Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Mega Man Zero.
Electronic Diary Entry #2-1031-68
Within a span of two months, Naruto had managed to take down two C-rank combat Reploids and a B-rank elite from Neo Arcadia in addition to the Golem he defeated in the underground laboratory near where we found him.
And that's not including the multiple raids he has conducted on various Neo Arcadian factories for energy crystals and supplies.
Naruto's power was far greater than we had imagined. It was beyond even what we had hoped for had we found the legendary Reploid Zero.
Naruto was a force of nature, being the master of all the elements. Nothing was beyond his control.
Many of our allies were saved thanks to him and a glimmer of hope had returned to everyone's eyes.
And even more so because Naruto made all of us feel alive. His kindness, exuberance, and brightness brought smiles and laughter to all. And suddenly, this was no longer a battle of survival but a battle to live fully to the best of our abilities.
People began to dream…no…it would be more accurate to say that I began to dream…
However…the truth was that there was still a major obstacle in our way.
The Guardians of Neo Arcadia.
The four A-ranked Guardians of Neo Arcadia were the ultimate warriors of Neo Arcadia and served the mighty utopia leader, X. Even a noncombatant such as I could sense that their patience with us was wearing thin and that their blades were drawing ever closer to us.
Have hope, Naruto had once told me.
Hope is all I can have. I can only rely on the only human friend I ever had…
No…not friend…it would be incorrect to say that…
…for I have fallen in love with Naruto.
~ Ciel
(adapted from Ciel's Memories: The Big Four – Mega Man Audio Drama)
Naruto looked on in confusion as the ice dragon exploded outward from the blast from Blizzack Staggroff's demise. Naruto hadn't even had to put up a shield to protect himself from the brunt of the explosion; the huge ice dragon had taken the brunt of it. What the hell is going on? It looks like someone or something else finished him off, but I don't sense any other—
Naruto's eyes widened as his instincts screamed at him. He quickly jumped out of the way as a weapon sliced through where he had just been standing.
Hiss!
Naruto cursed. He wasn't injured, but whoever attacked him had been fast enough to hit the oxygen tank he was carrying. If Naruto had been even half-a-second slower, he would have been cut in half. Naruto didn't particularly need the oxygen tank as his water jutsu seemed to hold enough oxygen but it was still a loss of an emergency option. Should his water jutsu be pierced somehow on his way up, Naruto would be screwed.
Well, that was if he even managed to get that far.
Naruto looked warily at the newcomer who was a slender female Reploid. He didn't even need the Reploid to introduce herself as Fairy Leviathan.
The reports he stole from the Reploid Disposal Center, the information Jaune and Rouge managed to hack, and the claim Blizzack Staggroff made all had been correct. Despite holding the same "B-rank" classification, Blizzack Staggroff was much stronger than Aztec Falcon or Anubis Necromancess. In hindsight, it made sense, given that the ice Reploid was guarding a much more important location. A military base held strategic value. On the other hand, the Reploid Disposal Center, guarded by the weaker Aztec Falcon, was purely for convenience; it didn't take much more than a simple low-grade buster to "retire" a civilian Reploid. And the weaker Anubis Necromancess was a glorified scavenger to supply energy for the base; it was hardly a duty that required tremendous amount of firepower.
But Leviathan made even the strong Blizzack Staggroff look like a weakling in comparison. There was no way than any opponent within the B-rank level would have been able to get the drop on him like that. Leviathan had somehow managed to evade his senses for at least thirty seconds and get very close to kill him.
Naruto felts his eyes instantly flash red as the Sharingan he vowed he would never use in battle replaced his blue eyes. Naruto sent a small mental apology to Sasuke, wherever he was. These eyes were supposed to look upon peace, not war, but Naruto realized he had been incredibly naïve to think that war would ever end. And in an era where machines were made to battle at capacities far greater than humans ever could, Naruto needed every bit of help he could get.
It was a shame he couldn't remember (if he ever learned) how to use any of the Mangekyou Sharingan techniques because this battle would have been over in an instant with the black fires of Amaterasu.
Naruto took a careful look at Leviathan. Leviathan's armor was blue and white and her blue helmet, especially the light blue shell-shaped front portion, seemed to frame her face in a manner that resembled hair. Given that she used a harpoon or lance-like weapon and carried a jet propeller on her back, Naruto surmised that Leviathan was a talented melee fighter who used her fast movement speed to get near her opponents. Luckily her attack speed wasn't quite as fast as foot speed. Otherwise, Naruto would be in pieces already.
I have to prevent this from being an underwater fight as much as possible. Naruto thought as he readied himself. Unlike Blizzack Staggroff, Leviathan definitely looks like she was made to fight underwater.
"You killed your own comrade," Naruto stated flatly.
Leviathan shrugged. "I just arrived via Trans Server and saw that little Stag-chan was about to self-destruct when I got to this room. That explosion might have killed me as well and I couldn't have that. And technically he was already dead from your previous attacks anyway. Don't try to pin the blame on me." There was a long silence before Leviathan smiled. "So you must be the human that X-sama was talking about…"
"Human?" Naruto played dumb. Information was crucial in battle and Naruto wasn't above using misdirection to gain an advantage in battle.
Leviathan laughed as her eyes twinkled in amusement. "Don't even try. We've been monitoring your progress up to now. We've noticed certain things about you that make us certain that you're nothing more than a human Maverick."
Naruto chuckled darkly. Human Maverick. It would just be like a self-righteous evil organization to come up with a classification that made no sense whatsoever. "And what would that be, Fairy Leviathan?"
"Oh?" she smiled again but ignored his question. "You've heard of me? You sure know how to flatter a lady." She paused and pouted. "But isn't that unfair though? I don't have your name."
Naruto shrugged nonchalantly. The jig was up. Neo Arcadia knew who he was. It wouldn't hurt him to give them a name to be scared of. And there was no point in stalling when the water levels were gradually rising. Without chakra to keep him above the water, the water would already be up to his ankles.
Naruto looked straight into Leviathan's eyes defiantly. "My name is Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto." He raised a wind-coated chakra kunai and leapt forward.
His eyes widened again when Leviathan blocked with her harpoon. Impossible! There's no way that the purest form of wind chakra can't slice through that weapon. To block my attack entirely… His eyes narrowed when he noticed a layer of ice rapidly pushing his chakra kunai away from the harpoon itself.
No, his attacked hadn't been blocked at all. Leviathan was using a constant flow of rapidly growing ice to block his attack. The more he cut; the more ice would grow to support the ice he just cut.
Clever.
And it spoke of incredibly skill to be able to control ice like that.
"Ooomph!" Naruto slammed into the wall after receiving a quick kick from Leviathan.
Naruto quickly body flickered away to dodge dozens of ice shards that slammed into his previous location.
I don't have a fire attack fast enough to hit her, Naruto thought frantically. And she's every bit as fast as I am. Luckily, his eyes were able to predict Leviathan's movements and that made countering much easier.
After a few short exchanges of blows, Naruto raise his hands and shouted without even moving through hand seals. "Raiton: Eisou (Lightning Release: Laser Spear)!"
The lightning attack shot towards Leviathan who seemed to be a bit startled at the incredible speed of the attack. "Hyuupp!" she shouted as she slammed her harpoon into the attack and blocked it completely. The force was still enough to shake the entire room and rubble fell from the cracks in the walls that had been left from his battle with Blizzack Staggroff.
