Disclaimer: All respective characters and settings belong to their respective franchises.

Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo.

The Founder of Shinobi.

The Great Sage of Six Paths.

Tales, myths, stories and scriptures surrounded the name belonging to this figure of legend. Throughout the centuries, the eras, shinobi and non-shinobi alike have dedicated their lives in uncovering and unearthing a glob of truth behind his existence, to sort the fact from the fiction. A single clue; no matter how trifling, was akin to a priceless discovery any village would pay for.

Kill for.

Such were shinobi starved of his influence that even a scrap of his cloak would be hailed as a holy artifact. If not for any presumed secrets or power it might hold, but for the mere prestige of possessing it.

Now, within a humble apartment living room, Hiruzen felt he was blessed and fortunate to have lived for as long as he had. Right before him, allegedly sought-after proof that the revered Founder did indeed exist once upon a time, if the account of the scholarly Digimon could be deemed authentic.

"Are you sure he's okay?" Anko asked Kakashi in a furtive whisper, concerned and maybe a little scared by how…"bright" the elderly veteran currently was after recovering from his attack, lips outstretched in an ear-to-ear smile, his sparkling eyes trained solely on the monitor and nothing else.

The only thing Kakashi could do was shrug. "It isn't every day that you get to find out that there was someone who shared the Sage of the Six Paths' name."

"You think it isn't the Sage of the Six Paths then?" Anko shot an arched brow at him.

"I have my reservations in taking something at face value. You should know that," Kakashi drawled, then added to disavow himself of any hypocrisy. "Specifically where certain myths are concerned."

Anko's coy expression didn't ebb. "I don't know. He looks pretty legit to me. That intricately detailed sketch fits the bill quite nicely if I do say so."

"A child's drawing doesn't count as evidence," Kakashi retorted flatly.

"The horns? The pale skin? The white robe?" Anko listed off, gesturing over sections of herself for each part, placing the common stories of what the man was supposed to have looked like in relation the crude illustration in the book. "I don't think you can find just about any character that kooky-looking walking down the street on a good day."

"Body mods," Kakashi undulated his shoulders in another shrug, though she could apprehend a minor tremor in how he said it, imperceptible to most but her from interrogating tough guys.

"They had body modifications…thousands of years ago?"

"Heck, it could just be a birth defect," Kakashi theorized further, though his simmering confidence was waning. "I once saw a guy with dead skin so severe that it accumulated into thick scales."

"Now you're just in denial," Anko said with a roll of her eyes.

"Let's listen in and see then," Kakashi said with a challenging tone, nodding his head towards the monitor.

"I thought you said you haven't even met a human before," Naruto reminded the scholar crossly.

"I couldn't just tell you something like that right off the bat," Bokomon defended himself. "But yeah, I should have, and I'm sorry. Really, I am, but, there wasn't any time for it with you having just got here combined with my expedition."

Naruto wanted to wail on the scholar more, but giving it some thought, there hadn't been enough room for them to be talking about other topics besides surviving for the day from his impromptu arrival, and Bokomon's own obligations taking priority. Sure, he no longer aimed to go home, but it would have been nice to know that he wasn't the lone human to have ended up in this place.

"So, this Hagoromo guy," Naruto began, face set into a squint that was boring into the diminutive scholar. "How did he get here?"

"He told me that he was meaning to go home from a day of fishing when he ended up crossing through this dense fog," Bokomon recounted from fond memories of those days. "Next thing he knew, he was in the Digital World."

"You met the guy himself?" Naruto asked, mildly curious about the fog. "How old was he?"

"About thirteen of your world's years," Bokomon answered, his book splayed out on the ground, leafing through page after page as if searching for one in particular. "And, yeah, I met him. Not so unlike how I did you. Minus the falling on top of me part."

"He must be referring to the Sage's journey of enlightenment," Hiruzen said brightly, chest a flutter. "It was said that Hagoromo embarked on a long meditative pilgrimage in his youth. Through such, he was able to discover chakra, thus giving way to the invention of ninjutsu."

"According to the legends, right Hokage-sama?" Anko said cheekily whilst glancing at a bristling Kakashi. "Although, it could just be that he wandered into a rift in space that landed him there by accident."

"That could very well be the case, Anko. We of all people might finally be able to have a firsthand account of his whereabouts all those centuries ago." The follicles of his gnarled skin rose into goosebumps from this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For the scholar to have met the great sage himself, he wished he could shake the creature's hand.

"How long was he stuck here?" Naruto asked, hunched down in front of Bokomon, an equally curious Piyomon falling suit, watching the turned over pages.

"Approximately five years," Bokomon answered, flipping his book around to show the boy what he had perused. "Do you recognize this text?"

Naruto read the pages and shook his head in the negative, noticing that they were distinctly different from the Digimoji that he came to recognize. "Hagoromo was the one who wrote this in his language after I loaned my book to him for a while."

"Oh are you fucking kidding me?!" the lad groused at the reveal.

"PASSAGES WRITTEN BY THE GREAT SAGE HIMSELF?!" Hiruzen exclaimed in glee, the air surrounding him riddled with stars. "This is unprecedented! You two," he looked jovially to his young subordinates with an enthusiastic smile, "do you know what this could mean for Konoha?!"

"A boring ecology entry?" Anko whispered to Kakashi from the corner of her smirk, with him bringing an index finger to his curled lips to not spoil it for the Hokage.

Bokomon winced. "I know, I know, I'm sorry I didn't show you this sooner too-"

"You're damn right you could have shown it to me sooner!" Naruto barked, launching his body up from his position, legs parted, balled hands bent forward. "Do you at least know what it says?!"

"Yeah," Bokomon answered easily, "he taught it to me and I got the hang of it pretty well."

Anko and Kakashi suppressed a shudder upon witnessing at that very moment the sight of Hiruzen swooning. They could now claim to have seen everything. No question.

"And…would you mind reading it out loud for me?" Naruto requested impatiently, tapping his right foot, arms folded.

Bokomon…reeled with an embarrassed rictus, to Naruto's puzzlement. "Uh…you sure?"

Accompanied by Piyomon, the boy dipped forward to do a quick skim of the pages to check if he could understand even a small fraction of the ancient text. Naruto made a show of posing in thought, knuckles flush under his chin. "Hm, let me see-YES! Yes, I'm sure! I do wanna know what it says."

Bokomon still looked a bit reluctant when he whirled the book to read the entries, clearing his throat. "Bigger than mom's."

"What?"

Both Naruto and Hiruzen blinked, the zest leaving them, wondering if they had heard that right. Kakashi and Anko followed suit.

"Sorry."

Sweat trailing down his increasingly crinkling brow, his head and neck gaining a pronounced shade of red, Bokomon was definitely sure he wasn't supposed to be saying most of what he was reading with how young his listeners were. So, he did his level-best for what he relatively could.

"Wow, I didn't think I'd ever find breasts that were bigger than mom's. Lady Luck sure has it out for me! Who knew they could get to that size without being disproportionately cumbersome? So…educational!" Bokomon's voice cracked as he trailed off, pausing to maintain his composure and pace, but it was a plainly losing battle.

It's all a matter of study! Hagoromo's trusty motto spurred him to power on, but from his tormented face he was barely keeping it together. "I'm…I'm talking about extra large, giant mountains that jiggle like jumbo rice cakes. A bevy of bombastic beautiful bosoms and bountiful buttocks abound! I wouldn't mind staying here for the rest of my life! Damn! What I wouldn't give to get my hands on them-

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Naruto hollered, having finally heard enough, Piyomon cringing from being too close to him and in no small percentage confused.

Bokomon sighed in surrender, flipping the book around once more to show the boy another turn of the page, where Naruto flickered his sights to what were excruciatingly detailed sketches of breasts, bottoms, waistlines, and other various anatomical diagrams of the female form, all in the nude and with intricately detailed measurements and commentaries in the same ancient language, his cheeks darkening a deep crimson. "What kind of massive perv did all this?!"

"Hagoromo did," Bokomon provided sheepishly. "He was…'energetic' to say the least, and developed a fascination of sorts with our female Human Digimon after discovering them on our tour."

"Tour?" Naruto echoed, his left eye twitching, already getting repulsed vibes from this Hagoromo person.

"He liked to study," Bokomon expanded on as he craned his neck to peek above his fanned out book. "He held an extremely curious and precocious mind that it was all he could do to help pass the time after finding himself here.

"Not just for our females," he murmured that part, "but everything else about the Digital World. I was more drawn to his scholarly aspirations rather than his…personal proclivities, so we traveled together to help him pursue knowledge that he came to crave."

Anko whistled, "Shit, and here I thought he was as dignified as the legends made him out to be." She turned to the other men, "Really gives you some insight-uh…uhuhuh" her words sputtered to a stop, slackjawed, her form drooping from the sight that greeted her, strands of her hair splitting.

"A traveling companion of the Great Sage as well?!" Hiruzen exclaimed, leaning in closer on the monitor next to Kakashi, stroking his chin, a trickle of blood oozing down his right nostril from scanning the rest of the sketches. Breasts…

"Huh, maybe there's some credence to this guy's identity after all," Kakashi figured, a finger nuzzling the underside of his chin as he too did a cursory scan of the pages that made him draw similarities with a databook of Icha Icha. Buttocks…

"Indeed, Kakashi. How I wish to parley with Bokomon-dono to verify for myself of Ōtsutsuki-sama's exploits." Breasts…

"What's with the '-dono' all of a sudden, you degenerate old goat?" Anko thought derisively, her grip on the mouse tightening with an urge to smash their heads with it.

Whether Hiruzen sensed her hostility or not, he didn't show it. "A direct link to the man himself. Any information could prove vital in finally unraveling the mysteries behind the Founder." Breasts…

"I suppose so, Hokage-sama," Kakashi nodded, his own mask sporting a darkening splotch. Buttocks…

Breasts…

Buttocks…

Breasts…

Buttocks…

DEATH!

Anko cleared her throat with a light cough as a stifling atmosphere flooded the room, spilling past the foyer that even the ANBU standing guard were being rattled to their bones.

"Are you boys done?" she said in a voice laced with poisonous honey.

While this was going on, beside Naruto, Piyomon tilted her head as she took in the contents of the pages with naive curiosity. "What's with these funny drawings?" she asked, directing her index talon on an outline of-

"A-Anyway," Naruto stammered, his previous temper fizzling out as he gently nudged Piyomon away from the book, leaving a flustered Bokomon to infer that they've seen enough. "What was that other thing you said about this Hagoromo dude, Bokomon?"

"Aw, she's adorable," Anko crooned, her killing intent mounting exponentially at the two perverts on her end. "Right?"

The two men had hastily recoiled from the computer and the kunoichi a good five feet away, neatly sitting next to each other quietly in a seiza.

"Yes," the two groaned.

