VanDread: The Fox
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to VanDread or Naruto so don't ask me if I do…
Chapter 4
Desert Surprise…
( ): Thoughts
…
In the Nirvana…
Naruto was busy getting himself out of bed and yawning once more and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, usually he would not have bothered waking up. But he had to before his dreams begin to get a little too steamy for his own good. Ever since being on this ship full of females every dream he was having was already showing him all manner of images concerning him and…
(Agggh…I need a cold shower right now.)
The blonde got himself out of the bed and headed to the shower and managed to get a good deal of his clothing off as well as his boxers. And soon he was now taking a very long and cold shower. He would have preferred to get a hot shower to get his limbs in proper working order, but if he did, then he would be relaxed and that would allow his…
(Damn it…I'm already in the same age as the Old Man and the Pervy Sage, but I still feel, Kami I swear I need to find some relief and soon. NO! DON'T THINK THAT!)
Naruto swore that he was going to lose his cool and the cold water was more than enough to wake him out of his fantasies before things got too steamy.
It took a while and he decided that after a cold shower, he might as well drop by the Hanger Bay and see if he could get some work done and keep himself occupied. The sooner he got his energy burned out the less energy he would have to think about those ladies. Though he knew that was going to have a fight on his hands if he was going to take that path for sure.
…
In the Hanger…
Naruto sighed a bit as he looked over the systems of his Vanguard while carrying a screw driver with a number of the tools he would use being in a tool box on one side of the Vanguard. He was happy that he took the time to do this work in order to get his mind working on other things and the work also helped him find any possible kinks in the Vanguard's overall systems and more besides. And with his hands working, he was not going to have much energy to allow himself to start thinking about the wrong things when he needed to keep himself focused on other matters. Besides that, he had to keep in mind that he had to make sure that he was not going to get himself in trouble with the crew, he could flirt with them, but until they got used to being around men, they were off limits.
The blonde Hokage began to wonder if this was the reason he was here of all things, his great grand aunt did send him here to find something to use his talents for. And as much as his perverted side was telling him to look at it all in the different fashion, he had a feeling that there was more to what he was doing here. As soon as he was able to get most of his work done, he slowed down and began to think of himself about what he was going to do here in this ship.
(I wonder what I should be doing here? Going back to Talark is not what I have in mind, but I think I need to figure out my next steps…)
Naruto was so deep in thought that he was not aware that he was soon being joined by a certain redhead. Dita smiled as she managed to sneak on Naruto, she then moved closer, and made a gesture that sent a flying heart towards the blonde. That was more than enough to startle the blonde as he was suddenly finding himself in the floor.
The blonde Shinobi couldn't help but mentally shake his head and spoke to himself in thought.
(Damn…I got so into thinking over this that I got distracted. I have to just take it in bit by bit and make my way through it like I did when I was younger. Though I guess I need to be more patient and figure out the best solution to avoid doing something crazy.)
Naruto shook his head and opened his eyes, he quickly realized that it was a bad idea as he found himself staring right up Dita's skirt, and what he was looking at was more than enough to get his attention.
(Wow…is that red…damn, never thought she would…)
"Mr. Alien? Are you all right?"
Naruto realized quickly just what was going on and also felt his body beginning to react to the sight. He quickly got to his feet while moving a fair distance away from the redhead. He also began to focus in getting that image out of his head while trying to appear fine before the innocent woman. He liked Dita and found her to be rather nice, but that certainly didn't mean he was not attracted to her in more ways than one.
This was the hard part of knowing what it was like between men and women in all senses to the blonde's mind. Being around this many beautiful women after being deprived of female company for six months was really pulling his control to the limits at times. And what he saw underneath didn't help matters either but he managed to control his thoughts as well as his physical form.
He then realized that he should at least answer the young redhead before she thought that there was something wrong with him.
"I'm fine, I just feel the need to get something to eat."
With that out of the way, he decided to move out and get some distance between him and the redhead since he had no idea what would happen next if he remained close to her any longer than needed. This made Dita somewhat confused by what had happened, though she soon had an idea to make sure that her Mr. Alien was going to be all right.
As for Naruto, he was able to get out of the Hanger, happy that he was able to do his work on his Vanguard and also happy to get away from Dita before he got himself into more trouble. That was when he heard the announcement for the men to have the annual medical checkup and that made the blonde sigh as he knew that it was now time to got to the Medical Bay.
(Looks like that meal is going to have to wait for now.)
…
Meanwhile…
Magno looked at the image of the world below them, the Nirvana had just arrived in the area of what appeared to be a completely deserted planet. So far they were not sure what to make of the world but there had been some initial scanning and soon they found faint traces of habitation though they needed to stay near the planet to get a more accurate scan to be sure of what they had found.
"This planet looks completely dead."
Buzam nodded with the assessment as she looked at the world, but she felt that there was something there that they could learn, or even salvage.
"I agree…this world looks like it's not much at first glance, but the fact that we are getting some signals there is puzzling, we should attempt to see if there is anything we can salvage that can be used or learn if there is any data left there to salvage on that world as well."
Magno closed her eyes to think over their options concerning this world and then spoke to Buzam.
"I'm not too worried if you go down there BC, but I don't like the idea of us just dropping in there at the drop of a hat either. Let's take the time to get more data before we commit to a course of action."
Buzam nodded as she went back to looking at the image of the world below the ship, something told her that there were some answers there. But first they had to be sure before they could send a salvage and recon team to check it out. Therefore she began to take the time to plan out what their actions should be if they decide to go to the surface of the world before them.
…
In the Medical Bay…
"Pulse rate seems normal for today, though I am detecting some abnormal respiration patterns at the moment. And you seem agitated for some reason."
Naruto mentally snorted as he looked at Duero who was currently looking at the readings coming from the stick on scanner units that were in the Medical Bay. So far he was the only patient though he had just missed Ezra who had come for her annual checkup and her baby's earlier before returning back to duty on the Bridge though she was going to stop at the galley to eat something.
(If he only knew…)
Duero, unaware of the train of thought in his patient's mind decided to check Naruto's other vital signs as the blonde had stripped down to just his regular boxers. He also moved with the professionalism of a doctor to do his checking, though his hands were moving closely towards Naruto's privates. Naruto was quick to react to that as he moved away and growled in a menacing way and spoke.
"Keep those hands where I can see them!"
Duero moved his hand away and looked at Naruto to see the look of agitation on his face and recalling the blonde's dislike when men of his world were trying to ask him for his seed and the fact that he was not from Talark guessed that Naruto took his actions the wrong way. He understood that to some degree and spoke to try and placate the young man.
"I apologize, but I am meaning anything by that, I am just examining you as per my duty as the ship's physician."
Naruto glared a bit more but then relaxed himself as he knew that Duero was right in saying that he was doing his job. Still he preferred that if he ever was going to be medically examined, it was by a female nurse or a Medic Nin. And besides that, he recalled how both Sakura-chan and Hinata-chan used to heal him when he got injured on missions and how his other wives each helped him recover when he got back home.
"Sorry about that…but after dodging my fair share of your fellow men on Talark and being around so many women for the past few days, you can bet I'm a bit jumpy at the moment. It's not easy being the only man who knows things about women most men on Talark knew nothing about. No offense to present company of course."
Duero gave a slight smile and replied.
"None taken, I am rather curious about how you know so much about women though."
