Chapter 7: "Operation Reclaimer" Part Two
As Cloud trekked into Nibelheim by himself, the rest of the team was on standby. Everyone was doing their own thing, whether it was tweaking the airship's engine (Cid), gossiping to the crewmen (Aeris and Tifa), arguing over small matters (Cait Sith and Barret) or silently observing everyone else (Vincent and Nanaki). However for Yuffie, she was training in the art of chakra and ninjutsu from Naruto and Garra. They had been going at it for a few hours but had made very little progress.
"Ok, this time try to imagine a blue fire inside you. Then you focus on it, fuelling it, making it hotter and stronger," explained Naruto as he tried to get the young kunoichi to flare her chakra as much as possible. For the first time since realising what it could do, Naruto wished he had the Sharingan or Byakugan. He immediately crushed that wish without mercy. There was no way he would want such a cheating Bloodline Limit doujutsu as the Sharingan.
Yuffie was really trying. Sweat was pouring down her forehead as she crouched slightly with her hands in the traditional palms and fingers together hand seal for charging a chakra flare. There was something happening around her but it seemed that something was blocking the chakra from escaping fully. The amount that was escaping was very miniscule as only a slight wavering in the air around her could be seen.
"Ok, you can stop now," said Naruto and Yuffie let out an explosive breath and fell over, panting. Garra stood up from where he was sitting. "I'm going to see what Vincent is doing," he said before he used his sand to levitate himself up to the lower deck of the airship.
"Damn this sucks. I need the Byakugan," Naruto said in annoyance. He paced the ground for a moment before it came to him. "I need Neji!" he said before taking out his phone and opening it. A quick search in the phone book revealed his world's god's number.
"Yes!" he said softly before pressing the call button and holding the speaker to his ear.
Ring ring... ring ring... click! "Hello, this is Ken Kojima, Shinigami of world NWS-225. How can I help you today?"
"Hello Ken, sir. My name is Uzumaki Naruto."
"Ah, Naruto. I remember you. You're on that mission to FF-007 with Kyuubi and Nibi, is that right?"
"Yes, that's right, sir."
"No need to be so polite. Now then, what's the matter?"
"I need your help."
"My help? Must be in a real jam if you need my help, but I'm not the one you need to call for help on that world. We Shinigami reside over our own worlds and no-one else's."
"Actually I need you to bring someone from my world into this one for ten minutes."
"Ten minutes? Usually you have to get it cleared by the council if it's permanent but 10 minutes? I think I can arrange that. Who is it?"
"Thank you. It's Hyuga Neji. And can you grab him from the time a few seconds after I tell him about the existence of other worlds and all that?"
"Very well. Give me a moment to do this. Call me again if you need my help." Click.
Naruto put away the phone and began to wait. After several seconds Neji popped into existence.
Neji looked around wildly for a moment before settling his eyes on Naruto.
"Naruto? Is that you?" he asked.
"Yep! Sure is," replied Naruto, grinning his usual fake foxy grin, however the smile had become genuine in the past few weeks.
"Woah..." was all Neji said before he activated his eyes and scanning. After a moment he stopped. "It really is you," he said. "I'm guessing I'm on another world in the past, am I correct?"
"Uh-huh," nodded Naruto. "You don't have much time here so I'll get straight to the point. I need your help in finding out what's blocking this girl's chakra from flowing correctly."
Neji turned around to see a slightly scared Yuffie on the ground. "I can," he said.
"Great!" said Naruto before he turned to Yuffie. "I need you to charge you chakra again."
"Ok Naruto," she said before getting into her stance and focusing. At the same time Neji activated his Byakugan and looked at her.
"Hmmm... I see... there huh," he muttered to himself before deactivating his eyes. Naruto saw this and signalled Yuffie to stop.
"It seems a few of her primary tenketsu's are blocked. It looks like this has been the case for a while." He then looked into Yuffie's eyes. "Miss, I'm going to open small openings on your body so you can use chakra to the fullest, okay?"
Yuffie looked to Naruto for answers. Naruto simply nodded. She then turned back to Neji and nodded. Truth be told she was a little unnerved by this newcomer with the white pupil-less eyes, but if Naruto trusted him, then she would as well.
