Adventures of the Orange Flash
Chapter 18: Gone Spelunking for a Dragon
Naruto, Nicole and the Chao were wandering through the forest in a random direction in search of a town or city whilst taking note of the ecology being somewhat similar to theirs back in Earth. Strangely enough, they had been seeing several green helicopters pass over them over every ten minutes.
"I don't know what exactly is going on, but it's as if they're patrolling or something," said Naruto.
"It may seem so, they must be keeping eyes out for anything out of the ordinary from their perspective like us for example," Nicole responded.
"You're right, and speaking of out of the ordinary…" Naruto turned to look behind him "You can come out now, I know that you've been following us for a while now!" then he heard a yelp and a bush nearby rustle, giving away the stalker's position "You don't need to worry, I can sense you're not bad and I promise that we're not harmful to you,"
There was some more rustling from the bushes until someone finally stepped out from it for them to see clearly, she is an young anthropomorphic white furred hound with pumpkin orange hair and two green markings on each of her ears, she wears a grey dress reaching up to her knees, and green and orange bracelets on her wrists and legs. The young hound had her hands close to her face and was fidgeting nervously with her tail twitching every once in a while.
"You don't need to be afraid of us, my name is Naruto," then he gestured to the others "And these are my friends Nicole, Kou and Yoru," said Chao popped over his shoulder and waved in greeting.
"Hello," said Nicole with a smile.
"Um Hi…my name is Milla," said the hound shyly.
Naruto smiled at her "Well it's nice to meet you Milla-chan, so why were you following us? Though I can sense you're a good person?"
"Well I was on my way to meet Mr. Stumpy to talk about a special potion which I was planning to make, when I caught your scent, I've never see you before so I got curious and followed you. So um, what kind of fox are you?" said Milla, she giggled when Naruto sniffed at himself.
"I'm a nine-tailed Kitsune, we're a lot different from regular foxes,"
"Can…can I touch your tails?"
"Huh?" Naruto quirked an eyebrow in confusion at her request, causing Milla to flinch away.
"Oh um…never mind,"
Naruto waved his hands to placate her "No, I was just a little surprised at what you asked. You can touch them, just be careful as they're sensitive," he turned around and remained still, Milla was a bit nervous but she approached and started brushing her hands through the tails, she would giggle whenever one of them would tickle her sides.
"They're so nice and fuzzy!" Milla spoke cheerfully with her tail wagging, Naruto and the others smiled at that "Maybe we can be friends!"
"We would like that," said Nicole, Kou and Yoru flew around Milla while chirping happily.
"I have an idea! Why don't you come with me and then I can introduce you to Mr. Stumpy? I'm sure you'll come to like him!" Milla looked at them excitedly.
"Sure, why not?" Naruto replied much to the young hound's joy.
"Don't forget the reason why we're here in the first place," said Kurama.
"I know Kurama, I'm sure she could give directions to a town afterwards," thought Naruto, then he felt Milla grab his hand and pulled him along with the others following him. They went through the forest to a grassy plain before Milla finally stopped.
"This is where I often play, and over there is my friend Mr. Stumpy!" She pointed ahead for them to see what appears to be an inanimate tree stump with a face drawn "And he's a really good listener!"
"Oh…I see, well it certainly is nice to meet you Stumpy-san," Naruto spoke awkwardly.
"Same here as well," said Nicole.
"…." Stumpy stared back at them.
"Told you he was a good listener!" said Milla happily.
"Uh…yeah, so what's this about a special potion Milla-chan?" asked Naruto in an attempt to change the awkward atmosphere.
"Oh right, I call it my SUPER feather potion and with it, I'll be able to fly really high in the clouds so I can find my mommy and daddy, and we'll all live happily ever after just like in the stories. Doesn't that sound great?!" said Milla joyfully.
Naruto's widened in shock at what she said, though at first mildly confused, he realized what she meant by that. He remembered back when he was a little kid, that he climbed to the top of the Hokage mountain and was there all day. It was then the Third Hokage appeared and asked why he was there and he replied that he climbed up there so that he could find his parents as he believed that he could find them in case they were lost. Back then, his heart couldn't accept the fact that he was…
"An orphan…" he thought sadly, even Kurama was finding it hard to sleep. Both knew how it felt to deny that their loved ones were gone. Naruto simply broke down after hearing of Jiraiya's death and Kurama secluded himself after Hagomoro's death as well. He was about to speak up when he felt the ground shaking much to everyone's confusion.
"What's going on?" asked Milla worriedly.
Naruto traced the source of the minor quake and looked back only for his eyes to widen in surprise "Guys, take cover!" he scooped Milla up into his arms, getting a yelp from her and leapt to the trees with Nicole and the Chao following after them. Down below, they saw a large red truck speeding by with multiple trailers hooked to it and carrying crates of gems which they could sense energy emanating from them "I wonder what's going on for them to be in search a hurry like that?"
"Naruto, look!" said Milla as she pointed, Naruto looked in her direction to see two people in pursuit of the truck, one was running while the other was riding on a red motorcycle.
One is a female anthropomorphic purple dragon with purple twin ponytails with a pair of horns sticking out, she wears a blue outfit with a dark blue belt waist belt, blue gloves with a yellow thong, and blue shoes with bolts of lightning on them, and what appears to be a pair of blue earphones. As she ran, the other is a female anthropomorphic wildcat with green fur in two ones, as she wears a black tank top with a red scarf tied around her neck and leaving her midriff exposed, dark green shorts with a yellow thong, and green and black combat boots.
