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Thank you for reading and please enjoy

A Maelstrom's Mobius Misadventure

-Chapter 6-

-Last Time-

"Indeed, I'd recommend we head upstream; odds are our goal will be somewhere near the source of this unusual scenery."

"Makes sense to me." Naruto said with a thumbs up before Sally hopped into his arms and Lupe climbed onto his back. Once both girls were secure, the blonde bolted ahead, following along the side of the flooded canyon…

And never noticing the shadow that passed overhead.

-And Now-

The sun was just starting to set under the horizon, casting a beautiful array of red and yellow streaks of light across the Great Canyon Zone. Those that fell upon the water flowing through the once desolate crevice were refracted into a brilliant array of rainbows by the salty spray.

It was simply a beautiful scene to view, at least in Sally's opinion as she took several pictures with a small camera as she, Naruto, and Lupe trekked alongside the Great Canyon.

If you were wondering why they were no longer traveling via Naruto Express, that would be due to a suggestion from Lupe. The tribal wolf had a hunch that they were getting close to the source of the flooding and believed it would be better if they travelled on foot so that they could keep a better eye out for anything out of the ordinary. Naruto didn't mind since he was getting a little tired of being the transportation and Sally was fine with an excuse to stretch her legs.

While the latter was content to enjoy the beauty of nature in peace though, the former was far less inclined to stay quiet very long.

"I was just in the middle of setting up some itch powder traps on the chairs when Iruka busted me. Faster than you could say 'detention' I was all tied up and stuck in a seat until class started for the day," So, he told his companions about some of his past "exploits" during his time at the academy back in his home village. The blonde pretended to wipe a tear from his eye with a nostalgic chuckle, staring up at the sky as old memories played through his head. "But of course what he didn't know was that I wanted to get caught, because it gave me the perfect alibi."

"Alibi for what exactly, Little brother?" Lupe asked with a small amused smile on her lips as she listened to the blonde talk while keeping an eye for anything that stuck out.

"For all the stink bomb whoopie cushions I had set up in the floorboards," The blonde snorted out, his eyebrow twitching at being called Little again, but let it slide this time. "Every time someone stepped in the wrong spot it'd sound and smell like they just ripped a big one, you should have seen everyone's faces."

"If its anything like being around Sonic after an all you can eat chilidog competition then I can imagine." Sally muttered, shivering and gagging overdramatically while Lupe just nodded with a mock sigh of disgust.

Snickering at their reactions, Naruto made sure to note that down for later before continuing his story. "Anyway, I set them up all over the school so nobody could go anywhere without setting at least one off. At least until the teachers managed to find and remove them all, though by then the whole Academy stunk to hell and back. But the best part, oh the best part was they couldn't blame me for it because Iruka had already caught me earlier."

…

"Uh, no offense Naruto but that makes no sense," The disguised chipmunk cocked a brow after a brief pause as she gave the whiskered teen an odd look. "If they caught you setting up pranks then why wouldn't they blame you for the pranks that you set up?"

Rather than getting upset at her criticism, the smirk on Naruto's lips only grew and he tapped his nose cheekily. "That's the thing, they couldn't prove that I set it up because they thought it was set up AFTER I got caught."

"…You've lost me." Sally admitted, her eyebrow rising even higher in confusion before her face scrunched up in thought from trying to figure out what the blonde meant.

On the other hand, it only took a moment until a look of understanding suddenly appeared on Lupe's face and the raven-haired wolf's lips curled upwards. "You set them up on a delayed response trigger, didn't you?"

It was more a statement than a question but the wide grin that threatened to split Naruto's face when she asked it was all the answer she needed.

'Note to self, never leave Naruto and Sonic alone for too long.' Sally barely held back a real shudder at the thought of those two spending too much time together. Sonic was already prone to causing enough mischief as it was whenever he got bored, Chaos only knows the… well chaos those two could unleash if they bonded over pranking.

"Hey boss!" She was brought out of her thoughts by a shout, snapping her gaze upwards along with Naruto and Lupe to see a copy of the enigmatic boy waving at them from atop a rocky outcropping a lot further ahead. Once he had their attention, the shadow clone pointed towards an upcoming turn in the canyon. "Pretty sure that you're gonna want to see this!"

"Alright, we'll be over in a sec!" The original called back with a thumbs up, getting his duplicate to respond in kind before it jumped back down.

"Are you sure you can't teach me how to do that?" Sally asked half-jokingly as she turned to the blonde. From Sonic's super speed to Tail's genius and flight or even Bunnie's robotic strength, she'd long grown accustomed to being one of the super-powerly challenged members of the freedom fighters. Though that admittedly didn't stop the occasional spark of jealousy from rearing its ugly head every now and again.

