Disclaimer & Author's Note: I do not own anything Naruto or Zelda that is mentioned in this plotline. All I own are original characters, items/weapons/jutsu/ect. Sorry for the lateness, but Icha Icha Duo has becone a bit of a hot fic... plus I had fun writing it as well, but no need to fear as I have not abandoned this story. This storyline is also too good to leave unfinished, and I refuse to even leave it unfinished.

Chapter Twenty Four

They had been traveling through these maze-like hallways for what seemed like an hour, as corpses of bones sprung up to attack, or Twili Parasites infested rotting bodies preserved in this underground catacomb to attack. The door closed with a silent hiss, as Naruto and Midna looked around in the room they were now in. Various tubes filled with water, creatures of both human and animal origin, but now resembled nightmarish mutants. Many of these people were once human, but were left for dead. Most of the machines have been dead, or ceased to function. The rest of the machines surprisingly still had life running through them.

"Oh man... something is wrong here..."

"I know..."

The lightning in this room came from the glowing water these things were suspended within and from the very few machines still active in the mess hall of a laboratory. So, they went through this hallway of chimeras. They jumped when they came across a tube that contained one of these mutants, but most of them were just empty. Soon, they came across another section of the laboratory, filled with several bodies floating in the water. Further the two went, always keeping their eyes open for any sort of ambush. They finally reached the end of the laboratory, which led into several hallways, but at the end of this one was something that could be of use.

[Naruto obtained Key 1337. This is the key that was needed to manually open the door to access the other laboratory chamber.]

But there was a problem. Having no choice but to destroy the generator that supplied power to this section of the laboratory and gave the glass its shatter-proof durability, upon collecting the key, they heard the sounds of glass shattering. Both Naruto and Midna looked at one another. Something shattering in the dim darkness was never a good sign. Naruto pulled out his lantern and Midna held onto it as she floated next to Naruto. They traverse through the darkness of the large corridors, until they reached the first room filled with shattered tubes. Only one tube was left standing, but had a claw mark across the glass. It was though empty, but filled with the same glowing liquid that spilt over the metal floor and mess of wires and cables and whatnot. Suddenly, one of the chimera-like beasts jumped from the darkness ahead and attacked, followed by the cries of two more of those mutants. Naruto swore and swung the blade, slicing the unholy beast with the blade that destroys evil. This would count in this situation, as it fell immediately from the burning death of a holy blade touching a tainted creature. The other two humans mutated with animal parts rushed, but they too fell to their deaths.

"We're not sticking around!"

Just then, the lantern ran out of juice, and darkness enveloped the two.

"Damn it," Naruto cursed.

"Hold on Naruto..."

She pulled out something. It was the crystal Lansing had used on Yugito.

"Wait, is that the-"

"Yup. Now... I'm taking a huge gamble here, but if I'm right (and I know I am), then we can transform you into a beast form... more so like a fox."

Naruto began to think about it, but with dim lighting, he can't see well. Animals do have better sighting in nocturnal environments... or was he thinking of a cat or a dog? Anyway, he decided to bite the hook. Naruto felt weird, as a foreign energy assaulted his senses, and mad him cry out in pain. He suddenly howled much like a fox... and felt a weight on him. Midna giggled, as the transformation had left Naruto in the state of a fox, and now, she had a place to sit again. Just like old times with Wolf Link. Fox Naruto looked like any other fox out there, only with the tip of the tail black, the paws black, blonde fur, and white belly. His eyes still remained the same shade of cerulean blue. Midna noticed that similar fur-like markings that existed on Wolf Link matched on Fox Naruto, only they were orange.

"Well, that wasn't so bad..."

"This is weird," Naruto said, feeling his new furry appendage twitch. Another growl permeated the dark air. Of course, since he was now in an animal shape, he could only do growls, yips, or barks. You know; the usual fox noise.

Midna however completely understood Naruto, though the contrast with Link and Naruto is Link's fur was dark, and Naruto's is light. "Now Naruto, this may be weird, but Link had an animal form as well, only he was a wolf. You may not have the packing power as a wolf would, but you're just as nimble and agile. Swift attacks can take any creature out. Now, focus on your senses Naruto, alright? Keep your ears ready, and stay focused on surviving. Once we reach that door, we can hopefully find a way out of here."

Naruto nodded, and headed off, using his enhanced eye sight to see better in the darkness.

