179Darkness. That was the first thing that greeted Uzumaki Naruto as he was suddenly in a new location. To anybody else, including the witnesses who saw him appear, it would have looked like a blinding flash of white light, then as fast as it came, it disappeared. And in its wake, was a man, floating through space.
Naruto forced himself to open his eyes, at least for a moment. It was so hard to open them, they felt so heavy. Before all of this, Naruto was fighting in the Fourth Shinobi War. Naruto was fighting Madara Uchiha when Madara summoned the Gedo Mazo.
Seeing his opportunity, Naruto used his father's signature Hirashin no Jutsu and teleported to the Gedo Mazo. He then proceeded to use one of the Uzumaki's forbidden sealing techniques to absorb all eight Bijuu residing inside of the Gedo Mazo.
However, the drawback was what caused all of this. The power that he gained from it was so strong, so monstrously strong, it opened a dimensional tear, that sucked him in before closing. This successfully ruined Madara Uchiha's plans of enslaving the world, but at the cost of Naruto never being able to return to his own dimension.
Of course, he could take the chance, and cause another dimensional tear to open, but the chances of him going back to the Elemental Nations was abysmal. Kurama had warned him countless times, that dimensional travel was something he wanted to stay away from at all times, as not even the Bijuu themselves could control which dimension they would go to, or even if they would be able to travel through a dimensional tear and survive.
All this ran through Naruto's head as he stared into the black abyss he was floating in with half-lidded eyes. Judging by the lack of oxygen and countless stars he could see in the abyss he was in, he deducted he was most definitely floating in space.
His body slowly turned to see a large space station floating near him. He looked at the large space station and watched as one of the many hatches on said station opened, and something in a ridiculous white suit and fishbowl helmet came out attached to a line and floated to him.
As the thing neared him, Naruto could no longer hold onto his consciousness and passed out. After all, that's what happens when you come back from fighting in the biggest war in the history of the Elemental Nations for 5 days straight and dealing with the drawback of absorbing 8 Bijuu.
As the thing grabbed Naruto's unconscious body and brought him to the airlock he came out of. When his feet touch the ground once again, the airlock closed, and oxygen once again came into the room. The thing reached up to his fishbowl helmet and removed it, revealing someone that was definitely indeed human.
"What are we going to do with this person? It's not every day someone appears from nowhere in the middle of space." A man by the name of Marcus Kane asked. Kane turned to the chancellor, Jaha, with a questioning gaze.
Jaha rubbed his chin in thought for a few moments. "Well, I suggest we send him to Abby and have her study him. There is a good chance this person is not human. With a huge amount of luck, it can help us solve our oxygen problem." Kane nodded in agreement.
"And of the 100?" Kane inquired. "Continue with the operation." Kane nodded once again before leaving.
An hour later, we find Naruto on a metal table as two people are by his sides with medical tools in their hands. So confident that Naruto was dead, they didn't bother to check his pulse, nor did they notice the slight movement of his chest slowly rising and falling.
One of the doctors, a woman with long brown hair picked up a medical scalpel and turned to Naruto. "Ok, time to figure out what this thing is." The woman, Abigail Griffin, began lowering her scalpel, planning on dissecting Naruto but had to stop herself from letting out a scream when her supposed to be dead patient suddenly shot up on the table.
Naruto looked around the room, trying to get a grasp on what was happening. What he saw, was one very flustered woman holding a scalpel, looking like she was just about to dissect him, and one very shocked man looking at him with wide eyes and dropped jaw.
"Y-You're not dead!" Exclaimed Abby. Naruto snapped her head to her, and she quickly put her scalpel back with all her other medical equipment. "Were you about to dissect me?" Naruto asked in amusement with a smirk on his face.
"No. Well, yes. But only because we thought you were dead!" Abby protested. Naruto let out a laugh that seemed to calm the woman somewhat, though she was still tense around him. "Don't worry about it. If I were, I would probably think someone floating around in space was dead too."
Naruto looked around the room once again and saw that the man that was once standing there staring at Naruto in shock, was now putting away some kind of electronic device. Not even ten seconds after he put away the device, 2 people came into the room, along with several guards.
Naruto turned his attention to them. They both looked at Naruto in shock. "I thought Eric was just joking when he said our mystery person was alive. I guess he wasn't." Jaha said as he approached Naruto. "I am sorry sir, but we are going to have to place you under arrest until we know if you are a threat or not."
Naruto reluctantly nodded. Naruto knew he was no longer in the Elemental Nations, as well as knowing he was not on the ground either. So, he knew that if he wanted to survive, he had to listen to these people.
Of course, he could kill everyone in the room, and take over whatever this place was. But that wasn't exactly Naruto's style.
Naruto stood up and put his hands in the air to show he wasn't going to resist. Two of the guards came up to him and zip tied his hands behind his back. Naruto had to hold back a chuckle as he felt the resistance of the things they used to subdue him. Naruto could just flex his rest and they would snap.
Naruto allowed the guards and the two people to lead him to one of the many cells on the space station he was on. When he was put in the cell he would be in, one of the men, the same one who told him he would have to be put under arrest, stayed in the cell with him.
