, give you harder duties than to others to test you, as they do not think a child could handle the sea." The captain said and walked off. "Follow me, we leave in an hour, I'll introduce you to the rest of the crew and show you your bunk." Grim said walking off with Naruto following behind. They walked to underneath the deck where they walked to what Naruto figured was the eating area, filled with men sitting by a long table eating all their own food and talking amongst each other. "Listen up! Cap'n has hired a new kid onto the boat, he'll be with us until we reach water country. You, introduce yourself." Grim shouted out, whispering the last part to Naruto. Naruto took a second to create a fake name and faced the group of big men all looking at him. "Yo, I'm Jio Freed, and I don't care if you like me or not, I'm here until Water country." Naruto greeted, sounding as tough as a ten year old could sound. There was a murmur among the guys and then they went back to eating. Naruto looked at Grim who looked back.
"The first thing ya do in the morning, eat breakfast. HEY CHEF!! BRING A PLATEFUL OF 'PORIDGE' WILL YA!!" Grim shouted and soon a fat man came out through a door and gave a metal cup to Naruto, filled with brown goo. Naruto took a spoon and sat down in a free spot, he was about to taste it when he noticed that every single man was looking at him again. As if appraising Naruto, could he swallow the goo they ate? Naruto frowned and filled his spoon with the goo and moved it to his mouth, emptied the spoon in his mouth and swallowed. There was a silence as they all looked to see his reaction. "Whoa…tastes like ramen…" Naruto said making every guy facevault. After they recovered they went back to eating. Naruto ate his plate a disdainfully, he had lied about the ramen part.
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After eating and leaving most of his stuff in his bunk, sealed in a scroll and hidden of course, Naruto went along with working with the others, it was mostly consisted of him cleaning the deck and helping with the sails, which soon became Naruto's specialty due to his ninja training helping in climbing and dealing with heights, Naruto was taught the basics of what to do in every situation possible on the sea and given certain duties. Naruto much to his dismay found out that the red coated kid was as a passenger on the ship, he was also heading for the Water country. Naruto soon got into a routine of waking up each morning before everybody else and doing a Taijutsu and endurance, speed and strength training regime, much to the amusement of whoever had the night shift. After which Naruto ate breakfast with the first sailors to wake up and then went to work, Naruto soon discovered why all the sailors had big bulky muscles: the workdays was hard and long, and by the end of the first week Naruto had been sore all over, though he had grown a lot more bulk to his frame, and he could feel it to. The first day of his second week on the boat he got challenged to a fight with a young sailor, who had been a year already on the boat, the sailor was much older than Naruto of course.
The captain allowed them to have a hand to hand match without the use of lethal strength.
As the fight was about to begin sailors began to gather around to see this fight, yet they left a lot of space for them to move in as a fight in open was much more interesting, unless both fighters were pussies. Even the red coated boy seemed interested as the fight was about to start. Naruto sighed and looked at his challenger, who was bouncing up and down like a boxer in anticipation, Naruto noted that the boy had fought earlier in his life as his knuckles were thick and swollen. "Begin!" Grim shouted signifying that the fight was on. The challenger charged at Naruto who jumped back and dodged a punch with relative ease.
As The boy did a crude roundhouse kick Naruto ducked and bolted at the boy, doing an uppercut sending the boy flying back, landing on his back with a thump. "You okay, you gonna give up or are you okay to continue?" Grim asked as the boy stood up, slowly albeit. The boy nodded and charged again, this time however with more caution as he threw a combo of punches at Naruto who easily dodged and moved around the punches. Grim was looking in awe as did many others as Naruto with ease dodged the ships fastest punchers attacks with little effort. After a while Naruto got bored and jump flipped behind the boy and kicked him in the behind sending him on all fours.
"He's good…" The boy in red thought watching Naruto move as if he was a cat. All the sailors were cheering on the two, well more cheering for the boy and shouts for Naruto to finish the fight, apparently, there had been several bets put on the fight. Naruto frowned and watched the boy get up with a smile, no grin on his face. He was enjoying this. "I admit, you're good, but…" The boy said ad crouched down, lifted his pants and removed a belt of sorts from his ankle Naruto soon realized what it had been: weights. Now there was a pile of weights and a considerably lighter boy jumping ready to strike, Naruto lowered into a stance for the first time in the fight, he might need it now. The boy took off, almost blurring he ran at Naruto and threw a punch, which Naruto proceeded to parry and use the force to throw the boy tumbling away. The fight continued like his for a few minutes until Naruto decided to end it and kicked the boy over the boats edge into the water.
A collective chorus of groans and 'Yahoo's' were heard as Naruto was declared the winner and the boy was fished up. After the fight they all went back to work, the red coated boy however approached Naruto. "Ya, might ya be ninja?" The red coated boy asked while pushing up his sunglasses with one finger. "Hmm? And what if I am?" Naruto asked unsure if this was good or bad. "I'm leaving off at The Water country, I hear ya'r dropping of there as well, do you have any special plans for where to travel or…" the boy said intrigued. "I'm planning to mostly travel around until I find a person I am looking for, why?" Naruto asked eyeing the boy in front of him. "Well, in that case, how about ya travel with me? I'll give ya a gift by the time we part, how about it?" The boy asked grinning, though due to the high collar it didn't show. "Hmm… I'll think about it…" Naruto aid and walked back to work, "By the way, I'm Ashley Barnbelt of the Highlands." The boy shouted, Naruto turned around "I'm Naruto, sorry for the time I fell on you…" Naruto said scratching the back of his head. Ashley froze until he pointed his finger at Naruto.
"It's ya, ya bastard!" Ashley shouted and ran after Naruto, cue to the duo running around on the ship causing random chaos. After Naruto apologized again Ashley calmed down and went back to his quarters while Naruto went back to work, meaning he had a sail to put up and a deck to wash.
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Four more days of hard work later they arrived at the coast around the water country, and both Naruto and Ashley were called to the captains cabin. Naruto looked around in the room filled with paintings of old ships, whales and other massive sea creatures, and the fine but useless swords on the walls. Ashley opted simply to wait for the man in front of the duo, sitting in a leather chair to talk. "We are nearing the Water country today." The captain said looking up to the duo standing before him from the shadows the hat gave his eyes. "Yeah…" Naruto nodded knowing this already. "But, you will not be able to get in to the water country through the ports. Though the Fire country and the Water country have an 'agreement' of sorts enabling trade between the nations, the Leaf village and the Mist village still consider each other enemies, thus, you will not be able to get in through the ports. But this does not mean you will not be able to get to the Water country, you will be taken with a row boat to the island, a few miles to the west of the ports. From there on, good luck. Oh and Jio. Catch." The captain said throwing a bag filled with coins as payment to Naruto. "Thanks captain, its been a pleasure working here." Naruto said giving a small bow of respect, Ashley grumbled and thanked for the ride.
The two were rowed to a desolate rock where from the sailor rowing bid good luck and waved good bye as well. Ashley faced Naruto and raised an eyebrow as if waiting for an answer.
"Huh? Oh, why not, I don't have any plans so, lets go with your plan." Naruto said grinning, though the red coated bastard was… a bastard, he was still a somewhat good guy. "Good, now, the plan is, I'm goin' to tha city of Rokono, which is famed and shit for its Blacksmiths, I'm plannin' to go there and learn as much as I can about their skill, ya see, I'm a apprentice blacksmith but me master died from a heart attack while his mistress was doing a 69 on him." Ashley ranted on as the duo climbed up the wall of rocks, Naruto with expected ease, and Ashley with surprising ease. "What's a 69?" Naruto asked while jumping up to the top of the cliff, facing now a thick forest. "Er…it's a smithing technique…" Ashley said hoping to not make Naruto ask more questions. Naruto nodded and helped Ashley up the last bit, "Thanks." Ashley muttered while dusting his coat from most of the dust. "Yeah, what way is it to this town, Rokono was it?" Naruto asked while the duo began walking along with the shore line that lead to the closest town, which was the port town the ship would port in. Ashley looked thoughtful and looked back at Naruto.
"Frankly, I have no idea other than its in the northern parts of the water country." Ashley said while scratching his nose. "Hmm… that could be trouble, as there is a ongoing rebellion from what I heard on the ship here in the Water country…" Naruto said with a thoughtful look. The duo shrugged it off and continued walking through the forest.
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"What kinda weapons do ya prefer? I like all kind of metal blades, though I have to admit, a strong bow has its charm…" Ashley said to Naruto to break the silence, they had been walking for a few minutes now. "Me, I think a lot of weapons are nice, but I can only use Shuriken, kunai and my boomerang." Naruto said back, Ashley nodded and looked at Naruto. "Boomerang? Shuriken and Kunai I understand but Boomerang?" Ashley said quite blatant about him being surprised. "Yeah, I found it and it turned out to be unexpectedly useful…" Naruto said remembering cutting the snake in two with ease. "Oh…hmm… I've always wanted to make a Zanbato, what kind of weapon would ya like?" Ashley asked thinking about his scroll with the specifications he had made one day for a katana like Zanbato, combining the chopping and overall power of the Zanbato, with the slashing ease and sharpness of a katana.
Though to make it, he would need lotsa of the best Steel and iron along with a master level forge. So it would have to wait at least for a few years. "Hmm… well I saw once how a Katana wielding ninja beat over ten ninja with only kunai so then I woulda have wanted a Katana, though nowadays I don't really like 'em… though I have to ask, what's a Zanbato?" Naruto asked awkwardly spelling the word. "Zanbato, an Zanbato is what they used to call a 'Horse-cleaver' in the older days, though now a days only the ninja from mist use them, they basically a term for huge swords, often the size of a man in length, requiring incredible strength to use properly." Ashley said getting into rant mode explaining further about the incredible thing known as Zanbatos, while Naruto simply nodded dumbly trying to understand what the older boy was saying. They walked like this until they found a road, which they began following to the direction they thought the city was. After walking for half an hour they arrived in the city, it was quite… ruined. It was clear that the city had once been a place of glory and happiness, but now it was mostly a collection of broken and run down buildings.
Ashley looked at the city with surprise, "This… is a city?" Ashley asked not believing his eyes. Naruto was out of words as he saw people in rags working on a field outside the town. "Lets go…" Naruto said walking to a man working on the field. Ashlet slowly nodded and followed after, he had grown in the care of his master, who was quite rich as he was a master smith. Naruto was more used to this kind of life, as he had liven in the slummish parts of Konoha, which were quite frankly nothing compared to this but still. They walked up to the man working currently on the field while humming a tune, he wore short pants which looked more like rags than anything more, and a gi top open on his upper body. "Excuse me? Could you sacrifice some of your time to give us some help?" Naruto asked in his politest tone, which he had learned from Sandaime, as everybody else had cursed his existence, and Naruto had soon learned that it was easier to get stuff from Sandaime when talking politely. The farmer hit the tool he was using down into the soil and wiped his brow from sweat while looking at the kids before him. "What can I do to youngsters like you?" The man spoke cheerfully, much to the two's surprise. "Uh, we are looking for the city of Rokono, could you be so kind and tell us the way there?" Naruto asked keeping up the nice guy act. "The way you just walked, follow it back until you come to a large cross road with signs showing ways to many places, there is one sign that says 'Rokono, city of smiths.'
Follow the road that the sign points to and you'll eventually find there, though it is quite far away." The farmer said and got back to singing his tune while working hard. Naruto Ashley thanked and walked back to the road, and began walking to the opposite direction they had walked before. "So, what are you planning to do once you reach Rokono? Nu…" Naruto asked looking at Ashley's glasses. "As I said before, I'm gonna learn as much as possible about crafting weapons and then possibly set up a workshop. Or maybe I should just become an apprentice there and inherit a smithy…" Ashley said thoughtfully, to which Naruto looked into the horizon. "What about ya?" Ashley asked back, Naruto snapped out of his musings and thought about it, he had no real plans to what he should do after Rokono… maybe he could ask around there and along the way if anybody had heard of this Kirin. "Hmm…haven't really thought about it…Nu…" Naruto stated.
"Hey by the way do you have any extra of those glasses, if you do could I possibly loan one to me? Cuz they look cool." Naruto said while drooling over the thought of having orange sunglasses. "Uh…sorry, ain't got no more…" Ashley said sweatdropping at the drooling Naruto. The continued to walk down the dusty road of destiny unaware of the trials waiting one of them, what destiny had in store for the other one… would remain in the shadows for now.
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They had been mostly walking now for a few hours and were dead tired and bored, mostly because they had talked already about everything they knew about weapons or killing with style. Now they were mostly playing the game 'I Spy'… though due to the lack of colors forced them to soon quit and simply walk in silence. They walked the entire day meeting a random traveler along the way a few times until night fell and they decided to do a fire and get some sleep. They set up a fire and Naruto caught a rabbit which they cooked and ate, Ashley commented on how good it tasted also. After which they went to sleep, Naruto choose a tree like always, and Ashley built a small cottage with his backpack and the metal sticks he was carrying with him.
Naruto yawned loudly and stretched as he let himself fall down from the tree he was sleeping in, he landed with a soft thud as he like a cat fell down into a stretching position, Naruto did a routine of stretches to loosen up and then looked around. The sun isn't up yet, better leave Ashley to sleep, and Naruto could do some private training before they left for the road again. Naruto walked to a good open clearing in the middle of the forest not too far away from the road and their camp. Naruto began with his basic Taijutsu routine and soon moved to practicing his Jutsus, IE: Henge, Katon:Goukakyuu no Jutsu and Kanashibari no Jutsu.
Naruto did this basically until he got bored and began remembering if he had any other Jutsu, two things came to mind: The explosive rock thingy, and the one handed seals experiment. "What to try first? Probably better to begin with the one handed thingy, the explosions are loud…" Naruto thought aloud thinking about Ashley, who was still sleeping. Naruto began with a one handed serpent seal, then a one-handed ram/tiger in front of his face, next a straight open palm in front of his chest with fingers together. Now began the hard part, he had to figure out the one handed version for the next seal, the Boar, where the users hands would be like in the serpent, only without the fingers interwi ned and with the fingers pointing down. Naruto uickly found its equallient, which was the same only removing the other hand. Naruto let the chakra flow in his body, noting that it worked like the original seal did, which was good. Next up; Horse, this one was like the last one as well; remove on hand a voila. Now Naruto inhaled deeply letting the chakra mingle with the before mixed chakra already feeling the effect begin. Naruto quickly did the last seal being the tiger and exhaled all the air along with the chakra in a ball of fire, the ball was barely bigger than the first Naruto had ever produced and lasted barely a second before dying out, but Naruto thought of it as a good start. Naruto began doing this over and over again, for the first fifty times he only did the seals with no chakra and stretched his lungs as well.
