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 Fourteen

Messages

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"Jonin Baki, I presume?" Aoi asked as the whirlwind of sand died down and the tallest figure stepped forwards.

"Jonin Rokushu." The man said in return, his lone uncovered eye flickering across the group. "And your team are?"

"Morino Idate, Yaguro and Uzumaki Naruto, genin of Konohagakure." Aoi said politely. Baki nodded, then motioned to the trio behind him, two of whom had quietly edged away from the third, a red-headed boy carrying a large gourd on his back.

"Temari, Kankuro and Gaara." Baki stated. "I assume that you have the message?"

"May I have the code first?" Aoi countered and Baki grinned, the veil covering half his face twitching slightly as he snorted in amusement.

"Code is Desert winds carry the leaf gently."

The dark-clad boy with the purple face-paint and a wrapped package on his back rolled his eyes and Naruto strained his hearing to catch his comment.

"What a pathetic code."

"Here is the scroll." Aoi said, then he produced a piece of paper. "Please sign."

Baki accepted the scroll, pulled out a pen and signed the paper, then he froze as Gaara spoke in a monotone that somehow conveyed great blood-thirst.

"Mother wants blood. She wants the fox."

Kankuro and Temari turned pale, then glanced at each other in confusion, but Aoi reacted even faster, spinning to face Naruto.

"Run!"

Naruto leaped backwards and summoned a hundred clones. Half of them charged at Gaara and were promptly engulfed by a wave of sand while the others scattered, running in so many directions that not even a skilled tracker-nin could have determined where the real Naruto had gone. Gaara snarled as he turned to face the other Konoha ninja.

"If I cannot take the blood of the fox, I will take yours."

"Gaara! Don't!" Baki shouted as the gourd on Gaara's back seemed to explode into a wave of sand that tore up the ground and rushed at team four. Aoi drew his umbrella, but before he could unfurl it in a doomed attempt to block the sand tsunami, a ball of something smashed through the rising wave, sucking in almost a quarter of the sand and passing close enough to Gaara to pull him off his feet before it dissipated.

"…what… what was that?" Gaara muttered as he pulled himself back to his feet. "Who did that? WHO DID THAT?!"

"I did." A new, metallic voice answered and everyone's gaze snapped to the treeline where an armoured figure was standing.

"Uzumaki Hiro." Baki gasped, the exposed portion of his face losing all colour. "The Kage-killer… Gaara, stand down! Hiro could easily defeat your father if he wanted to, you don't stand a chance!"

Gaara froze, allowing Aoi, Idate and Yagura to retreat to the treeline.

"Go." Hiro said to the Konoha ninja. "I will guard your retreat, then find and bring Naruto to you."

Aoi nodded and motioned for Yagura and Idate to follow him as he vanished into the trees and Hiro turned his attention back to Gaara.

"I give you this warning, do not attack."

"Listen to him, Gaara!" Baki yelled in barely-restrained panic. "He's got a flee on sight order, if you fight him, you'll die!"

Gaara glared at Hiro for several long minutes, then the sand around him began to move, flowing back to Gaara and reforming into a gourd.

"We are leaving." Gaara stated before he turned and strode away. Baki watched him go, then turned back to find that Hiro had vanished. Giving a shudder of relief, he turned to follow his most problematical genin, reflecting on his narrow escape.

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"Was that really Hiro?" Yagura gasped as he landed beside his sensei, the adrenaline that had kept them going for the last hour finally wearing off.

"It was!" Aoi replied. "The deadliest ninja you will ever meet, with a kill-count in the hundreds! Kumo upgraded their flee on sight order to a flee if you suspect he is in the area warning on him!"

"I've heard about him!" Idate called as he landed on a nearby branch. "My brother has amassed quite a file on him, both during his days in Uzushiogakure and after he showed up in Konoha."

All three ninja froze as the being they were talking about descended into view.

"Ummm, where is Naruto?"

"He is safe and will be waiting for you at Tanzuka Quarters." Hiro said. "I am here to take you back to Konoha's border."

Aoi blinked. "What?"

