Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Mega Man Zero.
"Get that damn asshole on the line!" Fefnir roared at the screen.
"A…ah…yes sir!" the secretary on the screen stammered before scampering away.
Fefnir wasn't in a good mood. There was a tricky virus in the system that controlled the production of new Pantheons and considering that the factory was in the portion of Neo Arcadia under his jurisdiction, he had to figure out how to fix it.
Unfortunately, Fefnir, nor his subordinates, were all that tech-savvy. Fefnir valued battle strength and as a result, his army was easily the largest and most powerful. He scoffed at the rarely useful technicians, their technical mumbo-jumbo, and their weird habits of tinkering with machines all they. Fefnir went out of his way to minimize their presence in his army. After all, problems rarely arose and even in the case that they do, he could always request one of the other Guardians' subordinates.
Much to his frustration, the other Guardians were suffering from similar issues and couldn't spare any of their technicians.
And now, Harpuia had the gall to ask him for a favor?
Ridiculous. That insufferable bastard was getting even cockier.
"Fefnir?" Harpuia didn't bother even hiding his annoyed tone.
"You pompous shithead. I'm not your goddamn servant. Take care of your own problems."
"Don't you think you're being a bit petty?" Harpuia responded curtly. "It's not my fault that you kicked out anyone with even half a brain from your army. It's no wonder that Leviathan taunts you by saying your brain is made of muscle. You really should have allocated some resources towards something other than fighting."
Fefnir grit his teeth. "Tch."
Before he could respond, however, Harpuia went on. "Anyway, that's not what I want to talk about. I have a proposal that I'm confident you'll like. Think of it as a way for you to vent your frustration." A pause. "It involves that human Maverick Naruto."
Fefnir froze as he looked at Harpuia on the screen before a manic grin slowly spread across his face. "Oh ho…now you're speaking in my language. Talk."
Apparently, the human had survived and even managed to take down yet another elite combat Reploid. This Naruto figure was getting more and more interesting.
Harpuia rolled his eyes. "For someone who hates authority, you sure like to order people around."
"I'm not in a good mood right now," Fefnir growled as he raised his buster to the screen. The shot wouldn't hit Harpuia of course, but Fefnir was sure that Harpuia would get the message. After all, the "strongest" Guardian also took pride in being the smartest, too.
"A small squad of Resistance Reploids crawled into a trap that I had set up a few months back, but Naruto isn't among them."
"And…?" Fefnir snapped. "Stop dragging this out and just spill!"
Harpuia merely continued at the same pace. "Well, there are a couple things. First off, the Resistance hasn't actually suffered any casualties in the last few months because of Naruto's efforts. Second, Naruto tends to show up where he can cause the most amount of trouble."
Fefnir was freely willing to admit he wasn't a genius, but even he could see what Harpuia was proposing.
He smirked. "Since your shitty subtle stuff failed, now you want me to go wild and clean up your mess."
"Yes," Harpuia deadpanned, "if 'cleaning my mess' means trashing everything visible in a five hundred meter radius."
Fefnir still wasn't completely convinced. "Why can't you do this? You're a Guardian as well; you'd be just as big of a draw to Naruto. And I'm surprised that you're not proposing that we gang up on him. Aren't you the one who's determined to do whatever it takes to get rid of the enemy?"
Harpuia looked annoyed at that. "Don't make me out to be someone like Phantom, Fefnir. Determination and dishonor are two different things. And I will be there; I'll simply be monitoring the battle in real time for data in case we need to fight him again in the future. I'll be sending over equipment for you to wear as you battle."
Fefnir let out enough power to crack the ground he was standing on even though he knew the gesture was lost on video. "You doubt my strength?" he hissed in anger, even as he knew that Harpuia was merely manipulating him. Regardless of the reason, Fighting Fefnir did not take any slights to his combat prowess.
"Hardly. But Naruto is an unknown. We don't know how he gained his powers, to what extent he can use those powers, or if there are others like him with similar powers. So it won't hurt to be a little cautious and prepared. And remember, from all the data we have, we have concluded that Naruto is highly specialized for land-based combat. You'd probably argue that land-based combat is your specialty as well, but your fighting style is for high impact on a single target. On the other hand, Naruto is far more suited to wide-scale destruction. His agility will allow him to dodge your attacks and in an area where he doesn't have to worry about collateral damage, you'd be hard-pressed against his area of effect attacks."
"Tch."
"Well?"
Fefnir made a show of hesitating. Both he and Harpuia knew that he was going to accept, but Fefnir's pride wouldn't let him agree to do a favor for another Guardian without compensation.
"Well…I am busy though…especially with all the repairs that need to be done around this place."
Harpuia groaned and slapped a hand to his helmet. "I get it. I get it. I'll lend you my technicians. Now get on with it."
Fefnir stared at the nine Reploids caught in Harpuia's trap.
"Tch," he spat, disappointed in the weak prey. "None of you little shits are even worth my time."
Perhaps not surprisingly, it appeared that most of the Mavericks were relatively young; after all, most of the older Resistance Reploids were killed in earlier skirmishes.
Despite being outmatched, the team of Resistance Reploids all raised and pointed their busters at him.
"There are currently over a hundred busters pointed at you," he said in a bored tone, gesturing towards the wall of Pantheons behind him. "Tell me where Naruto is. I'll even let you call him out."
The Resistance Reploids looked at each other and whispered something through their radios before their eyes collectively hardened.
"We won't sell out a comrade!" one of them shouted out loud.
The youngest ones are always the most annoying. Fefnir let out a mental snort of annoyance as he looked at a Reploid girl who probably wasn't fully matured and developed yet. Well, I didn't really think something like negotiations would ever work with Mavericks anyway. But given their reaction, Naruto is definitely alive. As Harpuia suspected, that bitch Ciel must be keeping him in reserve for a more important mission.
If the Resistance Reploids had been stronger, Fefnir would have been ecstatic that negotiations had just failed. It would have meant that he would be getting a good fight.
But unfortunately, these pathetic excuses for Reploids were weak and disobedient.
Fefnir raised his hands to maintain the guise that he was going to execute them. Before he could do anything though, six of the Reploids suddenly turned and ran while three of them started firing.
