Naruto's time in the X-Mansion

by Issexwithyourcloneincest

(Commission for Veilslide) An accident in the afternoon leads to Naruto discovering he possesses a certain set of skills that makes him a big player, both in and out of combat. Inspired by the Rogue-Like: Evolution game, rated M for sexual content.

4. Working things out

Hey Hey people, Issex here. The PS5 dream is dead so now I've turned my sights towards the greater task of a gaming PC and I'm determined to get it this year by hook or by crook so if you're in need of someone to buy sexual favors from, I'm your guy!

Or you could just, you know, commission a story from me. That works too. My schedules been cramped lately but I'm gradually getting more free so I have time to write without burnout hitting me immediately

Anyway, join MADB's Overseers. It's new so we're still few in numbers but you could help us grow by joining, participating and sharing the link. The code is:zBQrUADkeb

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Beware the Bigtrunk.

Now onward to the story.

Holographic projectors hummed, turret barrels spun and tiles contorted rapidly to keep up with the activity of the scenario currently being simulated and maintain the barrage of attacks it rained down on the two people inhabiting the training chamber. For every action it made against the duo, it received a reaction of equal, if not greater violence. The walls trembled and the metal contraptions were sliced into ribbons, roughly disconnected from their power supply, decommissioned via stray or intentional blasts of destructive power and launched across the room. Inspite of the severe damage being dealt, there was always one machine ready to replace the other; a fresh turret emerged from the walls just as the sparking remnants of its ruined predecessor sank into the safe confines of it's storage space. The projectors shuffled across, alternating between gliding frictionlessly along the walls, edges and corners, and floating as tiny drones, all in a bid to avoid the stray attacks that came its way as well as keep its creations alive. The danger room had come alive, and it was determined to win against the clashing pair within its bowels.

Naruto swallowed a glob of saliva that traveled down his parched throat at a painfully slow pace while he narrowly avoided a beam of thumb-sized death that would have bored a hole through his face had it connected. The projectile whizzed past the side of his face and the smell of burnt hair stung his nose. He didn't have much time to contemplate a counterattack before he noticed an odd looking projectile flying towards him and with a raised hand, halted it in its path then redirected it towards an armoured man approaching him with a raised shield. Barely two seconds later, the projectile turned out to be a grenade; its detonation created a bright blue sphere that instantly ate away at the shield, the body armour and a huge chunk of the man within. He fought the instinct to freeze as he stared at the steaming front-less half of what used to be a person but a very faint crunch from behind him alerted him to someone attempting to sneak up on him from behind the surrounding rubble and lifted himself into the air, his feet having morphed into miniature thrusters that shot him upwards to safety just in time to avoid a hail of bullets that rippled the air in their wake and blew large holes in the debris they slammed into.

It only took milliseconds to find the assailants but they were milliseconds too late as by the time his fingers left his hands and rocketed towards the group in the form of homing missiles, their rifle muzzles had been raised up him and he sent a wide wave of concussive force at the bulletstorm heading his way, halting most of them and throwing the ones that hadn't been stopped, widely off-course into nowhere just as the explosives blew the men apart. Only a week ago, the gory display would have horrified him but under the threat of severe pain and having grown uncomfortably used to the sight, it did nothing more than turn his stomach a bit. The fact that he knew it was all fake helped a great deal as well.

Even in the noise of gunfire and shouting, he heard the rushing noise of an RPG loud and clear and stretched out both his hands in time to halt a rocket, only to realize his mistake a moment before it detonated, filling his vision with flame and knocking him out of the air. He crashed into a crumbling wall and felt it collapse on him, the giant slab of bricks breaking apart as it fell. A normal person might have died but his metal frame shielded him from the majority of the damage he would have been dealt otherwise. It however, didn't save him from the giant specks of black swimming around in his vision and obscuring the majority of his sight, nor did it help lessen the ringing in his ears that greatly muffled the sounds of everything else.

"What do you feel," the professor had asked him once after observing one of his many training sessions. "When you stop things flying at you?"

"I don't know, a sort of jolt," he'd replied. "usually in my shoulders. It depends on how heavy what I'm stopping is and how fast it's coming at me."

"Indeed," the professor had nodded. "The main misconception about telekinesis is that with it, you can lift anything but it's not the case; not completely, at least. Our powers, no matter how great they are, cannot completely ignore the laws of physics. Yes, the average telekinetic can lift with his mind, more than what he can with his muscles but that is because his mind and powers are working in tandem. His mind bears the strain of what his powers cannot fully suppress. From what I have seen of you, your telekinesis is tied to your actual body as well as your mind and while this makes you capable of more than many telekinetics, if your gravitational control works in a similar manner, you need to be careful with how you act in battle, especially with projectiles."

"Stopping objects may be an example of Newton's first law in effect but keep in mind that in the context of your application of the first law, the third law comes into play as well. You may halt things in mid air but while to you it may be just that, to the object it is a collision. Muffled greatly, yes, but a collision nonetheless. Take that into consideration, especially when dealing with things like objects designed to detonate upon impact like I'm sure Miss Kinney will soon expose you to."

The professor was right: the powers might be amazing but Sir Isaac Newton would not be made a fool of, even in the grave. Naruto lay limp under the crushing blanket of rubble, taking the moment of respite to catch his breath and let himself recover; weaponizing his body was surprisingly draining and having to fire his own limbs and use other parts of his now-cybernetic self alongside his other abilities, was beginning to take its toll on him. But he knew the moment wouldn't last long since he could already hear the crunch of approaching footsteps on brittle concrete and gravel. They sounded distant, but he'd been stunned enough times to know how misleading the senses could be when disoriented.

"I think we got him, sir," he heard one call. "Should we move on to the other?"

"We thought we'd swept this shithole town clean of mutants when we got rid of the ones we saw five years ago. Five years later and more popped up without our knowledge, " came the gruff response. " So no, soldier. That's a negative — clear the rubble, find the body and confirm a flatline first. You never know with these freaks, they're like fucking cockroaches."

"Yes, sir! Ready the launcher, Jon!"

Shit. He heard the heavy click of the weapon that had floored him being prepared to shoot again and yanked a hand out from under a pile of bricks to remove the debris covering him. He had begun mustering energy for a blast when he heard a pained scream.

"The second target is here! Fire at will!" he heard someone bark out, followed by gunfire. Even under three feet of rubble, he felt the faint thud of stray bullets impacting his unintentional shield and the impact of boots stomping hear him. Someone crumpled atop the pile and another weight dropped them. He heard the sickening sound of metal piercing cloth and flesh before the second weight seemed to depart. Laura. So she hadn't been that far away. She must have heard them talking about killing him and decided to interfere. She was buying him more time to get better-

"I know you're not gone yet, Naruto!" Laura yelled angrily. "Get your ass out from under there and help me!"

He sighed. A moment later, the pile of rubble ruptured, shocking the paramilitary men who looked away from the clawed mutant at him, only to regret it immediately as Laura Kinney fell on them, dispatching death in the form of glinting claws. Naruto felt a bit insulted that they'd ignore him in favour of going after his female partner but he could hardly fault them for it; the girl was like a whirling dervish of sharp metal dismembering, disemboweling and tearing open whatever individual unfortunate enough to be within melee range of her claws and when the first set was dead, she lunged at the fresh group of men that had emerged and began the slaughter anew. Her face was contorted into a cross between a rageful grimace and an excited grin as she tore men asunder, uncaring of the blood staining her face and body as she twisted and weaved among flying limbs and falling bodies. Despite being occupied with his own battle, Naruto couldn't help sneaking glances at her mid-fight; if he was being honest with himself, he thought she looked…beautiful.

Or she would have been if she wasn't taking nearly as much damage as she dished out — although she managed to dodge the worst of the enemy's retaliation, she was still riddled with rapidly closing bullet wounds that bled freely as their makeshift plugs were pushed out and missing chunks of flesh that quickly regrew before his and her horrified attackers' eyes. Panting heavily, she glared at the new group of now heavily armoured men who surrounded her in a crescent formation, but still gave her a wide berth out of caution. Naruto, who had sandwiched an unfortunate gunman in between giant slabs of debris, barely caught a glimpse of blue light before a large beam tore a giant hole through Laura's torso. What the hell?!

The shocked girl was thrown forward before flopping onto the ground limply, her vaporized spine already working overtime to restore itself, but her assailants weren't willing to give her the chance. One of them raised his large rifle to fire a bullet that would have found purchase in her skull had a wave of concentrated gravity not slammed into him and everyone else within its range, its force rupturing their organs and sending them flying several meters. The remainder turned their focus to him, only to be met by the sight of black spikes firing from holes in his forearm, the otherworldly material piercing through their armour with ease and impaling them, paralyzing them in front of the blond who approached them to deliver the coup-de-gras. He had barely killed the last man when he saw another group coming out of the woodwork. At this point, Forge was just messing with them. Nevertheless, he morphed his left hand into a cannon and fired a beam of compressed energy at them to create an opening with which to approach. It didn't work out as well as he'd hoped but a wide bubble of attractive force saw him lifting several pieces of debris that he launched at the soldiers at breakneck speeds, incapacitating and distracting them enough for him to insert himself into their midst and cave his first opponent's chest in with a gravity-enhanced punch before proceeding to make quick work of the others.

