A Fox Among Cats

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Naruto x Cheetara

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Story Start

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''Grune betrayed us, he helped attacked the city and enslaved most of our people, and the King died a death befitting of a warrior.'' Naruto explained as the muscled cat continued to work on the machine, the Thunder Tank as it was called. ''But he wasn't the only one, a Puma was working with him as well. One I didn't recognize.''

''You leave Grune to me,'' Pantrho said as he yanked open the covering for the Thundercats engine with ease. ''What's our Itinerary?''

''We, we don't know.'' Naruto admitted. ''Jaga told us to find the Book of Omens if we want our answers.'' he answered, Panthro grunted, but said nothing more.

The others though were trying to make sense of this newcomer. Morning had rolled around and with the exception of Naruto none of them have really spoken to Panthro.

"I didn't think he'd be so...spiky." Cheetara said, talking about the red vest he wore with grey spikes coming out of it. He also wore a pair of matching red, spiky gloves.

Tygra saw the slightly awed expression on Lion-O's face and smirked. He nudged him with his elbow.

"Go on, Lord of the ThunderCats," He sarcastically said, "See if your loyal subject needs help fixing his tank. That is, unless you're scared." he taunted his younger brother knowing it would spark him to action.

Lion-O, not going to turn down Tygra's challenge, stepped closer to the tank where Panthro was working, his back facing Lion-O.

"Hey, Panthro." He greeted, trying to sound friendly.

"Go away." Panthro said, "Can't you see I'm busy?" Lion-O's smile fell into a frown.

"Oh, come on!" Lion-O said, "You're really just going to ignore the rest of us forever? What are you so grumpy about anyway?"

"You're standing on my samouflange." Panthro said. Lion-O jumped, looking down at where his feet were and lifting them up.

"Uh… sorry." He said. He cleared his throat, "Look, maybe I can help. I've dabbled in a little tech myself."

"The Thunder Tank is out of Thundrelium." He said, "Now I've got to risk my hide to get more at the Cloud Peak mine!" He pointed to a far-off mountain in the distance. It was incredibly tall, but instead of there being a top to the mountain, it looked as though it had been cut off, leaving a flat surface on the top.

''Come on General, nothing a little stealth can't take care of.'' Naruto spoke up, hoping to thin the tension.

''And need I remind you what happened the last time you volunteered your help?'' Panthro admonished and a frown formed on Naruto's face.

''One time, a guy causes a little cave-in one time and no one ever lets him forget it.'' Naruto grumbled as he walked over to the side, crouch down, and began sulking.

"If you're going after Thundrelium," Lion-O said, "We're coming with you." Panthro looked at him out of the corner of his good eye.

"Let me put this as respectfully as I can: No."

"I am the king now, general." Lion-O said, putting emphasis on Panthro's status. Panthro jumped down from the tank, towering over Lion-O.

"Fine. Slow me down or get in my way, and you're on your own." Panthro turned to the others, "Any questions?"

Tygra raised his hand up halfway as if he was in a classroom, "What's a samouflange?" Panthro rolled his eyes at him.

Getting over his sulking Naruto walked over to the Kittens and advised them to wait for the Tank, promising that they'd be back before dark. The group began making their journey through the forest. Things were quiet until Cheetara started making conversation with Naruto, seeing as the two of them were bringing up the rear.

''Naruto, how do you happen to know the general?'' She couldn't help but notice that Naruto spoke with the general with familiarity.

''It was during one of my first assignments.'' he began. ''Lady Panthress was delivering a treaty and she thought it would be a good time to train and test my survival skills. The Generals happened to be back-tracking to take another route for their search for the Book of Omens. Rumors had sprouted up of a hidden tower. When we arrived to the area it was decided my small frame made me the perfect candidate to shimmy across a rope and enter an opening on the other side of the canyon. At the time I was halfway across when my rope suddenly came lose. At the time had no idea how the rope used came undone, but with what we know I wouldn't have put it past that traitor Grune having tried to kill me even as early as then. Lady Panthress pulled me out of the water after the drop knocked me out, but thats the past, lets not worry about that now.'' Naruto said, flashing his false smile. Nothing else was said as they continued the walk through the woods to the mountain, Panthro started making a conversation. "You sure have a motley crew on your hands, kid. It's a miracle you survived this long without any adult supervision."

"Well, we've been doing just fine under my command." Lion-O said, a little annoyed that Panthro doubted his leadership because of his age.

Panthro laughed, "Could have fooled me. Your father, now he was a leader."

"The king fought to his last breath trying to save Thundera." Cheetara interjected, "In the end, Grune's betrayal was too much to overcome."