"Today's just not my day," Naruto muttered, panting in exertion. It took incredible control and an unreal amount of chakra to use an advanced technique without any hand seals. And he still didn't manage a solid hit.
Leviathan rubbed her arms lightly. "Whew, that was a dangerous attack, Naruto." Her eyes twinkled in amusement again. "But didn't anyone tell you that ice-based Reploids are mostly immune to lightning attacks?"
Naruto didn't reply.
Cerveau had, of course, but Naruto didn't have any other choice. None of his fire attacks had the kind of speed to catch Leviathan off-guard. Naruto had hoped that the piercing power of the attack might have been enough to punch a hole in the ice Reploid, elemental disadvantage be damned.
Naruto merely launched himself forward again in a feint as small twisting tower of water rose up behind Leviathan to strike her down.
Leviathan didn't even have to move from her spot as she parried Naruto's blow and use momentum from the parrying to spin around and slash through the two water clones.
"Oooh! Not just lightning, but water as well?" she said in a bright tone as the small vortex of dispersed and fell back into the deepening pool of water around them.
Naruto didn't answer as he used the distraction to follow through with a chakra-enhanced punch. It paled in comparison to the devastating punches Sakura used to throw around, but it packed more than enough power to punch through the strongest of metals. Leviathan merely blocked with a shield of ice, which shattered upon contact, and countered with a slash of her harpoon.
Naruto saw the attack coming but was a fraction of a second too slow in dodging the attack.
"Ooophh!" Naruto grunted before hissing in slight pain.
"And physical abilities aren't bad at all either," Leviathan mused as she looked at the blood on her harpoon. "Are you really human?" She smirked. "I suppose this is where that combat idiot would lick the blood off his weapon to confirm if you really are human or not and to freak you out at the same time." Leviathan sighed. "But as a delicate girl, I can't be doing such unsavory things." She flicked the blood off her weapon.
Naruto was tempted to roll his eyes at her words. Delicate, my ass.
Pulling a hand into a single hand seal, the five water clones shot up, each with a glowing Rasengan in their hands.
"Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere)!" the clones cried out.
Unfortunately, Leviathan had shot up into the air using her jet propellers and the clones dispelled as they destroyed one another.
Naruto let out a small curse.
"Clones? And solid, too," Leviathan said in a pleasant tone, not at all fazed. "Oooh, Phantom would love to meet you."
The situation wasn't really getting any better. Ninjutsu, taijutsu, frontal attacks, surprise attacks...none of it seemed to be working. It was clear that Leviathan's abilities were at least on par with his, especially in an open yet enclosed environment where there wasn't any room to hide but not enough room to use his most devastating attacks without bringing tons of water crashing into the room.
Naruto had no love for the building, but he wasn't looking forward to fighting a Leviathan fully powered up in water.
That only left a few options.
Sighing, Naruto quickly focused fire chakra through the transparent blade as he body flickered behind Leviathan and lunged at her.
Leviathan blocked again with her lance, but her eyes narrowed when the red blade began to slowly sink into the ice covering her weapon. Naruto focused and extended the fire chakra in the kunai, which was now pointing at her face, to try and catch the Reploid off guard.
Leviathan quickly turned her head to the side as the fire chakra extended, clipping the side of her metal helmet that looked like hair. It instantly melted through.
Naruto took that opportunity to jump up and slam his foot Leviathan squarely in the side of her head with a roundhouse kick as he started to make preparations.
Leviathan could hardly believe that there was anyone this powerful in the Resistance. This Naruto character wasn't quite on the level of the Guardians, but he was close…much too close for comfort.
His ability to manipulate several different elements alone made him dangerous.
But the fact that there was someone this strong made her heart flutter. She had never been touched in a real battle before and this human had somehow managed to injure her a handful of times already. And this…after he fought against Blizzack Staggroff, presumably Anubis Necromancess, and all the other Reploids in the hidden military base. It was almost mind-boggling.
She paused. Well…that wasn't completely accurate. Naruto wasn't quite a threat—she was giving him an advantage by fighting above water—but he was still far more dangerous than any enemy she had run across. In a world where everything was too easy, having someone to make thing a challenge made her heart soar.
Yes…this was what people meant when they say they feel alive!
Leviathan raised her arm to block a powerful kick that came from the blond young man and shot several shards of ice that he sliced away with his small glowing knife. From what she could tell, Naruto's knife had strange properties that allowed it to take the characteristics of several elements. Naruto seemed to favor using fire (when it glowed red) and wind (when it glowed white), but judging from Naruto's other abilities—his abilities to shoot blasts of electricity and make clones of water—it was likely that he could use other elements as well.
And he had other strange abilities as well. His red eyes stayed locked onto her movements no matter how fast she moved. He seemed able to counter any of her blows and immediately saw through any feint. He was somehow able to control the trajectories of the projectiles he shot out and drastically increase his speed for brief periods of time in battle. She had to constantly keep her guard up when he disappeared from sight during these bursts of speed. Also, the room was slowly filling with water, but Naruto seemed to have an ability to stand on top of water. She had initially been hoping that the rising water would slow the annoyingly quick Naruto down, but with his ability to walk on water, that wasn't going to be happening soon.
Leviathan's musing cost her as she felt Naruto's fist slam into her head before he followed through with a spinning kick.
She soared through the room towards the wall.
Leviathan instantly disappeared the moment she hit the wall and returned the favor by tossing her harpoon like a spear before reappearing behind Naruto to catch him in a pseudo-pincer like attack. Naruto couldn't react fast enough and was sent soaring into a wall himself from her backhanded blow.
She caught her harpoon as she planted her feet again and pointed her weapon at him before he could catch his breath. "Ice Dragon!" she cried.
Leviathan watched in fascination as Naruto threw his red knife at her ice dragon. To her surprise, the red glow extended once more before the red knife spun, forming a red disc made of pure fire energy. The disc easily sliced and melted through the dragon like a hot knife through butter.
She merely tilted her head and let the red fire disc fly past her and hit the wall behind her.
As the two halves of the dragon landed next to him, Naruto slowly stood up without a weapon in hand.
Leviathan sighed as she mentally heard Harpuia schedule a meeting. Well, that was her cue. The battle was incredibly entertaining, but it was time to end this soon. The rest of the Guardians were waiting for her routine report on the hidden base and its progress in hacking the Resistance servers. She still had a few hours, but she had her own work to do and she needed to get some superficial repairs done after having her armor scratched and dented in battle.
It wouldn't be proper for a pretty girl to show up completely disheveled; she wasn't Fefnir.
Leviathan propelled herself at her top speed towards Naruto. She swung as hard as she could and as he parried her blow with his forearm, grabbed his wrist before he could pull it back.
She smirked as his red eyes widened when his wrist froze. She lightly stepped on both of his feet, making them sink and freezing them in place with blocks of ice as well. She noticed that the water was now up to his shins and wondered just how she would kill the blond human.
She gave him a demure smile when she came to her decision. She released his frozen arm and watched with feigned interest as the ice started thickening and crawling up his arm. "You know," she said in a voice that almost was regretful. "You were quite powerful." She intentionally used the past tense instead of the present tense. After all, no matter what her personal wishes were, after this battle, he probably wasn't going to be alive. "I never had this much fun with anyone. I almost had to go all out to beat you, although if this battle had been underwater, it wouldn't have lasted a single second."
"You…" Naruto growled and swung his unfrozen hand at her. Weak. Without his ability to put his full weight into the punch, the punch wasn't strong at all. Leviathan easily caught the fist and began to freeze it as well.