He wasn't sure whether they were just weak or he had gotten a lot stronger but taking out the soldiers was easy. Frighteningly easy, in fact. He drew his outstretched arm back and out of his bent elbow, a long spike emerged and lodged itself square in the face of the soldier behind him with the sound of flesh and bone being forcefully bored through. Without withdrawing the lethal protrusion, he palmed another soldier's midsection, released a blast of repulsive force that sent him flying with a collapsed torso and with a strained grunt of effort, moved the limp soldier he'd impaled in the way of a knife that sunk to the hilt in the dead man's belly. As the spike retracted back into his elbow, he shoved the limp body out of the way and slapped his hand on the man's own, forcing the pistol he'd been attempting to draw back into its holster. He'd chosen to fight them at melee range so they wouldn't be able to use their rifles; the point would be moot if he let them bring handguns into the mix. Naruto deflected a chop aimed at his neck but let the following gut-punch connect so as to hold the soldier's arm in place and draw him in for a retaliatory knee that forced the air out of him. The breath had yet to fully escape the soldier when Naruto kicked his leg out from under him and with his elbow flush on the back of his head, forced him facefirst onto the ground with a dull thud.

Sensing someone behind him, he lashed out with a mule kick that struck metal and heard a loud cough followed by the scratchy noise of skidding boots on stone. Shit. Pirouetting as he raised himself upright, Naruto lifted a weighty brick and sent it flying in a wide arc towards where he guessed the man would have been. Fortunately, his prediction turned out to be true and the concrete cuboid struck the soldier in the neck, ragdolling his head instantly and as more soldiers began to emerge, a dome-shaped blast of repulsive force sent them flying.

Their bodies had yet to begin cooling before Naruto saw a giant armoured vehicle emerging from nowhere and rushing towards him. At the same time, he felt, more than saw, the same glow that had preceded the beam that had done Laura in and turned around with his hand raised just in time to see the same thing rapidly approaching him, its sheer heat causing the air around it to shimmer. It was too fast to dodge and too close to block. The only thing he could do now was attempt to repel it and hope it worked. He tried to muster the same energy he felt always coursing through him, only for a wave of fatigue to hit him like a truck. The surprise from realizing he'd overexerted himself was only surpassed by the horror he felt when he could only feel his power moving in small trickles; it'd be an eternity before he was able to even gather enough for a gentle push!

Come on, come on, come on, come on! he practically screamed at himself. It was in times like this that he hated his heightened perception; it was torturous watching death coming towards him but not being able to act in time. He tried to force his body to work faster, to produce more energy, to do something in time before his extremely painful eviction from the simulation via railgun even as it drew closer and closer until it finally struck.

The first thing Naruto felt was the heat. He'd been subjected to heat from different sources but this was something different. Something far worse. He felt it scorch his palms so thoroughly it felt as though the flesh would melt off. He felt it on his face, forcing his body to produce sweat that immediately boiled and vaporized, further damaging his skin and he felt it burn his clothes and sear his toes. It felt like hell had hit him with the force of a cannonball. His shoulders screamed and his arms shook from having borne the brunt of the impact and he wanted nothing more than to give up and let it engulf him completely.

But he didn't, because just as he felt the pain, he also felt energy like none he'd experienced before rushing through him, reinvigorating his tired body and filling his empty shell to the brim and beyond. His eyes tingled and his hair stood on end; it was like he'd been injected with a cocktail of stimulants so potent he could almost burst. And most of all, the beam had been compressed into a ball in front of him; it still pushed against a barrier he couldn't remember raising but he could feel it had lessened greatly in both size and intensity.

It was…almost like he'd absorbed it.

He didn't have time to think of the new development before once more taking notice of the hulking tank that rushed towards him, its top hatch opened to reveal a machine gun aimed flush at him. Without thinking, he trapped the orb in a stream of magnetic force, a power he had the most ease with manipulating, and trying not to think of how potent it felt and how it resisted him, let it run its course until it had curved away from and now rushed towards the tank that was quickly closing the dozen meter distance between them. The collision was nothing short of brutal. The tank ground to an immediate halt and slightly tipped over just as the orb detonated, blowing its hull open with a loud thump. Naruto only heard a short scream that was quickly cut short as the occupants were flash-fried. The issue done with, he turned his attention to the mounted railgun hidden atop a still standing building. With the privilege of time, he was now able to focus on finding them and barely a second later, he spotted the railgun and its controllers who shoved charging plugs into its side as they changed the batteries in the charging device.

"Not again," he growled and pointed his hands at them. All ten fingers left their slots immediately, heading towards their owner's willed targets. He saw the crew panic and attempt to scramble away, but they barely managed to create any distance before the finger sized missiles reached them, each detonating with twice the force of a frag grenade and bringing the entire roof down. All the while he kept his gaze locked on the railgun, only looking away when he saw it come apart, completely destroyed by one of his fingers. He sighted a few survivors flailing around on what was left on the roof and frowned. He'd have to take them out before they got themselves together.

Wait, where was Laura? She hadn't been in the tank's path, had she? He frantically looked around at the now flattened ruins for a trace of the once injured girl. How could he have been so careless as to have forgotten about her? What if she'd gotten caught in the explosion too?

"Laura!?" he called out, half-running toward the spot he remembered seeing her last. "Laura, are you alright!?"

He caught a glimpse of a small streak of something like oil, half obscured by crushed cement and dust and bent over for a closer look. No, not oil. Blood. And it formed a trail. If it belonged to Laura, it meant she'd managed to get away in time, thank God. He followed the trail, separating his hand from his wrist to reveal a bladed whip-like line underneath with which to decapitate whoever he saw, should it turn out not to be his partner. Eventually the trail led him to the back of a still-standing corner store where he found Laura casually waiting for him. Her shirt now sported a giant hole in it, exposing her torso and braless breasts to his eyes and it was only the knowledge that doing so would piss her off that kept him from averting his gaze, but he fought hard not to look below her neck.

Laura seemed to notice and smirked. Even in the relative darkness of the emptied-out store, he saw it clear as day. "Looking at my tits, huh?"

"It was an accident," he said as he pushed his hand back into place and let himself return to normal, shuddering lightly as he felt himself become more…organic.

She shrugged. "I don't mind, you'll be touching them soon enough."

"I-" he chose to forgo his retort in favour of shaking his head with a weary sigh. "How much longer is this going to last? I feel like crap."

"I don't know, I thought you were pretty badass out there," Laura objected while giving him a onceover. "But yeah, you're not looking too hot."

"We can't all get swiss-cheesed and have our torsos blown off and come out looking good as new a minute later," he grumbled and hissed when his palms made contact with his jeans. He chanced a glance at them and grimaced. As he'd feared, the flesh was gone and its place was raw pink underskin. Laura, who'd noticed it too, clicked her tongue.

"Well shit," she remarked. "You're going to have to go robot mode for longer because you're not punching shit with those hands."

"Tell me about it," he agreed. Sweating made them sting, leaving them in the air hurt and even clenching his hands a bit, smarted. Clenching them would be agony. "Why didn't you help me? I thought you hadn't recovered yet."

"I thought you had it in the bag."

"That's fucking petty," Naruto snorted. "Haven't you heard about not repaying evil with evil?"

"Nope," came her straightforward reply. Knowing Laura, that wasn't sarcasm.

"Nevermind then," he dismissed it. "How much longer do we have until the simulation ends?"

Laura shrugged again. "Dunno."

Naruto blinked. "What do you mean, 'dunno?' I thought you'd gone through all of them."

"Not this one," she replied. "This one's new — it's from one of the X-Men's last missions. They were supposed to help evacuate a small group of mutants in some small town in Europe after one went crazy and went on a rampage but some private paramilitary showed up to wipe them all out just a short while before they arrived so…." she trailed off, gesturing with her head towards the exterior.

"Oh." His voice was quiet, even to himself. He had gone all around the town, but the only time he had been able to take in his surroundings for a purpose other than to use it to his advantage in combat was when there was a lull in the fighting. He had seen several destroyed homes, a school still on fire, a playground with depleted large-caliber bullet casings, a hospital with the ambulance still blaring alarms and many other demolished places but he hadn't questioned where they were, having just treated it as a scenario created for one of Laura's lessons in urban combat, but not for a moment had he considered that it might be a replica of actual ruins, talkless of ruins of a place that had once housed mutants.

He looked outside, taking in the demolished remnants of what had once been a small, but most likely lively town. Only a short while ago, people would have been going about their daily lives, collecting the daily paper from their doorsteps, taking the bus to work, buying sweet treats from their favourite bakeries and making plans for the next day at the end of the current one, not even considering the probability that their lives could be irreversibly changed, if not terminated outright. It had only taken a day or two, probably even less, for it all to go to hell. And it wasn't even at the hands of humans, it had been all because of a mutant who had gone off the deep end at the worst time and the worst place. Then the paramilitary came. And when the X-Men showed up, the situation had gotten even worse.

He looked back at Laura, suddenly feeling somber. "Did they make it?"

"Yeah," Laura said. "They saved the ones they saw."

"Oh." He glanced outside again. "...we're fucked, aren't we?"

Laura raised a curious brow. "Huh?"

