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 Forty-Six
Final Preparations
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"Welcome back, Naruto." Hiruzen smiled at his favorite orphan-turned-clan-head. "How was your training trip?"
"I've gained a new appreciation for the various types of clones, Jiji." Naruto grinned back. "Pervy-sage helped me make loads of new tactics for them, although I need to pre-deploy them before using the Guyver."
"The… Guyver?" Hiruzen repeated the unfamiliar word carefully.
"Apparently, it's the description of what my armour is when used by a human." Naruto shrugged. "I was thinking of adopting it as the name of the clan Kekkei Genkai. I know that it's not very descriptive to us, but apparently to those who first made it, the word guyver meant something like slave no longer or fights against tyrants… the Great Toad Sage wasn't too clear on that. Soooo… Guyver."
"The Guyver, the bloodlimit of the Uzumaki clan…" Hiruzen mused. "It could work…"
"Sure could." Naruto agreed, then he glanced round to where Hiashi and Fugaku were sitting, watching him with expressions of mild amusement.
"Uzumaki-san." Hiashi said in greeting. "I am certain that my daughter is awaiting your return."
"That's my next stop." Naruto admitted. "Getting memories from my clones and replenishing them daily is one thing, but I'd like to hold her in my own arms… I'd like to hold them in my own arms."
"Still getting used to having two fiancees, I see." Fugaku snarked and Naruto blushed slightly.
"Yeah… kinda. I mean, I really like them both, but… yeah, I still find myself wondering what I did to deserve them in my life…"
Naruto trailed off with an embarrassed shrug and both advisors nodded before giving each other surprised looks.
"I still feel the same way about my wife." Fugaku admitted, then he looked round and leaned forwards.
"If you tell her that, though, I shall deny everything." He stage-whispered and Hiashi fought down a chuckle. Hiruzen was less controlled and his laughter echoed through the office. After a few moment, he wiped his eyes.
"Thanks, Fugaku. I needed that." He smiled. "So, Naruto. Report."
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Hinata lowered her bow and looked at the distant target with satisfaction. The fabric cover of the target was shredded from the impacts of the short-lived arrow clones while all the real arrows were clustered in the bulls-eye.
"Wow, Hinata-hime." A familiar voice said from behind her and Hinata gasped in recognition. "That's good shooti-ooof!"
"Welcome back!" Hinata whispered as she hugged Naruto as tightly as she could. "Welcome back."
"It's good to be back." Naruto smiled, stroking Hinata's back as he returned her hug. "And just think, only one week to go until you get your chunin vest."
Hinata pulled away to give Naruto a look. "I might not, you know."
"What?" Naruto asked. "Hinata, all you have to do is show everyone you're at least half as awesome as I know you are, and they'll be falling over themselves to give you the vest."
Hinata blushed at the certainty in Naruto's voice, then a gasp made her look round, Naruto turning to follow her gaze.
"Naruto-kun!" Ino called as she sprinted towards them, "You're back!"
Naruto and Hinata managed to brace themselves just enough that Ino's glomp didn't actually knock them over and as Naruto returned her embrace, he heard Asuma chuckling at the sight.
"Thank goodness you're back." Shikamaru said as he walked past. "Ino's been troublesome… I think she missed you."
"Where's Fu?" Naruto asked curiously.
"Round the back, most likely. Troublesome girl is addicted to that onsen of yours." Shikamaru drawled as he vanished round the side of the house.
"Shikamaru taught her how to play Shogi." Ino explained with a giggle. "She's a natural at it."
"Has she beaten him yet?"
Ino shook her head in response to Naruto's question. "No, but I think that she's got close a time or two."
Naruto smiled. "I can't help but wonder what's happening in Taki."
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The Elders of Takigakure stared in horror at the ritual sealing circle and the rapidly-fading whisps of the Nanabi's chakra. The extraction process had somehow gone wrong and rather than being faced with a furious, albeit restrained Biju ready for re-sealing, the Elders had seen the insectile form start to coalesce before it almost exploded and evaporated.
"…we've killed the seven-tails…" Suiren finally managed to whisper. "…that's never happened before…"
"It must have been the Uzumaki control seal interacting with the Biju sealing technique!" One of the Elders cursed, glaring at Suiren. "You should not have applied it to the Jinchuuriki!"
"It was you that instructed me to and you chose the seal from the archives!" Suiren snapped back. "Don't blame me for your stupid decisions!"
"How dare you!" A second Elder screamed. "Remember your place!"
At the top of the chamber nestled amongst the roots of the Village Tree, a black-and-white form with yellow eyes listened from the shadows, its eyes narrow. As the argument below grew louder and more heated, the figure retreated back through the living wood and vanished.
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"They haven't realized that we tricked them, so I think we're good." Ino shrugged. "What? You know my dad's still linked to T&I, right? He promised he'd warn me if word came in that Takigakure had figured out what we did."
"Yeah…" Naruto said thoughtfully. "Think that they'll tell anyone that the Nanabi is dead, or will they try to pretend that they still have it?"
"Probably the latter." Kakashi commented, making all three teens jump in shock.
"Dammit!" Naruto shouted. "Don't do that to us!"
"Do what?" Kakashi asked, his visible eye curved in a smile.
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Obito stared in horror ar the plant-man who was standing in front of him.
"It's… dead?"