Whoosh!
The entire area was immediately covered in dark smoke.
A few of the more disobedient Pantheons started firing blindly into the smoke.
"Idiots, you'll kill the bait like that," Fefnir cursed as he immediately rectified that problem by blasting the defective Pantheons. "The rest of you, fire around the Mavericks. We need to draw out that bastard." Fefnir raised his arm just in time to block a weak buster shot. He snarled. "I take that back. Fire at the Mavericks using the busters on the lowest setting. Do it in the most painful ways you can think of. Don't kill them, but I want to see arms blown apart and legs ripped out! Go!"
"We're in deep trouble!"
Paon ran with the rest of the squad. While they were maintaining a comfortable distance, they weren't able to shake their pursuers. The open terrain didn't help in that regard. They still had about half a kilometer for any sort of cover.
Two of her comrades had already been hit in the arm. She and the others were unscathed, but only because they had used their backpacks, radios, and any other items they had as shields to block any buster shots that had gotten particularly close.
Desperation tactics taught to them by Naruto. Effective, but only as a stalling measure.
"Do we call for reinforcements?"
"Negative. They're intentionally baiting us to do exactly that. There's no way we could have survived for nearly fifteen full minutes under constant fire in an open terrain otherwise."
"Wouldn't Naruto-san be able to help us out of this situation?"
"Yes, that's such an excellent idea," Paon replied in a sarcastic voice. "Let's call out the one person that they told us they were looking for. Idiot, Naruto-san is powerful, but not even he could escape unscathed from a trap prepared specifically for him. For all we know, they may have found out how to counter that chakra power of his. Until we get more information, calling Naruto-san out here is like handing him a death sentence."
"We could request for a platoon instead."
"It wouldn't make a difference against these numbers. We would need a battalion to even these odds and objectively, it's idiotic to risk a full battalion to save the nine of us considering that the entire fighting power barely make up one battalion."
Colbor's voice cut through the chatter. "Don't resume communications. With any luck, Ciel-san will assume that we're dead. It's been thirty minutes since the last 'electronic handshake' with the base."
"Normally, it's supposed to be 'with any luck, we'll survive,' Colbor-taichou," the Reploid in front of her grumbled.
"Just shut up and run. Three more minutes and we'll finally have some cover. Crack your stupid jokes then."
Miraculously, they made it into the small forest. They all paused to relieve the stress on their bodies. They didn't need air, but their bodies weren't designed to constantly put out levels of energy required to run quickly and for a long time. Paon could literally feel the components in her body overheating. She was pushing her body to the limits. Contrary to what human athletes claim, it wasn't a pleasant feeling.
"Finally, a break. It'll be hard for them to carelessly enter here where we can ambush them. Take out your busters and move silently from tree to tree, everyone."
"But wow…this whole thing was a simple, yet effective trap. Fefnir even let us know that this was meant for Naruto because he knew we couldn't do anything about—"
Paon almost screamed as a large fireball landed behind them and caused the trees to explode.
"Speaking of Fefnir, it seems like he's joined the chase as well." Paon could hear the irritation in her captain's voice. "And he's probably going to destroy any cover we have in a matter of minutes. Run."
Paon heard Oyie mutter curses under her breath as they all began to run again. "It seems they planned for us not contacting the base as well. They probably expected that we'd cut communication with the base."
"What do you mean?" Paon asked, gasping from the strain on her body.
"We've cut off all communication with the base to prevent anyone from knowing that we're being attacked so that we don't lead anyone else into this trap. Eventually, after some time, they assume that we were captured or dead. But with these large scale explosions going around…"
"…even if we cut communications, they'll know that we're still alive and under fire, forcing Ciel-san to send reinforcements into this trap," Paon said in a horrified voice.
Ciel, Naruto, Faucon, Dande, and a couple others were on a low-flying transport helicopter to get close to the area that Team Colbor disappeared in.
"Our scans show Reploid activity in the area," Ciel said from the controls. She and a Reploid named Hirondelle were currently flying the plane. While both of them were capable of flying helicopters, neither of them were officially pilots. The Resistance's only true certified pilot—by Neo Arcadia standards anyways—was Oyie and she was on the mission. But at this point, beggars couldn't be choosers.
"I don't think we needed the scanners to tell us that, Ciel-chan," Naruto said dryly. "If you look on the visual, you can see that all the trees in these areas have been blown apart. It seems like they've trapped Colbor's squad by using long-range weaponry to bombard any areas Colbor's squad can run towards. They're almost certainly stuck here," Naruto pointed at an intact area of the forest that was surrounded by a large field of destruction. "Considering that Neo Arcadia took great lengths to nicely destroy everything but this area, they're looking to capture Team Colbor alive. Neo Arcadia is probably sending in a few squads at a time to capture them. They also probably have some sort of mechanism to block Trans Server functions to prevent them from leaving."
"On the bright side, it means Team Colbor alive, right?"
Ciel could almost feel Naruto rolling his eyes. "Yes, that means it's highly likely that your girlfriend is alive, Dande. Congratulations. After we rescue her, you can go and do the Reploid equivalent of what humans do to make babies."
Ciel flushed at the insinuation. Naruto seemed to be far more on edge if he was making crude jokes even though it seemed the he had toned it down a bit. She had heard that veteran soldiers often did so, but it was something that she wasn't used to. Very few active soldiers in the Resistance lasted long enough to earn "veteran" status. It was only because the Resistance's strong "recruitment" efforts—abducting the falsely accused Reploids before they could be killed—that they were able to maintain several hundred soldiers at any given time.
She pushed that unhappy thought out of her mind. She needed to focus on the upcoming mission.
"I doubt we can get any closer than this. Right now, the trees below us are providing us with some cover from being visually detected by ground forces, but we won't be able to land for the same reason. On the other hand, we can't go on beyond this point because it's an open area from here on out."
Ciel heard Naruto get up from his seat behind her. "We'll jump out here. It doesn't particularly matter where we aim to land. We'll be in for a fight the moment we touch the ground." She turned around in time to see Naruto stop Dande from grabbing a nearby parachute. "No parachutes. They'll slow us down and if our enemies see the parachutes, they'll just shoot us down. We'll be a sitting duck out there with how slow we fall with parachutes. Just lower the plane to about five hundred meters in the air. Don't go any lower or closer; otherwise, they'll be able to shoot the helicopter down."
