Last of Us, Naruto 1. Chapter 1

**Unexpected Hope**

**Chapter 1**

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><p>It was a calm, warm night in Austin Texas and in the two-story, single family house we're moving towards and entering, it's not so calm for a few. Current reason standing; being a man in his late 20'searly 30's on the phone with someone else and having a mild argument with him or her. When he finishes he sees a figure on the couch, with the lights revealing it to be a girl in the midst of waking up.

"Hey…." Said the girl half asleep with a light stretch

"Scoot." The man said with a tired kind of grunt, making the girl shift on the couch to accommodate him

"Fun day at work, huh?" the girl asked as the man rubbed the upper part of his face with a hand

"What are you still doing up?" asked the man, "It's late."

"Crude! What Time is it?" said the girl a slight panic as she moved to look at the clock hanging high on the wall, with it showing it being less than 15 minutes to midnight

"It's way past you're bedtime." Said the man

"But it's still today." Said the girl as she crawled off the couch

"Honey, please not now," said the man with a light groan in his voice as the girl grabbed something and brought over to the man, "I don't have the energy."

"Here." Said the girl as she handed a box to the man

"What's this?" asked the man taking the box

"Your birthday," the girl replied as she watched the man open the box, revealing a watch, "you kept complaining about your broken watch…. So I figured. You know."

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><p><strong>About the same time, different place<strong>

Two figures raced through trees of a forest, both panting heavily from the long run they had sprinted. Reasons for their haste were other figures in hot pursuit. One of the two that were being chased turned round mid-stride doing a seamless 360 with out breaking its pace as it lobbed something at a nearby tree in the midst of the pursuers. The object shattered and a violent explosion destroyed the tree and forced the pursuers apart sending some crashing into other trees and burning others.

"Damn these guys are relentless," said the figure that threw the explosive object, with a young masculine sounding voice, "They must be seriously desperate if they are attempting to take us on."

"Considering what we're transporting, hardly surprising," said the second figure sounding more like a female, "these things if used right could make even the most pathetic ninja a near invincible existence."

"Well I'm all for ditching these punks," said the male as he repeated the throw again, disrupting the pursuit and increasing the distance, "evasive plan: beta marigold?"

"Works for me," said the female as she copied the male, except she tossed two objects, "see you at the meeting point."

"Roger that." Said the male unsheathing a sword that was hanging limply in one of his hands and slicing the air in front of him, before vanishing from sight

The pursuers were about to chase down the female, when two of them were swiftly cut down, due to the loss of connection between their heads and their bodies. That caused immediate panic as the pursuers started launching attacks at random some nicking each other because of friendly fire as the female of the pursued rapidly left the area. It was after that, one of the pursuers whistled to the others and pointed out to large shuriken embedded in the tree(s) behind the two fallen, causing a number to start swearing and cursing like incensed sailors as they took off in pursuit of the female while one or two took off in another direction.

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><p><strong>Back in Texas<strong>

Joel had just finished shooting the rabid neighbor, whose first name was Jimmy, and ushering his daughter out the door as a truck pulled up.

"Where the hell you been?" demanded a male voice (Joel's brother Tommy) as Joel and his daughter had just exited the building as a person walked over to them from the drivers side, "do you have any idea what's goin' on out there?"

"Yeah, I've got some notion," said Joel with a slight sigh in his voice, before addressing his daughter, "come on baby girl. Get in."

"Holy shit, you got blood all over you!" Tommy declared in shock

"It ain't mine," said Joel attempting in assuaging Tommy's fears, as he ushered Sarah into the back seat, "let's just get outta here."

Both men got into the front seats with Tommy taking the driver's side, Tommy informing Joel about the gist of what's happening inside the city, while Joel was egging on about getting as far from the house and the chaos as possible.

"Hey Sarah, how are you holding up, honey?" asked Tommy a gentle, yet concerned tone evident in his voice

"I'm fine," said Sarah lowly before, "can we listen to the radio?"

"Yeah, sure…." Said Tommy turning the said electrical device on

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><p><strong>Back to the Chase<strong>

The male that turned invisible was halfway through a clearing when he suddenly dodged an attack barreling down his six o'clock, the attack being several shuriken mixed into several fireballs aimed dead center on his back.

"Seriously guys, just stop it!" stated the invisible male sword up in front of him as he turned round on the pursuers that had decided to go after hime

"We'll let you live if you give us the scroll with the 'cargo'." Said one of the pursuers sounding like a male as well, a nasally, oily sounding sort of male

"Why?" asked the chased male, "that desperate for power or something?"

"No, our boss won't kill us if we bring him the 'cargo' to add to his collection that will allow him to dominate even the five great village," Replied the male pursuer with a demeaning sneer in his voice, "so make it easy on all of us and we may let you live. After all killing the Golden Phantasm of the Sea Vault is considered a bonus in cred and money, although the few errant fools who believed they had slain you wound up with some big targets on their backs, before meeting their ends less that a week later at your hands."

"If you know who I am, then you also know my partner will end up annihilating your compatriots," said the Golden Phantasm as he kept his guard up while casting his voice about, making less easy for his opponents to zero in on him, "so that makes you all equally as foolish."

"That amount of fodder went after her because they weren't informed about the more valuable stuff loaded on your soon-to-be deceased body, if you keep on resisting," The oily one replied, "and don't bother hiding, my partner here can see and sense where you are."

"Well then, I guess that makes things easier for me." Said Golden Phantasm as he threw several kunai the majority corralling the chasers, while a hidden one shot straight down at the feet of the two, hitting something that exploded, critically wounding the two. This opened the window for Golden Phantasm to bifurcate the partner before turning round to see the other fleeing.

On random thought and impulse, Golden Phantasm pulled on two separate things and directed it through the sword in his hands, before launching a wave at the fleeing man. The wave took the guy out, and Golden Phantasm was about to leave when he felt a pull and realized too late, that he did something and was violently pulled into some rip in front of him.

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><p><strong><span>Texas near the bridge<span>**

Joel was nearly overrun by some infected as he carried Sarah in his arms, but the said infected were instantly mowed down by rapid gunfire. This caused the man and the girl in his arms to flinch slightly at the sudden burst of loud sounds and the girl screaming in fright. Pacing towards them was an armed, camo-clothed individual, indicating the person was a soldier.

"It's okay baby, we're safe," said Joel, "we're safe."

Joel then directed his attention to the soldier, "Hey. We need help."

"Stop!" the soldier declared in a masculine voice

"Please, it's my daughter," Joel pleaded through pants, "I think her legs broken."

"Stop right there!" The soldier shouted causing Joel to step back slightly

"Okay…" said Joel attempting to be rational, "we're not sick!"

