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.
.
Chapter Four
Coup
.
Naruto floated in the night sky, looking down at the village that one day he would be the Hokage of.
Almost two years had passed since he had enrolled into the Academy and with the aid of his clones, he had managed to retain the position of Rookie of the Year constantly despite the teachers attempts to undermine his progress.
The fact that he now routinely performed a genjutsu-dispel before every test meant that the teachers had discovered to their chagrin that they couldn't undermine him by making the questions seem slightly different to how they should be. Now, half-way through his academy training (which was mostly independent studies), Naruto was so far ahead of the others that the teachers had started to switch back to the older curriculum (despite the howls of the parents of the civilian-born trainees who were finding it to be an actual challenge) just to make his achievements look less like a genius prodigy and more like simple hard work.
Almost a third of the non-clan trainees had dropped out as a result, unable to take the pressure.
Turning, Naruto started flying across the village, his armour-enhanced vision scanning the various clan compounds for any sign of trouble. Even though he hadn't encountered anything more than a thief or two since rescuing the Hyuuga heir, Naruto kept his nightly vigil. As he flew over the Hyuuga compound, he wondered how the girl was doing.
.
Hinata lay in her bed, her byakugan active as she scanned the skies. It was an hour before midnight and she had trained herself to wake up just so that she could…
There!
Hinata's focus tightened as she concentrated on the figure floating over the compound. The way that the chakra flowed through his armour, concentrating at his waist, chest, arm-blades and forehead, was unmistakable.
Hinata smiled as once again, her personal hero and savior flew overhead, the way his head moved showing that he was watching over her, protecting her.
After a few long moments, his path carried him out of the range of her byakugan and Hinata released the technique, her eyes returning to normal. With a contented sigh, she snuggled into her pillow and let herself fall asleep once more, secure in the knowledge that her protector was doing his duty.
And soon, she would be enrolled into the Academy, where she would learn to be strong enough that she could hopefully one day fight by his side.
.
Naruto reached the furthest point of his nightly patrol and began curving round, then his othersenses seemed to scream at him, wrenching his attention to the edge of the Uchiha compound where something wrong was forming, a twisting distortion that deposited a red-flame-masked man onto the ground. Naruto quickly shifted his visual range and his eyes widened as he saw the heat signature of the man.
"What the…?" He gasped as he saw that half of the man's torso and his right arm were significantly cooler than the rest of him, but the new arrival was still using them without a problem. Checking his invisibility was active, Naruto swooped down just as another ninja landed beside the new arrival, moving closer so that he could hear what was going on.
"..dara." The unmasked ninja said and Naruto blinked as he recognized the man as Inu-san's recent comrade, "I have the mission orders."
"And will you follow them, Uchiha Itachi?" The man now identified as Dara asked.
Itachi looked at the scroll in his hands for a long moment. "Yes, but not fully. My brother must not be harmed."
"Very well." Dara stated as he drew a sword, Itachi matching him. "Then let us strike a blow that will never be forgotten and destroy the clan."
"You traitor!" A sudden shout echoed and Itachi seemed to flicker as another ninja leapt out of the shadows at him, only for the attacker to tumble to the ground, his head rolling to a stop by Dara's foot. Dara looked down, then stamped hard on it, shattering the skull.
"A good start."
Before he knew what he was doing, Naruto dived to the ground, landing in front of them.
.
"A good start." Madara said approvingly as Itachi gazed sadly at Inabi's headless corpse.
"But also the end." A buzzing voice declared and both Itachi and Madara spun round to see Hiro landing between them and the main area of the Uchiha compound. "I cannot let you do this. Surrender now."
"Who is that?" Madara hissed.
"Uzumaki Hiro, formerly of Uzushiogakure." Itachi replied just as quietly.
Madara tilted his head slightly. "Really? I thought that damned clan had died out in that war I started with the final bitch dying when I sent the Kyuubi against Konoha… although I do wonder what happened to her spawn. Hmph. Time to finish the job."