Naruto couldn't help but smile a bit and reply.
"Let's just say that my past travels have taught me quite a good deal, though I think it's best that you learn some things on your own as well. Women can and will surprise you in ways your government had never told you about. Better to experience some things for yourself as an old friend taught me once."
Duero nodded at that and decided to try a question.
"So tell me something about women that you're willing to share."
Naruto nodded and replied.
"For one thing, women are not monsters the way the Talark government play them out to be which you can see for yourself. But they can be really scary when they want to be or when you do something that really gets under their skin. One minute they can be kind and very good people, the next they can really make you wish you were never born. But that's what makes being around women interesting, among other things."
"What other things?"
Before the conversation could continue, Paiway appeared and pointed at the device that Duero was using on Naruto with a curious gleam in her eye.
"What's this thing? A video game?"
The Talark physician was utterly surprised by this question and wondered just how could someone who was supposed to be in the medical practice and also the pirates' chief medical officer have no idea about something as basic as a pulse meter. Despite how Megele propaganda portrayed the men to Talark, the men were not without knowledge in medicine and medical technology and with the kind of world they lived in, they had to know all they could about how to stay alive.
"You don't know what a pulse monitor is?"
The young girl looked at the man with a pout on her face and replied.
"SO what is it to you if I haven't seen one? Anyway, all medical problems can be dealt with in the Jacuzzi."
Duero looked confused by that and asked the question in his mouth.
"What's a Jacuzzi?"
Naruto however had an answer to that.
"A Jacuzzi is similar to a hot spring though a Jacuzzi is more of a special area where people go to in order to bathe in an artificial version of a hot spring, and it's done in the privacy of your own home if you're rich enough or in a public one if your kind of short on funs to have one built in your house."
Paiway looked at Naruto with some measure of surprise.
"You KNOW what a Jacuzzi is?"
The blonde looked at her and replied with some level of sarcasm in his voice.
"Just because I'm a man doesn't mean I don't know what a Jacuzzi is. Besides, I recall being to one before. Though to be perfectly honest, I personally prefer hot springs more than those Jacuzzi things since they feel more natural, even more so if it's mixed bathing day in the hot springs in question."
The young girl was even more confused and asked some more questions.
"How do you know about hot springs? And what's mixed bathing anyway?"
Naruto realized his slip of the tongue and scratched the back of his head, the last thing he wanted to do was tell an eleven year old girl who was a native of an all female planet that mixed bathing was when men and women bathed in the hot springs at the same time. Kami only knew what her reaction would be to the idea of men and women bathing together in the nude.
…
In the location in question…
"Ah, space battles always damages my hair." Jura said as she lounged on a salon chair with a towel wrapped around her head, keeping her long blonde hair from flowing out. She was naked, save for another large towel wrapped around her body. She continued to relax as several attendants were massaging her legs and there were others who were giving her a manicure and a pedicure.
"Don't worry Jura. We're here to revive your beauty." One of the attendants assured the blonde Dread pilot.
"I appreciate it. I don't feel like going into battle unless my hair is set just right."
Pyoro floated around the room and was now beside Jura, being a machine and not a man, the little automaton was allowed into the recreation center where the women relaxed as it was not a man and a machine it was hardly a problem for it to be around.
"Sometimes I just don't understand humans at all, as they make no sense."
Jura sighed as she felt her body tension melt away from the massage she was getting, she moved her head to the side and saw a hot tub where Meia soaking in it. And while she knew that Meia was not as focused in keeping her feminine looks, she was worried about her commander as she knew just what she was doing again.
"Meia, are you trying to lose more weight again?"
"Excess fat gets in the way of combat." The blue-haired girl replied to her blonde comrade's inquiry in a simple way.
"But you won't have any breasts left at that rate." Jura pointed out to her leader.
"Heh. Don't worry too much about me."
Meia wasn't as interested with maintaining her feminine appearance was her blonde comrade was. The reason was that she focused herself on more important matters than just looking pretty like her fellow Megele comrades. Besides that, she did know how to eat healthy and keep herself fit, and she was not in the mood to have a relationship with anyone so there was little reason for her to worry about looking good for another woman.
…
Meanwhile in the galley…
Dita looked at the incoming trays of food that were being shown on the conveyer belt in the galley to see which of the meals she could bring to Mr. Alien as a present of sorts to make sure that he was going to be eating right. She knew she could cook him some new meals as well but no sense not giving him a good meal to boot. She then spotted a good looking meal that she knew that Mr. Alien would like to try and quickly grabbed it with a smile on her face.
"I think I'll take this one!"
She was immediately glared at by Barnette who had intended to take the meal for herself during breakfast but could not figure out why Dita of all people would want a meal like that in her system since it was loaded with calories and she knew that Dita was not exactly the most familiar face in the Nirvana's gym area.
"Dita! That's loaded with calories! Why in the name of Grandma would you want that?"
Dita smiled and replied.
"It's not for me Barnette, he said he was not able to eat yet so I intend to give him a very good breakfast today!"
With that the young redhead moved away to get her plan into motion, much to the confusion of the green haired Dread pilot.
…
Back in the Bridge…
Buzam listened in to the incoming reports, the scanners of the Nirvana had managed to locate what appeared to be a heat source on the surface of the planet. Judging from the size of the heat source and the amount of heat being generated, there was a chance that there was settlement in the area. This meant that they could get some answers on what happened to this world and if they find no information, they could at least try and find anything that they could salvage.
However, that plan happened to have two problems, there was a sandstorm in the area and that meant that their regular drop-ship was not going to be a good choice as it was not going to do much good in such a situation like this one before them. The second and the most telling was the fact that their Dreads, while more than able to do their function as space borne fighters, were poorly suited for planetary operations. The reason was that when they were built, the Dreads were not deemed to need any means to operate in the atmosphere of a planet and if any attempt was made to drive the Dread to the surface, the Dread would be severely damaged, and the sheer weight in it added to the problem.
That left only the option of using the Vanguards, and that was something that the pirate Commander knew was going to face opposition from the women. Ever since they took over the ship, the other Vanguards with the exception of Naruto's own Vanguard was kept on the ice block. They had not been repaired and on occasion had been cannibalized for spare parts by the engineers every now and then.
Now however, they were going to be used in combat and she was more than willing to state that fact the rest of the crew.
…
As soon as he heard the announcement, Naruto couldn't help but wonder just what the results of this attempt were going to be for all parties involved.
…
In the Hanger…
Sure enough to Buzam's expectations, the selected Dread pilots who were going to take part in the mission were not too happy with having to work with the drab and ugly Vanguards. The engineering teams were working around the clock to get the Vanguards into proper working order for the mission that they were suited for, sometimes having their own cannibalized parts placed back into them.
The only concession the women had was the engineers decided to color the Vanguards to make them look more appealing, and in vibrant colors no less. Barnette however spoke at the sight and thought of having the use the Vanguards in the mission instead of her beloved Dread fighter.
"Geez, I know that we can't use our Dreads in the atmosphere and only the Vanguards can do that, but that does not mean I have to like using them."
She was naturally not alone as she was with Jura, Meia, and Dita as well, the blonde in question however couldn't help but grin as she had other things in her mind. She knew that for an operation like this, the blonde Shinobi was going to be in this mission as he was already experienced with using the Vanguards, namely his own personal Vanguard altered by the Paeksis. And that fact made her smile as she began to think about the form she would be able to make once she combined with him.
