Adventures of the Orange Flash
Chapter 28: To the Rescue!
Naruto and Lilac were currently running through the grassy plain at high-speed with Nicole acting as their navigator towards the location where she had picked up the SOS back at Central city, the Holo-lynx focused on the signal and gestured the duo to turn east towards a large forest where they saw black smoke rising to the sky from it. Naruto and Lilac looked at each other and nodded in silent agreement as they dashed into the forest.
The duo swiftly moved around the tall trees and flipped over any rocks which laid in their way, soon they began to notice that pieces of metal were scattered about and scent of explosives were caught in their noses.
"I'm detecting that the signal's strength getting stronger, we must be drawing closer to the source of the SOS call," said Nicole, sitting atop Naruto's head in faerie form.
"Judging by the scenery, I'd say you're right," Naruto gestured to the state of the environment.
"Hey listen…can you hear that?" asked Lilac.
Naruto focused his senses on what Lilac was talking, he could hear it faintly…it was the sounds of explosion and laser fire along with screams of fear "You're right, it's this way! Come on!" he took off whilst activating his Aura Sight for his vision to turn grayscale, up ahead he could blue aura signatures along with red ones bearing upon them.
They skidded to a stop to view the area before them, it is a large clearing full of tall trees over twenty feet with metallic houses built at the upper most parts of them as metal bridges connect from one tree to another, more houses are also built on the ground. But right now the residents are in a panic as their homes are being destroyed or set on fire because of robots attacking them and firing laser projectiles from their firearms. They're humanoid robots with round bodies and dome-shaped heads, they have blank blue eyes, a sharp yellow nose, wide glowing panels for mouths, and black lower torsos. Some of these robots wielded lasers wielded laser pistols while others were equipped with lances.
Naruto clenched his fists in anger as the memories of when Orochimaru and the deceived Hidden Sand village attacked the Hidden Leaf village and when Pein decimated a majority of it when he came for him. Lilac gasped in horror of the sight, she never got to see what would have happened to Avalice had Brevon succeeded in his plans until now.
"Who would have done something like this?" asked Lilac.
"It doesn't matter, right now we need to help the residents and destroy those robots!" said Naruto, Hazy-Moon and Masamune hovered at his sides ready to be unsheathed.
"Naruto, look over there!" Nicole pointed at something for Naruto and Lilac to see.
There happens to be some sort of scuffle between the robots and one of the inhabitants of the village, they took a closer look to see that it was a Mobian golden rabbit with pale yellow fur, a white muzzle and vibrant emerald-green eyes with her eyelids colored violet and her right ear is flopped. Her hair sticks out in the front and the back had been tied to a ponytail, she also wears a pink leotard and a white glove on her right hand. The most pronounced feature of her are the left arm and lower torso being cybernetic of sleek designs.
As of now, she was currently using these cybernetics to beat the robots with her martial arts. She parried a thrust of a lace from one of the robots then lashed out with a kick to send it flying, the robots took aim at her with their laser pistols and fired, but she activated the boosters on her feet to quickly ascend to the air then her left arm transformed into a laser cannon which was used to fire laser projectiles at the enemy before reverting it and diving back to the ground to punch with great strength to create a radial shockwave which knocked them all back. However more robots appeared to take the place of the ones destroyed and she was beginning to tire from the obviously long battle.
"She needs help!" said Lilac.
"Then let's give her just that!" Naruto dashed towards the rabbit whilst triggering his celestial aspect "Light Speed Blade!" he disappeared in a blur then appeared before the rabbit girl with a pair of sword made out of white light the streaks of light appeared on the robots behind him before they collapsed into many pieces on the ground, Naruto dispelled the blades as he quickly moved around her whilst switching to his air aspect "Aero Beast Swipe!" a large volume of wind swirled around his right arm as it took on the shape of a giant paw then he swung to smack them remainder of the robots away.
Naruto turned to check on the rabbit girl as Lilac and Nicole caught up to him "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, just a mite tuckered out," said the rabbit girl "But who are ya'll?"
"The name's Naruto Uzumaki, and these are my friends Nicole-chan and Lilac-chan. We picked up an SOS call from here and came to lend a hand, and we can see the reason for it," Naruto looked around with a frown.
"Well mah name's Bunnie Rabbot and this is mah home Knothole village," said the newly introduced Bunnie "Right now, mah home's being attacked by these darn robots so my friends and I are trying to get everyone to the bunkers for safety,"
They heard clanking and turned to see that more of the robots had appeared once again and armed with weapons as they charged towards the group. Naruto, Bunnie and the rest took combat stances to engage them as they drew closer then Naruto spoke up
"Then it's a good thing we're here then. We'll be lending a hand to getting everyone to these bunkers," Naruto stood to his feet and crossed the middle and index fingers then began to channel his chakra "Multi-Shadow Clone jutsu!" there was a large puff of smoke of which then cleared away to reveal practically an army of Naruto's doppelgangers.