"Oh, and we're going to work on a nifty technique Link and I had used against multiple enemies. Okay?"

"Sure," Naruto replied and jumped back as something sailed at him. It looked like the tail of a beaver on a snake's tail having nearly smacked him. He growled fox-like, but the chimera-like human snarls and attacks him. Naruto jumped away and came at him, as Midna use her magic to fire a bolt of twilight, striking it against the spine.

"Naruto, I'll raise the energy field, and I'll zap them. Afterward, I'll envelope you with an aura of twilight and you can use it to one-hit kill anything that gets in our way, okay?"

"Got it!"

Just in time too, as she zapped several more of these things that began to gang up. She releases the field, and Naruto zipped about, striking every single chimera-like mutant. Each one fell to their death as Naruto landed on all four. The fox rushed off, back tracking, and with each encounter they took out more. But them some of them possessed the weird technique of melting into objects (think Zetsu in this case) or in this case, popping out to ambush the duo. Soon, they did make it back into the first expansive chamber of tubes, but more of them were there. Naruto zipped across, dodging as Midna flew to the door they had spied earlier, and with the key, opened it. She flew in and Naruto followed just as the door seals shut and locks. Naruto transformed back to normal, with Midna's help. He even had his weapons again.

"Damn, that was like some sort of horror film." The wall swirled as those who possessed the ability to melt into solid objects came at Naruto. He attacked them, and killed those that could cross over.

The room they were in was like a giant cube. However, the room held a suspended floor welded to the walls, enforced with iron angled pillars, and chains from the ceilings. Below was murky water, the kind of water Naruto did not feel like swimming in. The water suddenly boiled as coming up was a sea dragon-like creature. However, from its serpent-like body, the hood around its head was several wiggling tentacles. On its forehead was an encrusted large jewel. Along its snake-like body were armor attachments, plated metal segments like large fish scales. It had fish fins lining along the sides of the body, and along the back of the skull doing down three meters of the spinal area. The mouth of the snake was attached with a bulldog-like jaw line, and it had thick fat jiggling down the sides. It let out what sounded like gargling, mixed with the growl of a human male with thick swaying jowls, and attacked with its thirteen tentacles.

However, there was something very wrong with this creature. It was rotting, as murky greenish yellow smoke rose from its body. Naruto raised an eyebrow, but the dying creature dove at him. Naruto simply swung, and sliced. The thing gave its death cry, as the crystal on its beheaded head exploded, revealing a Twili Parasite. It dropped before his feet as the giant dead serpent slumped back into the water. Not allowing it to get away, he stabbed it with the sword. The grapefruit-sized bug shriveled as he pulled the blade away, and it exploded... revealing a Chakra Grapple. The rest of the body disintegrated like sludge.

"Is that... another Chakra Grapple?"

"I think so," Midna replied, having appeared next to the boy, the thing wasn't that tough... could be like some sort of failed experiment.

[Naruto obtained a second Chakra Grapple. Naruto can now traverse across areas using both of these devices that would normally be inaccessible using the Clawshot.]

Naruto, now armed with two, looked around the room. He saw the door ahead of him; however the walkway leading to it was missing. So, he looked to the ceiling, and saw meat hooks. He questioned why meat hooks would hang from the ceiling at odd sections, but threw the first whip, and grappled the hook. Now, with the second Midna unsealed for him, he began to traverse across the gap, and now hung before the door. Midna flew and opened it with her magic hand, and Naruto let go of his hold, swinging into the next room, and she followed just before the door closed on her. Midna gave him a quick kiss before disappearing back into his shadow, and Naruto ran down the spare hallway, and soon came across a door. The door behind sealed once he walked in. Suddenly, four mechanical-looking wood puppets clad in red color with purple shogun armor grew from the ground, all wearing purple ass bows. Behind them was another puppet, only it just wore the shoulder armor, and add a purple mantle to the ass bow it wore.

The other puppets attacked, although they moved in a forced movement. Naruto simply blasted through them using the Kaze Kiwa. The Leader Puppet, which he dubs, simply, and surprisingly, shifts through five signs. The ground explodes, and more puppets emerged. Naruto was in for a fight. He kept swinging his blade, slicing through them with ease, while attacking the leader puppet whenever he could get close enough to strike.