"Sorry but no, no chakra, no Jutsu," Naruto said with an apologetic shrug that the disguised princess waved off. "Although even if you could learn it I wouldn't teach it, the Shadow Clone is a forbidden technique of my village and I promised Hokage-Jiji I wouldn't teach it to anyone without his permission first."

"Oh?" That peeked Sally's interest. "Why is it for-"

"You might want to brace yourself." The blonde accidentally cut the temporary brunette off while he grabbed her and Lupe's shoulder. Quickly realizing what he was about to do, Sally opened her mouth to protest… only to yet again be cut off, this time by a puff of smoke that enveloped all three of them.

A few moments later the trio reappeared much further down the canyon, just outside of a huge widening of the Canyon, wide enough that it could be considered a pond or even a lake. Groaning, a very disheveled Sally stumbled out of Naruto's grasp as she cupped a hand over her mouth, her cheeks gained a green tinge. "Ugh… I think that was even worse than last time."

"That was most…" Lupe audibly gulped several times, swallowing back the bile that threatened to spew forth. She was holding herself steady with her spear while using her free hand to smooth down her ruffled fur. "Most unpleasant."

"Yeah, sorry, still working out the kinks on that one," Naruto said with a shrug as he fixed his shirt, which had somehow gotten spun around so he was wearing backwards. Once he got everything all straightened out, the whiskered teen took a moment to take in his surroundings while he waited for Sally and Lupe to regain their bearings.

At first glance there wasn't much to see that hadn't been seen already, a lot of salty water flooding through the barren landscape. Although the walls of the canyon were much higher now, casting almost the entire area in shade. It was only when he turned his attention to the water itself though that Naruto finally saw something that actually caught his attention.

The first thing was that the current had completely died away, leaving the whole area looking eerily calm up that only breaking on the far ends where it flowed out to the rest of the Canyon, meaning this was no doubt the source of all the flooding. Secondly was the clarity of the water, or rather the lack of it, as the once pristine water was now murky and silted, swirls of muck spiraling around making it hard to see even a few inches past the surface.

And then there was the last thing…

"Hey Lupe, are bubbly glowy things normal around these parts?" The blonde asked, his gaze focused on the center of the Canyon Lake where he could just make out a faint green glow and rising bubbles through the silt. All of this surrounding a small barren island that sat in the exact center of the water, made of a dull grey stone unlike the yellowish red of the rest of the canyon.

"They most certainly are not," The raven-haired wolf stated with a shake of her head, the last remnants of nausea fading away as she knelt at the water's edge. Cautiously reaching out, she gently dragged her fingers along the bank, creating tiny ripples that spread across the tranquil surface. However, while nothing else seemed to happen, Lupe abruptly pulled her hand back as if it had been burned before quickly taking several steps back. "'Danger awaits under the murky wave, the light's alure shall the fearless brave, but keep thy wits or meet a sodden grave'."

"I'm guessing that means we have to get down to whatever is down there somehow," Sally said as she rubbed her chin. "But it can't just be as simple as swimming down there to find out, can it?"

"Knowing my luck, probably not. Luckily, I have an easy way to find out for sure." Naruto raised a hand as he spoke, causing the same clone that had called them over to drop down by his side.

"Yo boss, whatcha need me for?"

"This." In the blink of an eye, the whiskered blonde grabbed his doppelganger by the front of its shirt and flung it at the new lake.

Sally quickly covered her face when the clone hit the water hard enough to create a large splash and rain salt water onto the trio. Once the drizzle died down, the disguised redhead sent Naruto an unimpressed glower while shaking her hands dry. "Was that really necessary?"

"Yeah, the hell boss?" C. Naruto called out irritably, wading in the center of the briny lake next to the island with a scowl. With its attention on the original though, the duplicate didn't notice as the water started to roil beneath it.

However, this was not missed by Naruto, who immediately grabbed Sally and Lupe before jumping backwards onto a higher cliff that was much farther from the water's edge.

"Rule twenty-seven of being a ninja, when checking for booby traps…" Sally flinched as a MASSIVE claw burst out of the water, clamping down on the clone before it could react. It looked to be from a crustacean, like a crab or lobster, only this one was almost the size of a truck. It was a mottled brown and covered in barnacles, seaweed, and even some bits of corral while streaks of vibrant neon green light stretched over the uncovered portions. "Always send the boob in first."

"GO FUCK YOURSELF BO-" Those would be the clone's last words before it was dragged under, leaving the water unnaturally calm once more.

But the sudden shift of water had caused some of the silt floating in it to disperse, revealing the glowing silhouette of the creature. And it was safe to say that the claw had only been the tip of the iceberg as the crustacean's limbs easily spanned almost the entire saltwater lake. And based on how it was sitting right smack on its body and was slowly shifting around, the 'island' was in fact part of the beast's shell.

