Adventures of the Orange Flash
Chapter 19: The Hunt is On!
It is a beautiful morning as the sun rises to the sky and shines its ray over the Dragon Valley in the planet Avalice. Lilac was in the tree house getting herself ready in her bedroom with Carol being the feline she is still asleep in her bed when she suddenly heard the telephone in the living and quickly ran over to answer it.
"Hello, this is Lilac speaking," said Lilac as she held the receiver to her ear.
[Hello…uh, this is General Gong] a deep voice awkwardly responded through the phone.
Lilac was mildly surprised for a moment before she spoke "Oh General Gong, is there anything I can do for you?"
[Actually there is…] the General proceeded to explain what's going on to Lilac [So we'll be waiting for you at the north side]
"Ok then, we'll meet you there," Lilac placed the receiver back on the telephone then turned to walk back to the bedroom, however she seemed to have noticed that something or rather someone was missing, Lilac looked at the couch and saw that Naruto wasn't sleeping on it "I wonder where he is? Must have gone to see Torque with Nicole," she walked back into the bedroom and called out to a sleeping Carol "Up and at 'em, we've got adventuring to do!"
Carol groaned a bit and rolled over on her bed "…five more minutes…"
Suddenly Milla poked her head out from behind and let out a playful bark which startled Carol to tumbling off her bed before calling out cheerfully "Good morning, Carol!" which led to Lilac laughing at the amusing which her best friend was woken up. A couple minutes later, the trio climbed down from the tree house and went over to find Torque standing at the entrance of his as he was waiting for them.
"I was wondering when you'd be awake," said Torque in amusement.
"You can blame Carol for that, she sleeps for like half a day," said Lilac while playfully glaring at the wildcat.
Carol smirked in response "Totally worth it,"
"Well anyway, I got a call from that big panda guy I told you about. He's gonna help us,"
"When is he coming?" asked Torque to which Lilac responded.
"Actually, we have to go meet him. He'll be waiting for us north of here,"
"Perfect, I fixed my radar last night so we can use it to find the meeting point,"
Lilac nodded in affirmation "Right, ready girls?"
Carol raised a fist in excitement "Aye aye, captain!"
Milla was looking around though "Um, where's Naruto and Nicole?" that question caught the attention of the others.
"I thought he was with you up in the tree house?" said Torque confusedly.
"I thought he woke up early to have a talk with you," Lilac was just as confused.
Milla was on all fours and started sniffing around, a few seconds later she perked up happily "I can smell him over there!"
"Really, how does he smell?" asked Carol curiously.
"He smells very nice, a bit like ramen but it makes me feel very warm and funny when I'm close to him," said Milla with a bright smile, then she took off with others following after her. Soon they got close to a small clearing in the forest and found Nicole sitting on a rock at the edge of the clearing with the Chao sitting alongside her, she looked back and smiled upon seeing the group.
"Oh good morning, what brings you all here?" asked Nicole.
"We were wondering where you were since we couldn't find you," said Lilac.
"Naruto wanted to do some last minute training before we start the mission, he's over there," she pointed at the clearing for the others to look, there they saw Naruto practicing some techniques with his bare chest exposed.
Naruto was currently undergoing the fox style taijutsu which he created with help from Kurama, he lashed out with clawing strikes then switching to rapid swipes, he leapt into the air and came down as if to pounce on an imaginary opponent before performing a handspring to launch back into the air and perform several aerial roundhouse kicks. Naruto then summoned his Star Ball from his chest as it hovered in the before him.
"Let's go, Star Ball Attack!" Naruto points his middle and index fingers forwards for the Star Ball to emit blue azure flames before shooting forward like a comet, he proceeded to trace his fingers rapidly in the air with the flaming Star Ball following the direction in perfect sync "Now burst!" Naruto twisted his fingers which triggered the Spirit Ball to release an explosion of foxfire before returning to fuse with his body. Naruto reared both hands back as the wind gathered around the open palms and swirled around it before taking on the shape of spinning throwing stars "Wind Shuriken!" he flung them as they sliced through multiple trees the distance. "Blazing Kick Strike!" fire swirled around his right leg as he performed a cartwheel and flipped high into the air before coming down with a sideways flying kick to slam into the ground, causing a small explosion of flames "Now for the finisher, Nine Bladed Tails!" said appendages harden to the point of glinting in the sunlight like that of actual blades, he dashed towards a targeted tree and spun around to lash with his tails to cut right through it, felling the trees in the process.
All this was seen by the others who were in awe at the display of his prowess, especially the females having interesting reactions to the blonde Kitsune.
"I never saw Naruto without his vest before, he looks really nice," thought Milla, feeling something strange emanating from her chest much to her confusion.
"I know Nicole told me about Naruto's strength, but I never thought that he would be this strong and yet he's still in training," her eyes strayed to Naruto's chest and felt her face heat up despite being a water dragon, not to mention Carol's words last night wasn't making things any easier that she began having images of her hugging him rather intensely "Darn it Carol, now I can't get him out of my mind,"
Said wildcat was occupied staring at the blonde Kitsune "Wow, I know I said he was a hunk but I never thought that he would be so hot! Literally!" staring at his bare chest made her want to sleep on it all day.
