~NRK~
The visit to the medical wing came with… interesting results.
"Damn, that bad?" Arnette asked with a wince as the group was shown the blonde's x-ray. "What did you do again?"
"I rotated the energy around my wrist at super fast speeds…" Naruto considered the image of his shattered wrist. "Yeah. Like I told you all, Freezing Energy tries to condense on its own so when I added rotation-"
"It made it condense more," Chiffon considered with a frown as she grimaced at the blonde's wrist. "What's the situation with Naruto-kun, Dr. Schmitz?"
"It's… well, you told me that he was using his healing skill on his wrist the entire time… and I'm inclined to believe you but that means the damage was worse than this," the group collectively winced. "It's good to know that Naruto-kun can even heal this, somewhat, but it's really bad. This is gonna take a while to heal even with the technology we have. Thankfully, your healing skill also makes this simpler."
"Well, that's nice to hear," Naruto said as he looked at his forearm and hand, the entire portions covered in bandages and a brace. "Well, this'll make training problematic."
"Hmph, you should probably focus on non-bodily strenuous activity. This wound is a bit worse than your others… somehow," the doctor said with a shake of the head. "You surprise me in the worst of ways, Naruto-kun."
"Y-Yeah, sorry," Naruto said with a shaky laugh as he got up. "Right, no physical exercises."
"Nor ones that stress your arm."
"Nor ones that hurt my arm," he repeated as Rana chuckled. "Alright, alright. So, anything else, Doc?"
"Hmm, painkillers," she said as she got up and removed some from a cabinet near her desk before passing it to the blonde. "Those are specialized painkillers made by an old colleague of mine. Hm, hm, he had an odd understanding of how energy and medicine interacted."
"Thanks. Tell this guy thanks, too," Naruto said as the group made their departure. "See whenever I see ya, Elize-hakase."
Elize chuckled as they left, humming in thought as she was reminded of the said man with the sight of the painkillers.
'I wonder what Obito-kun is doing? Well, Su-Na's with him so it can't be too dangerous.'
~NRK~
Obito sat in his room that he shared with his Pandora. Dressed in some black shorts and a blue shirt, he sat on the edge of his bed with his elbows on his knees and his hands holding his forehead.
'I shouldn't be surprised that Naruto is making waves even here,' he considered with a chuckle before running his hands through his hair. 'It's been close to a week, what am I considering?' Obito had several options.
Option number one was to just not do ANYTHING. It wasn't really his business what Naruto did and neither was his… but he was worried about what'd happen if things became entangled.
Gengo was a man of much brilliance but the scientist's view on things could be considered 'Only I can make the right choices' more often than not.
He considered what he knew and saw his choices as the correct ones and Obito wouldn't strip the man of that.
The information he'd learned from him had put things in an odd picture. The world at large was in danger of something that couldn't be called normal danger were the Nova to succeed. A forced evolution into emotionless beings? Yeah, Obito had WAY TOO MUCH experience with trying to pull off such an idea and it was terrifying.
The Transcendent Will, the so-called 'beginning' of the universe, was a concept that sought this line of evolution… and Obito didn't understand why that seemed to be the case.
What was this will? Did it have a conscience? A mind filled with thoughts? He didn't know and that thought was confusing.
He'd been shown, by her, what was established by it and yet he didn't understand.
Why make all things but then try to return them back to nothingness… and, if that was the case…
Why was it that only living beings were being targeted?
The door to the room opened to reveal Su-Na Lee, his friend, his partner, his Pandora, in a white skirt and a long-sleeved dark blue top with the Uchiha fan on the back.
It should be noted that was his clothing.
"Everything alright?" She asked him as she came in and took a seat next to him, leaning on his shoulder with her eyes closed. "Something you want to talk about?"
"... Just considering the situation again," he explained as his arm wrapped around her waist, holding her close. "I'm trying to see if I can't understand the concept of this Transcendental Will and find the break in the logic. You've told me before," Obito said softly as he kissed her on the crown of her head, getting a hold around his arm and hum from Su-Na. "If this thing is trying to send Nova to destroy things, humans, then what's the end goal? Surely, there has to be a reason it's trying to send us, basically, back to the state of being pure energy. I just can't understand what's the point."
"Hmm… Is it truly something people can understand?" She asked him. "This thing… I don't truly understand it, either, but isn't that also just another facet of the situation?"
"Well, it would be if Gengo hadn't literally interacted with it," he said with a snort. "That means that it can be… 'contacted', interacted with, something that can be 'met' can be understood, that's what I believe," Obito said intently as she looked up at him with a blush as he chuckled. "Remind you of someone?"
Su-Na pouted at him before his lips became hers and, soon enough, their bed creaked as Obito hovered over her.
"You're a tease."
"Yup."
Two hours later, the two were in the kitchen. Gengo was out at the moment, leaving them alone.
"What are you considering?" She asked as she removed a pineapple from the fridge. "Some kind of cake?"
"You read my mind," he said with a smile as he pulled some flour out of the wall-closet. "I think I can make it taste like alcohol so he doesn't drink as much again," Obito said with a smirk as Su-Na giggled a bit.
Then their phones dinged, getting blinks from the two.
"..." Their phones were specially-made to not take 'important' calls and texts if they were outside of the home, that was why they weren't aware of Chiffon's file from the Saturday before.
Inside the home, only important texts and calls were allowed noise as well… so this was either Gengo, Chiffon… or her in the training facility and/or them in the home above the way.
"... I hope it's not the last two," Su-Na said with surprising accuracy… well, to those who didn't know all there was about him. "I really do."
"Hmph," Obito came over, put down the flour on the counter, and then pulled out his phone. "I'm thinking it'll be Chiffon. She's been rather active as of late."
Opening it up, and leaning back on the counter so Su-Na could see at her height, Obito blinked at the video link.
Clicking play, he choked as he saw Naruto 'in the flesh' before noting all the other individuals around him.
"That's Satellizer El Bridgette," he noted as Su-Na hummed.
"And Kazuya," Su-Na said with a hum before she frowned as more of the video played. "... Is this what Chiffon was trying to explain?" She considered as they watched the group go all-out versus the dummy Nova. "And this is 50%... that's pretty impressive for people who haven't fought a dummy, much less a Nova, before… Hm?" She raised a brow when the group, minus Satellizer and this 'Genessa' girl. "What?"
"... She did explain that they considered Naruto-kun as someone who could fill many roles," Obito supplied as they watched the group go. "... This is the False Set she meant?" He considered as Rana and the blonde fistbumped before the former gained gold all around her body before Obito noted the astral 'claw'. "?"
They watched it all play out before finding the Finish to the training session with shocking results.
"T-That's!?" Su-Na stared at the destruction wrought by the blonde's 'Finisher'. "... W-What else did she say?"
They skimmed the file's text underneath the video and, the more they did, the more shocked they became.
'I should have known,' Naruto wasn't an idiot per se, he just didn't do good with scholastic learning. 'He's probably the most in-tune with sensory abilities and Natural Energy.'
His own body just did it on its own, making his life complicated, but Naruto likely did these things on purpose and knew how to probe the world around it.
So the fact that he could tell how different the world truly was? That wasn't as surprising the more he thought about it.
"H-He knows it's Soul Energy," Su-Na said with a grimace. "H-How? Sensory abilities… O-Obito-kun?"
"No, I didn't even know he existed before last week," he shook his head at her with a frown as his gaze went to the side. "That said, what do we have to do?"
"Well, telling Mr. Aoi is probably the best course of action," Su-Na said with a grimace as she replayed the last scene on her phone. "... What does this mean?"
"That there are likely more people like myself," Obito answered simply, omitting the full truth. "That said, I didn't think people could figure out this so fast… then again, I don't know when this young man got this ability," which was true.
How long had Naruto known about the true nature of Freezing? Did he know? Chiffon had noted that he seemed to be speculating so maybe he was just coming upon it.
"... We should tell Eugene-kun to keep an eye on things," Obito said as Su-Na nodded. "We'll inform Gengo when he's back from his conference."
~NRK~
The blonde found himself, at night, with Rana.
"You alright?" She asked the bathroom door from the blonde's bed, wearing a pair of white boxers and a black tank top. "Everything okay in there-de arimasu?" Rana reiterated.
"Y-Yeah! Just finishing these… freaking pants!" Naruto said from the bathroom before letting out a sigh of relief. "Got it!" He declared as he came out in some orange pajama pants and a white t-shirt. "I'm good!" He said as Rana giggled.
"Do your parents know we're calling?"
"Yeah, I shot dad a text so he'll be on call," he explained as he came over before flopping onto his bed, sending Rana up before she was back down. "Phewwww… Alright, let's do this," Naruto said with a nod towards his Pandora.
Rana nodded back and opened his phone before clicking on his contacts.
The wireless speaker by the window rang three times before being picked up.
-Hello, you two- came Minato's voice over the phone.
-Hiya!- Came Kushina's. -I hope everything's gone well-
"It has-de arimasu," Rana said with the go-ahead from Naruto. "Though… Naruto-kun shattered his wrist," she admitted with a pout as Naruto nervously laughed.
-... how?- Minato asked suspiciously. -Naruto, I hope you haven't been doing anything… premature-
"W-What?!" Naruto blushed as Rana blinked, looking confused. "N-No! Nothing like that! Today just went… Dammit, let us explain."
