Disclaimer: I do not own anything from the Naruto or Wakfu franchises. Comments/Criticism is fine as long as it isn't just 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
Wakfu: Chronicles of the Lost Ninja
-Chapter 12-
-Last Time-
"Can I feel them?"
"…alright."
"Yay!" Julie exclaimed happily as she reached out and rubbed the blonde's cheek curiously.
'Hmm, I guess it could be worse.' Naruto thought with a soft smile that quickly turned into a mischievous grin as he suddenly reached out and tickled Julia's armpits.
-And Now-
At the recently trampled portion of Xav's wheat field, Amalia and Eva helped Helen plant the seeds for golden wheat that the baker had kept in the house for emergencies.
"Are you certain that you'll be able to grow all the wheat we'll need?" Helen asked once she finished spreading the last few seeds. "Golden wheat isn't your run of the mill crop after all, it requires a huge amount of care just to grow normally."
"No need to worry ma'am, Amalia is a Sadida princess, if anyone can grow this stuff in the time we need it's her." Eva said confidently while she and the elder Cra watched said greenette walk to the exact middle of the clearing and get down on one knee.
Taking a deep breath, Amalia clapped her hands together, making them emit a soft green aura before twirling her hands in a molding like motion and slamming one hand against the ground and the other held up before her face. Within seconds the earth beneath her was aglow and several pebbles slowly rose into the air.
"I need some water Eva, but not too much." The princess stated calmly, her eyes closed and her breathing set at a slow steady pace.
"You got it." The elf-girl said as she pulled out her bow and shot an energy arrow at a nearby cloud, causing it to thunder briefly before releasing a soft drizzle across the field.
Silence filled the field after that as the two blondes watched the greenette do her thing. For a while though, nothing seemed to happen and Helen grew increasingly concerned that their plan wasn't going to work.
However, just as the mother of two was about to vocalized her concern once more, her words turned into an amazed gasp as she and Eva watched dozens of tiny golden sprouts gently poked out of the ground. "By Cra, it's actually working."
"I told you it would." Eva stated with a proud smile.
The next half hour or so passed pretty swiftly as Eva continued to make it rain whenever Amalia needed more water and Helen checked over the rapidly growing gilded plants to make sure they were growing properly. Before long the entire field was filled with sparkling golden stalks several feet tall and laden with fat grains ready for the plucking.
Unable to help herself, Helen ran through the field with a happy laugh as her hands brushed across the plants, sending glittering pollen flying through the air. "This is amazing! Now we just have to run this through the mill and we'll have all the flour we need!"
"You hear that Amalia, you really are a true Sadida Princess." Eva called out to Amalia as the greenette got up and shook off the excess rainwater that had collected on her.
"Like there was any doubt." Amalia said in a faux cocky tone before sighing deeply as she stretched her slightly stiff muscles. "Hey, would it be too much to ask for something to drink? I'm parched."
"Of course dear," Helen said while walking up to the greenette, handing her a small jug she had strapped to her hip. "Here, it's bamboo milk, freshly shipped from the Pandawa capital."
"Thank you ma'am," Amalia muttered thankfully, swiftly pulling the cord out and gulping down several mouthfuls of the refreshing liquid. "Ahhh, that hit the spot."
"Great, now would you guys mind helping me already?" Eva asked while slicing a large swath of wheat down with a scythe. "Last I checked, we were on a bit of a time constraint."
Yeah, yeah, relax Eva," Amalia said while stamping her foot on the ground, causing several brambles to burst out of the earth and scoop up the cut wheat into neat little bundles that were then carefully stacked into a cart. "See, we're almost done already."
Rolling her eyes good naturedly at her charge's words, Eva didn't say anything else as she continued to slice the wheat down to be bundled. 'Hopefully the others are doing as good as we are.'
-With Ruel and Dally-
"AAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Dally screamed as he ran away from a large angry Gobbal that was trying to squash him.
"Keep it up Dally, I'm about halfway done." Ruel said encouragingly as he held a large jug under a slow pouring tap.
"Easier said then dooAAAAAH!" Dally started to yell, only to be cut off when the Gobbal caught up to him and sent him flying with a powerful ram before turning its angry glare towards the old Enutrof.
