My Heroic Beast King
Chapter 14
Hey all, we got the notifications back. Super glad about that, so here is another chapter. Speaking of, chapter 15 will be out soon too.
Enjoy!
XXXX
Kyoka smirked as she sat in seat along with the rest of the class that did not make it in the final round of the Sports Festival. The Mortal Kombat song had been fun and Mina agreed, but she was not mad that Momo got to advance and she did not. While it would have been fun to try her hand with small sonic blasts in the middle of her martial arts style, it would have been exhausting and she would rather have the comfort of her equipment if she were to actually fight.
Speaking of fighting, the first fight of the Tournament could barely be considered as such. It was more of a one-sided slaughter. It was pretty metal that the high and mighty bomb boy got served like that. Thinking about what she heard made her frown though. First about the war aspect and she knew a lot of Naruto's past after he told them some years back, but it still made her worried for the blond ninja. For the bomb boy to remind Naruto of his past, especially about way, it was worrisome.
The other thing that worried her was the call out of Endeavor's attitude toward heroism and by proxy, Bakugo's. She knew she was not the only one to hear as several pro heroes heard it and agreed. That word would spread soon and she was worried for her crush. His reputation could take a hit if the wrong people…most Endeavor himself, took it the wrong way. No matter, she would be there for him alongside Momo. They made a great team after all.
Such a good team…that Momo and her talked about it a while ago. After this tournament was over, they would wake the blond up about their feelings for him. While they remembered about the Hinata girl almost dying after a confession, they felt they need to wake him up again that people did like him.
However, another thing was bothering her. She chanced a glad over in the 1-B area to find Neji stilling there calmly, chatting with Ibara about something before leaving. It spooked her that he was also from Naruto's home world…but reincarnated here. That made two they knew about. Orochimaru and now Neji. How many people from Naruto's past were they going to see…and would Naruto be able to take it?
Only time would tell. They had a battle soon, but Neji still had to win his fight against Hitoshi.
XXX
"Alright folks, I finally have the mic back and the next match is set to go off! We have Class 1-B's Imperial Flyboy, Neji Hyuga vs Class 1-A's Eraserhead Copycat, Hitoshi Shinso! How does that make you feel, Shota?"
"He may emulate me, Hitoshi is his own person and we are about to see that in action."
"Impartial as ever!"
"Are the participant ready?" Midnight asked to the two boys staring each other down. The silence was deafening to her, but the intensity was setting her off. With a nod from both boys, Midnight grinned excitedly as she called for them to begin!
"You should give up now." Neji stated as he going into a hauntingly familiar fighting stance.
"That's my line." Hitoshi replied with a smirk as he rushed forward to exchange blows with his tonfa.
Neji shook his head with a small smile. "Monarchs of the air such as I can even see you are doing this to impress that cat girl. Impressive foot work, but it will only get you so far with me." Neji ducked and dodged a few strikes from the oversized tonfas. The bulk would surely hurt, if connected, but he doubted the purple haired boy could keep this up for ever. Not to mention, he still had not used his quirk. Neji had done his research and was wary to answer questions.
"Monarch, huh? You got a high opinion of yourself? Let's see if this sloth can clip your wings!" Hitoshi taunted, but Neji had gone quiet with a knowing smirk. He figured that was going to be the case so when Hitoshi feinted a kick, he was barely surprised when Neji took to the air and then dove towards the tired boy with an attack of his own. Neji just did not expect Hitoshi to pop tasers out of the short ends of the tonfas and shock him, causing Neji to crash back down to the ground and almost hit the edge of the arena.
"What an underhanded trick for a potential hero…but it is valid. Using all the tricks you have to come out on top. Seems I was wrong about your class." Neji grunted out as he held his chest were the tasers hit.
"Heh, like you said, using what I got gets the job done. Good thing I planned ahead to take care of flying types. No one ever suspects a normal type like me to be packing a thunder punch or two." Hitoshi replied with a cheesy tire grin.
"Seriously? Pokemon references?" Neji deadpanned.
"Hey, you got the reference, didn't you?" Hitoshi asked cheekily and Neji almost answered the conversational trap.
Almost.
Instead, Neji shifted his feathers to his arms and rushed forward. The action caught the voice hero off guard, not expecting the feather to be able to shift like that. Neji got in his guard, to bat Hitoshi's arms to his sides before going in for the strikes. Using two fingers, Neji hit a couple spots on Hitoshi's arms, rendering them useless. Hitoshi was put off by this but refused to quit now, so he went in for a kick, only to be caught and poked again, making that leg useless as well. He was left looking foolish hopping on one leg, unable to do much else. "Yeah, that is it for me. I cannot do much else and he already knows what my quirk can do apparently. I am done." Hitoshi announced with a sigh. "At least I got to the final rounds and put up a good fight."
"Neji Hyuga is the winner by forfeit!" Midnight announced to the entire arena, who were excited to see a fast based battle, but were a little disappointed it went too fast for their liking.
"Indeed, I can say I enjoyed our fight." Neji relied as he poked his opponent a few times, so he could move again, with Neji giving him a hand up to show he was a good sport. "Despite my high society living, I do enjoy an actual fight now and again. It was how I came up with a similar fighting style to the vigilante Akatsuki. He used electricity as a form of Chi Blocking."
"Both are certainly efficient; I can agree with that." Hitoshi grumbled as they made their way out of the arena. He had been on the receiving end of the shocks a few times. Right, he could not decide which was worse.
"Indeed, and answer to your question, I come from a family of heroes myself." Neji stated with a shrug. "We are a family of fliers, but truth be told, all the new blood is being taken up by the Hero Hawks. If I manage to impress him, I can see what his game is."
