Arc 1 - A New World - Chapter 6: A Rose By Any Other Name
Naruto was experimenting with his shadow clones since he had received the completed notes on hand seals from Dr. Strange. Feeling that a methodical approach was best, he started at the top of the list with the bird seal. No matter how hard he tried, the bird seal merely caused his clones to fail. He didn't know why, but then he didn't know how the bird seal's affects could help his clones either.
Once he gave up on using the bird seal, he moved on to the boar seal which he found was much more compatible with the shadow clone technique. In fact, placing it before or after had different effects once he managed to make a stable shadow clone with the alteration.
If he put the boar seal after the clone seal, he found that the clones were much more stable. Where a normal shadow clone would disappear with even the most minor of injuries, with the boar seal added, a physical impact had to be strong enough that it would have normally broken bones had they not been coated with adamantium. Cuts were more effective than physical impacts though. Anything that went much beyond skin deep would still dispel a clone. It was a major improvement since the fragility of shadow clones meant that sometimes they accidentally dispelled themselves, and couldn't survive being swatted for being annoying. These ones could take a couple hits in a fight. He would have wondered why no one had thought of making this change to shadow clones before, except that even he could feel the drain of making them. He doubted he could make more than two hundred of these before he became exhausted when he could easily make a thousand normal shadow clones and barely be winded.
If he put the boar seal before the clone seal, he could control where the clone manifested. Normally, the jutsu put the clone in the closest available space. With this, he could put the clone anywhere he could spread his chakra to. At first, he could only choose which direction the clone appeared in relative to his body, but after enough of his chakra became dispersed in the air from his practice, he found his range growing. It had taken him a few hours to realize that it was the chakra residue of his dispersing clones that extended his range. After that, he allowed some of his chakra to leak out until it permeated the room and found that it was even easier and more precise to place close this way. By pushing his chakra as far as he could, he found that his range was about sixty meters, but suspected that he could increase that with practice or using clones to extend his range since he could create massive amounts of normal shadow clones that extended to much greater distance.
With two new ways to use the shadow clone technique, Naruto decided to try combining them. It worked, but Naruto was staggered by the amount of chakra used. He had never before found a technique he would consider needed to be used sparingly. Even the summoning technique had been rather easy one he had mastered it. He had been able to summon the three top battle toads at the same time and still had tons of chakra left. This had taken even more chakra than that many times over. Naruto hoped that, like summoning, this would get easier with practice as well. He couldn't imagine a battle where he would need to restrict himself to a mere fifty clones.
Before stopping for lunch, Naruto attempted one more experiment. This time he used the dog seal. Putting the dog seal before the clone seal resulted in clones that were quite unstable and partially transparent. Putting the dog seal after made the clones completely unstable. He tried the former a few times, deciding that the jutsu must be doing something but that he was missing something and that he could experiment more later.
X-23 was flipping through the books in Dr. Strange's library looking for names. "Thel'kessa, Desdemona the despoiler, Theodierce, Ch'Tak-Zklla, Sisifidyne, Babanona," she read aloud the names, being incapable of pronouncing most of them, assuming she was reading them correctly. It seemed that the books in Dr. Strange's collection contained the names of gods, demons, and other otherworldly entities, none of which were meant to be comprehended by the human mind, let alone spoken by the human tongue. She slammed the current book closed in disgust. The chances of her finding a decent name here were so miniscule that it was not even worth looking.
X-23 tossed the book onto the table as she stood and stretched, arching her back until it gave a satisfying crack. She picked up the book and returned it to the empty spot on the shelf before following her nose to Dr. Strange.
Dr. Strange was in a study. He had large rolls of heavy paper set out and was currently using a mortal and pestle to crush various ingredients that he used to create magical inks.
"Can I help you with something?" Dr. Strange asked, looking up from crushing the carapaces of some black bug into a fine powder.
"I was looking for a name for myself. All the names in your books are strange." Dr. Strange chuckled with good humor at her observation. "Do you know where I can find a list of names?"
"You might try at the library. They have computers you can use to search the internet. That would probably be the easiest way. Otherwise, there are lots of books there with what would be considered normal names."
"I will go to the library," X-23 stated.
After lunch, Naruto's chakra had regenerated sufficiently that he began practicing with his reinforced clones. He formed a clone and began to fight.
The clone was surprisingly agile, dodging instead of attacking head on. Eventually, though, Naruto charged a rasengan and slammed it into the clone's gut. He had not expected to receive a right cross a moment before the clone disappeared. Naruto was surprised. He was sure that he had struck the clone with a blow that should have destabilized him first. This merited further examination.
Naruto made another clone. He gave it a chakra enhanced blow to the gut half a second before he received a knee to the ribs. With more experimentation, he found that his clones lasted up to two seconds before destabilizing. A rasengan to the face would only give the clone a tiny fraction of a second to make a final blow. A toe crushing stomp would give almost two full seconds and Naruto could see the perpetuation of the clone's shell's destabilization. It reminded him of his rasengan training. A normal shadow clone was like the water balloon from the first stage of training, thin and fragile. When it destabilized, it always exploded instantly and catastrophically. The reinforced clones, however, were like the second stage of rasengan training where he had needed to pop a rubber ball. It took much more power to pop the rubber ball than the balloon, and even when he did pop it, if the power wasn't concentrated enough, it would only cause a small hole that would deflate the ball instead of an explosion.
It didn't take long for Naruto to realize the potential of his clones. One of his problems of his normal clones was getting close enough to use a rasengan before being dispelled. With this, they could kamikaze and take an attack in order to ensure that they delivered one of their own. Even though it took more chakra to create one, they might actually end up costing him less chakra in the long run if he used them wisely, using normal shadow clones for distractions.
