Adventures of the Orange Flash
Chapter 7: Deceptive Fight and a Jungle Run
Naruto quickly ducked a fiery swipe before performing several backflips to build some distance from his current opponent whom he has no intention of fighting.
"Neko stop this! Why are you attacking me?!" said Naruto who was taking a defensive stance.
"I'm sorry Naruto, but I must defeat you if you continue to aid the Iblis Trigger. For the sake of the future," said Blaze as her claws were still lit in flames.
"What do you mean by that? Who told you something like this?" asked Naruto although he had an inkling as to who told her and probably Silver.
"Mephilles told us about you and the blue hedgehog…" said Blaze.
**Flashback Start**
Blaze and Silver were walking along the streets of New City in Soleanna, they had gone to Eggman's base over at White Acropolis in search of Sonic only to find that he wasn't there though they found a blue Chaos Emerald which Blaze told Silver to keep it as a lucky charm.
They were on their way searching for information of the hedgehog's whereabouts when they ran into a familiar figure ahead them.
"Mephilles..," said Silver, the said person showed no reaction but it was obvious that he was listening "I need to ask, who is the Iblis Trigger and why does he want to destroy the world?"
"…why does that matter to you?" said Mephilles "Unless you complete your task, your future will remain the same…forever,"
The duo remained silent, unable to reply to his words.
"He's currently at the terminal station, it's now or never if you want this,"
"…okay then Mephilles, we'll be on our way then," Silver was about to leave with Blaze when Mephilles spoke up again.
"I must warn you that the Iblis Trigger isn't working alone, he's being helped by an accomplice,"
"Who is this person we should look out for?" asked Silver.
"I do not know his name, but be on the lookout for an orange fox with nine tails,"
Blaze's eyes widened in shock as she instantly recognized whom he was talking about "Naruto is helping the Iblis Trigger? But how could this be?" she thought.
"Got it, we'll be on our way to the train station. Blaze let's go!" said Silver before running off.
Blaze snapped out of her musings and ran after him "Okay I'm coming!"
**Flashback End**
"Upon arriving, Silver and I split up as he went after the blue hedgehog while I was waiting for you to appear. I was hoping that what Mephilles said wasn't true but seeing you here has proven otherwise," said Blaze as she shook her head in disappointment.
Naruto clenched his fist in anger upon what he heard "That no good liar, I ought to shove a Rasengan down his throat,"
"He must have deceived them again after escaping from our fight back in the future," said Kurama with a growl of anger.
"That's the only possibility we can think of," thought Naruto before turning his attention to Blaze "Neko I need you to listen to me, Sonic and I are not the enemy here. We're trying to prevent the Flames of Disaster from being unleashed," said Naruto.
Blaze was surprised to hear that but the look of seriousness reappeared on her face "As much as it surprises me that you're working to prevent Iblis from ever being unleashed, I'm not willing to take the risk of the chance that you might release the flames in your attempt to stop it. To prevent that, I must defeat you," said Blaze before she retook her fighting stance.
"What? But Neko-," Naruto tried to explain.
"I don't think she'll listen to us Naruto, we'll have to fight her like it or not," said Kurama.
"But she's not the enemy here Kurama!" thought Naruto still not wanting to fight Blaze.
"I know but with her wanting to change the future and Mephilles' deception, she won't believe us so easily,"
Naruto let out a sigh of resignation before he faced Blaze and reluctantly took his fighting stance which made her tense a bit "I can understand why you're doing this Neko, but this leaves me with no other choice but to fight you,"
"Very well then," said Blaze, then they charged at each other to engage in combat.
Music Start: Sonic the Hedgehog OST; Boss: Vs. Character
Naruto launched a straight punch but Blaze sidestepped to the right and responded with a low sweeping kick, Naruto performed a front flip to evade the kick and moved away to create some distance. Naruto crossed his middle and index fingers and called out on his signature jutsu.
"Shadow clone jutsu!"
Several copies appeared next to him and quickly moved in to surround Blaze who looked stunned to see such a technique, then they all attacked simultaneously from all directions with fists reared back to punch.