The man removed his restraints, even if Naruto didn't need the help. "Please, take a seat. As you can guess, I have a lot of questions to ask. As I'm sure you do as well." Jaha said as he examined Naruto. "My name is Thelonious Jaha, chancellor of the arc. It's a pleasure to meet you." Jaha extended his hand to Naruto.
Naruto accepted the hand. "Naruto Uzumaki. But before I answer your questions, I would like to ask you where I am? Starting with what this space station is." Jaha looked shocked by his response. He didn't understand how this person didn't know what the Arc was. This meant that this person in front of him was indeed definitely not from the arc.
"Well, this space station is called the Arc. And I am the one in charge of it." Naruto nodded in acceptance. "Alright, then may I ask why you are in space, and not on the ground?"
"Well, that would be because to our knowledge, the ground is inhabitable. Long ago, the Earth was plunged into nuclear warfare, resulting in the Earth being irradiated. However, we do hope and pray, that one day, we will be able to return to the Earth."
Naruto looked at him confused. He understood everything Jaha had said, but what confused him was the fact that he could feel the radiation in the air at the space station he was at now. In fact, the radiation he could feel right now was much more than the radiation he could sense that was on the Earth. But Naruto decided to shrug it off.
"Ok. But there is something you're not telling me." Jaha looked at him in surprise and confusion. "And what would that be?" Naruto examined him for a few seconds. "Where I come from, I was trained to study people and gain a read on their emotions since I was 7. I was training to be a warrior at the age of 4. Because of that, I picked up on a few things." Jaha looked at him with the same surprise and confusion as before.
"What you aren't telling me, is something to do with Earth. What it is, I don't know. However, you don't have to tell me. After all, I am but a guest in your territory." Jaha looked at him in complete shock, before it turned into a small, weak smile. "Yes, your right. What I didn't tell you is that we were sending a ground of people down to the ground, to see if it is survivable."
Naruto looked at him in confusion. "But what if it's not? You would be sending the people to their deaths." Although Naruto knew it was untrue, he was sure Jaha didn't know that the Earth was indeed survivable. Sure, Naruto could fell great amounts of radiation on Earth. But the people on this space station were already exposed to greater amounts and seemed to be perfectly fine.
Jaha's smile turned grim. "Yes, sadly, that is true. However, we don't have a choice. You see, we have a limited amount of oxygen. And right now, we are running dangerously low. So, we are sending a group of 100 people, criminals to be exact, down to the ground. This will not only buy us more time oxygen wise, but it will also tell us if the Earth is survivable."
Naruto looked at him, not knowing how to feel. Jaha saw this and explained his reasoning. "Sorry, I didn't explain everything. You see, if we keep going at the rate we are now, we will have no choice but to kill hundreds of innocent people, all to make sure we can go a few more months with oxygen. That is something I wasn't to avoid at all cost."
"And the people that we are sending to the ground, are people who are the most expendable. On the Arc. Any crime, no matter how small, is considered capital and is punished by death, unless you're under the age of 18. This to maintain order, and also to keep the population under control. It is very morbid, and wrong. But it is the single thing that has kept us alive as long as we have."
Naruto nodded. Although he didn't agree with their ideas. He could see it was the only thing they could do to stay alive with limited oxygen and supplies. "Ok, I see. Well then, I want to be on the list of 100 people you drop down to the ground." Jaha looked at him in shock. "Besides, I am the only person on this space station that has ever been on a ground before." Jaha looked at him in even more shock.
"You have been on the ground!" Jaha exclaimed loudly. Naruto nodded. "Yes, I have. I'm sure you've realized I'm not from the Arc." Jaha nodded. "Well, that's because I'm from a different dimension altogether. A dimension where everyone lives on the ground. Because of certain circumstances that would take weeks to explain, I was teleported to a different dimension. Where you found me, floating in space."
Jaha looked at Naruto in complete and utter shock. "Because of this, I am the greatest ally possible to the people your sending to the ground. For one, I've lived on the ground my whole life, and for two, I am trained far more combat wise than anybody on the arc, that I'm sure of. This will make it all the easier for this group to survive."
Jaha considered his options for a few seconds. "Well, if you are as good at combat as you say you are, we could use you on the Arc. However, we also have no idea what kind of threats could be down on the ground." Jaha took a few more seconds to contemplate his choices before he finally came to his decision. "Alright, I approve. You will be sent down to the ground with the rest of the 100."
Naruto smiled. "Alright, when do I go?"
"Six hours. I must leave now, I have to secure you a spot on the dropship. I wish we could talk more and find out more about each other's lives, but I must do this. It was a pleasure meeting you. I wish you the best of luck when you get down on the ground."
Naruto nodded with a smile. "Thank you. The best of luck you too, with whatever you need it for." Jaha chuckled at his response and walked out of the room.
Naruto walked over to the bed in his cell and laid down on it while looked out the window in his cell. It showed him a view of the Earth. Naruto lifted up his hand and looked at it. 'I sure hope that everyone was able to take out Madara. Without the Juubi in the picture anymore, Madara can't enslave everyone, and I'm sure that the allied forces will be able to take him out. If only I could return back to the Elemental Nations. Guess I can't become Hokage now.' Naruto thought to himself with a frown on his face.