Nicole was blushing beet red even before the others came, she certainly was liking what she saw. Nicole was aware that she was already feeling something for Naruto but just doesn't know exactly what it is.
"With such level of power, we should be able to stop Brevon from getting with the Kingdom Stone," thought Torque with hope.
Naruto exhaled before stretching his arms out then taking a relaxed postured "Ahhhhhh, that was quite the morning workout. Now I'm primed and ready to kick butt without pulling a muscle,"
"True but it appears that you have an extra audience," said Kurama with a smirk, he was aware of their presence but mischievously chose not to tell him.
Naruto perked up and turned to see Lilac and the others watching, making him feel a bit shy "Oh hey guys, I didn't know you were there," he quickly walked towards where he hung his vest and swords, and quickly put it on with the blades latching on to his back.
"Oh we noticed that you weren't at the tree house and came looking for you before setting off," said Lilac though feeling a little down at him covering up his chest.
"Yeah, but I gotta say you really got some moves! And looks!" said Carol with a wink.
Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly with a foxy grin "Gee thanks, so what's going on?" Torque then filled him and Nicole in on their earlier conversation "Guess that's a good start as any other, let's get moving then," the Chao sat on his shoulder and chirped in agreement.
A couple hours later, the team had gone a long way since they left the Dragon valley and they're now standing in a grassy plain surrounded by Sakura trees. Torque in his shell duck disguise took out a handheld device and was operating it.
"According to the radar, we seem to be at the right location," said Torque.
Carol quirked an eyebrow as she looked around "Um…I think it's a little off,"
Naruto activated his Aura sight and looked around some clues, sure enough he saw a yellow trail which meant something important and it led to an upper level above them. He was about to speak out when Milla beat him to it.
"This way!" Milla jumped into the air and used her Puppy float to get higher to the platform, the others used their individual abilities to ascend to the platform and follow after her. Soon they arrived at an airstrip where several yellow monoplanes are station, there they met an anthropomorphic panda dressed in samurai armor with a large shield on his back and a bird guard with royal blue feathers.
"She's got a good nose," said Torque.
"I'll say, since she was able to find Naruto too," said Lilac.
"True that," Naruto was in agreement.
The panda went down on one knee in greeting "Allow me to properly introduce myself, I am General Gong of Shang Tu,"
Lilac bowed in response "It's an honor general," then they stood back on their feet.
"The Royal Magister has a proposal. We'd like you to help us get the stone back, it's in the greedy little hands of Mayor Zao in our neighbor city Shang Mu,"
"Why do you need our help? Don't you have soldiers and spies and stuff?" asked Carol confusedly.
Gong replied "We wanna try and resolve this thing peacefully if we can, so we're sending a neutral party to negotiate. Given the uh, current state of affairs in Shuigang, they're out of the picture,"
"So you need us to fly to Shang Mu and convince Zao to give the stone back," Torque summarized the whole thing.
"This way, he wouldn't see any of this as an intention for a power grab and cooperate peacefully," Naruto added.
"Precisely," Gong nodded in affirmation.
"But it's also risky as any possible consequences would be on you guys alone. So be careful about this," Kurama warned, Naruto mentally nodded in affirmation.
"Then let's give it a shot!" said Lilac with gusto.
Torque approached one of the monoplanes "Right! I assume we'll be taking one of these planes…"
"Uh huh, you do know how to fly it?" asked Gong.
"Of course I do!" Torque chuckled nervously.
"Good, when you get there, head straight for the city hall,"
"Yes sir!"
"Weh," the bird guard spoke up before falling back into silence much to Naruto's confusion.
Minutes later everyone had gotten on board the monoplane with the exception of Naruto, Nicole and the Chao which they noticed.
"What are you going to do Naruto? There isn't any room left on the plane," asked Lilac in concern.
Naruto simply smiled "No need for worry, I got my own ride…Dragoon!" at his call, a small black hole appeared in the sky and the air glider emerged from it then descended to hover next to him much to the amazement of the others "Well, what do you think?"
Milla looked at the Dragoon with sparkles in her eyes "Woooow, it looks so cool!"
"Thanks, now let's get moving," Naruto hopped onto the glider with Nicole returning to the S.A.C as Torque started up the plane then taking off with Naruto following them close behind. While in the air, Naruto put on his headphones and scrolled through one of his custom playlist then played a song to which he began nodding his head to the beat, perking the curiosity of the others.
"Hey Naruto, what are you listening to?" asked Carol.
"One of my favorite bands from my home planet, care to listen?" asked Naruto.
"We would like to, if that's okay with you," said Lilac with Milla nodding excitedly.
"Okay then," Naruto tapped a few buttons on the headphone, thanks to Tails, it now had a loudspeaker function as he replayed the song for them with a catchy beat starting up.