Leviathan lightly tapped the side of her head where a portion of her helmet had melted from his fire attack earlier. It was really only time during the battle she had been in serious danger; she hadn't expected the knife to be able to extend and at that speed as well. "No one has ever landed any sort of hit on me and you landed multiple." She gave him another coy smile as an impulsive urge came to mind. She stepped towards him and caressed his face lightly. "That kind of power makes a girl rather excited…" she whispered that last word before leaning forward to kiss him.
It wasn't a particularly deep kiss—she wasn't experienced in that sort of stuff at all and Naruto was the first person she ever kissed—but it served its purpose. In about twenty seconds, Naruto's body was completely frozen and Leviathan stepped back as the ice continued to thicken around his body.
She paused for a few more seconds to see if the boy would use a fire technique to thaw himself out. She was disappointed when nothing happened. She debated whether she should crush the ice, but eventually decided against it.
"I suppose dying from a kiss from a pretty girl is a rather nice way to go," she smiled somewhat sadly at the only opponent to wound her in battle. He was rather good looking, too. It was a shame that Naruto wasn't a Reploid and that he wasn't a Neo Arcadian. Despite her inherently flirty nature, she didn't really have anyone worthy of being her life companion. "Think of it as a little reward for making the battle so much fun. I'll even let the prisoners who were held in this base go as well; it's not like they'll make a difference in the long run." Cracks in the walls started bursting from the water pressure, releasing tons of water. "I have to report that Stag-chan was far too weak to handle someone like you and that you showed me a good time, so bye!"
With that, Leviathan teleported out of the base, not noticing that the Naruto inside of the ice disappeared as she teleported out of the base.
In the corner of the room, Naruto blinked as he released his Touton Jutsu and the Sharingan-based illusion that had kept Leviathan's senses from realizing that he—the real him—had been slowly retreating from the battle when she froze his shadow clone. In fact, he was so distracted that he almost forgot to put up a water barrier up when tons of water rushed into the hidden base.
Naruto had realized early on that the battle wasn't going to end well for him. Leviathan was far too fast and too skilled for Naruto to take on with rising water levels in the base.
Nothing else had worked, so genjutsu had been his last option. Unfortunately, genjutsu was not only the weakest of his skills, but genjutsu also was much less effective on Reploids. And Naruto had no experience using combat genjutsu either. So Naruto had decided to cut his losses and retreat. The fight was most likely going to continue, but it would have been greatly in his favor if he managed to escape to the surface where the scorching heat would no doubt weaken the water/ice Reploid.
So the last minute of the battle had involved using a quick combination of the substitution jutsu to replace himself with a shadow clone, and both a Sharingan-based genjutsu and the Touton Jutsu to sneak himself out of there. The subtle genjutsu he had placed on her to keep Leviathan from realizing that his shadow clone had popped shortly after the kiss had been life-saving. It certainly helped that Leviathan didn't stay too long to check.
Naruto put his hands to his lips as his face flushed lightly. The kiss had been surprisingly pleasant for a few seconds before Leviathan had forcibly injected cold air into him. Her lips had been soft and surprisingly warm (before she started to freeze him), and her light caress on his face hand been equally as pleasant.
Ciel was right. Reploids were very much like humans in a lot of ways.
It almost broke his concentration when he was reminded of Ciel. Naruto decided that he was never going to tell Ciel of this little episode.
It was a shadow clone that had kissed Leviathan, but he doubted that Ciel would really care about specifics and technicalities. His self-preservation instinct told him that knowledge of this particular incident would set off righteous feminine fury.
Although why it should and would…Naruto didn't really understand…
"I heard you had something special to report, but it's just news about the Resistance? That's almost as bad as a routine report about the damn base of yours. You made us wait an extra hour for this? How boring!"
Leviathan glared at Fefnir. "No one asked you to be here, you combat-loving freak." She paused. "And what are those weird marks on your chest?"
Fire started pouring out of the holes in Fefnir's armor as Fefnir shook in anger. "Some incompetent fool incorrectly programmed a paint machine…"
Harpuia raised an eye and shared a glance with Phantom. Just thirty minutes ago, Phantom had reported another painting robot malfunctioning. Apparently, a robot had rushed to him and dumped pink paint on him. Phantom hadn't been amused but quickly washed up and reported the incidence. Furthermore, there were reports that random accidents—mostly harmless—were happening to Neo Arcadian officials. Harpuia wondered if the incidences were linked together.
Leviathan looked at Fefnir in stunned silence before bursting out laughing. "And you just let a simple robot paint on your chest? A robot without any sort of intelligence? Haha! You're more of an idiot than I thought!"
"Both of you, settle down," Harpuia ordered, hoping that he wouldn't get another headache over this. Among the Guardians of X, only Phantom didn't regularly cause some sort of trouble. Fefnir was too obsessed with fighting to care about anything else and Leviathan was too carefree and free-spirited. Only Phantom took his job seriously without letting personal feelings get in the way. "X-sama is busy right now, so I'll deliver your message later myself. Let's hear it."
Leviathan shrugged. "There's nothing serious about the message. I just took care of the Resistance problem myself."
Harpuia raised an eyebrow, his interest now piqued. "Resistance…problem…?" The female Reploid smiled in that frustrating way she always did and just remained silent. "Leviathan…" Harpuia growled in warning. He didn't have the patience to humor Leviathan today. Not with everything going on.
"It's most likely that she means the powerful fighter X-sama warned us about," Phantom interjected as he appeared seemingly out of thin air. "The human Maverick…"
"He called himself Naruto," Leviathan said in a light tone, as she polished her harpoon. Harpuia looked at her curiously when Leviathan's hand went up to the side of her head as if there was an injury there. But as far as Harpuia could tell, she was in pristine condition. Whatever injury must have been minor and easily repaired.
"Called?" Harpuia muttered before nodding. "Ah yes, I recall that you said you took care of the problem. So…he's dead?"
That would be the only good news today. The Resistance was a thorn in their sides for far too long and it was good whenever they struck a blow against the Resistance.
"Most likely…?" Leviathan said airily. "I didn't really check. But if he's truly human, he's probably dead. I froze his body from the inside out."
The rest of them just gave her flat stares.
Fefnir voiced their thoughts. "I'm not even going to ask how you managed to do that without knowing if this human died for sure. Wouldn't you need to punch a hole through a human to freeze them from the inside out? A hole…I might add…that would kill the human in the first place?"
Leviathan smiled mischievously. "A girl's got to have her secrets." Her expression then became serious. "I froze him from the inside out and I also destroyed his oxygen tank that he used to breathe underwater. Considering that the military base was destroyed and flooded with tons of water, it's probably safe to say that Naruto is dead."
Harpuia wasn't entirely sure of that himself. Based on the reports they had, this Naruto person had rather unique abilities. Granted, none of those abilities appeared suited to help him breathe underwater or survive from tons of water pressure—his techniques seemed to be mainly lightning based, much like Harpuia himself—but it was always better to be safe than sorry.
He mentally cursed the fact that Leviathan was too damn lazy just slice the damn human in half and be done with it. And he didn't like the wistful tone Leviathan used when she said the enemy's name. It was almost as if she wanted this Naruto character to survive.
Harpuia clearly wasn't the only one who felt annoyed.