Everyone on the plane all looked at Naruto as if he were insane for proposing that they jump out without any sort of way to land slowly.
"I'm not even going to comment…" Faucon muttered. "There's a new level of crazy that Naruto-shishou reaches every day."
Ciel would have agreed under normal circumstances. But surely Naruto, the boy she, a levelheaded and intelligent scientist, loved dearly, wasn't that senseless, right?
"We'll use these." Ciel saw Naruto unsealed three hover bikes from one of his scrolls. "I got them from Cerveau before we left. I thought it would help us find Team Colbor faster."
Ciel wanted to slap her head.
"Naruto," Ciel said tentatively, not wanting to offend Naruto too much for his less-than-intelligent idea—she still loved him, after all, and wanted him to return her affections, "hover bikes do hover in the air, but they can't hover on air at this height. They rely on a constant stream of dense air to push the rider up a few feet up from the ground; they just don't fly. And they certainly aren't made to protect you from falls from that kind of distance."
Naruto shrugged. "A five-hundred-meter fall is nothing. It's not even high enough to fully reach terminal velocity for humans." Ciel looked at Naruto incredulously before he gave her a strange look. "What? I'm not completely uninformed now. I read about it in one of your books. People used to think that heavier objects fell faster than light objects until some guy name Galileo showed that falling objects fall at the same rate. But even that was wrong because he didn't take air resistance and all that jazz, leading to a terminal velocity."
"Um…Naruto, that's not the issue here."
"Oh…then what?"
"Humans die from a fifteen-meter fall. You're proposing a jump from five hundred meters up in the air. And you'll still be falling at a speed very close to terminal velocity. Even Reploids won't survive a fall like that."
"Details, details. Besides, I read that people have survived from falls from heights over 6000 meters high. This is nothing compared to that." Naruto said nonchalantly while ignoring the glares from his two students. "It'll be fine," he said in a soothing voice that wasn't very soothing at all. "For the sake of my two little students, I have a plan. A crazy plan, but a plan nonetheless."
She looked at him dubiously before sighing. It seemed that Naruto had made his mind up. She would just have to trust him. "As long as it works...I suppose…"
"NARUTO-SHISHOU, I'M NEVER GOING ON A MISSION WITH YOU AGAIN!"
Naruto chuckled Dande screamed for his life. He and two other clones were controlling the hover bikes while Dande and Faucon were riding behind his two clones on the bikes.
They were now falling at incredibly rapid speeds. Five seconds. Six seconds. There were a few more seconds before he could make his move.
Dande apparently was close to having the Reploid version of a heart attack when he saw that the hover bikes were moving forward while still falling through the air, past the trees and into the open area where Pantheons started firing at them. Faucon was doing much better, but Naruto could tell that he too was ready to faint from the shock.
Naruto ignored his Dande's hysterical screaming and focused. He had to time this perfectly, especially when he was doing this without hand seals. Fuuton: Kaze Kawa (Wind Release: Wind River)!
Naruto pushed the wind chakra through his feet instead of his arms and held his breath as the stream of wind allowed them to glide forward in the air instead of falling at incredible speeds. The jutsu was normally a defensive technique that used the wind to block attacks and slow attackers, but Naruto figured that it could be used to slow their fall and cushion them from the impact as well.
"Shut it, you little baby. Tell me that wasn't awesome!" Naruto cheered as they finally descended to the point where the hover bike didn't need any more support from Naruto's technique.
"YOU'RE A FREAKIN' LUNATIC!"
Naruto grinned. "Now you'll have something to brag about to your girlfriend once you save her." Naruto was careful about his word choice and intentionally leaving out the word "if." He didn't want Dande to fly off the handle. Anger and desperation were both helpful in battle to draw out extra strength and motivation, but too much led to a loss of control.
"I…I think Dande has a point here, Naruto-shishou," Faucon gasped out. "I thought we were going to die."
Naruto rolled his eyes. If they only knew what a brush with death really was like…
His eyes turned to the Pantheons closing in on them from all sides. They had landed in one of the areas, if shattered bark and broken branches were considered "open." Luckily the hover bikes were able to float over the debris.
They instantly shot forward on their bikes.
They were currently moving too fast for any individual Pantheon to hit them with a buster shot, but with hundreds of shots, one could get lucky.
"In any case, if you have time to whine, shoot at those damn Pantheons. You can't rely on me to dodge like a hundred buster shots at once."
That got Dande's and Faucon's attention as they started firing their busters, hitting and destroying a Pantheon with each shot. They immediately realized that Naruto's and his clones' hands were occupied with controlling the incredibly fast hover bike.
"There have got to be hundreds of Pantheons here," Faucon remarked as he shot a Pantheon straight in the face where the core was.
"How the hell did they get so many of them here without us noticing before the mission?" Dande asked as Naruto swerved away from several shots and ran over an unlucky Pantheon who exploded soon after Naruto crushed his body with the hover bike. "Neo Arcadia either had a way to cloak all these enemies, or they had a way to bring all these enemies here really quickly."
"They must have hidden a portable Trans Server or set up a warp point near the area," Ciel's voice came over the radio. "Considering the number of enemies in the area, however, I'm guessing that they must have set up a warp point. Setting one up takes a considerable amount of time and effort. "
"In other words, it was a well-made trap," Faucon concluded as he shot down another Pantheon without even looking. Initially, neither Dande nor Faucon was supposed to be a powerhouse—their specs hadn't allowed for that—but with the upgrade they received from the Cyber-Elf, they hardly looked like they were having any trouble in a blue sea of enemies…
…especially considering that the Pantheons were dropping like flies.
Naruto nodded grimly as he ducked under a shot fired by flying enemy. "We're most likely looking at a powerful Reploid in command as well and not just these Pantheons given the higher level Pantheons here. Luckily, these flying enemies aren't of a factor in the small patch of the forest where Team Colbor is hiding, but in an open area, they're annoying to deal with."