"…oh crap," Ruel muttered before running away with a scream as the wooly beast charged at him.
-With Yugo and Xav-
Standing in a small clearing, the baker and the teleporting child were going through a complex series of motions for baking that looked like an odd form of fighting style mixed with dancing. After several minutes of this, Yugo hunched over with a groan as sweat poured from his forehead.
"Phew, this is a lot harder then I thought it was gonna be. I had no idea that cooking bread required such discipline." He muttered tiredly while Xav patted his back, looking barely winded.
"Only if you wish to be the best of the best," The baker said before pointing his thumb over his shoulder once Yugo caught his breath. "I think that's enough for now, let's head back and see how everyone else is doing, maybe get something to eat while we're at it."
"Definitely, I'm hungry enough to eat a whole Gobbal." Yugo said, his stomach growling loudly at the prospect of food as they walked back to Xav's home.
Unknown to the pair, the other two groups had the same idea at the exact same time and before they knew it, the whole gang ended up reuniting outside the baker's house.
"Hey guys! How'd you guys do?" Yugo asked as teams Evalia and Rully, names given by Naruto jokingly before they left, walked up to them.
"No real problems on our end, well other than almost getting my hand crushed in the mill because Amalia distracted me." Eva said as she set a large bag of flour down by her feet.
"Hey! It wasn't my fault that stupid dragoturkey tried to eat my skirt!" Amalia yelled indignantly as she fiddled with the back of her outfit, where a noticeable chunk had been torn out of the leafy material.
"Same here, our task was a piece of cake. No trouble at all." Ruel said as he set down the jug of water with a victorious smirk, at least his best attempt of one with how bruised up his face and body was, with an equally battered up Dally leaning on his shoulder for support.
"If you say so Ruel." Yugo mumbled with a giggle, clearly not believing the old man's words.
As they were talking, Xav opened the bag of flour and pulled out a handful of the glistening powdered grain, slowly letting it slip through his fingers with an analytical look. He then dusted his hand off and poured a tiny amount of the water into his mouth, swishing it around a few times before swallowing with a wide grin.
"These are perfect! The quality is just what we need to win!" He said confidently as he scooped up the two items.
"Of course dear, now come on, the contest starts in a few hours and you all should get something… to…" Helen trailed off midsentence as her nose twitched. "Oh my, what is that delicious smell?"
Not knowing what she was talking about at first, the rest of the group began to sniff the air curiously. Sure enough though, each one of them swiftly found themselves baffled as a delectable smelling aroma filled their nostrils.
"I don't know, but whatever it is seems to be coming from your house." Ruel said as everyone turned to said home. With their curiosity peaked, the group went inside and found quite the interesting sight.
"Hey guys, all done already?" Naruto asked as he measured filled a mixing bowl with flour, eggs, and other such materials. At the same time one of his clones was carefully working over the firepit, stirring a large pot of bubbling broth while another was entertaining Julie by making several items float around her with wind chakra.
"Yep, it was actually pretty easy." Amalia said with a shrug before pointing at the mixing bowl in the original blonde's grasp. "And it would seem we weren't the only ones who were busy. What are you making?"
"Only the best food ever, ramen!" Naruto exclaimed with a smile as he added one last pinch of salt to the bowl.
"Huh, I've never heard of it before, is it a local delicacy?" Xav asked curiously, only to blink in surprise when Naruto and his clones suddenly lost their happy demeaner, the once energetic air around them being replaced with somberness and depression. "Is something wrong?"
"That's a bit of a sore subject for him sir, I'd suggest you'd let it go for now." Eva told him quietly, getting the baker to nod in understanding.
"So… how long until this ramen is finished?" Ruel asked, making Naruto cheer up a bit at the change of subject.
"Twenty minutes or so, I just need to make the noodles." The whiskered blonde said while raising his hand up and holding it palm down over the mixing bowl to everyone's confusion. Before any of them could question this action though, they all watched in awe as a spiraling ball of energy suddenly formed in Naruto's grasp, rapidly mixing the ingredients together into a perfect ball of dough.