"Idiot," Phantom snorted. "A high-class opponent doesn't go down so easily. You should have made sure you destroyed his body. X-sama—"
"X-sama, X-sama. It's always X-sama with you, Phantom," Leviathan shook her head. "You're usually not so fired up about something related to those pesky Resistance fools. Naruto entertained me so I left his body intact in respect."
Harpuia looked at Leviathan curiously. "He was that strong?"
Her eyes twinkled brightly. "Oh yes. I think he might have been as fast as you are, Harpuia." Harpuia doubted that but nodded. "He was physically powerful as well and surprisingly durable. I didn't land too many hits on him—he was too fast for that—but he was able to get up from any that I did land. As for his abilities…as we expected, his best abilities seem to be lightning based…but he did have several other abilities that gave me some difficulties."
"Such as…"
"Well, he seemed to have a small knife that changed colors. Depending on the color it became, he was able to use different elemental attacks. He used mostly fire and wind attacks, but I think he must have used water once as well because he was able to control the water around us and make water clones. The battle was going so fast that I didn't have time to take note of the color of his knife every second."
"Clones?" Phantom asked, interest no doubt piqued.
"Oh yes," Leviathan said with a smirk. "Solid clones made of water."
"Tch, parlor tricks," Phantom muttered. "True clones are made from speed. The true beauty of clones lies in the deception, not in the attack."
Leviathan gave him a knowingly look. "If you say so," she taunted. "I personally think solid clones that can attack independently are more useful."
Phantom ignored her.
"Hm…interesting…" Harpuia murmured, more to himself than to anyone else in the room. "So he himself is lightning-based, but uses a weapon to generate attacks of other elemental natures."
Leviathan shrugged. "It might be that he can use attacks of multiple elements and simply was using the knife as a medium to channel his powers as well. It's hard to say. We didn't really battle for a long time. The entire battle was about fifteen to twenty minutes long so I don't really have too much intel. Not that it matters…he's mostly likely dead now."
"Tch," Fefnir interjected. "My hunch was right then. There really was nothing interesting about this Resistance fighter. Even if X-sama found him interesting, someone like Leviathan beat him."
Leviathan looked livid at what Fefnir had implied. "Shut it, fire nipples. I'm not the one dumb enough to stand around and let a robot mark X-shaped nipples on me."
Fefnir raised his fire launcher and pointed it at Leviathan. "You ice-bitch! I'll kill you!"
Harpuia raised a hand before the two Reploids started arguing again. "Fefnir, stop intentionally antagonizing Leviathan. Leviathan, as Phantom said, you should have destroyed his body yourself even if it was unlikely that he would live. As of now, X-sama might consider this a failure of duty. If more issues pop up from the Resistance, we'll have to step forward and make sure this problem is taken care of completely ourselves instead of leaving it to our subordinates."
Harpuia didn't want to, however. He was more than fine with letting the Resistance Reploids run around as long as they did not cause too much trouble for Neo Arcadia. Harpuia was never a big proponent of mass slaughter even if X was slowly heading in that direction. Letting them survive on the fridges of Neo Arcadia had been his way of showing pity. But…it didn't seem like the Resistance Reploids were gratefully keeping their heads down and staying out of trouble.
He sighed. Give them an inch and they'll try to take a mile...
"Meh," Leviathan said with a light shrug. "It wasn't my duty, Harpuia. I was just there to do a routine check and saw Stag-chan get beaten down like a little kitten. Naruto had a powerful lightning attack that matched what was already reported, but he was clearly spent after using it once. Naruto was incredibly talented, but he's no serious threat to any of us, much less X-sama. I was fighting in the base outside of water and I still defeated him. Also, considering that his body is a human body, one solid hit from any of our EX skills will kill him. I don't understand why X-sama is so worried about a human."
Harpuia didn't agree. Leviathan had a tendency to underestimate wind and lightning type fighters because those attacks were nearly useless against her. And Leviathan seemed to be conveniently overlooking the fact that this Naruto character fought her after fighting hundreds, if not thousands, of Pantheons and defeating two other elites in a period of an hour. That was definitely A-rank material.
And the lack of durability didn't necessarily mean that this Naruto wasn't a threat. The legendary Zero was also a "glass cannon" of sorts. From the stories that X— original X—had shared with them, Zero had great power and determination, but remarkably little physical durability; before the Elf Wars, Zero's body didn't allow for upgrades. It wasn't coincidental that Zero's body was destroyed multiple times. And still, Zero was considered on par with X. Naruto could very well be similar.
Leviathan was also ignoring the little fact that this Naruto had the ability to use fire. It was entirely possible that Naruto managed to thaw himself and successful leave the base using a water technique. Leviathan said that she took care of Naruto, but she wasn't a perceptive combatant, preferring to toy around with her opponents. Her leaving the frozen Naruto intact was one such example.
Harpuia narrowed his eyes. Or perhaps, Leviathan was trying to protect this human fighter. She seemed almost smitten with Naruto; her eyes literally twinkled whenever she mentioned his name.
He didn't voice his thoughts, however. It wasn't like Leviathan was going to listen anyway. If this Naruto appeared in the future, Harpuia would probably have to finish the job himself or send Phantom after this Naruto.
"It would behoove you well to remember that it is not our jobs to question X-sama, Leviathan," Phantom intoned. "X-sama's word is law."
"Yes. Yes. I get it. I made a mistake," Leviathan said with a dismissive wave of her hands, not sounding sorry at all. "If this Naruto did survive though," a wide smile split across her face, "things will finally become fun around here. Heavens knows we've been bored for far too long."
Ciel woke up with a jolt.
"What's going on?" she exclaimed. She looked around. She wasn't in her room; it was her own medical bay…or…at least the medical bay for the humans in the Resistance, which in the past had only been her. "What happened?"
After quickly washing up and changing into the clothes that were prepared for her on a small table next to her—although her new clothes were still pink like all her other outfits—she walked outside and into mission control.
Naruto was waiting for her.
Ciel narrowed her eyes. The last thing she remembered before falling asleep was looking into Naruto's eyes. She stormed to him and was going to give him a piece of her mind. Normally, she was mild-mannered, but Naruto pulling some kind of magic to make her sleep was uncalled for.
"Food?" he asked as he held out a plate before she could yell at him.
Ciel suddenly felt a pain in her stomach. Hunger pains. She had been so shocked that she even had been asleep that she hadn't realized that she was starving.
"How…how long was I asleep?" she gasped out as she started eating as fast as she could.
"Hey!" Naruto admonished lightly. "You'll get indigestion if you eat so fast." Ciel flushed when she realized that the way she had just been eating probably wasn't all that flattering. She wanted to crawl back into her room when she saw Naruto's bright blue eyes twinkle in amusement.
Oh my goodness…I wish I could just die now… "Sorry," she mumbled out in embarrassment before looking down and avoiding his eyes.
"And as for your question, you've been out for a little over five days," Naruto said matter-of-factly. "It goes to show how sleep-deprived you were. You're lucky that your body only requires food once a day instead of the normal three for regular humans. We hooked you up to an IV, but disconnected you yesterday because you looked like you were about to wake up soon. And frankly, Enlightened One or not, you need sleep. From now on, you have a curfew set by yours truly."
She swallowed her food and stared incredulously at him. "But…"
"No buts," Naruto said firmly. "From now on, you're going to operate on my orders. You may control the entire Resistance, but I," Ciel let out a small squeak as Naruto stepped closer to her, "control you. If you're worried about the hacking attempts…" Naruto pointed to the raised platform where several dozen computers were set up. "I stole some supplies. As you can see," Naruto pointed towards the platform across from them. "Jaune and Rouge are currently running the newly set up database."