"The presence of all those Pantheon Flyers suggests that the Strong Air Battalion under Harpuia is somehow involved," Ciel added. "It might be Hurculious Anchus or Kuwagust Anchus in command. Those are a few of the high-rank members of the Strong Air Battalion that have the clout to move so many Pantheons on notice."
Faucon's breath hitched. "The famed Sons of Thunder."
Naruto frowned. "Are they strong?"
"They're both rumored to be unbelievably powerful and specialize in aerial combat," Ciel said with a hint of worry. "High B-rank. Almost enough to graze A-rank."
"They're still B-rank though," Dande said fiercely. "Naruto-shishou has even fought against Leviathan."
Naruto mentally groaned. He did not want to remember that battle, especially how it ended. Leviathan was pretty, Naruto supposed, but it was still strange that he was kissed by someone who was essentially a bucket of bolts. That and Naruto did not like the idea of being killed from a kiss despite how pleasant the kiss itself was.
"The Sons of Thunder often fight together so Naruto-shishou would immediately be outnumbered. It's rare to see one without the other," Faucon said. "I remember seeing them once when I was much younger. They completely decimated a group of Reploids who were simply rumored to be Mavericks. No ties to the Resistance or anything from what I remember. They were just people in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"Are you trying to say that Naruto-shishou would lose, you asshole?" Dande shot back angrily. "Us, Paon, everyone in Team Colbor…our lives are riding on this and the least we can do is to be optimistic about it."
"Be quiet, both of you," Naruto rebuked lightly as he lifted his hover bike to jump over a large rock. "And Dande, you especially need to calm down. I know that you're worried about Paon-chan, but you need to worry about what's important, not about whether Faucon is being gloomy or not."
Ciel's voice broke through the tense atmosphere. "You'll be arriving where we estimate Team Colbor to be so get ready. We'll continue to record the data being sent by your scanners and transponders and let you know if there's a powerful Reploid up ahead."
Naruto nodded. "If we find anyone, we'll wait it out until you're able to crack the code to the warp point in the area or disrupt the signal preventing the use of portable Trans Servers."
"Remember that you can't send people back in the midst of battle or while moving too quickly," Ciel reminded him. "It takes several seconds for Trans Servers to lock onto your position so take that into account. While you're using the Trans Server, you'll be a sitting duck."
"Got it."
They sped past Pantheon after Pantheon towards the specified area that Ciel had shown them on the map.
Unfortunately, Naruto had to keep twisting and turning to avoid the massive wall of Pantheons blocking them from entering the small patch of forest.
It was a slow process trying to break a hole through the formation.
Despite the tense and dangerous situation, Naruto was pleased that his two students were improving and rapidly gaining experience. They weren't nearly as tentative as they were at the beginning and were bringing down Pantheons with their busters seemingly even without aiming carefully.
"This isn't working," Naruto snarled. "I'll jump off and create an opening. The two of you go with my clones to find the others and wait for instructions from Ciel-chan." Naruto hit the brakes and jumped off. "Raiton: Eisou (Lightning Release: Laser Spear)." The beam of lighting shot forward and destroyed all the Pantheons in the area. "Go!"
"Right!" the two shouted.
Naruto made to follow them on foot when he felt a huge loom presence nearby. He jumped back as a huge fireball landed right where he had been standing.
"Naruto," Ciel's voice came over his radio. Judging by how the static changed, Ciel had opened a private line between the two of them. And this time the panic was evident in her voice. "There's a power reading near you. It's not a B-rank Reploid. It's…it's…"
Naruto didn't need to hear the rest of her sentence, as the heavily armored red Reploid equipped with a huge arm cannon appeared a few meters front of him. And there was yet another arm cannon strapped to his back.
Fighting Fefnir.
And Fefnir was holding a dead and charred Reploid in his arm.
Colbor.
"Ah…" Fefnir said with a huge grin. "You're finally here, Wonderboy. I've heard so much about you from the others." Fefnir unceremoniously tossed Colbor onto the ground. "This defect came out charging and took down the eight Pantheons that had gotten overzealous and almost killed your ragtag Resistance team. I thought he might have been fun to play with, but he lasted only about two seconds. I suppose he was rather impressive for small fry. He certainly drew the attention away from the rest of the weaklings."
Naruto closed his eyes as he heard Ciel's small gasp over the radio. "Who…?"
Naruto didn't answer. Ciel would get her answer soon enough anyway. And Naruto suspected the girl knew anyhow.
It was too late to save the pompous Reploid, but Naruto could at least honor Colbor's last vow and save the rest of the team.
Fefnir tilted his head to look at the dozens of destroyed Pantheons. "I had just finished up when you courteously shined that beacon for me just now." Fefnir spread his arms out. "And to repay you, I'll be generous and order the disruptive signals that are preventing Trans Servers from working to be taken down." Fefnir tapped the side of his helmet. "Oi! You heard me, right? Harpuia, we got our guy; we don't need the small fry. And get rid of all your Pantheons. Otherwise, if they get in the way, I'll kill them myself."
Naruto narrowed his eyes. So this entire thing this was to draw him out. And apparently, Harpuia was monitoring the battle as well. Trans Servers took a few seconds to work so that meant that Harpuia was a few seconds from entering the battle at any given point. He would have to keep his guard up.
"Ciel-chan, you heard that, right? Dande and Faucon will have reached the others in a bit. Send the surviving members of Team Colbor to the base and have Dande and Faucon standby in case I need backup."
"Naruto, you have to get out of there now," Ciel said frantically over the radio. "From your own report, you barely survived against Leviathan. Fefnir's stronger and much more ruthless in battle. And from the looks of it, Harpuia might be nearby as well. You definitely won't be able to handle two of the Guardians at once, especially when one of them is the strongest. In a few moments, we'll have met all our objectives for this mission. Try to run away."
No…
That wasn't going to happen.
"Ah, yes, that reminds me. I haven't introduced myself. My name is Fefnir, one of the four Guardians of X-sama."
Unlike the other times, Naruto patiently waited. He was going to kill Fefnir slowly. Very slowly.
"And?"
The Reploid looked confused. "And what?"
Firmly ignoring Ciel's constant pleas for him to retreat, Naruto coolly to walk forward towards the combat Reploid. "No threats about how you're going to kill me? No comments about how I'm evil to be siding with these so-called Mavericks? No questions about how a human gained such amazing power?"
