396Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ or Naruto
"What…?" A short, long, golden haired youth trembled, agitated, mouth agape as he stood on the very air itself, "What the heck did that big, dumb, bubble gum pink jerk do?" Remembering the extremely obnoxious blowhorn-like yell the pink-skinned monstrosity of godlike-plus might let off soured the electricity-shrouded boy's expression. A single pinkie dug out his ear, 'Sides bursting my darned ear drums out."
Allowing his small, yet muscular arms to droop to his sides, the strongest merged warrior on the planet released a sigh before scanning his surroundings, stretching out his senses for any familiar signatures, "Can't sense either Mr Piccolo or that pink jerk," He grimaced in worry, a sinking feel of bad premonition settling itself in his muscled stomach.
He couldn't sense anyone. Either of the fused warriors' mothers, their fathers, their friends, no one. Just a myriad of smaller, almost non-existent ki-signatures that would've put many regular humans to shame, though none came within even a hair of matching the superhumans like Krillin, even the few gigantic energy pools he sensed spread out across the lands.
"This is bad," He murmured, bending his knees before springing off on a take-off like rocket-charge, short muscular frame being engulfed in a golden aura of immense power, passing entire regions within mere seconds, 'I don't recognize anything!' He searched region after region, looking down at the blurring lands for any sight of the advanced technology he had become accustomed to seeing just walking through the streets of his own world.
Cement roads, traffic lights, tall skyscrapers, circular, dome-like buildings, hover cars and even just normal cars, all of which were frighteningly scarce in the boy's frantic observation of the lands of the enigmatic realm he found himself in. Instead, what he found was the polar opposite of everything that made up his world, making it look futuristic by comparison. Dirt roads spawned everywhere, with carriages being carried by horses travelling across them, wide open deserts without a single oasis in sight and even a land shrouded in rain greeted the young warrior's eyes. He circled the world, creating golden streaks of yellow lightning across the globe multiple times to assure his blue eyes weren't playing tricks on him, but each time revealed the same primitive reality he had somehow wandered into.
"This is nuts," He whispered, floating back to where he originally started, "It's like I've somehow ended up back in time. But then, where's Mr Piccolo and or that Buu-guy?" He folded his arms and legs, levitating in the air in a criss-cross meditative stance, "Well, I'm sure Mr Piccolo's okay. Buu, though! I hope he ended up somewhere really bad, like a planet of girls so he can catch cooties!" He snickered.
He descended from his perch up in the sky, hoping to come across any leads that could potentially set him on his way.
If nothing else, at least Buu could no longer harm his family and friends.
New Kids on the Block
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Go with the Flow
A hand clad in a fingerless lightly armoured glove touched down at the eerie calm moving waters beneath his squatted posture as though it was solid earth itself with terrifying realization, lone normal eye widening in horrified recognition of the terrain that distinctly belonged to his adversary.
"No!" He exclaimed hoarsely. The swift, near instantaneous-like movement blurring into his senses directly behind him churned his stomach, and the multiple flapping of hands caused his skin to crawl like spiders had landed on him.
"Too late!" His opponent assured gruffly, slamming a bandaged wrapped hand just above his head. Magnetically, his darkened, unhealthily greyed hand swirled the waters around the silver, gravity defying haired man, lifted it up and merged around him to create a perfectly clear view spherical orb, "Water Prison Jutsu!"
"No…" The red eyed man breathed out in a gasping whisper, hastily glancing over to shore to three kids surrounding a trembling bespectacled old man in a protective formation, "Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, take Tazuna and run! This mission was over the moment I got caught!"
He could hear his captor chuckling malevolently, making him clinch his fist in bitter resentment of being unable to silence him, "Not a chance Kakashi of the Sharingan. Your little baby-faced brats are going to die, just like the old man."
A spiky headed blond-haired boy with three sets of distinctive scar-like birthmarks marking each of his cheeks yelled out a shuddering roar of defiant will, shaky as it was with his trembling knees and palms, "N-No!"
Kakashi's adversary, the infamed demon of the mist Zabuza Momochi, snickered cruelly at the convenience falling in his favour, "Heh-heh. Well, he's making my job easier."