"Could just be a rivalry in the field." Hitoshi replied with a shrug.
"Could be, but fliers are rare outside my family and we wish to make sure nothing nefarious is taking place since he is the Commission's lap dog after all and we don't trust them." Neji affirmed before he looked contemplative as he walked the hallways of the stadium. "Shinso, I have a question."
"Ask away."
"You seem to be friends with that Naruto boy. The way he looked at me at first, it was like he had seen a ghost. Problem is… I have never seen him before in my life. Is there something I should know?"
Hitoshi's reply stopped as he contemplated his next words. It seemed that Neji really had no memories of his past life, which was a bit sad, but good if what Naruto had told him was true. "You look like someone Naruto knew once back in his old village…they died saving his life."
Well, that was concerning.
XXX
"Next up, we have the other two power houses of 1-A! The Master of Thunder, Izuku Midoriya vs The Big Freeze himself, Shoto Todoroki!" Present Mic announced wildly to the crowd's amusement.
As soon as the match begun, Shoto instantly froze Izuku's entire side of the arena was a massive glacier, trapping the green haired boy with it. Midnight was about to announce the match a second later because he was worried about the boy fully encased in ice. But a green bolt of lightning crashed down, cracking and steaming the ice. Then another. Third. Fourth! Finally the fifth shattered and evaporated what was left.
"THAT WAS FREAKING COLD!" Izuku screamed out in shivering rage.
"Sorry, I thought you could handle it." Shoto replied dully but looked a little sad. He still had his issues with his father and had expected the man to do what he always did, tell him to get over his rebellious phase. Only, it did not happen. Endeavor had been oddly quiet since the start of the third round of the Sports Festival. What was his game? His confusion turned to anger and he took it out on his friend. He should not have done that. He would apologize later.
"Warn a guy next time." Izuku said, rubbing his arms before pausing. "Is this about your dad again? Well do not worry about him! Focus on me!" With that, another green lightning bolt struck Izuku, but he never teleported like he usually did. He just stood there, menacingly. Then 5 more lightning bolts Izuku and he started sparking with electricity streaking around his body like a Super Saiyan 2's. "I am trying a new technique to push you further, Shoto!"
With that, Izuku started zipping to other parts of the arena as lightning-fast speeds. Shoto would send blocks of ice his way, but Izuku would quickly run away. There was a goal here, there always was. He could have easily pushed the half and half boy out of the arena with his speed but didn't, he wanted to friend to use his full power.
"I am not using his fire for combat!" Shoto shouted angrily.
"This is not about your father or your mother!" Izuku roared, punching Shoto in the gut before zipping away again. "This is about what kind hero you want to be with your power! If you could save someone with your fire where your ice would not help, would you do it? Would you become better than your grump of a dad?! Everyone here is giving their all, stop hampering yourself! You already are a better person than your dad! Show the world what SHOTO CAN DO!"
Shoto sighed; Inasa…Naruto…and now Izuku, were all encouraging him to be himself...just like his mother did once upon a time. He wanted to be a hero they could believe in. He could do it if he really tried. So, he let his fire roar free alongside his ice…but he never heard a peep from his father's gloating about what he could be. It was just the crowd going wild.
The two friends smile at one another before Shoto punched forward letting out a torrent of flame…which promptly miss Izuku as he begun to run circles around Shoto as Naruto had done to Bakugo. It wiped the flames out, which annoyed Shoto, so he sent out waves of ice at the running boy. That did absolutely nothing to hamper him. Shoto tried something else then, he kept a steady stream of fire out, hoping to hit his opponent but it was not strong enough. He used his ice side to keep him cool as he ramped up the temperatures of the fire. More fire. Hotter fire had to do the trick!
But it was not. Izuku's running was getting faster with each lightning strike and soon, a cyclone formed. The fire fed into it as it became a fire tornado above him. He could see Midnight and Cementoss starting to panic, but they kept it going. He could see Izuku glowing with electricity all around him, becoming nothing but a blur. He was not prepared for any of this! He was not sure he could stop!
As soon as the fire tornado started to change color due to the heat rising so much, he heard Izuku shouting above the roaring winds and fire.
"INFINITE MASS!"
The fire turned blue!
"SMASH!" Suddenly, Izuku's lightning cover fist was in his stomach again and he felt the elements disrupt each other as he started flying back. Thankfully he had the wherewithal to create more ice to cushion his fall, but by then, he was already out of the arena. His head hit the ice and he was out like a light.
XXX
Ochaco was psyching herself up the next fight, her fight with Itsuka. But it was hard and the wait between this fight and the last was longer because what they did to the arena. The blue fire tornado had melted the freaking concrete! And either her or Itsuka was supposed to fight the person who beat that?!
Neither had much of a chance!
NO! She could not think of that right now. She had her fight with Itsuka and that was all she had to worry about. Well…not all she had to worry about. She also kind of wanted to fight Setsuna because she also seemed to have a thing for Izuku. Ochaco had a crush on the guy who saved her, sue her. Wanting to fight Setsuna was petty, she knew that and more she thought about it…she honestly wondered how that fight would go. Floating body parts vs the girl who could also make things float. That would be...difficult in her mind.
Shaking her head, she focused back on how to fight Itsuka and came to the conclusion that…she did not know any martial arts like a lot of her classmates did. That was certainly an error on her part, but her family was poor and she was not going to bother them for those lessons when they cost money. Still…books could help.
Her name was called over the intercom, making her sign in frustration. Over thinking in a room by yourself was certainly not good. As she made her way out to the arena, her thoughts of trial and error would have to do.