"Grune… We've been inseparable ever since that first day we met on the battlefield." Panthro said in a melancholic tone that was tinged with the tiniest bit of anger.

000

It was a battlefield, and a huge one. It was at Thundera's walls before the city had fallen. The lizards were attacking them, and they were even with the cats at the moment. Bodies of the dead soldiers were all around the place, victims of the lizards' flaming soldiers carried a heavy boulder to one of their catapults, ready to fire it, but were blasted back by one of the lizards' and they fell to the ground, their bodies slightly burnt.

The Grune of that time was much younger, he had brown mane of hair much smaller than it would be in the current day along with both of his saber teeth.

"Finally," A voice said, "Another cat who pulls his weight around here." Panthro as well much younger. His head shaven and with use of both eyes.

Grune tossed the boulder to him, and he easily caught it, "Name's Panthro."

"Grune." He replied, getting the catapult ready, "I don't know about you, but grunt work wasn't what I had in mind when I enlisted!"

"You've just got to prove yourself." Panthro said, loading the boulder onto the catapult, "Rise through the ranks."

"I don't have the patience for that." Grune said, his eyes gleaming as he looked at something. He released the catapult, and the boulder went flying into Thundera's own wall, right where a group of lizards had been battling King Claudus. The wall fell, taking the lizards with it, but Claudus remained, perfectly fine. He looked down at the two soldiers who had helped him, and they looked back. Grune shouldered his weapon, a round, spiked bludgeoner, and Panthro gave him a thumbs-up.

Now, Panthro was in the palace, and one of the clerics, Lady Panthress, pinned a special medal to his chest. The crowd applauded them for their efforts. They looked up at where the king sat on his throne, looking down at them.

"Look at us, Panthro." Grune said quietly to him, "Soon, we'll run this entire kingdom."

Panthro chuckled, "You plan on becoming a lion?"

Grune chuckled as well, "No, I plan on becoming king."

Now, Panthro was at a battlefield, but it wasn't Thundera specifically. They were a sizable distance from it. Panthro took down a lizard with his sword, and when a second one came up, they smashed the blade in half, and he dropped the sword. He pulled out his red-and-blue nun-chucks and started taking out lizards with ease. He and Grune came back to back as they fought.

"If you want to make it to General," Grune said to him, "You'll have to do better than that!"

"I'm eleven lizards ahead of you, captain!" Panthro laughed out. Grune swung his bludgeoner, and took out two lizards with his strike. He laughed.

"Make that nine!" He said.

Panthro's next memory skipped ahead a few years, not that far from the current day, war scars and missing tooth and all, and they were observing the young princes. They both had wooden swords and were fighting one another. He and Tygra were going at it as if they were in a real fight.

"Don't hold back, Tygra!" Grune called to him, "You're stronger, faster! Use your advantages!" Tygra did as Grune said, and jumped up high, and brought his sword down on Lion-O. He fell back and dropped his wooden sword, and when he pushed himself up, Tygra pointed the end of his wooden sword at him, showing that he had won. "Excellent. Now continue you're training, and remember! What you cannot earn, can always be taken!" Tygra looked admirably at Grune as Lion-O stood up. They both looked up at King Claudus as he came to the two of them.

"My two finest warriors," He greeted, they both stood up straight in his presence, neither of them ones to disrespect the king. "I know what you're waiting to hear. I've chosen Lynx-O to be the general of the army." Both Panthro and Grune's jaws dropped.

"Lynx-O has less experience than either of us!" Grune said through gritted teeth.

"That's why I'm keeping you together for a much more important task." Claudus said as he pulled out a scroll that depicted a large group of cats worshiping a book that had a pillar of light shooting out of it. "The Book of Omens, I believe, is more than a legend. And if anyone can find it, it's you two. I hope you understand." Grune growled angrily in his throat, but he said nothing. Panthro stepped forward and bowed to the king.

"Our role is not to question your highness." He said.

0000000000

The memories soon ceased as they arrived to their destination. Panthro used a special scope to check out the entrance of the mine, seeing two armed lizards guarding it. Beside him was Lion-O and Naruto, and behind them was Tygra and Cheetara.

"That's the access tunnel we need to get to." He put down the scope and turned to the others, "Doesn't look too heavily guarded." he turned to Naruto. ''Kid, you think you can sneak by them?''

''Distance between the trees and mine entrance is too far for me to jump. Maybe I can make some noise and draw one of them away.'' Naruto paused and shook his head. ''No, it won't be guaranteed that they'll all follow and there's a good chance they'll alert the others.'' he added, recalling upon all the tactics that was drilled into his head.