So they did, they explained the final fight with their upperclassmen, the change in Ereinbar Set possibilities, Naruto's hypothesis, and then the exercise today.
-... I see- Minato said with a frown as Kushina made a noise.
-Naruto! Why do you keep doing this?!- She asked in disbelief as Naruto chuckled nervously while Rana giggled a bit.
"Being fair, he's trying to make things better-de arimasu," Rana explained.
-We understand, Rana-kun, it's just that this happened… what, four times this month?- Minato said but it came out more like a question, Rana sweatdropping at the fact that, yes, Naruto had been hospitalized almost four times.
"He's got you there, Naruto-kun."
"I… I want to say I'm not trying, really I do, but I just seem to end up there!" Naruto pleaded with weak energy. "It's not my fault everyone here is either crazy or crazy strong!"
-That's not wrong- Kushina considered before sighing. -I'm starting to think of just coming now-
-... I honestly can't fault you for that- Minato said as Naruto winced. -Naruto, please, do NOT get sent to the medical wing again or else we're going to end up down there with more questions than you could answer-
"Y-Yeah, dad, I know," the blonde said with a sigh as Rana rested a hand on his shoulder.
"He's going to take it easy, now, though. He can't really do anything stressful-de arimasu," Rana explained the parents hummed in unison.
-Well… That's not untrue. Besides, much as I'm sad it happened… Naruto is now on the top of the school- Minato said with a chuckle as Kushina snorted.
-Honestly, you're still on about that?-
-It's not like I'm not proud of him for beating many of them, being honest, the ranks in the school can be rather uncomfortable from what I remember, in school-
-Yeah, yeah-
"Also, any idea on what's going on between me and Rana?" Naruto asked as he scratched his arm. "Dad, mom, what does the Cross-Texture Formula look like?"
Rana perked up, nodding. "Yuh-uh! We've got no reference-de arimasu."
-... Hmm, well, if we consider what you told us, you seem to be able to pull it up just fine- The teens made confused sounds. -You both seem to be misunderstanding something, that is the technique but you're thinking it's something bigger, and smaller, than it is-
"What?" Both looked at one another confused. "What do you mean?"
-You two can already do it… you just didn't do anything- Kushina spoke up. -For clarification, the Cross-Texture Formula, let's shorten it to CTF, is the application of Volt Textures on a Freezing field. You're supposed to spread out a field and Rana can manipulate it with her Volt Textures-
Kazuya balked at the sentence.
"What?!"
Arthur considered that as he laid in his bed alone.
'... So if Genessa and I can do it,' especially with his field's length in comparison to others. '...' He clenched his fist in determination.
They would figure this out.
-What was that?-
"Don't worry about it, it's nothing," Naruto said before he looked at Rana who hummed. "So that's what CTF does? That sounds crazy."
-It's a skill we only ever used once during our time at West Genetics and that was during the Sixth Nova Clash. The amount of attention on us, when things cooled down, wouldn't have been pleasant. That was also around the time of Pandora Suits becoming the norm so…-
-It'd only be a matter of time, you two- Kushina said with a sigh. -Chevalier are trying to find better ways to combat the Nova… and, with Naruto wanting to reveal his skills to them, it really is only a matter of time before things get hectic for you both-
"I understand," Naruto said seriously. "But I want to help everyone, I've already been trying to teach the others some stuff and a lot of them have taken to my ideas pretty easily."
"They have-de arimasu!" Rana inputted. "Naruto-kun's been giving us all so many ideas, it's been fun!" She said with a grin that he chuckled at.
-... Hmph- Minato let out a grunt. -Well if you're fine with the consequences then we've got nothing to say other than 'be careful'-
-Yeah, being fair, how many people do you all know who do you think haven't told their parents already?- Kushina asked.
"..."
"..."
"Oh shit."
Kazuya snorted.
Arthur covered his face as his laughter shook his body.
-And, for your change in how we got things… Okay, you remember how I told you that Obito's here?-
-Wait, Obi is here?! Mina-kun! Why didn't you tell me?!- Kushina whined as Minato chuckled.
-He didn't want to be too known, Lord knows you'd tear up the city to find him-
-So, he's in the city?-
-... I didn't say that-And she's gone- Minato sounded nervous. -T-That's not good-
"Way to go, dad."
-Naruto, please, I'm already regretting it- Minato sighed. -Haaa, well, as we said, you've got it, all you need to do is use it-
"Hmm, we will-de arimasu," Rana said with a smile. "We've gotta get stronger somehow."
-And you both will, you've got all the pieces, you've just gotta put it together-
"We will," Naruto said with a chuckle as Rana grinned. "That said, what in the world comes after Plasma Textures?"
-Hmm, well, if it follows the states of matter… it should be wavelengths, possibly. Not sure how that would translate but I'm sure we'll figure it out if it comes to that-
-Found it!- Came Kushina's voice as she ran back into the room, the sound of flipping pages reaching their ears. -... Ah hah! He is in the phone book!-
-I'm more surprised we had a phone book-
"Hmph," Naruto chuckled. "Alright, dad, mom, I'll talk to you guys another time!"
"It's been nice to speak to you-de arimasu!" Rana added and the two heard Naruto's parents chuckling. "Take care!"
-Hmph, same. Don't be strangers, you two- Minato said as Kushina got in the last word.
-And I'll keep you updated on Obito! Oooh! Young man, you are in for such a tongue-lashing!-
The call ended like that, leaving four laughing teens in its wake.
Kazuya smiled a bit… before blinking.
'Wait, 'Obito'? That sounds… familiar.'
~NRK~
The following week saw several people's reactions to his newest cast.
He nearly choked on the first few who thought he fought the top three and won but came away more injured than possible.
Oh, Chiffon had LOVED that for so many reasons he wasn't happy about. Ticy had taken them in stride but the booing that happened didn't help her mood.
She blamed him, rather appropriately, but it sucked.
So, here he was, Friday evening, having everyone going through drills and the like as he contemplated his next move.
'I've gotta train even without the use of my right arm,' he considered as he looked at his bandaged limb, currently using his healing skill to up his healing speed. '... I need to find ways to hold onto my cloaks but also up my healing speed,' Naruto looked at his arm as he sat atop a pole once more on a tatami mat. 'If I could make it faster, more powerful, this wouldn't be as much of a problem.'
Something like what Sakura-chan and Tsunade-obaa-chan had, the Thousand Healings Technique. The question was, could he even do that?
Never mind that he'd need to store up his energy somehow and he was back to square one.
He breathed out before simply focusing on his meditation, eyes closed as he devoted his entire being to healing himself.
'Focus. Focus only on yourself,' the Pandora were currently running laps as he had to focus on his healing. '...' Naruto grumbled as he considered everything he'd achieved up to this point.
His cloaks, Freezing attacks, healing skill, and his newest creation, Spiral Emperor. The skill had been done on the spot and he was left saddened by how costly it was.
'It's the Rasenshuriken all over again,' he realized. 'But, this time, I'm already using Natural Energy… I need to find a way to make it less costly.'
That likely required him to have better control over his energies.
His eyes snapped open and he got up, his position still perfectly balanced before he jumped off and caught the pole with his free arm.
"Hm? Naruto-kun?" Rana spoke up as he landed next to her, blocking the onslaught of highly-powered balls coming back at her. "Ahh!"
Naruto snickered a bit as Rana ducked behind him, the balls she'd been hitting shooting past them. "Gotta be more careful, Rana-chan, wouldn't want to be bombarded by your own attacks," he said with a smug smirk as she turned her flat gaze to him with a pout. "Hehe~ Come on, just a little teasing. Dattebayo~"
Rana grumbled for a moment before he laughed, bumped her shoulder, and walked towards the wall. "Where are you going-de arimasu?"
"Have to focus more on my control," he stated and she hummed before nodding. "I'll be on the wall."
Rana sweatdropped. "By the wall?"
"Nope," he said with a grin as his field expanded from his feet to the wall before climbing it. "On the wall," Naruto said with a chuckle as he walked up like he was walking on the floor.
Rana blinked thrice as he sat down in his meditation position before placing the pole in his hand over his lap and keeping his arms on it.
"... I really should expect this more-de arimasu."
"Snrt!"
Kazuya focused on using Isolated Frost when he saw the Limiters' attention going towards his friend.
"The heck?"
"What's he doing?"
"We can do that?"
Kazuya chuckled as Eugene explained.
"This involves using a powerful enough field to stick but a weak enough field to move across," he said to his fellow Limiters. "I'm working on that skill myself," Eugene admitted as he placed his foot against the wall near them.
It stuck as he slowly put the other one up, keeping it there as well.
"A-As you can s-seeeee," he strained as he took another step, much to the amazement of his fellow Limiters. "I-It's hard," was all Eugene got out before hitting the floor with a groan. "Owww."
"It's kind of incredible you picked that up so fast," Arthur said as Eugene sat up slowly, rubbing the back of his head.
"It's just lots of practice."
Abel hummed as he almost fully enclosed his chain head. "..." He focused on snaking his field around it before… "... I-I think I did it," he said in shock as the others looked at his fully-covered chain head. "I-It's also complete. I don't need to keep focusing," Abel explained as he threw the item back and forth in his hands.