Bart attempted to make conversation and boast about being an expert on the Vanguards, but immediately got whacked on the head for his trouble when one of the platforms used by the engineering crew members to service the Vanguards for the ground mission. He left as he was reprimanded by the women in question just as Naruto appeared, he looked about and saw the gaudy colored Vanguards.
He sighed and slapped his forehead at the way the whole situation looked to him as the gaudy looks were an open invitation for trouble. He however knew enough not to judge since he had gotten his fair share of complaints about his choice to wear orange and black more than once. He looked about and quickly spotted a certain redhead armed with a paint sprayer and he didn't need to look about to know just what Dita had in mind.
He quickly rushed there, an easy feat for someone like him and he was soon besides Dita as she was about to aim her paint sprayer at his Vanguard. He knew the young girl meant well, but he would rather eat a whole day's worth of vegetables than have his Vanguard colored pink.
"Dita, I appreciate the idea of making my Vanguard look pretty and all, but I prefer the color it already has."
"Are you sure about Mr. Alien?"
"Yes, I'm sure."
Dita sighed but she decided instead to at least give Naruto something as a way of making him happy.
"All right, would you like me to make something good for you to eat later? Like a good deal of ramen?"
The blonde grinned and nodded eagerly, hoping to try some brand new ramen recipes.
"Now THAT is a good thing Dita-chan!"
…
Later…
Naruto, along with Bart and Duero watched from the control center, as several female pilots, namely Dita, Meia, Barnette, and Jura were now training using the Vanguard simulators. Naruto was happy that he had already done his work on the Vanguard as well as keeping his Vanguard from being colored and he was currently watching the trainees duke it out in a virtual training mission.
It was soon obvious that the female pirates were totally unaccustomed to the male mecha in hand-to-hand and close quarters fighting scenarios. The women had been trained extensively with Dreads and were more experienced with doing long-range strikes and surprise assaults and naturally this meant that close quarters combat was not their area of expertise.
Their specialty was deep in maneuverability and that needed a lot of space to operate. The Vanguards however were specifically designed to work with male pilots, confined areas and inborn fighting skills and instincts, which were an integral part in the male psyche. They could however tell that were some exceptions to this rule. Despite her being totally against the use of the Vanguards, Barnette quickly mastered the machine and soon got the handle of manipulating the mecha systems.
As the virtual Vanguards tripped and stumbled over one another, Jura became disgusted and left her simulator.
"I've had enough! Why can't this machine move with more elegance? I'm out of here!" With that she quickly exited the room in a huff.
Kyo shook his head in disappointment. Though she didn't know it herself, Kyo could tell that Jura had good potential as a Vanguard pilot or a Mobile Suit pilot, though she lacked the skill, experience, and lastly the patience. He then had to admit that she was still one good pilot and not a bad looking one either. He quickly shook his head to steer clear of those thoughts before they would go to rather indecent areas. He directed his gaze to the other remaining pilots.
Also watching the pilots' performance via pulse monitors, Duero nodded as he then checked the statistics on the pilots as they continued their training.
"Looks like I'll be needed at the bridge."
Duero said as he prepared to report to the captain, that Jura, despite her earlier fuming period, had the needed motor control and skill to be a Vanguard pilot for only this mission, and Barnette was also doing quite well, along with Dita who did considerably well, despite her inexperience. It was then that he gazed at another pulse monitor reading that he began to focus more on this one, as the simulators showed that its pilot was showing signs of feeling agitation and extreme stress. Apparently, the best Dread pilot in the pirate group was the worst Vanguard pilot, but something about the readings was no laughing matter.
…
In the simulator…
Meia slammed her fist in anger on the simulator's side while being inside the virtual Vanguard's cockpit as it had declared that the trial mission ended in complete failure and she was killed in action. Her breathing became labored and rather shallow as she sat in the confined space of the cockpit. Sweat beaded down her forehead and on other areas of her face, as she became even more furious at her poor performance. It was then that her main monitor lit up.
"Are there any medical overrides on Megele?"
"What?"
Duero's face became very serious at this new revelation and showed his reasons why he had a great deal of concern as he knew of the symptoms that Meia was showing to him earlier.
"On Talark, doctors like myself are given full authority by the high command to ground pilots who show any sign of psychological stress, which can disrupt their performance as pilots. Do you want that to happen?"
"Of course not!" Meia shot back as she now had someone apart from a certain male to vent her anger at.
"Then I suggest that you switch your monitor for full all-field vision. That should help in lessening the strain on your body."
"Keep your advice to yourself! I don't need help, especially from a man! I'll be just fine, thank you very much!"
Naruto listened to the whole thing and shook his head, he was no medical specialist like Sakura or Tsunade, or Duero, but even he didn't like the way Meia's readings looked and hoped that despite her pride on being a woman of Megele, Meia was not going to throw her life away for no good reason. He was not going to hold his breath on the matter though, if there was one thing he knew for a certainty about women, they were unpredictable once they got their mind set on something.
…
Naruto frowned as he sat down and unwillingly listened to Bart talk about the features in the Vanguard manual. Having been making Vanguards before and considering what he had seen, he had a feeling the manual writers were told to write morale raising crap on the Vanguards to make up for the fact that they didn't have the said features. While he had grown up enough to understand the need to make morale boosting lies every now and then, he was no fan of it.
The only differences was for him was his Vanguard actually had features that the regular Talark Vanguard pilot wished they had in their Vanguards. Speaking of which he was supposed to meet up with Dita and get that meal she promised him.
Naruto turned and to his surprise, found his face stuffed in a certain blonde female's…MORE than ample bust. He looked up and saw that he was right on the money as he was looking at Jura once more, and he could guess that Barnette was nearby as well. However his train of thought was cut when the blonde spoke to him in a very confident tone.
"Hello there…"
Naruto naturally decided to enjoy this and replied with a smile as he looked at her which was in itself rewarding since her breasts were on either side of his face which amounted to a VERY good and comfortable view.
"Hello to you as well Jura. Something I can help you with?"
The blonde smiled warmly and replied.
"There is, when we go down there, I want you to remember to combine with me all right?"
With that, Jura moved away and that allowed Naruto to see her walk in the way women walked that would attract men like a magnet attracts metal. And he liked what he saw, despite the fact he reminded himself to keep his hands away from the blonde despite on part of his mind telling him to go for it. That was no mean feat after having his face between the woman's more than well formed and firm breasts.
Added to that was the fact that despite her perfume being in his face, the blonde Hokage's enhanced nose was able to get her natural female scent, and he liked what he smelled.
Naruto then managed to keep his body from reacting to his train of thought and managed to do so, much to his relief since he was not in the mood to let his physical reaction be seen. However he had a feeling that it was not going to the last time that blonde bombshell of the Dread pilot was going to try to get him to do whatever she wanted from him.
…
Meia frowned as she got out of the Vanguard simulator and slammed her fist on the side of the cockpit as she tried to recover her composure as well as her heart rate and breathing. She turned and there was Duero as well as Pyoro and she could tell that the man, despite having half his face covered by his long hair was not the least bit pleased by what happened.
