Worlds Apart

Worlds Apart
Part 4
By Mieren

Naruto regained consciousness when the crashing squeal of metal twisting echoed through the construct, letting him know that they had finally landed somewhere. He simply stayed crunched behind the seat, silently freaking out. The blond was still asleep, so he could only assume he was still being carried.

Quite predictably, the moment movement stopped, the hatch was ripped open and angry hands were reaching into the small space. The blond vanished into the fray and Naruto was dragged out by his hair. He was shoved face first against the lowered hatch door.

“What did you do?” the cobalt-eyed brunette roared. Or as Naruto was beginning to call him, Mr. Happy.

“Nothing!”

“Gundam pilots don’t pass out from ‘nothing.’ What did you do?” Naruto caught the word ‘Gundam’ and stored it away for later use. A familiar click sounded. Ah, that weird weapon again, no doubt an inch from his skull.

“I got nervous and freaked out when we left the planet,” Naruto said honestly, the excuse sounding even lame to him. “I didn’t know he was an empath.” They were rare, but he had encountered a few in Kohana.

“How could you not know?” the oriental boy beside them yelled. “Hell, even I know, Maxwell!”

Naruto growled. Enough was enough. He’d already admitted that he knew nothing and wasn’t who they thought he was. He was tired of being pushed around by those scrawny wimps. He built up a small amount of energy and performed the Replacement Technique, stuffing Bangs under Mr. Happy while he moved himself clear of the melee. In the same move, he took the oriental boy’s weapon and left him holding his own shoe.

After a good deal of cursing and a brief moment of confusion, the three managed to reorient themselves, replace their weapons and round on Naruto. Though formerly irritated, the ninja was amused at their sheer lack of coordination. He gave them partial credit since they had managed at all in such a small space.

“How did you do that?” Bangs asked.

“Easy,” Naruto grinned. “Like I told you. I’m not Duo.” With that, he grabbed the back of the blond boy’s belt and leapt off the hatch door. Bangs and Mr. Happy lunged for him, but he was well into his jump and far out of reach. Naruto casually watched them go ballistic as he fell with their unconscious comrade in hand. They obviously knew jack-squat about ninja and he was more than happy to give them reasons to rip their hair out.

The three remaining pilots followed rapidly, sliding down the cable and landing hard in their efforts to get to their friend as quickly as possible. Bangs made it to them first.

“Quatre!”

Naruto started to say that the blond was okay, but was cut off when the other two pilots tackled him. Technology and weapons out of the picture, he was quick to escape the fight, leaving them in a tangle on the ground. The oriental pilot got to his feet first and launched a swift roundhouse kick.

Naruto could have done a number of things under that meager attack. He could have dodged, performed a simple block with his arm or leg, or hit him in return. Dodging wasn’t enough and he didn’t want to hurt the other teenager, so he did something that was purely Naruto. He dropped under the swung leg and assaulted his opponent’s clothes, stealing his belt and yanking his pants to his ankles. The oriental boy landed on his face.

Laughing, he turned to face Mr. Happy and found himself staring directly at that weapon he didn’t recognize again. Naruto sighed and raised his hands in defeat, surrendering again. In his life, he had learned that any unrecognized weapon or jutsu was to be treated as potentially lethal until he knew what it was. Until he solved the mystery of these blunt metal devices, he wasn’t going to needlessly fight.

“For the last time, baka, how are you doing this?” the cobalt-eyed teen said angrily. “Even I couldn’t have made that jump with a passenger, and I know that you’re not a match for either Wufei or myself in a hand-to-hand combat.”

“And for the last time, bastard, I am not Duo,” Naruto grated out just as forcefully. It was the same as one of his fights with Sasuke. During this time, the recently identified Wufei, assuming that Mr. Happy didn’t refer to himself in the third person, had gotten up and pulled up his pants. “As for fighting, you two just suck. I don’t know about Bangs or Blondie,” he thought the blond had been called Quatre, but he wasn’t sure. “I’ll just assume they fight as badly as you.”

“Naruto,” Bangs said slowly, testing the new name. “What is wrong with Quatre?”

So the blond was Quatre after all. “He’s an empath. I’ve never been in space before and I panicked. Wait… we went into space didn’t we? Where are we?”

“We’re in Spain, Naruto,” Bangs said concisely. He didn’t seem the talkative sort, but Wufei and Mr. Happy would probably be even less useful to question.

“We had to change course because of you, Duo,” Wufei griped. “It’s hard enough to land on a colony without being spotted even without carrying a crippled Gundam.”

