I do not own "Naruto" or "Power Rangers-"Naruto" is the copyrighted property of Masashi Kishimoto and "Power Rangers" belongs to SCG Power Rangers LLC-I do not publish this work for the intent of self profit, or any form of monetary gain.

Naruto-Rise of the Tempest Rangers

Chapter 1: A Returning Storm Part 1

(Deep in a long forgotten cavern)

Strange and various objects laid shelved and sealed inside of a sealed cavern. Dark powers long forgotten to time had been put there so the world would never again have to face their evil. One of the objects was a strange, clear, glass jar filled with a purplish liquid and a figure of a person inside of it. After so many millenia, the being trapped within the jar was beginning to break free. With a final crack and flash of bright light, the figure from within the jar now stood tall within the sealed cavern with a cold smirk on his face.

"After all this time, I am free from that backstabbing Mesagog's prison!" shouted the man. "Lothor is free at LAST!"

(Background on Lothor)

The now identified Lothor was an old enemy of a group of fighters and protectors known as the Power Rangers. More specifically, the Power Rangers:Ninja Storm. Over many years, generation after generation of heros emerged unto the world to protect it from evil. Lothor was originally defeated by the Ninja Storm rangers, but escaped his imprisonment a year later and joined forces with a monster known as Mesogog. Mesogog planned to return the world to the Jurassic Era with dinosaurs ruling and him as king. Mesogog imprisoned Lothor after their combined plan failed. After Mesogog's defeat at the hands of the Dino Thunder rangers, they collected the suprisingly intact container that still held Lothor and sealed it away.

After countless years, the world had long since forgotten about the power rangers and had lost much of its technological prowess. However, a new power replaced technology, chakra. And so the age of the shinobi was upon mankind. Ironically, Lothor was a ruthless space warrior trained in the ways of the ninja in his past.

...(Back to the story)...

As Lothor was starting to collect himself he was able to get a good look at several of the items scattered about the sealed chamber and noticed quite a few powerful artifacts as well. They included a long metal staff with a Z-shaped tip, a shard of a white fossil, and a strange looking piece of technology.

"Well, well, what do we have here, hm? Lord Zedd's staff, a piece of that evil White Drago monster Mesogog made, and the last remaining scrap from Vengex. I think I've hit the motherload!" exclaimed Lothor with a sick smile on his face, "I think it's about time for me to get an upgrade."

Lothor then picked up Zedd's staff and used its power to pull it and the other two artifacts into Lothor's body. Lothor roared with unreal power and shook the cave to its core while he became shrouded in a blinding light. When it stopped, it revealed a whole new being. Lothor now had a techo right arm and left leg, dino spikes on his back, a metal exoskeleton like Zedd,a clawed left hand, and he now had a strange visor over his eyes. He held a new staff in his hand as well. It still had the same Z tip, but now had a glowing orb on the bottom attached to gears that sprouted from the staff at random points.

As he stood to his full height, he suddenly began to speak. "I am no longer Lothor, I have far too much power to ever be called that weak name ever again. I am now, Lotraxous!" shouted the newly named Lotraxous with a dark, echoing voice. As he tried moving about, his power suddenly spike around him and he grimaced in pain.

"My powers are too great to use fully any time soon. I will need to rest and grow accostomed to them for a few years before I am ready to make my move. I have waited millenia to be free, a few more years won't hurt. I will use what remains of Zedd's old moon palace and begin to collect my army once again to rule the world!" cried the tyrant as he vanished into a stream of black and crimson energy, taking the few remaining items that lay scattered about the cave with him.

(In a special pocket dimension)

In a specially sealed space, a long lost warrior had sealed himself away. He did so in the event that the world would ever need the help of the Power Rangers once more. The sudden spilling of Lotraxous' chaotic energy has awakened him from his stasis.

"So," began the strange man, "the time for a new generation has come. I must go and scout the new potential rangers and prepare the morphers and zords. Hopefully, this old Red Ranger hasn't lost his touch just yet." he finished with a smirk. As he began to shift his base to a new location in the world, you could just make out the symbol a a T-Rex on his belt buckle before he vanished in a beam of red light.

