So… it's been over a year since my last update. I have several excuses. The first one is being a government employee and 2018 ending and 2019 starting with a government shutdown. Making it worse was I HAD to go into work and wasn't paid until the shutdown was over. I also had some car trouble and being sick. And of course, Skyrim Special Edition lures me away from writing. I hope you all keep reading and leave a review about what you liked from this chapter and what you disliked. I had to start over with this chapter 3 times, so I hope this meets your expectations.
I don't own Naruto, Inuyasha, Ranma ½, Tenchi Muyo, or any other series I borrow crossover elements from.
Naruto tapped his pencil against the notebook he had propped up against his knees and considered the textbook lying open on the ground next to him, a scroll on fūinjutsu, a guide to magical runes, and a book on sword forging. Being stuck in bed for two days and then restricted to light training meant he had plenty of time to think and he had come up with a project to keep himself focused. "So Alchemical circles for fire and water to make one six-pointed star and a hexagram, put the symbols for air and earth around them to make a double Hexagram," muttered Naruto. "Then I have a hexagram I can draw six pentagram stars in... using the ninjutsu elements gives me five, got to figure the order and what to put as the sixth star." Scratching out combinations, Naruto scowled each time he thought he had the right balance only to realize the actual seals would explode in his face and crumple that sketch and toss it aside. "Ugh, got to admit I didn't think I'd be using chemistry, physics, and geometry to perfect seals," he muttered before starting another diagram. "Hmmm, Water, Earth, Lightning, Wind, and Fire would make my three primary elements the strongest effect and feeding one another..." Naruto's eyes flitted around his reference materials before widening. "By Inari... cap it with Sage Chakra..." Naruto trailed off before yelling, "Ero-sennin, get your perverted ass in here and check my figures!"
"Is it too much to ask for some respect?" growled Jiraiya from where he was revising his latest book, Icha Icha Tactics.
"I'm asking for your much bragged about experience before I do something that could end with me blowing myself up," Naruto yelled back, listening to the toad sage grumbling as he came down the hall from the main room. Roshi was out on a date with Yuna and Rikku while Hoshika and Gishou were both out on errands, meaning Jiraiya was stuck at home editing his book instead of doing research for it since someone needed to watch Naruto.
"Well, what do you have?" demanded Jiraiya as he walked over to Naruto's bedside, his eyes glancing over the reference books. "You've got quite a few different disciplines here," he said.
"Yeah, and look at this," said Naruto as he turned his notebook to show Jiraiya the pages he'd sketched out his idea and the notes he'd made.
Jiraiya's eyes widened as he looked over the details and his annoyance faded away as he started to see what Naruto had in mind. "Kid, this might just be the next big thing in sealing. We haven't even seen some of these things you're planning to use, the four alchemic symbols for a star should be a stable base and create a focus of energy if I'm reading your notes right."
Naruto nodded as he gazed at his sketches. "But I need chakra metal for the hilt, this thing needs a constant flow of chakra to even begin to work. It will only be usable by someone with insane chakra reserves like me."
"How are you planning to focus this chakra?" asked Jiraiya. Naruto grimaced at that reminder.
"The best bet would be a Kesshōseki (Crystal gem) like Hashirama Senju's," said Naruto as he fingered the necklace Tsunade had given him. "But this one is attuned to sealing the Biju, I have no idea how to make one, let alone attune it for chakra shaping and flow."
"Heh, too bad you can't use that Shikon no Tama Kagome-san guards, it would probably be able to handle the chakra," said Jiraiya.
"But that's a consolidation of miko and yōki energy, there's no way it could safely handle my... chakra..." Naruto's reply drifted off and Jiraiya stayed quiet as he saw the same look on Ken's face many times when working on the Rasengan and Hiraishin. Naruto closed his eyes and Jiraiya felt a surge of senjutsu chakra before the blond opened them to reveal the orange eyes of a perfect sage. Naruto raised one hand and concentrated his Senjutsu chakra into it, while the other glowed red with his yōki. Naruto brought both hands together and a red and green Rasengan swirled in Naruto's hands before shrinking down to a small ball inside a shell of blue chakra as Naruto's hands pressed together. A white glow seeped out from between his fingers as a low whining was heard, Jiraiya grimacing as his teeth started to ache and Naruto's ears lying flat before it faded. Naruto opened his hands to reveal a sparkling white rock with bits of red, blue, and green shimmering through it like a fire opal the size of Naruto's palm. The grin Naruto shot Jiraiya had the Toad Sage grinning in return.
"Kid, you never cease to amaze me, forming a Kesshōseki (Chakra Gem) from three different chakra," said Jiraiya before whapping Naruto on the head. "And don't do something like that again when you're supposed to be resting or Hinata will skin ME alive for letting you do crazy stuff!"
Naruto rubbed his head and grimaced, but nodded and started sketching the crystal into his notebook and making notes and revisions as he attempted to discover the best way to use it and attune it to himself.
(0o0o0)
Naruto's ears twitched and he looked up from his notebook before the door opened to reveal Hinata. "Hey Hinata-chan, how was school without me there to cuddle with at lunch?"
"Depressing, but the principal agreed your 'I got badly injured fighting a kitsune kunoichi ninja on her secret training island' was a legitimate excuse to stay home from school," she said before activating her Byakugan to examine Naruto. "You've been using senjutsu, Yōki, and your chakra all at once, it's practically radiating from your palms," she said as her eyes narrowed. "You were supposed to rest!"
"And you should know how hard it is for me to stay cooped up!" Naruto countered. "I stayed in bed and did a bunch of theory work, but when I had a moment of inspiration, I had to act on it immediately!"
"And what was worth risking aggravating your injuries?" Hinata asked in a stern tone.
Naruto smirked as he grabbed a sealing tag and released the contents, revealing the chakra gem to Hinata, whose Byakugan reflexively shut off upon seeing it. To the Byakugan staring at the gem was like a normal eye staring into the sun.
"Naruto-kun, you made a Kesshōseki?" Hinata asked in surprise.
"Yeah, I basically made a Senjutsu Rasengan in one hand, a Yōki one in the other, merged them together inside a shell of normal chakra, and then compressed it! I'm thinking of trying for a five-element gem after I get a better control of my Earth element."
Hinata sighed and shook her head at Naruto's recklessness. "If I didn't know you so well and how stir crazy you can get, I'd forbid it. At least you know your limits enough to hold off on experimenting. So how are you going to use the gem?"
"I'm going to need Washu-sensei's lab to help me cut and polish it, then I want to etch seals onto the various facets," said Naruto as he showed Hinata the diagrams he was working on.
Hinata was not as well versed in sealing as Naruto, but she was able to recognize the sketch of cut gem Naruto wanted to use. "This is a round cut, with a six-sided central facet and 32 smaller facets… and you're using all the outer facets with such small seals I can't make them out," she said. "What about the bottom facets? There are 25 of them if this is a standard 58 facet gem."
"I'm actually trying to figure that out, I was planning to use an electron microscope in Washu-sensei's lab and make all the seals on the facets that way," explained Naruto. "I know what the top seals should do, but I'm not sure how the bottom should interact with the rest of the device."
Turning the page of his notebook, Hinata read through the page and started shaking her head. "Ryeka is going to try to kill you if you can make this work," she said. "And what are you planning to make that part out of?"
"Keiichi-sensei had some Tungsten he said was extremely heat resistant," said Naruto as he flipped to a marked page in his chemistry text book. "I'd need a crazy hot fire that wasn't done with fire chakra. So that means a specialty forge or magic."
"Maybe Tōtōsai-san?" Hinata suggested, only for Naruto to shake his head.
"His forge is fueled by his fire breath, so it would have traces of yōki in it," he explained. "That would cause conflicts with my yōki and make the results fire oriented. I'm trying to make something pure yōki, chakra, and senjutsu that I can shift to an element as needed."
Hinata's brow furrowed as she considered that. "So, something like an element neutral Raijin no Ken?" she asked, mind boggling as it tried to figure out how to achieve such a thing.
"Yeah, but it's going to take six seals, one for each element and the sixth for senjutsu, to make the blade be composed of equal parts and not blow up in my face," said Naruto. "That's going to be lots of power flowing through the material holding the seals, even the tungsten will have a hard time since the seals will be on six disks. To fit inside the large pentagram that will be storing and providing the power for the blade. I'll need a filler material to help keep the seals stable but one that won't influence the chakra passing through them."
Hinata considered the issue, idly flipping through the chemistry book's pages towards the front and stopping on a familiar element. "What about this one Naruto-kun?" she asked. "I remember silver is elementally inert and used in lots of magical items."
Naruto blinked before taking the text book and reading over the entry for silver and grinning. "This might do the trick," he said as he grabbed a few texts on alchemy, magic, and flipped through them. "Yes, that would work great Hinata-chan! The silver would make a perfect seal material and not retain chakra passing through the seal, so the core would stay as pure chakra without an elemental influence! Six silver pentacles set into tungsten shell disks will be perfect! Add in the double hexagram star and I get seven stars! Make them each three inches thick and harness the arithmancy values of each will create an even stronger effect!""
Hinata smiled, happy to have helped Naruto figure out a solution to his problem. "So still thinking all these useless and silly subjects aren't useful?" she teased.
"Most of the stuff yeah. Math will be useful for when I have to balance the village budget, but all the complex math like calculus can go die in a fire," said Naruto. "But the stuff that annoys me is biology, social studies, Japanese history, and PE. A second-year academy student is more fit than most of the kids here and that includes the fangirls!"
Hinata couldn't help but giggle at the comparison. "But you like what you've learned in physics, chemistry, and magic, right?"
Naruto shrugged. "Yeah, but those are extremely useful to me for improving my ninjutsu, seals, and runes."
Hinata ruffled Naruto's hair before going to do her homework and after school training, leaving Naruto to concentrate on his work.
(0o0o0)
"So, I have an idea," Naruto said as he sat down at the dinner table with Jiraiya, Hinata, and Rōshi while Hoshiko was finishing up the last bit of preparations for dinner. He passed a piece of paper to Jiraiya. "This seal is designed around the Uzumaki swirl as a way to draw in chakra. I've also added runes to let it pull ambient mana as well."
Jiraiya studied the seal and started nodding. "Yes, I can see how this would work. Do you plan to have some seals store the chakra and mana for later use?"
"I was thinking another chakra crystal cut into a simple cylinder with runes and seals on the ends to act as a battery," Naruto said.