"Excuse me, Naruto. If you don't mind, I'd like to inspect your seal," Dr. Strange interrupted his training.
X-23 wandered the library. It was a busy place. Students lounged around with piles of books or scanning the stacks while adults seemed to be taking a more ordered approach, seeming to know where to find their quarry by virtue of experience or comprehension of Dewey Decimal. Several computers were scattered about the large building. Every one of them was occupied.
She continued to explore, bypassing the children's sections and turning around the end of a shelf to run into a girl carrying a stack of books. The girl had long blonde hair that was slightly messy, blue eyes, and a pair of thick rimmed glasses that told most fashion aware people that she was well aware that she was one of the nerds and not one of the cool kids. She wore a pink hoodie and tight blue jeans that demonstrated that despite her more academic tendencies, she still kept herself healthy. X-23 looked at the girl. X-23 had barely noticed the collision, being used to sparring with the likes of Naruto, but the girl she had run into had bounced off her and fallen to the floor, sending her books and papers flying.
"Ow! Sorry about that. I should pay more attention to where I am going," the girl said. She scrambled to her knees, stopping a moment to rub her hip where she had struck the stone floor. "You're pretty sturdy. It felt like I walked into a wall."
"It is difficult to cause me serious harm," X-23 agreed.
The girl began to gather her books and papers. "I'm Gwen, by the way, Gwen Stacy."
"Is there a procedure for getting access to a computer?" X-23 asked.
"You need to talk to the librarian and reserve a time," Gwen replied, "What did you want to use a computer for?"
"I am looking for a list of names. I was told that the internet had sites dedicated to this."
"Oh! Is it because you know someone who's having a baby?" Gwen asked excitedly, pulling her gathered items to her chest as she stood.
"No. It is for myself. I was never given a name. I am known as X-23 right now. My... father... suggested I find a name that I would think was appropriate."
"Why would you be called that. It's almost like you were some sort of an experiment."
"That was the label on the tank when I escaped," X-23 replied.
Gwen smiled nervously. "It was nice to meet you. I hope you find a good name."
"Thank you," X-23 replied, heading towards the service people near the entrance.
"Can I help you?" The librarian was sitting at a polished wooden counter. She had a computer in front of her. Behind her were printers and photocopiers that could be accessed at a few cents per sheet.
"I would like to use a computer," X-23 said.
"Okay. Do you have a library card?" the librarian asked.
X-23 shook her head negatively.
"Have you ever had a library card at any of the New York City libraries?"
"No, this is my first time in a public library."
"Are you a resident of New York?"
"I am living in the residence of Doctor Strange, the Sanctum Sanctorum," X-23 answered.
"Do you know the address dear?" the librarian queried.
She responded with the Greenwich Village address.
"Okay," the woman typed the address into the computer. "And what is your name?"
"I do not have a name. I require access to a computer to find a name to call myself. I was told the best source of names was the internet."
"That can't be right. At your age, people must call you something."
"I am currently known as X-23," she responded.
"You're staying with Dr. Strange because you're different from normal people, right?" the librarian asked.
X-23 nodded. "Until we are able to support ourselves."
"Unfortunately, without a name, we cannot create a library card for you. We do have other resources that can help though. There should be some books with lists of names, though they may be a little old fashioned. You can also check the names of the authors."
"Very well. I will use your suggestions then."
Naruto collapsed into a soft chair. Channeling chakra for two hours straight with no breaks was an exhausting task. It was probably good stamina training, but that wasn't an area he particularly needed to work at.
Dr. Strange had spent the whole time checking and copying the seal. It did not look like much when just looking at the inscription on Naruto's stomach, but most complex seals tended to be layered with compression scripts which fit a very large seal array into a very small space, leaving what appeared to be random punctuation and squiggles in place of kanji and chakra circuits. In fact, the only seal Naruto knew of that did not use compression was the explosive seal, and that was because it was so simple, and the fact that the amount of storage capacity, and therefore explosive potential, was a factor of sealing area. The seal on Naruto's stomach, however, was the opposite of simple. It used two four symbols seals, each of which was already a heavily compressed and layered seal, and combined them into the eight trigrams sealing style, adding various gates, locks, fail-safes, and stuff Naruto couldn't even begin to comprehend even as Dr. Strange was explaining it, all while slowly boosting his own chakra reserves by slowly pumping the fox's chakra into him.
Dr. Strange could, of course, have magically copied the seal in seconds, but that risked temporarily destabilizing the seal, or even duplicating the fox inside. Knowing that no inanimate object could possibly contain a being of such power, even Naruto knew this course of action would have been folly.
With the seal done, and Dr. Strange preparing to study the parts that did not make themselves obvious to him, Naruto went back to trying to add the dog seal to his clones.
X-23 was having no luck finding a name. She did not know what would make a name a good name. None of the ones she had seen had particularly appealed to her in any way. It didn't help that most female authors used initials instead of first names to disguise their genders. She came out of the stacks and found the blonde haired girl she had run into earlier and sat across from her.
"What are you reading about?" X-23 asked, startling Gwen.
"Biology. I know Peter is going to get top honors in chemistry, so I decided to aim for a different subject."
"I don't know anything about biology except human physiology. Is it interesting?"
"Yes, actually. I am currently reading about the methods of mutation and how it results in resistant diseases."
"Mutations, is that the same thing that causes mutants?"