"Very well. This will hurt for a little while but the pain will leave quickly," warned Neji before he struck out with his hands ablaze with chakra. He stabbed four times on different points on her body and Yuffie cried out in pain before she crumpled to the ground, moaning and cursing.
"She will be fine," said Neji before he looked to the sky for a moment. "It seems it's time for me to go." He turned to Naruto. "It's was good to see you Naruto. I'll see you in the future... or my past." Neji then left as suddenly as he appeared.
"Hey!" called a voice and Naruto looked up to see Garra floating down to him. He touched down and walked over.
"Was that Neji I saw?" he asked.
"Yeah. He was just helping me out by fixing Yuffie's chakra system," explained Naruto.
"I see," he replied before looking at the young ninja, who was still on the ground, muttering darkly to herself.
"Ok Yuffie! Time to see what you've got!" said Naruto but Yuffie had other plans.
"Hey Naruto. Maybe you can show me what it looks like while I catch my breath," she asked.
"Hmmm... I guess so. It might be better to show you," said Naruto before he got into the stance that he told Yuffie to use. "Ok, ready?" he asked. Yuffie nodded.
"Ok, here goes!" he said. "!"
A strong wind began to whip around the blonde ninja as he began to charge up his chakra. First it was like a thin blue mist was seeping out of his body. But as Naruto focused more and more, the mist changed, becoming more like a flame and eventually a roaring blaze of blue energy that flared around him. The sound that came with the energy was loud. Very loud. So loud that Naruto had to yell his next few words.
"FOR A NORMAL NINJA, THIS IS ABOUT AS MUCH AS YOU CAN DO WITHOUT DOING DAMAGE TO YOUR INTERNAL ORGANS. BUT SINCE I'M NOW A KITSUNE HANYO, I CAN TAKE THIS FURTHER!"
Naruto then began to roar as he released his tail and ears, unable to hold his subconscious concentration on hiding them. The blue inferno then began to change again, becoming more like a concentrated jet flame that rose high into the air. The ground cracked and splintered all around him. The all of a sudden it disappeared. The clouds of dust that had been kicked up from the wind now settled. Naruto stood in the middle, panting slightly from the power he just outputted.
"Wow..." was all Yuffie said.
"Bloody fucking hell!" called a voice from up above them and the three turned to see that everyone was on the lower deck looking down.
"I knew you were powerful but damn!" said Cid who had spoken earlier.
"Are we really needed to help you knock off Jenova?" asked Barret. "Cause it seems that you don't need any help at all."
"I'll say," agreed Cait Sith.
"So strong..." Vincent said, his eyes widened slightly.
Aeris, Tifa and Nanaki were just speechless.
"Wow! That felt good!" said Naruto as he stretched for a moment before jumping up to the lower deck and crouched on the rail. He looked around at everyone. "Anyone seen Cloud yet?" he asked.
They all looked around before shaking their heads.
Naruto sighed. "I'm bored. Need something to do," he muttered under his breath. He looked over his shoulder and grinned as he spotted someone walking over to the airship. It was Cloud.
"HEY CLOUD! GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE NOW! WE'RE GOING TO JUNON!" he yelled over to Cloud. He seemed to pause to hear all of what was said before he began to run quickly over to the airship.
"Junon?" asked Tifa.
"Yeah!" replied Naruto. He looked to Cait Sith. "You said there was a reactor there right?"
Cait nodded. "Yep. It's underwater. They'll be transporting the last piece of huge materia over the sea. I dunno what for as those two are being unusually secretive. They seem to want to spill the beans but keep themselves in check. Maybe they want it to be a big surprise." Here he shrugged, making Naruto wonder - again - if he was really a robot.
"Well that's your answer," said Naruto as Cloud heaved himself over the railing. "We're going to Junon?" he asked.
"Yep! Cid!" he turned to the blonde haired pilot. "We have our heading!"
"To Junon!"