Fefnir snorted. "It is foolish for a human such as yourself to side with Mavericks when these Mavericks are out for your blood. The very purpose of Neo Arcadia exists to protect humans from Mavericks and uphold peace. You are fighting on the wrong side, Uzumaki Naruto."
Steadily leaking killing intent, Naruto gestured at Colbor. "Well, he seems like the victim in this situation, wouldn't you agree?"
"Ho?" Fefnir said as he steadied his arm cannon. "I see more of our people actually. Then again, maybe you're right. The Pantheons don't really have true awareness. Not that it matters. Weaklings die. The strong live. That's the rule of the world. I don't really care who lives or dies."
"Naruto…Naruto…run!"
Naruto switched off the communicator. Sorry, Ciel-chan, you're going to have to wait this one out. I'll apologize to you later.
"Spoken like trash worth even less than scum." Naruto closed his eyes and slowly shifted into a fighting stance as Fefnir snarled at that. He wasn't going to get anywhere with words anyway. Sending chakra into this eyes, Naruto glared at his opponent. "Alright then, let's begin."
The next second, the entire area was flooded with explosions.
BOOM!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOBOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Fefnir lowered the arm he had raised to protect his face and felt the digital interface fluid drip down his face.
Yes…
This power…this power was wonderful!
He didn't even bothering contemplating on the sheer impossibility of Naruto setting explosives in the area. The only thing that mattered was that he actually felt pain from that attack.
Finally…FINALLY…there was finally someone who could make his blood boil!
Roaring, he charged towards the agile human who was making strange movements with his hands.
Ah! A ninja, eh? That bastard Phantom would get a kick out of that.
That would explain how the explosives were set up as well. Phantom was able to produce illusions, clones, and disappear into the shadows. After all, Leviathan had reported that Naruto could make clones of water. It wasn't too much of a stretch to think that Naruto could make invisible clones out of air, even if the strange elemental knife that Leviathan had reported about was nowhere to be seen.
Not that it mattered.
The human—the real one—would be crushed and buried before the hour was up.
Fefnir fired multiple fireballs towards Naruto. "Ha! Ha! Ha!"
The transparent knife instantly popped into the human's hand and glowed blue.
Fefnir didn't even bother waiting for his shots to hit as he launched himself into the air, charging both his arm and his arm cannon as he did so.
"Die! Ground Break!" Fefnir slammed his arm into the ground where he landed, sending energy waves the size of trees as well as shockwaves in all directions.
Senses tingling, he instantly threw himself to the side as a lighting beam passed by.
Without even thinking, he rolled to his knees and returned fired with a charged shot that was easily deflected by the blonde.
"Not bad. You're not quite as fast as Leviathan, but you actually dodged my fastest attack."
Fefnir's lips pulled back in a wide grin as he blocked a punch. "Don't compare me to that flaky bitch." His knee slammed forward only to be stopped by Naruto's leg.
He jumped back and sprang forward again to slam an elbow into the boy's face with his left arm. Naruto appeared like he had expected the hit but didn't seem to be able to stop the quick and sudden attack.
First blood. And Fefnir even had a charged shot to fire at point blank range.
He raised his arm.
His smirk disappeared as the "Naruto" in front of him was replaced by a Pantheon corpse.
"Tch." Ninjas and their damn tricks. Still, there wasn't anything on land that he couldn't sense. The small tremors and vibrations in the ground told him everything. Fefnir turned and squeezed the trigger. "Over there! HA!"
"Suiton: Suihou (Water Release: Water Gun)."
The fireball and water bullet struggled before both dissipating in hot steam.
Hiding in the steam won't help you!
Fefnir had already accumulated enough experience to know what Naruto's next move would be. He prepared his arm cannon and raised his left hand up to intercept the powerful punch.
Too bad…
Before Naruto could react, Fefnir fired Naruto high up into the air with a quick shot from his arm cannon. "This is one of my favorite attacks. Rocket Upper!" Fefnir leapt up to join Naruto. "And for the best part! Ground…what the—"
Fefnir felt the blonde—who should have been paralyzed from his Rocket Upper—grab onto him. "This isn't quite the proper way to do it, so I guess I'll have to change the name to…Karappo Renge (Empty Lotus)!"
Fefnir felt himself spinning as he fell to the ground at rapid speeds.
Boom!
If Naruto had doubts that Reploids could have mental illnesses, he didn't have them now.
Fefnir was insane. A certified lunatic.
If he didn't have the Sharingan to see everything in slow motion, he might not have escaped that alive. The crazy Reploid fired a charged shot just as they landed and created a human energy explosion.
Having seen the initial stages of the shot moving towards the ground with his Sharingan, Naruto had kicked off earlier that he should have and aborted the attack.
That still hadn't completely saved him from the explosion that resulted.
Naruto panted as he stood up, more in pain from the burns than exhaustion from the fight. Hopefully, Fefnir, being at the epicenter of that attack, was far more injured than he was. Fefnir was armored of course, but there's no way even Reploid armor could withstand that kind of explosion without taking some damage.
With his sharp vision, he saw a figure—presumably Fefnir—stand up amidst the smoke. The smoke cleared to reveal a heavily damaged Fefnir. Or at least…his armor was damaged. Naruto wasn't entirely sure how to assess the state of a Reploid based on their appearance aside from the very obvious like limbs being sliced off.
And in any case, it didn't look like Fefnir felt much pain at all. "Hahaha! This is definitely what I've been looking for all these years! I haven't been so damaged in my entire life. Hahahaha!"
And that only confirmed Fefnir's insanity.
Naruto appreciated a good battle himself, but he didn't act like a man getting his fix every time he took damage. Throughout the entire fight, Fefnir had a shit-eating grin on his face that only kept getting bigger.
"You could always fight the other Guardians," Naruto suggested. "I'm sure they could give you quite the fight."
Who knew? Maybe Fefnir was crazy enough to switch sides.
"Haha! That's quite the joke there, Wonderboy. Do you really think Leviathan or Harpuia could challenge me on land?" Fefnir went on without waiting for an answer. "They're the strongest within their respective realms of water and air, but on land, I reign supreme! They wouldn't be able to provide me with this sort of exhilaration!"