"Naruto!" Kakashi roared back, tone authoritative as it was urgent, "This is no time to act insubordinately! Zabuza's a Jounin-ranked shinobi! He's way out of your league! He'll destroy you all! If you understand that much, take Tazuna and run! Forget about me!"
B-But, but…" He stuttered, gulping down a lump of apprehension to speak out against the injustice of abandoning their only recently employed sensei, glancing down to his fists that would not cease shaking, "You said 'those who abandon their comrades are worse than scum'!"
Kakashi seriously wanted to pound his head against the proverbial walls of his makeshift prison. It was already a pain arguing with someone who was inherently stubborn only for the stubborn person to make their task of convincing them that much more of an annoyance by using their own words against them.
The masked scarecrow understood how hypocritical he must've sounded to the boy by practically teaching him and his other squad mates shinobi should never abandon one of their own only to throw that out of the window by ordering him to leave him, their sensei, behind. He understood that, and yet, he desired them to go against his first lesson, because he didn't want to see them die.
"I say we fight," Naruto suggested resolutely, finally willing his hands to steady trembles by clenching them audibly into fists.
"You have a point," The other boy mumbled aside him, polar opposite to the blond. Contrasting Naruto's bright sky-blue eyes of brimming, vibrant positivity were Sasuke's cool, dark, sharp onyx orbs hinting at an analytical mind, "If we just free Kakashi, we should be good." Even their clothes reflected their status on the yin-and-yang spectrum. While Naruto sported a hideously ugly, but luminescent orange jumpsuit with blue shoulder pads and a white collar portraying his bright personality, Sasuke flaunted a high collared, short sleeved dark blue t shirt bearing the distinctive red and white fan insignia of his clan on his back and white shorts reaching (to) his knees.
In fact, the only identical clothing the two both happened to be wearing were their blue toed sandals and headbands tied tightly around their foreheads bearing the distinctive six-styled leaf insignia tying them as solders to their village.
"Oh?" The lone female of the newbie trio perked up at her teammate's composed observation. Blessed with a curvy frame, the leaf-emerald eyed kunoichi sported a pretty, long crimson red dress open at the sides to allow movability, complementing her long cherry-blossomed coloured hair, over a pair of dark biker shorts to reserve her decency, "You're right Sasuke! If we just get Kakashi-sensei out of there he can cream this guy!" Much like the boys, she too wore a pair of toed blue sandals and possessed a six-styled leaf-marked headband tied around her forehead.
"I wouldn't depend on it too much," Sasuke didn't mean to sound like a wet blanket, especially now of all times where their lives were in serious legitimate danger of ending, but he was a realist above all else. It was in his very nature to analyse all possible situations and outcomes and conclude the rational one as opposed to just optimistically believing everything would all work out in their favour, "Ideally, we want Kakashi to win, but considering Zabuza got the drop on him already it wouldn't be too much to expect he could potentially do so again."
"Quit being such a downer, Sasuke!" Naruto accused, squinted-eyed, pointing a furious finger to Sasuke's dismissive visage, "If we just get Kakashi-sensei outta there that'll be that! He'll kick his butt!"
Sasuke clicked his teeth in annoyance, intoning in his usual baritone voice, "Tch. Still annoying."
"What was that, bastard!?"
"Forget it!" He quickly dismissed, because now wasn't the time for infighting among themselves, "Let's just focus on getting Kakashi out of there." Naruto pouted, crossing his arms, sulking, but otherwise dropped the issue entirely.
"What's the plan, Sasuke?" Sakura asked solemnly. The utter seriousness in his own crush's voice was more than enough incentive for Naruto to sober up, glancing over to the unofficial strategist of the team with a grim determined gaze of his own.
"I say we just bombard Zabuza with everything we have," Sasuke opted, scrutinizing their trapped sensei and his jailor closely, "Judging from the position he's in I assume he has to stay within touching range of his jutsu to maintain it, so if we force him to dodge that should cancel the jutsu, effectively freeing Kakashi." Sakura's cheeks lit up with several shades of pink matching her hair in awe at Sasuke's clever breakdown of Zanuza's water release technique while Naruto gaped, envious of Sasuke's battle intelligence.