"Good~," Anko drawled sweetly as her frigid gaze drifted over her shoulder at them, eyes filled with promises of suffering only men could know. "Now, if you don't mind me asking, bright eyes." She swiveled back to the camera. "What's the deal with-

"Human…Digimon?" Naruto inquired in lockstep with the kunoichi. "I'm confused. More than I usually am, and that's saying something."

Bokomon sighed and lobbed an entreating glance at the courier Digimon, who didn't seem to care all that much as she was still there, patiently waiting for something. Payment? Well, she'd be asking for it forthwith after a delivery, so the fact that she didn't and hadn't left yet pointed to her task as being partially unfulfilled. What it was exactly made him a little apprehensive.

"Human Digimon are digital lifeforms that have humanoid or bear close resemblance to humans, as opposed to those with animalistic and bestial appearances," Bokomon explained. "Many of them still have bestial and anomalous traits, but there are also those who have a perfectly human appearance."

"So, are they humans, or not?" Naruto asked in a perplexed manner, scratching the back of his head.

"They're Digimon by our standards, and because of our programming, we recognize them as such with that distinction from your kind," Bokomon clarified.

4ngelf4c3: Does that answer your question?

Hiruzen, his dignity returning, pitched forward for an example.

Anko opened her mouth to protest, knowing full well what the old man wanted, but her voice failed her upon being intercepted by an image that popped up on the chat box a second after asking. Ah shit… She sent a reproachful look at Kakashi, who she sensed was about to ask her to enlarge it. Of all the…

The image was that of an absolutely gorgeous woman with an hourglass figure, with voluminous blonde hair done in a fanciful braid that reached past her entire body, bangs that oriented down each side of her head. A thick white strand of rope was wound around the fulsome tresses trailing down from her crown to help hold it. Her attire consisted of a scantily white strapless dress that exposed her shoulders down to the small of her back, the fabric pooling down at the front, a silhouette of her generously ample cleavage immodestly cupped.

On her forearms were silver bracers with white wing motifs, which was shared by the knee high silver boots that had small wings protruding out from both sides of the heels. White panties did their best to preserve what was left of her modesty. Around her neck was a gold necklace hanging from a silver choker with a diamond in the center. A red jewel in the shape of an apple dangled freely below the gold chain. A long white band wrapped her head in a blindfold, the rest winding down her braid until the ends fanned out all the way from the tail end of her hair.

Sitting atop her right hand was a white dove, while resting on the palm of her left hand was a purple scallop shell. Her face, even while blindfolded, was mesmerizingly and ravishingly beautiful to the men drinking in her appearance, her pose with her arms spread out displaying her loveliness in all its glory.

"Fascinating," Hiruzen said in a professionally serious tone, cupping his chin with his right hand.

"I concur, Hokage-sama," Kakashi mirrored him, the two of them once again huddled down a little too closely before the monitor besides an exasperated Anko.

"I bet you want me to scan her too," the annoyed kunoichi asked with a roll of her eyes, to which Kakashi replied.

"Anko, please," he sighed, addressing her from the corner of his eye. "Must you be unnecessarily rhetorical?"

"Don't make me hurt you," Anko growled at him, a vein throbbing on her forehead. She clicked on the image to scan it anyway.

Venusmon

Stage: Mega

Type: God Man

Attribute: Vaccine

One of the Olympus XII, she is a Digimon that is filled with compassion and rules over love. Wherever Venusmon is, beautiful flowers bloom profusely no matter how ruined the soil is, and the land's youthful vigor is revived. It is said that there are many Digimon who serve the pure and beautiful Venusmon. Venusmon can correctly perceive the world with her mind's eye by blindfolding herself, and she isn't taken in by any lie or deception. Furthermore, she restrains her overflowing glamour by concealing her pupils, as a consideration to keep from adding more swooning Digimon. Venusmon is always accompanied by her bird "Olive" and scallop "Hotan", small friends who can speak animatedly and unreservedly with Venusmon. Because she is a Digimon that rules over love, she uses a fighting style that pacifies the opponent's heart with each gesture.

Attacks

Healing Therapy

Pacifies the opponent's fighting spirit with a simple caress or pat of the head. It additionally heals those whom Venusmon considers allies and boosts their strength.

LOVE YOU!

Blows a kiss at the target, rendering them catatonic from the shock.

Peace Fantasia

Has Olive prick the opponent in the head, making them have peaceful intentions no matter what kind of ferocious personality they have. Alternatively, she simply throws Olive with pinpoint accuracy at enemies not at close range.

The shenanigans that circulated amongst the three shinobi dissolved after reading the Digimon's; no, the Goddess' profile. Hiruzen, his lust abated, fixed the camera with a look that belonged to none other than 'The Professor'. He was stricken with the reminder of these otherworldly beings' true nature, that they were of a higher form of existence beyond their own, and abilities that could challenge their world's ordinance, and there was still much they didn't have in the way of sufficient intel concerning where these creatures precisely scaled, piquing his honed guard.

Kakashi was snowed that their mystery host managed to get the drop on them with this. Underneath the distraction was a clue as to what was being extended. Anko dutifully took stock of it as well.

"Her powers may not be as hot as she is at first glance, but being able to avoid conflict altogether and making a lovestruck slave out of whoever was trying to tear you a new one is as troublesome as they come," the kunoichi elaborated, having read up on varying jutsu that specialized in alluring their targets to the user's control, or robbing them of their will. Orochimaru himself was skilled in such brainwashing techniques.

Incidentally, it was ideally preferable for a shinobi to avoid combat as much as possible contrary to popular assumption. Far more efficient to resolve missions both timely and efficiently leading to an optimal result, foregoing the waste of energy and resources that could be expended elsewhere more appropriate. 'Ideally', being the operative word.

And with the classification of 'God Man', she could make a bet that this Venusmon had a greater command of her abilities at exponentially higher levels of potency, provided there wasn't an ounce of hyperbole to her info. Despite looking like a dolled up model, her time being a kunoichi taught her well that nothing was ever skin deep. In contrast, if lies and deception were indeed ineffective against her, then they were looking at someone who provided a critical weakness to a shinobi's forte. She long deduced that Digimon; in theory, held a natural immunity to genjutsu from their anatomy and composition alone, but this was like having a VIP ticket when you were already the owner of a 5-star hotel.

"Who are these Olympus XII exactly?" Hiruzen inquired curtly. "Bokomon-dono mentioned that they were powerful enough to be considered deities."

4ngelf4c3: 'Enough' is a humble estimate. Each of them on their own is considered a Superpower in the Digital World. They each rule their own respective zones and have dominion over an aspect. In Venusmon's case, she is a goddess of love. Digimon, human, irrelevant of gender cannot resist her charms. Only those with an exceptionally strong will would have a drop of a chance in defying her. Though, you shouldn't worry too much. Out of all the twelve, she's the nicest.

"If she's the nicest, I'd hate to meet their meanest," Anko quipped with a lopsided grin, but inside, she and the two other men were weighing their world's options. A drop?

4ngelf4c3: Well, something tells me you'll cross that bridge eventually. Now, to the matter at hand, you can now establish contact with Uzumaki Naruto.

"How?" Hiruzen asked tersely, wasting no time upon reading the message. "Through that device?"

4ngelf4c3: Yes. Mitarashi Anko, if you would, please click on 'Connect'.

"Do it," Hiruzen ordered, the kunoichi dutifully standing by.

"Roger," the kunoichi obeyed. So that's why it was 'out of range'. The brat didn't have that thing on him.

Naruto, his arms folded and a hand cradling his chin, nodded a few times in understanding. "Okay, I think I sorta get what you mean, but I guess I should just roll with it to keep my brain from fizzling out again."

"Probably for the best," Bokomon shrugged, only to be startled by an odd ringing sound.

"Was that you?" The Gazimon hissed to his partner in a panic, also startled by the ringing, but was met with the same indifference and the sound coming elsewhere after adjusting his hearing. "If they find us with that Uver still there, it's all over."

This seemed to draw a reaction from his partner, who glanced at him with a scrutinizing arc of his brow. A momentary pause of them locking eyes, and the canine mammal released an awkward chuckle, his ears flattening back. "I…gave her a three star rating after a pizza delivery."

The Falcomon's eyes widened ever so slightly before averting his head from him. "Yikes."

"Tell me about it," the Gazimon said in trepidation, praying to Yggdrasil for the feline to not get a bead on them.

Naruto looked down at the D-Scanner as it vibrated and rang, the small screen lighting up with the symbol of Konohagakure outlined of all things, pausing him in place. "Huh?"

Bokomon's brows shot up before thrusting his hands to grab at the Digivice, but refrained from snatching it from the boy. "That's…" He fixed Naruto with an urgent look. "Quick, start pressing buttons. Someone is trying to establish a call!"

"Wh-" Naruto fumbled, narrowly dropping the device after Bokomon handed it back to him.

"Hurry!" Bokomon urged him, slightly ambivalent as to who or what could be trying to contact them, warily observing the lad pushing each button in succession until the ringing stopped.

"N̶̠͉̹̰̞̤͘ͅͅä̵̪́̾͆͋̃͊͆r̶̢̡̧̛̹̙͉̰̝͔͎̓̆̿͛͌͆̑̑͊̓̇̀̓̍u̶̡̢̪̥̼̜̰̎̔̈́̑̾͐͜t̷̰̝͙̘̝͇͌̏̃̀͒͂̕̕̚̕̕ơ̵̛̲̞͓̎̈͂͆͒̂̈͗̋̆̿͆͠-̶̥̰̹̈́̈́̽̓̈́̓̀̂̽͛̒̂͝͝ķ̶̨͍̦̮͓̃̋͛̋͊̈́͗̈͝͝ų̴̛̩̜͍̦̥͈̯̰̟̣̟̃͐͊̀̊̒̿͑͋̆̂͘͝ņ̴̢͕̻̞͍̦͇̪̦͐͊͋͋̿̊̇̄̂̏͝͠͠͝!"

The young Uzumaki froze, his blue eyes widening as they reflected the handheld, his heart screeching to a thunderstruck halt. Could his ears be deceiving him? It couldn't be. It just couldn't.

"J-..."

"N̶̠͉̹̰̞̤͘ͅͅä̵̪́̾͆͋̃͊͆r̶̢̡̧̛̹̙͉̰̝͔͎̓̆̿͛͌͆̑̑͊̓̇̀̓̍u̶̡̢̪̥̼̜̰̎̔̈́̑̾͐͜t̷̰̝͙̘̝͇͌̏̃̀͒͂̕̕̚̕̕ơ̵̛̲̞͓̎̈͂͆͒̂̈͗̋̆̿͆͠-̶̥̰̹̈́̈́̽̓̈́̓̀̂̽͛̒̂͝͝ķ̶̨͍̦̮͓̃̋͛̋͊̈́͗̈͝͝ų̴̛̩̜͍̦̥͈̯̰̟̣̟̃͐͊̀̊̒̿͑͋̆̂͘͝ņ̴̢͕̻̞͍̦͇̪̦͐͊͋͋̿̊̇̄̂̏͝͠͠͝!"