"There's Phantom, you know. Or you could go fight the others in their preferred environments."
"The damn bastard never fights. Not in the truest sense of the word. He sneaks around, he ambushes people, he lays traps, and he kills people. And why would I fight underwater or in the air? I'm not designed to do so and I'll be operating at less than optimal levels. What I want, Uzumaki Naruto, is a battle where I can be at my absolute best and still push my limits!"
"And then what about X?"
Fefnir sobered up immediately. "X-sama is the god of this world. He singlehanded united the world to create this utopia for humans. Anything that challenges him must be eliminated. That goes for you and it goes for me. This law goes beyond my thirst for fighting."
Naruto scowled at that. Like most villains, it seemed that Copy X had a bad case of a swollen head. "A utopia for the few and built upon the blood of the oppressed isn't a true utopia at all. And I don't believe in gods created by humans. Anything that has a beginning cannot be God. So to me, your 'X-sama' is nothing but a faker."
Fefnir growled.
Naruto growled back. "In fact, I'll send him your carcass to tell him what I think of him. After all, you're directly made from his DNA, aren't you?"
At that moment, a hand burst from the ground and reached for Fefnir's leg.
An earth clone that Naruto had made by sending chakra into the ground by tapping his feet. That was how he had set up the explosive tags in the area in the first place.
The trick didn't work this time, however, as Fefnir leapt back. "Hah! So that's your trick, eh? It won't work if I keep my sensors active!"
Naruto didn't respond as he charged forward with his chakra kunai, which was now glowing yellow.
The Reploid leaned back to avoid the tendrils of lightning. Naruto grunted as the Reploid's arm cannon caught him in the stomach. His head fell forward before being kicked in the face. Naruto moved his hands through hand signs as he flipped backward from the blow and mentally called out to his earth clone.
A pillar of shot up, forcing Fefnir to jump up to avoid it.
There!
"Raiton: Raitei no Taiho (Lightning Release: Cannon of Thunder Emperor)!"
Naruto launched his strongest lightning attack that also had the most amount of spread. Fefnir maybe deceptively fast on land, but as the earlier exchanged proved, Fefnir had very few options in the air.
The charged buster shot detonated the large lightning ball and sent small lightning bolts everywhere.
Gritting his teeth as his muscles clenched from the shock, Naruto shot forward with his signature attack towards the falling and convulsing Reploid.
"Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere)!"
Ciel had to restrain herself from grabbing Dande and Faucon and demanding them to go back Naruto up.
In a battle between titans, they would just get in the way.
And besides, she had five severely injured and now unconscious Reploids to look after.
Three members of Team Colbor had fallen. From the verbal reports, it didn't appear that Neo Arcadia had been trying to kill them at all. Instead, they had been trying to make sport out of hurting and maiming the members of Team Colbor.
Two of them had succumbed to their injuries and the most of the survivors were very close to death before Colbor openly attacked the Pantheons sent into the forest and drew the attention of the hundreds of Pantheons waiting their turns outside.
It had been a desperate measure to make something out of nothing.
"I know that we're ill-equipped to deal with injuries on this plane, but we had no choice but to come here for emergency. The Trans Servers work faster when the distance between the two points are significantly shorter. We wanted to make every second count," Faucon said with an apologetic look. "And we weren't exactly sure if Harpuia would listen to Fefnir. We figured we had a better chance of transferring here than the base."
"You made the right choice because Harpuia didn't listen to Fefnir," Ciel replied. "Neo Arcadia was and is still jamming the Trans Servers. The jamming signal covers over twenty-five kilometers in all directions from here. I managed to create a small window for you to transfer yourselves here by creating a makeshift device using the several portable Trans Servers we have on board to send out counterbalancing signals, but transferring will only work within a five-kilometer radius. So unfortunately, emergency treatment is all we can do for now."
"Could we be able to go back to the base and come back?"
"Moron! We're supposed to be on standby!"
"It just means that I believe Naruto-shishou will be fine! Try having some faith!"
"If it's against Fefnir, yeah, I'd agree, but Harpuia might be in the area as well."
Ciel's breath hitched at that reminder. She had been so distracted that she had forgotten that there was an even greater looming threat nearby.
"Is there any way we can monitor the battle?"
Ciel shook her head. "Naruto cut off radio communications." She frowned as she looked at the screen they had in the transport helicopter. "And most of the others we had on him that allow for electronic handshakes with the base have been destroyed less than a minute ago. The only one intact is the one monitoring his vitals." She pointed to the part of the screen that had several values.
Heart Rate: 153 bpm (rest: 64 bpm)
Blood Pressure: 140/67 (rest: 102/67)
Respiratory Rate: 31 breaths/minute (rest: 15)
All the values were elevated beyond Naruto's resting values, which was normal under periods of physical exertion. Moreover, they haven't spiked to intense levels just yet so Ciel knew that Naruto was handling himself relatively well.
Still…she was annoyed that he had completely cut her off. They were too far up in the air to see the battle properly and aside from seeing flashes from the occasional explosion or two, they had absolutely no information on what was going on below.
How was she to know if Naruto needed backup in this situation? They could monitor the area for high powers, but the Guardians had methods of disguising their energy from sensors. What their sensors reported at any given time weren't really reliable when it came to the four Guardians.
Maybe Dande was right.
Maybe all she could do was simply to have faith. Or at the very least…hope.
Naruto had to give the Reploid credit.
Fefnir was tough. Naruto was doing far better in this battle than in his battle against Leviathan. While Fefnir was dripping with Reploid blood, Naruto merely had to deal with several burns and cuts. They were severe, of course, but compared to how Fefnir looked, Naruto looked squeaky clean.
"I can't believe you shrugged off direct attacks from a Rasengan and an A-rank and a B-rank lightning attacks. Aren't you supposed to be weak to lightning? Just fucking stay down!"
He had been trying to clean up his language in recent months…err…at least before he was sealed, but he was falling into old habits in his irritation.
"Hah…hah…" Fefnir panted. "I'm going to kill you…I…I'm going to k…kill you." The Reploid unslung a second arm cannon from his back and pointed both large busters into the sky.