Music Start: Crush 40; Escape From The City
Rolling around at the speed of sound
Got places to go, gotta follow my rainbow
Can't stick around, have to keep movin' on
Guess what lies ahead, only one way to find out
Must keep on movin' ahead
No time for guessin', follow my plan instead
Trusting in what you can't see
Take my lead, I'll set you free
Follow me – set me free – trust me
And we will escape from the city
I'll make it through, follow-
Follow me – set me free – trust me
And we'll escape from the city
I'll make it through, prove it to you
Follow me
Danger is lurking around every turn
Trust your feelings, gotta live and learn
I know with some luck that I'll make it through
Got no other options, only one thing to do
I don't care what lies ahead
no time for guessin', follow my plan instead
Find that next stage no matter what that may be
Take my lead, I'll set you free
Follow me – set me free – trust me
And we will escape from the city
I'll make it through, follow-
Follow me – set me free – trust me
And we'll escape from the city
I'll make it through, prove it to you
Follow me
Follow me
I'll make it through,
Oh, yeah.
Music End
As the song played, everyone were nodding to the music and enjoying very much. Naruto took to performing some aerial tricks on board the Dragoon such as flips and variations of loops all the while playing more songs from the same band to make the trip more fun. Soon enough, night fell and the heroes found themselves flying over a sprawling metropolis with buildings being of eastern design.
"We've arrived at Shang Mu, we'll land at the commercial district then head on over to the city hall to meet Zao," said Torque, getting nods of affirmation from the others as he piloted the plane towards the marked landing point.
They were moving along the street before coming across someone leaning against a crystal streetlight, he is a white anthropomorphic panda wearing a black vest with a red scarf around his neck, red gloves, browns pants, black sneakers, and a pair of red sunglasses worn on his forehead. Naruto noticed that Lilac and Carol recognized him and so figured out who he is.
"Guess he must be Spade then," thought Naruto, recalling what Lilac and Carol told when they were chasing after Zao's men to safeguard the Kingdom Stone but in got stolen in the long run.
"You just had to follow me here, didn't you?" said Spade, opening his eyes to look at them.
"How did you know we were coming?" asked Carol.
"You seemed pretty determined to get that stone back,"
"So you're the thief Lilac was talking about," said Torque with a glare.
Spade shrugged his shoulders "I've been called worse,"
Naruto stepped forward at that response "Those words alone tell me that you've committed crimes which endangered lives, if it wasn't for our mission, we would have been having a little chat right about now," his Aura sight triggered and he could see Spade radiating a red aura, meaning he's an enemy. Spade looked into the kitsune's eyes and instinctively realized that this person is much stronger than anyone he's ever met before.
"Where is the stone?" Lilac demanded.
"I've already finished the job. It's time for my brother to play his hand," Spade replied.
"Your brother?" Torque was a little confused.
"Prince Dail of Shuigang," Lilac answered for him.
"Really?"
"When he finds the man who murdered our father, there will be no mercy for the kingdom responsible," said Spade.
"I have a hunch that it was Brevon who was responsible for the murder," said Kurama.
"I was thinking the same thing," thought Naruto.
"We know who's responsible," said Lilac.
"Nice try," Spade refused to believe her.
Carol tried to reason with him "Will you just hold on a minute and let us explain?"
Spade started getting angry "What? So you can throw me off again with your lies? Thanks but I've had about enou-"
"GUYS GET BACK!" Naruto yelled out in time for the group to jump back as a blue energy beam pierced the ground between them and Spade who took off in the middle of the confusion. They all looked up to see a green flying saucer overhead as it disengaged its beam cannon and flew off.
"Everyone split up! We'll cut him off at the huge shopping mall over there!" Torque called out.
"Roger that, let's go Lilac-chan!" said Naruto as he took off.
"Got it!" Lilac followed after while the others paired up and took different directions.
Music Change: Freedom Planet OST; Fortune Night 1
Naruto and Lilac started off by dashing along the red rooftops and using the curved edges as makeshift ramps to jump from one to another several times before jumping off the last one to land on the streets below, then they ran towards a wall to use a pair of bounce pads to ascend to an upper level, there the duo ran into a medium sized one-eyed robot with a yellow and purple color scheme as it approach them before firing electrical sparks from its eye towards them.
"Rock Wall!" Naruto punched the ground for a large slab of earth to rise from the ground in front of them and block the incoming attack. Lilac jumped over the stone slab and descended towards the robot with dive kick, successfully destroying it. Naruto brought down the wall and continued on the way with her. They bounced up a pad to run on a wheel gimmick as it swing around in an arc to toss them down to a downward slope and accelerating quickly before running up a ramped wall and taking to the air then grabbing on to a horizontal bar. They shimmied across to a fire escape and climbed up to the top of a building, ahead of them were rotating platforms built like that of a Ferris wheel to which they jumped onto and waited before to jumping to a rooftop on the other side.
Naruto and Lilac dashed along the roof till they went on a pathway resembling a long red and green snake's body which they ran along up and down then through a downhill loop to another roof and launching off the edge into the air as they landed on what appears to be several artificially made flying red dragons. They leapt across them to get to a lower platform and ran into yet another one of those coil robots, now it was Naruto's turn to attack as he channeled chakra into one of his ECG X gloves to conjure a foldable windmill shuriken enhanced with wind chakra which he threw to slice through it in half. The duo continued onwards to run up a ramped wall to an upper level, there saw a hovering robot which is slightly tall with three eyes and resembling traffic lights, the robot turned its sights on the duo and started firing colored projectiles at them.
