Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Mega Man Zero.

Dreams about the Past

"Naruto…"

"Don't talk, Sasuke!" Naruto cried out. "We'll figure out how to heal you! Sakura-chan is one of the greatest medics in the world. She can heal anything!"

Despite his words, Naruto knew it was hopeless when he saw Sakura weeping uncontrollably next to him as she continued to pump chakra into Sasuke's. Sakura-chan, you really love him, don't you? Naruto noted sadly.

"Idiot…" Sasuke coughed out. "You're such a horrible ninja. You can't even manage to tell a lie properly." Sasuke chuckled. "Look, I don't have much time...so…before I die…I want to leave my will behind…"

"Can it, Sasuke! Don't you give up! Don't you dare die! We'll be Team 7 again and everything will go back to how it should be! You don't have the right to take that hope away from us!"

Naruto stood in front of Sasuke's grave, the first time since Sasuke's death and funeral. Despite his crimes, the villagers had given him a hero's burial once they heard about his contributions in the war.

Naruto shook his head. In the end, the villagers were looking for any excuse to forgive the last Uchiha.

"You're such a bastard…" Naruto muttered. "You've had everything anyone could want in life and you consistently chose to toss it away for something as empty as revenge." Naruto sighed. "It's not like I can't understand. When Ero-sennin died, I was raving for revenge, too. But the thought eats away at your soul and consumes you…"

Naruto looked up to think about the aftermath of the war. There was finally widespread peace and understanding between the villages…at least for now…but the cost…

Over fifty percent of all active ninjas had been killed in the war and another twenty percent were permanently scarred in some manner. Of Team 7, Naruto had been the only one to survive. He wondered if this was how Kakashi had felt after Naruto's father had passed away…

Completely alone…

"Sakura-chan really loved you, you know," Naruto informed his dead friend. "She went crazy a week after your death and committed suicide."

Another casualty of the war…

"I think I'm old and mature enough," Naruto smiled briefly at the thought—no one would ever admit that he was truly mature, "to say that I loved her dearly. I'm not entirely sure why I did, but ever since I saw her in the Academy, how she struggled to fit in and worked hard to improve herself, I think I fell in love." Naruto sighed again. "Like I said, you had everything anyone could want…everything I wanted in life. Couldn't you have treasured it a bit more?"

Naruto turned around to walk away from the grave. He briefly considered visiting Sakura's grave as well, but shook his head. He had to move on. It had been three weeks since she died, but her death still weighed heavily on his heart. Until he was able to give up his feelings for her, he wasn't going to visit her grave.

She was really never Naruto's and he had no more desire to delude himself with fantasies of what could have been. Not when the girl was dead for good.

"I'll see you later, Sasuke."

Naruto snuck into the subway that the delivery Reploid had disappeared into. He maintained as much distance as he could afford between him and the delivery Reploid in an attempt to remain undetected.

Naruto cursed when he saw the delivery Reploid hop onto a circular platform and disappear downward, no doubt to a lower level were the train was stationed.

Naruto paused as he tried to think of a plan. There was no way he could follow the same path that DR-31 just took; Naruto didn't have any sort of identification that would allow him to bypass the security system on the lift. He looked around. The only way down seemed to be through a metallic doorframe located in a wall at the end of the room. It most likely was a roundabout way to where DR-31 was headed towards, but Naruto didn't have any other options.

He quickly passed through the metallic doorframe to access the ladder just beyond the entrance.

Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert! Unauthorized Personnel Detected!

"Crap!" Naruto groaned. Clearly, the motion scanner—which was what the doorframe apparently was—wasn't fooled by the Touton Jutsu like the built-in scanners that the Pantheons had. "I hate technology! It renders so many of my stealth techniques useless."

There was nothing he could do to change that though. Everything in his past revolved around chakra usage. Barriers were designed to detect and repel chakra. Restraints involved sapping people of chakra.

In this world, however, it seemed everything involved around digital communication and actual physics. Pantheons had tools that allowed them to communicate digitally with other Pantheons. Restricted places had motion sensor detectors. Barriers involved actually physically preventing access.

Naruto broke out into a run and jumped down the ladder, knowing he was now on borrowed time. DR-31 was probably rushing for the train now while enemies tried to slow Naruto down. It also didn't help that DR-31 had a more direct route to the train. Naruto wouldn't be surprised if the Reploid had already arrived to where the train was by now.

Landing in a crouch, Naruto leapt forward and slashed a bat-like Reploid that had come down to bite him with an energy kunai. Naruto didn't even flinch as the two pieces of the bat Reploid blew up in a small burst of energy.

He jumped over a couple Reploids on wheel that had raced towards him in an effort to run him over and destroyed them with two well-aimed energy shuriken. He didn't even bother to pick the energy shuriken back up and raced forward. Time was of essence here, so he couldn't be worried about supplies no matter how expensive they were.

Naruto kicked off the next wheeled Reploid and slashed through another one with his energy kunai, not even flinching when red fluid spurted out.

A couple more body flickers took him into a thicket of Pantheons, which Naruto cleared using a couple of wind strikes.

"Fuuton: Reppuu (Wind Release: Gale)!"

Choo! Choo!

Naruto swore as he slashed through several green vehicle-like Reploids equipped with busters as turrets. DR-31 had already made it to the train.

"That must be the damn train starting up! I don't have time for this!" Naruto was stringing together body flickers one after another, something only a few people in time were able to do, but he still wasn't making enough progress. He put away his kunai and flashed his hands through seals. "Fuuton: Fuujin Seigaifu (Wind Release: Holy Shroud of the Wind God)!"