"That's actually quite a controversial subject. Everyone has small mutations. If you went by the definition of people with mutations are mutants, then everyone would be a mutant." Gwen's nervousness at talking with the odd girl lessened as she began to lecture on a subject she had well studied. "Mutants are actually a label applied to people with one specific mutation that is known as the X-gene. This gene itself is surprisingly controversial. Some people say it can only be passed on by the father. Some say it must be passed on by the mother. Some think there are two forms or perhaps either can pass the gene and the other parent must provide some sort of catalyst for activation since sometimes they are born to parents without the gene. Then there is the controversy about how the gene actually works since it expresses itself differently in everyone. The most accepted theory is that the X-gene somehow works with the rest of the DNA in some unknown way resulting in whatever changes the mutant receives.
"There is also the controversy about what to do about mutants. A lot of people are scared of mutants because some of them have incredible powers that any terrorist would die for. It only takes one nut job with a powerful ability to wipe out a city. But then there are groups like the Friends of Humanity that just want to execute all mutants even if all they do is help people. A lot of innocent people have been hurt by people like them.
"People need to understand that everyone has the capacity for good and evil. We shouldn't judge people by what they are, but by what they do. There are tons of super powered people just in this city. Take Spider-Man for example. He goes around protecting innocent people and stopping crimes and for some reason the papers and the police seem to think he's the anti-Christ. He's never killed anyone, not even the bad guys. Then we have murderers like the Scorpion who were created to stop Spider-Man. But, it's not like all super powered people are feared. I don't think there is anyone that hates Captain America."
Naruto can't seem to get his clones working with just a dog seal. The clone just remains too unstable to be useful. Naruto thought about the problem for a minute. If his clone was too much of an illusion to be stable, it needed to be made into solid matter with a boar seal like his hardened clones.
Dog, clone, boar. The clone immediately destabilized. Naruto tried a few more times with no other effect. Apparently that did not work.
Boar, dog, clone. This time the semi-transparent clone looked like how his normal clones usually looked. He tried making more with the same amount of chakra, but it just caused the clone to become even more twisted and warped. It almost made him sick to look at it.
Dog, boar, clone. The clone stabilized for a moment, then exploded. Naruto was sent flying back by a burst of wind that left cuts all over his body.
"Kuso!" Naruto swore. That had been an incredibly devastating attack. He was certain that if he had not had his healing factor, that would have probably killed him. He tried again, focusing more chakra into the boar sign, hoping it would stabilize the clone more. This time, the clone held. Naruto sent it across to the other side of the room and had it dispel. A wave of wind radiated out from the clone. Naruto braced himself as the blast wave passed over him. At this distance, it was not enough to knock a man over, but it could throw off a jump. Standing right next to the blast would throw someone back two or three meters. While the concussion of the wind was not directly dangerous, it was very disruptive to a battle in close quarters. The blades of cutting wind riding inside that concussive wave made it a dangerous attack, though the effectiveness was limited by distance. He would definitely need to practice more with these clones. He could only imagine how effective they would have been in many of his fights.
"I have returned," X-23 announced, entering the room.
"You find good name?" Naruto asked, taking a break from his training.
"No. Things were more difficult than anticipated, but I made a new friend."
Naruto arrived at the massive structure of concrete steel and glass. Stark tower was one of the most technologically advanced buildings in New York. Naruto entered through the automatic doors in the front of the building. The marble floors, chrome steel accented hardwood walls and furniture covered in wide screen monitors and wall to wall transparent security divider made of aluminum oxynitride screamed of both sophistication and wealth. A man in a blue security uniform sat behind a desk built into the security wall. Naruto approached the guard. The barrier seemed solid between them, so he wondered how he was going to talk to the man.
The guard looked up. "What's your business at Stark Tower today?" The man's lips moved, but the man's voice seemed to come from within the counter.
"Iron Man is telling me to come today," he answered.
The guard looked at him then checked his computer. "I do not have any appointments listed."
"He is telling me to be coming today. I is coming today." Naruto insisted.
"I'll check to be sure," the guard said, not at all convinced. He picked up the phone and pressed the speed dial for the office of Pepper Potts. "Hello, this is front security. There is some blond foreign kid who claims Iron Man asked him to come in today. You know anything about this?" The security guard listened for a few moments. "You sure?" He hung up the phone. "Sorry, but if you want to see him, you're going to have to make an appointment."
"Is no mistake. I is told be here!"
"I'm going to have to ask you to leave," The guard insisted, lowering one arm to his belt and the other to a control panel. In a fit of terribly bad timing for the for the guard, an employee rushed out right then, giving Naruto ample time to throw himself through the security gate.
Naruto rolled across the ground as the guard drew his gun. Naruto cartwheeled into a shoulder check, filching the guard's identification badge before running towards the stairwell. It took him only a few moments to figure out how to work the tap and go mechanism of the lock with the stolen identification card before he was rushing up the stairs.
He managed to get to the third floor before he reached another security door that would not allow him to pass, forcing him to exit. This floor was filled with a maze of cubicles. At this point alarms began to blare.
Naruto ran into a cubicle and startled a man as he vaulted off the desk and into an empty cubicle on the opposite side to avoid a squad of guards. He ran to the end of the hall and looked left. There was a security team bearing down on him. He turned to the right and continued running. Another security team exited a row of cubicles and spotted him. One of the men raised some sort of weapon and pointed it at him. Naruto didn't care to find out what it did. He slammed open a nearby door into an office. A bald man in a suit barely had time to topple off his chair in surprise before Naruto leapt to the roof then somehow slithered his way out the half open window, sticking to the outside as he slipped under the inclined pane of glass.
Tony was looking over reports in his office. Sometimes he thought it would just be better to hand the company over to Pepper so that he could spend his time inventing things instead of worrying about budget items. His concentration was abruptly disturbed by a sudden alarm. Perhaps this meant he could get some action as opposed to this life draining desk duty.