Bunnie stared in wonder at the sight of this "By golly…,"
"I had the same reaction when I first saw him use this technique too," said Lilac in understanding.
"Okay guys, you already know what needs to be done so go for it!" Naruto called out the order.
"Roger Boss!" the clones responded in affirmation before running off in different directions to carry out their objectives.
"Where're they going?" asked Bunnie, still trying to catch in all this.
"I've sent them to assist the villagers as well as drive the robots back from the village," Naruto replied "In the meantime, we'll need to split up and do the same. I'll go with Nicole to the east side of the village, Lilac-chan can go with you to the west,"
"I'm ready to help you out," said Lilac as she performed a low sweep kick to knock some of the robots to the ground and followed it up with a slash of her twin ponytails to finish some of them off as the rest got back to their feet to fight again.
"Alright, best keep an eye out for mah friends. One's a chipmunk and the other's a white koala, you'll can't miss em," said Bunnie as she blasted another robot with her arm cannon "Let's go, Lilac!" she activated her boosters to take to the air and fly off with Lilac dashing along the ground after her.
"It's time for us to take off as well Nicole-chan," Naruto pointed a palm to the side and fired a point-blank fox fireball to a robot which was about to hit him with a lance.
"Okay Naruto," Nicole transformed to her full size and activated her data wings to hover in the air.
Music Start: Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection; Supercharged
"Let's get this party started!" Naruto took off down the street with Nicole close behind, he ran into his group of robots who saw him and opened fire, he unsheathed both Hazy-Moon and Masamune then used his speed to rapidly deflect the laser projectiles being shot at him as he drew closer till he was right on top of them and actually sheathed the blades "Here we go!" Naruto bared his claws and performed a 4-hit combo of claw strike followed with a tails slam to send one robot, he spun round and dashed at another as he slid low on the ground and knocked it into the air. Naruto dashed to the side to evade a shot from the third robot "Fiery Joust!" he lunged with a lance made of flames and pierced through it, but quickly disappeared in a yellow flash to reappear right above the second airborne robot which he had marked earlier with his kick. His hand was raised above his head whilst crackling with lightning "Severing Flash Chop!" he bisected the robot with an electrified karate chop and landed back on the ground.
Naruto turned towards the next three robots "Earth Strangle!" his fist glowed with a bronze aura and punched the ground for two large hands made of mud to rise behind two of the robots and grab them before they could shoot at him, then he rushed at the third with one of his legs coated in swirling flames "Burning Flip Kick!" he launched an ascending backflip kick to send himself and the robot up into the air again then launched an aggressive spin attack to land consecutive hits then finishing with a forceful heel drop kick to send in smashing to the ground "Shadow Clone jutsu!" he created two copies each prepped with a Rasengan in hand as they dived towards the restrained robots below and destroying them before he landed on the ground.
Some shots were fired at him from above so Naruto activated his earth aspect "Earth Wall!" he slammed a palm to the ground to summon a wall made of mud but hardened with his energy as he took cover, Naruto activated his Aura Sight to look through the mud wall and located some robots situated on a bridge above him and currently shooting at the wall "Guess now's a good time to try out the prototype rifle which Tails and Rotor tuned up for me, Naruto tapped the SAC a few times before the rifle gifted to him by Torque materialized in his hands. Naruto took to christening the rifle with the name Peacekeeper in representation for him and Torque's shared dream for peace no matter which world they are.
Naruto primed the rifle then he rolled out from behind the cover and went down on one knee and took aim at the robots before pulling the trigger to fire energy bullets at them, landing a headshot on one of them while the others continued to fire at the fox "Swift release: Shadow Dance!" he moved at high-speed to leave behind afterimages for distraction as he dashed up a spiraling pathway to reach up to the buildings hanging in the trees and arrived at the bridge. The robots continued to fire at him but Naruto dashed from side to side to dodge the incoming projectiles and returned fire to take them down, he heard something whooshing in the air and looked up to see a variant of the robots except these ones are equipped with airplane-like wings, twin turbines on the back, flight visors in place of the eyes, and cannons which are currently shooting at the bridge which he's on. Naruto took out a Hirashin kunai and threw towards them before warping away in time before the bridge was destroyed, then he reappeared to grab the kunai with his tail as he landed on one of the robots and took to using them as stepping stones till he was right above them.
Naruto channeled a large amount of chakra into the rifle as he took aim "Chakra Blast Volley!" and pulled the trigger for the twin barrels to fire many chakra bullets towards the robots and was able to shoot all of them down. Nicole flew up to Naruto and grabbed one of his hands as they glided back to the ground though the Peacemaker was hissing from overheat of the attack "Thanks for the catch, Nicole-chan,"
"It's no problem at all, though I extracted data from one of the robots and discovered that they're called Egg Pawns and are all creations of Dr. Eggman," said Nicole.
"Ugh, I should have known that Eggman had something to do with this but the question is why he's attacking this village…hm?" Naruto looked to the side and saw a squad of egg pawns bearing down on a small group of civilians "Nicole-chan, I need you to get me over there quickly before they get attacked!"