"What's there to think about? I say we take them now." Lion-O stated.

"We'll wait for darkness." Panthro said, he and the others started to crawl away into a hiding place to wait. Lion-O scowled, staying at the place where he could see the access tunnel.

"Who's in charge here?" He growled to himself, but Naruto still heard it.

"It's the smart thing to do.'' Naruto argued. ''My teacher once told met the cover of darkness is...'' Naruto paused. ''...the best time for...warriors to strike?'' he mumbled the last part, unsure of himself. Trying to recall who thought him that lesson but he was drawing a blank. ''Point is we need to make the best of our abilities.'' Naruto added as he went off to join the others.

Lion-O wasn't listening, he was looking down at the entrance to the tunnel where the two lizard guards were. He glanced back to where Panthro and the others had left, and smirked.

Naruto paused and bit his inner cheek. He realized that convincing Lion-o happened a little too easily. He turned around and sure enough the Lion was gone. ''Aaw crap.'' he mumbled as he watched Lion-o quickly defeat two lizards only to be surrounded by Lizards.

"Drop your weapons!" He shouted at them, they didn't budge, "Please?"

"Kill him!" The lizard in charge shouted. Naruto dropped down on the lead lizard, crushing him under his weight and stunning the lizards. They all suddenly turned their gun fire on Naruto and began blasting. He rolled out of the way and grabbed the down leader's weapon. Dodging some more blasts he leaped up in the air and used the bayonetta to stab one of the lizards in the chest, who began to spasm and fired ran shots, nailing several lizards and forcing everyone to take cover.

Before the lizards could regroup and began a unified attack, Panthro had appeared with his nun-chucks drawn, and had easily begun taking out two lizards every second. After a moment, all the lizards were down on the ground, unconscious. Lion-O looked up at Panthro in awe of his battle skills as he put his weapon away.

"What is wrong with you?!" Panthro angrily howled at the lion.

"Me?" Lion-O responded indigantly in response to the General's yellow before encountering with indignation of his own, "I gave an order! You ignored it!" The two cats glared at each other. Fearing things might get worse, Cheetara, and Tygra went over to Lion-O's side.

"He is the king now, Panthro." The cleric tried to assuage him.

"So that means I've got to listen to any idiotic order he gives me?" Panthro snapped, still glaring at Lion-O.

''Being a good leader is more then just satisfying your pride and having power. You have to listen to your people as well and not take on all of the burdens on your own.'' Naruto added, surprising everyone, even himself. 'Are my...are my memories returning? Everytime I get into a fight I get this familiar rush and it feels natural. That proves it, in the past I was some kind of warrior.'

"I guess all the stories of your undying loyalty were exaggerated." Lion-O replied, glaring back at Panthro. It was bad enough the warrior seemed to be disloyal, but he even seemed to be swaying Naruto against him.

"You'll have my loyalty when you show me you can do more with that sword than just carry it around!" Panthro said, he started walking into the tunnel, he looked over his shoulder at everyone but Lion-O, "Come on, let's find the Thundrelium and get out of here." Everyone did as he ordered and followed him inside.

As they snuck through the tunnel, they passed a large amount of mining equipment that wasn't being used. They went through a tunnel, and stopped at the entrance of it, and looked down at the mining that was being done by the lizards. Carts of magenta minerals, were being sent through a system they had set up.

"Thundrelium…" Lion-O murmured, seeing it.

"Enough to power a thousand Thunder Tanks for a thousand years." Panthro said. A form walked past the tunnel they were hiding in, and everyone recognized the huge, dark-furred cat with only one saber tooth. Panthro glared at him, "Grune…" he remembered trudging through the forest and Grune's assistance that the King wanted to get rid of him. Traveling through snow storms and the desert. Like a man possessed Grune had led him to a pyramid where they had come upon Mumm-ra and how the Panther was almost sent to a certain death into the abyss.

They watched as Grune went toward a full cart of the magenta-colored power source and picked up a small one, inspecting it with a smile. Panthro moved away from the entrance and looked back at everyone else, "We move on my lead, got it?" No one disputed him.