Naruto spent the next 5 hours and a half hour reminiscing about his time in the Elemental Nations, and how he'll miss all the people he once knew, until the person that was trying to dissect him when he woke up came into his cell.
Abby walked over to his bed while Naruto sat up on his bed and gave her his attention. "Jaha told me that you have combat capabilities stronger than anyone here on the Arc. Is this true?" Abby asked in a serious tone. Naruto could see the hope in her eyes and nod in response.
"Well, if that's true I want to ask a favor of you." Naruto looked at her, giving her a nod. "When you are sent down to the ground, watch out for my baby for me, please. Her name is Clarke. She's all I have left, please do this for me." Naruto, being one to never refuse a favor, nodded in agreement.
"I can do that. I promise I'll keep your daughter safe. And I never break my promises." Abby looked at him with somewhat teary eyes and a smile. "Thank you. I pulled some strings and had you sat right next to her. If she's anything like her father, she will try and keep everyone safe, and that will probably get her in some trouble. Just make sure she doesn't get hurt."
Naruto nodded. Abby then got up and left, and when she opened the door to his cell, two guards came in with a metal case. "Prisoner 256, up against the wall. Now!" The guard carrying the case said. Naruto obliged and got up against the wall, where the guard opened the case and pulled out some kind of wristband.
The guard put it on his wrist and then grabbed a hold of him and led him outside his cell. Outside the cell, there were several guards escorting prisoners somewhere. Naruto knew where it was they were leading him, but no one else did.
When he arrived on the dropship and was sat down, he was sitting next to an unconscious blonde woman. 'Hmm, this must be Clarke.' As Naruto sat there, waiting for the dropship to fill up, and eventually take off, he was lost in his thoughts. Lost in his thoughts about the Elemental Nations.
If he had done things differently, would things have ended up different? If he wouldn't have made contact with Kurama when he was 3, resulting in Kurama becoming a father figure to Naruto, would things have been different?
If Kurama hadn't started training him in the shinobi arts at the age of 4, would things be different? If he didn't join the ANBU when he was only 6, would things be different? If he hadn't killed thousands before the age of 10, would he be so desensitized to death? Could his life have turned out differently? Could he have done something different that would have him still be in the Elemental Nations, and not in a different dimension?
And worst of all, the thing that hurt Naruto the most, if he wouldn't have absorbed the eight Bijuu, would they still have won the war? More important, would Kurama, his father in all but blood, still be with him. Instead of being combined into the Juubi inside of his gut, by Naruto's own choice. If he had done things differently, would he have had to sacrifice Kurama to win the Fourth Shinobi War?
It took Naruto all he had to keep himself from letting a few tears loose. Sure, he was a trained and seasoned war veteran, but that didn't matter. Naruto lost everything the day he absorbed the eight Bijuu.
He lost the Elemental Nations. He lost the chance of becoming Hokage. He lost the chance of ever seeing his friends again. He lost the chance of raising his future children to become splendid shinobi. But most of all, he lost the person that was always there for him, the person that decided to put aside his hatred, and help a lonely little boy who had nothing to live for. He lost Kurama. And that was by far, the greatest loss he has ever experienced in his life.
Naruto shook his head to clear his mind of his thoughts. Now wasn't the time to have a self-pity party. So, he decided to ignore the fact that he had lost everything he had ever known for now, just like he had been since he arrived on the Arc. For he knew, if he really dwelled on those thoughts, it would break him mentally.
In Naruto's opinion, this was the best option for him. He wasn't drowning in self-pity, nor was he moving past the fact he's lost everything. He was ignoring it and trying not to think of it as much as possible. As hard as that was.
His attention was drawn to his right when he saw Clarke begging to stir. Once she opened her eyes fully and seemed to take in everything, Naruto spoke. "So, you're finally awake. Welcome back to the land of consciousness."
Clarke looked to him with a panicked look on her face. "Relax, we're not in any trouble. Well, as long as the dropship lands properly. They're sending us down to the ground." Clarke looked at him shocked. She didn't believe it when her mother said she was going to the ground when she was losing her conscious.
Her face became confused, however, when she looked at Naruto closer. "Who are you? Everyone on the Arc knows everyone, yet I've never seen you before." Naruto had already made up a cover story for that. "Well, let's just say I've been locked up for a while." Clarke narrowed her eyes at him, before huffing and turning away.
"So, your names Clarke, right?" Naruto needed confirmation that this was indeed Clarke. If that woman back up on the Arc wanted him to protect her, he guessed he would keep an eye on her. It also helped that out of all the people on the dropship currently, there was a handful of people who he could feel had some chakra reserves. Very little, academy level at best, but still it was there. The rest of the people had civilian reserves.
Sadly, however, everyone on the dropship was too old to have their reserves grow. The most they'll ever be able to do is the academy three jutsu, and nothing more. And even then, doing just one of the jutsu's would take years for them to learn.
However, that little academy chakra would be all they needed for Naruto to be able to find them from several miles away. Considering that he could feel no one on the ground used chakra, it was easy to find a chakra source no matter how far away he was.