"Got it!" Nicole quickly glided towards the location then she spun round and threw Naruto over there as he returned the rifle back to the SAC and unsheathed both Hazy-Moon and Masamune, then he landed in between the civilians and the robots.
"You buckets of bolts will not be taking another step to them," Naruto threatened with the blades gleaming in the sunlight to affirm it, however the robots continued to approach regardless of his warning "Don't say I didn't warn ya," Naruto dashed towards the first two robots and parried the thrusts from their lances then performed a spin kick to knock one back and threw the Masamune at the robot to pierce it as he turned to the other one and deflected another thrust, he slashed diagonally twice and followed it up with a jumping uppercut before finishing with a downward strike to cleave it into two. Naruto dashed backwards to grab Hazy-Moon in a reverse grip and pull it out of the robot "Lunar style: Crescent Strike!" he spun round in a 180 and slashed the robot before switching to forward grip. Naruto had his tail throw the Hirashin kunai at the next batch of enemies and reappeared before them "Swift Release: Bladed Shadow Dance!" he began moving rapidly and lightly around the robots with his afterimages displaying of him having attacked before he reappeared with the blades in reverse grip as he slowly sheathed them with an audible click then the egg pawns fell to the ground in pieces. Naruto turned towards the remaining robots and activated his fire aspect "Fiery Spike Wheel!" he created a spinning spiked wheel of fire and kicked it towards them, exploding upon collision.
Once the coast was clear, Naruto and Nicole turned their attention to the civilians and took note that one is an adult and three are children. The adult is a brown Mobian female woodchuck with white hair, round ears and buck teeth as she wears a blue dress with gold/yellow linings. Next is a light brown Mobian male bear cub with round ears, a small bang of hair and a wears a pair of blue shorts. Standing by him is a black Mobian female kitten with small bangs and a thin tail, she wear an open green vest and brown boots. The last of the three children is a reddish brown Mobian tiger cub with pointy ears and small bangs of hair while wearing a blue vest and white gloves.
"Is everyone okay?" asked Nicole.
"Yes we are, thank you. But who are you?" asked the female woodchuck.
"My name's Naruto Uzumaki and she's Nicole, we picked up an SOS call and came over to help," said Naruto while scoping the area with his Aura Sight, he noticed that the children looking at him.
"I see…allow me to introduce myself, my name is Rosie Woodchuck and these children are…" she pointed at the bear cub "…Rory Bear…" the black kitten "…Sasha Cat…" then the tiger cub "…and Snaggle Tiger,"
"Well it's nice to meet you all, but for now we should get you to the bunkers for safety with the others," said Nicole.
"Alright then, but I wish to ask you to help the princess," said Rosie.
"Princess?" asked Naruto curiously.
"Princess Sally, she's out there fighting the robots too!" said Rory Bear.
"Please help her beat them!" said Sasha Cat.
"...um please," Snaggle Tiger spoke up.
Naruto smiled in understanding "You got it then, I'll be sure to lend a hand when I run into her. But first…," Naruto created several shadow clones much to their surprise "…these clones of mine will carry you to the bunkers,"
Rosie bowed in gratitude "Thank you very much,"
"No thanks necessary, hope to see you after this," said Naruto, the clones carried them with the children waving at him and Nicole before being carried away "Alright, let's pick up where we left off,"
"Alright Naruto, there are more enemies over there," Nicole pointed down the street.
"Let's go!" Naruto took off with Nicole flying close to him.
"At this rate, the number of princesses you have saved will increase to double digits," said Kurama, having been enjoying the show till now.
"Tell me about it," thought Naruto.
Somewhere else in another part of town, someone is also battling with the Egg pawns and is having the edge in the fight so far. She is a brown Mobian chipmunk with red hair that connects to the stripe going down her back and ending on her tail, her clothes consists of black shorts with white rimming, dark blue boots with white outlines on the buckles. She wears a closed blue vest with a black crop-top hidden underneath it, and white gloves with blue rings around her wrists which are currently manifesting blue energy blades.
The energy blades dissipated as she looked around the heaps of egg pawns with an expression of annoyance "How many more of these robots are there? They keep getting in my way of looking for Bunnie and Barby," the chipmunk girl walked through the streets whilst keeping an eye out for more of the robots then she quickly hid within a demolished house upon hearing the annoyingly familiar sound of metal clanking from behind and peeked out to see a squad of egg pawns running down the street to who knows where "I wonder where they're going, maybe there are some civilians whom they had found. I better follow them and make sure,"
The chipmunk girl cautiously trailed the robots from a safe distance so as to make sure that they don't notice her presence as well as lose sight of them to wherever they're going, soon they stopped and she went to hide behind a wall before peeking out to see that the egg pawns were surrounding something or rather someone so she took a closer look to see who it was. Apparently it was an orange male Mobian fox with nine tails much to her surprise, he wears a black vest with orange lining and zipper, a bear claw necklace worn around the neck, a pair of red high tech gloves, black baggy long pants with orange pockets, a waist pack and black sandals along with a headband and headphones.