"The humans who know about us either want us gone or want us under their control, we can't become public knowledge because it'd probably start a witch hunt against us so we have to stay tucked in somewhere like the dirty little secrets of the world," he spoke, more to himself than her. "And as if that's not bad enough, we have to worry about our own kind because there's as many crazies with too much power on their hands as there's the ones who want us out of the picture because we don't fit into the world they want to make. We're in as much danger from the outside as we're in from the inside."

Laura watched him quietly several moments before chuckling blandly. "Yeah. When you look at it that way, we're pretty fucked. But try not to think about it."

"Yeah, I know. I just think it's messed up that we have to use things like this as a learning experience. We're basically preparing for things that aren't supposed to happen."

"True, they shouldn't happen," Laura agreed. "But they do because that's life. It's not fair, it treats good people the worst and it has a way of surprising you in the best and worst ways. The rain falls on everyone and the mud stains everyone's boots the same, so the best we can do is try and keep the same bad shit from happening again and the only way to do that is try to stop what already happened from happening again with us there and stop what we think might happen before we get a chance to keep from making it happen for real."

"I guess you're right," Naruto murmured. "All this has to end one day, right? I mean, we can't just keep living like this forever."

"Sure," Laura said, getting up and stretching. Once again, Naruto found his eyes straying towards her breasts despite his mood. "It'll end when we make peace with one another…but if you ask me, it'll only really end when either us or them are dead."

"That's pretty grim."

"It's the truth." Laura's head swiveled sharply in a random direction and she scowled. "We've got enemies approaching. Someone must have called for reinforcements."

Naruto cursed. "Shit, I forgot to take out the rest of the guys on the rooftop."

"The guys who lasered me?" Laura growled. "You should have done that first, damnit!"

"Even if I had, these guys wouldn't be showing up if their doing so wasn't canonical…and forgive me for being concerned about you, I thought you might have gotten crushed or vaporized."

"It's not like I haven't recovered from them before — you act like you keep forgetting I can heal from anything," she snapped.

"Just because I know you'll survive doesn't mean I like seeing you get hurt; you're my friend, Laura. I can't help worrying." He could have sworn he saw her blush but the moment was gone when she brandished her claws with a grimace.

"Whatever, just go take them out now. And if you keep trying to help me instead of getting the job done, you'll only get yourself killed." With a muttered 'idiot', she leapt over a demolished building and vanished out of sight, no doubt to lay ambush for the soldiers. Naruto, having been left alone, took to the air wearily.

Mood swings had nothing on Laura. Nice one moment, harsh the next. She could go from lecturing him to berating him in the blink of an eye. What amused her now would irritate her a minute later. He'd tried figuring out a pattern with her over the past few weeks to no avail and it was getting annoying; she seemed to just do whatever she wanted with no care for order. Not only had she outright claimed to want to sleep with him, she'd begun backing up her claim with action. The already existing touchiness had evolved to borderline harassment and she'd become protective to the point of possessiveness. It didn't help that she seemed to be perpetually horny when she wasn't fighting and he'd found himself in a bind several times when Anna or Kitty caught him with her outside of combat.

"You can think of her later, Naruto," he told himself. "Try making it through this first."

He didn't even know why he wanted to complete the course of the simulation — they'd been here for longer than they had ever been in a single scenario and he was genuinely tired. He still felt extremely energetic from what he'd absorbed but there was a heaviness in his muscles and a stiffness in his joints that told him his body would no longer obey him as smoothly without the nudge of adrenaline. The dust had already given him a blocked nose, his palms hurt, his toes hurt and the seared skin on his face protested his choice to expose himself to the afternoon sun again. His physical condition, coupled with the fact that there was seemingly no end in sight to the fighting, made the situation even more grueling in his eyes.

But if that was how he felt, he could only imagine how the X-Men and the survivors must have felt in the real thing. To start from the very beginning and see it through to the end in a situation where the penalty for failure was death, not just pain and the cessation of the holographic environment, and there was no certainty that the fighting would end before they were dead.

No, he knew why he wanted to complete it: one day, he'd graduate and join the X-Men themselves. Given his powers, he'd probably even do so earlier. One day he would be out in the real world, in real battles with real stakes. If he couldn't cope in somewhere as forgiving as the danger room, there'd be no need to work towards a future he would never be ready for. That'd mean every effort made to help him, all the time invested in him, would be a waste. He'd be little more than a disappointment.

To whom much was given, much was expected. He had been given power, more than he probably even knew what to do with. As such, it was only right he'd live up to what was expected of him.

He cleared his thoughts and locked in on the remaining men still on the roof. They had sighted him as well and raised their rifles to fire at him, but he halted each projectile in mid air, only taking a moment to give their unique design a quick look before turning them around and launching them back at the soldiers who only realized what he'd done when they were injured by their own bullets. Naruto watched them, waiting to see if anyone would rise and as he expected, one did, clutching his chest.

He frowned and launched a nearby brick on the roof at the soldier who dodged it in an impressive show of agility and whipping out a service pistol at quickdraw speed, fired several shots at the teenager who blocked them with a raised hand and letting them drop, sent another brick hurtling towards the man who narrowly avoided it with a sideways roll It didn't help him much as he'd stopped near the crumbling edge of the roof underneath which lay a stray brick that Naruto sent rocketing upwards at blinding speed. It struck the man upside the chin, shattering his jaw and breaking his neck and he dropped off the edge lifelessly onto the ground below.

The deed finally done, Naruto finally looked around, using his height as a vantage point, and his eyes widened.

Laura had said reinforcements. She had undercut it greatly. He saw no less than a hundred soldiers accompanied by tanks and helicopters in the distance. And they were coming in from the same direction Laura had headed. She wouldn't be able to lay an ambush for them, not while their numbers were this large. But with this number of people, it had to be the final wave, right? He'd lost count of how many people he and Laura had killed since they started, but he knew it was more than what any private military company could afford to lose without backing out. Maybe this was it. After this, the soldiers would cut their losses and leave.

He searched for Laura among the rubble and after nearly half a minute of careful scanning, found her perfectly hidden in a corner out of sight of all but airborne searchers. The perfect predator laying in wait for its prey, except this time the prey was beyond its capabilities. He darted downward towards her, taking care not to reach anyone's notice if he already hadn't.

As usual, she knew he was coming before he arrived and when he touched down behind her, she asked, "see anything?"

"Reinforcements is saying it lightly, it's a whole army on the way." His response made her freeze. "They've got a few railgunners and tanks with them too. It'd be a bad idea to fight, Laura."

"We don't have a choice, Naruto," she refused. "The simulation's a compilation of memories and by their memories, the X-Men did fight. Logan said the fight only stopped when Storm showed up."

Storm!? They really just fought until a storm started!? "So we're fucked."

"Try to look on the bright side," Laura grinned savagely. "It'd be like Custer's last stand but without the Indians and the actual dying."

"That's not-" Laura interrupted him by leaping out from the cover and rushing at the oncoming army with a guttural roar. Naruto sighed. "Shit."

Taking to the air again, he sent another wave of repulsive force downwards, stopping two of the tanks dead in their tracks and crushing a decent number of soldiers. If Laura wanted him to fight like he didn't care about her safety, he'd do just that. He'd fight so hard she'd want him to start caring again. He lifted his hands, lifting several floored soldiers to his level just as one of the machine guns began to fire, and saw their bodies jerk frantically and fall apart as high caliber ballistics slammed into them. If they hadn't been dead before, they were dead now.

The smell of blood filled his nose and he dispassionately watched the men in front of him literally get shredded, but it was only when he noticed they'd become too…piecesed to have any more stopping power that he clenched his fist painfully, compressing what was left of them into a large sphere of tattered flesh which he fired at the machine gunner who continued to fire at it as it rapidly approached him to no avail as the ball of gore made impact with the top of the tank, killing him instantly.

Naruto dropped just as a railgun fired and caught the deathly lance in a shaped pocket of isolated gravity, redirecting it with a strained pirouette at one of the tanks. He felt his hands burn even more, whatever layer of skin left being destroyed, but willed himself to pay it no mind as he let the electromagnetic beam run its altered course. This time, it burned a hole clean through the tank, killing its occupants, and destabilised in the form of an explosion somewhere behind, taking out several soldiers if the screams he heard was any indicator.

Transforming his feet into thrusters for the umpteenth time, he rocketed along a parabolic path to land atop the first tank he'd attacked and fired a thumb in. A split second later, the interior spat fire out of the hatch, the flame barely grazing his face and he dropped down, hand raised to block the oncoming bullets that paused in front of him.

He couldn't help imagining he looked like Neo at that moment. Funny.

He launched the bullets back, dropping several men and wounding others who he finished off by sword strike. One more for the road. He fired a wave of repulsive gravity, this one powerful enough to send men flying at breakneck speed and lightly lifting one of the tanks, his real targets. Laura could handle the men but he had to get rid of the tanks and by proxy, what was on top; a number of railguns like this meant one would always be there to fire while the others recharged and if they managed to flank or worse, surround him, he was in trouble. He forced up a large chunk of debris in front of one, creating a makeshift pothole that it dipped into. By the time it emerged, Naruto had managed to fight his way to its top and with an arm that was now a cannon, he launched a ball of volatile energy downwards, killing the weapon's handler and decommissioning the railgun in one go. One down, about three more to go.