After those fifty practice tries Naruto began seriously for the first time. Naruto took a low and comfortable stance and put his left hand behind his back and cracked his right hand. In a blur Naruto went through the seals: Serpent, Tiger, Monkey, Boar, Bird, Inhale, Tiger: Katon:Goukakyuu no Jutsu! Naruto blew a large fireball that flew of into the direction he had been standing to, finally stopping once the heat died down, leaving a trail of ash. In Naruto's standards that had been a medium sized ball. The only issue was that it was slow and felt awkward, but it could be potentially useful in a fight. Naruto repeated the process a few times, switching between left and right in order to make him used to do the seals with both hands, one couldn't afford to be picky in a fight. After practicing this until he felt somewhat confident Naruto stopped and went hunting, he returned with a large bird that had been decapitated cleanly, with some food now Naruto returned to camp and set up a fire, with a one-handed Katon:Goukakyuu no Jutsu no less, though he put only a miniature amount of chakra to it. Naruto cooked the bird and waited for Ashley to wake up, he oddly came out of his 'tent' right when the bird was done, the two ate with little talk in between done and then Ashley packed up his tent, following with the two getting back to the road.
They spent the day the same way like the last, simply walking, until they got hungry and ate something while resting. After what felt like walking for an eternity they arrived at a large crossroad, there was literally hundreds of paths and roads, with even more signs pointing different places, it could take a while to find the correct sign… "Holy…" Ashley said looking at the massive collection of roads and signs in front of him. "Yeah…" Naruto said agreeing. "So…let try to find a sign that says Rokono, right?" Naruto said looking around, Ashley slowly nodded and walked to the left.
"Ya begin from there and I'll check this side…" Ashley said and Naruto nodded, and so they began reading through the masses of signs. It took them about half an hour to find the sign, it could have been found in fifteen minutes but it was hidden under another sign, so Naruto jumped over the first time looking through. "Idiot, it was right under ya nose all the time…" Ashley let out his frustration out on Naruto, "bah, you didn't do much better did you? You could've found it equally as well." Naruto retorted as the two walked. After they finished their petty little argument they continued to walk, along the road the sign had pointed to.
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After walking for a few hours they had rested and eaten some food, courtesy of Naruto, after which they returned to the road. A few hours later they arrived in Rokono, this town was in much better shape than the previous, there was a few broken buildings but mostly the town looked like they were fine. Ashley presumed it was because they made weapons to the hidden mist village and thus had money to survive. They had entered the village and gotten a place to sleep at an Inn and left most of their stuff there, Ashley opted to go around and look if he could get apprenticeship from a local smith while Naruto choose to go to a public bath, he needed a warm relaxing bath after all this time, only getting to relax in cold rivers. After a hour of being between half sleep and half awake Naruto decided that he had had enough and went back to his Inn room. The room was nothing fancy, a simple bed with a night table next to it along with window, on the wall there was a painting that had been obviously mass produced.
Naruto was about to take Zero and leave to go training with it when there was a knock on the door. Naruto opened the door to see a man wearing black clothes and a dark brown robe, with a white mask shaped like a bunny covering his face, what Naruto noticed the huge bundle of cloths the person was wearing on his back, the thing was easily as long as the man himself. "I would like to have a word with you, mister Freed." The man said, his voice slightly muffled, as if he was wearing a bandage tightly over his mouth, jaw and throat. As the man said Freed Naruto relaxed slightly, that was the name he had given the clerk at the Inn, so this person didn't know Naruto's real name or identity. "Oh, uh, come on in, or…" Naruto said motioning the person to come in, the man made no move for a few seconds and then walked in.
"Uh, so what is it…?" Naruto asked inquiringly. "What is your purpose here mister Freed?" The man asked, Naruto looked surprised and answered, with neutral face of course. "Me? I'm here with a friend of mine, he's trying to get a job here and I'm planning to leave in a few days." Naruto said, the man remained quiet. "I know that you are a Shinobi, Mister Freed, if that is your real name. Tell me, are you working for the rebellion or…" The man said still standing straight in the middle of the room while looking at Naruto, who was standing a few feet away from the over-towering man. "Eh… you got me there…I'm just an academy student who decided to quit, but I'm here on a job to protect the friend I men
tioned before, you know bandits and all…" Naruto said hoping this lie would work, if not, then he was seriously screwed. "…Academy student you say… from what village, if I may ask, brat." The man said, his voice beginning to drop the monotonous tone from before and adopting a more wild tone. "Konoha, my idol got killed and I decided that the place was worth shit." Naruto said adding a truth to it. "Ah yes, the assassination… From what I hear the last Hokage was a kind a righteous one, though he was easily one of the strongest people in the world…" The man said with a tone of underlying respect. "But, you being an academy student is a complete lie… The man said arrogantly, Naruto clenched his fist as the man adapted a scary tone of voice, "How so?" Naruto asked letting his fists relax. "Your chakra level… is rather high, and I saw you a few days ago practicing a Chuunin level technique…" the man said clearly grinning under his mask.
Naruto swore mentally, "Oh…" Naruto simply said tensing, getting ready to fight, he could sense that this man was on a completely different level than all his enemies before. The man lifted his hands and did three seals to fast for Naruto to see, a wave of chakra left him, Naruto recognized it as a silencing technique meant to keep private conversations private, but it could also be used to muffle the sounds of torture. The man slowly reached up to his head, Naruto realized that he was reaching for his bundle. But the man instead opted to take off his mask, revealing his face; he had his lower face covered in bandages, and his forehead protector around his head with the Kiri symbol on the side of his head. "My name is Momochi Zabuza, brat, and I'm trying to do a coup here in the mist, the current Mizukage is a bitch to the council and the Daimyo, ya interested in joining in?" Zabuza, as the man called himself said. Naruto was surprised but quickly regained his cool, "Sorry…I have something I must do…" Naruto said back, hoping he wouldn't need to fight this man. "Oh…and what could be more important than the well fare of an entire country?" Zabuza asked annoyed, he needed nakama damn it! "My revenge… I intend to kill the Godaime Hokage and all who were along in the coup against the Sandaime."
Naruto said, spitting at the word Godaime. Zabuza looked surprised, but quickly began laughing. "I see…in that case, sorry I bothered ya…" Zabuza said finally stopping laughing. Zabuza moved next to Naruto's bed, and reached for the bundle on his back, and with one hand hefting it of his back onto the floor as he sat down on the bed. "I'll let ya live, if you don't snitch on my plan to the authorities. Got it, Brat?" Zabuza said with an extremely scary face, easily making Naruto understand that this man could, and would kill him if he crossed him. "You intend to make what of this country? Help its people? Because from what I've seen, this is a hell hole worse than most should have to go through." Naruto said still standing, eyeing Zabuza warily. "Yeah…It has become that…but I intend to change that." Zabuza said lying down completely on Naruto's bed with his hands behind his head. There was a silence, after a minute or so Zabuza sat up and hoped off the bed and picked up his bundle off the floor placing it onto his back again with ease, Zabuza was about to walk out the door when Naruto asked him something.
"You know stuff about this country right?" Naruto asked making Zabuza stop and look back at the pre-teen. "Yeah…" Zabuza continued. "Have you heard of a man name Kirin?" Naruto asked. Zabuza looked surprised at the name but answered anyhow, "Yeah, he's a famous sword smith and a master of weapons, he lives nearby Entotsu City to the west of here…Why?" Zabuza asked eyeing Naruto suspiciously. "Oh, I was just told to meet him by an old hag..." Naruto said waving it off. Zabuza shrugged and opened the door while putting on his mask. "Don't get killed brat. You wouldn't get a grave in this country." Zabuza said and left through the door closing it. Naruto stood there silent until he sighed and fell down on his butt, he had been really nervous… but at least he knew where to search for this Kirin. " Entotsu City…" Naruto mumbled as he stood up to leave his room, he needed to find Ashley.
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Naruto found Ashley soon at a large workshop, filled with huge furnace with several openings and iron and steel ready to be crafted, he was there talking to a large muscular man with a leather apron that had been burned several times around its edges.
"Yo Ashley." Naruto shouted getting a small wave back before Ashley went back to discussing with the man, Naruto waited for five minutes before he got bored and began looking around at the workshop, on the walls hand many different shaped and sized hammers, and other tools used to work with hot metal, Naruto could name only few, much less imagine how they were used. Naruto soon found a large pile of what seemed to be trash and scraps, mostly consisting of differently shaped blades, the blades ranged from knife sized to even as big as long swords, though most looked to fragile to take a single hit. "Oy, Naruto, good news, the smith is willing to let me work and study under him here for a few years." Ashley shouted to Naruto, getting Naruto's attention.
The man who Ashley had talked to came walking up to them right behind Ashley, "Good day, may I interest you in anything?" The man asked with his voice laced with syrup, the man was not only a smith of great skill but also a business man. "Hmm…I've been thinking about getting a new sword or a short to middle ranged weapon that will pack heavy punch…" Naruto stated thoughtfully. The man smiled widely and motioned for Naruto to follow him, "We are the number one city in the whole of Mist in creating weapons, we have a large selection of swords and naginatas and glaives you might be interested in, or if you wish for a horse cleaver than we have a couple." The man said clearly as if reading from a script, Naruto nodded as he followed the man to a large storage room, the man flickered on a light, showing rows and boxes filled with weapons. "Take a look around an tell me if you find anything interesting that catches your eye…" The man said remaining at the door, watching Naruto. Naruto nodded and began looking around, there were a few nice and sturdy katanas that caught his eye but Naruto wasn't particularly interested in a weapon such as a katana, as it required incredible skills and swordsmanship to use. Though once one had mastered it they would be a fearsome fighter.
What caught Naruto's eyes more were the large cruder weapons that required more strength and speed than actual skill, like a two-handed sword with spikes along the blade… Naruto looked around for a few seconds along with Ashley who looked through the weapons with awe and interest, finally after Naruto had gone through them all, and tried a few he walked up to the man shrugging. "Sorry, none of these really suit me, the great sword with spikes looked interesting but as I tried it, it just felt clumsy…" Naruto said, the smith's plastic smile dropped and turned into a more human one, "That might be true… you have a good eye for weapons lad…tell me, how about you tell me what you look for in a weapon and we could possibly make a custom one, for a price of course…" The man said in a rough tone of voice, telling of a life filled with fights and mishaps. "Well… I'm thinking of a weapon my length, more maybe as I'm gonna still grow, one bladed, and possibly slightly bent, like a katana for a smooth cutting edge while keeping the massive chopping power of a horse-cleaver…" Naruto said along with showing elaborate hand motions. "Hmm…" The man voiced while scratching his jaw, Ashley looked like he had an idea and began searching through his pockets, "I've got good blueprints for one…" Ashley shouted drawing out a scroll placing it on the floor spreaded out.
"Hmm… it could be done, though it would require a lot of iron or steel, and a good furnace…" The smith said thoughtfully.
"I've got 735 000 ryo, how much the sword cost?" Naruto asked looking through his wallet, he had ditched the old one he had taken a long time ago. "Hmm… that won't be enough, this baby would be more on the cost range of 200 0000 ryo, plus the scabbard." The man said thoughtfully yet again, Naruto looked somewhat pissed as he stood up. "Where could I make some money then?" Naruto asked determined, at this the man laughed, "How about here? You look well built and you seem rather energetic, my last blower quit as he got tired of working here." The man said. "Blower…?" Naruto asked confused, what would a blower do.
"A blower is somebody who works with a fan, which airs the fire making it hotter, and also throws coal into the furnace, in short he takes care of the fire which with the other smiths work with." Ashley explained sage wisely. "Well, I do have some experience with fire…How long should I need to work here to get the money needed for the sword?" Naruto asked inquiringly. The man furrowed his brows thoughtfully. " A month or two… depending on how large the newest order from mist is… but I'll guess on two and half months, this is of course with out any food bills and hotel room payments…" The man finally said. Naruto thought it over a few times before reaching a conclusion, "I don't need to buy food and I can sleep in a tree… so I'll work here." Naruto said offering a hand for a handshake. The man accepted the hand and the two shook hands closing the deal. "I'll even let you play with a few of the weapons here." The man said laughing to which Naruto nodded. "Follow me, I'll show you to your work room, the other smiths should e coming back from lunch soon, and they'll be happy to hear that we've got a new blower." The man said laughing loudly.
Naruto was lead to a room behind the large furnace, with an opening to the middle of the furnace and a large pile of coal as well as a shovel, there was a chain hanging from the ceiling with a leather strap in a loop looking like on could hang from it. On the floor under it was a large moving piece of step board, once you steped on it it would go down pushing air into the furnace, and by drawing hard the chain the thing would come back up while refilling with air. (A/N: If you've seen Princess Mononoke, this is like the thing the women were standing on in Iron town, the hero joined in with them for a while, it has the same principle of pushing in air, but because it's a one man version it needs to be drawn back up.
There was a sign on the wall explaining clearly how and when one should light the furnace, when to shovel more coal, and when one should work on the fan. "Well, as you can hear, the guys are back by now, so you should light it up. Good luck." The man said leaving the little dark room, this would be one hell of a training Naruto guessed, the fan was heavy and straining to use, and to work next to hot coal would be straining. Naruto grinned and took of most of his clothes, leaving only his pants on, he put his extra clothes in a coat rack where a pair of dark goggles also hang, Naruto put them on his fore head as the sign had told, the hot coal would be producing a lot of light, and looking straight into it would be like looking into the sun. Naruto shoveled some coal and picked up the matches, he shrugged and put them back and went through a familiar combo of seals and blew a small concentrated ball of fire, lighting the coal on fire, now he would have the wait and fan it until it became ember.
