Another flash cut through the air as Naruto quickly grabbed the knife that was pressed against Hawk's throat, pushing her away so that the girl got some distance between herself and the other masked shinobi. He was sure that she would be able to disengage from the squad.
He still felt Fuu's call for help and quickly focused on the marker on her ring and disappeared in a continuous flash. For the others it looked like one big line of yellow that flowed through them with incredible speeds.
He flashed towards his girlfriend and quickly looked around. The battlefield was mostly untouched. Fuu had thrown her ring away from her, although he didn't know how she had managed to push chakra into it, if she didn't have it on her. Speaking of the green haired girl, she was held in a wooden prison, the leader of the squad keeping her in, his hands on the wooden structure. Anko, Hinata and Shino were standing around him in a defensive formation.
Picking up the ring, Naruto put it in his pocket and breathed a sigh of relief as his girlfriend seemed mostly unharmed.
"Surrender or she will get hurt." The brown haired man demanded, as Fuu glared at him.
"Don't get near him. I know that jutsu, it can suppress bijuu chakra." Kurama screamed in his mind.
"How do I get Fuu out then?" Naruto thought back.
"I don't know. I have only seen the wood style back when the first and second Hokage were still alive." Kurama replied. The blonde boy lowered his kunai as he looked around.
"I could flash towards her and out without him having time to react." He mused, feeling Fuu's ring in his hands.
"That could work, although I don't know how fast that structure can absorb your chakra." The fox warned. However both didn't see another possibility.
Sighing, Naruto nodded towards the man, apparently signaling his surrender. He was trying to make him lower his guard a bit, although it didn't seem to be working.
"Here goes nothing." The blonde thought, as he let go of the ring.
His next few movements were a blur as he flashed into the cage, grabbed Fuu by the shoulder and flashed back to the ring, catching it. Afterwards he quickly jumped away, pulling the green haired girl along with him, to give them some space to react.
"Thank you." Fuu whispered, as her bijuu cloak reignited.
"Can you take them?" Naruto asked, concerned that the four rogues would show up any second. He was not sure if they would be able to defend against the eight of them.
"I think so. Their leader is pretty worn out, the only problem is the Aburame but Chomei and I have been able to evade his bugs quite easily." The girl responded, looking at the panting brown haired man.
"I'll trust your judgment. I'll be on my way again." Naruto quickly handed her back her ring, before jumping back towards his own battlefield.
His whole excursion towards Fuu's battle had taken little under half a minute.
Jumping over the trees he saw that the rogues had moved, they were not in the clearing anymore. His eyes darted around when he felt a massive chakra spike coming from Fuu's direction. Eyes widening, he realized that it was not his girlfriend's chakra. He instantly turned around and jumped back towards the battlefield he had just left.
He came back just to see the four masked shinobi land around Fuu, their weapons drawn as the green haired girl looked at him with a small smile on her lips, making him stop as he was about to flash towards her to deflect as many blades as he could. There was a blinding light as the rogues pushed their weapons forward, making Naruto shield his eyes for a second and then there was silence.
Looking around, the blonde was shocked to see Fuu still standing. The jinchuriki was standing in the midst of the four masked shinobi, smiling as her skin was protected by a scaly layer that was shimmering around her.
"Wow, I didn't know she would be able to do that." Kurama stated, as the rogues jumped away, their weapons having not scratched the girls' new armor at all.
"What is it?" Naruto asked in his thoughts.
"It is a highly advanced version of the normal bijuu cloak for you jinchurikis. You can manifest a second skin made of the chakra of your bijuu, with it having some special abilities. Chomei for example has a scale armor that is nigh impenetrable, she also has the ability to manifest a pair of wings that are more powerful than the ones she normally uses, but I don't know if she is capable of that yet. Although it is made of chakra, so it can be suppressed by wood style or similar jutsu." The nine tailed fox explained.
"How come you never mentioned that to me?" Naruto asked, jumping down and landing behind Fuu, covering her back as the rogues reformed and Hinata's team joined them to surround the pair.
"I wanted to let you know on your birthday, then we could start your training."
"Training? I never saw Fuu train?" Naruto was confused as he tried to recall times where he saw the girl practice this technique.
"It doesn't need much physical training. It only needs a strong mental fortitude and preparedness since you have to keep the cloak under control while still fighting." Kurama replied.
"What does yours do?" The blonde asked as he felt Fuu move slightly.
"It burns everything that comes into contact with it. I will give it to you, if it is necessary but I highly recommend training with it before that." The fox offered, as Naruto agreed, feeling the chakra spike from Fuu as he jumped upwards, his hands already flying through a sequence of hand signs. Firing a group of water bullets, Naruto dispersed the two rogues and Hinata and Shino who were all facing him. Quickly turning his head he saw Fuu finish her hand signs, creating a huge dragon made of water that rushed forward.
"Without this, they would have already lost." She whispered angrily as her jutsu was blocked by a wood wall, courtesy of the leader of Hinata's team.
Looking at the soaked ground around him, Naruto thought of something.
"I have a plan." He whispered to Fuu as they landed next to each other. His hands began to sparkle as he concentrated a bunch of lightning chakra in them. The girl nodded, before they both had to jump away, a boulder crashing into the ground where they had just stood.