"So Sally, you tell me, was it necessary?" Naruto asked Sally while setting her and Lupe down, unable to help but smirk when she shot him a dull look.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up Whiskers," She grumbled with an eyeroll. "Since you're so smart why don't you figure out how we're gonna deal with the giant man-eating hermit crab?"

"I'm guessing leaving it alone and moving on with our lives isn't an option?"

"As much as I dislike instigating conflicts, we must at least find a means to stop this waterflow," Lupe stated, holding her spear at the ready in one hand as she rubbed her chin with the other. "This much salt water will do irreparable damage to the local ecosystems if left unchecked and it's doubtful this creature's presence at the source is a mere coincidence. Not to mention that there are not nearly enough here to keep something that large fed for long. It will inevitably need to search for more food which thanks to your clone we now know what'd be on the menu, namely us."

"Assuming that it's a real crab and not another one of Robotnik's creations." Sally added as she scowled. Poisoning the land to destroy nature was one of the mad scientist's main M.O.s after all, he was a fervent Anti-Organic, and it would be far from the first time he'd created a 'giant monster' to implement his schemes.

From pumping out enough smog to make the very air around most of Robotropolis toxic to building a machine that had no other purpose but to create and dump poisonous sludge. It made the disguised redhead's lips curl in disgust thinking of all the things he'd done to ruin the world. That or it was from remembering how Robotnik had doused her in a slew of unknown chemicals that'd caused her fur and hair to change colors several times until she'd fully washed them out.

"Hm, well that would explain our shippo." Naruto muttered with a nod while he started digging around in his kunai pouch, seemingly not noticing the very confused looks that both his companions were now giving him.

"Uh Naruto, what's a shippo again?" Sally asked, getting the blonde to snort as he pulled out a familiar scroll and unrolled it a bit.

This wasn't the first time Naruto had used a word or words she was unfamiliar with as it turned out the blonde was actually bilingual, speaking both English and a language from their own world they called Nihongo, which Nicole also identified a similar one in Mobius's records known as Japanese. Most of the time he'd speak the former but did have a habit of slipping into the latter without realizing it on occasion, usually when he was excited or startled.

Oddly enough, neither he nor Ayame were even aware that they had been speaking different languages until after it had been pointed out to them.

"Right, sorry, I think it'll be easier if I show you," The blonde said before wrapping an arm around the princess's shoulders and pulling her in closer, smooshing her to his side as he held the scroll up close to her face. While a little surprised at the sudden closeness, Sally was quick to shake it off as she looked at the complex drawings on the paper. However, before she could even try to make a lick of sense of the foreign writing, her attention was drawn to the feeling of Naruto's breath on her ear. "Stay calm and keep acting like you're reading. We're being watched. Tap my side twice if you understood."

Those words were spoken only a fraction above a whisper, so quiet that even with how close they were Sally barely heard them. But heard them she did, her eyes widening in alarm and head twitching from the barely suppressed urge to look around.

Instead, she did as he told, patting his hip with the hand that'd gotten sandwiched between them.

"You see these parts here?" Speaking normally now, Naruto lowered the scroll a little so he could reach it with the hand still draped over the chipmunk girl. "These ones are Hime and Baka, just over here is a Okami, and this one over here is a Shippo. You understand?"

The whiskered teen put a finger onto a different kanji as he spoke, two right next to each-other, one a few lines over, and the last far from all three of the former.

"Got it," Sally nodded in understanding. 'Ayame calls Naruto a Baka a lot and I think Hime means princess so that's me, which means Okami must be Lupe and Shippo is the one spying on us.'

He was telling her where everyone was and, by how he was pointedly dragging the finger on 'hime' over to 'okami' and 'baka' to 'shippo', a lot more.

"Good, well with those you-now!"

The moment that word left his mouth, Naruto and Sally sprung apart.

The latter ran to Lupe, tackling the tribal wolf to the ground behind a boulder before pulling several small pellet devices and a slingshot from inside her coat. Meanwhile, the former drew a handful of kunai and flung them at a seemingly random cliff face whilst simultaneously unsealing his sword.

Swinging the massive blade to clear the smoke from its appearance, Naruto was just in time to see someone dart into the air right before his kunai landed.

"Oh my, that was a close one." A smooth and silky voice said as its owner came to a stop mid-air thanks to a pair of leathery purple wings.

'…Huh, not what I was expecting.' Naruto thought with a raised brow. Turned out their little spy was a lady rather than a bot like he'd expected, a bat mobian based on her wings and large ears. She had well-tanned skin with a perfect hourglass figure while her whole head aside from her mouth and nose was covered in fine white fur.

