Author's note – Kishimoto Masashi owns Naruto while Guyver is written by Yoshiki Takaya.
I make no claim to either, I am merely playing in their sandboxes.
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Chapter One
Experiments
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Naruto emerged in a small gap behind the bushes from the sewers with a grimace. Although he had managed to avoid actually stepping in anything, the smell was nauseating to him and he made a mental note to either find a mask or be in his armour when he had to go down there.
"Okay." He whispered to himself. "Time to do this, believe it! Armour!"
As he whispered the last word, Naruto leapt into the air and grinned as the odd cables and plates materialised around him. Landing lightly, Naruto turned and, after a glance round to check he wasn't being watched, slipped in through the secret door.
Walking through the base, Naruto made his way to the target range and paused, staring at the huge box of kunai that he had collected from all the traps that he had activated the previous week, first by accident and then on purpose so that he could walk around as Naruto without having to worry about losing an eye or something.
Picking up a handful of kunai, he threw one at the furthest target…
…only for the kunai to hit the wall three paces to the left and five feet above.
"Oh, come on!" He muttered as he threw another kunai, only for it to skip off the ground six feet short. A third kunai barely clipped the edge of the target while the fourth ricocheted off the back wall in a shower of sparks.
Naruto glared at the target…
…and a beam of red light suddenly lashed out from just above his eyes, striking the center of the bulls-eye!
"What the heck?" Naruto gasped, leaping backwards in shock and tumbling to the ground. Pulling himself to his feet, he crept over to the smoking target and stared at the hole it now sported, a hole as wide as his little finger, but one which went all the way through and had left a scorch mark on the wall. For a long moment, he remained silent, then he grinned widely.
"Awesome!"
Bouncing back to where he had been standing, Naruto stared at the target and once again, a beam of red lashed out, this time carving a brief, curving line on one side of the target. Another line followed on the other side, then a longer one underneath and Naruto laughed at the smiling face that he had made.
"This is awesome, believe it!" He laughed. "I don't need kunai with my armour!"
Naruto started hopping in joy, then he laughed as he stopped by the target for a closer look.
"This is… how did I get here?"
Naruto turned and looked back at the far end of the long room, then down at his feet…
…which were hovering above the ground.
"Aaaaaah!"
The sound of him crashing to the ground echoed down the hall and Naruto lay motionless for a few minutes.
"I… can fly?" He wondered. "How the heck did I do that? Can I do it again?"
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Naruto stared down at the village arrayed below him. Above him, an odd dome arced over the sky, one that he could somehow see yet was totally transparent. Naruto didn't know what the dome was, but something told him that touching it would be a bad move.
Focusing on the odd sensation that was the strange sphere located where a belt-buckle would be, Naruto slowly glided forwards, his eyes picking up the shapes of the people below despite the darkness. Each person seemed to be surrounded by a faint aura that faded quickly, but was constantly replenished from the person to whom the aura belonged.
"Way cool." Naruto whispered with a grin as he floated above his hometown. Since the armour had bonded to him, he only needed a few hours of sleep each night, which meant that he had almost six more hours of time to fill.
With a wide grin concealed by the helmet he wore, Naruto flipped backwards and swooped towards the Hokage monument.
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"…the hell?"
Inu paused and looked at Dolphin, the newest recruit to the ANBU. The just-promoted Chunin was staring at the sky and Inu turned his own mask skywards, narrowing his eye as he tried to spot whatever had caught his subordinate's attention.
"What was it?"
"I… don't actually know." Dolphin admitted after a long moment. "It was… something. Not a bird, not a bat… a ghost, perhaps? It looked… almost human. Sort of."
Inu scanned the sky again, but nothing seemed to be… wait. There, landing on the Hokage monument.
With a single hand-signal, Inu started running towards the momument, leaping across the alleys and roads while Dolphin stayed close by his side.
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Naruto stood atop the head of the Fourth Hokage and looked out at the view, his eyes augmented by the odd lenses set into the helmet.
Although his main attention was on the buildings below, he was still aware of the forest behind him, thanks to the odd silver orbs that could move in their tracks on the sides of his helmet. The image they gave him was nowhere near as sharp as that which he could see through his own eyes, nor could they detect different colours, but they were extremely sensitive to motion and so he was aware of the pair of ninja the instant that they landed on a branch that was concealed by the greenery but still offered them a view of his location.
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"What the…?"
Inu barely managed to restrain himself from echoing Dolphin's question. Reaching under his mask, he adjusted something and his left eye flashed red through the eye-hole.
"…sir?"
"I… interesting." Inu mused as he reached under his mask again. "His chakra flows through his armour like a Samurai's does, but I've never seen a Samurai wearing armour like that."
"Two blades, one on each arm, a spike on his helmet, but no other weapons that I can see." Dolphin whispered.
The figure turned and both men's attention was brielfy arrested by the blank disk set into the forehead area.
"No insignia." Inu stated. "Nuke-nin. I'll stall him, you fetch reinforcements."
Dolphin promptly vanished and Inu dropped down, stepping forwards to confront the unknown ninja.
"Identify yourself."
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"Identify yourself."
Naruto swallowed at the cold tone of voice that the new arrival used, then he gathered his courage.
"I am Hiro." He said, hoping that the quaver in his voice wasn't picked up by the tall ninja.