"What's up, Pepper?" Tony asked, casually strolling out of his office.
"Some kid claimed that he had an appointment with Iron Man. He refused to leave when he was told we didn't have any appointments on the schedule, then evaded security and entered the building."
Tony thought for a moment. "Did this kid happen to be blond, speak with a Japanese accent, and have unusual abilities? Cause if he did, I forgot to mention to add him to the schedule for this weekend."
Pepper sighed and pointed to the window.
Tony turned and saw the strange energy manipulating kid sticking his face against the window and trying to peer through the glass. He grabbed Pepper's tablet computer from her hands and accessed the building's security systems, disabling the window occlusion on that floor for five minutes, surprising Naruto. Tony grinned and pointed towards the ceiling. Naruto got the message and began to climb.
"Since he's expected, we don't need to remain on lock down, do we." Pepper took the tablet back from him.
X-23 stood in the middle of a metal plated room next to her father. Steel bulkheads and cables lines the walls and converged in the center of the room where a hemispherical bulge protruded from the ceiling.
"The danger room was originally just a heavily fortified and trapped obstacle course to help hone our skills, but over the years, the technology has improved until it became what you see here today. This iteration of the danger room was built by a mutant who goes by the name of Forge. He has the ability to see how energy flows in machines and understand it. Taking advantage of this ability, he can build anything as long as he really understands what he wants to accomplish, though he often has to disassemble his inventions afterward to figure out how he made them since he is not working from a mechanical perspective like anyone else would."
Wolverine went through a door and appeared in a control booth that projected from the top front corner of the room. His voice soon continued from hidden speakers.
"The danger room can create solid holograms that can replicate most physical or energy projection abilities and objects. There are various scenarios programmed so that you can have real life fighting experience without worrying about harming innocent bystanders or being killed by your opponent since the simulation has safety protocols that will cause the simulation to pause when it detects critical damage is about to be done. It also records all sessions so you can review the battles and use it to discover your weaknesses.
When training for a specific mission, we usually set specific parameters that will help us prepare for that mission. For general training though, we have difficulty levels. I never train on levels lower than eleven unless working with someone new. For you, we will start with level three and then work your way up until you feel comfortable."
The room shimmered like a rainbow as it seemed to be replaced by a destroyed cityscape. There were apartment buildings in each direction, but they looked as if they had come under attack by a carpet bombing. The street was scorched and shattered and littered with glass. There were several burned out wreckages of personal vehicles on the side of the road and a overturned container truck barring passage to one end of the street. In the other direction was a blond haired punk. He was wearing ripped jeans, a spiked leather jacket and gloves, and a pair of thin wraparound shades. His form was thin and lanky, obviously a speed fighter rather than relying on strength or agility.
"'ello lil lady. Wassay we 'av a lil fun," the blond said with a smirk before snapping his fingers.
A faint hum like that of a powerful electric field was enough warning for X-23 to dive out of the way as a small yellow globe the size of a marble leapt from the man's finger's and launched itself through where she had been before fizzling against the concrete. It had only been a warning shot. The humming sound returned and she could see him holding out his hand and gathering energy. The projectile seemed to be a small white marble that contained the majority of the energy surrounded by a halo of yellow which was what her opponent seemed to grip.
"'ere catch!" he threw the yellow sphere and it flew straight as if it were a laser though nowhere near as fast.
X-23 dodged again, though with much more grace. The ball whizzed by her and struck one of the burned out cars. The car was rocked by the impact. She now knew where all the scorch marks supposedly came from. She released her claws and began evasive action as the thrower began alternating hands to maintain a steady stream of attacks. She steadily maneuvered closer, then jammed her claws into the ground. A spray of glass and gravel impacted an orb of energy as it was leaving her opponent's hand, causing him to be caught in his own attack. She never gave him an opportunity to recover before her claws decapitated him.
Naruto was doing a rather impressive imitation of Spider-Man as he scaled Stark Tower from the outside. His cheek remained pressed against the mirrored glass as he tried to peer through and catch a glimpse of Iron Man wherever he was. He was near the top when suddenly the mirroring disappeared and the glass became perfectly transparent. There were a few people inside. Some were seated on comfy looking leather seats. Some were walking with a purpose. Two caught his immediate attention. One was a black haired man and the other was a red haired woman. The black haired man caught his gaze then pointed upwards. Naruto glanced up. Since there were no other entrances, the man obviously wanted him on the roof. He grinned, gave the man a thumbs up to show he got the message, then began to climb with purpose.
Naruto stood at the highest point of the roof. He figured that he would be able to see and greet or evade his welcoming party from here regardless of where they appeared from. He was alerted by the click and swoosh of a door that led out to an area that had a raised metal platform marked with a circle with an 'H' in the center. Naruto scaled down the wall, checking for hidden guards. Just as Naruto was peeking into the door behind the man, he let out a piercing whistle.
"Gah!" Startled, Naruto lost his grip and fell face first into the ground. Naruto rolled over and looked up into the faces of the two that had directed him to the roof.
"And thus dies the legend of the ninja's infamous agility," the man chuckled.
Naruto arched his back, pushing himself up into a one-handed hand stand, then cartwheeled back to his feet. "I was being checking for trap. Is not expecting you make that noise." Naruto rubbed the back of his head with an embarrassed smile. "I is being Naruto Uzumaki. I is here for seeing Iron Man."
"I'm Tony Stark, owner of this company, and pilot of the Iron Man armor."
"You is Iron Man?" Naruto asked.
"Did you expect me to wear the armor all the time?" Tony replied.
Naruto opened his mouth to answer but thought better of it.