Her attire consisted of a black, skintight, sleeveless unitard with a pink heart-shaped chest plate and matching long white gloves/high-heeled boots with pink cuffs. And to top it off was some light blue eyeshadow that made her long eyelashes and turquoise eyes really pop while pink lipstick glistened on her lips.

Subtly glancing at where Sally and Lupe had taken cover, he saw no recognition on either of their faces when they looked at the newcomer as well.

"You ought to be more careful there, you could've taken someone's eye out." Speaking of, said newcomer smirked teasingly as she floated before the trio.

"Well maybe if you weren't skulking around like a creep, you wouldn't have pointy things thrown at your head," The whiskered teen replied dryly. "Now how about you start explaining who you are and why you've been following us?"

The bat lady's smirk only widened wagged a finger back-n-forth in the ever-classic disapproving manner while she posed herself so it looked like she was sitting in the air. "Now, now, that's no way to greet a lady, young man. You'd think someone traveling with royalty would at least have the decency to say please."

'Ooooh crap,' Sally swore to herself, as there was no mistaking who she was talking about, not when the spy looked right at the disguised redhead whilst she spoke.

"Okay then," Naruto pointed his blade at her with a deadly serious look. "Please tell me."

"Ah, well since you asked so nicely…" The whitette's smirk grew just a tiny bit more… then suddenly took off with a powerful flap of her wings, soaring high into the air within seconds.

"No! Stop her!" Saly notched and fired a pellet after the fleeing bat. However, her opponent was already far out of range for such a weapon and the shot fell to the ground in the distance before exploding. "If she works for Robotnik then-"

"Yeah, I know, cover blown, big disaster, I'm on it." Naruto cut her off with a sigh before cocking his arms, reeling his sword as far back as he could.

Then, with a grunt, he hurled the weapon after her, its colossal blade spiraling through the air incredibly fast for its size. In the blink of an eye it had closed the distance between it and the fleeing bat, her head snapping back in surprise when the tell-tale sound of steel cutting air reached her ears.

She was forced to swerve to the side to avoid getting sliced in half, time seeming to slow for a split second as the edge of the blade skimmed passed by her face by mere centimeters. "Oh my, that was a cl-"

The bat girl was cut off mid-sentence when the sword burst into smoke right in front of her, briefly blinding her as she inadvertently flew right into the cloud. Then before she could even register what happened, she was brought to a dead stop when something slammed into her chin.

Dazed, the whitette floated in place in an almost drunken like stupor while the smoke cleared to reveal the very blonde she had been fleeing from.

Not giving her any time to recover, Naruto spun in the air and slammed his foot into her face in a dropkick. Blood sprayed out with a sickening crack as the blow sent her plummeting straight back the way she came.

"HCK!?" Rather than having quite an intimate reunion with land though, the original Naruto caught the falling spy by the neck mid-fall whilst his airborne clone dispelled. A choking gasp slipped from her lips as fingers clasping tightly around her throat before she was slammed bodily into the ground.

"So…" Naruto stared the whitette dead in the eye, sitting on her waist, pinning her arms with his knees, and tapping his middle finger against her neck with his nail lightly scraping against her adam's apple. Meanwhile, Lupe and Sally flanked either side, the former with her spear poised to strike and the latter aiming her slingshot at the bat's head. "Want me to say 'please' again?"

…

"…Hehehehe," You could only imagine the trio's surprise when their captive started to laugh despite her situation, her voice lighter and more nasally thanks no doubt to a broken nose. Before they could ask what she thought was so funny though, the batty mobian raised her hands up as much as she could in surrender. "Alright, you got me handsome, I give."

Her jovialness caused Naruto, Sally, and Lupe to share a mix of confused and suspicious looks, unsure of how to take her surrender. However, seeing as she was incapacitated and unarmed, the latter two reluctantly lowered their weapons, but kept them at the ready just in case.

"Then how about you answer the question, who are you and why were you spying on us?" Lupe asked sternly, her frown growing deeper when their prisoner kept giggling to herself.

"Technically that's two questions sweetie but I digress, the name is Rouge, Treasure Hunter extraordinaire and jewel enthusiast," If she could, Naruto had a feeling the now named Rouge would have bowed in some dramatic way. Being pinned to the ground though, she opted instead to give a flirtatious smile, or at least the best she could with blood pouring across her lips. "As for your other question, I was merely investigating rumors of a possible score in the area when I noticed you all coming in. Treasure hunting can be rather competitive as you can imagine, so can you blame me for being curious about some strangers poking around?"