The day passed slowly as Naruto worked on fanning the coal and adding slowly some more, Naruto soon took a pair of ear protectors as the loud sounds of iron versus hammer reached him. After the last hammer died after hours of work the man came back to Naruto letting him go 'home' to get some rest. "Here's you first days pay." The man had also said handing Naruto some money. Naruto accepted it and took his clothes back to his Inn where he checked out from his room. After that Naruto found a large tree that looked comfortable enough, Naruto lef this clothes there and sneaked to a hot spring where he cleaned himself from all the sweat and coal. After that Naruto walked back to his tree, put on his clothes, and took a comfortable position and tied to get some sleep.
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The next month and half passed like this, every few evenings Naruto opted instead of going straight to a bath he trained, kata, Taijutsu, his Ninjutsu and using Zero followed by sneaking into the hot springs, he couldn't afford to pay. Food he had to hunt and prepare himself, so that hadn't changed much, though occasionally he would spend some money on going to a stand and ordering some ramen. Though he couldn't spend too much money.
Naruto walked to the man owning the place, Naruto had under the course of the month learned that his name was Masa, Naruto had also learned that he was a world known smith known for his abilities in making large weapons. "I've got now 275 3000 ryu, will it be enough?" Naruto asked hopefully, Masa looked at Naruto confused before he looked like he remembered.
"Ah, why yes, now I have decided to let your friend Ashley do the sword, are you okay with this?" Masa asked, Naruto nodded, he knew Ashley's work by now, the older boy was a smithing genius. "Well then, iron or steel?" Ashley asked as he walked next to the two drying his hands from water with a towel, he had ditched his red coat and now opted to wear black pants with a black sleeveless shirt, but he still kept his ever cool orange glasses. "How much will a steel on cost compared to an iron one, and how long would each take?" Naruto asked, though he had been working here, he knew nothing of smithing. "Hmm, the steel one would be a few thousand ryo more while it'll take a day or two with either one." Ashley said with a thoughtful grin.
"Well, make it steel then, and take your time with it." Naruto said grinning. "Well in that case, get back to fanning." Ashley said walking to his area of the workshop. Naruto shrugged as he sighed while walking back to the dark and hot room.
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A few weeks later Naruto's sword was done, it was big and heavy, yet it felt relatively easy to use.
Naruto paid Ashley as he swung around the sword with clumsy enthusiasm, The sword lacked a sheath but everything else was in place. "You could buy bandages and wrap it up…" Ashley voiced his thought to which Naruto nodded, Naruto left the sword leaning against the wall and ran to a shop and bought the a couple rolls of bandages. Naruto returned to the shop and began trying to roll the sword up, after a few hundred tries Naruto invented a way to keep it on. Now all that remained was to learn to use it and a scabbard. "So, what do ya plan to do now?" Ashley asked, they had become somewhat friends during their time traveling.
"Well, I'm off to Entotsu city, I hope we meet again." Naruto said, and offered a hand for a handshake. "Yeah, lets meet again." Ashley said and shook hands. After this Naruto got his stuff, and began walking, with a huge sword on his shoulder no less. "…I need a scabbard real bad…" Naruto swore as his shoulder began cramping.
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Naruto had now ran and walked for a few days, he had trained every night with the sword and he was getting some serious muscle work outs. The thing required inhuman strength to use, and the sword the AnBu who had visited Naruto earlier had had an even bigger one, so Naruto still needed to train more, much more. Currently Naruto's number one weakness was that he could barely do sideways cuts with it, and even then he couldn't do a follow up or even get back to a stance, leaving hem completely open.
Naruto was now setting up a camp, so he lef this things in a tree and unwrapped the sword from its bandages. Naruto began with a wild downward cut barely holding the sword from hitting the ground and dulling the ground, Naruto slowly drew the sword up again above his head and did the same downward cut as before, barely holding it form hitting the ground. Naruto repeated this muscle training until he was beat, after which he held a fifteen minute break before he resumed, with a left to right cut this time, followed by a right to left cut, this was repeated until the last result, a tired and beat Naruto was gotten.
"It's getting a little easier…I wonder if I'll be able to use it by the time I reach Entotsu city…" Naruto mumbled as he rewrapped the damn sword again, he didn't want it to get rusty or dirty now does he. Naruto took out a scroll in which he had written some symbols in blood and opened it, placed the wrapped sword on top of it and did the ram seal, in a poof the sword disappeared, Naruto took the scroll and closed it, after which he put it on his pocket. He would travel with it out so he would get used to it and it was faster to take it out, but when he slept he would hide It as well as he did with Zero. Naruto took a comfortable position and closed his eyes as he wrapped his cloak tighter around him. Naruto slowly let the embrace of sleep embrace him, though he knew that he would not find peace in sleep, as soon as his consciousness let go, Naruto was embraced by his nightmares, like always…
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Naruto opened his eyes, "Morning…" Naruto said slowly sitting up, his body fighting back, he had been running for days, trained every evening while eating what he could hunt. He was tired. Tired of doing nothing, of simply traveling and training. Naruto sighed and pushed these thoughts away from his mind and slowly stood up, accompanied by several cracks and pops from his joints. Naruto looked at the pile of wood he had prepared the last evening and walked to it, did a few seals and blew it on fire, Naruto looked up to the sky, the sun was still down, as always, Naruto had gotten used to waking up before the sun these days, before, back in Konoha he had been many times scolded for being a late sleeper and always being late from anything in the morning, though it could have been just the normal kind of hate. Naruto let the fire warm him up until he felt sufficiently awake, after which he took and energy bar from his pocket and opened it, and took a bite. He had bought some at Rokono before leaving. Naruto ate the bar slowly as he did some simple stretches to loosen up, he would be spending the day on the road, like before.
"Today… I think I'll just be walking, slowly, yeah, like an off day." Naruto said nodding to himself as he killed the fire with some water and stood up, and walked back to the road, and began slowly walking in a swinging way, not actually using any real muscle work but simply swinging forward from on step to another, the sword Naruto had decided to keep in the scroll, the thing weighted to damn much anyway and he didn't need Zero right now. Naruto for the first time watched and marveled at his surroundings, though the country was poor, the nature was beautiful there, if one bothered to look over the fact that there was pretty much 15/7 with mist there, only with a few hours in the middle of the day being free of mist, though they were often filled with rain. "Water country indeed…" Naruto said with an ironic smile. The trees growing next to the road were green and tall, with branches growing in every direction and leaves thick and green.
Naruto was currently walking with the sun rising right behind him, lighting his way, more and more by each passing second, though he was sore and tired this brought a smile to his face. "Jospa onkin niin, että elän vain kerran…" Naruto sang, it was a song he had heard back in Konoha once a pop band had arrived to town, and Naruto had snuck into the concert, though they were singing in another language there had been set up these large screens with the translations going, the line he had just sung meant roughly: "What if I only live once…". If it was true, than you should take everything out of it, not train yourself till you are about to pass out, or force yourself too run when you're legs beg of you to stop.
Naruto sighed as he walked slowly, simply swinging back and forth on a road towards more fights, more training and more tribulations and other troublesome crap. But for now, there was only a road, and a sun shining, encouraging him to walk forwards. Naruto had no idea why all these ideas and thought were going through his mind but he didn't care, it was nice, for once not to be in a hurry. "Just let the road take you to the end of the world." Naruto said, remembering a line from a book he had once read.
A few hours, and a few hundred other thoughts later Naruto was walking faster again, in a forced way, that encouraged him to run, while his muscles shouted not to. The sun was up already, and some of the mist was going away for the day, allowing Naruto a clear view of what was to come on the road, what he saw made him almost shout. A large city, surrounded with high walls, and with smoke, no mist was rising from the large city that had the words 'ENTOTSU CITY' painted on its walls, on a closer look Naruto realized that it wasn't mist nor smoke that was rising from the city, it was steam. Naruto had once seen a train that ran on steam and knew its smell, this was steam no doubt, which meant that this was a city filled with machines and other gizmos that would work on steam power, Naruto himself had no idea how it actually worked with steam but knew that it worked. Naruto walked slowly while marveling at the city's high and thick walls that looked as if they could hold back anything.
Konoha had nothing on this city. The walls at the lost ruins maybe as it was longer, but this wall looked stronger and was taller. "There seems to be a gate…" Naruto mumbled as he walked towards a large gate, it was unguarded and had a large black arrow above it that said 'In', Naruto walked towards the gate, finally stopping before the large gate, he began wondering where to get in when he saw a button that said 'Press Here', Naruto pressed the button and jumped slightly back as the gate opened up, Naruto looked inside and stepped in, with the gate closing in behind him, Naruto didn't look back as two people wearing fine clothes bowed before him and said: "Welcome, I hope you enjoy your stay." Naruto nodded and walked on.
After a short walk through the wall in a tunnel through the wall he came inside the town, Naruto could only gape as he looked at the tall buildings, most were taller than the Hokage tower, that was supposed to be the tallest in Konoha. Naruto walked around this new exiting town for a few hours simply looking upwards and around at the buildings, so when he finally stopped he was surprised, every single person who was walking on the street had a apathetic or sad, Naruto looked at all the people walking by, not a single happy face, no laughter, there wasn't even kids playing around, only people with long faces walking as if they wished that death would come and claim them already. A man to the left of Naruto while pushing a cart filler with iron fell over and sat down against the cart, a person walked upt to them and offered some water.
"You okay?" The person asked the man, the man nodded and slowly got up. "Yeah, I'm just a little tired that's all, get back to work before the guards come so you don't get in trouble…" the man said as he began pushing the carts again. Naruto was about to walk up to the man to talk to him when there was a buzzing sound. All the people on the street stopped whatever they were doing and looked up to a wall, on the wall a large screen went on and a fat man appeared on it.
"buzz Hello citizens of Entotsu City, as you all know I have been placed to watch over this city by the rule of the Hidden Mist Village, and as always I have protected you from the enemies from outside the walls that protect tour beloved city. So relax and get back to working.Buzz" The man on the screen said before the screen turned off, Naruto noted that many people had spit and cursed at the man. As the broadcast had stopped all the people got back to whatever they were doing, still sad and angry. Naruto looked at the man pushing the cart, barely making it move on the ground, Naruto walked to him and hekped him push the cart. "Thank you young man, but don't you have your own work to worry about?" The man said thankfully as he walked next to Naruto who pushed the cart with ease. "Work? No…" Naruto said unsure of what the man was talking about. "Oh, you a new person here aren't you…" The man said with sadness in his voice. "Tell me… what is going on here…" Naruto asked as he pushed the cart the way the man pointed to.
"This town was once a normal mining town, mining for iron and coal, and sometimes gold. But one time we got raided by a group of nukenins and we lost much of our people, when the Hidden mist village heard of this they sent a man here to watch over and guard the town, but he has however turned this town into a slave community, where we the people mine till we die or get killed. Once you enter here you cannot get out." The man told Naruto as he walked along with him. "…And I thought it was bad in the one town…" Naruto said barely above a whisper.
"Thank you young man, you have given me much time to rest, I suggest you run and hide before they find you and make you one of us…" The man said with a sad smile as he took back the cart and began pushing it away, leaving Naruto to simply stand in the middle of the street. He let people brush past him as they walked past him without caring, this place, was a hell hole. "What have we here, a new face. Who might you be?" A voice asked as a hand fell on Naruto's shoulder. Naruto turned around with a neutral expression on his face, the man whose hand was on his shoulder was a person wearing a full body armor, that looked light but covered his entire body. With the man were several other wearing similar armors. "So, I see you are new here… why don't you follow me back to the headquar-" The man didn't get to finish as a pebble hit his head. Both Naruto and the guards looked to from where the rock had come from, in front of them stood a little girl looking defiant. "Give mama and papa back!!" The girl shouted with tears almost coming out of her eyes. The guard snapped and drew a long stick from his belt and charged at the girl getting ready to hit her, "Why you! You dare to deify me?!" The guard shouted with his stick about to hit the girl, however before the stick could hit her a shuriken hit the stick and made it fly form his hand while numbing his hand.
"Huh? Who did that?!" The guard shouted angrily as he clutched his hand still hurting from the power of the shuriken. Naruto let out some killer intent making the guard fall on his knees, everybody around them working froze and looked at the scene, "You…piss me off…" Naruto simply stated. The other guards dashed at Naruto while the one on his knees remained paralyzed, as the guards surrounded Naruto and charged against him Naruto jumped up making them all crash at each other, Naruto did a spin kick on the guy who was on top of the dog pile knocking him out on top of the others while Naruto landed next to them. "Stop, or I'll kill this girl!" A guard holding the girl hostage with a knife to her throat. Naruto sighed, he was with his back facing the man, perfect. Naruto without letting the man see did a half ram seal and Shunshined behind him, where he kicked him in the head sending him flying away from the girl. Naruto took the girls hand and lifted her on his shoulders and spurted away leaving the guards there.
He carried her through some mist before he jumped over a fence and ran at the opposite direction, after a few more distraction jumps he arrived at a river, there he let her down. "uh… thank you…" The girl said, "Hnn…don't worry about it, but why did you do something like that, kind of stupid to get hit for nothing…" Naruto said with his eyes half closed. "But they took mama and papa away… even though they are sick…" The girl said sad. "…" Naruto said nothing as he sat down at the river, he washed his face. The girl sat down next to him, "I'm Maya…" She said quietly, "Naruto. My name is Naruto." Naruto said as he stood up, do you have anybody that takes care of you?" Naruto asked looking lazily at Maya. "Yeah, Niichan takes care of me." Maya said with a big smile. Naruto nodded and began to walk away.