The air instantly whipped around Naruto and sliced the dozen bat-like Gli-Eyes that attacked him. He wasn't at all fazed as metal bits fell around him.

Naruto race forward at much faster speeds than even what his body flicker allowed, ignoring any of the Reploids that got close to him as they were instantly shredded by the violent winds wrapping around his body. This technique wasn't completely finished—he just started working on it after the battle with Aztec Falcon—and the jutsu literally burned chakra, but Naruto was out of options. He couldn't let that train go leave without him and this was the only way he could speed himself up. Naruto was significantly stronger than the B-rank Aztec Falcon, but he didn't want to take any chances with the legendary S-ranked X. Anything that was going to make X stronger wasn't good. So getting that Cyber-Elf was crucial.

Boom!

Naruto paid no heed to the door he just burst through—Naruto briefly was reminded of a large dark man from Kumogakure whose name he couldn't quite remember who did the same thing regularly—and kept moving towards where he heard the train.

Choo! Choo! Choo!

Naruto's instinct screamed at him and he jumped back just in time to avoid a heavy spiked metal ball.

"Tch!" He had been so engrossed in catching up with the train that he hadn't even sensed the enemy's attack. The spike was made of extremely dense metal and wouldn't be completely sliced up be the sharp winds surrounding him. Nor would the winds be sufficient enough to repel the heavy metal ball. If he had taken a direct hit, Naruto might have been hurt regardless of his wind shroud.

Fortunately, there was a much simpler solution than whittling away at the spike itself. Naruto dodged the spike again and simply swiped his wind-coated hand to cut off the chain holding the spiked metal ball to the Reploid.

Sometimes it was just best to avoid facing problems head-on and cut away at it from another direction.

He rushed forward, slipping between the buster bullets that the enemy fired. The buster shots were fast, but Naruto was even faster in this form.

"Die!" Naruto slammed his fist into Reploid's chest.

His eyes widened when the Reploid only slammed backward, hit the ground, and slowly started lifting itself back up. Naruto had managed the pierce the Reploid's armor, but it seemed like the Reploid was still alive and functioning. Naruto jumped in the air, twisted his body around, and slammed his foot onto the Reploid's head. The Reploid's "head" went flying, but once again, the Reploid's body only fell backwards and began lifting itself again.

The Reploid still was alive and functional, even without its head.

Damn it! I hate these Reploids. I always have to search for a damn weak point.

His eyes zoomed in on the orange core at the bottom of the Reploid as the Reploid started firing dozens buster shots in all directions. That must be the core. Strange design, but I suppose it bought the Reploid a few extra seconds.

Naruto leapt up and ignored the buster shots that were being partially deflected by his wind shroud. He wasted enough time as it is and with his wind armor, he wouldn't die if he got hit once or twice.

His fist punched through the core, leading to a small explosion.

Boom!

Choo! Choo! Choo! Choo!

Without even bothering to look at the remnants of the dead Reploid, Naruto barreled through the door on the other side of the room and managed to jump on the red train just as it left.

Letting out a relieved sigh, Naruto deactivated his wind technique and made the sign for a shadow clone to summon and dispel one to alert the one guarding Ciel. "Ciel-chan's not going to be happy when she find out that I'm gone."

Ciel looked at the clone half in worry and half in frustration. Her blond ninja friend from the past somehow seemed to find trouble even on what was essentially supposed to be a nice day-trip. "Naruto, transport trains are almost always guarded by dozens of Reploids. And usually the engine core itself is merged with a heavily modified Pantheon or protected by an elite combat Reploid. You won't be able to reach the train operator unless you destroy the engine core itself. That won't be an easy task. You need to dispel and alert him!"

Naruto had told her how his clones work and she knew that the knowledge that any particular clone gained was spread amongst the original and remaining clones (if applicable) once the particular clone was dispelled.

The clone frowned. "I can't do that. My job is to protect you."

"Then make another clone and have it dispel!" she urged.

"The clone shook his head. "I can't do that either. The Kage Bunshin no Jutsu divides the user's chakra even among the clones. Normally, that's not an issue because Boss has so much chakra. But the technique Boss used to reach the train in time ate up most of his chakra. Moreover, he already fought what he believes is a D- or C-rank Reploid guarding the gate where the train had been. In the past, Boss had a…well…umm…a secondary source of chakra to reach into during emergencies but he doesn't have it anymore. He has to be much more conscious of how he spends energy now. So creating an extra clone, even if it will be quickly dispelled, will only waste valuable energy. Right now, it's already bad enough that Boss is splitting his small pool of chakra between him and me. If what you're saying about transport trains are true, then every drop of chakra could be important."

She looked at him with grave concern. "How much chakra does Naruto have right now?"

The clone grimaced. "He spent about five minutes with that experimental jutsu activated. That thing guzzles chakra. Along with a few of the other techniques he used, he probably has about twenty to thirty percent left. He's splitting that twenty to thirty percent with me right now…so…"

Ciel didn't even need to do mental calculations in her head to know that Naruto was working with dangerously low levels of chakra. Normally, having ten to fifteen percent of total energy wasn't dangerous, but entering a battle with such low levels were potentially fatal.

"Ten to fifteen percent!? That's crazy! Why was Naruto being so reckless?! Using up more than three-fourths of your body's energy is extremely risky! And before a battle?!" Ciel gripped the clone's wrist. The clone looked rather surprised that she was being forceful, but Ciel didn't care. Her heart was gripped with worry. "And functionally, he only has half that because of you? You need to dispel! Now!"

