Adventures of the Orange Flash
Chapter 26: An Enraged Conclusion
Naruto, Carol and Nicole FF were currently running through the hallways after having their battle against a mutated Serpentine and were en route to meeting up with Lilac and the others. Naruto was leading the way to them with his Aura Sight active to track their signatures which was getting stronger by the minute, signaling that they were getting closer to the others.
"I see that they're right up ahead of us," said Naruto.
"That's good to hear," Carol replied.
The group reached the end of the hallway and found themselves in a small chamber containing several active teleporters and in the middle of it they saw Lilac, Torque and Milla to which they made their way over to them while calling out.
"Hey guys, we're here," said Naruto.
Lilac turned and smiled upon seeing them "Hey yourselves, what took you so long?"
"We had a couple of distractions and dealt with a few annoyances, namely Brevon's pet robot and fanatical snake," said Carol with a shrug of her shoulders.
"I guess you were busy at your own side too huh?" said Torque.
"Pretty much yeah," Naruto responded.
"I was able to pinpoint where the Kingdom Stone is located, but I feel that we need to secure a point of escape before acquiring it. Though I reckon Brevon is far from willing to let us take without a fight," said Torque.
"Then we'll just have to break through with speed and power, Lilac and I will go and retrieve the stone while you all go and prep up a ship for our getaway," said Naruto.
"Can't we come along?" asked Milla a bit worried.
"Maybe, but you and Carol are needed to help Torque secure and protect the ship until we get back with the Kingdom Stone,"
"Oh okay,"
"Alright then, we'll be heading out. Let's go Lilac-chan!" Naruto ran towards a teleporter and was warped away.
"I'm right behind you, Naruto!" Lilac went after him and was warped away as well.
Torque then spoke up "Alright guys, the hangar is over this way," he went towards a teleporter with Milla and Carol soon following after him to complete the objective assigned to them.
Music Start: Freedom Planet OST; Final Dreadnought 3
Naruto and Lilac found themselves warping into the new area then took off at high-speed down the long pathway, a couple of seekers floated towards the duo and opened their shells to reveal their yellow eyes before firing crystal like shells at them. Naruto created a chakra kunai and used it to deflect the shots, Lilac closed the gap between her and the robots then performing a rising slash to take to the air and destroying one of the Seekers with her ponytails before utilizing multiple roundhouse kicks to take down a few more, Naruto flung a volley of chakra shuriken to finish the rest off. Suddenly Rotorblades emerged from one of the pipelines and quickly rolled towards them, but the duo leapt over them and dashed away to run up a ramped wall.
They went through a blue energy gate which suddenly launched them forward with a burst of speed, reminding Naruto of the dash panels back in Mobius. They ran up and down the hill like pathways and went through a few gates to maintain their high-speed before dashing through an upward guiding Inverse loop to reach an upper level. Some pounders hovered overhead and quickly descended in an attempt to create their targets but Naruto and Lilac were moving too quickly to be crushed underneath their weights and passed through a downward guiding loop to descend to a lower level. Ahead of them of them is what appears to be a large rotating ring consisting of large jets which were spewing blue flames. Naruto and Lilac timed their movements before quickly moving through the flaming jets and running up and ramped wall to reach an upper level where they encountered a couple of Bubblorbiters ahead of them with the purple spheres floating around them, Naruto and Lilac leapt into the air and attacked from above with dive kicks to take them down then they found a keycard and picked it up before turning back and took another route by jumping up to a platform above the ring of flame jets and warped through a teleporter.
They dashed through the pathway and went through a downward guiding loop, then boosted through a speed gate towards a cluster of bounce pads which sent them down to the lower level and boosted through another speed gate to run up a ramped wall to the top where they came upon a locked door with the console nearby for them to insert the keycard in order to unlock it and pass on through. The duo dropped down to a lower platform only to jump out of the way when a DNA cannon fired a laser wave in their direction, Nicole FF quickly phased into the cannon and moments later self-destructed with her emerging from it and returning to their side. They made their way past another ring of flame jets and boosted through a speed gate to dash down the winding pathways when they heard Brevon's voice on the loudspeaker as they ran.
[Ohhh nooo! My ship is being infiltrated! What ever shall I do?]
"We can easily tell that every alphabet in the sentence is soaked in sarcasm," said Naruto with a deadpanned expression.
[How about THIS!]
Suddenly the alarm started to blare loudly and there were red lights flashing in the area much to their confusion and making them all the more cautious, they ran up a steep slope and through a hallway when parts of the ceiling and floors opened up and large red/yellow double barreled turrets appeared and took aim at them before shooting multiple pairs of lasers at a fast rate. Startled, the duo picked up the pace to get out of range of fire as Naruto positioned himself in front of Lilac and projected an energy shield to deflect the lasers coming from head of them as they sped up and down the pathways before jumping into a teleporter to be warped into a room where Shade Elites appeared to attack them.
Naruto activated his lightning aspect before initiating his attack "Lightning Bolt!" he thrust his hands forward to launch a large blast of electricity to zap the robots, paralyzing them then he channeled electricity to his fists and rushed at them "Thunder Punch!" he proceeded to slam his fists into them with arcs of electricity sparking from every contact. Lilac wasn't far behind as she used her twin ponytails to lash at the remainder of the Shade Elites then using a Dragon Boost to bowl them over. They jumped into the next chamber then dropped down to the lower platform but quickly took off upon seeing a Gatling gun slot into place and took aim at them, the duo were quick to outpace the artillery and boosted through a speed gate to run up a ramped wall and take to the air. At that moment, more Gatling guns came online and fired at them "Celestial Spinjitzu!" Naruto grabbed Lilac and spun rapidly to form a white cyclone to deflect the laser fire from hitting them and took cover behind a wall.
"Seems to me like he's really not taking it easy on us," Naruto reached into his ninja pouch and took out a kunai and level 2 explosive tag to wrap around the handle of the former.
"It must mean that we're getting closer to the Kingdom Stone," said Lilac.
"I believe so as well," said Nicole.
"Then let's keep up with the momentum," they looked to see a diagonal bounce pad and used it to launch themselves over the wall towards an upper platform while Naruto flung the loaded kunai at the Gatling gun and remotely triggered it to explode and destroy the weapon. They used another row of bounce pads to ascend towards another teleporter into a chamber where two Gatling guns appeared at both sides and fired at them. Naruto crossed his arms together to form a dome of energy to defend himself and Lilac against the laser projectile, Nicole launched a Data Torrent to corrupt one of the guns then flew towards the other and drain it of its data, forcing it to shut down "Thanks for the help Nicole-chan,"
The Holo-lynx smiled fondly "Glad to help,"
Naruto and Lilac dropped down to a teleporter below to be warped to the next chamber and ran into another Bubblorbiter and a few Seekers, Naruto unsheathed Hazy Moon and threw a Hirashin kunai towards the flying robots before disappearing in a yellow flash till he reappeared in the midst of them and perform a 360 degree slash to cut them down. Lilac performed the Dragon Boost by charging all her energy and launched herself like a comet to barrel through the orbiting purple spheres and slamming into the robot, smashing it. The duo hopped to an upper platform and boosted through a speed gate to move along the pathway at high-speed whilst outpacing the Gatling guns before they could even fire before reaching the end where they were launched into the air by some bounce pads and quickly kicked off the wall to land on an upper platform behind them, ahead of them was a much larger ring of flames so Naruto grabbed onto Lilac and threw a Hirashin kunai to the other side of the platform before both him and the dragoness over to it. They kicked off a wall to reach up to an overhead platform then they leapt off with Lilac using her Dragon Boost and Naruto using the Shadow Flight technique to get over the topmost part of the flame jets.