"Well, next time don't do anything stupid like that, you'll make him worried." Naruto said hearing her gasp quite well. Naruto left the river and walked along the street he found, not to long after leaving Maya behind Naruto was stopped by three kids, one was wearing a hat over his head, covering his eyes, another one had a rough jacket and a crazy ass grin, and the third one had cornrow hair with a unsure face. "Yo, freeze mothafucka…" The one with dreadlocks shouted while throwing out a handseal, Naruto's hands flew to his knee holster but he didn't draw a kunai as nothing happened. "Huh?" Naruto was confused, wasn't the meaning of using a hand sign to use chakra. "Err… what?" Naruto said somewhat confused about this turn of events. The boy drew out a Yoyo toy and began spinning it around, doing tricks. "Yeah! Go Ball! Kick his ass!" The two other boys shouted while the third boy played around, until he threw the yoyo at Naruto, Naruto promptly caught it and crushed it in his hand, thus saving the boys family jewels. (A/N: If you don't get the reference, don't worry, you need to have read the 666 Satan manga.)
"If that's all you can do… then its my turn." Naruto said drawing a kunai and spinning it around his finger before catching it. "Uh…Ball… it think we should, like run…" One of the boys said taking a step back, "Naruto!" A high pitched voice shouted, catching all their attention, Maya came running past Naruto and stopped in front of the kid with dreadlocks, "Stupid big brother! Naruto saved me!" Maya shouted hitting the boy named Ball on the head. "Huh?" the boy said standing up holding his head. "Naruto saved me from the guards before." Maya said still apparently angry at Ball, Naruto not ever having a family didn't understand jack of what was happening. "But leader said we shouldn't allow any suspicious people to pass by…" Ball, the boy with dreadlocks said back only to be hit again on the head. "Wow, you saved Maya from the guards, you really are something…" One of the boys said in awe. "…" Ball was silently looking at Naruto, "So, is Ball, you brother a Shinobi?" Naruto asked remembering the handseal.
"What, a Shinobi, no but he likes to pretend that he is." Maya said giggling, "Hey, common, your making me look really not cool!" Ball said standing up to her little sister. "… I don't get your brother Maya…" Naruto said sweat dropping at the boy. The group talked for a while until the three boys said that Naruto should meet their leader, who was currently leading a resistance force against the man holding every one as slaves in the city. They walked through a few sewers until they came to an underground tunnel, where from they walked till they found a door, with a large lock on it, on of the boys used a key and opened it, inside there were several older men, and some other boys as well. "Huh? Whatcha guys doing back already? And who's the twerp with ya?" a man asked looking at Naruto verily. "He's here to meet with the leader; he fought some guards earlier and won…" One of the boys replied.
The man nodded and let them pass, after some more walking they arrived in a room, where a blond man was sitting with his eyes closed, as if in deep thought. "Leader-sama, we found this guy who's new and fought with the guards." One of the boys replied honoring their leader first. The man nodded and was about to say something but was cut short by Naruto. "So you are the resistance leader, are you working with Momochi Zabuza or are you just working in this city?" Naruto asked, the man looked surprised at his question. "Momochi Zabuza? The Demon of the Hidden Mist? What would we be having to do with him? We are simply trying to regain our city's freedom." The man answered. "…I see, so he's not working with you… why am I here then?" Naruto asked with his arms crossed and an air demanding respect around him. "Uh…that, well why did you boys bring hi here?" The leader asked slightly nervous of the eleven year old boy.
"Uh, well he saved Maya from a couple of guards so we thought we should bring him in here…" The boys said now sweating as the pressure had been moved on them, The tension in the room was so thick that one could probably take a knife and cut it, but as suddenly as the pressure had appeared it was removed, "So Naruto-niichan, what are you going to do now?" Maya asked as cutely as only a small child could.
"Hmm, I was planning to find this one guy, but I think I could help these guys, unless it gets in the way of my plans too much." Naruto said scratching his chin. "N-n-niichan?! M-Maya?" Ball shouted out in shock, Maya looked back at Ball and showed her tongue at him, "He's a better brother than you, unlike you he doesn't run away at the smallest of dangers." She said. Naruto wasn't sure what to do so he remained silent, "So, you're…going to help us?" The leader man asked unsure. "Yeah, pretty much, unless it involves me wearing a pink dress…" Naruto said, the last part off handedly, the room grew silent, "I was joking." Naruto finally said noticing the regrown tension.
"O-oh…heh he…" The leader said not sure if Naruto joining in was good or bad. "Okay, so what is your plan, or more specifically what is my part?" Naruto asked flexing some muscles to loosen up for any fights.
"Err… Well, I have been having these bad vibes lately, and I think something is up, and its not gonna be good, tomorrow we plan to collect information of anything going on in the City, and you would be perfect for one part that we would need, if what Maya here has said then you can take care of guards with little trouble, and during lunch time Guards tend to eat at the same place meaning every place else is less guarded, what I want you to do is to gain their attention by generally making a huge ruckus. Are you okay with this?" The leader said with several odd hand gestures to make the explanation 'clearer'. Naruto nodded, he was a ninja trained, he could do something like that with ease. The three boys you already have meet were the original candidates for this part, and they were supposed to work in a trio, however with you along, we can split them up, you two will be one team." The leader continued, pointing at the two boys with Ball, "And you ball will be working with our new guy, okay?" The leader said, Ball looked somewhat annoyed about being stuck with Naruto but nodded.
"Okay, rest for the day, tomorrow we move out.." The leader said with a hopeful grin, all the people in the room shouted a Yeah, including Naruto for the shear reason of being a part of the group. As they left the room the Naruto was about to go to a bed to sleep already, so he would be well rested for the next day, when Ball approached him. "Hey Naruto, how about we go today and break into the mansion and get some proof of the shit going down, yo." Ball said trying to stop Naruto from walking away. "No, the mission is tomorrow, if we acted early we would most likely only cause trouble." Naruto said in a tired voice. He really wanted just to sleep in a bed. "Hmmh, I'll just do it myself then…" Ball said and began walking away, Naruto sighed and followed, its not like he was oing to do anything, he was just gonna look out that Ball wouldn't do anything stupid. They walked around in the sewers for a while until they came to a an exit, before Ball could walk there Naruto stopped him, before Ball could protest Naruto shutted him up.
"There's a guard there. Lets head back." Naruto whispered and was about to turn back, but stopped as Ball pointed up wards, Naruto sighed as Ball had noticed the thick pipe above them, they could move on top of it so the guard wouldn't notice them. They climbed on the pipe until they were past the guard, after that they opened a grill in the front of the conduit. From there on they crawled through the air ventilation ducts until they heard some voices talking. They looked down through a grill seeing two people, one sitting in a chair, and another one standing before the man sitting, the man sitting was bald and fat, while the man standing was thin and had wild blonde hair, with spikes going mostly up, he was also wearing a Black cape with red clouds on it (A/N: As in clouds like in the sky, not Cloud from FF/). "Hey that's the fatso prick from the TV broadcast…" Naruto whispered pointing at the man sitting, Ball however was frozen, as he looked at the man standing.
"I-it's W-Wise Y-Yuri…" Ball whispered, his voice telling of him being scared down right to his bones, Naruto looked confused, who was Wise Yuri? "He's known as the Crimson Magician, he's known for killing anybody who dares to stand up to him… even his own comrades…" Ball spoke with terror mixed with hope of not being caught in his voice. "Huh?" Naruto asked, what had that to do with anything… "And he's one of the people who are supposed to be attacking Entotsu City…" Ball continued still shaking from fear.
"So…we better listen to what's going on…" Naruto said and began listening to their conversation. "I here is you pay for keeping the citizens at their toes… working with you Akatsuki was a good decision." The fat man said, madness clearly in his voice. "Yeah, it is profitable for us as well…hehe…" The man with the clouded cloak said, with even more madness in his voice, though his was controlled. "They're working together? This is interesting…" Naruto thought as he poked at Ball. "Huh? What?" Ball whispered annoyed and scared. "The recorder, put it on, we're here for evidence of something right, this is perfect." Naruto whispered back with a grin, a light bulb went above Balls head and he dug in his pockets taking out a recorder, he put it on and placed it as close as he dared. "I'll paint the streets crimson for you, if we set a price." Yuri said clearly hoping he was going to be asked to do so.
"No, no, not yet, not before we find it. But then, then you can color the streets red, O great Wise Yuri." The fat man said, almost blushing, the cloaked man laughed at this,"As you wish, for money, I will do anything." The cloaked man said taking up a briefcase from next to him. "I'll be taking my pay for today and leave. See you till the next time…" Wise said walking to the door. "Okay, we've got all the info we need, lets leave." Naruto whispered, Ball nodded and was about to get moving when: Cricks, thump!! The grill holding them in the air ventilation broke, making them fall in front of Wise Yuri. "Well, well, what big rats we have…" the fat man said from his chair. Yuri Grinned and set down the briefcase, "Yeah, looks like I'll get to color this room Crimson after all…" Yuri said, his voice telling of the pleasure he would take from their bloody deaths. "W-wait! We have this tape, let us go or we'll play it to the citizens so they will all know of you scam!" Ball shouted in panic holding out the recorder, The fat man looked slightly taken back, as did Yuri, who however looked more intrigued. "If you let me have the tape, then I'll let you go free, for who would believe to brats saying crazy stuff like that." Yuri said, his voice laced with mercy and boredness. "Y-yeah… sure… I'll let you have it…" Ball said taking a step forward to hand over the recorder, Naruto however stopped him. "Hey, are you craze, he'll kill us if we don't give the tape to him!" Ball shouted as he tried to move forward. "You idiot, he'll kill us no matter we do." Naruto said feeling the lingering killing intent coming form Yuri. Ball gasped and stumbled back before falling on his butt. "A-are you serious?" Ball asked in despair, Yuri looked taken back form Naruto's statement and began laughing. "Yeah, you are good at finding out lies, now let the carnage carnival begin…" Yuri said with the last words letting his killer intent roll free over the room. Ball gasped and held his throat, trying his hardest to breath, Naruto took a step back but looked mostly okay, the fatso looked like he was blushing from the sheer power. Naruto drew out a scroll, bit his thumb and opened the scroll letting his blood wash over it, a handseal later there a puff of smoke, getting a gasp from three others, as the smoke died down Zero was in Naruto's hands. "Let the carnage carnival begin ya say… Well I''m gonna show ya some carnage." Naruto said letting some killer intent out, his wasn't even challenging Yuri's in amount nor power, but it repelled the effects from Naruto. "A Ninja…Interesting…" Yuri said blurring out appearing before Naruto throwing a punch, Naruto blocked it and sent a round house kick, it missed as Yuri jumped back. "Heh, I can tell, form this much already, your Taijutsu is much better than mine.
Heh, I guess it's a battle of Ninjutsu then…" Yuri said doing three handseals in a blur, Naruto's eyes widened as rock golem appeared on the ground, slowly it grew form a little thing to a big giant, only barely fitting in the room.
"This'll take care of you…" Yuri said with a crazy grin as the golem shot forward, its fist raised, Naruto swore and set Zero before him, it acted as a shield making him only fly back hitting the wall. Naruto stood up with calm face and looked at the giant approaching, "This feeling… its back…hehehe…payback is a bitch." Naruto thought with a grin as he drew back Zero, a faint outline of Spirit energy surrounded him as he reached back. "Heh, time for some golem slices, HRA!!" Naruto shouted throwing Zero with all his strength, "Yes, the effect is working!" Naruto thought as he noticed Zero doubling it s speed and power. "Huh?" Yuri had barely a microsecond to dodge as Zero shoot right through the chest of the golem, dispelling it and then heading right for him. Zero missed Yuri by an inch, but it continued flying, right into the wall breaking through with little trouble continuing flying through the walls, Yuri looked back at the hole made by Zero and gaped, "O.P.T?" Yuri thought with a grin, "Spirit release." Yuri said with a grin as a glowing fog surrounded him.
"Effect activate." Yuri continued making the fog concentrate itself around his neck, from there rose two circles, made out of metal and extremely sharp from their looks. "O-part chakrams?" Naruto said cursing his luck, Naruto however soon turned his face into a grin as he turned around, facing the wall behind them, with his back to Yuri, "We can't use the door as it's behind you, so…" Naruto said looking like he was getting ready for something. "What are you doing Naruto?! Yuri that way!" Ball shouted in panic while Yuri laughed. "You think by hoping that you can escape…not happening." Yuri said he was about to continue saying something when a crash was heard. crash Crash crash the sounds were getting closer, and they were coming form the direction Naruto was facing. The last crash was heard as Zero came crashing through the wall from behind them, returning smoothly to Naruto's hand. "Heh, always plan ahead. Ball, run through the hole, I'll distract him long enough. Okay?" Naruto said turning back to Yuri, who was grinning like crazy. "You were a good fight, I'll get two piercings for you on my tongue. Hehehe…" Yuri said showing off his tongue, which was filled with hundreds of piercings. "Whatever, hey Ball, get moving already." Naruto said looking back at Ball, who was much to his shock on the ground, unconscious. "Huh?" Naruto looked back at Yuri only to get a fist in his face. Naruto stumbled back and looked at Yuri after recovering, Yuri hadn't moved an inch form where he was standing, the only difference form before was that he had a chakram (Circlely thingy that's sharp) flying around him.
"… Crimson Magician…" Naruto repeated Balls earlier words. "Oh, you've heard my nickname… I'm honored…" Yuri said with even more bloodlust in his voice. "…" Naruto dashed at Yuri intending to use Taijutsu, the man had said Naruto had the advantage in Taijutsu, However suddenly Naruto's instincts screamed at him to duck, Naruto knowing good, followed the scream, as he looked up he saw one of the chakrams with an arm coming though, he looked over to Yuri to see Yuri with his hand going through the other one. "Teleportation? What goes through one comes through the other…" Naruto thought grinning, Naruto did a half ram and Shunshined Next to Yuri who didn't seem to Notice Naruto, Naruto threw a punch at Yuri, only to too late notice the chakram coming in front of his hand, and the other one coming to next his chin, thus he got his own punch right in his chin, sending him flying to the wall next to Ball. "Heh, punk…" Yuri said picking up Zero from Naruto's hand, also noticing a tape recorder in Balls unconscious hand.
"Lucky…" Yuri said picking it up and walking to the fatso. " Here ya go, one tape." Yuri said handing the tape recorder to the fatso. "Heheh…" The fatso laughed blushing as he pressed play on the recorder. buzz…Yo fools, ya think I'd give ya tha real tape, Wrong ya'll! Ball man out! The tape said, Yuri looked back to where the two unconscious boys had been seeing both gone. "Damn, they tricked us…" Yuri swore. "Find them!" The fatso shouted raging in his chair.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Ball was carrying Naruto piggy back style up a long set of spiral stairs going up, presumably into a tower.
