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.

Be aware that the previous (and now re-named) chapter was an April Fool's joke. I shall leave it up due to the number of reviews it caused.

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Chapter Twenty-One

Forest And Wave

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"Welcome to the Forest of Death." Anko grinned as she looked down from the branch that she was perched on. Naruto rose into the air and Anko stared at him.

"Nice trick." She allowed after a moment. "Did the old man tell you what the mission was?"

"No, just that you could use the help." Naruto replied and Anko twitched.

"Whoah, that is a weird voice, kind of like buzzing metal." Anko stated, then she shook her head. "Alright, listen up. We're going to travel all over the Forest of Death, checking all the speakers and cameras for when we host the Chunin Exams. I hear you got a battlefield promotion."

"I would rather be a genin with my team still intact." Naruto replied and Anko nodded.

"It sucks when you lose someone. Heh, enough moping, let's get moving! The speakers are placed in a spiral pattern and we need to replace their batteries with the ones in this scroll. This way!"

Anko leapt up into the leafy canopy and Naruto accelerated after her.

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"Kagemane no Jutsu… success!"

The first bandit froze as Shikamaru's shadow lanced out to connect with his. Without missing a beat, the second bandit hit a button on his gauntlet that caused the shuriken chain connecting them to detach, then accelerated forwards, clawed gauntlet drawn back to strike.

"Bubun Baika no Jutsu!"

Choji's giant fist slammed into the attacker, smashing him into a tree and leaving him embedded.

"Interesting." Asuma mused as he knocked out the first attacker, allowing Shikamaru to relax. "Tazuna… why were these two aiming specifically for you?"

"What do you mean?" Tazuna asked nervously and Asuma sighed.

"One doesn't serve in the Guardians of Fire for a decade without learning to spot who the target of an attacker is. They were after you. Why?"

Tazuna swallowed nervously.

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"…and that's the last one done." Anko sighed as she closed and fastened the box, shoveling the leaves over it to conceal it from the local wildlife. "You know, your flying thing made this job a cinch. I didn't even have to worry about the giant tigers. Kinda boring, though."

"Boring?" Naruto asked and Anko nodded.

"Yeah, I normally get extra ryo from selling the pelts of whichever animals try to attack me. With you flying me around, by the time they realise that I'm there, I'm gone again."

"Sorry…"

"Not a problem." Anko laughed. "Doing it this fast means I can go and get some Dango with 'Nai-chan… you know she has a team now? A bug-boy, a brainiac and a kid who uses ink. Weird, huh? Come on, fly us to the tower so we can get paid, then it's dango time!"

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"Land there!"

Naruto dropped down to land in front of Team Seven and Anko dropped off his back.

"I'll make the report and grab my pay." She said, reaching up to clap him on his shoulder. "You catch up with your girlfriend. See ya!"

"Who was that babe?" Kiba asked as soon as Anko had vanished through the door, earning himself a dope-slap from Sasuke.

"We have a mission, a C-rank." Hinata smiled. "We're taking a message to the allied village Kusagakure. It'll take a week or so."

"I understand." Naruto said, then turned to Itachi, who gave him a deep nod.

"I shall safeguard them with my life, Naruto-sama. I can do no less for the successor of the one who helped save my clan."

Hinata giggled and Itachi quirked an eyebrow at her.

"I think that you should know that it was me that night." Naruto said, causing both Uchiha to stare at him in shock.

"You were the one who defeated me?"/"You were the one who saved me?"

"Yes to both." Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head. "Itachi, when I was fighting you, it wasn't me being skilled, it was me trying not to fall over while attempting to look impressive. I still don't know how I actually won."

Itachi stood motionless, his mouth agape and Hinata waved her hand in front of his face without eliciting a reaction.

"I think you broke him, Naruto."

"Hehe, ummm, oops?"

"Naruto!" A voice shouted and Naruto looked up to see an arm waving to him.

"I have to go!" He said, then he kissed Hinata, aiming for her cheek. "Be safe, hime-sama."