XXX
"Alright sports fans!" Present Mic's voice boomed over the roaring crowds. "Our four match of the day is under way. We have the Gravity Defying, Ochaco Uraraka vs the Martial Arts Mistress with the Hand Technique, Itsuka Kendo!"
When the match began, they did not immediately run at each other, instead sizing the other up like thin their own fighting stances. Well, Itsuka was in a martial arts fighting stance and Ochaco was more in a brawler's stance. Itsuka grinned at the other girl, "You know, Izuku's advice on our quirks is pretty invaluable. Did he analyze anything good for you?"
Ochaco blinked before tilting her head. "A few things, but a lot of it is still experimental."
"Same, but there is one thing I just had to try for this tournament. It means I will be coming at you hot, keep up gravity girl." Itsuka replied with a cheesy grin as she enlarged his fists, giving Ochaco the finger guns.
Before Ochaco could comment on that, Itsuka shrunk her firsts. Instead of shrinking them down from fingers to wrist, she went the other way, effectively pulling her forward in a rapid movement that put her right in Ochaco's face. The unexpected action made the gravity girl stumble back a bit before she could right herself, Itsuka punched her in the gut with an enlarged fist, sending her opponent to the edge of the arena.
Ochaco only managed to save herself thanks to a quick application of her quirk on herself. Now floating, she caught herself in a good position fall back down safely. "Don't think you are the only one with tricks!" Ochaco roared as she strode forward, keeping low to the ground. She tried to tag Itsuka, but the orange haired martial artist was quicker. Not to be deterred, Ochaco planted her hands on the arena floor and smirked as a section of it rose into the air weightlessly. As Itsuka's brain was registering the arena's floor floating and possibly being used as a weapon against her, Ochaco punched forward, sending the block of concrete hurtling towards Itsuka, who punched it as a reflex with her enlarged fist, turning it into a fine powder.
Using the dust and debris, Ochaco used her quirk on herself again and floated above the martial artist, tagging her in the pass. Thinking up a back-up plan, she dropped and tapped a few more sections of the arena, making them float as well. "Ready to give up!"
"I may be out of gravity, but I am not out of options!" Itsuka roared as she used her dash option to get into Ochaco's guard again, plowing through any and all pieces of floor the gravity girl sent her way. However, with the dust becoming so thick, Itsuka missed by a few inches and Ochaco took full advantage of that. Itsuka was tossed to the right and lazily floated above the out of bounds area. It was funny, but she could get out of this easily with her new dash action.
Only…it was not meant to be because Ochaco turned off her zero gravity before Itsuka could position herself to get back in. She fell on her ass with a start. The shock of it all caused Itsuka to start laughing as Ochaco was announced the winner. She fell due on her hubris, something a lot of martial arts were warned not to do. Go figure. "Good match, Uraraka!"
"We kicked each other around enough now that it just seems right." Ochaco replied, making the orange haired girl laugh even more as they made their way back to their seats.
XXX
Naruto was happy as he sat in between Kyoka and Momo, enjoying the fights. While he understood stood Kyoka's appreciation for long range fights, he wanted to see what she could have pull off in this tournament. Ah well. There was always next time. And as Lee and others learned during their first chunin exams…sound attacks were a bitch to fight.
So far, the battles after his had been decent, if not similar to what he remembered doing. Sasuke had copied Lee's Dance of the Hidden Leaf to make his Lion's Barrage…and he made his Uzumaki Barrage off that. So, it was only right that Izuku had used the circle technique he took from Lee. It was only right.
The next few battles were pretty entertaining as well. Mei showed off her babies to the audience while actually fighting the 1-B student, Mashiro Ojiro. Like Itsuka, he relied on a specified form of martial arts and added his tail into the mix. However, while using her neural-implant (originally translator) baby to upload a few martial arts programs into her brain, she was still smart enough to throw out of few Mei Originals here and then, knocking Mashiro out of the ring in a major upset. The next fun fight to see was two defensive walls. The Rock vs the Dragon in Eijiro Kirishima vs Hiryu Rin. However, Eijiro proved he could be a juggernaut in the end; especially when he threw Hiryu bodily off the area. Then came the battle between 1-B students. It was not even a contest, Ibara Shiozaki won swiftly against Neito Monoma. No doubt her manhandling him and Bakugo back during that lunch was proof of her practice.
However, it was the final match of the first round that interested Naruto. Momo vs Fumikage. Creation vs Darkness!
XXX
"These matches have been going by quickly folks and we are almost done with the first round of the tournament! Give it up for the Lady of Creation herself, Momo Yaoyorozu vs the One Steeped in Darkness, Fumikage Tokoyami!"
As soon as the match started, Momo created a shield on each arm. Both of them were reflective mirror shields that could be combined if needed. She used the reflection of the sun to catch an unsuspecting Dark Shadow of guard and make Fumikage nervous that he would have to fight hand to hand. A momentary weakness of his.
As soon as Dark Shadow was reflected back by the light, Momo crouched down, showing the other side of her arms that shot off matryoshka dolls all around Fumikage. The bird boy glanced at them for a moment and grew annoyed that they were just a distraction while Momo created something else to hamper his chance as moving to the next round and took a step forward to have Dark Shadow fly out of his chest to knock Momo out of the area.
He should have closed his eyes.
Multiple flashbangs went off all around him, putting the bird boy in a daze mumbling about coming too close to the light. Momo would have got caught in that too she had not shielded herself with her special mirror shields…which made Fumikage's problem with light that much worse.
"What madness is this?! Overdosing a dweller of the dark with so much light!" Fumikage groaned out while Dark Shadow just cried.
"Sorry Tokoyami, but I intend to win this fight." Momo announced as her own body began to emit light as well. Having generated a multitude of photons. "I learned this while experimenting with my quirk with my best friends that I can create more than just objects!"