"Damn that was to close, yo." Ball said mentally cursing how much Naruto weighted, he had switched the tape to another one when Naruto had distracted the others by fighting after he had been 'knocked out' by Yuri, but damn did that punch hurt. Ball climbed up some more stairs until he saw a door, he tried opening it, luckily it opened, inside was dusty, the place looked like a forgotten storage room furniture and stuff inside it. Ball dropped down Naruto on the floor and sat down breathing out in relief. "Lucky, eh?" Ball said to Naruto grinning, Naruto groaned and stirred, "Hey, Naruto you okay?" Ball asked slightly still winded form carrying Naruto up the long set off stairs. "Uh…yeah…that damn bastad use dmy own punch to knock me out, what a bastard…" Naruto Groaned sitting up slowly. "Heh, well thanks to you distracting them I could switch the tapes and carry you out, but damn you weight like hell, you should seriously lose some weight man…" Ball whined massaging his shoulders. "…" Naruto only stared at Ball fro a while before he began looking around, "Hey, where's Zero?" Naruto began to panic.
"Sorry man, I couldn't get it with as the damn Yuri took it from ya hands before I could grab ya." Ball apologized. "…damn, I'll get it back, no matter what." Naruto said mentally cursing losing Zero. "Yeah sure, but lets get the hell outta here right now." Ball said opening a window leading top the roof. Naruto followed after, they ran over the roof and jumped a street on top of another roof, as they neared the edge of the building a hand appeared on the edge, "Oh there you guys are, we've been looking for you guys…" A voice said. "The resistance?" Ball said hopefully and began running faster towards the hand, what followed the hand scared Ball shitless, "Let the Carnage Continue…" The head that followed up, was Yuri's head. Ball stopped in his tracks as did Naruto they turned around to run back only to see the rest of Yuri's body, with the a Chakram around his throat, with a hand as well through, Yuri's head at the edge rose up and revealed the other Chakram under it, the ring flew next to the other one and Yuri pulled his head form the rings.
"Found ya…" Yuri said as if they had been playing hide and seek. Yuri lifted his hand showing Zero in it, Naruto gasped, "Hey bastard Give it back!!" Naruto shouted clenching his fists. "Hehe… I have a better idea, how about I break it…" Yuri said cackling like a madman, which he clearly was. "Hah, as if, there's no way you can break it, I've cut rocks in two with that thing." Naruto said confidently, Yuri's grin grew wider. "Oh…?" Yuri lifted Zero, and one of the chakrams flew up to Zero Yuri made Zero go in through the one and appear through the other one. "It seems really durable… but if I put it between my O-part, Brother, and cut the connection, it will be broken, no matter hard it is." Yuri said with a grin, Naruto's eyes widened and he took a step forwards. "Hey… don'-" Naruto didn't finish as Yuri said the words: "Effect close." The ffect was instantaneous, the chakrams fell down as his control was gone, but so did Zero, in two pieces.
"Effect activate." Yuri said making his O-part continue flying, while Zero continued to fall. tak, tak the sound of wood hitting the roof reached Naruto's shocked ears. Yuri crouched down and picked up the two pieces and threw them at Naruto's feet. "Heh…Seems like it broke…" Yuri said gleefully. Naruto slowly picked up the pieces and put them in his belt like he used to do with it before, He was about to draw another scroll out when Yuri shoot out one of his Chakrams, Naruto barely dodged it, making his hair rise form shadowing his eyes, if somebody would have seen it they would have gasped as Naruto's normally blue eye was almost turning red, and the already red eye was almost turning into a slit. The chakram that missed kept on going hitting a pipe making it explode in a cloud steam. "Hey Naruto lets leave already!" Ball shouted grabbing a pair of old tiles from the roof, Naruto slowly and almost if having an internal battle followed, Ball threw him a tile, Naruto caught it with ease but gave Ball an odd look.
"We're really high from the ground, so we're gonna ride down on the cables!" Ball shouted and jumped over that edge of the building surprising Naruto, Ball landed on a thick electric wire going down to the ground level. Naruto nodded determined and jumped as well, landing on a wire next to the one Ball was riding. They rode down until the arrived close enough to the ground level where they jumped off, landing in a river. They climbed up from the water rather wet, luckily the tape was in fine shape, after testing that it was fine they left for the resistance base.
………….……don't you just hate these time-skips when the author is too lazy to tell you what's going on………………………………
Naruto was lying on a bed, He had chosen to let ball do all the explanation as he was tired, and he needed to think about his current situation, and what to do next. A shout was heard from the room next door where they were talking; Naruto heard it clearly and agreed. "Why the hell did you move out today, you could have gotten killed!" the leader shouted, some more talk and some more shouts along the lines of:
"He's just trying to prove his worth to you guys who always treat him like a little brat!" Naruto didn't really care about it, Naruto lifted the pieces of Zero so he could look at them, the breaking point was clean, as if the two had always been apart from each other. Naruto sat up and opened a scroll, some handsigns and a puff of smoke later the pieces were in a scroll, which he put in his pocket. Naruto left the room and walked up to a man sitting on a table, the man looked tiredly at Naruto who looked determined past human limits. "Have you heard of a man named Kirin?" Naruto asked with a straight face. The man looked slightly shocked but answered anyhow. "Yeah, he's supposedly a hermit who lives outside the city, he's supposed to be a murderer and a weird person, I suggest you stay away form him." The man said, Naruto paid no heed, "What direction?" Naruto asked, the man chose to be silent, Naruto was about to ask again, "I'll take you there…" a voice said, Naruto looked behind him to see Ball with a pissed of but determined face.
Naruto nodded and followed Ball as he began running, they ran through the city until they reached a lake, with a spine like bridge or road going above the water. "Errr…. Maybe I should just turn back…" Ball said slightly scared by the creepy scenery. Naruto didn't say anything but simply dragged the weeping Ball from his collar. After a while of walking Ball began to walk by himself so Naruto decided to let him walk by himself, this was however what Ball had waited for and he dashed back, leaving Naruto to stand there sighing. "If he doesn't want to come, then let him be…" Naruto said and began too walk forward, soon however a scream was heard and Ball came back running, with a giant millipede behind him no less. Naruto sighed and drew his scroll out and bit his thumb, a few seals later his new sword was in his hands, "Well, it's a good to chance to practice…" Naruto said dashing forward towards the giant bug with Balls screams telling him to come back and that he would die. Naruto paid no heed and jumped as the giants head came crashing down trying to squash him, Naruto landed on its back trying to cut its shell open, failing due to its hardness, the head rose and it began to come toward Naruto at high speeds, Naruto dashed at the head with a crazy grin instead, the two clashed, and ones head was splitten in two. Naruto wiped his sword on the ground trying to get as much of the gore off, he looked at the remains of his bandage and sighed, he really needed to buy a sheath. He reopened the scroll and placed the sword on it, a few seals later the sword was gone, "Damn, that was close, my recovery is too slow…". Ball came walking to wards Naruto in awe and shock, "Why…are you so strong?" Ball asked not really sure if he had phrased his question right. "I think…because I have a dream, a drive to push me forwards…" Naruto finally said after a long while of silence. "A…dream…" Ball repeated. Naruto shrugged and continued to walk the creepy spine like road over the water, with Ball silently following, deep in thought.
They continued to walk until they arrived to a mountain like scenery, with a circular metal plate on the ground, on a closer look Naruto noticed that there was some writing on it; "Unless you collect all ten stones the destination can't be reached." Naruto read aloud, "The first test: you worst enemy is your best friend." Ball continued on the text. Naruto noticed a few ball on the ground and picked them up. "It seems like we already have three…" Naruto said and Ball nodded, Before they could however do anything else the circular metal platter they were standing on disappeared, making them fall into a tube like slide, leading them too a large room, with one of the walls filled with spikes. "You okay?" Naruto asked helping Ball stand up, "Yeah…" Ball said wobbly standing up. Before they could do anything else again, the wall with spikes began moving slowly closer to them, eventually forcing them against the opposite wall.
"WAAHH!!" Ball shouted and began running towards the way where there was no spikes, Naruto however looked up, where form light was coming, "Naruto what are you doing, get here from there or you'll be hit by the spikes!!" Ball shouted panicking as he tried to search for an exit. "Your worst enemy is you best friend…" Naruto said and began walking towards the slowly moving wall of spikes, he grabbed one and began climbing up wards, "Hey Ball, get here and begin climbing if you don't want to die!" Naruto shouted climbing up the spikes with ease. Ball looked lat Naruto like he was stupid before he realized it, "We need to climb up using what will otherwise kill us…" Ball realized as he began running to the spikes and began climbing after Naruto. They climbed up as fast as they could, reaching the top right before the spike wall hit the other wall. "That was TOO close…" Ball said sitting on the ground panting, trying to regain his calm. "Hmm, lets move on." Naruto said helping Ball up.
They continued to walk until they arrived to a creepy looking hang-bridge, that looked very unstable. A Sign was above the beginning of the bridge, "Second test, what you see, might not be complete, Well, we'll die trying…" Naruto shrugged and began walking, carefully, with Ball weeping after him. At the half way of the bridge Naruto however stopped walking as he noticed three more stones on the bridge, "Hey Ball, get here, I found three more of those rocks!" Naruto shouted picking up the rocks, as Ball came next to him, a crack was heard, both froze and looked from where the crack had come…the bridge was about to break in half. crack, snap the bridge broke in half, with the boys falling on the one side.
"AAHH!! We're gonna die!!" Ball shouted, Naruto looked past the mist enshrouding the bridges end and noticed something, there was nothing there. "Its not a bridge! It's a swing!" Naruto shouted to Ball, who looked confused. "just let go when I say so!" Naruto shouted as they swinged past the poles that were supposed to be the end of the bridge, with Ball surprised that they hadn't hit anything, they continued to swing until they reached their height where Naruto shouted to let go, they let go and fell…for a few meters landing on a iron platform. That was suspended in mid-air by a couple of wires, slowly the platform began to move along the wires down wards. "Looks like we passed the second test." Naruto said with a grin. Ball nodded. They relaxed as the platform slowly moved down the wires, Naruto found another three stones with a new sign that said: " The third test: Only the brave will survive." Naruto said with a grin. "Aw man, not more of those damn tests…" Ball said. Naruto shrugged, "We only need to be brave right?" Naruto said as a click was audible. "Err…" Naruto said looking back up the wires seeing a giant ball of iron rolling towards them on the wires, Ball looked ready to run but Naruto held him down, The ball hit the spot they were at and as it moved on the duo was gone.
When the ball stopped after traveling a long distance a hatch opened revealing to very shaken boys… "I have no fucking idea what just happened…." Naruto said trying to make the world stop spinning. The two boys proceeded to throw up, three times both. After recovering they found their last stone and began looking around, seeing a giant globe with a giant door with a sun with ten eyes on it. They approached it with interest finding a new sign that said: "Put the stones in five rows with each having four stones in them." After a few minutes if thinking the boys realized the answer, which was a star, they set the stones in a star and looked up expecting the giant door to open, only to have a small door open with a creak. "Even though we answered the question correctly, I can't help but to feel slightly cheated…" Ball said entering though the door. As did Naruto.
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Inside was a large jungle, with the ceiling being painted to look like the sky, which was not viewable from the outside as the steam blocked the view of the sky. They walked around for a while marveling at the place, there were trees and grass, Naruto noticed much to his confusion that there was even wind inside this huge place. Naruto and Ball walked around simply looking out for a few minutes until a, something, appeared before them, it was unlike anything they had ever seen, it had the body of a sheep, four feet with sneakers on and a dogs face, "Unn." The thing said surprising the two, "was that a bark?" the two thought simultaneously. Naruto drew a kunai but kept it hidden in his palm, he wasn't sure yet if this was an enemy or not. Ball crouched down and offered a hand for the 'dog' to sniff, the thing however stepped back and 'barked' before blurring out appearing behind the two again, Naruto jumped back before the dog landed while Ball took a few seconds to realize that the dog was behind him, "Unn!" The dog barked again. "You…think this is Kirin?" Ball asked unsurely, looking at the dog with fear. " Kirin? I doubt it, his 'dog', might be…" Naruto answered back not letting his eyes away from the dog.
"So…maybe if we scare it, it will run to its master…" Ball proposed, Naruto nodded, "I'll try…" Naruto said and threw the kunai in his hand at the dogs feet faster than Ball could see. The dog jumped a feet in the air and then bolted off, with both Ball and Naruto hot on it's trail. They ran through the jungle barely staying on it's tracks, Ball by luck only while Naruto had more trouble as the damn dog would jump between bushes and twigs slowing down Naruto considerably, along with giving him nice and nasty scratches. After a five minute rumba in the foliage the trio burst out with the dog heading for a cliff, jumping up on the top right when the two pursuers appear under it, as the dog landed a big rock began rolling down, with its path going straight at Naruto and Ball, Before neither had the time to react a blur flashed before them, cutting the rock in two with a clean cut, with a… fishing rod. The person landed soundlessly, well except for the sound of himself scratching his bum, "What have we here, visitors I see." The person said, he had spiky long blond hair covering his eyes, a traditional set of clothes and a bottle on his belt. "Err…thanks mister…" Naruto thanked doing a curt bow, "They call me the man who can cut a rock with a fishing rod…" The man said digging his ear with his pinky. "…I see mister TMWCCARWAFR. We are looking for a man named Kirin, could you help us find him?" Naruto asked standing with his back straight being as polite as he could, he hadn't even seen the man before the rock was already cleaved in twain. " Kirin…hmm where have I heard that name before…." The man said scratching his cheek, before shaking his head, "Oh right, that would be me…" The man said giving a toothy grin. "Oh, that good, I was looking for you." Naruto said with a hint of a smile on his face.
