Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Naruto or Digimon franchises. Comments/Criticism is fine as long as it isn't straight up hate or flaming. If you do not like, no one is forcing you to read and you can just leave.
Thank you for reading and please enjoy
The Hybrid Tamer
-Chapter 8-
-Last Time-
Without speaking a word, Tsunade passed her Sake bottle over to Shizune, who immediately started drinking heavily from it, and started bashing her head into the desk repeatedly. The cause of all this, a picture showing Naruto with a sheepish grin on his face as he showed off his new arm for the camera along with five words written at the bottom.
'Things just got more complicated'
-And Now, Park-
In the same clearing as last time, Naruto and Renamon stood several yards across from each-other with the former stretching and the latter standing in her signature casual battle stance. While Renamon looked the same, Naruto now wore a black denim jacket. Meanwhile on the sidelines, Rika sat crossed-legged while shifting through a stack of her digimon cards with a critical eye. Occasionally she would pull one of them out and setting it into one of two smaller stacks on either side of herself.
"Hope you're ready, cause this time I'm going all out." Naruto said with an excited grin as he rotated the wrist of his new arm, causing the joint to crack softly.
Renamon rolled her eyes before giving a dismissive shrug. "You were not the only one holding back last time, I will not be making that mistake this time." She stated, keeping up a façade of casual dismission and confidence while internally she was slightly nervous. Unlike any of the digimon she'd fought in the past, Naruto had the speed to keep up with her easily, thus negating her normal maneuverability advantage and the strength to both withstand the digital fox's blows and strike right back.
Not only that, but his raw stamina and endurance exceeded hers by a large margin, meaning she couldn't use her usual strategy of tricking her opponent into wearing themselves out before going in for the finishing blow. Her only feasible plan at the moment would be to take Naruto down fast before she became too tired herself.
However, even that had problems as she only had a very vague idea of what her opponent's full skill set was based on her last fight with him and his memories, but what she did know hinted that he had a very large number of tricks up his sleeve, especially now that he had two arms again. On the other hand, her only trump cards were her Diamond Storm and whatever digi-modifications Rika used on her.
Speaking of which, said red-head finally finished what she was doing and put the large stack of cards in her card case before grabbing the smaller ones as she stood up. Walking up to Naruto, she hesitated for a brief moment before handing him one of the stacks.
"Here, they're basic boosting, recovery, and equipment cards so if anything goes wrong it shouldn't be too bad." Rika told him, receiving a nod of understanding in response as the blond quickly looked over the cards before pocketing them. This spar would also be the first time they tested if the unusual digivice Naruto now had would be able to digi-modify like Rika's so it was better to be safe than sorry. Though the tomboy had to give him a thorough explanation on both the game itself and how the cards worked first.
With her piece done, Rika walked back to the sidelines while pulling out her digivice and a smirk on her lips. Unlike Renamon, Rika had the utmost confidence that her partner would come out victorious this time since she was there now. "Let's get this going then." She said impatiently, making Naruto chuckle as he pocketed the cards and Renamon to simply nod her head.
-Insert Battle Music-
The two fighters vanished in a blur of movement, and in less than a second reappeared right in front of each-other. Both immediately started throwing, blocking, and deflecting punches and kicks, with each solid impact creating a small shockwave that caused Rika to stumble slightly before managing to stabilize herself.
It remained a completely equal exchange of attacks for several seconds, but soon enough the inevitable happened and one of them slipped up. In this case it was Naruto as he overcommitted to a punch that Renamon dodged, leaving him wide open to the knee she embedded into his stomach swiftly followed by a backhand that sent him tumbling backwards.
"…ow," Naruto grunted as he stood back up and shook off his disorientation. "Did you just bitch slap m-OOF!" He was cut off mid-sentence as Renamon punched him in the chest several times, making him rise off the ground and 'float' for a brief few seconds, then ended the combo with a powerful drop kick that sent him straight into the dirt.
"Yes, yes I did." She answered his unfinished question with a small smirk as she gazed at his downed form. Said smirk was quickly wiped off her face however as Naruto suddenly shot upwards and blindsided her with a headbutt to her lower jaw. Badly dazed and disoriented, she stumbled back several steps until she ended up tripping over her own tail and falling to the ground.
Before she even had a chance to recover, Naruto grabbed one of her legs with a slightly bloody grin and started spinning extremely fast. Renamon tried to free herself by kicking at her opponent with her free leg but kept missing thanks to her rapidly building nausea and double vision. Just as she was certainly about to hurl however, her flight came to a sudden and very painful end when Naruto leapt into the air while turning sideways. This resulted in her smashing into the ground with enough momentum to leave a decently sized crater.
Rather dizzy from that maneuver himself, Naruto stumbled around drunkenly before plopping down on his ass and covering his mouth as his face turned a sickly green. *Urp* "I'm never… doing that… again." He groaned, swallowing the bile building up in his throat as he waited for the world to stop moving.