An RPG whizzed towards him but this time, he was ready. Just like he'd done with the railguns, he immediately redirected its path downwards into the tank under him and flew away as the explosive went off. He darted above firing soldiers, trying not to think of how the bullets flew past him, narrowly missing his face, until he made it past the active fighting and reached a field of mangled bodies, no doubt victims of Laura's rampage. Where the hell were those tanks?

He got his answer a second later when he turned a sharp corner, only to come face to face with a humming railgun. His body moved long before his mind acted and he felt lava wash over his arms as the blast collided with the same barrier that had saved him earlier. Power rushed into him like before, filling with so much he felt like he'd burst but this time, he didn't have any footing to resist being sent through the wall of a dilapidated house, only stopping when he impacted a kitchen counter that gave way under his weight and prompted him to fall, wedged between ceramic and wood. For something with no physical properties, those blasts sure packed a punch. He didn't have any time to recover before the tank came bursting through the same wall with the scratchy roar of its engines, looking to run him over but he was more than ready. He raised his hand at the tank, power visibly wafting off his fingers like steam, and fired a push fueled by all the excess energy straining against the confines of his body.

He felt it leave his body so abruptly his heart skipped a beat and his limbs weakened, taking a large chunk of his pre-existing power. It drained him greatly, but it was strong, stronger than anything he'd fired before. It left him with a deafening bang, tore half the house away in its wake and slammed into the tank with so much force the hulking vehicle's front crumpled like a crushed can before it was sent flying through the building behind it which also came apart with the other structures behind it until Naruto was left to mutely stare at the destruction that had created a wide trench spanning several dozen meters and stretching on for much longer. The battlefield had fallen silent, both sides seemingly awed by the sheer destruction they'd witnessed before the sounds of movement resumed, the majority of them approaching him.

He stood up shakily and hopped into the giant groove he'd created, half-stunned by the sight of what he'd done. Bodies of those unfortunate to be within his attack's range littered the groove, blood from crushed vessels and ruptured organs still leaking from their orifices. He saw the smoking remains of a tank half buried under rubble, its hull caved in and its machine gun shattered and in the distance, the one he'd actually aimed at, was obliterated. That was the only term that seemed to fit its state. And it wasn't just the tank, everything was totaled. The roads had been uprooted, the small landmarks were completely gone and sprouting foundation rods were the only proof that there had been buildings standing atop them once. He didn't have more time to think before one last tank came in sight along with several remaining soldiers. Was there no end to them?!

A loud scuttle alerted him to Laura fast approaching him, vaulting over a demolished fence and sliding down the shallow trench to stand near him. Looking around, she whistled appreciatively. "You did this? Damn."

"Where have you been?" he inquired, still not taking his eyes off the approaching enemies. They were still a decent distance away but close enough that he could feel the ground gently rumble under their weight.

"Taking out the infantry. I got about forty of them before one nailed me in the head. Took me a while to heal up from that, but here I am now," she explained with a roll of her shoulders. She looked fine, but the dried blood on her face and bits of pink that littered her hair told of what had happened to her. Naruto suppressed a shudder. "You've taken out most of the others though, just a few stragglers to deal with and we should be fine."

"How long till the storm hits?!" he asked.

Laura squinted. "What storm?"

"You said it wasn't going to end until the storm came," he reminded her irritably. "Don't tell me you forgot already."

"I said Storm. Storm as in X-Men Storm," she clarified.

"Oh." He had no idea who that was but it made more sense than waiting around for a natural phenomenon to occur. "But what if we kill them before they arrive? What happens then?"

"Only one way to find out." Her claws emerged from between her knuckles with a painful sounding crack and with her face contorted in a teeth-filled grimace, Laura lowered herself into a mild crouch beside Naruto who grew larger as lines appeared on his form. The fatigue from rendering himself a machine again was overtaken by the relief he felt from the pain of his burns reducing greatly. The tank's engine's roar reached his ears and he saw the minigun atop its hatch swivel towards him and Laura. Adrenaline dived into his blood again, speeding up his heart and lubricating stiff joints. His muscles tensed, ready for the burst of action that would soon follow.

"Try emptying out the small fry," Laura spoke. "I'll go finish them off while you deal with the tank."

"Sounds like a plan," he said with a nod and stretched a hand out, prepared to repel the gunfire they'd soon be subjected to.

The soldiers had just reached firing range when he heard a peal of thunder in the distance. He didn't have time to contemplate the curiosity of thunder in the afternoon as the soldiers began to fire along with the tank, raining metallic hell on the two teenagers who stood safely behind a shimmering wall of repulsive force, the sheer force of the impact igniting the suspended air between projectile and flesh. Red hot shells ricocheted off the barrier, darting off into nowhere, slamming into the ground and walls and killing several soldiers. The majority of Naruto's concentration was on maintaining the barrier, but out of the corner of his eye he saw Laura grin wildly. "What's so funny!?" he yelled.

"It's over!" she screamed back. Before Naruto could ask what was over, the gunfire ceased save for the machine gun's deep rattle and Laura ran through the barrier, taking advantage of its repulsive property to launch herself further forward. Still keeping up the wall as the screams began to rise, he glanced at the sky. The air had cooled greatly and the sunny firmament was quickly growing obscured by large clouds, each one dark and heavy with rain. The wind had picked up speed at such a quick rate it whipped his hair around and kicked up dust that quickly settled as raindrops the size of needles began to fall and the sound of thunder drew closer and closer. It was almost like…

"There's a storm approaching." he grinned to himself, relief suddenly washing over him. So that was what Laura meant when she said it was over.

The wind had become turbulent now, so much that it caused the bullets slamming into his barrier to veer off course ever so slightly and the rain had picked up in intensity. Dirt quickly became mud that made the remaining soldiers slip and stagger, mistakes they wouldn't live long enough to regret. The tank's fire ceased and he immediately went on the offense, sending a blast of gravity at it that kicked up a man-sized wave of mud that slammed onto the front, completely covering the hatch. The machine gun whirred uselessly, its mechanisms clogged by thick mud and he leapt above it, his arm having become a cannon, and fired a blast that blew the gun apart and the hatch open. In the same instant, his other fingers separated from his hands in a trail of weak flame, their path meandering but accurate as they found their way into the tank and exploded.

Still in mid air, he gasped as a bullet struck his torso, the projectile luckily ricocheting off his metal flesh but still hitting him with the force of a punch. How the hell hadn't Laura taken them all out yet? He looked downward for the girl and found her still tearing men asunder, the brown surface underneath her stained a deep red with blood and littered with corpses and severed limbs. Ankle deep in mid, her speed was impaired but she still had a lot more mobility than the armoured men she faced. Why wasn't she done yet? He looked beyond her and saw why.

The same army they had destroyed had respawned and were now approaching them with the tanks at the forefront and the men behind. His stomach dropped. He'd assumed the weather implied they'd reached the last wave, he'd thought this would be the last they would have to deal with. More out of frustration than anger, he screamed. Him and Forge were going to have a very long talk about the importance of adaptive AIs when this was over. He pointed at the approaching men and fired his fingers again, feeling fatigue seep deeper into his muscles as the same digits restored themselves in their rightful place, and launched himself down as the men were thrown high alongside giant plumes of mud. He reached them just in time as Laura did and the girl vaulted over his shoulder to cut a man open from shoulder to rib just as he sent another flying into a tank.

"Look alive, Naruto-" Laura cried, undeterred by the bullet that lodged itself flush in her lung and reduced her voice to a gurgle. The culprit was found himself suddenly pulled into the girl's waiting claws and tossed into the water that now visibly rose above the mud.

"Hard to do when you feel like I do right now," he snarked, weaving around a knife's swipe and embedding a black spike in his attacker's armpit just as Laura coughed out a small bullet. "How long till Storm gets here?!"

"Soon-" Laura's jaw exploded in blood and gore and Naruto watched in mute horror as her torn tongue dangled uselessly from a missing mouth until bone, muscle, teeth and flesh returned, the whole process taking barely ten seconds. "Fuck!"

"It better be soon," Naruto whispered. The water level was rising fast, the whipping rain and heavy wind got into his eyes, reducing his visibility and even with adrenaline rushing through him, his body had become stiffer. He slowly drew the sword from his forearm with a curse, something Laura noticed.

"No more cannon?" she asked.

"Too tired," was his reply. "I feel like I'm going to pass out."For the first time since the simulation began, he thought he saw her look worried. It only lasted a second before she scowled. "If you fail when we're so close to clearing this, I'll kick your ass so hard you'd be thankful to even feel pain."

"Of…course." No more words were exchanged between them before they launched themselves at the remainder.

Naruto had never given it any thought before, but he was glad to not have been born in the era of trench warfare. If Anakin Skywalker thought sand was bad, he'd have had a mental breakdown if he had to deal with mud. Mud sucked. The black-brown-red swallowed his legs so deeply each step became a battle. It seeped into his jeans, squished nastily between his toes and the smell of damp earth and blood made his stomach turn. It hid severed limbs, mauled bodies and discarded weapons so thoroughly that he only realized their presence when he trampled on them. When he'd tripped and gotten his hands stuck in them, he thought he was going to sink in and die and he'd have probably done so had Laura not protected him with her body while forcefully yanking him out. The girl was so much better at this than he was. He might have her beat in terms of sheer power but seeing her like this, still delivering death in this stinking cesspit that had reduced him to a sluggish fool, made it clear that the gap between their skills were as far as midnight and high noon. And it would probably never close, not while she still actively sought to get better. She had forever to learn, to grow while he only had this one life which he probably wouldn't even see to its natural ending.