"Oh…why for?" The now introduced Kirin asked scratching his bum, "I meet a person named Amidaba." Naruto said, with Kirin raising an eyebrow in curiosity. "And she told me to find you if I wanted to get stronger, I was wondering if you could help me with that…" Naruto said scratching his chin with a grin decorating his face. Kirin seemed to be thinking before a scary and toothy grin appeared on his face, Ball took shakily a step back, while Naruto seemed to be hopeful. "I'll train you, if two you entertain me for a while…" Kirin said not letting his grin slide, Naruto nodded determined while Ball seemed unsure about the whole thing.
"I'll even make you stronger…" Kirin said looking at the retreating boy, who at those words seemed to stop shaking, opting to freeze instead. "If… I got stronger, then I could save every one, from those bad guys… yeah, I'll become strong and protect everyone!" Ball thought clenching his fists determined, Naruto ignored this while jumping up and down excitedly, this could be his first chance of an actual sensei, one who would not simply teach him bull to make Naruto practice for hours on something that would not ever work. "Okay, so it's settled, now the first thing you shall do is…. Catch my stupid dog, Jajamaru, you can as take as long as you need, just catch him." Kirin said, with his grin tripling in size, "Okay…" Naruto said taking of some of his excess stuff, like his cloak, and the broken pieces of Zero, Now it was easier to move, and to catch the damn dog. Kirin dug a bag on his belt taking out a bone, and throwing it to Jajamaru who caught it with ease, "However I warn you, Jajamaru is anything but slow, or ordinary for that matter as well…" Kirin said with his already tripled grin going twice its old size. Naruto and Ball prepared themselves for the test with their eyes glued onto the dog biting its bone, before neither could react the dog disappeared, no blur, no nothing, "Huh?! What the!" Ball shouted twirling around looking for the dog, Naruto followed the afore mentioned only in thought, "Spirit… Jajamaru let out spirit energy the second he disappeared, there must be a secret to this…the bone, could it be…an O-part?" Naruto realized with eyes going wide.
"No matter, I'll catch that damn dog even if it will be the last thing I do." Naruto said pumping his fist before running to a random direction, as did Ball who chose to go to the opposite direction.
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The chase continued for a few days, with Jajamaru tricking and making fun of them, and with them eating pickled vegetables that Kirin seemed to love, they slept in his house on a few futons till the sun got up and they continued the chase. On the third day Kirin walked up to them during their breathing pause, with Jajamaru looking tauntingly at the duo right next to them.
"You two have forgotten your biggest advantage right now…" Kirin said scratching his bum lazily, "Huh?" The boys said clearly annoyed. "There's two of you." Kirin said and left leaving the two to ponder, Naruto shrugged and stood up, but Ball seemed to be considering the words more carefully. "………What did he mean by that…?...Of course!" Ball shouted hitting his fist as the realization hit him like a blunt object in the head. Naruto looked lazily at Ball who looked like he had solved the greatest mystery ever. "Naruto…come here." Ball said motioning for Naruto to come closer, Naruto looked at the boy with a neutral expression but decided to do what he said.
Naruto crouched next to Ball who whispered in his ear, "We need to use teamwork, and catch Jajamaru off-guard." Ball whispered with pride in his voice. "…well it would make sense, considering that even that Kirin guy should have problems catching Jajamaru by himself, unless he's been holding back." Naruto said standing back up. "I've got a plan already we can use…However you'll have to make a woman outta yourself…" Naruto said with a grin, Ball swallowed nervously but nodded…
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Jajamaru was walking around casually, he didn't smell the two stupid kids anywhere nearby so he was safe… He walked around for a while until a sweet scent caught his attention, he looked to his right, only to see the most beautiful creature he had ever seen in his life, the dog, as it obviously was, had fur like Jajamaru and sneakers on her feet, her face was like the most beautiful something ever.
Jajamaru approached the female being with hearts in his eyes, as he was close enough to do his ritual of asking for a date a voice shouted, "NOW!". The female before Jajamaru closed its legs trapping Jajamaru between them, with only one way to go: Jajamaru jumped with all his might upwards getting free from the vice like grip of the drag queen beneath him, only to barely notice the presence above him, only noticing it when he was already caught, by Naruto, who had been hiding in the tree above them.
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"Heh, they did better than I expected, have Ball to dress up like a female to catch him in a lock with only upwards to go and then to have Naruto catch hi in mid-air, where his speed from the O-part is useless as he can't kick up speed from anything." Kirin said with a grin as he took a swig from his sake bottle as he watched the two boys jump up in joy from his balcony. "Well I better get to them and congratulate them for their passing…" Kirin said jumping down disappearing in mid-air, no blur, no nothing.
---------------------------------------------------------------Ha! I've changed my time-skip thingy, what are you gonna do!?-----------------------------
"Looks like you pass the first thing, however our next game will be on a completely new level compared to this one…" Kirin said appearing from thin air making Ball gasp while Naruto cocked an eyebrow. "Oh, is that so?" Naruto asked tauntingly, Kirin trademark sharp toothed grin appeared back on his face, "Oh yeah, believe me…" Kirin said making Ball shudder, "Follow me then…" Kirin said walking away, they walked to the wall of this large room and then to a set of stairs, which lead to a level above this one, from there they walked around in a maze like system of corridors until they arrived to a room formed like a half globe, along with holes pointing all to the middle of the room where a black iron post stood, along with two heavy looking back packs and some rope, along with a club of sorts.
"Our next game will be played in this room, its name is…Burn burn batter." Kirin said with a grin ever present, Kirin pointed at the backpacks, "Firstly, each of you put one of those packs on, you will be wearing them for the time you will be spending in here." Kirin said with a grin, like always. The boys nodded and walked to the backpacks both picking one up, one barely managing to lift it while the other did it with a silent grunt, "Oh, and those things weight a lot, just so you know…" Kirin said his grin widening along with becoming more sadistic in nature. "Next, Ball could you go stand with your back leaning to that post over there," Kirin said as he picked up the rope, and tying Ball onto the post ignoring his protests. Next he picked up the club and handed it to Naruto who looked bewildered, he took the club and noted that it was made out of solid iron, making it heavy. "Your duty is to protect your friend, oh and a tip on the bat, first relax, and then at the right moment release you strength." Kirin said leaving the bewildered duo in the half globe room, the thunk of the door heavily closing worked to make both nervous. "So…what happens now?" Ball asked eyeing the holes suspiciously, before Naruto could answer a rock flew out from a hole behind their backs, and hi ball straight in the head. "OWW!!" Ball shouted trying to get loose. Realization hit Naruto as he looked around, all the holes shot out rocks, that were al heading for Ball, then he looked at the bat, as Kirin had called it in his hands, he clenched his fist around it and with a determined face began looking around fro the next rock, which came from left heading for Balls elbow, only to be stopped by Naruto who swung the bat sending the rock flying away.
"YEAH! Way to go Naruto!" Ball shouted happy that the rock hadn't hit him, only to see Naruto on his knees holding his hands in pain. "What the hell…the bat, right when it hit the rock it began to vibrate like crazy, and made my hands numb…shit, more rocks coming…" Naruto thought getting shakily up and raising the bat, "Relax and then release all you strength…because metal vibrates you need to hit the exact right way, and with the backpacks restraining both our running speed and arm freedom it will be harder to react in time, as well as the chance of a rock coming from any direction forcing me to adapt my senses…this game, as he called it is ingenious…lets play…" Naruto said chuckling as he jumped to his left hitting a rock again, this time with no numbness problem, a grin appeared on his face as he batter away rocks left and right, jumping and dancing around the tied Ball who could only look in amazement. A few hours passed with Naruto getting more and more used to this, only to have the rocks stop coming at Ball, and the door opening with Kirin wearing a smirk. "Looks like your having fun…" Kirin said with a somewhat disappointed tint to his voice, oh yeah, this guy was sadist.
"Yeah, so now what?" Naruto asked twirling around his new toy, the bat. "Now, we untie Ball and tie you up, and pray that Ball is as good as you were, or then you're going to be in for a bumpy ride." Kirin said with newfound hope, as Ball wouldn't probably be able to keep all the rocks from hitting Naruto. They let Ball free and tied Naruto this time and with a already heard thunk it was on, and man did Ball have trouble getting it for the first few hours until he was finally able to hit the rocks without going numb in his hands, after which he began working on being able to notice rocks coming, this was much more of an issue to Ball than to Naruto as he had never had any Shinobi training on noticing little flying rocks.
After a few more hours, far passing already the time Naruto had been free, Ball began to be able to notice the rocks and hitting them, thus finally giving a break to Naruto from all those damn rocks. It continued like this until Kirin came back with a clearly happier smile with a tint of sadness to let the two boys switch places again, the rest of the day continued like this until Kirin came to finally let them both out from the half-globe-of-flying-doom-rocks, they ate pickled vegetables again much to the disappointment of the two boys, after which they were shooed of to their futons. Naruto and Ball lied there on their futons until Ball fell asleep, and Naruto stood up quietly, taking his scrolls and sneaking out from the house, and wandering of to a remote corner in the lower level where they had spent days trying to catch Jajamaru, Naruto bit his thumb drawing some blood and opened a scroll streaking his blood on it drawing out his sword, He set the scrolls away and began doing some swings though his body was tired already, which was odd, he could always before push himself to his limits and be like he had rested a month the next day, but now he hadn't recovered in a while, it was really odd. He sent away these thought and continued to swing around the curved sword with his tired muscles, unbeknownst to him he was being watched by Kirin, who continued to watch for a few more minutes until he made himself known. "That's a nice sword you have there Naruto, only it looks awful in your crude hands, you have clearly no idea how to use that sword do you." Kirin said stepping out of the shadows making Naruto almost draw a kunai.
"Err…thanks and yes, I have no idea how to use this but it still works, right?" Naruto said clearly telling the man that if he had no skill, then he would overcome it with raw power. "…That is a curved sword, even if it is abnormally big, how do you use it to hit an opponent?" Kirin asked walking up to Naruto, "Uh… you chop 'em?" Naruto asked hopefully, "No!" Kirin shouted making Naruto cringe. "You are supposed to slash them; do you know the difference between chopping and slashing?" Kirin asked, Naruto shook his head signaling a no. "With a chop you intend to press the blade against the thing or enemy and apply enough pressure until it starts going through, while slashing you press the blade and than draw it with the blade cutting in a lighter fashion doing more damage with less effort, and it is smother meaning you can if your good do immediately a follow up without having to stop and redirect the sword…do you understand this?" Kirin asked, "Err…not really…" Naruto said sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head.
Kirin sighed and drew from inside his Kimono a long katana, that shouldn't have been able to fit in there, "Then let me demonstrate…" Kirin said and walked up to a tree and drew his katana with a quick motion of the wrist, "This is chopping:" Kirin said and moved his arm from his right side to a tree in front of him while keeping the sword and arm straight, as the katana hit the tree it barely dug in leaving only a small mark. "And this is a slash:" Kirin said pulling back his hand and this time hit the tree with the base of the sword leaving a small mark like before, only this time he drew the rest of the blade along the tree making it cut in much more, and he had done it lightly. "Understand now?" Kirin asked re-sheathing and hiding his Katana in his open kimono.
"Yeah, so instead of simply hitting and having to pull the sword back I could slash and continue the motion doing a second, and a third slash quicker…" Naruto said and Kirin nodded. "I might teach you some swordsmanship forms later, but right now you only need to perfect how to slash correctly…" Kirin said walking away back into the shadows leaving Naruto to practice how to slash with his sword. This continued until he felt sufficiently tired after which he decided to reseal his sword and walk back to the house to sleep. "I still need an O-part to fight that Yuri, or…do I?" Naruto thought as he lied down next to Ball on his own futon mattress. "I'll ask Kirin about an O-part tomorrow, Jajamaru had one so Kirin could know stuff…" Naruto thought closing his eyes letting sleep get hold of him; he wondered what would greet him today in his nightmares.
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Naruto woke up with a groan as the sunlight hit his eyes, he tried to sit up only to have his muscles protest and fight back, he sighed and decided to simply not get up, like his muscles wanted him to do. A few minutes later his danger senses went of crazy, before he could do anything he was splashed with cold water, as did Ball, judging from the loud shout coming from next to him. "Wakey Wakey my little students…" Kirin said with a grin and two empty buckets in his hands. Ball seemingly was shouting about letting him sleep while Kirin ignored him with a grin, Naruto got up with a groan, only to wobble slightly as he got up. "I have a new training schedule for today, Ball is going to spend the day alone in the Burn Burn Batter room having some fun alone, while you Naruto will be meditating." Kirin said, "Hey! That's' unfair, why does he get to sit around while I have to get beat up by rocks?" Ball protested loudly.
"Because he already has good basic level of strength in his muscles and you don't, that is why he will be sitting on his as while you will be jumping and avoiding rocks. Also he needs to solve some mental issues obviously." Kirin said leading the two out, "You, will be sitting on top of that hill doing self-exploration, I want you to think about your life, you every decision and all your motifs behind them, got it? You cannot move until I tell you to get down from there." Kirin said, "And with the messed up state of your body, you need to simply rest and let it recover, you have been obviously pushing yourself to the limits without giving yourself a decent rest. Meaning you are only tired and your muscles don't become stronger." Kirin thought. Naruto shrugged and began climbing up the hill, where he sat down cross-legged with his eyes half-closed, he hated meditating with a deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep passion.
"sigh better get started…" Naruto said closing his eyes completely, first step of meditation was to get control over ones breathing, this was learned through years of training and concentration, after you had perfect over you breathing you moved to the second step. "Concentrate…concentrate…" Naruto thought as he began forcing his heart to beat slower, this was the second step, this was ever harder to learn or master for that matter, it took him several hours before he had reached the level of slowness in his heartbeats to finally move onto the third and last stage of this type of meditation; entering ones sub-consciousness., after which one could review their entire life and other troublesome things, as Kirin had told Naruto to do he to began look over his entire life, it was like a fast forwarded movie, only he could see it with no trouble, as well as review all the feelings he had felt during that exact moment. This was troublesome indeed, like watching a ten hour long movie about the most painful issue to you. Meanwhile Kirin was fishing while sipping his sake and eating pickled vegetables that he so loved.