Unlike in the Elemental Nations, where they used chakra so often, that it was mixed in with the air. So, you had to be a sensor nin to actually point out any chakra reserve smaller than mid-Genin.
"Yea, my name is Clarke. But how did you know that? You said you've been locked up for a long time." Naruto was unfazed by her accusing tone. "Well, it's because your mother, Abigail I think her name was, told me about you. Said that if you were anything like your father, you would try and save everyone, and to make sure that you didn't do anything to get yourself killed."
Clarke looked at him with a glare. "I appreciate the concern, but I can take care of myself." Naruto let out a few chuckles, which resulted to piss her off more. "Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. I wasn't saying that you couldn't take care of yourself, I was just trying to tell you that your mom really cares for you. You're lucky, there's a lot of people who would kill to get that kind of love."
Clarke lost her glare and gave him an apologetic smile. "Sorry, this whole situation just has me a little snippy." Naruto chuckled again. "Don't worry about it. I've taken much worse verbal abuse than that and even then, I didn't care." Clarke looked like she was about to say something, but suddenly the dropship was dropped into space, resulting in the whole dropship to shake.
"Well, it seems like we're off. Ready to see the ground?" Clarke looked at him with a smirk. "You bet your ass I am. I've dreamt about it every day of my life." Naruto smiled in return before a screen in the dropship lit up revealing Jaha.
Jaha then went on to explain that they were going to Earth, and that if they survive, they will be pardoned of all their crimes, and that they should not remove their wristbands under all circumstances. Then, some person decided to get out of their dropship seat.
The person floated around before finally stopping by Clarke and Naruto. "You should get back in your seat before the parachutes engage," Clarke said to the person. Said person turned to her with a smirk. "Come on Princess, live a little." Clarke scowled at the person as two people proceeded to get out of their seats as well. Most likely to impress other people.
Naruto shook his head at their stupidity while Clarke tried to convince them to stay in their seats. Her plea was denied however when the dropship entered the Earth's atmosphere, sending all three people out of their seats flying, killing two out of the three people.
The dropship continued to fall through the atmosphere before finally releasing the parachutes and landing on the ground. Now that Naruto was on the ground, he could get a better feel for everything on the Earth. For one thing, the radiation he was feeling on the Earth was way less than the radiation on the Arc. If he had to guess, the Archad 1.36 times more radiation than on the Earth. That probably had something to do with being closer to the sun, but he wasn't for sure. After all, he wasn't a scientist.
The people on the dropship started getting out of their seats and went down to the lower level, where the opening to the dropship was. When Clarke and Naruto arrived, a brother and sister were having a reunion, before said brother opened the dropship and the sister stepped out, evidently trying to make herself be remembered by something else other than 'the person under the floor'. Whatever the hell that meant.
When Clarke and Naruto got out, Clarke unraveled a map and went to the end of a hill, while Naruto followed her. "You look troubled, is something the matter?" Naruto asked her. Clarke turned to him before turning back to the map.
"You see that peak over there?" Naruto nodded in response. In fact, he could feel several life forces at the mountain, but he was going to keep that to himself. "That's Mount Weather. The mountain where we were supposed to be dropped at. They dropped us on the wrong damn mountain."
Naruto frowned, but considering that there were people living on the mountain, it might have been a good thing that they dropped them on the wrong mountain. But, he could be wrong. Maybe the people were friendly.
Naruto and Clarke went back to the dropship were Clarke started to map out where they were. It was at this point, that a guy named Wells, the son of the chancellor, interrupted them. Eventually, some guy named Murphy came up and decided to pick a fight with Wells.
Naruto stood back and watched, that is until the Murphy kid shoved Wells, resulting in Wells injuring his ankle. "Alright, you can stop there. The kid got his ankle hurt, now leave him alone." Murphy glared at Naruto and stepped up in front of him, trying to intimidate Naruto.
"And why would I listen to you?" Naruto clicked his tongue in annoyance. "People like you, they only ever understand things with their fist. Well, if that the way you want it," Naruto said before clocking Murphy in the jaw, sending Murphy into the realm of unconsciousness. "Then that's the way you'll get it."
Naruto then turned his attention to everyone watching. "Now listen up, cause I'm only going to say this once! Our parents' actions do not define us! We are our own person, so just because Wells is the chancellor's son, doesn't mean he's the chancellor himself. So, if I see someone picking a fight with Wells again because of his father," He looked down at Murphy, "Well, you get the point."
Naruto then turned around and walked back up to Clarke. He was followed by the same person who got out of his seat on the jump ship. They talked about what they were going to do about Mount Weather when Wells approached Naruto.
"Hey, thanks for what you did back there." Naruto turned around and looked at Wells before turning back to Clarke and Finn. "I didn't do it for you. I did it to get a point across." Wells smile fell and stood there and watched as Clarke, Finn, and Naruto formed a group of six to go to mount weather and left him behind.
Twenty minutes into the walk, they started talking about what they did to get them locked up. "So, Naruto, what did you do to get locked up?" Naruto looked at them, before looking back at the ground. He had already made a cover-up story, and he was wondering when someone would ask him that question.