His hands to the very tip of his fingers went numb at the sound, his shorting brain jettisoning down into the base of his stomach. "Jii-chan?" The tenor of his words was so fragile a soft tap would have lodged crumbled pieces of his throat down his esophagus, unable to muster the strength to swallow. "Jii-chan…is that you?"

"Ơ̷͓̯̣̭͓̫̌͛̈́̀̓͜ḩ̷̡̛͎̺̌̍̊̿͊̚͠ ̵̢͎̺͇̊̀́̽̾̿̒́͐̀͐͘͘ͅṫ̷͍̍̽̈́̏̂͐̆̏̽̋ͅḩ̵̢͕̤̥̯̘̳͎͈̥̮̝̓̈͋̈́͆͘͜͝ä̶̢͇͓̯̰͈͚̯̹̬̠̦́̿̃nk goodness!" It was indeed the unmistakable voice of the Hokage, the reception having grown clearer, detecting only the tiniest of static in the background. "It came through."

Naruto couldn't move, each fiber of his muscles ossifying.

"Yes, it's me, Naruto-kun," Hiruzen went on in elated relief. "You have no idea how good it is to have finally reached you after all this time."

The Hokage…happy to hear from him? Granted, it wasn't like the old man treated him no differently to the people that gave him grief. Quite contrarily, Sarutobi Hiruzen was one of the rare few who; save for select formal occasions, showed him grandfatherly affection. But, the immediate question that jumped to the fore was; how?

"Naruto-kun, we can weather the details later, but you must listen to me," the Hokage hurriedly said. "You're all in danger."

All three of them perked up, exchanging glances. "Danger? Jii-chan, what are you talking about? How? How are we in danger?"

"Two Digimon are in pursuit of you," Hiruzen explained hurriedly. "More specifically, Bokomon-dono."

"M-M-Me?" The scholar stuttered, whipping his head around in a panic. N-No way…could it be…? "I think I may know who they are," he inched near the Digivice, dialing down to a whisper. "But for the moment, may I know who you are?"

"By legal right, I am Uzumaki Naruto's guardian," Hiruzen answered without much fanfare. "We are currently stationed in Naruto-kun's living room."

Naruto could hardly believe it. "Why are you in my apartment?!"

"Naruto-kun, I promise I will provide you an explanation, but for now, you must be vigilant and get to safety."

"Even if we could, we're at a severe disadvantage," Bokomon said, his words nursing a quake to them. "If the ones on our trail are who I believe them to be, we are woefully unprepared in terms of defending ourselves when they catch up to us, not if. They won't let up on this if I'm right in suspecting what they're after."

"Who are they, Bokomon?" Naruto asked under his breath, the fear and worry in him rising.

"They work for a warlord that rules over a large portion of the Server Continent," Bokomon answered him shakily. "Etemon, an Ultimate Level Digimon with ambitions to amass power for his already formidable empire. I've had reasonable fear that he was in pursuit of the Spirit, but I've been nothing but careful in covering my tracks to keep him from getting a lead on it, but it looks like my efforts were in vain."

"What's the deal with this Spirit anyway?" Naruto needled in robust curiosity. "What exactly is it? Some kind of treasure, or something?"

"It's-

"It's the key to gaining ultimate power!" A voice boomed from the treeline, the Gazimon and Falcomon leaping out of their hiding spot in what they must have presumed to be a dramatic entrance, although the bipedal canine was the only one striking a pose upon landing next to his still-as-a-statue partner. "In the name of Lord Etemon, surrender now or face our wrath!"

"...huh?" All six watching the duo voluntarily blow their cover sweatdropped.

His upper body bent at an angle, an open palm held up to his face, the Gazimon continued. "Might as well hedge our bets. To hell with the 3-star review, that pizza was cold when I got it anyway. Nothing is going to get in the way of our mission."

The follicles of his fur stood on end when raw killing intent flooded his body, leaking out into the air and driving the other three nearest to the feline Digimon a good few steps away from her, terror gripping his heart in his ridiculous pose as his eyes traveled to the same Black Tailmon Uver glancing at him from her position. As canine as he was, the Gazimon broke into a cold sweat. "A-Anyway, let's cut to the chase, egghead, either you lead me and my associate here to the shrine, or we're gonna have to get…tough!"

Bokomon gulped from the threat, trembling as he took a reflexive step back. "I…N-N-N-No way!" He barked with a stutter, some fragile bravado under the wire, teeth chattering. "There's no way I'm gonna lead you to the shrine! Etemon's not gonna get his grubby mitts on the Spirit. Absolutely no way!"

"I-Is it really that big of a deal?" Naruto asked aloud as he raked in their two pursuers, inwardly debating if he should fight them or run with his friends per the Hokage's advice as he stood protectively in front of Piyomon.

"The legendary Spirit is what's left of the Ancient Ten's once great power," Bokomon explained to him carefully. "It's been said that even if the Digimon is weak, if they're able to acquire just one Spirit, they'll be granted unfathomable strength. Etemon is already dangerously strong on his own, so once he gets it…I don't even want to think about what he'd do."

Naruto swiveled to him. "Is that guy bad news, then?"

A real human, huh? "Hmph!" The Gazimon scoffed audibly enough to garner the boy's attention, canines bared into a toothy grin in what he must have considered friendly, hands now on his hips as he stood proudly on his hind legs. "You've got it all wrong, kid. Lord Etemon is a benevolent ruler whose sole desire is to install peace and order in this chaotic side of the network. You see, consequently, in order to grow stronger, Digimon from all over just can't help themselves in thoughtlessly going about laying waste to everything around them from battling and killing one another in a constant cycle of dominance here in the Server Continent. Waste of life and land, if you ask me. So, for him to actually do something about it, he needs all the power he can get. And once he succeeds, he'll be able to spread peace throughout the entire Digital World."

"As if we've never heard that tired cliché before," Anko remarked with a roll of her eyes, with the two other men silently concurring. Hiruzen didn't need his intuition to distinguish the falsehood, in his day having taken down a few would-be arbiters of peace who simply coveted the rule of a country after the preceding wars left power vacuums.

Naruto seemed to roughly share that intuition, his features scrunching into a scowl that he drilled into the canine. "Something tells me you're just full of shit. If you guys really were working for a guy like that, you could have just talked to Bokomon upfront from the start. Instead, you were planning to jump him once he led you to this shrine thing, weren't you? Between what he said and your lame sales pitch, I ain't buying what you're selling."

The Gazimon shrugged shamelessly, admitting to the hollowness of his words. "Heh, so what if we were? S' not like you can do anything about it. Though, I am curious. How'd a human like you get here, anyway?"

"Why do you wanna know?" Naruto spat back, already prepping his body to act the second they made a move.

"Just curious," the Gazimon reiterated slyly, though Naruto and Bokomon could both feel that there was something else behind the query. "But I guess we'll have plenty of that to chat about after me and my buddy here are through with you. Which slides us back to why we're wasting oxygen and burning daylight, egghead. Where's the shrine?!"

"I-I already told you!" Bokomon stammered, building some confidence from Naruto despite the oppressive fear lancing through him from the Gazimon's outburst. "There is no way I'm leading you ruffians to the shrine deep within a cavern in this very mountain that can be entered through an entrance located at the top. By Yggdrasil, I refuse!"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Everyone, this time including the Black Tailmon Uver, sweatdropped.

Bokomon went still, realizing what he just said. "...Uh…wh-wha~t? Did I say cavern in this mountain?" The scholar quailed from his blunder, twiddling his index claws together, rivulets of sweat rolling down his brow. "What I-I-I meant to say was…is that it's in the…next mountain. Y-Yeah, that's it. Right next to this one o-over yonder."

"..." Both Gazimon and Falcomon stared blankly at the scholar, their moods clearly put off as they began to saunter off, seemingly losing interest.

Halfway, however, the Gazimon shot them an evil look, a vicious smirk lurking on his features before he wound his head back, cheeks puffing.

'Paralyze Breathe'

A stream of putrid green smoke spewed from the Digimon's mouth, making a beeline for them, causing Naruto to throw his arms forward, caught off guard by the nature of the attack before he was yanked by the scruff of his jacket, leaving the fumes to connect against a tree that caused it to whittle.

"Whoa!" Naruto gasped out as he landed on solid earth in a pile next to Bokomon and Piyomon, the Black Tailmon Uver looming over them as they found themselves on an elevated section of the mountain, swiftly rescued from the poison. "Th-Thanks…"

The Black Tailmon said nothing, her silent stoicism constant as her face was shaded over by her visor, a chill creeping down his spine as his blue eyes found themselves entranced in her coal black.

"Bokomon, what now?" he asked after collecting himself. On one knee, he peered over the edge to where he knew their assailants should be, only to be blown back with a start by a black and purple blur zooming past them. Adjusting, he looked up and spotted the two enemy Digimon soaring above them via a…kite? Held behind the Falcomon was a large black kite, lifted by a strong updraft. Dangling by his right foot was the Gazimon, holding on for dear life with both hands, sparing only a moment to wave a smug farewell at them.

Seeing this as well, Bokomon stumbled to his feet. "We need to reach the cavern before they do! We have the advantage, for unlike them, I know the way to get in, but we have to hurry!"

Naruto and Piyomon shared a look, before their expressions became set into a determined frown, nodding. Scrambling, they scampered up the beaten path in a hurry.

"Wait, Naruto-kun!" Naruto skidded to a halt at the command of the Hokage.

"Jii-chan?" He looked down at the D-Scanner, amazed that he still held onto it despite their close call earlier. "What is it?"

"Can you repeat that, Anko?"

4ngelf4c3: There's a shortcut that I know of. Tell them.

"According to bright eyes, Hokage-sama, there's a shortcut," Anko directed at him.

Naruto's eyes shot up in recognition, lifting the Digivice closer to his face with both hands. "That voice…Dango-neechan?!"

"Yo, how's it goin', short man?" Anko greeted him back, not minding the nickname as she pushed a teasing Kakashi back by the face with one arm in a vice grip, nails digging into his skin.

"What are you doing in my apartment?!" Naruto asked a second time in a mix between surprise and embarrassment.

"There's no time for that, Naruto-kun," Hiruzen chided him. "Bokomon-dono, there is supposedly a shortcut that you can take."

"A shortcut?" Bokomon gaped from the information in shock, not having found one in his last trip here. "How? Where?"

Like a switch had been flicked, the Black Tailmon Uver perked her head up at the mention of "shortcut", with Naruto once again feeling a grip on his person, but this time, a gloved paw grabbed at his left ankle firmly.

"Wha-YAAAAAAAH!" The young Uzumaki yelped at the top of his lungs as he was swung around with tremendous force by the delivery feline. Winding him back, she then sent the boy flying with the breakneck velocity of a missile, his eyes watering and mouth flapping open by the drag as he barreled upward through the sky.

Bokomon and Piyomon watched as Naruto vanished into the clouds with jaws hanging open, before their eyes fell on the Black Tailmon Uver slowly whirring her head towards them.