Itachi crouched ready to attack as Madara shifted his tanto to his left hand while reaching up and unhooking the war-fan from his back. In response, Hiro shifted into a basic stance, the blades on his arms humming before he lunged forwards. The kunai that Itachi hurled at him bounced off the eye lens without even scratching it and Madara swung his war fan to block the attack, only for the humming blade to slice straight through it, producing a loud, tooth-clenching shriek as it carved through the chakra-metal edging and the fuuinjutsu-inlaid chakra wood, almost halving its length before Madara could recover.
.
Fugaku and his wife almost erupted out of their house as the shrieking whine echoed through the compound. Orienting themselves to the source of the noise, they shunshined onto the roofs before leaping across the back alleys, kunai gripped firmly and sharingan active as they ran, the rest of the clan joining them.
.
Itachi turned in mid-air and landed in a roll that took him straight back to his feet. Gritting his teeth against the pain of his broken rib (and just what fighting style was Hiro using anyway?), he hurled a trio of shuriken at his armoured opponent, only for the red forehead gem to flash, disintegrating all three projectiles before Madara's scythe flashed down from behind Hiro, aiming for the gap between the neck and the collar. In a move fast and smooth enough that even Itachi had trouble following it, Hiro dodged sideways and Madara barely managed to avoid impaling himself on the arm-blade.
"So fast!" Itachi gasped.
.
Naruto mentally thanked the hours of training he had put in with the rebuilt traps as his head-gem reflexively took out whatever it was that Itachi had thrown at him, then he stumbled as a twig rolled beneath his armoured boot. As he tried to recover, he felt something bounce off the back of his hand and he spun round just in time to see Dara leap backwards, his shirt cut open to reveal skin that was part normal and part chalk-white. In an attempt to intimidate the masked shinobi, Naruto used his flying ability to perform a trick he had seen performed by an acrobat, a sideways twisting somersault.
Hopefully it would persuade him to run away. After all, he was obviously too skilled for Naruto to have any hope of doing more than just delaying him.
.
Itachi lunged forwards, aiming his sword to stab Hiro in the kidney, then his eyes widened in shock even as his reflexes dropped him onto the ground. A foot scythed through where his groin would have been while an arm-blade flashed through a path that would have removed the top of his head.
How? He had been behind Hiro and he had suppressed his chakra just for that attack!
A frantic roll allowed him to just avoid the boot that slammed down where his face would have been and he rose to his feet, staring at his shattered blade in shock.
How was he that skilled?
.
Fugaku slammed to a halt as he saw the scene before him. Itachi and a masked shinobi wearing a red, flame-patterned mask were fighting Hiro while nearby was the corpse of one of the Uchiha police officers. Blood on Itachi's broken sword and gore on the masked Shinobi's boot told Fugaku all that he needed to know about who he should be supporting.
"Father?"
"Madara! No!"
The masked shinobi lunged towards the confused Sasuke and Fugaku launched himself off the roof, knowing that he would be too late…
.
"Father?"
Naruto blinked at the sight of a boy just as old as he was, then he finally noticed the increasing number of people on the rooftops. A flash of motion caught his attention and he spun just as Dara swung his arm, the scythe heading for the boy's neck even as Itachi screamed something. Without hesitation, Naruto fired his beam, severing the oddly-cold arm and Dara vanished in another of the wrong -feeling swirls even as a new voice spoke.
A very familiar voice.
"What is going on here?"
Naruto spun round and found himself facing his favorite old man. Opening his mouth in greeting, he paused as he remembered that he was currently Hiro. Thinking fast, he bowed to Hiruzen, then lifted off into the air, fading into invisibility.
Jiji could handle it now.
He was awesome, after all.
.
Fugaku watched in shock as Hiro rose into the air. Despite his sharingan being active, he couldn't detect the jutsu that was allowing Hiro to defy gravity, then Hiro vanished even from his own sight.
Hiro could become invisible to the sharingan.
He was loyal to the Hokage.
He had driven off Uchiha Madara and fought Itachi to a standstill without taking any damage.
Fugaku swallowed, then he made a decision.
.
