A Fox Among Cats

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Naruto x Cheetara

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Story Start

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A blinding light filled the room and washed over all of them. It soon faded and the runes began to dull as the faint light of the room dulled down. On the other side of the room opposite Naruto stood a humanoid figure. The figure was a furless creature wearing strange clothes, a blonde mane, and piercing cerulean eyes. "Who…what are you?" Naruto asked as the figure's eyes seemed to pierce through his sole. It was at the tip of his tongue and he couldn't shake the feeling he was having.

"Naruto Uzumaki," the other one answered. "The Real Naruto Uzumaki."

The kitsune was shocked into silence. That couldn't be possible. It was impossible for the clerics to have foretold his name if he truly wasn't from around here unless. 'I…he…then…who the hell am I?' he wondered, facing the possibility that everything he was coming to learn may have been a lie.

"You're lying…" the words softly escaped his lips as he slowly began to tremble. His whole body shivered as panic coursed through his system. "YOU'RE LYING!" He shouted, throwing his arm to the side as he fought not to lose himself to the emotions coursing through him. "The real Naruto? I'm Naruto! Mom, Dad, Kakashi, Sasuke, Sakura, Jiraiya, Tsunade…I remember so many people. I remember that I'm not a quitter and I lived my life seeking peace. There's no way that can be a lie."

The other looked at him with sad, sympathetic eyes. "It was never supposed to go this far. You were never supposed to be the primary personality for that long."

"What…what are you saying?" Naruto whispered as his gaze fell to the floor.

"Do you remember the name of your signature technique?" the other Naruto asked his fox counterpart as the latter struggled with the words.

His mouth parted slightly, his eyes widened just as much as nothing would escape his lips. His face took on a frantic expression as his mind went blank. It was growing harder to breathe between the stale air going into his lungs and the heat of the room.

"Kagebunshin no Jutsu, the Shadow Clone Justu, Art of the Shadow Doppelgangers, no matter its name it all means the same thing. Copy. That's what you were supposed to be, a new type of copy. When we arrived to this world something happened. The nature of this world reacted negatively to sage energies in our body and we soon took on the form of our prisoner. You met him right? The betrayer, he was messing with your mind as to trick you into escaping."

"How…if we're not from this world how did we get here? Where are we from?" A copy? A Clone? What did that mean? Did that mean that he had no past? Those memories? His beliefs? Was everything just him living through the person in front of him?

"A war had just occurred on our world. Thousands had died and much of the land had been lost. A madman sought to rule the world using an ancient beast that was the progenitor of our people's abilities. In order to protect the world and our people a sacrifice had to be made. I made a choice to make sure that no man like him could ever get their hands on that terrible power. Using powers I had gained I projected us into this reality we are currently in. Using my power I attempted to recreate a body suitable to this planet and persona that would allow us to blend in, but something went wrong. The persona became the primary personality while the original was locked away. Thanks to the power of this temple was I able to manifest myself before you."

Naruto brought his hands to his head. 'No. I…this entire time I was living a lie.' If that was the case what purpose did he have? Did he even have the right to masquerade around with a name that wasn't his? Memories that he did not truly experience?

"You don't have to suffer anymore. This life was never yours to live. Let me cancel the jutsu and bring us both peace of mind." The other Naruto said as he placed a hand on the fox's shoulder. Naruto turned to face his companions. Could he just really up and abandon them? The promises he made?

Could he abandon the kittens? Could he abandon his best friends? Could he abandon…her?

"Its for the best!" The other Naruto added he bowed his head. "There's only one Naruto after all." Hollow black eyes with red irises revealed them.

"WATCH OUT!"

"NARUTO!"

"LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!"

Their panicked cries caused him to turn in time to avoid his throat being slit. Claw marks slashed at his neck, drawing blood and ripping a chink of fur clear off. Naruto clutched his neck as he stared down this other version of him. "I should have known it was a trick."

"Are you really so naive?" crimson droplets dripped from the nails of the other Naruto, splattering against the dusty surface of the ground. "You and I are one in the same. I didn't lie about that. You are nothing more than a blank shell who can barely remember his name. Between the two of us I have a greater claim to the name Naruto. I am the darkness reborn from a renewed tragedy. So make this simple and die for me now." Dust kicked up in a whirl as the dark eyes copy shot forward.

The sensation of a knee impacted Naruto's chest and sent him flying, skidding across the ground as patches of his clothing were torn from the impact.