(Village Hidden in the Leaves-15 years after Lotraxous' escape)

To say Naruto Uzumaki had been having an interesting couple of days would be an understatement of grave proportions. In the last few days, he had failed the Genin exam for the third time, been tricked by Mizuki to steal the Forbidden Scoll, found out he had the Kyuubi sealed inside of him, and then was made a Genin for using Shadow Clones to beat Mizuki. And team assignments weren't for almost a whole other week!

"Man," whined Naruto as he walked around the village," after everything that's happened, I'M SO BOOOORED! I hope something comes up or I'm going to go insane!" As he continued to rant about his curse of boredom, he came across something that currently defied all of the logic Naruto possessed. He had come to his favorite reustraunt, Ichiraku Ramen, and discovered four very surprising people sitting there and eating. They were Shikamaru, Sakura, Ino, and Kiba!

After getting over his immediate shock, Naruto promptly went over to enjoy his ramen and say hi to everybody. "Hey guys! I didn't expect to see all of you here!" he exclaimed as he finally entered the stand.

All them turned to see Naruto coming in and promptly repied, "Hey Naruto." As Naruto sat down on one of the few remaining stools, Sakura asked the question that was on their minds, "We came here by coincedence and the food has been great, but why are you here, Naruto?" Everyone else nodded in agreement to her words.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head and said, "Well, Teuchi-ojii-san and Ayame-nee-chan are really nice and have always treated me well whenever I come over for ramen. So, I kinda stop here at least twice a day to get some of their ramen." He finished his statement with a smile, but the others could feel the way they treated him meant a lot to Naruto.

As the gathered group of five young ninja began to talk happily and enjoy their meal, life decided to throw them a cosmic curve ball.

Suddenly, numerous explosions began going off outside in the village with people screaming all over the place. As the group exited the ramen stand, they were met with something none of them could be fully prepared for. A massive horde of strange looking winged, masked creatures were attacking the village! Each creature was bright red with strange stitching across its body, midnight black wings, a chest plate with strange symbols, robotic right hands, and masks that each had the symbol for "fear" on them in kanji.

"What the hell are these things!" shouted Kiba, his dog/partner Akamaru barked in agreement from atop Kiba's head.

"I don't know, but they're totally wrecking the whole village," said Sakura on the verge of panic.

"Troublesome," said Shikamaru in his normal laid back tone. However, to anyone that knew him, you could tell there was some serious worry in his eyes that were darting between each enemy.

"What are we going to do now?" asked Ino, who was clinging to Sakura for mutual support.

Suddenly, Naruto got infront of everybody and looked at each of them with a hard look and said, "We are going to protect our village! If we work together I know we can get it done. We've known each other forever so we know how the others fight and can work better! If we really are going to be ninja, then lets prove it now, Dattebayo!" He finished with his signature grin and a thumbs-up to all of them.

Everybody smiled at his words, they never knew Naruto could be such a motivator! "Well if you can take them, then there's no way me and Akamaru can back down!" said Kiba and Akamaru yipped his sentiment.

"While it's troublesome to go out and fight an unknown enemy, it would be even more troublesome to let them wreck our home," said Shikamaru with a half-smile.

Looking at each other, Sakura and Ino said, "Right, count on us too!"

With a smile, Naruto pounded his fist into the air and shouted, "LET'S GO!" The group of five young ninja immediately jumped into the fray against the strange and foreign enemies they were now facing.

(Inside the Neo-Storm Command Center)

The strange man was once again looking through the monitors to determine the new team of rangers. Suddenly, his gaze fell to Naruto's group as they fought off Lotraxous' horde of new monsters, the Nightmaras. He watched as they worked with amazing teamwork and skill that they themselves seemed completelely unaware of! Naruto was unquestionalby the foundation for the team and like himself a good bit, Shikamaru reminded him of Billy from the old days-just lazier, Sakura and Ino were like clones of Kimberely and Iisha respectively, and Kiba was an odd off-shot of Zack's spontaneous nature.