He fought alongside her nevertheless, pushing away those who sought to surround her, drawing in the ones who tried to create distance, eliminating the ones she missed and retaliating against the ones who struck her. The water had reached their thighs now. He hadn't even realized how deep the trench was until he saw the shadow it cast under the darkened sky. He was sure they couldn't have been at it for more than a minute or two at most but it felt like hours had passed and it reflected on his body. He had slowed greatly, his own powers obeyed him reluctantly and Laura supported him more than he did her, but even she was beginning to slow, more due to the terrain than physical exertion.

Another rumble from the skies made his chest vibrate and he looked up to see the clouds shifting. No, not shifting. Parting. He could barely make out a humanoid shape before lightning danced in the water filled gas bodies, each stream approaching the shape.

It immediately dawned on him just why Storm's arrival had ended the fighting. And how it had done so.

"Laura!" he yelled for the girl, panic giving him a burst of energy. "Laura get out of the water!"

If Laura heard him, she didn't acknowledge him. Instead, she continued to cut and tear, leaving now floating corpses in her wake. He cursed again and, dredging up the remnants of energy left in him, launched himself at her, ignoring the rain biting his eyes and the men he collided with on the way.

He snatched her out of the water and high into the air just in time to avoid a giant lightning bolt that struck the trench, tens of millions of volts traveling through the water and into everything and everyone within. It arced out to strike the surrounding vehicles and structures and would have probably hit them too had he not taken care to create as much distance as time would allow. It barely lasted a second, but the scene had etched itself in his mind so thoroughly he doubted he'd ever forget. By the time the lightning dissipated, there was simply silence. He stared at the foaming canal filled with blackened, steaming cadavers as the odour of boiled flesh and electrolyzed water filled his nose. "Damn."

Laura grinned. "That's Storm."

He glanced up at the now descending form. "Storm, huh…cool."

He didn't know when he let go of Laura but he could vaguely remember the sensation of falling and rain beating his face as his vision blurred then faced to black.

Course complete.

…

Only to be jerked back into reality as his back impacted the floor of the brightly illuminated danger room. Water dripped onto his head from the overhead sprinklers that collapsed in on themselves before returning into a space covered by the same material that lined the chamber. He lay still, his brain still having trouble linking the muddy hellscape of the simulation with the sterile environment it had all faded away to. Had he blacked out?

"...just telling you it was a bad idea to enter an untested simulation on your own, Laura."

"What's the problem? I do it all the time," he heard Laura retort stubbornly.

"Not with another student in tow, much less one who hadn't even gotten a full grasp on his abilities." It took a few moments, but he eventually recognized the voice as that of Hank. "and you know how the danger room is, especially in new scenarios. It may have been calibrated to use deadly force on you and Logan alone, but it's still a machine: it's still prone to failure."

"Hey, I resent that." Forge.

"Ugh. Forge, the danger room is a wonder of engineering that will stump even the brightest of minds for decades, no centuries to come but it's still a machine. It can't be perfect for as long as it wasn't created by a perfect being — which you of course, aren't."

"Look, she's out, he's out, they're both alright, we now know what's in the simulation and Forge now has another reason to close the place down for the tinkering he likes so much. All's well that ends well." That could only be Logan.

"Tinkering!?" Forge choked out. "Look at my baby, Logan, She's ruined! I'll have to do repairs for a week, maybe even more!"

"I do believe that's an exaggeration on your part." Miss Frost? What was she doing here? "But I agree, I haven't seen the danger room take so much damage in quite a while. Its adaptive nature has proven to be a double edged sword, no?"

"I…damn. How was I supposed to know it'd actually try to make lightning?"

"The room attempts to replicate everything harmful and potentially harmful in order to increase immersion, I'm more surprised there has never been a scenario requiring it to make such an attempt…and severally concerned by how accurately it replicated the odours of battle."

"And then it fried itself," Logan snickered. "Classic."

"I wouldn't blame all the damage on that error alone, these two were quite the destructive pair as well." He could almost see the amused smirk on Miss Frost's face.

"You don't say," Forge sighed. "It's been years since the system actually struggled to keep up with anyone. Maybe tell them not to fly and run in opposite directions so much next time…and what the hell was that blast? He actually dented the wall with that!"

As if sensing he was awake, Laura walked over to him and gently nudged him with a foot. "Hey, get up. The teachers are here."

Naruto groaned. "I'm not sure I can, Laura."

"Oh, thank the stars." Hank walked over to examine him. "Are you alright, Naruto?"

Laura helped him onto his feet, something he wished she didn't do, but he thanked her with a grateful nod which she reciprocated. "I'm fine…just tired, and a little banged up."

"And you're gonna be a lot more banged up if you keep touching her tits," Logan growled. Naruto blinked and looked downwards. True to the short man's words, his hand hovered over Laura's exposed breast so closely all he had to do was close his palm and he'd be copping a feel. He blushed and tried to move his hand away, but Laura kept it firmly in place, her defiant gaze never leaving Logan's annoyed own.

"Their wardrobe issues aside," Miss Frost began. "It was quite the impressive display you two put up. Especially you, Uzumaki. You're proving yourself to be more interesting than your peculiar eyes."

"Does that mean you'll stop asking me the toughest questions in class?" he inquired. Miss Frost simply smiled.

"Whatever, call me when something else happens." Logan shot Naruto another threatening glare before stomping away, his gait an unnaturally tense swagger that always made Naruto think of a swashbuckler trying to maintain his composure amidst naval officers.".

"What are you doing here anyway?" Naruto questioned Hank who'd busied himself with poking at his scorched palms. "You usually don't come to check out our training sessions."

"We didn't," Hank said. "But Forge called us when he noticed the danger room's systems working on overdrive and saw that you two had entered an unassessed simulation. We had half a mind to stop it there and then, but Logan convinced us to let it run its course since you seemed to be holding your own individually."

"Oh." He found it odd how the man could be convinced so easily but Miss Frost's mocking smile told him there was more to it than Hank wanted to disclose. "Well, thanks I guess. I wouldn't have minded you stopping it though-oof!" He glared at Laura who glared back at him. "Oh come on, I'm tired, I have the right to complain!"

"Nonsense," Miss Frost replied in the negative. "Testing your limits and delving into the unknown every now and then is good for development. Real battles are never scripted, after all."

"But we digress. Good job, you two." Hank quickly complimented them before Miss Frost could continue. "You can both take the rest of the day off, but do see me in my lab by evening, Naruto. Miss Frost and I will review your combat footage in the meantime."

Naruto watched the two teachers leave the room before turning to Laura who'd been watching him with an inscrutable expression. "Mind taking me to the showers? I might need a lift to my dorm as well."

Laura snorted but smirked. "Sure…pussy."

…

While the two mutants left for the showers and the danger room began to mend itself courtesy of Forge running corrective maintenance, the two professors left busied themselves with watching the combat footage from the beginning, partly out of necessity but mostly out of curiosity about what led to the danger room running amok and damaging itself. Time kept them from watching it all at once, but Hank moved to the segment where the room's activity was at its highest and the duo watched, amazed as the two mutants wreaked havoc on what seemed to be an unending legion of heavily armed soldiers, mowing them down in droves, destroying vehicles and ruining several buildings in their wake.

And while Laura was as unsurprisingly deadly as her gene-father, it was Naruto who took most of their attention. The boy was akin to a force of nature with his powers, even if he was visibly still far from a master at their use as his mistakes showed. While Emma watched wordlessly with the occasional raised eyebrow to show emotion, Hank wasn't so sparing with his commentary. She'd have been annoyed in another scenario but she couldn't blame the man. The boy had managed to impress her more than a few times in under an hour, both with his immensely powerful abilities and his utilization of them and when he sent out a shockwave powerful enough to leave a gaping scar in the land? She already feared for whoever would face him in his prime.

A most interesting boy indeed. It didn't hurt that he was easy on the eyes either. He would make a wonderful addition to the Club.

"It would seem Naruto has discovered another ability," Hank commented out of the blue.

Emma took her eyes off the screen for a moment to glance at him. "Hmm?"

"It took me a while to notice it, but look," he spoke, rewinding the footage until he greatly slowed it down at the part where Naruto had been struck by the railgun on the roof. "I'd assumed it was a coincidence at first but the same phenomenon occurred on two other separate occasions. Look."

Emma leaned in closer to the screen with narrowed eyes. She knew the experience of being struck by a beam of emf-guided plasma would be painful but seeing it occur in slow motion made it look a thousand times more grueling. She watched as the boy's clothes creased and blackened in the immense heat, she saw his hands redden even under the almost blinding blue light and his face crease into a pained scowl as his mouth opened in what was either a noiseless scream or one drowned out by the sounds around him. It was barely three seconds later that Naruto redirected it to impact the tank, but her mind lingered on the fact that she'd seen the focused ball of radiant death lessen in size and brightness. It happened so quickly it wouldn't have even been observed in real time but she saw it shrink as it pushed against a barrier that had materialized between it and its target. It only took a split second for her to draw a conclusion.