"And, I am Pepper Potts, the person who manages his company and schedule and whom he forgot to mention anything about you to." The redhead elbowed Tony in the ribs.
"Yeah, sorry about that. By the way, any suggestions about the security since you seemed to get past the entrance so easily?"
"Is only one door. If is open by person who go in or out, any person can go in or out. If use two door and only one can open you is not having people running past." Naruto held out the security pass he had taken. "Man who is control doors is too close to door. If I kill him, is no alarm."
Pepper Potts typed notes into her tablet.
"You'll find it much harder to break in next time," Tony assured him.
"Get in is not hard. Get in with no break and no hurt is hard. I can just break wall and guard, go through hole, break doors, climb walls, break windows, explode guards. Is not hard, is I not want to do it."
Tony took the guard's id and tossed it to Pepper. "We shall see if it will be as easy as you say it is. I intend to determine the full capabilities of this chakra of yours and hopefully how to replicate it or its properties."
Tony lead Naruto inside, taking a different route than Pepper who had to deal with the day to day minutia of the company and return the id badge to its rightful holder. They went down a few levels on a spiraling metal staircase and came to a room filled with equipment. The primary pieces of equipment seemed to be a large multi-jointed mobile manipulator arm which looked like it could use one of many attachments that hung on one of the walls, a large computer with a three dimensional holographic display, and a platform which currently held the Iron Man Armor.
"Store Mark IV Armor," Tony ordered, "The computer has voice recognition software and has a program of my own design to help me with my usual tasks in the lab," he explained as the platform opened and the armor disappeared. "Now go stand in the middle of the platform and hold still while I take a baseline scan."
Naruto did as instructed. The manipulator arm began selecting attachments and one by one pointed them at every nook and cranny of his body. Some emitted colored light. Some hummed. Some made his hair stand up on end. Some didn't seem to do anything. Many made Tony make interested grunts. Eventually that stage of testing was over.
"So what type of weapons did you need?" Tony asked, not revealing anything he had learned with his initial scans.
"Most important is kunai. Is strong knife used for defense and attack against weapons and for attaching explosive tags and for throwing."
Tony brought up an image on the holographic monitor. "Something like this?"
Naruto nodded. "Then is shuriken, they-" He didn't have time to explain before a shuriken appeared next to the kunai. "Ninja wire, wire thin as hair but very very strong. One strand can carry weight of three large men. Can also channel chakra." A spool of hair-thin wire appeared next to the shuriken. "Next is fuuma shuriken. Is shuriken with blade as long as arm. Has hole in center for holding. Folds around center until like one blade with ring on end for close range and storage."
This time, Tony was not able to pull an image from the internet and had to spend a few minutes making a rudimentary design.
"What about swords, or spears, or chain-sickles?" Tony asked.
"I is not knowing how to use and is no having teacher. Is waste to make if I no really like to make own style. I is seeing other ninja use, but I is only ninja here from my world."
"Okay, I will let the computer discover optimal designs for those while we begin to test your chakra."
"I is having information from Dr. Strange's tests. Is you wanting to make copy of that?" Naruto asked, offering the bundle of paper to Tony.
"I won't really trust it since I don't understand how it works, but I can use it as a secondary source," Tony agreed. He took the papers and placed them on the surface of the holographic projector. With a small flash of light, the information was copied to the display. "Now, back to the platform with you."
"Hai!" Naruto gathered his papers and returned to his spot as the mechanical arm selected a tool.
"Now release some of this chakra and we'll see how it can be detected."
Naruto formed a ram seal, causing his chakra to billow out in a visible haze due to his massive reserves. The mechanical arm began its work.
"While that's going, tell me about chakra, what it is, how you learn to use it, how you control it, what can be done with it, different techniques you've seen or heard about that use chakra."
"Chakra is energy for living. All life is needing chakra. Even you is having chakra even if is only little chakra. Chakra is made with energy from body, from exercise, and energy from mind, from thinking. Chakra is made by body, is no thing I do."
"If that is the case, then why would you have so much while I have so little?" Tony asked.
"There is inside, like for blood, where chakra is. If is full, no more chakra is made. When you is little, chakra is soft, can stretch with training. If you keep training, it stay soft and keep stretching and get big and get more chakra. If you is no train, chakra is becoming hard and stretching is can kill you, so chakra is staying small."
"So, use it or lose it deal. You need to start as a kid. What is the oldest you could possibly start training before it became dangerous?"
Naruto shrugged. "I is no seeing any who is more than eight in academy, but I is knowing of really weak ninjas from other places who is starting later. Earlier is better. Most of famous ninjas start before four years, but not done often because many are becoming insane. My sensei was chunin by six years, is middle rank ninja."
"That may be why we never really discovered chakra the way your world has. We don't really approve of having kids fight."
"Is no only for fight, but is fun part," Naruto grinned, "Is used for farming, for preparing fields with earth jutsu or bringing rain with water jutsu. Is used for tool making with fire and seals, but is only retired shinobi who is using for this. We is no teaching to civilians because is too dangerous. Most jutsu is for military purposes. They is more fun to make."
"I'll admit that blowing things up is both exciting and satisfying, but I also enjoy doing a good deed or two every one in a while," Tony said, "Why don't you tell me about some of the different types of jutsu there are."
"The first jutsu type is taijutsu. Is mostly normal fighting. Is using chakra to make skin harder, make muscles stronger and faster, and is sometimes making other things happen. Is clan in Konoha with taijutsu where is using chakra to turn off chakra or kill or break organs with soft touch. Is very dangerous. Tsunade is making very strong. She punch and big hole is made in ground. She is knocking over castle once.