As he gazed at them wrapping up the last couple of Nightmaras in the immediate area he said to himself, "I have found my new team. It's time for the storm to come. The true tempest is here."

(Back in the Village with Naruto and company)

After a nearly a solid hour of fighting, it looked liked all of the strange creatures had been defeated. Naruto and the gang were pretty much exhausted from fighting off so many enemies at one time.

"Okay," began Sakura while staring at Ino, "no more diets for me. That left me way too drained."

Ino merely nodded her head in agreement and sighed as she lay on her back on the ground. Shikamaru had already takin to watching his precious clouds again after saying that staying upright was too troublesome and a drag.

Kiba, being ever the wild child, was dancing in circles with Akamaru after the fight. Naruto and Sakura were sitting shoulder-to-shoulder against each other for support from the battle. As glad as Naruto was for their unique situation, he was too tired-even with his stamina-to really do his normal whoops for joy. Sakura was, surprisingly, having similar thoughts.

"This is actually kinda nice," thought Sakura, "Sasuke wouldn't do this if he was about to drop dead on his feet, yet Naruto does it without any problems and seems to even like it. Maybe, maybe I can give him a chance."

While they were recovering, a flash of light enveloped all five young ninja and they vanished is a blaze of white light.

(Neo-Storm Command Center)

The gang suddenly found themselves inside of a massive compound with tons of high-tech gear everywhere. All of them looked in awe at where they were.

"Holy cow," said Naruto in shock.

"Seconded," said Kiba with wide-eyes. Akamaru was too shocked to even whimper.

"Damn," said Shikamaru with a straight face. Everyone else gave him a look of added shock. He merely shrugged it off. He figured even he, the lazy guy, could swear given the situation.

"Naruto," said Sakura nervously while moving closer to Naruto, "where are we and how do we get out of here?" She may not have meant to, but Naruto could easily see how upset she was and grabbed her hand to comfort her. While this surprised her, Sakura merely smiled in thanks and gripped his hand.

"I don't know, but I will get us out-Dattebayo!" said Naruto with his traditional foxy grin.

"Ya, but for one," said Ino, "how did we even get here in the first place?"

"I believe I can answer that question, Ino." said a voice in the shadows. They all took a step back from where the voice came from on instinct.

"Show yourself!" shouted Kiba.

"Very well, I have no reason to hide from any of you," replied the voice again. Suddenly, a man who looked to be in his mid-late twenties came from the shadows. He wore a bright red shirt and blue jean pants. His hair was a dark brown and was slicked down.

"Hello," said the man, "I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Jason Scott, and I have called you five together to form a new team of protectors for the world."

"Ya right," snarled Kiba.

"I guess it is hard to believe, but if you want the world to have a chance against the Nightmaras and their boss, you are going to need all the help you can get. I have the means of using what I was taught years ago to do just that," said Jason.

"Wait," said Naruto while scratching his head in confusion, "you said Nightmaras, are those the things we just faught?" The group nodded their heads towards Jason to answer as well.

"Yes, those creatures are the Nightmaras, the foot soldiers of a villain from long ago who was once known as Lothor. He now appears to call himself Lotraxous and has some of the powers from other past evils to increase his own. This is Lotraxous," answered Jason while directing their attention to the main monitor screen.

"Yikes!" said Ino after getting a good look at the villain and everyone gave their agreements to his appearance as well.

"Hey," said Shikamaru, "you said you could help us fight this guy, how do plan on fighting something like that in the first place? If these things are his foot soldiers, then he must be pretty tough himself to command all of them."

At Shikamaru's intelligent question, Jason smirked and pushed a button on the control panel beside him. From the floor a plate opened and a container rose into the air to be level with the ninja's eyes. Inside the container were five strange objects in different colors. They all could be attached to the wrist by the bands they had, they each came with a slot card with a different animal on them, and had a small screen with a key pad on them. The red one had a fox slot card, the pink one had a phoenix, the blue had a deer, the yellow had a bear, and the black had a wolf.

