New Chapter.
Sorry for the lack of my usual fanfare, but I am getting continuous flame reviews from Guest readers in every single story I have ever written, and usually flamers with a proper account are not too far from following their lead and smear shit on other people's work, so I am not in the mood for the normal happy-go-lucky tone.
Just to clarify, some examples that may vary depending on the situation:
"This story sucks, you are a fucking bitch/bumbass/Moron, go die!" it's a flame review.
"This story would be good had you not fucked-up with the description of this place/the fighting scene/the characterization of 'X' guy." is Harsh but constructive criticism.
"The story would be better if you focus more on 'X' thing next time, otherwise good job." is constructive criticism.
I KNOW THE DIFFERENCE, THANK YOU!
I AM NOT A MORON! You are wishing me death, calling me a "'X' Author cock-sucker", a Fag, a Loser, and/or other insults or leaving threats to me, my friends and family (sometime all at once) AS THE ONLY (GUEST) REVIEW YOU LEAVE!
I am not a whiny toddler, I just find annoying that you have to express your hate for the whole Universe through my stories. I can take criticism, But there is written nowhere that I have to accept your tantrums without calling you out on it.
The chapter is right under this AN, have a nice read if you can.
"You bastard" - demon talking / jutsu
"Let's finish this" - dialogue
" Can it get any worse? " - during flashback
" Not so easy after all " - thoughts
Pairing: Naru/Eighteen/ FEMALE Seventeen /FEMALE Cell...and NO is not done by using the Dragonballs.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Dragon Ball Z or whatever I will use and I already used in this or any other story I write, wrote and will write nor I did this for money or any sort of compensation. Thank you for your time.
A word of advice, Naruto here will act slightly different from Canon due to some "Details" about his joining the DBZ world.
Chapter 3: The Power of Memories.
Road between the mountains – (or what was left of it) -
"Makankōsappō!" (Demonic Piercing Light Murder Gun)
"Makankōsappō!"
Two voices screamed at the same time as two laser-like Ki attacks met half-way in a blinding explosion of light.
"Huhuhu! Well, well, well! You are surpassing my expectations, of quite a margin even, Huhuhuhu!" the bio-android known as Cell said with a smug laugh as soon as the smoke of the two attacks canceling each-other dispersed.
"I am glad I can entertain you," the blond Android named 'One' answered with an annoyed growl.
"You are doing more than entertaining me. You are helping me Test my current power, and are making me decide between simply destroying you or absorbing every ounce of energy you posses...And the latter option is becoming VERY welcomed." Cell said waving its tail as to underline the fact.
"I am not into bugs or vore, so I will have to decline being eaten by you!"
"You can't say that until you try!" the insect android yelled as it charged forward and then whipping his tail in front of itself to pierce the blond's chest.
"OOORAH!" the other replied grabbing the tail and using it to spin Cell around as fast as he could.
"Grah! Let me go!" the Android growled helpless.
"Never!"
"Then I will force you, SOLAR FLARE!" Cell replied moving both hands at the side of his face to produce a blinding explosion of light.
"Fucking Hell, my eyes!" Naruto yelled frantically while covering his eyes.
"YOU ARE MINE NOW!" Cell said in glee as it grabbed him in a bear-hug with enough strength to turn a normal man's bones to dust.
"What are you-ARGH!" the human-looking android yelled in pain as Cell's tail pierced his back.
"Now let's see how much energy I can tak-GRAAAAH!" Cell yelled in shock as the blond android latched to his neck with a bite.
"Phimilar dephine, Bashtard! Let's shee who abshorbs fashter!" Naruto said grimacing as he started absorbing energy from Cell, all for the Bio-android's ire.
"You don't want to know from what kind of book she took the idea." Kurama said grimacing.
"Better a vampire-like design than a tail!...Even if I think there must be some girl somewhere liking the idea all the same..." the blond thought in answer.
"Just focus on fighting." the voice replied annoyed.
"AAAAARGH!" finally breaking free the blond kicked Cell away before charging a quick blast of Ki in his hand.