Blaze snapped out of her shock as she stood on the tip of her right foot with her arms spread out and proceeded to spin around rapidly while releasing flames from her body to create a fiery tornado and moving around to attack "Spinning Claw!" the clones made contact with the flames and were sent flying from attack and disappeared in puffs of smoke, then Blaze stopped her spin and leapt into the air and spin again horizontally with her right claw forward like a flaming drill "Fire Claw!"
Naruto dashed to the side to get out of the way but his eyes widened in shock upon seeing Blaze changed direction and still stayed on him "Swift Release: Shadow Dance!" Naruto sped away quickly enough to leave behind an afterimage which Blaze passed through and landed on her feet, then she suddenly heard a voice call out right in front of her "Na!..." a shadow clone was sliding towards her with a leg reared back and he wasn't the only one as three more were sliding towards her from different angles in the same position "Ru…To!" they lashed out with their feet and kicked Blaze into the air before she could put up any kind of defense. At the peak of her height, Blaze looked up to see Naruto descending with a heel raised in the air ready to bring it down on her "Uzumaki Barrage!"
"Axel Tornado!" Blaze recovered in midair and proceeded to twirl rapidly while releasing hot flames around her to form a fiery tornado and the flames burst from under her feet as she propelled herself towards Naruto. It was now the fox's turn to not be able to put a defense as he got hit by the flaming attack and crashed to the ground. He heard Blaze diving towards him with her claws covered in flames and quickly stood up while channeling chakra to his claws as the blue energy coated them before elongating to appear larger.
"Kitsune Claws!"
He raised his claws to block the incoming attack, they struggled for dominance before jumping away from each other before charging in once again to engage in close combat, Naruto was attacking and evading as he used his Kitsune style against Blaze who was attacking and evading in kind with graceful movements almost as if she was dancing.
"Man she's pretty good," thought Naruto as he dashed to left while on all fours to dodge a fiery kick from Blaze.
"I must admit that she's very strong in her own right, Matatabi would have taken a liking to her," said Kurama.
"Maybe so, but we can't afford to lose because of Mephilles' deceit,"
Naruto stopped the flow of chakra to his left hand in order to reach into his pouch and took out a Hirashin kunai then he charged at Blaze and lashed out with a slash but twirled out of the way and responded with a low leg sweep which he avoided with a backflip and used his tails to wound around her leg before using the momentum to throw her. Blaze recovered in midair then ignited a continuous stream of fire under her feet as she descended and took a defensive stance.
Naruto launched an uppercut with the kunai but Blaze used a palm to deflect it, suddenly he let go of the kunai which sent it flying into the air, he quickly retreated and created a couple of clones to attack.
"Not this again, Spinning Claw!" Blaze spun around once again forming the fiery tornado and the clones were knocked back, when Blaze stopped spinning she notice a growing shadow at her feet and looked up to see Naruto diving towards her with a blue spinning sphere being held on a palm "What kind of attack is that? I better not let it hit me," she immediately dashed out of his range when Naruto used his other hand to throw a familiar kunai at her. Blaze sidestepped to evade the incoming projectile and saw Naruto about to hit the ground when to her shock that he disappeared in a yellow flash and then reappeared right in front of her.
"Sorry about this Neko, Rasengan!" Naruto rammed a slightly depowered Rasengan into Blaze with the force sending her flying into a cliff wall before collapsing to the ground but didn't get back up immediately.
Music End
Naruto walked over to Blaze and looked at her apologetically "I'm really sorry about this Blaze but Mephilles has been lying to you all along, Sonic is not the Iblis Trigger,"
Blaze looked up to Naruto "What makes you so sure that what you're saying is the truth?"
"All this time, Sonic and I had been working to rescue Princess Elise from Dr. Eggman who seeks to use the Flames of Disaster or what you call Iblis for his ambitions. If Mephilles really wanted to help you save your future, why didn't he tell you about Eggman then?"
Blaze thought back on what Naruto said and noticed that he raised a good point, she had been seeing the robots moving around everywhere she went as if in search of something and would attack anyone that gets in their way.