"But I have to take care of administrating tasks for the Resistance! Mission planning…scouting…intelligence…"
Naruto rolled his eyes at that. "No, those are stuff that you'll leave to Jaune and Rouge from now on. To be honest, they're bored and need something to do. They're more than capable of handling those tasks."
"But the hacking!" Ciel protested. "As long as there are any computers attached to the Neo Arcadian cyberspace, they can find out where we are! Also—"
"Not an issue anymore," Naruto replied before smiling triumphantly. "I personally made sure of that!"
Ciel almost sprayed the water in her mouth out at that. "You've been learning computer science for only a few weeks! That's hardly enough time to learn anything!"
Naruto furrowed his brow. "Yeah, I suppose you're right," Naruto admitted, "but aren't you forgetting something? Shadow clones…"
"I know that!" Ciel exclaimed, as she tried to maintain eating etiquette as best as she could in the situation. "Even then…it probably isn't enough!"
Ciel knew that his shadow clones acted as in a way that was similar to aggregate data processing, with the clones transferring their knowledge and experience to the original. But Naruto still couldn't have possible caught up to the Neo Arcadian scientists who were made to operate computers. They had years and years worth of knowledge downloaded into their brains at birth.
Naruto shrugged. "There's a lot more to the story, but you'll have to ask Cerveau. Bye!"
"Naruto!" Ciel called out in frustration as the boy disappeared in a puff of smoke.
A shadow clone… Ciel looked at the place the clone had been standing just a moment before in annoyance. There must be quite a lot to this "story" if Naruto is afraid of confronting me directly.
She stomped towards the door to go look for the blond ninja.
Just as she reached the door, Cerveau came into mission control and let out a loud sigh. "I assumed he told you?"
Ciel shook her head in irritation. "Enough to make me curious…but I get the feeling that I should be feeling hysterical right now."
Cerveau groaned. "Well, I told Naruto that he was being a bit hypocritical, but he didn't listen."
"We're done," Jaune called out cheerfully from one of the computer stations, "Naruto did an amazing job setting up our own official network. I actually have some work to do now digitizing a lot of the information we have and connecting everything in the base to our network."
"Don't worry, Ciel," Cerveau said before Ciel could ask the question on the tip of her tongue. "It's a network completely isolated from Neo Arcadia's network. Everything here is linked through a wired connection and none of the computers in our network is connected in any way to a computer outside the network. We won't be worrying about wireless connections until we can get a proper firewall set up. And the few computers that we do have attached to the Neo Arcadian cyberspace for information and research purposes…well…let's just say that Naruto's gotten incredibly skilled at hacking."
Rouge nodded in agreement. It appeared that she too was working on managing the new network that Naruto had set up. "We saw Naruto's last job a few hours ago. He took control of a robot in charge of painting and forced it to dump paint all over two of the Four Guardians. Again."
"Let's just say that Hidden Phantom looks very nice in a shade of orange," Jaune laughed.
"I think I preferred the two X marks on Fefnir's chest from a few days ago. They make him look more…feminine…" Rouge returned, being uncharacteristically giddy. Ciel was surprised. Rouge was usually very serious and mellow. Something was definitely up for her to act in this manner.
Ciel didn't know what to say to that and just remained silent as the two Reploids continued to giggle at Naruto's exploits.
"I personally checked his skills. He's nowhere near as good as you are, Ciel. Even with several years' worth of training, so to speak, it's not even close." Cerveau commented. "But Naruto comes up with rather creative ways to achieve his goals. Unfortunately, that skillset is far more suited for active attacking than passive defending. As a result, the firewall we have is still woefully weak. Naruto seems to have known his limitations though and simply kept the Neo Arcadian experts distracted by launching attacks all over the place instead of bolstering our firewall and preventing attacks from coming in like you do. Moreover, for the most part, Naruto usually only targeted harmless systems…"
"Like painting robots," Ciel finished for him. In a way, that was creative. No one would even bother trying to protect such harmless systems and Naruto's relatively weak hacking skills would have been enough to take over those unguarded programs. "That's incredibly risky, especially considering that Naruto still pretty much knows next to nothing about security systems," Ciel murmured. "I'm surprised they haven't traced it back to this location yet."
"Well, Jaune, Rouge, and I did help him. We're more than capable of holding fort, so to speak, for a few days. But…that isn't the entire story," Cerveau replied. "There's another reason why the hacking is no longer a problem."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Ciel asked. She suddenly remembered before she had gotten distracted. "What's going on?"
Cerveau looked a bit nervous. "Well, while you were asleep, Naruto…well…he stole these supplies." He gestured to everything that was now being set up on the platform in mission control.
Ciel nodded slowly. "Naruto told me he infiltrated a military base to grab supplies just before he passed out. Although why he did…I don't really understand…because we could have bought most of these in a nearby town or made them in our own factory." She frowned lightly. "I'm guessing this is part of the reason why I should be feeling hysterical, right?"
"Is that what he said? Infiltrate?" Cerveau asked incredulously. "Seriously…infiltrate?" The Reploid scientist shook his head. "Not true. He didn't infiltrate the base. He calmly walked in through the front door and in his own words…I quote…'opened a can of whoop-ass on Anubis Necromancess and Blizzack Staggroff before Leviathan came and made me run like a bitch.'"
Ciel blinked as her still sluggish brain translated that sentence into more familiar…and less crude terms.
"WHAT?!" Ciel shrieked. She had expected a B-rank Reploid…maybe two…but two B-ranks and a Guardian? How was Naruto even alive?
Jaune and and Rouge instantly became quiet and returned to their work. Ciel paid them no heed. She set her tray down and slowly marched towards Cerveau who was backing away in fear.
"Ah…well…" Cerveau stammered, unnerved at the outburst from the normally mild-mannered girl. "When you were asleep, we found out that Neo Arcadia made a secret base that had been made purely to launch attacks against us. It seems that 90% of the attacks have stopped since the base went down."
"You…" Ciel tightened her fists in almost uncontrolled fury. "You let him go? How could you?! Fairy Leviathan was there?! You know how strong she is! You could have sent him to his death! And from his 'colorful' description, he almost did die!"
"Look, Ciel, I tried to stop him. But he was adamant about this, especially when we came across some intelligence files that Neo Arcadia was keeping several of our comrades locked up at the base."
"Our comrades were being held there?"
Ciel took a deep breath and calmed down. It made a bit more sense in that case. Everyone knew that Naruto had promised to support them to the best of his ability, but no one wanted to take Naruto's efforts and life for granted. He was a friend and comrade, not a weapon to be sent out to destroy Neo Arcadians. And to Ciel, Naruto was…was…something more than a friend.
Ciel still wasn't happy that Naruto had been sent out to a place where there had been one of the Guardians but what was important was that he was back unharmed and had even brought more of their comrades back.
That didn't change the fact that she was going to unleash a world of pain on Naruto for treating his life so carelessly.
He…he could have gotten seriously hurt! Or killed! Did Naruto really not know how important he was to the Resistance…and to her?
She clenched her fists tightly.
"Yes," Cerveau nodded slowly. "Seven of them, I believe. You can meet them downstairs in the Reploid medical bay later. You'll be happy to see them."
"I will," she replied as she tried to calm down. "Is there anything else that I should know?"