He then took that dough in hand and rapidly kneaded the substance into thin strands which he then proceeded to slice to the perfect length and pour into the boiling broth. All of this took him less than ten minutes and when he was done, Naruto turned back to the group to talk more, only to freeze when he found Yugo, Amalia, and Dally right in his face with excited eyes. "Uhhh… can I help you?"
"What was that cool ball thing you did?! It was so awesome looking!" Yugo asked excitedly.
"Oh, you mean the Rasengan?" Naruto asked while forming another sphere in his hand, only this one was about a third the size of the last one. "It was invented by my father and is one of my most powerful jutsu in my arsenal."
"Really? That little thing?" Dally asked as he looked at the mini Rasengan with mild disbelief. "It looks so harmless though."
"Looks can be deceiving Dally," Naruto said with a smirk before the Rasengan quintupled in size, making the warrior jump back in surprise while everyone else stared in awe at the attack, the constant spirals of energy creating a hypnotic like effect. "Watch this."
Letting it shrink back to it's original size, Naruto walked over to the nearest wall and slowly pressed the attack against it, stunning everyone once more as it effortlessly drilled through the stone like it wasn't even there. Allowing the jutsu to disperse, the blonde used a weak earth jutsu Jiraiya taught him to fill the hole he'd made.
"And that's just at half-power, a full strength Rasengan would have turned the whole wall and everything behind it into shrapnel." Naruto said with a shrug, missing everyone's shocked expressions as he walked back to the firepit, dispelling the clone he had there while he scooped up a ladleful of the soupy dish and tasted it. "Alright! It's ready!"
Grabbing a nearby stack of bowls, Naruto swiftly filled each one to the brim and passed them around before helping himself to a nice big serving.
However, whilst the whiskered blonde chowed away happily, but a bit awkwardly given he was unused to using a spoon, and a certain orange haired warrior was all to happy to just dive right in without a care, the rest of the room were a bit more… casual with their first bite.
Yugo, Ruel, Julie, Xav, and Amalia each hefted large spoonful into their mouths with curious expressions while Eva and Helen took much small and cautious bites. However, for every single one of them the reaction was the same the instant the noodles and broth touched their taste-buds.
"By Sadida! This is delicious!" Amalia exclaimed as she quickly shoveled more of the Ramen into her mouth, with Ruel, Yugo, Eva and Julie doing the same.
"It is quite tasty, you have quite some talent young man," Helen said with a nod, her and her husband eating at a sedate pace, taking their time to fully enjoy the meal. "The flavor is incredibly well balanced."
"Hehehe, thanks, I'm glad you like it." Naruto said sheepishly.
"Indeed, and I must say that Rasengan of yours makes an excellent mixer, these noodles are perfectly textured," Xav added, grabbing one of said noodles and running it through his fingers. "In fact, it gives me an idea."
-A few hours Later-
Yugo felt just a little bit nervous as he and Xav stood atop a large stage with a large crowd standing before them cheering at the top of their lungs. He knew that this was gonna be a contest and all, but the teleporter was certainly not expecting this large a crowd to show up to watch people baking bread.
"Welcome everybody to the fifty-third bakers contest!" An extremely fat man with a pale white face yelled dramatically as he did an odd jig on stage while an equally fat woman who looked eerily similar to him bowed to the cheering crowd.
"Now for those of you who are new, the winner of today's competition be named the best baker in the land" The woman said with a smile.
"Not only that, but this year's winner will also get the honor of presenting their bread to the king of Bonta himself." Mr. Judge said before gesturing to Xav and Yugo. "Our first contestants are Xav the Baker and his new assistant Yugo!"
Clapping a pair of wooden fish together to calm the crowed as they cheered, Ms. Judge continued the introduction. "There is really no need to introduce our second competitor, Master Ratweasel and his assistant Chouquette." Said old man stood beside an elderly woman, who looked basically like a non-bald female version of him. "Ratweasel is the reigning champion and has been unbeaten for several years but now he must face against his old apprentice and son."
Inside the crowd, Naruto's eyes narrowed in suspicion the moment he saw Ratweasel's assistant. Nudging Eva's side to get her attention, he pointed to Chouquette and said in a hushed tone. "That lady is totally the one who attacked Xav's place, she has the exact same height and hairstyle."
"Got it, I'll keep an eye on her in case she tries to pull anything." The Cra said with narrowed eyes.