"Got a couple of civilians in the outer perimeter," the soldier spoke into a radio on his person, "please advise…"

"Daddy," said Sarah slightly scared, "What about uncle Tommy?"

"We're gonna get you to safety and go back for him. Okay?" said Joel doing what he could to remain optimistic

"Sir, there's a little girl," the soldier replied to something, "but…. Yes, sir."

Joel was too stressed and frightened to figure out from the bits he had just heard as he attempted to persuade the soldier, "Listen, buddy. We've just been through hell-."

There was a sudden thump that drew all attention and the raising of a weapon trained so that it could hit Joel and Sarah as well as the origin of the sound. There was a pained groan as a figure stood up and it wasn't the two infected the soldier had shot down, no. It was a different person, a strangely dressed, blonde person, who had an unsheathed Japanese style sword in one hand and had the other hand on his head shaking it as if to clear a daze or clear his head of pain judging by the pain evident on his face.

The soldier primed his weapon and the sound of doing so incited reaction and a completely unexpected reaction. Because out of nowhere several objects seemed to materialize out of thin air in a split second and in that same-amount of time flew with uncanny accuracy right into the soldier's torso killing him instantly. However this didn't stop his body from reacting as the brain stopped function and this led to the gun being fired as the finger on the trigger tensed. However because the body was collapsing the aim was rapidly skewing and so happened it trailed over the place where Joel and Sarah were occupying.

Joel jerked round when he heard the weapon go off and a few seemed to have grazed him, causing him to cry out in pain. This threw Joel and caused Sarah to scream as the fell. Joel was quickly up when he heard rapid footsteps and a slight amount of whimpering. He glanced to see Tommy running up gun drawn and the stranger moving past, as the whimpering got louder, until it clicked.

"Sarah!" Joel cried as he scrambled over to his daughter as the stranger knelt next to her cursing, "Sarah!"

"Wait!" said the stranger holding up a hand, "I can help her."

"What?" said Joel as the stranger pulled out an object that looked like a tube

"I can help her…." Said the stranger a little more slowly as he ripped Sarah's shirt enough to uncover the wound, while also exposing his own torso, "as an apology…."

The stranger unrolled the object revealing a number of designs and images, before placing his hand on one and in a puff of smoke pulled out what appeared to be a butcher knife. Joel was about to say something, before the stranger flipped the knife so the blade was in his and placed the handle in Sarah's hand as a tendril of what seemed like golden energy extended from his torso. The tendril entered the bullet wound and extracted the bullet and all it's fragments before returning the wound just as the knife glowed and the wound began to close. What surprised the brothers other than the knife and the tendril was that the sight of blood coming from the exact place on the stranger's body that was slowly disappearing from Sarah's.

"Come on. Come on," Said the stranger before his being seemed to ripple and his face became a rigor of surprise and grabbed at the object and the tendril retracted, as he seemed to fade, "shit!"

Just as the stranger faded a slight glow came from the designs and several lights suddenly shot into the starry night. However Joel was still worried about Sarah as the wound hadn't fully vanished. But his worry turned to terror as Sarah started to fade as well.

"Sarah!" Joel cried out as he made to grab his daughter only for her to vanish, "NO!"

Little did Joel know, was that Sarah had survived and that one day, she'd return to him. Although that day would feel like an eternity between then and the agony of the night his daughter had vanished.

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><p><strong>Hey readers, been a long time<strong>

**I apologize for my long time of inactivity on the writing stage and I have no excuse**

**and after some time and some recent... insight**

**I've come to an executive decision**

**shortly I'll be taking down pretty much all my stories, sans this new, and a number of them shall be undergoing rewrites in the future after this story has reached it's conclusion**

**I again apologize and would like to add one more thing**

**this story was a challenge idea proposed by the mind of one Lovinaelita**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello again readers, sorry for the delay on updating for those anticipating it**

**anyway here's chapter 2**

**enjoy**

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><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

The blonde hit the ground with another groan as he focused on some amount of energy into finishing up on healing. He heard a thud and saw the girl he had been healing close by whimpering weakly with the little of the injury still in her torso.

"Ah, damn!" The blonde cursed under his breath before catching the sound of something shattering and saw the knife in his hand now in dozens of tiny pieces, "double damn! Oh well, human first, artifacts second."

The blonde scrambled over the girl, coating his hands in the same gold energy from before and placed his hands next to wound. Focusing the blonde created a translucent sphere of energy around and in the wound and any other internal damage. An hour or so later, the blonde pulled the energy away and drew it back into himself with a relieved sigh as he placed a slip of paper on the girl's wrist.

The blonde then returned his attention to the remains of the knife and the storage scroll he had been carrying. Moving over he used a pale-blue strings of energy from his hands to gather up the shards into a small cube made of what looked like crystal that sealed itself up the moment the last shard was in. Moving on to the scroll the blonde paled as he saw incompleteness most of the designs, his mind speeding through scenarios and conclusions, until his eyes widen and focused on the still open rift he had fallen through and from.

"Damn, first complication ever and I lose artifacts in another parallel world," said the blonde pulling out a small object that looks like a mirror with an attached extra panel with a piece of paper pasted to it, and on the paper was a 3x3 number grid, the blonde tapped a couple of numbers with an index finger covered in the pale-energy, "breaker, breaker. Vulpine hunter to overseer."

The surface of the mirror rippled until it showed the face of a young woman with pale straw-colored blonde hair and pale eyes. Etched on her face was a look of concern, worry, and mild annoyance mixed together in varying quantities.

"This is Overseer, what happened Naruto? You just disappeared!" Demanded the woman

"Some yahoos ambushed me and Hinata, forcing us to split up," explode Naruto, "I did something, while using my personal artifact to take down the pursuers on my tail, and it's opened a still active space-time rift to a parallel world, highly unlikely it's the one the artifacts came from."

"Why do I feel like that's the good news?" Asked Overseer

"The Mallon Knife was destroyed after being used along side symbiosis-chakra to heal a civilian of said parallel world from a lethal projectile wound," said Naruto earning a mixed facial reaction from Overseer, "it gets worse, the rift had some kind of rubber-band thing going on and it flung me back, but during the transition I believe the artifacts stored in the scroll was scattered in the parallel world. So... yeah, I need your help in verifying before regrouping in order to go back through the rift to retrieve the artifacts."

"I was going to contact you after informing Hinata of your position," said Overseer, "however it's going to cost you."

Naruto groaned in exasperation before replying, "oh come on, Shion! Will you just quit it! We both know that you getting pregnant, before we stop this artifact... pandemic is reined in enough is far from the wisest thing to do. The stress of locating the artifacts already has you up late and bordering on collapsing if a crisis comes up. We agreed to postpone, until the whole artifact thing died down enough."