Renamon wasn't much better as she slowly pushed herself up, coughing out a mouthful of dirt, blood, and even a few teeth in the process. 'Damn it, shouldn't have let my guard down.' She thought while shaking her head to clear up the cobwebs in her mind.
-Pause Music-
"Is that seriously it, you both get a little dizzy and you're done. Pathetic." Rika said with a huff before going through the cards in her hand, thus missing the annoyed looks both Naruto and Renamon sent at her. Finding the card she wanted, Rika was just about to swipe it through her digivice when she felt something cold and metallic press against her neck, making her freeze up and drop her card.
"As Tsunade-baachan would say, don't talk shit unless you can back it up." Naruto's voice said as an almost perfect doppelganger of the blond revealed himself behind her with a kunai held at Rika's throat. The only discernable difference between him and the Naruto currently on the field being that he lacked a digivice in his foxified arm. "Now how about you stop acting all and mighty for once and actually act like a partner for Renamon as she and boss fight. Unless you'd like to go out there and show her how it's done." He suggested sarcastically before backing off and disappearing in a puff of smoke.
Visibly shaken, Rika unconsciously rubbed her neck where the kunai was before looking towards the real Naruto with anger and just a touch of fear. Crouching, she quickly scooped up the dropped card and ran it through the scanner of her digivice with a small flash of static.
"Digi-Modify: Hyper Speed Activate!"
At this point, both Naruto and Renamon had mostly recovered, but had been more focused on the interaction between Rika and the Kage Bunshin Naruto had discreetly made to watch over her in case one of their attacks went astray than going back to fighting. But now, as Renamon felt a surge of energy rush through her body as the effects activated, her focus immediately switched back to Naruto as she once again blurred out of sight.
-Resume Battle Music-
With her boosted speed, Renamon was on top of Naruto in the blink of an eye with her fist held high. However much to her surprise, just before her fist could acquaint itself with his skull, the blonde's normal hand shot up and caught her wrist.
"Yeah… not getting me the same way twice." Naruto said before socking her snout.
Head snapping back with a snarl, Renamon caught Naruto of guard by using her still grabbed hand as leverage to pull him close to herself. The fox digimon then proceeded to wrap her arms and legs tightly around the blond, pinning his arms to his sides and unbalancing him enough that they toppled over… again.
"Give up." She said, using all of her strength to hold Naruto as he desperately tried to break free. However, instead of a look of annoyance or defeat, Renamon was surprised at the sight of Naruto's wide grin. Before she could demand what he was smiling about though, she felt his furred palm press against her stomach and she just managed to see a familiar flash.
"Digi-modify…" Naruto started as his hand was incased in a bright glow before morphing into a black and grey cannon. "…Armor activate. Enjoy your flight." He said cheekily as the cannon fired off a blast of concussive air that sent Renamon flying off of the blonde and into the tree line.
Standing up and dusting himself off, Naruto paused to watch in fascination as his hand turned back to normal. "Well, at least that one works." He commented while putting the card he used away. He then flexed his reformed fingers in curiosity until he heard the soft thump of Renamon landing back in the clearing.
Looking towards her, he barely held back a snicker from not only numerous twigs and leaves now stuck in her fur, but also at the very angry bird pecking at her from its nest currently situated on top her head. It's 'assault' didn't last long though as Renamon simply flicked her head, launching both bird and nest into the air and landing perfectly in another tree, because she was just that good.
"Digi-Modify: Knightmon's Holy Blade!" Rika called out as a massive gold and grey buster sword formed in Renamon's grasp and leaving Naruto blinking in shock.
'Huh, déjà vu.' Was all he had time to think before bending almost ninety degrees backwards to avoid the horizontal slice. "Oi! Ain't this getting a little too extreme for a spar?" He asked with a raised eyebrow while dodging several slow but very powerful slashes. When he received no response besides a sudden stab that sliced into his side and came dangerously close to turning him into a shinobi-kabob though, Naruto decided enough was enough.
Dashing along the inside of the extended blade before Renamon could recover from her over extension, he grabbed onto the guard with one hand and used the other to punch the fox digimon in the face again. Then, when her grip slackened around the sword's handle, he pulled it free and promptly bashed her over the head with the flat of the blade.
-End Battle Music-
Renamon groaned as the spots cleared from her vision, a hand rising to her aching head as she started to sit up, only to feel the sharp point of her own weapon dig lightly into her chest. Naruto stood over her with the Knightmon sword pointed right at her and a stern expression on his face as he held his bleeding side.
"…that went too far." He said coldly before stepping back and tossing the blade away. It ended up embedded into a tree just a few feet away from Rika, who was shaking slightly as she stared at Naruto's injury, and disperse back into harmless data.
Without another word, Naruto turned away from them and marched away with a slight limp.