"Well, my dad was a pretty big asshole. Always stressed out and angry about something, so the day he tried to turn his anger onto my mum and started strangling her, I killed him." Everyone was surprised to hear that, and also sent him an apologetic look.
"How old were you when it happened?" Octavia asked. Normally, that would be something that most people would consider offending, but Naruto didn't mind. Especially considering it was a made-up story. "I was 6." Everyone stopped and looked at him.
"How did you kill a full-grown man when you were only 6?!" Finn yelled, somewhat uneasy about how casually Naruto was able to talk about it. "I took a piece of glass from the light he broke, and slit his throat. Got me sent to solitary until I would turn 18, where they would then float me." Everyone sent him stares of pity, but Naruto just shrugged it off and kept walking.
Eventually, they spotted a deer in their walking. And it seemed to be a beautiful sight at first, until Finn stepped on a stick, spooking the deer, and it turned to the six of them. Showing the deer had two heads. Everyone flinched except Naruto, Naruto actually had to hold back a chuckle at their reaction. Besides, Naruto had seen much more gruesome things.
After that, they continued on their venture before they arrived at a river, where Octavia proceeded to take off her pants and jump into the water. "Octavia! What are you thinking?! We can't swim!" Clarke yelled to Octavia who had just her nose and eyes above the water.
Octavia then stood up, showing the water was shallow enough for them to stand in. "No, but we can stand." Everyone there, except Naruto, smiled, thinking they would get to swim for the first time. Finn started to undress but stopped when they heard Jasper scream for Octavia to get out of the water.
Naruto looked to where Jasper was looking and found that something big was making their way to Octavia. Something very big. Octavia looked behind her to see what everyone was freaking out about when she was grabbed by the thing in the water and was proceeded to be dragged around in the water.
Before anyone could start talking about how to save Octavia Naruto had already taken off his shirt and jumped into the water. Naruto dove underwater to make sure that no one was about to see what he was about to do, as he swam at a faster than average pace, and coated his hand in wind chakra once he neared the giant creature.
Once he got within string range, Naruto struck the creature with his wind chakra coated hand, cutting straight into it. He then proceeded to make a swipe, successfully making a large gash on the creature, at least 8 inches deep.
The creature let go of Octavia and swam away, to where it would most likely bleed out. Naruto grabbed Octavia and swam back to the shore. When they arrived, he was met with a bear hug from Octavia as she let out a long line of thank yous.
When everyone else ran down to where they were, they were all staring at Naruto in confusion. "How did you know how to swim?" Finn was the one who voiced all their questions. Naruto shrugged in response. "Don't know. Guess I'm just a natural, or maybe it was just adrenaline." After Naruto got Octavia to stop hugging onto him, he ripped off part of her shirt and used it to bandage up the large bite wound on her thigh.
After that incident, they decided to go to call it a day and go to bed. Octavia refused to leave Naruto's side after he had saved her and even took it as far as to cling to his arm while they were sleeping, much to Naruto's embarrassment.
He may have been a shinobi at age very young age, and around attractive kunoichi all his life, with a few said kunoichi flirting with him, but regardless of all that, Naruto still wasn't used to these kinds of situations where he has close contact with someone of the female gender.
He was awoken from his slumber however by the sound of footsteps. A quick pulse of his chakra warned him of two people walking near him. To his relief, however, he spotted it was just Finn showing Clarke some kind of animal tracks and went back to sleep.
The next day when everyone woke up, they returned to the river. They planned on using a vine they found to swing across the river without getting attacked by that thing in the water. Little did they know, that Naruto already killed the thing swimming in the river.
Finn was about to swing to the other side but was stopped by Jasper saying he would go instead, an obvious attempt at trying to impress Octavia. It took some encouraging words from Finn, but he eventually swung across the river, barely making it to the other side.
Everyone started to cheer, bar Naruto since he could have simply jumped across the distance but didn't say anything. Clarke was about to swing to the other side but was stopped when Jasper picked up a piece of metal with the words Mount Weather on it.
Naruto stiffened and went on guard when he sensed something similar to a kunai, but much larger sailing through the air at Jasper. He wasn't able to stop the weapon from spearing Jasper in the chest, however.
His head snapped over to the exact place it came from and locked eyes with the one that threw it. The person's eyes widened when Naruto locked eyes with him, surprised Naruto found him so easily, better yet at, finding him at all.
Everyone was forced to take cover behind one of the rocks, and later on, flee from the area. Naruto was considering going back for Jasper and the person who threw the spear at Jasper but knew now wasn't the time to reveal some of what he was capable of to everyone.
They continued to run until they heard Jasper let out a yell, which resulted in Clarke running back to try and help him. Everyone followed her, but when they got there, Jasper's body was gone.
After that, they decided to go back to camp so they could get the supplies needed, then go save Jasper from the people who took him. When they arrived back at camp, however, they were all greeted to a surprise.
Wells had a knife held up to Murphy's neck, and the two looked to have been fighting one another, as everybody else from camp sat back and watched it all happen. "Well! Stop this right now!" Wells reluctantly let go of Murphy and pushed him off of him, which Murphy took the opportunity to try and go back and kill Wells but was stopped by Bellamy.