Ciel was half-tempted to slug the clone in the face to force him to dispel. The only reason she didn't was because she knew that the clone was still stronger than her and would barely feel the hit.

The clone shook his head and swept her into his arms. Ciel didn't even argue as the clone started leaping towards where their ride was waiting for them.

At this point, there was no use trying to convince Naruto's clone otherwise. It was just as stubborn as the original Naruto.

"Not until I get you to safety. Boss recovers pretty quickly so he should be slowly gaining chakra as he makes it to the first car of the train. And by then…by the time he fights the engine core or powerful Reploid guarding the train, he'll have what's left in my reserves since I'll have dispelled by then. Don't struggle and I won't have to expel more chakra than I need to; I just need to get you back to the car."

Ciel could see the logic in that. So, Naruto hadn't just gone and done something suicidal like she feared. "But why is he so low on energy? Surely he could have been more judicious about how he used his energy!"

"No, there was no other choice. The technique Boss used increased his speed threefold and lets him disregard almost any attack. Even with it on, he only barely made it," the clone sighed. "Look, you're just going to have to trust him. Even with the little chakra he currently, he has more than enough to fight with. Even with only ten percent, he could take down elite ninjas in the past. It's true that he can't be as wasteful with his chakra and toss out huge techniques like it's candy, but it should be more than enough to take out even someone like Aztec Falcon. So as long as there's no one higher than a B-rank guarding that train, Boss should be fine."

Ciel nodded. She wasn't happy, but there was nothing she could do at this point except wait for him back at the base. At the very least, Naruto had the foresight to keep a portable Trans Server with him all the time.

Over the years fighting a nearly hopeless war, Ciel had become an expert at looking for and finding the silver lining in every bad situation.

"Crap!" Naruto jumped off the top of the train to avoid the charging armored Pantheon Warrior. Quickly channeling chakra into his hands, he latched onto the side of the train before kicking off to jump back on top of the train. "Take this, you bastard."

Naruto slammed a fist into the Pantheon Warrior's head, one of the few areas where it wasn't armored. Taking his buster, he fired several shots into the Reploid's back and jumped away as it died in a small burst of energy.

Naruto looked distastefully at his buster as he shot down the next armored Pantheon Warrior with impeccable aim. The Reploid hadn't had the time to raise its armored arms to protect its vulnerable head and fell off the train from the blows.

It was the first time Naruto used his buster in battle and he really didn't like the weapon all that much. For one thing, ranged battle wasn't Naruto's cup of tea to begin with. He preferred punching and kicking with his fists and feet with the occasional kunai to slash through anything his fists couldn't destroy. If he needed ranged attacks, Naruto would use shuriken or mid-ranged ninjutsu. Something like a buster required far too little movement to cause damage for his liking.

More importantly, however, Naruto didn't like the fact that shots from busters were too linear. That made it far too easy for opponents to dodge or block and too hard for Naruto to manipulate. Shuriken curved in the air and could be knocked in or out of course, making them more unpredictable in battle, even if they were slower than buster shots.

Naruto slammed a chakra-enhanced fist into another Pantheon Warrior's head.

He wasn't particularly a fan of using his bastardized version of…of…someone's chakra-enhanced strikes either, but he had no choice here. Reploid bodies were already far more durable than human bodies and these Reploids were even more armored than the usual.

I'm guessing that since Neo Arcadia can't necessarily overwhelm enemies with numbers on a train, they opted to increase the fighting ability and defensive power of each Reploid. But normally, it seems like they favor quantity over quality.

Naruto had to make do with what he had in this situation. He was down to a little more than a tenth of his chakra and wanted to conserve whatever energy he had left in case a strong enemy was on the train. That ruled out most of his ninjutsu. Buster shots and chakra-enhanced blows were going to be his choice of weapons for now.

Naruto slipped forward into the space between a Reploid and the spiked weapon it just slammed onto the roof of the train.

"You know," Naruto muttered as he fired a dozen shots into the Reploid's head, "I think you Reploids actually caused more damage to the train than I did."

The Reploid didn't answer and merely died in a small explosion as Naruto leapt away.

He dodged a missile from a flying Reploid that didn't have a distinguishable face or body. Naruto threw himself on the ground as the Reploid charged straight at him and flew over his body. Naruto didn't even look as he threw an energy shuriken behind him to destroy the flying Reploid before it could turn around and attack him again.

After a few more minutes of destroying enemies with his buster or knocking them off the train with a chakra-enhanced push, Naruto reached the first car. He noticed that it didn't have any windows that he could burst through. Most likely, that was by design so no one could break in. The only door present in the back of the car seemed to be a reflective surface mostly impervious to buster damage.

Sighing in resignation, he gather chakra into his palm and slammed his hand through the door to break it down. "Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere)!"

"Who are you?!"

Naruto looked at DR-31 carefully. DR-31 pretty much looked the same as all the Reploids in the Resistance except for his purple armor as opposed to green for the ones in the Resistance. In other words, DR-31 appeared to be more or less a civilian Reploid without any fighting abilities. The Reploid was standing at the opposite end of the room near a giant red ball, which probably housed the engine.

"Look," Naruto sighed, "I don't want to be here anymore than you want me to be here, so can you just give me the package you got from your friend and you can go along your merry way."

DR-31 looked at him fearfully and held the package tightly. "Y…you must b…be from that t…terrorist organization! The Resistance! I won't let you evil people have your way!"