"You're not making that crystal until I'm there to watch you and make sure your chakra network is fully recovered," Hinata growled, Naruto gulped as her hair started to raise up and her shadow seemed to gain demonic horns. Nodding rapidly, Naruto kept his mouth shut.
"Whipped!" Jiraiya snorted out.
"I have a steady girlfriend; you have dates with rosie palms!" Naruto shot back.
"One for his side," Rōshi said as he pointed to Naruto.
"I can slap a seal on you that would have you as weak as a baby for a week!" Jiraiya countered.
Naruto simply smirked as his tails hugged Hinata. "And Hinata-chan would use the Ultimate Weakness Moxibustion that Cologne-baa-san taught us to make you as weak as a baby for the rest of your life! I wouldn't mind spending a week protected by her!"
"That's two for Naruto," Hoshiko said, Rōshi nodding in agreement.
"Will you two please not fight at the table?" Hinata asked with a sigh as she debated having Hoshiko give Jiraiya enough cash to go find a brothel and entertain himself so she didn't have to deal with him being an arrogant man child and lowing Naruto's maturity.
"You're getting schooled in a 'Mine is Bigger' contest by a teen Jiraiya," said Rōshi with a smirk.
"I don't want to hear that from a guy who just lounges around all day!" said Jiraiya.
"At least I have two girlfriends and never have to pay for company," Rōshi countered.
Naruto snorted just as he was about to take a drink of water, clearly pleased with Rōshi's counter and burn on Jiraiya.
(0o0o0)
Naruto let out a yawn as he finished getting ready for bed, actually looking forward to going to school the next day after being stuck inside for two days and unable to train beyond his seal work. "Never thought there would be a day I wanted to go to school," he muttered before going to brush his teeth.
Hinata was walking out of the upstairs bathroom in her own pajamas and was running her brush through her hair, making a shimmering wave of dark blue that fell down to her shoulders. "Naruto-kun, do you think I should cut my hair?" she asked.
"Why mess with perfection?" Naruto asked with a confused tilt of his head, causing Hinata to blush before giving him a peck on the cheek.
"You always know what to say to make my heart speed up," she said before walking into her room, leaving Naruto scratching his head in confusion.
(0o0o0)
"I can't believe I enjoyed being in school today," Naruto said as the teen exited the Furinkan campus. "I guess being able to leave the house and get back into a steady routine was good for me."
"And you were going bonkers stuck in your bed," said Hinata while poking Naruto's side.
"Considering he fidgets so much in class I'm not surprised," Akira said from the front of the group with a grin as they turned a corner.
"Hey, isn't that Hotaru-sensei?" Naruto asked as he pointed about half way down the block towards a café. The rest of the teens followed his finger to see their school nurse stepping to the outdoor seating area and a pink haired woman whose hair resembled rabbit ears standing up to greet her. "Must be meeting a friend," he said with a smile as the two women hugged and started perusing the menus.
Hotaru happened to glance up from her menu and saw the teens, giving them a wave. The pink haired woman glanced over her shoulder and started to turn back to her menu before her head snapped back around to focus on Naruto with laser like intensity for a moment. The blond froze, feeling her gaze sweeping over him and not sure what she was seeing until she smiled and turned back to her menu. "Okay, that was kind of creepy," he muttered as the group continued on.
"What was that about Chibiusa?" Hotaru asked her best friend after the teens had moved out of sight.
"That young fox boy, Uzumaki Naruto… his birth was found to be the start of a timeline where the Great Freeze never happened due to a combination of science, magic, and chakra being used to protect the world," said the Princess of Crystal Tokyo. "Yokai and Hanyō were living in Crystal Tokyo and life was so much BETTER. It hasn't settled into that path yet, but it's on course to do so as he grows stronger and more experienced."
"So that kid will help save the world..." said Hotaru before smiling. "He's definitely got the drive and courage, his nindō is to protect those precious to him and never go back on his word. A proper young hero."
(0o0o0)
"I got the feeling that pink haired lady knew me," Naruto said. "Never seen her before, but she focused on me out of the entire group."
"Well, I didn't sense any killing intent from her," said Hinata, her Byakugan keeping an eye on Hotaru and her friend as they chatted, though she avoided reading their lips.
"Well, if Hotaru-sensei is friends with her she can't be EVIL," said Miyuki with a shrug.
"Anyway, I'm glad I only had to be in school for a day before I got the weekend to take care of some stuff," said Naruto.
"Oh?" Kimiko asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I need specific materials I can't easily obtain for a project," said Naruto. "So, I called Hanzo and asked if he could take me to the Goblin Market so I can look around there. He proposed making it a family thing with Cassandra, Mayu, and Lucia accompanying him while Hinata and Ero-sennin come with me."
"Sounds fun, if you see something you think we'd like, snap a picture," said Ryeka.
"Will do," said Naruto before entering the Saotome dojo where Ranma would test him to make sure he was fully recovered or had developed any weaknesses after his fight with Chiyo.
(0o0o0)
The next day found Naruto, Hinata, and Jiraiya waiting in the back yard of Kitsune-su as Naruto stared at a watch. "Ok, Hanzo should be warping in any minute and then Cassandra will be opening the portal to the Goblin Market," said Naruto before a shimmering light appeared before starting to orbit around a central point making a circle wide enough for four people to stand close together inside. The light expanded up and down into a cylinder before fading away to reveal Hanzo, Cassandra, Lucia, and Mayu. All four were wearing casual clothing and backpacks for carrying any purchases.
"Naruto-Nii-san!" squealed Mayu before glomping onto Naruto's leg, causing Hinata to giggle. "You and Auntie Chiyo didn't hurt one another too badly, did you?" she asked as she stared up at Naruto.
"Nah, she was the one better off physically, just drained of energy," said Naruto before scooping Mayu up and onto his shoulders. "I on the other hand was unconscious for a few hours and needed several days to recover."
Cassandra immediately placed one hand on Naruto's forehead and he felt a tingle as her magic gently flowed through his body to check for any lingering damage. "Hmmm, you're in fairly good shape, Chiyo must not have used poison against you," she said.
"Probably because like Hanzo she's smarter than the rest of my cousins," said Naruto. "So, where's this goblin market located exactly?"
Hanzo grabbed a stick and drew a ring of overlapping circles on the ground. "Each circle is a different universe, and where they all intersect is a pocket dimension. Such places grow bigger the more universes that intersect and the Goblin Market has so many universes intersecting that it's a universe of its own now," he explained as he tapped the point all the rings intersected.
"Such places are neutral zones, no fighting is allowed except in self-defense or in the designated dueling rings," said Cassandra. "They use specific coins in the copper, silver, and gold system. A hundred copper equals a silver, a hundred silver is one gold, and a hundred gold is a platinum, but those are usually reserved for larger transactions between businesses. You'll be able to exchange yen for the market coins." Naruto, Hinata, and Jiraiya nodded, watching as Cassandra started chanting while waving her hands, a shimmering vertical circle portal forming in front of her before stabilizing and showing what appeared to be a parking lot full of horses, creatures, cars, star ships, magic carpets, boats, and any type of transportation imaginable. Beyond the parking lot was a row of small stands with various beings waiting in line to enter after the current occupant exited by a back door and made their way to a stone archway with a small tower on either end. The towers and stands were all apparently staffed by various beings, some human looking and some not.
"Wow," said Naruto as the group stepped through into the parking lot. "And I thought the yokai capital was impressive! I can't wait to see the actual market!"
Now able to see the entire area around the Market entrance, the group spotted part of the lot was a marina with boats and sea creatures idling in the water.
Naruto, Hinata, Jiraiya, and Mayu were all staring at the various beings they saw entering and leaving the parking lot. Humans, yokai, Hanyō, elves, dwarves, angels, demons, dark elves, robots, aliens, and other beings they couldn't name moved in and out of the market.
"Pretty," said Mayu as she stared at a man with rainbow feather wings. "This place beats Disney Land, but not Disney World!"
"Oh? Why the distinction?" Hanzo asked his daughter as they approached one of the currency changing stations.
"Disney Land is smaller and has less parks you can get into with a single pass," Mayu said. "Disney World has all the parks, hotels, and other stuff so we spent more time there seeing everything."
"Sounds like a great place to visit," said Naruto before the two families split up to go to different stands. While they mostly exchanged Yen, the three ninjas also brought out some ryō and found that the ratio of ten yen to one ryō applied even at the Market. Securing their funds, Naruto, Hinata, and Jiraiya stepped towards the Market entrance and rejoined Hanzo and his family. Naruto and Lucia both kept an eye on Mayu as they stepped through the portal, their hands snapping out to keep her from darting off at the first thing that caught her eye. The two eyed Mayu until she pouted and crossed her arms, silently agreeing not to run off on her own.
Using the sign board right in front of the entrance, the group made their way through the crowded bazaar and to the area where the metal works were set up. The sounds of hammers on metals, roaring forges, and hot metal cooling quickly let Hanzo, Naruto, and Mayu home in on their target destination. Entering the metal works, they saw dwarves, humans, yokai, elves, elementals, and other beings forging, sharpening, polishing, smelting, and decorating various weapons, armor, and jewelry. Some sold raw materials from booths, some had finished products, and a few offered enchanting services. "Tenten would go crazy here, we'd never get her out of this place," said Hinata as she looked over the stalls and eyed some of the jewelry. "And Ino would be squabbling with Sakura over some of these pieces," she added.
Naruto nodded before his gaze swept over the raw materials section and marking several booths for inspection. "All right, let's see if I can find what I need here," he said, approaching a dwarf polishing some ingots on his stall's display counter. "Got any pure silver?" Naruto asked.
"You want Mithril from the Tolkien verse or Mithral from Dungeons and Dragons?" asked the dwarf.
"I mean pure silver, I need something elementally neutral and silver is perfect for what I have planned," Naruto said.
"Hmmmm, I'm afraid not many have pure silver here, you might try the furball three stalls down that way," said the dwarf. Naruto nodded. "What about tungsten?"
"Now that I can help you with," said the Dwarf as he pulled an ingot of greyish-white lustrous metal from under the counter. "It's not much, but most people here come looking for the fantasy metals."
"Good, you got any Orichalcum, Hihi'irokane, Uru, or thunderbolt iron?" Naruto asked.
"Two Orichalcum ingots," said the dwarf as he pulled them from under the counter. "I know there's no Hihi'irokane floating around unless someone is keeping it on the sly. And only Eitri in Nidavellir can get you Uru!"