The duo went through a speed gate for a boost and dashed down a slope then went through a downward guiding loop before running off a ramped wall to take to the air directly above a Pounder. Naruto grabbed Lilac's hand and spun round as he threw her towards the robot and she performed a dive kick to sending it crashing to the ground. They made their way up a staircase-like pathway but had to watch out for the Pounders and Naruto took care of them with Hazy-Moon enhanced with his chakra but then there were the DNA cannons stationed up ahead of them but they were destroyed as well, Naruto and Lilac eventually reached the top and boosted through a speed gate when two Gatling guns came online ahead of them "Wind Shuriken!" Naruto activated his air aspect and created two spinning shurikens made of wind and flung them at the guns, slicing through them cleanly as they dashed on into the next area.
Naruto and Lilac emerged from the passage into a large hallway when Nicole emerged from the SAC with a grim look on her face before turning to the duo
"I'm detecting a large number of enemies up ahead of us," said Nicole.
"Then we're just gonna have to break through them," he turned to Lilac "Are you ready Lilac-chan?"
Said Lilac nodded in affirmation "Ready as I'll ever be,"
"Alright then, I'll go low while you go high," Naruto crouched to one knee and proceeded to spin rapidly in one place then engulfed his whole body with foxfire "Kitsune Fire Wheel!" he took off at high-speed whilst leaving behind a trail of azure fire and Lilac ran after him and soon caught up. Several Bubblorbiters stationed themselves before the approaching duo with Seekers hovering overhead and firing crystal bullets at them, Naruto easily deflected the incoming projectiles and increased the intensity of his foxfire as he smashed through the purple spheres and Bubblorbiters all at once and continued to speed on ahead. Lilac leapt into the air and spun rapidly to perform the Dragon Cyclone as she too sliced through the Seekers with her twin ponytails and destroying them before landing back on the ground and running after Naruto. They continued to blitz through the Seekers and Bubblorbiters till a bulldozer showed up which impacted with Naruto and was pushed back several meters back but stopped the vulpine in his tracks, the dozer raised its plow to fire a hidden cannon towards the enemy but Naruto quickly used his Kitsune Spiral Dash in reverse to move away from the cannon ball then flipping to his feet and creating Shadow clone next to him as they worked together to create a large Rasengan "Let's see you stop this, Giant Rasengan!" they charged forward as the Bulldozer positioned the plow in front of it to block the attack, however the spiraling sphere easy grinded through the makeshift shield and proceeded to do the same for the machine before it was completely destroyed. The next robots to oppose them were a small army of flaming cacteons which were led by a large blue version of the cacteon, Naruto and his continued to use the giant Rasengan to strike the larger one despite it being more durable than the previous ones before and Lilac performed the Dragon Boost to blitz through the flaming cacteons and smashed them into pieces.
Next up to face them were Tankbots as they fired bullets at the duo, Naruto and Lilac used their tails and twin ponytails respectively to deflect before rushing up to the robots to engage in close combat. Naruto bared his claws and rapidly swiped at his target "Nine Bladed Tails!" he hardened the tails to become razor sharp then spun round to slice the robots head cleanly off. Lilac was lashing with her twin ponytails at her opponent to inflict lots of damage before performing a roundhouse kick to knock its weakened upper body off as well. They moved on ahead and quickly evaded a laser wave from a DNA cannon, Naruto activated his lightning aspect as he dashed towards the cannon "Chidori!" gathering mass electricity into his right hand and stabbed right through the cannon and destroying it. They barely advanced further when a squadron of Shade Elites began teleporting into the hallway and approached to attack.
"They just keep on coming at us!" said Nicole FF.
"Then we'll just have to keep on destroying them, no way are they stopping us from getting to the Kingdom Stone!" Naruto unsheathed both Masamune and Hazy-Moon and crouched slightly "Swift Release: Bladed Shadow Dance!" Naruto dashed towards the robots at high-speed as he appeared as nothing more than a blur of slashes with afterimages depicting where he was for a moment till he skidded to a stop at the other and swung both blades to his sides with the Shade Elites falling into pieces. Naruto and Lilac ran up a short ramped wall and boosted through a speed gate to dash along the clear remainder of the hallway till they exited it to drop down to a lower level where the path continued on ahead and there is a locked door behind them, Naruto and Lilac moved on as they dashed through a downward guiding loop and boosted through a speed gate but skidded to a stop before a row of bounce pads which they used to a chain of platforms which comprised of ramped walls-to-ceilings with speed gates in between them to provide bursts of speed for their ascent to the top, there they picked up a keycard and entered a teleporter to be warped back to the bottom. Then they backtracked to the locked door and opened it to pass through into another teleporter to be warped up to a second hallway, there the duo were attacked by a large blue cacteon "Light Speed Blade!" Naruto switched to his celestial aspect and constructed a blade out of light then dashed towards the enemy and lashed out in a flash of light, nanoseconds later multiple white slashes began to appear all over the robot before it exploded into many pieces. The duo climbed up a wall ahead and stepped into another teleporter and warped to another area, there they passed through several doors before entering a large chamber with a ring of flame jets. Naruto scooped up a blushing Lilac and used the Shadow Step to bypass the rings and appear at the upper platform before they passed through a door leading to the core of the Dreadnought.
Music End
Naruto and Lilac emerged from a door to find themselves at the core where they saw Kingdom Stone ahead of them with a pair of consoles, they quickly approached the stone and stood near the consoles as Naruto could sense massive amount of energy stored within it much to his awe.
"So this is the Kingdom Stone, to think everything that happened was because of this thing," said Naruto.
"All the more reason for us to get it away from that Brevon-teme before smashing him to millions of pieces," said Kurama, getting a nod of affirmation from the ninja before turning to Lilac.
"Alright Lilac-chan, let's plug in the device which Torque gave to us and shut this place down so we can pick up the Kingdom Stone and get back to the others,"
"Got it," Lilac took out the green microchip and inserted it into the slot on the console, the screen displayed the shutting down sequence and soon the power was cut off with the lights and machinery around them turning off "It's complete, now we can get to the Kingdom Stone,"
"If only it were that easy," A familiar but hated voice spoke up from behind them, Naruto and Lilac turned round only for their eyes to widen in horror upon seeing Brevon standing before them while holding Milla at knifepoint with the blade dangerously close to her neck.
"Milla/Milla-chan!" rage filled their hearts as Lilac took a step forward and Naruto reached for Hazy-Moon to take down Brevon and save the Basset Hound, however the alien warlord pressed the blade closer to Milla's neck as he sneered at the duo, daring them to come closer at their own risk.
"I wouldn't be coming any closer if I were you, wouldn't want any 'accidents' to happen now would we?" said Brevon tauntingly.
"Damn you!" Naruto growled in anger as he put his hand away from the blade and Lilac took a step back, and Kurama was also growling in rage of this being…never has he hated anyone more than Uchiha Madara! Just how far would this bastard go to achieve his dark ambitions?!
"Let Milla go!" Lilac yelled at Brevon angrily.
"You two already know how this will work, having done so the first time we met so I believe that I don't need to tell you what must be done and don't try anything stupid," said Brevon.
"We don't have any other choice…," Naruto glanced over at a worried Lilac and spoke out to her "Give him the microchip, Lilac-chan,"
The dragoness was flabbergasted "But Naruto-"
"DO IT!"