"Sensei of Uzumaki, climb onto my back and hold tight." Hiro said as he drifted over to the two genin and picked them up, one under each arm. Aoi stared at him, the shrugged.

"Alright." He said as he carefully positioned himself, reinforcing his grip with chakra. "So, what happens nowaaaarawhoah!"

Hiro rocketed upwards through the gap in the canopy and erupted into the open air. Pausing just long enough to orient himself, he accelerated until the forest below was nothing more than a green blur.

"This is cool!" Idate yelled.

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"Tanzuka Quarters." Aoi said as they looked down from the creast of the hill at the town that was glinting in the sunlight. "Thank goodness that Hiro-san dropped us so close, but where is…"

"Aoi-sensei! Idate! Yagura!" A familiar voice shouted and everyone turned to see Naruto running up to them.

"Hiro lied." Naruto pouted. "He said he'd drop you off in the clearing back there."

"Well, we're all here, so let's head into town." Aoi said with a smile. "I don't know about you, but after all that flying and running, I need a good soak and a good night's sleep. Naruto, how did you get here so fast?"

"Hiro flies faster when he's only carrying one, but I had to cover several miles." Naruto shrugged. "Come on, let's get going."

Aoi shook his head, mentally tallying the distance they had traveled and how fast Hiro would have had to go in order to drop Naruto off and double back to meet them…

Actually, how had he found them? The canopy would have hidden them from the sight of anyone above them…

Oh well, it was a problem for another time.

"Damn, I need a drink."

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Aoi walked over to the booth where a familiar cloaked figure was sipping. As he approached, the figure glanced up, his glasses catching the light.

"Rokushu."

"Yakushi." Aoi replied as he sat down and the cloaked figure briefly caressed the underside of the table.

"Privacy seals active." Yakushi Kabuto said. "You're back earlier than expected, given your mission. I expected to meet you back in Konoha."

"We were helped by Hiro." Aoi stated and Kabuto froze.

"Hiro? Are you certain?"

"You know another flying armoured figure with a high collar and metallic voice?" Aoi snarked. "It was him. He faced down Suna's Jinchuuriki, fired some sort of ball that sucked up almost a ton of sand before evaporating."

"Interesting…" Kabuto mused. "I had not heard of that ability. How did he fire it?"

"I don't know since I was facing the wrong way, but from his pose, I think he threw it." Aoi shrugged. "It was only three hours ago."

Kabuto blinked. "What?"

"Hiro flew us back."

For a moment, Kabuto simply stared at him, his jaw dropped, then he shook his head.

"So he can fly with a full team and still move faster than any normal shinobi." He murmered. "That armour is obviously the masterwork of a fuuinjutsu genius."

"While I was being carried, I had a chance to think." Aoi said. "Hiro must be getting close to death, it would explain why he is expanding his range. He wants to increase the reputation of his armour so that when he hands it over to Naruto, it'll give him even more of an advantage."

"A reasonable theory." Kabuto agreed slowly.

"So, we can use that." Aoi said with a smirk. "If we use a poison threat on Naruto, something that the demon inside him can't cure, Hiro will almost certainly swap his armour for the cure. After all, Naruto is the only other Uzumaki."

"There is at least one more that I am aware of, but please, continue." Kabuto commented and Aoi raised a quizzical eyebrow.

"Anyway, I was going to try to grab the raijin when I defect, but I had a better idea. Turn it into a training mission."

Kabuto raised an eyebrow and Aoi grinned.

"It'll be easier with help, but my team is designated an ambush and infiltration unit. I can probably get the Hokage to agree to do some missions testing clan compound defenses and giving reports. Once I find out where the raijin is kept…"

"It is in the same room as the Forbidden Scroll." Kabuto supplied. "I can get a map for you, showing exactly where."

"Excellent." Aoi grinned. "Then once we have several test missions completed and people are getting used to it, I get permission to test shinobi buildings like the ANBU headquarters…"

"…and the Hokage Tower." Kabuto finished. "That plan has promise. But what about your genin?"