"When will it ever!" snapped Shion, "you, and all the field agents, have been at this for five years now. We've contained nearly a quarter-million artifacts and dozens if not thousands more, keep cropping up. Sometimes I think you're using the artifacts as an excuse to go back on your promise! I'm surprised you and Hinata haven't started on having a child either."

"That's going too far!" Naruto shot back with a snarl, "plus Hinata and I have been using protection every time we get some time off, otherwise she'd tied to a hospital bed right now so she wouldn't jeopardize a baby she was carrying. Plus you are not exempted from me using contraceptives either, so why complain?"

"Can you blame me for being jealous?" asked Shion sullenly with a pout, "even that damn cat seems to enjoy her times with you."

"Because she enjoys it," said Naruto exasperatedly with a sigh following after, "Hinata too, because they enjoy their times of indulgence with me. Being all stiff about promises and obligations makes the experience very uncomfortable and really makes mood rather sour."

"You do realize how much I dislike how you use words, right?" questioned Shion with a slight eye twitch, "and you're guest is awake…."

"I know and wish she didn't hear this discussion," said Naruto as he glanced at the blushing girl although she winced every time she made an effort to move, "take it easy, you may end up damaging something or make something worse."

"Sorry," the girl said with a slight pained groan as she returned to lying on her back, "where am I?"

"Space-time wise or geographically located?" asked Naruto in response

"Huh?"

"What was the name of your home village or city and where it is located?" asked Naruto

"Austin in the state of Texas," said Sarah, "why?"

"Because you got dragged with me across a time-space rift, taking far from your home world and/or dimension," explained Naruto, "it'll make more sense if you know the basic concept of multi-verse theories."

"So… I'm not in Texas, if that is what you are saying." Stated Sarah as she tried to wrap her mind around those confusing things the older blonde was saying

"Pretty much," said Naruto as he looked up, "it's good to see you are okay, Hinata-chan. I need a second opinion on this patient."

"Of course Naruto-kun," said Hinata as she glided over to the two, "I was keeping track of you as well, despite Shion-san saying my needing to do so is unnecessary."

"Some times I think she's saying that so she can blindside me to get her knocked up or murder me for not fulfilling my promise to her standards or liking," said Naruto with some amount of exasperation, "and then there's you."

"Should you be speaking of such things in front of a child?" asked Hinata with a smile that was so innocent it actually looked dangerous as she knelt down next to the younger girl, placing her hands that suddenly started glowing a pale green onto the site of where the mortal injury was located

"I'm twelve," said Sarah defensively, tilting her head several ways to get a better look, "I'm not that much of a child."

"Old enough to be a genin if she trained to be a ninja," commented Naruto, "so what's the prognosis?"

"Most of the damage in the puncture wound and cracked lower leg have been healed, minor hemorrhaging due to recent movement, but easily fixed," replied Hinata before she frowned at something, "and her chakra circulatory system strange despite her recovery."

"Chakra circulatory system?" asked Sarah in confusion getting a strange look from Hinata who then directed it at Naruto, and the blonde male pointed directly at the rift

"She's from the other side of that," replied Naruto, "what do you mean strange?"

"It's a near carbon copy of yours?" said Hinata, "and what do you mean other side?"

"That rift leads to another dimension that has no relation to where the artifacts came from," said Naruto as he then points to Sarah, "she is a resident from there. And if you say her C.C.S is a near carbon copy of mine that means she didn't originally have one. Certainly explains some things. As for your question…."

"Sarah."

"Sarah…. interesting name," said Naruto, "a chakra circulatory system acts a lot like blood vessels, except they circulate an energy people like Hinata and I can use to perform various… things…. And if my system was copied that means that injury transference knife I had did more than take away your wounds."

"It took part of your chakra circulatory system?" said Hinata with a gasp

"According to a mutual friend," said Naruto while lightly touching his head and Hinata nodded in understanding at the gesture, "the part taken was negligible and easily replaced by my rapid healing."

"Rapid healing?" said Sarah

"Yeah, I heal faster than what most people would called normal," said Naruto, "a small scratch and it'd fully heal in a matter of seconds, being an example."

"Okay…." Said Sarah with some amount of disbelief in her voice, "this a lot to take in. But what's it between you two, are you a couple?"

"Yes," said Naruto and Hinata, and Naruto elaborated, "we both are dating, although our relationship is a little more odd… since I've got a relations with two other girls and all three of women know of it."

"Sounds like an open relationship I hear about from some people I knew," said Sarah before she looked at Hinata, who was giving Naruto a slightly hard look, "is it okay for me to move?"

"What?" said Hinata, "oh, yes, of course. I finished healing the last of the damage, although I recommend bed rest to prevent complications. Also what do you mean open relationship?"

"I don't quite get it myself," said Sarah, "but from what I can understand, it's when a committed couple allows itself to experimentally pursue relations outside of just the couple in question…. I don't quite get it, but that's about it…."

"Huh," said Naruto taking on a pondering kind of pose, "sounds interesting, but it's become an established fact to a number of people; I kill any kind of guys, who even dare to touch Hinata-chan outside missions that require seduction. Mainly I've got a healthy committed relationship with Hinata, I am mainly just friend of Shion's, and Iris… well… it's a mutual attraction."

"I kind of overheard you arguing about pregnancies…." Said Sarah with a blush

"Yeah, poor choice of conversation to have around a girl that's hasn't started on going through puberty yet," said Naruto, "and I was half hoping you were still unconscious after I was done healing you to the best of what I can do."

"How many of those arguments have you had this month?" asked Hinata with a frown

"I lost track after the 33rd one, three days ago." Said Naruto making an exasperated closed-eyed expression

"Really Naruto-kun?" said Hinata, "why haven't you held up that promise, it'll make things a lot easier on everyone."

"Like the fact that if she's pregnant there will be artifacts still on the loose that can do a hell of a lot of damage and we have no way of locating them before some moron get their hands on it because the pregnancy interferes with her tracking abilities and the stress of working around it may cause a miscarriage?" said Naruto with a raised eyebrow, "not only would that kill me and Shion emotionally on some level, it'd seriously screw us up and the sea vault would be utter chaos. I know that's one massive excuse aside from the fact I also promised you'd be the first to have a child. I'm stuck at an impasse and the pressure to fulfill various promises creates a damned if done, damned if not done, type of deal that tends to have me pulling hairs out of Kurama's tails when I'm ticked off."

"Who's Kurama?" asked Sarah

"Mutual acquaintance, not quite friend yet," said Naruto, "and that's if the ass isn't being a total condescending ass for one reason or another."

"Like pestering you to fulfill your promises so you'd stop pulling hair out of his tails?" said Hinata

"He asked for it the last fifteen times," said Naruto stubbornly crossing his arms, "besides we need to get Sarah here to the nearest safe-house, both for training and recovery."