"Excellent, now to bargaining," said Naruto. Ten minutes of bartering had the two shaking hands and Naruto sealing his purchases away. Making his way towards the booth indicated, Naruto blinked as he saw a literal cat woman standing behind the counter.
"Khajiit has wares, if you have coin," she said.
"Forgive my ignorance, but is Khajiit your name or your species?" Naruto asked politely while Mayu and a smaller version of the cat woman were staring at one another around the edge of the booth.
The cat woman's face gained a large smile as she inclined her head. "Khajiit is the name of my species, we hail from the warm sands of Elsweyr, which is on the continent of Tamriel of the planet Nirn," she explained as she pulled a parchment map from beneath her counter and spread it to show Naruto a map of a world much like Earth with lots of water and several continents. "This is Elsweyr and Tamriel," she explained as she pointed to the province and the continent before naming off the others. "I also have ores and ingots besides silver if you are interested young fox." Naruto nodded and listened as she explained the properties of Ebony, Malachite, Moonstone, Quicksilver, Orichalcum, Corundum, and Dwarven metal. "There are also special substances like Stalhrim," she added as she pulled on some thick gloves before pulling a chunk of bright blue ice that radiated cold from under the counter.
"I'll take the lot, any way I can contact you to get more if I need it?" Naruto asked eagerly.
The Khajiit smiled as she produced a writing slate with an attached piece of chalk and a leather sack hanging from it. "This will allow you to write down an order. The cost at that time will appear after I check my supplies and payment must be put in the pouch. Within an hour the ordered supplies will arrive in a sack."
"Very handy," said Naruto as he paid for his purchases before sealing them away in a storage scroll.
Moving along, the group made several other stops and Naruto sighed as none of the more exotic suppliers carried Hihi'irokane. As the group exited the smithing area, they almost literally bumped into Chiyo, Kiyohime, Iris, Sangurīn, and Kame-hime. "Well, this is a coincidence Naruto-kun," said Chiyo. "You needed some smithing supplies?"
"Yes, and I got some stuff I didn't expect and couldn't get some materials I needed," said Naruto with a sigh.
Mayu, Iris, Sangurīn, and Kame-hime were huddled together and it was only Naruto, Hinata, and Lucia surrounding them that kept the four girls from trying to slip off. "Well, we are in need of some herbs and I was hoping to find a magic user willing to come to teach at the island since Naruto exposed and eliminated Takiyasha for us," said Kiyohime. "But nobody is interested in the position or was even worse than Lockhart and Snape put together."
"I had to challenge one to a duel for looking at the girls with lustful eyes," growled Chiyo. "They did not survive."
"Well, do you know what herbs are available here that I can't get on Earth?" Hinata asked, causing Chiyo to grin.
"Just follow me Hinata-chan, we have some regular suppliers here," she said as she led the way into a part of the market set up as a forest, where the stalls all offered various types of plants. Cassandra joined them at the front, trusting Kiyohime, Naruto, and Lucia to watch the younger girls. Jiraiya was already off ahead of the group, flirting with a blonde elf in flowing garments. As the group passed by the Sannin, Naruto snickered, causing the four young girls to look at him.
"Ero-sennin is hitting on a guy," he whispered to them, causing all four to giggle.
Chiyo lead Hinata and Cassandra to a stall where a lizard man named Seeker of Flowers sold alchemy ingredients from Tamriel as well as the specialized alchemy table used to create the potions and a book with basic potions and poisons that Hinata knew Tsunade and Haku would find interesting. While the three of them talked with the Argonian, Lucia, Naruto, Kiyohime, and Hanzo lead the younger girls towards the nearby gaming area.
"So, what games do we want to try out?" Naruto asked.
The four girls looked around before Kame-hime pointed at a booth designed to look like a castle with a red-shelled, yellow turtle manning the booth. "I get a good feeling from that one!" she said, earning her an elbow from Iris and Sangurīn.
"Welcome to the Mushroom Kingdom/Koopa Funland," the turtle said with a bow. "We offer many simple games suitable for young children and samples of the ability granting items from our world."
"What kind of abilities?" asked Naruto.
"For safety reasons the items are kept inside the castle," said the turtle. "My Queen will assist you with any you might win from the games of chance."
Entering the castle, the group found themselves in a small throne room where a statuesque redhaired woman was reading through a folder on a throne. The black dress she wore and the crown on her head gave her a definite royal air while the yellow spiked tail, horns, and green spiked shell on her back made her look ready to tangle with anyone causing trouble. She glanced up from the folder and smiled. "Welcome, my name is Bowsette and it's a pleasure to have you visit us. We have several games you can win Mushroom Kingdom items from as well as cash prizes," she said in a voice that held the promise of restrained power waiting to be unleashed. "In case your world is one where a certain meme exists, I was the result of several power ups from the Mario universe all falling on the local version of Bowser in my home universe. I was created separate and decided to strike out on my own with a few minions tired of being stomped by Mario." As she finished her eyes landed on Kame-hime. The Koopa Queen blinked for a second. "You aren't a local version of a Koopa in your universe, are you?" she asked curiously.
"No, I'm a kappa, a turtle based yokai from Japan," said Kame-hime with a respectful bow, the swim cap she was wearing keeping the water in her head bowl from spilling out.
"Close enough to Koopa to count," said Bowsette after a moment of thought. "Now, we have a card matching game where you flip cards in an attempt to form pairs and win items, a slide reel game where you try to stop the reels and form a single image, and a treasure chest game where you get to choose from a random assortment of chests to get an item or coins. As you win, you'll get paper slips that can be redeemed for the items you win."
Naruto grinned as he slapped some goblin gold coins on the counter. "I think all five of us will try all the games," he said as the younger girls all nodded in agreement.
(0o0o0)
"So, what's up with this stuff?" Naruto asked as he looked at the two large leaves, five red mushrooms, two red flowers, three feathers, and a blue flower he'd won along with 70 gold coins since he'd managed to pass through two whole rounds of the matching game before using up his last chance. He'd also won what was called a Hammer Bros Suit, a rolled-up carpet, and a pair of large green boots.
A Koopa dressed as a witch smiled as she pointed to each of the items in turn. "The red mushrooms are called Super Mushrooms and provide a strength boost until you take damage. The red flowers are Fire Flowers and let you throw fireballs; the blue flower is an Ice flower and lets you throw balls of ice. The feathers are Cape Feathers and create a magic cape that allows you to glide. The leaves are Super Leaves. They grant some people raccoon ears and a tail while others get kitsune versions. I can tell both of these are kitsune versions due to their magic field, though I don't think you want to risk using one on yourself."
Naruto nodded, putting the items in the pouch of holding he'd gotten from Hanzo and Cassandra. "And the bigger stuff?"
"Ah, the green boots are Goomba shoes, usually a Goomba would ride around in one and deliver devastating stomp attacks, but with two I can enchant them to be used as normal footwear for some extra gold. The carpet is from the land of Subcon and can fly for a limited time before needing to land and recharge. The Hammer Bros suit gives you an armored shell, helmet, and the ability to throw an endless supply of hammers!"
Naruto passed over some of his gold coins and watched as the Koopa witch's magic made the green boots glow before the keys on the heel disappeared. "There you go, two super stomping boots," she said. Naruto grinned as he put the larger items away in his pouch of holding, turning to see the younger girls all carrying their claim tickets. They hadn't lasted as long as Naruto at the matching game but had paid extra for some treasure chest picks, Sangurīn had also swapped several of her tickets to the other girls to get some poison mushrooms they had got from the chests, planning to give them to Ainetto and see if she could get some extra credit for her potions and poisons class.
"I'm definitely going to have Hinata try one of these kitsune leaves," Naruto said with a smile.
"Hinata-nee would look very pretty with fox ears and tails," said Iris with an eager nod.
"And I'll probably start drooling the moment I see her with them," said Naruto with a happy grin.
The next area the group made their way to was another castle, this one staffed with pointy eared humans, dark skinned women with red hair, fish people, large humanoids with rocky growths on them, and small child like beings with pointy ears accompanied by fairies. "Welcome to the Hyrule Faire!" said one of the green clad youths at the entrance to the castle. "We have games from Hyrule as well as an eatery, enjoy!"
(0o0o0)
"So, I just have to dig up the chests and I can keep anything in them as my prize?" Naruto asked the digging game manager after watching the four young girls show their skills at the archery games and winning some of the Hylian currency in the form of large gems called Rupees.
"Yep, as long as you can dig 'me up, the contents of the chest are yours," the smirking Goron said. "Some of the dirt is tougher and will take more time to dig through though, so you have to pace yourself. You have a minute to dig up as many holes as you can. There are currently six chests buried in the field."
"Sounds fun," said Naruto in a tone of voice that instantly had Hanzo, Mayu, Iris, Kame-hime, and Sangurīn grinning. Kiyohime was about to say something, only to feel Lucia lightly stomp on her foot and see the elf woman shake her head.
Naruto took the shovel he was given and whistled cheerfully as he stepped through the gate to the digging field. "Ready? GO!" barked the manager, only to blink as Naruto dropped the shovel and started flashing through hand seals before slamming his hands into the ground and pushing his chakra into it. With a grin, Naruto made six small dirt piles appear out of the ground. Grabbing the shovel and running to each one, he quickly dug up the six chests. "Got to love sensing hidden object with Earth Release," he said as he stacked all six chests and carried them to the field entrance, where the manager was staring with his jaw on the ground. "Hey, I dug all of them up, aren't you going to have to hide more for the next player?" he asked the Goron before turning his head back to the field. "Oh yeah, that reminds me," he said before stomping one foot on the ground and causing a much bigger chest to rise out of the ground on top of a rock pillar. "This was buried three times deeper than the rest and you didn't mention it, so I figure it's finders keepers!"
The Goron's face had grown pale as the last chest rose up and he was drawing himself up to say something when he suddenly found the blade of a large glaive resting against his throat. The glaive was held by one of the dark-skinned women who appeared to be acting as guards for the area and she did not look pleased. "Young man, if you would please open that chest, I need to verify the contents," she said.
Naruto shrugged and set his six chests down before moving to the chest and pulling out his lockpicks. He started cussing as the first pic failed to move at all. "Stupid thing is rusted shut and stuffed with dirt," he muttered. Holding one finger up, Naruto concentrated as wind and lightning chakra swirled around the tip of his finger and formed a humming blade. Carefully, he slid the blade along the crack between the chest and the lid, the sound of the lock resisting for a moment before being sliced apart and allowing the lid of the chest to pop open. Naruto stepped back and let the guardswoman take over.
