CHAPTER 2
The Krakken, the Tiger and the Limax
A Day Later,
The Lake…
A bright moon was lighting up the foggy forest below. A large lake, surrounded by trees and mist, stayed undisturbed. "Cannonball!"
Ben jumped into the lake, making a large splash. Ben poeds up back to the surface. "Judges score. Yes! Perfect 10! Yeah! The crowd loves him!"
Gwen watched, unimpressed from the end of a pier, with a shining torch on her hand. " 'A perfect dweeb' is more like it."
"Come on, dive in!
Gwen yucked. "Please! Who knows what nasty, slimy things are slithering around in there."
Gwen shined a torch around the lake's surface to illustrate her point, landing the torch on Ben. "I rest my case."
"What's the point in camping by a lake if you're afraid to get wet?" Ben splashed the water from the lake onto Gwen.
Gwen gasped. "Knock it off midget! Naruto help me!"
Gwen walked away back to the Rust Bucket, but as she did Ben began to violently splash around in the water. Just then a wall of stone appeared before Gwen and protected her from the splash of water.
Ben started coughing. "Hey! What's happening?"
Ben started getting sucked under the surface.
"Very funny Ben. I'm not falling for it."
Naruto made a fist of Roch as he started walking towards where Ben was last. Gwen walked behind Naruto and shone a light on where Ben went under. "Ben?"
The water bubbled and a giant green swamp-creature lurched out of it towards Gwen, growling at her. Gwen screamed in fright, falling over and dropping the torch, which rolled on the ground to shine on the creature, revealing it to be Ben's Four Arms transformation covered in seaweed. But it was too late as Naruto had punched him into the ground.
Gwen was clearly Annoyed. And so was Naruto.
Four Arms picked himself up as he let out a shriek of pain. "You should have seen the look on your face! Ouch, priceless!"
Gwen got up to go back to the RV. "You are so busted when I tell Grandpa!"
Naruto followed Gwen. Four Arms laughed to himself as he took the seaweed off. "I can't believe she fell for it! A monster in the lake! How dumb can you be?"
The water bubbled and splashed behind Ben, causing him to turn and see a gigantic silhouette of a monster rising out of the water behind him, shocking him greatly!
Four Arms looked up towards the monstrous silhouette lurching above him. A tendril from the figure shot out at him, grabbing and launching him across the lake. Ben poped back out of the water and looked around him for the monster.
As he does, something latched onto him and draged him under. While underwater Ben got a look at the monster's giant eye. Ben gasped and managed to break free of the tendrils to get back to the surface and the Rust Bucket.
Four Arms burst into the Rust Bucket, waking Max, Naruto and Gwen. " I was just attacked by a giant lake monster!"
Gwen lazily threw a pillow at Ben's face. "Hello? Current events? You already got me with that one."
"But I'm not kidding this time!"
"Come on champ, the joke's over."
"But I–"
"Get some sleep, remember we have an early day tomorrow for our fishing trip."
Ben timed out, transforming back into his human form, lying starfish positioned on the ground. Naruto, however, thought about what Ben had said.
Next day…
Ben, Naruto, Gwen, and Max walked along the coast, Max with a fishing rod in hand.
"No, really! It was humongous with these red glowing eyes!"
"I'm sure it was just some kind of big fish, that's all."
Naruto was takinga sip of his Iced Latte as he followed them.
"Yeah, so give the mega-fish story a rest, will you,'Captain Dweeb'?"
Ben wondered ahead, coming across a bucket of wriggling worms. Ben shoved a handful of worms up to Gwen's face. "Breakfast?"
Gwen pushed his hand aside. "Eugh- Ben, gross... What's with the bucket of slimies?"
"Bait."
Gwen yucked. "Yeah- Well, I think I'm gonna pass on the fishing thing, I'll stay here and catch some sun instead!"
"I think it would be fun to go fishing."
Max smiled as he patted Naruto on his back. "Why are you so silent?"
"I have been thinking about what Ben had said. If there really is a monster, what is to say it is not a monster."
Max smiled widened as he saw himself in Naruto. Max realized they reached the boat he turned to greet the man in the boat beside them. "Captain Shaw?"
The man took a swig from his bottler. "Who wants to know?"
"I'm Max Tennyson, and this is my grandsons, Ben and Naruto. We chartered your boat today for a fishing trip."