Ciel couldn't help but wince at the sarcasm in her own statement. She didn't know what had come over her. It had been a long time since she lost control over herself like that. She made a mental note to apologize to Cerveau.
Later, of course, after the Reploid had more time to reflect on his rather poor decision to agree to Naruto's crazy plan.
Understandably, Cerveau was only too glad to change the topic. "From what I gathered from the online press from Neo Arcadia, the Neo Arcadian government is in an uproar over Naruto's online attacks." Cerveau groaned. "Actually, it'd be more accurate to call them pranks. Naruto has hit every single government leader in a publicly humiliating fashion, including the Eight Gentle Judges. They're more concerned about running damage control than worrying about us right now. I daresay that Naruto has bought us about a few months of time before we have to worry about any sort of reprisal from Neo Arcadia." Cerveau shook his head. "Naruto is definitely an idiot, but you should thank him when you get the chance. I know you're upset that he went on that unsanctioned mission on his own accord again, but he did it because he cares about you."
Ciel shook her head. "No. I think he's just that type of person. He'll willingly lay down his life for what he believes is right." She looked down at the blonde. "We've only met a little over two months ago. I can't possibly be someone special to him."
Not in that way, at least. Ciel thought bitterly.
Cerveau challenged her on that. "Well, didn't he become someone special to you in that short period of time?"
Ciel didn't answer that question.
She didn't need to.
"Did you talk to Ciel?"
Naruto nodded. "I don't think I've ever seen Ciel-chan that distraught before."
Cerveau wasn't going to repeat his explanation for why Ciel was so distraught after the debacle last time. It would be a pain in the ass to watch, but it was probably for the best to let Naruto and Ciel come together organically. Cerveau was done trying to play matchmaker.
"Ciel has always been anxious when it comes to missions. She wonders if she's sending people to their deaths all the time," Cerveau replied.
"She feels responsible for their deaths," Naruto said. It was a statement, not a question.
"There's no doubt about that," Cerveau admitted. There was also the fact that Ciel created Copy X, but Cerveau wasn't going to tell Naruto that. "She never really had the disposition to be a military leader. She's more suited to remaining as a scientist and innocent human girl."
"Perhaps," Naruto said with a frown, "but she's the heart of this entire organization. Without her, the Resistance would completely fall apart."
Cerveau crossed his arms. "Well, that might have been true in the past, but now…"
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What about now?"
Cerveau shrugged. "I think people are placing their hopes in you instead of Ciel. She may be the emotional support for everyone, but you're pretty much what gives people hope when they start thinking about the future."
"Heh." Cerveau chuckled as Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. It was always interesting to see the blond ninja, despite his battle prowess and experience in war, show a more relatable human side to him. "You think too well of me, Cerveau. I'm hardly leader material, at least in the traditional sense. I can organize battles, but not much else than that. Being a leader…" Naruto's eyes grew distant, "…is incredibly difficult."
Cerveau raised an eye. "You seem to be speaking from experience. Memories from the past?"
Naruto nodded. "I had always wanted to be the leader of my village in hopes that people would acknowledge me. Eventually, I got there, but the price of that was far too great. In the end, the only thing I was able to do as a leader was to sacrifice myself so war wouldn't start on my account."
"Ah, so that's the story behind your sealing."
"More or less."
"Well, that was then and this is now. All the Reploids look to you as their military leader at the very least. Don't sell yourself short."
Naruto nodded. "I suppose. Anyway," Cerveau looked curiously as Naruto fished out something from his pocket, "I found another chip."
Cerveau caught the chip that Naruto had tossed. "Hm…" Cerveau said in an appraising tone. "An ice chip."
"I'm not too surprised, since Blizzack Staggroff was an ice Reploid," Naruto said with a shrug. "Any progress on that mega blaster?"
"A bit," Cerveau acknowledged. "I'm still having some trouble making sure that this chakra of yours doesn't leak out and dissipate."
"Some trouble" was an understatement however. The chakra energy stayed completely intact inside of the mega buster but would almost dissipate immediately after a shot was fired. It was as if the chakra refused to stay together outside the barrel.
"Ah," Naruto replied in a disappointed tone. "I figured you would. Chakra is created with the forceful mixing of physical energy and spiritual energy. Without constant effort to mold chakra together, the mixing just stops."
Cerveau frowned. "Then how does your Rasengan work? Isn't it outside of your body? Shouldn't it dissipate as well?"
"The Rasengan is still in contact with my hand and I'm actively creating a shell to prevent the leaking of chakra, so to speak," Naruto explained. "I used to have a version that I threw, but I can't quite give you the mechanics of that without going into a long explanation that wouldn't help you at all."
"Hm…well, I'll just continue to look into it," Cerveau replied with a sigh. Coming up with solutions to problems was rewarding but the process was very frustrating at times. "I'll put aside some other projects and try to figure this out."
Naruto shook his head. "Don't bother. It's not quite high priority. Instead, I want you to focus on something else."
Cerveau gave Naruto a sharp look. Usually, Naruto only had that tone in his voice when he was talking about his students. "Something else for the two knuckleheads you're supposedly training?"
Cerveau had recently made them solid energy plates and arm and leg guards to compensate for their lack of durability. Unfortunately, however, while the protective gear was enough to repel small buster shots, even solid energy wouldn't last too long against powerful energy blasts and energy strikes from other energy weapons without being continually regenerated by the Reploid's core. Dande and Faucon simply did not have the power output necessary for that so they would have to constantly and regularly replace them.
Cerveau also had fashioned Naruto similar gear made of solid chakra and Naruto was in the process of testing them out.
Apparently, despite Naruto's humorous words to describe the battle, it was clear that Naruto's battle with Leviathan had shaken him up. Naruto didn't have too many severe injuries—only a fractured bone here and there—injuries that all healed up in a day or two, but Naruto freely admitted had he had underestimated how strong the Guardians were. From what Cerveau had gathered, it was only because Leviathan couldn't tell the difference between a clone and Naruto's original body and the fact that Naruto had the ability to use powerful illusions that Naruto was able to make it out.
"Yes, sort of," Naruto said with a smirk. "It definitely involves my two little students, but it could have major ramifications for other Reploids in this base."
"Now you have me curious," Cerveau replied. Usually Naruto's ideas were radical in nature even if they were possible. Naruto had a gift for looking outside of the box.
"So the main problem with increasing Reploid combat abilities is linked with the fact that Reploid cores simply cannot produce the energy output required for such heavy battle. External modifications can be done with a lot of time and effort, especially for combat Reploids, but that still doesn't change the problem with the core. And increasing the core's output with more energy crystals only goes so far."
"Yes, that's true. I think we discussed this the very first time you came and asked me if there was a point in having those two train under you," Cerveau replied, referring to Dande and Faucon. "The core is impossible to modify as it is tied into what gives a Reploid his or her identity. The only way to modify the core is by using a Cyber-Elf."
Naruto nodded. "And Cyber-Elves are incredibly rare. We only have one here in the base right now. Furthermore, the effects of Cyber-Elves are usually temporary which is why I haven't used it already on either Dande or Faucon. But…" Naruto paused. "Is there a way to make the effects of Cyber-Elves permanent? After all, the Cyber-Elves themselves last forever in their unaltered state. I suppose you can say that they're in a state of infinite energy. Therefore, there should be a way to make them last forever even in their altered state inside of a Reploid…or," Naruto smiled knowingly, "…as a source of energy…"
Cerveau's eyes widened. Of course! It's so obvious that we should have thought of that before! Cerveau felt like slamming his head into the wall before staring back at an amused Naruto.