"The closet one is in Konoha, 29 kilometers due south by south-west," said Hinata, "we also need to report this incident to the Hokage."

"Yeah, report an interruption with unknown complications," said Naruto sarcastically, "that's going to go over so well. Odds are I'll get sent flying by Baa-chan's punch of death."

"Why?" asked Hinata, "We've got the best retrieval rate out of every Sea Vault team."

"Yeah at the expense of personal injury and getting jerked around by a lot of little nuisances," said Naruto, "they seriously don't pay us enough to capture the more dangerous artifacts or even the more weird ones."

"You keep saying artifacts," said Sarah, " what are you talking about?"

"Stuff like this," said Naruto holding up the sword he had sheathed at some point, "they are items and stuff with numerous abilities from another dimension that keep cropping here. This sword is called the Hanjo Masamune and it when positioned by a none-chakra user in a certain fashion it makes the wielder invisible."

"A sword that make you invisible?" said Sarah

"Yep," said Naruto as he held up the crystal box holding the knife fragments, "and in here are the remains of a knife that helped me save your life."

"You said it transfers injuries," said Sarah, "what did you mean?"

"Not just injuries," said Naruto, "according to another person we work with who 'appraises' the artifacts also learns the history and this former knife belonged to a lady named Mary Mallon."

"Typhoid Mary?" said Sarah; "she's regarded in history as the first case to coin the term Carrier for diseases."

"Yeah," said Naruto, "this knife belong to her and it was capable of transferring just about everything afflicting one person to another person free of those afflictions. Say someone is suffering from something like a cold, if one person holding the knifes get another healthier person to hold it, they would be switching roles of who is sick and who is healthy."

"And if someone has an injured leg and a bullet shot into them, it'd transfer the wounds to someone who is physically fine?" said Sarah with a hint of a question in her voice

"Yep." Said Naruto

"I guess I should be grateful that the knife helped keep me alive," said Sarah, "but why is it in pieces?"

"Something happened during the transition back from your world," said Naruto, "combined with a couple of other factors."

"Like?"

"Best to get moving," said Naruto deflecting the question, "I'll explain later."

"But how?" questioned Hinata, "we can't travel by foot, it'd take too long since she is clearly unable to travel like a ninja and plus we don't know how she'll physically react while being carried."

"Then it's a good thing I'm _the_ connections man of the Sea Vault," said Naruto pulling out another scroll after putting the artifact storage one away, "I can get a free pass at testing a lot of experimental material and equipment. It just so happens that I've recently received something from Koyuki-Nee-san and already got a feel for it."

"What is it Naruto-kun?"

"This," said Naruto flourishing the scroll with extravagance and out of the resulting smoke appeared a large object that looked like some kind of car or small truck-like vehicle in Sarah's opinion, "latest vehicle fashion prototype, the Senseiryu (Flashing Star Dragon), a multi-terran ninja tactical transport or MTNTT. Powered by a specially designed chakra-conversionary battery for zero percent usage of limited fuel and decrease in noise production added to special Uzumaki-class noise-canceller seals, is virtually silent. Designed to seat a genin team and their sensei in luxurious comfort and transport up to a ton of weight in the back bed. And the battery can last up to a thousand miles at a full charge."

The vehicle or Senseiryu, looked like, to Sarah, it was based on some streamlined Toyota series mixed with something like a 4 wheeler, because the suspension was rigged to keep the chassis far off the ground, while the wheels were as high as Naruto's thigh while he stood around 6 feet. (Think of the 4 wheeled light vehicle from Tron Legacy add in something from a Toyota truck and stream line it, also place the engine behind the cabin.) Needless to say Hinata had some serious apprehension at the sight of the vehicle as Naruto got into the driver's seat, he then motioned for the girl's to follow suit.

"Is it safe Naruto-kun?" asked Hinata, "or rather are you safe to drive others around in… this?"

"Oh ye of so little faith," said Naruto with mock pained expression and a stabbing motion to his heart, "when I beta-tested this puppy, Koyuki-Nee-san was in the passenger seat and she had zero complaints and injuries. In fact, she enjoyed the ride. The designer and engineers said I'm a natural."

"Okay…." Said Hinata skeptically as she and Sarah got into the vehicle, with Sarah taking the seat behind Hinata's

"Buckle up," said Naruto fastening some harness-like restraints and the girls copied, "and relax."

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><p>The vehicle slowly started to move before gradually picking up speed until it was going at shinobi cruising speeds or 85 mph. The trip was short because Naruto had to stop a good quarter mile outside the village. Reason standing, according to Naruto, the Senseiryu hasn't been released yet, or rather any news or rumors about a release of a vehicle of the Senseiryu's kind to any markets. So after storing it away again, Naruto had Sarah piggyback on him, because he didn't want to cause her some stress because of her rather forced recovery.<p>

Naruto and Hinata flashed the guards, badges they had stored in seals on their wrists and walked right on in. Sarah was in awe and wondering why this place was called a village it looked more like a small city. Naruto and Hinata dropped by the hospital and had Sarah checked on, or rather Hinata took Sarah in, to get her check on.

While the girl's were at the hospital, Naruto decided to check out the village since it had been five months since he had last returned for some thing. Once he had his fill of the sights, he made his way towards a green and red building with a large white disc near the top with the kanji for 'fire' on it. That building was the Hokage Manor and all-round HQ for the entire village's shinobi forces, save the ANBU; they had their own private bunkers for security reasons.

Naruto flashed his badge again at the secretary, stating his name and reason for seeing the Hokage. The secretary got up and went up the small flight of stairs for a couple minutes before saying; the Hokage was ready to see him. With a sigh of resignation Naruto walked into the main room that was the Hokage's office. And sitting behind the desk was a blonde woman who looked to be in her early 30's, she had an unreadable expression as she watched Naruto stood before the desk.

"Welcome back Naruto," said the woman, "I've gotten word from Oracle and she informed me of unforeseen developments…."

"Complications are more apt, Tsunade-sama," replied Naruto with a straight face, "the standard transport route from temporary storage was compromised. Hinata and I had to split up to end any form of pursuit, however things did not go well and in an attempt to make a swifter resolution as to offer Hinata support. But the attempted resolution led to the events where I've been sent to another parallel world. Events after arrival led to the lethal injury of a civilian girl. However while going through the process of healing her, I was forcibly returned and somehow dragged the girl back here. After informing Oracle of the incident, Hinata quickly rendezvoused with me at the site of where I left and returned. After finishing up healing the girl in question and quarantining the rift at the site, we made our way here to inform you of what has happened and to make preparations for an excursion into the rift to go after the artifacts that were lost. For this endeavor, I will require the aid of agent Mau for mobile tracking."