Even Zabuza smirked, albeit cruelly, at the surprising efficiency of which a baby-faced rookie shinobi was able to deconstruct his technique, 'Kid's not bad.'
Kakashi's Sharingan eye was practically glowing with pride, 'He was able to ascertain how Zabuza's water prison jutsu works and the most effective way to counter it by just mere observation,' He mused, 'Sasuke, you really are a genius.' Zabuza's deep, rumbling sniggers, however, told him it wouldn't be that simple for his wonder kids to liberate him from his fabricated prison, 'What is he planning?'
"That's assuming I'll just let you attack me, brat!" He bellowed, and Kakashi's apprentices stiffened in realization of overlooking the probability of their adversary possessing any ranged jutsu to throw at them. Zabuza smirked extra sadistically at their alarm before forming a single hand sign with his one unused hand; a hand sign Naruto recognized.
"H-Hey, I know that hand sign…" He trembled, getting his two teammates to look at him in petrified acknowledgement. Each of the rookie Genin waited with bated breath, hearts tightening in their chests when a pillar of water rose up in front of Zabuza, mimicking his shape down to the latter and materializing with all his features, bandaged wrapped face, shirtless, muscled torso, cargo pants, thick boots, short black hair and a headband tied around his forehead displaying a scratched out fog-like symbol.
The water-made entity was a perfect replica of Zabuza Momochi.
"W-What is he?" The old man in between the youngsters trembled, eyes shaking at the horror of which they were seeing.
"Water Clone Jutsu!"
"Shit…" Kakashi cursed underneath his breath, bellowing out orders afterward, "Run, you guys!"
Naruto sucked in shuddering breaths, swallowing down his renewed fear and once again trying to cease the endless trembling of his fists, "N-No!"
"Heh!" Clone Zabuza smirked, charging after the newbies, causing Kakashi to panic, "Like I'll let them run Sharingan Kakashi!"
"Run!" He panicked, squeezing his eyes shut in the assertion.
"No, never!" Naruto roared back in defiance, "I can't run now, not after I made a promise to myself that I'd never run again!" He whipped out a kunai, flying forward with all the reckless abandon of a madman rushing bears while shouting Leroy Jenkins, "C'mon Mummy-face! I'll take you on!"
"Naruto!" Sakura yelled out in concern.
Clone Zabuza smirked once more, absolutely loving his job. Sadistic gratification took an immediate backseat for curiosity, however, dark eyes catching sight of an unbelievable speedy blur appearing behind the rushing Genin, materializing into the most bizarre muscled kid he had ever seen, said muscly kid pulling Naruto off of his feet, consequently ending his charge, 'Who. The. Hell. Is. He?' He halted.
The others wasn't flaring any better. The strange boy had materialized so quickly and unexpectedly time itself seemingly drew to an standstill, neither side making a move as Naruto thrashed in the boy's mighty grip to free himself.
'Where'd he come from?' Kakashi attempted to rationalize, 'Could he be on Zabuza's side?' He glanced discreetly to his jailor, feeling a little relieved finding a similarly slumped expression upon his bandaged face, 'Good, it doesn't seem like that's the case, but that still begs the question of where he came from and why,' He scanned the boy's muscular six-pack. Normal children should not be that ripped.
'What the-?" Sakura stuttered, falling to her behind in the shock of the sudden materialization of an entity she could only describe was a god itself. The boy looked like so… heavenly, and divine, to her stunned eyes. A muscular frame barely covered by his waist high sleeveless black jacket, golden hair spiked up, styled like a volcano, shrouded in an flaming golden aura that lit up her emerald eyes, 'What is this guy?'
"Whoa! Cool your jets, kid," The boy spoke, voice distorted, warped, and multi-layered.
Naruto froze at hearing an unknown voice resonating behind him. Carefully, he spun his head, eyes widening to the glowing boy deadpanning a look at him, "Who…" He breathed, "Are you?"
"Isn't it obvious?" He smirked, brimming of arrogance that could've easily put Sasuke to shame. Naruto frowned, squinting an eye suspiciously at the super powered youth, "The cavalry."