Lilac gritted her teeth in frustration as she went over to remote the microchip from the console which restored the ship's power supply and the Kingdom Stone being moved elsewhere, then she tossed it over to fall at Brevon's feet. The alien warlord stomped on the microchip and chuckled darkly at the angered heroes as he dropped Milla to the ground.
"So typical of you 'heroes'…willingly giving up rare opportunities for the sake of the greater good. Such ideals will lead to your deaths," Brevon leapt back to a hidden teleporter and was warped away from the chamber.
"Milla!" Lilac and Naruto quickly rushed over to check on the young hound who was quivering on the ground in fear to make sure that she was alright and no actual harm had come upon her "Are you okay? Does anything hurt?" Milla slowly raised her head to look at the duo, but it was what they saw which caused them to step back in surprise and fear…Milla's eyes were red.
[Oh no…] Nicole's eyes widened in fear.
"No…please not you too," Naruto muttered in denial but they could only watch on helplessly as Milla transformed into a giant quadrupedal mutant with its eyes in a parallel position, cream and green long fangs protruding from the mouth, and a long prehensile tail.
"SCREEEEECCCHHH!" the mutated Basset Hound shrieked loudly.
"What has happened to Milla?" asked Lilac anxiously.
"Brevon must have turned her into a mutant, just like what he did to Serpentine when Carol-chan and I faced him before meeting you guys," Naruto explained as he watched Milla looked around the area before setting its eyes on them and took a step forward.
"So what do we do?"
"As of now, she isn't in control of herself so we won't be able to reach out to her. This leaves us with only one choice…we have to knock out Milla-chan," said Naruto sadly much to Lilac's shock.
"What?! We can't do that…not to her," she protested.
"Chao/Choa," The chao weren't happy about this in the least bit, they don't want to harm their friend either.
"Right now, Milla-chan isn't control of herself and she needs us. We have to stop her before she does anything which would fill her with guilt, please Lilac-chan!" Naruto pleaded with her.
Hearing another shriek, Lilac turned towards Milla as she slowly approached them, feeling torn between saving her friend and stopping her…she sighed sadly before responding to Naruto "Alright Naruto, let's save Milla before we're too late,"
"Okay Lilac-chan…hang on Milla-chan, we're going to save you!" Naruto proclaimed loudly as he and Lilac took a fighting stance.
"SCREEEEECCCHHH!" Milla shrieked once more as she charged towards the duo.
Music Start: Freedom Planet OST; Neo Chase (Tragic Boss Battle)
Milla reached up to the duo and swung one of her large paws at them, but Naruto and Lilac quickly jumped backwards to get out of range of the attack then Lilac leapt high into the air before descending with a dive kick to slam into Milla before flipping backwards to avoid potential retaliation, Naruto used Shadow Step to appear at the side as he activated his lightning aspect and channeled a low amount of electricity to his hands before performing a double palm thrust at her side, causing Milla to screech in pain. Milla growled angrily at the duo and pointed the tip of its tail towards them before firing phantom cubes, Naruto and Lilac had to dart from left to right to evade the projectiles with expanded upon contact with the ground.
"Her moves are much stronger than normal, so we gotta be careful not to get hit!" Naruto called out in alert.
"I know!" Lilac used her speed to approach Milla whilst dodging the phantom cubes till she was upon and lashed out with her twin ponytails then somersaulted into the air to evade a swipe from Milla's paws and responded with an aerial roundhouse kick and jumping away. Milla jumped into the air and began to fire phantom bullets from above towards them, Kou flew before the duo and projected an energy shield to deflect the shots away from them, Naruto grabbed Lilac with his tails and spun round to fling her towards Milla for the dragoness to perform the Dragon Cyclone for consecutive hits before gliding back to the ground. Milla landed on the ground and quickly moved to one end of the room and firing three shield bursts in a row with the projectiles constantly enlarging and shrinking as they approached.
"Light Barricade!" Naruto activated his Celestial aspect and projected an energy barrier to absorb the incoming and reduced the amount of power to be reflected "Repercussion!" the barrier fired a white beam of energy smaller than normal to strike Milla then he switched back to lightning aspect and rushed towards the mutated Basset Hound to strike her consecutively with low powered electric punches
Milla wasn't through with them yet as she fired phantom cubes and they unleashed powerful energy burst with some of them actually able to hit Naruto and Lilac, knocking them back a bit before using Puppy Float once more to take to the air and firing phantom projectiles to lay on the pressure. Naruto quickly recovered to channel chakra to his ECG-X gloves and crossed his arms together to create an energy dome around him and Lilac to defend against the projectiles before switching to the air aspect "Aero Beast Swipe!" a large volume of wind swirled around his right arm and took on the shape of a giant paw which he swung to smash Milla from the air down to the air, the mutated Basset Hound got back to her feet and reveal that the topmost eye had been destroyed.
"Just a little more, then we'll be able to wear her down," said Naruto.
Lilac nodded in affirmation then she used the Dragon Boost to speed towards the weary Milla and used the momentum to unleash a powerful roundhouse kick, knocking her back a couple of meters. Lilac ducked low as Naruto flew overhead with a chakra enhanced flying side kick for a follow-up attack. Milla wasn't giving in to them just yet by swinging and firing phantom cubes at them wildly at the same time attempting to tackle the duo with her body. Naruto and Lilac continued to utilize the hit-and-run tactic to wear her down.
"She's almost done, time to put a stop to all this!" Naruto took out a Hirashin kunai in one hand and created a Rasengan in the other before infusing it with celestial energy, he waited for Milla to attack which she did firing launching several phantom cubes, then he threw the Hirashin kunai to fly right above her before flashing over to grab it in midair "Flying Raijin: Holy Smite!" he rammed the Rasengan onto Milla's back, causing her to screech loudly as the spiraling sphere unleashed a bright flash of light for a few moments before it faded away to reveal a badly bruised Milla lying face-down on the ground and she wasn't moving whatsoever.
Music End
"Milla!" Lilac rushed over to the unconscious girl as Naruto held her in his arms with eyes full of anguish and guilt, he may have been the one to suggest the idea and went on with it but it didn't stop his heart from crying in sorrow for he actually went against the promise of protecting her from any sort of harm and yet he is the cause of her pain. He took off the right glove to expose the Yang seal before placing it on her palm in hopes of healing her. They watched as the wounds on her body were healed but she still wasn't waking up so he listened for her heartbeat only to hear it faintly much to his growing worry and Nicole emerged from the SAC to scan her vitals.
"This is not good," the Holo-lynx muttered in concern.
"Is she going to be okay?" asked Lilac worriedly.
"…she's gone in a coma, I don't know when she's going to wake up," Naruto gritted his teeth and punched the floor, creating a dent as tears gathered at Lilac's eyes, threatening to fall. They suddenly heard footsteps from behind and turned about ready to unleash their barely contained rage only to see that it was Carol entering the room, the wildcat let out a gasp of horror upon seeing Milla laying down unconscious.
"Naruto, Lilac…what happened to Milla?!" Carol ran over to check on the girl.
"It was Brevon…he held her hostage to get the Kingdom Stone, and it got worse as he had mutated her just like he did with Serpentine," Naruto growled in anger "We had no other choice but to knock her out,"
"Grrrr, that does it! I'm going to tear that bastard to pieces!" Carol got up and made to leave but Naruto reached out to grab her hand, stopping her from going anywhere much to her anger "Let me go, Naruto!"
"No I won't, I need you to carry Milla back to the ship while Lilac and I go after Brevon-teme," said Naruto.
"What?! You're stopping me from fighting Brevon?!"
"I'm asking you to protect Milla, I've had it up to here with that scum and the time has come for him to pay," Naruto carried Milla in his arms and held her out to Carol "I'm begging you Carol, please watch over her,"
"Please Carol," Lilac pleaded too.