"Since the founding of the Sea Vault, 5 years ago, you have never lost an artifact, unless the effects were too great and needed to be destroyed," said Tsunade in an even tone, "and when it happens to you the first time, it's a royal mess. How did you manage to pull that off?"

"I owe my success rate to my partners, Hinata and Iris," Said Naruto, "our luck as a unit in capturing the artifacts and getting them to the Sea Vault is everything short of godlike, however with Iris working separately Hinata and I had some close shaves, that would have resulted in unpleasant casualties. So the further split up, may have brought the karma we gained, into a pain backlash that hit me alone. I have no excuses ma'am."

"Seeing as how this screw up is like not your fault," said Tsunade with a smirk, "you're lucky enough to avoid serious punishment, however you are hereby placed on standby until Iris gets here. You've earned more than enough vacation time, so use it wisely."

"Thank you Baa-chan," said Naruto moving his head to avoid a scroll that was thrown at it, "I'll be sure to do so, since I've pretty much got a new apprentice to teach."

"New Apprentice?"

"The civilian girl," said Naruto, "the healing process I used, copied a fraction of my chakra circulatory system into her, including state of development, excluding influences from Kurama as he retracted any form of his chakra located in the copy after the copied circulatory system had manifested into the rest of the girl's body."

"Meaning she needs training in using it," said Tsunade, "otherwise she'll suffer from overload or systemic chakra atrophying, leading to pseudo-necrosis and eventually death."

"Yes, Ma'am," said Naruto, "the girl has a father on the other side and I wish to return her ASAP. However if she's dead it'd defeat the purpose of the secondary objective of reclaiming the mission to reclaim the artifacts."

"Very well," said Tsunade massaging her head slightly, "you're dismissed. Although, fair bit of warning. Sasuke Uchiha is currently in the village, and due to lack of forewarning, was unable to send him home."

"So that asshole is loose?" asked Naruto

"I'm afraid so," said Tsunade, "I've sent ANBU out to carry out his restraints, but I have yet to receive word."

"Okay…" said Naruto in a neutral voice, "I'll be heading to the safe-house now; less chance to run into the teme."

"Understood," said Tsunade before she made a friendlier smile, "great to have you back Naruto."

"Great to be back," Said Naruto as he turned round to leave only to stop dead when the office door opened and in walked four people and one of them was someone he'd rather not meet, "ah damn…."

"Dobe?"

It was Sasuke Uchiha….


	3. Chapter 3

**Silvdra: Hey everyone, it's been a while; for the short news, I saw - Guardians of the Galaxy - yesterday and all I can say it was amazing and hilarious. now onto Naruto for the weather.**

**Naruto: Thank's Silv. now for this segment well be seeing a scorching high of tempers flaring, with slightly cloudy solemn attitude followed by an amount of action and mild tomfoolery laced with potential slapstick pain and violence. Now onto Hinata-chan with sports**

**Hinata: what's going on?**

**Silvdra and Naruto: we're just making cracks about the news...**

**Hinata: Oh... oaky... anyway onto the story**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3<strong>

As he turned round to leave only to stop dead when the office door opened and in walked four people and one of them was someone he'd rather not meet, "ah damn…."

"Dobe?"

It was Sasuke Uchiha….

* * *

><p>Naruto placed a fist on his hip as he smirked in a demeaning fashion that seemed to out do the one that was fading from the Uchiha's face.<p>

"Just wonderful," said Naruto sarcastically although he used the air of one commenting on the weather, "Less than two hours back and I have the misfortune of running into the one person who is supposed to be in his little gilded cage."

"What are you doing here?" demanded Sasuke his expression returning in force although with a minor amount of strain, "I thought you were still traveling around with that multi-village joint loser squad, you are so proud of working for."

"I was working, when Hinata and I got interrupted by some nimrods with the same caliber as pathetic as yours," said Naruto making the Uchiha frown, "however a snag has forced me to return here before returning to deal with said snag. As for working for a loser squad, aren't you in one yourself?"

"At least I'm a recognized official shinobi of the village," said Sasuke in a haughty tone, "you were simply lucky enough to sucker some people into letting you join the forces. In fact I doubt you had any worth for that promotion, you'd have failed if you didn't have that sword."

"You're right, I wouldn't have won our battle without the sword back then," said Naruto with a smirk, "but I still proceeded forward and I'm very sure I can beat you without it now."

"And use some other parlor trick instead of that piece of junk," said Sasuke stepping forward slightly his tone harsh, "you've never beaten me in any fight without some pathetic little gimmick to blindside me."

"I'll let you in on a little secret," said Naruto from Sasuke's side making the dark-haired teen jump, "those pathetic gimmicks are merely extensions of the fact, I can toy with you, since I've been holding back for a long time."

"Seems like you didn't hold back when you screwed around with that Hyuga slut," said Sasuke with a superior look getting mixed reactions and gasps from those other than Naruto present, "especially that little break up, how long had you been cheating on her?"

There was a period of silence before Sasuke felt himself hitting the wall hard, the imprint of a face temporarily ingrained on his face.

"Hinata is no slut," said Naruto, "unlike the whores who throw themselves at you and you don't pay them any attention. But I don't really care since you nearly raped Hinata after we decided to separate for a while in order to calm down."

"What did I do that is considered rape?" asked Sasuke in that same superior tone as he pulled himself from the wall, "she was so vulnerable and pathetic, I just couldn't help, but feel like I should do something."

"You used a genjutsu to pose as me and nearly forced yourself on her without consent, if I hadn't shown up to talk to her after spending so long feeling guilty," Naruto snarled, "I was ready to kill you…. You are the one who's lucky."

"How was I lucky after that?" barked Sasuke, "I'm under house arrest day and night while you are inside the village, even then I can't leave the village on pain of immediate execution for treason."

"Need I remind you about the incident I kicked your ass several times that had me put in prison for several months?" Naruto continued to snarl, "you got a slap on the wrist, because of that parasitic hickey from Orochimaru and your butt-lers pleading insanity on your behalf."

"Which you turned into a kick in the nuts, by putting me through psychological reevaluation and rehabilitation under Ibiki Morino and Ino's dad," Sasuke was now snarling as well, "not to mention that damned house arrest protocol that effectively makes more of a prisoner than those actually in prison. And because of that ultimatum about Orochimaru's curse mark."

"Good, since I designed that protocol as a measure against myself," said Naruto with a smirk getting a shocked reaction from Sasuke and some of those that were with him, "you know full well of my Jinchuriki status, since the founding of Sea Vault, hell every generation in this village does. Since your butt-lers feared me turning on the village, they blabbed it; I made that protocol in order to give them a sense of 'security'. Plus that ultimate is in fact the only lease keeping you confined to your home district. And the easiest damn thing to do, is to get rid of that curse seal."