Naruto's eyes widened, "Wait… You're gonna help us?"
"Something like that," He grinned sheepishly, further confusing Naruto. Sighing, the merged warrior casually threw him back over to his teammates, smirking at the cry of indignation he let off afterward, "Let the big kids handle this one."
"Wait!" Zabuza wanted to laugh sardonically at the implications. Fortunately his clone was laughing hard enough for the both of them, "You're gonna handle me?" He threw his head back, chortling away, "You're just a brat! What could you do what Kakashi of the Sharingan couldn't?! Run along home to mommy before you get hurt, brat," He grinned wickedly, "I tend to scar."
Gotenks paid no heed to the older man's hubris, instead winding out his arm in a circular motion. His unofficial spectators, the three kids and the old man, watched him with bated breath, "Don't take this personally, Mummy-guy," He quipped, causing veins of irritation to bulge out on the eyebrows of Zabuza and his clone, "I'm just blowing off some steam." He bent his knees, thickening the tension in the air before he shot off, knocking everyone into stupors at the speed of his charge.
"What?" Zabuza gaped, eyes almost bulging out of his sockets when the boy literally steamrolled through his clone, dissipating it easily, 'How can a brat have such power!' An audible whoosh caused him to blink and stumble back, cringing in horrified amazement at the wicked smirk of the boy just inches before his face, 'He's fast!'
"Dum! Dum! Dum! Special delivery!" He pantomimed, winding up for a punch, "For one Mummy-guy! Your order? One knuckle sandwich!"
Zabuza hastily readied his sword, quickly planning to block the super brat's punch and sever his arm from the elbow by way of countering as he watched the punch driving toward his blade as if in slow motion, 'Heh, he may be fast but he has no battle experience! I'll sever his arm off first then lop off his head!" And that should be that.
…If his fist didn't bulldoze through his blade like a jackhammer smashing a sword in half, rendering it effectively useless as the larger half of the blade flew off into parts unknown, e.g the lake.
"What?" Zabuza's widened eyed vision of petrified astonishment saw stars right before he was blown back by the force of a punch that completely shattered all of his senses, "Gah!"
"No way," Kakashi trembled, now free of the spherical orb that had imprisoned him, shakily turning his head over his shoulder to where Zabuza had been blasted like a cannon ball, 'What strength! He might be as strong as Lady Tsunade!' He felt a strong tug at the scruff of his neck, which turned out to be the only warning he got as he was flung across the ocean back to the shore like a slingshot.
'Yep,' He mused woozily, eye smiling while in the motion of forcing his body to back flip in mid-air so he could slam his feet upon the surface of the water to slow his momentum, 'Definitely as strong, if not, stronger than Lady Tsunade.' He managed to complete his endeavour, skidding to a stop just in front of his squad and Tazuna.
"Kakashi-sensei!" He was flanked by Sakura and Naruto, "Are you okay?" The pink-haired kunoichi asked in concern.
Kakashi straightened, trying to observe the explicit one-sided beating of an infamous rogue ninja with his Sharingan but only succeeding to pick up circular-shaped shockwaves of pure speed before Zabuza's airborne rag-dolled body was batted in another direction. He sighed, shaking his head, "I'm fine," He insisted, covering his Sharingan with his headband, effectively shutting it off for the time being, "Thanks to our 'new friend' that is."
Neither Genin missed the distinct air quotes around 'friend,' though only Sasuke caught on to the subtle implications of the super powered youth being an enemy ninja in disguise, "About that," Sakura began, nervously rubbing her arm, eyes drifting over to the spectacle unseen to her eyes. Only the voluminous sounds of thunderclaps echoing in the distance was her only indication a fight was even going on.
She shook her head before rubbing her eyes, but still saw nothing but heard plenty, "Where did that kid come from?"
"I know, right?" Naruto perked up, bouncing on his heels to the sheer invisibility the super powered boy cloaked himself in with pure speed alone, "Guy showed up out of nowhere, but he's totally awesome!" He cringed, hollering in excitement as thunderclaps rang out, "He's crazy strong!"