The situation calmed down, that is until Clarke called Wells out on not having his wristband anymore. "How many?" Clarke asked, dreading the answer. "24 and counting," Murphy replied with a smirk. Clarke and Bellamy then went into an argument, which Bellamy took advantage of and decided to woo the crowd over to his side.
Naruto sat back and watched, knowing that he could stop this, but also knew that he couldn't always solve the problems people got into, as that would result in them relying on him too much. So, he decided to just stop the argument for now, instead of solving the problem. "You can fight about this later. There are more pressing matters at hand." Naruto said, garnering everyone's attention.
"As you already know, Jasper was attacked in kidnapped. Clarke, I, and anybody else that wants to come and try to help get him back are welcome to do so. I should warn you though, the people that threw a spear at him threw a spear with pinpoint accuracy from 100 feet away. That takes a lot of skill." Naruto saw everyone, including Bellamy gulp.
Naruto looked over to Clarke and nodded, getting an appreciative nod in response for stopping the argument before it got out of hand.
Ten minutes later, Clarke, Naruto, Well, Bellamy, and Murphy were on their way to find and save Jasper. Bellamy was with them because he had a gun, and Murphy was with them because Bellamy told him to come. Wells, well he just came to try and protect Clarke.
Monty and Octavia wanted to come but were shot down when they offered to help. Monty because they needed him trying to find a way to contact the Ark, and Octavia because of her injury. They wanted Finn to come, but he was against the idea completely and played it off as having Naruto there enough since Naruto mentioned he had a good bit of tracking skills.
Clarke found it odd that Naruto had tracking skills when he had been in solitary since he was 8 years old but decided to question him later. "What's the rush princess? You don't survive a spear to the heart." Waving around the gun in his hand. Naruto had to hold back a snort at that, remembering a couple of times he was stabbed hit in the heart with something and pulled through thanks to Kurama.
"Put the gun away, Bellamy," Wells said while trying to get up in Bellamy's face but was stopped by Murphy. "Why don't you do something about it?" Murphy said with a big smirk, daring Wells to try and do something.
"Jasper screamed when they took him. If he was hit in the heart, he would've died long before he screamed. The doesn't mean we have time to waste though." Bellamy approached Clarke and grabbed ahold of her wrist and pointed at the wristband the arc put on everyone.
"As soon as you take this off, we can go," Bellamy said with a smirk, resulting in Clarke deeply scowling at him. She jerked her wrist out of his grasp and continued to glare at him.
"The only way the arc is going to think I'm dead is if I'm dead! Got it?" Naruto smirked at her feistiness, reminded him of some of the kunoichis back at home.
Naruto stepped in-between Clarke and Bellamy, forcing Bellamy to distance himself from Clarke. "how about this, you tell us why you're so dead-set on having everyone remove their wristbands? No, better yet, tell us why your dead-set on making sure the arc doesn't come down here?"
Clarke and Wells nodded in agreement, while Bellamy looked at Naruto with a glare, not liking that Naruto was already onto his secrets. "I don't know what you're talking about," Bellamy said, avoiding the question. Naruto scoffed.
"Yea, sure. Anyways, this is a horrible search party, were splitting up. Clarke, you're with me." Naruto said as he walked off, followed by Clarke. Bellamy continued to glare at Naruto's figure while he walked with Clarke, searching for clues to find Jasper.
Eventually, Clarke and Naruto found a stream in their search. They stopped and while Clarke sat there admiring the scene, Naruto started to undress. "Naruto?! What are you doing?!" She exclaims, suppressing a blush at seeing Naruto's rather chiseled body that would put Greek gods to shame.
"What does it look like? I'm undressing, so I can take a bath." He said as he stripped down to nothing but his underwear before going into the stream of water. Once he was emerged all the way down to his stomach, he turned and looked at Clarke. "You coming in? I'd say we could all use a nice bath." Clarke sent him a glare with a slight blush.
"Oh, don't tell me you're too shy. Come on, there's nothing to be ashamed of. I'm sure your bodily assets are great." Clarke's blush grew some and her glare grew stronger. "That's exactly why I'm not joining you! What, you think I'm going to give you a free show?!" Naruto laughed in response.
"Stop being such a prune, Clarke. It's not like we're having sex." Clarke scowled at him and huffed in defeat. Finally, she let in. "Fine!" Clarke said as she undressed down to her undergarments before quickly submerging herself in the water.
"See, nothing to be ashamed of. Besides, I don't understand what you were so against showing me, your bra and panties show just as much as those bathing suits people used to wear when they went to the beach before the ground was nuked." Clarke sent him another glare while her slight blush still hadn't left her face.
She stopped, however when she saw something over by a couple of rocks and froze. Naruto, seeing her freeze, looked to where she was staring and saw rocks covered in blood. Naruto quickly stood up, causing Clarke to blush further, and went over to the rocks.
He crouched down and looked at the blood. By the blood patters, the blood was coming from somebody laying down, and the blood was fresh. And by the smell, he could guarantee it was Jasper's blood. "We're close." He said, turning around, his face coming just inches away from Clarke's breast. "Well, that's a nice view." He said with a small smirk.