"Well what're you waiting for, an engraved invitation? Get aboard, I ain't got all day."
Ben excitedly moved to get on the boat, though Max seemed concerned. Naruto just followed the old man. The ship sets off, down the lake. The ship sailed slowly.
"Anything interesting out there to catch today?
"More than you can imagine Looks like your boy's using his breakfast as chum."
"Ben? Are you feeling okay?"
"Yeah, I'm just keeping an eye out for the lake monster. That thing's not taking me by surprise this time!"
Seeing a monstrous silhouette in the water, Ben shrieked "There it is!"
The silhouette became clear as it passed, revealing just a collection of brambles and rubbish. "Oh, my bad."
"Now, Ben. This is a fishing trip, not a monster hunt."
"It's called 'the Krakken'."
"Whoa. You know about it?"
"It's my business to know about it."
Shaw pulled out a photo and Handed Ben the photo reminiscent of the 'Loch Ness Monster' photo. "I've been on its tail for years. Folks say my rudder's not right.:
Naruto took the photo from Ben and pocketed it. He would have VEGA scan it for whether the photo was fake or not.
"Why doesn't that surprise me?" It sounded like sarcasm but Naruto heard something else in his voice. Like it was just the same shit, different day.
"Sightings go back hundreds of years, on this very lake. Some say it's a myth, not me! I could take you to a spot where I personally laid eyes upon the beast. That is, if you've got the stomach for some real adventure!" Ben looked up to a reluctant Max expectingly and smiled. Naruto looked at the lake.
Shaw looked at his radar. "Sonar, high-def video setup, ultrasound. I got it all. And I will find it. Mark my words, it can't hide forever."
Max took Ben aside. "Ben, I don't want you to put too much stock in what mister Shaw says. I don't think he has both oars in the water, if you know what I mean."
"Why? Just because he saw the Krakken too?"
Ben walked away in a huff, with Max saddened. Max turned to Naruto. "Please tell him."
"I think it will be ok if we let it be for sometime. A Kraken will not shock me."
Max huffed as he let it be. Naruto was right. The ship floated by, Shaw at the helm paying attention to the sonar, as he came up against a blockage of buoys and tape. " 'Do not enter'? What's going on?"
"Looks official. Maybe we should turn back!."
"Nonsense, this is my lake and I'll go wherever I-"
"Fishing boat! Stop where you are."
Another boat and a man with reddish-brown hair and a spiky goatee came out, greeting Shaw and the crew friendlyly, and pulling up alongside their boat. "I am Jonah Melville, the founder of 'Friends of Fish', we've closed this section of the lake for an environmental study. You'll have to turn your boat around."
Shaw was angry and he decided to express it to Jonah and the other crew. "Suppose you make me, fish-hugger?"
Max butted in before a Fight could break out. "Well, since I chartered the boat for the day, I believe I'm in charge. Isn't that right, Captain?"
Captain Shaw grumbled and reluctantly made his way up the boat. Naruto came before Jonah.
"I have never heard of any 'Friends of Fish'."
Jonah looked at the boy and started to sweat. "And how would you know?"
"As the Heir of Namikaze Foundation, I believe I know every charity and enviromentist organiztion. I will look into it."
Jonah started to sweat. If this boy was really the heir, then something would have to be done. Naruto decided to follow Max.
"But what about the Krakken?"
Jonah looked at Ben and began chuckling to himself. "The Krakken? Not that old fish story? Look, I'm a marine biologist. Anyone who tells you they've seen a monster in this lake, is casting without a hook."
Ben went silent. Shaw's boat traveled back to the docks, trailing behind the 'Friends of Fish' boat. The ship's sonar pinged, alerting Shaw. "The sonar! We've found something!"
The three run out to see a shark-like fin pop to the surface of the water. "Or something's found us! Look!"
Shaw walked out and saw the fin dip below the water."The Krakken."
The fin passed under Shaw's boat, revealing its true size, and rocking the boat.
Shaw started to panic. "It's heading for the docks!"
Ben & Max looked at each other with a common thought in their mind. "Gwen!"
"Ben, get ready to rescue some people. I will try to stop it." The Blank Face appeared on Naruto's face as he flew towards the Kraken.