Kakashi chuckled, eye-smiling at Naruto's enthusiasm, "Well I suppose we could always ask him, if he's willing to answer a few questions. He doesn't seem like a bad fellow," Naruto and Sakura nodded at him before turning back to their futile attempts to track Gotenks' movements, 'Though that might be what he wants us to believe.'
"I'm just glad he's on our side," Tazuna said, his appreciation being met with the body of their adversary being slammed violently several feet from them with enough force to leave him surrounded by a small crater. Zabuza withered, grunting, then screaming in agony, desperately trying with all the might his pride could muster to at least push himself up to his knees before collapsing in a bloody pulp, bandaged mouth a stain of blood.
"Gah…"
"Yeah, no kidding," Naruto said dully, receiving nods of a similar nature from the others.
"Dum! Dum! Dum!" Their saviour exclaimed brassily, dropping down from the sky like an anchor to extend his arm across his chest, holding his head up high, "The hero of justice, Gotenks, triumphs again!" Needlessly to say, his overly dramatics received a mix reception from his audience.
'That was so lame!' Sakura deadpanned.
'This is the guy that saved us? What a total loser!' Sasuke also deadpanned.
'He's an interesting fellow,' Kakashi eye smiled.
"Yeah! That was totally awesome!" Naruto cheered, feeding the boy's already gigantic ego.
Gotenks dropped his overly dramatic pose when he noticed Zabuza's already thoroughly battered form, "Huh?" He lifted an eyebrow, grimacing at the winces of the man he had beaten down without even breaking a sweat, "Oh man, seriously? You're down for the count already? I was going easy, you wuss!" He bashed, looking away in disgust from the battered man desperately trying to claw his bandages off to puke his guts out, "So lame!"
Sasuke gaped, 'That was going easy!' He looked at the eccentric kid in a new light; one that was envious of his power, 'Just how strong is this guy?'
Gotenks shook his head, fisting his hips in his disappointment, "Man, what a waste of energy," And then, to the utter amazement of the Konoha contingent and old man they were guarding, the gold of his hair faded to a strange combination of raven black and lavender purple, and that wasn't the only thing that dissipated either. The glow shrouding his form faded, his eyes becoming onyx pools of nonchalance, "Bummer."
"Your hair," He turned, eyeing the whiskered cheeked boy that heavily resembled his ascended form and the finger he pointed at him, "How'd you do that?"
"Oh, that?" He asked with a shrug, "I just powered down cuz I was just wasting energy otherwise. No big deal."
'Powered down?' Sasuke mused, gawking.
"Interesting," Kakashi hummed. Only his supreme experience in the world of supernatural and wacky techniques kept him level headed at the implications of a potentially new bloodline, "I assume you're able to transform similar to a bloodline, correct?"
"Pretty much," He nodded, "in this state I can go up to three. Otherwise I can only transform once when I'm separated."
"By separated," Kakashi quoted, voicing his students' thoughts as well, "What do you mean exactly?"
Gotenks opened his mouth to reply when he remembered his merged state was on a timer before it would wear off, purging him once more, "Aw, never mind. You'll see for yourself when the fusion wears off."
"Fusion!" Sasuke gaped while Sakura gasped, covering her mouth with her hands. Gotenks just nodded casually, as if it wasn't any secret to hide, 'Just what the hell is this guy talking about? He merged with another kid to become this strong?!'
"Okay," Naruto shrugged, entirely slumped, "You're pretty weird."
"Speak for yourself, blondie."
"Hey!"
While the hyper powerful enigma snickered teasingly at Naruto, prompting him to pout and cross his arms over his chest a pair of thin, almost indiscernible, projectiles were fired from the canopy, bypassing the group entirely to embed themselves directly in Zabuza's shoulders. The group stiffened, staring with wide eyes as the rogue ninja let out a cry of agony before falling into the blissful realm of unconsciousness.
"W-What?" Naruto uttered, voicing everyone's confusion aloud.
"My regrets," A feminine, soft voice was heard amidst the forestry behind them. Within an instant Gotenks' head snapped in the direction of the voice, onyx lenses locking onto the new contestant, silently impressing the masked Jounin near him. Mentally, Kakashi chalked sensor as one of the possible abilities possessed by the boy.