Clarke's blush instantly went atomic while she smacked him upside the head. "Okay, Okay, I get it. Now go get dressed, unless you want to give Bellamy, Wells, and Murphy a free show." Clarke continued to glare at him as she turned around and walked back to her clothes, her body unconsciously putting a sway to her hips that she didn't notice, but Naruto certainly did as he watched her.
Naruto also got redressed and Clarke and Naruto went to go and get the other three with them, and then continued on in their search, but as a group this time. They continued walking while Naruto followed the trail.
"Hey, how do we know this is the right way?" Bellamy said. "We don't, whiskers thinks he's some kind of tracker." Murphy in his usual obnoxious attitude and smirk.
"He's following signs, applying Earth skills. He's good." Wells said, impressed by Naruto's show of skills. He thought he was lying when he said he had tracking skills. "Not only that, but I can smell it," Naruto said nonchalantly.
Murphy snorted. "Smell what? What are you, a dog?" Bellamy chuckled a bit, while Naruto shrugged off the jibe. "I can smell heavy traces of iron, meaning there is blood nearby. It is coming from straight ahead." He then stopped and looked at a broken branch.
Right after he checked said branch, they could hear the pained groaning of Jasper. "What the hell is that?" Murphy asked.
"That would be Jasper," Naruto replied as he stood up and started walking through the bushes and to the place where the sounds of Jasper moaning in pain were coming from. "Now would be a good time to take out that gun," Clarke said.
When they pushed through all the bushes, they found a clearing with Jasper strung up on a cross. "Oh my god, Jasper!" Clarke said, running towards him. "Wait, Clarke!" Naruto said as he ran after her and grabbed her just as she started falling into a spike trap.
"Case your surroundings first Clarke. We can't afford to be so reckless." Naruto scolded. Clarke nodded, and Naruto pulled her up out of the hole once Bellamy, Murphy, and Wells came to help him pull her out.
"There's something on Jasper's chest where his wound was. The grounders patched his wound up, but why?" Clarke asked everyone. They all looked at Jasper and there was indeed a green spot on his spot where the spear stabbed him.
"Maybe they strung him up as live bait." Bellamy nodded in agreement with Wells. "Maybe whatever they're trying to catch likes its dinner breathing," Bellamy said, cause Murphy and Wells to gulp in fear. Naruto shook his head at heir antics.
While they thought they were doing it to get food, Naruto knew what it more likely meant. It was a warning, from whoever strung him up there. Most likely to say that they want the 100 to leave their lands.
"We need to get him down, come on help me," Wells said as he started walking to Jasper, being careful of where he stepped. They all stopped however when they heard a growling from behind them.
"What the hell is that?" Murphy asked, somewhat fearful. "Grounders?" Naruto rolled his eyes. Yes, the grounders were growling at them. They then saw a glimpse of a black panther stalking towards them. "Bellamy, gun!" Clarke says.
Bellamy reached for his gun but found that it wasn't there. Wells pulled out the gun aimed it at the panther but was stopped when a hand was put on the gun. Looking to the owner of the gun, he saw it was Naruto. "No matter what you do, do not shoot at the panther."
Everyone turned to look at him like he was crazy, while Naruto started walking in the direction of where the panther was. The panther came into view and stood in front of Naruto, getting low and ready to pounce on him.
Naruto stopped walking and stood in front of everyone. Channeling some of Kurama's the residual chakra to his eyes, his eyes turned into his familiar blood red with a black slit going down the middle. He then let out some of his killer intent and directed it at the panther.
The panther started to whimper and looked at Naruto in fear with its tail tucked behind its legs. Everyone around Naruto looked at the panther in shock. Everyone was having the same thoughts, just what was Naruto doing that they couldn't see.
Naruto then spoke in an almost demonic sounding voice. "Kneel!" Naruto said to the panther, and as if understanding him, the panther lowered its head in a way to show respect. Naruto stopped channeling Kurama's residual chakra into his eyes and lowered his killing intent, just to be safe.
His face softened, and he let a smile grace his features. "Good," Naruto said as he approached the panther slowly, the panther looked at Naruto cautiously, watching to see if he made one wrong move, and if Naruto did, he would pounce on him.
Naruto kept walking towards the panther, ignoring everybody telling him to stop and come back, while he slowly rose his hand to the panther. When he got close enough to touch the panther, he went to pet it only to get a growl in response. "Hey, it's alright, I'm not going to hurt you." He said as he stuck his hand out and allowed the panther to sniff his hand.
After a very thought sniffing, the panther allowed for Naruto to pet it. "Aren't you a beauty. What do you guys think? He's beautiful, right?" Naruto said but didn't look back towards them, knowing that that would only result in the panther attacking him.
"Naruto, what are you thinking?! That thing could kill you at any second!" Clarke exclaimed, making sure not to make her voice too loud and upset the panther. Naruto smiled and started using his other hand to pet the panther.
"Don't worry, he's not going to do anything me, aren't that right," Naruto said, talking to the panther at the end. Soon after about a minute of petting, the panther started to rub itself up against Naruto. By this point, Wells had already lowered his gun, seeing that the panther wasn't being hostile towards Naruto anymore.