Sasuke watched Naruto run up the side of the tower, then he caught Hinata as she touched her lips and then collapsed, a huge smile on her face.

"Kiba! Help me out here!"

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"I'm here!" Naruto exclaimed as he swung over the windowsill, only to freeze as he found himself face to face with a small monkey. "What the…?"

"Asuma sent him." Hiruzen snapped. "He's just encountered Momochi Zabuza in the Land of Waves to the south and needs backup now! How fast can you get out there to…"

Naruto didn't even wait for him to finish before leaping out of the window, activating his armour as soon as he was clear and accelerating away so fast that his passage sounded like tearing canvas.

"…help my son." Hiruzen finished, staring at the shrinking dot.

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Asuma grunted as he blocked another strike with his trench knives. Zabuza had tried to use the Hidden Mist technique, but Asuma had countered by blowing it away, at which point things had gone out of control.

Deprived of his normal cover, Zabuza had created several clones and attacked. Asuma had managed to destroy three of the clones and engage the true Zabuza blade-to-blade, but the other four clones had injured his team before being dispelled and only Shikamaru's quick actions had prevented Ino from bleeding out from the career-ending injuries she had taken.

He didn't know how long it would take for reinforcements to arrive, but it would be a day or two before anyone could possibly get there…

"INCOMING!"

An armoured figure slammed through the canopy, decelerating madly but still travelling at a blurring pace and clipped the swordsman, sending him spinning through the air, before crashing through a trio of trees and coming to rest in a ditch dug by its own speed.

"Owwww. Need to work on my landings..."

"What the fuck?" Zabuza swore as he lurched to his feet, his left shoulder clearly dislocated and his left arm broken in at least two places. "What the hell just hit me?"

"That would be me." Naruto said as he clambered out of the ditch. "Asuma-san, I'm your primary reinforcement."

"Fuck this." Zabuza growled as he slung his sword onto his back and made a one-handed sign. Mist rose around him and when it dissipated, he was gone.

"Tazuna, where's your house?" Asuma said urgently. "We need to get Ino under cover fast if we're to save her life!"

"Holy… what happened?"

"We weren't strong enough." Shikamaru grunted, then he looked at Asuma with a raised brow as the Jonin unsealed a stretcher from a scroll.

"Point me in the direction of the house and I'll fly her there." Naruto said as he helped to move the delirious Ino onto the stretcher.

"I'll carry Tazuna." Asuma stated. "Let's go!"

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"How is she doing?" Naruto asked as Asuma stepped onto the porch, pulling out a cigarette.

"Not good." The jonin admitted. "Normally I'd put her in a prisoner scroll, but she's so injured that the act of sealing and unsealing her would finish her off. She's lost too much blood, her left eye is just gone, she'll never be able to walk again, not even if Tsunade herself oversees her treatment, her arms are badly damaged… I'll be astonished if she manages to see sunrise tomorrow."

Asuma summoned a small flame on the tip of his finger, using it to light his cigarette. Inhaling deeply, he breathed out a cloud of smoke and sighed.

"The worst thing is, it could have been avoided." He continued. "If I hadn't been so damned eager to prove to pops that I didn't need to run to him for help if things looked like they might be tougher than planned… if I'd actually considered the possibility that Gato, the damned bastard, might have hired some powerful nuke-nin… I screwed up. No other way of describing it."

Naruto remained silent, watching as the sun inched downwards towards the horizon.

"When I get back, I'll ask for a demotion." Asuma sighed. "I've just proven that I don't deserve to be a Jonin. What sort of Jonin thinks that just because his genin have learned how to tree-walk, they can take missions that turn S-ranked? Only a complete moron would knowingly do that… and I guess that makes me a moron. Kakashi wouldn't have made this mistake."

Asuma dropped his cigarette and ground the butt into the ground. "I'm going in, see if I can get Ino more comfortable before…"

Naruto stared at the horizon with the sun reflecting in the water, one orb above another…

One orb below the horizon, like an orb below a line…

…an orb in a belt…

"Wait…" He whispered. "I wonder… Armour on!"