"I…wow…" was all Cerveau could say. He shook his head. An idiot from the past was able to come up with a possible solution to their problems in less than two months. "The idea is great, but this is still going to take a very long time to research." Cerveau decided to take a shot at Naruto for the grief the damn blonde put him through with Ciel. "Either way though, Ciel's going to be really happy. Once I tell her this, she's probably going to drag you off to—"
"And you can stop right there, you goddamn pervert."
For the next few weeks, Naruto used most of his time to meditate. More of his memories were coming back but that only led to more questions.
Rinnegan…
That was at the center of everything. The Rinnegan had been one of the major reasons he had been forced to seal himself. The Rinnegan had been what allowed him to grow so strong in the first place, giving Naruto the ability to use all five chakra natures as if he had affinities to all of them.
And the Rinnegan was what would lead him to the answers to many of the questions he had. Just where were the nine bijuu as the world imploded over the last millennium?
Naruto shook his head. He couldn't dwell on questions that he had no way of answering.
He needed to return to the Gedo Mazo and talk to the nine bijuu. But until he reactivated the Rinnegan and regained the ability to synchronize with the Gedo Mazo, Naruto was just running blind.
So, for now, he would focus on training.
He was still drawing a blank on how to activate the Mangekyou Sharingan. From what he remembered, there was some sort of requirement to unlock it in the first place, but that shouldn't have stopped Naruto from accessing something that was already unlocked.
Amaterasu would make life really easy. Naruto almost drooled at the idea of just walking into the center of Neo Arcadia and setting everything on black fires that burned with the power of the sun. Naruto snorted. It was almost ridiculous how overpowered the Mangekyou Sharingan was.
But since he was running into a dead end there, Naruto decided to focus on something else: elemental manipulation.
Naruto didn't remember if he ever managed to combine different chakra natures to produce subtypes of elemental chakra. He certainly didn't remember ever being able to use Hyouton or Mokuton. But theoretically, with the Rinnegan, he should be able to freely manipulate all the elements.
Maybe he just ran out of time in the past. From the little he could remember, he had sealed himself relatively soon after Sasuke's Sharingan evolved into the Rinnegan. He had been mainly interested in the Rinnegan's ability to sync with the Gedo Mazo and not its other perks. Maybe that was why Naruto could only use the five major elements so far.
In any case, Naruto would have to remedy that really quickly. His battle with Leviathan had taught him that even as powerful as Naruto was, he was not invincible here in the future. It was true that he was worn out before he fought Leviathan, but that was hardly an excuse. If he had to rely on the Sharingan in battle, it meant that he had been a step away from getting his ass kicked in battle.
If anything, it was a miracle that Naruto's power level and abilities were still relevant in a world with infinitely more knowledge than the world he was from. Naruto needed to start taking full advantages of existing weaknesses his enemies had.
He had fire for Leviathan, although Naruto was unsure of how he would ever use that against her underwater. There was the fire-charged mega buster that Cerveau was finalizing and the engineer was working on body armor that would allow Naruto to maneuver himself more easily underwater. Naruto had lightning and water for Fefnir, so there were no problems there. Phantom wasn't particularly weak to any elements and relied on stealth, but Naruto had the ability to sense anything that moved through the air. Naruto would have to get accustomed to using that technique in battle, but he still had something to work with.
For Harpuia though, Naruto had absolutely nothing. He needed to be able to use ice attacks.
The Rinnegan was dormant, yes, but the Rinnegan itself changed the make-up of Naruto's body and vice versa. That's why Naruto's eyes were still blue after receiving Sasuke's black eyes and why Naruto was still able to use all the elements even without the Rinnegan activated.
For the past week, Naruto had been focusing on streaming both water and wind nature chakras: water nature chakra for one of his hands and wind nature chakra for the other. From what one of his mentors—Yama…something was his name—had told him in the past, the first step to using dual-nature chakras involved directly molding the two chakras in his hands.
Wind slices, Naruto thought carefully as he envisioned two sheets of wind chakra rubbing against each other in his right hand. And water flows. Naruto focused on picturing a small stream in his left hand. He brought his hands together. And ice… Naruto brought his hands together and imagined flowing water in between two layers of air that compressed the water. Ice hardens, right?
The water-wind chakra cupped in his hands exploded, leaving him both drenched and cut all over his body.
"Ugh," Naruto groaned, as the small cuts started to heal. He was more annoyed that he was drenched in cold water than the fact that he was cut all over. It appeared that he was succeeding on lowering the temperature of the water produced at least. "This is really annoying! I know how to manipulate wind and water…so why can't I manipulate ice?!"
Working with shadow clones hadn't helped, either. None of the thousands of clones he had created in the last few weeks had managed to come up with a single effective idea. He had drastically improved on being able to manipulate the flow of two chakra types at once—supposedly the hardest part—but Naruto was still unable to mix the chakra together.
"What are you doing?"
Naruto turned his eyes to the door to see Ciel.
Naruto smiled brightly at the girl. "Hey, Ciel-chan." Naruto pulled his hands into a hand seal and quickly used flared fire and wind chakra from his body in succession lightly to dry his clothes and hair. "I'm trying to learn how to make ice."
"So that's what you've been doing for the last few weeks," Ciel said. "You've been specifically learning how to combat the four Guardians…specifically Harpuia, I presume?"
Naruto nodded. "Well, sort of. I haven't even gotten that far just yet. I'll have to learn different combat styles entirely to do that. Unfortunately, my natural fighting style is only effective against Fefnir. I have special abilities that allow me to deal with Phantom, but there's nothing in my arsenal that allows me to fight in the air against Harpuia or fight in the water against Leviathan. But for now though, I'm just trying to learn how to exploit their natural weaknesses."
Ciel looked around the training room and saw water dripping from the entire place. "None of the Guardians are directly weak to water," Ciel said in a flat tone.
Naruto laughed, knowing that this was the girl's way of teasing him. Ciel was developing a rather dry sense of humor.
"Chakra theory says that water and wind make ice," Naruto explained. "I'm trying to figure out how to mix those two together."
"So you're not just trying to lower the temperature of the water you produce?" Ciel asked, clearly fascinated about learning something she didn't know.
Naruto mentally shrugged as he thought about just how much to tell Ciel. It wasn't like it would hurt to tell Ciel anything. Naruto ordered one of the training clones to bring a chair for Ciel and motioned for Ciel to sit down. Theoretical stuff really bored him and Naruto would much rather spend his time with Ciel in other ways, but Ciel was an academic at heart and enjoyed learning, even if the topic was on a subject she knew next to nothing about.
He could temporarily be an academic for the person he cared about the most in this strange war-torn future.
"There are five chakra types: fire, wind, lighting, earth, and water. Each has its own characteristic. Fire burns and explodes, water flows and repels, wind cuts and expands, lighting paralyzes and vibrates, and earth hardens and thickens," Naruto explained, reciting what his teachers had told him in the past. "There are more qualities of each of the elements, but those are the basics. In any case, molding chakra involves imagining chakra to act in a certain way. So by imagining my chakra flowing and repelling, I can create water. See?" Naruto held up a small ball of water that danced around his body. "So no matter how cold I try to make it, it'll always be water chakra."
"Because you ordered your chakra to flow and repel," Ciel concluded.