"Huh? Where the hell are you aiming?"
Despite his clueless question, Naruto knew better than to give an opponent an opening. Naruto rushed forward, preparing another attack.
Too late.
"Meteor Rain!" Fefnir roared as he fired consecutive shots into the air.
Within seconds, Naruto found himself body flickering as fast as he could from different points on the battlefield to avoid the mini-firestorm.
Naruto managed to get close and land yet another Rasengan, but Fefnir seemed to be protected by some sort of aura of fire that simply burned the fire away. Naruto had to body flicker away almost instantly lest he literally fry from the heat.
"Suiton: Suihou (Water Release: Water Gun)!"
The huge bullet of water countered the fire surrounding Fefnir's body, but was repelled by an energy shield underneath that.
Damn it. Gaara's shield of sand has nothing on this force field shit.
If Ciel ever made a time machine, Naruto was going to steal it and go back in time to kill whoever even invented the idea of combat Reploids. Humans with chakra were already bad enough. There was no need for these walking weapons of mass destruction.
Naruto kept body flickering until the technique died down. He had some close calls, but for the most part, he managed to survive the hundreds of falling fireballs.
Seizing the initiative, Naruto charged to strike when both the fire armor and the force field was down. Figuratively throwing the kitchen sink to see if it would stick, Naruto slashed with a wind-coated chakra kunai.
Fefnir evaded but had to sacrifice one of his arm cannons.
To Naruto's surprise, Fefnir didn't seem deterred in the least as he calmly threw the weapon to the side and attacked with a fire-coated fist.
"Shit!" Naruto immediately channeled water chakra into his chakra kunai to parry the fist.
"I made that move up just now after watching what you do with those little toys of yours," Fefnir wheezed out in glee. "I was always able to launch fire from my hands, but I never thought to condense to increase the power of my blows."
"Glad to be an inspiration," Naruto replied sarcastically, as he ducked under a wave of fire from Fefnir's unarmed fist.
Fefnir was right. The fire attacks were strong, but completely unfocused. It was probably why he used his arm cannons to collect the power into a charged shot. But now, Naruto had a different problem. With a human body, it didn't matter whether he got hit by the unfocused or focused attack. To him, it was all fire and his flesh—even if reinforced with chakra—would burn. And Fefnir's sudden habit of alternating between focused punches, uncondensed waves of fire, and charged shots from his remaining arm cannon made him much more dangerous than before.
Naruto ducked to the ground and swept his feet to trip Fefnir. Fefnir immediately hopped back and Naruto responded by throwing a lightning-charged chakra kunai.
Naruto took the opening to thrust a Rasengan forward but Fefnir parried with his remaining arm cannon.
"Uooohhh!"
Naruto quickly body flickered away as he felt the temperature in the immediate area rise exponentially. It was that overpowered skill he used before.
Instead of raining fireballs, pulses of fire shot forth from the fire Reploid's body in all directions.
Groaning in irritation, Naruto wracked his head for a solution. Naruto had techniques that were far more destructive, but in terms of power density, the Rasengan was his strongest attack. Yet the Rasengan failed to make a dent in that force field of his and didn't put the Reploid down even after a direct attack.
But, first that annoying fire aura had to go.
"Suiton: Soushou Suiryuu (Water Release: Twin Rising Water Dragons)!"
Naruto channeled chakra into the ground to draw up water for his strongest water technique. Two streams of pressured water burst from the ground around Naruto and rose up high in the air. The two streams wrapped around each other before slamming into Fefnir at tremendous speed.
Now there was about a five second window where the heat wouldn't be unbearable near the damn Reploid.
But what to do?
His attacks were doing heavy damage, but Fefnir seemed to be annoyingly more resistant to lightning attacks than expected. And now he needed something that could break through both the force field surrounding Fefnir and land a crippling blow.
If the Rasengan wasn't enough…
Wasn't there a time when the Rasengan wasn't enough as well? He had made the Oodama Rasengan, but even that had been insufficient.
Naruto reached deeper into his memory. There just had to be something stronger than the Rasengan. He instinctively knew it even if he couldn't place a name to it just yet.
He held out his hand and let his memory guide his actions.
Spin the chakra around in multiple directions…
Focus the chakra…and channel more chakra…for power…
Create a shell to contain the mini-maelstrom of chakra…
The Rasengan…
Naruto took a deep breath.
Yes, there was more.
Channel the chakra…mix the chakra with the Rasengan…and transform it…
That's right. Shape manipulation…then nature transformation.
He lifted his arm up into the air as the air filled with the crackling noise of lighting. There was more to this, he remembered…
Yes…he had to draw in energy. And so, he did…
"Raiton: Rasenshuriken (Lightning Release: Rasenshuriken)!"
Naruto hurled the lightning version of his newly regained strongestattack. Good-bye Fefnir. No matter how strong your force field might be, nothing…NOTHING blocks the Rasenshuriken.
Fefnir watched as the spiraling ball of lightning consumed his fire and sped towards him at a rapid speed. He briefly entertained the idea of deactivating his EX skill in order to dodge it, but decided that his chances of weathering the blow were better with his force field on.
Before the attack could hit, the attack—the Rasen-whatever—was intercepted by a glowing pink energy strike.
The attack instantly detonated.
BOOOOOM!
Fefnir roared as his force field shook under the stress from the detonation and then screamed in pain after the force field shattered.
It was as if his entire body was tearing apart. First, he felt pain. Then his body began to convulse. Then after what felt like years, his body completely stopped moving; he wasn't even able to scream in pain anymore. And finally, his body functions…
…stopped.
Suddenly feeling completely drained as if energy left his body, Naruto braced himself as the shockwave from the attack hit him. He wasn't within a dangerous range, but he could still feel the power of the attack.
Something about the attack had gone wrong. The attack exploded instead of expanding in a controlled manner. The collected power leaked out because of that, but Naruto didn't think it really mattered. Fefnir was too close to the attack. No matter what, he wasn't going to be walking away from this fight.
"That was quite the dangerous attack."
Naruto instantly went on guard. It was annoying to sense these Reploids. Naruto had kept his senses up throughout the fight, but it seemed that this newcomer, presumably Harpuia managed to slip by. It's most likely because he didn't have any intent to kill. If he meant to attack me, I would have instantly sensed him.