"Cyclone!" Lilac stepped forward and rapidly spun horizontally to deflect the shots with her twin ponytails and continued onwards to use them to perform an uppercut, taking all three eyes out in one strike.
"Whoa, that's a pretty strong technique," said Naruto visibly impressed.
Lilac smiled brightly "Thanks, Carol and I had been training for a long time now,"
"I can tell," said Naruto.
"Choa choa!" Yoru tapped on his shoulder and pointed ahead for Naruto to see bounce pads on the wall.
"Ok then, let's see where it directs us to," Naruto and Lilac pushed against the pads and felt themselves being sent back where they came when suddenly a red bridge folded upwards, sending them running up a wall and flipping off to land on a ledge behind them.
[Naruto, Lilac watch out! The enemy ship is flying towards you!] Nicole called out in alert.
Naruto and Lilac looked upwards to see the green flying saucer heading their way with the beam cannon ready to fire, they quickly took off with it in pursuit and firing the laser beam behind them. The duo quickly ran up a ramped wall and jumped to grab on to a horizontal bar and hang right above the enemy ship as it stopped firing and flew away to reveal a hole to another path. They dropped down the hole but quickly had to grab on to a longer horizontal pole to avoid falling into a row of sharp spikes a couple meters below.
"Whew, that was too close," Naruto sighed in relief.
"Same here, what a death trap," Lilac was in agreement.
The duo shimmied across whilst avoiding getting squashed by large flying blocks and swinging off to climb up a ladder then hopping onto one of the spinning platforms to cross over to the next street. Naruto and Lilac bounced off some pads on the ground to be launched high into the air towards some flying dragons which was then used as stepping stones to get to the other side. Naruto saw one of the Trafficles shooting lasers at him and Lilac and so projected a circular energy shield from the ECG X by crossing his arms to deflect the shots then retaliated by using three of his tails to launch foxfire to destroy the eyes. They dashed along the snakelike pathway at high-speed through a loop and blitzing through another Trafficle, then dropped down to a lower platform for a speeding bulldozer-like robot to head straight at them. Naruto grabbed Lilac (Getting a squeak from the dragoness) and threw a Hirashin kunai over the robot before warping towards it to avoid the charge.
"Sorry about that, there wasn't enough time," said Naruto apologetically.
"I-it's quite alright, thanks though," Lilac quickly moved ahead to prevent him from seeing her blush as they went into the next area.
Later Naruto and Lilac were speeding along the streets of the commercial district, suddenly something jetted ahead of them which revealed to be flying robotic turrets which suddenly fired at them. Kou flew ahead and projected a reflective shield to send the projectiles back at the robot with Yoru lunging at the machines and biting off huge chunks with its teeth and destroying them. They ran up a short ramp to jump into the air, down below were stationary cannons which started launching fireworks at them.
"Fire Spinjitzu!" Naruto began spinning horizontally at rapid speed in the air to form a fiery tornado around him and Lilac as it consumed the fireworks before dissipating. Naruto formed a blue spinning sphere in hand and dove at one of the red cannons with Lilac targeting another with a dive kick, then both were able to destroy both with little issue. The duo climbed a staircase-like path to the upper level and bounced off a diagonal pad which flung through a chain of several bounce pads to a pair of spinning platforms to get to the rooftops.
"Dragon Boost!" Lilac charged up her energy then launched herself forward like a comet to move a high-speed, Naruto was quick to follow as he curled into a ball and spun rapidly before boosting off in the Kitsune Spiral Dash. Both zipped along the serpentine pathway, smashing through multiple robot turrets and cannons while being redirected by bounce pads on the walls till they exited from their techniques to climb up a staircase-like path and past a statue into the next area.
Naruto and Lilac were moving along and jumped up to a platform when they came across a slot machine, Naruto felt like trying his luck and jumped up to pull the lever down and spin the wheel which soon stopped and large amounts of blue crystal shards started falling so he quickly scooped them up and sealed them into a storage scroll for later use. Naruto and Lilac made use of two seesaw platforms to climb up to the rooftops when Nicole suddenly spoke up.
[The enemy ship has been detected again!]
"Ugh, it doesn't know when to give up," Naruto groaned in annoyance.
"Don't look now but here it comes!" said Lilac in alert.
The green flying saucer swooped in the began firing its energy beam at the duo as they dashed across the rooftops before jumping down to the streets below with use of bounce pads for sharp redirections till they were able to escape from its sights. They ran up a ramped wall onto another wheel gimmick to ascend to the higher level via a bounce pad. They were passing by a building when a hissing voice called out to them from behind.
"Hold it right there, you twits!"
They turned around to see who it is, it was a green viper wearing an advanced technological armor with a color scheme of dark blue and yellow, and he was currently pointing a blaster at them. Naruto's Aura sight showed him that he is an enemy and apparently Lilac knows him.
"What did you call us?!" Lilac asked angrily.
"You think you can just walk into this conflict, don't you? Well I've got news for you…this isn't your fight!" said the snake.
"It was the moment you brought it into our homeworld!"
"So the duck man couldn't keep his mouth shut…"
"Even if he didn't, we would have gotten involved anyway. Now what's the name of the guy I'm about to have him French kiss the pavement?" said Naruto whilst cracking his knuckles.