"Next is ninjutsu. Most jutsu are ninjutsu. Is using chakra to do something. Can control elements, earth, fire, wind, water, and lightning. Can replace self with nearby objects. Can shape chakra into weapon or projectile. Is can do... a lot.
"Next is genjutsu. Is putting chakra in area or in target head to make illusion. I is no can do. Too much chakra is making me having too small control.
"Those are main jutsu types, but there are special types as well. Irou Jutsu can heal most damage. I is even seeing someone dead being revived, but the jutsu is taking the life of the user. Fuuinjutsu is using chakra and ink to make jutsu. Is writing out effect in special way, then activating to have effect occur. Kuchiyose Jutsu, makes user to summon creature or object with special contract.
"Then there are kekkei genkai, is like mutant but all same in family and is having special jutsu for using ability. There are many type of kekkei genkai. Most famous is doujutsu, abilities in eyes. I is knowing of two doujutsu. One is byakugan. When is used can see all around and inside and can see chakra. The other is sharingan. When is used, allows perfect copy of skills seen and know what opponent is about to do. Another type of kekkei genkai is special bodies. I is fighting one person, he is able to control bones. He is taking his bones out and using as weapons." Naruto shuddered in revulsion. "Another type is special chakra. Some are able to be mixing elements for creating different elements. The first hokage is mixing water and earth to create wood."
"Okay. On to the materials test," Tony said, beckoning Naruto over to a table that had a pile of rectangular material samples piled up. "Take each of these, and take them apart like this." Tony pulled and the rectangle split into two squares. "You stick one half in this spot on the conveyor belt as the control sample." Tony put one of the squares in a indentation on a conveyor belt that lead into the wall. "And you put your chakra into the other before putting it into the other hole." Tony handed the square to Naruto. Naruto pushed his chakra into the cold beige material. The surface began to crumble under his fingers. "Even if it turns to dust, put as much as you can into the receptacle and try not to mix things."
"Is looking easy enough," Naruto said, creating three clones and setting them to work.
Tony looked like he was going to say something about this, then decided against it.
"Ah..." Naruto looked at Tony nervously. "I is having another chakra. Is no natural. Is poisonous to human. I is only live because I get when I is born. Is you wanting to test? Maybe is doing damage to tools..."
"I can always build new ones," Tony said, "Anyway, I love challenges. Besides, this will give me more data to work with. Back on the platform and bring out this second chakra!"
Naruto complied, looking at tony nervously before his whisker marks darkened, his eyes turned red, and a red transparent tail swished behind him. A sense of dread and killing intent emanated from him, though it did not match his expression.
"That is intense kid."
"Is chakra from demon," Naruto explain, "Can no kill, can only seal with fuuinjutsu. When it is attacking, it is sealed in me."
"I bet people probably treated you pretty badly back in you home world," Tony said, receiving a confirming nod from Naruto, "It's not a matter of where the power comes from, it's how you use it that matters. Did you know that this used to be a weapons company? I don't actually allow my company to make weapons except for very special orders for people I know personally."
One of the instruments melted and sparks began to flare violently before the arm moved away from Naruto.
"Weapons used to be our primary business, now we focus on energy and technology. We changed because one day I was visiting a war zone where one of our new missiles was being demonstrated and I got a first hand demonstration of my own weapons. It turned out that we had been selling weapons to both sides of the war and I didn't even realize it. I was captured and ordered to make weapons that would be used to attack schools, hospitals and other soft targets. I didn't have any choice but to do what they said, so I began to work. What they didn't realize is that I wasn't building any sort of missile but the first generation of the Iron Man armor that I used to escape. After that I immediately stopped making weapons for others and started using my armors to stop the weapons I'd made in the past from hurting any more innocent people. Without my company to supply weapons, the war ended soon after and after a bit of a rough patch, I began making even more money with humanitarian technologies than I ever did with weapons.
"And it looks like we're done. I'd say you were wrong about that chakra being poisonous, it's more corrosive. There aren't many materials that will stand up to that. I'll get another box of samples delivered up here once you're finished with the other ones."
Tony took Naruto to the back of the room where a bunch of plates were anchored in frames. "These are different types of armored plating. I want you to use your spinning ball thing and try to put a hole in each of them. We'll see how fast you are able to do it and how much pressure you exert if you're able to get through them at all. Start at the first one."
Naruto formed a rasengan. The metal plate sheared away with little effort.
"Steel is almost useless," Tony noted. Naruto continued along the line, able to grind through all but two materials with varying degrees of effort. "I didn't expect you to break these two. This one is vibranium. It will disperse almost all energy attacks. The only thing that has proven to be effective is gamma radiation which makes it brittle and vulnerable to other attacks. The other is adamantium, true adamantium, not that cheap beta stuff, the same stuff your bones are coated with for some reason. True adamantium is basically indestructible even if it is bent with powerful magnetic fields it will snap back into place once released. How did you get an adamantium skeleton anyway?"
"When I is coming here I is injured and Wolverine is escaping. I is in bad spot and is captured. I is waking in tub with metal bones and many tubes of dead people. Only one other survived. We is escaping and Dr. Strange is finding us."
"Not many people know how to make adamantium or have the resources to acquire the materials needed to create it."
"Is not making now. I is exploding mountain." Naruto grinned.
"For people like this, that may not be enough to stop them," Tony said, "But on to more relevant subjects, can you get through those using the other chakra?"
Naruto summoned his demonic chakra and formed a rasengan. The vibranium shuddered for a moment before it exploded and disintegrated like sand under the attack.
"Congratulations. You've found a second weakness to vibranium," Tony said, "and cost me about half a million dollars, but that is not really that important. Try the adamantium."