"Naruto! Hang-on!" he could hear Lion-o's shout. A shout of ho and powerful energy surged through the chamber. The barrier of the trial seemed to negate any rescue of the Kitsune. Sections of the wall began to crack and crumbled, littering the foundation. Cat-like sculptures seemed to come to life, animated by magic as they attacked the intruders.

Now a new battle began as the cats took on more than one opponent at a time. Panthro handled three of them easily bare handed while the others overthrew the rest of them with their weapons. Cheetara ran through a bunch of the statues at her high-speed leaving the ones standing for. Lion-O maneuvered the Sword of Omens as if it was light as a feather cutting his way through them turning around to see the defeated statues tore to pieces on the ground.

Tygra handled every enemy coming his way, shooting and destroying each of them with his laser pistol, reducing them to dirt as well. The cats gained battle field as the sculpted soldiers were brought down but the convened forces of the Thundercats. Kit toyed with her opponent flipping circling it so Kat could hook it with his flank and started running around it to wrap its feet and then with a simple pull the statue fell on its face breaking apart.

Naruto rolled out of the way as his copy leaped into the air and slammed his fist into the ground, creating a small crater. "There's no beating me." A monovalent chuckle escaped his lips. That simply was this creature was. Darkness.

Naruto charged feigning an attack to drop and swiftly does a sweep kick only for his opponent to deftly leap, spin and land on one leg as he pirouette and landed a kick to his side. Naruto stumbled back and clutched his side in pain. "I'm stronger." Yami landed a left punch to Naruto's side causing him to stumble back. "Faster…" a right punch led to Naruto stumbling back into a wall. He ducked to avoid another crushing punch only for Yami to follow up with a quickly executed spin kick sending him crashing into the ground. "I know the way you fight and your movements better than you know yourself."

"How…how could you have turned out such a way?" the memories and the man in front of him were so different people it was staggering.

"This trial brings forth the lies we tell ourselves. Our grief. Our Anger. Our Hatred. The trial of Evil is aptly named because there is no entity without a sense or understanding of morals." Yami picked Naruto up by the scruff of the collar. "You are enabling a further disintegration of who we are. I have an instinct and drive. I am the will unconstrained from senseless labeling of right and wrong. While you are nothing more than a broken conscious you allowed yourself to be a slave to cats instead of managing your own desires and fate. You sell yourself to a race of racist and elitist creatures that suppress others and you have the nerve to look down on me? It's time you stop resisting and give in to your fate. As long as we are separate, the real Naruto will never awaken. Unlike me you're too weak to do what's necessary for our own benefit. It's very simple there's only one way to end this. Just say the words 'I give up' and it'll end this. It'll end the pain."

"I…" Weakling. Disgrace. Freak. Different. Was the other Naruto right? Had he been a coward this whole time unable to face reality? Would it really be better if the real Naruto came back and he faded away?

Kit's scream drew Naruto's attention. Then one by one the ThunderCats were attacked. From the cracks and holes of the room sprouted vines. The vines were quick to entangle them or to knock their weapons from their grasps. The harder they fought the tighter the vines grasped as the broken remains of the statues slowly glowed and began to rebuild themselves. One by one they completed and began making their way to the bound cats.

"No!" Naruto choked out.

"I recommend you give up, lest you want to see your friends organs painted on the ground."

"I…I give…" before he could speak the last word a memory came to mind.

"Quit it with your stupid reasoning! I meant to say that I'll stand any pain for my friends! I'm not gonna give up on them! It might just be me being selfish, but… not having my friends here… is the most painful thing for me! Period!

He couldn't do it. For all he knew the man Naruto, who he used to be could end up being corrupted by the monster in front of him. He knew it was selfish, but he didn't want to let go of the memories. He didn't want to let go of his friends. The Naruto from the memories lived his life. He had his friends and he made his choices. This life. This life was his and he was going to live it.

"What!?" Naruto disappeared from Yami's grasp.

"Rasengan!" Naruto rammed the sphere into Yami's gut.

The dark copy threw his head back and let out a huge resounding cry of no as he evaporated into violet essence. The violet essence floated to Naruto and merged with him. Crouching over he placed his hands on his knees to catch his breath for a moment. His head hurt like hell, a throbbing pain continuously coursing with soft echoes. He righted himself and almost fell over, but found himself caught by Lion-o and Cheetara.

"I'm fine," he told them as he removed his arms as he focused on his posture. "Let's just focus on getting the book." No one pushed the subject further, seeing as it was obvious Naruto wasn't ready to talk about the events that just transpired or the knowledge that was learned.