"Hmm…" Naruto's gaze bore into Rouge's, looking for any sign of deceit from the self-proclaimed treasure hunter as she spoke. The problem was she had one hell of a poker face, even better than his sensei Kakashi which was saying a lot considering you could only see that man's eye. He just couldn't get a read on her no matter how hard he tried and, based on the smug look she was giving him, they both knew it.

"If you were just passing through like you said then how do you know who I am?" Thankfully Sally was able to reel in his slack with a question of her own, getting the bat's attention to turn with her.

"Please darling, that little dye job of yours might fool your average schmuck but I can spot when a diamond is pretending to be quartz," Rouge stated with a small scoff, almost sounding a little insulted for a moment, before just as quickly grinning once more as her gaze drifted downwards a little. "And some free advice, I'd suggest you try using that voice changer of yours properly instead of having it set on just a simple vocal frequency scrambler. You never know if more than Robotnik's toys are out and about."

"Noted." The disguised redhead said with an irritated look, more at herself than Rouge, before she reached into her neckerchief and pulling out a small device that was stuck to the bald patch of her neck. Flat, circular, and about the size of a Ryo coin, the voice changer was made mostly of a transparent plastic that was sticky on one side with tiny circuits interlaced within.

While she started to fiddle with it, Lupe knelt beside Naruto so she could stare the bat in the eyes. "What is this score you spoke of?"

"Why ask a question when you obviously know what the answer is already?" Rouge asked back tauntingly, earned herself the tip of the wolf's spear pressed against her chin. "It's the same thing you're here for no doubt, Lacum dea oblitus, the ancient sacred worshipping grounds of the Wolf Pack. I heard it'd only appear when the canyon flooded without rain so when word got out about this," The bat gestured to the salty floods. "I figured it'd be worth investigating. Sacred grounds often lead to sacred treasures after all."

"Treasures that would rightfully belong to my people, not a thief like you." Lupe stated with a stern glare as she withdrew her spear.

"Thief is such an ugly word, I merely find valuables, not my fault if they happen to belong to someone else," The whitette said. "Besides, I didn't think anyone eould miss a few trinkets since last I heard the Wolf Pack had been driven to extinction."

"Well you heard wrong."

"Clearly," Rouge's confident look never wavered even when Lupe glowered at her dangerously, the raven haired canine's hand clenching around the pole of her weapon so tightly the wood started to groan. However, before more words could be traded, the bat turned back to the young man currently holding her down as she smiled flirtatiously. "Now then, seeing as we've gotten introductions out of the way, what say you let me up handsome? Unless you've got other plans with me that is~."

'Other plans?' Naruto repeated to himself with a raised brow, before shrugging it off…

"Oh!"

And slipping the hand around Rouge's neck right down the front of her suit.

The treasure hunter's seemingly unflappable confidence finally shattered the moment she felt his fingers wriggling under her clothes. Her eyes widened in surprise before shivering as the whiskered teen roughly felt around all over, nearly popping off her chest piece.

"Naruto!?" She wasn't the only one caught off guard either as Sally's jaw dropped straight to the ground in disbelief at what Naruto was doing. Once the shock wore off the chipmunk grabbed the blonde by the arm and tried to pull it free. "What are you doing? You're-"

"Checking her for hidden weapons." He cut her off, his hand slipping back out to reveal several tiny spherical devices clutched in it, one popping free from the sudden movement. Upon impact with the ground the little gadget suddenly grew to the size of a walnut while the emblem of a pink heart started blinking with a soft beeping sound.

Eyes widening, Lupe quickly smacked it away with her spear, knocking it into a nearby crevice just before it burst into pink smoke.

"Ah, good ol smoke bombs, classic," Naruto said with a chuckle while setting the rest down much more carefully before turning back to Sally with a cocked brow. "So yeah, checking for weapons. Is that a problem?"

"Oh, no, no, that's fine… it's just… I thought that uh… well it… nevermind." The princess mumbled out out, letting go and awkwardly clearing her throat, unable to look directly at the blonde.

"So can I continue then?"

"Oh please do~" Rouge purred out before Sally could respond, a sultry laugh escaping her blood covered lips and batting her eyes playfully. "It's been too long since I've dealt with someone so… confident~ and brazen~."

"Okay…" 'And people say I'm the weirdo.' Naruto thought with an eyeroll, not understanding what the big deal was as he started digging around inside the bat's uniform again.

Sure, he wouldn't just stick his hand in a girl's clothes like this normally, both for decency reasons and the fact he'd get beaten senseless for being a pervert. But from what he'd seen so far clothing was pretty much optional in this world seeing as more than half the people he'd met walked around mostly if not completely naked. Case in point was Sally herself, who only wore an open vest, the neckerchief that he'd given her, and boots.

So why the sudden freakout?