Naruto snorted. Stupid propaganda. Neo Arcadia clearly had its citizens brainwashed if they thought the mostly harmless members of the Resistance were terrorists.

Well, whatever. It wasn't like he really expected soft diplomacy to work here.

Naruto cracked his fists.

"Well then, I'm going to have to force my own way, aren't I?" Naruto growled menacingly.

Ciel managed to race back to the car in record time, courtesy of the Naruto clone express. She had essentially been carried in the clone Naruto's arms before the clone disappeared in a puff of smoke a few meters away from where the Resistance car was waiting. She had been so worried that she hadn't even blushed once during the whole trip back. It didn't feel intimate at all when she knew that Naruto was in danger.

"Ciel-san! What's going on?!"

"Oyie!" Ciel quickly breathed out as she opened the door to the car and jumped in as quickly as she could. If they could make it back to the base quickly, they might be able to send reinforcements. "Back to the base!"

"What about Naruto-san?" the confused female Reploid protested. "What's going on here?"

"I'll explain on the way," Ciel replied. She addressed the other Reploid in the car. "Colibri, do you have the portable Trans Server with you?"

The puzzled technician nodded. "I do, but…"

She interrupted him. It was rude, but this was an emergency. "Check the location of Trans Server 1010B!"

"Isn't that Naruto-san's portable Trans Server?" Oyie asked. "Why do we need to locate him?"

Ciel nodded. "Naruto's currently on an unsanctioned mission." She bit her lips when the two other Reploids looked at her in shock. Even to her ears, that sounded pretty bad. She decided to elaborate. "Naruto overheard a couple government contractors talking about a top-secret Neo Arcadian project about a Cyber-Elf. There was no time to think about anything and he went to sabotage their plans. Given the circumstances, I think he made the right judgment."

Oyie nodded and smiled lightly. "It sounds like him to take the initiative like that."

"What?" Ciel blinked. She could have sworn she saw the Reploid blush. But that couldn't be right…a Reploid having a crush on a human was ridiculous! And what confused Ciel even more was that she felt greatly annoyed by that little revelation.

Ciel snapped out of her thoughts when she heard a blip from the portable Trans Server that Colibri had taken out.

"I got a signal. He's currently moving northeast rapidly. He must be on a transport train or plane!"

Ciel nodded grimly. "I figured as much. I had hoped that he might have been able to stop the train so we can go provide him with backup, but with the train moving at such a rapid speed, the Trans Server won't be able to lock onto his constantly shifting coordinates long enough to transfer us to his location. The larger Trans Server at our base might be able to lock on to his signal better, but I doubt it. Still, there might be a chance so we need to race back home as quickly as possible. Naruto is really low on energy and could use the help."

"Do you think we should contact him via radio?" Colibri asked worriedly. "We might be able to get a better understanding of what's going on. Moreover, we might be able to tell him to jump off the train and wait for us as we transfer ourselves there. We'd have to catch up of course, but we can transfer the car with us as well and use it to chase the train down. It won't be much, but having the four of us and a car would be better than him alone."

Ciel closed her eyes as Oyie kept driving back to the base as quickly as she could. On one hand, contacting Naruto might be a good idea so they could better instruct him on what to do. And having the four of them there together had some merit. On the other hand, talking with him might distract him from whatever fights he was in. Moreover, radio frequencies could be intercepted, leaving future missions at risk. There was always danger when they used wireless transmissions over large distances and when they were deeper within Neo Arcadian territory.

"Ciel-san, I think we should just trust in him and go back to the base for now," Oyie said. "I don't think it will help at all to contact him and try to get ourselves over there. And besides, he's the one who told you to go back to the base. Not to get reinforcements, but for your own safety, right?"

She looked at the Reploid in surprise. That was, in fact, what Naruto's clone had instructed her to do. But Ciel didn't remember telling Oyie or Colibri that fact at all. "How did you know?"

Oyie smiled. "Because that's what he told Team Colbor on our mission. He told us that he would cover for us and that he would be fine. He's the type of person who is always more worried about the people around him. I think it's a similar situation here. I know that transport trains generally have powerful Reploids guarding them, but Naruto already took out three powerful Reploids in span of four or five weeks. He can easily beat one more. He'll be fine."

Ciel bit her lip in concern. It was true. Naruto had proven that he could defeat even B-ranked combat Reploids. And he claimed that he would be able to beat a B-rank in his current state. And transport trains were highly unlikely to have the stronger A-ranked Guardians of X guarding them. So technically, Naruto should be fine, especially after the clone dispelled, which doubled Naruto's reserves of chakra. And the clone itself said that Naruto would gradually gain chakra as he made his way to whatever was guarding the first car of the train even if he was fighting weaker Pantheons along the way.

Furthermore, it wasn't like the three of them could do all that much to help Naruto anyway, even if they were with him. If anything, they would probably just slow him down.

"Alright, we'll go back to the base," Ciel finally said after a few long and tense seconds. "If our larger Trans Server can pinpoint and lock onto his coordinate, we'll think about sending reinforcements then. For now, we'll just trust in him."

After a few seconds of scaring the train operator, Naruto body flickered forward quickly to snatch the package of the Reploid's hands. Reploid or not, DR-31 was still a non-combatant and Naruto was loathe to fight a civilian. It probably would be for the best if he could just grab the package and high tail it out of the train.

It certainly would make his day.

But things were rarely that simple.

Zap!

