I don't own Naruto. There I said it. Now be gone. I SAID BE GONE!!!!
Hey, it's the fat man. Sorry about the late update, I have no real excuse.
If you've read my little note, you will have seen that I am turning this into a light crossover. Naruto/Halo/Pumpkin Scissors. All greats in their Genres. Any way, there will be no other summoning contracts, I will just keep the penguins. Kyuubi won't show up for a while, and even then it wont be for long. So, I hope you enjoy the story.
"What kind? African or European Swallow?" King Arthur.
"Very good work Team 13." said the third Hokage. Naruto and the others had just returned to the tower, where they were given their headbands and officially made ninja.
"We aim to please old man." said Naruto, grinning. He was still adrenaline high from his first semi-combat mission.
"oh my god Naruto, if you say that again I am going to hit you." sighed Tenten, pinching her brow. "we're ninja not comedians."
"I wasn't trying to be funny…" said Naruto dejectedly.
Hinata put her arm around him. "It's okay Naruto-kun, you can make bad puns in your room with the windows closed. That way no one will throw food at you."
"as amusing as this conversation is, its time to debrief." said the old Hokage. "as you know, Mizuki was attempting to steal the Forbidden Scroll. The Scroll contains jutsu and knowledge that in the wrong hands, would have completely destroyed Konoha's defense network, as well as the effectiveness of our ninja.
I don't think you all grasp just how serious this is. You see, right now, we have the ninja world's best infantry. There are no countries with ninja better than ours. However, almost every other country has us beaten in technological advancement. Iwa right now is spreading blueprints to its allies for machines that are impervious to conventional ninja tactics.
That is why you were trained. Your not conventional ninja. You are all marksmen, men and women that have the ability to bring down Iwa's siege machines. That scroll you saved has information on all of you, your families, and your training and equipment. You would have been hunted down and killed had Mizuki gotten the scroll." explained the old man.
The reality of the situation hit Naruto like a cinderblock. While he may not be the safest while still on the village, if that information had gotten out, he would not have survived. There would have been Jonin, Chunin, and even samurai would have come after him. Poison, traps, assaults, even suicide attacks would have found him.
And god forbid if Kumo got Hinata.
But then the old man smiled. "on a lighter note, congratulations on becoming ninja. I was very impressed on how you handled yourselves tonight. A perfect ambush, and your actions have cleared the way for another generation of riflemen. In a couple years, there will be more riflemen throughout Konoha. The shinobi council is finally happy with the program." he said.
The girls in the group blushed, while Shikamaru smiled lazily, and Naruto rubbed the back of his head.
Before you go though, I have a gift for you Naruto." said the Hokage. "Now that you have become a Genin, I can give you something your mother left for you."
The whole group stiffened. Naruto slowly turned to the Hokage.
"R-Really old man? My mother, left me something?" said Naruto with a soft voice.
Sarutobi smiled. "yes Naruto, she left you something. Here." the Hokage brought a scroll up from under his desk. "here it is. The last scroll of the Great Researcher Kushina Uzumaki. She left you a letter and a her last project. Its yours now." he said, handing the scroll to Naruto.
Naruto didn't know what to say. His mother left him something. His mom. He didn't even know he had a mom. Well, he did, he just didn't think about her. Naruto started to tear up.
"Thanks Old Man." he said, his voice cracking. Naruto took the scroll, and with a final good bye to his team, left for his house. Raigin, who was in the room the whole time, turned to Sarutobi.
"you knew his mother was Kushina-sama and never told me?" he asked calmly.
The old man sighed. Suddenly he just looked old, like he had deflated. "He would have started asking the right people the wrong questions, and then pieced together the final piece of the puzzle." he said, choosing his words carefully, as the rest of the squad was still in the room.
"You could have told me."
"Yes, I probably should have too. But what's done is done. Go and see to your son."
"Yes, sir." and Raigin left, the rest of the squad filing out behind him.
Meanwhile, Naruto was running home as fast as he could. He had to get home, somewhere private. No, home wasn't close enough. Where… The Hokage monument! It was close by and peaceful. Perfect.
Naruto turned around and began running to the monument. It wasn't far, maybe 300 yards or so. He began climbing, the thought of his mother driving him on. It was a very strange sight, to see a kid climb the Hokage mountain. Most people walked up the path on the side.