"Naruto, there must be something rather serious for those two to be pursuing the truck," said Nicole.
"I was thinking the same thing Nicole-chan, let's go after them and find out," Naruto jumped back to the ground and got ready to run with Nicole activating her data wings to fly alongside him when Milla spoke up.
"I want to come too!" said the young hound.
"I'm not sure, things might be dangerous if you don't know how to protect yourself," said Naruto worriedly.
"Yes I can, look…," Milla held her hands out before her and concentrated to form a green semi-circular shield of energy which then burst out at a short range "See?"
"Okay then, you can come along but stay close to us okay?"
"Okay, plus I've always wanted to meet a dragon!" said Milla excitedly, then the trio went in the direction of where the others went.
The group found themselves before what appears to be the ruins of an ancient temple, Naruto activated his Aura Sight and stared at the ground to see tires tracks of the motorcycle and truck as well as the footprints of the dragon girl, though the truck's went in a different direction so he decided to go after the duo.
"Let's go this way!" said Naruto.
"Okay/Chao/Choa!" the rest responded.
Music Start: Freedom Planet OST; Relic Maze 1
they started off by jumping down several levels of the ground before jumping up to a ledge to get to an upper level, there they encountered what appeared to be a pair of purple/gray robots with a spring for legs which they used to bounce towards, Naruto and the others took a stance in preparation for any response which they got when the compartments of the robots opened up and launched several orange shells at them. Milla quickly stood in front of them and used her reflection shield to deflect the shells, once the shield went down, Naruto and Nicole dashed towards their targets.
Flames ignited in Naruto's fist which he reared back "Pyro Punch!" he lashed out to smash the robot into pieces, he flexed his hands with a smirk on his face.
Nicole darted left and right to avoid the shells coming her way until she was right in front of the robot where she placed her hand on it "Data Drain!" suddenly blue particles of data started flowing out of the robot and into her hand before tipping over and falling to the ground "Intel acquired,"
They moved on ahead till they came across a bounce pad which they used to ascend to an upper ledge, Naruto saw a circular switch on the wall which was covered in a golden aura, signaling it was something important. He pushed it then they heard rumbling and turned around to see a stone platform rise from the ground to a level higher than the one they're standing on. They jumped up to the platform and leapt off it to climb up a rope ladder to a higher platform, next the group crossed a wide gap to the other side with Naruto using chakra to enhance his jump, Nicole using her data wings and Milla mildly floating in the air with her psychic energy.
At the other side, they encountered some sort of slug like creature with one eye and blue markings on its sides.
"Watch out for the energy balls it releases from its body!" Nicole called out, not sooner she said that did the creature expel several small blue energy balls which it launched at them.
"Wind Spinjitzu!" Naruto dashed forward while spinning horizontally to form a small tornado around himself, the energy projectiles were knocked out of the way before he slammed into the slug, sending it away to who knows where but away from them "That was a bit close, how did you know that it would attack that way Nicole-chan?"
"When I drained the data from that robot which is called a hopper, I extracted information from its CPU to learn more about this planet," said Nicole, much to Milla's confusion.
"That's good to hear, but for now let's focus on catching up with those two girls," said Naruto,
Then jumped to an upper platform and used a bounce pad to reach the top and narrowly avoid a row of spikes there. The group then stepped on a conveyor platform which moved along a U-shaped rail to carry them to another platform for a slug to appear and attack them. Naruto formed a Foxfire ball and threw it to burn it up before continuing on their way. They jumped along several more platforms and used another conveyor platform to get across, then were attacked by another group of hoppers. Nicole stepped up with both palms aimed at them and fired a continuous stream of pixelated projectiles, causing the machines to go haywire and then exploding. The gang moved along to a dead-end and stepped on a brown platform which suddenly rotated but they jumped back and watched as it crumbled to reveal a pathway before. Naruto and the other descended and went through it. Suddenly globs of lava from stone spouts built into the walls of the ruins were launched at them.
Naruto felt his Star ball emit a sea blue aura as his water aspect became active, a ring of water swirled around his feet "Water Whip!" a thin stream rose to which he grabbed and lashed out at the lava globs to destroy them before going for the stone spouts and destroying them as well. They barely took a few more steps after that when a large yellow mole-like robot landed before and started digging the ground with its drill-like nostrils to launch small rocks at them like projectiles. Kou flew forward to activate its shield to block the rocks until the robot stopped digging which was when Yoru flew at it with its jaws wide open and bit off the drill before looking back at the others with a toothy grin.
"Wow, it has some strong teeth," said Milla.
"I'm already losing count of the number of things Yoru could bite off," said Naruto with the Chao sitting back on his shoulders, he resumed the lead until they found themselves standing before a blockade made of pillars with half colored purple and the other yellow. Naruto could see the trial going through the blockade but saw fainter ones going up and down which he was able to figure what it meant "I think there are two locks to open the blockade. I'll go to the one above while you and Milla go for the one below,"
"Okay Naruto," said Nicole as she received the S.A.C, then Naruto climbed to the upper platform to pass through a doorway with a purple marking above while Nicole and Milla descended to go through another doorway with a yellow marking.