"Ow! Damn it!" Naruto cursed as he slammed into an invisible barrier. "I should have known it wouldn't be that easy," he groaned as the red sphere activated and started to move towards him, "especially considering that the stupid red ball has a Pantheon head stuck in the middle of it."

"T…this is the en…engine core that has been merged with a Pantheon!" DR-31 exclaimed fearfully, "It's powerful enough to take down elite combat-Reploids! Someone like you doesn't have a chance!" The Reploid sounded like he was trying to reassure himself more than anything else. "This barrier won't drop until you've b…beaten the engine core!"

Ignoring the terrified Reploid, Naruto prepared himself for any sort of attacks. The merged Pantheon-core appeared to be mostly immobile aside from sliding forward and backwards within the car. It didn't seem to have any method of attacking besides a small pipe-like structure beneath it. Naruto initially thought it might some sort of enhanced buster, but scratched that hypothesis from his mind when he remembered that they were inside a train. Even with reinforced walls, firing long-ranged powerful attacks was not a good idea.

Maybe it was a rapid-fire but normal-powered buster that was hard to avoid? Or perhaps some energy beam that only reached a certain distance?

Naruto got his answer to how the Reploid attacked rather quickly when he saw a large stream of flames bursting out from the hole. It wasn't quite large enough to reach the further part of the room, but Naruto had been standing only a few feet from the hole.

He dodged backwards, only to be shocked when the part of the floor he was standing on lifted itself and propelled him up towards the now spiked ceiling.

"Tsuin Rasengan (Twin Spiraling Spheres)!"

Naruto quickly slammed his hands towards the spikes that were directly above him, both to remove the threat of being impaled and to create room for his room as the floor slammed into the spikes.

"Im…im…possible!" DR-31 breathed out. Naruto glared at the Reploid as the floor lowered again.

"I'm guessing you're the one who controls the ground, while this ugly thing breathes fire at me," Naruto growled.

Despite his displeasure, Naruto knew a good strategy when he saw one. The engine core would keep the enemy busy with its flame attacks and the train operator would take that time to raise different areas of the floor to mess with the enemy's footing and to kill the enemy using the spikes above.

That didn't do anything to reduce his annoyance and irritation.

"Y…you will p…pay for this! T…the government w…won't let you r…run amok if you h…hurt me!"

Naruto ignored the Reploid again, but kept his senses up. He was technically fighting one enemy but he had to keep his eyes peeled in any and in all direction. Attacks could pretty much come from anywhere.

Naruto rolled forward this time under the fire as the flames shot towards him, just in time to avoid getting smashed into the ceiling again. He threw several energy shuriken that were knocked off path by a rising floor piece. The train conductor, while a terrified civilian, definitely knew what he was doing.

Fire-based attacks from this Pantheon core means its core itself is heat-based…so use water jutsu to defend and lightning jutsu to attack…well, it works out that I just received some more chakra from that clone guarding Ciel-chan dispelling itself.

He flashed through hand seals and put both his hands forward. "Raiton: Raitei no Taiho (Lightning Release: Cannon of Thunder Emperor!)"

A large ball of lighting shot forward from his hands.

Naruto put his arms up to guard against the small bursts of electricity that sparked towards him after his lightning blast hit the engine core. It was a good thing that Naruto didn't have to create water from his chakra in this hot and dry room. Even just that one technique was a significant drain on his chakra. And Naruto knew that one solid hit wasn't going to be enough to take down the engine core.

"Ahh!" DR-31 screamed as tendrils of lightning flashed all throughout the room. The Reploid was protected by his barrier, but apparently that did nothing to stop him from being terrified at the show of power from Naruto.

Naruto dodged to the side this time to avoid the rising floor. He cursed and shot forward when the floor piece he had just jumped to started to rise. Clearly, more than one floor piece could be lifted up and weren't only controlled by the train operator. Some of the floor pieces themselves seemed to have sensors. Naruto took out several kunai and shuriken and threw them all across the room, activating the different sensors and forcing the floor pieces to rise up.

He saw the hole slowly gathering flames. Naruto decided not to give the enemy any more time. He had finished gathering enough chakra for his next technique. "And I don't think I care if this train is irreparably destroyed." He jumped behind one of the floor pieces to avoid the flames that shot out and flashed through a long series of hand seals. "Raiton: Eisou (Lightning Release: Laser Spear)!"

The concentrated lightning-charged beam of blue energy pierced through the metal cylinder now in front of him—a spring-like structure to lift the floor—and slammed into the engine core, right where the Pantheon head was, and then spread outward.

Boom!

Naruto braced himself as the shockwave of the explosion hit him. The explosion was much more limited that he had expected, but that may have been because he was standing behind the lifted floor piece.

He panted heavily as he watched the smoke from the explosion clear. He was really lucky the engine core wasn't mobile. Otherwise, he would have had a much harder time aiming those two lightning techniques. With relatively little to worry about, Naruto had been able to use his chakra sparingly and effectively.

Given the small explosion and how the train had stopped, Naruto knew he had destroyed the core. Still, nothing was over until the fat lady sang—seeing the corpse, in this case—so Naruto kept his guard up.

The smoke cleared, revealing an unprotected Reploid on the floor in front of a huge gaping hole in the train.

"D…don't kill me!" the Reploid train operator stammered as Naruto slowly walked towards him. "I'll h…hand over the p…package! Just sp…spare me!"

Naruto nodded. He took the package and opened it to make sure the Cyber-Elf was inside. "What?!" Naruto growled. "It's empty!"