"Well, quite the find you have here kid," she said as she peered into the chest. "A pair of Titan Mitts, the long lost Bombos, Ether, and Quake medallions, two Moon Pearls, a set of Tiger Scroll sword techniques, and scrolls detailing the Hidden Skills. The Twin Princesses will be pleased to send word to their parents they have been found," she said before pulling a purple magnifying glass with an elaborate eye etched into the glass from her pocket. "Did you know this chest was buried in your field?" she asked the Goron.
"No Milady, I inherited this game field from my father and none of his records indicated the chest was there, though our family was the second to use the field," said the Goron with sweat beading his brow.
The guard stared at him through the glass before smiling. "You speak true and are innocent," she said, causing the stout man to collapse in relief.
"Young man, I ask you accompany me to meet the Princess, they will be sure to reward you for finding these relics," said the guard. Naruto bowed in acceptance and the group was quickly led to the center of the castle courtyard, where two young women were sparring. One was a blonde haired Hylian with golden armor over a pink dress wielding a rapier. She was facing her flame haired sister who wore silver armor and a purple dress while wielding a giant great sword. "Princess Zelda, Princess Gana, I have good news," said the guard as the women came to a halt before the blonde sheathed her blade and the redhead jabbed her blade into the ground.
"Excellent timing, we were just getting ready to take a break," said the blonde princess with a smile. The red-haired princess rolled her eyes slightly but leaned back against her blade
"This young man found some lost relics hidden in a chest buried deep in the treasure field, the current owner and his family had no knowledge of the chest's location until now," said the guard as she presented the large chest and pulled back the lid.
The princess' eyes widened as they saw the items and the blonde pulled a golden disk with a lightning bolt on it from the chest. "Ether!" she said as she unsheathed and raised her rapier, a bolt of lightning shooting down from the sky to strike the sword and splinter off into a wave of electricity that left everyone's hair standing on edge but didn't harm anything. "The three amulets were lost centuries ago, to have them be returned to our family now… our parents will be delighted!" said the princess with a smile as she pulled two more from the chest and tucked all three into her pocket before focusing on Naruto.
"And two sets of techniques, I will have to see if they can be adapted to my great sword style," said the redhead with a wide grin as she opened one of the scrolls and read it over eagerly.
The blonde rolled her eyes slightly at her more martial minded sister before focusing on Naruto. "Young man, you have done Hyrule a great service, what can we, Princess Zelda…."
"And Princess Gana," said the red head with a smirk and elbow to her sister's side.
Zelda rolled her eyes again but nodded. "How can we repay you?"
"I'll be honest, those technique scrolls caught my interest," said Naruto. "I'm always interested in learning a few new moves."
"I'd say that's reasonable, plus maybe a Moon Pearl? I know Kitsune use transformation magic and something that can keep you in your original form can be a big help," said Gana as she held up a large dark purple pearl the size of an eyeball.
"That… might actually help when I start learning to assume a full kitsune form," said Naruto.
"Then how about a spar while our scribes copy down the scrolls into Japanese for you?" Gana said with a grin. "I think both of us could benefit from fighting someone new!"
"I'm not so sure that would be a good idea," said Hanzo. "It would be a huge diplomatic FUBAR if something went wrong!"
Gana pouted until Zelda nudged her. "What about the Trials of the Hero?" she suggested, causing Gana to perk up.
"Yes, that would do nicely to test his skills," she said while clapping her hands.
"Traditionally, the Knights of Hyrule go through three trials to prove themselves worthy of wielding the Master Sword, also known as the Sword of Evil's Bane," said Zelda. "The Trials of Courage, Wisdom, and Power will let us see just how strong you are!"
Naruto nodded and the twin princesses started leading the way towards the interior of the castle. "So, I have to ask, I've played most of the Legend of Zelda games in our world, so what universe are the two of you from? Are you like Bowsette and from an alternate universe?" Hanzo asked.
"Yes, just before the reincarnation cycle was about to get started, the Gerudo tribe was forced out of the desert by an invasion of monsters that killed the witches Koume and Kotake," said Zelda. "The Gerudo sought refuge with the Hylians and a joint army eradicated the monsters."
"But the woman who was going to give birth to Ganondorf's reincarnation was the general of the Gerudo forces and fell in love with the young prince of Hyrule. They got married and had twins, us." Gana took up the tale. "I was raised with love and kindness like no previous incarnation of Ganondorf and when the Curse of Demise tried to take me over… it did it on our birthday when I was surrounded by my loving family. It never stood a chance and we obtained the Triforce of Wisdom and Power."
"So, what about the incarnation of Link?" Hanzo asked before the sound of small running feet was heard as the group entered a three-story ballroom. Looking up, everyone saw a brown-haired girl in a green dress and cap running along the upper floor. Seeing the two princesses below, she grinned and dove over the railing as she whipped a sheet of fabric out of a belt pouch and used it as a parachute to glide down.
"Rinku!" yelled Zelda and Gana as they rushed to catch the girl, who didn't look at all sorry as they fussed over her.
"I think my question was just answered," muttered Hanzo.
"Our little sister," said Zelda with a sigh as Rinku wiggled out of their grip and grinned widely at the sight of Mayu, Iris, Sangurīn, and Kame-hime.
"Princess Zelda, Princess Gana, I'm sorry, she finished her lessons early and got away from me!" said a maid as she looked over the railing while panting from chasing Rinku.
"No problem, she's just in time to watch young Naruto here take the Trials," said Zelda, causing Rinku to grin. "Then she's grounded for giving us heart attacks!"
Rinku pouted but settled for glaring at her sisters for a second before shyly moving towards the girls, who swept her among them and had her grinning within moments as they all started asking one another questions in a low murmur only Hanzo and Lucia could hear.
"Good, Rinku needs some friends her age," Zelda said quietly as they reached a door with the Hyrule crest on it. "Through here you will face the Trials Naruto; each one takes place in its own pocket dimension. We will be watching your progress out here."
"Not before I give him a kiss for good luck," said Hinata as Cassandra, Chiyo, and she was escorted into the room by a guard. Naruto grinned as he bent over to let Hinata give him a kiss on the cheek, only for his eyes to widen as she grabbed him and pulled him into a passionate kiss on the lips. "Make sure you give us a show," she said as she broke the kiss. Naruto started walking towards the door with a slight sway. "I think I broke him," Hinata giggled.
"Okay, what drugs did you get exposed to?" Kiyohime asked.
"Mare's Heat, the vendor dropped it right in front of Hinata and she got caught in the fumes long enough to tell us just what she intends to do with Naruto on their wedding night," said Chiyo with a sigh as the image of a room full of mirrors, blocks in patterns, torches, targets, buttons, and switches.
"What does he have to do?" Mayu asked as Naruto entered the room and shook himself awake to start staring around the room.
"Well…. The main goal of the room is to see how fast Naruto can solve all the puzzles and reveal the image of the Triforce on the mural," said Zelda as she pointed to a white section of wall. "The trick is to get each different type of puzzle solved to reveal a beam of light that…" she cut off as Naruto spammed enough Shadow Clones to fill the room and activated everything he could at once, triggering a panel in the ceiling to emit a light beam and the mirrors in the room to all turn and reflect the light to reveal one of the triangle markings of the Triforce after all the levers were pulled and all the buttons and switches activated. "How did he?" she demanded as Gana broke out in laughter.
"Solid clones, and those were the obvious things to try first," said Hinata with a smile as Naruto ran up the wall to look at the room from a higher perspective before hurling small fireballs at all the torches, causing the mirrors in the room to rotate again and Illuminating the second part of the Triforce. Naruto then hurled shuriken at each of the targets and the mirrors moved once more, only for the light to not reveal the last triangle. Naruto frowned for a moment before dropping to the ground and starting to push a group of blocks and move the final reflector mounted on one slightly to the right, making the Triforce glow and a blue pendant on a gold chain appeared beneath the Triforce for Naruto to pick up as well as a doorway leading to the next trial.
"Ah, the Trial of Power, my favorite," said Gana walked through the door and entered a colosseum. "Creatures of legend will attack Naruto and if he can defeat all eleven then he'll get the pendant."
Naruto stared around the arena for a moment before raising an eyebrow as six large knight statues appeared before him and started hopping around the arena. "Armos Knights," said Zelda. "They're vulnerable to blades and arrows, but Naruto only has his sword…" she trailed off as kunai with explosive notes slammed into five of the statues and exploded, reducing them to rubble. The last one turned red as if in anger and charged Naruto, only to find the agile fox boy easily dodging the attack until he finally got bored with the bull fighter like performance and countered with a Lightning Rasengan that shattered the statue.
"Heh, interesting," said Gana as the arena changed to a sand filled pit, causing Naruto to narrow his eyes before three giant centipede-like monsters lunged out, spraying small rocks out towards him. "Lanmola, they are most dangerous in sand like that where they can easily move underground," Gana said, only to blink as Naruto's hands flashed through hand signs before trapping the three monsters in a Swamp of the Underworld. "Impressive, changing the terrain on such a large area, but how are they not burrowing through the swamp?"
"The swamp contains Naruto-kun's chakra and yōki, that makes it resistant to anyone trying to move through it," said Hinata as Naruto released a barrage of wind blades that shredded the Lanmola. The arena returned to normal for a moment before the central area raised up. Naruto leapt into the middle and glanced around as the area around the new stage sank down and was filled with spikes before a giant millipede with pinchers on its head and a pulsing sac on the tip of its tail appeared and started circling the perimeter of the raised arena for a second before charging at Naruto, who rolled aside and drew Nenshousaiga in a perfect strike at the beast's head.
"Moldorm," said Rinku, grimacing at the sight of Nenshousaiga's blade bouncing off the giant millipede's shell and sent Naruto stumbling back dangerously close to the edge of the spike filled pit. The Moldorm circled around for another charge and Naruto leapt above the charge, landing on the monster's back and holding on as it tried to buck him off. "How is he staying on, it's got a slimy and rubbery body that makes everything bounce off?" the youngest princess asked.
"He's using chakra to stick to its back," said Hinata with a smile. "Just like when he ran on the walls in the previous room, we can even stand on water using our chakra."