"JUST DIE ALREADY!" he yelled launching his one-handed energy wave.
"YOU FIRST!" Cell answered doing the same.
The collision of the two attacks generated a giant explosion covering the whole area and then some and making all the nearby cities shock violently from the after-shock.
Meanwhile – Kami's lookout -
Both Piccolo and Kami were looking down the flying construction towards the land below with a frown on their faces.
"They seem equally matched." Piccolo said grumbling.
"I fear that the monster still holds a slight superiority to our unexpected blond ally, but for the time being he may prove to be an important ally to keep this creature occupied until the others are ready to face him." Kami answered with a heavy tone.
"That is why I suggested us to fuse into a single being." the younger Namekian of the two said.
Sigh! "You are aware of what you are asking me to do, right? To simply disappear once absorbed." the other answered with a tired sigh.
"Do we actually have any other idea? Or plan? Or miracle waiting for us to happen?"
"That would mean leave this world without a protector! Without a Kami!"
"And what good is the current Kami doing instead?! What help can you give by remaining here to watch!?" Piccolo answered growling.
"YOU CAN'T PRETEND ME TO JUMP AT THE IDEA! In my eyes you still represent the Evil Side I banished years ago when I firstly became Kami, what I used to be!"
"I changed during all this time, and you know it." Piccolo replied annoyed.
"This doesn't change the magnitude of the favour you are asking me." the older namekian answered with a long sigh.
"AAARGH! You stubborn bastard!" Piccolo roared in anger as he looked down on the ongoing fight between the two Bio-Androids and stubbornly refusing to look in Kami's general direction.
Back on earth – With Naruto and Cell -
"Bwahahahahaha!" Cell was cackling in mad amusement as it kept shooting volley after volley of fast Ki Blasts at the flying blond Android forcing him to fly higher and higher in the sky.
"You won't escape me!" it then said unfolding its insect wings and flying to the chase.
"Damn it! Why won't that thing die!?" Kurama growled furious as he watched his host reattach his right arm Cell had managed to cut off with a blast.
"For the same reason WE are still alive, we both have a damn good power of regeneration!" the blond answered focusing Ki in his hand to form a wide disc with sharp edges he then threw at the rapidly advancing Cell cutting it in two at the chest.
"GOTCHA!"
"Kame..." the insect-looking Android replied unfazed as he bought both hands forward.
"SHIIIIIT!" Kurama yelled with wide eyes.
"HAMEEEEE…." energy kept rapidly mounting in Cell's hands in a blinding sphere of light.
"Do something!"
"DEATH BALL!" Naruto yelled hoping to empower the huge sphere of Ki in enough energy to withstand the attack.
"HAAAAAAA!" both Androids launched their attack at the same time.
WOOOOOOOM!
Both hastily-made techniques met half-way with Cell Ki blast 'splashing' against the black-colored giant sphere of Naruto, both pushing as much power they could in trying to overpower the other while refusing to be pushed back even just of an inch.
"Nnnngh!" Cell groaned as he barely felt his legs reconnect with his torso on a sub-conscious level, he knew very well that it had been a gamble doing that while regenerating and so that he had not enough time to 'properly' prepare that technique.
"Guoooooh!" at the same time Naruto growled in fatigue as he was physically pushing on his sphere of energy with both hands and feeling his fingers be buried inside its burning energy.
The light surrounding the two was nothing anybody had ever seen before, white and black meeting with enough intensity to surpass the sun itself while the two auras' clashing created an insanely-powerful gust of with that was battling mercilessly all around the two, reducing everything in its path to dust and even upturning cars and uprooting whole sections of roads far and far away from the fighting zone.
"NGGGGHHHHHAAAAAAAAAH!" with a duo of war-cries both Androids gambled their whole existence in their last attack and simply shoved all their power in their techniques without a care about the outcome.