"I see, this battle between darkness and light has already been foretold. Outcome already decided by fate!" Fumikage grunted as he struggled to see anything.
"Sorry dear." Momo replied with a soft smile as she rushed over to the stunned avian of the night and thrust out a palm of glowing light. A pulse was felt and Fumikage was sent out of the arena on to his back. "Hamon Pulse!
XXX
"DAAAAMN!" Both Naruto and Kyoka shouted while leaning back in their seats.
"That was quite quick, she never gave Tokoyami a chance." Tenya commented a bit nervously.
"Tokoyami would have gone the same, if given the chance." Izuku replied with his seat, looking at his notes. "He has been known to over rely on Dark Shadow that I doubt he has made time to train himself like we have. We know Momo be to quick and efficient in our spars so her 'going for the kill' in this battle makes sense."
"I mean, that is how I taught her to fight." Naruto replied with a big grin.
"Look at that, a proud sensei! How cute." Himiko snickered. "How's that teacher/student relationship?"
"Better than mine was. In fact, you are all lucky you are never going to get the 'One thousand Years of Death' technique used on you." Naruto replied, not getting the hit, making the group groan for the wrong reason.
"Ignoring the clusterfuck that was you home village, it looks like you are up again, Naruto." Hitoshi replied, not wanting to continue this conversation even though those like Mina wanted to know what Naruto was talking about.
XXX
"ALRIGHT! We are finally in the second round of the tournament section and once again we have the deadly lotus fighter, Naruto Uzumaki, starting for us vs the Dual Winged Wonder, Neji Hyuga!" Present Mic announced to the roar of the crowds.
As Naruto walked onto the area, he had a sudden urge to look up and a couple of birds flew by. That you up there, watching history repeat itself?
"Before we begin," Neji stated after the crack of Midnight's whip signed them to start. "I understand that a wayward family member of mine saved your life. Tell me, how are they doing?"
Naruto gave off a soft smile. This Neji certainly had no memories of his past self. In a way, that was uplifting. It was just sad he would never get another chance to talk to that version. "They finally found the freedom they had been searching for."
Neji's smile became sad, "I see, a caged bird finally found their wings. Not all Hyuga are born with wings and all wish to fly in some way." He paused and smirked at Naruto. "The life of a Hyuga is not easy, we are free spirits living on high. Just as one Hyuga saved you, you have returned the favor. I know your vigilante identity…thank you for being the inspiration for my chi blocking fighting style."
"Oh? A fan from Tigerbunny's arena? I am flattered that a high roller such as yourself chose to attend." Naruto replied with a bow.
"Like I said, we Hyuga are free spirits." Neji replied before rushing Naruto, the feathers on his arms flying in a swift pincer maneuver to catch the blond off guard. Naruto grinned as he watched Neji poke his arm before he pushed the silver haired boy away with the other. "And that is one arm down, funny how the one who used the same technique with electricity got caught in it."
"You would think so." Naruto replied as he let his fox features free and then a golden light briefly flare over himself. "But no."
"Fascinating!" Neji replied somewhat excitedly. "Your class left much to be desired upon first glance, but you are something else!" The silver haired bird boy rushed in once more, but each attempt at a strike was batted away as if he was moving in water. Naruto was simply faster. He felt some irritation, but she should have expected an underground fighter to just be better. "I was hoping to reveal this later in the tournament, but if I wish to win, I must pull off all stops!"
"Would not be much of a fight if you held so much back from me." Naruto replied cheekily.
"Very well. You are a worthy opponent. You are in my range!" Neji replied excited, which made Naruto's eye twitch at another flashback of that fight came to him. Naruto was shocked to see two more wings made of blue energy fold out from the original two wings that had moved back to their original position. Then…every single feather exploded off Neji's back to form a dome of sharp looking feathers around the blond ninja.
Well, that was certainly unexpected. This was a tournament where they were supposed to show off, right? He combined his strength of One for All as gold lightning arced across his body. "Bring it on, flyboy!" Naruto replied excitedly, "Let's get wild!"
Neji chuckled softly. Apt description of their animal sides. "Indeed, let's. 360 Sharp Feather Spear!"
Naruto punched forward, shattering one of the energy feathers, but one catch his shoulder, slicing into it. So that is how it was? Very well, he just had to go faster! In fact, he had to go so fast, he would borrow another of Might Guy's techniques. If he recalled correctly, the Morning Peacock set the user's fists aflame. That was fine for Naruto as he punched at the feathers so fast, blue fire sparked to life. "FURIOUS FOXFIRE!"
Where fists met feathers, a blue shockwave was heard as Naruto punched all around him. To the outside viewer, it looked like two animals had taken form. A giant silver hawk looked to attacking a flaming blue fox as they roared at each other in defiance.
With one final flaming shockwave, Neji found himself flat on his back on the outside of the arena, part of his gym uniform burnt off from where Naruto and punched him. His feathers had all burn up, but he wasn't worried. This wasn't the first time he lost them. They would grow back even stronger than before.
"Neji is out of bounds. Naruto is the winner!" Midnight announced enthusiastically and grew even more excited as Naruto offer his opponent a hand up. Most of these students were great sports this year!
"I got to ask." Naruto said as he helped Neji to the nurse's office to get that burn looked at. "Have you ever thought about turning that feather attack into a rotating defense?"
Neji blinked rapidly before he put on a thoughtful face. "No, I had not even given that a thought. I am curious how you came to that idea."