"If you think it's so fucking easy to do so, then why don't you do it you condescending bastard?" demanded Sasuke

"Do you incestuously kiss your mother with that mouth?" asked Naruto glibly

"No more than your mother using her mouth to blow me," said Sasuke, before he had a mock look of revelation, "oh wait… you don't have a mother I could use to get me off."

"I'm leaving now," said Naruto moving to the window only to pause when he was halfway out of it, "by the way, your mom really enjoys the handling I give her once a while, especially when you are fast asleep thanks to tranquilizers I slip you."

Sasuke let out roared and swore in a single breath as Naruto left with a cackle.

* * *

><p>"That ass has really pissed me off now," said Naruto his face a mask of fury disguised as passiveness as he walked down the streets to a favorite haunt of his, completely uncaring of his surroundings, "although getting under his skin is rarely a good enough hobby to get that his BS out of my memory."<p>

Entering one of the many training grounds, Naruto flipped through a couple of hand signs and slammed his hand on the trunk of a nearby tree. The effect was a near transparent barrier enveloping the training ground, before fading so fast that any who saw it, thought it was a trick of the light or something.

Naruto then moved further to the middle of the training ground when he soon stopped near a large rock. Raising a leg he brought his foot down in a sharp axe-kick like move that hit the end of the rock and it flipped over revealing a type of design carved into the stone. A translucent square appeared over the design revealing a constantly scrolling list of characters a mishmash of numbers and letters, before stopping as the list turned into an options menu, with a flashing indicator of the selected item next to one of the items.

"Let's see…. Training course 3, level 6, Time Attack, and the Ass as the target avatars," Naruto muttered as he tapped on certain parts of the design, causing the menu to change as various items were shown to be selected before the lists turned into a question, 'use this configuration?', to which Naruto selected the answer 'yes', "yes. Now let's see if I can beat my old record without Kurama this time."

Naruto moved to a hollow glowing square in the ground that just appeared and took a stance designed for quick forward movements. Appearing at his normal eye level was a timer counting down from 60 seconds, making a tick-beep sound as the number decreased.

With a flick of his arms, Naruto brought his hands back to grasp a pair of objects seeming to materialize near his hips, revealing a pair of ashy-black L-like-shaped objects. The moment they entered Naruto's hold, his grip changed becoming slightly loose, his index fingers placed on spots different from his other fingers.

The counter hit zero with a blaring screech and Naruto shot forward, kicking up a cloud of dust, following a series of arrows that crop up to indicate the direction of his path. There was a series of snaps and humanoid shapes, 10 total, with the appearance of Sasuke jumped from the brush. To which Naruto reacted with aiming the objects in the few seconds before he got within 14 yards of the first effigy. A small collection of bangs rang out as Naruto ran past the remains of the now shattered dummies.

An arrow aimed to the right popped up and Naruto veered on a dime, not losing his pace as he charged down the path. Five more dummies appeared this time armed, with kunai and other throwing projectiles, which were launched in quick succession. Naruto responded with firing two shots that disperse almost half of the projectiles coming at him, before he jump-flipped over the dummies ending them with three well-aimed shots.

This continued for 4 and a half minutes, where at Naruto was 32 yards from a clearly indicated finish line, only for his path to be blocked by 15 dummies all armed with swords or projectile weapons.

Mid-stride, the ground before Naruto suddenly turned into a shining flat surface, where Naruto dropped to his knees, leaning back as projectiles flew over his head some barely missing his face by millimeters. Naruto brought the objects up on instinct and clenched his index fingers, resulting in a series of bangs before he righted himself and aimed at the rest of the dummies that were armed with the swords and a few remaining projectile weapons and let loose 6 shots, each ricocheting off of other projectiles or swords, annihilating the dummies. About 3 sword wielders survived and they were 5 yards from the finish line and they were moving to intercept, thrusting their weapons forward as they made a charge at the still sliding Naruto.

With Herculean dexterity and strength, Naruto twisted as he forced himself into a back flip passing inches over the dummies' heads, where he took aim and ended their brief existence and with the same inhuman dexterity, he twisted midair to land in a one-knee backwards skid that took him over the finish line and off the slick surface, causing him to have a bit of a jolting stop just as the same blaring sound went off.

Another square appeared next to Naruto, showing the time it took to reach the end and a percentage as the final score. The two respectively read as 7 minutes 49 seconds, with the percentage being 91.8.

"Hehe… new personal… best…" said Naruto between pants as he stood up, "certainly… beats my last score… by… a landslide…. You can come out, Sarah."

* * *

><p>Sarah hesitantly walked out from behind a tree as she approached. Her clothing had changed from the ruined pieces she was wearing, having opted to wearing biker shorts and a simple blue shirt, while her feet were safely inside a pair of sandals. Something else Naruto noticed was that Sarah seemed strangely taller than he last saw her and her face had changed slightly.<p>

"How did you know I was here?" asked the girl

"You passed through the barrier I've got set up for this place," Naruto replied as he waved the square away, "I've got it set up to prevent anyone, who's not me from entering. And if they somehow did get in, I'd get real-time tracking of where the person is. Also because of the fact your chakra signature is partially like mine, it's rather easy to conclude you followed me through the barrier with little resistance, for some reason."

"I was with Hinata after leaving the hospital, saying I was fit to leave," Sarah replied, "we both spotted you and followed, although Hinata was wary, likely from that weird expression you had on. When we got to this place, Hinata seemed to hit something, but I had no problem. She told me to follow you, since you would explain and that she'd meet us at the safe-house."

"I see…." said Naruto with a slight pause, "the reason Hinata-chan was wary, was because I was pretty much angry. And as I said, the barrier keeps just about everyone, but me outside of it."

"Why?" asked Sarah

"I like some solitude when I'm pissed off," said Naruto, "and being in a place where the kind of solitude I need to cool off is nonexistent, one tends to think of ways to make it a reality. Plus the barrier also gives me a good deal of privacy."

"How so, beside distance, obviously?" said Sarah curiously

"You know how Hinata's eyes make her look like she's blind, while she can still see?" asked Naruto, getting the girl to nod slightly, "well her family possess a power in their eyes called the Byakugan, it grants people like Hinata 360 spherical telescopic vision, they can literally see everything at extreme distances compared to those with regular sight. Relatively perfect for spying."

"Wow…." Said Sarah, completely surprised because of not knowing that

"Yeah," said Naruto, "add in an X-ray like perk and you've got something that makes privacy seem like unknown concept. I designed the barrier to block out the Byakugan entirely as well as the security sensor barrier around the whole village."