"The name's Serpentine, and you're about to realize that the duck man has just cost you your lives!" said Serpentine.
"You'll have to take it first, snake man!" said Lilac taking a fighting stance.
"Not to mention that you wouldn't even be able afford our lives anyway," Naruto quickly scrolled through a playlist to play a song from his headphones "Let's dance!"
Music Start: Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection; Supercharged
Serpentine started off by rapidly firing energy bullets from his pistol at point-blank, Lilac leapt into the air to avoid the incoming shots and Naruto darted from side to side with afterimages trailing behind as he drew close and lashed out with a straight punch to the face, knocking him back for another kick to the face from Lilac who swooped in from above.
Serpentine shook his head and hissed angrily at his opponents, he pointed an arm at Naruto as a compartment opened up and a missile shot out of it and raced towards him. Naruto arched his upper body backwards for the missile to fly over him only for his eyes to widen in surprise upon seeing turn around in midair and target him once again.
[Naruto, it's a homing missile!] said Nicole in worry.
"Oh boy," Naruto turned round and dashed away with the missile chasing after as he darted left and right whilst thinking of a way to get rid of it. Suddenly getting an idea, he dashed up the side of a building with the missile right behind him then he leapt into the air. Right as the missile just about made contact…it phased right through him, revealing it to be an afterimage serving as a decoy. Naruto stood on the rooftop with air swirling around his arm as he reared it back "Air Blast!" he thrusts it forward to fire a spiraling wind projectile at the missile, resulting in an explosion, he looked down to see Lilac currently engaging Serpentine then took out his Hirashin kunai and waited for a chance to reenter the battle.
Down below, Serpentine was quickly gliding across the ground and throwing punches at Lilac but she was deflecting every incoming fists the best she could while stepping backwards at the same time before finding an opening and lashing out with a roundhouse punch to knock the viper. Serpentine hissed at her and was about to draw out his dual pistols when he heard a metallic chink at where he stood, then he looked down to seeing an oddly shaped knife before a yellow flash to reveal the fox whom he thought to have blown up lying on his back with legs tucked to his chest.
"You're open, Meteor Blow!" Naruto lashed out with a double kick to send Serpentine flying into the air then using one of his tails to grab the kunai and throw it before disappearing in a yellow flash. The kunai zipped past the viper for Naruto to reappear from behind and catch it before executing a heel drop kick to drive the opponent back to the ground with him landing afterwards.
Their opponent got back up and hissed at them with rage before slithering forward quickly and leapt into the air with both arms transforming and streams of flames shot out towards them. Naruto had his Star Ball switch to his fire aspect as he rushed forward and was completely immune to the fore much to Serpentine's shock. Naruto's feet lit up in flames as he ran "Burning Flip kick!" then he performed a backflip whilst kicking Serpentine into the air again, Lilac seized the opportunity to jump after the airborne viper for a follow-up attack "Cyclone!" she spun rapidly with her ponytails repeatedly striking him before using a dive kick to send him crashing back to the ground.
"Take this you twits!" Serpentine drew out both pistols and pointed them in the air before unleashing a torrent of shots as he generated an energy shield around him. The shots reached the zenith of their height before falling back to the ground in the form of a storm.
"Lilac-chan, get close to me!" Naruto called out in alert, getting the purple dragoness to hurry over to him "Battle Cry!" he channeled chakra to his throat and took in a deep breath before unleashing a concussive wave in the form of an outcry, deflecting majority of the shots heading for them. "Swift Release: Shadow Step!" Naruto blurred out of sight before reappearing before Serpentine with a palm on his chestplate as a seal appeared on it "You've been marked, it's over,"
Naruto stepped back and side kicked him up into the air then he warped up and roundhouse punched the viper away and warped again to appear behind to elbow him in the stomach as he turned around, the Kitsune then unleashed a barrage of punches and kicks before spinning vertically to execute a heel drop kick to send him down to the ground while landing close by "Meteor Crash,"
Lilac was in awe at Naruto's fighting style, it was unlike any she had ever seen before. If he had been participating in the fighting tournaments here in Avalice, he would definitely be winning them. She snapped back to attention upon seeing Serpentine rise from the ground and glare at them with absolute hate, then he pushed a button to summon the green flying saucer which he quickly boarded before they heard his voice.
"I've had enough of your kung fu tricks! Prepare for annihilation!" said Serpentine.
"Catch us if you can!" Naruto taunted before he took off at high-speed with afterimages trailing behind him and Lilac using her dragon boost to dash alongside him as well. Serpentine set the thrusters to max power and gave chase across the streets until the duo dashed through a small passage with the saucer breaking in half and a piece falling on top of the viper. Naruto and Lila stopped and turned to smirk at the reptile.
"You had it coming snake man," said Lilac.
"Definitely need to work on both your fighting and flying skills. Let's get a move on, the others should be at the shopping mall too," said Naruto before they made their way into the building, however Serpentine wasn't giving up and was soon following after them.