The result was the Death Ball finally giving-in and exploding in a flare of uncontrolled energy that took part of the Kamehameha own energy along the ride with the blast radius reaching simply ridiculous dimensions and the mushroom cloud alone casting its shadow everywhere; even Piccolo and Kami for an instant thought they could feel the heat generated by the explosion reach them while the other Z Warriors instinctively turned to look in the general direction they felt the two auras momentarily disappear, or at least get weak enough to be hardly sensed.
"I hope he is okay," Yamcha muttered honestly worried.
"I am sure he is okay, Yamcha, have no fear." Chichi answered with a gentle smile.
"Who are you talking about?" Master Roshi asked as the group was finally reaching the old man's home in a very isolated corner of the ocean.
"A new friend that we managed to drag in our latest bout to save the world." Yamcha answered.
"Goodie, all the more friends to wish back to life with Shenron..."
"Since when you are so negative, old man?" Chichi asked huffing.
"Ever since I noticed Bad Guys popping-up one after another with always shorter pauses between each one of them, it is honestly getting ridiculous." the hermit answered sighing.
"Sadly true."
Back With Naruto and Cell – ruins -
Utter devastation was what remained of the two techniques explosion, and right in the middle of the various mounds of rubles stood the heavily-damaged form of Cell, lying there unmovable with the upper part of its body nowhere to be seen leaving behind only part of its torso and its legs barely intact.
SPLAAAAT!
"GUAAAAAAAH!" Cell roared in fatigue as it FINALLY regrew the missing body parts the explosion simply had evaporated.
"You piece of rubbish...Total waste of hardware and DNA!" the thing growled as it tiredly made its way towards what remained of Android One.
"..." the blond didn't answer as his eyes still looked empty, contrary to Cell, the explosion disintegrated what was on his lower half leaving the rest badly burned, even if it was clear he was rapidly healing.
"No. No regeneration for you." the creature hissed as it used its tail tightly wrapped around the blond's neck to lift what remained of Naruto.
"Screw absorbing you, I can do even without whatever power I could gather from you...I will simply destroy you to the point that NOTHING REMAINS!" Cell bellowed as he built-up as much energy as he could in his hands to blast Android One in a humongous explosion of energy, uncaring of how much weaker that over-charged attack would leave it, it will rest and 'feed' later; avenging the blow to its pride was more important now!
And as it expected, nothing seemed to remain of the blond once the attack dissipated, making the insect-like Bio-Android tiredly chuckle, apparently the fight took more energy than expected if IT found itself feeling slightly tired, but it knew it will pass soon, it was a mere small delay before its hunt for Android 18 and 17 could continue.
Sometime later – Somewhere -
Android One was floating somewhere, somewhere empty, nor cold, nor hot...just...Void.
"Look, Naruto! Little #2èp+w] is moving his first steps!" in the bottomless void a woman said happily, but for the life of him Android One could not see her face as it simply looked like 'glitching' whenever she faced him once she finally walked out of the darkness, even the name she said sounded like gibberish to his ears.
"He looks very lively!" Naruto said as the faceless bundle of glitching data holding the woman's hand gurgled something unintelligible.
"Like his da-da-da-da-da-dddy!" the voice said failing like a broken record towards the end.
"I love you, Hi-òè4ès[ ." he tried saying before static-noises exited his mouth.
"I love you too...Naruto..." the woman replied as everything glitched again making the blond's only sane eye snap open in horror and despair.
"GURGLE!" he tried to scream only for bubbles to come out from his mouth.
"AAH!" the one to scream for real was instead a young woman with blue hair that had fallen asleep in front of a computer and that had been awakened by the Android loud awakening that had her topple down her chair.
"Y-You are awake?! INCREDIBLE!" the woman said in a mixture of elation and awe.
"Gurgle..." new bubbles came out from the blond's mouth as he tried to answer.
"Ah! Yes! Wait a minute." the mysterious girl said as robotic arms moved inside the same greenish liquid Android One was apparently immersed into to help him wear a breathing mask.
"W-Where am I?" he asked with a distorted voice coming from the mask's inner microphone.