In the end, they hadn't needed to send Naruto any reinforcements for his unsanctioned and self-given "mission." Naruto had arrived just a little after they arrived, via his personal Trans Server.

"So what did you do with the train operator?" Ciel asked, somewhat worried. Naruto didn't look like the type to kill non-combatants, but it was hard to judge from external appearances alone. Moreover, Naruto had shown that he had much more to him than what he normally showed.

He was now in mission control with her and Cerveau. After making sure that he was perfectly fine, aside from light burns that already seemed to be healing, they interrogated him about what had happened.

"I placed him under a genjutsu to interrogate him," the boy explained with a shrug.

"Genjutsu? Aren't they simple illusions?" Ciel asked. Naruto had explained some of his techniques in the past to give her an idea of just what he could do and Naruto had described genjutsu as a collection of illusory techniques.

Naruto nodded. "I don't want to give a complicated and theoretical analysis of techniques that are now extinct, so you can think of genjutsu as techniques that manipulate the brain. As I already explained to you, most genjutsu techniques manifest as illusions, but a few rare ones can be used for interrogations as well."

"I see."

"Unfortunately, genjutsu doesn't seem to work for too long against Reploids, even if they're untrained, but I had more than enough time to check if he was lying or not. The package did have the Cyber-Elf. There wasn't much more I could do at that point, so I sent him on his way and transferred myself back to the base."

Ciel nodded as she watched the baby Cyber-Elf zip around the room. "He wasn't lying. I can see the Cyber-Elf."

"I know. I couldn't see it, but I could feel the energy that the Cyber-Elf was giving off. It has a rather familiar feel to it." Ciel frowned. That made no sense at all. There was nothing about Cyber-Elves that would be familiar to Naruto. She waited for him to elaborate and Naruto himself looked like he had something more to say on the subject, but he didn't say anything else about it. "But I don't understand why I can't see it at all."

"I would have been surprised if you could. Cyber-Elves are living pieces of data," Cerveau explained. "Reploids are designed to interact with data so it's natural that Reploids can see them. But humans evolved only to deal with the living world, not cyberspace."

"Ciel-chan seems to be an exception," Naruto noted, with a thoughtful look on his face. "Is this something to do with your special empathy with Reploids, Ciel-chan?"

Ciel nodded, blushing again at the use of the term of endearment. She made a mental note to ask him why he started calling her that the next time she saw him alone. For some reason, he started calling her that after her birthday party. She did like it and didn't mention it before because it felt so…right…but it still was somewhat of a surprise.

"I can't give you any other explanation than that. I don't know if there's a specific reason that I can, but even among the Enlightened Ones, I alone have the ability to see and communicate with them."

"The Cyber-Elf appears to be an animal elf, Ciel," Cerveau said with a hand on his chin. "It certainly corroborates what Naruto heard about Copy X wanting to use it personally. He was most likely looking for a power upgrade."

"Wait, wait," Naruto said as he waved his arms. "Copy X?"

Ciel let out a little squeak and sent a glare towards Cerveau, who was now looking abashed. Cerveau should have known better to let something like that out. "Yes," she sighed. "The ruler of Arcadia, Copy X, is simply a copy of the original legendary hero X. The real X disappeared and no one knows where he is. Copy X…" she paused here to choose her words carefully, "…was created to fill the power void left after the real X's disappearance."

She trusted Naruto, but she didn't want to reveal that she was the one who had created Copy X. It was still her life's greatest shame and she desperately hoped that Naruto would never find out the ugly truth about her past.

"Oh," Naruto shrugged. "That makes more sense now. I had thought it was weird that a legendary hero would suddenly go criminally insane and violent. Anyway, the Cyber-Elf?"

Ciel blinked and shared a stunned look with Cerveau. Naruto wasn't going to ask any more questions? Maybe she had been overly paranoid for no reason if that was all it took to satisfy Naruto's curiosity.

"Um…" she managed out. "Right…!" She took a deep breath. She needed to calm down and stop being so fearful. "There are three main types of Cyber-Elves: nurse, animal, and hacker. Nurse elves can heal and repair Reploids. Animal elves can improve the specifications of Reploids. Hacker elves can manipulate data in the environment, including enemy data. I…I used a hacker elf to free you from your seal."

Naruto had long since explained about fuinjutsu, the branch of ninjutsu that used chakra flow and movement to create remarkable effects. According to Naruto, chakra manipulated the environment in subtle ways. By manipulating chakra to move through different patterns, the user can essentially do almost anything he or she wished. The drawback to fuinjustu, however, was that the patterns needed for such effects were immensely complex and time-consuming. In the past, apparently, very few people chose such a tedious and esoteric field. Naruto apparently had been able to bypass much of the time requirement using his shadow clones to speed up the learning process.

"Oh…" Naruto said contemplatively. "So that's how you did it. I thought the seals had degraded over time and you somehow used a buster to wake me up." Naruto's look turned serious. "Wait…" Naruto said slowly, "I protected this base using seals. Can't Neo Arcadia deactivate those seals using these hacker Cyber-Elves?"

"That's probably not possible," Cerveau said gently as Ciel looked down. She was reminded of the sacrifice that Passy had made. Ciel would be lying if she said she wasn't pleased with the way things turned out, but it was still a massive blow to lose her close friend, even if that friend was simply living data and destined to disappear from the real world.

"Huh?" Naruto asked. "Why not?"

"Cyber-Elves are already rare to begin with. Moreover, they die when they are used."

Naruto winced and gave her a look of pity. "And you share some sort of empathic connection with them." Ciel's eyes widened when she felt his arms around her. "I'm sorry."