"Then if so why would he lie to us about Sonic being the Iblis Trigger and what would he be up to?" asked Blaze.
"Mephilles knew that Sonic would try to stop Eggman from getting his hands on the Flames of Disaster and so he lied to you and your friend Silver to prevent that but I don't know what he's after exactly,"
Blaze was silent for a while which had Naruto worry a bit that she didn't believe him, then he heard her finally speak up.
"I don't know if I should believe you…but I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, I'll try to find out if what you're saying is the truth,"
"Thanks, I really didn't like fighting you like this. It didn't feel right," said Naruto, suddenly they both heard a loud whirring sound like that of an aircraft "That must be one of Eggman's robots, he must be near here? Are you going to be okay Neko?"
"Don't worry about me, I should be able to recover from that attack of yours. I could tell that it wasn't at full power but enough to knock me down, so you go on ahead while I return to Soleanna,"
"Okay, please be careful," Naruto turned and ran in direction of where the sound was coming from in hopes of locating Sonic or the princess there.
"If what Naruto said was true, then I wonder how Silver will change his mind. He can be very stubborn once he sets a goal for himself," Blaze mused to herself.
Meanwhile in a train yard, Silver was facing down whom he believes to be Mephilles but the strange thing is that this hedgehog had red stripes instead of grey and wore golden rings and called himself Shadow the Hedgehog. Silver had found Sonic earlier before along with the princess and was about to finish him off when Shadow appeared to interrupt giving Sonic the opportunity to run off much to his annoyance. They engaged each other in a battle of chaos powers and psychokinesis and were soon facing each in a state of exhaustion.
"Raaagh!" Silver reared a fist back and charged forward to punch Shadow.
Shadow took out a green Chaos Emerald and called out "Chaos Control!" the emerald pulsed with power and everything from his perspective slowed down including Silver then he moved around the white hedgehog and performed a roundhouse kick on the back of his head to knock him to the ground.
Silver got back up and glared at Shadow "You…"
"Don't bother. With a Chaos Emerald's power, I control time and space. You can't break free from it," said Shadow in a matter of fact tone.
"NO! I refuse to give up, I can't lose when there's so much at stake…especially when I'm so close to fulfilling my goal!"
Silver took out a blue Chaos Emerald and charged at Shadow who responded in kind, they both stepped around the other and held out their Chaos Emeralds with their hands making contact while calling out at the same time.
"Chaos Control! /Chaos Control!"
This action resulted in a Time-Space rift opening up between them before jumping back in surprise.
"You…induced a Chaos Control," said Shadow.
"There's no way that I'm going to let anyone get in my way, I'll definitely change the past and save the world so that everyone can be happy," said Silver looking determined.
Shadow simply shook his head at the hedgehog's naivety "Mephilles isn't trying to help you create a better future…he's trying to eliminate the past,"
"What? What are you talking about?" asked Silver confusedly.
"I had met Mephilles before and he only revealed a part of what he really knows and the same could be said for you. If we wish to know what really happened, it seems we must see what exactly took place ten years ago. Follow me if you want to know the truth," Shadow leapt into the rift but Silver looked hesitant to follow and was deep in thought.
"Could it be that Mephilles was lying? That I was going about this the wrong way? I think I'll find the answers if I witness what really happened back then instead of being told about it," Silver made up his mind and leapt into the rift before it disappeared.
Naruto was currently running in between the mountains in search of the robots which could possibly have an affiliation to Eggman.
"From the sounds of it, it must be a very large one. Now where could it be?" Naruto suddenly heard an explosion coming from the west side of his position and immediately changed directions towards it. He knew that he was getting closer as the whirring sound was getting much louder, he ran around a mountain and come upon what he was looking for.
It was a giant flying robot fortress with four massive arms with inbuilt missile launchers, searchlights and who knows what else Eggman might have built into the thing, though he took note of the glowing orange podlike core located at its undercarriage.
"Looks like the doctor is not playing around," Naruto mused.
"Naruto!"
He traced the voice to see Princess Elise hiding behind a large boulder away from the robot, he quickly ran over to see if she was okay.