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"Sensei!"

Asuma almost expoded through the door at Shikamaru's yell, coming to a halt at the sight of the fully-armoured Naruto standing above Ino, lowering something towards her head.

"Wait! What are you doing?"

"Trying something that I hope will save her life." Naruto replied. "I turned my belt-sphere into a copy of my head-metal, the thing that controls my armour, and if what I suspect is right, this will heal her."

"And if you're wrong…?" Shikamaru demanded from where Choji was restraining him.

"Then she's dead either way." Asuma sighed. "Do it."

Naruto nodded and lowered the globe (with its dangling tendrils) towards Ino's head. As he did so, his own head-metal started glowing with the light focusing on the globe in his hand. A couple of seconds passed, then the light intensified almost to laser-like proportions and the globe's tentacles lashed out, wrapping around Ino's head and pulling the sphere to rest against her forehead. More tentacles emerged from the base of the sphere, extending over and wrapping round Ino's body and then the tentacles began to bulge and split, extruding a greyish liquid that flowed and set within seconds to form a collection of armour plates that looked almost sculpted.

"AaaaarrRRRrgh!" Ino screamed as she spasm-ed and the beam of light winked out. Naruto collapsed to the floor, his armour vanishing and on the bed, Ino's new armour also disappeared, revealing that Ino had been completely healed, but was out cold.

Choji blushed as he released Shikamaru and grabbed a sheet from the cupboard beside him, swinging it so that it settled over Ino.

"…what just happened?" Shikamaru whispered.

"A miracle." Asuma replied in awed shock."Naruto… provided us with a miracle…"

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Ino blinked as she looked round. She was in a room that she had never seen before, in a bed that she had never been in before and wearing…

"Eeeep!"

Ino grabbed the top of the blanket, holding it tightly against herself. What had happened to her clothes?

"Ino?" A familiar voice called and Choji peered through the door. "Are you alright?"

"I…" Ino began, then she froze as the memory of Zabuza's sword slashing open her face surfaced. Releasing the blanket, she grabbed at her face, only to find it intact, then she grabbed the blanket again before it could fall. "What happened?"

"Naruto." Choji smiled as he limped across the room to kneel beside her. "He did something really odd and gave you a suit of that armour of his, then it vanished and you were all healed!"

"He… what?" Ino asked and Choji pulled out a small pack that she hadn't spotted until then.

"Here are your spare clothes. Naruto's still out cold, but the rest of us are making plans downstairs. Get dressed and join us when you can."

Choji patted her shoulder, then rose and quietly stepped out of the room, closing the door behind him. Ino rolled over and opened the pack, pulling out her backup clothes… which were probably her only clothes now. Quickly pulling on her underwear and then donning her wraps from her knees to just under her chest, she pulled on her top, adjusting the scarf-like collar, and then her skirt before pulling out her detached sleeves. Using the internal straps, she fastened them midway between her elbows and shoulders, shaking her arms to check that they were seated properly. Stepping out,she paused by the second closed door, then slid it slightly open.

#No way.# She thought as she peeped at the blond in the bed. #He's the one who saved me?#

#Well, you don't have to sound so shocked.# A thought responded and Ino gasped.

"I wasn't…" She began and Naruto rolled over to stare at her.

"You heard that?"

Ino nodded in shock, her eyes wide.

"What… how…?"

"I don't know." Naruto admitted. "I… don't know."

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Author's Afternote – Yep, Ino got the first new Guyver. Bet no-one saw that coming!

Before anyone starts screaming about how giving Ino a Guyver Unit that way is impossible, just remember that it was never stated in Guyver Canon exactly how Guyver units were created. Since they were organic, having an artificial duplication process could prove useful for replacing damaged units in the field or cutting back on the complexities of mass production.

Of course, in my story, it did need a lot of energy to accomplish…