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 Fifty-Nine
Prophecy
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"So, how's your new maid fitting in?" Jiraiya smirked as Team Guyver entered the office.
"Dammit, pervy-sage, it's only been a day and a bit." Naruto protested.
"But the seal worked?"
"It did exactly as it was meant to." Naruto confirmed, then he noted the other two males looking curiously at him. "It's a special seal. While it's active, she can't go further than five miles from the Keystone which is in a secret place near my home, and I mean the distance literally. The instant she hits five miles, she'll be summoned back to the receiver seal in her bedroom. She can't use any jutsu unless me, Hinata, Ino or Fu are within a quarter mile of her, or someone within fifty paces of her is wearing a special tag that I gave to Jiji, and even then she still can't use any if her intent is to harm us. On the other hand, if anyone tries to take physical advantage of her against her will, the seal will deliver a combined katon and raiton blast straight at their groin before summoning her back to her bedroom. Her bedroom is also fuuinjutsu protected with her, Hinata and Ino the only ones keyed to it. Not even I can get in there."
Itachi whistled. "What was her reaction?"
"Shocked disbelief, mainly." Ino giggled. "Naruto-kun had a couple of clones demonstrate the security protections for her and taught her how to trigger the return-summon in case she got into trouble. Of course, it summons her, but not anything she's carrying…"
Jiraiya burst out laughing, earning a glare from Naruto.
"So, why were we sommoned, Jiji?"
"A mission in the Land of Demons." Hiruzen said, flipping a scroll to Naruto. "One of the priestesses there asked specifically for you four to aid her in finishing sealing away a demon… or destroying it. And with your unique skills…"
"Who better." Naruto agreed. "What's this priestess' name?"
"Shion." Hiruzen said as Jiraiya finally got his laughter under control. "She's from a long line of priestesses, apparently her mother was the one who first sealed the demon in question away."
"So, once the demon's gone for good…" Naruto mused, then he blinked. "Anyone else just feel that?"
"I think so." Ino said slowly. "It's like… potential for change?"
Hinata gave her fiancees a confused look.
"Fu didn't feel anything, nor did Chomei."
#I did, but I don't care. I'm going back to sleep.# Kurama yawned.
"Kurama felt it as well." Naruto relayed, then he opened the mission scroll and stared at it.
"The Heir Of The Fourth, the Mindwalker's Daughter, the Moonlight Princess and the One Thought Dead?" Ino read in disbelief. "What the hell?"
"She's a priestess and they're always a bit mystical." Jiraiya supplied. "We recognised the descriptions almost instantly, but to anyone else, they'd be stumped."
"I'll grab the packs and meet you in the air." Naruto said to the other three. "I'll also tell Kin that she's in charge of the house in our absence… I'm not sure how long this mission will be. I guess I'll have to deal with the mask place I discovered after the mission."
"Mask place?" Hinata asked curiously.
"Tracked it down after finding out about it in one of my family's old scrolls." Naruto shrugged. "Not important now."
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Kin watched the four shapes vanishing into the sky, her mind awhirl with shock.
The seal that now adorned her back in the shape of the Uzumaki spiral was a work of art in its own right, protecting her while preventing her from harming those around her. By touching the trigger seal on her left wrist, she would be returned to her new bedroom almost instantly, although her new clothes would sadly not make the trip, requiring her to make sure that she always had new clothes laid out ready to don.
The fuuinjutsu arrays protecting her room were on a level even beyond that which Orochimaru regularly used, meaning that for the first time in her life, she had somewhere truly safe to call her own.
And now…
"Okay, boss-lady." One of the Naruto-clones said. "Boss-man left you in charge, any special instructions while we last?"
Kin stared at him, her shock deepening.
"Huh?"
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Naruto sniggered as a memory-burst unfolded in his mind.
"What?" ino asked, breaking off from her conversation with Fu who was on her back.
"I just received a clone-memory from back home." Naruto laughed. "Our new maid has decided that she's going to learn to cook something other than field rations, she's got one of my clones instructing her in how to make meals. Hinata was right, leaving her in charge really drove home that we know she won't try to betray us."
"How long did she take to snap out of her shock?" Hinata asked as she swooped down to rejoin them.
"Almost half an hour."
Despite the distorting effect of their voice-spheres, Hinata's laugh was still musical.
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The temple rang with the clash of weapons and the screams of the wounded as the guards failed to stop the remorseless advance of the four white-clad attackers.
"Where is the bitch?" One of them snarled, shaking the dying guard.
"He's already dead, Kusuna, he can't answer you." The female attacker sighed as she threw a kunai through the eye of another guard before reeling it back using the chain attached to the handle.
"Hey, Gitai! You found any sign of her yet?"
"No." Grunted the tallest attacker as he wrenched the pillar out of the gate and swung it like a bat, sending half a dozen guards slamming into the wall, then he backhanded the falling lintels out of the way, sending them down the flight of stairs behind him.
"She has to be somewhere." The fourth attacker mused. "Any ideas?"
"Howabout we kill all the guards, then rip this place apart?" Gitai asked, hurling the pillar at a guard who was trying to aim a bow at him.
"How about you don't?"
All four attackers froze, then slowly turned to see a quartet of armoured figures land.
"Who the hell?" Gitai growled.
"Interesting." Kasuna mused, slowly moving to circle round the new arrivals. "Armour plating implying taijutsu speciality… vision probably restricted due to the lenses but protects against poison gases and other irritants… blades on the arms at an angle indicating primarily defensive… and one of the armours is different, meaning we now know who your leader is. Are you certain you want to fight us?"