Sametime,
At the Docks…
The Krakken's fin rushed towards the docks at a high speed, unbeknownst to Gwen, sitting at the end of the pier rocking her feet.
"Ah finally a little sun, and with my big-mouth cousin nowhere in sight, I can just lay back and relax."
The Krakken rushed towards land and Captain Shaw tried to warn the dock-goers by ringing the ship's bell.
"How many times does that doofus think I'm gonna fall for this?"
The Krakken reared out of the water, slumping back down and crushing the pier to pieces, sending the people standing on it into the water. Naruto appeared and carried Gwen away from the Kraken. "That's not Ben."
Naruto looked at Gwen with a sweatdrop on his forehead. "No shit sherlock. Ben catch."
Naruto tossed Gwen down as a Blur came and carried Gwen and all the people there away. Naruto raised his hands as it was covered by blue sparks. He was about to stab it into the water but he was hit on his back by Kraken's tail.
Jonah's crewmate, 'Duane' sailed the boat away, with the Krakken taking notice and going after it, rearing up against it and rocking the boat greatly.
The Krakken rushes towards it again, but is stopped by Naruto creating a water tornado on the surface, scaring it back. Naruto jumps onto the boat. The Krakken swims to the front of the boat and tried to grab a crate off of it using its front tendrils.
"No you don't!"
Jonah leapt, hanging onto the crate to stop it from being taken. Just then Ben also landed on the ship.
Ben decides to help by grabbing the Krakken's tendril and dragging it backwards to prevent the crate from being moved. The monster knocked Ben backwards and tried again to get the box, but Ben rooted himself on the ship's ground, and used XLR8's fast moving feet to kick the Krakken's jaw as it came towards the ship. After being kicked in the underjaw, the Krakken reeled backwards roaring and retreated.
"Thanks for the hand, and the feet!"
"What's so important in that crate that you'd risk your life for it?"
"Um... Our lunch!"
Naruto could hear the lie in his voice. "VEGA, search for Friends of Fish and Jonah Melville."
"Friends of Fish does not exist. Jonah Melville is a person who travels around the world poaching rare animals. then creates them up, and sells them to private collectors."
Naruto appeared as he held Johan by his throat. "You dare lie to us."
Naruto slammed him onto the ground. "Open the Crate."
Ben did as he was told and found a huge egg. Naruto looked at the egg as his eyes widened. No wonder the Krakken attacked them. Ben knew what to do next as he gently placed the egg on the surface of the water. The Krakken rose from the water and took the Egg down.
"My egg. What have you done?"
"Get everyone innocent of this area. A Storm is going to come." Ben nodded as he rushed away. Naruto's eyes had fury in them. He grabbed Johan by his leg as he proceeded to beat everyone on the Friends of Fish ship using Johan.
He proceeds to destroy anyone and anything with Friends of Fish written on them, still using Johan as a bat. At last Naruto flew up and dived down, crashing with Johan onto the ground. Johan felt his leg's get crushed as it impacted the floor.
Naruto landed beside him and looked at the bystanders. "This is Johan Melville. He is a person who travels around the world poaching rare animals. then creates them up, and sells them to private collectors. And as such I would like to tell everyone in the world that I will protect not only the humans but also the animals in need."
Naruto launched away leaving Johan to be arrested.
"Why did you have to be so brutal?"
"If they can not act like a human being, then why do I have to. Anyone who brings harm to anyone should be stopped."
Ben and Gwen could only look between Naruto and Max.
"It is not up to you to give the punishment. You are not the law."
"I did not give him the punishment instead of the law. I gave him punishment for the Mother. You should understand this Max. You would likely kill someone that took Gwen and Ben away. I could have killed him but I didnot. You want Ben to walk the path of light, then he can. I don't care."
Naruto's ring glowed. Gwen saw this. Before she could tell it to him, he ran away. Gwen decided to follow him leaving Max to wonder about what Naruto had told him.
"I think he did the right thing even though it was brutal, Grandpa. I would have let the Kraken eat him if it was up to me."
At the Shore…
"Why did you run off?"
Naruto did not respond to Gwen. He looked at the lake and stayed silent.
"Why are you here? Should you not be with your grandfather? You don't even know me properly."
"You don't know me well too. Nordo you know anyone that you have saved. But that still does not stop you from protecting them. Let's just talk shall we."