"Security sensor barrier?" said Sarah confused

"A countermeasure against spies, saboteurs, and general enemies that would want nothing more than to turn the village into ghost town of ruins," said Naruto, "it's invisible to virtually everything and its got detection capabilities similar to Hinata's Byakugan making it a right pain in the tail for someone like me."

"What do you mean?" asked Sarah, "and why were you angry?"

"Got into an altercation with a nemesis of mine," said Naruto, "the ass's name is Sasuke Uchiha. To make it short, the guy crossed a lot of line in my view and some of them quite… personal…. Anyway I got him basically placed under house arrest for his crimes. Although there are rare times we cross paths and we can't stop ourselves from fighting verbally. An today was one of those rare days, and he dug into an old wound or two, although I got the last laugh by mockingly saying to his face that I slept with his mother."

"What?" Sarah gasped

"The thing you may want to know is that when I hit puberty, I developed a weird sex drive," said Naruto, much to Sarah's embarrassment and some fear, "it affected Hinata somehow and we had a few close calls on a couple of things. Hinata and I had to separate from each other for a bit, and during that time I've… experimented with other women, particularly one who Shion called 'Damn Cat' and Sasuke's mom, Mikoto."

"So that wasn't a joke?" asked Sarah

"I was very frustrated as was Sasuke's mom," said Naruto, "although she repressed hers since the massacre of her clan, of course seeing me didn't help."

"Why was that?"

"Mikoto-san had a crush on my old man and since I look identical to it lead to a on-off thing," explained Naruto, "because of it, I got a taste of, and partially for, older women part of the time. Shion happens to be older than me and Hinata as well."

"That's messed up on so many levels." said Sarah

"Much to part of my shame in not stopping any of it, I agree," said Naruto, "considering I'm an orphan and a pariah, I had no real guidance or understanding when it came to sex. Hell no one even wanted teach me anything except a select few."

"How can you be an orphan, you said this Mikoto had a crush on your dad?" said Sarah, confused, "and why were you a pariah?"

"My parents died when I was baby," said Naruto, "and the reason for their death was stopping some nutcase from destroying the village and leaving me with a burden I was too young to give consent to."

"Burden?"

"There's a group of super-beings called Biju or tailed-beasts," said Naruto, "they can be classified as incarnations of natural disasters and there are those that referred to them as demons. But to those like me, who have a Biju sealed inside us, they are either curses or partners."

"How do you seal a super-being into a human?" asked Sarah

"Very powerful and complicated sealing arts," said Naruto pulling out the scroll that Sarah had seen before, "much stronger than seals like the ones inscribed on this scroll, designed to bind a Biju as close to the soul of their jails as necessary. And sad thing is, the Biju are immortal, if their jail or Jinchuriki dies, they simply lose physical form only to reform from the energy they are made of, some time later. And the Biju sealed in me, is why a lot of people in this village hate me, they can't tell the difference between me and Kurama."

"Kurama?" said Sarah, "that's the name you spoke of earlier. And what do Biju look like?"

"Yeah, that's my Biju's name," said Naruto, "as for what he looks like, he's a red-orange fox the size of a small mountain with nine tails, as a basic description."

"That massive?" asked Sarah, wide-eyed

"Yep," said Naruto, making a popping sound with the P, "we both didn't get along as I was growing up and when I became aware of his presence inside me. But we eventually became partners, although the road to it was far from easy, especially with all the recent incidents with the artifacts that have cropped up."

"Speaking of artifacts," said Sarah, "what is with the differences in technology?"

"Ah, so you've notice," said Naruto, "well the artifacts are not the only things that have popped up, there have been other things as well and a portion of it seemed to be technology we've yet to develop and most of it landed in the former land of snow. Now because of numerous developments in various concept prototypes, our technological times are very screwed up."

"Like that vehicle," said Sarah, "it looked futuristic, or more like it belongs to something from science fiction from my home."

"That's one example," said Naruto as he led the girl over to the rock, "and this is another, it's a hybrid like the Senseiryu. And then there's my weapons."

"I didn't know that guns were here too?" said Sarah

"They aren't really in any form of circulation," said Naruto as he materialized the weapons again, "and mine aren't the metal ones either."

"Are they made of plastic?" asked Sarah

"Plastic?" said Naruto with a confused look, before he held up one of his guns for Sarah to take, "no they're made of something else."

When Sarah took the weapon, she was surprised at the cool feeling it and what she was feeling, "Glass? …No… crystal?"

"That's right," said Naruto taking the weapon back and unsealing a genuine gun, "crystalline revised replicas of this particular one, it's called a Bernardelli P-018."

Sarah clearly saw the difference between the two types, aside from materials. The crystal ones had a more futuristic streamlined look and different sights."

"How did you make these?" asked Sarah, "and where do you keep them?"

"That's a bit complicated," said Naruto as he held up a hand, "watch."

Sarah watched as a crystal seemed slowly appear out of nowhere and started growing until it formed into another gun, before breaking apart into particles.

"What the?" said Sarah, "it was like it was being made from nothing?"

"That's not quite true," said Naruto as he put the guns away and a sword made of the same crystal material appeared in his hand, "like Hinata, I possess something called a bloodline trait or kekkei genkai. And kekkei genkai are prominent among clans, or families, like lineages in noble houses. Mine happens to be the ability to create and manipulate crystalline materials from and with my chakra alone. That's how I made my guns; I use my chakra to 'scan' an object using the feedback to fabricate copies that I can use after some practice. And after a while I've developed a memorizing technique in order to 'flash' make an object I've scanned before."

* * *

><p>Before more could be said, Naruto leaned back caught something that was aimed at where his upper body had been previously, before flipping and turning it around in order to settle it in his arms and said with a nonchalant air, "hello to you as well Iris, when did you get back?"<p>

The object turned out to be a person, a girl about the same age as Naruto, and rather… different… in Sarah's bewildered opinion. When set down, she stood about 5 inches shorter than Naruto's 6-foot height, 3 when including the realistic cat ears sticking out of the crown of her head. Her hair was a rich sterling silver with what appeared to be burgundy tips that was set into a split ponytail that seemed to reach down to her ankles. The other differences about her were the way from the knee down her legs transitioned into the paws of a cat, which were supported by a pair of high-heels. And swinging from out behind her lower back was unmistakably a pair of cat tails that swayed, flicked and curled in a very realistic fashion. Looking at the face of the girl, Sarah saw she had a round-ish face that had narrowed almost angularly in some places, combined with the way the outer corner of her slitted, pale-jade-green eyes were angled, it was like looking at what a cat would appear if they were human instead.

