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.

Oh, and this is now my second-longest story on FFN!

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Chapter Forty-Eight

Positioning

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Tsuchi Kin stared at the man who had just entered the tent she was sharing with her two team-mates. The man returned her gaze with a slight smile even as he brushed back his green hair, revealing the symbol of Amegakure on his Hitai-ate.

"Good morning." He said. "I am Jonin Rokushu Aoi and for the upcoming mission, I will be leading your team."

All three genin exchanged confused looks, then a second figure entered, causing all three to snap to attention.

"Alright, fuckers." Tayuya growled. "What he said is right, you're assigned to follow him. He's got your new Hitai-ate's, so put them on, you're part of Ame now and good fucking riddance to you losers."

"Charming girl." Aoi snarked as Tayuya stormed out. "Anyway, I believe that it is time that we properly introduce ourselves. As I said before, I am Jonin Rokushu Aoi, formerly of Konoha and now of Ame. I use a shinobi umbrella and the chakra-blade Raijin as my primary weapons and I was once the Jonin-sensei of Uzumaki Naruto, our current target. "

"Kin Tsuchi, senbon and genjutsu." Kin supplied.

"Abumi Zaku, I use futon blasts as my primary techniques."

"Kinata Dosu, senior genin." The one-eyed genin stated. "Sound-based techniques. My Melody Arm gauntlet is my primary weapon. You said that we're targeting Uzumaki Naruto?"

"We are. Lord Pein has expressed an interest in his armour, as has Lord Orochimaru." Aoi smiled. "The armour is very vulnerable to raiton jutsu, I have taken him down before using my blade, but reinforcements forced me to flee before I could finish the job. With your help, we will be able to render him helpless and defeat him. He may be immune to physical weapons, but sound-based ones…"

Aoi's smile turned into a predatorial grin, one quickly copied by the three genin.

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Hinata and Ino stared at the activity happening between their home and the greenhouse. A veritable legion of Naruto's clones were digging trenches, man-handling beams of wood and lugging around pails of nails.

"Naruto?" Hinata prompted and Naruto coughed theatrically.

"Well, since we've run out of bedrooms, I decided to expand the house a little." He said, leading them through the bustling clones. "There'll be an extra room here with two toilets and two showers, a second staircase and four new bedrooms, three small-ish and one master bedroom with its own shower room. The corner will be anchored by a short tower, allowing us to simply jump off the top and armour up before we can drop down."

Hinata looked round at the foundations, her minds-eye seeing how the new house might look.

"When will it be finished?"

"By the end of tomorrow." Naruto smiled. "You'll return from the matches to find a new home waiting."

"Is that a fence?" Ino asked and Naruto nodded.

"As we are probably going to have children eventually, I'm fencing off part of the garden to give them a safe playing area." Naruto shrugged. "There'll be a gate while having the back fully enclosed means visitors will have to come through the house."

"Makes sense." Ino agreed. "So… we get a big bedroom and there'll be six others. One for Fu…"

"Better too many than too few." Naruto smiled as he led them back out of the work area. "And with my clones, we don't need to worry about staff."

"But what about tonight?" Ino asked. "I mean, Hinata-chan's got some serious butt-kicking to do tomorrow…"

"Ino!" Hinata protested, blushing furiously.

"What, we all know it's true. Right, Naruto?"

Naruto nodded and Ino took it as her cue to continue.

"Where was I… ah yes! Serious butt-kicking to do tomorrow, but it'll be harder if she's tired…"

"Which is why I asked Hiashi-sama for a favour." Naruto said as he guided his two fiancees down the path. " "Tonight, we'll be spending the night in one of the Hyuuga guest-lodges and tomorrow, Team Ten have a pre-arranged mission to look after Hinata and get her to the stadium on time."

Ino nodded in satisfaction. "That means that we'll be there to see you winning all your matches. I'll be cheering you from the stands."

"Actually, you'll be cloaked and on top of the Hokage's box in case something happens." Naruto corrected her. "I'll be actually in the box as one of Jiji's two guards, the other being Kakashi-senpai."

Both girls nodded in understanding.

"Oneesan!"

Hinata broke free of Naruto's embrace and quickly stepped forwards to intercept the incoming blur, wrapping her arms around the living projectile.

"Hanabi-imoto!" Hinata laughed as she spun round to absorb her sister's momentum.

"Hanabi-san! Where did you… Ah. Good afternoon, Hinata-sama." A new voice said and Hinata smiled at the new arrival.

"Good afternoon, Ko-san."

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"You look good, father." Taromaru said as his father, wearing the newest Uzu Armour, slowly went through his fighting katas. The fuuinjutsu tags glinted in the light as he spun and lunged, his battle-halberd describing arcs and spirals through the air.

"It feels good." Taroku admitted, grounding the pommel of his halberd. "I can feel the chakra drain, but it's about the level of a tree-walking, if that. How much chakra can this hold?"

"The armour can hold chakra about equal to the Nibi." Honoka supplied from where she was swapping several tags on her armour. "However, it is set to stop filling at about two-thirds of that so that it won't be overloaded by enemy jutsu. That means that it'll normally hold twice as much chakra as the Ichibi has."

"Wait." Danzo frowned. "I thought that the Nibi was twice as powerful as the Ichibi."

"Three times as powerful." Honoka demurred. "Each extra tail represents twice as much power, so one tail is one, two tails is one plus two, three tails is one plus two plus three…"

"Great Kamis above." Danzo whispered in shock. "The Kyuubi… it's even more powerful than I thought!"