"Uh, that's okay, we-we can just walk," Bokomon ventured shakily, both he and Piyomon backing away from the cat as she approached them next, disregarding his plea.

"..." The three shinobi barely had enough time to pick up their own jaws from the floor as they observed the other two being chucked after Naruto, concluded by the feline simply walking away, presumably her task done.

"Did…that just happen?" Anko asked, pointing a finger at the monitor.

"I'm not even remotely sure, Anko, so you tell me," Kakashi retorted, wide eyes glued to the screen at the diminutive feline's display of strength.

Hiruzen lobbied a frigid glare at the camera as he spoke. "I take it that that was the shortcut you were referring to?"

4ngelf4c3: Yes.

The Hokage felt like he should have been upset, but he had now come to expect this sort of wild spontaneity from their gracious host.

4ngelf4c3: :D

"Can't this thing go any faster?" The Gazimon complained, wary about making any sudden movements. "Why couldn't you have just flown us there?!"

Falcomon refused to waste his breath in a rebuttal, that this was faster than if he had flown them via his wings instead because of how turbulent the wind speed could get with their combined weight. Then there was the effort needed for him to focus on navigating them through said turbulence. Nary a worry, though, as he had more than enough practice.

A niggling sensation slipped into his perception as his ears picked up a whistling noise, whirring his head left halfway when an orange blur brushed past them, grazing the kite and veering them off course.

"What the-?!" Gazimon yipped in panic as he kicked at the cliff-side before they could slam hard into it, claws further constricting around his partner's limb, the latter too busy steering to care about the pain as he desperately weaved about to regain their aerial balance. "The fuck was that?!"

"Right!" Falcomon barked. Hearing the uncharacteristic order, Gazimon pivoted his body weight with the monumental strain of the wind biting at them, serving as the makeshift tail.

"Left."

Gazimon obeyed again, barely getting snagged by an outgrowth had he not bobbed his right foot up.

"I think that's it!" he soon crowed, getting a feel for the kite stabilizing, when another blur on the opposite side forced them off further, this one managing to clip the edge of the cross spar, which was shortly followed by another tearing through the sail.

Thinking quickly, Falcomon unhooked himself from the ruined kite to let it plunge uselessly below and began flapping his wings, heaving out heavy breaths as his muscles worked to keep them from falling after it.

"Shit!" Gazimon barked through gritted teeth, swinging back to catapult himself towards the cliff-side, grunting in concert with the avian as he was lurched forward to dig his claws into the wall. "Go!" He shouted back to the owl. "Don't let them get ahead of us. Kill the brats if you have to! All that matters is that egghead leading us to the Spirit!"

Falcomon nodded, picking up speed as he rose after the three blurs, wondering to himself how they could have flown so fast in the first place.

"YAAAAAAHHHH-OOF!' Naruto landed less than gracefully on the edge of the cliff in a heap, Bokomon and Piyomon piling on top of him before he could properly catch his breath. "Wh-What happened…?"

"Pass the rutabaga and sarsaparilla, hold the rubber ducky…" Bokomon slurred in a daze as his head had knocked into something hard along his trajectory.

"I feel sick," Piyomon groaned, fighting the reflex to gag.

Bokomon soon shook his head to recover his bearings, eyes darting to give a quick round of their surroundings, taking in the familiar sight of the path leading to the entrance of the cavern, mildly impressed by the Black Tailmon Uver's dead aim. "Quick, into that cleft!"

Naruto carefully undulated Piyomon off him to her feet, before pouring over where Bokomon was pointing. "What cleft? I can't see it!"

"Hurry, follow me!" Bokomon enjoined, getting into a sprint with the other two treading on his heels closely. They sped across the moss laden terrain while Naruto absorbed the scenery of large stone pillars jutting out from the ground, many sandwiched together tightly, mired with pockmarks that reached up to the walls, both wide and narrow. They skitted over dead leaves and twigs littering the floor until they came upon a wall between a small cleft. "It's an optical illusion. Look! Do as I do. You both should be able to fit in."

Bokomon shimmied into the 'wall', taking measured steps to the right until he gradually disappeared from sight into a line pattern, shocking the boy and bird. But before they could follow, Naruto flickered a small glimpse behind him and dove at Piyomon to avoid a blade that dug itself into the wall, the weapon in the shape of a black feather.

Bokomon peeked outside to beckon them in and paled at the Falcomon standing ten feet across from them. "Naruto, Piyomon, hurry!"

Naruto's attention snapped to his left to see that the bird was standing idly, staring at them with an unreadable face, like he was taunting them that their struggle was useless with his lack of visible effort, while he was shielding a disoriented Piyomon back against an outcrop. He just knew that they wouldn't be able to go in fast enough without getting harassed by the owl. "You and Piyomon go ahead, I'll handle this!"

"Don't be stupid!"

"I can handle it!" Naruto insisted in protest, already making a beeline towards the enemy Digimon after passing a worried Piyomon to the scholar. "Get inside now!"

"Naruto-kun…" Hiruzen watched with worry as Minato's son engaged the shinobi owl.

"He's either stupid or crazy if he thinks he can take that guy on," Anko remarked, ever the realist.

Kakashi didn't say a word, himself apprehensive at what might befall the young Uzumaki for his reckless impulse. Like Kushina-san…

"Let's dance, birdbrain!" Naruto roared as his feet pounded the ground to reach his adversary, who kept still until the exact instant for a sidestep, tripping the boy for him to eat the dirt.

'Shuririnken'

Hearing the attack, Naruto rolled to dodge three incoming feather shuriken, then spun on his arms to kick another back at the bird, who caught it skilfully with his beak, rushing at the lad with a foot extended.

Gritting his teeth, Naruto swung his left fist to block the kick, enduring the sting of the talons digging into his skin through the sleeve of his jacket, the unorthodox parry nonplussing the owl before his body twisted to slam his other foot on the boy's elbow, a sickening snap audible. Naruto wailed in agony, recoiling and allowing the owl to drive a palm strike squarely to his stomach.

Flecks of spittle flew from Naruto's mouth as the air was violently expelled from him, clutching his belly with his good arm before collapsing on his knees in a coughing fit. Falcomon plucked the shuriken from his beak, bringing it up to stab his downed prey with.

'Ostri-Kick'

Falcomon shuffled back to avoid Piyomon's own foot from clipping his head, his fellow avian Digimon landing in front of Naruto with her back to him, wings fanned out defensively. "I won't let you hurt, Naru-chan!"

Rather than give a reply, the Falcomon did what was habitual to him; a curious tilt of the head with that same unreadable expression.

"Piyomon, don't!" Naruto begged tautly, his injuries protesting his intent to stand and continue, the reality dawning that they were woefully outmatched. "You don't stand a chance!"

Piyomon didn't disagree, but she refused to stand idly by while one of her first friends was being hurt. "I know that, but we don't have a choice. I think I'm starting to get some of that combat instinct Boko-chan was talking about. I'll fight. I'll fight if it means saving you and for us to survive."

"Piyomon…" Naruto gazed at his friend guiltily, touched beyond words that someone was protecting him for the first time in his life. No…there were others. A voice in the back of his mind told him, before refocusing on the current crisis.

"Kid's got guts, I'll give her that," Anko complimented with a tart grin. "I just hope we won't be getting to see them."

"Won't she just disperse into data?" Kakashi finally spoke, earning a sardonic look from the kunoichi.

"This is beyond disastrous." Both of them turned to the Hokage, a hand on his forehead, soaked with sweat as he sat closer to get a better view of the monitor. "Naruto-kun and his friend are sure to perish. Anko, isn't there anything we can do to assist them? Something you can…conjure to existence with that computer like a weapon or a means to give them any advantage?"

Anko would have snorted at the old man's misassumptions, but those ideas did require mulling over for some other time. "It doesn't exactly work that way, Hokage-sama, because as far as any of us are concerned right now, communicating with him is all we can do. So unless you're about to offer words of encouragement or one of those patented speeches of yours, be my guest."

4ngelf4c3: I'm afraid this is a situation that Naruto and his friends must overcome themselves.

"Something you're not telling us, bright eyes?" Anko asked with no trace of wit or her usual sarcasm.

4ngelf4c3: Their only hope should be that.

"Which is?" Anko pressed witheringly, losing her patience.

4ngelf4c3: Well…

Piyomon stared down her opponent, her feathers ruffling for the battle that she was about to partake in, betraying her nerves.

Falcomon stood perfectly stationary as if he was waiting for her to make the first move, but that was false. He was deciding for the flashiest way to end this scuffle with who was disappointingly a neophyte. The human was a tawdry experiment, denoting him being of shinobi stock from his world. An experiment that scarcely yielded satisfaction.

With the speed of a bullet, he eliminated the distance between him and the pink bird, zooming a swipe of his talons meant for her neck. Amazingly, she jerked her body to the side just barely, earning a few shallow cuts. Not wasting any movement, he pivoted with a roundhouse kick that she blocked with one arm, which won out in fracturing the bone.

She ignored the pain, but couldn't hold back a wince as she wound her head, charging her attack.

'Piyoccho Ball'

She spat a blue fireball from her beak, which the Falcomon rendered ineffective with a swipe of his wing, sending a devastating arc of wind as a counterattack.

'Fūjin no Jutsu'

Piyomon, undeterred, valiantly whipped up a familiar move.

'Spiral Wing'

The vortex that enveloped her mitigated the damage somewhat as the wind blade connected, but the sheer force still managed to drive her back, grunting from the small cuts on her torso as she fell on one knee after skidding across the ground. Out of breath, her stamina had been halved by the blow. Internally, she wasn't burned out quite yet, but that didn't seem to be the case to Naruto, only a matter of one more decisive move to put her down for good.

"Stop!" He called to her frantically, now leaning on one knee. "Piyomon!"

"N-Naru-chan…" Piyomon glanced at him a ways away, then blinked when she heard something plop in front of her. Looking down, she spied in confusion an odd tube of bamboo lying on the uneven floor, making out a hissing noise from one end of a fuse.

All three of the shinobi watching recognized it in dreadful alarm, with Anko barking out piercingly, "Shit, move!"

The resulting explosion deafened her from how futile it was to begin with, tearing up rock and dirt in a wide radius as Piyomon was instantly engulfed by the blast at point blank, a cloud of black smoke soon billowing from the spot.

"Son of a…" Anko ran a hand through her hair, mouth ajar at the scene she just witnessed. In her time in the service, she had seen and heard enough cases where Kibaku Fūda would reduce a fully grown man into chunks, or if they were 'lucky', one or two limbs blown to smithereens. Maybe it was how she had grown fond of the cute avian in the short time of knowing her, but it was mostly from how young she was. Cute little monsters that could casually tear a guy's balls off like they were just flicking a fly, even she had her reservations about the death of a child.

Hiruzen clenched his jaw, desensitized, but it was still a morose loss of life to him, the feeling mutual with Kakashi.

