Icha Icha: Animal Magnetism
Chapter 39: The End?
Naruto sighed as he stared at the eight figures before him. He knew exactly what each one of them was there for, and he knew that in two minutes, Hell would arrive directly in front of him. The one thing that kept him from running and hiding in some cave somewhere deep under the sea, was that an hour after this, he would be free. One hour more and he would be back to normal.
Oh how little did he know that deep inside him, two mental representatives of his greatest nightmares were plotting and scheming. And all of their plans hinged on one small point, they needed Naruto to trip that point in order for their plans to work since it counted on the jutsu still being active to work. And so while they couldn't quite claim victory yet, they could just taste its succulent and delicious fruits dangling in front of their figurative mouths.
The two minutes seemed to crawl as the time passed, allowing Naruto to study each of his opponents in turn. Sabuka no Gaara, the former terror of Suna, despite the heavy mask of indifference he wore, Naruto could sense a great feeling of unease about what was to happen. He was being consoled by Nii Yugito, her long blond hair masking her features as she whispered words of encouragement to Naruto's friend. She didn't look any happier about this than Gaara, but more resigned in her stature. He'd have to thank her for trying to comfort Gaara later, the poor guy probably needed it.
Next up was Tri-ex Juno, his face was very hard to read, though the scar on his left cheek twitched occasionally, showing that he was agitated about something. It seemed that he didn't like letting his demon in control again, or maybe it was Roshi's bad jokes from beside him. The big red haired man seemed to have a loud and boisterous voice that rivaled even Naruto at the height of his pranking. By startling contrast, the monstrous five-tails container, who went by the name of Han, apparently the Iwa Jinchuuriki only had given names or something, was just glaring at Naruto. Yeah, he'd be a fun one alright...
Jin just seemed to be staring off into space while making pink bubble elephants from his pipe. There was so much there that Naruto didn't want to touch, he couldn't even figure out where to begin. Instead, he looked at Yua, who was blowing kisses at him, and holding up a leaf suggestively. Yeah, that thought was what he wanted, turn into a girl so they'd have more fun catching him. After all, a guy has fewer holes to insert into. For the first time in his life, Naruto wished he could get drunk and forget everything about mental images.
Speaking of visuals best left unseen, Kirabi was passing the time by oiling his chest and arms. Naruto didn't even want to hazard a guess at that one, but maybe it'd help him get away.
Somewhere, a bird's song died out, and that's when it happened. Gaara went first, falling asleep, and a swarm of sand surrounding him, as the long remembered insane laughter of Shukaku rang out. Even as the sand form swelled, a screaming howl of rage sounded from the blond woman next to her. Sliding his eyes down the line, he watched as a swirling mass of blue and black chakra flowed and consumed Yugito in what seemed to be flames.
The rage screams were echoed a split second later by a more primal roar, as spikes grew out of Juno's body, and plates of armor began forming a turtle like shell around him. Naruto didn't even want to imagine how much that hurt. Meanwhile, Roshi and Han were transforming into some odd pair of monsters that looked, almost but not quite, absolutely nothing like the skunk and rooster Naruto had been expecting. Moving on down the line, Jin's slender form was engulfed in a giant bubble, which popped and revealed an ooze covered, and massive slug with six tails. Any noise that was made previously was drowned out by the buzzing of six massive wings, courtesy of Yua's demon, the seven tailed beetle, which was using its tail as an achor.
Even though all of these were massive and epic in both scale and power, they were all dwarfed by the eight-tailed bull. Instead of screaming out some animalistic sound, it leaned down and snorted. "You have one minute, transform or we'll force you to."
As he stared up at the massive demons before him, only one thought crossed his mind. 'Oh boy... this is going to be fun...' he mentally groaned as the demons just seemed to swell before his eyes. Closing his eyes, he thought about the past month, and all that he'd gone through. He couldn't throw all that away in this last hour. He'd go in full tilt, but he'd go in as himself, not the fox.
It seemed that his minute was up, as eight tailed beasts all launched their attacks at him in a single instant. Naruto found himself busy leaping up and over tails and paws, using clones as spring boards, and in general using their larger size to hide in their whirling mass of lust filled frenzy.
Naruto's mind was a whirl of half-baked plots and plans, each of them more hare-brained than the last. However, each of them seemed to be more likely to work as he moved down the list. Finally, he came to an idea that he was almost certain to work, since it was completely ludicrous and not likely to be expected.
Summoning forth a horde of clones, he sent half to the ground, where they began digging into the ground, many falling to large paws and tails striking them incidentally, however a good number of them made it underground. The other half of them began leaping around and using his limited jutsu knowledge as best as they could. Two of the ones that had held back were currently helping Naruto form a Rasengan.
A moment later, he fell toward the ground, his arm cocked back with an insane laugh. As he hit the ground, several jets of dirt spouted into the air from the initial holes made by the clones. Slowly, the entire area began crumbling in on itself. Soon enough the entire area collapsed into a pit about six feet deep, however the sheer weight of the beasts created a compression wave that added another twelve feet. It wouldn't slow them down much, but Naruto wasn't finished yet. Because the clones were crushed, the actual second part of his plan came into play. Over five hundred compressed chakra overcharged clones suddenly let loose with all their chakra at once, sending up a massive wave of dirt, and deepening the hole again.