The adamantium shuddered under the attack but held firm.
Level six really did not seem significantly harder than level three to X-23. She was in some sort of retail location. The scenario had started with a crowd, but it had dispersed when the three opponents had made their move.
One was a blond girl with a bob cut and a miniskirt over leggings that seemed to have some sort of mobility enhancement. She could bounce around like a kangaroo while performing spins and flips that would make any gymnast or ballerina jealous. Her kicks were quite powerful, but really seemed to have no fighting instinct at all.
The second was a feral boy. He had claws, but they didn't compare to hers and he did not have any healing factor or other physical enhancements. He attacked, swiping like a wild animal, completely ignoring defense. He was easy to deal with.
The third had a weak elemental ability. He had wild blond hair that spiked out as he charged his hands with electricity. He was a defensive fighter, attempting to paralyze her while she was distracted by the other two.
It was foolish of the three of them to reveal their abilities scaring the civilians. The feral boy came at her first, swiping wildly with his claws, trying to distract her from the fact that that ballerina was about to bring a kick down upon her head while the electric kid was sneaking up behind her in an attempt to finish her off. She could see the flaws in their attack plan easily.
The feral boy ignored his footing and thus didn't consider attacks to his legs. She bent at the knee and slammed her heel into the boy's ankle which cracked and twisted with the impact. He was using large arcing swipes, so they easily flew over her lowered height, but were just slow enough for his fall from his broken ankle to put one into her grasp. She spun and threw him as she kicked off the ground. The electric boy had just been standing there waiting for her to be pushed into him but received his partner instead. Now the acrobatic girl was coming down with a kick where she used to be. Without her there to receive the kick, the girl stumbled backwards on her landing, right into X-23's arms. With a quick jerk, the girl's neck was broken. X-23 walked forward to where the electric boy was still gasping for breath after having the feral boy thrown into him. She brought her boot down on his face and ended the simulation.
"Too easy. I did not even use any of my abilities," X-23 scoffed.
"As the levels get higher, the number and skill level of your opponents will increase. I've never gotten past level thirty where there are usually multiple omega level threats, people capable of leveling cities on their own or with immeasurable limits," Logan explained, "But if you get a bad draw against an omega level, you're not going to win because they will completely shut you down without even trying. Fortunately, omega levels don't start showing up until at least level twenty."
"At least crank it up to where I have to try," X-23 said.
"As you wish," Logan said as the scene changed to a train yard, "Enjoy level nine."
The first thing she noticed was that tanker cars were overly common in this train yard. The next was a hissing before she needed to dive out of the way. Hot gravel was launched into her face by a glowing something. She quickly dove between two cars and climbed a ladder to get a view of her opponent. She lay down on top of a box car, not wanting to be on a tanker if she was attacked by that burning thing again. The terrain was definitely against her. Peeking over the edge, she saw a teenager with red hair and a cut off leather jacket and shorts. It struck her as odd that he walked around bare foot, but he seemed used to it and did not flinch from the gravel and detritus. She could tell from the smirk on his face that he was the type to enjoy the hunt. A small rat made its way into view. At the sound, the boy spun, lashing out with his arm. Energy like a solar flare wreathed his arm and extended like a whip, turning the rat into a charred husk. He had good reflexes and a killer instinct, and based on his clothes, he could make those flares from any limb. Perhaps he would be a challenge.
The fist step to designing a proper kunai was to get the weights and balances right, so Naruto was understandably confused when his kunai looked like hammers, though no other kunai had fit his hand like these did.
"When we initially scanned you, we scanned your hands as well, so they are literally made to fit your hand. What we're checking for here is weight and balance. I want you close your eyes and go through the motions of throwing and fighting with each one and figure out which ones fit each actions best."
Naruto did just that. He would perform the movements for a slash each direction, a stab, a cross block, and a throw. When he was done, he had narrowed it down to three. One was good for throwing. One was good for fighting, and one was a good balance for doing either.
Next, Naruto watched as lasers cut out several new kunai from a block of iron with different lengths and thicknesses. The process was repeated twice more.
"The first set is the type you said would be good for throwing," Tony said, "So throw them and figure out which you like best."
It took a few tries, but some were quickly eliminated. He found he did the best with one that was fairly long and thin, but still hefty enough to fly straight.
With the second set, the balanced set, he found himself choosing a shape that almost exactly matched the Konoha standard. He supposed that they had a reason for making them the way they did since it seemed to work well.
The third set, the ones preferred for melee combat, he actually found he preferred thick and heavy kunai. They were almost as long as his forearm and almost as thick as his wrist. They could probably stand up to a sword built that sturdily.
Once this selection had been made, the fabricator went to work again making another set. These had different blade shapes meant to optimize different aspects. He didn't deviate from the standard diamond blade shape, despite the other options, though he chose a slightly flatter option for the throwing kunai which increased his range and accuracy a bit, though it lost sticking power.
X-23 raced through an urban environment built on the side of a mountain. Her primary opponent at level fifteen seemed to be a man with cybernetic enhancements and military training. He was strong, fast and skilled, but not really much of a threat to her on his own. The real difficulty was that he has a small army of semi-skilled allies that attacked from a distance with small arms, using their numbers to give each other a chance to escape whenever she got too close. She had already taken down a few of the weaker opponents, but that had been at the beginning before they had become organized. Now, she had to focus on their leader or else he kept setting traps and battlefields that favored him. She just needed to get close enough to him that his allies wouldn't risk firing, then it would be a simple matter of cleaning up the ones that remained.