Her attire consisted of some ridiculously small shorts that did nothing to cover the top of her hips exposing the bow-tied strings of what most likely were her panties. Her top consisted of what looked like a cross between a tank and tube-top that exposed a great deal of her midriff, neck, and back, which showed off the series of spots and minor stripes on her collar bone area. In fact looking back, the same type of markings were present on her ears and tails. Lastly she had something that looked like a bifurcated coat with the long-sleeved upper half going as far as her shoulder blades, while the lower half was loosely belted around her waist, giving the impression of something skirt-like.

And presently she was pouting at Naruto, while pressed against his chest, while the blonde was rubbing around the base of her ears, causing the girl to purr.

"Mou… Naruto-sama! Why can't you ever be surprised by me, nya?" the girl half whine and half purred as she continued to pout rather cutely, "and I just got back, you must have noticed?"

"Indeed I did," said Naruto as he moved a hand to the girl's lower back and softly rubbed circular patterns that got the girl blushing and lightly panting, as the rumbling of her purrs increased in volume, "it was certainly interesting to sense you approaching from the sky."

"Um…." Said Sarah with a slight blush at the display

"Oh, right introductions," said Naruto as he pulled away, causing the girl he was caressing to let out a sulky pouting expression as if she had been denied something, "Sarah, this is Iris Momose, the 'damn cat' according to Shion and a friend. Iris, this is Sarah, my new apprentice."

"Nya, nice to meet you," said Iris composing herself and bowing in Sarah's direction, "I'm Iris."

"N-n-nice to meet you," said Sarah with a slight stammer as she shook off her surprise, "um… Iris… I-uh…."

"You're wondering about my appearance?" said Iris said in more of statement, causing the girl to nod nervously, "well to shorten the story, I'm of a unique species of cat-like creatures called a nekomata, the specific cat genus I'm part of is something called an Egyptian Mau."

"Nekomata?" said Sarah confused

"What ever counts as a fantasy species of cats with 'magical' abilities from your world," said Naruto as some form of explanation, "Iris here is one of those, although because of an incident she's also half-human. Right, Momo?"

"Nya! Please stop calling me that!" cried Iris looking comically embarrassed-based mad, "when will you ever let it go, nya?"

"Never." Said Naruto simply with a chuckle and the cat-girl started lightly slapping him on the chest comically

"Momo?" asked Sarah

"It's a nickname I keep calling her, because parts of her keep reminding me of peaches, which is what momo means," explained Naruto as he started rubbing around Iris's ears again making her stop slapping and start purring, "and because of me pointing those things out, it is rather embarrassing for her."

"And for… good reason… nya, I tell you… nya… to stop!" said Iris between purrs and some small meows, before pulling away and collecting herself, "I heard you got into another fight with duck-hair."

"Duck-hair?"

"Iris's name for Sasuke Uchiha," said Naruto with a smirk, "during a previous argument I insulted his hair-style because it looks like a duck's ass."

"And it seems like he got under you skin as you did his, this time nya," said Iris, nuzzling her face into Naruto's neck before moving to lick his cheek in a comforting manner, "what did he say this time?"

"Some past things," said Naruto, "really got him good, by bringing up his mother and I."

"That bad nya?" said Iris looking a bit down before her face perked into something of a sinister smile, "let's prank him!"

"Oh!" said Naruto gaining a half-lidded sinister knowing look, "how do you propose we do so?"

"Break out the 'Medea' nya," said Iris, "I encountered the jerk a while back, he said some really hurtful things about Naruto-sama, so I tagged him with a little something while disguising it as a really nice slap."

"IloveyousomuchyousaidwhatwhenIkissedyou." Said Naruto swiftly

"What?" Said Iris, before realizing Naruto had her bent back into a romantic kiss, which she slowly responded to with her arms wrapping around his neck and one of her legs curling

Sarah coughed slightly at the sight, causing the two to break apart and they led her to a cliff that overlooked the village and was still inside the barrier.

"So how do you plan to prank this Sasuke person?" asked Sarah

"With one of these," said Naruto holding a small object between his right index and thumb, looking like a cross between a bullet and a needle made of crystal and has a some kind of liquid inside it, "injection shots, loaded with a hilarious little cocktail I made up."

"What's in it?"

"Oh just something that will make anyone that gets injected super drunk without a single drop of alcohol," said Naruto with a chuckle as he conjured up a crystal rifle with a similar motif to the pistols, "one of the artifacts the Sea-vault has, consists set of juggle-balls belonging to someone that when touched, causes them to become drunk and to black out with short-term memory loss afterward. What this is, was a solution I soaked one the balls in, before cleaning it off in a specially designed rinse that I mixed into the solution and distilled very carefully before… pow!"

Sarah watched as Naruto and Iris lay down on their stomachs side-by-side, with Naruto priming the, now apparent, sniper rifle, while Iris was fiddling with some kind of telescope. And as if an after thought a pair of binoculars, made of crystal, appeared before Sarah and she caught them before they dropped.

"Target sighted and immobile," said Iris and all eyes present caught sight of the dark-haired male through their respective distance telescopic devices, "distance 589 meters, wind speed 5.3 mph, heat and humidity interference… negligible."

"Are you-?" asked Sarah before Naruto cut her off

"Aiming at the guy's ass? Yes, yes I am," said Naruto, "easiest and most painful place to inflict the damage we intend to do. Launch trajectory?"

"Perfectly lined up." was the reply Iris gave and Naruto loaded up a shot

"Perfect," said Naruto before saying to Sarah, "this is a sniper rifle based on one called the 'Hecate II', although this revision I've named 'Medea'. I say we are ready to take the shot."

"Agreed," said Iris as three elliptical-like segments/plates on the rifle riffle popped up and angled themselves so their tips were over the end of the rifle's barrel, "operation 'drunk shot'. Commence!"

"Firing." Said Naruto pulling the trigger

The rifle let loose a silent concussive wave that nearly knocked Sarah over as it fired its payload at supersonic speeds and in less than a second, it found its mark.

* * *

><p><strong>Silvdra: another probably well placed cliffhanger<strong>

**Naruto: like what you did with Sasuke showing up?**

**Silvdra: no that just worked out the way it did for ending last chapter, plus this chapter certainly covered a number of things**

**Naruto: like the harem your sticking me with? how many girls am I getting joined to this time?**

**Silvdra: let's see - Hinata, Iris, Shion, and two others**

**Naruto: so 5? that's rather small compared to that pack of 11-13 you dumped on me in that Fairy Tail crossover you had up. By the way a couple of people haven't seen your message, but what happened to the other stories?**

**Silvdra: as I told some people who were curious enough to ask me via PMs, I took them down so I could write because they were more or less holding me back, to say the least and as simply as possible. plus I'm not done with a number of those stories, as I also said they are also pending potential rewrites.**

**Naruto: *sarcastically* fantastic**

**Silvdra: buck up it's not going to be that bad**

**Naruto: yeah right**

**Silvdra: anyway readers, later until the next chapter **


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