Naruto come out to dash through a downward loop and running a short distance then moving up a ramped wall to take to the air and land on a higher platform. More stone spouts emerged from the wall and fired lava globs at him. His Star ball emitted a bronze aura "Earth Cannon!" Naruto stomped on the ground hard for several large rocks to rise before launching them at the spouts and plugging them up. He heard a fluttering sound from above and darted to the side to see a tan bat-like creature swooping past him with its fangs bared to bite him, the ninjato Hazy-Moon flew into his hand as he swiftly drew out to slice the bat into two and sheathed it to allow the blade to return to his back. He found another one of the rotating platforms and stomped on it to rotate before crumbling to reveal a passageway below for him to jump down and follow the trail to a switch in the wall, he pushed it and felt the ground shake as if something was shifting before it stopped. He dropped down further to run through a downward and land close to a bounce pad. Naruto tracked the glowing trail to climb up a rope ladder to a switch that he pushed.
"Guess that's the switch to one part of the blockade, time to head back then," Naruto saw a horizontal bar descend and quickly jumped to grab on as it rose to a pathway above, he exited the underground and was dashing up and down the rolling hills till he reached a tall wall. Naruto turned around to see yet another platform and pointed one of his E.C.G X gloves to fire a grappling hook made of chakra then pulled himself up to it. He was advancing when he came upon a large heaps of stone blocks covered with green moss, suddenly one of the blocks opened up to reveal a purple eye made out of a gem as it rose to the air with the other blocks forming two legs for it.
The golem raised one of its legs and tried to step on Naruto but he evaded with a backflip and dashed from side to side when it followed up with a salvo of purple energy projectiles from its eye. Naruto took out his Hirashin kunai and flung it above the golem's head before warping towards it in a yellow flash with a Rasengan in hand "Flying Raijin: Level 2!" He rammed the jutsu into the head, grinding it into pieces with the rest falling to the floor "Now to head back to the others," Naruto backtracked to the doorway which he first came through to rendezvous with the others.
Elsewhere, Nicole and Milla had exited from the doorway and jumped to grab onto a roped bar which lowered them to a lower level underneath the ruined temple. They jumped off and pulled on another one to make large slabs of stone to rise and grant them passage but the room got darker as the duo descended so Nicole lit up the way for them to see more clearly before stopping before a large pit where they saw a large spiked ball rolling around.
"Where do we go now to find the switch?" asked Milla worriedly.
Nicole looked around for clues until looking up to see two roped bars hanging over the pit "Up there, those might take us somewhere closer to the switch!"
"Okay,"
The duo used their individual abilities to ascend to the bars which lifted them up to an upper platform, they continued to the end of the passageway and descended to the lower level via a roped bar opening the passageway further. Milla curled up into a ball with Nicole shrinking to pass through a narrow curved tunnel to the bottom, they found a switch to press which caused the tunnel to rotate several degrees. Milla used a bounce pad to go through and press another switch to make it rotate again, then again passing through to another room where she pressed a third which caused the room to light up and for the tunnel to rotate yet again. Nicole and Milla quickly made their way back to where they had come from and went through the doorway as they returned to find the blockade gone with Naruto there waiting for them.
"The blockade's gone, now we can move forward," said Naruto, getting nods of affirmation from Nicole and Milla. They went inside to find themselves in a chamber where there is an empty pedestal in the center but there were massive heaps of stones as a result of a cave-in "Looks like we've been blocked off from here, we'll need to find another way to find them,"
Nearby Milla was sniffing around the area near the empty pedestal then started digging before the ground broke inwardly to reveal a deep hole, then she called out to Naruto and Nicole "Hey guys, I found a way through here!" the rest came over and looked down at the hole with her.
"This could lead to where those two went, good job Milla-chan!" said Naruto with a smile, getting Milla to wag her tail happily. They all into the hole and fell a fair distance for a few moments before landing at the bottom. The group noticed that they were standing on a railroad and nearby is a mine cart "Hey we can use this to our advantage,"
Naruto moved to one side of the cart with Milla at the other then they began moving the levers up and down for the Mine cart to start moving and slowly pick up speed along the rails, the tracks sloped downwards for the cart to accelerate rapidly and smashed through a long row of spikes before quickly ascending to a level ground, there they reached a wall and hit a switch which changed the track lanes to down in a new direction as they went along the rolling hills to reach another and activate yet another switch to change directions. After riding the mine cart for a couple more minutes, the group finally reached the end of the tracks to a pathway, they got off and went through to descend down a hole and landed at the bottom where they found themselves in an underground cave full of multicolored crystals
Music Change: Freedom Planet OST; Relic Maze 2
Naruto reactivated his Aura Sight and looked around, then he saw the yellow trail once again "They've been through here, so we're back on track,"
"Then it's best we keep moving," said Nicole, getting nods of affirmation from the rest.
Naruto led the others down the slope and climbed up a rope ladder to the top but quickly had to watch out for a large mechanical pickaxe which was digging for crystals, they bypassed it and used a bounce pad to ascend to a higher level. There more of the bats approached to attack, Milla formed a phantom block and threw it at one of the bats to take it out, Naruto formed two chakra kunai and threw them to pin the bat to the ceiling by the wings then flung a third to destroy it. They dashed up and down the slopes then ran up a ramped wall to reach the top. A slug was there to attack them with its energy balls, Naruto created a handful of chakra shuriken and used them to deflect the incoming projectiles, and Nicole stepped up and used her Digital Torrent to blast it away from them. The group moved along and saw a large purple crystal shifting up and down which they used to their advantage and climbed to the upper level and pass through a passageway into the next.
Upon exiting the passageway, a large brown spiked shell rolled by them and was smashing through the cavern walls much to their surprise.
"We better watch our steps here, things have gotten a bit more dangerous," said Naruto.
"My scanners are picking multiple machineries up ahead, we must be cautious," said Nicole before swiping away a holographic which she had projected.