A tingle of pink appeared on her cheeks as she ogled at the male for a moment "He looks so-NO! Snap out of it, this isn't the time to stare at a handsome guy like him when he's in danger! I gotta help him!" she materialized the blades from the power bracelets and was about to rush in when she noticed a glint in his eyes and a smirk on his lips as two sheathed swords appeared from his back and floated at both sides "What is he planning to do? Maybe I should wait and see…" she deactivated the blades and continued to watch from her hiding place.
The fox stood there with his hands in his pockets "Well what are you waiting for? I'm right here!" some of the robots charged at him with lances in hand and thrust at him only for it to right through and disappear much to their logistic confusion "Actually I'm over here," the fox was standing right behind them then he spoke again "Nine Bladed Tails!" said appendages harden to the point of glinting in the sunlight like that of actual blades, he spun around to lash with his tails to cut right through them as the fell to the floor in the process. Several robots took aim at the fox and opened fire, his gloves suddenly glowed and projected circular shields made out of blue energy before rapidly deflecting the laser shots much to her surprise.
"He's so fast and his gloves can produce energy-shaped weapons too!" thought the chipmunk as she continued to watch the battle unfold.
The fox stopped deflecting the bullets and switched to offence as his hands and feet ignited in flames "Burning Fighter!" he rushed at the robots and unleashed an onrush of fiery punches and kicks to send some flying before dashing backwards to evade a shot from his left side. The fox pulled out a three-pronged knife and threw it at the robot which attacked him then he disappeared in a yellow flash the reappeared to catch the knife behind the robot and happened to be holding one of the swords unsheathed as the robot split in half and fell to the ground. Suddenly a crystalline ball emerged from his chest and hovered before him "Let's go, Star Ball Attack!" he points his middle and index fingers forwards for the 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 to consecutively strike the robots "Now burst!" he twisted his fingers which triggered the ball to release an explosion of fire before returning to fuse with his body.
Music End
"Amazing, I've never seen or heard anyone wield such powers like he does and his speed is almost like that of Sonic the Hedgehog. But what could have brought him here? Well he could make a good addition to the group which I'm setting up, I should ask him directly since he doesn't seem to be a bad person," the chipmunk snapped out of her thoughts and turned her attention back to the fox who seemed to looking at a holographic screen being projected from one of his gloves. The fox was tapping on the screen for some time when he looked over at her direction, which caused her to hide behind the building in hopes of not being caught spying on him.
A few minutes after trashing another batch of robots along to the way, he decided to contact Lilac and Bunnie to find out what's going on over at their side when he felt something watching him and looked up to sort of catch a glimpse of something which darted behind a building, his line connected before he could look further into it.
"This is Naruto here," said Naruto.
[Oh hey Naruto, what's up?] said Lilac.
"I've been taking out Eggman's robots from left to right and rescued a couple of civilians along the way. I'm calling to check what's been going on at the other side with you and Bunnie,"
[We're finishing up over here and we took out our share of robots but there are still some roaming about]
"Alright then, I'll be coming to your side soon so that we can regroup and find the leader of this raid. There's more to this than what we see at face value,"
[Ok Naruto, we'll see you there] said Lilac before ending the transmission.
Naruto let his hands lax a bit, then he recalled what he saw earlier before he contacted the others and looked at the building. Naruto activated his Aura sight to peer through the building where he saw a blue aura with a humanoid shape which signified that it's not an enemy.
Naruto decided to call out to whoever was hiding "You can come out now, I sense that you hiding behind that building. You don't need to worry cause I'm not an enemy to you," after a few moments of silence, the person emerged from behind the building and approached him, Naruto took note that the person is a female chipmunk "Can I ask who you are and why you were spying on me?"
"I'm sorry about that, I wanted to make sure of which side you were on. My name's Sally Acorn by the way," said the chipmunk.
"And I'm Naruto Uzumaki," then his eyes widened in realization "Wait, you're Princess Sally? I was asked to look out for you by Rosie-san and some kids,"
"You know Rosie, is she okay?" asked Sally worriedly.
"She's okay, I had my shadow clones escort her and the children safely to the bunkers," said Naruto, Sally let out a sigh of relief "By the way, your voice sounds kinda familiar,"
That was when Nicole emerged from the SAC in her normal form, surprising Sally "I recognize it, she was the one who made that SOS call,"
"That's the one Nicole-chan!" Naruto nodded in agreement.
"Oh so that's why you're here, I also heard Bunnie's name when you were contacting someone. Do you know her?" asked Sally curiously.
"Bunnie-chan was the first person we ran into when arriving here, she also told us about you and another friend before we split up to fight the robots and help the citizens. She's currently with my friend Lilac-chan," Naruto explained.
"She's talking about our friend Barby who is also fighting the robots like us, but I can't seem to find her anywhere and I'm worried that she might be in some kind of trouble," Sally looked anxious at the thought of such a scenario "I know we just met but please can you help me find my friend?"