Finally they came across their destination. The Tower of Omens. They walked into the temple, finding many wooden spiral stairs that led up the tower. "The Book must be up there." Tygra said, looking at them.

Cheetara looked over at her friend with a smile, "You did it, Lion-O!"

"Indeed, Lion-O." A grim voice echoed throughout the temple as the Thundercats turned around and looked at Mumm-Ra standing at the door holding the lantern with the spirit of Jaga inside. "And finding this place will be the last thing you'll ever do."

The cats looked startled facing the evil sorcerer after the destruction of the Kingdom of Thundera. "I led him right to you…I'm very sorry." The voice of the elder cleric escaped the lantern.

"Jaga." Cheetara gasped and was shocked to see her mentor again. "You're alive."

"Hardly." The mummy responded to her. "He's nothing but vapor in a jar, and now that I'm here I no longer require this useless soul." Then tossed the lamp to the air.

"No!" Lion-O shouted, while Naruto and Cheetara rushed toward the lantern, the Cheetah managed to catch before it crashed into the ground ending Jaga's existence once and for all. Soured for not seeing the end of the head cleric Mumm-Ra gave a little demonstration of his dark powers shooting a lightning bolt from his hand at the cheetah sending her through the air all the way until crashing against the central column.

"Cheetara!" Lion-O attempted to go to her aid but was stopped by Tygra.

"We have to get to the book before Mumm-Ra does, come on." Said the prince pointing to the top.

"You bastard." Naruto roared as he attacked Mumm-Ra with all his furry. Those his usual speed and precision had dropped immensely from the beating he received earlier. To further compound it the fragile looking mummy was much swifter than his appearance showed. Tired of being on the defensive he blasts Naruto with an offensive magic blast sending him flying back.

"Go! Leave Mumm-Ra to me." Panthro stepped up ready to face his opponent with his nunchucks. The General threw hit after hit, leaving no space open for the demon to counterattack, though the speed Mumm-ra used against Naruto had not slowed down. Trying his luck again Mumm-ra found that Panthro was in much better condition and was only stunned by the attack.

Naruto recovered and quickly attacked Mumm-ra, landing a solid kick that would have easily cracked the bone of any other opponent. Mumm-Ra turned aching from the attack to look at the creature behind him, he was surrounded now but even so he didn't care.

"Ha, that's the best you can do?" Panthro smirked ready to attack again.

"Do not be deceived by appearances; my true form is far more powerful!" The mummy hissed and was covered by a dark-purple aura. "Ancient Spirits of Evil, transform this decayed form...into Mumm-Ra! The Ever-Living!"

After the corpse-like form consumed this dark aura, the Thundercats were in the presence of Mumm-Ra, now in his full-power Ever-Living form. They stared stared at him contemplating the demon was even more physically imposing than Panthro himself and several feet taller, his skin is charred-gray lighter than in his former form with large demonic wings on his back. Mumm-Ra settled on taking the cats out of the fight so he summoned rays of energy coming from beneath the ground around Panthro to immobilize him, also keeping Naruto from coming closer to attack again.

From his mouth, the demon shot a charged energy beam at the General, severely hurting him and throwing him against the large pillar like he did Cheetara previously. In a quick motion he turned around and took the puma by surprise grabbing her arm and tossed her roughly over Panthro.

Kit and Kat that were close to the cleric and seeing the others out of combat stood up to Mumm-Ra but as his wings readied to take flight the wind currents created by them sent the twins out of sight too. Now in the air Mumm-Ra's objectives were the two thunderian princes.

Lion-O ran several steps ahead of Tygra almost getting to the top and the book while the tiger noticed their friends were taken down by the enemy. With the strength on his wings, Mumm-Ra soon caught up with them, having the tiger prince on sight he shot another energy beam at him destroying the rung he was standing on forcing him to jump to a close platform nearby. Now behind the column Tygra wielded his whip to make himself invisible again to try and slow the demon down.

Down below Naruto and Panthro snapped out of Mum-Ra's attack. They knew Tygra and Lion-O were going to need more help against him so the General lifted Snarf, Kit and Kat on his back and started to climb up.

Naruto went to Cheetara and helped her up. "Cheetara. Are you alright?"

Cheetara looked at the lantern safe in her hands. "I'm ok. Where's Lion-O?" As she asked as he looked up.

"We don't have much time. We have to get up there and now."