Music Change: Freedom Planet OST; Fortune Night 2
Naruto and Lilac were moving past a row of fountains and climbed up an escalator to the next floor, there they were attacked by what appears to be small blue and purple robots on wheels as they jumped over the duo and fired shells at them but were quickly avoided. Naruto launched a fox fireball to take out his whilst Lilac performed a rising uppercut with her ponytails to destroy the other. They climbed up another escalator but were unprepared to be blasted back by a sound wave from a large tan and purple robot with a speaker-like cannon on its seashell-like structure.
Naruto angrily bounced to his feet which ignited with foxfire and dashed at it then jumped into the air to perform a flying kick "Burning Kick!" and destroyed the robot. They moved on ahead and Lilac grabbed onto a zip line which carry her forward before launching her into the air and landing on an upper floor "You keep going, I'll catch up with you!"
"Okay Naruto!" Lilac responded before taking off.
Naruto dashed up and down the escalators regardless of which direction they were moving, more of the wheeled robots appeared to attack him but Naruto would use punches and kicks to smash them out of his way as he moved on. He found himself dashing along one of the snakelike paths when Nicole emerged from the S.A.C about the size of a fairy and spoke to him.
"Naruto, you can use that miniature hot air balloon to get to the higher floor," Nicole pointed for him to see said machine hovering ahead.
"Thanks for the heads-up Nicole-chan," the Holo-lynx nodded happily before returning to the waist pack as Naruto leapt to grab onto the bar for the hot air balloon to begin rising up towards a pair of spinning platforms eh him to jump onto and get across to the other side, past a disco ball which oddly gave him the strange urge to dance close to it but shrugged it off and continued on his way into the next area by grabbing onto a zip line and being propelled forward to be flung across the gap to the other side. Naruto found near a large rotating pillar and saw that there was no other way to go aside from ascending to the top.
Naruto started off by jumping up to the first platform and quickly had to avoid getting zapped by a nearby coil robot and drawing out Hazy-Moon to cut it down, then leapt to the next one to take out a second. Naruto bounced up from a pad to get to the higher platform above and somersaulted to the side to dodge the fireworks shot at him from a red cannon, the Kitsune channeled chakra to his fist and struck out with a punch to smash it up then used another bounce pad to get to the next platform and climb up the ladder to the very top of the rotating pillar. There he grabbed onto another zip line and was flung over to the next floor, he ran over to the other side and stepped into a lift which spiraled downwards before dashing across the path and running up a ramped wall which he flipped off to grab onto a mini hot air balloon to be lifted up to another floor.
Naruto jumped off and found himself at a dead-end and was about to turn back when a large robot flew overhead, it had a large head with limbless fist floating near it while wearing a red and helmet and armor that resembles that of a samurai. The robot reared a fist back and lashed out with a punch towards Naruto who dodged to the side for the fist to smash the ground.
[Naruto, its weak spot is the eye!] said Nicole.
"Got it, Air Blast!" Naruto summoned the wind to his left arm before firing a strong blast of air to strike the eye in the middle, the robot flinched a bit then red projectiles started shooting out of the eye at Naruto. the Kitsune began running along the wall to evade the shots then placed a hand on the wall for stones to engulf it and form a stone gauntlet, then leapt at the robot with the fist reared back "Terra Punch!" he launched a haymaker punch to inflict great damage and backflipped to latch back onto the wall. By now, the robot is now in a frenzy and was throwing punches left and right so Naruto had to place a safe distance between him and it "Time for me to wrap this up," he held out his palms as two blue spiraling spheres took form in them, then he channeled his fire and wind aspects into the spheres, causing one to turn red with a fiery aura and the other to resemble a miniature tempest "Elemental Rasengan Barrage!" Naruto lunged towards the berserk robot and rammed it with his jutsu, sending it smashing through wall as it was destroyed for him to pass through.
Naruto continued on his way and was running along the hallway when he found Lilac just at the end of hallway which leads to the exit of the shopping mall and so called out to her "Lilac-chan!"
"Oh Naruto, I was wondering where you were?" said Lilac, looking relieved.
"There were a few distractions along the way, but I dealt with them," Naruto replied.
"Well Carol and the others should be outside, so we should go and meet them," said Lilac, getting a nod of agreement from as they made out of the shopping mall, suddenly they heard a loud banging sound and the ground shook a bit so the duo turned around only for their eyes to widen in shock upon what they saw.
It was Serpentine again but this time he's riding a yellow mech designed to resemble a panther with him at the cockpit situated on its head. The viper cackled with glee as he sneered at the duo from above "Now it really is time for you two to die!"
"Lilac-chan, run! We'll kick his scaly butt while we're at it!" said Naruto.
"Okay!" Lilac replied.
Naruto and Lilac took off at high-speed down the road next to the waterway with Serpentine with his mech chasing after them.
Music Change: Freedom Planet OST; Major Boss Battle
"Nicole-chan, we could use some info on that thing!" said Naruto as he and Lilac ran along the road and looked back to see Serpentine close behind them.
[I'm scanning the mech as we speak, it'll take some time before I can locate its weak points] said Nicole.
"Guess we'll just have to stay alive till then," Naruto mused.
He looked back to see the cannon at the lower jaw charging up with energy before firing a burst of energy shots at them, Naruto and Lilac took evasive action as the gun continued to follow their movements whilst shooting with same barely nicking them.