Carol was torn about all this but looking at Milla caused her eyes to soften, then she took her from Naruto "Okay then, but you better make sure that he feels every hit for Milla and I,"
"He most definitely will," Naruto stepped back and created a squad of shadow clones which stood close to Carol while Kou and Yoru flew over to her as well "I need you guys to protect them, got it?"
"Roger boss," the clones replied.
"Chao/Choa," the Chao affirmed as well.
They watched Carol and the others leave for the ship and rendezvous with Torque, then Naruto and Lilac turned towards the other end of the room with the locks of their hair shadowing their eyes and the former spoke in a voice of silent rage.
"Let's go and make an alien see hell,"
"Let's…"
Both took off through the doorway at high-speed, the only thought in their mind is to find Brevon…AND MAKE HIM PAY FOR WHAT HE HAS DONE!
Music Start: Freedom Planet OST; Final Dreadnought 4
Naruto and Lilac emerged from the passageway to find themselves in a chamber with the only route being to ascend to the top from their position, the duo looked upwards then at each other before nodding in agreement as they began their ascent. They ran up a ramped wall and kicked off it to grab onto a ladder which they climbed up to the next level, a couple of beast iris were patrolling the area when they saw the duo and rushed towards them to attack with their claws. Naruto ducked under the swipe and slammed a palm onto its body then he triggered his hidden blade to pierce through and followed it up by electrocuting it with his lightning aspect activate before finishing it off with a powerful roundhouse kick, Lilac flipped over her opponent to evade its attack and land behind it then she lashed out with her twin ponytails several times then performing a flipkick to finish it off. They used a bounce pad to run up the wall along a ramped ceiling and somersaulting off to land on the higher platform. They came across metallic blocks hovering in midair which tend to disappear for a certain amount of time before reappearing, Naruto and Lilac had to time their jumps just right in order to climb higher to the next upper platform.
Next up were floating bounce pads which the duo bounded off a couple of times in a row to reach up to the next, again they were attacked by beast irises along with a DNA cannon in addition to their trouble. Naruto threw a Hirashin kunai for it to fly over the cannon then he flashed over to it with a Rasengan in hand for a Flying Raijin: Level 2 attack while Lilac too the rest down with her speed and martial arts. There were some more disappearing blocks with shorter duration of appearance for them to use to climb up to the next platform, Lilac almost slipped off to the bottom if not for Naruto firing a chakra construct of a grappling hook to latch on to the dragoness and pull her up to the ledge much to her gratefulness. They stepped into a teleporter and were warped up to the next floor.
Upon arrival, the duo noticed that the floor was full of inactive teleporters then suddenly a Large, stationary reddish orange turret with spiderlike legs appeared from the walls and began firing crystalline shells at them. Naruto quickly created a chakra kunai to deflect the incoming projectiles before either of them were hit by it then he charged more chakra into the kunai and threw it to strike the turret as it unleashed an explosive burst of energy to destroy it. They climbed up the nearby ladder to the top and saw a teleporter to which they jumped into, however they ended up getting warped back to where the row of teleporters which they were before, much to their confusion.
"What are we doing back down here?" asked Lilac confusedly.
[I have reasons to suspect that the teleporters here are programmed to warp any who step into them to be sent back down to this destination] said Nicole.
"In that case, we need to avoid any teleporters that we come across as we climb up to the top," said Naruto, getting a nod of agreement from Lilac.
The duo climbed up the ladder and this time ignored the first teleporter as the disappearing blocks materialized for them to use as a temporary platform and quickly climb up and destroy the beast iris which came their way. More teleporters appeared to obstruct their path, so Lilac used her dragon boost to ricochet off the walls to ascend and Naruto simply latched onto the walls with chakra on the soles of his boots and ran up to follow her. They climbed further with use of hovering bounce pads to reach yet another platform, they discovered what appeared to be gravitational platforms which lifted them upwards to higher platforms and towards a dead-end with a teleporter. Naruto sent a shadow clone through it as a precautional step and waited until receiving memories which gave him to go-ahead for them to step into and were upwards this time to the next floor. A large blue cacteon pounced at Naruto and Lilac but the former activated his fire aspect and used the Fiery Joust to pierce through its core and kicked it away from them, they used the next hovering bounce pad to reach the very top of the chamber and moved along the pathway ahead of them. More Spider Beamers appeared from the walls and ceilings to fire crystalline shells at them. Naruto fired a barrage of fox fireballs to destroy the ones on the ceilings and Lilac used her Dragon Cyclone to strike the rest on the walls while bouncing around like a spinning top. They reached the end and proceeded to dash down multiple slopes all the while either evading laser fire from turrets or taking out the Shade Elites which would teleport in to intercept them till they reached the end and went through a passageway to the next area.
They arrived at another vertical chamber for them to climb up to the top again, they were about to move when Nicole emerged from the SAC in her faerie form and quickly stopped them from continuing on much to their confusion.
"What's the matter, Nicole-chan?" asked Naruto with a quirked eyebrow.
"Please wait a moment for there is a trap ahead of us," said Nicole much to their surprise, at that moment.
*BOOOOOM!*
A massive blue laser beam struck from above, surprising them further then Nicole turned to explain what had just happened before them.
"That was what I am talking about, I had hacked the system and analyzed the schematics of the Dreadnought which had information about it. There's a certain amount of time for it to charge up before firing again, so you must stay clear before that happens," said Nicole.
"How long does it take to charge?" asked Naruto attentively.
"About ten seconds,"
"We'll keep it in mind,"
Naruto and Lilac waited for the laser to fire before quickly running over to the other side and climbing up the ladder to the top and crossed over again in time for the laser to fire once more, a DNA cannon was stationed ahead and fired a laser wave towards them but Naruto blocked it with an energy shield and Lilac dashed out from behind to approach the cannon and destroyed it with several lashes of her ponytails. They climbed up a ledge overhead and crossed to the other side while Nicole fired a Data Torrent to corrupt a DNA cannon from functioning as they approached. Naruto and Lilac took to climbing up the ledges within range of the mega laser and had to do so quickly for it was getting ready to fire again, soon they used a chain of multiple diagonal bounce pads to ascend much faster and jumped out of the way in time for the laser to fire. The duo moved up to the next platform and used a gravitational platform within range of the laser to rise up. The climb got more tedious and there were several close calls along with enemies appearing to obstruct them until reaching the top with the pathway being nothing more than a straight line for them to dash along to the end.
[I'm detecting the energy from the Kingdom Stone not much farther from here] said Nicole from within the SAC.
"And sure enough, he is there waiting for us," said Naruto with a snarl.
"Hurry up and get there already Naruto, I want that alien laying broken at our feet!" said Kurama angrily, Naruto had to cut off their link to avoid going deaf from Kurama's roars, though he merely bottled most his anger up until the time came for him to unleash it.
"In due time Kurama, in due time," thought Naruto rather darkly as they ran.
Naruto and Lilac arrived at what would be the final hallway for them to pass through, ahead of the duo were multiple Spider beamers hanging off the walls and ceilings to fire at them, but Naruto wasn't in the mood to be delayed as he created a small squad of shadow clones to rush ahead of them at high-speed and demolishing them, the duo moved on ahead to arrive at the end and stepped into a gravitational field which carried them up to the very top of the Dreadnought, there they found the Kingdom Stone once more and sitting on a column close by is the subject of their barely containable rage…Brevon.
Music End
"I'll never forgive you!" Lilac yelled angrily.