Duero knew that Meia's profile said to him that she was going to shut him out the very second he started to tell her that her readings showed that she was ill suited for this mission. The medical side of him knew that Meia had claustrophobia and that was the ultimate blow to any would be Vanguard pilot. If she went down there she was going to be locked up by her phobia and become a danger to the mission. It was not going to be easy as he knew that while he was the medical officer, the crew due to being all female would not like his actions in grounding one of their own ..even more so if it was Meia.
They might overrule him, but he was going to try anyway
…
Naruto was right in the thought that the blonde Dread pilot was far from done for after getting the chance to see him and Dita in the Bio-Park while he was munching away at her cooking, the young nurse Paiway had reported to the blonde Dread pilot who was currently taking a shower in one of the Nirvana's bathing areas. As soon as she got everything down pat from the impromptu spy, the blonde Dread pilot was already coming up with a plan to try and seduce the blonde to combine with him.
Though she had plans to use an old technique…to get him, via his appetite with some very delicious food as this seemed to work in Dita's case. All she needed now for that plan to work like a charm was an accomplice who happened to be a great cook.
…
In the Park…
Naruto wondered what was the reason he was here in the Park once more, he had recently finished his meal and gotten himself ready for the mission to the planet's surface when he got intercepted by Barnette and Jura. He had a feeling that they were up to something, but he decided to let them do it anyway.
As soon as he got there, he say the push cart and the trays and quickly guessed just what was under them and smirked a bit as he easily saw the reason.
(Nice…convince me to do what they want via my stomach…)
Naruto enhanced senses were able to warn him about something odd though when he was finally in front of the tray with the two women on either side of him. He had a feeling that this was going to be a very interesting day. The very second he looked at the meal, his stomach growled, showing that despite stuffing his face with the ramen Dita made, he was still hungry.
But not hungry enough to not ask what the sudden free meal was for as he had detected a heavy amount of spices on it via his nose.
"There's a reason behind the free meal I take it?"
Jura smiled sweetly at him.
"If you agree to combine with me, then you can eat it."
Naruto sighed a bit. He knew that Jura wanted to combine with him ever since seeing his Vanguard fuse with Meia and Dita's Dreads. And it seemed that she had just decided to take the route through his stomach. He had to give the woman credit for that approach as it was the same when his wives bribed him with ramen to get out of bed in the morning.
(I should have known there was a catch.)
But then again, he kept in mind that he had ways to deal with this later, and even if there was a large amount of spices there, he had his way of dealing with that.
"Well… all right, a little bite… but I'm not yet saying that I'll agree to it."
Jura nodded as she smiled, prodding him to go and taste the food. After the first bite, Naruto would soon be twisted around her finger. Behind them, Barnette tried not to laugh but made no effort not to grin. After one bite of the doctored food, Naruto's taste buds would be totally obliterated by the spices.
(Let's see just what will happen now…I am going to enjoy this.)
Naruto ate the meat and chewed it a bit in his mouth, he immediately tasted the spices but his chakra was already on hand to dull the pain on his taste buds and seeing the grin on Barnette's face told him that she doctored the food. This was going to be an interesting way to counter Barnette who he had no doubt had loaded the filet mignon with a tank full of spices earlier. His chakra use had improved for a long time so he could use chakra passively with just his thoughts though this was only effective on small matters and situations.
Besides, after the war ended and with Madara dead and gone as well as Sasuke in exile, his newly promoted Jonin friend Rock Lee had actually taken him back to visit Karashi, Ranmaru and his still living mother Sansho who were running a very successful shop in the same place as before on foot no less. He would have fought Lee to get away from the stuff since he recalled the experiences he had with the Curry of Life. However, seeing that the two had perfected the recipe and not wanting their efforts go to waste, he decided to eat it along with saying a mental prayer to Kami that he didn't die before becoming Hokage through food, he'd never be able to explain it to those he would meet in the afterlife how he got killed by a meal.
It was here that he discovered that using a portion of his now fully controlled Kyuubi chakra as well as his own helped ease the pain eating the perfected curry and actually allowed him to keep himself from going nuts on the first bite. After a while, he felt his body get used to it and thankfully not feel like the stuff was going to burn him from the inside out and burn holes in his guts.
After eating the stuff and enjoying it, relatively speaking, the blonde finally allowed the Jonin to bring him here on special occasions. The end effect of these visits actually helped contribute to his ability to taste spicy food and enjoy it without feeling like he had just swallowed something akin to liquid fire. And the fact that the spices in the new form of the Curry of Life were three or six times more powerful than the sauce Barnette had loaded on this meat meant that all the spices she placed in it were NOT going to match. In fact, they were very low in the spiciness scale in his mind.
The blonde enjoyed the spiciness as well as the meat and that told him that despite her attempts to harm him, the emerald haired woman was an actually good cook, add that quality with her undeniably sexy form, and remove her issues towards men, and any man would gladly walk over fire to get her as a wife.
He put that aside and swallowed the meat and smiled warmly and replied to Jura's question.
"Nice! The spiciness is all right though it needs a bit more kick to it, you still have any of that spice sauce on you by any chance?"
That made Barnette's jaw drop as she looked at the blonde Shinobi who didn't even look the least bit bothered by what he had just eaten.
(I swear I placed in more than enough spices to make any person swear that they were going to lose every taste bud on their tongue! How can that guy actually eat that and not even show a drop of sweat?)
"You enjoy that?"
The blonde grinned and replied.
"Oh yeah, you're a great cook Barnette-san, in fact most guys I know would love the cooking you make. But the spiciness DOES need some work, until it's up to the standard of spicy to me."
"How can you EAT something that spicy?"
"Are you kidding? I know of a good trio of chefs who make a curry that puts the spices here to shame! And how do I know that? I ate their food more than once and trust me, their food is many times spicier than this!"
Barnette couldn't believe it and moved forward to try the food herself to see if for some reason he must be using something to make him immune to the spices or maybe she did something that didn't make the spices as effective as she liked.
(Maybe the other ingredients I placed before must have diluted the spices somehow…or maybe that man is just pulling my leg…no, he didn't even sweat so maybe…)
Barnette took the knife and cut a portion of the filet mignon she made and spiced heavily, she then ate it to see just how spicy it really was. The very second she did that, she turned red and her lips began to puff up. The woman then turned and cried out while unleashing a blast of fire from her mouth.
"WATER!"
Naruto looked at the pillar of flame and chuckled to himself as he understood Barnette's reaction very easily, after all, when he tried the stuff, he had the very same reaction though his blast of fire from HIS mouth was a lot more spectacular. He placed that aside and ate the filet mignon without any hesitation as well as some of the food that was still there while Barnette was still trying to recover until she took off to get a drink, a really BIG drink.
Jura was utterly confused by the whole thing as she looked at where her friend had taken off to and she then looked at the blonde ninja who had just finished the meal with a happy expression on his face. She then spoke to him on what had just happened to Barnette.
"What just happened to Barnette?"
"I have no idea honestly."
It was at that point that the communications system in the Nirvana came online and Buzam spoke out to the assembled people there in the Park that the mission was a go.
Naruto sighed and got up and headed out to get to his Vanguard but not before speaking to Jura.
"Time to get going, see you in the mission."
"Don't forget to combine with me on the mission!"
"I'll try to remember that!"
