Naruto x Tomb Raider

Prison-tomb of living fire

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"This is very strange." Lara said as she examined another trap she came across. There was something very odd about it. The trigger for the trap was deeper into the tomb than the trap itself. What use would that be for keeping people out. The trap would go off after the person passed it. This whole tomb was weird. The locking mechanism on the entrance was on the outside. All the locks were on the outer side now that she thought about it. Another thing she noticed was the strange markings covering everything in the tomb.

She grabbed the walkie-talkie that she had on her. "Noah?"(I don't know nor do I care if that is actually her assistant's name; I'm using this one and that's final.)

"Yeah?" the response crackled over the small speaker.

"I'm starting to get the feeling this might not be a tomb or ruins or anything of the sort. The layout's all wrong."

"Worry about the layout later Lara. We're only here to retrieve the Sky Gem and the Blades of Burning Wind as they are called. If our information is right, these are the oldest ruins in the world, imagine what could be gained from finding these artifacts." The device crackled again.

Lara sighed. There was nothing dangerous so far just several dozen locked doors. As she continued walking she finally came to a chamber that even she would consider massive. Throughout the room were thousands of skeletons, all human. All of them had ancient weapons of some kind or another that either looked melted or looked like they had been cut through. In the center of the room there was a pole that stood about twenty feet tall and was covered entirely in some intricate design. Attached to the pole by some chains and cuffs with a similar design was a statue of a young adult male. His hands were cuffed together and he had a look of extreme hatred on his face. As she approached the statue she noticed the floor of the chamber around the pole for about twenty meters was heavily cut up and burned. When she was a few feet from the statue she saw the jewel she was looking for hanging from its neck and the swords attached to the side of the pole.

'What kind of ruins are these? I've done research on ancient cultures and the like but this fits none of them. It feels more like a prison than a tomb.' She thought absently as she looked for traps around the items she was to retrieve. 'It doesn't make any sense. Why put real chains on a statue? It can't move. There is not even any symbolism in it, just pure rage, fury and hatred. No one makes anything like this past or present. All the scorch marks and cuts on the ground lead back to the statue.' She pulled out her walkie-talkie again. "I don't think we're getting paid enough for this job Noah."

"Why do you say that?" the device crackled.

"This has been too easy. Something big is going to go wrong, I can just feel it. I'm beginning to believe stories about the curses of the dead with how many skeletons are here. Also there's this strange statue down here that's in the center of all the chaos."

"Don't worry about it Lara. I'm sure everything will be fine. Just get the artifacts and get out of there."

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Airplane heading to the US from Japan several hours later…

"See, I told you nothing would happen." Noah said.

"I still can't shake the feeling that something bad is going to happen." Lara responded.

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Ruins, large chamber, same time…

"I wonder who woke me up. After all it took those bastards five thousand of their own men to knock me out and separate me from my weapons. Then they have the gall to use my weapons and jewel as the power sources for their geo-stasis seal." He paused for a minute as he checked for said items. "They did not just rob me while I was petrified!" He yelled in outrage.

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Airplane…

Lara looked out the window of the plane toward the ruins she had just raided. They looked so calm and peaceful, especially with that pillar of fire coming out of it causing the sky to turn black. Don't forget the thick jungl- wait… pillar of fire? "Noah, remember how I had that bad feeling earlier?"

"Yeah?" Noah responded.

Lara pointed to the ruins they had been at just as they exploded and a lone figure rose out of the smoke. A voice could be heard clear as day even over the roar of the plane's engines. "Vengeance unending, wrath unfailing, winds of the north and south, fires of the east and west, I am revived. Thief! I must thank you for releasing me from my petrified prison but hear me now. I will reclaim what is mine. Prepare yourself!" The voice then vanished along with the figure in the smoke.

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Lara's house/mansion morning several days later…

"Lara, why did you tell them you couldn't find the Sky Gem when you're wearing it around your neck? You handed over the swords to be studied, why not the gem?" Noah asked as he and Lara walked into her home.

"Something told me to keep it." She said as she went to turn on the lights only for them to not work. "That's odd. The electricity was working outside."

The door slammed shut behind the pair cutting off all light to their present surroundings. "Hello, Touzoku-san (Ms. Thief). I believe you have some things that belong to me." A voice rang out throughout the entranceway of the building.

"Show yourself. Who are you?" Lara demanded.

"Do you know what that structure was that you raided?" the voice asked, ignoring her demand.

"Just some old ruins with three supposedly powerful artifacts in it. Though it had a strange layout for protecting its contents." Lara said.

"Not quite." The voice said as the lights flickered on and off never letting their eyes focus on the level of light.

"If not a tomb then what was it?" Lara inquired.