Naruto rode the monster like a rodeo bull for a full minute before letting the Moldorm toss him high into the air. Bouncing off the wall, Naruto landed on the arena just in time to get slammed into by the monster. Naruto's hands snapped up and he barely managed to use chakra to grab Moldorm's head as the worm tried to push him off the arena's edge numerous times. With a massive grunt, Naruto managed to throw himself away from Moldorm's head and skid to a stop at the edge of the arena. On the worm's next charge, Naruto sidestepped the worm's giant body and delivered an Iajutsu strike to Moldorm's tail, severing it and causing the worm to screech in pain as blood gushed from the wound. Naruto had to dodge several frantic ram attempts before the worm slowed to a stop and died from blood loss before fading away.
Everyone held their breath before a large lizard with an armored mask dropped down and roared at Naruto before the mace like tail swung out and tried to bash his head in. "Helmasaur King," said Zelda. "The mask hides its weak point, but that tail hits hard!"
Naruto dodged two more tail strikes before leaping over the third and delivering a chakra backed drop kick to the mask, only to frown as the mask showed no sign of damage. The Helmasaur King roared in outrage and the tail mace came whipping towards Naruto, only for the fox boy to dodge and let the mace smack into the mask, causing a visible crack in it. Naruto smirked and stayed put on the mask even as the monster thrashed around and tried to sweep him off with horizontal swings of its tail that Naruto ducked and flipped under. Naruto shook his head over the Helmasaur King actually having a brain and a Rasengan spun up in his hand before he drove it into the crack, causing the right third of the mask to fall off, Naruto sliding across the mask to the left side as the Helmasaur King roared and bucked in rage. The mace like tail came swinging down and Naruto once again slid aside to let the tail crack the mask before driving another Rasengan into the crack. Another round of thrashing from the monster had Naruto lose his balance and have to roll along the ground to avoid a series of rapid tail strikes. Naruto rolled to his feet and hurled a wind enhanced kunai with an explosive tag at the remaining mask, causing the kunai to dig into the tough mask and the explosive tag to blow it to smithereens a second later and reveal a large green gem on its forehead. The monster roared in pain and started spitting fireballs at Naruto, who slammed his hands into the ground to produce an earth wall as cover. Five clones charged out from behind the wall, two for each side while the last one leapt over the wall with a Rasengan in its hand. The midair clone popped as the mace tail struck it before making a large sweep that wiped out the rest of the clones. The tail shot towards and smashed through the earth wall, only for Naruto to grab and stop it cold with Sage Mode even as he bit into one of the Super Mushrooms he'd won earlier and growing notably more muscular. In a feat of strength that had all three princesses mouths dropping open, Naruto yanked on the tail and proceeded to smash the Helmasaur king around and into the area to leave it stunned, allowing him to charge up an Ōdama Rasengan that he rammed through the green gem and wipe the Helmasaur King's head from existence.
"How strong is he?" Gana asked.
"When using Sage Mode like that I think he could knock out an elephant with a single punch and then lift it above his head," said Hinata. "But the mushroom definitely let her better focus his strength and keep his balance."
"Impressive," said Gana as the arena turned into a swamp and a large one-eyed jellyfish rose up out of the murk with a swarm of smaller green jellyfish hovering around it as it floated in the air staring at Naruto. "Ick, Arrghus, and Naruto doesn't have a Hookshot to pull the Bari off it."
"He doesn't need it," said Hinata as Naruto raised his left hand, chakra chains shooting out to yank several of the smaller jellyfish into range for striking with Nenshousaiga. However, the last Bari suddenly emitted a cloak of electricity that coursed down the sword and made Naruto freeze as the shock paralyzed him. Arrghus took advantage of this and fired a barrage of thin lasers at Naruto, striking him several times before the paralysis wore off and he was able to dodge the rest.
"Naruto-nii-san won't fall for the same trick twice," said Mayu with a grin as wind natured chakra chains grabbed the next batch of Bari and yanked them in for slaughtering. Arrghus took offense to this and tried to ram Naruto, who dove to the side and let the giant jellyfish slam into the wall and fall to the ground stunned, allowing Naruto to pick off the last of the Bari and destroy them. Arrghus seemed to swell up a bit before charging at Naruto and firing more of the needle like lasers from its eye. Naruto dashed around the arena, letting Arrghus keep trying to hit him with the lasers until the giant jellyfish lost its temper and charged at him with Naruto meeting it with a charge of his own. There was a loud squelch as Nenshousaiga pierced straight through the giant center eye and Naruto burst out the back of the monster covered in blood that disappeared as Arrghus vanished.
"Brutality," murmured Kame-hime.
The arena shifted to a slightly mechanical room with a multi directional moving floor ringed by spiked blocks and a few normal blocks. Naruto looked up as his eyes caught the sound of wings and raised an eyebrow at the sight of a giant moth coming towards him before it halted in midair and sending three energy beams of fire rings at Naruto. Just as he started to dodge, the floor started moving and the spike blocks started randomly shooting towards him. "Mothula, the real danger is the spike traps and floor making it hard to dodge it's attacks or tripping you up so the traps get you," said Zelda.
Naruto flipped over the spike blocks and twisted in midair to avoid the energy beams, his hands flashing through hand seals. "Doton: Katai jimen (Earth Style: Solid Ground)!" Naruto said before spewing mud from his mouth that rapidly filled the room and jammed the traps. Now with solid footing, Naruto bit his thumb and flashed through some of his favorite hand seals and slammed his bloody palm onto the ground. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu, eat up Gamatatsu!" a large sticky tongue shot out of the resulting smoke cloud, snagged Mothula, and pulled the surprised moth into Gamatatsu's mouth as the smoke cleared. The large yellow toad happily chewed up the snack before blinking as the giant moth faded away, leaving his mouth and stomach empty. "Sorry buddy, I thought it was enough like a summoned beast you'd get a good meal out of it," Naruto said as he patted the giant toad on the head.
"Just make it up to me with candy," said the simple toad, smiling at his summoner before vanishing in a burst of smoke.
"COOOOOOOOLLLLL!" Rinku and Mayu said at the same time, the rest of the girls nodding.
Naruto stretched as the arena reverted to normal, his nose twitching before he hurled a shuriken at thin air, only for it to be caught by a flaming hand and melt as a fire demon in a white robe appeared. "Blind the Thief," muttered Ganda, glancing at Zelda. "I know the Trials are supposed to judge the strength of the person taking the trials, but all of the monsters so far have been Dungeon Guardians from the Era of Light and Dark. What if Agahnim is one of them?"
"The trials cannot manifest Ganon or his incarnations, and even if they did Rinku and I believe in you sister, you would not give in to his darkness," said Zelda, squeezing Gana's hand one side as Rinku did the same on the other.
Naruto yawned as he avoided the fireballs Blind started spitting at him, side stepping each one until the fire demon let out an enraged roar and charged Naruto, only to have Nenshousaiga slash off his head, which bounced around the arena as Blind's body crumpled to the ground. "No way it's that easy," said Hinata as she saw Naruto hadn't relaxed at all. Her eyes widened as the decapitated head flipped upright and started to spin into the air while spitting fire blasts at Naruto, who countered by slashing them apart with Nenshousaiga while keeping one eye on Blind's body. Seeing it rise up and a new head grow out of the neck, Naruto visibly sighed.
"Two stupid heads," muttered Sangurīn, knowing that the old her would have used her scythe arms to decapitate Blind and probably been blindsided by the reanimated head and body as she assumed her opponent was dead.
"Come on, decapitation should be a valid death blow!" growled Mayu as she stomped her foot, causing Hanzo to ruffle her hair.
Naruto was leaping around the fire blast and forcing the main body and floating head to focus entirely on trying to hit him when he suddenly vanished in a Shunshin and delivered a kick to the floating head that sent it soaring through the air to smash into the new one on Blind's body. As Blind tried to reorient himself, his new head as sliced off and the two heads started swooping through the air at different heights to keep Naruto from getting both of them at once. Naruto kept dodging until Blind's body sprouted a third head, then flipped through some hand seals ending on Bird before spewing a massive vortex of water into the air. "Suiton: Daibakufu (Water Style: Great Waterfall) no Jutsu!" said Hinata with wide eyes. "Naruto's using his massive reserves to compensate for his lack of control and skill with Suiton, overpowering the technique!" The water vortex crashed down on Blind and his two heads, slamming all three targets into the ground and pulverized them, causing the arena to reset.
"He's breathing rather heavily," said Zelda as she watched Naruto take several deep breaths.
"Naruto's chakra natures are naturally Fire, Wind, and Lightning, making Water and Earth based techniques the hardest to learn for him," said Hinata. "Luckily, he started with Swamp of the Underworld to get a feel for both of them and he excels at big techniques where his lack of chakra control doesn't hinder him as much."
Naruto suddenly leapt up as the arena became a field of ice and stared at a mass of ice encasing a pink cloud creature with a single eyeball that glared at him. "Kholdstare," said Gana. "And if Naruto is best with fire…"
"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" Roared Naruto as he formed the tiger seal before spitting a massive fireball at the ice protecting the monster.
"Big fireball!" said Iris.
"Yes, it's the signature jutsu of the Uchiha clan from Konoha, but when Naruto and Sasuke became blood brothers after Itachi massacred the rest of the clan Sasuke decided to teach Naruto the jutsu."
Naruto frowned as the ice failed to melt. "Tch, just like Haku-nee's ice mirrors," he said before grimacing as the cold of the room started to get to him. "Okay, need to turn up the heat!" Naruto growled as he channeled wind and fire chakra together before spitting a white hot stream of flame at Kholdstare.
The ice around Kholdstare held out for a moment before stating to melt and revealed there were really three of the monsters that glided around the room as giant icicles rained down at Naruto, who was leaping to avoid the ramming attacks of the monster trio while flipping through another string of hand seals. "Katon: Karyū Endan (Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet) no jutsu!" roared Naruto as he sent a massive serpentine fire dragon out that melted the icicles before they could fall all the way to the ground as well as swoop through all three Kholdstare and reduce them to ash.
"I'm suddenly very glad I was not trying to kill Naruto and he wasn't trying to kill me," said Chiyo.
"Naruto-kun likes you and Hanzo-san, you're the only two of his cousins that have treated him with respect and kindness," said Hinata as the arena shifted to a swamp area similar to when Naruto faced Arrghus.
"Vitreous," said Rinku as a massive eyeball appeared immersed in the slimy water with 13 smaller eyes clustered around it. The big eyeball shot a lightning bolt that swept across the arena before some of the smaller eyeballs rose up and shot towards Naruto, only to be punched by Naruto and erupt in a shower of gore over him.