"Princess Elise, I'm glad to see that you're alright,"
"Sonic told me what happened and that you would soon come to help us again. Eggman was taking me to a hidden base by train but Sonic rescued me, however that silver hedgehog showed up again to attack Sonic and I was recaptured by Eggman but I managed to escape and now that giant robot is after us," said Elise.
"Looks like I wasn't the only one keeping busy, I'll go and help Sonic wreck this robot so that we can get you out of here," said Naruto before running towards the battlefield where he saw Sonic running around it.
Music Start: Sonic the Hedgehog OST; Boss: Egg-Cerberus and Egg-Genesis
"Yo Sonic!" Naruto called out to his fellow speedster, said hedgehog turned and smirked upon seeing Naruto running towards him.
"Hey Naruto, guess you're done with your detour?" said Sonic.
"Pretty much, now let's take down another toy of Eggman's,"
"You got it!"
Above them in the air was Eggman in his Egg Mobile glaring at Naruto who had arrived to help Sonic.
"Not him again, he's just as annoying as Sonic! No matter, my Egg Genesis should be able to take care of them then I can get my hands on the Flames of Disaster,"
The Egg Genesis rose to the air and locked its arms in a vertical position, several compartments opened up and missiles shot out of them and headed straight towards Naruto and Sonic.
"Whoa, incoming!"
Naruto and Sonic took off with the missiles pursuing them and they weren't the only ones as several volleys having been launched from the other arms and targeting them. Sonic darted left and right to evade the missiles before they hit the ground and exploded, the same could be said for Naruto who used the Shadow Dance to dodge then would throw several chakra enhanced shurikens at them to be destroyed.
The Egg Genesis descended to the ground while spreading its arms diagonally and opened up at the ends as a squad of Egg Flyers came out and proceeded to open fire on the fox and hedgehog. Sonic evaded the gunfire and was making his way to attack the robots when he suddenly came upon a good idea. He leapt into the air and used his Homing Attack on the Egg Flyers as stepping stones and landed on one of the arms before proceeding to run towards the robot's head.
"Why you little…Upper cannons open fire! Shoot him down!" Eggman called out.
Gun turrets appeared from both sides of the robot's and where shooting at Sonic, he darted left and right until he got close enough to jump on top of the head, there he jumped into the air and curled up into a ball before performing a downwards Spin Attack which bounced him back into the air and he attacked again, the damage to the head caused an electric surge through one of the arms to detach from the main body and explode. Sonic quickly leapt off the Egg Genesis before it took to the air.
"Good one Sonic, allow me to take a turn!" said Naruto who was cutting down the remaining Egg Flyers by flashing around and destroying them with his Hirashin kunai. He noticed a bright circle moving along the ground until it reached him, he looked up to see one of the searchlights aiming at him. Naruto noticed that light was being concentrated at the center and was glowing brighter, instincts screamed at him to move and he did so just in time to evade an orange laser which trailed but he had ran out of its range.
Naruto saw the Egg Genesis descend towards the ground once again to release another battalion of mechs but this time they were the Egg Gunners. He threw his Hirashin kunai at one of them before flashing over to it and grab to throw it at another until landing on top of another arm of the Egg Genesis. Naruto dashed towards the head and created a shadow clone who ahead and turned to face the original with his hands cupped together, Naruto stepped on it and was launched into the air above the robot's head, there he created another shadow clone and together held their hands close as they form the Giant Ball Rasengan before diving in and ramming on top of the head which caused another surge to destroy another robot arm.
"Only two more arms to go Naruto!" shouted Sonic while evading a salvo of missiles from the remaining arms of the Egg Genesis.
"Begin charging core laser! Take this, Sonic!" shouted Eggman.
The orange podlike core located at the undercarriage of the flying fortress glowed with energy before firing an orange laser straight at Sonic.
"Whoa there!" Sonic dashed to the right just before the laser hit where he once stood leaving behind a large crater "You might want to work on your robot's aim Eggman, perhaps a few more conks to the head would do the trick,"
Naruto landed nearby and called out to him "Not anymore, the robot withdrew its head and my attacks aren't inflicting any more than a dent,"
Sonic looked back at the Egg Genesis until his eyes settled on the core "Then let's aim for the core underneath it, that should do the trick,"
"Got it!"