"Yes!"
Garou hummed at that, considering the exercise before him.
"He's being weird again."
"And water is wet."
"While the sky is blue!"
Chiffon chuckled at the jokes thrown around in her running group as they passed the side-walled Uzumaki. "Geez, Naruto-kun," she shook her head as he snorted.
Meanwhile, at the back of the group, if not lagging a bit, Satellizer gasped as they completed their tenth lap of this football field of a room.
'Have to… Increase… S-Stamina!' She recited to herself as she pushed her body to the limit! 'Lungs… dying!' Satellizer realized with a hot, gasping, set of breaths as the group came to a stop. 'Thank… God!'
She collapsed to her rear, legs splayed around her as she gasped for air.
Many of the others around her were either sitting down as well or leaning down on their knees.
Chiffon smiled, perfectly fine outside of a light sweat.
"Hmph, hmph! Nice one, girls! That was a good run!" She praised them as even Ticy shot her a look of disbelief. "... What?"
"... C-Can't… Can't say anything," Ticy said with a grimace as she stood with a grimace, stretching her back until she felt, and heard, a nice 'pop'. "O-Ooohhh," she groaned a bit as she stood to her full height, shivering at how perfect that stretch had been.
Genessa grunted, on her knees, but still in a better state than her blonde, female, friend. "God! Where does your stamina come from?!" She squeaked as she held her sides with a tremble. "My lungs are killing me!"
'At least you can still speak,' Satellizer thought but couldn't say as she flopped onto her back. 'Oooohhh, someone tell me I don't need to do this…'
She waited and grimaced when the universe said nothing.
Dammit.
Naruto considered his body and the energy within.
He'd been more truthful than the group knew as he followed the flow of energy in his body.
'Something about those gates, maybe?' It was the best idea he's had since being up here.
He 'watched' the stream of energy shift into each gate… before frowning and raising a brow with his eyes still closed.
'What?' He blinked as he felt the energy go through four 'gates' before, sort of, splashing over the last three, like they weren't 'opened' entrances… 'Wait if I open all of them, could I get stronger?' Naruto could only assume so.
But then the question remained, how had he opened those gates? He could feel where they were and if his memory was right…
His Crown, Heart, and Throat, he thinks. So, that meant the open ones were the Third Eye, Chest, Sacral, and Root ones were open.
What did that mean? He didn't know, all he knew was that he was able to open these gates and, if he wanted to get stronger, he needed to open the last three.
That said… He prodded the four by encasing all four in his energies before pulling in some Natural Energy.
He felt those gates warm up and felt some understanding hit him.
'Are these… stigmata?' The sheer size of the damn things made him want to get his body checked. '... Like, 'mental' stigmata, maybe? It's like Rana said, they warm up and, now that I'm able to see that… Yeah, those three warm up, too, but they're still so cold,' what a discovery.
That said, it made sense, his body nurtured stigmata and gave him the ability to use his abilities on his own without an extra stigma. So, in a way, this made sense.
'Well, this is going to be interesting… so can I use this to heal me up faster?' He considered as he enveloped those gates with his mixed power and splayed it out around his body. 'That's just the healing skill,' Naruto thought as he dropped it.
He looked at his arm with consideration before focusing on it.
… Fried. That's the word that came to mind. He'd pushed the tissue in that area past its limits and 'fried' it, sort of. That said, even now, he could feel it healing slowly.
… Wait, what? His eyes widened as he felt those tiny, insignificant, bits of his body fizzle to life. 'What the hell am I thinking?'
He could tell his body was healing? Obviously, one could say that… b-but this was different.
His body was healing faster than he knew a normal human body could and Naruto swallowed nervously at the idea.
… he'd known his body was being changed but it was like this? What was the end goal of his transformation?
Where would this leave him when it was done? Naruto hoped it'd be good.
And that he'd not become some kind of Nature-powered Nova monster. The world was NOT ready for such a thing.
~NRK~
Sunday afternoon saw the Gengo team trio preparing to head to Chevalier headquarters.
"Are you ready?" Gengo asked Obito as he adjusted his lab coat, his blue polo, tan slacks, and brown dress shoes all perfectly ironed. "Once again, thank you, Su-Na. It's really like you and Obito can handle all the housework before I do a thing."
The woman pouted as Obito laughed a bit. She'd done her Chevalier uniform as his acting bodyguard.
Wearing a dark blue jacket with black accents over the shoulders, it had a series of military badges on it with a long 'tail' at the back that came down to the back of her shins. Her legs were covered by a pair of black stockings that led into a pair of blue boots of a similar color to her jacket that came up to mid-shin.
The Pandora adopted a blank expression as she held her arms behind her back only to become a blushing statue as a peck found her temple.
"O-Obito-kun," she kept her voice controlled but his chuckled caused her face to completely turn red. "Y-You can't j-just do that! We're in uniform!" Su-Na said with indignation only to be embraced entirely. "M-Mmm! Mmm…. Mm," she tried to fight it but was putty in his arms.
Dressed in a pair of black shoes, slacks, and a tie, Obito had on a white dress shirt with a dark blue vest over it and a lab coat thrown over his shoulders with a mask clasped to his waist.
"Hmph," he nuzzled her some more before letting her go with a wide smirk as she huffed off to the side, cheeks red but chest filled with warmth. "You're right, just wanted to get that in before we become the doctor's blank guards," Obito said with a chuckle as the three of them stood on the large home's roof.
Gengo shook his head in amusement but was always glad to see these shows of affection, fighting against the Will in any way was good.
Reminding Su-Na that she had more emotions than just that urge by that accursed concept was a good one.
The wind around them picked up and told all three's hair back as Obito removed his mask before donning it, the golden color was one he'd become fond of while it sported two copies of his Mangekyo Sharingan's eye pattern over the eyeholes.
"I'm still curious why you don't like fame," Gengo said as the helicopter carrier landed before them, its side haul opening and they walked towards it with Gengo in front of the two. "People don't even know your name other than 'Kamui'. While I'm of the opinion it's fitting, it might not do well for your credibility."
"They've come to understand I've got the skills they want," Obito said as they entered the carrier, finding seats as the door closed. "I provide a new option for Pandora and Limiter alike, they want my painkillers and the newly-developed Stigmatic Unleash Pills."
Yes, in this new life of his, Obito had taken to finding a way to help those who went to the battlefield and had gone into medicine.
His first creations had been the painkillers for those with stigmatic tissues, the medicine was capable of using stigmatic tissues to numb the area of the wound and reinforcing it passively.
Getting that through, though, had been a test of his patience as the higher-ups in Chevalier were hesitant to try and use specialized medicine that he didn't know the side-effects of. That had been where Gengo had gotten involved and allowed him to use the items on his daughter to… terrifying effects.
Kazuha Aoi had been a curious young woman with a worrying lack of self-harm inhibitions, having cut off her own arm when asked to test his creation.
Oh, how he'd scrambled to make sure she understood how bad this was, and Gengo… For some odd reason, back then, he'd not known why Gengo had been shocked by his convincing of Kazuha to take better care of herself and her sibling.
He'd brought him on as his R&D researcher from there on and, maybe two years of working with the man after, he'd be let in on his greatest secrets due to Kazuha's will, oddly enough.
And, well, it also might have had something to do with the fact that Obito went over to take care of the two often even though he did his best to not let them know him specifically with Kazuya being completely ignorant to Obito's true name and existence.
So, in that time, Obito had been fine to be trusted and continue with his work… but then Gengo had offered him a different set of material to work with.
The tissues of the-
"We're getting close," came a man entering from the pilot's seat.
His blonde hair was cleanly cut and came down in a short style around his forehead and the nape of his neck. His skin was fair and wrinkled while his eyes were dark brown.
Wearing a dark blue, Mably-made, suit, he clicked his brown loafers against the floor as he sat down with a groan.
"You make me do too much, you know that, right?" The man said with a groan as Obito chuckled. "You don't have those energy pills for old men, do you, Dr. Kamui?"
"Apologies, I mean, I could make something like that, the populace also matters, after all," Obito said with a chuckle as the man hummed in thought. "That said, you should rest more, Alfred, don't you have children?"
"Don't remind me," Alfred said as he shot Gengo a flat glare as the man sipped some wine. "How'd did you even… No, I don't want to know," he shook his head as Gengo looked amused. "Anyway, good evening, Ms. Lee."
"Good evening, Mr. Hughes," Su-Na said with a nod as Alfred rubbed the back of his head.
"As meticulous as always," Alfred said as Obito chuckled. "So, I'm curious, what is this meeting about?"
"It's more than the usual?" Gengo asked and Alfred's eyebrow ticked.
"You know that when it comes to you attending," Alfred began as Su-Na cracked a small smile. "It's never anything simple, my God, you make my life difficult."
"Hm, hm, but, alas, it is not me this time," Gengo said dramatically as Obito snorted. "It's actually Kamui."
"Hm?" Alfred blinked before turning to look at the man at his side. "Kamui? What is it that you're going to suggest?"
"Well, not suggest, but show off," Obito said with a smile that he could see. "I was considering Volt Weapons and wanted to create specialized attachments for them," he said with a chuckle as Gengo smirked.