Naruto turned and looked at Gwen. "You wanted to know what this ring is and how I can manipulate elements right?"
Gwen would be lying if she said no. "My grandfather made this Ring to use a type of energy that was stored in me for a long time. I don't know what the energy is but I know that this energy is the reason I lost my father and mother."
Gwen's eyes widened. She did not know that Naruto lost his Parents.
"My Father's Father and Mother and my Mother's Father were childhood friends and they decided to raise me. It was my Mother's Father that made this ring as he is super smart."
Gwen stayed silent. She did not know what to do or how to respond. All she could do was hug Naruto. There was rusle of leaf as Max and Ben came out. Naruto and Max looked at each other.
"I am sorry for shouting at you." Naruto bowed down.
Max laughed as he patted his back. "It is nothing. Just don't do something like that unless it is truely necessary."
Gwen and Ben smiled as they saw the Fight being resolved.
Sometimes later…
The Rust Bucket stopped on a desert road, at an ice cream parlor. Ben and Gwen were getting ice cream, while Max was using the local ATM. Naruto was with Max. A dirty red pickup truck pulled up to the same spot, and a big burly man walked up to Max.
"Outta the way, 'Grandpa'. I got a major withdrawal to make!"
He tried to shove Max to the ground but Naruto caught his hand. Max looked behind and saw a buck-toothed man behind the Burly Man smiling and he seemed to be the other man's associate.
In the parlor, the kids were choosing their ice cream. An frowning old man was serving them.
"What do you have that's non-fat with less than 3% sugar?"
"Napkins!"
Then the old man turned to Ben. "What about you, kid?"
Ben opened his mouth, but got cut off by the sound of a large chain. He looked out the window and saw the burly man walking to the ATM with a chained metal hook.
"I'm about to go "rocky road"!" He ran out of the parlor and primed the Omnitrix. But he stopped and went in, seeing that Naruto was already there.
Outside, the burly man dug the hook into the ATM and yelled to his associate in the pickup. "Hit it!"
The buck-toothed man pumped the gas, but nothing happened. Naruto had cut the Chains in half. He then proceeded to punch both the man and knock the burly man out. He then proceeded to slash the tire, stopping the other man from escaping.
"Good work, Naruto! Now go get in the Rust 're headin' off to see my Sister Vera for the weekend!"
Naruto nodded as he entered the RV. Gwen and Ben were already there. "Here, this is for you. I did not know which flavour you like so I got the same one I would get."
Naruto flashed a charming smile as he took the Ice Cream Cone. Max told Ben and Gwen about their next Destination.
Sometimes later…
The Rust Bucket continued driving through the barren desert.
"When Aunt Vera said she wanted to "move away from it all", she really meant it!"
Ben was sad. "Aw man, this summer was supposed to be about F-U-N, not hanging out in some old lady's place."
"I like Aunt Vera!"
"Duh! That's because you act like you're a hundred years old! And where is Naruto?"
"He is fighting crime in Japan. He can fly preety fast while in Kaze mode but he will still be gone for sometime."
Soon enough The Rust Bucket entered Vera's retirement village. It drived past old folks' homes and some people out on the sidewalk. "This is gonna be soooo boring! Their idea of excitement in this place is probably watching the grass grow."
Sametime,
Fukuyoka, Japan…
"Please save us from it."
Naruto looked at the Man he was holding. He had just taken care of a Robbery when he saw a man falling from a winfow. He decided to help him. He put the man on the ground as he went to see what the man was talking about.
He flew up to the window where the man fell from and landed. He looked up and saw a Bipedal Tiger with Blue Hair.
"What the heck are you?"
The tiger turned around to show that it had a man in his hands. Then Tiger Transformed into a human as his phone rang. "Yes. I have taken care of him. I will be coming back soon. It lookes like I have a witness."
Naruto looked closely at the man to see that he had a Symbol on his belt. The symbol of the Eight note. The Man pulled out a large Shuriken from his back and tossed it at Naruto at a speed that made arrows fired from Crossbow look slow.
But Naruto made a wall of wind and the attack was reflected back. He quickly switched into Tsuchi mode and made a Stone Layer around his neck as the man transformed into his Tiger Form and attacked again.
Naruto went into Kaminari mode as he blitzed the Tiger Man. When his kick was about to connect, Naruto went into Tsuchi and covered his leg in Stone. When the attack hit, the Tiger Man was sent flying into the wall as blood leaked from his mouth.