…
A few minutes later, Naruto's Vanguard launched from the Nirvana and sped towards the planet's atmosphere. It was then followed by the other Vanguards who were in a special drop-ship. Inside their respective mecha were Dita, Jura, and Barnette (who now sported a pair of puffy lips). At the helm of the ship was Jura. Her gaze was directed solely on Naruto's Vanguard as he was in the lead of the others as the harder
"I won't let you get off the hook that easily Naruto."
Jura vowed as she directed the ship's trajectory to follow Naruto's Vanguard who took the point.
"Leave Mr. Alien alone! The only one he's going to combine with is me!"
Dita said as she heard Jura's speech, it became apparent that Jura forgot to shut off her communicator.
"You stay out of this!" Jura said in retaliation.
Both decided to give one another deep glares instead.
Barnette just shook her head.
"This had better be a quick mission."
She then touched her lips and began then to wonder on just HOW did Naruto withstood the food she had doctored and if he was not lying that he had eaten much spicier food than that one.
The enhanced Vanguard and the drop-ship began to make fiery reentry paths into the planet as they moved through the atmosphere. As soon as they passed through the clouds and cooled down, the drop-ship broke apart, letting its cargo experience freefall for a period of a few seconds. The Vanguards then deployed umbrella-like devices to float all the way down to the surface.
Inside his Vanguard, Kyo watched the ground approach through the main viewer-screen. He had already decided to upgrade Freedom's OS but he had to do it quick, Freedom whipped up it's own small sandstorm when it landed on the surface.
The other Vanguards soon touched down on the desert world and immediately began to look around. They had landed in the midst of several artificial structures, which seemed to resemble the ruins of one massive and forgotten city.
…
Back on the Nirvana…
A lone pilot ran into the hanger and gave a shout of frustration. "I'm too late!" Meia said as she ran to her waiting Vanguard. It was then that Pyoro arrived and floated it's way to the young pilot.
"You're pushing yourself too hard. Don't you think that they'll be fine on their own? They can do well without you as they have the training."
"No!I'm the leader of this mission; I'm supposed to be responsible for all of them!"
(Even for…Naruto.)
Meia added silently with reluctance as she gazed at the planet below.
"But the drop-ship's only designed for one-way use only. There aren't any others." The robot pointed out to the young Dread leader.
"What?"
…
On the ground of the unknown world…
The Vanguards managed to land safely after the drop-ship sled was broken apart and they soon surveyed their surroundings and the seemingly desolate area they were currently in. Placed on one side were the umbrella like devices, which were now stripped of the umbrella protrusions, these were also designed to act as booster units for getting back to space when the mission was considered over, as the Vanguards had no other way on leaving the planet's gravity.
Jura looked about and sighed at the barren wasteland filled with ruins and sand.
"Well this place is totally deserted. Nothing here to get all excited about." Jura commented as she continued her scan of the area.
Barnette agreed at her comrade's statement.
"There was no need for Meia to come with us for something like this, I doubt we can even find anything salvageable around here."
"Wow! Look at all this sand."
Dita commented as she also looked around.
Naruto however was completely focused and had a grim expression. He then trained his sensors around the area, for the remote but still present possibility that there were survivors anywhere on this planet. He looked at the landscape, totally unimpressed and saddened by lack of any detected life-signatures. He then directed his Vanguard, to move around and explore the area. He was thankful that his time sneaking into Vanguard simulators as well as taking over some Vanguards in their testing phases in both space and on the ground helped him adjust well enough.
It was then he registered a tapping on his Vanguard's shoulders. He then felt a little bit uncomfortable, namely at a certain area on his body and in his mind as he saw who was on his monitor.
The blonde Dread pilot then seductively smiled at the blonde former Hokage and spoke in a very seductive tone.
"So, why don't we get down to doing it together eh?"
THAT statement was more than enough to make the blonde Shinobi blush, even if he knew that Jura actually had no idea of the double meaning of that statement of hers. The fact that the blonde bombshell was giving him the very seductive once over didn't help matters either. But he managed to recover and reply to the blonde's statement.
"Jura, Do you realize what happens to be the other meaning of that question of yours?"
"Oh? What would that be?"
Before the blonde could say anything or even take back that statement, Dita's Vanguard came in and was now between Naruto and Jura's respective Vanguards and she quickly got her Vanguard's hands on Naruto's Vanguard as well and began to try and move him away from Jura and she spoke.
"Stop it Jura! The only one that Mr. Alien is going to be doing it with is me!"
Naruto couldn't help but feel even more thoughts go into his brain that were not exactly ideal to have in a battle-field as Dita said that. The innocent redhead had no idea just what that statement meant to the blonde Shinobi, but before he could try to figure his way out of the whole thing, the blonde Dread pilot guided her Vanguard to grab his Vanguard once more and she began to drag him away while she spoke in a seriously annoyed tone.
"Dita! It's my turn to do it with Naruto, you've had your turn already!"
"No!"
"Dita! Don't be so stubborn about this! I deserve to do it with Naruto as well!"
"I am not, Mr. Alien is doing with me only!"
Naruto swore that he was going to lose his mind at the various images the two women were sending down his mind at the moment. Even though he had a feeling that their statements were not going in THAT direction, his more than eager inner pervert was enjoying that particular direction immensely. He then decided to get some distance from the two and make sure that the two of them would stop.
"As much as I would normally being in this kind of situation, now is not the time!"
Naruto managed to get his Vanguard free and activate the jet systems and take off, freeing himself from the two Vanguards. As he took off, a hidden device spotted his Vanguard and fired some sort of beam. Naruto spotted it and quickly turned off his Vanguard's jets while firing out an energy shuriken as his Vanguard dropped back to the ground.
He then spotted several more beams now appearing above them and he swore.
"Damn! It's a trap!"
…
High above the whole situation, a lone Vanguard came through the clouds. Inside it, Meia did her best to pilot her mecha safely to the surface of the planet towards the landing coordinates where her comrades and blonde Shinobi were. She had tried several times to raise her allies on her Vanguard's communicator, but had no success in doing so. As she headed towards the surface, her machine suddenly began to shudder as a massive sandstorm suddenly appeared, seemingly out of nowhere and caused extreme turbulence.
…
On the bridge of the Nirvana, Duero became very concerned. The pulse monitors on his console for each Vanguard pilot including Naruto were now showing elevated heart rates and increasing respiration though it seemed that Naruto was a bit calmer than the others. When he checked Meia's readouts as well, he knew that they were in very serious trouble.
"This is not good. Their pulse rates are increasing rapidly and they are now showing signs of fear and disorientation. Something dangerous is happening down there."
BC immediately opened a frequency to the Vanguards below, but the comm-links were scrambled and were very grainy, no doubt from interference from the detected sandstorm, and the response from the pilots were very short and incomprehensible.
"Vanguard team, what's happening down there?"
"We're… trapped… (Squark!)… (Bzzzt!)…"
"Ahhh! Look…out!"
"Damn! It's an… ambush!"
"The sand… is… (Crackle!)…attack…"
Buzam's expression became a mixture of both confusion and deep concern. "The sand is attacking?"
…
In her Vanguard, Dita became a little more shocked and fearful as the sand suddenly moved as it seemed to have a mind of it's own. As the sudden sandstorm whipped around them, particles suddenly began to stick to the surface of her mecha and that of her fellow pirates, along with Mr. Alien's partner and the other good aliens' machines, and the sand spread out like blobs. Servos began to lock up as sand began to lock into the joints and also to other moving parts as well, making their movements more difficult and sluggish.