"He absorbed it," she stated. Hank nodded, having thought the same thing.

"And he incorporated it quite well too, if his following attacks are any indicator — he had begun to struggle before but he gained a burst of energy after that incident," he said and sped the recording up to the highlight of the entire show: the part where Naruto had blown away an entire block's worth of landmass and buildings. "And here, we can see him literally emanating energy."

Emma did see it. People whose energy visibly manifested itself outside their bodies were dime a dozen, but with Uzumaki it was different. It seemed less of a purposeful action or a side effect of his usage of his abilities and more like it…leaked out of him, in the same way a tank filled beyond the brim would leak water before it burst. If it was the same case with him, it explained the uncharacteristically powerful force he'd released. The fact that he was even able to store that much power in him while still being a relative beginner to the use of his powers…

So much potential in one person…

"My…Uzumaki is shaping up to be quite the powerful mutant," Emma remarked, reviewing the footage alongside Hank who eyed her suspiciously.

"He is shaping up to be an excellent student," he corrected. "Think of him as that before you begin contemplating how to weave him into your plans, Miss Frost."

"Oh, I believe your admonishment should be directed at Charles, McCoy," she retorted. "I'm sure he would have begun making plans for the boy the moment he sensed his presence, as he always does. Plans to make him an excellent X-Man"

"And yet, they rarely meet."

"He approved of Laura training the boy, did he not," she said with a mocking chuckle. "Believe me. He has plans."

"Unlike you, Charles doesn't see these children as potential tools," Hank said.

"No, not all of them. Only the ones unfortunate enough to be capable of being useful to him," Emma sniffled. "Do you believe he would not have sensed Uzumaki's potential before even sending you and Logan after him? Do you truly believe he sends you to recover every mutant? Do you truly think he isn't monitoring the boy's progress? How long do you think he'll be able to leave him after watching this?"

Hank's silence prompted a derisive scoff from her. She adjusted her large fur coat on her shoulders and made her way out of the room. "You all irk me so easily. You know what the professor is capable of, what he has done and can do and yet you choose to believe him a better man than he has shown himself to be. Perhaps his idealistic talks have blinded you to his true nature."

"Mark my words," she said, stopping at the door. "It will be nowhere near his graduation before Uzumaki begins to don the uniform. Xavier won't wait that long, not while there's this much power waiting to be used against those who oppose his goals."

Her piece said, she went through the door and it slid shut behind her, leaving the blue genius alone in the danger room. As she made her way to her office, her thoughts lingered on the topic of the ring-eyed mutant who had unintentionally put on a destructive show for her. To be capable of so much and most likely even more in the future…

Perhaps it was time to form a rapport with her students.

…

The trip to the showers was anything but comfortable for Naruto who, although having recovered much of his vitality, was far from confident in being able to walk on his own feet without help. It wasn't about relying on Laura for support; he'd done that several times, it was knowing what her helping him did. Their clothes had been reduced to tattered rags, leaving a lot of skin between them. Skin that made a lot of contact. While she didn't show any outward signs of being affected by him, he knew she was feeling something. It didn't help that without Logan or any other teacher to caution her, she'd taken to un-subtly groping him and all but forcing him to do the same. And while she did all that, she didn't say a word to him.

It was when they finally got to their destination that Laura, after letting him down on one of the benches, spoke. "I saw you take a railgun shot point blank and come out fine."

Naruto resisted the urge to sigh. He knew Laura wouldn't have missed that. "You say fine, but my clothes and body would beg to differ."

Laura shook her head. "If it had hit you, you would have been taken out instantly. If it hit you in real life, you'd have been thrown a few feet away with a cauterized stump where your upper half used to be." Undeterred by Naruto's grimace at the mental image, she continued. "You did something. Something you couldn't do before…you got another power, didn't you?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. I'm not really sure what it is, but I absorbed a part of the blast's energy. There's probably more to it and I'm not really sure how to do it without instinct helping me out, but that's it."

Laura stared down at him quietly for several seconds before sitting beside him. "It's like you're getting something new everytime I blink."

Naruto smiled sheepishly. "It's not like I can help it, it just happens."

"Hm." Laura looked down at his hand. "What did it feel like?"

Naruto frowned. She had this habit of making him remember how it felt to use different abilities and what had triggered their awakening. For fairness, it was probably what helped him out with his powers but that didn't mean he liked having to recall emotions and sensations that would normally be forgotten in the heat of battle. He spent more than a minute in thought, trying to remember what it had felt like to siphon the blast's power. "...it felt like…I was sucking something out. It only lasted for a quick moment but then I felt a rush. Like a really huge rush."

Laura hummed. "Right. So you can drain power."

"What's the difference between absorbing and draining?"

"You'll find out later," she told him. "You should have said something earlier, we'd have tried testing it out more."

"I don't think that would have been the right time for that," Naruto objected.

Laura shrugged off the remnant of her shirt. Naruto tried not to focus on how her sweaty breasts moved with her shoulders. "What's the worst that could happen?"

"We could have failed."

"So we'd just try again." She gave him a strange look. "You think we have to win all the time?"

"I thought you hated failing," he said.

"I hate failing for no good reason," she specified. "I don't mind failing if it means we learn something new, I don't mind failing if I just got unlucky or it's something I couldn't handle. I just can't stand failing because I didn't try hard enough."

He snorted lightly, peeking down at the raw flesh of his toes that had begun to heal with the pain already ebbing away, oddly enough. Was it just him or did he heal faster these days? "I guess that's true."

He kept his eyes focused on his hands, mostly to distract himself from the fact that Laura was staring at him, probably waiting for him to say or do something. It had been a while since they were alone together anywhere outside of the danger room for this long, especially somewhere outside of the danger room. Part of it was because his mind tended to go down a path he didn't want it to, and Laura was far from shy about encouraging it.

Nearly a month had passed since she'd cornered him in the library and pretty much demanded that they fuck and while it had been awkward explaining why they couldn't, recounting the tale to Anna and by proxy, Kitty, had been even worse. His seemingly growing popularity with females pissed off his girlfriend something fierce and even their plus-one in the relationship showed an oddly jealous side to herself.

It had taken several days of insisting him and the clone had done nothing prior, as well as revealing that Laura was also affected by his powers, that she'd begrudgingly given him permission to sleep with the girl. It also had to do with the fact that they both knew it'd only be a matter of time before Laura went feral and tried to force herself on him, which would be far from pleasant for both of them.

But even with his girlfriend giving him a green light, he'd been dancing around doing the deed with Laura but he knew it was bound to happen soon; she'd gotten a lot more forward in the past few days and with Anna as well as Kitty out on a mission since the previous week, he was…far from sated; he hadn't even noticed how used he had gotten to sex until he went a week without it.

"So," he began, breaking the silence. "You kicked hella ass in there."

Laura snorted. "Not as much as you. You've gotten a lot better since we started training together—you can even keep up with me now."

Naruto shook his head with a sheepish smile. "With my powers, maybe, but if you got within melee range it'd be over for me."

"That's not what I saw today," Laura replied, taking one of his hands in hers and flipping it over to show his now-healed palms. "You took out a lot of guys with those black rods of yours."

Her hands were soft. He'd noticed it before, but it felt more pronounced now for some reason. He blamed it on his healing nerves. "It helps that they paralyze people."

Learning to freely produce and use them had taken a lot of practice but they proved to be a massive boon in fighting. But while he liked them a lot, Hank didn't share the sentiment, having been unable to decipher what material they were made of, what property it possessed that induced paralysis or even how to reshape them into actual weapons. All they knew about it was that Naruto could produce as many of them as his reserves allowed which was a fuck ton, and he could manipulate their size as well as use them to puppeteer people.

Laura had not been pleased the first time he did it.

"Even better," she shrugged. Naruto noticed she hadn't let go of his hand. "And you covered my ass a lot of times too."

"You did it more times," he argued. "If it wasn't for you, I'd have been taken out an hour in."

"And if it wasn't for you, I'd still be fighting right now," Laura retorted.

"Let's just say we both did our parts, yeah?"

"...yeah, sure." Laura glanced between him and his hand. "And thanks…for helping."

Naruto blinked. It wasn't in Laura's nature to apologize. "You don't have to thank me, Laura."

"Still," she paused for a moment. "I'm not used to having people actually worry about me. Not before and even now, people still don't really do so. Everyone just thinks it's all good since I'll be alright in the end. To have someone actually worry about me just for the sake of it…it feels nice."

"I'm sure there's people who do. Logan seems really protective of you," Naruto said. "He might not know how to show it but he cares a lot about you."

"What about you?" she asked.

"Uhh…I mean, you already know I do." He grinned. "We're pretty tight already, you know."

"Really?" She asked, shuffling closer. "You sure don't act like we are."

Naruto fought the urge to clear his throat. She had been close enough before but now, he could almost feel her on him already. "I don't know what you mean. What do you expect me to do?"

Laura didn't respond. Her eyes still hadn't left his and if anything her stare grew a lot deeper, as if she was watching something that lay beyond them. "There's another ring now."

He knew there'd be. "That's great…" She was too close. He could already feel his loins start to stir the more he looked at her.