'Bah, doesn't matter what dimension I'm in, I'll never understand women.' The blonde shrugged the conundrum off and instead focused on frisking the bat girl trapped between his legs. A task that was not made easy by her constant squirming and giggling along with the occasional breathy moan. "Hold still dammit, you're just making this more difficult for the both of us."

"Of course I am, I may be playful darling but I've never been easy."

"Well how about you make it easy? Otherwise, this'll just be a lot more unpleasant than it has to be."

"How about you buy me dinner first, then we talk."

"If you're hungry then how about a nice gag sandwich with extra duct tape topping?"

"Oh~ sounds fun~."

'…I honestly can't tell if he's doing this intentionally or not.' Sally and Lupe unknowingly thought at the same time as they watched Naruto and Rouge trade verbal barbs the whole time he searched her. Speaking of, it was almost as confounding to the pair just how many things the treasure hunter had stuffed in the nooks and crannies of her outfit.

The blonde found various types of explosives, a couple of knives, a lockpicking set, gem appraisal gear, a laser pointer, an actual laser-laser pointer that almost singed his eyebrow off, a map of the canyon, a history book of the canyon, and even a full set of archeology equipment. It took almost ten minutes before he finally found everything she had, the last being a radio of some kind tucked inside one of her gloves.

Placing it with the heap of other things he confiscated, Naruto gave Rouge one last look over… before standing up. "Alright, you're free to go."

"Oh really? Just like that?" Rouge asked, a mix of amusement and surprise in her voice even as she slowly picked herself off the ground. However, that soon turned to discomfort as she used one hand to pinch her nose to staunch the bleeding and rubbed her back with the other.

"I'm with her, you're just letting her go Naruto?" An equally confused Sally muttered to the blonde with a raised brow while he dusted his legs off.

"Yes, yes I am."

"And you're sure that's a good idea?"

"Probably not," Naruto admitted with a shrug. "But she's unarmed, outnumbered, and as far as I can tell is telling the truth."

"You can add grounded to the list as well." Rouge chipped in as she got up, wobbling a little before getting her bearings and unfurling her wings, or trying to that is. Whilst one was able to stretch out just fine the other was crumpled up, like a piece of paper that had been crushed into a ball then poorly smoothed out.

Fortunately, it didn't seem broken, but it was clear that she wouldn't be taking to the skies again any time soon.

"Right, anyway, she's no threat to us so I don't see why we need to keep her prisoner, do you?" The whiskered ninja asked his fellow orange clad companion.

"Hm… fair enough." Sally conceded after mulling it over for a moment, not seeing anything wrong with Naruto's reasoning.

"I agree as well little brother," Lupe nodded her head, making Naruto deadpan and Rouge snicker at the 'little brother' part, before she stared at the latter with a piercing gaze. "You'd best be on your way. Take your stuff and leave, thief."

"Aw, wanting me to go so soon?" The bat gal asked with a coy smirk while letting go of her nose, which had finally stopped bleeding. "And here I thought we were starting to get along."

"Then you have a very weird idea of what getting along is like." Naruto muttered, unable to help himself from rolling his eyes as he went back to the original problem on hand, the giant ass crab. A puff of smoke rolled off him yet again, quickly clearing to reveal the Kubikiribōchō once more clasped in his hands.

"I can also save you some trouble," Rather than leaving, Rouge sauntered up to the blonde, paying no mind to the suspicious look she got from Sally nor the irritated one from Lupe. Idly running her fingers against the flat of Naruto's sword, gently pushing it away as she slipped in close to his side and nodded to the large crustacean. "There is more to Crabby down there than just size."

"Such as?" Naruto asked, not taking his eyes off the crab yet keeping the treasure hunter in his peripherals. She wasn't a threat but that didn't mean he trusted her yet.

"To put simply it's smart and fast, probably watching us right now waiting for us to get close to the water again as we speak. And it can heal quickly so even if you manage to hurt it it'll just hide in its shell until it recovers, which by the way is several feet of solid basalt."

"And how exactly do you know all of this?" Lupe asked, well more demanded, as she kept eyeing the whitette carefully.

"Because I've been here for almost a week trying to figure out how to get past it," Rouge admitted with a shrug. "From what I can tell the entrance to this goddess den should be somewhere underneath our hard-shelled friend here. Unfortunately, it's not too keen on getting out of the way, not even when I tried to… coax it away with a few pyrotechnics. Blew one of its claws clean off and it just tucked in away for an hour or so until it recovered."

"You're being strangely forthwith about this information, thief," The raven-haired canine stated bluntly, her tone clearly accusing as she flexed her grip on the handle of her spear. It baffled her how casual the self-proclaimed treasure hunter was being despite literally just getting beat down. "Why?"