"Okay," said Milla.
They moved on ahead and suddenly heard and looked up only to jump backwards when a large red drilling machine fell from above and had almost hit them, they continued whilst avoiding more of the drilling machines falling from the ceilings and ran up a slope then hitting a diagonal bounce pad to ascend to a higher platform then descend a rope ladder, there they pulled a roped bar to open up a descending passageway for them to pass through. Something rushed out towards them, a small red/yellow/gray tank with a cannon. The tank launched a flamethrower at the group, Milla quickly used her Reflection shield to block the flames, Naruto's Star Ball now radiated a red aura as he inhaled the flames into his mouth "Dragon Breath!" he opened his mouth to unleash a large blast of fire to destroy the tank. Apparently, it was guarding a passage which they traversed through to the other side where there is a large stone gate with a switch nearby which they activated for the gate to open and then close once passed through.
Naruto and the others found themselves in a chamber where again there were two blockades to impede their way. Down below are two doorways positioned opposite to each other, obviously leading to where the switches to opening the blockades are.
"Guess we better split up to find the switches for these too," said Naruto.
"Then Nicole and I will go this way while you go the other way," said Milla.
"Okay then, I'm going in,"
They dropped down to the lower floor with Naruto taking the left doorway with Milla and Nicole going through the right. Naruto arrived in the room and began making his descent all the while destroying Fire Spitters which would attack him easily thanks to his fire aspect granting him immunity to fiery attacks and such. He reached the bottom to a destroyed library to see a green diamond placed on a small silver pedestal, Naruto saw a switch and pushed it for a beam of light to shine from above on the diamond which caused the entire room to light up. However he felt a rumble and look down to see a long row of spikes rising from the ground.
"Uh-oh, I better get out of here!" Naruto started running back up the room with the spikes rising after him, he channeled chakra to his to latch on to the walls as he ran to pull away from the rising trap and used a bounce pad for a quick elevation to the upper platform and finally made it to the doorway much to his relief.
With Milla and Nicole, they entered a ruined library and were walking to the other end where they found the doorway locked and were thinking of a way to go through, suddenly they heard rattling from behind and turned to see ruby hovering in the air as bones converged upon it before taking on the form of skeletal four eyed emu with the ruby in its ribcage. The skeletal bird went towards and attempted to peck at them, but the girls leapt out of the way barely avoiding the shockwaves in the wake of its attack.
"Aim for the ruby, that's its power source!" said Nicole before taking to the air with her digital wings and was gliding from side to side to find an opening for an attack.
"Okay!" Milla jumped back from an attack then formed a Phantom block which she positioned in front "Super Shield Burst!" she launched a longer and more powerful blast which broke part of the ribcage and damaged the ruby. Nicole moved into position and took a shot with a Digital Torrent through the gap to land a direct hit on the ruby, causing cracks to appear on it before quickly backing away to avoid another peck attack from the skeletal bird. Milla conjured another Phantom block and waited for the skeletal bird to attack then she leapt into the air and took aim before using her Super Shield Burst again with the recoil pushing her back in midair however the attack made contact with the ruby, this time shattering it into pieces. Without it, the skeletal bird collapsed into a heap of bones "We did it!"
"You did great Milla," said Nicole with a smile while Milla wagged her tail happily, they heard a rumbling sound and looked to see the blockade move aside for them to pass through into the final section of the room to find a red diamond atop a small silver pedestal. Nicole found a switch and activated for a beam of light to shine from the ceiling on the diamond which caused the entire room to light up "Let's head back to meet up with Naruto," they returned through the doorway to find Naruto already there waiting for them like before with the blockade gone for them to pass through.
"Glad to see you're back, the trail is getting stronger so they must be close by," said Naruto, he led them through the passage and ran into a dead-end, however Naruto saw through it and used a Rasengan to clear the rubble to continue on their way. Soon enough, the group found themselves going along a stone bridge in a large chamber about the size of an amphitheater, at the center is yet another pedestal but only more regal than the ones they saw before.
"Naruto, I'm picking up traces of energy from the pedestal. Whatever the source was has been recently moved from here," said Nicole.
"Then those girls would have the answer to that," said Naruto.
Milla sniffed the ground for a few moments before speaking "I'm picking up their scent, they're that way!" she pointed straight ahead of them, then suddenly they heard a loud roar and the cavern shook "What's that?"
"I don't know but we better check it out, come on!" Naruto ran along the stone bridge with the others close behind, then he noticed pieces of stone were falling from the ceiling and looked up for his eyes to widen in surprise before shouting out to Nicole and Milla "Girls get back, something's coming down!"
At first confused, the girls quickly complied and jumped away moments before something indeed did descend from above and stood in their way much to their shock. It appeared to be a huge and bulky grey praying mantis only that it has two legs instead of six with large yellow crystals for eyes, the segments linking to the blades seem to be embed with red gems. The large creature let out a loud roar upon setting its sights on the group before it and made to approach them.
"I don't think it's friendly," said Milla a bit timidly.
"I detecting energy emanating from the gems on it, they must be its power sources," said Nicole after scanning the creature's structure.
"True that, and it doesn't intend to let us leave here alive either. We'll need to take it down if we need to get out of the cave, so get ready," Naruto placed the headphones on his ears and started tapping on the interface to scroll through a playlist then playing a track before taking a combat stance "Let's get this dance fight started!"