"These are known as the Tempest Morphers, and with them you will each gain tremendous power and become the newest Power Rangers, the Tempest Rangers." said Jason.

"What's a Power Ranger?" asked Naruto.

"I'm glad you asked," said Jason, "I think a bit of a history lesson is in order for you to understand the mantle you will be taking up and the very serious threat we are all facing. Watch the monitor." With that, the group turned to face the main monitor in the room. Jason then began a heavily summarized background on the history of the Power Rangers with various videos that displayed things that had happened. The videos displayed actions from his beginnings as the Red Ranger to the group of rangers known as the Samuari Rangers.

"Woah," said Sakura and Ino at the same time. The boys in their group just nodded in agreement. To say that they were both shocked and awed at the things they had witnessed on the videos would be as big an understatement as just calling Jiraiya a regular pervert.

Naruto was the first to step up after the video. "I don't know if I can handle it just yet, but you can count on Naruto Uzumaki, the next Hokage, to help out, Dattebayo!" proclaimed Naruto in his usual happy demeanor.

Shaking her head at his antics, Sakura stepped up next. "You can count on me too," she said while placing a hand on Naruto's shoulder to prove her point. Naruto in turn smiled happily at the gesture.

"Well if Forehead is in than so am I," said Ino who recieved a glare and smirk from Sakura, who said "pig" under her breath.

"Heck ya, I'm ready to tear'em up!" shouted Kiba with Akamaru barking loudly as well.

"It's pretty troublesome to have to deal with something like this," began Shikamaru who then smirked and stepped up, "but it's not like I can just sit back and knowingly let that freak mess with the world. That would be a real drag."

Jason smiled brightly for the first time in a while at seeing these kids willing to help save the world. He then gained a bit of a hard look and stared at Naruto. "Thank you, however, to be a real team means no secrets between each other. I know you just found out yourself Naruto, but you will need to tell them about yours. Working together like this will make it near impossible to hide, especially with you being aware of it now," explained Jason with a commanding voice. He didn't want to sound cold, but his old team had too many times were secrets nearly destroyed them.

Naruto got immediately pale at Jason's request. He was literally panicing hard enough to induce a stroke in a person who was perfectly heathly and very young!

Sakura gave him a strange look and asked, "What does he mean Naruto? It can't be that bad, right?"

He chuckled sadly and lowered his head. "If only that were true, Sakura-chan," he said with fear in his voice.

"What do you all know about the Kyuubi attack thirteen years ago, when is it, and when is my birthday?" asked Naruto with a set face.

"The Yondaime defeated the fox and killed it in battle on October tenth," said Ino.

"Ya, and your birthday is October tenth," Sakura trailed off for a minute, "what's the connection to that mean Naruto?"

Shikamaru suddenly got wide-eyed for him, squinted, and held the bridge of his nose and sighed. "It means everything," he half-whispered.

"What it means, Sakura-chan, is that you can't kill a Bijuu. They are massive amounts of living chakra, and chakra can't be killed, only stored. In order to stop Kyuubi from completely destroying the village, he had to seal it away. However, he had to use a person to contain all of its chakra. Specifically a newborn baby so they could adapt to the chakra and not die immediately from the sealing. Only one kid was born that night, and it was me. I have the Kyuubi sealed inside of me,"started Naruto and then went and revealed the seal on his stomach, "Because of that, most of villagers hate me and see me as the Kyuubi itself even though I just hold him back. It's why I did all those pranks, I did it to get attention and be recognized. Even bad attention was better than none to me."

All of the ninja, except for Shikamaru, just gaped at him in sheer shock at what they had been told. Suddenly, Sakura began walking back over to Naruto and stood there for a second. Then she did something that no one, even Jason, saw coming in the slightest. She grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him into a bone-crushing hug, and was crying her eyes out into his shoulder.