Using the demons as running boards and spring points Naruto got clear of the pit as fast as possible. It was then that he found one major problem with his plan, the demon tails were swarming after him. However, an idea sprang to his mind that could possibly work. Springing over one of the tails, he looped around the body of Shukaku, watching as the tails continued chasing after him.
A few dozen leaps and twists later, Naruto was standing on top of a massive knot of tails. Allowing himself a brief smirk of victory he leaped off the knot and went into the trees, using them to mask his presence from the extremely enraged and currently tied up bijuu. At least he resisted the urge to piss them off further by teasing them about being tied up and leaving them alone.
That consideration went out of his mind as the entire mass of tailed-beasts surged forth with that eight tailed bull leading the charge. That large of a wave of demons coming after him was bad. Very, very bad in his opinion. Summoning up as much chakra as he could, he summoned up more clones, infusing them with as much chakra as possible per each. The double squad of clones used up enough for him to make an actual army worth of clones, but there was a benefit to the overcharging clones. As the first one was stepped on, explosions ripped through the forest, sending the demons sprawling across the forest floor with at least one leg in five being completely blown off.
Naruto let out a groan of dismay as the missing limbs began repairing themselves and the knot in the tails he had so lovingly created turned out to be completely missing due to the explosion. Instead of sticking around to allow them to finish, he bolted like a bat out of hell.
Diving into a hole in the ground he capped his hands over his mouth to forestall any noises he might make, while the hordes of demons swarmed past the cave. After the last one passed, he let out a sigh as he took into consideration all the resources he had at his disposal. No chakra, no weapons, no tools, no energy, and no hope... he was screwed.
That's when an insidious thought filtered into his mind. The demon fox could lend him some chakra to finish out the remaining 50 minutes. But that would require him asking the demon for his help, and he knew that ol' fuzz face would require a price be paid for his help. Getting deeper into the tunnels he found himself in, he was pleasantly surprised by how silent it was in here. It was safer and calmer in this tunnel than outside right now.
Or so he thought, since the tunnel directly in front of him suddenly vanished in an explosion of dirt and rocks. That same explosion also sent the poor blond flying through the air as the pressure wave lifted him up and flung him like a rag doll. Mercifully a rock him in the head, and knocked him out so he didn't feel a thing when he impaled himself into the tunnel wall.
Finding himself in a familiar sewer, he groaned as he walked down into Kyuubi's cage room and found the demon laughing while sitting on the now trapped Libido. "Hey Fox.... what's happening?"
"YOU ARE MAGNIFICIENT!" the demon bellowed with a huge manic grin on his face. "I have an offer for you, for the price of one day every two months you allowing me to take control of your body, I will give you two tails worth of my chakra, and keep you topped off."
"Are you nuts? I've done this well so far..." Naruto started to protest before letting it drop and sighed. "Every two months, and promise not to hurt anyone in Konoha. And the days have to be approved by Baa-chan... I'll even set them up so that the days coincide with Kon's visit."
"Sounds good, but I can store up days for longer control periods, especially if Kon's visiting for longer than a day." Kyuubi countered while he seemed to be hiding a laugh.
"I suppose that works..." Naruto agreed while the tendrils of chakra flowed around and over him. "But before any permanent arrangements are made, Baa-chan will have to agree."
Kyuubi's grin didn't falter in the least as the chakra was absorbed into Naruto's body, slowly filling him and forming a chakra cloak over him. Kyuubi loved how his container's features became more and more feral with every ounce of his chakra that it absorbed.
"Go now brat, and win!" Kyuubi commanded as Naruto was flung from the sewers. After he was back in the waking world, with forty-nine minutes remaining, Kyuubi shouted out with glee, "This is working out better than I could have ever imagined!"
"That's wonderful for you, but could you get your fat ass off me already? You're breaking my ribs!" the poor neglected and abused Libido cried out from under Kyuubi's backside.
"Terribly sorry, I forgot you were there," Kyuubi purred as it rose up and shrank down to more normal levels. "Why don't you go to his dream room and set up something, because I know he's going to sleep after this..."
"Later Fox-man," Libido cried out as he went to set up a dream to end all perverted dreams. Now that his body had finally hit puberty, he was going to use every last trick in the book that Jiraiya had tried to teach the idiot.
Kyuubi simply watched as the absolutely insane Libido skipped off giggling like a school girl on her first acid trip. It was so easy to manipulate these pawns to do his bidding, and his bidding... Was to get time with his daughter dammit! Maybe he could even get the agreement to count retroactively... after the brat's harem got through with blondie first of course.
As he woke up in the real world, Naruto let out a deep chuckle at the sheer raw power coursing through him. He knew that the power alone wouldn't be enough to save him, but it was a start. Now about the psycho that blasted out the tunnel in front of him...
It was time for some payback, and Naruto didn't accept anything but pain.