Her breath quickened but she allowed herself to lean into his body. "It's…it's not something you or anyone has to be sorry about. If anything, it was simply because my own efforts were insufficient."

There was a long pause as she closed her eyes and allowed herself to be held.

"Ahem…I hope you two realize that I'm still here…"

They sprang apart and Ciel felt like the face could boil water from how hot it was.

"Way to ruin the moment, you insensitive prick!" Naruto shouted, although he too had a bright red face.

Ciel could tell that Cerveau was rolling his eyes behind his visor. "I don't think I'll ever truly understand human behavior. We Reploids have emotions and feelings just as you humans do, but very few Reploids truly fall in—"

"Cerveau!" Ciel interrupted in mortification. She did not need to hear the end of that statement. She was most certainly not in love and did not need to endure any more embarrassment for simply accepting just a hug from a friend.

Deciding that a tactical retreat was probably the best option here, she turned around without another word and left the two others behind as she went to her room.

Naruto glared at the Reploid engineer. "You could have found a better way to distract her than that. She's going to start getting ideas if you and everyone else keeps saying that there's something between us."

Cerveau was an asshole for making a heartfelt moment like that end awkwardly. Naruto could take the teasing from the others since none of them really interacted with him and Ciel at the same time, but Cerveau should have known better than to do that.

Naruto only got a smirk from the Reploid, however. "I just call it as I see it. Are you really denying that you feel something for her? You've started to call her Ciel-chan as well."

He snorted. "It's been like what…four weeks? Five weeks maybe?" Naruto shook his head. "That's hardly enough time for something truly deep. I use –chan as a term of endearment. That doesn't necessarily mean I have romantic feelings towards her or anyone else. And besides, I don't want that kind of relationship with Ciel-chan. I…" Naruto paused to find the right words, "tend to get attached a too easily to the people around me for no good reason whatsoever. It happened in the past as well."

"Oh?" Cerveau replied, giving Naruto an appraisingly look. "It sounds like you're getting your memories back."

Naruto nodded. There was no use denying the truth. "There was this girl…" Naruto began before sighing. Bad memories began swelling up in his mind. "She—" Naruto choked on his words and stopped there.

"What?"

"Never mind," Naruto muttered as he turned around to leave as well. Thinking about Sakura always had ruined his mood, even in the past. It was just his crappy luck to like a girl who loved someone else…a person who was an utter jackass that no one else in the world cared for. And it was even more unfortunate that the jackass was his one-time best friend.

Just thinking about that stung, even now.

"Naruto, wait," Naruto stopped walking. He wasn't sure why did, but he stopped to listen to what the Reploid engineer had to say. "I don't know any details of your past, but I don't think you should be stuck on something that happened so long ago."

Naruto turned around, livid. "Well, to me, it doesn't feel like it was a thousand years ago," Naruto snarled, making the Reploid take a step back in surprise. "A lot of my emotions are muted because I don't remember, but the things I do remember feel like they happened just yesterday."

And Naruto was sure that his feelings about this would only get particularly worse.

"It's still in the past," Cerveau repeated. "It's not like I don't understand. I have a lot of friends who died over the course of the last six years. I'm a Reploid, but I have feelings of attachment and anger just like you. When my friends died, I didn't just brush it off. I became upset, too. But that doesn't mean that I didn't continue to look towards the future."

Naruto laughed bitterly. "So you're telling me to 'heal' my heart by seeking a relationship with the first girl I meet after waking up from a thousand year slumber. This after only a perceived six or seven months after the girl I loved die?"

"I'm not telling you to doanything," the Reploid engineer returned calmly. "Like I said, I'm calling it as I see it. Frankly, I've never seen Ciel act like she has in the last month since you joined us. There's something that she feels for you that is beyond normal friendship and companionship."

"That's her issue then," Naruto retorted in a way that was much harsher than he intended. He winced when he remembered that Hinata had been in love with him for almost as long as he had been in love with Sakura. And he still rejected her. He couldn't really control his heart and no matter how Hinata felt towards him, his heart had been somewhere else. And after Sakura had killed herself over Sasuke, Naruto didn't really want to think about love again.

Naruto valued friendship, and companionship even more, and he was thrilled that Ciel care for him that much, but he was frightened at the prospect of love now, especially after his memories started resurfacing. When he first woke up after being unsealed by Ciel, he didn't remember Sakura or anyone else so it had been rather easy to open his heart to Ciel. But now, his memories of his past love and all the drama were coming back and Naruto was torn between wanting to keep the girl at an arm's length and getting closer to her.

"Perhaps," Cerveau admitted. "But you treat her differently than the others here in the base. I initially thought it was because she was the only human around and because you're still unused to the idea of Reploids, but I suspect there's something more."

"It could just be hormones," Naruto muttered, half in frustration, half in jest. "Boy meets girl. Boy does something stupid. Girl thinks it's funny, develops superficial feelings for the boy. Boy and girl dance around each other in some long and convoluted courtship ritual. Relationship never works out."

Cerveau laughed. "Again, it's one of those things about humans I'll never be able to understand."

Naruto sighed. "Look. I care about Ciel-chan, more than just simple acquaintances, coworkers, or even comrades. I find her incredibly attractive and I think she's a sweet girl. But, I'm just not looking for a romantic relationship right now. I…" Naruto paused. "I never really had friends growing up. Even among ninjas I had a fearsome power inside of me and people were frightened by that and stayed away. So the few real friends I made, I treasured. It's like that with Ciel-chan. Nothing more."