Music Change: Fall Out Boy; The Phoenix
The monster let out a roar before swinging one of its blades at the group, Nicole and Milla jumped out of the way while Naruto slid under the blade then slammed his feet hard on the ground to launch himself into the air with his arms covered in foxfire "Dual Foxfire shot!" he fired two azure fireballs at the enemy, however it quickly leapt out of the way to avoid them.
"It's faster than it looks, better aim more accurately," Naruto mused to himself, he looked up to see the monster lunge at him with a double overhead slash to which he had Hazy-Moon float to his hand and quickly unsheathed the blade to clash with one of its own as sparks flew between the two, he allowed himself be thrown back from the force and skid on the ground upon landing. Naruto switched to his fire aspect and held out his hand for flames to appear and then take on the form of a spinning shuriken "Flaming Shuriken!" then he dashed forward as he darted to the left to avoid a diagonal slash before jumping into the air to dodge the follow-up, he took aim and threw the fiery shuriken at one of the eyes only for it to bounce off upon contact much to Naruto's surprise.
Nicole had been keeping a safe distance to scan the creature and referred to the recently acquired Intel before calling out to the others "Naruto! Milla! That creature is called a Mantalith, the eyes are its weak point but the red gems on its arms shield them so you need to take out the arms first before going for the eyes!"
"Okay!" Milla waited for a moment for the Mantalith to attack before dashing out of range by running on all fours then conjuring a Phantom Block and perform a Super Shield Burst to strike the left one then quickly backed away from a retaliatory strike. Milla conjured another Phantom Block and lobbed it at the left arm again, successfully separating it from the main body.
The Mantalith roared in anger and charged at Milla with its right arm blade raised to slash at her then a chakra construct of a rope came from behind and wrapped around the blade to hold it back. The rope was coming from a shadow clone of Naruto which was anchoring itself to the ground while the original dashed in with his ninjato drawn, he flew past with a flash of the blade then landing on the ground as the arm blade fell apart. The Mantalith's eyes turned red as it charged at them with its jaws snapping to bite the duo, Nicole swooped down from above and used her Digital Torrent to blast at one of the eyes. The beast shrieked in pain then leapt high into the air with the arm blades floating up after it before landing back on the ground fully reassembled.
"Guess it will keep doing that until the eyes are completely destroyed," said Naruto.
"Apparently so, heads up it's attacking again!" said Kurama.
Naruto snapped back to attention and saw the Mantalith began jumping around and digging its blades into the ground, causing small stones to fly at them in the form of projectiles, Milla used her Reflection Shield to defend against them Naruto summoned his Star Ball from his body and had switch to his wind aspect which it summoned a gale to swirl around, knocking the rock projectiles away from him. He then reared a leg back and kicked the Star Ball with a curve shot as the swirling wind blew through the right arm blade to detach it before then flying back into his body.
Before the Mantalith could retaliate, two blasts of green energy and data were shot from behind and detached the left arm. Milla and Nicole launched their attacks once but this time Mantalith was aware and leapt high to avoid the incoming attacks. Something whizzed above its head then there was a yellow flash to reveal Naruto with a Rasengan in hand "Flying Raijin: Level 2!" he rammed the jutsu into the left eye, destroying it as the creature roared out in pain and leapt high into the air with the arm blades following to reassemble once more before landing back on the ground.
"Time to wrap this up, we can't afford to waste any more time here," Naruto then called out to the others "Nicole-chan! Milla-chan! Get ready to unleash your attacks on the last eye, once I take down the arm blades!" seeing them nodding affirmation, Naruto reached into his ninja pouch and took out a small stack of paper tags before dashing straight at the Mantalith. Said creature began to run berserk as it started jumping around randomly again while swinging its arm blades and this time it was launching spinning crescent wave projectiles at him, Naruto darted from left to right consecutively then leapt high to land on the flat side of an arm blade. Mantalith waved its arm wildly to throw the Kitsune off but he held on with use of his chakra and began sticking the seal tags on the arm blade. Naruto looked up to see the other arm blade heading right for him, he quickly arced backwards for it to swoop overhead and barely nick a lock of his spiky hair then grabbed on to it and proceeded to place seal tags on it as well.
Naruto placed the last of the seal tags then cut off the chakra on his feet to be thrown back as he landed on the ground and skidded backwards to a stop, the orange Kitsune smirked before forming a handsign "Like a certain Teme back in my world used to say, Art…is an explosion!" he triggered the tags to ignite before exploding to destroy the arms "Now take the shot!" Milla stepped up with a phantom block in front of her while Nicole held her hands together with data swirling in between them.
"Digital Torrent!"
"Super Shield Burst!"
Both attacks surged forward and struck the right eye, destroying it which in turn resulted in the Mantalith exploding into many pieces and falling over into the abyss below with a loud boom to signify its defeat to the so-called 'intruders'.
Music End
Naruto approached Milla and Nicole with a smile on his face "Way to go you two, that's was awesome!" Nicole smiled shyly while Milla beamed brightly with her tail wagging "Now that it's gone, we can-," suddenly the ground began to quake with rocks and crystals falling down from the ceiling.
"Our battle must have caused the cavern to lose stability and is beginning to collapse!" said Nicole.
"Then we better get outta here!" Naruto ran off along the stone bridge with Milla and Nicole into the next passageway, they had to dodge the falling debris with Naruto using chakra enhanced punches to smash through the rocks but then switched to the Rasengan for the crystals should they obstruct the path. Milla looked to the side and her eyes widened in surprise before breaking away from the group much to their surprise "Milla-chan, where are you going?!" Naruto turned around and made to run after her when rocks and crystals fell in between, blocking their path "Milla-chan!"