The debris and the smoke cleared away, revealing a Harpuia in the air and an out-of-commission Fefnir on the ground. The green Reploid flew down to the ground next to Fefnir.
"I'd say 'thank you,' but I don't think that's what you want to hear."
Harpuia chuckled darkly as he picked up Fefnir's body. "You won today, Naruto."
Naruto slapped his hands together. "What makes you think that I'll let you go? I'm tired, but I'm still in a fighting shape."
Harpuia shrugged. "It doesn't make any difference to me. You can either choose to try and stop me, or you can prevent my Pantheons some distance away from shooting down Dr. Ciel's helicopter with a surface-to-air missile. I'll even point you in the right direction." Harpuia gestured to a direction northwest from where they were standing. "They're about a kilometer over there beyond that intact patch of forest. You have sixty seconds. Your choice."
Naruto cursed as he immediately channeled chakra to his legs and shot forward past Harpuia who had already begun transferring himself out of the area.
He had read up on military weapons and knew exactly what SAMs were used for.
"Ciel-chan!" Naruto turned on the communicator as he entered the forest as fast as he could. It would limit his visibility but it was the fastest way to where the Pantheons were staying. There was a chance that Harpuia was lying, of course, so Naruto pulled his hands into the ram seal. "Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clones)!"
The clones immediately shot out in all directions.
"Naruto? Are you okay?! What's going on?! Your vitals just shot up!"
"How high are you?"
"What?"
Naruto felt like slapping himself when he registered how stupid that comment sounded.
"Damn it! What's your altitude?"
"We're…we're about 5,000 meters up."
Naruto let out a curse. "There's a group of Pantheons aiming an SAM at you!"
"What?! Wait! That makes no sense! We're flying relatively low to avoid radar detection!"
"Some of the newer systems, especially ones that aim for low altitude aircrafts, use infrared guiding systems. Aren't you supposed to be the damn scientist here? Shouldn't you know about this? Shit! Forget this! There's only forty-one seconds left. I'm not sure if I can make it in time. You'll have to try and land! There's no way you'll be able to dodge an SAM."
"There's no way we can land in the next thirty-seven seconds. Most surface-to-air missiles are only operational at 3000 meters and above, so we'll try to dip a few thousand feet."
"Not good…not good…" Naruto said frantically. Harpuia would have most likely predicted that response. The SAM Neo Arcadia was using would probably be one that hits at even lower altitudes. "Wait! Twenty-nine seconds left! Can you transfer back to the base?"
The base was a long distance away, but it should be possible in twenty…eight seconds.
"No! They're still jamming the signal. But we can transfer out of the helicopter! We don't have your coordinates though so we'll transfer to where Team Colbor had originally been hiding!"
"Do it! Pantheons are still in the area, but Dande and Faucon are more than a match for them!"
Twenty seconds. Hurry up, Ciel-chan. Just transfer everything on the damn helicopter!
Fifteen.
"Transferring…in…three…two…one…"
Ten.
Naruto let out a sigh of relief as he burst out of the forest and started destroying everything wearing even a speck of blue. Harpuia hadn't lied and the Pantheons had been very close to firing the missile.
Naruto realized that he would have made it in time, but it was nice to be on the safe side.
The loss of the transport helicopter would be a significant hit, but that was nothing compared to their lives. And as soon as he healed from all his injuries, the first thing he was going to do was to raid a military base or a defense contractor and steal some planes to make up for this damn loss.
Author's note: I'm back. Sort of. I'm not sure when I'll be able to update again. It may be in two days. Or it make be in a month. Med school sucks. Really. Ugh. But wow, I'm surprised at the number of PMs I got asking me to update. I actually got more PMs than reviews for the last chapter . And Is a 7 week break that long? I know it's wasn't my update schedule, but most of the stories I've read update a lot less frequently so I thought 7 weeks wasn't bad at all.
Oh, and I really wanted to start a Code Geass story, but I resisted the temptation and got this out instead.
Anyway, tell me what you thought. I wrote most of this chapter in one sitting, so there will probably be plenty of errors. I'm not particularly worried about plot holes or grammar errors (and I think most people generally overlook minor spelling errors), but I'm worried more about wording and POV errors. Let me know if you find something wrong so I can fix it. I do read every review and take them into account. Oh and I changed the names of the techniques in the previous chapters to account for names a few techniques that will be coming up. It's not really a big deal though.
In terms of plot, we're finally done with all the "stages." Thank goodness...I was getting sick of writing fillers & action scenes. I really wanted to move the plot further along, which will finally happen starting the next chapter. Yay.
Technique: Fuuton: Kaze Kawa (Wind Release: Wind River)
Rank: B-rank
Class: Defensive
Range: Close to Mid Range
Description: The user releases a constant flow of dense air that acts as a shield to stop attacks from one direction.
Technique: Karappo Renge (Empty Lotus)
Rank: C-rank
Class: Offensive
Range: Close Range
Description: A derivation of the Omote Renge (Primary Lotus) that doesn't require the opening of the first of the Hachimon (the Eight Inner Gates). It requires the user to use more skill than strength to slam the opponent into the ground. While its power is a far from the Omote Renge, the Karappo Renge doesn't bring heavy exhaustion to the user.
Technique: Suiton: Soushou Suiryuu (Water Release: Twin Rising Water Dragons)
Rank: B-rank
Class: Offensive
Range: Mid Range
Description: The user may use a nearby water source or create the water using a significant amount of chakra to unleash a small flood. Two streams of pressurized water rise up from the ground before crashing into enemies in a whirl of raging water. The user can control the movement of the water with his or her hands.
Technique: Raiton: Rasenshuriken (Lightning Release: Spiraling Shuriken)
Rank: S-rank
Class: Offensive
Range: Mid to Long Range
Description: A powerful attack created without the use of hand seals. Rasengan is created through the accumulation, amplification, and containment of multiple sets of rotating chakra in the user's hand. Nature transformation is applied on top of shape manipulation to create the strongest technique in terms of power density. The lightning version of this technique takes electrocution to the extreme to the point that electrons from the target are forcibly removed.