The guard at the gate to the lift fiddled with his rifle slightly. Rufus's expedition across the sea had livened things up and there was some excitement in his normally boring job. But ever since then, aside from Meteor popping up in the sky, life had returned to back the way it was before.
"Ah... I'm so bored!" he said forcefully before his eyes caught movement in front of him. He looked in the direction and his jaw dropped open when he saw this absolutely smoking hot woman. She was wearing a dress very similar to what Scarlet wore. Her red hair fell in silky waves down her upper body. She was walking towards him and her hips were swaying seductively; her black stocking covered legs showing themselves fully while still not showing enough. She was also walking with a slight bounce in her step, making those voluptuous breasts of hers that, thanks to the low v-neck plunge of the dress, showed off an amazing cleavage, bounce and jiggle. The soldier was already getting one major hard on and his face had begun to sweat slightly.
She then came to a stop roughly 20 meters away from him. Even though she was standing quite a distance away, the soldier could still see her eyes clearly. Her red eyes. They seemed to pulse and glow slightly before the eye candy image of the red haired angel faded and disappeared out of sight.
"Wha? Where did she...?" said the soldier confusedly but there was no trace of the red head anywhere.
"Was it... just my imagination?" questioned the guard to himself, sounding quite dubious as he was sure he could never imagine someone as... words just couldn't describe her. He was just about to move to the spot where the red haired goddess had been, when more movement caught his eye a second time. The soldier looked up hungrily for the woman but was greeted with a different sight.
Eleven people were making their way toward him. At first all he could tell was that a few of them wore dark purple while others wore navy blue. But then they got closer for the guard to recognise the shoulder plates, helmets and wide belts with the ShinRa insignia on the front.
"S-SOLDIER!" he stuttered before he stood at attention. All of them had their visors down and the one in the front, consequently the only one in very dark grey which identified him as First Class, spoke.
"We need to go up," he said simply in a voice that had little to no emotion in it. The guard nodded quickly. "Yes sir!" he almost shouted before he turned and pressed a button on the side of the doors before moving to the side quickly. The steel doors slid open to reveal an elevator.
The members of SOLDIER all pilled in. The First Class one flipped him a 100 Gil coin. "You're doing a good job here soldier. Work hard," he said before he too got on the lift. The steel doors shut.
The guard sunk to his knees and let out a sigh of relief, thankful that he hadn't done or said anything to offend them.
"Wow! I can't believe that worked!" said Tifa as the lift quickly rose up the shaft.
"All thanks to Kyuubi's genjutsu," Naruto grinned as the doors opened to show a long hallway that narrowed slightly at a corner. A guard spotted them leaving and immediately pounced on them.
"Ok! Back to work! Back to work!" the guard yelled at a second who came running. The second one yawned loudly. "For Junon!" he said sleepily. However Naruto and Cloud ended the fight before it even began by knocking the two out with the handles of their swords.
"C'mon! Let's go!" said Barret loudly before being shushed by Aeris, Tifa and Yuffie.
The group then quickly moved down the hallway, being led by Cait Sith. They followed him before they came across a large platform inside a large shaft going down. They all pilled on and then descended quickly to the bottom. They exited and found themselves in a glass tunnel braced with steel. Fish and dolphins swam past the glass and the whole party looked up to see the surface sparkling a few hundred feet above them.
"Wow!" exclaimed Aeris as she ran to the side and pressed her hands and face to the glass. "It's so beautiful!"
"It is, but we have to keep moving," said Naruto. "Sorry."
Aeris turned and shook her head. "No need to apologise. I should instead for getting a little off track."
The group then continued down the underwater tunnel as it turned slowly to the right. At the end the group could see the looming shadow of the reactor. The only light coming from it were through a few windows on the side and the lights at the door.
No-one spoke as they all moved through the door and entered the reactor.
The inside was quite different. The main room housed two submarines, a black and red one. The red one's cargo doors were open and a crane was moving towards the other side of the room. Naruto and the others rushed over to find out where it was going. Through the next door was the main reactor. But they were too late. By now the crane was dipping inside the reactor and removing a large lump of bright yellow materia.
"Damn! Just missed it!" cursed Barret.
"They're gonna take it on that submarine!" said Tifa.