"Just can't slip one past you, can I?" Smiling coyly, the bat lady playfully twirled a lock of her hair. "It's simple really, I'd like to offer a pro-"

"Get some distance."

"-posal, huh?" Rouge, Sally, and Lupe blinked in almost perfect sync when they heard Naruto utter those words. None of them could ask what he meant though as the whiskered teen's legs tensed before he leapt high into the air. They had to crane their heads back just to see him, the bat giving an impressed whistle at the now tiny speck in the darkening skies. "I saw he was fast, but that boy really has a set of legs on him."

"That he does." Sally agreed with a small nod while pulling out some binoculars to see the airborne blonde better. However, she could only catch a few fleeting glimpses as Naruto deftly jumped higher and higher by creating clones to use as launchpads.

"So, any idea why your friend is sending himself a few thousand feet in the air?" Rouge asked curiously, leaning in close to the disguised princess, only to get roughly pushed back by Lupe. "Whoa, easy there, no need to be so hostile."

"And there is no need for you to stay here, you were told to leave." The ravenette rebutted as she glowered at the bat coldly.

"Touche, but as I was trying to say a moment ago, I have a pro-"

"Uh guys," Sally unintentionally cut Rouge off, much to said whitette's irritation, dropping her binoculars and slowly stepping backwards. "We might want to start running, like right now."

""…Why?"" The bickering duo asked at the same time as they simultaneously looked to the sky, while Sally bolted.

-Up in the air, thirty seconds earlier-

Naruto was just reaching the peak of his latest jump, slowly coming to a stop until it seemed like he was almost floating in the air. From here he could see almost the entire canyon with the flooded crevice glistening under the last dying rays of sunlight. It was a simple yet beautifully serene view that the teen just couldn't help but take a moment to admire.

Once he felt gravity begin to drag him back down though, he wasted no time creating yet another clone. However, instead of jumping off it like the rest, Naruto had his duplicate grab him by the back of the shirt before it started spinning them both around.

Faster and faster and faster until…

-Ground-

"Oh, that's why…" Lupe muttered just as the clone flung its creator straight back down at incredible velocity sword first. Faster than she could blink Naruto crossed the distance and slammed into the exposed part of the giant crab.

The deafening scrape of metal grinding against stone rang out upon impact as the whiskered teen's sword pierced right through the basalt shell. This was followed swiftly by a tremendous blast that sent all the water flying out in a huge tidal wave that towered over the walls of the canyon.

…

"Yeah, I should have bailed when I had the chance." Rouge muttered with a deadpan just before the wave crashed down on her, Lupe, and a still fleeing Sally.

-Later-

Inside the recess of a nearby cave there was what used to be a well set up camp site, now reduced to a sodden mess. Puddles of muddy water were everywhere while even more water was slowly dripping from the stalactites, filling the cavern with the echoing rhythm of the drops hitting the ground.

Over by a large pink and black tent, we find equally sodden (and very grumpy) looking Sally, Lupe, and Rouge sitting on log seats. Their clothes were all strung up on a rope to drip dry behind them while the trio had towels that Naruto had thankfully kept on hand, though only Sally was using it to dry herself with. The other two simply opted to wrap the cloth around their waists, though Rouge had to be more careful due to her crumpled wing.

Speaking of which, said blonde was on the other side of the cave, smiling sheepishly as he stood beside a roaring fire pit with a giant crab claw roasting on a spit.

"You know, some warning would have been appreciated little brother." Lupe stated dryly while unbraiding her hair so she could brush out the silt and muck that had gotten tangled within.

"I told you to get some distance…" Naruto mumbled in his own defense, though all this did was earn him more annoyed looks. "And come on, its not like you guys had to deal with the guts and goop, right?"

-Meanwhile-

"This stinks, stupid boss making us do all the dirty work," A clone of Naruto grumbled as he and several other copies worked on moving the gory mess that used to be a giant crab out of the now empty canyon, gradually revealing a tunnel that'd been hidden underneath. Thankfully the thing's blood was as glowy as its shell so there was still ample light to work around despite it being so late. However, as the clone picked up a chunk of the creature's broken shell, a deluge of fluorescent blood, organs, and other such slop came falling out of it right on top of him. "…Fuck you boss."

-Back to the Cave-

"Well how about next time you elaborate just a little bit more before doing something like that?" This time it was Sally who spoke, pulling the towel off her head as she was talking to reveal her with red hair and brown fur once more. Sadly, while the dye she'd used was supposed to have been waterproof it seemed that it had not been tested with salt water in mind as the coloration oozed off her with every drop. Wiping off some that was getting in her eyes, the redhead glowered at the impression of her face left in the cloth. "Great, so much for keeping a low profile."