"What should we name you?" Naruto said to the panther as it rubbed its face against Naruto's own. "How about Bee? Does Bee sound good?" The panther didn't make any outside reaction, not that Naruto was expecting it too.
"What do you think you're doing? We're not naming that panther. It's all good that you made friends with it and all but were on a shortage of food. And currently, that panther is the only thing we can eat." Bellamy said as he took a step towards Naruto, causing the panther to stop rubbing itself on Naruto and give Bellamy a warning glare.
"We are not eating Bee. Besides, were surrounded by forest. And where there's forest, there are animals. I can guarantee you there is rabbits, squirrels, deer, and tons of other animals in those forests. And there are also water sources in the area, such as that river from before. That creature that attacked Octavia had to be eating something to survive, so that means there is fish in that river." Naruto said as he turned his head to Bellamy, trusting that the panther won't attack him anymore.
He then looked at Clarke. "We should probably cut Jasper down now. Don't you think?" Clarke's eyes widened, she had actually forgotten all about Jasper, being focused on the fact that Naruto had just somehow tamed a panther.
"And how can we be sure that panther won't eat Jasper?" Bellamy accused, thinking that Bee was a huge threat. "You don't have to worry about that. The panther didn't come here to eat Jasper, he came here because he was attracted by the noise. If he was really so hungry, he wouldn't have let me pet him, he would have just eaten me. He was only here to see if we were a threat."
Bellamy relented for now. So, everyone, bar Naruto, turned around and started getting Jasper down from the place he was strung up on.
Naruto, using this chance while no one was looking, pulled out a brush and some chakra ink. He dipped the brush in the ink a few times and then painted a seal on the back of the Bee's neck. Pushing some chakra into the seal, it glowed purple before seemingly fading out of existence.
Naruto smiled, the seal he just used was one that would allow him to talk to Bee. It was similar to how the Inuzuka could talk to their Ningen, except Naruto could only talk to them telepathically. Bee wouldn't be able to talk to Naruto at all, but Naruto would be able to talk to Bee and Bee would understand him for the most part.
'Bee, I know you don't trust the people over there, but just try not to attack them for now. Give them a chance.' Bee's head quickly shot toward Naruto's and stared at him. 'Yes, I can talk to you. However, I won't be able to understand you, but I can talk to you telepathically.' Bee continued to stare at him, before finally accepting it and started to rub himself on Naruto again.
"Okay, we got Jasper, now let's head back to camp," Clarke said. Naruto nodded in response. "You guys do that, I think I'm going to take Bee and do some hunting. Since Bellamy says were on a shortage of food and wants to eat Bee, I'll provide some food for everyone in exchange for not eating Bee."
Clarke looked at Naruto troubled. "But what about the grounders? They could kill you and we would never know until you don't show back up to camp." Naruto offered her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about me, I can handle myself. Besides, I've got Bee with me. He'll hear and smell the grounders way before they get to me."
Clarke reluctantly nodded. "Okay, but if you're not back by tomorrow morning, we're coming looking for you." Naruto nodded in response. He would make sure he was back by night. He then turned to Bee. 'Come on, let's go do some hunting.' Naruto said as he started to walk into the forest, with Bee following behind him.
Once he was out of sight, he went into a light jog, but at the same time not making a single sound. He would have gone faster but knew that if he did Bee wouldn't be able to keep up and be quiet at the same time.
After half an hour of searching, all he had found so far was a few rabbits, all in which Bee killed, but it wasn't enough to feed everyone back at camp and Bee. However, after another ten minutes of searching, Naruto saw a deer maybe 80 feet from him. He looked toward Bee, who saw the deer as well and nodded at him.
Bee went to work and slowly stalked up a tree and then proceeded to approach the deer by slowly stalking towards it from above in the trees. While Bee did that, Naruto took his time to examine the deer. Luckily, this one didn't have two head, only one. It was a buck, 7 points, and if he had to guess, probably 180 pounds.
He watched as Bee approached the buck, only 5 feet from the buck, right above him, while the buck was none the wiser. Bee waited till the buck put its head down to eat some grass, before pouncing right onto of the buck. The buck's head shot up and got ready to run, but it was too late as Bee had latched his jaw onto the buck's neck.
The buck struggled and tried to kick free out of Bee's grasp, but it was all for naught as Bee wasn't going to let go. After 20 seconds of the deer not being able to breathe and also losing blood, the buck died. Naruto approached Bee and gave him a pat on the head. 'That was nice. Here, as a treat.' Naruto said as he put one of the rabbits that bee killed on the ground, and Bee instantly started to eat the rabbit.
Meanwhile, Naruto got on his knees and then hefted the buck up onto his shoulders holding the buck's legs in front of him, while its back laid on the back of Naruto's neck, and the buck's head hovering a foot off the ground. 'Well, I'd say we're done for the night, let's go back to camp.' Naruto told Bee after he finished eating the rabbit.
Naruto was sure that Bellamy would be happy with the catches Naruto got, even though he was only gone for an hour. By the time he got back to camp, only about an hour and a half will have passed. And this buck will surely feed everyone at camp. If not, then they still have 3 rabbits' leftover.