Nicole emerged from the SAC in her default form next to Naruto and Lilac with an angry look on her face "You have gone way too far for your ambitions!"
"…." Naruto said nothing with the locks of his hair obscuring his eyes but one would see his fists clenched extremely tightly and his teeth gritted in absolute rage, merely looking at Brevon makes him want to unleash everything he has to destroy him, just like when he saw Pein stab Hinata which made him want to release the seal holding Kurama were it not for his father's intervention…but now he's willing to do so again especially both him and the fox share the same objective.
"I have no use for forgiveness, especially from someone who puts my homeworld at risk for an oversized battery," Brevon replied indifferently "I offer you one final chance…leave now,"
"Hehehe…," a chuckle was heard from Naruto "…I'm so glad to hear that you have no use for forgiveness, because you never deserved it to begin with. Plus there's no qualms for when we get to beat a scumbag like you to a point of death!" Naruto raised his head to reveal his eyes no longer blue but vermillion red with catlike slits as he unleashed his killing intent towards the alien warlord, surprising him.
"Then so be it, your foolishness will be the death of you!" Brevon stood up as the ceiling of the large chamber opened up to reveal the dark cloudy skies overhead then he leapt into the air to be picked up by his battleship the Absolution as it flew around to engage the group.
"This is it everyone, time to put an end to all of this!" Naruto's body flared with blue chakra as he took a combat stance.
"It's about time!" said Kurama.
"Right!" Lilac took her combat stance as well next to him.
"I'll be with you to the end!" Nicole returned to the SAC, ready to provide support.
Music Start: Freedom Planet OST; Final Boss 1
The Absolution swooped towards them and landed hard on the ground to induce damaging shockwaves at the duo, Naruto and Lilac dashed backwards to evade them as they already know what to expect from the ship. Naruto grabbed onto Lilac and flung her towards the gem as she somersaulted in midair and used Dragon Boost to slam into it to inflict damage before moving away from it. The starship leapt into the air and fired laser beams from above at them. Naruto quickly used Shadow Dance to evade the incoming shots the activated his celestial aspect to create a bow constructed from light "White Hailing Arrows!" he pulled the bowstring back to form an arrow then he took aim and fired for the projectile to duplicate itself rapidly and zip towards its set target. The Absolution took evasive actions but wasn't able to evade all of the light arrows as some of them struck true, particularly the gem in the front.
Brevon growled from within the cockpit and steered the gunship to swoop towards the duo with intent to slam right into them, Naruto saw what the alien warlord as about to do and quickly had his tail pick a Hirashin kunai from the ninja pouch as he rushed over to Lilac whilst timing his move then quickly flung the kunai at the moment he reached the dragoness and flashed over to dodge the collision and reappearing behind the starship. The Absolution came round to use its slam attack on the ground once again, but missed once more and this time Naruto switched to his air aspect for his next move "Wind Rush!" he quickly dashed forward with wind swirling around his right arm and struck the gem, then he somersaulted backwards with the wind still present around his arm to fire a sphere of compressed air to hit the gem once again. The Absolution pounced at Lilac as she was nearby but the dragoness saw it approaching and dodged at the last second before leaping into the air to perform the dragon cyclone, striking the gem multiple times before quickly retreating.
The starship rose to the air with the bottom opening for the gun turret to emerge and proceeded to fire rapidly at them, Naruto created a protective energy dome to defend him and Lilac against the projectiles as the Absolution flew overhead, then it switched to launched globs of acid which melted parts of the ground around him but Naruto reinforced his shield to withstand against it too. Brevon piloted the ship away from the duo as he locked on to them and pulled the trigger to launch a numerous amount of missiles that homed in on the targets, Naruto charged the ECG-X gloves with a lot of chakra "Chakra Blast Volley!" he proceeded to throw his hands forward one after another rapidly as he fired many chakra spheres towards the missiles and was able to destroy every single one of them "Light Beam Rapid Refire!" Naruto switched back to his celestial aspect before launching a barrage of light beams, Brevon veered the starship left and right to evade the oncoming barrage but Naruto managed to land a hit on one of its stabilizers, knocking the ship off balance.
Naruto crouched low with chakra being channeled through his arms as he waited for the Absolution to draw closer to them, then he used Shadow Step to disappear from his position and reappear atop the Absolution with a Rasengan in hand "Say goodbye to your toy teme, Rasengan!" he rammed the spiraling sphere into the gem as it proceeded to grind through before bursting out to inflict massive damage. Naruto somersaulted off to land back on the platform next to Lilac. They watched as the damaged starship flew to the center of the platform and the doors underneath opened for Brevon to descend from it and hover in the air, the alien warlord glared at them then he pressed a button on his bracer which let out a bright flash of green light before it faded to reveal him donning a giant power suit with a color scheme matching his armor then the Absolution flew away afterwards.
"Think that is going to stop us? We'll prove you wrong!" said Lilac with a frown.
"We'll just have to see about that!" Brevon retorted, he activated the thrusters on his back to propel himself into the air and proceeded to fire heated laser from above towards them, lilac dashed from left to right to evade the shots while Naruto was doing the same and switched to his fire aspect "Firebird Missile!" he waved his hands to create multiple fire constructs of falcons before launching them to home in on Brevon, successfully striking him before he could put any sort of defense. Brevon quickly closed the gap in between him and Naruto before swinging its arms at the fox. Naruto switched to defense as he somersaulted and flipped to avoid the steeled punches thrown at him, suddenly the power suit suddenly and it revealed Lilac having used Dragon Boost to ram it from behind "Blazing Uppercut!" Naruto focused the flames to his right fist then quickly stepped forward to perform a jumping uppercut to send Brevon stumbling backwards. However Brevon recovered from the attack rather quickly and crouched whilst gathering large amounts of energy within itself, something which Nicole was quick to notice.
[Everyone, he charging up for a radial attack!] said Nicole.
"Roger that!" Naruto and Lilac quickly moved away from the power suit and just in time as it unleashed numerous green projectiles in all directions for the former to use a circular energy shield to block any that came their way. Brevon stood his power suit back to its feet then used the thrusters to propel himself at them with great speed whilst leaving behind a trail of flames for a shoulder tackle, Lilac leapt over the incoming attack and Naruto used Shadow Dance to maneuver around Brevon and appear behind him with afterimages serving as decoys, he jumped up to the suit's head and held on with his chakra and proceeded to pound at it with lightning attributed punches. Brevon's teeth gritted as the systems of his suit were continuously alerting him of the growing amount of damage, he manipulated one of the arm cannons to aim above its head and charged up to fire. Naruto saw the arm cannon pointed at him and used Shadow Step to get off right before it fired and reappeared on the platform, Lilac seized the chance to close in and lash at the head several times with her ponytails but quickly backed away to avoid a swing from one of the power suits arms.
Brevon took to firing laser blasts at the duo once and once more again they took evasive actions to avoid getting it by the incoming projectiles, Lilac took to the offense and used Dragon Boost to attack, Brevon knocked her out of his way and aim an arm cannon to finish her off. Naruto quickly threw a Hirashin kunai in between them and flashed over to grab her and flashed again to get out of the way before the shot was made and grabbing the thrown kunai in midair.
"Are you okay Lilac-chan?" asked Naruto worriedly.
"…yeah, just a little bruised," Lilac replied.