On the ground's surface, the purple dragon girl could be seen running and looking around the area in a panic "Carol! Carol where are you?!" she was steadily falling into despair as she continued to call out for her friend.
"I'm over here!" a voice called from behind, she turned around much to her joy to see that it came from her catgirl friend to whom she quickly ran over to "You made it out!"
"Your ear!" the dragon girl looked at said appendage with worry.
"It's just a scratch Lilac, no need to worry about it," said Carol.
"Well we better find Torque and get home so I can patch you up," said Lilac, the duo then ran off, unaware of a bush rustling nearby.
After several minutes of walking, Carol decided to speak up about something relating to what they had encountered back in the cave "This kinda sucks, how are we gonna get more money?
"We'll think of something, what I really want to know is why Spade is working for Mayor Zao," said Lilac thoughtfully.
"Butt loads of cash?" Carol winked at her best friend with a toothy grin.
"Well, Zao might know something about the assassination…but that still doesn't explain what he needs the stone for," Lilac looked towards the setting sun with worry "I have a bad feeling about all this…," Carol's ear twitched and she turned to stared at something which caught Lilac's attention "What is it Carol?"
"Someone's following us…," said Carol staring at a particular bush.
"What do you mean?" asked Lilac with a quirk of an eyebrow. Carol quietly approached the bush and crouched low ready to pounce…
"Milla-chan!" a male voice suddenly called out, much to the duo's confusion.
Lilac looked at Carol in wonderment "'Milla-chan'? Who's that?" no sooner she asked that did the bush rustle then something or rather someone ran out of it for them to see that it was a young female white basset hound as she went in the direction of the voice. Soon they saw her run to hide behind an orange fox with nine tails with a lynx standing next to him and two strange looking creatures flying around them.
The fox smiled at the hound with a look of relief "We finally found you! You had us so worried when you broke away from us in the cave!"
"Sorry Naruto, I saw one of them in trouble and wanted to help," said the hound, poking her head out from behind him.
Carol's eyes widened at what she just said "Hang on, you're the one with the shield who pulled out of the cave!"
"I'm really grateful for what you did, my name is Lilac and this is my best friend Carol," said Lilac with a smile.
"Hiya! And uh sorry about almost pouncing on ya," said Carol with a wide grin.
"Well my name is Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, she's Nicole and they're Kou and Yoru the Chao, and our heroine here is Milla-chan," said Naruto with a foxy grin.
"He's rather friendly and upbeat, he and Carol would get along pretty well," thought Lilac.
"What a hunk," thought Carol.
Milla shyly poked her head out from behind Naruto to stare at Lilac "Um…are you a dragon?"
Lilac nodded in affirmation "Yeah,"
"Can I, can I touch your hair?" asked Milla.
"Huh?" Lilac quirked an eyebrow at the question.
Milla went back into hiding behind Naruto and wrapping herself in his tails "Oh…never mind,"
"Milla-chan's kinda shy around people but she really wanted to meet you," said Naruto.
"Oh it's okay, I was just a little surprised is all. She can go ahead," Lilac turned around for Milla to approach "I promise I won't hurt you,"
Milla still felt unsure and looked up to Naruto for him to smile at her then nodded for her to go ahead while using his tails to gently prod her forward, the young hound gently touched one of the twin ponytails then gained the courage to feel them more.
"They're like ropes!" Milla giggled happily.
Lilac simply smiled at her innocence "Yeah,"
"Maybe we can be friends too, like with Naruto and the others!"
"Sure that would be great,"
"So what were you guys doing in the cave?" asked Carol.
"We were talking when we saw a red truck zoom by with you pursuing it so we became curious and decided to follow afterwards," said Nicole, earlier she saw how the duo were looking at Naruto and was a bit put off from as if she didn't how they were staring at the Kitsune.
"Then we got attacked by that Mantalith back at the cave and had to hightail out of there when it started to collapse," Naruto continued.
"You fought a Mantalith? We were also fighting one too in the cave," said Lilac looking surprised.
"Yeah, you guys must be pretty strong," said Carol.
"Naruto is super strong!" said Milla with her hands in the air as if saying 'Banzai'.
"Hey I have an idea, how you all come over to our secret hideout," said Lilac, Carol was rather surprised.
"Really?" Milla's eyes sparkled with excitement.
"Yeah, no one knows of it except us,"
"That sounds like fun! Can we go Naruto?" Milla turned to the fox, hoping that he'll say yes.
"Sure we can, plus it's getting kinda late too," Naruto smiled when she hugged him happily "Well then, lead the way.
A while later, Naruto and the others were led into a forested part of a valley which Lilac identifies to them as Dragon Valley. Soon they arrived at a tree house which Naruto had to admit was very well-built and a tent which was put up nearby.
"Welcome to our tree house, it's our secret base," said Lilac with a smile.
"Built it ourselves," Carol spoke with pride.
"That's pretty cool, I gotta admit," said Naruto admiring the tree house.
The tent flap opened up and someone come out, though his appearance pretty much confused Naruto and the others to say the least, he is a green skinned humanoid with a duck bill and a tortoise shell while wearing goggles on his forehead, brown gloves, and tan and back boots.
"Certainly isn't a platypus, that for sure," thought Naruto, getting a grunt of agreement from Kurama.
"Hey there, I see you're back and also brought along some company," said the being.
"Yeah, one of them really helped us out," Lilac turned towards the others "This is my friend Torque, he's a shell duck if you're wondering about what he is,"
"Thanks for the heads-up, Lilac-chan and my name is…" Naruto introduced himself and the rest to Torque who looked surprised to see the Chao and tried to hide it, but it wasn't missed by Naruto "He must be familiar with the Chao, which he didn't come from this planet,"
"So what happened?" asked Torque.