Cerveau crossed his arms. "You sound like you're trying to convince yourself more than anyone else."

Naruto groaned. "Look, if I tell you a bit about my past, will you lay off on the teasing?" Naruto didn't even bother waiting for an answer. "There was this girl I loved every since I was really little. Despite the fact that she was insufferably cruel to me in our youth, I really loved her."

"Why?"

"I first fell in love with her because I saw how she desired for acknowledgement, just like I did. Of course, she found her friends much sooner than I did and her outer personality completely changed after that, but that never changed my feelings about her. Eventually, we were even placed on the same ninja team and grew to be really close. She never really returned my feelings, but she still became one of the first people to acknowledge me."

"Then she died?"

Naruto nodded. "But that in itself isn't really the biggest problem." Naruto ran his hand through his hair in frustration. "It's how she died. Sakura-c…Sakura was in love with my other teammate. Unlike me, Sasuke was a genius and everyone in the village loved him. He used to get a dozen marriage proposals every day and would rebuff them without a care in the world. I used to be really jealous of him. But he eventually became my best friend."

Cerveau winced. "I think I can see where this is going. There are plenty of dramas and movies with this kind of storyline."

"Tell me about it," Naruto muttered. Cerveau didn't even know half the story yet. "Anyway, but even with the entire world showering him with attention, Sasuke betrayed us and left to join our enemies." Naruto shook his head as he recounted the next part of the story. "Sakura still loved him after that and even made me swear an oath to bring him back."

"What happened after that? You brought him back only for him to kill her or something?"

Naruto chuckled darkly. "Something like that. Sasuke almost killed me on three separate occasions and almost killed Sakura as well. He became an international criminal and there wasn't a single country that didn't want his head for one reason or another." Naruto took a deep breath. "But later, he did agree to come back to us and rejoin our village. I don't think I ever saw Sakura happier than I saw her on that day. I was fine with that…I…I really just wanted her to be happy more than anything. But that was still in the middle of war and Sasuke ended up dying in the war effort. And…because of that…Sakura committed suicide."

Cerveau winced again. "Not only did she reject your love for someone who didn't even care about her. She even rejected the idea of living as your friend to follow this Sasuke fellow in death."

"That's more or less the story," Naruto concluded. "My love life was so screwed up that I don't really want anything to do with romance right now. It just brings up bad memories. So…I'm pretty certain when I say that nothing's going to happen between me and Ciel-chan. It's not just me being in denial or anything; I have legitimate reasons for not wanting to look at her in that sort of way."

Cerveau shook his head sadly. "You're just continuing to inflict pain on yourself, you know."

"Perhaps," Naruto admitted, "but that doesn't mean I should just grab the first girl I see as a solution to my problem. I haven't even met any other humans here. And I have plenty of time to think about stuff like this so I'm not in a rush."

Author's Note: I realized that it's harder to put in as much detail as I would like. I suddenly noticed that a lot of the Mega Man Zero missions are incredibly short (probably several hours at the most) unlike missions in the ninja world (several weeks at a time). Naturally, this makes sense. Mega Man Zero is a game and it's hard to put in a lot of plot in a game whereas Naruto is a manga & anime. But for the purposes of this story, this has got to change; otherwise, it'll just be a major battle every single chapter. So it might take a bit more time editing and changing the outline that I previously had. As for the battles, they will get progressively harder, especially once the Guardians begin to make their appearances. It's still relatively early in the story (the story goes on until Mega Man Zero 4) so please be patient with me.

Also, I'm getting some questions about Zero. At this point in time, Zero may or may not show up. I'm still trying to figure out how to put Zero into this story and if it would make sense at all to have Zero in the story. Feel free to send me PMs or reviews with ideas; I'll take them all into consideration.

One last thing, the flashbacks don't necessarily foreshadow anything. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. But the primary purpose of the flashbacks is to provide information about Naruto's past that isn't from canon.

And as always, reviews will be appreciated. Thanks!

Naruto's Jutsu List

Technique: Fuuton: Fuujin Seigaifu (Wind Release: Holy Shroud of the Wind God)
Rank: S-rank
Class: Supplementary
Range: Close Range
Description: The user emits wind chakra that covers the user's body. The winds surrounding the user's body can be used to propel the user at incredibly fast speeds, much faster than what would be physically possible with muscle strength alone. The winds can also act to automatically defend the user from attacks as well as be used to attack enemies nearby. The chakra requirement for this technique is massive, making this technique a kinjutsu.

Technique: Tsuin Rasengan (Twin Spiraling Spheres)
Rank: A-rank
Class: Offensive
Range: Close Range
Description: A variant of the normal Rasengan that uses a Rasengan in both hands.

Technique: Raiton: Raitei no Taiho (Lightning Release: Cannon of Thunder Emperor)
Rank: A-rank
Class: Offensive
Range: Mid-Range
Description: The user fires off a huge ball of lightning energy towards the target, which spreads out once it hits the target. The technique trades the piercing power of lightning for the ability to paralyze the target, leaving the target open to other attacks.

Technique: Raiton: Eisou (Lightning Release: Laser Spear)
Rank: B-rank
Class: Offensive
Range: Mid-Range
Description: The user fires off a large concentrated blast of lightning energy towards the target. Unlike the Raiton: Raitei no Taiho (Lightning Release: Cannon of Thunder Emperor), this technique has no paralyzing power but has incredible piercing and penetrating power. Despite the concentrated nature of this technique, the damage range is still rather large, especially after it hits the target.