"EEEEEWWWWW," said Iris, Mayu, and Kame-hime, while Sangurīn grimaced.
"Where's a Red Ryder BB Gun when you need one," muttered Hanzo, earning his ear a yank from Cassandra. "I wasn't thinking of giving one to Naruto or Mayu, I was thinking so many eyes it would take out at least five!"
"Or Naruto-kun could put his explosive tendencies to work," said Hinata with a sigh as Naruto pulled enough flash bang tags from his supply pouch to equal a regular explosive tag with having a slightly crazed grin on his face. Naruto hurled the tags into the air above Vitreous and snapped his fingers, causing all the flashbangs to go off at once in a burst of light that rivaled the sun. Vitreous and its smaller minions all froze as blood veins throbbed in their bodies, unable to escape the light searing into their pupils and stunned long enough for Naruto to take a battojutsu stance.
"Naruto Kenjutsu: Rapiddokatto (Rapid Cut)!" growled Naruto as Nenshousaiga seemed to vanish from its sheath and all the nine currently floating little eyes started to react as if struck by a blade.
"How many slashes was that?" Hanzo asked Chiyo. "I think I saw one strike each of the small eyes, but there were clearly more than that according to my ears."
"I'd say five strikes on each, they all flinched that many times," said Chiyo.
"You're off by five Chiyo-san," said Hinata dryly.
"So, ten strikes each?" said Iris.
"I meant by a factor of five," said Hinata as all nine of the floating eyeballs turned into red mist and seemed to blow away as Naruto sheathed Nenshousaiga. "Twenty Five strikes, for a total of two hundred and twenty five hits."
"He was really holding back facing me," muttered Chiyo.
"You haven't seen him when he's facing someone who has really made things personal," said Hinata as Vitreous started trying to crush Naruto by hopping around the room after him, only for Naruto to easily side step the large eyeball and let it constantly crash into the wall several times before running up and giving the giant eyeball a kick that sent it ricocheting around the room at high speeds before falling to the ground with a swirly pupil before Naruto skewered it with Nenshousaiga. The arena reverted once more and Naruto found himself facing a giant rock turtle with a pair of extra heads coming out of the shell, one red the other blue. The back of the arena was lined with columns of spike blocks, obviously meant to keep Naruto from attacking the monster from behind.
"The last one, Trinexx," said Zelda. "If Naruto can stun the ice head with fire and the fire head with ice, he should be able to take them down easily and deal with the main body." Naruto dodged a blast of fire from the flame head and a spray of frost breath from the blue head that left a large patch of ice on the arena, causing Naruto to slip and allowing Trinexx's main head to shoot forward and slam him into the wall for a moment before Naruto recovered and
"Naruto-kun can't use Hyōton, you need a special bloodline to use that," said Hinata, causing Zelda's face to go pale.
"You mean he can't whip up an ice storm?" Gana asked.
"Not without lots of seals and preparation," said Hinata as she watched Naruto easily avoid Trinexx's attempts to slam into him as well as the blasts of fire and ice from the two elemental heads. "Instead, he's going to hoist the enemy by their own petard." Seeing the confusion of the younger girls, she pointed at the arena where Naruto had leapt up on Trinexx's back shell and was taunting the stone turtle.
"Come on, I've seen snails faster than you! The Hare could take a nap and still beat you in a race!" Naruto said, causing the center head to grow slightly red from anger as the ice and fire heads raised up to bracket Naruto. The blonde easily leapt up to avoid the blasts of fire and ice, causing the heads to stun one another and as he came down Naruto delivered a wind enhanced slash that sent both elemental heads bouncing across the arena.
Trinexx withdrew into its stone shell which started to shake, prompting Naruto to leap clear as the whole thing exploded and released Trinexx as a large rock snake big enough to eat Naruto. Naruto easily avoided the initial charge with a jump and landed on Trinexx's back, settling in a surfer pose and hamming it up for his audience. "He's quite a showman," said Zelda.
"Only when he's sure he's in control of a fight," said Hinata as wind chakra started howling around Naruto's fist in the form of a tornado that suddenly gained lightning flaring off it. "Hmmmm, combining the cutting power of wind and the piercing power of lightning," said Hinata "using that on a flesh and blood opponent would be… messy."
Naruto had been listening to Trinexx's body as he kept himself anchored, carefully making his way to the middle bolder like segment before raising his jutsu covered fist into the air. "Raiu ken (Thunderstorm Fist)!" Naruto yelled over the howl of the lightning tornado before driving the point into the exact center of the bolder and piercing it through. Trinexx came to a complete stop before falling apart into rubble as a red pendant on a gold chain drop towards Naruto, who caught it in a victory pose with one hand raised into the air.
"That's the Trial of Strength done… now for Courage," said Gana, glancing at Rinku, who was grimacing as Naruto exited the arena only to end up in a dark room with very faint light. Rinku's fists were clenched and a drop of blood fell to the ground as her nails dug into her palms. Mayu let out a gasp and grabbed the youngest princess' left hand to pry it open and start bandaging it while Iris did the same for her right.
Hinata felt her heart beat speed up as she saw Naruto's eyes glaze over while following something only he could see before ghostly images to show what he saw started forming around him.
(0o0o0)
Konohagakure no Sato burned, fires raging through the village as screams filled the air. Figures in black cloaks with red clouds and straw hats slaughtered their way through the village, killing all who crossed their path. Giant snakes swarmed through the streets, crushing buildings and devouring every human they could, both civilian and ninja. The faces of the Hokage Mountain seemed to weep blood as they gazed down at the loss of life.
Warning, this next part might be to intense for all my readers. I'm trying to personify all of Naruto's fears and describe some bloody stuff. Feel free to skip to the next bold underlined italic text if you don't want to read disturbing stuff.
Naruto knew he had to be in a Genjutsu or something similar, there was no way he could go from that room to back home to see the destruction taking place. This was reinforced as he saw a laughing Orochimaru impale Sarutobi Hiruzen on the Kusanagi blade. "So, image of my home being destroyed, the pain of seeing the man who was like a grandfather to me being killed… I'm going to need lots of therapy hugging with Hinata after this," groaned Naruto before grimacing as he saw Hinata's dead body with her eyes bloody sockets. "Yeah yeah, you've got quite a vivid imagination," he yelled. "But you're just playing on my fears and doubts!"
The next vision to confront Naruto was his parents. Kyūbi had a glazed look in her eyes with a Mangekyō Sharingan replacing her pupils as she ripped Ken's heart out and ate it. Naruto felt his lunch try to make a reappearance and turned away, barely catching a glimpse of a black form slipping behind a building. Dashing after the figure, Naruto passed Kiba and Akamaru, who had both been decapitated only to have their heads sewn on the wrong bodies. Tenten was pinned to a wall by enough kunai that he only knew it was her by her hair and the torn scrolls lying beneath her. Lee's corpse had been beaten black and blue with every bone in his body broken into powder while Neji had been killed by his curse seal being activated after an attempt had been made to remove one of his Byakugan. Haku and Sasuke had died impaled together by a katana, Sasuke's eyes also having been harvested. Naruto made his way past the corpses of his class mates, friends, and family before coming to a halt.
Alright, safe to resume reading
Itachi stood above Haruki and Haruko, a pair of kunai primed to kill the two kits, who trembled as they stared up at him. "You are a fool if you think you can fight this fate," said Itachi as the kunai plunged down, only to have them plunge into Naruto's palms as he grabbed Itachi's fists.
"NO!" said Naruto in a calm voice that still caused the earth to shake as his chakra started fighting the illusion. "I will NOT let this come to pass." Haruki and Haruko both scampered behind their brother clutching at his legs.
"It is inevitable," said Itachi. "Deep down, you fear this in your heart!"
Naruto took a deep breath and drew on his Senjutsu training and a chant he'd read in a book for his English class. "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain," Naruto said before unleashing all his killing intent and yōki at the Uchiha murderer.
"Hatsu: Moeru Kyūbi (Manifestation: Blazing Ninetails)!" said Naruto as blue fox fire erupted around him in the form of a massive nine tailed fox.
"You would use fear against the Master of Nightmares?" asked Itachi.
"Itachi would have already killed me after hitting me with Tsukuyomi by now," said Naruto before the nine blazing tails merged into one giant one. "Hyoui: Bureizutēruburēdo (Haunting: Blazing Tail blade)!" The giant tail slammed down and seemed to bisect Itachi, only for him to melt into a blob of darkness as the visions faded away, leaving Naruto and the blob the only things in the room. Dethl erupted into a massive group of shadowy tentacles that tried to grab Naruto, only to be torn apart by his blazing claws or avoided as he put his speed to good use.
(0o0o0)
"How did Dethl manifest here?" Gana hissed, only to see Rinku was now shaking and had fallen to her knees staring blankly into the air as Mayu, Iris, Kame-hime, and Sangurīn tried to get her to respond.
Hinata had her Byakugan active and focused on Rinku. "Possession," she said before pressing a hand glowing with pink miko energy to the princess' forehead. The Triforce of Courage emblem on Rinku's hand burst into glowing golden light and Dethl visibly flinched. "Keep fighting him Rinku!" Hinata said as she pulled an ofuda from her supply pack as she started to chant. "Rin, Pyou, Tou, Sha, Kai, Jin, Retsu, Zai, Zen! Akuryo Taisan!" Placing the now glowing ofuda on Rinku's forehead, the young princess' eyes snapped open and Dethl screamed in the battle room as the power he'd been stealing from the fragment of the Triforce in Rinku was returned to its rightful wielder.
(0o0o0)
"Awww, is the big bad eldritch abomination suffering from performance issues?" Naruto asked as Dethl went from a giant mass of tentacles to a mass of darkness the size of Naruto with two large arms ending in mace like spiked balls. "Seriously you idiot, using I may not be good at Genjutsu as a primary skill, but I'm a kitsune and I can tell when such an obvious transition happens that someone has me under an illusion. So, what are you going to try next you stupid blob?"
A large eye opened in the center of Dethl's body and started glowing red. "DIE!" he roared mentally as a wave of red energy blasts shot from the eye and tried to pin Naruto down. The blonde flipped around all the blasts and sent a single shuriken spinning through the swarm of blasts to hit the eye, making Dethl bellow in pain and sprout more clawed arms that spun around as he advanced on Naruto like a tornado through a trailer park.
Naruto practically became a lightning bolt after hurling Hiraishin kunai around the arena, warping from one to another while continuing to taunt Dethl. "I've seen faster turtles and snails, some lord of nightmares!"