"In my father's lab. I am Bulma Briefs and you are safe, between friends. Piccolo has found you and brought you to me to have you repaired...Your core was heavily damaged so it was taking a long time for you to recover, honestly "removing it" was our best idea as it's damaged state was slowing down your healing a lot. I guess that in her haste to copy Gero that Garter woman tried to 'pile-up' too many different modifications for those to work properly. Just the ones she did about your DNA would have been enough, for the love of God! It was easy to tell that the mechanical parts were holding you back and-"
"Can you...Can you please slow down?" Naruto begged with a tired voice.
"Maah! Sorry about that, I find this whole Android mess to be a pain and I tend to go into rants when I think about it." Bulma answered chuckling.
"Don't tell me, I am actually living through this pain in the ass! If you are really that good, can you please tell me why I can't feel a thing from the neck down?" he asked.
"Weeeell...That's because there is nothing of you still existing from the neck down..." the young woman answered sheepishly.
"What?…WHAT?!" the blond bellowed with surprising force making Bulma fall down once again.
"Look yourself. I had to submerge you in a special culture bath to help your regeneration." she answered putting a mirror in front of the Android.
"...I think I am going to puke..." Naruto muttered as he could see what was left of him.
"Truth be told, you lack a stomach and a digestive tract to puke." she answered with a forced smile.
"I think I can pull it off all the same at the moment." he whimpered in answer.
He was reduced to a head, a badly burned head with barely a handful of hair still on top of it and a single eye still working, the other was just an empty and bloodied eye-socket.
"She better fix you up good, or you'll have to kiss your modeling career good-bye." Kurama muttered wincing.
"I will fix him up PERFECTLY, thank you." Bulma answered with a bitter tone.
"SHIT! You heard me!?"
"Yes, I did. I am monitoring his brain, Kurama, so I can talk and hear you both...And I think I can recover MOST of your memories." she answered.
"And my body?" Naruto asked.
"You are just a head now, so it will take a while for the rest to regrow, even with the culture bath you are in greatly helping it along...Good news is that the Saiyan Cells and the ones from Frieza and King Cold are empowering each other, if you recover from this, your regenerating power will skyrocket in terms of both speed and quality. And I would expect a nice boost in power too if I were you, Saiyan do get stronger from that kind of recovering! If Vegeta's own grumbled answer when I asked is the truth."
"How long?"
"How long? I estimated a week, once done that and fixed whatever mess Garther did to your DNA while splicing, I will try to restore your memories." Bulma promised.
"Mess?...And Why you are helping me?" Naruto asked.
"Garther was a Genius? Yes. A good one? Yes even if easily distracted and childish...But did she have the right equipment to do a proper job with you? Oh God, NO. It is a miracle in itself if you work AT ALL. And I am helping you because you helped Goku in his time of need, kept yet another Android occupied while we others took care of hiding our friend and gave us an actual heads-up to a menace not even our Time-traveling friend Trunks knew about. As we speak he and Krillin went to destroy a secret Lab of Gero we discovered thanks to the data I extracted from your brain that Garther herself stole from Gero...We still don't know from WHERE that Cell you fought came though." Bulma answered.
"Thank you." Naruto answered shyly.
"You look like a nice boy, even Chichi said that she could tell you were a nice guy, just like Yamcha said. Even if you like to play badass apparently and dismiss this as you 'just having fun'." she said, amused at his blushing.
"SHUT-UP! I AM JUST JOINING YOU BECAUSE I WANT TO FIGHT STRONG GUYS-TTEBAYO!" he yelled in clear embarrassment.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say." the woman answered chuckling.
"Damn it."
"...By the way."
"Yes?"
"Once regrown your hands I want an autograph, I loved that spot you made about the new Chanel Cologne." Bulma said with a mischievous smile.
"I bet you did...You women ALL did...It took three days to remove that oil from my abs instead!…'Make them shiner! Make them shiner!'...Stupid asshole." Android One grumbled annoyed.
"Hahahahaha!"
Outside Bulma's personal laboratory – a week later -
Piccolo (having FINALLY fused with Kami), Vegeta, Trunks and Krillin were waiting outside the lab for Bulma to come out with the results of her working on the remains of Android One once again.
