Ch 3

Into the Gourmet mines!

Alright I'm back with another update! I do work for a living with highly irregular hours and days off so the long and rather spastic updates will be a constnt, I do promise I'll try not to go past a month without an update but by all means don't hold your breath or hold me by my word as like I said my schedule changes often and even my days off can change as I could be called in.

Anywho lets answer some comments.

I would like to make a general statement to clear up any and all possible confusion with Naruto's status. He has the same job as Toriko and the other four heavenly kings, but he is of a slightly lower status than them. Like mentioned in chapter one he started out on his own to forge his own fame with no head start like I assume Toriko and the other may have gotten to start them out and get them known. So Naruto would have a lesser status as he wouldn't be asked for capturing higher level ingredients usually reserved for people of Toriko's level. Also his residence is a humble apartment in gourmet town he now shares with Hinata. He has one caretaker who is a neighbor to take care of it while he's off doing his job or honeymooning with Hinata

Geust(s): possibly but he's far more refined and level headed so while yes it would be similar to one tail state he's also got more style and class in the attack then just randomly clawing and swiping his hands.

Raidentensho: I will say that one maybe two of Acacia's full course will end up on the final list but I won't spoil it. As for the rest, Naruto and Hinata like I've mentioned before will be off doing their own thing afterwards like the other heavenly kings do. They will reappear later in the filler chapters leading to the Ehou maki like the pot pond where they all gather up. Other then that they won't appear again until the four beast arc.

KingOfPowers: well Gyuki is in the air for what I want to do with him. I could make him the animal partner, or a meal, or simply a boss creature to pass for a different ingredient. As for Gamakichi, I honestly don't think I could logically get away with a toad that changes from normal size to the size he was in the fourth ninja war. Even for the Toriko universe it's a pretty far stretch of believability, though the latest chapters are kind of stretching the power everyone has by a lot.

The trip to the Gourmet mines had been relatively relaxed though Komatsu could feel his sweat drops getting sweatdrops as he watched the waiters on the train having small panic attacks on the so far four day journey as they catered to the two bottemless pits who sat beside their combo partners, both unable to stop themselves from watching as busboys were in similar state to the waiters as they were constantly carting back massive towers of plates to get them washed again to carry yet more food back in a massive cycle.

Komatsu had asked Hinata at the beggining of the journey How long the Journey by Gourmet train would take for them to get to the mining town by the caves.

She had actually paused midstep staring holes into Naruto and Toriko as they were chatting ahead of the two cooks catching up on the year efore she continued walking with a morbid sigh of resignation that Komatsu could tell meant that the trip wouldn't go as planned.

The feeling had boded true as the trip was in fact only supposed to be two days in length. The train had stopped three times in order to resupply their food stock seeing as they weren't prepared to handle the stomach capacity and metabolism of not one but two heavenly kings.

Komatsu felt his sweatdrops sweatdrop get it's own sweatdrop as he overheard the trains manager mutter in passing about having ten more cars added on to handle food storage to prevent this happening again.

Hinata who had also heard held back her laughter before whispering to Komatsu about what their reactions would have been if all five of the heavenly kings had been on board.

Komatsu could only feel pity for the cooks and made a mental oath to offer his aid if that had ever come to pass to prevent the poor cooks from having heart attacks.

Once the fifth and final day had arrived and the two kings had stepped off the train in the mining towns the cooks had all celebrated with tears of happiness that their four day long rush hour had finally come to an end.

Naruto and Toriko ignoring the sight having long since been used to the overly familiar sight of course, and leaving their respictive partners to bow in apology to the staff.

Toriko let Naruto and Hinata gather the spelunking supplies as he and Komatsu walked ahead to warn the miners and let them stop for the day in order to be safe from any beasts that may get scared out.

Komatsu glanced up at Toriko, a question brewing in his mind. "Toriko?"

Toriko glanced down at his como partner. "Yeah Komatsu?"

Komatsu looked up at Toriko fully. "Before you called Naruto a 'copy cat'. What did you mean by that?"

Toriko chuckled at that. "Simple, because he is." He stifled a laugh at Komatsu's confused face as he continued on. "Like each of us he has his own skill set. Coco has poison based skills and his eyes, sunny has his hair and feelers, Zebura has his sounds, and I have my own skills and nose. Naruto When he first joined us had one and only one unigue skill unlike most of us who had a couple."

Komatsu was surprised. "O-only one? Wh-what was it?"

Toriko had an odd look on his face. "Similarity Mimicry."

Komatsu blinked. "What?"