Naruto smiled brightly in response "Sure thing, I'll help you out,"
"Thank you," said Sally gratefully, then she yelped when Naruto suddenly scooped her up in his arms and blushed at being so close to him "What are you doing?"
"Well, we'll need to regroup with Lilac-chan and Bunnie-chan. I figured that carrying you will let us get there a lot quicker, so hang on tight Sally-chan," said Naruto with a foxy grin.
"O-okay," Sally clung to his vest tightly.
"Hmph, no fair," Nicole pouted a bit as she transformed into her faerie form and sat on his spiky blonde hair with her arms crossed.
"Alright, here we go!" Naruto crouched low then he took off at high-speed down the road, several egg pawns appeared to obstruct them firing their laser pistols but Naruto darted from left to right sharply to evade the incoming shots and used two of his tails to unsheathe Hazy-Moon and Masamune to slash at them as well as channeling foxfire to his feet for fiery kicks destroy them. Some more flying type egg pawns swooped in from above. Naruto switched to his celestial aspect and pointed his tails at the robots as white orbs of light appeared at the tips "Light Gatling Bullets!" he fired a barrage of photon bullets to shoot them all down without slowing down. Naruto ran up the trunk of a tall tree before kicking off to leap through the branches with his Aura Sight active to scope out the area until his eyes set upon his quarry and made his way towards the duo.
"Hey girls, sorry for the delay, had to beat traffic…literally," said Naruto with a smirk.
"I can tell, I reckon ya enjoyed the ride on your way here eh Sal?" said Bunnie slyly, causing Sally to blush and scramble to get off.
"Th-there's no time for that Bunnie, we need to look for Barby!" said Sally, in an attempt to change the subject.
"The question now is where else can we look?" asked Lilac, secretly giving Sally the stink eye for how she arrived with Naruto earlier before.
Nicole reverted to her normal form before them then projected a Holo-screen and keypad before typing rapidly on it "I should be able to detect the remainder of the robots in the village, it's most likely where we'll find your friend and perhaps the leader of the alien raid,"
"I'm kinda curious about something here, what about the rest of your family?" asked Naruto.
"My dad, mom and older brother had traveled to another kingdom away from South Island. I recall him telling me they were going to Soleanna to discuss matters with the princess there," Sally answered.
"Soleanna huh…been a while since we were there last," thought Naruto.
"Ever since that big battle against Solaris and time was rewritten after its existence was erased," said Kurama, they snapped back to attention when they heard Nicole speak up.
"I detected a large number of robots at the north-eastern part of the village," said Nicole pointing at the multiple red dots on the map, especially the large one.
"Then that's where we're going, let's move!" Naruto carried Sally in his arms again, she felt very embarrassed with how everyone is looking at her being carried, one of mischief and others of jealous though she can't help but feel like she won something.
The group took off with Naruto (carrying Sally) and Lilac running on the ground while Bunnie and Nicole were flying above them, they made short time with their run due to lack of interruptions along the way and they finally arrived at the marked location. The group saw a large army of egg pawns and egg flappers (Flying Types) and they happened to be led by what appears to be a green crocodile-based robot with yellow eyes, razor claws, and its lower is that of a green military tank equipped with a cannon, machine gun and a missile turret.
"I'm guessing that's the leader of the robot army," said Sally with her eyes narrowed.
"Hey guys, ya'll better take a gander at this!" Bunnie pointed for the rest to see some sort of commotion amongst the egg pawns.
Apparently some of egg pawns were getting knocked back with visible dents and punctures on their mechanical bodies, and parts like arms and legs were missing. They looked into the midst of the group to see a white Mobian koala bear with a tuft of white hair, her eyelids are gray and her ears are black. She wears tall red boots and red gloves with spurs on the knuckles, a brown sash worn over her left shoulder while attached to a black belt with a golden buckle. This female Mobian is currently punching and kicking the robots ferociously to keep them at bay.
"It's Barby!" Sally exclaimed, happy at seeing her friend but worried about her current situation.
"Man, she's kicking robot butt," Naruto mused a bit.
Lilac glanced to the side and saw that the green crocodile robot was aiming the tank's aim Barby and the robots "Guys, the robot leader is about to fire at Barby and the robots altogether!"
"Not on my watch!" Naruto stomped the ground hard and dashed towards at Barby high-speed with afterimages trailing behind him right at the moment the crocodile fired a round from the tank cannon. Both blurs accelerated towards their target but the blonde fox was able to reach by a couple seconds as he clamped a hand on the shoulder of the Mobian koala bear before disappearing in a yellow flash together with her and reappearing amongst the others much to their surprise and relief. A closer look would show a Hirashin mark where Naruto had stomped his foot before running "Phew, that was a close one,"
Barby simply stood there with a look of confusion on her face "Huh? What the…what just happen?" next thing she knew was that she was being embraced by Sally and Bunnie.