"Competitor three: Grool, fresh from the fields with his apprentice Gagnok!" Mr. Judge exclaimed while gesturing to an obese looking cat man with a young redhead boy sitting in the palm of his large hand.
"Competior number four: Macrobio!" Mr. Judge said with hearts in her eyes as she gestured to a muscular man wearing a lab outfit and a gangly man in the background. "He's back from Bonta with all-new techniques, some would say they're still pretty experimental."
"Maybe we should have someone stand in for us when we try his bread. Matemate!" Mr. Judge whispered jokingly, making Ms. Judge laugh briefly before frowning when he pointed to a lovely pinkette who was holding two large buns up to her chest. "And finally Competitor Number Five: My favorite Shosanne! She's new on the scene and can probably hold her own!"
"We'll see about that." The woman muttered as she and her partner moved to the side, allowing the bakers to all get lined up in a running position. "Alright everyone, on your marks… get set… … GO!"
Breaking out into a run, Yugo and Xav quickly made it to their station and gathered up the ingredients they'd need to make their dough, not paying any attention to the running commentary that the two judges had going on.
Meanwhile, back in the crowd Naruto was watching all this with a raised brow while the rest of the gang cheered Yugo and Xav on. "Uhhh, okay, am I the only one who thinks this is a bit weird?" He asked, getting Amalia, Eva, and Helen's attention.
"What do you mean Naruto?" Eva asked back curiously.
"Well, aren't we-hold on a sec," Naruto started to say, only to be cut off as one of Yugo's portals suddenly opened up near the ground in front of him. Forming a weak Rasengan in his hand, the whiskered blonde carefully balanced the sphere on his finger and pressed it through the portal, causing it to reappear out the other one Yugo had balanced over his and Xav's mixing bowl.
"Oh my! Would you look at that! Now that's a mixing technique I've never seen before!" Mr. Judge exclaimed with wide eyes as he and Ms. Judge watch the sphere do its work.
"Me either! It certainly as amazing as Xav described it would be!" The obese woman said with a nod. Earlier, before the contest began, Xav had talked to the judges to see if he'd be allowed to do this, to which the judges agreed since it sounded cool and Naruto technically wasn't participating as Yugo was the one 'using' the Rasengan.
You got to love loopholes sometimes.
A few seconds later, Naruto let the Rasengan disperse after getting a discreet signal from Xav in the form of him twirling his baking peel.
"Ahem, anyway, as I was saying, doesn't it feel like we're overdramatizing this a bit?" The whiskered blonde asked as he turned his attention back to his friends, but still watching out of the corner of his eye as Yugo and Xav kneaded the dough by… throwing it in the air and kicking it? "I mean, I get that it's a contest and all and it must be pretty intense for the competitors, but it's not exactly that exciting to watch happen, no offence Helen-san."
"None taken Naruto," The mother of two said as a completive sheepish look appeared on her face. "In fact now that I think about it, we are acting a bit silly."
"Yeah, why were we all excited about this again?" Amalia asked, her prior enthusiasm fading away as she realized she was getting hyped up by a bread baking competition of all things.
"Sounds like we got crowd hype syndrome," Eva said as she calmed down as well, rolling her eyes when she saw the confused looks on everyone's faces before adding, "We got drawn into the excitement of the crowd."
"Ahhh, yeah that makes sense." Amalia muttered while Helen and Naruto nodded in agreement.
Unbeknownst to the group, several bystanders overheard this conversation and inadvertently ended up snapping them out of their own excitement. And while a few of these people simple shrugged off it off as nothing, quite a few ended up agreeing with Eva's deduction and either left to find something more interesting or point this out to their friends then leave, who in turn did the same.
This in turn set off an unintended chain reaction that spread through the whole crowd and before anyone even realized what happened, over four-fifths of the gathered people had dispersed. And more then a few of the remaining individuals looked ready to follow if it wasn't for Macrobio's bread spontaneously disintegrating and the rather dramatic reentrance Shosanne.
Well that and the ones who'd already placed bets on the outcome of the competition.
Of course, neither the contestants or the judges seemed to notice this, too focused on the 'action' going on onstage reaching its zenith, the tasting of the finished bread.