"His body holds many secrets," Trained eyes never leaving a dashing blur, a young girl no older than him and Kakashi's charges landed by the unconscious Zabuza's side, dressed in baggy, dark green samurai-like hakama, greenish-blue kimono with white outlines, and wooden sandals fitted neatly on the girl's feet. She was incredibly slender, having a dark green sash wrapped around her curvy waist that emphasized this. In fact, if it wasn't for her white porcelain white and red striped mask covering her delicate face Gotenks would've thought she was cute.
"Okay," He shrugged, "I'll bite. Who the heck are you?"
"I'm a hunter nin."
"Okay," He raised his eyebrow, deadpanning.
The self-proclaimed hunter of ninjas only made a single hand sign after swinging one of Zabuza's arms over her shoulder, "I must go," From her feet, up to her head, the girl's entire body dispelled in three fragments of mist-like blurs, mimicked by Zabuza's, essentially signalling their departure.
Gotenks' eyes lit up like stars, "So cool! It's like Dad's instantaneous transmission technique."
Kakashi raised a discreet eyebrow to the boy's reaction to a jutsu pretty common in the shinobi line of work. Given his level of power, he would've assumed he would know of such common speed techniques if not know them himself already, "This your first time witnessing the Body Flicker Technique?"
"That's what that neat teleportation-thing's called?" He nodded, "Yep. Never heard of it."
'Interesting.' His general ignorance on the most known of Shinobi techniques implied his village either never taught them to him or he wasn't a shinobi. Considering his power, it would've been ludicrous of him being a shinobi and not having knowledge on some of the most mundane techniques in the lands. Not to mention contradictory. Skilled shinobi with high striking power and extreme natural speed usually tended to know the body flicker technique.
'Could he have come from outside the Elemental Nations?' The possibility of an outsider visiting the Elemental Nations for whatever reason yet to be discerned was there. Life beyond the ninja lands were largely uncharted. For all anyone knew, the kids on the neighbouring continents could've been born with natural Kage-level strength, 'I don't see a headband on him.' That just added weight to the idea of the boy being beyond the Elemental Nations.
"Alright," He coolly ended his observation of the enigma, giving his team a sidelong glance, "Let's proceed to Tazuna's village."
"Yes sir!" Naruto saluted him, while the others gave him simple nods.
Kakashi turned back to their saviour, "Would you accompany us?" He asked, giving him what he hoped was a comforting smile of the eye, "I would like to ask you some questions, particularly about the fusion jutsu you mentioned?"
"Yeah, sure," Gotenks yawned and stretched, falling into step with the rest of the team, "Ain't doing anything else anyway."
"So, man?" Naruto asked, rounding to the boy's side with an excited gleam. Gotenks got the feeling he was going to like this kid, "What's your name? I'm Naruto Uzumaki!"
"Heh, you can just call-." Before he could finish his cocky introduction, his entire muscular frame was eclipsed by an near blinding white light of a great luminescence, stopping everyone in their tracks as they turned, their gaping expressions embellished by the light being emitted from the boy's body itself.
"What the heck?!" Naruto gawked, shielding his eyes, "What's happening to him?"
Just then, the great blob of light intensity multiplied into two, as if purging essences of itself from one entity, and separated, shortly fading to reveal two sheepishly chuckling boys each possessing one of the two hair colours of Gotenks.
"Eh?" Naruto summarized eloquently.
The boy possessing the wildest porcupine-like hairstyle he had ever witnessed and probably his preferred of the two since he was wearing awesome orange clothes, chuckled some more, flashing them all the most infectious distinctive grin any of them had ever saw, "Woops."
"Well," The other boy rubbed the back of his head. Thankfully his hair design wasn't nearly as eccentric as his fellow purged entity, being a simple down-to-earth lavender-coloured bowl cut, "You wanted to know about fusion, right? Well, that's it."
And does it for chapter one, and yeah, I did increase Goten and Trunks' ages a bit to fit in with the other rookies. I'm also going to refrain from using any and most Japanese terminology, so no honorifics or "Hi no Kuni." Weeb-ing a fic up does not make it better and while I'm fond of honorfics, I understand not everyone likes them so they will be absence from this story.