"The only prison I couldn't have broken out of on my own. My body was petrified and trapped in time. I felt every second of that torturous existence pass by like a slug climbing a mountain. My own swords and my necklace powered the damnable seal that kept me there. I want them back, and I want them back now." The shadow said. "My necklace I see hanging around your neck but my swords I do not sense on you. Where are they?"

"I don't know. We handed the swords over to the military for research." Noah said.

"It matters not I guess. With the seals I placed on them I'm the only one who can even draw them from their sheaths let alone use them." The shadow mumbled. "As for you." The shadow said as it looked at Lara. "Hold onto the jewel for me for the moment woman."

"What's so special about the gem?" Lara asked.

"It's a conduit used by one man to control demonic chakra. That man died about fifty years before I was born. There are only two gems like that in the world and each has the worth of several mountains. On top of all of that, it was given to me by a woman I thought of as a grandmother. What is your name?"

"Why should I tell you?" Lara asked indignantly.

"Because it's not wise to piss off a shinobi that has a high degree of control over elemental wind and fire. Those skeletons in the prison were my doing. What chance do you think you have against me if an army fell by my hands and blades?" The shadow intoned.

Lara's shoulders slumped a bit. "You're the one that was chained to that pole aren't you?"

"Indeed. Now, your name."

"Lara Croft" Lara responded.

"And the one who asked you to find the swords and gem?"

"Machiha Udara." The shadow chuckled. "What's so funny?"

"The immortal bastard chooses now to pay me back for helping him out after sparing his life? I wonder what happened to the others." The shadow responded cryptically. "At least now I know where to look." The doors blew open and the lights stopped flickering and stayed on.

Standing a few feet in front of the pair was a young man who was about 5' 11" and was wearing combat boots, black pants that were taped at the shin, a black muscle shirt and a black denim vest. He also had fingerless gloves, red-tinted welder's goggles and a black cloth facemask that covered the lower half of his face. His skin that was visible was a healthy tan. His blond hair stuck out in spikes that looked like they were gelled as they were going almost straight back. "One thing before I go." The man said as he walked up to Lara. He pulled down his mask to reveal marks on his face that resembled whiskers. "Thank you for releasing me." He said before place a gentle, chaste, almost ephemeral kiss on her cheek. He then pulled his mask back up and walked out the door.

'What the heck just happened?' Lara thought.

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Later that day, Military base's office…

"It's been awhile Machiha. Or should I say Madara?" A figure in his doorway greeted.

"Yes it has Firestorm." Madara responded.

"Let's cut to the chase. What's the reason you had her release me?" The figure demanded.

"She is the next chosen child that has been tasked with preventing the world from falling into chaos again."

"And I, as the first chosen child, fit in how?" the figure asked.

"You just need to keep her alive." Madara said.

"What of the other eight? What has become of them?"

"I am truly sorry old friend. They fell soon after you were imprisoned and the seals were made so no one who could use chakra could enter the structure. I would have released you as soon as I found its location otherwise. The entirety of the elemental countries turned on us thinking we would try to take over the world. I escaped and hid until the fall of chakra. I've been waiting for the next chosen child to appear and so that they could release you. No one else would have been able to do so."

The figure looked downcast for a minute. "I understand. Now I do believe you have my swords."

Madara tossed the swords to the figure who caught them and turned to leave. "It's good to have you back Naruto."

"It's good to be back old man. Do you have any idea how boring it was to be aware of the time passing and not be able to do anything to amuse myself?" Naruto responded, causing Madara to chuckle a little.

"I'm not old. You're only a few decades younger than I am." Madara retorted.

"You're right, we're not old." Getting a nod from Madara. "We're ancient." Naruto stated cheerfully causing Madara to sigh exasperatedly.

Naruto walked out the door before disappearing in a swirl of fire leaving no trace of ever being there.

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Lara's Home several hours later…

It was late and Lara was getting tired. She decided to worry about the strange man tomorrow and headed to her room. As she entered her room she turned on a lamp that sat on her nightstand before going to the bathroom to get a shower and get changed into her nightgown. Several minutes later she came out of the bathroom and walked over to her king size bed. Sure it was big for just one person and felt empty with just her but she was used to it. She pulled back the comforter and the bed sheet before adjusting her pillows. She quickly spun, facing the corner of the room. "What are you doing in my bedroom?" She asked the man from earlier while pointing the gun that she had pulled from under her pillows at him.

"And here I thought you'd be happy to see me or at least have noticed me when you first walked into the room." He said ignoring her question in favor of teasing her. His mask was down revealing his whisker marks again.

"You didn't answer my question." Lara said bluntly. She was beginning to make the 'sexy woman in a nightgown look' look very intimidating.