She nodded slowly, still maintaining eye contact. "Think of this as a thank you, okay?"

Before he could ask what she meant, she abruptly kissed him.

There was forward, and then there was Laura Kinney. He figured she'd run out of patience and make a move eventually but he didn't think it would be so soon and not in a shower slash changing room of all places but his surprise aside, he wasn't complaining. Far from it.

She was aggressive too. She has been the one to lean closer, pushing her weight on him as she deepened their kiss with the grace of a rabid rhino. Her long, rough tongue lapped at what part of his lips it could touch with feverish intensity before darting into his mouth, leaving her open for him to do the same. The taste and smell of blood lingered in her mouth and her canines threatened to pierce his tongue if he dared to press down on them but the unpleasant details were quickly overshadowed by everything else.

Laura was far more muscular than him, but she still had the softness of femininity he saw in more fragile girls. Her soft, smooth skin felt awfully warm on him and her breasts, firm and modest, pressed against his shoulder and part of his chest as she leaned further into him until she was all but laying atop him and her hands rubbing the sides of his still sensitive face sent tingles across his body that made him feel hot and his already rising penis stand at full mast.

Did we lock the door?

"Touch me, Naruto," Laura whispered harshly. "Quickly."

It didn't take long for him to oblige and he forfeited what was left of his support in favour of letting his hands wander over the girl who fully straddled his now supine body. Sweat had made her sticky but he paid it no mind as he caressed her sides before making his way downward until he was only a layer of leather from touching her ass but he continued undeterred and hooking his thumbs on the waist of her leggings, pulled them down to expose her shapely derriere which he fondled, squeezing and kneading to his heart's content.

Laura moaned and her grip on his hair tightened but she refused to break their liplock even as her breathing grew increasingly harsh and he could almost hear her heart racing. He'd taken too long to do this. The effects must have taken a much worse toll on her than she had been willing to show but he was here now, and he had no plans on leaving until she was normal again, or at least as normal as she could be with a compulsive urge to touch him.

Several minutes passed by with the two teenagers ravishing each other, their grime stained bodies rubbing against themselves and their lips only parting for seconds before clashing again. Their meager clothing had been removed and with nothing left to separate them, they explored each other's bodies as best as their position would allow them. His hands went up from her ass to her breasts to her neck, while hers lowered from his face to his chest to the bobbing protrusion that was his cock.

Laura met him with the frenzy of an addict tearing the package containing their next fix and he tried to replicate the eagerness but where the spirit was willing, the flesh was injured and fatigued. Her ministrations served him a blend of pain and pleasure that he'd begun to come to like and each time he opened his eyes, he found himself mesmerized by her, her green eyes darkened with lust and her red face softened with desire. Desire for him.

Their genitals grazed once more, both spurring them on and reminding them of what they were about to do. Her sex dripped down on his dick, the warm viscous beads of discharge that trailed down his length serving to further drive home the knowledge that all she had to do was sit on him and he'd be inside her. Whether Laura shared his line of thinking, he didn't know, but she lowered herself until he felt his glans touch her engorged clitoris followed by a sharp gasp from the clone who shuddered.

"Laura, we-" he bobbed his head to the side, avoiding her attempts to shut him up with a kiss. "-we're really going to do this…"

"Yeah," she agreed.

"Are you-just hold on a bit, damnit." He pushed the now scowling girl's face away. "Laura if we have sex now there's no going back, you know that?"

"You don't have to tell me that," she snapped, sitting on his dick. She failed to take him inside her like she probably intended, but failing didn't stop her from rocking her hips back and forth, grinding on his length and slathering the underside of his cock with her vaginal fluid. "I've been wanting to do this for weeks now, it's not my fault you were too hung up on Anna to give in."

"She's my girlfriend," he retorted, trying to keep his voice from cracking. Laura's pussy was hot. Literally. Not so much as to be painful, but enough that it stimulated him more than Anna or Kitty's did. Oh God, he was comparing vaginas now.

"And here you are," she grinned. "You not pushing me away means Anna gave in and let you fuck me, doesn't it?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah."

"That also means it wouldn't be wrong if I went ahead and did this." She lifted herself and guided his cock towards her entrance with a hand before dropping slightly, letting a small part of his head in.

"Wait-"

"You gave in way too quick for someone doing it just because he thinks it'll help ease what his powers did." Seeing Naruto's eyes widen, she grinned. "You thought I wouldn't figure it out? I'm not slow, you know. Maybe you do want to help, but don't lie to yourself. You want this as much as I do."

She dropped down on him, her pussy consuming his entire length, and their groins met with a loud clap. "Ahh, shit!"

It was her shriek that broke Naruto's reverie and he looked up at her pained expression, worried. "What happened?!"

"Every fucking time," she complained. If she'd heard him, she didn't show it. "It happens all the time and I still can't get used to it!"

"Can't get used to what?" He asked again. Laura didn't respond and instead wiggled her hips slowly. He looked down from her face to their connected groins. Most of the sight was obscured by the large black bush that was her pubic hair but he could make out a hint of red amongst the slick discharge staining their genitalia and realization immediately struck him.

"L-Laura," he began disbelievingly. "You're a virgin?"

"Fuck no," she growled.

"But-"

"Healing factor, remember? It heals everything. Everything."

"Oh." He knew her healing factor was powerful, but he hadn't imagined it would actually go as far as to restore a torn hymen all the time. How…unpleasant. "Do you need a minute? I can wait-"

"Ain't my first time, Naruto," she smirked. "I've been waiting way too long to take it slow now."

She continued to rock her hips, pleasured moans taking turns with pained hisses to escape her lips. Although he didn't enjoy it as much, Naruto was content to let her have her fun with his dick; as a consolation prize of sorts and also because he liked what she was doing. But however good it felt to have her use his penis as a turning spoon in her, it didn't change the fact that he didn't have much wiggle room and when she started the real stuff, he'd be in for a less fun time if she clenched him; he wasn't sure if it was because of her healing factor or her physically demanding lifestyle, but Laura was as tight as a drum, more so than Anna.

But what ought to have been a battle were it not for how wet she was. Whether it was natural or just her arousal at work was unclear but she secreted a copious amount of lubricant, the slick fluid completely coating his buried length and seeping out of her plugged hole as she moved, her abs flexing hypnotizingly with her rolling hips. Eventually, she grew tired of grinding on him and using his knees for support, lifted herself up, revealing the reddish blend of blood and discharge, before dropping back down.

"Nngh~shouldn't we clean that up first?" he asked.

She snorted. "Fuck that."

Laura closed her eyes again as she began to move up and down on him. The rhythm of being emptied and filled provided her with a sensation she couldn't say she'd feel from doing anything else. Naruto's heavy breathing and constant throbbing inside her only served to intensify her arousal and she opened her eyes again, letting them remain fixated on his as she fucked herself on his cock, raising and lowering herself with strong legs that shook, but refused to buckle.

She sighed heavily as he caressed her thigh, further intensifying the feeling that had been amplified by his cock stroking her inner walls. The relief she'd felt from finally losing most of the urge she'd felt was quickly overtaken by an almost blinding ecstasy she knew came from the same source. She'd been with several males of varying ages and degrees of experience, but none of them made sex as intense for her as it was now. She wanted more, she needed more.

"It's so much better than I imagined," she groaned breathlessly with each shaky bounce on the throbbing cock that made her head spin. "Fuck, you're big."

"You're so fucking tight, Laura," Naruto grunted out, his hand finding her thigh to caress and squeeze. If he kept his mind on what Laura was doing to him, he'd blow his load early; she'd clearly focused more on getting off than applying any finesse but she still knew how to ride a dick.

"I love this…" Laura moaned sultrily. "Your dick~feels so good."

The words exchanged between the copulating pair were few and far between as the girl frantically skewered herself on Naruto's cock, happily engulfing as much of his length as her slippery folds would allow. The ruddy-faced mutant shook from the effort of riding his dick, but refused to slow down, much less let up. Her sweat dripped down her skin and on him, but the slight discomfort was easily drowned out by the almost overwhelming sensation of being inside his personal trainer.

Laura was far from a gentle lover. She rode him roughshod, lifting and dropping her weight on him with the careless abandon of an exhausted woman leaping onto her bed. Her hips all but moved of their own accord, gyrating, rocking and bouncing randomly as the girl used him to satisfy herself. Whether she knew or cared about his own pleasure was a question he'd probably never find an answer to.

And it wasn't like he was complaining either. Her sopping pussy throbbed and shook around his cock, subjecting the swollen protrusion to a pleasant constriction he hadn't felt before. He felt himself force her open, spearing through her closing folds afresh with each time she lowered herself on him. Her ass felt soft, yet firm on his crotch and their hips met with a sensual clap that resounded throughout the empty room with the only other sounds being her guttural moans and his own strained grunts.

She must have wanted him for so long, he thought. Each movement she made had a hint of frenzy in it; she squeezed his knees like she couldn't keep her hands idle and he could feel the muscles in her legs tense from the stress of use and restraint from releasing the claws that would pierce through his feet should she let them emerge.

And with as little warning as she had been giving him since they began, she switched paces, foregoing the mindless pattern of rising and dropping in favour of a similar, albeit harsher sequence.