Naruto then noticed that the core was charging up again for another laser shot and currently targeting them, he reached into his ninja pouch and took out a black pellet before throwing it onto the ground which produced a thick cloud of smoke. The core fired its laser which pierced through but and it was clear that its intended targets where nowhere near the laser's trajectory.
The alarm systems of the Egg Genesis blared out before another of the arms broke off and exploded and a blue blur sped away from under its shadow to reveal that it was the blue hedgehog who was responsible for what had just occurred. The scanners had picked up the location of the orange fox with nine tails, it locked on to the second target and was about to launch another salvo of missiles from the remaining arm when the fox placed its hands together to form a strange sign then large numbers of explosions happened around the arm completely destroying it.
"What?! This can't be! Egg Genesis, take to the sky and fire your core laser at maximum power!" yelled Dr. Eggman.
The damaged robot complied with its master's orders and proceeded to ascend while its core was glowing brightly with energy.
"Looks like Eggman is going for broke with this incoming attack," said Sonic.
"Then it's time for the coup de grâce," said Naruto.
"You got something that can reach it that high?"
"Yeah but all I can say is that you might want to get behind some cover,"
Naruto created a pair of shadow clones and they proceeded to work on a Rasengan, Sonic noted that this one differed from the ones which Naruto had been using so far as four large white points resembling throwing stars swirled around the core and was giving off a loud screeching noise.
"Wind Style: Rasenshuriken!" Naruto called out then his shadow clone took a hold of it and flashed over to a paper tag bearing the Hirashin seal placed on the robot's head, the clone rammed the infused variation of the Rasengan on the Egg Genesis. Naruto and Sonic quickly ran over to where Princess Elise was hiding and took cover.
When it collided with its target, the spiraling sphere detonated to unleash a vortex of wind which swallowed the entire robot with its parts continuously being shredded by the cutting power of the wind. The Egg Genesis completely shut down from taking massive damage and crashed to the ground before exploding.
Music End
Sonic peeked from behind the boulder to look at burning bits of the robot and whistled "Whoa that's some serious wind power, too bad it can't be used for flying kites,"
"That was so powerful," said Elise in awe.
"Yeah but let's get out of here, I'm pretty sure that our battle was to give Eggman time to call on his forces," said Naruto
"We can lose them in the jungle, Tails told me that there's a gateway near here that will take us there," said Sonic, then he carried Elise bridal style and proceeded to run into the woods with Naruto close behind.
After a bit of running, they stopped before a lake where at the center is a small island and there is a large mirror which was displaying the image of a jungle with ancient ruins deep within.
"How are you guys getting across? Maybe I'll have to carry you two to the other side" said Naruto as he walked on top of the water much to Elise's surprise.
"There's no need, Elise has a way for us to get across," said Sonic.
"Yes, just give me a moment," Elise closed her eyes in concentration and then a yellow aura radiated from her entire body before her and Sonic in the form of a force field.
"Whoa, I didn't know you could do that," said Naruto with a look of surprise.
"We discovered that she could create energy fields during our return from the Dusty Desert, it allowed me to cross over the shifting sands without sinking into it," said Sonic.
"Could it be because she has the Flames of Disaster sealed into her," thought Naruto.
"It's a possibility since the same could be said for having me sealed inside you," said Kurama thoughtfully.
Sonic ran across the water with the energy field active which gave Naruto an impression of a pseudo water walking before following them to the mirror.
Music Start: Sonic the Hedgehog OST; Tropical Jungle - The Jungle, The Swamp
The trio jumped into the mirror and found themselves floating through a void tunnel until they reached the other side. Exiting from the tunnel, they were running along a dirt path through the trees. They stepped on a dash panel to boost them faster till reaching the edge where they hit a spring which launched them high above the trees until reaching the top of a giant tree which was hollow inside.