Landing a bit away, Naruto fired a few lighting bolts towards his enemies, aiming higher than usual, so that they would just duck to dodge them, instead of jumping away. Glancing at Fuu he saw that she was doing the same but with wind. Seeing that most of their opponents were on the ground, he landed and gathered more chakra in his hands.
"Now!" He shouted, making Fuu jump and unleash a massive wave of air that spread in a circle and kept their opponents down as it passed over them. Simultaneously Naruto plunged his hands into the soggy ground and unleashed his electricity. He narrowed his eyes as he controlled the current, a few screams showing him that his jutsu had found its mark.
After a few seconds, he stopped his chakra, as he stood up again and watched Fuu land next to him.
Looking over the damage he had caused, he saw three of the masked shinobi lying on the ground, along with Shino and the leader of his team. All five of them not moving, either dead or unconscious.
That meant only three of their opponents were left. The leader of the masked team, Hinata and Anko.
It was obvious that the three knew that they wouldn't be able to win against two jinchuuriki not when they had failed before. However, they also seemed determined to fight, probably to protect their teammates. It was one of the few things Naruto really admired about Konoha's shinobi, most of them valued their comrades above all else.
Fuu was already moving to start a new attack, when the blonde placed his hand on her shoulder, making her stop.
"Take the contract down. Leave us alone. Next time, we will not be so kind." He warned, as he lowered his kunai slightly, still ready if the three would try to surprise attack. It took a second for their enemies to realize what he was suggesting, before they also lowered their weapons. The leader of the masked team looked around, assessing the situation before he nodded. Putting his weapons away.
"Let's go." Naruto said to Fuu, before they jumped away, back towards the village.
Arriving at the village, they could feel that something had changed. Everyone looked at them with a mixture of fear and wonder as they walked past. There were still people on the roofs, sitting and talking after having watched the battle. He was sure that every shinobi had felt their chakra and that most of the civilians had seen them when they had jumped up, since the tree line did not stand too high.
Trying to ignore the stares, Naruto and Fuu made their way towards the hotel. At the entrance they were not surprised to see Hawk and the rest waiting for them, with the brunette girl having her hands tied and attached to Lion's wrist. There were questioning looks on almost all faces, except for Hawk, who obviously had been crying and who seemed relieved that Naruto and Fuu had come back mostly unharmed.
There was a moment of silence as Naruto's old group stood in front of him.
"Why?" Cat asked, her voice strained as she tried not to shout.
"What do you mean?" There were many things, he could think of, that she would ask about: Why had he not told them? Why did he leave them? Why didn't he reach out to them? Why risk his life to save them?
Some of these questions, he couldn't answer himself, but he owed it to them to at least try to answer if they asked.
"Why didn't you tell us?" The girl clarified while Lion untied Hawk.
"Because there was no reason to tell you. You have to understand, everyone who knows is a potential casualty. The knowledge alone poses a threat, not only to myself but also to the people who possess it. There are people that do not care how far they have to go to get that knowledge. There is a reason why we both hide our faces for most of the time." Naruto explained.
"Why lie to us about your strength? Why pretend like you couldn't beat me?" Lion asked, thinking back to the time when he had apparently caught the blonde in a genjutsu and had won their sparring match.
"I don't know. I wanted to get to know you before revealing my true powers. If I had told you where I came from and what I could do, I feared that you would sell me back to Konoha, so I hid my true strength." The blonde replied, as the group walked into the hotelroom where he had brought them at the beginning of the fight.
"Why leave? Why not take us with you?" Hawk asked, sitting on the bed, tears again welling up in her eyes. Naruto had anticipated that kind of question, but he had not expected it to hit him quite that hard. It took him a few moments to find his breath.
"You know that Lion would never have agreed to come with me, it would have endangered the whole group. Rhino would have stayed with him and Cat would have stayed with Rhino. You were the only one I wasn't sure about and I gave you the choice. I wanted you to come with me, I really did, but you didn't and I would not force you." Naruto said, his voice barely over a whisper. Fuu smiled sadly at the tone of her boyfriend, as she placed a hand on his shoulder in support.
"I was shocked and surprised, you couldn't have expected me to make such a decision at that moment." Hawk replied, tears freely flowing from her eyes.
"I had to. There was no time to discuss it at length, I needed to know if I could count on you or not." The blonde replied, his voice slowly returning.
"It doesn't matter now. It happened and you won't be able to take it back." Surprisingly it was Lion who had interrupted the two. Cat meanwhile was sitting next to Hawk, comforting her as the teen silently cried into her shoulder.
"I think it best if we go." Fuu stated, slowly pulling Naruto out of the room.
Hiya Dragons,
What did you think about the chapter?
Big Announcement time: A while ago, I was asked by Rayane Trunky if he could post my story "Starting Over" on Youtube, with an AI reading it. I agreed, and the whole book is now out on his channel for you to listen to. Go to https://www.youtube.com/@Rayanetrunky if you want to listen to the story. I am excited to see the response of you guys in the comments of the videos.
This question is more general: If you guys could choose a setting where Naruto and Fuu had a date, what would you choose?
Im looking forward to your responses.
On another note: I have a discord ( https://discord.gg/8FxcsJZfaT ), where I will do Q&A rounds for you guys all about my books, my person(as long as it is not too personal) or anything you wanna talk about. They start at 8pm Berlin time(that is 6pm UTC and 11am PST) on Sunday after the chapter is released.
Peace,
Gleam-eyes