Neither Rika or Renamon tried to stop him as they were both caught up in their own thoughts at that moment. Renamon was irritated with herself as in her excitement of the fight, she had reverted to her usual thought process during a battle and had instinctually gone for the kill. Rika on the other hand was caught on the fact that in her anger toward Naruto, she was almost the accomplice to a murder. Killing digimon was one thing, they were just collections of data that were made for fighting, in her opinion at least, but Naruto was human, or mostly human.
Just the thought of it, mixed with the sight of his injury and flashes from that night, ended up turning her stomach enough and before she knew it, the redhead found herself puking her guts out in a conveniently placed bush.
-With Naruto-
The orange loving blonde kept walking for several minutes, his anger towards Rika and Renamon simmering down a tiny bit as the adrenaline in his system burnt out. Unfortunately, this also meant the bleeding gash in his waist was really starting to hurt like a bitch, forcing him to stumble over to a nearby bench and sit down with a hiss.
Careful to keep the pressure on the wound, Naruto fished around inside his jacket pockets before pulling out a small scroll with a green cord around it. 'Thanks baa-chan.' He thought while opening it. Tsunade had sent this scroll to him via summon in the very likely case he ended up getting hurt somehow.
With a quick application of chakra and a puff a smoke, he unsealed a large medkit and popped it open. Pulling out a few bandages and gauze, Naruto lifted his shirt and jacket up, exposing the slowly closing gash and started patching himself up. Due to his focus being solely on what he was doing however, the blond was completely ignorant towards his surroundings, including the brunette woman that just walked into the area and was currently staring at him in shock.
This woman was Nami Asaji, a teacher at Yodobashi Elementary School despite her hatred of teaching, who was skipping her own class as she had needed a break from those little bastards. Having thought a nice relaxing park would be just the thing she needed to unwind, she instead found herself watching as an unknown blond boy about the same age as her students patched up a nasty looking cut with the casualness of taking care of a small scrape.
By the time she finally snapped out of her shock, Naruto had finished with the bandages and was putting everything away. It wasn't until he was just about to seal the kit away again when he heard someone calling out to him. "Hey! Are you okay? What happened?" Nami asked with concern as she hurried over.
His gaze snapping over to the woman, Naruto mentally smacked himself for being careless while also thankful that his jacket mostly hid his arm from sight. "Oh, uh yeah I'm fine. Just had a small mishap while I was jogging." He said, using the first excuse that came to mind at the time.
Nami looked at the boy skeptically, she'd dealt with enough kids to tell when one was lying to her but decided to let it go for now since he didn't seem too badly hurt. And since he seemed well enough for the moment, she decided to ask another important question. "Alright, then how about you explain to me what you're doing out of school young man." She may hate teaching, but she sure didn't tolerate kids skipping school.
…Even if that was supremely hypocritical of her at this point.
As soon as the question left her lips, Naruto stiffened up and began sweating heavily. 'CRAP! I forgot about that!' Unlike Konoha, kids his age still had to be in school in this place. "Uh, well you see, er," He said nervously, cowering slightly under the Iruka-like stare the woman was giving him. Thinking fast, Naruto pointed in a random direction and yelled. "Look! A distraction!" causing Nami to look away long enough for him to make a ram seal.
Just as the teacher realized she'd been punked with one of the oldest tricks in the book, she found herself jumping in surprise as a sudden burst of smoke enveloped her. Coughing, she waved her hand to clear it and, as she expected, the boy was no longer around.
"Smoke bombs? Really? Great, now I have to deal with a ninja wannabe." Nami groaned, walking off to go and enjoy her… day off. If she had looked down, the brunette would have noticed a small blonde fox with blue eyes with a bandaged side looking up at her with mischievous glint in its eye as it followed her.
'Wannabe ninja am i?'
-End Chapter-
AN: Fun Fact: Nami Asaji, Takato's homeroom teacher, does in act hate teaching in canon, and only is a teacher to make herself look good in the community. For those expecting a Humon? update, the next chapter for that story isn't finished yet so I posted this instead.
As for Rika, Naruto, and Renamon's reactions during the spar, Rika in the beginning of the season had a habit of badmouthing Renamon even if she won a fight, but at the same time, tended to react harshly whenever someone would talk down towards her or when under stress (IE the fact Renamon was more than just Data or when Icedevimon kidnapped her).
Renamon is used to fighting other digimon to the death, plain and simple. To her, it would likely be difficult to remember to hold herself back, even during a spar, as that is what she is used to. The only reason this didn't happen last time was that she had underestimated Naruto and by the time she was fully ready to take him serious he had already worn her out a good bit.
Naruto holds a strong respect for Renamon after his first fight, though that has dropped a bit due to her recent actions, and doesn't like others dissing him thus wouldn't stand for Rika's rude criticism like Renamon did in canon. Thanks for reading and please review.