"What he's done, Alfred, while not fully complete… It's a ridiculous thing," the authority on all things related to stigmata said.
"Huh? What could you possibly mean?"
"It's a creation that could possibly change the very nature of Volt Weapons themselves," Su-Na added with another small smile.
"... You're not going to tell me, are you?" Alfred asked with what amounted to a pout on a fully-grown man. "Goodness. Kamui, please, a hint?"
"States," Kamui said with a chuckle as their vehicle landed. "That's all."
Walking down the halls of the Chevalier base situated in Japan, Gengo hummed as numerous people they passed looked on with awe, a reaction the group had long since grown used to.
"This might very well change things, Kamui-kun," Gengo said quietly as Obito and Su-Na tightened the distance between them and the doctor. "I'm shocked you could do this even though I finished something similar but different."
"Not everyone is special," the taller man said. "So I want to give all those who need it a chance. I want to make sure we can use everything in our understanding to fend off the Nova, as you do."
Gengo wore a slightly relieved smile, one filled with burdens the world would never truly understand. "I know, thank you."
Obito was a good person who wanted to help people, especially with his past.
But, in a form of irony, he liked helping the older generation the most.
Call it coincidence.
"Ah, there you are," came a voice from their side and the group turned with different reactions.
Obito grunted.
Su-Na's eyes narrowed an almost impossible to see centimeter.
And Gengo grinned with a chuckle as a woman and man came up to them.
The woman was about the same height as Su-Na with wavy blonde hair done up in a low ponytail. Her skin was fair and her knowledgeable dark blue eyes looked over the group with hidden distrust toward Gengo, a competitive gleam with Su-Na… and an outright smile at 'Kamui'.
Su-Na's eyebrow twitched as the woman came forth with a man at her side. She moved around Gengo while the man confronted him, her mouth set into a grin as she and Obito stood 'face' to face.
The man was tall, well-built for his age, and about at the same level of eyebrow-raising as Gengo was.
He had cleanly kept light brown hair, fair skin, and dark blue eyes that blinked twice as the woman hummed happily. Dressed in a coal-black suit with a white tie against a dark blue dress shirt, he grunted.
'This isn't good,' he realized with some disbelief. "Atsuko, surely, we can't just ignore Gengo Aoi."
Atsuko Seiga hummed in her white lab coat, light blue blouse, and light brown skirt, her black heels clicking against the floor with a slight change in her eyes' view.
"Hmm, grandfather, you're the one who wished to speak with him. There's little I could contribute… Mr. Kamui and I, though, we've worked on similar projects before, I just wish to see what is gaining Chevalier's attention this time around," Atsuko said as Su-Na's twitching brow grew in speed.
'... This woman is a pain as always,' she considered with annoyance as Atsuko turned her head in her direction.
'Ah, yes, his Pandora,' Atsuko considered as she smiled defiantly at the woman before her whose hands clenched a bit harder behind her back. 'You snatched him away from me… that won't be happening again.'
Ah, yes, she remembered those days like a bad itch. Obito and she used to work together when he first joined the science department of Chevalier.
He'd been touted as an amazing youth with an analytical mind and it showed in his efforts on the Faylan Generators they'd worked on.
Then… Then he'd been working on a personal project that she had considered amazing and showed it to the board but they seemed so hesitant on good technology… and then that accursed Gengo Aoi came into the picture!
He'd taken Obito under his wing as a benefactor before he took him from the Chevalier! Yes, she meant 'took' because Obito almost never showed up at the base unless for moments like this… And the occasional moments where she might request his opinion.
So, to say she was a bit miffed would be an understatement.
"How is life, Suna-onna-san?" Atsuko asked as the men's eyes snapped to her smiling face.
"Well, Ko-san, it's been rather interesting watching Kamui work as of late," Su-Na shot back and the Seiga's eyebrows narrowed.
"I know it can be a little hard to understand but it's typically rather simple."
"Yes, Kamui has been rather forthcoming about how things work. It's brought us closer than ever."
"Okay," Gengo coughed into his fist as the older Seiga adjusted his tie. "This got… aggressive quicker than usual. They don't usually do this in front of him, Nobuhiro-san."
"Yes, it's… rather unbefitting behavior," he said out loud as both women cleared their throats before returning to their professional statuses. "... Yes," was all Nobuhiro said as Gengo chuckled.
They sat next to one another, ironically.
Obito was the 'line' separating the groups.
"So, tell me, Obito," Nobuhiro whispered as the proceedings started. "How sure of this new project of yours are you? Your previous ones have been a surprisingly big boon for getting Pandora back into service when they're injured during fights at the campuses."
"I'm glad, this new one is going to be less drug-based and more Volt-based," Obito admitted, getting a curious hum from the much older man. 'Thank God, they stopped being antagonistic,' Obito guessed he had some hand in that.
He'd originally been a random Chevalier scientist who helped with a lot of Seigi Heavy Industries ware when it reached Chevalier. Atsuko and he met during that time and, after Gengo came through for him, he'd been playing mediator for the two old men when he could.
Obito actually had a big suggestion to make to them both one day but that was not for now.
The meeting went all in the way it always did.
They spoke about the Nova threat and the Clashes inconsistency as of late.
"It's happened twice in under eight years," Obito repeated what had been said. "I'm not sure what the reason is. Why did it accelerate?"
"Many believe that, since the Nova have been evolving as of late, they're shortening the time as well," Atsuko said with a frown. "It seems more and more that they're simply trying to break us in a war of attrition."
"Yes, it is concerning," Gengo agreed wholeheartedly, a frown on his face. "Being perfectly honest, I did have some form of an idea," he said, surprising the other four. "I wonder if it's not because they've come to realize that Pandora really aren't made in a day and seek to keep destroying them year after year… but, then, where are all their resources coming from? It's rather obvious but Nova don't obey the laws of physics."
"It is concerning," Su-Na noted with a blank face. "Time and time again, the chances that the next Clash won't be in the coming year is… concerning."
If there weren't enough Pandora to stop the Nova, they'd be doomed to blatantly throwing unprepared children at the enemy until they were out of options.
And, surprise, that wasn't viable and, for reference…
Overpopulation had become a thing of the past in the past ten years to explain how bad things had gotten.
"I'm sure you have the same idea as we do, though, about them," Nobuhiro implied, getting a raised brow from Gengo. "Kamui was always good at making connections between energy and different forms of matter. It's not hard to think about the fact that they're made from pure energy. After all, Volt Weapons exist."
"... A valid assumption," Gengo did have to give him that.
There were too many clues to be found in the Pandora as is, they were basically known to have been based on Maria Lancelot, who was known to have similar 'effects' to Nova. If one followed that train of thought then Nova's abilities could be inferred from Pandora.
"In that train of thought, the better question is, where this energy is coming from," Obito said and the group considered it. "The thing is that we don't know."
A lie but they were thinking. If he wanted to suggest a partnership, he'd need the Seiga two to figure this out.
The meeting moved on before Obito was asked to come to the stage, Su-Na nodded as she followed, leaving Gengo vulnerable in the eyes of those around him.
Atsuko wasn't an idiot and neither was her father.
Gengo was as protected as he'd been when those two were up here.
"Mr. Kamui," the commander, Radox, gestured to the podium.
"Thank you," Obito said as he took it with Su-Na at his side. "I know we've spent a good amount of time talking around it but I'd like to bring it to the forefront, I think Volt Weapons can be improved," he declared and the room sputtered.
"How so?"
"Have you made a breakthrough? Has Gengo Aoi?"
"I will say and, I'm not sure of what his current projects are but he gave me some oversight into this idea," Obito said as Su-Na activated her Volt Weapons. "I'm suggesting the creation of Nature-Altering attachments to Volt Weapons."
The clamor shot up but his raised hands stemmed it some.
"Please, listen first before any questions are asked," he asked them. "Good, now, you've all met Su-Na Lee, she used to be known as the strongest Pandora ever in Chevalier's rank-and-command, so I'm sure that you all are familiar with the shape of her weapons."
Radox nodded and brought up a screen showing the woman in question's stats and weapons.
"She handles a pair of large, bladed, weapons that can resemble tonfa, yes?"
Su-Na turned the weapons around to show their undersides.
What the crowd saw was an odd sight, interlaced designs and lines were sported by the weapons and glowing with Volt Textures.
"What is that?" Nobuhiro asked through the microphone on his collar. "This is what you wanted to display?"
"Yes and no," Obito said with a smile as the audience grew more curious. "This is what one would call the perfect assimilation of what I'm actually here to show," he said as he pulled a small device out of his lab coat before gesturing to it. "This, ladies and gentlemen, is a Plasma Allocator," Su-Na placed one of her weapons down.
She raised her arm before Obito gestured to it.
"It's to allow for the Pandora to simulate Plasma particles within it so that when a Pandora activates her Volt Textures-"
Su-Na did her job on cue and the lines that went under the machine caused it to be covered by them before one of her reinforcement lines glowed bright white.
When she picked up her other weapon, she held it aloft.
It glowed bright white a moment later, the heat from it emanating to those close in the audience.
"You apply plasma to the Volt Textures, making a fake-plasma texture for a limited time," Su-Na deactivated her weapon's enhancement. "It's manually capable of being controlled and being on or off."