The first set of shuriken Naruto tested for size were disks. For shuriken size, fit to the hand was more important than anything else. Naruto tried a few that were similar in size and selected one that felt the best when throwing. The next set had differing numbers of points from three to twelve and one retaining the circular design. Naruto choose the four pointed star. The next set chose the size of the hole in the center that could be used to wrap wire. Then he chose how deep the points went. He choose a hole large enough for a single finger to pass through with the breadth of a single finger between the hole and the spikes. The final choice was the shape of the points. Naruto chose a shape that resembled waves washing over the spin. It would give his shuriken a small curve in their flight, but more bite when they hit.
X-23 was finding that level seventeen was a challenge. Her opponent had strong telekinetic abilities and a minor healing factor. Whenever she got close, her opponent would just use her power to blast her away. They were in a wide open area, so she could not use subterfuge to get close enough to deal critical damage with her claws. She had been trying to defeat this opponent for almost an hour and they had just been standing there on the defensive whenever she got close.
"Need a pointer?" Wolverine asked, chuckling as she got blasted away again.
X-23 growled and charged in a berserker rage, knowing that it would be no different than her last attack.
"Psychic type abilities require their users to focus. If you distract them, give them a bump on the head, or just keep their mind off you, they can't use their powers against you. Even the professor either focuses on one person or uses his abilities on everyone. The only time I've seen psychic type abilities multitasking is when they are moving multiple objects to the same goal."
X-23 knew what to do. Naruto would have just used clones, but she was sure she could rig up a simple catapult and, along with an armload of rocks, it would be enough to serve her purposes.
Naruto held a three bladed shuriken with swept back blades as long as his arm. He had found that fewer blades was better with the fuuma and that the back curved blades increased the slashing power. This one did not have a folding mechanism since it was not possible to built with the simple laser cutting fabrication method they were using for the prototypes and Tony wanted to do more work on it so that the blades would be even when they released while holding solidly in place.
X-23 finished recovering from level nineteen. She had faced three strong, highly skilled opponents. It had been an exhilarating battle.
"I am prepared for level twenty!" she announced, her usual flat tone was now charged with excitement.
"I'm not so sure that is the best idea. Level nineteen seemed to give you quite a challenge. Level twenty might push you too far for now," Wolverine suggested.
"I can handle it. Besides, this cannot kill me because of the safety protocols," X-23 insisted.
"Fine, but don't complain if you get something you can't handle."
X-23 was faced with a barren apocalyptic landscape. The scraps of civilization could be seen with half buried girders and scrap metal jutting from the dirt. Floating in front of her was a man in red body armor and a purple cape. She suddenly felt a tingling sensation then cries out as her limbs snap out and are held straight as if crucified.
"Just like Logan. Interesting," a man's voice came from under the shadows of the helmet he wore.
She saw him twirl his finger and her body spun in place like a ballerina. Her arms snapped down to her sides and she floated over to the man. She growled helplessly but the man only chuckled. She couldn't even move her jaw to curse him. She could see he was just an old man, but he seemed to have some kind of control over her. She understood when the metal girders tore themselves from the ground and formed themselves into a throne for the man and he lightly perched on the edge of it.
"Now what to do with you? I wonder?" The man asked.
Her claws began to snake their way out against her will. Her claw moved up under her chin, then the simulation paused and she fell to the ground and regained full control of her body.
"That was Eric Lehnsherr, also known as Magneto. He is an omega level mutant, and the only one programmed into this room that I have never beaten. Because of the metal in our bones, we can't hide from him and once he decides we're worth paying attention to, we're completely at his mercy because we don't have any energy projection abilities. Even if we did, he is very good at using the metal around him to defend himself and that helmet protects him from all mental attacks. He can even use the iron in a person's blood to attack them."
Ninja wire was the toughest challenge. It needed to be as flexible as string, yet without sag when strung. It needed to be strong enough to hold people with superhuman strength, but be easily cut to length with even a dull blade. It needed all this while being as fine as human hair.
"I don't see how this is possible," Tony said, "There isn't any material with these properties. How do they make this in your world?"
"I think they is putting chakra inside and is making all straight and strong when stretching."
"So it takes some special form like carbon nanotubes but with steel," Tony postulated.
"If is no possible for one wire, can make strong wire and hidden wire. In Konoha is many sizes, but most use only one because is good enough."
"That might be the only way unless you wanted to upgrade to more high tech solutions."
"No, is good. Is simple, but is many ways to use," Naruto said.
"Then, I should have a battle-ready weapon ready for you in a week. And, once you get some money, I can start making some of these other ninja tools for you. And now Pepper will know that you know me and will make sure you don't have to work so hard for an appointment."
Naruto sighed. "Is not so easy. Where can I go for pay to be fighting?"
"Your best chance would be to find a bunch of rich people and offer your services as a bodyguard. I could certainly use someone of your talents a few times a month. With your clones, you could probably handle the security for an entire event rather than hiring a large team. I could also use them as test subjects for new technologies to make sure they are safe for people to use."
"X-23 could be helping too. She is having all powers of wolverine. Is having metal bones and claws and heals very fast. Is knowing about weapons and technology that I is not."
"I'm sure the two of you make a fine team," Tony agreed.
Naruto returned to the sanctum to find X-23 already resting on the couch of the living room. She looked satisfied, though not exhausted. Her stamina matched or perhaps even exceeded his own.
"Your day is good?" Naruto asked.
"It was a challenge," X-23 said, "The danger room creates very realistic scenarios and opponents. It did not become boring nor repetitive."
"Tony Stark is making weapon for me," Naruto said, "He is also saying he maybe ask me for doing protecting and testing missions for money and maybe you too."
"A job that matches our skills would be desirable," X-23 agreed, "As well as money to spend on additional equipment and perhaps some luxury items."