Falcomon gazed at his handiwork with an approximation of a smile, his latest batch just the right amount of gunpowder and a pinch of oregano - definitely the oregano - giving it that nice extra pop. He might try to add in some sesame oil or chili powder next.

As the smoke dissipated, Falcomon made for the direction of the cavern, no longer interested in the neutralized and likely grieving boy, when his senses stopped him in his tracks, head whirring to the cloud that was waning, revealing a figure that was cloaked in a red aura, hunkered down with his legs spread wide, arms crossed that obscured his head, curled palms flared outward.

Piyomon, lying on her torso from the mitigated force of the blast, coughed before looking up, seeing the back of none other than Naruto, his signature orange jacket recognizable.

"Naru…-chan…?" she struggled to say through her burned throat from the smoke, to say nothing of the injuries she additionally sustained.

Naruto peeked over his arms, his once ocean blue eyes now an angry crimson, his unkempt hair wilder and fringing, glaring daggers at the infernal Falcomon with slitted irises. Letting his arms fall, the owl could see that the boy's teeth were bared, his grown canines mirroring that of his partner's.

"Unforgivable…" Naruto growled with a guttural rumble of his throat. "You tried to kill my friend…I won't forgive you for that!"

The Falcomon didn't seem phased by this unexpected; and frankly preposterous, turn of events outwardly, but inside, he was nonplussed. Who or what in Yggdrasil's name was this human?

Naruto crouched down on all fours, growling like a beast, his eyes set on his target. With a burst of inhuman speed, he launched his body at the owl, flanking the latter by his three o'clock position in the split second needed for Falcomon's head to start moving, when the boy's arm bludgeoned him on the neck with the force of a sledgehammer. The owl was flung through the air until he struck a wall, cratering it with a spiderweb crack before limply falling to the ground face down, pieces of the damaged wall pelting him.

Naruto didn't let up, still on all fours and boring into his downed opponent with fury.

"Hokage-sama…" Kakashi muttered with apprehension.

Hiruzen stared at his ward with a critical and concerned eye. Of all times for the demon's chakra to manifest…

"Oh boy…" Anko remarked warily. "How bad is it gonna get, Kakashi?"

"If he doesn't calm down?" Kakashi speculated. "More and more of that red chakra is going to overwhelm him, and once he assumes a thicker coat and a tail, the best course of action is to knock him out. If he grows additional tails, that's when we should stop worrying and busy ourselves with how to take him out."

Anko suppressed a grimace from the execution the ANBU Captain provided, appreciating how direct it was, but still, wasn't this kid his sensei's son? That was before she remembered who she was talking to.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Anko replied without looking at him, earning a glance from the man.

Naruto continued to bristle and heave with unbridled rage, his mind addled with murderous thoughts, the pain from his injuries already an afterthought. No, rather, it was like the pain was never there as soon as this…urge boiled from deep within the pit of his stomach and brimmed throughout his entire body, revitalizing his stamina. On the other hand, it felt like he was submerged in a layer of viscous acid that pricked at the pores of his skin.

What…what's going on? That thought was yanked and cast aside as quickly as it sprouted through the fog of his bestial ferocity. Why care about bullshit like that when he was this wound up? What mattered as of current was for him to make sure the buzzard paid for trying to-

He blinked, and it happened, the fallen form of the owl that lay lifeless one moment was now a lump of rock that was roughly the same size. He sprung back into the air when a taloned foot nearly slammed down on his head, the ground beneath caving in from the connecting blow.

'Falco Rush'

"Tch," Naruto clicked his tongue that the bird hadn't been out of commission.

"Kawarimi?" Anko pondered with an arched brow.

"It must have been after Naruto struck him," Kakashi figured, rubbing his chin. "His Genwaku no Jutsu must incorporate other generic ninjutsu other than illusions."

"But the attack no doubt connected," Hiruzen deduced keenly. "Look."

True to his analysis, the Falcomon looked like he was stumbling a bit because of the pained bruise that formed on the crook of his neck. Even so, his overall skill still outmatched that of the greenhorn. It was the bizarre boost in strength that made him wary.

He spun in on himself and shot a volley of shuriken that far outnumbered the first.

'Shuririnken'

Naruto's features scrunched as he gritted his teeth, bobbing and weaving in midair to evade the rain of blades that converged on him, one managing to nick his right shoulder, the bicep and his left thigh. The rest were blown back when he roared out a shockwave.

Falcomon landed on the ground in concert with the boy, then drew out a chain of bamboo bombs from his chest feathers. He no longer saw the point of wasting any more energy over this. Deftly lighting them all in swift succession, he bound them around his body in one smooth motion.

"Is he planning what I think he is?" Anko wondered to herself.

"No," Kakashi muttered tersely, his suspicion blooming. "He's proven himself to be quite the shinobi, so we shouldn't presume much."

Naruto stood back on his feet, irritably slapping away the shuriken that stuck to him. The chakra that remained surrounding his body darkened a shade as his rage only seemed to be growing, a lump of the same energy on his rear end beginning to bud.

Looking up in time, he saw the Falcomon soaring straight at him, seeing too late the bombs the avian shinobi had donned before he ghosted past him.

"He…did he just…?!" Anko gaped in disbelief.

"He slipped the bombs on Naruto." Now Kakashi was really impressed. He knew only a handful of shinobi who could pull that trick off, and against higher level opponents.

Not knowing or caring, Naruto snapped around to grab the owl by his ankle and squeezed hard enough to break the bone. The owl clenched his jaw, dishing out desperate kick after kick with his free foot that the Uzumaki blocked with his own free arm, enduring the talons that seeped in a few good scratches and tears of his sleeve, but to the bird's rising dismay, he could no longer penetrate the human's skin. He needed to put as much distance as he urgently could, eyeing the bombs that were now coiled around Naruto in the same vein as they had been on him, time being the imperative. He had one final card.

'Genwaku no Ju-'

Naruto grinned evilly as he slammed him to the ground, cutting off the technique and rendering him unable to make a timely recovery. The last thing the Falcomon saw before his vision was bombarded with light and finally darkness, was the boy's grin growing more sinister as his aura erupted.

Piyomon was thrown back from the sheer magnitude of the explosion rattling the mountain, demolishing a few of the larger stones and the near adjacent wall. Steeling herself, she flapped her wings with the remaining strength she could muster, stopping a good fifteen feet until she hung suspended in the air.

"Naru-chan…?" she murmured in shock, which morphed into panic at her friend seemingly swallowed by the very heart of the explosion. "Naru-chan!"

"Now, this would be the part where you guys should be grief-stricken or bawling at how golden boy just got the new year's eve treatment, but I'm gonna hazard a guess that things are about to get…bad, aren't they," Anko said warily.

Hiruzen and Kakashi stared at the monitor with somber expressions.

"Very bad," the latter told her bluntly.

As Piyomon fluttered near, something shimmering from the dense column of black smoke made her halt midway, her senses suddenly swamped with a primal fear. As more of the black smog subsided, she peered down at the terrifying sight that made her feathers bristle.

It was Naruto, but now the aura that layered his body was larger and more vivid, pulsating erratically. Her keen eyes could make out through the leftover smoke that a few of his bodily features had changed dramatically, his fingernails having lengthened into claws. The red energy seemed to bubble and sizzle, and out of the shell, three protruding tails had sprouted, wagging around sluggishly.

Naruto himself was still growling like a savage animal, but now with his features more pronounced, he bore a closer resemblance to one. Once again, he let out a roar more authentically bestial that it sent out a shockwave that sent her reeling, prompting a rapid flap of her wings to stay elevated.

"That looks…bad," Anko said, palming her mouth.

Hiruzen couldn't grit his jaw any tighter, his well maintained teeth (one false) threatening to break under the pressure. If there could have ever been one of Konoha's worst case scenarios, this would be it. The only saving grace was that it wasn't within the village's walls, but that only meant that they couldn't feasibly attempt to calm him with Tenzō's Mōkuton (Wood Release).

"There's no way for us to incapacitate him when we're worlds apart," Kakashi stated, feeling helpless. "What else could go wrong?"

"You shithead," Anko grumbled pointedly, palm climbing to her forehead, causing Kakashi to reel in embarrassment at what he just said.

To prove the expression right, Gazimon chose that moment to slip out of the cleft, leading a tied up Bokomon by a rope. "This is what you get for getting smart with us, egghead. If you're not gonna give me the Spirit, I can just-sweet mother of Yggdrasil! The hell's goin' on here?"

What he expected was for his partner to present to him the kids either bound or loaded, giving the egghead all the incentive he could ever need to give in to their demands.

Not…whatever this was!

He roamed his eyes all over the battlefield, seeing the torn and ruined ground, slabs and oversized chunks of stone strewn about, a few pieces of Falcomon's shuriken laying broken. Blackened sections with the evident smell of black powder in the air confirmed the quaking he experienced while burrowing through the mountain to slip into the cavern, his luck favoring him when he just so happened to pop his head up to trip the scholar on his way to the shrine.

That birdbrain. Shifting his gaze ahead, he spotted the bizarre sight of…some kind of creature. Squinting, he could make out that it was the human child that accompanied Bokomon, his clothes torn in certain sections, but was nonetheless recognizable for the copious amount of orange under all that red.

Glancing up, the Piyomon with them was flying overhead, watching the boy in apparent fear. He soon noticed a distinct lack of Falcomon. Don't tell me.

"Hey, human, mind telling me where my partner is?" He called to the now feral child, though it was plain to him that he didn't need the answer, wanting simply to confirm if the kid was the one who did the deed.

Naruto, hearing him, slowly glared over his shoulder until his eyes fell on the Gazimon subduing Bokomon. His mind not completely degraded, he fully rounded on them and growled menacingly, "Let…him…go…"

Bokomon, while trembling in fear, stared at the bizarre phenomena. That's…it couldn't be…

Naruto put one hand forward in a step, the daggers his glare held that he was sending the bipedal canine intensifying. "If you don't…I'll make you regret it."

Rather than be daunted like Bokomon was, the Gazimon rolled his eyes; please, he's heard better threats from a Tyumon without his morning coffee.

"Kid, I got news for 'ya. I have plenty of regrets in life," Gazimon spoke in an aggravated tone, pointing at him. "You're not one of them, and won't be any time soon."

Piyomon landed next to Bokomon, not that his captor cared for some reason, getting to work in unraveling the rope with her talons. "Boko-chan…what happened to Naru-chan?" she asked him worriedly, but the scholar shushed her.

"Piyomon, for your sake, don't come near Naruto right now. Trust me, just don't!" If this is what I think it is…

The pink bird gaped from the scholar's words concerning their friend. "But…"

In a show of bravado that greatly astonished the three human shinobi watching, Gazimon strutted towards the boy until he was about five feet from the latter, lacking an ounce of fear as they stared each other down.

Naruto drew his lips back, baring his canines in the same feral grin he gave Falcomon, the influences of the chakra starting to meddle with his perception. "I'll have you join your buddy real soon. Might even teach you a few tricks, dog breath."