"You are making a mistake. You should not have messed wiith the Otogakure. The Otokage will be sending his men after you."
Naruto just kicked him agin. The Tiger Man lost consciousness.
Naruto went towards the man that the Tiger held in his hand. That man was almost dead but he still was holding on. "Are you ok?"
Hearing Naruto, the man pulled out a Pen Drive and handed it to Naruto. "Please keep this safe. I collected this information with my life."
Naruto took the Pen Drive and kept it in his pocket. He decided to go and check on the old man but he was not there. He thought it was the best time to return back to the RV. He went into Kaminari mode as he ran on any ground he could and flew over the ocean body using Kaze mode. Occasionally, he would use Mizu mode and surf the water.
A Day Later,
Back with Ben and Gwen…
"Whatever you are, you just made a terrible mistake. Us Limaxes live for the heat! Why do you think we came to the desert in the summer?"
Heatblast frowned and started punching the Giant Limax's leg. It grabed his arm and threw him repeatedly on the ground. It looked behind and saw Gwen and Max carrying pods out of the ship, and spawned two small Limaxes from its back to deal with them.
One of them swiped at Gwen, but she ducked and it only knocked her backpack over. All of its contents, including Gwen's water gun, spilled on the floor.
The two Limaxes suddenly saw the gun and ran away from it in fear. Gwen grabbed the gun and sprayed them through the head, causing them to screech and collapse into liquid on the ground.
"THEY HATE WATER! Aunt Vera, when she was in the kitchen!"
"Well you are in luck. For I have just arrived. But it will be hard for meto to create too much water."
Naruto landed before Gwen and quickly switched into Mizu mode. He looked around and noticed a water pipe above them. Naruto raised his hand and swiped as the Water came bursting out from the pipe.
"See ya, slimeball!"
Naruto turned to Ben as he threw some water at him. "Now that is just racist, Matchstick."
The giant has been reduced to a large puddle. Heatblast picked out the liquid in his eye and tossed it. At the ship, Gwen and Max had finished carrying out the last of the pods, just as the ship started to make a whirring noise, indicating it was about to take off.
As Max ran out, the last liquidy remains of the Limax crawled inside and the door shut. The ship shook the ground and rose up out of the crater it created, tunneling right out of the cave and bursting onto the moonlit desert above, where it zoomed out of Earth's atmosphere.
The Tennysons werenow in an empty room, surrounded by the entire population of Retirement Village. "We should put them all back in their condos, so they'll think they never left."
Gwen sat against a pod. "That could take hours."
"Gimme a few minutes, I'll see if XLR8 can help out."
But Naruto quickly changed to Kaminari mode and proceeded to place them in their hous. He only hoped that he put them in thei correct home.
The Next Morning…
Max hugs Vera goodbye. "Don't be strangers!"
As the Rust Bucket left the desert, it passed the giant hole the Limax spaceship left.
Down in it, and back through the caverns, the Limax that impersonated Max crawled out of buried rocks and slowly creeped along the tunnel floor.
"Where do you think you are going?" Naruto drenched it and killed it off. He then flew into the RV.
"What happened?" Gwen asked.
"VEGA said there was something there. I just had to check it out."
Naruto went to his laptop and sat down. He wanted to tell them about the Otogakure and Otokage thing but they did not need to care about it.
He plugged the Pen Drive and opened the Folder named Otogakure. There were multiple files. He integrated the file into VEGA as it would be necessary. He was about to open the file with Nidaime Otokage written on it but stopped when Max stopped the RV and they got off to get some food.
Back in Japan…
The old man that Naruto had saved ran as fast as he could. But a snake coiled around him and pulled him. A man wearing a hood grabbed him by his throat. "Do you think you can survive going against the Otogakure? Who was the person that got Mizuki caught?"
"It was the new guy in the news. The Faceless Hero. He saved me and got Mizuki caught." The snake holding the Old man began eating it. The man in the hood walked out of the alleyway as he walked to a TV showing Naruto.
"He must have the Pen Drive. Then we will have to kill him too."
So this is it. Who do you think is the Nidaime Orokage? It is an obvious answer. And I am going to bring the Bijuu into the story. They are going to be something akin to a Tokustar.