"That's what you think! Fuck that!" said Cid.
"If we take a shortcut, we might just make it!" Nanaki said.
"Well let's go!" said Cloud and they all ran around the reactor and back into the docking room.
They all ran into the room and skidded to a halt in front of none other than Reno. Luckily he had his back turned to them, his focus elsewhere. The group followed his line of sight and saw that he was looking at a spot above the red submarine. It was the crane holding the yellow Huge Materia. They watched as the crane descended into the cargo hold and rose out again before the big red doors folded in and locked into place.
Naruto turned his attention to Reno. He seemed still oblivious to the group behind him. Naruto walked up behind him and Reno twitched slightly. "What are you doing?" he asked without turning around. "Help load." Naruto, who had frozen when Reno spoke, relaxed slightly as he realised that Reno didn't know he was Naruto. In one quick flash, before Reno could turn around, Naruto had his sword pressed against his neck.
"What the...?" he said, surprised before he took a closer look at the sword. "Ah, I see. How good of you to join us today Naruto. And I suspect that your friends are with you as well?"
"Yeah. You know how this works. You give us the huge materia and you don't get sent to the Lifestream early," Naruto threatened, using his ninja training to silence any emotion in his voice.
After a few moments, Reno began to laugh softly. "I'm sorry but, unfortunately, I don't have time to deal with you."
A slight movement in the corner of Naruto's eyes was all the warning he had before he jumped up high, releasing his hold on Reno. A huge crash sounded as Reno had jumped away as well, making his way to the red submarine. Naruto looked back to where he had been standing a few seconds earlier and saw a robot. This one looked like a robot used for loading cargo. In fact it probably was used for that typically. However, in the hands of Reno, it would turn into a weapon.
"My priority is the Huge Materia!" Reno shouted over his shoulder before disappearing into the red submarine.
"Fuck!" swore Naruto before he whipped his sword to his side and dashed toward the robot, his sword sparking electricity from the Bolt materia. The robot saw this incoming attack and reared one of his huge claws up and sent it crashing down but Naruto activated his Second level Kikangan and flashed to the side. He brought his sword up and jabbed it deeply into the body of the robot and released the stored lightning energy. The whole robot stood still before small explosions blew up several parts of the body and arms. Then, using chakra to enhance his muscles, he picked up the robot that was still impaled on his sword and jumped into the air. He flicked the sword to the side, taking the robot with it. The robot slid off the sword and was flung into the wall, where it did not move again.
Naruto touched down and deactivated his Kikangan. He looked to the others and saw them open mouthed at the display of such power and strength. "C'mon guys! You should be used to this by now," Naruto said before a loud sound echoed through the room. Everyone looked to see the red submarine detach from the dock and sink into the water.
"Damn! The submarine!" yelled Cloud in dismay.
"So they were just buyin' time!" said Barret, furious.
But Naruto was already on the move. He shot off in the direction of the second submarine and within a second, took out all the guards stationed there. He then waved the group over to him. "We can take this ride!" he called out before he descended into the submarine.
Inside there was two Shinra grunts and a captain. "NO, NO! This is terrible!" yelled the captain. "We don't have much time left! I don't want to die!" said the grunt on the left. "There's still so much I wanted to do. I never even got to do my special victory dance in battle!" whined the grunt on the right.
"All right! Then make this your first victory!" said the captain. "Go on! Show 'em!"
"Yes, sir!" both grunts said.
"I ain't got time to be messing around with you muffin heads so just sit down and shut the fuck up!" roared Naruto, using his second level Kikangan to increase his intimidation in his looks and voice. The men immediately shot to the side and sat down, trembling in fear.
"That's better," he said as Cloud and the others filed into the control room. It was a slightly tight fit but everyone was in. That didn't stop Aeris and Tifa standing extra close to Cloud, even though he was having a small panic attack in the tight confinements of the control room.
"Cid! You're our designated driver!" called Naruto and there was a little bit of shuffling around as the pilot edged around everyone to the driver's seat. He hopped in and ran his eyes over the controls. "This is nothing. Get ready boys and girls! We're taking off!"