There was a spring pointing downwards towards another spring, Sonic followed by Naruto bounced off it to the other as they descended in a spiraling manner until reaching the bottom. The speeding duo stepped on yet another dash panel which boosted them towards a dash ramp launching them out of the tree to the other side. Ahead of them were Eggman's mechs who took aim ready to fire.
"Looks they took a shortcut to get to us," said Sonic.
"Then let's take detour," said Naruto.
Sonic leapt into the air and performed his Homing Attack on the mechs, even if carrying someone his speed took little reduction. Naruto was doing his own thing as he pounced at one of the gunners with claws bared then slashing rapidly before jumping off towards another target. Afterwards, the group continued on their way until reaching a ravine too far to jump across and the other side was high above them.
"Sonic Naruto, look up there!" they turned to where Elise pointed and saw a long vine with a purple flower at the end of it "You can grab onto that vine and swing across to the other side,"
"Good idea Elise," Sonic took a few steps back before dashing forward to jump and grab the vine with one hand while Elise held on tight. He swung back and forth a few times before letting go to land at the other side.
"Now's my turn!" Naruto jumped to grab the vine too and was soon with them.
Dashing down the hill, they encountered more of the mechs which they dispatched with ease. Sonic dashed on top of a long tree trunk, Naruto swung on a vine which launched him to higher ground. Suddenly a laser fence appeared ahead of Sonic without, however the hedgehog quickly as he lowered his legs and was sliding until they safely passed under the trap then he bounced off a spring into a cave.
Naruto reached the end of the ledge and hit a dash ramp into the entrance of a giant hollow tree trunk. There was a spring at the center which he stepped on to send him all the way to the top where he landed on a long thin tree branch which served as a makeshift rail and proceeded to grind along it. Naruto looked down to see that he was high above the jungle canopy and couldn't even see the bottom.
"I better watch my step or I might being splattered ramen on the ground," Naruto mused to himself.
"Hey Naruto!" he looked up to see Sonic and Elise grinding along a similar thin tree branch above him in a different direction "How's it going?"
"Just peachy!"
Naruto continued to grind along before sensing the gunners flying from behind as they opened fire upon him, he jumped a little to turn around and face then he took out a kunai while activating the Swift Release to speed up and reflected back at them resulting in their destruction. Naruto reached the end and flipped off to grab a nearby vine while swinging in an arc before letting go to land on a giant trunk with chakra channeled to his feet. He proceeded to dash to the top darting left and right to avoid the branches, then he jumped and landed on a spring which bounced him towards an open cave entrance.
He dashed through the tunnel with little problem thanks to glowing fungi lighting up the way, spiraling around the passage Naruto reached the end and jumped out. His feet landed on the cliff wall then ran downwards while picking up speed. Naruto finally caught up with Sonic and Elise who were also running down the cliff.
"Yo!" Naruto called out to them.
"Hey Naruto, let's rip it!" said Sonic.
"You know it!"
They kept on running until stepping on a dash panel which sped them through a long shuttle loop and getting launched into the air by a dash ramp which was at the end.
In their descent, the trio landed through an opening in the jungle canopy into what seems to be the swampy area of the jungle as there is a lot of water present. They also that some of the Egg Flyers are patrolling the area.
"For them to be here must mean that it's getting tougher for them to locate us," said Naruto.
"That's pretty much it, let's keep it that way," said Sonic.
Naruto crossed his middle and index fingers together and summoned several shadow clones "You guys know what to do,"
"Yes Boss! Transform!" the some of the clones changed into either Sonic or Elise while the others remained the same, then the Sonic clones carried the Elise clones and took off in different while making sure that Eggman's mechs had caught sight of them and followed.
"Heh, Eggman's going wrench his moustache once he finds out that we just led him on a wild goose chase," said Sonic smirked with glee.
"Expect no less from a prankster," said Naruto with a mischievous grin while Elise giggled at the thought of it.
They dashed forward while Elise formed another energy field to help Sonic get across the water but they had to make haste as it wouldn't last for very long. The trio got to the other side and proceeded to run up ancient wooden structures all the way to the top, Sonic grabbed on to a vine and swung over to a rainbow ring which launched him across the area with Naruto following after them.