Naruto was completely stunned at what Sakura was doing. "Why are you crying Sakura-chan?" asked Naruto, worried for his crush.

She looked up at him with puffy eyes and choked back a sob. "I'm so sorry Naruto, I'm so sorry for being so mean to you in the academy. I had no idea you had to go through something like that for so long. I can't ask you to forgive, but I'm sorry for everything Naruto," cried Sakura and put her head back in his shoulder.

"Y-you mean you do-on't h-hate me for the fox?" stuttered Naruto in sheer shock and happiness.

Sakura nodded into his shoulder and said, "I know the difference between a scroll and the kunai it holds Naruto. You are the scoll, a loud one, but you are not the kunai."

Sakura suddenly felt Naruto pulling her chin up and making her look him right in the eye. "Sakura, you saying that means more to me then you will ever know, and I can't forgive something that isn't there to forgive. I could never hold a grudge against you, Sakura-chan," said Naruto with tears in his own eyes by now.

She was stunned and asked, "How can you not be mad me Naruto, how can you forgive me so easily?"

He took a deep breath and looked her dead in the eye. "I can forgive you because, I love you more than anything Sakura-chan. I have since I first saw you walk into the academy, and I always will," said Naruto with undiluted honesty and caring in his voice.

Everyone was stunned again, and Ino and Kiba were in synch on making great interpretations of fish with their mouths opening and closing so fast.

"He, he loves me!?" thought Sakura in pure shock and awe.

"I know you like Sasuke and everything, but just know that no matter what happens, I'll always help you Sakura-chan, Dattebayo!" said Naruto and gave her a warm smile and thumbs up.

Sakura gazed into his eyes and could see he meant every single word, and that's when she made a decision that nobody saw coming and would've bet a lot of money against happening.

"If you really do care that much for me," began Sakura while cupping his cheeks and looking at him, "I guess I should really give you a chance, huh Naruto-kun?" She then abruptly leaned in all the way and gave Naruto a very deep kiss while pulling him as close to herself as possible.

Kiba immediately passed out with a massive nosebleed, Ino went completely bug-eyed and was dead silent with her mouth hanging open, Shikamaru was smirking and saying "About damn time," under his breath, and Jason was callously whistling at the scene before him. Naruto himself was on cloud nine and was doing an epic rendition of a human firework in his head while screaming in joy as well. Sakura was doing the same thing in her head as well and her INNER was screaming to take him right into a serious french-kiss session.

"Woah," they said as they pulled away to breathe. They then blushed a bright crimson and smiled at each other. Sakura then moved to stand beside Naruto and hold his hand while still smiling at him.

"So you guys are okay with the fox too?" asked Naruto nervously while looking at the rest of the group. They each turned to face each other, nodded, then turned to Naruto, smiled and nodded their heads to him as well.

"We've all known you for years Naruto, we know you aren't Kyuubi, a grade-A prankster yes, but not a giant fox demon," said Shikamaru while speaking for Ino and Kiba who nodded with his statement.

Naruto smiled and let a few more tears fall. "Thanks guys, it means a lot," said Naruto.

"Alright then," said Jason, "let's get to the good stuff now. Naruto, you will take the red morpher and become the leader of the team as the Red Fox Tempest Ranger." When Jason said that Naruto smiled, but had an odd twitch in his right eye at the irony while the rest of the group smirked at it as well.

"Sakura," said Jason, "you will be the Pink Phoenix Ranger, Ino the Yellow Bear Ranger, Shikamaru the Blue Deer Ranger, and Kiba the Black Wolf Ranger." With each name he handed them their respective morphers that they each put on their left arms.

"Okay, to morph you each need to input your respective card in the slot, hit the activate button, and say 'Storm alert, Tempest hazard' to complete the sequence," explained Jason, "Naruto, I think the leader should go first to show how it's done, huh buddy?"