"Alright, we will now judge each contestant's bread based on five points, the shape of the bread, smell, crunchiness of the crust, texture and finally the taste." Mr. Judge explained as he and Ms. Judge walked from one contestant to the next, carefully sampling each person's bread.
After a while, Shosanne and Grool found themselves dismissed from the stage, the former stomping off with an angry huff while the latter shrugged the loss off with a bored expression.
"And now for the moment of truth, every… body… what the heck? Where did everyone go?" Mr. Judge muttered in surprise as he finally looked towards the crowd, which was now reduced to just two dozen or so people while several people were walking off, muttering angrily under their breaths after handling several handfuls of kamas to a certain old Enutrof.
"Maybe they had some bad bread?" Ms. judge suggested with a shrug.
"Yeah, that's probably it," The obese man said before clearing his throat. "Anyway, as I was saying, Master Ratweasel, your bread is a work of art as usual, wonderful enough to grace the world's greatest tables!" As Mr. Judge spoke, a scoreboard above the stage made of baker peels dinged twice while adding two points.
"Xav, your bread was a real treat, with an exquisite taste and texture that we've never had before," Ms. Judge praised as the scoreboard honked twice. "However it lacked the crust it deserved."
"This was a close decision, and it was only after deep consideration that we have determined a winner." Mr. Judge said with a wide grin. "And to that end we decide to award novelty and innovation."
"Thus we are proud to declare Xav the winner of this year's competition!" Ms. And Mr. Judge declared at the same time, getting Yugo and his friends to cheer while half the remaining crowd groaned in defeat before handing a grinning Ruel their money and walking off angrily.
"You… you… you bunch of doughballs!" However, the moment was short lived as an angry Chouquette burst out in rage, screaming at the two judges as she slammed her fist against the ground, filling the air with flour that swiftly cleared to reveal her dressed up just like the person who'd attacked Xav's wheat field while standing atop a brand new Breadnaught. "I'll show you novelty and innovation."
"Well Naruto, looks like you called it." Eva said while drawing her bow.
"Ah, you make it sound like you doubted me." Naruto retorted playfully, getting in a ready stance along with Amalia, Ruel, and Dally.
"Chouquette! How dare you!" This proved unnessasary though as Ratweasel himself appeared atop the Breadnaught and froze the tiny woman in place with a fierce glare.
"B-but Master! They've insulted you!" Chouquette said, sending Yugo and Xav a dirty look as Breadnaught started to move again, only for Ratweasel to grab his assistant and pull her close, his glare not wavering an inch. Eventually, the little woman gave a defeated whine and her bread golem vanished in a puff of flour, leaving her and the old midget baker on the stage.
"Forgive me master, I-I only did it out of love for you!" She cried, tears streaming from her eyes as she snuggled her head into the crook on Ratweasel's neck. Said midget kept up his glare for a few more seconds before finally easing up with a sigh and wrapping his arms around the sobbing woman, telling her that it was alright as he rubbed her back.
"Ahhh, would you look at that, the old crouton has a heart of dough after all." Amalia said, gushing a bit at the sweetness of the scene.
"And it looks like he isn't the only one." Eva said as they watched Xav walk up to the pair of midgets once Chouquette stopped crying and started talking with his old man, a genuine smile working its way on both their faces as they apparently finally managed to resolve their differences.
"It's about time those two finally acted their age," Helen said with a relieved smile. "Now who's up for a celebratory dinner?"
"Oh, can we have more of that Ramie stuff?" Dally asked eagerly, making the group sans Eva chuckle at his mispronunciation.
"Sure Dally, besides I did promise Helen-san and Xav-san that I'd teach them how it's made." Naruto said while clapping the Iop's back.
-End Chapter-
AN:I'll be honest, this chapter was hard for me. I mean seriously, how was I supposed to make a bread baking competition sound epic in a story when even in the show it seems way to overdramatic, so I went with this. The first time you watch that episode it seems kinda cool sure, but the second and third time its like 'are they really that hyped up watching people make bread?'. I mean, I love to cook myself, but it is boring as hell watching someone else, no matter how many cool tricks they pull off.
That being said, I'm not really sure how well this chapter turned out, so any advice or tips would be nice. Thank you for reading and please review.