XXX
The next fight was between Izuku and Ochaco. Both were nervous about fighting a friend. Izuku also was nervous about Ochaco's ingenuity with her last battle, using the arena to her advantage. Ochaco was nervous because she recognized Izuku as a genius and figure he had multiple quick way of taking her out of this tournament. She had made her peace with that already; happy she got this far and maybe she already had the right attention on her.
When Midnight called for the match to begin. Ochaco immediately began to duck, roll, and dodge all the lightning sent in her direction from Izuku's overflowing store of electricity. His fight with Todoroki had been quite illuminating. However, the gravity girl observed that a few of the bolts had missed her entirely. Ochaco turned her head a bit to see that the out of bounds zone was crackling with electricity in multiple spots.
"I got to say, I am kind of embarrassed that it took me this long to figure out…and not use this on Shoto." Izuku replied sheepishly. "Even worse, it took seeing that Mist Villain's warping abilities for me to get the idea."
"What's tha-" Ochaco started but froze when Izuku used his geo-electric static on her as he ran past, locking her in place a bit painfully. How the hell did Naruto win the race when Izuku did this to him?!
"I can warp other people!" Izuku replied excitedly as a green lightning bolt crashed down on Ochaco and she was gone, only to reappear in the static in the out of bounds zone.
It took a moment for Ochaco to regain her bearings as she squawked and spun around in shock. "YOU JUST NOW FIGURED THIS OUT?!" She roared as Izuku was declared the winner.
"I mean, I had theorized it as I thought up multiple plans while watching the matches, but yeah. Please do not be mad I tested it out on you." Izuku replied with a wince.
"I should be furious that it was a test that could have gone horribly wrong." Ochaco replied tiredly as they made their way back to their seats. "But it is you, Izuku. You would have made sure I would not have gotten hurt."
XXX
"I can't say I expected that." Naruto chuckled a bit. First Izuku and Ochaco's fight was super quick and then Mei and Eijiro's was barely a minute when Mei walked out of bounds on purpose. She had shown off all she wanted to for this tournament. She could have easy used her sonic hammer to knock Eijiro out of the arena, but she just did not care. Like Ochaco, she was content.
However, both Kyoka and Naruto were excited to see how Momo's next battle would go! "True, but it is Mei we are talking about. She cares more about making her babies, then some boring award for fighting." Kyoka replied with a snicker. Mei's verbiage always got to her and she used it just to mess with those listening in. "But she also mentioned that since she could not bring in her full arsenal that there was little point. Still, it would have been pretty metal to see a fight between Mei and Momo."
"Well then let's see who will give our manly rock head a run for his money in the next round…Momo or Ibara?" Naruto replied cheekily.
"We both know who will win."
XXX
"Are you two ready to fight?" Midnight asked as Present Mic shouted who they were over the intercom to hype them up further. Ibara blatantly ignored the loud voice hero after he mistakenly called her an assassin in her first-round match.
"I am, my lord has my back." Ibara replied calmly.
"Indeed." Momo replied with a smile and respectful bow to her opponent.
With a crack of Midnight's whip, Ibara's hair dug into the ground. Same tactic as before, she was going to try and overwhelm Momo with multiple vines sprouting from the ground all around her. However, Ibara was not expecting Momo to pull two swords out of her stomach Kamakiri style, much less for one of them to set itself on fire and burn away everything around her.
Those flames must have been extra strong for her normally resilient hair vines to perish like that and while Ibara was hesitant on the other blade, she cut off that part of her hair before the flames could reach her and then tried again while the vines wriggled all around Momo. Ibara learned the hard way that the glistening liquid on the other sword was some sort of herbicide that absolutely stung and shocked her that she was forced to retract everything as she backed even further from Momo, a bit of fear on her face.
"I do apologize, Shiozaki, but I need to see this battle through and make it to the end. I made a promise to meet someone at the end." Momo replied calmly as she begun to walk forward, forcing Ibara back in fear with each step. For she saw War and Pestilence on either side of Momo, giving her power and it was terrifying!
"Ibara Shiozaki had stepped out of bounds. Momo is our winner for this around!" Midnight announced to a roaring crowd, some noting that Momo's battle was rather short. Quick and efficient but still rather short.
Ibara put a hand to her chest and she tried to rest her rapidly beating heart. She did not expect to feel such fear from the high school student, but it was still there. In the end, she graciously bowed to Momo and tried to leave, but Momo's caring side would not let her leave alone and that further confused Ibara on that duality of Momo. The vine heard girl shook her head though as she chatted with Momo all the way back to their seats.
"If I may, Yaoyorozu, but I would like to see that flame sword you made."
"Oh! Sure. I made it after seeing an old pre-quirk movie called How to Train Your Dragon 2. I researched the mechanic behind such a blade and well…made my own." Momo replied sheepishly as she handed over the blade.
"Such a brilliant mind you have been gifted. To be able make an Archangel's Holy Flame Blade from a children's movie, simply wonderful." Ibara replied kindly as she took the blade. She had a sudden urge to bow her head with the flat of the blade against her forehead. After moment, she raised the blade high above her head and lit it on fire for a moment. It was rather picturesque in her mind. She turned it off before she turned to Kamikiri and bowed. "I now know my calling. Please, Kamakiri, will you teach me the way of the blade so that I too may one day wield the blade of an archangel?"
Class 1-B all looked to Kamakiri with weak smiles. Ibara was already one of the strongest in their class and the situation was made worse when the blade obsessed boy nodded eagerly and started laughing manically like TFS Mr. Popo.
A boy with a speech bubble head started shaking uncontrollably as he said, "Oh man….this is freaking me out."
Kamakiri stopped and gave a chilling grin. "I can tell what her villains are not going to be…safe!"
This was the birth of Crusader Shiozaki.