"Well Carol and I went to the ancient temple to tell them about your warning that Mayor Zao would be sending troops in disguise to steal the Kingdom Stone, but they refused to listen to us. That was when Mayor Zao's soldiers showed up," said Lilac.
"We were able to stop the truck and went inside the cave only to find one of our 'old friend' Spade stealing the Kingdom Stone and got away, leaving us to fight a giant bug. I almost got splattered if not for Milla saving me when the cave collapsed," Carol followed after.
"I guess that's what happened, but what exactly is the Kingdom Stone?" asked Naruto curiously.
Lilac looked at him in disbelief "You mean you don't know about the Kingdom Stone?" Naruto simply shook his head to her question "Well the Kingdom Stone is a crystal orb which serves as a valuable power source for the three kingdoms of Avalice for many centuries,"
"I certainly sensed traces of energy back in the cave when Kingdom Stone was initially," said Nicole.
"This must be related to why we're sent here, don't you think so Kurama?" thought Naruto.
"Well its mere existence isn't to be ignored, quite similar to how that Haido fervently pursued the power of the Stone of Gelel," said Kurama.
"Yeah, we should stick with them to find out more about this," Naruto snapped back into focus when he noticed that Lilac was calling out to him "Sorry, what were you asking?"
"I was asking if you wanted to hang out with Carol and I in our tree house? Torque said that he'll be busy repairing his gadgets," asked Lilac.
"Maybe Nicole-chan and the others can, I want to do a little training before I'll come over," said Naruto.
"Training?" Lilac quirked an eyebrow at that.
"Yeah, just want to perfect a few techniques which I was practicing with before all this happened. I won't be that long though,"
"Ok Naruto, we'll see you later then. I'm sure we girls will have a lot to do," Lilac responded with a smile.
"I'm booorrred," Carol whined as she laid on the floor with Yoru next to her and nodding in agreement to the wildcat. Kou sat on top of Milla's head feeling the same while Nicole and Lilac sat on separate couches with the whole room being as quiet as a mouse.
"How about a movie?" Lilac suggested.
Milla perked up at that "Sure!"
"Sounds like fun," Nicole was in agreement.
"So what kind of movies do you like Milla?" Lilac walked over to the shelf to pick out a movie.
"I like being surprised!" Milla was excited to watch with the others, Kou chirped in agreement with her.
Minutes later, they were all watching an action movie on the TV with Milla and the Chao sitting up close to it while Carol was munching on a bag of chips and Lilac and Carol still sitting on the couches.
"Hey Lilac?" asked Carol, the dragon girl turned to her "How come Torque doesn't wanna to hang out with us?"
"He said he had some work to do," Lilac replied.
Carol shrugged her shoulders "Ehh, he's probably just scared of getting cooties," everyone laughed out loud at that notion "Although I'm kinda curious of what techniques Naruto would be working on,"
Milla jumped up excitedly "Naruto is amazing! He could shoot red fire and blue fire, control rocks, he's super-fast and I even saw him use some sort of blue spinning ball to beat the bad guys!"
"I never knew he could do that, did you Nicole?" said Lilac.
"Naruto is a Kitsune and they're said to be able to influence and control several elements around them. Naruto is still training to fully master them in due time," said Nicole.
"A random question here, do any of you think Naruto is a hunk?" asked Carol mischievously, if Lilac was drinking something, she would have spat it out at the question with Milla and Nicole feeling awkward.
"W-what kind of question is that Carol?!" Lilac asked the wildcat.
"Oh come on Lilac, surely I wasn't the only one that thought Naruto was handsome when we first saw him?" Carol smirked at how Lilac looked away with pink tinges on her cheeks, same could be said for Milla aside from the fact that Naruto was very nice and caring to her. Nicole looked anywhere but at them, recalling how Naruto said that he would always be there for her and when he embraced her…it was all too much that she converted into data and retreated to the S.A.C.
"Nicole, what happened?" Lilac was surprised to see Nicole disappear into the gear despite being informed of what she is.
[What Carol said made me feel a little embarrassed] Nicole replied.
Carol rubbed the back of her head sheepishly "Sorry about that, it was just a curious question," Lilac simply sighed at her best friend's usual antics.
Back with Naruto, he had been practicing some of the techniques based on his fire, water and air aspects which so far he has been making progress thanks to his shadow clones cutting the time. He had also been talking to Kurama concerning the Kingdom Stone and its possible relation to the mission Tikal requested of them with the Kurama stating the possibilities being very high at that.
"I think by now, they're done with the movie from what Nicole-chan texted to me about. Well I better…huh?" he looked ahead to see Carol and Lilac climb down the ladder from their tree house and went into Torque's tent in a hurry "I wonder what's going on? Think I'll have a look see," he headed on over and was just at the entrance
"Torque?!" Lilac's voice sounded out in shock.
"It's not what it looks like!" Torque's panicked voice was heard next.
"What are you?! Give us answers buddy!" Carol's voice toned in seriousness.
Naruto went inside to look past Carol and Lilac only to be surprised when he set his sights upon Torque as he doesn't have his shell and duck bill on him anymore "Torque, is that what you really look like? What's going on here?"
"Okay okay I'll tell you, but you have to promise to keep it to yourselves," said Torque.