"Good to hear, take some time to rest a bit before rejoining the fight," Naruto stood to his feet and dashed towards Brevon with his fists emitting foxfire "Fox Fireballs!" he began to launch a barrage of azure fireballs to pelt the power suit as he approached. Brevon suddenly curled up and starting spinning rapidly before launched himself forward whilst ricocheting off the walls, ceilings, floors and ceilings which forced Naruto to use his speed to get out of his way but was caught unawares when Brevon suddenly switched to a high-speed tackle and successfully landed a hit on him. Naruto tumbled back a few times before bouncing to his feet and skidded backwards to a stop "That won't happen again, scumbag!" he rushed in once more with his arms spread out as he activated his fire aspect "Fire Whip!" long ropes made of flames were created then he proceeded to lash out at the enemy to land consecutive hits, Brevon hovered to the air and was about to fire another round of laser blasts but Naruto used one of his tails to launch a fox fireball to knock the arm cannon off course before using the fire whips to wrap around it and mess with the power suit's flight.
Lilac was able to recover a bit and got back to her, she rushed in to rejoin the battle and used a Dragon Boost to slam into the vulnerable power suit this time and send it crashing into the wall. Naruto saw that it was preparing to use another radial blast of energy projectiles and wasn't going to have any of it, he unsheathed both Masamune and Hazy-Moon then he dashed forwards whilst dragging the blades along the ground, eliciting sparks "Lunar style: Double Moon Cleave!" he leapt high into the air and came diving down towards the power suit then executed a double vertical slash in a parallel formation to slice through arm cannons cleanly for them to fall to the ground before flipping backward a couple times to put some distance between each other.
"You're only delaying the inevitable Brevon, it is only a matter of time till we get our hands on you," said Naruto angrily.
Lilac nodded in agreement with the fox "No machines will be able to save you from our rage, we will make you pay for what you have done!"
Multiple slashes occurred from within the power suit, then it fell into many pieces with Brevon crouched low with a blade in hand as he scowled at the duo before him and responded irritatedly "I would like to see you try!"
"He's just asking for it," said Kurama with Naruto nodding in agreement.
Music Switch: Freedom Planet OST; Final Boss 2
Brevon dashed at them and quickly lashed out with his knife, Naruto sheathed Hazy-Moon and used Masamune to parry the incoming strike and retaliated with a horizontal slash of his own but the warlord jumped backwards to evade it and struck out with a punch, Naruto caught the punch with his free hand and pulled him close then struck out with a rising knee strike to the face which sent him stumbling backwards. Lilac leapt over Naruto and lunged at Brevon with a dive kick which struck his chest plate and followed it up with a roundhouse kick for additional damage. Brevon recovered from the attacks and rushed up to Lilac and grab her by neck and flinging her across the room, then he leapt backwards to draw out a double-barreled energy pistol and fired several rounds at Naruto who used Masamune to deflect them before switching to his air aspect.
Naruto moved at blurring speeds till he reached Brevon in midair then he unleashed an assault of powerful punches and kicks which are enhanced with the wind for increment in speed, he performed an aerial flipkick to juggle him in the air before firing jets of air from his feet to propel himself after Brevon with large volumes of wind swirling around his arms "Sky Hammer Strike!" He linked his arms together into one and brought it crashing down into Brevon's chest plate, denting it and driving him down to the ground. Brevon hardly crashed into the ground as a purple blur crashed into him and continued on to be slammed into the wall before moving away to reveal that it was Lilac having used Dragon Boost to attack. Brevon snarled in anger and slashed at her with his knife but Lilac quickly used Dragon cyclone to parry the strike and use the momentum from the spin to kick him away from herself.
"Why you little brats, you will regret that!" Brevon tossed out several land mines to the ground and fired multiple round from his energy pistol upon seeing the duo charging at him. The mines began beeping loudly then exploded to unleashed shockwaves along the ground towards them. Naruto and Lilac leapt into the air to evade the waves as the latter used dragon cyclone to maneuver from the incoming energy projectiles and the former flung a Hirashin kunai to strike the ground before Brevon and quickly flashed over to appear right in front of the warlord with his back on the ground "Meteor Blow!" Naruto struck with a double kick to send Brevon into the air and threw a Hirashin kunai at him to flash over with his fire aspect active "Firebird Strike!" Naruto engulfed himself in flames which took on the form of a bird then he lunged at Brevon to punch him in square in the face to send crashing to the ground. Naruto landed back on the ground but mildly noticed that his eyes were itching him a little and blinked a few times before snapping back into focus as he saw Lilac engaging Brevon in close combat and dashed to help her out.
Suddenly Brevon began to radiate with a yellow as he slowly hovered into the air, lilac leapt into the air and lashed out with a Dragon Cyclone but got knocked back by the yellow energy surrounding Brevon, and he proceeded to fly around the room at high-speed whilst leaving behind a trail of yellow energy. The duo took to dodging the alien warlord before he could slam into them as Naruto performed a cartwheel jump over Brevon's swoop and Lilac rolled to the side constantly until the opponent landed back on the ground with the yellow aura fading away from his body.
"Kurama, it's your turn to kick his ass!" said Naruto.
"Finally, some excitement!" said Kurama gleefully, Naruto's head slumped a bit as he passed the control of his body to the bijuu then it rose back up to show his still red eyes with catlike slits but this time full of bloodthirst and a fanged grin "Here I come Brevon!" said alien turned to see the fox running towards him and quickly jumped away from Lilac to draw out his pistol and shoot at him rapidly, however Kurama darted from side to side to avoid the shots and was soon upon him as he unleashed a barrage of claw attacks in a wild frenzy like a rampaging animal. Kurama grabbed Brevon's head with both hands and began striking it multiple times with his knees with the enemy being unable to break free from his grip. The bijuu finally let go only to rear a fist back and launch a powerful uppercut to launch him into the air then created two shadow clones to jump into the air after Brevon before jumping as well, the clones grabbed Brevon and held him down as they fell with Kurama driving a knee deep into his chest as they crashed to the ground before flipping away with the clones dispelling "How's that feel Brevon? It's nothing compared to what you had been doing but we intend to change that soon,"
Brevon got back to his feet with his parts of his body broken off from the onslaught of attacks from both Naruto and Lilac much to his ever growing anger, this wasn't supposed to happen! He shouldn't be having such difficulty with these creatures as they're supposed to be nothing more than insects to be step on just like he did with the other heroes before them…and yet here he is being beaten by these brats. No! This can't be allowed, he won't be impeded in his mission! Brevon drew out his knife and rushed a the duo to slice them in half, Kurama simply smirked as he channeled his chakra to his hands before reaching out to grab the knife by the blade and held it there much to the alien's shock.
Kurama's grin widened as he reared a fist back "You're…TOO SLOW!"
*WHAM!*
His fist slammed into Brevon's face with an audible crack as he was sent flying into the wall and dropping to the ground, Kurama tightened his grip on the knife to shatter it to many pieces and letting it fall from his hand "Hmph, and here it thought that you would be a challenge. But I've had my fun, time for the kit to resume beating the hell out of you!" Kurama returned control of the body back to Naruto as he snapped into focus.
"Like my partner said, time to inflict the consequences on you, let's go Lilac-chan!" Naruto dashed towards Brevon with Lilac following him from behind, Naruto was upon the warlord with a fire ablaze with foxfire "This is for what you almost did to the people of Avalice!" he punched Brevon in the face, knocking him away towards Lilac.
"This is for torturing Naruto and I!" Lilac lashed out with a roundhouse kick to the chest.
"This is for killing the king of Shuigang and brainwashing their prince!" Naruto slashed multiple times with the Masamune.
"This is for killing Torque's crew members!" Lilac used her Dragon Cyclone to land consecutive hits on the warlord.
"But most of all…," Naruto triggered his Chakra mode as he dashed forward to land a massive punch to Brevon "NOBODY…."