Toriko nodded. "That was my reaction as well. But from what I've observed and he's outright told me, is that by physical contact with someone he can apparently copy their skills if they have similarities in some way. For instance, when I first fought him and used my 'Fork' and my 'Knife' he was able to copy them and combine the two together to form his own 'Claws' and on top of that he gained a watered down version of my scenting ability."

Komatsu tapped his fist in his palm as he recalled the mental image he'd seen in the resturaunt. " I see, yeah."

Toriko nodded knowing that Komatsu had seen that little scene. "Yes, that's what he got from me at least. From Coco he a high resistance to poisons, from Sunny he got something odd as those whisker marks on his face apparently aren't just for show and he can use them like any whiskered animal does. And from Zebura...well he got a bit better hearing and then he got that..."

Komatsu heard the grimace in Toriko's voice at the last part and would have asked had Naruto and Hinata not come into view at that point.

Naruto handed the pair their gear of standard spelunking equipment and helmets from their packs and donned their own before turning to Toriko. "They all gone? I really don't need any complaints about any person being deaf if they haven't left because they decided notto heed a warning."

Toriko waved his hand dismissively. "Yeah I Can smell that every miner left already, all that's left are the beasts farther in. Komatsu cover your ears. Your eardrums will rupture like when you used my hand made crackers before."

Naruto snorted. "No wonder, I rememer you making those things when we were younger. Baka, don't you realize that to a normal human that essentially the same as having a couple stcks of dynamite blasting near their head?!"

Toriko had the decency to blush and grimace at least, not bothering to mention that it had in fact stopped the small cooks heart due to shock. He knew a beating from both husband and wife would be the result.

Shaking his head Naruto moved to stand at the entrance of the caves before looking back. "Alright cover them up." Seeing his three companions had secured their hands over their ears he nodded before turning to face the cave and stepped in a little as he took progressively deeper breathes and stopped at the entrance marked as dangerous and the obvious path the group would soon be taking. as he reached it he took his deepest breath and intoned...

"Roar of the Alpha!"

Roar of the Alpha, in the animal world each species of course has the alpha of each species, some being physically larger to show superiority or to show a more impressive structure they built. But for many species the way they showed their dominance was to simply roar out in a challenge to show they were not ones to be trifled with, and that any challengers would be dealt with by the laws of nature in kill or be killed combat.

"RRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHH!"

the three outside the cave cringed as even with their ears covered the noise was hurting their ears, making them grit their teeth.

Once the roar had ended they shakily uncovered their ears and entered the cave to see the smirking blonde by the entrance of their path.

Naruto chuckled before giving a mocking bow sweeping his hands dramatically. "Beloved comrades and wife, let us go get a meal of ramen."

Farther inside the cave several level 40 beasts were on the run to various dens in fear as the roar had shaken them and had made them plainly aware death would be all that awaited if they challenged the one making that noise. As they ran they forgot to be wary as they entered a particularly large cavern and as punishment for their lack of wariness they were splattered with large globs of acids that quickly melted them into little more than goo before they could even screech out in pain. A large gelatinous form loomed over the unfortunate beasts and let out a sickening gurgle as it stooped down to suck up the soup.

Six tailed slug-capture level 95

Well there you have it another chapter, maybe a bit shorter then I had planned for it but it's currently 4am here and I honestly don't care to do much more with it at this point, and I plan for the next two or three chapters to pretty much cover the cave and possibly afterwards a little bit to show them having the meal together with a couple of the others who are invited to join them.

Anyway to explain Naruto's skill Similar Mimicry, think of it like his skills are predetermined (they are) but lay dorment until stimulated. The stimulus in this case instead of eating tasty foods like normal is instead through contact by hand to skin.

To clarify his (known) skills are as follows

Claws- mixing fork and knife from Toriko
Poison negation- immunity to various poisons much like Coco but not as effecient as Coco himself
Whiskers- facial feelers from Sunny that help himfeel air flow if blinded and can help him in darkness to navigate
Roar of the Alpha- like Roar bullet from Zebura meant for pure intimidation to prevent needless killing of weaker creatures.
advanced hearing and smell- nerfed versions of Zebura and Toriko's own hearing and smelling abilities. They are advanced but not extremely juiced up like the others have

Also to state I have a plan to add something possibly he could gain from Saiken as he fights the monster slug, multiple tails. Honestly I plan to do this regardless after they enter gourmet world to give him a bit more strength to keep up with everyone.

But the poll is wether or not I give him the tails now after getting them from Saiken or later on like I originally planned