Gazimon grinned as a strange glow started to emanate from him, to Naruto's confusion. "Oh you're going there, huh? Well, kid, I only happen to know one trick. Wanna see? It's a real classic 'round these parts."

The glow shot up in radiance as it suffused his entire body, his stature gradually gaining in size until he reached a good eight feet tall, his frame filling out in lean muscle.

Crossing his arms to fan them out, he dispersed the glow to reveal his new form of a taller and more bulked up bipedal cross between a man and a wolf, his charcoal black fur lined with white stripes, his long arms ending in five fingered hands with razor sharp nails not unlike that of Naruto's. As opposed to the three belts that were on the end of his long tail; which was now short and bushy, his attire now consisted of green camo jeans with knee-pads, the right one bearing spikes. A white skull and crossbones symbol could be seen stitched above the left underside. His left arm was draped with a form-fitting sleeve linked to a shoulder brace fastened by belts across his torso and waist. The sleeve itself had zipper sections on the bicep and forearm, a long belt was wrapped around his hand, clenching a gold brass knuckle. His right arm had one metal band on the bicep and two on his wrist, with a shorter belt strapped to the palm. A bandage was tied on his right foot, with belts linked around both ankles. His right ear, left stomach, and right brow sported stitches. Two ring piercings could be made out dangling from his left ear.

Menacing yellow eyes bore down at the young Uzumaki's red with a domineering sneer, showing his pearly whites.

"Woof."

"What. The. Fuck." Anko spoke, her mouth hanging agape, both of her hands tethering the back of her head.

"Dear God…" Hiruzen seconded in terrified awe.

Kakashi gawked. "Another evolution?"

Were Garurumon (Black)

Stage: Ultimate

Attribute: Virus

Type: Beast Man

A Digimon that evolved from a Virus attribute Garurumon. Its speed has fallen due to becoming bipedal, but it makes up for that with powerful techniques which utilize its arms and legs, an adroit in kickboxing. Its leg strength is exceptional in both jumping and kicking.

Attacks

Kaiser Nail - Slashes the enemy with its razor sharp claws.

Baldy Blow - Delivers a devastating punch with its spiked brass knuckle.

Engetsugiri - A powerful kick that fires a blade of energy in an arc.

Foxfire - Fires high temperature blue flames from its mouth.

Garuru Kick - Kicks the enemy.

"Uh…" Anko drawled, speechless at seeing what the kid was up against.

Kakashi found his voice. "Shouldn't he be Champion? Did he skip?"

4ngelf4c3: When a Digimon is strong enough, they can indeed skip stages if they so wish, and switch in-between. That Gazimon is actually one of Etemon's Lieutenants.

"That…wouldn't happen to be by Chūnin standards, would it?" Anko speculated uneasily.

4ngelf4c3: In terms of raw physical power, he far surpasses Tsunade of the Sannin. For a general comparison, she's strong enough to contend with even the strongest Champions, but not against Ultimates. A from Kumo should be able to close the gap, but only against average Ultimates at his strongest.

The tension in the room seized each and every one of them once Tsunade was added into the mix, their suspicions inflamed on how they could have such info on not only Orochimaru, now Tsunade, but other villages as well. Who were they? What else could they know? How could they?

These were the needed questions and the like Hiruzen was brimming with, but that wasn't what made their collective blood run cold. It was the prospect that there existed beings that could crush the mightiest of their world like nothing.

"So you want to teach me some tricks, kid?" WereGarurumon asked mockingly, slouching forward, hands on his hips, his voice having dropped into a deep baritone. "Go ahead," he finished with a boastful spread of his arms.

Naruto, in spite of his sweltering emotions and adrenaline pumping throughout his frame from the red chakra, wavered under the oppressive pressure the werewolf was exhibiting. He gathered his courage, and with a growl, dove at the wolf man with an arm drawn back, intending to swipe at him with his newly attained claws.

He took a wild swing, but an intervening sense of vertigo threw him off balance. His body spun in midair before he plopped unceremoniously back on the ground.

Kakashi and Anko goggled that Hiruzen had to be the one to verbalize their disbelief. "He…flicked him with a finger!"

The sequence of events was already surreal enough, but it was how…casual the wolf man did it. A simple, but precise, flick of his finger at Naruto's open palm midway of reaching his foe. Nothing more, nothing less. Not a fancy technique, not a punch, kick or swing of his own. It was like he was just flicking away a mild annoyance without a passing thought.

Naruto shared in the incredulity of it all and how fast it happened, his eyes bulging as he stared at his palm that was still smoking from the friction.

"Got any more?" WereGarurumon jeered, tilting his head.

Naruto gnashed his teeth hard enough to break them, launching himself to his enemy's right, but was cut off by a light chop to the neck, falling like a stone. Incensed, Naruto lashed his tails at him like they were whips, and once again, WereGarurumon simply flicked them away vigorously with his finger. Each and every fast snap of the chakra appendages were deflected with ease. To add insult to injury, he made a show of flicking his finger a few more times as both a taunt and a flex once Naruto ceased, enraging the boy further.

"Is that all you can do, kid?" WereGarurumon asked him, yawning. "I thought you were gonna teach me some tricks."

Naruto didn't answer as he kept glaring hatefully at his foe, in the rarest of moments contemplating his next move. "How about I teach you a couple of my own instead, pup?" WereGarurumon added. "Don't worry, they're so simple even a peabrain like you can get the hang of 'em in no time. Classics like, oh…"

Using the opening of the banter to press on, Naruto lunged in again and pulled back his right arm for a punch straight for the beast's snout.

WereGarurumon watched him from his peripheral vision as he held the smirk that had been lurking on his lips since the boy started his futile assault.

"Sit."

And then mercilessly hammered the young man with a powerful downward swing of his arm, pulverizing the hard mountain floor that left a crater half a mile wide with a deep indentation of his body at the center. Piyomon, having recovered some of her lost stamina, grabbed Bokomon with her feet and flew to avoid the rumbling of a small earthquake generated by the force.

The shinobi saw this in stunned silence. Hiruzen swallowed a hard lump down his throat - Tsunade could split canyons apart and fell Konoha's signature giant trees when she was trying. This…monster was clearly holding back to drag this along to force Bokomon to submit.

"Roll over."

Having maintained his balance, he kicked his right leg up in a perfect arc, gouging the ground like nothing and sending the boy to roll out of the crater like a barrel.

Coughing, Naruto once again felt the punishing sting of pain lancing throughout his frame after rolling flat on his back, his perception growing blurry, the red chakra losing its luster.

He was now down to two tails.

Bending his knees, WereGarurumon followed with a single leap, landing next to the lad with a loud thud that shook the floor. On the throes of agony, Naruto struggled to lean on his arm to flip over on his stomach, short of breath, panting heavily as he coughed out specks of blood.

Uncaring, WereGarurumon grabbed the boy by the leg with his large hand, enveloping the limb entirely so that it reached up to his ring finger, and swung him high over head. He then got into an odd stance, standing on the tiptoe of his left foot, bending his right at an angle before dipping down to stretch his body forward. The arm that held Naruto was whipped forward, sending him flying at blinding speeds.

"Fetch."

Naruto's body zoomed through the air, bulldozing a column before he plowed into a wall, marring it deeply, the collapsing pieces raining down on him once he dropped back down on the ground.

This was enough to finally wear off the red chakra, leaving the beaten and battered form of Uzumaki Naruto on his side, unconscious and buried under rubble.

WereGarurumon marched up to him, then cleared off some of the debris with his large foot, and with that same foot, lifted it over the curled and crumpled boy's form that spanned the latter's entire body, his grin sicker with malice.

"Play dead."

"STOP!"

WereGarurumon stilled before slowly relaxing, his back to the two hangers-on. "What was that? Speak up, I couldn't quite hear you from way down there."

Bokomon, on his hands and knees, closely flanked by a comforting Piyomon after they landed three feet away from the carnage, cried out in surrender. "I'll take you to the shrine! I swear, I'll take you there and give you the Spirit! Just, please…don't kill him!"

Hot tears spilled from his beady eyes, unable to bear the death of Naruto on his conscience, much less that of one so young with a chance of a promising future. Even so, what he was about to do would condemn countless others to where they'd be denied their own future. May Yggdrasil forgive him.

May his old friend forgive him.

WereGarurumon snorted through his nostrils, put off that his fun had been cut short. His shoulders sagged as he threw his head back, releasing a breath, he then bent down to pluck Naruto's limp body by the scruff of his torn jacket with his oversized fingers.

"It's over…" It was Kakashi who broke through the slurry tension that hung over them, though instead of relief, the overpowering helplessness returned with a vengeance as Naruto and his friends were now under the enemy's mercy.

"What now, bright eyes?" Anko sighed, rubbing the back of her neck. "What the fuck do we do now?"

4ngelf4c3: Hm, this does look rather bleak.

"Gasp! I hadn't noticed. Do tell," Anko deadpanned. "What was 'that' you were referring to earlier? You mentioned it could help them."

Sitting opposite of the computer like it seemed to take a life of its own, they waited anxiously for a response.

4ngelf4c3: Talk no Jutsu?

A vein throbbed on Anko's forehead while the two other men sweatdropped at the nonsensical offer. "That better be a joke," she growled through gritted teeth tensely.

4ngelf4c3: Sorry. That came out of nowhere. There isn't really anything we can do on account of you three being worlds apart, and for you to enter the Digital World through the proper channel, you'll be needing a Digivice yourselves.

"And how do we get those, pray tell?" Anko needled impatiently.

4ngelf4c3: Only children can.

"The f-there's a frickin' age limit?!" Anko exclaimed. "Are you shitting me?!"

4ngelf4c3: No.

"For what reason?" Hiruzen intervened curiously, which belied his heart racing over Naruto's harrowing state.

4ngelf4c3: I cannot tell you exactly, for even we Digimon do not have a full understanding of this phenomenon. Children have always had this mysterious resonance with us. It was first observed with Hagoromo, who, with his mere presence alone, stimulated evolution, but only for those who developed a bond with him. Naruto himself catalyzed Piyomon's development simply by being there for her. Only with the Digivice were higher levels achieved. The Digivice itself is beyond our understanding, for we are not responsible for their creation. They simply appear to a chosen few on their own. Hence, how we have come to coin these recipients as 'Chosen Children'.

"And is Naruto-kun one of these 'chosen' as Hagoromo-sama once was?" Hiruzen's eyes widened. "There have been others after him?"

4ngelf4c3: Yes, there have been others. For Naruto, on the other hand, his circumstances make him…a rather special case.

"In what way?" Kakashi asked, watching from the corner of his eye his sensei's son being hauled by the beast that defeated him.