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"Okay, lets call it a day, go take a bath, cuz you smell." Kirin said shooing of Ball to go take a bath, he looked up at Naruto sitting on the hill with a deep frown on his face, he walked up to Naruto and sat down next to him, waking up someone from deep sleep or meditation could have unexpected consequences. A few minutes later Naruto opened his eyes with a long exhale, "Am I done with this exercise? I'd rather be in the burn burn batter room hitting those rocks than be here sitting on a rock…" Naruto said with a bored and annoyed voice. "Well, that depends, have you found a clarity in your mind?" Kirin asked sage likely.
"…no, getting to a new level of mental state takes years of daily meditation, I'm fine like this thank you." Naruto said standing up with a bored face, several pops were heard as he stood up, sitting for an entire day did that to you. "…sure, tomorrow you should train on some swordsmanship stances, no more crude swinging like yesterday, those wide unpractical attacks along with those un-guarded stances made my eyes bleed." Kirin said making sure Naruto understood exactly how bad he was with his sword. "err…okay, and uh…there's been a question on my mind for some time now." Naruto said standing next to the sitting Kirin, who was just drinking form his jug. "Okay… well shoot." Kirin said wiping his mouth with his sleeve.
"Do you know of O-parts?" Naruto asked with a steady gaze, as if looking for any answers. Kirin didn't react for a few seconds, "Yes, why?" He asked his voice not telling of any emotions going on. "Well I was wondering if you knew if it was possible to repair already broken O-parts…" Naruto said searching Kirin's eyes for answers. "Actually, yes, it just takes a lot of time and work on it." Kirin said scratching the golden mop that was his head, "Why?" Kirin asked looking at Naruto jump up in joy. Kirin continued to look at Naruto until he stopped jumping, "Well I have this one O-part that is really important to me, and I'd rather repair it than get a new one." Naruto told him back. "Hmm, well show it to me then." Kirin said scratching his bum (He really seems to have a bad itch all over his body…) "Okay!" Naruto exclaimed jovially as he began looking though his pockets, pulling out his scroll containing Zero. Naruto bit hi thumb and smeared some blood across the scroll and a few seals later a puff of smoke appeared, along with the two pieces of Zero. Naruto handed the two pieces to Kirin who looked at the boomerang with mild interest. "Well quite an interesting form it has, what the effect?" Kirin asked looking at the two pieces, along with trying to fir the two pieces back to together.
"Well…I'm not really sure, I've gotten it to fly really fast a few ties using Spirit, but I don't really have an idea of it's effect…" Naruto said scratching the back of his head. "…Well, no matter, I'll look if I can repair it…though I won't promise anything…" Kirin said bored, though on the inside he was curious, he liked new things, especially new O-parts. Kirin walked away inspecting the broken Boomerang muttering something Naruto couldn't catch, Naruto jumped up one more time before heading back to the house where they slept, where Ball was already eating, pickled vegetables like every night, there was also a plate with pickled vegetables waiting for Naruto who with a long face began eating. "So…how was your day? Ball asked eating his last pickle. "Pretty boring, you?" Naruto asked while taking his first, tasted like dung, but they needed energy. "I've gotten better, though I'm still getting used to the damned backpack…" Ball said looking at the black backpack on his back, "…oh yeah, I forgot already of the damn thing…" Naruto said scratching the back of his head remembering the thing on his back. "So what are you doing tomorrow, Kirin said I should practice some stances for the sword…" Naruto said swallowing an onion with a disgusted face.
"I'll probably be in the room again…" Ball said with a sigh, after which he went to a sink and washed his plate and eating utensils. "I'll try to join you there if he lets me, it was pretty fun." Naruto said swallowing another onion, Ball shrugged "Meh, it's fun alone, you can pretend your hitting some idiot in the head…" Ball said with half grin. "Okay…I'm officially scared now, who are you and what did you do to Ball?" Naruto asked being sarcastic, "I am Llab, and Ball flushed him down the toilet…" Ball said looking like a madman, they were silent for a few seconds after which they both burst out laughing. After finally settling down they went to their futons and went to sleep.
……………………………………………….Harharhahrhar………………………………………………………………
Naruto woke up with a peaceful sigh, this was odd… there wasn't that ususl ache all around his body, nor could he remember any unpleasant dreams from the night.
"…I don't know what has happened…but I like it…" Naruto said jumping up from his lying position up to his feet, after which he stretched slightly. No pops accompanied Naruto as he stood up much to his wonder, also his vision seemed somehow…un-clouded.
He noticed much more thing around him even without trying, it was odd by the least. "Seems like the rest are still asleep, good, that means I have some time to train those stances Kirin spoke about yester day." Naruto thought walking to the balcony and jumping down landing soundlessly on the ground he walked a bit further until he felt he could train without bothering Ball or Kirin, Naruto took his scroll out and did his usual ritual of biting his thumb and spreading blood over already dried blood on the scroll followed by a few seals, and a poof of smoke revealing his sword. Naruto lifted the sword with a little yelp, as he had lifted it with less power than he had expected, "It's gotten lighter? What the? What's going on here…" Naruto said putting down the sword with little trouble, "It's the mediation exercise from yesterday." Kirin's voice said from behind Naruto, Naruto whipped around seeing the hermit leaning against a tree. "Huh? But meditation is a mental thing, it shouldn't change me this much." Naruto said, it was true, meditation should have no real effect on ones body. "Mm-hmh, that is correct, but, can you tell me, in the last month when did you the last time rest for longer than three hours, not including sleep?" Kirin asked walking to wards Naruto, "Uh…I don't think… maybe…once?" Naruto said remembering the last time he had rested was the day he had arrived to Rokono, he had that day taken a long bath, other days he just washed himself. Kirin seemed to chuckle a bit, "Well, that would explain the sudden increase in your strength… you see, your muscles don't get stronger from the exercises you do, but from the resting you do after that, as it is then your muscles recover and strengthen themselves.
If what you have said is true then you haven't rested enough in a long time, and no, sleep does not count alone." Kirin said letting out a long yawn after finishing.
"…Oh…" Naruto said staring blankly at Kirin, that was kinda odd… "Well, I'm gonna go sleep now, I've been playing and tinkering with your O-part the entire night…yawn" Kirin said and began walking away, Naruto stood still for a few moments watching Kirin walk away while thinking about his words, "I need to rest sometimes…I see." Naruto thought turning around. "Well, whatever." Naruto said shrugging and began swinging around his sword, noting that he could almost do a double combo with one hand now, with two hands he could easily do a combo of fourteen strikes but that left him slightly winded, another thing he noticed now was that when using his sword his hands got sore, he would need to buy gloves or something cuz his hands got really sore after a while. Naruto swung the sword around his head and brought it down to the ground with a thud, the tip dug into the ground and as he let his hands off the handle the sword stayed up, "You know, I think I should name you…something like Masamune, or Murasame…" Naruto said staring at his sword, "Or…Kusanagi…nah, those names are all already taken, you know from history books… Einherjer…I like the sound of that… I have no idea what it means though. I've decided, your name shall be Einherjer." Naruto said lifting up the sword again, and admiring it in the light, "I wonder where the light comes from, there a roof above I think, though it painted like the sky it shouldn't give away light…" Naruto said lowering the sword to his side looking up at the ceiling.
"Eh, whatever, I need to train!" Naruto shouted with vigor and continued to slash around with his sword, this time trying to imagine good maneuvers, like a good parry to a strike from above, a parry for a thrust and so on. After getting a good set of parries down Naruto began to improve his attacks, mostly consisting of him trying to attack in a way that didn't leave him completely open to an attack or counter-attack. This was one good side of doing lots of Kata's: you became good at imagining enemies attacking you, along with how to react to the said enemy. Naruto continued on training until Ball woke up, "Hey Naruto! Where are ya?" Ball shouted looking around in the surroundings from the balcony, "Meh, where is he, and I can't find Kirin either…" Ball said crossing his hands, an orange-blue blur was behind him and Naruto landed next to him caring him half-dead, "Yo, whatcha need?" Naruto said with Einherjer, his sword on his shoulder. "Err, nothing really, just wondering where ya was, lets have breakfast and then go to the rock room, I wanna challenge ya!" Ball said throwing out a random handsign.
"Err…okay, what kinda game?" Naruto asked as they walked to the dinning room where two plates with pickled vegetables waited. Ball sat down with a little thud, due to the heavy back pack on his back, and Naruto sat down with an equally loud thump, along with the sound of his sword clanking on the wooden floor silently. "Well, I was thinking yesterday, a game couldn't be who could hit more rocks during their turn, as we both can already hit all and there comes a random number meaning it would be hard to count, on the other hand, we can't really have power as the walls are in the way of the rocks meaning we can't measure how far they would fly, I kept on thinking until it hit me…Style…" Ball explained with his hands flailing wildly, along with eating some vegetables at well placed moments.
"Style? …as in stylish clothing?" Naruto asked confused as he swallowed a pickle. "Nononononono…as in cool, whoever looks coolest when hitting the rock wins." Ball continued. Naruto looked at Ball with a neutral face for a few minutes, "Okay." Naruto said shrugging, it sounded cool. They ate quickly and washed their dishes after which they raced to the Burn Burn Batter room, well Ball ran as fast as he could and Naruto jogged while whistling, After trying Naruto up to the pole Ball began the game. Soon Naruto truly understood what Ball had meant with 'style' and 'cool', he was hiting the rocks, and looking badass while doing it, it had no real meaning other than it looked cool. After Naruto's turn began he began doing his best maneuvers, such as somersaults, back flips and spins in mid-air, leaving Ball with his jaw on the floor. The duo played around until the evening came when they decided to stop as their stomachs were getting quite loud. They walked, slowly I might add, to the house and took another portion of pickled vegetables. "I want something else to eat, I'm getting sick of this stuff!" Ball shouted as he dished his plate, Naruto nodded and set the plate to the shelf it belonged to after drying it with a towel.
"Well I'm sorry, is my food not good enough for you?" Kirins voice came from the door opening, making both boys freeze, "O-of course i-i-it is g-good enough f-f-for us!" Both boys shouted out shaking in fear, they knew Kirin was a nutcase. "Hmh… kids these days…no manners at all." Kirin said sarcastically hmmping, "Well, now I'd like you two to come with me." Kirin said and began walking with the two boys soon after him. They walked to a clearing where a black bag was waiting, Kirin walked to the bag and turned around to face the two boys. "What do you know about O-parts?" Kirin asked with a curious face, but with his hair still blocking his eyes.
"O-parts? Huh?" Ball said confused slightly. "They're old relics, usable by a few people I the world, and have special powers with them, using one requires being able to use 'spirit energy'." Naruto said with a calm monotonous tone. "Mhmh. Correct, only thig you are wrong about is that anybody could theoretically use an O-part, though it would require training with some more than others. Back when the theory of only certain people being able to do it there had been only a few people among the research group to activate O-parts, thus they thought it was selective, now it is known that one need enough spirit energy to activate and operate an O-part." Kirin explained to the two, Ball was still slightly confused while Naruto was memorizing every word. "Now, for the last few days with me should have made you capable of using O-parts." Kirin said with a grin as he looked at Naruto's neutral face and at Ball confused face. "So to test your abilities I have gotten an O-part for you to try on, Ball you start, open the bag and lift the object inside will you…" Kirin said motioning for Ball to open the bag, Ball nodded hesitantly an walked to the bag, crouched and opened it, inside was…Jajamaru. "Huh? What the?" Ball said looking at the sheepish dog.
"…" Kirin looked at Jajamaru with hard eyes, before kicking Jajamaru sending hi flying away, "Excuse my stupid dog, look again." Kirin said with a slightly annoyed look on his face, Ball shrugged and looked further inside the bag: Inside was a big, round, cold, hard rock. "…uh what's this?" Ball said staring at the heavy looking thing with skeptical eyes. "That, is your new O-Part. Try lifting it." Kirin said motioning him to proceed; Ball shrugged and tried lifting the thing, "hnnnuh! This thing wont move an inch, it weights too damn much!" Ball said finally after trying several times. "Oh?" Kirin said and lifted the rock up with one hand, "It doesn't really weight that much…there is a secret to it, and you will be learning it, if you understand how this thing works, then you will be strong enough to beat most people with your hands tied behind your back." Kirin said dropping the rock making a dust cloud and a huge crater where it had fallen. "And for you Naruto, well… I haven't really finished that thing of yours so…you'll just be practicing with your sword." Kirin said slightly sounding sorry.
"Okay, sure. But tell me when you're finished with Zero okay?" Naruto said and took out his Einherjer and began practicing.
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"Sir!" A man shouted as he entered a room through the door, he stopped and bended over to pant slightly from running as it seemed.
"Yes, what?" a annoyed voice asked, the voice belonged to a fat man sitting in a chair, he had several tubes going to his nose and he was currently eating some stake. "We Have found the relic!" the man shouted finally catching his breath, The fat man grew a grin as he threw away his stake, "Where is it? Where is my S-class O-Part?!" The man shouted with a crazed grin on his face. "Prepare a convoy for the great lord!" A man next to the fat man shouted, this man was wearing a white lab coat and sunglasses. A few men came and lifted the fat mans chair up and began carrying him, the messenger led them to a underground digging site where a large bean formed thing, colored black with yellow dots on it. "There it is…there is my way to becoming a GOD!!! Mekisis!!" The fat man shouted standing up from his chair.
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Naruto and Ball were sitting next to a table currently eating pickled vegetables with grim faces, along with a giddy Kirin who was stuffing his face in the pickled food, "Ne… Kirin, don't you have anything else to eat?" Naruto said watching at his plate, filled wit green things. "Why? Don't you like my food?" Kirin asked with a scary smile promising pain if he gave a wrong answer. "Well… I-I need to taste something else to be able to truly comprehend the awesomeness of pickled vegetables." Naruto said hoping, praying, begging to any god that this would work. "…Well…I do have some instant ramen in the cupboard over there…" Kirin said, before he could even blink both boys had disappeared along with the cupboard being raided from any ramen, followed by sounds of water getting ready to be boiled. "Er…" Kirin sweatdropped and shrugged before getting back to his beloved vegetables. Meanwhile the two boys were in the kitchen staring at the boiler waiting for it to be ready, holding onto two cups with hard noodles inside, two and a half minutes later the two boys poured the warm water onto the noodles and began stirring them up, a few moments later both began eating, and for the first time in a long time both shouted a "ITADAKIMASU!!" As they dug in the food. "Harrumph….there's nothing wrong with my pickles…" Kirin said while taking another bite followed by a 'mmm Sooo good…' and a pair of 'OH GOD YES!!!' from the kitchen, needless to say, Jajamaru sweatdropped.