Mumm-Ra flew faster aiming for Lion-O to keep him away from the top when suddenly he felt a tug on his ankle followed by a none visible weight that prevented him from getting to the lion. And then a laser shot hit him on the face. The demon shot another charge from his mouth near his leg, the impact disrupted Tygra's camouflage revealing him. Mumm-Ra shook his leg forcing the tiger to let go and fall but as he let go he used his whip to hold the demon from his foot again.

"You won't shake me that easily." Tygra bragged but tired of his persistence Mumm-Ra struck at him with another charge and this time the cat fell from a mortal height. Luckily, on the way down Panthro reached out and grabbed him from the leg, as the prince stretched to hold on to the wall himself and climb beside his friends.

The Lord of the Thundercats reached the highest chamber but the evil sorcerer was close behind. The room was empty, there were no walls and no windows, only some designs made in stone that made the place look like a decorative cage and in the highest point of it, sealed in a smaller cage was the Book of Omens. Lion-O looked up to it thinking about a way to reach it when the Ever-Living appeared before him suspended in the air.

"The Book of Omens and its power belong to me!" Mumm-Ra prepared to get the book.

"Thundercats! Ho!"

Lion-O called to the sword's power and it fired a powerful bright red beam that flashed throughout the room. This one being different and of much more reach than past times, blinding Mumm-Ra for a few seconds. But at the same time from below Cheetara, who was the only Thundercat staring at the ceiling at the time, made visual contact with the red force from the sword giving her a surge of power visible through a rare bright golden glow on her eyes. Without wasting time the cleric left Naruto behind and made her way next to their King running at incredible speed through the walls of the tower to the top in a blink of an eye she ran past the others still climbing.

Panthro and the kittens looked wide-eyed at the cheetah's speed having never seen her run like that before but it was the tiger that seemed mesmerized. "Close that mouth, you're drooling."

Above them Mumm-Ra threw a purplish lightning bolt that Lion-O sidestepped rolling to a corner and blocked the second strike with the Sword of Omens, that tactic distracted the Warlord for a few seconds when Cheetara showed up in the air driving herself to connect a powerful kick to the monster's neck that made him back down one step but soon counterattacked shooting his dark charges at her, although the cheetah covered with her arms she dropped the lantern and was overwhelmed by Mum-Ra's might giving in and falling out off the rooftop but saved herself holding to the edge instead of falling.

"Cheetara!" Lion-O ran to her rescue. "Hang on!" But it only gave Mumm-Ra the opportunity to spit out a super current of energy and hit him from behind. The shock drained much of the lion's strength as he almost fainted and fell on his knees and dropped the sword next to him.

"It'll be just as easy to finish you now." The evil sorcerer said with his raspy voice. "You remind me of your father." Almost as if making fun of the cat's plight and preceded torturing him with more of his lightning bolts.

A few feet away the stranded lantern revealed Jaga's spirit witnessed the lion's defeat. "The boy is not ready yet. He cannot win this alone." The cleric's spirit shone brighter and released itself from its glass prison to help Lion-O. The light reached every inch of the place and all over Mumm-Ra who let out horrible shrieks. The damage from the light was too much for the demon to resist and shielded himself from it under the form of a demonic raven and escaped claiming the Book of Omens would be his as he flew away.

"What is going on up there?!" Kit asked worried after not seeing any more flashes after that bright light at the end. Panthro and Tygra kept climbing while Naruto quickly shot past.

He was the first to reach the top of the platform. He landed on his hands and knees, out of breath as she caught sight of the empty artifact. "No," he whispered. Jaga, the closest thing Naruto had to a father was now gone. He didn't care if it took him a decade of a hundred years. He was going to make Mummra pay. He was going to make him suffer.

"Jaga…" Lion-O let out while the other Thundercats came closer to them.

"He sacrificed himself for you...for all of us." The blonde cat said to her King hugging the lantern close to her chest as Lion-O remained in silent sorrow. The others just sensed the grief in the atmosphere and said nothing too. But then something surged from the lantern's inside.

"Look." Tygra marked as a tiny spark floated over them, everyone's eyes followed it to the highest point in the room as it touched the Book's cell. As Jaga's last gift to the Thundercats the cell descended to the cats' reach and everyone waited for their Lord to take what was inside.

Lion-O inspected the book; it was reddish-brown with a big silver seal adorned with a central red gem as a mark of thunderian belonging. "At long last, we have all the answers." The lion King opened the book as everyone stared expectantly.

"Well? What does it say?" Tygra broke the silence.

Lion-O's eyes narrowed at the ages and then looked up to his friends. "It says…nothing." His face turned concerned and confused. "It's blank."