"So..." Krillin asked once he grew bored of the long silence between them.
"What?" Vegeta asked growling.
"There is a famous model in there with Bulma and she is spending a lot of time talking with him...Are you not jealous?" the short man asked curious.
"The stupid earth woman is fixing that useless piece of scrap metal since she believes he may be at least a bit useful against those Androids; she is wasting time and effort on garbage and I should be 'jealous'? Why exactly? And jealous of what?" the Prince of all (remaining two or three) Saiyans answered with a glare that made the other jump back a little.
"That sounds like jealousy to me." Piccolo muttered without opening his eyes.
"Nobody asked you, Namekian!"
"Please, father! I-"
"And you especially should stay quiet, boy!" the Saiyan Prince spat annoyed.
"Any other Android you think MAYBE are around and conveniently forgot to tell us?"
"...I don't think there should be others..." Trunks answered looking down.
"You better, because otherwise I WILL BE MAD! There are already too many tin-cans around as it is!" Vegeta answered.
"And what if another one pops-up? Or even three? And one of them even wears something stupid, like a trucker hat?" Krillin said with a challenging smirk.
"...Do not challenge me, little man." the Saiyan muttered with a low voice making Krillin eep in surprise.
"Please calm down, the last thing we need is fighting with each other, we have plenty of bad Androids to deal with." Piccolo said with a chastising tone as he moved to knock on the lab door.
"I was coming out, have no fear." Bulma said yawning as she exited the room.
"So, mom?" Trunks asked.
"I like having you call me Mom." she answered smirking before clearing her throat.
"Our friend Naruto is recovering even faster than what I anticipated, in a week or so he will re-grow his whole body and return to optimal health, I also finally talked him into joining US and not the Androids, he will fight with us." the young woman said sounding proud of herself.
"An ally more is nothing to sneeze at, anything else?" Piccolo answered nodding.
"I am actually surprised he survived as just a head..." Krillin muttered under his breath.
"He has inside Saiyan blood, we do not die that easily." Vegeta answered speaking of his race with the utmost pride.
"AND the Namekian and...'Whatever Race Frieza is'...DNA also boosting his own natural 'superhuman' regeneration. The data I extrac-"
"Arcosian." Trunks said.
"What?"
"Arcosian, mother. You decided to call the race like that so to not put ALL OF THEM on the same level as Frieza by saying 'Frieza's Race'." the time-traveler explained.
"Oh! Thanks for telling me!"
"CAN WE GET TO THE POINT?!" Vegeta bellowed.
"As I was saying!" Bulma answered glaring at the Saiyan Prince making him grumble in annoyance.
"The Data I extracted suggest that the Third Android we have to keep our eyes on and that he fought already is called 'Cell'. A Highly-adaptive Bio-Android created using the DNA of some of the strongest warriors in the Galaxy…"
Somewhere – on a far away planet -
"I beg to differ, I am strong and Iwas not included in the collection, and I find it greatly offensive to not have been took in consideration! I should have been the first to be cloned! I should go there and show them who's stronger!"
Sigh! "Lord Beerus…"
"What?!"
Back on earth -
"The curious thing though is while completely different in design, as Cell was built from the ground-up using the stolen DNA while Naruto had it added to his...Their base genetic make-up is identical." Bulma finished saying.
"And for people that have not an IQ like yours?" Krillin asked confused.
"It means that while extremely compatible, they are toxic to each other." Bulma's father answered as he joined the group with the ever-present black cat hanging from his shoulder.
"I don't get it." Piccolo said.
"Useless drivel." Vegeta added grumbling in the background.
"How can I phrase it...The two would technically be able to mate and generate a prole...But they can not absorb each other energy or body." the man answered unsure.
"Absorb energy or body?" Krillin repeated.
"Just like the first Androids you guys fought with, both Cell and Naruto can absorb energy to add it to their own internal source of energy, they do not need it to work, but the can further enlarge their reserves through absorption." Bulma said.