"Barbs, we're so glad that you're okay!" said Bunnie happily.
"Bunnie and Sally? What going on here? First thing was that I was fighting some robots and I ended up here, what's going on?" asked Barby confusedly.
Sally was the one to explain "It was thanks to Naruto, he saved you from being blown up by the leading robot,"
"Naruto?"
"It's that handsome fox over there," Bunnie pointed for Barby to see, and the bunny was definitely right about her description of the guy.
"Uh thanks for the save," said Barby.
"No thanks necessary, just did what needed to be done," said Naruto with a smile "But right now, we need to focus on the matter at hand,"
"Right!"
Everyone turned their attention towards the crocodile-like robot as he rolled forwards ahead of his army and was glaring at them, figuring out that they were the reason why his army hadn't already conquered the village and the lack of prisoners in addition to the destruction of his pawns.
"So you are the peons who were getting in the way of my plans," said the robot darkly.
Naruto shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly "Pretty much, though it's considered rude to not introduce oneself when speaking first,"
"I am Crocbot, the powerful general of the Eggman Empire and your worst nightmare!" said the robot.
"Now that we know your name and unimportant title, why exactly are you attacking the village full of people who did nothing wrong?" asked Barby with a glare at Crocbot.
"Why else but as a symbol of conquest, what better way to start than to raid and pillage a village then move on to more populated areas in order to send a message to the world that we are not to be trifled with!" Crocbot cackled with glee at the thought of the plan.
"That kind of logic is trash like always, I've met so many of your type and had stopped them in their tracks even in my younger days," Naruto's body emitted foxfire as he glared at Crocbot "You're just going to be another addition to the list of crazies I've defeated before they really got to do anything,"
"Do you truly think that you can defeat me and my army? Don't make me laugh!" Crocbot sneered at the nine-tailed fox.
Lilac went to stand next to Naruto and took a fighting stance "He's not the only one with a list of villains like you having been defeated,"
"I'm ready to help Naruto!" Nicole hovered above Naruto with pixels floating around her and the SAC strapped to her waist.
Sally was the next to stand by the two before activating her ring blades "You have a lot to answer for attacking our home.
"You tell em, Sal!" Bunnie clenched her metallic fist, ready to swing it around.
"And I would like to pick up where I left off," Barby bared her claws from the tips of her fingers.
"You shall all fall before me, minions attack!" Crocbot thrust his hand forward as the egg pawns and egg flappers charged at the small group of resistance.
"Try not to assume so early!" Naruto charged right back at them with Sally and the others following closely behind, he tapped his headphones a few times to select a song from one of his custom playlists and started playing it.
Music Start: Metal Gear Rising OST; Red Sun
Naruto formed his signature handsign and created a small squad of shadow clones, surprising those who weren't aware of his full abilities like Barby and Sally then he spoke out to them.
"These guys will back you girls up against those robots while I go after the big gun himself!" said Naruto "Speaking of which, Nicole-chan I'll be needing the Peacemaker again,"
"Okay, I'm bringing it out now!" Nicole brought out the rifle and handed it over to Naruto who latched it to his back with chakra.
"But we could take him on together!" Barby protested.
"He has a point about this, we need to keep the robots busy while Naruto takes on Crocbot so we won't be overwhelmed," Sally pointed out.
"So we'll be busting robots either way," said Bunnie.
"Alright then, we'll leave him to you," Barby finally agreed.
"Good luck, Naruto!" said Lilac.
"Thanks," Naruto nodded in response then he picked up speed to pull away from the group and towards Crocbot, the egg pawns attempted to intercept but Naruto leapt into the air and proceeded to use their heads as stepping stones in his approach.
Crocbot swiped at the fox with his claws, Naruto somersaulted in midair to evade as he placed a palm on the outstretched arm and vaulted overhead before kicking Crocbot at the back of his head and ran in the opposite direction.
"How dare you…you shall pay for that!" Crocbot roared in anger.
"Put it on my tab!" Naruto retorted as he ran, Crocbot turned round and drove after him with the intention to make the fox pay for his slander. The chase took them out of the forest and into the grassy plains where Naruto skidded to a stop and turned round to face his opponent "Well now we can get down to the fighting,"
"We shall see about that," Crocbot pointed a hand at him as the gun turrets came online and took aim before firing rapidly.
"Swift Release: Shadow Dance!" Naruto began moving at blurring speeds with afterimages trailing behind him to evade the bullets then rapidly approached Crocbot to lash out with a jumping roundhouse kick but the robot crossed his arms to block the strike then slashed at him with his claws "Swift Release: Shadow Step!" Naruto disappeared from view then reappeared at safe distance.
"Fire missiles!" Crocbot commanded, then a salvo of missiles were launched into the air before locking onto Naruto and flying straight at him. Naruto dashed in a zigzag pattern to evade the projectiles but they were maintaining a steady beat on him, so he hopped into the air with a twirl to face the pursuing missiles as he took out the rifle at the same time shooting jets of foxfire from his feet for a continuous back dash, he rapidly fired at the missiles to destroy them before sliding to a stop.