Dethl's eye opened and glowed once again before firing of a laser beam that he tried to swing to track Naruto, only for the fox boy to be one step ahead, reappearing right in front of Dethl for a single stab with Nenshousaiga into the eye, cutting off the beam and making Dethl scream in pain. "Not so strong against someone who can fight back, are you?" said Naruto. "But I can match your scent to what I smelled on Rinku, you were tormenting her in her dreams, weren't you?"
"I will break the mind of that brat, her ancestor drove me from the Windfish and I've been searching for a descendant to haunt all this time!" howled the Nightmare King before Dethl retracted his arms and swelled into a giant blob that attempted to eat Naruto, only for him to vanish in a kawarimi that left an explosive note covered log behind. His scream of pain as the tags all detonated in his mouth had Naruto smirking.
(0o0o0)
"I don't think he liked his extra spicy meal," Mayu said with a snicker, earning giggles from the rest of the girls as they supported Rinku. The young princess had nearly gone into hysterics when she realized she'd been possessed by the King of Nightmares and it was only the presence of her sisters each with a hand on one of her shoulders and the girls clustered around her that she was calm enough to watch Naruto make a mockery of Dethl by avoiding the monster's attacks and constantly delivering blows to Dethl's eye as it opened.
(0o0o0)
The Nightmare King tried everything he could, smashing the ground with his arms, spinning his laser beam around the arena, and growing into a giant cyclops form to try to grab Naruto, only for each attempt to be easily avoided.
"ENOUGH!" roared Dethl as darkness seeped out from him, engulfing the entire arena and masking the view from the viewing room.
"Drown in the darkness," Dethl's voice echoed throughout the room. "Cower like the filthy apes did not knowing what waited to drag them off into the night!"
"Heh, you think I'm a little kid scared of the monsters under the bed?" Naruto's voice also echoed through the chamber. "I'm a shinobi, in the shadows is when I'm most deadly!"
Fox Fire roared up around Naruto, the blue flames pushing back the darkness from him and forcing Dethl back into a blob. "Impossible!" he hissed.
"I've been doing the impossible for a long time," said Naruto as senjutsu chakra swirled around his hand to form a massive sphere. "Senpō: Chō Ōdama (Sage art: Ultra Big ball) Rasengan!" roared Naruto as he slammed the massive chakra sphere into Dethl, the king of nightmares fought back as best he could with the biggest laser from his eye he had shown yet, but the senjutsu enhanced Rasengan pushed through the blast and into the blob of living darkness, causing Dethl to scream in pain before being disintegrated by the nature chakra grinding him away.
As he shrank down, Dethl frantically squirmed around to try to find a way out of being killed before spotting a patch of darkness in the corner. Leaping towards it, the King of Nightmares let out a last taunt. "Foolish boy, you can never beat the darkness!" as he landed in the patch, he was surprised to find himself falling into a thick glass jar that had been covered by an inky black cloth. Seals etched onto the sides and bottom of the jar started glowing and before Dethl could escape, Naruto slammed a lid on the jar with the same seal on the top of the glass lid.
"But I can seal it away," said Naruto with a smirk. "I was honestly not sure this would work, but I figured it would be a good trick to have ready since my dad used something similar to catch the monster that tried to lurk under my bed. Then my mom atomized it!"
(0o0o0)
"He just sealed the King of Nightmares in a glass jar like a bug he caught," said Gana, a deep laugh quickly escaping her mouth. "Sealed evil in a jar!"
"When did he have time to make that?" Zelda asked.
"I think it was a project for his Magical Studies class that was deemed good enough to carry around in case he needed it," said Hinata.
"How often do you need to contain a mass of sentient darkness?" asked Chiyo.
"With Naruto-kun, it's better to ask what HASN'T he planned for," said Hinata. "He has scrolls with siege weapons, supplies for enduring a siege, demolitions supplies, trap making kits, an entire field hospital for me to use in a pinch, enough ninja weaponry to outfit all of Konoha for a day, and whatever else he's working on that I'm not aware of."
(0o0o0)
Naruto tucked the jar with Dethl under his arm and caught a green pendant that dropped from the ceiling. "This must be the Pendant of Courage," he said as all three pendants from the trials started to glow, causing a door to open in the wall. Walking through, Naruto saw a large double-edged sword with a purple hilt stuck down into a marble podium with the image of the Triforce on the guard. Resting his hand on the symbol, Naruto felt a rush of energy flow through him.
"Seventy Five percent match to destined wielder," said an emotionless voice in Naruto's head. "A great destiny awaits you, young hero, though the path may be long and cruel. Keep true to the qualities you have displayed today and you will triumph with the blessings of the Goddesses!"
(0o0o0)
Naruko eyed the three triangles floating in Naruto's mindscape. Instead of the usual golden Triforce, one triangle was red flames, the next blue, and the third green. "I wonder if Inari Ōkami will be upset with this when we go to seek her blessing and get me my own body," she muttered.
(0o0o0)
Naruto blinked and removed his hand from the sword as the glow faded, turning to walk back the way he came while idly tossing the jar holding Dethl up and down, much to the King of Nightmares' displeasure if his muffled screaming was any indication. Exiting the trial rooms, Naruto grinned as he saw Hinata waiting for him and tossed Dethl's jar prison to Gana so he could sweep Hinata off her feet and dip her down for a deep kiss.
Gana and Zelda both smiled as the younger girls giggled at the kiss, before focusing on Dethl, who suddenly realized he was facing two angry older sisters for his treatment of their little sister. If he could have voided his bowels he would have as Gana and Zelda both raised up the hands bearing their glowing Triforce emblem. "Rinku, in light of you suffering from a possession, you can spend the rest of the day with your new friends while we deal with this slime," said Zelda in a sweet voice that promised much pain for Dethl while Gana simply cracked her knuckles.
Rinku nodded and found herself pulled into a mob with Mayu, Iris, Kame-hime, and Sangurīn as Chiyo, Kiyohime, Hanzo, Cassandra, and Lucina guided them out of the castle with Naruto and Hinata following while holding hands. The girls skidded to a stop as they saw an angry Jiraiya stomping towards them. "Dang it Naruto, why did you let me make a fool of myself to that guy?" he demanded.
Naruto's face shifted to a deadpan expression as he gave Jiraiya a dull eyed stare. "You're the one who's always saying you're an expert womanizer Ero-sennin! And you're the responsible adult my parents entrusted to watch over me! Why should I be telling you what to do in your field of expertise?"
"That elf led me along until we were back in his room and he disrobed!" Jiraiya growled at the blonde, only to feel killing intent from Chiyo, Kiyohime, Hanzo, and Chiyo.
"Jiraiya-san, we need to have a little CHAT!" all the adults said as Naruto, Hinata, and Lucina hurried the younger girls back into the market while squeals of pain echoed behind them.
(0o0o0)
"Are you going to need to eat as much as you did on the island Naruto-san?" Kame-hime asked.
"No, if I can walk unassisted, I just need a few bowls of ramen to get me up to full," said Naruto before sniffing the air. "And I smell ramen almost as good as Ichiraku!" Following his nose, Naruto lead the group to a large ramen stand. And it was large, the counter at the level of Naruto and Lucina's chins while it was only waist high for the cook and servers, though the seats were clearly designed to move up and down, though the group opted for a table instead. Naruto was already licking his lips as he saw the large bowls that appeared to be wide enough to force him to encircle the whole thing with both his arms and deep enough to stand a gallon bottle of milk at the bottom and keep everything but the cap hidden. "I HAVE to eat one of those," Naruto said.
The waiter taking their order chuckled. "Kid, there's a challenge for halflings like you, eat the entire bowl dry and you get a special bowl enchanted to keep food the same temperature after it's put in," he said.
"Is that done with runes?" Naruto asked eagerly, his tails waving.
"Shop secret, nobody has been able to crack it yet," said the giant.
Naruto glanced at Hinata, seeing her grin and nod. "My fiancé and I will both give it a go!" he said as Hinata raised her hand. The giant grinned and made a note on his pad, getting a single normal human sized bowl for everyone else.
Naruto spent the wait for their food constantly sniffing the air with Mayu and Iris, much to the amusement of the other girls until the food was brought out, with Naruto and Hinata's challenge bowls coming last with the chef setting the bowls down in front of each of the teens. "I present to you our restaurant's special dish: The Carnivore Confection! We have the standard beef, pork, and chicken, plus lamb. We also added goose, turkey, duck, goat, ostrich, snake, alligator and crocodile." Naruto was already licking his lips and everyone could see a small drop of drool escaping Hinata's mouth as the smell of the ramen rose up from the bowl. "You have half an hour to finish your meals and win the challenge, ready?" As both teens grabbed their chopsticks and nodded, the cook grinned. "Go!"
It was a massacre. Naruto and Hinata's arms moved with the speed of the Kachū Tenshin Amaguriken as they rapidly devoured the meal, somehow barely making a ripple in the noodle broth as they ate the solid contents first. Meat, noodles, and vegetables floated to the surface of the bowl only to vanish just as quickly. The cook and waiters were staring with jaws dropping as the two teenagers demolished their food. While Naruto was a bit of a messy eater and clearly enjoying himself, Hinata was more graceful and nobody could call her out on bad manners. Once only the broth remained, Naruto and Hinata used the provided ladle sized spoons to quickly drain the bowls, finishing with five minutes left on the clock.
"How?" the chef said as the younger girls cheered and clapped.
"Secret Ninja technique," said Naruto as he sealed away the prize bowls. The group then headed to a fair like area where Naruto, Hinata, and Lucina proceeded to win a stuffed animal prize for all the girls from classic carnival games. Mayu ended up with a pegacorn plushie, Rinku had a red hawk, Kame-hime a green turtle, Sangurīn a red oriental dragon, and Iris a purple fox before it was agreed to stop for ice cream cones.
As the group finished their snack, a loud tearing sound from the air above the market had everyone looking up to see a gigantic tear in the sky that lead to a rainbow void. As murmurs of confusion filled the air, a flying aircraft carrier out and coming to a halt in midair as the tear closed behind it. A forcefield disappeared from a large opening in the bottom and swarms of small flyers shot out, firing wildly towards the ground as they formed into squads and made attack runs.
"ALERT: THE MARKET IS UNDER ATTACK! ALL PATRONS ARE FREE TO DEFEND THEMSELVES HOWEVER THEY NEED!" a magically amplified voice echoed through the air. Magic spells and energy attacks immediately started shooting into the air to hit or miss the swarming fighters.