“It was an accident!” Naruto retorted automatically. “And if I have to tell you again that I’m not Duo, I’ll carve it into your forehead!”

“No one else could have hair like that!” Wufei argued as though Naruto didn’t know his own identity, which at the moment, he really didn’t.

“You’re basing who I am on my hairstyle?”

“Not the style, baka. The length,” Wufei said, his voice condescending.

“Anyone can change what they look like!”

“You can’t make it spontaneously longer!”

“Yes, you can,” Naruto argued stubbornly, glaring. The argument was quickly moving towards absolute childishness and pointlessness.

“No, you can’t.” And there it went.

Sadly enough, it appeared that Duo and Wufei bickered like children often enough that Bangs immediately attempted to interrupt the two of them.

“We’ll go back into space when it’s safe,” Bangs said bluntly, pulling Naruto out of the budding battle. The ninja stopped cold.

“Space?” he parroted, sounding slightly horrified.

“Can you get any stupider?” Wufei asked, attempting to restart the fight. Mr. Happy just rolled his eyes and adopted a harassed look.

“You two carry Quatre. I’ll stay with Duo.”

“Naruto,” he corrected automatically.

“Can you handle him on your own, Yuy?” Wufei asked. Ah, so Mr. Happy was actually named Yuy.

“I’m fine,” Yuy sighed, reaching to lead Naruto by the elbow. The ninja allowed it more because he was stunned by the space comment than actual compliancy.

With all of the prior commotion, Naruto hadn’t taken in their location. He started studying his surroundings, trying to tally everything around him in case he needed to escape quickly or fight. Four ten-story robots were not conducive to a peaceful environment. His guess about fighting was proved correct far more quickly than he’d really liked.

The moment they had stepped outside, they were swarmed by men in uniform holding longer versions of the weapon he had seen before, one end braced at the shoulder. Naruto was torn between looking at them or up at the sky, a clear view of the stars shining down from the blackness since he really didn’t consider the newcomers a threat.

“Surrender!” one of the surrounding men yelled. Even with the new course, they had been spotted and intercepted. The three conscious pilots glared at Naruto. “Drop your weapons!”

Yuy started counting, calculating his chances of wiping out all of the soldiers single-handed. There were almost a hundred armed men and he knew for a fact that he didn’t have enough ammo or endurance to get all of them. Naruto interrupted him by leaning over and whispering a question.

“If I get rid of all of them, will you guys answer my questions and help me find a way home?” he hissed.

“Duo, if you could get us out of this, I’ll be your slave for a week,” Wufei drawled sarcastically, preparing to surrender. He could always escape later.

“Agreed,” Naruto accepted, ignoring the wrong name for now. He turned his mind towards the black energy he had felt before and pulled at it, reinforcing his body. Backed by the limitless flood of power he received, he ran forward towards the armed men. Weapons immediately honed in on him, but it was no use, he was already amongst them. The fight was over before it really began, unconscious bodies scattering the area.

“Holy shit,” Wufei managed, ebony eyes huge. He couldn’t seem to comprehend what he was seeing. Naruto just smirked at him from across a pile of unconscious men.

So you do know what you’re doing, a bemused voice said in Naruto’s head. He barely refrained from jumping. I had wondered after you passed out last time.

He might have responded scathingly, but apparently Yuy snapped out of his shock. The cobalt-eyed brunette departed very rapidly and vanished from view. Luckily, they were in a rather remote area, so only a few soldiers had managed to respond at all and only then with guns. He returned almost immediately behind the wheel of a rather plain looking car, not wanting to use the more conspicuous Oz vehicles.

Though fairly rarely in the past, Naruto had seen cars before. In ninja villages, they were simply never used since it was simply faster to get around on foot. Following the examples of the other teenagers, he got in, figuring out the handle fairly easily.

“What about your metal things?” Naruto questioned when it became clear that they were being left behind to fall into enemy hands.

“We’ll retrieve them later,” Yuy said flatly, seeming displeased as always.

Even though he knew of cars, he’d never ridden in one and was fairly stunned when Yuy stomped on the gas and peeled out. He was amazed that the hunk of metal on wheels could move so quickly, but he could still move faster on foot. He didn’t protest because he was lost anyways and he still needed answers, from both the other teenagers and the black power within him named Shinigami.

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To Be Continued…
To answer the questions, yes, most of this is written up already. At least half the story. Unfortunately, it’s in a notebook and posting depends on how much time I have to type. Please R&R!