XXX
"GIVE IT UP FOR THE FIRST FIGHT OF THE SEMI FINAL ROUNDS!" Present Mic's voice boomed throughout the stadium, "In one corner, we have the physical powerhouse that has shown us what the old martial artists were capable of with just their bodies! Naruto Uzumaki! And in the other corner we have the master of all lightning himself, Izuku Midoriya! Let's see how a battle between these two powerhouses goes!"
"Now boys, I want to see a nice clean fight. Nothing too dirty." Midnight replied with a smirk, making Izuku blush and Naruto to just chuckle.
"But Midnight-sensei, they all wanna see how I use my body." Naruto rebutted, causing Midnight to giggle pervertedly as she cracked her whip to start the match.
"Come on, Naruto, that is not what she meant." Izuku replied good-naturedly.
"Isn't it though? I am sure making it this way." Naruto replied cheekily as he once again took ahold of his scepter to take control of the sound system. "Is Mic right? You all wanna see me move my body?" A lot of the crowd laughed but a good many just roared for them to fight. He pressed the hacking tool on his scepter before let it go to stand on its own. Eraserhead head just smirked at his friend, telling him he brought this on himself.
(Please play Move Your Body by Eiffel 65. A bit of throwback but this is to be enjoyable, especially if you play the AMV version)
"Come on, a gimmick fight?" Izuku deadpanned but started to back up when Naruto began to dance aggressively towards him, snapping his fingers all the way. Up in the class section, Mina squealed in excitement as dance fighting was being shown off and she was inspired to create her own version. Much to the amusement of Kyoka.
"You know, every fight for me is a gimmick fight. Got to entertain myself somehow." Naruto replied, swinging in motion as he went into his half-fox form again. With the momentum of the swing, the blond brought out two tails in rapid succession.
As Izuku dodged and weaved between the two, he cracked a smile, "You are stronger than most of us even though we have been training together since we met. I probably cannot beat you, but I can sure try or knock you out of the ring!
"That's the spirit!" Naruto yelled, his tails throwing Izuku into the air, who proceeded to summon a large bolt of lightning and then chuck it right at Naruto, Zeus Style.
"ALLMIGHTY BOLT!"
"Cute." Naruto replied, growing another two tails that wrapped around him and acted as a hardened shield. He really loved that Jiriaya had taught him the Needle Jizo jutsu, he just never expected to be able to use it until he got furry tails. "Try again."
Izuku, despite grinning through the whole fight, did show a bit of annoyance at the taunt. Another lightning bolt took him out of the air safely, and he let his eagerness to fight show. He summoned a deluge of lightning bolts all along the arena floor, destroying parts of it. But there was now an ionic charge that made it even easier to summon even more lightning by attracting dark storm clouds above them. However, this field was twofold. It let him charge up his main attack and let him use a bit of magnetism. Summoning a small cloud of metal sand out of his pockets, he let it coalesce into a silverish black marble between his thumb and forefinger. "Momo actually inspired this idea when she was researching railguns."
"So, we have her to thank for this awesome attack, huh?" Naruto replied, still swinging to the beat of the song.
"Heh, Railgun!" Izuku replied calmly as four columns of lightning struck down on the corners of the arena and he flicked his thumb. It took a bit of their energy, but it blasted its way to toward Naruto at lightning speed.
However, it looked like it was going to miss Naruto, due to Izuku's aim being slightly off. But Naruto was not about to let a crowd of people get hurt from an errant attack. So, he caught it at the last second…with his teeth.
"You know, if it has been anyone else, you'd have won that." Naruto replied with an excited look as he spat it out. Not for the railgun, but for what Izuku had been building up. He knew this technique was going to drain Izuku and put him out of the fight. Naruto wanted to test himself to see if could overcome nature-based attacks just like Might Guy did with his Daytime Tiger.
Suddenly the four pillars of lightning converged onto Izuku as Naruto danced to the beat around them. Once absorbed, he let off a brief flash of light, showing a bit how it all actually worked for him. In another flash, Izuku had teleported to above the stadium where he absorbed ten huge bolts. His body began to glow brightly as if it was turning into pure energy, but he redirected it all towards arm. The result looked like a huge fight made of pure lightning was about to crash down on the arena.
"This has gone too far!" Midnight shouted in awe, but felt powerless to be able to do anything.
"Not much we can do about it now." Cementoss replied over the roaring winds and lightning hum in the air. "Best I can do is shield the audience!"
"That won't be necessary." Naruto replied with a disarming smile, having stopped dancing. He acknowledged that his and Izuku's rivalry created a messy challenge. "Allow me to clean up my mess." Nezu contacted both teachers through an ear piece to allow Naruto's action. After all, what better way to show off to the villains that attacked them that they were not to be messed with. By handling massive attacks such as this.
"SHATTERPOINT SMASH!" Izuku roared from on high.
"I guess we did go overboard." Naruto chuckled to himself as golden lightning and chakra arced over his body once more. After that, he brought his hands skyward in a quick motion with a strange set of hand signs. Ending with them looking like a fox. "Highnoon Kitsune!" Naruto's chakra infused voice intoned high above the roaring noise of everything. In the next second, a giant fox made of violent silver wind shot upwards from Naruto's point of origin. The size of it caused the stadium to groan and made it seem like a train was nearby to everyone else.
When the two elemental attacks collided, the shockwave blew away the clouds as the two seemed to fight for dominance for a second but the fox merely closed its jaws and continued upwards to the bright blue sky.
For a moment, all were quiet. No one had expecting to see an All Might level attack change the weather. Soon though, someone shouted that they could see Izuku falling. A figure could be seen falling from the sky and knowing who it was worried the people for how he would land. In the end, they did not have to worry as Naruto transformed into a large 4 tailed fox and safely caught him. "What do think, Izuku? Up for another round?" Naruto asked in an eerily quiet stadium.