Soon they had cleared the area and were dashing through the jungle path having successfully evaded Eggman's pursuit.
Music End
The group were running through the lush jungle with nary a worry about being followed by any of the mechs.
"Looks like we lost them," said Elise.
"Pretty much, we won't be expecting them to show up any time soon," said Naruto.
"True but that doesn't mean that Eggman won't stop trying to capture her again," said Kurama.
"That's the annoying thing about villains, they don't know when to quit," thought Naruto.
"Elise, we should get you back to the castle," said Sonic.
Elise looked a bit sad "Oh okay…"
Sonic took note of her sadness and suddenly made a turn to the right much to Elise and Naruto's confusion who followed after them wondering what he was up to. That question was soon answered when they came across a lake surrounded by green grass, numerous trees blossoming and the flowers floated in the calm breeze.
Sonic let Elise down and she walked towards the scenery with eyes of wonderment and she wasn't the only one. Naruto looked around while feeling a sense of nostalgia as it reminded him of the forest in Konoha, the memories made his heart clench in pain as it reminded him of the fact that he would never be able to go back to his loved ones. Kurama leaked out his chakra as a way to comfort him which seems to work since Naruto smiled a bit.
"Wow it's so beautiful! I've never seen so many flowers before!" said Elise with a smile on her face "Sonic, Naruto, have you two visited many wonderful places before?"
"Yeah, there are a lot of places that I've been to and I'm still discovering new ones too," said Sonic.
"Same here and I got many great unforgettable memories from them," said Naruto.
"Once you both defeat Eggman…you'll leave won't you?" asked Elise in a low voice.
Both were silent as her words reminded them of the many times when they had to say goodbye to the friends which they had made on their journey. Naruto and Sonic faced Elise and gave her a silent nod.
"Though I've been frightened many times, I've also enjoyed this adventure. It allowed me to be something other than a princess. I was able to be myself…a girl,"
"It sounds like a being a Princess isn't that easy," said Sonic.
"It isn't sometimes, but I love this country. Everyone in the castle, the children, all my citizens really…the same love my late father and mother had…"
"…you remind me of my father and surrogate grandfather, both were leaders of my villager and their love for it gave them the strength to protect it from all kinds of opposition. Although I was sad that they're gone, I'm also proud of them and promised to protect it in their stead so I know what you mean," said Naruto while remembering the times he spent with the Third Hokage and the conversation which he had with his dad in the mindscape.
"Thank you Naruto, and that is why I'll do my best to protect my country. At first I didn't understand what my parents truly meant but I do now. When you two leave here to go off on another adventure…remember this place,"
"We will, I'll promise to never forget about all this if you'll do the same," Naruto stepped forward and held out his pinkie finger out to her.
Elise smiled upon hearing this and crossed her pinkie finger with his "I promise to never forget about the good times we had,"
"And don't forget about me," Sonic walked up to them and crossed his pinkie finger with theirs.
Then she suddenly hugged the both of them much to their surprise because she was holding back the tears that threatened to come out.
"Elise please don't be sad…just smile," said Sonic, Naruto nodded in agreement.
After that emotional moment, the trio continued on their way to the city of Soleanna with smiles on their faces despite the eventual farewell that would soon come.
Meanwhile high in the sky, the flying aircraft known as the Egg Carrier was slowly making its way towards a designated located. Dr. Eggman sat at the cockpit with a look of anger and determination.
"This is far from over, I will acquire the Flames of Disaster and neither Sonic nor that annoying fox is going to stop me from achieving world domination!"
A misunderstanding has been cleared, and the Princess has been rescued. What truth will Shadow and Silver discover when they time travel back to when all this began? Looks like Eggman isn't out of the race yet, plus what is Mephilles true goal? Our favorite ninja has many paths through all this but the question is which path will he take? We'll find out on the next chapter.
I'm setting up a poll on which boss battle which Naruto should accompany before the true final battle. The end results will decide how the next chapter will go.
This is Hussbek from Ghana.
Signing out.