"Do you know what we have in common?" The man asked, deciding to take the roundabout way of answering the question. "Don't bother answering that; you look like you'd shoot me instead. What we have in common is a title and a purpose given to us at birth. I was the chosen child of my time and civilization as you are for this time and civilization. Our purpose is to keep the world from falling into chaos and destroying itself. Well that's yours. I had been given another option. I was born to bring the world to absolute peace or absolute destruction, at least for a time. I sort of did both. I brought peace by destroying the part of my civilization that imprisoned me which led to the war that destroyed the rest of it. With all the shinobi gone, the wars ground to a halt and the world became what it is today. No one knows how we did what we did anymore because they forgot how to channel and manipulate their chakra."

"You still haven't answered my question."

"I'm here because it's my job to train you in everything that I know that can be passed on to you, Lara. You are the new chosen child, the keeper of order and balance in the world. By doing your raids you do just that. What I'm going to do is teach you how to deal with those that get in the way of your doing that."

"What is your name?" Lara asked, her gun still aimed right between his eyes.

The man pulled the goggles away from his face and hung them around his neck before staring at her with slitted crimson eyes. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, Firestorm of the shinobi nations."

Lara lowered her gun and gestured with it for him to get up. "That's all well and good, now get out of my room so I can go to sleep." She then pointed to the door. She was clearly mad that he was still in her room.

"Has anyone ever told you that you look cute when you're angry?" Naruto asked.

She blushed from the comment but was too angry to care at the moment. "Just get out!" She yelled at him. The normally menacing appearance on her face ruined by the blush.

"Yea, yea. Meet me in front of your home at six. I'll start training you then. Oh and don't eat breakfast, you'll puke."

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Next day, 9:00 a.m. in front of the Croft household…

Naruto appeared in a swirl of fire with his mask and goggles in their usual places. "Yo." He said as he raised his right hand in greeting. He looked remarkably like his sensei Kakashi.

"You're late!" Lara yelled before her stomach decided to make itself known. She had been waiting outside her house for the past three hours for him to show up and she had decided to follow his advice to not eat.

"Sorry, I got lost on the road of life." Naruto responded, channeling Kakashi perfectly.

"Liar!" Lara yelled.

"Anyway, I have with me two boxed lunches. Here's what we're going to do." Naruto pulls an alarm clock from his weapon pouch and places it on the ground. "This alarm is set for noon. Your goal is to get this bell from me before then." He said holding up a silver bell attached to a red string. "If you get the bell, we will sit down and each of us will get one of the lunches to eat before we continue training. If you don't get a bell before the alarm goes off, I tie you up and force you to watch me eat both lunches and we still continue training."

"So that's why you told me to not eat breakfast." Lara groaned. Her stomach complained right along with her.

"Two more things before we begin. First, look underneath the underneath. Second, if you don't come at me with the intention to kill you will definitely not get lunch."

"But if you get hurt how are you going to teach me?" She asked with a small amount of concern.

"You don't have to worry about that Lara, I'll be just fine." Naruto said, not so subtly implying that she couldn't hurt him. This just made her get mad. 'Definitely cute when she's angry.' Naruto thought to himself as he tied the bell to the belt loop on the left side of his pants.

In her rage she charged at Naruto, which caused him to reach into his back pouch. 'Alright, I have to be careful. He's pulling out a weapon.' Lara thought as she got closer. What he pulled out of his pocket was not what she expected, causing her to stop dead in her tracks.

In his left hand he was holding one of the copies of the 'Icha Icha Paradise' series he had sealed away before his last battle. "What's wrong? Hurry up and attack me!"

"Why are you reading a book at a time like this!" She exclaimed.

"Oh, this? I really want to find out what happens next." He said in a lazy tone. "But don't worry, it won't change the outcome of this test." He said in a cheerier voice, blatantly stating he had no faith in her ability to complete the test.

"That's it! I've had enough of you downplaying my skills and abilities!" Lara yelled as she charged him again, intent on punching him in the face. Everything went according to plan until he easily blocked the attack with the palm of his right hand and didn't seem to need to put any effort into it. Lara followed up the punch with a roundhouse kick from her left leg, which Naruto just ducked into a crouch to avoid. This time she tried to backhand him in the face but her hand passed right through him; he was an afterimage.

"Don't let your opponent get behind you." Naruto's voice came from right behind her. He was crouching behind her with his book closed. His hands were clasped around the book with his index and middle fingers extended and together.

"What?" she asked.

"Too late to run." Naruto said in a low tone. "Shinobi lesson number 1: Taijutsu. Konoha ultimate secret taijutsu technique: 1000 years of pain!" (do I really need to describe that to anyone?)

"Aaaiiiieeeee!" Lara shrieked in an undignified manner as she went flying through the air. She landed a few yards away with a dull thud. She got up and had a little trouble taking a step normally. "What the heck was that supposed to be? All you did was ram your fingers up my ass! That's sexual harassment!" She raged.