"I-Incredible!"
"And all Pandora can do this?!"
"Well, with good enough control over Volt Textures? Yes," Obito began as claps rang out. "Thank you, thank you, it should also be said that the Plasma Allocator has an intense cooling ability to it, it's compact and feeds on the energy of Volt Textures. Yes, this would cause a Pandora to use up more of her energy but Plasma skills are a good trade-off for that."
"T-That's?!" Atsuko was alarmed. "How did he?!"
"Obito has a special understanding of how energy works, you told me this yourself," Gengo said with a chuckle and his eyes alight with intrigue. "That said, there's one more part to it."
The two of Seigi Industries looked as intrigued as he did.
"Finally, there's one last thing I want to add on," Obito said as he gestured to Su-Na. "Su-Na."
The woman raised her weapons… before they shrunk in flashes of white, the machine on her arm glowing from a small glass circle on it, the orifice glowing blue. The weapons at her arms were more like bladed javelins, now, instead of hulking broken blades.
"T-They can shrink them?!" Radox asked in disbelief and Obito chuckled.
"It's a bit more than that," he explained. "What Su-Na has just done is store the extra parts of her Volt Weapons into the Allocators," Radox's mouth dropped like a hot potato. "They're basically altered into plasma particles within and, at a moment's notice, can be retrieved and put away quickly due to the nature of plasma as a state of matter. Since it's not natural to her, it has to go somewhere, so it stores itself in the Allocator."
"That's amazing!"
"And all it takes is some control?!"
"We need to see these added immediately!"
Many other such shouts came as the crowd yammered with his newest idea on their lips.
Relinquishing the podium, Obito nodded to Su-Na as the two of them stood off to the side as Radox took back the podium.
"I don't think I need to explain to you all how incredible this is," he said with a nod towards the two. "Mr. Kamui has utilized the next state of matter for ALL Pandoras! This could very well reform the world of stigma technology!"
The crowd's hushed whispers increased but one thing was on all their minds.
If Gengo had such an aspiring young man under his wing then how had the man helped Gengo?
Sitting in the cafeteria, Su-Na's eyebrow twitched as Obito waved off another pair of possible benefactors, a man, and woman who was introducing him to their daughter.
Gengo's place at her right, an empty seat to her left, did nothing to change this fact. If anything, he seemed more amused as Obito finally made it to their table, a nervous chuckle on his lips.
"I-It seems that many families are… happy with my place in the world," he said carefully, looking at Su-Na who looked… less than pleased. "... Love you, honey."
"I know," she said with the slightest of hisses as Atsuko and her grandfather sat down in front of the two, their nameplates acting as their VIPs. "I'm well aware."
"Trouble in paradise?" Atsuko asked with a completely innocent smile that Su-Na threw a death glare at. "Hm, hm, hm, what? I haven't said anything negative."
Obito shook his head as he turned his mask onto the side of his head, the large band on it almost covering the entirety of his face save for his mouth and nose. "You two are really like oil and water," he said with a chuckle as he ate some salad.
Atsuko's head tilted, ever so slightly, to the side to peek only for Su-Na's loud clack on her plate to get a small giggle out of overseer for Seigi Industries.
Nobuhiro shook his head at the two as he ate. "Hmm, so, you didn't hold anything back from the masses, did you?" He asked Obito who hummed.
"No, this is one of the products that I'd really like for everyone to be in on," Obito said with a grin. "That said, I'm already considering some other ideas. Something akin to giving Pandora excess energy."
"The Stigmatic Unleash Pills, yes?"
"Yup, I see word gets around… Or Atsuko told you," Obito said as the man's granddaughter cleared her throat.
"Important achievements should reach high-standing ears," she said with a smile as Su-Na's eyebrow twitched. "Just saying, you deserve to let your name reach some ears."
Nobuhiro really wondered what his granddaughter thought at most moments.
~NRK~
The following day, in West Genetics, Naruto kept meditating on ways to improve.
Atop the point on the pole, as he was on the wall of the Simulation Room, he had were several basketballs, all perfectly balanced.
Now, he could use his right arm for small tasks and for stuff like holding cups.
So, he had his original stance back without having to worry about the intense pain.
'Let's try this again,' he thought as he breathed out before inhaling and hold it. 'Focus.'
He allowed his version 1 cloak to form slowly over his body before he was covered by it, two tails waving lazily behind his body.
Then he pushed it further, absorbing more Natural Energy, and gained two more tails. 'I'm reaching my limit,' he considered as he absorbed more and gained a fifth tail before that feeling hit him again.
A feeling of being on the cusp of something and his body's complete anxiety against the idea. Naruto let go of his breath and did a few rapid ones.
What was with this feeling he'd been having ever since he tried to push it to nine tails? He didn't know, all he did know was that there was a change that might take place but his body was rejecting it… well, past a certain point.
'So, five tails is my best?' He considered as he looked behind him before standing up. 'But this won't stay for long…'
He'd learned that he couldn't hold these tails for too long. At best, he could maintain two and his power increased with more tails.
Just like in his old life.
Naruto dropped the stuff he'd been using and watched it fall.
The items almost hit the ground before he swiped them up, skidding to a stop as he looked back up at the middle of the room's wall.
'Definitely faster with these,' he considered as he saw his fifth tail waning. 'But not good enough,' Naruto thought before circling the area, Rana entering from the door with a first-aid kit in her arms.
"Naruto-kun!" She called out and he skid to a stop in front of her, four tails waving behind him. "We need to change your bandages-de arimasu" Rana insisted and Naruto sighed before dropping his energy.
"Yeah, alright," he said with a slump as he came over to her before they sat down, the Tibetan undoing his wraps. "Just…"
"Not happy with your progress?" She asked and he nodded. "Hmm, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself-de arimasu."
"I know, I know, it's just…" Naruto hummed. "If we ever face anyone like our top 3 senpais, we're going to need more power. We lucked out with Arnette being weak enough to be beaten by Satella-senpai."
"Hmph!" Rana nodded as they looked at his exposed arm.
For the most part, the skin on it wasn't purple anymore, and the twists that used to be there had relaxed a lot.
Still, he wasn't fully healed yet.
"Hmm, maybe you should focus on your basics," she said as she began rolling the bandage around his forearm. "It's never wrong to remind yourself-de arimasu."
"... The basics, huh?" Naruto considered that before his eyes narrowed. 'The basics?'
… Something was hitting him but he wasn't sure yet… "Rana-chan? Can you tell me what you've seen me do?"
"?" She blinked at him, looking confused for a moment before nodding. "Alright, hmm…" Rana tapped her noggin with her pointer fingers.
"Well, you can use a strong field."
"Yeah."
"You can use Natural Energy."
"Keep going."
"Hmm…" Rana nodded. "Well, you can form your field around yourself, heal, and make them rotate with Natural Energy."
"Huh? What, no, I don't need Natural Energy to rotate…?!" His eyes widened in shock as Rana blinked at him before smiling.
"You got an idea?"
"Well… Maybe?" He tilted his head. "I might need to speak with Elize-hakase or one of the others. If I'm to improve, I think I know what I have to do… I need to add more rotations to everything."
"... Is that safe?" She asked with a grimace as she held his arm, rubbing her thumb along the side of it. "What happens if this happens b-but to your whole body?"
"... I know but I think I know what needs to be lightened up," he said with a grin at her, holding her hands with his free one. "What I need is a constant rotation for my energy. If I can keep it moving, it's not only already there but it's faster and more condensed already. If I can apply that along to my cloaks, I might be able to fully use Version 2."
"... I'm just worried."
"I know and I'm happy you are," he said with a hand rubbing the back of his head, a slight blush on his face. "I-It's nice to have someone who cares for me like y-you do!"
Rana blinked before blushing and giving a nod. "Y-Yes-de arimasu!"
Naruto chuckled embarrassedly as she finished up his wraps before they got up. "Come on, I want to see if I can't ask the Doc, Ms. Kim, Chiffon, or Genessa."
"Genessa-chan?"
"Yeah… She was able to constantly rotate her chains a few times before our friend group came together."
~NRK~
"Hmm," Elize considered the idea. "Like a perpetual-motion machine?"
"There's something like it?!" Naruto asked hopefully as Rana hummed next to him. "S-So, it can work?"
"Well, for machinery, it's different," Elize said. "There's no way to get a surplus when you're just keeping it all in a circle. Plus, you'll eventually lose some of the energy due to time."
"Hmm, well, it's not like Naruto-kun needs to use it for long periods of time, right?" Rana asked.
"... I don't but, you're saying, I can't?" Naruto asked with a nervous chuckle.
"... no, for you, this might be a different concept," Elize said with a smile. "You want to condense more of your mixed energies, you're not looking for infinite energy just an infinite loop that condenses as it takes in energy. That should be perfectly doable."
He grinned.
~NRK~
"Hmm? A perfect loop of energy?" Yu-Mi asked as she graded some papers. "... Well, I can't think of someone who can do that but maybe you should think of it like a Freezing field."
"Really?" Rana asked as Naruto nodded.
"Yeah, I mean, think about it," Kim explained. "When you establish a field, you say you can complete it, that means that it's, somehow, perfecting holding the energy to keep going on its own, isn't it?"