Once he made it to the top, he walked towards the Fourth Hokage's head. It was nice and peaceful there, and had a great view of the village. Quickly taking the scroll, he unsealed it, and four items popped out. One was a letter. The second, a large scroll. The third was a blue steel lantern. The final item was a pistol. Or was it a shotgun? It was massive, at least the caliber of his carbine, maybe Shikamaru's shotgun.
But as much as he wanted to examine the weapon, he had a letter to read first, grabbing it he opened the envelop. There was only one phrase written.
Open the scroll.
And open it he did. The scroll was unlike one he had ever seen. There were so many seal arrays, all leading to a circular array in the center of the scroll. At first it did nothing, then Naruto noticed the blood and chakra seals on the scroll. Biting his finger, he swiped it on the scroll and pushed some chakra into it.
The result was unexpected.
Instead of anything popping from the scroll. The seal arrays began to glow. The seals glowed an eerie blue, a glow that began to spread throughout the seal arrays. The glow spread until it reached the center of the scroll, where circular seal was located.
This seal glowed green, and a ball of light began to rise from the circle. There was a chakra spike, and the glowing intensified.
Suddenly, the Hokage was standing on the statue, as well as Raigin and two ANBU. They had seen and felt the light and chakra from the Hokage tower, and had shown up to make sure Naruto was okay.
The ball of light began to fade, and a ghostly figure grew from the light. It was tinted blue, like the rest of the light. It had a very feminine body, symbols ran across her body and seal arrays. She had piercing blue eyes, and oddly, color shifting hair. It would shift from blue to green to red.
She opened her eyes, and looked around the clearing. She saw the ANBU, and the Hokage. But only two interested her. One was a old friend, and the other, being the source of family blood and chakra, must have been…
"Hello Naruto-kun." She said. Her voice was soft, but firm, like she could start to order the Hokage if she wanted to.
Naruto looked at her. She seemed familiar, but he couldn't place her at all. Something about the way she spoke and looked seemed familiar. The way she held herself, the way she spoke even.
"Kushina-Sama." Raigin whispered. The now named Kushina looked at him. "hello Tomayoko-kun. How are my weapons treating you?"
"will some one tell me who this woman is?" asked Naruto softly. The Sandaime looked at him, smiling sadly.
This, Naruto-kun, is your mother." he said. "incorrect." said Kushina "I am part of the final project of Kushina-sama."
"then why do you look like his mother?" asked Raigin.
"Well that's simple." she said. "I am an imprint of his mothers mind. In actuality I am a super computer, but Kushina-sama cloned her brain and used it in my processors. I guess you could say that I am a clone of Kushina with her memories and her personality."
"so you're my mom's clone?" asked Naruto, tears in his eyes.
Kushina smiled warmly at him. " that's correct, Naruto-kun. And thanks to the chakra you supplied, I can finally do what I wanted to do the moment I was activated." then Kushina walked off the scroll, and onto the grass, and hugged him.
Naruto froze. He could feel the hug. His mother was hugging him! Naruto finally broke and he sobbed into his mother's shoulder.
"Kushina-chan, I know this may be a bad time, but I need to ask you some questions." said the Sandaime.
"fine Sarutobi-sama." said Kushina, still in her hug with Naruto.
"what exactly is this "Final Project" that Kushina was working on?" he asked.
Kushina looked at him. Her hair began to glow green, and she started talking like the speech was rehearsed. "the Final Project was my creators last development for the Konoha military. As you know, Whirlpool was a neutral country, that was the leader in technological advancement. State of the art training, computers, even the food was the best in terms of nutrition. Anyway, Whirlpool was almost like a mercenary group, whoever had money would pay us and we would make something to give them.
"Iwa had expressed interest in a new kind of fighting vehicle. You may have heard of the mechanized vehicles that are used to transport goods over large distances? Well, they were only the first step in Iwa's plans. They wanted to weaponize it. Turn it into something that couldn't be stopped the way horses could, and still be able to carry troops into battle. So one of the other labs in Whirlpool created the Siege Machine. it's an armored tractor that has kunai launchers and cannons mounted on it. It can take down armies in small groups.