In that case, one more listener wouldn't make much difference," Naruto bit his thumb to draw blood and weaved through a set of handsigns before slamming a palm on the other "Summoning jutsu!" there was a puff of smoke which faded away to reveal the S.A.C in hand. Nicole emerged from it and was confused as she looked around and was surprised to see Torque's new appearance.
"Naruto, what's going on?" asked Nicole.
"I think we're about to find out," Naruto replied.
"Alright…take a seat, it's going to take a while," said Torque, once everyone were seated he spoke up "I'm from another world, actually I'm part of an alliance between many different worlds. We're called Chasers,"
"So you're an alien then?" asked Lilac.
"Pretty much, yeah,"
"Space cooties," Carol spoke jokingly, causing Lilac and Nicole to chuckle a bit
"You don't believe me," said Torque.
"Actually I do, they say that a long time ago, dragons came to Avalice and mixed with our ancestors," Lilac explained.
"And not just ones like Lilac. Huge ones, like in the movies!" said Carol excitedly.
"So I guess it's not much of a stretch for other things to be out there too,"
"I see…" Torque spoke thoughtfully.
"That pretty much puts us in the same boat since Nicole-chan and I are not from around here either," said Naruto.
Carol looked at Naruto in surprise "You mean you're from another world too? Looks like our planet is pretty popular. So what bring you all here?"
"Aside from Naruto, Nicole and the Chao, the man that wants your Kingdom Stone isn't from around here either. He calls himself Lord Brevon," said Torque.
Lilac quirked an eyebrow at that "Lord?"
"Well he didn't get that name selling cookies, he's dangerous with a capital D," said Torque with anger in his eyes.
"Could you tell us more about this enemy?" asked Nicole.
"Brevon is the most powerful enemy we've ever faced. Hundreds of worlds destroyed, thousands of heroes killed or corrupted, enormous amounts of weapon energy stolen…and that's just the tip of the iceberg. According to our scans, the Kingdom Stone has enough energy to double the size of his army. If he gets it…he'll be unstoppable,"
Naruto then spoke up "That pretty much ties to why we here then,"
"What do you mean?" asked Lilac.
"A spirit called out to me in my dreams, telling of a land which was calling out for help from something or rather someone that intends to hurt anyone in its quest for power. It's clear that we have to help stop Brevon from acquiring the Kingdom Stone or it's theft will result in a serious crisis if I'm not wrong," said Naruto.
"So you're here to kick some alien butt out of our planet?" asked Carol.
Naruto shrugged his shoulders "That's pretty much the gist of it,"
"I'll try and convince your leaders of his existence, but if I can't get them to help me…if Brevon gets his hands on the Kingdom Stone…then I'll have no choice. I'll have to destroy it," said Torque much to the shock of everyone listening.
"Destroy it?! You can't be serious!" Lilac yelled in protest.
"I'll only destroy it if I have no other choice. I swore to my captain on his dying breath that I would not let Brevon get that stone!"
"I'm sorry about your captain, but…you can't destroy it! In fact, you won't have to even think about it, because I'm going to help you bring it back!" Lilac stood in front of Torque with determination "I don't care how dangerous it is! It's gonna take a lot more than robots and aliens to slow a dragon down!"
Carol stood next to Lilac "If she's gonna go for it, then I am too! If we can beat up a giant praying mantis thing together, then who knows what else we can do?"
Naruto laughed as he stood up from his seat with Nicole next to him "Ain't no way you're leaving us out of this, after all we came here to help out," he glanced over his shoulder "Milla-chan, no need for you to hide you know?"
Said hound bashfully poked her head out from behind one of Torque's worktables "Um…I wanna come too. I want to help!"
"Like we were ever going to say no," Naruto smirked in reply, much to Milla's joy.
"I guess we could let you save Carol's life a few more times," Lilac said playfully.
"Hey…," Carol turned away with a pout.
"So you're all going to help me?" asked Torque.
Naruto grinned at the alien "Face it Torque, you're going to be stuck with us until the mission is successfully completed,"
"That's right, Team Lilac's got your back!" everyone stared at Carol for her rather questionable naming of the team "We'll talk about the name later, okay?"
"I'd be lying if I say I was comfortable with this, but…I honestly could use your help. Three of you know this world better than I do," said Torque with relent.
"Then it's official, we're on a mission!" said Naruto with excitement with Torque nodding in affirmation.
"But you must remember that no word of the mission should be said without my saying so, we'll never know if any of Brevon's would be listening in,"
Lilac nodded in affirmation "We understand," getting others to agree as well.
Carol then let out a loud yawn "I don't know about you guys, but I'm exhausted,"
"Yeah, we better get some shuteye. We have a big day ahead of us,"
"I'll see you ladies in the morning then," Naruto waved at them as they left for the tree house with him and Lilac being the last two when Torque called out to them.
"Naruto, Lilac…" the duo turned to him "…Thank you," Lilac smiled and Naruto did a thumbs-up before they left with Naruto choosing to sleep in the living room for the night.
This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, upon arrival on the planet Avalice, Naruto and Nicole befriended Milla a young hound and they followed after a mysterious duo that were pursuing a truck which took them underground and got separated during the cave-in. Reuniting, they met the duo Lilac the dragon and Carol the wildcat who later on introduced them to a friend by the name Torque the 'Shell Duck'. It was later on that they discovered that Torque was actually an alien who was sent to stop an alien warlord from stealing the planet's only vital source of energy, the Kingdom Stone which relates to Naruto's mission as well…so now everyone is gathering together to help retrieve the Kingdom Stone before it is too late.
This is Hussbek from Ghana
Signing out.