"And the body part?" Piccolo asked.
"That we are not exactly certain about as the data Garther has stolen were still about the 'prototype times' of Project Cell, but if Gero still managed to make it work...Then there is the chance that Cell would be able to ideally swallow the whole body of its victims, why doing that when just stealing energy would be enough escapes me though." Bulma answered sighing in defeat.
"Maybe he wanted Cell to eat Goku completely, he has a deep grudge against him." Krillin suggested.
"Probably, our friend DID destroy the Red Ribbon Army after all..." Doctor Brief conceded.
"The sick maniac maybe wanted Goku's death to be slow," Piccolo added making the other shiver at the idea of being slowly eaten alive.
"So? What does that mean for us?" Vegeta asked bored.
"Cell at the moment is vulnerable." Bulma said making the other gasp.
"Eh?"
"The 'poisoning', if we want to call it that, is mutual. Naruto's own healing slowed down to a crawl because he tried to absorb Cell's energy while the monster tried to absorb from him, neither of the two can do it without feeling sick, in a week both will recover from the poisoning and recover their power so we need to find Cell NOW that that thing cannot heal as it normally would." the woman explained.
"I am also trying to see if I can create something from Mister Naruto's DNA to use as a weapon against Cell should it become a too big menace, it would in theory make it weak enough to make it easier to destroy." her father added.
"Then keep working on it and see if you can speed-up our friend recovery. We are going to find Cell and remove at least ONE Android from the scene...You coming, Trunks?" Krillin said.
"Yeah."
"I am coming too, that thing is still pretty strong, poisoned or not, three against one would make me feel better about chances of victory." Piccolo said.
"Thank you, Piccolo." the time-traveler said thankful as the three started leaving.
"Be careful, even if weakened Cell is still a huge threat! Right now the news were talking about how Gingertown has turned into a ghost city in a matter of hours. That's fifteen thousand people gone and absorbed by that thing, that monster is probably trying to absorb as much energy it can to counter its weakened state so keep your eyes open, even just one of you has more energy inside than those people had, he may attack you without a second thought out of despair." Bulma's father said with a grave tone.
"All those victims...And we don't even have the Dragonballs anymore..." Piccolo growled as he thought at the down-side of his fusion with Kami that caused the Dragonballs to lose their powers.
"We'll find a solution to that as well, now go and find that creature!" Bulma answered making the three nod and hurry outside.
"You okay, Vegeta?" Bulma asked looking at the fuming Prince.
"I am wasting my time here." he answered walking away without looking back.
"He is going towards the Gravity Machine to train again." her father answered sighing.
"I guess seeing Piccolo becoming that strong wounded his pride..." Sigh! "He can be so childish sometimes." Bulma answered sighing as she returned to work on helping Naruto recover.
Meanwhile – With Cell -
"Gah!...Gaaah...W-Why!?" the insect android growled furious as a new puking fit forced it to bend forward to let go a deluge of acidic green shot from its mouth.
"I absorb energy...But I can't use it!…Why the wounds are not closing!?" the Android said as the bullet wounds from the army soldiers he had just absorbed took twice the time to close.
"What have you done to me, you dirty bastard?!" Cell roared as he saw Android One as the sole culprit.
"No matter, I can feel myself getting better, soon my hunt for 17 and 18 will restart...This is just a minor set-back!" it hissed with narrowed eyes as the Bio-Android stumbled a little while walking before flying away towards the next city.
One Week later – Bulma's laboratory -
"We could not find hair or hide of Cell, that monster knows how to stay hidden and come out only to feed, every time we have a lead we come to find only the remains of his latest victims." Krillin said sighing once he and the others returned from another fruitless hunt for the weakened Cell.
"The only result we had was finding a second Time Machine." Trunks added showing his mother a thick stack of pictures.
"Another Time Machine? What do you mean?" Bulma asked looking at the image of a tall machine covered in moss and with a sizable hole in the glass dome on top of it.