"Lord Hokage, I have failed the mission." Itachi said, kneeling before his superior. "I will accept any punishment you decree."
"What mission?" Hiruzen asked and Itachi froze.
"The mission you sent via Danzo, Lord Hokage." He slowly replied as he carefully pulled out the mission scroll and held it out on hs open hands. Inu appeared in a cloud of smoke and picked up the scroll, unrolling it and holding it so that Hiruzen could see it.
"I never ordered that mission." Hiruzen growled. "You said that Danzo relayed it?"
"Yes, Lord Hokage…"
"Inu! Take a team! Find Danzo and bring him to me. If he resists… you are authorized to use lethal force!"
"Hai, Hokage-sama!" Inu saluted before handing over the scroll and vanishing. Itachi blinked, then glanced sideways as Fugaku landed next to him and dropped into a kneeling position as well.
"Hokage-sama. May I beseech an audience to discuss matters relating to Konohagakure?"
Hiruzen stared at him.
.
Inu looked at Tenzo who motioned towards an otherwise-unimportant back alley. Waiting long enough for Tenzo to mark the location of the concealed trapdoor, Inu charged up a chidori and then leapt from the rooftop, smashing straight through the reinforced barrier even as the lightning tendrils arcing off his technique fried the seals surrounding it, thus preventing any alarms from being sent. Another sequence of seals caused a small dog to appear.
"Inu." The sad-looking dog said, holding up a paw in greeting.
"Pakkun." Inu said curtly. "I need your aid in tracking down a traitor to Konoha."
Pakkun's gaze sharpened.
.
.
Hiruzen sat down behind his desk and looked at Fugaku as the younger man took the indicated chair. To his shock, Fugaku had almost ceremoniously disarmed himself before entering the office, leaving all of his weapons with the secretary in the outer office.
The message was unmistakable.
Fugaku was voluntarily placing himself completely at Hiruzen's mercy.
Whatever the head of the Uchiha wished to discuss, it was big.
"The sharingan is useless against Hiro-sama."
Hiruzen blinked. "I would have thought that you would want that kept quiet."
"Normally, I would." Fugaku agreed. "But Hiro-sama managed to drive off Madara, whom we all thought had died decades ago. I was using my sharingan to its fullest extent and what I saw…"
Fugaku closed his eyes and inhaled deeply as he re-centered himself. Hiruzen simply waited.
"Hokage-dono, Hiro-sama saved the life of my youngest son today."
"He may have saved more than you think." Hiruzen said, rolling the scroll across the desk and motioning for Fugaku to read it. "I did not give this order."
Fugaku scanned the scroll, then rolled it up and placed it back on the desk. "Danzo."
"Probably supported by my old team-mates." Hiruzen sighed. "They both insisted that you were a danger to Konoha."
"I was." Fugaku admitted. "But Hiro-sama bows to you. You have the loyalty of one who can drive off Uchiha Madara without even suffering a scratch… only a fool and an idiot would go against you and while I am ambitious and proud, I hope that I am no fool. The Uchiha will remain loyal to Kohagakure as long as I am clan-head, but I will need something to appease the elders if I am to remain so."
Hiruzen smirked. "You are still rivals with Hyuuga Hiashi, are you not?"
Fugaku blinked at the unexpected conversational swerve. "Yes, we have a deep yet outwardly polite dislike for each other. Why?"
"I am about to have two openings for advisors." Hiruzen stated and Fugaku's jaw dropped as he realized what Hiruzen was planning.
.
.
"What am I looking at?"
"We're not certain." The doctor admitted as he poked at the white arm on the table. "Whatever it is, it isn't human, not fully. However, we were able to identify some of its structure… it contains cells that match our records of Senju Hirashima."
"How is this possible?" Hiruzen breathed and the doctor shrugged again.
"I couldn't even begin to guess. From what we can tell, this arm seems to be a varient of a Wood Clone, but at the same time, it isn't given that several witnesses saw that Madara was partly human and partly… this."
"Madara, what did you do to yourself?" Hiruzen whispered.