"Or one of the most embarrassing ways to annoy an enemy. Or painful if you use sharp or explosive objects." Naruto countered while remembering doing that to Kisami with a kunai that had about 100 explosive tags wrapped around it. Yea, Kisami didn't look too good after that.

"You bastard!" She charged him again.

"Shinobi lesson number 2: Ninjutsu. Fuuton: Daitopa ('Wind Release: Great Breakthrough' I think I spelled that right)" Lara was blown back several yards and skidded several more.

"What the hell was that?" She yelled as she pulled out her guns.

"Something you may get to learn later if you prove that you are able to." He pulled out one of his swords. "Shinobi skill number 3: weapon use." Lara fired several rounds at Naruto only to be surprised when he moved faster than she could follow and cut each bullet in half with his sword before catching the halves with his free hand. She stared at him wide-eyed as he poured the projectiles out of his hand in much the same way you might do with sand. "When going up against an opponent of unknown skill level it is wise to assume that none of your usual tactics will work." Naruto stated in his bored tone of voice.

Lara growled in frustration. "How the hell am I supposed to beat you?"

"I never said you had to beat me. All you have to do is get the bell." Naruto said before glancing at the clock. "Shinobi lesson number 4: Genjutsu. Pacification"

As Lara's final mistake during the test, she looked Naruto directly in the eyes. Her body and mind were suddenly overcome by an extreme calmness and unwillingness to do anything more than what was bodily required. So she stood there for the rest of the test with a blissful expression on her face only to come to her senses when the alarm went off.

"You know you missed the whole point of the test." Naruto droned.

"Wasn't it to get the bell?" Lara asked.

"Seeing as I'm going to be teaching you, we will be needing to work together as a team. The test was about teamwork. If you had tried to ask for the bell, I would have given it to you, as it would be helping a comrade. I believe I told you to look underneath the underneath before the test started. As my first sensei told me, 'those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their friends and comrades are worse than trash'."

"You were just trying to get me to work with you?" She asked in disbelief.

"Yep. Now it's time for you to get tied up and be forced to watch me eat the lunches I brought." Naruto said cheerily, pulling a length of rope out of nowhere. He slowly started towards a now scared Lara.

"Can't we talk about this?" She asked pleadingly as she started taking steps backward to match his advances.

"Nope. I wouldn't get to have any fun that way." Naruto replied happy that he gets to torture someone again.

Lara continued to backpedal only to come in contact with a hard surface against her back. She had backed herself right into a tree. Even though the lower half of his face was covered she could tell he had a mischievous grin on his face. And even though his eyes were covered as well, she could tell he had a mischievous spark in his eyes too. 'Crap.'

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Lara's stomach growled rather loudly. She just had to watch Naruto eat his own lunch before he opened the other one. Her head was downcast as she wished he wasn't being so cruel by making her watch him eat.

"Lara?" Naruto's voice broke her train of thought.3

"What?" She growled.

"Would you like me to feed you?" He asked with genuine curiosity.

"You're not playing another one of your stupid tricks on me are you?" She asked cautiously.

"No. I'm just curious."

"Yes, I would like for you to feed me."

"Do you trust me to feed you?"

"What kind of question is that?" She demanded. "Fine. If it gets me food then yes I trust you to feed me." It seems her stomach was doing the thinking at the moment.

"Good. Then open you mouth and shut your eyes." He commanded.

"Why do I have to close my eyes?" She demanded.

"Either close your eyes or you get no food." Naruto responded plainly.

Lara growled at him but closed her eyes nonetheless. She heard him doing something with the food for a minute before he asked her to open her mouth, which she did. If she had had her eyes open she would have seen the mischievous look appear on his face again. To her surprise she felt something soft press against her lips before she felt something pushed into her mouth, the food. Her eyes snapped open and she pulled her head back so fast that it hit the tree she was tied to causing her to almost choke on the food Naruto forced into her mouth. Once she stopped choking she glared at Naruto. "What the hell do you think you're doing!" She yelled at him.

Naruto took on an exaggerated thinking pose for a minute before he answered. "Feeding you?" He asked innocently.

"Feeding does not include mouth to mouth!" She screamed.

"Hai, hai." Naruto said in a placating tone. He then proceeded to feed her like a normal human being. 'She's so fun to tease.' He thought to himself while smiling pleasantly.

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Well I hope you liked it. The idea had just popped into my head one day and I'd thought I'd try it. Updates will be erratic -if at all- because I don't think I'll be following a predetermined plot line and will need to wait for inspiration to hit me like a brick to the face (yes, inspiration hurts). Please review and make any suggestions that you want. Remember reviews are the lifeblood of fan-fiction writers. Also, please suggest songs or themes that you think would go well with the story.

-BabLe7