"It is. We saw it die." The bi-coloured figure replied. "They were very upset. The chakra faded without trace."
"Without the seven-tails…" Obito choked. "…the three-tails is still re-forming, but to lose the seven-tails… that's an eighth of the chakra just… gone! Without it… we need to capture the Kyuubi! I need to speak to Nagato!"
Obito vanished into a spiralling space-distortion and Zetsu stared at the empty space for a long moment before shrugging and vanishing into the ground.
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Nagato blinked as Obito appeared in front of him, but the masked man spoke before he could even open his mouth.
"We have a problem that could derail The Plan." He stated, the urgency evident by how he didn't bother to use his normal persona. "The Nanabi is… gone. Something happened and it died in a way that means it almost certainly won't reform anytime soon, if ever. We've lost an entire eighth of the power we need and if we lose either the Hachibi or the Kyuubi, our plan will fail completely."
Nagato willed his life-support chair to crawl closer to the renegade Uchiha.
"…what do you… mean…?" He managed to croak out, then a door opened and one of his Paths walked in.
"If you are correct, then this is very concerning news, Obito." He continued through his Path and the masked man nodded.
"There is a plan in place for if we need to start with the Kyuubi. It'll be harder and will need your people to build several things, but it can be done. I'll bring the plans to you tomorrow."
"I will alert my people that their skills may be required." The Path stated and Obito vanished in another swirl. Nagato backed his chair back into the shadows and closed his eyes, the rods piercing his back thrumming with the waves of chakra they were channeling.
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"Impressive." Terai noted as Honoka stood before him, her armour unmarked by the fire and lightning jutsus he had just hit her with.
"Thank you." Honoka said with a slight bow. "May I continue?"
Terai nodded and Honoka made a handsign that he didn't recognise. A twisting line of tags glowed slightly as chakra surged through them, then a chakra bubble formed around Honoka. Terai poked it with a kunai and the surface didn't even flex.
"Very impressive." He admitted and Honoka released the hand-sign, causing the glow and the shield to blink out of existance.
"Each one can be almost endlessly modified, as long as you have the tags you need to get the results you want." Honoka explained. "There are over two hundred and sixty tags on this suit, but many of them are needed to guide and control the chakra needed to activate the techniques on demand, so you may get only… fifty or so techniques per suit of armour."
"Most Jonin don't know fifty or so techniques." Terai said, humour evident in his voice and Honoka blushed. "Even the Uzumaki armour has only five or six techniques, from what I have heard."
"Anyway." Honoka said in an attempt to change the subject. "With the control tags and technique tags, it is easy for the wearer to customise their armour however they wish. Although quite a few tags have to be devoted to chakra flow, the way this armour is built means that it can be repaired, upgraded or even totally rebuilt quite easily. The hardest part is producing the chakra-flow tags. Those things are mind-numbingly boring to create."
Terai allowed himself to smile at the exasperation in Honoka's voice. Although Fuuinjutsu was one of the most powerful of the ninja arts,it was also the most unforgiving, requiring a steady hand, total concentration and the ability to think in ways most people simply could not (the latter being a hallmark of the Uzumaki). Creating hundreds of identical tags was, therefore, something almost akin to torture.
"But you managed to do it." Terai said with a smile. "Now it is time for you to eat. The Uzukage will be arriving tomorrow and having you collapse from hunger when he arrives may not be useful."
Honoka stuck her tongue out at Terai, then started to unlace the side-strings of the armour.
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"I can't believe you pulled me out of bed this early." Ino grumped as they flew away from Konoha, the sun rising ahead of them.
#You volunteered.# Naruto sent back and Ino growled at him.
#The sooner we get this over with, the better.# Ino complained and Naruto laughed.
#You wanted a chance at a C-ranked mission that wouldn't turn S-rank.# Naruto teased.
#I didn't realize it would mean getting up before dawn!# Ino moaned.
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"Two days to go." Hinata mused as she walked towards the Hyuuga compound, then she paused as she spotted someone.
"Tenten?" She asked in surprise. "Why are you with Team ten?"
"My team-mates are training for the finals and I needed some spending money." The kunoichi replied with a shrug, although the stream of training kunai she was flinging at the two frantically-dodging boys never slackened. "Asuma-san asked if I could help out."
"And she's doing a good job." Asuma interhjected from where he was leaning against a nearby tree. "I've never seen Shikamaru this motivated before."
Hinata blinked at the sight of the laziest boy in Konoha doing a backflip into a hand-stand, then a forwards roll to avoid the kunai being flung towards him. Some distance from him, Choji had chosen to unseal a staff and was using it to deflect over half the kunai aimed at him, sidestepping the rest with surprising grace.
"…aaaaaaand… stop!" Asuma commanded and the horizontal rain of metal ceased. Both boys sagged in relief and Tenten shook her head.
"That wasn't even a light workout." She complained and both boys stared at her in horrified shock. Hinata scurried away before she could burst out laughing.
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#There they are.# Naruto sent, looking at the pair of figures atop the cliff, their location highlighted by the banner of Uzushiogakure that stood proudly in the gentle breeze. #We'll arc round and approach from the sea.#
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Danzo watched the armoured figures of the Jinchuuriki and his fiancee swoop down towards them. As they drew closer, his lips quirked into a small smile.
"And so it begins." He whispered to himself.