"Might as well change the venue a bit," Naruto placed the Peacemaker on his back and switched to his earth aspect, his hands emitted a large volume of bronze aura "Grand Terra Mold!" he dug his hands into the ground, causing the whole area to quake then large boulders began shooting out of the ground for Naruto to quickly hide behind one of them.
"I don't know how you were able to do this, but it doesn't change a thing!" Crocbot activated his thermal vision and looked around till he saw the fox hiding behind one of the boulders, he aimed the tank's cannon at it and fired.
Naruto had his Aura Sight active and had seen the cannon being aimed at him. He waited until the moment that the cannon fired a round that he performed a Shadow Step to quickly move out of the way and reappeared atop a boulder behind Crocbot with his fire aspect active "Double Fire Arrows!" his hands were covered in flames before thrusting them forward to launch two flaming arrows to strike parts of the tank, Crocbot immediately turned round and had his gun turrets fire at him. Naruto jumped off and ran down the side of the boulder with the shots trailing after him till he was about to reach the bottom "Multi Shadow Clone jutsu!" he created a number of clones to appear and scatter about to confuse the robot and hide behind the boulders.
"Grrrr, it's just like he told me…you're just as much of a threat as Sonic the hedgehog," said Crocbot with a growl.
"I'll take that as compliment, so who's this guy you're talking about," Naruto had his clones speak simultaneously to hide his true location.
"No point telling you since you'll be dead," Crocbot retorted, looking around to catch glimpses of movement from behind the boulders.
"So sorry, but you just gotta tell me about this guy whom I might know. My curiosity demands it!"
At that moment, three of the shadow clones ran out from behind the boulders with their rifles out and shooting at Crocbot whilst running sideways to reduce chances of getting hit. The gun turrets rapidly fired at them with a few shots able to hit one of the clones, however a white beam of light suddenly streaked out from behind and destroyed one of the turrets. Crocbot turned round to see a clone smirking with a hand held out to show that he was the shooter and growled angrily before firing a round from the tank to destroy the boulder along with the clone who simply blew a raspberry, further agitating the robot and the two remaining clones went back into hiding.
"Enough of this hide and seek, I'll just blow all of these annoying boulders away!" Crocbot yelled in rage as he proceeded to firing rounds from the tank cannon and destroying the boulders one by one.
"Won't really change anything though," Naruto dashed out from behind an intact boulder with a Hirashin kunai in one hand and an unsheathed Hazy-Moon in the other, Crocbot heard his approach and began turning the cannon around to fire at the fox but Naruto channeled chakra through his arm and threw the kunai at high-speed to reach Crocbot and disappeared in a yellow flash to reappear above the tank cannon with Hazy-Moon in mid swing "Flying Raijin Slash!" he sliced off the cannon and jumped away from a claw swipe by Crocbot then leapt high into the air when the last gun turret began shooting at him again. Naruto summoned the Star Ball from within as it crackled with electricity "Thunder Shot!" he twirled to kick the Star bolt and launch it like a lightning bolt as it smashed through the last gun turret before returning to merge with him.
"Why you little…this isn't over! Fire Missiles!" Crocbot commanded for another salvo of missiles to be launched at Naruto, at that moment Naruto's remaining clones appeared from behind the boulder and fired at the missiles, destroying them before dispelling themselves as their work here is done.
Naruto switched to his wind aspect for his next technique "Wind Shuriken!" he formed two spinning shuriken out of air before throwing them at the tank whilst stretching his hands out to manipulate their movements and had them slice through the missile turret behind Crocbot "Unfortunately it is, now are you gonna tell me whom you're talking about? Is it Eggman?"
"Or is he?" Crocbot responded haughtily.
"I think we can get more answers from the scraps left since you're playing hard to get to the very end," Naruto took Peacemaker from his back and channeled another large volume of chakra through it, then he took aim at Crocbot and pulled the trigger to fire a powerful blast of blue energy to pierce through the robot's chest, permanently shutting it down "And another joins the list of power hungry jerkoffs who got knocked off their high horses,"
"Do tell," said Kurama actually writing down Crocbot's name on a rather long list with a pen held in one of his tails.
Music End
Naruto stopped the music and wore the headphones around his neck like always "*Sigh* he wasn't tough but he wasn't making it easy either," he tapped his gloves to create a transmission to Nicole and the others "This is Naruto, I've taken care of Crocbot. What's going on your side?"
[We've already taken care of the robot army and are en route to your location] Nicole replied.
"Alright, then I'll wait. I need your help for something anyways," Naruto ended the transmission and used his earth aspect to raise a small rock to sit on and rest for bit. He didn't wait for too long when he heard rapid footsteps and something flying in the air before turning to see that Sally and the rest of the group were heading this way and stood up to meet them.
"Woowee, looks like someone had been having some fun, eh Sugah fox?" asked Bunnie playfully.
Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly "Something like that, anyways Crocbot mentioned someone who helped him with the raid but he wasn't specific about who it was. So I'm hoping that Nicole could help by scanning his memory which this chip I found in his head," he held out a microchip for them to see.
"Alright, I'll see what I can do with it," Nicole took the microchip and clenched it in her fist then raised her other hand to project a Holo-screen which began displaying codes "Hmmmm…there is a lot of data here so it might take some time to pick out any useful information,"
"Gotcha, might as well sit and wait then," Naruto stomped the ground lightly to raise more rocks for the rest to sit on "So what will you three be doing after this?"
"When we return to Knothole village, we'll be undergoing repairs and I'll contact my family to inform them of what had happened which no doubt will have them return in the shortest time possible," said Sally thoughtfully.
"Not to mention that we need to set up accommodations for the ones whose homes were destroyed during the raid too," Barby spoke up.
"Gonna be a big chore, but we've gotta do it," said Bunnie.
"That's gonna be pretty rough, reminds me of the time when my village also got invaded," said Naruto with a look of sadness.
"Your village was also attacked like ours?" asked Sally.
"Yeah, two villages with the leader of one having deceived the other into allying with it invaded my village during a special event and we were caught unawares but fought back. I was younger back then and I fought against the deceived village's most powerful fighter, it was a tough battle but I was able to beat him but we both collapsed to a state of exhaustion," said Naruto.
"And what happened next?" asked Bunnie curiously.
"We were able to beat them back but suffered losses with the biggest being the village leader, I was very close that I saw him as a grandfather. I swore there and then that I would protect the village that he and the others before him sacrificed their lives to protect," Naruto used a hand to rub against the metal plate of his headband in remembrance of the Third Hokage.
"Sorry, we didn't mean to bring it up," said Barby apologetically, Sally and Bunnie felt the same way, they didn't want to sadden the one who came to help them against the raid.
"It's okay, I know well that you didn't mean any harm when you asked," said Naruto in a placating manner.
"Only you can smile to ease the pain of others, you're really special," thought Lilac fondly as she gazed at Naruto.
"I think I found something here," Nicole spoke up, drawing everyone's attention to her.
"What is it you found?" asked Sally curiously
"Some of the data appears to be missing but from what I can gather, there seems to be some information about activity over at Whale Island, then a few mentions of Dr. Eggman and ultimate power," said Nicole.
"That certainly does sound like Eggman, guess we'll pay him a visit then over at Whale Island," Naruto stood up from his seat and patted the dirt off his clothes "Any idea how to get there?"
"We'll need to go through Seaside Hill in order to reach it,"
"Guess ya'll are going after Eggman, be sure to give him a few licks for us okay?" said Bunnie.
"Gladly," said Lilac.
"When all this is over, could you come by Knothole again? I would like to introduce you to my parents and ask you about something too," said Sally.
"Alright, be sure to expect us," said Naruto.
"I wish you three good luck and be careful on the way," said Barby.
Bunnie then spoke up "Hold your horses! There's something I almost forgot to give ya,"
Naruto quirked an eyebrow in curiosity "What is it you want to give me?" then he saw Bunnie walk up to him with a certain look in her eyes.
"This…" Bunnie kissed Naruto by the cheek before stepping back and giggled when his face turned red, Sally and Barby were shocked upon seeing what she just did and for some reason felt angry about it unlike Nicole and Lilac who actually "Consider it a 'Thank you' and 'Good luck' all wrapped into one package, okay Sugah fox?"
"O-okay, l-let's get going t-then. I'll see you a-all later then," Naruto turned round and took off at high-speed, Lilac and Nicole frowned at Bunnie who simply smirked at them before they followed after him.
"What was that about Bunnie?" asked Sally.
"I was just giving him something nice as his reward," said Bunnie.
"But did you have to k-kiss him?" asked Barby.
"Yup, especially since you two looked like you wanted to but were too chicken about it," Bunnie walked past them whilst enjoying their gobsmacked expressions in direction of the village "Now let's head back home, everyone's waiting for us,"
It took about a couple of seconds before they snapped back into focus with blushes on their cheeks as they turned to run after their friend, all the while calling out her and vehemently denying the statement which she had made.
This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Naruto and co have arrived at the source of the SOS call which happens to be a place called Knothole village which was currently invaded by Eggman robots, they swung into action while lending help to several residents namely Bunnie Rabbot, Barby Koala and the Princess Sally Acorn. They worked together to defeat Crocbot the leader of the raid and picked up bits of information relating to Eggman with Naruto, Nicole and Lilac setting out to investigate and possibly stop any plans he has cooked up. Now the curious question is what Sally wants to ask them about when they return?
As you could tell, I'm beginning the Sonic Heroes arc in the next chapter so be sure to look forward to what will be happening during then. If one wants a clear idea of Knothole Village then refer to Sonic the Hedgehog issue number #130. Naruto has also named the rifle to be Peacemaker.
Be sure to read and review as always.
This is Hussbek from Ghana
Signing out.