WereGarurumon strutted up to the diminutive scholar and avian duo, who backed away slightly in fear, but there was still a fire to Piyomon's gaze, mingling with concern for Naruto. "You know, I fancy myself as a reasonable mon on my best days. We all could have avoided this had you guys just cooperated from the start. But what do you do? Waste valuable time. Time that could have been devoted to more productive endeavors. Now my partner's dead, not that I really give a shit about that, but do you know what I do give a shit about? Not retarded shitheads who think they can play hero, not the vacation plan I had to put on hold to undertake this mission, not the bonus I missed out on because of the budget cuts, and definitely not being downsized from a cushy executive job because of said budget cuts. No, no, no."

WereGarurumon elaborated as he trailed off with a sardonic chuckle, flailing the boy's listless body nonchalantly for every gripe he counted. "It's morons who have the gall to defy us. See this?" He gestured to Naruto's lifeless form, pitching him foward. "This is what happens to anyone stupid enough to believe they can fight back. This is what happens to those who are weak. This is what happens to anyone who dares to resist Lord Etemon's will! AM I GETTING THROUGH TO YOU?!"

Bokomon bit his lip hard enough to draw blood, nodding. Piyomon's defiant scowl didn't falter, but she was unmistakably shaking under the pressure, tears welling from her own eyes. WereGarurumon took note, but refrained from further action, acknowledging their defeat.

"Please, at least-at least let us treat Naruto," Bokomon begged. "He won't survive with those injuries."

WereGarurumon rolled his eyes, huffing. "Fine. Just hurry up."

"We will!" Bokomon assured frantically.

Naruto was dropped like a log in front of the two without much fanfare. They hastily attended to the poor boy to check the extent of damage he sustained. Bokomon did most of the examining, having medical training as he warned Piyomon not to move him around lest they inadvertently worsen his condition, however redundant that may have sounded. He seemed to be in a coma, with a myriad of bruises, cuts, broken bones and fractures riddling his battered body, his breathing thin. It was nothing short of miraculous that he was still in one piece. Dismay washed over him when he realized that his medkit was still down below from where Black Tailmon Uver flung them, bereft with the means to perform first aid. Fortunately, an idea seized him when he recalled the Digivice. Gently patting Naruto, he fished the handheld out of his right pocket, seemingly unsurprised at all that it was intact, unlike the others.

"All that thrashing the kid went through, and it isn't even in pieces?" Anko remarked in amazement.

"What is it made of?" Kakashi followed.

I hope I remember how to do this. He pressed a button, then another, until the screen lit up. Yes, he was right. It should have the same features Hagoromo's version once had and more. His eyes hurriedly sifted over what was left of the battlefield, finding the item he needed protruding from an above portion of a wall overlooking them.

Pointing the handheld in the direction of the medicinal plant he recognized, he aligned the tiny sensor on top as precisely as possible, taking aim before pressing the button on the side. A tiny white light shot out of the sensor like a bullet, hitting the plant and scrambling it into code, causing it to disintegrate. He repeated this thrice after finding more.

He then took aim at Naruto, the same light shooting out of the sensor suffusing into the boy and bathing him in a soft glow. Gradually, his injuries faded, mending in real time.

"Remarkable…" Hiruzen commented slowly. Konoha was a village always on the forefront of medical innovations since Tsunade's early reforms, but this was a level all on its own in the realms of science fiction. Technology doing what their best Iryō practitioners spent years training for, and with such limits present in chakra, this small device managed it with only the barest of availability on material.

"You can say that again," a thoroughly impressed Anko added. She herself was able to use the basic medical ninjutsu, but nothing more than for small cuts and bruises. "If we could somehow replicate that, we'd be on the cutting edge."

"If, Anko," Kakashi cautioned. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves when it could potentially shake things up. The other villages would be frothing at the mouth to get their hands on tech like that."

"Hey, it's not like we haven't been hogging goodies before," she retorted. "Besides, just think for a sec how it'd change the game. Sooner or later, humanity will have cooked up this technology. We'd just be ahead of the curve. Maybe even pioneer it."

Kakashi certainly wasn't going to refute her on that. Such was the workings of a shinobi village. His fears were more founded on how this would have long term ramifications if such development went a little too fast.

Still, he was just relieved that Naruto was given the best first aid possible, looking less haggard with only minor scrapes and cuts still present. Grateful was he as he watched Bokomon slip the Digivice into his haramaki for safe keeping.

Seeing the treatment done, WereGarurumon picked up the unconscious lad as a means to maintain his leverage, and to not slow them down. With nothing else to be said, they made their way to the cleft.

Bokomon stuttered upon arriving, "Uh, it's a tight fit. I-If…you could just-"

Without a word, WereGarurumon slammed a giant foot against the wall, shattering it entirely and leaving a gaping hole that someone of his stature could duck right through.

Bokomon gulped. "Or, you could do that."

Anko clicked her tongue, "I wouldn't even put it past this guy to total the entire mountain."

4ngelf4c3: Actually, he can. Ultimate Digimon are generally capable of such feats.

Hiruzen shared a look with Kakashi, then asked, "How would they fare against the Tailed Beasts?"

4ngelf4c3: You've got it backwards. The Tailed Beasts, for all their power, are no more threatening than the strongest Champions, who can match and even defeat them. They may pose as a cataclysmic danger in your world, but here, it'll be like passing by someone in the middle of the street. The balance of power ensures that they aren't a cause for concern. Even I could take them down if I wanted to.

None of them could form any words from that revelation if true. This WereGarurumon, on principle of being an Ultimate, could singlehandedly defeat the Kyūbi when it necessitated their entire military and the sacrifice of Minato to do so, and while a bit ambivalent on their host's seemingly outlandish claim, they had no real way to disprove it. Their estimate of pitting the mightiest in their world against the Digital World's was way off. Pitifully so.

The party entered the cave in tepid silence, with Bokomon leading the way and Piyomon close behind him. At the very end of their little procession was WereGarurumon lugging Naruto like he was a doll, his entire body clasped within the beast's grasp, making sure that he was within arm's length of them if they tried anything funny. They traversed down a long, winding corridor, passing by a small hole that WereGarurumon's rookie form tunneled out from. For the next half hour, the tunnel grew darker and more humid the more they treaded on.

"This place used to be an active volcano back in the day," Bokomon commented spontaneously. "That's why it's a little bit warmer all of a sudden."

WereGarurumon snarled, irritated by the unneeded trivia. "Just shut up and keep going."

Bokomon squirmed in obedience, reaching behind to clasp Piyomon's hand to hasten their pace, who was curiously distracted by the uneven contours of the walls and ceiling, seeing with her night vision that they were lined with primitive carvings of Digimoji.

Trudging deeper, they spied an odd glow up ahead. "There!" Bokomon pointed. They shortly arrived in a large illuminated cavern.

"The glow is because of natural phosphorus salt spread all over the walls," Bokomon told them in case they asked.

In the very center stood a wide bulge of stone. As they crept near it, the glow of the cavern; which was a neon blue, shifted into an angry red.

Bokomon tossed his gaze around nervously at the iridescent glimmer.

"Is this natural?" WereGarurumon asked gruffly, on the alert.

"I-It is," the scholar blurted out, trying and failing to sound on edge. It wasn't. When he first came here, the glow of the cavern stayed blue. For hours on end, it didn't undergo any alteration whatsoever as he studied the engravings of Digimoji on the walls and circumscribing the shrine.

WereGarurumon equivocally went silent, either believing him or saw no point in poking, chalking up the jitter to his presence.

"H-Here we are."

They all stopped before the outcrop in the shape of a wide circle, standing at about Bokomon's size and approximately ten meters in diameter.

"This is it?" WereGarurumon asked in genuine curiosity, which was shared by the humans watching.

"I kind of expected it to look more like a shrine and not a, well, another rock," Anko said.

"It's a himorogi," Hiruzen provided. "They sometimes come in stones or boulders."

"I don't see any shimenawa or shide, though," Anko thought aloud.

"It's gotta be," Kakashi ventured. "But the question is, who is it for?"

"Okay, egghead, whose Spirit is here?" WereGarurumon prodded with a twinge of impatience.

"...AncientGreymon," Bokomon said after a moment. "The Warrior of Fire. This shrine was erected out of volcanic rock when this mountain was still active. Once what was left of his power was laid to rest here, it cooled down ever since."

"Warrior…of Fire?" Hiruzen echoed.

"Eons ago, it was AncientGreymon who birthed the stars and the sun in the center of our universe, and together with the Warrior of Earth, shaped the heavenly bodies and our very planet. All manner of heat and energy can be attributed to him, his element inherited by Digimon who can wield flame," Bokomon chuckled awkwardly. "Incidentally, that includes you."

"My word…" Hiruzen muttered in awe breathlessly.

"Pheh, is that even true?" WereGarurumon scoffed in disbelief.

"The Ancient Ten weren't just the Digital World's strongest at the time," Bokomon continued. "They were deities. That much is the truth according to the records in the Royal Archives."

"You've read the Royal Archives?" WereGarurumon cocked a skeptical brow at him. To his understanding, it was the highest of privileges given to a select and exclusive few. No one else could lay claim to such an honor, and nobody in their right mind would dare to without incurring the Royal Knights' ire because the mere bluster of it was a punishable offense worthy of deletion. No exception. The fact that none of the Knights had appeared lent credence to the scholar's own claim. There was no gag order, either, for they were judged by Yggdrasil Himself to be trustworthy.

He clicked his tongue. By virtue of being given access to the Royal Archives, one's life was no longer their own. Which meant Etemon couldn't lay claim to him without their organization being wiped out literally overnight. There were certainly a few viable loopholes that could be exploited, but the one that stood out was the death of the mon in question, for any shred of data pertaining to the Archives would be rendered useless trash data once one was loaded.

"You're probably thinking about it right now," Bokomon warned him tacitly. "Yes, I was made a 'spare'. If I was to become affiliated with an organization that isn't recognized by the Royal Knights, my and the lives of those associated will be rendered forfeit. All I'm doing is helping you acquire the Spirit, but that itself is fairly common knowledge. The mythology surrounding the Ancient Ten is inconsequential on whether it is true or not. That isn't to say I'm not in possession of more classified data. I'm sure Etemon would be over the moon. If he's brazen enough to force my allegiance."

WereGarurumon suppressed a twitch. It didn't matter if the little troll was bluffing or not, if he risked hearing even the tiniest fraction of that data, he would be marked.

This was the egghead's hidden trump card. "You bastard," the wolf man growled. "You played me."

A bead of sweat trickled down Bokomon's temple as he locked eyes with the brute, knowing full well that this was an insane gamble. "I didn't want to, but you've forced my hand. Naruto and Piyomon are innocent in all this. I want you to let them go, and I'll give you the Spirit."

"Damn," Anko breathed, raking her hair with her fingers, the three of them briefed on the matter by 4ngelf4c3. Information was power in their profession, and as shinobi, they were naturally attuned to safeguarding it with their lives if invaluable or detrimental to the village. They could relate with these Royal Knights and how far they were willing to go in securing what was effectively the entirety of their world's immeasurably valued secrets.