"So in response, my creator began experimenting in ways that would enable a ninja to overpower a tank. She worked on the project for years, and all her research pointed to one thing. Ninja are becoming obsolete. Because of these Siege Machines, conventional ninja tactics were ineffective. Only jutsu like the elemental dragons, the fourths Rasengan, and most lighting jutsu could stop them. So, my creator began work on a new project, the RIFLEMAN Project."
"and that's where I come in." said Raigin, causing all eyes to turn to him. "Kushina-sama hired me to test her new weapons on. Due to my skill in thrown weapons, I was chosen to help develop the rifle." he lifted his rifle. "What I am using now is the first rifle ever made, and arguably one of the better ones."
"yes, that's true." Kushina continued. "But that's not the end. The rifles that were first made were still not enough to use against the Siege Machine. Using the data from the RIIFLEMAN Project, my creator created a weapon powerful enough to pierce through the armor, a weapon that requires special enhancements to use. This began the Sub-Project LANTERN.
"Please pick up the lantern that came from the scroll. Do not open it. What it does, is take the users chakra, and enhances their body. More muscle mass, taller height, and the ability to shrug off any injury for a short time. It also influences the users mind so that they will never stop until the problem has been dealt with. Nothing short of beheading them will keep the user down for more than a few seconds. Using this while wielding the pistol included in the scroll will make the user able to kill tanks from close range."
Kushina began to flicker, the explanation taking a lot of her power to do. She looked down at Naruto, who had fallen asleep in her arms.
"I'm starting to run out of power. When bring the scroll to Naruto-kun's house, and when he wakes up, have him push as much chakra as he can into the scroll. From my sensors, I can tell he can power me for a few years with all his chakra." the flickering became worse, she was about to leave. Raigin grabbed Naruto from her arms before he fell through them.
Meanwhile, in the ruins of Whirlpool, there stood a building. It was one building amongst hundreds. The streets were empty, rubble and dried blood everywhere. But something was off, there were no remains. No skeletons, no body parts, nothing. And Whirlpool was an island nation, and no one had come to the village since the Plague hit.
There was something strange going on in that building. It was covered in pimple like growths, that moved and twitched periodically. If one looked closely, one could see little ball things swimming inside the growth. These things were the result of the Plague.
One lab was doing experiments in chemical warfare, and had created what they thought was the perfect plague. What they didn't know, was that the Plague was a mutagen, something that can alter the DNA of certain life forms.
One day, there was a breach in the lab and the Plague escaped. Any mammal infected by it would die in an hour, in the most painful way possible, blood nearly exploding from their pores. Only the rats survived that part, but what happened to them was worse.
The mutagen was compatible with the rats. The rats began to mutate, growing and shifting, until they no longer looked like rats. They began to resemble octopus, with a rounded, balloon like body and thin, waving tentacles. The former rats, driven by a chemical the Plague released, began to move into the city, and the new life form began to infect the now dead people of Whirlpool.
Tapping into the spinal cord with their tentacles, the corpses began to mutate as well, swelling, with a body that felt like a sponge. Their left arms warped into a giant whip like tentacle, and these newly infected souls began to wander, waiting for prey, something to feed the endless hunger.
Soon, an infection form found a large grouping of bodies. This one was in a hospital, the city morgue. Soon, more of the infection began to gather, and a new life form began to grow.
While the rest of the infected may be gruesome, this thing was truly frightening. It looked like a giant wart, slowly pulsing, with tentacles that waved in the air, and mouth like opening near the top. It gave a chilling cry, and of the infected outside stopped, and began to move back to the hospital.
The new thing began to direct the Infected, and had the mutated humans bring more corpses from the surrounding cities. The Infection itself began to gather and form onto the wart, increasing its size, and giving it sentient thought.
From the memories it had gathered from the brains of the humans, it realized that more food was just beyond the island, and the only thing stopping it, was a natural whirlpool, that would destroy anything it sent through it.
But that was alright. It had all the time in the wld. As soon as it thought of a way, the Infection, no the Flood, would push its way through.
And begin its feast.
And there it is. Incase you haven't realized, Kushina is supposed to be like Cortana. She will be staying through the fic, and acting like Cortana from Halo when on missions. So if want to complain, be that way. Until next time….. Mwuahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! (oddly enough, my real laugh does sound evil, according to friends and family)