=0=0=

Naruto when he walked into the final chamber looked back as the door sealed shut, and a metal plate formed over it that began to glow, signaling that it was one of those security doors he saw in stores that eat chakra. He looked around, finding in the center a large tank filled with glowing green liquid, and some computers nearby. He looked at one panel, and it showed some information. He looked at the date. This thing, he was looking at now, had been under status for more than twenty years. It was an experiment, a failed one, which was supposed to recreate a demonic creature close to that of a Bijuu. That would explain all of those other mummified bodies of humans, animals, and nightmarish creatures he's encountered. Not to mention, somehow, Twili Parasites have emerged from twilight to take control of those bodies and attack Naruto controlling their hosts.

Then, the screen beeped. It detected life signs. The thing was alive!

CRASH! SHATTER!

Naruto had backflipped away as the tank shattered, and the creature flopped like a fish out of water, said water now splashing across the ground, some going into drains around the room. The creature growled as its erratic movements ceased, and looked around. The body of this thing was large but with a slight hunchbacked frame, and various furs of different animals. The large broad shoulders had countless fangs procuring from the sides, and coils of cables infused into his powerful humanoid looking dark bluish gray arms. His hands were covered with armored blood red, large three fingered claws. Of course, around the wrists were lobster-like pincers, that when snapped shut, completely covered the clawed hands within. Said pincers were the length of a scythe head. It had a long cruel beak as black as the night, crude-looking fangs protruding down like serrated edges along the bottom of its beaked jaw line. The head however was serpentine in appearance, with a set of three prominent green eyes poking out from haphazard holes in the headgear it sported. The legs were more of less like beefed up ox legs on steroids, but also packed the fused frame of that of a tiger's hind legs. A sweeping snake tail rattles the rattler at the end. Add the octopus-looking protrusion coming out from the back of the head going down like some limp phallic-like object, and you have...

Orochimaru Experiment #1337

... One hell of an ugly creature... of course, knowing Orochimaru created this evil monstrosity came from the small window that popped up, which read that the experiment under the title "Orochimaru's Experiment #1337" was active, yet required a total system reboot to the brain wave patterns. Basically, this thing was lusting for battle and blood. Naruto's blood to be precise...

The creature roars and swipes at Naruto with the swinging of its tail. Naruto dodged by doing another backward somersault. The creature snarls and opening its mouth expelled a bluish flame of liquid. Naruto ran around in a wide circle in this expansive laboratory-like chamber to outrun the liquid fire beam. The creature ceased fire, only to open up, and exhale fireballs at Naruto. He swung, and was surprised that instead of cutting through the fire, it was repelled back and struck the creature in the mouth, issuing a pained roar. He took out the second fireball it fired after the first, and results the same hit. The creature snarled with hate, and smashed its lobster-enclosed hands against the ground, generating a shockwave that spread, destroying machines left and right. Naruto dodged the tall shockwave by Clawshooting to the grated ceiling above. He flew off when it took a wild swing at him with the tail. Dropping down, he reequipped the sword and shield as it came at him. But, he attacked with Kaitengiri, driving it back long enough for him to jump into the air after throwing his sword up, grabbing it, and slashing down with chakra expelled from the blade. It was tossed back slightly by the explosion that erupted after the attack.

Naruto backflipped as the creature got back to its feet, and snarled.

"This is going to suck..."

-- Naruto's Status --

Collection: [Men's Wallet - 13,567 Total Ryo] [Midna's Headgear] [Naruto's Ninpod] [Tsunade's Necklace] [Horse Call] [Letters - 02] [Key #1337]
Sword: [Kubikiri Hocho] [Master Sword]
Shield: [Konoha Shield]
Costume: [Hero's Clothes]
Ninja Inventory: [Ninja Pack - Kunai x40] [Ninja Pack - Senbon x60] [Ninja Pack - Nin-ombs x25] [Ninja Pack - Explosive Tags x15] [Toad Summon Contract]
Inventory Pack: [Relic Spinner] [Kagura] [Kaitouken] [Twin Chakra Grapples] [Double Clawshots] [Mole Gauntlets] [Lantern] [Fishing Rod + Box]
Hidden Skills Learned: [Gokumonken] [Mikazuki no Mai] [Morigari no Kanketsusen] [Kaze Kiwa]
Jutsu Skills Learned: Kage Bunshin, Sennen Goroshi, Kawarimi, Oiroke, Harem, Shougekiha, Uzumaki Naruto Rendan, Fuuton: Rasengufuu, Ichi Ni Ko Rendan, Rasengan, Kenjutsu: Hasakikinan