Their eyes widened.
~NRK~
"H-Hmm?" Chiffon swallowed a bit as she turned from her bench bar to the two.
They curled some weights as they spoke, gotta get those gains while they were here.
"Yeah, I'm trying to make my abilities more potent, I think if I add rotation to it, I can condense my energy while also keeping it in me, ya know?" Naruto asked.
"W-Well…" Chiffon considered the question more. "... I'm familiar with the concept. It's kind of like a bird's ability to ride a current, you get it started and it rides on the height it's already at."
"Currents?" Naruto considered that. "Currents…?!" His eyes widened. "M-Maybe… Thanks, senpai!"
"You figured something out-de arimasu?" Rana asked.
"Yeah, hopefully. Now, 100 more!"
"Yes!"
"... Hmhmhmhm, very well."
~NRK~
Genessa considered everything that the two had explained to her.
In the room, ironically, the whole group minus their upperclassmen were there. Kazuya and Satellizer looked embarrassed a bit but the two newcomers gave their full support.
"I see what you mean, you want to copy my Chain Armori, right?" Genessa asked and Naruto nodded.
"Yeah, how do you handle all those spinning chains? I can do that on a small level but not on such a large one."
"Well, I just, kind of, let them. If anything, you don't need to give it too much thought, just let it spin around," the redhead said with crossed arms, her hair left out of its pigtails so it draped down her back. "That's about what I can tell ya. Maybe ask Creo when you get the chance."
"I see, thanks," Naruto said with a grin as he looked down at his closed hands. "What I want to do is have a decently speedy ring around my body. If I can find a way to deal with the recoils, I'd want to put one around each of my limbs like my wrists, ankles, and even my stomach."
"It sounds like a powerful technique," Arthur added, in blue pajamas before grimacing. "But I'd definitely suggest only in the space around you first, we don't want a maelstrom pretzel."
"Hm, I know."
Satellizer fiddled with her fingers in her blue nightgown. "So, you want to condense it all? Why not double layer?"
"..." Naruto considered what she meant. "I think I'd have to see, that's kind of the idea behind the Version 1 cloak but that's more thick energy than doubling."
"Well, never hurts to try out which methods work together," Kazuya noted in a white shirt and black shorts. "Like in a fighting game, speaking of," he turned to the screen they had paused. "Arthur?"
"I'm ready," the Frenchman said with a grin as they restarted. "Yes! I love Melty Blood classics!"
"You can keep that as far away from me as possible," Naruto said with a flat face as Genessa snickered in her black pajamas. "Me and video games do not mix."
"Video games… You all mentioned that before-de arimasu," Rana said as she saw the characters on screen going at it. "E-Eh, f-fighting games, you called this?"
"Yup," Kazuya said with a grin before Arthur grew mischievous. "It's kind of hard to-"
"Hey, Rana~," Arthur spoke up as Genessa snorted, Naruto already seeing where this was going. "Wanna try~?"
"S-Sure! Let me at 'em-de arimasu!"
They'd expected a little fun, maybe Rana had a golden thumb, maybe she was trashier than Naruto… They couldn't have predicted what came next.
"I-I think I won-de arimasu," Rana said as she saw the 'YOU WIN!' on the screen. "This is 'online multiplayer', yes?"
"S-She just beat a high rank," Arthur realized with a nervous swallow. "R-Rana, how did you do that?!"
"Oh! Well," she hummed. "They move really slowly. I have to just kick!"
"... Hehehehehe," Naruto began to snicker at Arthur's defeated expression before the boy's face snapped back up with a shine in his eyes. "Eh?"
"Let's take you to a tournament!"
~NRK~
After the previous night's talk of Rana's winning, they'd slept over in Satellizer's room.
A quick set of baths, the group were thankful the bathrooms were so large, and a change into school clothes saw them walking away from the Sophomore dorms… with odd results.
The eyes of the girls around seemed to lock onto them and their faces went red as the group walked past.
"Why… Are we in the limelight?" Naruto wondered with a confused look around. "And why do I feel like this isn't a good look?"
"What do you mean?" Satellizer asked with a soft grunt as they passed a trio of girls.
"D-Did they actually?"
"I-I don't know!"
"S-Should we ask?"
'Should they ask 'what'?' The group wondered as they sped up and quickly found themselves outside the main campus. 'Hopefully, things don't get weird.'
~NRK~
Regretfully? It did.
Naruto placed his head against the tabletop in confusion. "What the hell is everyone whispering about?!" He hissed into the surface before the other Limiters shrugged.
"We don't know," Abel said with confusion. "It was kind of weird, too. They were giggling a lot in the halls and asking me 'bet you wished you got in on it' and I have no idea what that's supposed to mean."
"Get in on it?" Arthur's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Get in on WHAT?"
"Ahh… So you all didn't know," came Chiffon's voice as the boys turned to see the giggling woman as the other Pandora with her… Well, they were copying the blushes many of the student body had been having as of late. "Hmm… Well, let's just say it outright, everyone thinks you guys had an O-R-G-Y."
"..."
"..."
"... They think we what?"
"You can spell, can't you, Naruto-kun?"
"Chiffon-nee there are several reasons that what you just said makes no sense," Naruto said with horror on his face as the other Limiters looked ready to burst. "They have to be crazy-"
"H-Hey!" Came a voice behind him and Naruto knew that, if he turned around, he'd be cursed with the knowledge he didn't wish for.
Call him a fool. "Yes?" He turned around with a neutral expression only to see several, blushing, girls before him. "... W-Wait, think really hard about what you're about to say."
~NRK~
"We're never going back to the second-year dorms, agreed?"
"Agreed."
Chiffon giggled like an idiot as the others blushed or still looked shocked when they reached the Simulation Rooms.
"T-There's no, fucking, way this is real life," Genessa said with a pale face and red cheeks. "There's no way."
"H-Hm, hm, hm, hm!" Arnette had been giggling like an idiot almost the entire way as Abebe looked scandalized.
"I-I don't understand the girls here anymore," he whispered in shock as Garou coughed off to the side.
"Outside of Creo? Never did."
"I…" Creo looked embarrassed beyond words before grunting. "Nope, no comment."
"Why are they all perverts?!" Ticy cried in disbelief as it all hit her. "Who started the ridiculous rumor?!"
Abel blushed. "Seriously, though, what in the world were you all doing?"
"Playing video games," Arthur answered with red cheeks. "D-Dammit! How the hell did they get that idea?!"
"... Hmm," Satellizer and Kazuya were as red as could be.
"T-This is… I-I really hope my grandfather doesn't hear such a stupid rumor!" He considered in horror.
"They're all perverts!" Rana realized as Elizabeth blushed with a hand on her cheek, Andre adjusting his collar. "Why are there so many at this school?!"
"A-Ahem… No response would be wise."
"Dangit!"
"Y-Yeah, the grapevine isn't… talking platonic things about you lot," Attia realized with a nervous grin as Mark covered his face.
Kaho grunted. "For the sake of simplicity, let's never speak of this again. Agreed?"
"AGREED."
"Good," Naruto said before turning to Creo. "Creo-senpai, how do you do that thing with your Tempest Turn?"
"Huh?" Creo blinked. "You mean the Tempest Android?"
"Yu-huh."
"Well… It's kind of like giving it a total amount of 'ideas',' she twitched her fingers. "And things to do with those ideas. Trust me, though, it's a pain and the mental strain is a killer if you try to fight while they are."
"... Gotcha," Naruto nodded before cupping his chin. 'All of it together.'
A perpetual circle, 'finishing' said circle like a Freezing field.
Give things 'currents' to continue off of and just don't think too hard about it.
Adding on 'ideas' and 'answers to those ideas' from Creo and he kind of knew what he was looking for.
He walked off to the middle of the room before getting into his meditation stance.
Make his power encircle his body, establish his field.
The blonde's Freezing field spread out around him, the gold in between rising into the air before the orange hexagons peeled off before beginning to rotate around him.
Naruto pulled in some Natural Energy and the group blinked as wisps of yellow coiled around from the rotating hexagons.
"Hmm…" Chiffon considered what was happening with an observant eye. 'It's like the area around us is coming to him,' Naruto had explained this and said it was all over.
In the air, trees, oceans, and earth, Natural Energy was everywhere but this was the first time she could truly tell.
The ring around the blonde circled at a good pace before… Chiffon stared in confusion at the energy seeping into certain parts of his body.
"Hmm…" Rana stared in confusion as she saw the spots the energy was seeping into. "Hmm… It's never looked like this-de arimasu."
Chiffon nodded.
Back with Naruto, he was trying to implore Genessa and Creo's answers.
'Make them circle without that much thought,' he grunted as he tried to do that for his gates. 'T-This isn't easy, that's for sure.'
He was basically designing his energy network to do something, that sounded like a lot of work… but he'd need this for the future.
Something told him he'd have to be stronger and he'd be damned if he wasn't ready.
'Don't think too hard, just make it… rotate,' he told himself as he let out a calming breath.
One of the gates began to be encircled before he let it 'complete' itself, letting out a long breath as he opened his eyes.
"Damn, that's hard," he said as he looked at the ring spinning around him before grinning. "Yes! It's a start, at least!"