Naruto grit his teeth as Laura increased her pace, her already ragged breathing growing harsher as she bounced on him hard enough for their groins to meet loudly each time. Holding on with her previous pace had been enough of a battle but with her now frantic rhythm, he'd been placed on a rollercoaster of sensations with only one destination in sight. Her cunt sloshed around his length, her slimy walls shifting and throbbing in time with her pistoning hips and the muscles in her thighs flexed and relaxed with the effort of continuously lifting her form on him. If she kept this up, it wouldn't be long before he came.

"Laura, slow down," he ground out. "I can't keep up!"

"No," she panted, her black hair swaying wildly in the air as she continued to impale herself on his fleshly rod. "I can't stop…can't~"

Just how bad had it been for her? Naruto sat up, ignoring his body's protest and holding onto her ass, began to thrust upwards into her. He groaned as he gave her another pump driving a few more inches of cock inside her cunt. With his grip on her behind he was easily able to lift her, pulling her down on him as he slammed into her, each vigorous thrust of his thick member spreading her inner walls around its girth.

Laura's hands couldn't keep still. She'd been fondling her own breasts before but as he got up close enough for their chests to meet, she wrapped her arms around him to pull him in for a kiss. Her nails dug into his skin hard enough to puncture flesh and the odour of stale blood rushed into his mouth with each ragged breath she took, but he could feel her pulse rising as well as a slight throbbing in her inner walls. She was close, very close.

Now determined to bring about her release, he jackhammered into her, shifting her atop his laps to adjust his dick with each thrust until he found and began to make contact with her g-spot. The spongy tissue grazing his dick made him shudder but it loosened something in Laura and she ground her hips on him, desperate to have him touch there again. He was all too happy to oblige and a few angled thrusts later, she was driven to her first orgasm of the night.

Laura came hard. Like scary hard. Her legs clamped on the bench hard enough to audibly crack the hardwood, her pussy all but convulsed around his cock and she groaned loudly in his mouth as she released. Thick fluid left her to wash over his dick and he felt some of it escape the seal his penis made to dribble down his balls.

All the while he continued to thrust, slowly stuffing her as she rode her orgasm to completion. The euphoria had begun to fade but she was still being wracked by spasms prolonged by his continued insertion into her still tightened pussy that tried to milk him for all he was worth, an effort that eventually bore bountiful fruit as a few strained thrusts later, he had his first orgasm in days.

His muscles tightened yet his strength waned and his vision briefly went unfocused as he came in Laura with a grunt, each spastic thrust seeing him hose down the female mutant's walls and womb with hot semen that rocketed out of his throbbing penis in thick, long spurts and Laura slowly wound her hips atop him, seemingly savouring the sensation of being filled as evident by her contracting walls. Naruto felt his own semen coat his enveloped cock, gravity already doing its work in her, and trickle out of her as he continued to pump her with cum.

"Mmm-fuck…" Laura drew away from him with a lewd moan, her face flushed and her expression laden with lust-induced ecstacy. She rocked her waist on him, massaging herself with his cum-stained cock and spreading the already plentiful semen in her on whatever part of her vagina it had yet to cover. "That's nice…that's so…shit~"

It didn't take long for his orgasm to die out but by the time she had managed to squeeze out the last batch of cum he had to give, Laura's eyes had shut as a shudder went through her body and she leaned back on him limply, dropping her head on his shoulders and going still save for the heavy breaths that made her rising breasts rub his chest. For a moment, Naruto thought she had passed out but was proven wrong when he felt her tunnel briefly squeeze his softening member followed by her murmuring something unintelligible under her breath. "Laura, are you alright?"

"...alright?" she asked quietly. It took a couple of seconds for her to list her head but when she did, he saw that she'd regained her composure, or at least as much of it as she could while looking like a junkie who just got a lifetime's worth of their fix in a single sitting. "Am I alright? I haven't felt this…fucking relieved in months!"

Naruto couldn't keep the sheepish smile from forming. Yeah, that was to be expected.

But she wasn't done yet. "I feel like I got high, got fucked and took a huge pee at the same time!"

His smile turned half-worried. "You haven't actually done that, have you?"

"Who cares?" she dismissed the question flippantly. "Point is, I feel great. Whatever your powers are, they made fucking you feel a lot better than anything I've felt before." She gave him a randy grin as she clenched her walls again, eliciting a gasp from the blond. "Helps that you know what you're doing down there too."

The tightening of her walls made it easier for him to feel his own semen sloshing in her and for the first time since his sexcapades had begun, he felt concern well up in him. "I came in you."

Laura grunted noncommittally. "More like you blew up in me. For a guy who gets laid almost everyday, you filled me the fuck up and then some." She looked down at where their genitals met and smiled at the whitish outline at the end of her own mound. "And shit if it doesn't feel good."

"Wait, aren't you worried about getting pregnant?" Naruto asked.

Laura snorted, her amusement visible. "It would take a shit ton of effort on your part to get that done…but I might get a plan-b just to be sure." She unwrapped her arms from the blond's shoulders to lift herself off his cock and gasped as semen began to dribble out of her. "On second thought, I'm definitely getting them."

Naruto watched the stream of white escape the sitting girl's previously plugged hole with a mix of pride and concern. "Huh, that's a lot more than I thought."

"No shit," she smirked. "You sure it's only been a week since you last busted?"

"Haven't even touched myself since they left," he sighed. "It doesn't feel the same anymore."

Laura hummed thoughtfully as she dipped a finger in her still leaking vagina. She heard of some people who could produce large amounts of semen in one go, but this was excessive even for something like that…could it be tied to his powers as well? "Well, you don't have to worry about that anymore since we'll be doing this a lot more times."

"And if you all leave at the same time?"

"I'm sure your talent's going to pull someone else before that happens," she replied matter-of-factly. Seeing his frown, she scoffed. "Come on, you can't seriously say you'll go without touching anyone forever; even Anna couldn't pull that off despite how hard she tried and I'm not talking about her touching you."

"It wouldn't hurt to try though," he shrugged and moved to stand but sat back down as pain flared in his lower body. "You're really rough, you know that?"

Laura grinned. "Don't be a pussy, you love it. And it's not like you were gentle either — you might have as well been trying to shank me with your dick with how hard you were pounding me…you're pretty strong, by the way. I wasn't really paying attention but it's still impressive that you were able to switch it up."

"I only did that because you weren't paying attention," he retorted. "You could have injured me."

"Did you enjoy it or not?"

"..."

"That's what I thought." she sniffed victoriously. "Come on, lemme take you to the showers."

"Given how you manhandled me after carrying me here, I'm not taking my chances. I'll bathe myself in my room."

Laura shrugged. "Either you clean up here and risk me manhandling you now or you can go now and chance a run-in with Logan on the way. Your pick."

"What, why's that bad?"

"Logan wanted to snap on you because he saw you touching my tits and he can probably smell it right now that we fucked so imagine if you met him on the road."

Naruto blanched. "If he can smell me…do you think he's been able to-"

"Naruto, I'm basically him but smaller, if I can tell that you'd fucked Anna and Kitty, so can he."

"That's…huh. You guys have a stronger sense of smell than I thought."

Laura hummed. "So, what's it going to be?"

Naruto didn't have to think it through. Logan might be a semi-caring man even if he showed it via acts of non-lethal violence, but he also expressed his unnerving protectiveness with the same methods as Naruto come to find out from the several times the clawed man had threatened him over Anna and Laura especially so when faced with the choice of taking a shower and potentially have his hips bruised further or leg it home and potentially get stabbed by an angry man who knew he had slept with the same daughter-but-not-daughter he had warned him about exhaustively, it was sort of a no-brainer.

But now that he thought of it… "If you're Logan's direct clone but female, doesn't that mean I've basically fucked him?"

"Why would you-no. Just, no." Laura grimaced. "Best not think of it unless you're into guys now."

Naruto nodded his agreement. He didn't even know why he'd entertained the thought. "I…yeah, I think it's best we go shower now."

"Hmph. Come on, weirdo," Laura said, helping him to his feet. "I'm not even sure I want to fuck you anymore, you've ruined the mood."

"Really?" Naruto cupped her breast in his hand and upon squeezing the bright pink spot he constantly saw on her nipple, felt her shudder. "Even now."

Laura glared at him, her face suddenly red. "You're lucky you're hot."

He grinned.

It didn't take long before they found themselves in the shower and Naruto's aching body was soothed by the comfortable downpour of hot water and Laura's body on his own. Just like he'd expected, it didn't take long before she decided rubbing up on him while they washed wasn't enough and several minutes of kissing and liters of wasted water later, he'd pinned Laura to the wall and hung one of her shapely legs over his arm as he shoved himself into her for the second time.

"Fuck!"

Oh yeah. Healing factors sucked sometimes.

…

Wolverine's healing factor is a double edged sword because of how strong it is. On one hand, it heals him completely, like completely and allows him to regenerate from a skeleton but on the other hand, it heals him completely. Like using his claws always hurt like hell because not only do they break his bones and tear his skin, his healing factor heals them so thoroughly, his nerves always basically revert to their base form so he literally can't even get accustomed to it or any other sort of pain. Him and Laura aren't physically used to pain, they just have inhumanly high levels of pain tolerance. It's all mental. And that's fucking metal, pun intended.