"By the time they realize, we'll be out of Konoha and they'll either join Amegakure with me, or be forced to become nuke-nin."

"I'll prepare things so that if any of them don't go with you, they'll be the ones who get blamed." Kabuto chuckled.

"To Ame." Aoi laughed, raising his Sake dish.

"To Ame." Kabuto echoed.

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"At last, Konoha." Yagura grinned as they emerged onto the road leading up to the giant wooden gates set in the wall that marked the boundary of the village. Beside the gates and looking slightly undersized by comparison was an open-fronted hut that Aoi led them to.

"Team Four returning from C-rank messenger mission to Kaze no Kuni." He said and one of the two chunin inside the hut nodded as he noted the information down.

"Rokushu Aoi, Morino Idate, Yagura, Unumaki Naruto returning from C-rank message delivery relaying message to Suna, correct?"

Aoi nodded and the chunin turned the clip-board around. "Sign here please."

Aoi picked up the pen and scribbled his signature at the bottom of the page and the chunin nodded as he reclaimed the board.

"Head to the Hokage tower and report in."

"Understood." Aoi said with a respectful nod. "Come on, team."

"Do we get ramen afterwards?" Naruto asked and Aoi sighed.

"That's your answer to everything, isn't it?"

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"Aoi, team four." Hiruzen nodded as Aoi led the three genin into the office. "I didn't expect you back for several more days. Did something happen?"

"You could say that, sir." Aoi agreed. "We traveled to meeting point seventeen via Tanzuka Quarters. On the way through the Land of Rivers, we were intercepted by a Tani hunter-nin who confirmed that we could proceed. We made our way across the Land of Rivers until we reached our designated rendez-vous where we encountered Team Baki."

"Team Baki." Hiruzen repeated. "That would be Jonin Baki and the three children of the Kazekage, would it not? Or has the lineup changed?"

"It hasn't and I observed them carefully." Aoi confirmed. "Temari is a Kunoichi who I believe uses a war fan that she carries on her back, making her a wind-natured type. Kankuro was carrying a wrapped bundle on his back, I believe him to be a puppeteer. Gaara was carrying a gourd of sand on his back and showed significant mental instability. I believe him to be a jinchuuriki."

"My agent's reports agree." Hiruzen nodded. "Continue."

"The handover went without a hitch and Baki signed for the scroll, then Gaara declared, and I quote, Mother wants blood. She wants the fox. I instantly ordered Naruto to run and he did so, but not before generating over a hundred Kage Bunshin to act as a diversion."

Hiruzen gave a smile of acknowledgement at Naruto, who straightened up, grinning with pride.

"Deprived of his primary target, Gaara moved to attack us, only for a new ninja to enter the battlefield, Uzumaki Hiro. He single-handedly stopped Gaara in his tracks and covered our escape. An hour later, he located us and used his flight power to carry us almost all the way to Tanzuka Quarters, where Naruto rejoined us, having been brought there earlier by Hiro-sama. We remained there for the night in order to recover and then returned. I do not know what happened to Hiro-sama, he departed after dropping us off. I must note that Hiro-sama displayed a previously unknown technique in the confrontation, I wrote the details on this scroll so that I would not forget."

Hiruzen accepted the small scroll with a nod of thanks.

"Congratulations on a successful mission, team four. As you engaged in combat and returned unscathed to provide information, I am adding a bonus to your paychecks. Naruto, I'll want to talk to you later so come back in an hour."

"Okay, Jiji! Ramen time!" Naruto cheered before Yagura grabbed him in a headlock, hand clapped over his mouth, while Idate grabbed his legs.

"You three are dismissed." Hiruzen chuckled and Naruto tried to complain through the muffling hand as his team-mates carried him out of the office. As the door closed behind them, Hiruzen's genial expression faded.

"Tell me about this new technique."

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Author's Afternote – Yes, Naruto discovered how to generate and use the Gravity Control Orb/Pressure Cannon. No, he still has no clue about the Mega Smashers…
As for Hiruzen's final question to Aoi, he's using it to get more info while reinforcing Naruto's cover.