"I am good. I put everything I had into that last attack." Izuku chuckled weakly, completely unable to move, the problematic side-effect of his ultimate attack.
"You heard it folks, Izuku is unable to continue. Naruto is once again the winner!" Midnight announced before going to leaning on Cementoss for support as she greedily gulped down a bottle of water. She was right to have a panic attack after that. Her fellow teacher was close to it himself.
The crowd went absolutely nuts.
And once Present Mic had control again, he shouted in glee before asking Aizawa a burning question, "Eraserhead, what sky shattering nonsense are you teaching your kids?!"
"I did not teach my problem children that. No teacher can. This was all their own ingenuity at work here." Aizawa stated after a moment, deeply sweating in his seat. He was already making plans to give them control and power them up further. "However, as a teacher, it is my job to help them grow that creativity and ingenuity so they can take it to greater heights."
The crowd could not argue with that.
XXX
As Cementoss was repairing the arena…again, Naruto had taken Izuku to Recovery Girl after seeing some electricity burns on Izuku's exposed flesh…around the areas of burnt off cloths. "You boys are going to give me a freaking heart attack with all this loud noise and resulting damage!" She roared before directing Naruto to place Izuku in a bed. "And do not think I am not mad after what you did to that Bakugo boy."
Naruto just shrugged and took her cane to his shins like a champ. He would scream in pain later.
"Midoriya, how in the world does a lightning user get lightning shaped wounds from their own element?" Chiyo said rhetorically while bopping him on the head. "He over does it, that is how! My healing will knock you out for a few hours but what were you trying to accomplish?!"
"I can somewhat already turn into energy when I travel through cables and other land lines." Izuku replied with a grunt. "And went I teleport via my lightning, but I later learn my body can store all that energy for attacks. Continuously storing that energy has a limit and I have been breaking it a lot. I can still overdo it and the results are the burns. Maybe one day."
"But not today, now go to sleep." Recovery Girl replied exasperated as he healed him with a kiss and he was out like a light. "You better get back to you friends…and try not to send them back to me!" Naruto saluted her as he disappeared in a swirl of smoke and leaves. All the while, the old nurse grumbled to herself about reckless teenagers.
XXX
"Now that we have a usable arena again, we are on to the second semifinal battle!" Present Mix announced excitedly. "In one corner we have the Unmovable Wall, Eijiro Kirishima! In the other corner we have the High-Class Maiden of Creation, Momo Yaoyorozu!"
"Please don't go overboard like the last two did!" Midnight pleaded with that before starting the fight.
"Did you see that last attack they did though! So freaking manly!" Kirishima boasted in awe before hardening his fists and smacking them together, creating sparks. "Sorry, Yaomomo, but I got to get in on that action!"
Momo had a thoughtful look on her face as it seemed she was chewing on something. She swallowed the super food pill and said, "If you are so eager to show off your manliness. Then let's have a little contest of our own to prove you are worthy of even beating me. Mei may not have used her sonic weapons on you, so I will follow her lead. If you can tank an attack from my strongest creation, then I will concede."
"Tank? Oh man, you wanna see how hard I can get after Izuku's advice. Manly! Bring it on! I will show you my Unbreakable form!" Eijiro shouted excitedly.
As Eijiro started going as hard as he could with his entire body, two giant butterfly wings made of Momo's sparking creation energy burst from her back. They flapped once, kicking up dirt and dust before twisting and turning in on themselves to created one giant weapon. She swung it around and let it crash into the concrete, cracking it underneath the weight. What was it? It was the length of a buster blade but shaped into a giant Y. In between the three massive blades was a wicked looking cannon. This was simply known as the Buster Cannon.
As it charged up, it sounded like a jet engine getting ready to go off.
"OH YEAH! BRING IT ON!" Eijiro cried out in joy, the flames coming off the weapon sparking back in his eyes in excitement.
Pulling on the handle like a shotgun, Momo fired off a concentrated blast of heat and energy right at Kirishima. To his credit, he withstood the collision for about 10 seconds before he was blown into the stadium wall, shaking the structure from the force. The area between them torn asunder, causing Cementoss to groan, his complaint ignored.
"Whoa! Let's do that again!" Eijiro cheered before he noticed where he was. "Heh, next time I guess. Good luck with Naruto." He paused as he tried to get out of the wall. "Uh…any advice on getting out of this wall?"
"Turn off your quirk." Momo supplied cheerfully.
XXX
"Man! Cementoss is being put to work today! But you are all here for the final fight of the day, aren't you?" Present Mic cheered to the crowd and inwardly hoped he could commentate the fight, but was not going to hold his breath. Hizashi knew Aizawa was getting a kick of his pain, proud of his problem children. "No matter who comes out on top here, they both will be winners in my eyes. In one corner we have the foxy boy who can rival Hercules, Naruto Uzumaki! In the other corner, we have the one-woman factory herself, Momo Yaoyorozu!"
Midnight looked between the two, grinned cheekily, and cracked her whip.
"Speaking of topping, think you can finally beat me today?" Naruto asked with a grin.
"You taught me to fight without overthinking, but I can try. I will sure make you sweat for it." Momo replied with a smirk. "Kyoka and I have something to ask you after this fight and it has been a long time coming. We should have said something sooner, but given your history and the crazy attack on our class, it probably would not have ended well."
"Well now I am curious." Naruto replied as he twirled his scepter, wonder when he would need to use it in battle, if at all this tournament. Deciding to taught his opponent, he bowed dramatically, "Then let's dance, my lady."