"Five hundred and eleven times stronger than the Ichibi." Honoka confirmed. "I found the details in one of the old Uzumaki scrolls. Of course, actually controlling that much power was virtually impossible, which is why the first two Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi didn't even try to do anything other than seal it away."

Danzo sat motionless for several long minutes, then he slowly nodded.

"I think I see. It does not matter how powerful an attack is if it cannot strike."

"And with the Uzumaki and the Uzu armours, Jinchuuriki will probably become… huh?"

A buzz sounded and Danzo pulled a vibrating message-transfer tube out of his kimono. Opening it, he let the message inside drop out, then he tucked the tube away before reading the message.

"Lord Uzukage?" Honoka prompted after a long moment and Danzo finally looked up.

"Honoka… how would one go about destroying a Biju?"

Honoka blinked. "I… don't know. Why?"

"Because apparently Takigakure has done just that to the seven-tails… by accident!"

"What?"

"I think I need to meet with my old friend again."

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"What a meal. Fu is stuffed."

"You ate almost as much as Naruto-niisan!" Hanabi stated in awe and both Jinchuuriki smiled at her amazement. "I didn't think that was possible!"

"I also had my doubts." Neji put in from where he was sitting alongside his father. "Having seen it with my own two eyes, though… I cannot deny it."

"Tomorrow will be an important day for you both." Hiashi stated and Hinata nodded.

"I look forwards to meeting you in the final match, niisan."

"I am flattered that you think so highly of my skills." Neji said with a slight smile. "Hiashi-sama has been speaking highly of yours."

Hinata blushed as Ino chuckled. "He's right, your skills with Uzuken rival mine and you have Juho as well."

Hinata's blush deepened and she dropped her gaze.

"Hinata-sama." Neji said and Hinata raised her eyes to look at him. "If I should meet you in the finals, know that I shall be using all that I know to attain victory and I expect of you the same."

Everyone looked at him and he nodded.

"Even your armour." He added and Naruto's eyes widened.

"You know the weakness!" He accused.

Hinata's gaze sharpened as Neji carefully remained expressionless.

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"Listen up, brats." Zabuza growled ant the three genin turned their attention to him, although their gazes kept trying to dart to Mei, who was leaning on his shoulder with the same wide smile she had worn for the whole afternoon.

"Chojuru, you're up against the Uchiha. Count on him having a Sharingan and keep fluctuating your chakra like I taught you so he can't use his dojutsu to cast a genjutsu you. He'll copy any full jutsu you use, so stick to those that you are good enough to shorten the handseals of. Kimimaru, I haven't been able to find out much about that ice-user beyond what I've already told you and what we saw in the preliminaries. How is the counter going?"

Kimimaru shifted so that one of his feet was visible, then several short bone spikes protruded out of the sole before retracting.

"I have already purchased several replacement sandals." He stated and Zabuza nodded.

"Good. Now, Ao and I will be acting as Mei's bodyguards, so you'll be in the stands alone, Kajika. Don't do anything to screw it up. Got it?"

Zabuza finished with a growl and Kajika nodded almost frantically.

"Good."

"Don't be too hard on them, Zabuza-kun." Mei purred, reaching up to caress his cheek. "Of course, if you insist on being hard…"

"I believe that this is our cue to depart." Kimimaru said calmly as he bowed. "Pleasant dreams, Mizukage-sama."

"Such a nice boy." Mei chuckled as she watched Kimimaru lead his team-mates out of the room. "Ao? Leave."

Ao rolled up the scroll he was reading.

"Of course, Mei-sama. If I may be so bold, will you need me to carry anything tomorrow?"

Mei blinked. 'Did he just say I was too old to be marrying?'

"Ao, shut up before I kill you!"

Ao paled at his leader's threat and scurried out of the room.

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"This place hasn't changed." Danzo noted, looking round at the main room of Hiruzen's house before taking a sip of his tea. "This is good tea."

"I am glad you approve." Hiruzen said as he took a sip of his own tea. "You seemed rather… disconcerted when you called."

"Takigakure has stumbled upon a way to destroy the Biju." Danzo stated, then he paused, his eyes narrowing at Hiruzen's lack of reaction. "…or people think they have."

"Uzumaki Naruto has a sister." Hiruzen stated and Danzo blinked in surprise at the apparent change of subject, then his eyes widened in realization.

"The Taki Jinchuuriki… her death was faked…"

Hiruzen made a slight motion for Danzo to continue.

"He must have used a clone of some sort… charged it with the Nanabi's chakra?"

Hiruzen gave a slight nod and Danzo gave a nod that verged on being an actual bow.

"Were you aware…?"

"Of the plan, but not the details." Hiruzen stated, then he smiled. "Plausible deniability."

"Of course." Danzo said with a slight smile of his own. "Two of the best words in our profession."

Both old men exchanged looks of professional respect.

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"About time you got here."

Naruto looked around and spotted Kurama. "It's been a busy day. What did you want?"

"I have been looking at your memories and doing some thinking and I was hoping that you could help me with a project. It'll need several things, though, and maybe some testing, but it should work."

"Several things such as?" Naruto prompted.

"A chisio bunshin of a fox imbued with some of my remaining chakra." Kurama began. "And a repeat of something that you have done twice already. And perhaps a few other things. If it works, Chomei might want to take advantage of it too, although she and her Jinchuuriki have bonded in ways we have not."

Naruto frowned. "I'll need a few more details…"

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Author's afternote – Yep, the finals begin in the next chapter.
It's the fights you have been waiting almost 50 chapters for!