Lilac used the full power of her Dragon Boost to slam into him before ricocheting away "HURTS…."
The two purple and yellow streaks converged to form one large multicolored streak which closed in on the helpless enemy in an instantly "MILLAAA!"
Music End
Brevon laid on the ground with his entire body bruised and mangled with a majority of his body armor destroyed beyond any chance of repair, the alien coughed out blood as he slowly raised his head to look at the two who are the cause for his defeat. He looked away from the dragoness towards the fox but he noticed that something was strange about him yet again…his eyes have somehow become red-rimmed with light blue irises then the next thing the duo knew…
"AAaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!"
Brevon let out a bloodcurdling scream at the top of his voice as squirming on the ground as if he was in greater pain and lacerations started appearing on his body with parts of his bones breaking with nobody having touched it much to their confusion.
"What's happening to him?" asked Lilac, not really caring.
"I don't really know," Naruto answered, not noticing the change in his eyes and that they had just reverted as Brevon continued to suffer, however Kurama noticed and was about to bring his partners attention to it. Suddenly the whole place began to quake with pieces of the ship falling apart all around them "But we need to get the Kingdom Stone and leave before this place blows.
"Naruto, I can't locate the Kingdom Stone within the area!" said Nicole worriedly, they turned to where they last saw the stone only to find the glass shattered and the stone missing.
"Where is it?!" Lilac looked around frantically for the relic.
"Kit, you two need to get out of here now!" said Kurama urgently.
"But what about the Kingdom Stone?" thought Naruto as he continued to look around for it with his Aura Sight active but can't seem to focus for some reason.
"You won't be alive to find it if you remain, now head back to the others and get out of here!"
Naruto gritted his teeth in frustration "Dammit!" he trigger his chakra mode again and went over to scoop Lilac into her arms.
"Naruto, what are you doing?" asked Lilac confusedly.
"Sorry Lilac-chan, but there's no more time for us to search for the Kingdom Stone. We gotta get back to Carol and the others before this place blows up, so hang on tight!" Naruto took off at light speeds while leaving behind a yellow flash similar to the flying Raijin.
Outside, the explosions occurred all over the Dreadnought as parts of the warship began falling apart into space. At that moment, the Absolution was seen flying away from the ship into the deep unknown as a red small spaceship flew out and descended the planet just time for the Dreadnought finally exploded in a bright flash of light and starry sparkles.
Sometime later, the group had landed back at the camping grounds of the allied army and Milla was carried into a tent to be cared for as Naruto, Nicole, the Chao, Lilac and Torque sat around the campfire in silence. Suddenly Carol came running out of the tent with a frantic look on her face.
"Milla's awake now!" said Carol.
Everyone scrambled to their feet and ran inside to see Milla laying on one of the cots, the basset hound stirred from her induced coma and looked up to see all of her friends with looks of relief and worry in their eyes, soon the memories of what happened came into her mind and she began to whimper which turned into crying with tears flowing down her cheeks.
"I'm so sorry *sob* I couldn't stop myself," Milla cried guiltily.
Naruto quickly hugged Milla while wrapping his tails around her as she clenched his jacket and cried even more "It's okay Milla *Shhhhh* everything's alright now. It's all over,"
Lilac joined in the hug while also crying "It's not your fault, you weren't yourself. It's okay now,"
"*Sob* it was like a nightmare that I couldn't wake up from,"
"Well that nightmare is all over now, and we made sure that Brevon paid for what he made you do," said Naruto assuredly.
"Yeah, thanks to Naruto, you're okay now," said Carol happily, very relieved with everyone alive from all this.
"She's right, you all kept your promise of coming back alive," said Torque.
Afterwards, everyone was standing around the campfire again in silence but the feeling of victory was really present within them with Lilac being the one who was affected the most. She felt guaranteed that they would accomplish the mission…but they didn't.
"We couldn't save…we couldn't even stop Brevon from getting away. We didn't notice him teleporting away until it was too late…" said Lilac in a dispirited manner.
"Don't beat yourselves up. Brevon didn't get the stone and his army was destroyed with the ship, Thanks to you two our mission is complete," said Torque.
"Even so, the importance of the stone was much too great to have been ignored," said Naruto sadly, Milla was stilling leaning on him with his tails wrapped around her.
"He's right, how is our planet going to survive without any more energy?" asked Lilac.
"Uh guys…you might wanna look up," said Carol whilst pointing at the night sky, everyone looked to the sky and were rather surprised upon what they are seeing right now
Music Start: Freedom Planet OST; Epilogue
Up in the night sky it some sort of crystalline vortex with the colors of opal and sapphire which is currently swirling around, one thing is for sure…this had ever been seen before in the planet which leads to only one best conclusion shared by everyone.
"Wow…" Milla looked in wonder along with Kou and Yoru.
"My scans have identified the energy to be similar to that of the Kingdom Stone," said Nicole in surprise.
"It's…it's not destroyed? It must have changed form!" said Lilac.
Torque simply smiled "Call me impressed…"
"So in a way, we did accomplish our true mission in the end," Naruto looked up to the sky with a soft smile, Nicole in her normal form went over to lean on Naruto's shoulders and sighed in comforted with the ninja smiling softly in her direction.
Over at the Shang Tu, the Magistrate was watching the Kingdom Stone's newest form and sighed in relief. Though the results wasn't what he expected, it was still beneficial not only to Shang Tu but the other kingdoms as well.
"An opportunity has fallen to our world. We now realize that the Kingdom Stone was never fading, but changing in ways that were transparent to our lust for power and prestige. The wind carries its glow to the furthest reaches of our lands, and former enemies extend their hands to each other, acknowledging the errors of their ways. Creatures both mutant and metal still ravage the landscape, and it will be some time before we can dispose of them once and for all. Perhaps most troubling of all is that Lord Brevon, the monster who threw our world into chaos, is nowhere to be found. There's still much work to be done. We are not completely out of danger, but my people and I will rest easy tonight, knowing that the bravery and sacrifice of a select few have given our world another chance,"
The magistrate turned away from the sight of the Kingdom Stone and made his way to his sleeping quarters to rest for the night.
Deep within the Dragon Forest, we find Naruto and the others who are accompanied by General Gong as they stood before Torque who was standing in front of a rocket ship. It had been about a week since their final battle against Brevon and the revelation of the Kingdom Stone's newest form. Mayor Zao had invited everyone to a royal feast and boy did Naruto put away the ramen served that night, Kurama felt some pity for the mayor as he's been witness to the blonde's many ramen runs. It took some time with help from Naruto's shadow clones and Nicole that Torque was able to construct a rocket ship in order to return to the Spectrum Chasers Headquarters and report to the authorities, and now the ship is ready and everyone has come to bid him farewell.
"I never got to properly thank you all for helping me," said Torque gratefully.
"No need for thanks Torque, it's the obvious thing to do since we're friends," said Naruto with a foxy grin.
"That's right, we're all buddies here!" Carol winked playfully.
"Well, on behalf of the Coalition of Planets, you have our sincerest gratitude,"
"Psssh, c'mere you!" Lilac went to hug Torque and was soon joined by the others while Naruto and General Gong watched them with a smile at their comradery, they broke off from the group hug and Torque approached Naruto.
"I really have to thank you Naruto, you did a lot to help us throughout all this from the beginning to the very end. I don't know what would have happened if you weren't around," said Torque.
Naruto grabbed his left shoulder and squeezed a bit as he smiled "Geez man, I already told you that there's no need for thanks. Besides, we shouldn't expect Brevon-teme to ever show his face around here for a very long time,"
"Indeed, the damage to him and his army have severely crippled his power. Your organization should have an easier time dealing with him," said Nicole in agreement.