…………I lie to the government…&……………..a lot………
After enjoying their dinners they all went to bed, though the two spiky haired ones left as soon as they thought the other two had fallen asleep, Kirin climbed up to his laboratory/Toy storage area while Naruto left to go outside the huge globe thing they had been inside for a few days already, as he opened the door he was greeted by the bitter air along with thick mist. "Hehe…already forgot how much mist there is here…" Naruto said with a chuckle as he took a deep breath of the bitter air. Naruto looked up trying to se if the stars were out, only to see the thick fog.
"Right…forgot about that." Naruto said shrugging as he walked back inside the globe thing closing the door with a soft thud. Unbeknownst to Naruto to pairs of eyes were watching him, as soon as Naruto closed the door they disappeared, a pair of blurs could be seen going towards the city.
………………………..And cops hate me cuz I keep emptying their damn car tires….
Days passed with the two boys practicing either in the dome room or with simply trying to remain alive through different courses Kirin set up for them, and some times Ball tried using the Cool Ball as he had named it, during these times Naruto trained alone with Einherjer. Until one day a loud boom was heard and a large dust cloud appeared, both Naruto and Kirin hurried to the scene only to find a laughing Ball playing around with the Cool Ball as if it weighted nothing, making it fly away and return to his hand while levitating and changing it's direction in mid-flight. "It's seems you have mastered the rock, haven't you?" Kirin said with a chuckle, Ball stopped laughing and wiped away some tears from his eyes, nodding a few seconds later. "Hey Naruto…check this out!" Ball shouted standing up and throwing the Cool Ball towards a wall, as it left his hands it picked up on speed, and in a matter of microseconds had gotten a speed that even to Naruto appeared as a blur. Kirin shout was heard right before the ball hit the wall, "Hey wait, not insid-BOOM" another cloud of dust rose as for the second time that day a loud boom was heard, Ball smirked as he reached his hand out towards the dustcloud, a blur came out and stopped in his hand, "See? I can make it even come back!" Ball said and began laughing jovially again. "Hehe…okay, chill." Naruto said taking a step back as Ball's laugh took a turn to crazy. "Hehehaahaaa…sure…" Ball said calming down, Kirin looked at before he seemed to perk up, "Come in." He said looking at the door at the other side of the dome. The door opened slowly as a trio came in, all wearing long jackets and pointy hats. "Hello there, we have come here to greet you from the great Wise Yuri, he tells you: "DIE!!!" The trio shouted pulling out some sort of weapons, Kirin jumped pulling Naruto and Ball with him to cover making a rain of small blurring objects barely miss them, the objects however turned in mid-air and began flying towards Kirin, Ball and Naruto again. "Our O-parts, known as Hornets shoot out metal bullets, that will find you no matter what!" one of the trio shouted with a crazy grin.
Kirin clenched his teeth and blurred away, while Naruto used Kawarimi on himself and Ball. "Oy Ball, you take the one to the left and I'll take the middle guy." Naruto said and Ball nodded, they were about to jump out and attack, only to see Kirin stand behind the trio, who all stood frozen before collapsing as blood flew from hundreds of wounds on each, Kirin wiped his sword and re-sheathed it. "What rude people, come bargaining into my home and try to kill me and my guests…" Kirin said as if this was a random every day issue. "Well anyhow, that's was rather refreshing don't you think?" Kirin said with a smile, making Ball and Naruto shudder and nod, never say against him, never. "Well, now let's get something to eat, shall w-" Kirin did not finish as a huge beam of light hit through the ceiling, hitting his house, destroying it completely. "My…my…MY PICKLED VEGETABLES!!!!" Kirin shouted as he fell to his knees and began hitting the ground, after a few seconds of hitting the dirt, Kirin rose up. "They WILL pay." Kirin said with his voice laced with enough killing intent to make Naruto shiver, Ball for one was on his knees. "Follow me!" Kirin shouted and began running, Naruto nodded and Ball followed after a moment of hesitation.
The trio ran up several floor, going higher and higher than ever before in the large house of Kirin, finally after reaching the highest floor they stopped running, none winded to the slightest. In the room was a large metal ball formed capsule on a track that lead to an opening leading towards where the city was. "Get in." Kirin said jumping inside the large metal capsule, the two followed after slightly hesitating. Inside the capsule was several seats with straps on, Kirin sat down on one and began strapping himself tight, the boys did the same seeing his example, Kirin checked that they were all tightly secured before adapting a grin. A mechanical click was heard, followed by some more clicks, Ball and Naruto swallowed as they realized something: Kirin was not just grinning, for this grin held something more. "3…2…1!" Kirin began counting down, and at one a boom was audible, the trio noticed not the sound however as they shoot out in the metal capsule that had just been hit by a huge metal bat sending the capsule flying like a baseball, with the trio inside, Ball shouting in fear, Naruto screaming curse words and Kirin gleefully shouting.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Meanwhile in the city chaos was present, a huge black being, shaped like a bean with feat on along with spikes coming out form random places, was running rampant: stepping on buildings and people alike along with shooting out thick beams of light, which burned anything that came into contact with it. People were running around, screaming for their lives, trying to find a place safe form the monster currently destroying their home. If one could have gotten close enough they could have heard the laughter of the former leader of the same city he was currently rampaging in. He and was on top of the beast, inside a bubble with two other people, both of the other two were wearing big coats, one coat was a white while the other was black with red clouds on it.
"Hahaha!! MEKISIS!!! I AM A GOD!!" The fat man shouted, currently sitting on a chair, from where he was controlling the large monstrous O-part, Mekisis. "How long till we can stop this charade?" The one in a black cloak whispered to the man in the white coat, "Not long, be patient Wise Yuri, your time will come." The man in the white coat answered back. Yuri hmphed and turned around to look at the laughing blob of insanity, "You better be right Brown, or I might just go carnival on you…" Yuri whispered back.
Just as Yuri finished a scream was heard, both Yuri and Brown turned to the source of the scream to see the fat man being eaten by Mekisis, well not exactly eat more like melt or drown him. "AH! Help me!!" Were the mans last desperate shouts before he was dead. Yuri smirked and walked to the seat the fat man had sat in moments before, "Finally, Mekisis needed four damn spirit drive's and one damn live sacrifice, pretty troublesome…but it was worth it…Now, Mekisis, you follow my every order." Yuri said with a smirk as Mekisis continued moving after the momentary pause it had just had. However before he could do anything more a metallic glimpse came from the left, followed by Mekisis falling over as something hit it's stomach, hard and fast. The bullet that had hit Mekisis fell down with a metallic clang as Mekisis tried to regain it's balance once again.
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The metallic ball that had just hit Mekisis dead on opened up, with three very dizzy fighters coming out.
"Damn you and your inventions!" Naruto said cursing at Kirin as he tried not to hurl, Ball failed to fight it and hurled, causing Kirin to hurl, and finally making Naruto go over the edge and hurl. After finally getting a grip over themselves our trio looked up to see the now back up Mekisis loading it's laser at them, "Uh…RUN!" Naruto had time to say right before the laser shot, luckily all three dodged the blast. "Whoa, tha heck is that?" Ball said standing up shakily. "I…think that's an oversized mutant bean…." Naruto said as he drew out his sword scroll and drew out hastily Einherjer. Kirin stood up and looked up to the large recovering beast calmly, "No…that is an O-Part." Both boys flinched and looked towards Kirin with bulged eyes, "Your not serious…are you? That thing is huge!" Ball said pointing at the Mekisis.
A grin appeared on Kirin's face, "You know…we haven't had a chance to experiment that ball of yours yet Ball… and Naruto you've been itching about getting some real live action for your sword." Kirin said as he drew his sheathed sword from his jacket. "…You know I doubt we could really do anything to an O-part of that size…" Naruto said eyeing Kirin."Huh? Are you saying that size doers matter? Well it doesn't, it's how you USE it!" Kirin shouted back in lecture mode. "Right…" Naruto said turning back towards the beast. Ball was about to say something but was cut as a massive foot crashed before them, all three jumped back and prepared an attack of their own; Ball was first to start as he had the advantage of having a ranged weapon, being his Cool ball. The bowling ball gone cannon ball neared the foot only to bounce of as a barrier appeared between the ball and the foot. "Huh!" Ball shouted as he made his O-part return to his hand,
"Barrier, figures. Being S-class an' all…" Kirin stated off handedly as he scratched his head. "Barrier or not, I'm gonna smash this thing!!" Naruto shouted as he jumped towards Mekisis, sword drawn and ready. Sword and barrier met in a rain of sparks, for a few seconds neither budged, before a blast shot Naruto away. Naruto landed on his back doing a somersault backwards before stopping against the remains of a wall. "Naruto!" Ball shouted as he saw Naruto hit the wall, Kirin looked concerned but kept his mouth shut. "Ball, take the left side, I'll try to take it by surprise from the right side." Kirin said as he slowly drew his sword in a perfect arc.
"Huh? Right." Ball nodded and began running as he prepared to shot another time. Kirin took off in a slow jog while picking up the pace slowly. Ball stopped abruptly and held his O-part before him making it shot off in a loud fashion, as the ball once again bounced off the barrier Kirin appeared and slashed just as the barrier faded away from sight, a deep gash in the thick leg. Kirin blurred away before the other foot hit him in retaliation, Kirin landed next to Ball just as his ball returned to him. "Whoa, what did you do?" Ball asked gaping at the bleeding gash. "…It seems like after being once used the barrier needs to cool down, meaning if we hit it once activating the barrier and then attack again just as it turns of we'll be able to damage that thing." Kirin said after a moment of thought. Ball nodded and readied for another assault, "So, one of us weakens the barrier and the other damages…so who'll be the first one?" Ball asked, Kirin's forehead scrunched as he analyzed their possibilities.
"You have one slow and powerful blow that needs time to be used again, while I'm fast and can do several quick blows in succession. So you keep moving and not get killed while using your ball to activate that barrier, once I see a chance to do some damage I'll move in and do some blows. Hopefully we'll be able to enough damage to make him go down." Kirin said as he grinned. "Haven't had a fight like this in years, to bad this is your first fight…well at least it'll make you tough if you survive." Kirin said making Ball sigh.
"Yeah, that's IF I survive." Ball said before taking a deep breath. "Let's go!" Ball shouted running off, with the smirking Kirin right behind him.
……………………………………………………………..
"RAHH! This is so ANNOYING! I can't do anything because of this damn seal! Damn it! I REFUSE to die!" Kyuubi roared as he tried to fight off the chain's holding him down, each link of the chain's held a paper seal on top of it, all empowering each other and working like a whole system. "I can't lose….I won't lose…" a faint whisper was heard making Kyuubi freeze, "…Raah! Take my power you weakling! Survive! Crush! Maim! Be feared! Live!" Kyuubi roared as he tried to will his power to move. "Power…I can feel it…" the voice whispered again as a slim thread of Kyuubi's chakra began moving out of the cage holding Kyuubi.
………………………………………………….
Naruto groaned as he opened his eyes, only to see Ball fly in an arc right next to him. "Ball!" Kirin's voice roared in the mist, Naruto whipped his head just to see one of the limbs of Mekisis hit Kirin in the back, making him fly off into the mist. " Kirin! Ball!" Naruto shouted trying to shake awake the unconscious Ball lying next to him... A laugh was heard in the mist, coming from Mekisis.
"Looks like your all alone now…" Yuri's voice mechanically enhanced voice shouted from the mist. "You bastard…" Naruto shouted as he stood up clenching his fist. "I can't lose…I won't lose…" Naruto thought as he looked up, his eyes getting adjusted to the mist, before him was the large O-part Mekisis. "Power…I can feel it…" Naruto thought as he felt something move inside him, something small, he tried to draw it. It felt forced, painful even, but he could feel the difference, it hurt less now, his chakra reserves began filling and he felt overall more energized than in a long time. But it wasn't enough, he needed more, more, much more. Naruto slowly brought his hand before him in the ram seal as he began drawing more and more on the strange power, at first it felt like there was barely any, it moved onto a felling of anticipation, as if there was something massive waiting for him. Unknown to Naruto the seals on his stomach appeared, with the newest seal; the Five part seal placed by Homura glowing red hot.
Slowly the first of the five commas began to pulse and twist, before disappearing in, the second and third quickly followed the first one disappearing. Naruto felt more and more power rush through him, empowering, bracing him. The fourth comma cracked and disappeared,
"Yes…Yes…Need me! Rely on me! Take this power and crush all who dare oppose us!" whispered faintly something in the back of Naruto's head, who ignored it as he began drawing more and more, it hurt. Burned and stung all over as the power began flowing through him. But there was still something holding it all back, "IT'S EVERYTHING OR NOTHING NOW!" Naruto roared as the final comma bursted apart as a red chakra exploded around Naruto, literally tearing the earth under him apart in a violent vortex of red flames. Finally the Chakra began settling around Naruto taking the form of a one tailed fox. Naruto's eyes had turned red and gained slits, his teeth sharp and longer, fingernails replaced by sharp claws.
"RAAHRG!!!" Naruto roared as he burst toward Mekisis on all four, one leg moved to crush Naruto only to be intercepted by a long red hand, leading to Naruto. Naruto casually ripped the arm of and threw it away as he jumped up and punched Mekisis in the stomach. Chakra and spirit energy collided and battled for a fleeting moment before the barrier shattered and Naruto's fist buried deep into Mekisis, making the beast howl in pain as he threw the entire O-part away. Naruto landed as Mekisis crashed down, a low growl slipped out of Naruto's mouth as the red chakra receded.
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If you can find the Plotholes I'll give you a one thousand ramen points!