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"I am Hiro."
Inu's eye narrowed at the surety and self-confidence that the unknown ninja showed and he surreptitiously palmed a kunai.
"You do not wear a Hitai-Ate. What village do you serve?"
The armoured figure just stared at him, head tilted slightly, then the metal disc seemed to warp slightly, its surface distorting as a spiral formed on it, a spiral that extended into a leaf.
"Uzushiogakure?" Inu gasped as the spiral formed. "You're a former Uzu shinobi?"
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"You do not wear a Hiatai-Ate. What village do you serve?"
Naruto frowned in concentration. The image of the Konoha leaf floated in his minds eye, then it seemed to solidify from the middle outwards.
"Uzushiogakure? You're a former Uzu shinobi?"
Naruto's eyes slammed open. Uzushiogakure? He'd never heard of the Village Hidden In The Whirlpools before. The ninja in front of him seemed to take his silence as assent.
"I thought that Kushina was the only survivor."
Naruto frowned.
"Kushina?"
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"Kushina…"
Inu froze at the tone of voice. The odd distortions almost hid it, but he said the name as if...
"You… knew Kushina-san?" He half-whispered. "How? How did you know Uzumaki Kushina?!"
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Naruto's shock increased. This Kushina was an Uzumaki, like he was. Who was she? Where was she?
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"…where?"
Inu bowed his head slightly. "She died a bit over six years ago."
The figure slumped and Inu's breath caught at the confirmation that the armoured being had been a friend of his sensei's wife. Both of them stood in silence, then the figure turned and slowly rose into the air, vanishing silently into the distance.
"Inu-sempai!"
Inu didn't move as a dozen ANBU landed around him.
He had found another person who was once close to Kushina.
And he had no idea of who that person was.
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Naruto landed beside the manhole cover and quickly darted into the sewers, making his way back towards his apartment while his mind whirled in shock.
There had been a kunoichi named Uzumaki Kushina, who had died six years ago.
He was six years old.
Was Kushina his mother?
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"Inu, report."
Inu straightened to attention as he began his recitation.
"While on patrol, Dolphin spotted an airborn irregularity moving towards the Hokage monument. We altered course to investigate and discovered an armoured shinobi standing on top of the Yondaime's head, looking out over Konoha. I sent Dolphin for reinforcements, then moved to distract and delay the unknown shinobi. During our conversation, I learned that he was a former Uzushiogakure shinobi who came to Konoha in the hopes of joining up with Uzumaki Kushina. He was disappointed to learn of her death, but does not seem to hold Konoha responsible."
Hiruzen nodded, his gaze fixed on the stone face of his successor/predecessor.
"What sort of armour was he wearing?"
"I have never seen anything like it before, but judging from the capabilities he displayed, it must have been a masterwork of the Uzushiogakure seal-masters, probably a prototype armour." Inu said with a slight shrug. "It appears to grant the user enhanced senses, he detected our approach even before we arrived. It granted him flight as well. My sharingan was useless against it due to the chakra flows through the plating and the unusual fabric, I believe that Jyuuken would be equally as ineffective against it as well. The blades on its arms are almost certainly fuuinjutsu-enhanced, especially since there is no obvious storage pouch for kunai or shuriken, although on reflection, they could be stored in special seals that allow them to be summoned into his hands.
"In appearance, it is full-body plate armour with what appears to be a braided-wire underlayer, meaning that it is probably immune to most weapons. The neck is protected by a raised collar and the helmet includes a backwards-swept spike similar to the ones mounted on its forearms. At the base of the spike is a red gem while a metal disc is set beneath the spike, with the lower part of the spike partially covering it. The disc can change to show the spiral of Uzushiogakure or the Konoha leaf.
"The helmet also boasts two mobile silver hemispheres set into tracks, one on each side and which seem to react to motion. Another disc is set at waist level, this one far smaller. All of the armour plates have flowing shapes to them, as if they've been sculpted rather than forged."
"Interesting." Hiruzen slowly mused. "So… did you get his name?"
"Hiro."
"Hiro…" Hiruzen repeated. "Take a message to Shikaku and have him check all records for any shinobi named Hiro who is linked to Uzushiogakure."
"Yes, Lord Hokage." Inu said before vanishing.
Hiruzen continued to stare at the looming monument.
"Why now?" He wondered. "We have the envoy from Kumo arriving tomorrow… is it a coincidence, or does he know something that I don't?"
None of the stone faces offered any answers and Hiruzen finally turned away with a deep sigh.
"I should get some sleep." He decided.
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Naruto pulled open the filing cabinet drawers in his base and quickly started leafing through the folders inside.
"Kushina… Kushina… Kushina… what am I doing? I can't read yet!"
Slamming the drawer closed, Naruto slumped against the wall, giving the cabinet a dirty look.
"I need to learn to read." He grumped. "But how can I… the Old Man! I can ask him!"
Having made his decision, Naruto started towards the exit, then paused.
"I haven't checked downstairs yet." He mused. "Armour on!"
The feeling of the armour slotting into place barely phased him and he carefully descended the staircase, ignoring the showers of kunai bouncing off his armoured skin. At the bottom of the stairs, he looked round at the large hall he had entered.
"That's a lot of doors…"