"Those who cross Brevon will die!" Serpentine laughed psychotically as he fired a barrage of projectiles into the air with his dual pistols which fell back to the ground in all directions.
Naruto summoned Hazy-Moon to his hand and concentrated for a moment and called out "Lunar style: Glinted Slash!" he swiftly unsheathed the ninjato in a bright flash of light then majority of the projectiles were deflected before they could reach Naruto and Lilac.
"Naruto, Lilac!" the duo looked up to see Torque and Milla flying above in the yellow monoplane with the latter waving at them "We're here to help, use this!" Milla picked up a large red flower and threw it to the ground below to shatter into red petals, Lilac scooped most of them up while running and absorbed them into her body to heal.
"Thanks Milla!" said Lilac gratefully.
"Those who cross Brevon will die!" Serpentine pushed a button to fire a cluster of missile at them and exploding to leave trails of fire at them with several aiming at the monoplane but Torque was able to pilot it out of their range. The Star ball within Naruto began radiating a calm blue aura as he performed his next technique "Waterspout!" he swung an arm for a large stream of water to shoot out from the waterway to douse the flames before they could harm them.
"Spoken repeatedly like a true fanboy or should I say fansnake?" Naruto taunted as he generated a handful of chakra shuriken enhanced with earth and wind aspects and launched them at the cockpit, however they were deflected by its shielding.
"Hahahahaha! Nice try furball, take this!" the mech's cannon charged up once more but this time it fired a beam of energy which swept across the ground, the duo leapt into the air with Naruto using his Shadow Flight technique and Lilac with her Dragon Cyclone to hover in midair momentarily before landing back on the ground when the cannon stopped firing.
Then they heard the revving of an engine and Carol riding up to them on her bike in a nitro boost till she caught up with them "Hey guys, sorry I'm late for some action,"
"Nah, we're just getting started," Naruto replied, that's Nicole spoke up.
[The analysis is complete, its weakpoint is the red energy core located inside the lower jaw of the mech. destroying the core should be more than enough to destroy the machine] said Nicole.
"Now that we know where to hit, let's hit it!" Carol revved her bike to pop a wheelie before making it jump to the air to reach the mech's lower jaw "Wild Kick!" she unleashed a flurry of kicks at it before landing on the ground and hitting the nitro again to evade the retaliatory fire from Serpentine.
"She's got the right idea though, let's join in!" said Naruto as he got ready.
"Goes to show how alike you two are, most times diving without a care for consequences," said Kurama.
"It's how we roll at times, buddy," he energized the gloves with chakra then somersaulted whilst spinning in midair to then punching at the lower jaw multiple times which got it to open and expose the red core. Naruto was about to strike it with an elemental punch but quickly used Shadow Step to evade the incoming salvo of projectiles from the energy cannon. Lilac jumped up to the mech and used her Dragon Cyclone to repeatedly strike at the lower jaw with scratches and dents beginning to appear, signaling its growing damage.
"Take this!" Serpentine fired another torrent of bullets at them especially Lilac.
"I don't think so, Lunar style: Orbitual Blade!" Naruto leapt high above Lilac and twirled Hazy-Moon rapidly like a propeller to deflect the bullets away from her.
"Thanks Naruto!" said Lilac gratefully.
"No biggie, Lilac-chan!" Naruto nodded in response then he curled up and spun rapidly to perform the Kitsune Spiral Dash only to engulf himself in foxfire to execute the Kitsune Flame Wheel and launched himself at the mech and grinded against the lower jaw again. Milla and Torque swooped in to drop another health flower for Lilac and Carol to use for recovery
"Get off you mangy mutt!" He operated the mech to swipe its metallic claw at the fox, but Naruto used the replacement jutsu to switch places with a wooden log much to the viper's anger "Why you little.." he caught sight of Carol riding ahead of him and smirked evilly "See how you like this?!" he fired another cluster of missile at Carol.
"Carol watch out!" Lilac called out in worry, the wildcat looked back and her eyes widened in shock before turning left and right to evade the missiles but one of them was able to hit the rear wheel of her bike and lost control before being sent flying "Carol!"
"I got her!" Naruto took out a hirashin kunai and threw at Carol before warping over to it and catching her in a bridal "Dragoon!" the air glider appeared through a black hole and quickly carried them "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine but my bike's toast," said Carol replied, then she realized that Naruto was holding her close and her heart started beating faster.
"Well, Dragoon could serve as your ride for the meantime while we deal with snakey down there," said Naruto, mentally commanding the air glider to help Carol before jumping off much to her disappointment. Naruto dove towards the mech whilst forming a spiraling sphere in preparation for an attack "Rasengan!" he rammed the jutsu to further damage the lower jaw.
"I've had about enough of this, just die already!" Serpentine pushed a button to make the mech transform as the back legs converted into wheels and stand upright with the metallic paws to convert into missile launchers
"Just a little more and he's done," Naruto held out a palm for a small ball of fire to ignite "Fire Grenade!" he threw it at the mech, resulting a fiery explosion which destroyed the lower jaw and exposed the red core. Carol then swooped in on top of Dragoon and unleashed her Wild Kick rapidly at the core, causing cracks to appear on in but beat a hasty retreat when Serpentine started firing missiles at them.