The others came over curiously and he grinned as he moved around experimentally, the ring following his Complete Cores, as he was gonna call it. "Alright, alright, it's working so far," he said as Chiffon considered the ring around him.
"You're scaring me again," she said as she reached out to touch the ring and felt the energy's 'form'. "?" Chiffon tapped it once more as Rana, Kazuya, and Satellizer did the same. "It's got form?"
"It's condensing," Naruto reminded them as Elize came through the room doors, took one look, and zipped on over with her clipboard in hand, documenting everything. "So, it's got, like, weight to it… I think."
"If it's following physics, yes," Elize said.
"Hmm, what can you do with it, now-de arimasu?" Rana asked and Naruto hummed with crossed arms.
"..." He looked down at his injured arm before he grew determined. "Let's see," Naruto declared as he held his arm out.
He called his power onto his arm and the energy in the ring slipped away from its rotation to his arm.
Then there was an audible hiss as steam came out from beneath his bandages for a couple of seconds before it stopped coming in.
"..." He undid his bandages and, the moment he did, the group saw a fully-healed arm. "... Hehehe… YES!" Naruto cheered as he clenched his hand with a wide grin, jumping for joy. "I'm on the right track!"
Chiffon was startled. 'H-How… That kind of healing shouldn't be…' Possible.
Only she and her siblings should be capable of such accelerated healing but, then again, Naruto had done this before this new skill, hadn't he?
'What is he?' She didn't know, Naruto was such a foolish, strong, and kind young man who didn't seek ill will. '... S-Should I…?'
Should she send a report about this? She'd already sent information about Naruto, as much as that pained her… but she'd also hidden things about him knowing her secrets.
'...' Chiffon grimaced before plastering on a happy smile. 'He's not a danger.'
That was what she believed wholeheartedly, Naruto sought good things for all those around him. He wasn't a horrible person, quite the opposite, he was an amazing person, probably one of the most amazing humans she'd ever come to know.
… She blushed a bit as Naruto finished his cheers, hands out.
"This is-"
The ring spasmed before fading away… and out his arm.
The large CRACK that appeared in the wall behind him, where his healed hand had been directed...
"..."
"..."
"... Uh…" Naruto swallowed as they saw the damage. "... I-I've got this covered… Sorry."
The large dent could be easily comparable to the giant circle of a dent he'd made two weeks ago against the Nova's armored chest.
'... R-Right,' Chiffon reminded herself that even Naruto didn't know what he was fully capable of. 'T-This is…'
If he mastered his abilities… o-one day, Naruto may become…
"Nice going, Almighty Naru-Naru," Genessa said with a gaping expression. "R-Really, amazing job."
"Sorry!"
Yes, that.
An almighty being who'd likely be able to beat all in his way.
Her hand clenched and unclenched in thought as she surveyed the two-story dent in the wall… and felt heat build in her chest.
I want to beat him.
Something in her growled at the challenge of fighting him and Chiffon was confused by this.
Was this her human half's sense of competition? Or was it her other half's need to remove him from the equation?
… Or both working in tandem.
"Y-Yeah, I'm thinking I've gotta train it a lot more," he said with a nervous clearing of the throat. "Y-Yeah, that's gonna require tons of control."
"B-But it was amazing, Naruto-kun!" Kazuya said with awe as the other Limiters nodded. "And you only just tried it out, this could be an amazing technique!"
"... Hm, hm, it will be," Elizabeth said after her shock wore off as Ingrid swallowed. 'And he just tried to do this?'
The sheer idea of his creativity being so potent had been surprising before… but this made it outright ridiculous.
"Well, can Mark do this?" Attia asked and Naruto blinked before chuckling nervously.
"Actually, we should probably do some of that first so he can see what kind he is."
Ten minutes and several shocked Pandora later, the Limiters of their upperclassmen blinked and tested out their new powers.
"So, Garou-kun, Andre, and Abebe are Power-Types," Elize noted. "While Leo and Mark are Linker-Types," she announced as the boys considered themselves in shock.
"T-The world is so glowy," Mark uttered as Attia grinned like an idiot.
"Yes! Our rise will be magnificent!"
"... Right," Creo said with a raised brow before turning to her Limiter. "Garou? How does it feel?"
"Odd," he said honestly as he looked his arm over, the gold on it rather hard to look away from.
"Come on, try it out!" Abel said with a grin as he raised his hand along with Kazuya and two people-sized dents in the wall appeared, Ticy, Satellizer, and Kaho near them with judging eyes on the dent.
They weren't nearly as deep as Naruto's had been and, obviously, not as wide, but that was a workable long-ranged ability.
So he followed his fellow second-year's example and raised his arm.
"... How do I do it?"
Creo snorted.
Arnette leaned on Abebe's shoulder as they considered his shining limb.
"It's so warm," Abebe said with slightly red cheeks. "It's kind of comforting."
"Hmm," Arnette understood as she reached out and held his hand. "... yeah, it is," she noted with a soft smile. "I should probably call my dad one of these days."
"I'm sure he'd love hearing from you," he said with a grin as she chuckled.
Meanwhile, Leo raised his hand at his Pandora before his golden eyes narrowed.
Ingrid blocked each blast with her guard raised with her tonfas, each blow caused her to skid back a bit and she nodded as he performed another set.
"Hmm!" He shot off one more volley before letting out a breath, wiping his sweat from his brow. "... 21 shots, huh?" Leo announced to her.
Ingrid nodded, coming over while disengaging her Volt Weapons. "We'll have to ask the other Power-Type Limiters to see how many they can let off."
"Sounds sound."
"Snrt."
Elizabeth, Andre, Naruto, Rana, Chiffon, and Eugene stood together as the blonde boy showed his upperclassman how to do it.
"You sort of let go of a burst of your Freezing, kind of," Naruto explained as Andre nodded with a contemplative hum.
"So like sending ourselves in for a tackle, I believe?" Andre asked and Naruto hummed.
"Sounds pretty accurate but, remember, these are stronger than you just tackling a wall. I don't know how your mind affects the pure power but it'd be best to remember that," Naruto said as Rana hummed.
"There's a lot to learn for them-de arimasu," she noted and Elizabeth chuckled before considering something.
"Will this also help with that exercise you had us do after our meditation?" She asked and Naruto and Rana blinked at her.
"Well, I'm not sure," her fellow blonde said.
"I think it helps but we don't know how yet-de arimasu," Rana added and Elizabeth hummed before the Tibetan's eyes widened. "N-Naruto-kun! We should try out what your parents said!"
"What do his parents have to do with this?" Eugene asked. "What do you mean?"
"Oh, well, mom and dad can do similar things to me and Rana," Naruto explained, surprising the two.
"I didn't know," Elizabeth said. "He carries all the same traits as you?"
"Not completely but he can use Natural Energy almost as well as I can," Naruto explained.
"Ah, so he's not as good as you? That's rather surprising."
"Yeah, dad's almost kind of put-out because of that but he's got his own kinds of Freezing to use, I don't think he has much to worry about."
"?"
"Not important," Elizabeth snorted. "What is, though, is that he and mom explained why we were so confused about that thing that showed up," Naruto explained with a grin as his field expanded out beneath him. "Rana-chan?"
"Hmph!" She nodded before kneeling and activating her Volt Textures. "So, I can just…" Rana moved her hand around and their symbol appeared within all the hexagons she passed her hand over. "..."
Standing up, she held her hands together, and… the field began to climb to her head?!
Chiffon and Eugene gaped as the Tibetan hummed before slowly extending her arms, the field shifted up her form before surrounding her arms.
When Rana opened her eyes, glowing pupils got a small choke out of Eugene as Chiffon swallowed.
"Hmm," Rana looked at her covered arms before gold began to climb up her arms and filled her body with strength. "I feel powerful," she said with a wide grin as Naruto chuckled a bit, coming over and looking around her arms.
"... Hey, Rana-chan."
"Yes, Naruto-kun," she grinned as he blinked before he remembered that she was likely capable of reading his intent thoughts. "I can try," Rana added before holding her arms in at her side as the Freezing hexagons began to melt away. "I-It's working!"
The 'plates' faded away leaving behind pure, gold, energy in their wake that slowly began to take shape-
The girl's entire body pulsed before instantly losing all forms of enhancement.
"Rana-chan!" Naruto called out to her as she shakily stood on her feet. "Y-You alright-Dammit!" He called out only to immediately catch her as she fell forward. "Dammit," he cursed before quickly placing her on his back and rushing off.
Elizabeth frowned at that. "Was it too much?" She asked the others who grimaced. "Naruto said this is both a new discovery and something he was informed was possible, not that he could do it. Is it some sort of overload?"
"It's possible," Eugene said with a grimace as the others looked alarmed as Naruto passed them by. "For now, we only have conjecture."
~NRK~
Rana Linchen dreamed.
When she dreamed, as of late, she'd normally see dreams about her and Naruto back in Nakartse, the two of them living a life in her village.
Working, training, living together, the two would do it all. They'd hunt in the forests, learn more about her culture, and build a life for themselves.
That was the usual dream… So why was she seeing something different?
Rana looked behind her at a familiar-looking white line.