"I don't see why you gotta be so dramatic, just redo it." Naruto said with a quirked brow, making Sally roll her eyes in exasperation.

"Oh sure, just slap it on like some blush and lipstick. Why don't you do it if it's so easy?"

"Okay, sure." Naruto shrugged before he created a clone to keep turning the spit while he walked over to Sally's side.

"And for that matter-Wait, what?" The redhead started to say, only to cut herself off when she realized what the blonde had said. By then though Naruto had already gotten behind her, cracking his knuckles before reaching into his kunai pouch and pulling out a small scroll, one barely the size of his pinkie with the kanji for 'hide' scrawled on the side.

Unfurling it with the usual puff of smoke, the otherworldly boy caught an old paint bucket with a few bottles, tarp brushes, and other miscellaneous things heaped inside.

"Try not to squirm too much," He said after setting the bucket down and plucking out one of the bottles. "This stuff stings like hell if it gets in your eyes."

Before Sally could even react, Naruto grabbed her by the shoulder with his free hand and pulled her into the tent, zipping it closed.

"Hold one a-Hey! Watch where you are putting your hands! What even is this stuff? …Hello? Are you listening to me Naruto? I said-"

"And done." Not even thirty seconds later, the tent unzipped and Naruto casually strolled out while wiping some black stuff off his hands with a rag. However, when Sally came back out Lupe's jaw dropped and Rouge's eyebrows went straight up at the sight of her.

The chipmunk girl now looked almost perfectly like a skunk, with most of her body dyed a dark grey aside from her face, and belly, which was a stark white instead. Meanwhile, her hair was a polar opposite, being almost entirely white with black highlights and a single solid black stripe that framed the left side of her face.

"Whoa…" They weren't the only ones amazed either as Sally kept gawking at herself, patting her hands all over her body as if checking it was real. "How'd you do this?"

"I told you, I'm a ninja," The whiskered teen stated proudly, dismissing his clone as he took over turning the spit again. "Whipping up disguises fast and on the fly was one of the first things they taught at the academy. Well… the first I really bothered to actually pay attention to anyway."

"Oh… that makes sense… I guess…"

"It's certainly a good look for you, your hind-ness." Rouge said with a smirk, making Naruto snicker softly and snapping Sally out of her amazement as she turned to give the bat a dry look.

"Oh ha ha very clever, come up with that one yourself?" The once more disguised princess asked dully. "Better yet why are you still here? Normally when someone gets their face smashed in and then told to go away, they go away."

"At what point did I come off as 'normal' to you princess?" Smirking, Rouge hopped from her seat and up several feet in the air, flipping across the cavern before nimbly landing on Naruto's shoulder. The blonde raised a brow at this but otherwise didn't react to the additional weight, not even when she snuggled in closer and laid an arm atop his head to prop up her head. "And besides, do you really want me gone?"

"Yes, we do." Lupe stated without hesitation.

"Wasn't asking you wolfy," The treasure hunter said as she waved her free hand in a mocking 'bye bye' motion towards the tribal wolf. She then brought said hand to Naruto's cheek, gently tracing one of his whiskers as her smirk grew more seductive in nature. "So what say you handsome? You don't mind if I stick around a bit, right?"

"You're going to stay whether I say yes or no, aren't you?" The whiskered teen asked back, making Rouge giggle as she nodded.

"Of course, there's still treasure to be found around these parts."

A growl emanated through the cavern, courtesy of Lupe while she grabbed her spear. "If you think for even a second that I will allow a thief like you anywhere near my people's heritage you are sorely mistaken."

Once again, all the angry wolf's words did was make the bat preen as she rested her chin atop Naruto's head. "You say that now, yet you haven't even heard what I have to offer."

"And pray tell, what exactly would that be?"

"Oh nothing much, just some important information I may have stumbled upon in my research of Lacum dea oblitus," Rouge said while she playfully fiddled with Naruto's ear. "Something you will need to know, and you will… if you're willing to listen to my proposal that is~."

-End Chapter-

AN: Hope you all have a happy holiday and enjoyed the new chapter.

To answer a few questions

Naruto not realizing how sexual Rouge was acting: As explained, Naruto doesn't see it because his first impressions on Mobians has given him the idea that things like clothing are optional, so he doesn't realize the immodesty of his actions. It also has made him desensitized to mobian seduction, which alongside the fact they are different species (and he's dense as a rock) he doesn't register anything Rouge said or did as sexual.

Why Rouge stuck around: A, she never gives upon gems, B, she wants to learn more about Naruto's abilities, and C, she can't fly so she's very vulnerable

Why Naruto doesn't care about her staying: again, as stated, he doesn't see her as a threat, so as long as she stays not a threat he doesn't care about what she does.

Thanks for reading and please leave a review.