"Fūton: Renkūdan (Wind Style: Air Bullet)!" growled Naruto before spewing a massive ball of wind at six fighters swarming towards the part of the market they were in. He had been practicing the move ever since seeing Shukaku perform the technique and had been saving it for a boss summons level creature, but a swarm of enemy fighters was a good target in his book. The wind blast slammed into the fighters and they reacted much like a small car being hit by a truck, crumpling up and going into nosedives towards the ground.
"Girls, stick together," said Hinata as she activated her Byakugan. "Lucina, how are you set for spells?"
Lucina had already had her bow and arrows out and fired off an arrow that had wind whipping around it that allowed it to punch through a fighter's canopy and into the eye of the pilot inside. "I have five Magic Missiles, four uses of invisibility, three each of Fireball, lightning bolt, and haste. Two Ice Storm and Polymorph Other. And I've managed to gain the allegiance of all four elemental spirits so I can cast the spell four times per day!" the elf replied, frowning as she saw a shuttle deposit a squad of pirates armed with clubs and nets. "Slavers," she spat out.
"Then this is one of the few times I'm going to enjoy causing someone pain," said Hinata with a grimace. "Naruto-kun, feel free to go crazy on them, they're scum!" she called out.
Naruto nodded and a swarm of clones appeared, charging into battle and engaging the slavers with Naruto leaping to the top of a nearby building and starting to fire off more wind blasts at the fighters and snipe any slavers who came near his position with kunai or shuriken. Hinata and Lucina herded the younger girls to a recently abandoned shop made of stone in the shape of a small European castle selling armor and weapons from the middle ages. Lucina took up a position on the roof with her bow, arrows, and spells ready while Hinata stood in the middle of the courtyard fronting the actual shop where the slavers couldn't surround her very easily thanks to the building at her back and walls at the sides.
"Alright girls, you're going to stay in here so Lucina and I can concentrate on defense," said Hinata. "Be ready to attack anyone who enters besides us!" The five younger girls all nodded, Rinku having pulled a Hylian shield and a short sword from her supply pouch and moving to the front of the group facing the door.
"I'll be the front line if any get past Lady Hinata," the blonde said.
Mayu pulled two daggers from within her sleeves and placed herself slightly to Rinku's side. "I'll keep your flanks clear," she said.
Iris, Kame-hime, and Sangurīn all spread out to provide ranged support with shuriken and kunai held ready in their hands.
Hinata took a deep breath as she saw a squad of slavers charging towards their refuge. "Lucina, care to thin the ranks?" she called up to the elf. Her answer was three arrows striking three of the slavers in the forehead for instant kills.
"Those were the only sure kills I could get," Lucina called out from the roof.
"Then leave the rest to me," Hinata said as she assumed the Jūken stance and saw the Eight Trigrams spreading out from her. As soon as the last of the slavers had crossed the outer boundary of the trigram, Hinata's eyes locked onto the charging raiders. "You're in the field of my divination," she said before exploding forward into a blur. "Two Strikes!" she said as she shattered the battle armor the first two raiders wore. "Four strikes!" the two staggering raiders died to strikes to their hearts as Hinata finished them off before launching four more strikes to leave the next four raiders armor shattered. "Eight strikes!" a Raider swung a club at Hinata but she gracefully twisted around it and delivered eight strikes to finish those four off and leave another four open. "Sixteen strikes!" Hinata had now shattered the armor of all the raiders who had charged at her and her hands were a blur as she struck all the killing blows she could. "Thirty-Two strikes!" the wind speed of Hinata's blows sent the raiders' corpses tumbling across the ground and the young heiress skidded to a stop as the five girls behind her in the shop stood in awe. "Eight Trigrams: Sixty Four Palms!" Hinata said with an exhale as the trigrams faded from her vision and she turned back to the shop with a smile. "That is my family's secret technique," she said to the star eyed girls.
"So coool!" said Iris and Kame-hime.
Hinata sighed as her Byakugan caught a raider leaping over rooftops. "One ninja raider to your six Lucina," she said. The elf's ears twitched and without even looking she fired an arrow behind her that punched through the raider's light armor and pinned them to a building. "Nice shot."
"Thanks, I have to know where to focus," said Lucina as she sent a lightning bolt into an approaching fighter, causing it to plummet to the ground as its systems fried. She was caught off guard as shuttle decloaked right behind the fighter she hit and fired a missile right into the courtyard of the small castle, sending Hinata and Lucina tumbling into unconsciousness as well as the girls.
A squad of raiders swept into the courtyard, one of which raised glowing pink hands for a spell. "Sleep," said the magic user, causing all the girls to sink into slumber. "Get those five into the shuttle quick!" they ordered.
"What about those two?" asked one of the raiders as the rest placed binders on each of the girls and carried them to the landing shuttle as it opened it cargo bay.
"To risky, that blue haired one was shattering armor and killing our guys with one poke of her fingers and I've seen enough elves to know that one is trouble," said the mage. "Leave a bomb to take them out and get going!"
The raider saluted and placed a black sphere the size of a human head in the middle of the courtyard, pressing a code into the keypad on top, causing the sphere to open and reveal a glowing red core that started slowly flashing. "Charge set!" he said as the raiders ran to their ship.
Around the center console of the sphere, a red line circled the console panel, growing a little bigger and making the circle shorter and shorter each second. Lucina groaned as she struggled out of the rubble she'd been buried under and staggered towards Hinata, one of her legs clearly broken from the fall and concussive force of the missile. "Stupid missiles!" she muttered as she slung Hinata over her shoulder, trying to get the two of them clear as the circle timer was now over half full.
"Stupid sleep spell!" hissed Lucina as Hinata continued to be unresponsive and the elf girl realized that with her leg broken she was not going to get Hinata clear in time as the timer was three quarters of the way full. Drawing a deep breath, Lucina yelled as loud as she could. "NARUTO!"
There was a flash of golden light and Naruto landed by Hinata's side, his eyes worried as he took in the scene before dashing to the bomb and pulling out a scroll, he rapidly drew a seal on with a space in the center for the bomb. "I'm glad I made Hinata carry one of my Hiraishin kunai," he said before placing the bomb on the center spot. "Seal!" The bomb was gone in a puff of smoke, Naruto's eyes slightly wide.
"How much time was left?" Lucina asked as she sank to the ground and lightly slapped Hinata's cheek to try to jar her to wakefulness.
"Not much, maybe a tenth of the circle," said Naruto before sniffing the air and growling. "They took you two out and got the girls, didn't they?" he asked. Lucina's head bowing in shame was all the answer he needed and Naruto looked up at the slaver mothership. "How big of a boom do you think that thing will make?" he asked.
"Not big enough to pay for the sin of abducting my little sister," said Lucina as Hinata finally came around and blinked drowsily before Naruto rested his hand on her shoulder, flooding her with chakra and making her snap fully awake.
"So, the three of us need to get up there and free the captives, slaughter any raiders who get in our way, and make them deeply regret their life choices?" said Naruto as he looked up at the air carrier.
"Leave getting up there to me," said Hinata as she climbed to her feet. "After I heal you Lucina, I have just the ride in mind!"
(0o0o0)
Mayu was very annoyed as she listened to the slavers talking about how big a price her friends and her would fetch. Being the only one to resist the sleep spell and having to play possum was difficult enough when she knew she couldn't take the five raiders carrying her friends and her on her own. Luckily, they were being taken to a cell block. Hearing the sound of flesh hitting metal she glanced through her hair and saw a yellow humanoid turtle with a green head gripping the bars of his cell as his gaze followed their group. She could see his clawed fingers digging slightly into the bars as he muttered, "Rinku!"
Mayu forced herself to keep from reacting as the reptile's eyes suddenly locked on her and she gave him a wink. Then she was dumped in a cell with the other girls and let herself flop onto the ground, seeing the slavers walk away laughing and relaxed. As soon as the door to the cell block was closed, she took a shaky breath like she was starting to wake up and slowly got to her knees, eyeing the camera watching the cell block out of the corner of her eye. The reptile kid was watching her and his claws started tapping on his own bars as a red dinosaur moved up behind him. Mayu blinked as she interpreted the Morse code taps as SOS and sent the same back with her claws on the floor of her cell. The yellow reptile slowly tapped out a new sequence of letters before pointing at himself.
"Bowser Jr!"
"Mayu!"
"Yoshi!" Bowser Jr tapped out as he pointed to the dinosaur beside him. "Frenemy!"
"Cameras?" Mayu tapped out with a questioning glance.
"One" Junior tapped as his tail pointed to the one above the door.
"Spark Shot!" Mayu whispered, causing a barely visible spark to shoot from one of her tails and strike the camera, making it short out. "That gives us a bit of time," she said as she climbed to her feet and pulled a small aspergillum out of her hidden supply pouch. Pouring a small potion in she used the device to sprinkle all her friends with an antidote and elixir she poured into the device.
Rinku was one of the first to recover and shook her head before looking up, her eyes locking on Junior. "Junior? How did they catch you?" she asked.
"Ambushed me as my airship was jumping between dimensions, I'm pretty sure our navigation system was the only reason they were able to make another dimensional jump since I heard them say they finally had a way to escape from between dimensions," said Junior before taking a deep breath and slowly starting to bend the bars he was holding apart while breathing a small flame to weaken them. "They took all the power ups and coins I was bringing to Auntie as loot while the airship is in their docking bay!"
Sangurīn had moved to the bars holding the girls back and grinned as she morphed her arms into her mantis blades that started dripping with acid before she cut her way through the bars. "They're going to regret taking us captive," she said as the girls, Bowser Jr, and Yoshi started making their escape plan.
(0o0o0)
"Kuchiyose: Suzaku the Phoenix Queen!" Hinata yelled as she slammed her hands into the ground. The massive cloud of smoke that signaled a boss summons was almost instantly dispersed as Suzaku flapped her wings.
"Hinata-chan, why have you summoned me at the goblin market?" the phoenix queen asked.
"We have a bunch of slavers who kidnapped five girls, some as dear to Naruto-kun and me as our own sisters and Lucina-san's own by blood. They took them up there." Hinata pointed to the airship and almost felt sorry for the slavers as Suzaku's eyes became gold flames.
"Very well, they shall know the wrath of my flames," Suzaku said as she lowered a wing to help Naruto, Hinata, and Lucina onto her back before leaping to the air and with a massive downbeat of her wings shooting up towards the carrier.
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