They hid out in a tunnel that the lizards were using to get the Thundrelium in and out of the mines. One lizard came in, riding on a motorized cart out of the tunnel. When he was deep enough in the tunnel that the darkness concealed him from the other lizards, Cheetara jumped up and threw him down. The lizards outside the tunnel heard the other lizard's cry of pain and they hissed angrily, their weapons pointed at the tunnel's entrance as they went inside. Tygra, who had made himself invisible with his whip, made himself visible again and knocked the two of them out, throwing one against the wall, and throwing the other one out of the tunnel. More lizards had begun to gather at the entrance, and two more went in. Naruto, using trickery or misdirection made himself visible leading to the lizards to began firing at him. After days of studying and observation Naruto realized that the creature's aim was terrible and they relied on number and the element of ambush. So he used their own inepitude against them and led them to firing on each other by manuevering in between a group and jumping away when they simultaneously fired. Thank heavens they weren't smart enough to shoot left, right, up, down, and center all at once or he would screwed.

Two more came in, and Lion-O raised up his sword, cutting through their gun, making it explode. The sound of the explosion caught the attention of everyone outside the tunnel, including Grune, and they made their appearances known.

"ThunderCats!" He exclaimed, seeing them, "Oh, you fools! You brought the sword and the jewel right to me! And now you'll never make it out of here alive."

"They will." Panthro said from behind him. Grune turned around, looking at him in shock as Panthro glared at him, "I just can't say the same for you."

Quickly regaining his composure from the sudden surprise, Grune sighed tiredly, "You've always been hard to kill, Panthro."

"I can be stubborn when it comes to dying." Panthro said.

"This isn't going to go well, is it?" Cheetara asked.

"Nope." Tygra replied, popping his lips on the 'p'.

"Now, let's see…" Panthro growled, "When was the last time I saw you?'' he recalled the hellish sandstorm and Grune's releasing from Mumm-Ra's impriosnment. That memory, that exact memory was what kept him going. The anger behind that memory fueled Panthro's drive to stay alive. "We sure have some great memories together! You betrayed me, Grune! You betrayed your brothers! All those deaths, and you're still not the king!"

"Don't lecture me, Panthro." Grune said, "If it's revenge you seek, then come take it."

"With pleasure!" Panthro growled, pulling out his nun-chucks. He stopped when the ground began to shake.

"What is that?" Cheetara shouted over the rumblings.

"The only thing you can trust!" Grune shouted as something shot out of the ground, showing that it was a robot designed specifically for drilling, just by looking at its robotic limbs, which were basically just large drills, "A machine!" He looked up at the robot, "Destroy them, Driller!" The machine, doing as it commanded, went after the others as Grune began to run, "Until next time, Panthro!"

"Grune!" Panthro snarled, going after him. Driller blocked his path, and when Panthro tried to knock him out of the way with his nun-chucks, Driller easily knocked them away and threw Panthro back before he started drilling multiple holes all through the mine around them. After a second, he stopped, and there was a silence. Lion-O, acting quickly, pulled out his sword.

"ThunderCats! Ho!" The Eye of Thundera quickly began to glow, and he stepped in front of her. The Eye of Thundera shot out small bolts of lightning and Panthro looked at Lion-O with wide eyes as he wielded the sword's power. The Driller paid no attention to it as he turned his arms into a giant buzz saw and came at Lion-O. He easily blocked the strike and knocked the robot away. The machine quickly recovered from it, he ran back at Lion-O, using his drilling head as a weapon this time and Lion-O blocked it with the stone in the sword. No matter how hard Driller tried to break through it, he couldn't.

"Now that's what I call impressive!" Panthro said, watching the battle. Lion-O pushed the robot back, and cut off the top of the drill on his head. The robot fell to the ground, the cut Lion-O had made causing him to malfunction and shut down. Suddenly, the mine began to rumble again, but this was much worse, because the mine was beginning to collapse on itself.

"The Driller weakened the mine!" Tygra shouted, and everyone began to run away, looking for a way out. They started running through the tunnel that they came in through, but Cheetara stopped, taking a glance back at the mine.

"We have to go now!" Lion-O shouted, noticing she had stopped. Cheetara, using her speed, ran to one of the carts and picked up a small piece of Thundrelium.

"Not without this." She said, she ran back to the others and they ran out of the tunnel, just as the mine began destroy the inside of the mountain. They dove out of the tunnel's entrance, as the mine began to crumble. When it stopped, they looked back, seeing the remnant dust from the destroyed rocks inside coming up from around the mountain's peak.

"Well, that will slow down Mumm-Ra's army for a while." Lion-O said as he looked at the access tunnel, which was now blocked by the mine's rocks.

"I guess your father's sword wound up in the right hands after all." Panthro said, Lion-O looked back at him in surprise. "I served him proudly, and you can expect the same." Lion-O, seeing an opportunity, turned to him with a grin.

"So, you think when we get the Thunder Tank fixed, I could drive it?" He asked. Panthro frowned.

"Not a chance!" He smirked, "My king."