What is that? She didn't know. Neither she nor Naruto could know but, all she did know, was that Chiffon and Kazuya had something like that surrounding their souls. … W-Why is it getting closer?!
She didn't fear it… mentally, it was just a line… but something within her, something in her very soul, hated it. This thing wasn't something she wanted to be a part of.
Destroy Everything
Her eyes widened at the… command towards her being as she turned back to Earth. Her home planet.
Destroy EVERYTHING
She covered her ears but her eyes glowed and their pupils elongated.
Destroy everything The thought grew… comforting even as her body went cold at the thought.
Even as a feeling of horror and terror begged her to not do so.
DESTROY EVERYTHING-
No! She screamed at it as she turned to have the Earth at her back. No! Destroying everything isn't what I want!
DESTROY EVERYTHING!
It called and beckoned and she found her body beginning to fall to its whims.
No, please, I don't want this! Someone, anyone, help her-!
Gold flittered by her sides and she watched in some form of shock as the white tendrils that had been attached to her back by that thing were slapped away.
Protect the world.
Rana's eyes widened.
I-I want to do that b-but this thing… I-It has some kind of control, h-how can I…
… It was like the gold energy noted her words and 'nodded' before seeping into her back and forming those familiar wings of light.
Her Holy Gates.
With This Power, Protect The World
Her body trembled but warmth the likes of which she'd never felt before… warmth she'd only felt from one source, a power seeped in and her body was enveloped by the feeling.
Protect, Rana Linchen
Then she awoke.
~NRK~
Rana shot up, shocking the individuals who'd come around her.
"H-Huh?!" Rana looked around before looking down to see herself in a medical gown. "W-What happened-de arimasu?"
"You fell unconscious," Elize answered as Naruto sighed at the Pandora's bedside. "What happened?" The doctor asked with a froze as Sister Margaret, Chiffon, Eugene, Elizabeth, and Naruto surrounded her bed. "Can you remember?"
Rana frowned as Naruto held her hand, the older teen gripping it back.
"I-I think so… I was using Naruto-kun's Freezing and trying to surround my body with it."
"That's it?" Chiffon asked with a deep frown. "Nothing else?"
"... No, not really," Rana frowned.
Was she forgetting something? Didn't something else happen?
"I think something did happen but I don't remember, sorry."
"... No, it's fine, Rana-chan, I'm just worried," Chiffon said with a small, relieved, smile. "Elizabeth was of the opinion that you were overloaded, or overcharged, with Naruto's energy."
"... Hmm," Rana looked… unsure about that fact. "Maybe-de arimasu."
"If you have any other input, it'd be appreciated," Elizabeth said as she flipped her hair behind her shoulder. "We're glad you're awake, as is," she said with a smile as Rana sent one right back at her.
"T-Thanks… I hope I can figure it out-de arimasu."
"Don't worry too much about it, your vitals seem fine," Elize said before chuckling a bit more. "If anything, you're more than fine. Maybe it's just me but your body was probably enhanced a bit by Naruto's energy. You should be, if anything, feeling great."
Rana flexed her other hands before repeating the action a few more times. "... I-I do! I-It's kind of weird but I feel full of power."
"That's about what we expected," Margaret said with a relieved smile. "If anything feels off, let Dr. Schmitz know."
"I will."
The headmistress nodded before walking away. "Rest well, Ms. Linchen."
"I'll be taking my leave, as well," Elizabeth said with a nod. "I'll inform the others of your return to consciousness, they'll be relieved."
"Thank you, Mably-san!" Rana said with a bow from her seated position, getting a chuckle out of Naruto.
"Rana's certainly not feeling sleepy," he said and Elizabeth hummed in amusement. "Later, Elizabeth-senpai."
"Take care."
The two left, leaving Chiffon and Eugene with them as Elize stepped out.
"I'll be right back, gotta check on some of the other patients." She had said before disappearing.
"... Rana-chan, when you get out… Could you speak with us?" Chiffon asked seriously and the other pair frowned.
"I had a feeling you had something to ask," Naruto said.
"I don't mind-de arimasu," Rana answered with a nod as Chiffon wore a strained grin.
"It's… It's going to be a weird conversation," Eugene explained with a nervous chuckle. "Just know, Naruto's about as weird as what we're about to say."
"That's not insulting or anything, Eugene-senpai."
"It's called truth, Naruto-kun," Eugene snorted at the younger boy's flat expression. "Hey! Don't blame me, blame yourself for being weird!"
"Oi!"
"Alright, time to leave before the two start discussing what counts as weird or not," Chiffon said with a shake of the head as she pushed Eugene out the room.
"Naruto, you're probably the weirdest person I've met!"
"No, I'm not!" Naruto shouted after him with a shaking fist as Eugene threw him the stink-eye. "Dammit, he's getting pranked for this!"
"Hm, hm, hm," Rana giggled a bit. "... Naruto-kun…" she said softly but he shook his head.
"We'll talk when we're alone, yeah?"
~NRK~
Two more hours of observation later, they were back in Naruto's room, sitting on the male teen's bed.
Wearing teal pajamas, Rana borrowing one of his, they sat on the edge of his bed, the Pandora's hair down.
The blonde's Freezing was on the walls of the room and, so, they had perfect privacy.
"What's going on, Rana-chan?" Naruto asked with a raised brow. "You weren't telling them the truth, were you?"
"... N-No," Rana admitted with a grimace and the tightening of her hands into fists. "... N-Naruto-kun… W-When I was asleep… I dreamed about something weird."
Naruto frowned.
"I looked around and I think I was in space," she said with a shake of the head before her eyes grew slightly haunted, pushing him to wrap his arm around her shoulder. "...?!" Rana's face went bright red as Naruto's own sported a pretty decent blush but she snuggled into it. "... And behind me was that l-line!" Her arms found his stomach and, soon enough, she was hugging him back.
Naruto didn't like her feeling so scared and simply embraced her back fully.
"What was it?"
"... I-I think it was that line in the distance we saw," she said, looking at him and Naruto looked surprised.
"R-Really? W-What happened?!"
"It tried to…" She swallowed. "It kept saying 'Destroy Everything'," she said and he grimaced. "I-I couldn't… I tried to fight it but I couldn't do it on my own… b-but, then, something did… Gold energy I've only seen once and it told me 'Protect The World'... It was so warm and I could tell it was trying to help and it fended off the white line."
"... That sounds crazy… what is it?" Naruto wondered with a frown. "And… is that thing bothering Kazu and Chiffon-nee?"
"... I think it is," Rana said with a grimace. "And I think that's why Chiffon-senpai wants to talk, she might have known something about that line and felt it try that thing… Speaking of, I don't know why I even had that dream."
"... I wonder… it only happened after you were literally encased by my Freezing," Naruto said with a frown. "Did it… Maybe that caused it?"
"But your energy saved me," Rana said and he nodded.
"... Was it… disconnecting you from that white thing?" Naruto wondered and Rana frowned. "But if it did… what does that mean for people like my mom? She's never told me anything about this… And what about Pandora as a whole?"
"... M-Maybe Chiffon-senpai will know?"
"Doesn't hurt to think about," Naruto said as he dropped his Freezing and they fell back on the bed. "For now, sleep. We've got an idea for how to move forward, we should focus on that."
"What if… that dream happens again?"
"... Then we'll face it," Naruto said as he combed his fingers through her hair, getting a soft sigh from his Pandora. 'She's really bummed about it.'
To be fair, this might be a whole thing that'd change their worldview if it becomes as big as they think it will. So it made sense… still like he said before.
He doesn't like seeing Rana so worried, so concerned.
So sad.
"... Hey, Rana-chan," he spoke up with a grin as she looked at his blushing face. "Wanna go on a date tomorrow?"
Rana's eyes bugged out.
"YES!"
Naruto snorted as she shot up.
Arthur blushed.
'It's not what you think! It's not what you think! It's not what you think!' He recited in his head. 'S-Sure, Naruto was silencing the walls… S-Sure, the moment they fell into bed, Rana screamed-'
Good God, he was gonna be grilling his friend for details.
Kazuya blushed.
'That's not your business, Kazuya, don't let it get into your head,' he told himself as he covered his face and screamed into his pillow. 'God am I some sort of pervert?!'
He was supposed to be calling his grandfather!
What the fuck?!
~NRK~
That's a wrap and we have a few cornerstone things.
Obito has a rather in-depth relationship with the Aois as well as Su-Na. He's aware of the big picture and is trying to find a way to stop the TW… Gee, I wonder what kind of changes he's made to the canon since he's been here? Might be some crazy stuff.
We'll get into that next chapter, promise.
Also, he's got a pseudo-plasma texture set-up that might become of use to those NOT MCs. Meaning no lagging behind for a lot of the side characters.
What's this, Atsuko Seiga, and her grandfather, are seemingly not total dickheads? Gee, crushes do amazing things, huh?
Naruto's going to be pulling a Touta Konoe, kind of.
As Obito said in Kamui Candy during a chapter with training. If you've got a 'complete' technique, try adding a direction to it. That's basically the jutsu fundamentals in 'Naruto', anyway.
Finally, the last things, Rana has contacted the TW… BUT! She's been 'saved' by being disconnected?! Is that what's happened?!
We'll see during the group date!
Words: 15.3k+
~NRK Out~