"This sand's acting as if it's alive!"
Inside his Vanguard, Naruto began to grow more worried. The sand began to try to cover his Vanguard and it wasn't going to be long before his mecha was going to be completely covered by sand and also completely immobilized as another wave began to cover it on another side. This situation reminded him too easily of how it was when he and faced his long time friend, the Kazekage Gaara when they were still enemies and when they fought in the Invasion of Konoha all those years ago.
There was no way that there was anyone in this reality that had the same sand manipulation powers as he friend and former Jinchuuriki so it had be something else. But he hardly had time to figure out what that might be as he was still trying to find a way to free his machine.
"Damn it! My Vanguard's already built for this kind of land, but if this keeps up, it won't budge at all!"
It was then that Jura's Vanguard came up to him.
"Leave this to me!"
Activating the exhaust vent located in front of her mecha, Jura directed the airflow to blow over Naruto's smothered machine and remove the sand, layer by layer, until the Vanguard was freed of the sands.
"Thanks a lot!"
Jura then smiled as she replied.
"You're welcome. By the way, why don't we combine? That's what I want in reward for freeing your partner."
Naruto sighed a bit and he gave an unbelieving expression to his face.
"Are you still stuck on that combining business? If so I think you've forgotten something, and it's the fact that there's no way that I can combine with your Vanguard. My Vanguard can only combine with your Dread. How do you expect me to fuse my Vanguard with your Vanguard anyway, when it's not been affected and transformed by the Paeksis like mine?"
Jura gave a shocked and rather disappointed expression.
"Are you joking? NO! Why didn't you tell me before? I shouldn't have trained for this mission!"
…
Meia's Vanguard landed hard on the surface of the desert planet, which was now in a blazing sandstorm. Her cockpit was covered in darkness, as several systems were now offline. Due to the sandstorm that arrived unexpectedly, she had landed several hundred meters from where the others were. Her breathing became rapid and she took in air in short gasps, her heart rate began to gain speed and thundered in her chest. Her forehead became sweaty and her eyes widened in fear and terror.
It was then that Duero's voice managed to reach her through the comm-link on her Vanguard.
"Meia! Meia! Do you hear me? Turn on your main monitor! Look as far away as you can!" Duero called out in a commanding voice as he tried to get Meia to recover.
The young Dread pilot reached out with a trembling hand and activated a switch to bring her monitor back online. "He…should mind his own…damned business!"
As the monitor came back to life and showed the barren and sandy landscape, her breathing came back to normal and her heart rate returned to being steady. However, the Dread Leader's relief was short lived, as she caught movement, something was heading at her direction, right for where she was.
Before she could comment, she spotted a Vanguard figure made of sand that suddenly exploded and slammed right into her before she could react. And soon, her phobia was taking effect on her as she began to lock up.
…
The Nirvana…
Amarone gave a gasp of shock. She was monitoring the scene on the desert planet and was watching the markers that told her where the landing party was. Her cry of shock was due to the fact that one of the markers had disappeared… Meia's marker on her Vanguard and that made things even more hectic.
"Meia's mecha has disappeared from the sensors!"
BC acknowledged the report from Amarone and immediately got into contact with the landing party.
"Barnette! Jura! Dita! Naruto! Do you copy? Meia has disappeared! You have to find her!"
…
On the ground…
"What? Are you sure she's actually down here?"
Naruto called out as soon as he got the message from Buzam while trying to find the origins of those beams and firing out some of his Vanguard's energy shuriken and kunai to try and destroy as many of them as he could to at least deactivate the trap..
"I repeat… Meia's mecha has landed some distance from where you and the others are. But she's no longer in our sensors' display! Find her!"
"Roger that!"
Naruto called out as he and the others were now nearing their recovery from the massive storm of sand that threatened to hinder them.
(Damn it! What the heck is she trying to prove here?)
He knew that there was something terribly wrong with Meia, from the way she acted during her session at the Vanguard simulators and the condition symptoms that he noticed before, and he knew how deadly it would be for someone in her state of mind to be in a Vanguard.
"Leader's out there somewhere?"
Dita called out as she and the others had also received the message from BC. The redhead had already helped remove the sand hindering Barnette and her Vanguard.
"That's right. We'll have to find her fast."
Naruto said as he finally used one of his Swords to unleash a strong but gentle blast of wind enhanced chakra to wipe out the last remains of sand on his Vanguard. As they were about to move forward to locate the Dread pilot, they were alerted by the alarm in Jura's voice.
"Don't look now but we've got company!"
Jura shouted as she pointed at one direction.
The others looked and gave shocked expressions, as mounds of sand began to appear and suddenly transform into replicas of the Vanguards. The doppelgangers then immediately went to their programmed duties and attacked. The Dread pilots had no other choice but to retaliate using the combat skills they had learned in the simulators.
But due to the irony that now they were like the Vanguard trainees they battled with when they attacked the Ikazuchi. They were totally unsuccessful in the battles with their sand counterparts, as they had no on-hand combat experience with the male mecha and on how to manage the need to maneuver the machine while in battle.
Dita desperately struggled as she was now engaging one of the sand Vanguards as it attacked her mecha. She was shocked even more at the combat readouts; it showed that their systems were being copied and to add further difficulty to her current plight, the mecha she controlled was also being drained of power.
"The sand-creatures are copying the Vanguards' systems and draining the power supply! It's…almost like having the blood in us drained out!"
Naruto however managed to keep his head cool and focus on the task at hand. Having been in many battles ever since he grew up both physically and mentally in different respects, and being Hokage, he had learned enough on how to lead a team. There were three people with him and it reminded him of his time as a Genin in a three member team under a Jonin and when he became a Jonin himself and led his own time. He knew that if they were going to survive this situation, they needed to fight together, and with that in mind, he began to issue commands as he had his Vanguard connect to the others via communication links while drawing the other sword of the Vanguard for battle.
"All right then, Dita, you're with me and stay close to me so you won't get blindsided! Jura! You and Barnette have your Vanguards move to cover each other's back so you also won't get blindsided. Use your weapons to even things up!"
Barnette replied in an annoyed voice to that.
"I don't take orders from men!"
Naruto snorted and replied.
"Well in case you haven't noticed, I'm the only long serving Vanguard pilot here to begin with and we don't have time to argue! Unless you want to get yourself killed over your pride?"
Barnette growled her teeth at this but Dita was not going to argue as she managed to get her Vanguard's weapon, a chain-blade sword and activated the weapon carefully and she was soon joining Naruto in fighting the Sand Vanguards that had managed to blindside them earlier.
"I'm right with you Mr. Alien!"
Naruto appreciated that as he cut down two more San Vanguards and after stabbing two more of the Sand Vanguards, the blonde Shinobi released his swords and fired two energy shuriken to destroy two more of the Sand Vanguards that tried to get into the fight, Dita's Vanguard then attacked another Sand Vanguard trying to blindside the blonde Shinobi's Vanguard and Naruto repaid that in kind by slicing down two more Sand Vanguards trying to do the same thing. Barnette could not believe what she was seeing before her and spoke.
"Dita! What are you doing?"
"Working with Mr. Alien! He knows what he is doing in this Barnette."
Before Barnette could comment on that, she watched as Jura took out the long spear that was the weapon of her own Vanguard and she was soon contacted by her blonde friend and lover.