Torque shook his head in amusement, this fox is just too humble for his own good and he just needs to find a way to thank him. He suddenly came upon an epiphany as he went inside the ship and took out a suitcase before returning to Naruto and opened to reveal a firearm which he held out to the fox.
"I would like for you to take this, it's something I have been fiddling around during my time as a Chaser. It's a prototype but there's still room for improvement," Torque presented it to Naruto who was rather surprised.
"I don't know if I can accept this Torque, I've not been using guns all that much," Naruto protested.
"I can tell but I really want you to have this, please consider it a gift from me and my old crew to you. Use it to protect your friends as well in the near future,"
Naruto wanted to refuse, he really did…but he knew that he can't reject a meaningful gift such as this "Guess I can't say no to this, might as well take it," So he resigned to himself and took the suitcase before digitizing it to the SAC much to Torque's happiness.
"So I guess this is it huh?" Lilac spoke up rather sadly.
"I'm gonna miss you," said Milla sadly, she took a glance at Naruto and realized that she would soon have to say goodbye to Naruto too but can't help but feel that she doesn't want to.
"Me too," Carol nodded in agreement.
"Well who knows? I could be coming back sooner than you think. Until then, take care of yourselves. The world needs you," said Torque.
"Right back at you Torque, better watch yourself out there," said Naruto.
"Chao/Choa!" Kou and Yoru chirped in agreement.
Torque nodded in affirmation and hopped into the rocket ship, he turned to face the others and gave them a thumbs up as the doors closed shut and the propulsion system came online and prepared for takeoff as the others went back at a safe distance to watch him leave.
"See you around spaceman!" said General Gong.
"Goodbye Torque!" Milla waved sadly.
"Bye Torque!" said Carol.
"See you soon!" said Lilac.
"Have a safe trip!" said Nicole.
"Catch ya later man!" said Naruto with a two finger salute.
"Chao chaooo!" Kou waved goodbye.
"Choa," Yoru did the same.
They all watched as the rocket ship was launched into the air and steadily flew away till it disappear from their sight. They were all silent till Naruto let out a sigh before turning to them with a sad smile on his face with the same going for Nicole, knowing what is going to happen next.
"It's time for us to go as well," said Naruto sadly, this sudden news surprised Lilac and the others as well as saddened them greatly even more so than when saying goodbye to Torque.
"What do you mean?" asked Carol.
"Remember that my reason for being here was to help save Avalice from Brevon, and now that it's done I have to return home to the others," Naruto explained.
"But how are you going to get back, do you have some sort of spaceship?" asked General Gong confusedly, Naruto channeled chakra to his right hand and reached into the ninja pouch to activate a hidden seal as he brought out the red chaos emerald for them to see.
"What's that? I sense a strange energy from it," asked Lilac with her eyes on the gem.
"This is a chaos emerald, a gem of unlimited power. Kinda like the Kingdom Stone but smaller and there are seven more including this one, I used it to teleport here and now I'm going to use it to return home," Naruto explained, everyone was stunned that he was holding something similar to the Kingdom Stone this whole time but still the news of him leaving saddens them "So I guess this is where we say goodbye, but like Torque I would come by to visit…a lot," Naruto raised the emerald over his head and was about to mentally contact Tikal to assist in the Chaos Control.
"WAIT!" Carol suddenly yelled out, stopping him and surprising the others "Can you give us a couple of minutes please?" the wildcat grabbed Lilac and Milla before dragging them away to have some sort of group discussions amongst themselves. Amidst the whispers, they heard a gasp from Lilac, several nods from Carol and Milla wagging her tail happily before they all shared a nod of agreement over something Naruto and the others have no idea about.
"I wonder what they were talking about?" thought Naruto.
"Who knows? But here they come now," said Kurama with a shrug of his shoulders.
Carol spoke out to Naruto "Say, you didn't tell us which planet you came from,"
"I guess I didn't, we came from planet Mobius, why ask?"
"Well the girls and I had small discussion about something and we've come to a decision. We've decided…to come with you to Mobius," said Lilac with a smile, while Carol smirked and Milla nodded happily in agreement.
Naruto and Nicole were taken aback by what they just said, they weren't expecting this at all! Naruto was vocal about it "W-what do you mean by that?"
"Remember back on the airship, Lilac and I spoke of how cool it would be to travel to other worlds aside from this one and traveling with you will be a whole lot cooler!" said Carol.
"Are you sure about this? What about your home and what about Milla?" asked Nicole.
Milla then spoke up "Well I had a dream when I was unconscious, I heard the voices of my mommy and daddy. They told me that they told me that I was in the company of good friends and I should be with until the day we finally reunite, and I really don't want you to go away so I want to go with you too," Naruto could see the Basset hound look at him with hope and pleading in her eyes for him to say yes.
"If you're worried about the tree house, I could look after it while you're all gone," said General Gong.
"What do you think Kurama?" thought Naruto.
"Why not let them come along, I can sense that they've made up their minds to do so. Plus I can tell that you're rather happy that they want to come along," said Kurama "Pus we'll need to talk to Tetsuo about what happened to Naruto's eyes too, I can tell something somehow awakened during the battle," said Kurama.
"Heh, nothing gets by you buddy," Naruto chuckled softly.
"Darn straight,"
Naruto looked at the trio and spoke to them "Well you girls are dead set on coming along, then I don't see why I should refuse," the girls eyes widened in surprise then they all tackled Naruto into a hug with smiles on their faces.
"Thank you Naruto, I just know that we're going to have a lot of fun!" said Milla happily.
"You betcha!" said Carol in agreement.
"Then in that case, you girls better stick close to me cause I'm about to start," Naruto turned towards General Gong "Be sure to give Neera Li and the magistrate my regards, we'll be sure to return should you need our help,"
"We hope to see you again, and thanks for all your help," the general bowed in gratitude.
Naruto nodded in affirmation before raising the red Chao Emerald over his head again and called out to Tikal for help "Tikal-chan, my mission is complete and I'm ready to return home along with some new friends too,"
"It is good to hear from you Naruto, I can hear the land's gratitude to you. Be ready as I help bring you and your friends back to Mobius," said Tikal "…Chaos Control!" a red dome of energy surrounded them before disappearing in a flash of red light.
This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Naruto and Carol meet up with the others before Lilac switches in with Carol to retrieve the Kingdom Stone, things went smoothly until Brevon shows up with Milla as hostage, forcing them to hand it over in exchange for the Basset hound. However things took a turn for the worse as Milla was revealed to have been mutated just like Serpentine which left the duo to no other choice but to fight, they were able to revert her to normal but was put into a coma and that in turn awoken a rage as Naruto and Lilac went after the warlord before proceeding to beat Brevon to an inch of his life. The group were forced to escape from the exploding warship without the Kingdom Stone, however they discovered that it changed forms which served to be beneficial to the people of Avalice. Before leaving for headquarters, Torque gifted Naruto with a special firearm and then Lilac revealed that she and the others wanted to go with him and Nicole back to Mobius to which he accepted.
We now come to the end of the Freedom Planet arc and I hope that it was to your satisfaction. For those wondering about how the firearm which Torque gave to Naruto looks like type in ArtStation - VOLACTIC DISRUPTOR , David de Leon(Credit goes to him as I do not own the image) for the image. So far this is the third arc of the story and there's lots more on the way, care to guess which arc is up next? Stay tuned to find out.
Read and Review as always
This is Hussbek from Ghana.
Signing out.