"But why the need for these 'spares'?" Hiruzen wondered loudly, rubbing his chin. "Wouldn't it be prudent to simply sequester their archive entirely?"

"Backup data," Anko said in comprehension, eyes widening.

4ngelf4c3: Correct. The role of these spares is to serve as backups in the event of a compromise on the server. An attack, a virus, deletion, defragmentation. So long as there are spares, it is possible to restore the integrity of the Archives. They currently number by three. Bokomon has been a spare for the past 9000 years.

"And what is to befall these spares once they are to fulfill their purpose?" Hiruzen asked, the gears in his brain turning.

4ngelf4c3: They will be loaded into the system itself, overwriting their code.

"They'll die," Anko declared, choosing not to mince words.

4ngelf4c3: Yes.

Kakashi thought back to what Bokomon told Naruto. "To bear such a burden…"

"Indeed," Hiruzen lamented, a newfound respect for the scholar. "Bokomon-dono…"

WereGarurumon stared at the scholar, then grinned, seeing a not so clunky solution. "What if I just kill this human?" He tightened his hold on the unconscious boy. "Not like it'll matter if you do blab."

Hearing this, Bokomon was about to open his mouth when a sharp squelch resounded in the cavern, his throat sliced open by a swipe of WereGarurumon's foot. Bokomon's eyes bulged as he choked on his own blood, staggering until his body fell back against the shrine, breath coming out in gurgles. His body began to glitch.

"Boko-chan!" Piyomon screamed, running towards him.

"Now for you!" WereGarurumon lifted his foot, ready to stomp on her as she kneeled next to the dying scholar. "I can make do without any more annoyances. I'll just call in for backup to help in extracting the Spirit. Consider this my thanks, egghead."

He lifted Naruto high, aiming to crush him. "I was going to bring this human to Lord Etemon in order to help strengthen our forces next to the Spirit, but he's proven himself to be more trouble than he's worth. Too bad you ain't awake for this, kid, I would have loved to see the look on your face before I squash you like a grape."

"Naruto-kun!" Hiruzen called out helplessly on his hands and knees.

Kakashi watched in unbearable silence, despair painted on his visage that his mask did nothing to obscure, on his knees, his arms hanging limply by his sides. Sensei…

Again, he was going to lose someone.

Please…not again…not him…

Naruto…

The dimly red glow cast WereGarurumon's face, contorted into a wicked sneer as he thrust his foot down and squeezed.

That was when it happened.

The ground beneath shuddered, bringing his actions to a halt. The cavern was then abruptly flooded with an all consuming bright light, forcing the brute to let go of the boy to seize at his eyes. The three humans did the same, literally blindsided by the flash pooling out of the monitor.

"What's happening?!" Anko, being the closest, brought her arms forward.

"Naruto-kun!" Hiruzen called a second time, a forearm over his eyes. "Is he-?!"

Kakashi turned his head away, eyes barred shut, arms up in the same vein as Anko's, his thoughts adhering to the young Uzumaki.

Within the light, rather than land on the hard ground after being relinquished by the beast, Naruto remained afloat, his body besotted by a strange, but comforting warmth.

What…?

Where…am…I…?

Naruto's eyes slowly opened in narrow slits as a hand absently reached at his cheek to pull at a run of moisture. He remained affixed on his back in a half conscious state, sluggishly blinking to clear away the haze of his vision.

Groaning as he gradually came to his senses, the same hand drifted higher to rub at his bare head. His body shifted, and that's when he noticed himself lying in a shallow pool of what he hoped was water.

"Where…" His lips and mouth tasted dry despite where he was, his voice coming out raspy, as if he had been deprived of drink for days. Slowly and carefully, he sat up, making light splashing noises as liquid ran down his back. He blinked and focused, his head rounding to gauge his location. A vast complex or chamber of that nature. The air had a muggy quality to it, supplemented by the lukewarm temperature of the water. The walls and floor were a sickly green beneath a dimly lit ceiling, outlined with pipes writhing like snakes.

What was he doing here? Why was he here?

He closed his eyes to remember the recent events that led him to this point, and for the life of him, he drew a blank. Yet, there was this incessant stirring in the back of his mind, vague but effervescent. Like a part of him wanted to remember.

Clumsily getting to his feet, he adjusted his footing when his right knee loosened, wincing from the hiccup of his joints.

He felt…tired? Didn't he just wake up?

He glanced down at his body, taking stock of himself and finding nothing amiss, his usual orange and blue attire spick and span. He brought his hands up to scan them, then his arms, before gently patting his torso.

Feeling nothing out of order, he took a careful step forward, trudging through the still and shallow water until caught himself again from slipping.

Grunting in agitation, he raised his head, ignoring the itch of his throat. "Hey! Anyone there?!"

He waited for a response. A sound. A splash. Anything to denote that he wasn't at all alone.

Deafening silence.

He marched at a languid pace after a few minutes, going forward. That was until it occurred to him what direction to take, or where his destination was. He craned his neck and squinted, sweeping over as much of the bare expanse as he could.

Where was this place? How did he get here?

His mind raced, rifling through what he could call to mind. He was Uzumaki Naruto. 12 years old, going on 13. He was a citizen of Konohagakure no Sato. He was a student in the Academy aiming to be a shinobi. He was also a pariah because of the alleged criminal backgrounds of his parents. His place of residence was an apartment in the slum areas of the village. He was an orphan. He had no family or friends to speak of.

Friends…

He hunched over as he clutched at his head from a sharp stab of pain, but it was short-lived, sucking in a brusque intake of air after he was sure the feeling subsided, then exhaled.

Righting his posture, a prickling tingle coursed down his spine out of nowhere. He paused, blinking twice. And blinked again. For every undulation, the chamber seemed to wind, swaying back and forth in either direction. Fear and confusion bubbled in the pit of his belly at the bizarre phenomena.

He blinked again, and the scenery before him changed for a final time. What was an empty stretch of the complex was now a dark void. He tipped his head, eyes slipping to the side when he spotted what looked to be a large pillar. Mesmerized, he crept up to it for a closer inspection. He tentatively reached out and brushed the tips of his fingers against cold metal, smooth and sleek to the touch.

Arching his head, his eyes crept up the extent of the pillar as it endlessly ascended into the same void that encompassed the ceiling, if there was even an end. He bristled when the convulsion returned, stronger but more of a dull ache as the atmosphere grew thin, finding it harder to breath.

He tensed up, rubbing the back of his neck which enabled him to spot another pillar via his peripherals, espying more, all arranged in a neat orderly row about 4 meters apart from one end to the other, but he couldn't grasp the number in a single glance.

Was this some kind of house? Was he back in Konoha?

Back in Konoha?

Did he…leave?

Another pang, sharper than the last. What had he been doing? Why couldn't he remember? He tried to as a growing need within him brewed, the pain taking longer to peel away as he desperately clawed at the distant memory.

"Wh-Wh-Wh…" He struggled to articulate the words coming out in shallow whimpers, like his mouth had been stuffed with the driest sand. "Wha-Wha-Who-Who's there!"

A swarm of insects skittering up his skin. Wading through a vat of viscous fluid. The hairs on the back of his neck standing erect from being jolted by a powerful rush of static.

It was a feeling that ingrained itself into him in the years of being on the receiving end.

Being watched.

Being eyed.

Being followed.

Being dissected.

It was intrusive, unwelcome, but offered a sick comfort in its own way from the loneliness that ruled him.

Now, it felt every bit as unsettling as it should. Like he wanted to hide away. Whoever or whatever it was, his instincts were screaming for him to run, flee, but his feet were welded to the floor.

"Show yourself!" He barked even louder through the dryness, his voice producing an echo as it bounced off the walls and pillars, losing some of his courage as he trailed off and his ears rang.

"Ask, and you shall receive."

Naruto stiffened, every fiber of his muscles deadening.

"Well?"

His breath hitched in his throat.

"Do you have nothing to say?"

Sweat dribbled down his chin.

"After all this time, I thought you'd have so much to get off your chest."

He chewed into his lip.

"I'll make it easy. Turn around."

Hands trembling, he clenched them into fists, the perspiration on his palms slippery.

"Turn. Around."

Like a puppet drawn by strings, he slowly creaked his head to peek over his shoulder, the pitch black void greeting him. His body followed, fully facing the darkness as it seemed to look back at him.

"There. Was that so hard?"

Naruto swallowed, but there was no saliva, his throat suffering a torturous itch. He worked his mouth to speak, but no sound could so much as trickle out.

"Welcome. To what do I owe this visit?"

"W-..." He swallowed a few more times to get rid of the irritation, coughing twice as a consequence.

"Speak up. Don't be rude."

"Who…what…"

"You don't know who I am. Do you?"

Naruto, faintly coming to terms with his current predicament, answered reflexively in barely constrained fear, "No…sh-sh-should I?"

There was a long drawn out silence in the bottomless void, before the softest of sounds escaped, which was instantly replaced by a deluge of an uproarious, raucous noise that was like a cross between an animal and a human, multiplied a hundred-fold in volume.

Naruto wanted to cover his ears, but it was accompanied by a squall of wind that rammed into him like a raging bull, forcing him to lean on the pillar for support, the shallow water wisping into a frenzied tsunami, which soon stopped to his relief.

"You don't know who I am? Truly?"

He shook his head frantically, panting as he held on for dear life.

"Do you even know where you are?"

He answered ever so quietly, clinging tighter against the pillar for security than to prevent himself from being carried away, "N-No…"

"You mean to tell me they never told you?! YOU?!"

The noise returned after that respite, coming in like a violent tremor that rattled the pillar to its very foundation, the clangorous echo of the metal perforating his ears, but that too soon susbsided.

"Oh, sorry. Sometimes I lose myself when I have a laugh."

Naruto tore his eyes open. A laugh? That was a laugh?

"After all. One can't help but laugh after that hilarious discovery."

The young Uzumaki, ready to fall on his rear, scrunched his face in discomfort. "Wh-Wh-"

"Speak up, boy. No need to be antsy. You are in good company."

Naruto swallowed. "Good…company?"

"Why, yes. You could say you and I are…joined at the hip."

"...Not in that context, mind you."

Naruto shrugged his shoulders in compliance.

"Why, I even know who you are. Do you?"

The boy, for some reason, found it easier to speak out an answer. "I-I'm Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto."

"Indeed. Uzumaki Naruto, son of Uzumaki Kushina. Before her death, one of the last survivors of the once illustrious Uzumaki Clan."

Naruto blinked, mouth hanging agape as he absently released his hold on the pillar.

"And Namikaze Minato."

Naruto could feel a smile behind the next words that numbed him to the core.

"Otherwise known as the Fourth Hokage."

"...huh?"

His body moved on its own to fully face the abysmal blackness, the pillar, the water, everything around him a fleeting existence.

"You heard me. You are the son of the Fourth Hokage."

Author's Notes: Can any of you name your country's line of Presidents? Pick up a textbook and just, list off the names in order?

There, mystery solved.