"Dita's right, Naruto seems to know what to do in a situation like this so let's not argue with him. Come on Barnette, we have to do this."
Barnette tried to come up with something to say, but even though she had her pride as a woman of Megele, that pride was not enough to blind her to the need to work together. She sighed and grabbed the weapon set on her Vanguard which was a short sword and a small hatchet and shouted.
"Hold up!"
…
After a few minutes of non-stop fighting, the tide slowly turned in favor of the pirates and the former Hokage. Naruto used his Wind chakra enhanced blades to cut down multiple Sand Vanguards while also tapping into his Sage chakra, the good news was that he had mastered his ability to gather Sage Chakra and store it long enough to fight for hours than before. He also began to unleash more energy shuriken and kunai, he even used the chakra chains as flying energy blades to slice down more of the Sand Vanguards, even the newly appearing ones as well.
As the Sand Vanguards lessened in number and they were able to rest for a moment or two, Naruto managed to download a set of coordinates.
"I've got a fix on Meia's last known location; I'm feeding in the data now."
He immediately raised Barnette as he faced another arriving batch of Sand Vanguards.
"Barnette, we'll hold the line here, you'll have to go and locate Meia. You've got her coordinates so go find her now!"
"I told you before that I don't take orders from a man!"
"For the love of common sense! Look! Either go and find Meia right now and get her back here so we can leave or we can all stay here and lose everyone! Now get moving Barnette, we don't have all day!"
Jura's friend growled irritably, but realized the truth of Naruto's words. She then went off in search of Meia, while Kyo and the others readied themselves for the new battle.
…
On the Bridge…
Buzam was trying to figure out just what they were going to do now with the situation the way it was. However, the only good thing that was coming out of this was the fact that the ground team seemed to be getting back into action and fighting back. However, she focused herself on getting any information on what was attacking the ground team.
"Do we have any idea what is it that's commanding the attack on the ground team?"
Belvedere nodded and replied.
"It appears to be some sort of central command and control system, apparently it's using nano-machines to control the sand and manipulate it for battle purposes."
Buzam then directed her attention to the situation with the ground team, she was surprised and so was Magno as they discovered that the ground team was actually fighting well enough to keep themselves from being overwhelmed by the Sand Vanguards. The elderly captain asked who was leading the group as she knew that out of the chosen pilots for the operation, the best pilots in using the Vanguards in their crew were Jura and Barnette in relative levels.
When they learned that it was Naruto who was leading them to not only hold their own, but to what would qualify as an amazing victory, they were intrigued as well as surprised
…
Meia on the other hand was dealing with an issue of her own as she was now in the grip of mental shock and trauma as the sand began to engulf her Vanguard and plunge her into utter darkness.
"W-What do I d-do? I'm so scared…."
Just as soon as the sand soon engulfed her Vanguard, Barnette's own mecha arrived on the scene.
"MEIA!"
Barnette rushed to her comrade's side and activated the shovel extension of her Vanguard and immediately went to work on freeing Meia from the sand that surrounded and trapped her mecha. She swore, as she couldn't use her vent system to free Meia, the system was too clogged up with sand and was further damaged by the battle with the Sand Vanguards earlier.
Suddenly, Meia's sand coated Vanguard got up and knocked Barnette's own mecha aside. It then took off, rocketing upward to touch the force field high above them. This attempt activated a loud blaring alarm to fill the whole area, as several structures rose from the sand and began to pulsate like beating hearts.
…
In the Nirvana…
"What's going on?"
Magno demanded as they detected the sudden increase of power under the surface of the planet.
Ezra began to scan the situation and gasped as she read the report from their scanners concerning the massive build-up of energy.
"There's some kind of self-destruct sequence that's been activated!"
Amarone confirmed this as she detected a countdown.
"The count-down's underway. Three hundred seconds before the whole planetary surface is engulfed in explosions!"
"Nirvana to landing party! Get out of there now!"
BC said to the expedition unit via comm..link.
…
On the ground…
"As much as we want to do just that, we'll a little bit tied up down here!"
Naruto called back to the Nirvana as he smashed his Vanguard's swords into the side of another Sand Vanguard, severing the creature into two and then firing three more energy shuriken into the next pair that came at him.
Naruto turned his Vanguard and spotted another Sand-Vanguard, he then aimed his dual rail-guns on the would-be attacker.
"Not another one! Just where the hell are these things coming from anyway?"
He then placed aside his Vanguard's swords aside as he readied his Rasengan to turn the thing into atoms in a charging attack when he spotted Barnette's mecha following it.
"NO! STOP! THAT THING IS MEIA! THE SAND'S GOTTEN CONTROL OF HER MECHA!"
"WHAT?"
…
Inside the mecha, the Dread Leader was in full state of catatonic shock and naturally was unaware of what was happening outside of her machine. She was shocked back into reality as something smashed into her Vanguard and knock it to it's back. She then heard Naruto's voice in the communicator of her mecha.
"Meia! I have no idea what the heck you're doing in there, but now is NOT the time to be going all catatonic on me!"
"F-F-Forget about me…save yourselves…" Meia said weakly.
"What are you getting at? You want us to just leave you here? Forget it! I have not abandoned anyone at all in my life as a Shinobi and I am not going to start today!"
…
"One hundred and fifty seconds until detonation."
"Did you hear that?"
Buzam spoke out on the communicator as she and the rest of the crew were literally on the edge of their seats.
…
"We're not devoid of hearing you know!"
Outside Naruto tried to find a working solution to get the sand of Meia's Vanguard, it was moving over her Vanguard too fast to remove quickly enough. He would have asked the others to do the same thing Jura had done, but that was out of the question and time was against them. Summoning more of Kage Bushin copies of his Vanguard would have worked but time was still a factor.
He looked about and spotted a massive tower like structure and his Senjutsu enhanced sense told him that there was something there he could use. He quickly summoned his Sage Chakra and formed a Rasenshuriken and fired it right into the tank. The minute it hit, it unleashed a massive amount of super cooled gases that enveloped the entire area. This deactivated the last of the systems that held the laser grin online and it fell.
Jura complained about the sudden drop in temperatures but noted that the effect was the Sand Vanguards becoming brittle and stiff, the combined heat and cold sent them crashing down into piles of sand and the frozen ground made sure many of them would no longer rise. Dita was amazed and cheered at Naruto while Jura was impressed and even Barnette reluctantly admitted that it was a good plan.
…
Inside her own machine, Meia had a deep scowl on her. To think that she now owed a man her life… and to Naruto no less was something which got her nerves easily enough.
She then tried to make her machine move, but it wasn't responding at all. She checked her readouts and saw that the sand had accomplished part of its objectives; it had completely drained her mecha of power. There was no chance of her to escape in time.
"The mecha's got no more power! It won't budge anymore!"
Naruto sighed and wasted no time as he took Meia's powered down Vanguard in his arms and carried it bridal style. He knew that this was creepy enough in mecha, but he can bet that Meia was not happy at all with what was going to happen.
And sure enough…
"What are you doing?"
Meia couldn't help but feel weird at the fact that her mecha was being carried like this and she looked to see Naruto looking at her seriously.
"Right now there's no difference between you and me, so now is not the time to think about dying, so hang on, this is going be a hell of a ride!"