"Oh? Would you consider this the first date then?" Momo replied with an over dramatic bow herself, loving how that tripped up the blond. Momo grinned and she thrust a fist forward and a spring-loaded boxing glove rush forward and clocked him in the face.
"You wanna play like that huh?" Naruto asked as he rubbed the spot where her glove hit before rushing forward in a fencing stance with his scepter, hoping to catch her off guard as much as she did him. Momo created a shield and parried his move away before pointing a small cannon that come out of her arm at point blank range.
Naruto let the cannonball push him back to his side of the arena as he caught it. "You will need more than medieval weaponry to get me to yield." He said as he dropped the ball, his hand smoking, which he blew out in over dramatic fashion.
"Why do you think I ate that super food pill last battle? I have plenty of energy left over for something big…behold!" Momo shouted as the butterfly wings made of her creation energy appeared once more, only they were much bigger this time. They flapped once before folding over her in a cocoon. A moment later, Momo was covered in a red and black exoskeletal suit that tripled her height over Naruto. While Momo's limbs were covered in metal, she left the rest of herself exposed for a reason. In another flash of sparkly light, this time coming from her chest, a large blade grew out of her. It was much smaller than her Buster Cannon, but it did the job of intimidation with its red and black design that seemed to vibrate.
"Oh! An exoskeletal suit with a high frequency blade. This is new!" Naruto replied excitedly as he now held his scepter in both hands. "Now that you have shown of your hand, allow me to show mine! Mei and Melissa have been working on this for a while, but once made, this found out they did not know how to turn it off."
(Please play Duel of the Fates)
As soon as a certain bit of music began to play, Nezu's laughter rang throughout the stadium and reached a crescendo when Naruto twisted the shaft of his scepter and pulled out his own blade, much like a samurai would do.
Only…his blade turned out to be an orange lightsaber. Naturally, once people saw it and recognized the song choice, they all began to get overly excited and 'sing' along. There were still many avid Star Wars fans after all these years.
"Never expected me to pull one of these out during our spars, did ya?" Naruto asked cheekily and flipped through the air much like Yoda would with his Ataru fighting style. Sparks flew as his lightsaber raked against Momo's much larger high frequency blade.
With this exoskeletal suit, Momo was able to go far faster that she normally would, along making her strikes heavier. While some of it was a hindrance, as she soon learned, she was still having a blast as she matched Naruto blow for blow. She knew Naruto could be faster, but that did not matter to either one of them. They were having fun.
After a close shave, Momo punched Naruto back; only for his armored arm shifted into that of a cannon and shot him back even further until he was at the edge of the arena. Naruto noticed this and chuckled, before turning back to Momo with a 'come hither' gesture. Momo decided to jump up into the air and hover with wings that unfolded from the back of her exoskeletal suit. It made her look like a mechanized angel for a moment. Then her armor's pauldrons opened to reveal missile launchers! She proceeded to launch every single one of them at Naruto.
The multitude of missiles made Naruto's grin dangerously. This was just too fun! Once the first missile came, time seemed to slow down around him as he jumped on it. One by one, he jumped to each missile and sent them around the arena, careful they never strayed too close to Midnight, Cementoss, or the audience. He sliced through the ones nearest to Momo before kicking off the shoulder mounted missile launchers and then slicing off the hover wings.
He finished as he kicked off her rig, sending her careening into the out of bounds zone. By the time she realized what happened and slowed her decent with her cannons, it was already too late and she watched exasperated as Naruto landed back on the arena with a flourish and explosions going off around him like fireworks.
As the crowd cheered at the display, Midnight announced the winner. "Momo is out of bounds, Naruto is the champion!"
Naruto chuckled at the roaring crowds before walking off the arena to check on Momo as she disengaged her exoskeleton. "How are you doing?"
"You really know how to make a girl sweat." Momo chimed cheekily as she stepped into the Naruto's space and before he could say anything to the innuendo, she pulled him in for a kiss. Neither cared as the crowd went wild for it. Momo focused entirely on him as the kiss felt like lightning going through her. As for Naruto, his own brain short circuited. As he was rebooting, she continued. "Kyoka and I have thought about it and want to go on a date with you, see if this is something you'd like to continue."
All three remembered Naruto's story Konoha being left in a crater and how Hinata tried to defend him after a love confession. After Pein, there just was not time with the war going on. Naruto also felt guilty about Neji so he did not think to pursue Hinata. Here...he just might have a chance at that kind of happiness.
"I'd like that."
XXX
Orochimaru chuckled to himself as he, Kyudai, and All for One watched the sports festival. The students were all powerful this year and Naruto most of all if his championship was anything to go by. As the students were being rewarded for their efforts, All for One spoke.
"So this one, a brute like All Might, is the one you fought? Fascinating. A master at the art of deception. He certainly kept all of what he could really do to himself. And this is the power you seek, Orochimaru?"
"Indeed, he is the perfect weapon, I wish to be better and slowly but surely, I am making that a reality." Orochimaru replied with an excitement in his eyes. "He can enjoy his moment in the spotlight, but I will figure out what makes him tick and you can have your precious One for All."
"And Kyudai? How fairs Tomura and your High-End Projects?"
"Hood is the only High End that is nearing completion alongside Tomura's adjustments to be able to handle more quirks safely." Kyudai replied truthfully.
"I see." All for One replied before chuckling. "Orochimaru, Tomura could use an ally on the field, take that special berserker High End you made with you and fetch the Hero Killer for me. I wish to have to words."
"Excellent!" Orochimaru replied, a certain sparkle in his eyes. "I have a couple of errant experiments that have a taken a liking to him. I can retrieve them all in one go."
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And that's it for this chapter. Let me know what you all thought?
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