Lilac waited for the opportune moment then jumped into the air and took aim at the mech "Dragon Boost!" she charged up her energy then launched herself forward like a comet to slam right into the red core, destroying it and causing the entire mech to begin exploding.
"What?! Nooooooooooo!" Serpentine cried out in disbelief as his mech was destroyed.
Music End
Naruto and Lilac skidded to a stop with Carol landing close to them for Dragoon to fly away then Torque and Milla showed up after landing the monoplane nearby.
"Way to go guys, you were awesome!" said Naruto with a thumbs up as Nicole emerged from S.A.C and sat on his head with a smile in her face.
"We totally kicked some serious tail back there!" said Lilac.
"Yeah! And I was like 'POW POW!'" Carol pumped her fists with gusto.
"Wow, we're really strong as a team!" Milla cheered happily.
"You all were amazing!" said Torque, visibly impressed.
"Not so fast commander!" the group turned around to see a heavily bruised Serpentine sneering at them "Chyahahaha…if you're searching for the stone, then you might want to look up," everyone did so and were shocked to see a fleet of large boat-shaped green airships flying away from the city and firing their cannons at it.
"I'm detecting the energy of the Kingdom Stone in the lead ship!" said Nicole much to the surprise of the others.
Naruto glared at Serpentine "He was distracting us all along!"
Serpentine laughed as one of the airships flew overhead "Chyahahaha! Enjoy your minor victory!" he leapt into the ship and quickly flew off, Lilac tried to use her Dragon Boost to reach it with Naruto doing the same with the Hirashin kunai but both attempts failed.
"We have to go after them! We can use the plane and Naruto's air glider!" said Carol.
"Those airships will ghost us from a mile away, remember what happened to me in the valley?" said Torque.
"There has to be a way, what about Mayor Zao?" asked Lilac,
At that moment, one of the red truck which Naruto and others saw earlier before drive past them before screeching to a halt. On the trailer, they saw the head of the destroyed mech guarded by Shang Mu soldiers and at the head was a red panda dressed in red royal robes and a tall hat.
"It's gone! My one chance for reelection is gone!" said the red panda in an angered voice.
"I guess that must be Mayor Zao, I kinda expected him to be a lot…taller," said Naruto with a quirked eyebrow.
"Can't expect to get what you want, you of all people should know that," said Kurama, with the blonde nodding in agreement before snapping back to attention upon seeing the truck reversing towards them.
"You, over there!" said Mayor Zao, Lilac and the rest bowed with the exception of Carol and a still confused Naruto.
Lilac whispered out to them "He's royalty, you have to bow,"
"Ohh," said Carol.
"I keep forgetting about that," said Naruto, then both followed the others' example.
Mayor Zao nodded in approval "Very good *Ahem* rise!" letting the group get back to their feet, the mayor then gestured to the mech's remains "Were you the ones who disposed of this wretched mechanical beast?"
"You bet we are!" Carol replied cheerfully.
"Glorious!" Zao proclaimed joyously "As a token of my appreciation, I offer you free reign over Zao's Shopping Paradise…um with this coupon…for five percent off selected brands!" he presented said coupon only to receive deadpanned expression from the others.
"Oi, I get paid better even doing D-ranked missions, this guy's trying to weasel his way out of it," thought Naruto with a tick mark appearing on his head.
The mayor seemed to have noticed their displeasure and spoke up "Aw what the heck, why don't invite you over to dinner? My treat!"
"You mean a royal feast?" Milla wagged her tail excitedly.
"Now that's a reward," Naruto nodded in approval, inwardly hoping to taste some 'royal' ramen.
"I am pretty hungry after all that running around," said Carol with a smirk.
"But what about the stone?" asked Torque worriedly.
Mayor Zao frowned at that question "That scoundrel prince Dail took it from me! I won't even be able to chase him until my ships are repaired!" Naruto and the others looked at each other before coming to a unanimous decision.
"Well Mayor Zao, we would be honored to be your guests this evening," said Lilac with a bow.
"Follow me then, I shall drown your sorrows in delicious chow mein!" said Mayor Zao cheerfully.
"Add several bowls of ramen, and you've got a friend for life," said Naruto.
"Deal!"
With that, Naruto hopped onto the truck to be transported to the Mayor's Palace for the promised feast.
This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Lilac got a call from the general of Shang Tu for assistance. She gathered the others but weren't able to see Naruto so they went to find but were quite surprised upon seeing his training. Later on, they met the general and were requested to be the neutral party to retrieve the Kingdom Stone from the Mayor of Shang Mu. After a fun flight, the group arrived at the city and immediately encountered one of Lilac and Carol's old friends Spade who was responsible for the stone's theft. He revealed than he and his brother the Prince Dail of Shuigang is on a hunt for their father's murderer before the conversation was interrupted by Brevon's commander Serpentine.
Naruto and the gang gave chase through the city and were able to defeat him, but soon discovered he was just a diversion as Prince Dail led his army to steal the Kingdom Stone from Mayor Zao much to the latter's anger. As a reward for helping them, Mayor Zao invited the group to a feast where they hope to receive answers to some of their questions.
This is Hussbek from Ghana
Signing out.