"Clothes of matching colors, but different styles indicating different approaches in combat." The lavender-colored armour wearer shot back. "Chakra colour is non-standard, indicating either kekkei genkai or medical procedure, differences in facial structures showing lack of blood-relation mean the latter is far more likely. Implanted items in body appear to be the cause of the chakra color-change, meaning artificial origin, almost certainly by another person who isn't here now. We are in the Bingo Books of Ame and Kumo. You are not. Are you certain you wish to fight us?"
"Let's just smash them!" Gitai shouted, lunging forwards to deliver a double-fisted strike that could demolish a wall. The male armoured figure simply caught the descending fists, then stepped back and spun, pulling Gitai off his feet and hurling him straight into a tree.
"Fall back!" Kusuna shouted. "We'll return later to finish the job!"
The quartet vanished in a simultaneous shunshin and for a long moment, silence reigned on the battlefield.
"What… just happened?"
"Our heroes arrived." A female voice declared and everyone turned to see a regal-looking young teenaged girl appear in the main door to the temple. "I foresaw this… no more of my guards will die today."
"Wow." Fu said in shock. "She looks like Hinata-chan but in different colours!"
The three Guyver-equipped ninjas stared at the new arrival, then at each other.
"She does. Hinata-hime, has your father ever mentioned an offshoot branch?"
"I don't see it."
"She does."
The priestess stared at the group for a long moment. "What are you talking about?"
"They're saying that you seem to resemble me." Hinata stated as she shed her armour. "I think they're kidding."
"We're not kidding." Ino said. "The resemblence is uncanny."
The priestess stared at the new arrivals, obviously taken aback by the unexpected conversation.
"What?"
"You know," Ino mused, "If we dye Hinata-chan's hair, the attackers won't know who to attack until they get close enough to see eye colors, by which time they'll be close enough for us to simply whack them down."
"She looks nothing like me!" Both Hinata and the priestess protested simultaneously, then they exchanged shocked glances while Ino and Fu fought down their giggles.
"Fu?"
Fu froze, then spun to look at the guardsman who had recognized her.
"Hoki?"
"It is you!" The now-recognized guardsman exclaimed in shock. "But how? I saw your body! I watched the elders try to pull the Nanabi out of you ready for them to turn me into the new village weapon. What happened?"
"We faked her death." Naruto said. "Takigakure didn't deserve her."
"You got that right." Hoki agreed fervently. "It's part of why I defected to join Shion-sama's service."
"You were one of the very few who thought Fu was a real person." Fu said with a smile. "Thank you."
Hoki blushed slightly.
"We will take tea, then discuss the mission." Shion stated, turning and striding back into the temple.
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"The Armor Squad." Yomi growled as he slammed the Bingo Book closed and turned back to his four followers. "This complicates things. It complicates things indeed."
"Should we have fought?" The kunoichi asked and Yomi shook his head.
"If even half of what is in the book is true, they would still be too much for you. No, we will depart for the first shrine at dawn. Once we get there, we can begin the rituals to bring Moryo's spirit back from his prison and taking it to re-unite with his body, letting him bestow us with his power as his heralds and major-domos of his thousand-year kingdom!"
The four kneeling ninja growled with approval.
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Fu accepted the small cup of tea from Hoki with a grateful nod before turning her attention back to Shion, who was explaining the mission before them.
"…but his reign came to an end when my mother sacrificed herself barely a day after I was born, splitting his soul from his body and sealing them in two separate shrines." Shion said in the voice of someone who had told the tale many times. "However, he can still be resurrected unless I destroy his body, using this mystical bell that my mother left me.
"Or that was the plan, until I had a vision."
"A vision?" Naruto prompted and Shion nodded.
"I saw four in armor striding forth, laying waste to the army of stone raised by the servant of Moryo. I saw one of them grow to twice his height and slay the demon itself.
"And I saw this almost eight years ago, when I was but five and I felt time itself shift in its path."
"The Guyver…" Naruto breathed. "When I bonded to it, the Great Toad Sage said that it changed the path of the future."
"It has been the only fragmented vision I have ever had." Shion said, looking down. "My visions do not normally work like that, yet the fragments I saw, the pieces I experienced… the names I saw myself writing on the mission scroll, they have been with me since that day."
The four Konoha ninja exchanged glances.
"What do your visions normally show?" Ino asked.
"Death." Shion whispered. "The deaths of those who seek to protect me. I see their deaths, and their fates cannot be avoided…"
For a long moment, no-one moved as Shion stared slightlessly into her cup of tea, then she shook herself.
"That is why I sent the message seeking your aid." She admitted. "My enemy is the Demon Moryo and his followers who seek to resurrect him. Should that occur, he will be a threat to all the nations that are and may yet be…"
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"We're moving out!" Yomi shouted as he leapt up the side of the ravine that they had been camped in, the four white-clad ninja following him. "Onwards, to the eternal glory that comes in the service of Moryo!"
Although the quartet behind him were too disciplined to cheer, Yomi felt their exultation as if it was his own.
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Author's Afternote - In canon, both Kurama and Naruto can detect emotions while Ino is from a clan of functional telepaths. As such, they are both more spiritually aware than most ninja, so can detect when something is slightly off. Hinata is not as spiritually biased, thus it passed her by.
Please recall that the Guyver units amplify their users senses somewhat and at not time did I say it was purely the physical senses...