…
In the Bridge…
"Time's up."
Amarone replied as the countdown meter on her console reached a full zero.
On the bridge of the Nirvana, Magno and the rest of her crew watched with apprehension as the surface of the desert planet was engulfed in huge balls of fire and explosive force in orange-red color. Duero's medical monitors were showing nothing but static. There was a deep foreboding silence all over the ship, as the pirates feared for the worst. Then Duero's attention went back to the monitors as all five readouts displaying the landing party went back online as several objects broke out of the massive conflagrations that tore up the planet's surface.
"All Vanguards are accounted for."
Ezra said with a strong amount of relief in her voice.
The rest of the bridge personnel let off a collective sigh of relief as well. It was then that one of the bridge crew namely Belvedere announced that she had received some data from the investigation.
"Read it." BC ordered.
Belvedere became a bit tense, but nodded, with a little prodding from Buzam.
And what they were about to hear…was anything but expected as the faces of the bridge crew turned from relief to shock and horror.
…
In the Nirvana's Hanger Bay…
Meia sat down on the floor of the Hanger Bay as her Vanguard and that of the others were being brought back in for repairs and maintenance. The battle below had shown to the pirates just how serious the Harvesters were about their mission of Harvest and that now was known to be harvesting all the organs of all living humans. The horror of this was not lost to the bridge crew and soon a council had to be held on how to best answer this dire threat. This was also how to use the Vanguards at some point in time in their travels back to Megele and Talark space.
The blonde's Vanguard landed first after passing her Vanguard to Jura and Dita's Vanguard and moved into the paddock and Naruto soon got out to get some tools to fix his Vanguard and came back after she had gotten out of her Vanguard.
The pirate officers with the exception of Meia were already deep in council on the matter but Meia was not with them as she was still trying to recover her senses while still glaring at a certain blonde Shinobi who was currently checking his Vanguard for damage.
(To be saved by someone is such a hard thing but to be saved by a man of all people is a disgrace, and of all the men in this galaxy to save me it had to be him!)
"You know…if you keep on looking at my Kage Bushin like that you might get lucky and burn a hole through him."
Meia's eyes widened and she looked about to see Naruto standing right next to her, she gasped and noted something odd in Naruto's face. There were some orange markings at the side and lower area of his eyes and his eyes looked…reptilian like. She shook her head while closing her eyes, thinking that she was seeing things. As soon as she opened her eyes, she noted Naruto's eyes had returned to normal and thought that what she saw was just a trick of the eye.
Naruto frowned and spoke.
"You're angry at me for saving your life, care to tell me why?"
"How did…"
"Sorry, not telling, but you still need to answer my question, and no I don't read minds, but I can tell facial expressions and body language well enough."
Meia glared at the blonde and turned to see that the one she had been staring at was no gone, confirming that the one she had been staring at before was indeed a Kage Bushin. She looked at the blonde and replied seriously.
"I'm not answering any questions from you."
As she got up and walked away, she then heard Naruto speak.
"You're weak."
THAT got Meia to stop and then turn a full one eighty degrees and go stomping back to the blonde and shout at him with fire in her eyes.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?"
"You're weak, not in a physical sense, but an emotional one, something happened to you in the past I take it? Is that why you don't ask for help at all?"
"Shut up!"
Naruto however didn't seem bothered by her outburst and that further infuriated Meia as she was lashed out with a punch at the blonde but Naruto easily stopped it and looked at her seriously. He stared at her for a moment or so and then replied.
"You want to die don't you? You feel like you have nothing left to live for, that's why you don't want anyone's help, even if it is something that should not be turned down. I can see it in your eyes Meia. That's why you're weak, you have nothing in your heart worth fighting or than meeting your end."
Meia gritted her teeth and snarled at Naruto.
"What would you know about me anyway? You have no idea what I've been through!"
Naruto said nothing and then moved away while keeping her fist in his hand until he released it and replied.
"You think you're the only person I've met who's lost much and suffered Meia? Do you think you are the first to suffer the effects of other people's cruelty, selfishness, hatred and distrust, their scorn, and more? I have met my fair share of people like you…some of them chose to wither away to nothing because they didn't find something to keep living for, others managed to move on, make life worth living, and grew stronger for it."
"Those people chose to live and endure more pain and suffering to make their lives have meaning. Those people were strong, stronger than the first batch since they found something to keep their spirit alive as well as their will to live. I met those people and they were my friends, they showed to me that it takes greater courage to live than it does to die."
The blonde then turned and left, leaving a stunned Dread Squadron leader behind him, but not before turning and speaking out one final message.
"Life is not something you can discard like that Meia, and until you find out what will give you a will to live, you are not dying on my watch. I am going to make sure that you get that foolish and idiotic notion of dying out of your head one way or the other."
Meia however was having none of it and moved to face the blonde Shinobi once more and spoke out with confusion in her voice.
'Why are you so determined to meddle in my affairs! What I do is none of your business!"
Naruto shrugged a bit and replied.
"Normally that's true, but I'm doing it since I can wager a guess that if anything happened to you, the crew might not take it well."
That stopped Meia's next biting comments and Naruto noted that easily as he spoke seriously to the Dread pilot.
"Have you considered how they would feel if you went ahead and got yourself killed? You've been with them for some time so I have no doubt that losing you will have a very sorrowful affect on them. Keep that in mind before you go charging off to your death, that is one reason why I am not letting you go off to die, for the sake of the bonds you have with the crew, even if you don't know it or want it. The other…well…"
The blonde then grinned with mirth in his face and finished his unspoken statement.
"I just can't let a beautiful lady get herself killed without trying to keep her alive, besides, I like needling you so it can get rather boring if you decide to get yourself killed. You look really attractive when you're blushing and on fire after all."
With that, the blonde left, leaving the completely stunned Dread Squadron leader standing in the hall, she turned and quickly saw that the blonde Shinobi was gone. Meia tried to think about what had just happened and it confused her even more than she cared to admit.
Unknown to the two, they were being watched by a certain elderly woman.
(Well, it seems that Naruto's a lot more perceptive than others thought…what will you do now Meia?)
…
To be continued…
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Author's Notes:
Well, that wraps up this chapter and I hope that this shows that the other stories will indeed gain updates as well at some point before the end of the year. At any rate, this new chapter will indeed show that this story is far from dead and forgotten. And i have cleaned up some errors as well, sorry for that, I have some thoughts that interfered with my train of though and made their way into the story.
Now we bet that Naruto will be having to deal with a number of issues that will be showing itself, one of which will naturally involve his every increasing hormones as well as the fantasies taking root in his head. How he deals with that is going to be interesting, along with the issues of working with the women and eventually trying to make the right choices to get them to not only change their views of men, but to make them work together as well.
Now if anyone is asking me if I will have Naruto lead a Vanguard squadron, that still is up for me to decide if that is the best course of action to take for this story. Why would I do that? It's simply because, the idea of having the main character leading his own team has been done already and I don't like the idea of repeating the scenario too many times already.
But if you readers want that to happen, I'll think it over and try it out, send me your preferences via email or by review. And before I forget, I have to apologize for the lateness of this chapter, ever since my computer had to be reformatted, I lost the original copy and so I had to start from scratch once more
Anyway, on the next chapter we will have that situation happen as well as Naruto getting to work on being friendlier to the ladies of the Nirvana.