"It's perfectly identical to the one I used to come here, down to the writing 'hope' done on the side the day I firstly activated it...But while mine is new, this one looks like having been abandoned in that place for years." Trunks explained.
"But what would that mean?" Tien asked, it was in fact by chance the man had found the thing and alerted both Trunks and Krillin as the two had been passing by.
"...You said you have found an old insect carapace near it...Right?" the woman said with narrowed eyes.
"Yep, along the egg." Krillin said pointing at the pink, soccer-ball-sized, 'egg' resting on a near table.
"What are you trying to say?" Tien asked.
"The DNA left in that egg correspond to the traces I have found in Naruto's teeth from where he had bitten Cell...They match perfectly with the sample of the larva-like thing you said you have found in Gero's secret lab and that you destroyed."
"Y-You mean?!" Trunks asked in horror.
To answer him Bulma took a pen and a piece of paper and drew two parallel lines on it.
"In one you tried to use the Time Machine I have built and managed to come back...In the other that small thing grew-up to become Cell that then intercepted you before you could activate it; he must have somehow regressed into a larval state by itself once activated the machine, from Naruto's description Cell would have been too big to fit inside the cockpit otherwise. But before that he must have..." she said with a low voice.
"He must have killed me to then steal the already-programmed Time Machine...He comes from an alternate timeline...I brought him here..." the Time-Traveler said shocked.
"To be fair, it was another 'you' to program that thing, and just like you, THAT Trunks didn't know Cell even existed. He could have not expected that to happen." Tien said giving the boy a reassuring squeeze to his shoulder.
"It doesn't make me feel better though." the young man said sighing.
"We destroyed our version of it before it could make damages and we'll stop the one that came back, I promise. Your future will be a good one." Bulma said with a gentle smile.
"How's our Android friend instead?" Krillin asked, clearly wanting to switch subject all for the clear elation of Trunks.
"He is okay. He has just finished regenerating his body and as we speak dad is downloading his restored memories back inside his mind. It had not been easy, we had to copy his mind fully into a computer and work on that before putting it back inside his head...And yet only 70% of his memories are back, the rest we cannot recover, too much damage." Bulma answered sighing.
It was in that moment that a humongous explosion shocked the whole city sending Bulma's father fly inside the woman's lab from the newly-created hole in the wall, the man was luckily still alive even if a little ragged.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" the inhuman scream of sorrow soon following cut through the air as Android One kept screaming and wailing in complete despair.
Inside Naruto's head -
It was a mess of memories coming and going at light-speed; names, places, battles, faces all jumbled together without order while the poo man's brain tried to sort them out at the same time as every voice of friend and enemies resounded at the same time in an incomprehensible jargon so loud to have his ears almost bleed while a soul-piercing head-ache kept trying to split his skull in half.
All he could understand was that those were his memories, that he had lost EVERYTHING they showed and that it both hurt and angered him, and both Anger and Sadness were warring to take over at every new memory popping-up in his head.
"Come here, Naruto...There! Congratulations for becoming a Genin!" the wounded face of Iruka smiled proud as he tied his forehead-protector on the young blond forehead.
"Team 7 will be: Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto!"
"Mah! Mah! The Test is easy! The two that grab these Bells pass, the last one gets tied to the post!" Kakashi said with an eye-smile.
"Hurry-up and become the Hokage, Naruto-kun! So I will be able to retire!" Hiruzen Sarutobi said with a gentle smile while patting the five-year-old Naruto on the head.
"Ready to go back, Naruto? It's time to return to Konoha!" Jiraiya said proudly once completed the blond's training in the Toad Summoning Realm.
"Congratulations, Hokage-sama! It's a boy!" a nurse said as the now-adult Naruto entered the hospital room to meet his wife and new-born.
"Great Naruto Bridge! Yep! Sounds about right as a name, isn't it?" Old man Tazuna said in drunken pride.