Naruto nodded and stepped up, "Alright-Storm alert, Tempest hazard!" Naruto then put his arms at his side and was covered in a swirling red vortex with an image fo a howling fox appearing behind him. When the vortex vanished, the ninjas were in awe at Naruto's new look. Not only had he gained a good foot in height, but he was now outfitted in a red outfit with black stripes on both arms, a large diagonal "T" on his chest in gold, white gloves and boots, a swirling band connecting the "T" going across his back and then going straight to his belt, a blaster on his belt, and a helmet with fox image in black outlined in white on it's sides and visor slots for the eyes that were pointed on the ends.

"This feels awesome," shouted Naruto while pumping his fist in the air.

"No kidding, we are gonna rock!" said Kiba in agreement.

"Well, it's too troublesome to wait so let's do it," said Shikamaru.

"Right!" said Sakura and Ino with Kiba nodding and smirking.

"Storm alert, Tempest hazard!" the other four shouted and morphed as well. The only difference between them was their respective colors, animals on the helmets, that Kiba's stripes were white, and that Sakura and Ino had short skirts attached to theirs as well. Akamaru, who was in Kiba's coat had been put down on the ground since he couldn't morph with Kiba himself.

"Sorry buddy, looks like for these powers I gotta run without you," said Kiba while patting Akamaru's head who barked in understanding.

Jason looked over the new rangers and smiled, "Looks like ya'll got the gear, time to put it to the test."

(Inside of Lotraxious' secret lair on the moon)

"AWWWWW," shouted an infuriated Lotraxious. He had seen his forces defeated in Konoha and was none to pleased about it. He was using that village as his starting point. While he could tell the defeat was done just a by hair, and he still had plenty of more Nightmaras at his disposal, the defeat itself angered him greatly.

"If that worthless little village thinks it can hold me off, they are sorely mistaken, time to send in the Techa-dile to demolish that worthless dump," said Lotraxious and had called in a monster from his army. The Techa-dile was a grotesque combination of a crocodile and technology. It stood on two legs with a whirling robotic left hand, a large jagged sword in its right, a cybernetic right half of its face, and assorted patches of armor all over its body.

"Don't worry Lord Lotraxious, I'll eat that village for dinner and turn it into scrap!" shouted the beast and teleported to the village to attack.

(Back in the Neo-Storm Center)

While checking out their new powers, an alarm went off and the monitor showed the Techa-dile terrorizing the village with a horde of Nightmaras and nobody could even touch him.

"It looks we'll be getting that test pretty early," said Naruto and the other new rangers nodded in agreement.

"Very well, I wish you luck and may the power protect you," said Jason as the rangers teleported out in beams of their respective colors while he and Akamaru turned to watch the fight through the monitors.

(The Hidden Leaf Village-Konoha)

"This is just too easy!" shouted the Techa-dile monster as he continued to destroy the village and easily batting away all of the ninja that came at him.

Suddenly, the Sandaime Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi arrived decked out in his battle armor to fight the monster in force. "You will go no further, monter!" shouted the aged Hokage with a fire in his voice.

The Techa-dile let out a disturbing laugh and pointed his sword at the Hokage and shouted, "Well stop this," and shot out a deadly beam from the tip of his sword. In an instant, five beams of light of light appeared in front of the ninja and deflected the monster's blast. When the smoke cleared, the new Tempest Rangers stood ready to face down the sick combination of beast and machine.

"Who are you five?" asked the Hokage, weary of the newcomers to the fight.

Then Naruto looked back at the Hokage and said, "Relax old man, we got this scrap-junky, because we are-the Power Rangers Tempest!" The other rangers chorused with him and then charged directly at the monster.

(Lotraxious' moon palace)

As the evil amalgamation looked on at the fight, he sneared at seeing the rangers enter the fight. "Well damn! Even after millenia the rangers are still a thorn in my side! No matter, with my new army and powers they don't stand a chance against me now," said Lotraxious while turning around to gaze at his army. Behind stood several hundreds of thousands of Nightmaras and several more powerful monsters.

To be continued...