"Yup," Naruto said in a bright tone as the water ball vanished. "Supposedly, ice is an elemental subtype created by mixing water and wind chakra, but I don't really know the nature of ice. There was a clan that specialized in manipulating ice chakra, but I never really had the chance to ask anyone from the clan how they did it."
Naruto paused as he remembered his first major battle. The name of his opponent eluded him but Naruto knew that that's where he solidified his desire to protect his precious friends.
"It seems like chakra elements act like their real counterparts in nature. Ice freezes right?"
Naruto nodded. "I know that. So I've been trying to harden the water…somehow…" Naruto grimaced. "But water naturally tries to repel itself, and mixing in wind, which inherently is expansive in nature, is even harder."
Ciel gave him a strange look. "You've been trying to compress water to make ice?"
Naruto blinked. "Of course. How else do you harden things?"
"I keep forgetting that you lived over a thousand years ago," Ciel murmured softly. Naruto got the vague feeling that Ciel wanted to smack her head in exasperation.
"Eh? What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto asked tentatively. Ciel wasn't prone to violence like some of the girls he knew in the past, but he still didn't want to annoy or irritate the girl.
She just gave him a small smile. "Nothing," she said in a sweet and patient tone. "Ice is a bit different from most other solids. Ice isn't a compressed form of water."
"Huh? How else do you harden things then? I use earth chakra all the time and I make earthen walls harder by imagining my chakra being compressed more and more."
"Try imagining your ice chakra in the form of a crystal."
"A crystal?"
Ciel took out a paper and pen and quickly drew something on the paper. "Like this. Try imagining water hardening in this form."
"This is some weird shape," Naruto muttered as he looked at the layered hexagon.
Ciel smiled lightly. "You might be surprised. Try it," she urged.
"But that doesn't leave any room for wind chakra," Naruto said as he looked at the shape dubiously.
Ciel frowned. "I can't say anything about wind chakra, but first just try to force the water molec…um…particles into this position."
Naruto nodded. It wasn't like he had any better ideas.
Naruto closed his eyes and tried to imagine his water chakra freezing in the specific hexagonal form that Ciel mentioned. As expected, the water chakra resisted and tried to flow out of control. Naruto grit his teeth and mixed expanding wind chakra to prevent the water chakra from collapsing in on itself.
Naruto snapped his eyes open in shock when he felt the chakra cupped in between his hands freezing.
Sure enough, there was a small crystal of ice about a centimeter in diameter in between his hands. It was a polyhedron with multiple hexagonal surfaces. It glinted in the light like a diamond.
Chink!
Naruto let the ice block drop on the floor.
That had almost been too easy. He looked at Ciel. "How did you know?" he said in an accusing tone. "The water tried to resist being stuck in that shape so I used the expansive properties of wind to force water outward. And then it instantly froze."
Ciel knelt down to pick up the small crystal of ice. Naruto was tempted to roll his eyes when the girl poked at the block of ice now in her hand as if she was making sure it was actually ice.
She was a scientist and the leader of a rebel organization, but at times, Naruto couldn't help but see her as just a normal civilian girl.
"Water is denser than ice, Naruto," Ciel explained. "That's why you see ice floating on top of a lake. Ice is hard, but it's hard because ice is small particles of water stuck in this very form." Ciel pointed to the picture. "I don't know anything about chakra, but I do know a lot about the elements themselves…at least how they operate in nature."
Naruto blinked before giving her a bright and grateful smile. "Hm…I didn't know any of that. As expected of the great scientist Ciel-chan! Haha."
Ciel blushed lightly and returned his smile. "Thanks for the compliment, Naruto, but this is basic knowledge. Children as young as five know about this in our time."
Naruto hung his head in mock despair. "So that just means I'm dumb," Naruto whined as he turned away. "And I thought I had finally become smart after learning everything I did after the war," Naruto muttered more to himself than to Ciel.
It was as if the universe conspired against him. He became smart in his time, so the universe flung him far into the future where much of his knowledge was outdated and old. And just like that, he became an idiot once more.
Ciel giggled at his antics. "Well, you did learn all of computer science in a matter of weeks, so I wouldn't call you unintelligent. You're just…uninformed."
Naruto turned around and gave her an appreciative smile before hugging her. "Thanks, Ciel-chan, you're always so nice to me. It really helps having someone encouraging around."
He almost winced when old memories of being berated by his teachers and classmates surfaced. Even now, his heart carried some bitterness towards how people had treated him when he was young.
The girl stiffened at the sudden contact. "Ah…of…of course!"
Naruto chuckled as he released the girl. Ciel was still way too shy for her own good. "Well, I need to thank you for helping me figure this out…so is there anything I can do for you?"
Naruto looked at her curiously when Ciel stared at the small frozen crystal in her hand. "It's not melting…"
"Huh?" Naruto asked in confusion. What did that have to do with anything? "I made it through practice so I think it's still connected to my chakra instead of separated from me with its own supply of chakra. That means it won't melt until I release the technique or run out of chakra. Constructs made from dual-nature chakra are incredibly durable, far more durable than the elements in nature, so it won't melt without an incredibly hot fire or break without a ton of force."
Naruto almost stepped back when Ciel stared at him with a intense look in her eyes. "Until you run out of chakra?"
He raised his hands to allay her concerns. "It's nothing to worry about. The drain on my chakra is miniscule. If I need the chakra, that ice will automatically melt and disappear. It won't happen unless I'm about to die though and I doubt the small amount of chakra that thing saps will make a difference."
Ciel paused as she studied the ice crystal. "Then can I keep this?"
Naruto nodded. "Uh…sure…it's not really all that special though so—"
Ciel shook her head. "It's something I helped you make. I…I want to keep this as a reminder of how much you've done for…for us all."
Author's Note: The battle against Leviathan was merely round 1. It will be much longer the second time around. It was much easier to have Naruto retreat rather than having Leviathan retreat after getting defeated like she did in the Mega Man Zero games. It's hard to imagine Naruto winning and then just letting an opponent go without extenuating circumstances.
How did you like Leviathan's personality and the bits of the other Guardians' personalities? I'm trying to keep them as canon as possible, but there is just so little to work with. Suggestions and criticisms on this matter will be greatly appreciated.
Many years after I played the first three games, I finally made the time to play Mega Man Zero 4 this past weekend. I liked the game, but I thought Mega Man Zero and Mega Man Zero 3 were far better. The weapon upgrade idea and the open world of the Mega Man Zero 1 and the customizable head/body/foot chip system in Mega Man Zero 3 were amazing and it's a shame that they didn't keep those ideas.
Mega Man Zero 4 also had customizable chips, but I personally found the lack of the fire, lightning, ice chips rather annoying. The double jump foot chip in Mega Man Zero 4 was also a bit awkward, with the second jump having far less of a "bounce" than the first jump unlike in Mega Man Zero 3, where both jumps were about even (I think). Also, the EX skills Zero obtained from the bosses were mostly useless except the Ice Blade from Fenri Lunaedge…and I only used it once to combat Dr. Weil's Death Pierce (where he sends the six swords that act as lightning rods to the ground). And the presence of the Junk Armor (doubles attacking power, cuts defense by half) made the game way too easy; bosses died in like four hits.
The storyline is rather quirky as well. Neige asks Zero: "Are humans outside of Neo Arcadia all that rare?" when it was stated before that life outside of the Eden Dome was all but impossible. For this story, I'll probably have to retcon to make it so that it's difficult but not impossible to live outside the Eden Dome.
And once again, Zero dies. Haha, the poor Reploid can't ever catch a break, can he?