"Naruto-kun!" a young woman with pale eyes and long blue hair said with a loving smile as he took her hand to have her wear a wedding ring…
Real World -
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" as storm clouds kept amassing above the city, the Android ninja kept yelling and summoning more power making a dense bubbly aura covered his whole body until his skin started rupturing and blood slowly float upward in tiny bubbles, as soon as those touched the outer layer of the bubbling energy those dissipated making the area darken in colour.
"What is he doing!?" Krillin asked trying to be heard above the howling of the wind.
"Transforming it seems!" Bulma replied getting almost blew back if not for Tien holding her.
"The Aura he is throwing around is nothing to sneeze at! He is getting stronger and stronger!" the three-eyed man said between clenched teeth.
"Even you." Vegeta growled with narrowed eyes from his position above the ground.
"AAAAAAAAAAAH!" by now Android One's whole body had become a featureless humanoid shape with shining eyes, long ears and a jagged opening acting as mouth.
"I don't like this! I am getting Frieza flashback!" Krillin said worried.
When Android One finally stopped screaming he simply stood motionless in the middle of the crater created by his outburst while looking upward towards the sky, the huge drops of the rainstorm mixing with his tears as it kept raining mercilessly.
"Why?" he asked with a barely-understandable growling tone.
"..." Bulma had not a right answer to that and refused to even look at him in the eyes.
"I don't know why you are here, neither I know why whoever turned you into an Android chose you to begin with...But I ask you to not consider this whole world at fault, we'll find a way to send you back once dealt with Cell and the other Androids. I promise." Trunks tried saying while also transforming into a Super Saiyan as a precaution.
"...Promise...Promise you will..." the Android growled.
"I do." with hard eyes never leaving the ones of the transformed Android Trunks nodded in determination.
"...Good." Naruto said before the transformation dispelled all at once and he fell unconscious in the waiting arms of the Time-Traveler.
"I think we saw a glimpse of his power, I just hope the unconsciousness was only because of the trauma of his lost memories returning." Tien said helping Trunks to take the half-naked young man inside.
"He remembered everything in an instant, the trauma must have been damn taxing for him, take him to my lab, I'll see if he wounded himself in his short moment of madness." Bulma said sighing.
The present Z-Warriors thought had felt a second spike of power happening at the same time as Naruto's own, making them grit their teeth in anger as they understood that Cell as well had finally recovered signaling the return to the fray of the fourth evil Android.
At the same time – with Androids 16, 17 and 18 – Goku's Home -
"Tch!Completely empty! They have long left, they knew we were coming." 18 said annoyed as she kicked a near chair in petty annoyance.
"Makes the hunt funnier, sis! Come on! There are not many places they could have took him to! It only means that our game can last a little longer!" 17 answered smirking at her sister's fuming face.
"..."
"Something wrong, 16?" the brown-haired Android asked to the towering giant accompanying them.
"I detected two spikes of Aura, and both matching you, 17. both seem actually close at surpassing you to be exact." 16 replied while still looking at the sky.
"Two even! Ppff! You must be broken, my friend! Or have very bad timing for jokes! COME ON! Let's see where they have brought Goku!" 17 answered laughing as she walked back towards their 'borrowed' car.
"Coming, coming." 18 answered huffing as she joined her sister.
"I suggest moving east, towards the sea." 16 said.
"Sounds like a plan!"
With that, the trio of Androids returned to their merry game about hunting-down Goku, unaware that a now-gleeful Cell had returned to empty a city after another in great hurry, by now almost rabid in its wish to absorb both sisters and gain its Perfect Form.
Done.
I don't know for how much longer I will continue writing.
I tried to give a rank to Naruto's power level, please help me fix that if you have a spare minute.
Four Tails (Battle against Orochimaru) – Same Power Level as Android 17 and Imperfect Cell. It would ideally be Naruto's answer to the "Super Saiyan Form".
Six Tails (Battle against Pein) – Same PL as Android 18 and Semi-perfect Cell.
Sage Mode (Battle against Pein) – Same PL as Perfect Cell.
Too much? Too little? Should I use the "Sixth Path Sage Mode (Without truth seeking balls) instead of the one used against Pein? let me know.
Have a nice day.
Tr230.