Chimera

Chimera
Part 5
By Mieren


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“You actually caught it?” the leader of Stone asked in shock.

In response, Naruto roared at near deafening levels and lunged against the leather straps wrapped around him. He could snap them without even breaking a sweat, but the illusion was kind of fun, especially since it pulled Kakashi, Gai, Jiraiya, Asuma, Lee, Chouji, Kiba, Neji and Sasuke almost off their feet as they struggled to pull him back down. After a few lunges, he managed to plant all of his former peers on their backsides, at which point he had to struggle not to laugh while they regained their feet amidst a great deal of cursing. Playing the part, Naruto hissed menacingly and made a false effort to pull back, just short of overpowering the adults as well. To the Stone leaders, it appeared that he was barely constrained and worth every penny they had promised to pay them plus more. Shikamaru collected the fee and led the party away from the village, Naruto roaring, hissing and bucking for several miles. When he was sure they were out of sight, he started laughing.

“Are those idiots gone now?” he gasped, trying not to giggle.

“As gone as they’re going to be,” Gai panted. Naruto hadn’t been easy on the poor ninja who had ‘captured’ him. They’d had to fight him every inch of the way until then.

“Good,” Naruto said pleasantly. “Then can you take these things off me? They’re quite uncomfortable.” He tugged at a strap on his muzzle.

Lee, Kiba and Sasuke moved in immediately, removing the leather bands that Naruto had been quite careful not to snap while he roared and bucked. They were quite eager not to have to hold him down any longer since he had neatly planted their asses in the dirt on a number of occasions while he held up the illusion. Once the bindings were gone, he stretched sore muscles and popped a few joints.

“Are… are you okay?” Hinata asked so timidly that Naruto barely heard her, even with his enhanced abilities.

“I’m okay, Hinata-chan,” he said softly. He ran one whisker across her cheek, causing the young woman to flinch away. She ran out of his reach swiftly. “I’m sorry!” he called, automatically raising one forearm out towards her in apology. “I didn’t mean to scare you!” His whiskers fell to the sides of his jaws, listless.

Hinata’s cheeks grew bright red and she dropped her head to her chest. “I’m… I’m sorry…” she stammered. “It’s just that it… it tickled.” Naruto relaxed immensely, relieved that he hadn’t scared one of the few people that had cared about him, or rather, who he used to be. Trying to correct his mistake, Naruto extended his whiskers again, greatly pleased when Hinata brushed her fingers against them delicately before automatically pulling her hand back and blushing.

“We’ll need to avoid all villages and towns,” Shikamaru said, eyeing the so-called Chinese dragon trying to make peace with Hinata. “Even if we claimed him to be a summoning, he would terrify the locals, no matter if it was a ninja town or not.”

“I can hear you,” Naruto said flatly.

“Then what do you propose?” the lazy ninja drawled.

“I could transform, but a naked man would draw just as much attention as I would.”

“And what size of clothes do you wear?” Jiraiya asked teasingly, taking in his formidable length. “Size fifty, extra large, extra long?” Naruto slapped him across the rear with his tail tip with enough force to leave a welt, earning a yelp from the sannin.

“I’d be just a little shorter than you, but a lot skinner than your fat ass,” Naruto answered caustically.

“So if he gave you a spare set of clothing, you could wear it even if was a bit baggy?” Asuma asked logically. Naruto snorted loudly.

“No way am I wearing anything of his until someone thoroughly washes and sterilizes it!” Naruto huffed. “He reeks of sex! And I can hear some of his clothes ‘crunching’ from here!”

“Excuse me,” Kakashi said formally, vanishing into the bushes. The reason for his disappearance was immediately known as hysterical, hiccupping laughter drifted back to the assembled group.

“I’m not that bad!” Jiraiya protested hotly.

“Then why did you get a hard-on when I threw you into Tenten?” Naruto asked blandly.

“Pervert!” Tenten screamed, punching the sannin in the back of the head.

“How did you… why would you even think something like that?!” Jiraiya roared, clutching his abused skull.

“Because your scent reeked of ‘male hormones’ when your face landed in her cleavage.” Tenten went back to beating the older man, entirely content to use his face to create crater marks in everything around her from the ground to the trees to the occasional boulder.

“Here,” Kakashi called as he sniggered his way out of the trees, lobbing a fresh set of his clothes at the white creature. “They’ll be a little short, but they should fit.” Naruto studied the set before arching one brow.

“No underwear?”

“Don’t wear any.”

“Ew…” came the simultaneous response from Sakura, Ino and Tenten. Hinata just resumed blushing again. A pair of boxers slammed into the back of Naruto’s head, courtesy of Asuma. Nodding, Naruto piled the clothes between his shoulder blades and headed for the bushes.

“Where are you going?” Sasuke demanded.

“Do you *want* me to transform into a naked guy in the middle of the street?”

“Sure,” Kurenai smirked, eyes twinkling in mirth.

“Perverts! I’m surrounded by perverts!” Naruto whined loudly, heading off into the bushes. “Not just perverts, but people into bestiality at that! Kiba, I could understand, but the rest of you…”

“What was that, Nakyma?” the dog-nin protested loudly.

“Well, if you did that half-beast thing of yours, I’m not sure if it would be bestiality or just extreme masturbation.” Kiba was sputtering so badly that it completely escaped him how ‘Nakyma’ would know what his half-beast technique was called.

Again, Kakashi had to wander out of sight to laugh himself sick. Ignoring his former sensei, though he was amused as well, he slunk out of sight and wrapped his whiskers into the proper form for an altered seal and transformed back into a human, though with extreme differences to his appearance. For one, he now just topped six feet. He was still muscular, though a bit lanky. His eyes were still purple and still bore slit pupils, his canines still came to lengthened points, and his nails still came to points. His hair, once a beautiful golden color that stuck up in all directions known to man, now maintained some sense of order, falling in wispy opal masses to just below his shoulder blades. The deep tan he had once had was gone, replaced by milky skin lighter than even Sasuke’s and his whisker marks were nowhere to be found. He looked like a slightly demonic albino in training. A bit dejected that he couldn’t even look like himself as a human, he donned the clothes given to him, and true enough, Kakashi’s clothes were a bit small, clinging to him like a second skin. Barefoot, Naruto wandered back into sight.

“NAKYMA???” every female in the group shrieked.

“What?” Naruto asked blankly.

“Holy hell, he’s a walking sex god,” Kurenai whispered to Jiraiya, obviously not intending to be heard by Naruto. Her eyes traveled southwards. “And he’s packing.” The sannin nodded dumbly.

“Fuck,” the hermit hissed back. “After seeing this, I’m wondering if I’m bi.”

“Bi?” Naruto laughed loudly, causing Jiraiya to turn previously unknown shades of red. “If you get a kick out of me, I’d say you’re omni. You know damn well I’m not human, so I’m a bit disturbed that you’d look at me like that. Actually, I guess I shouldn’t be. You’d do anything to everyone and everything, pervert!”

Laughing delightedly while the hermit sputtered almost as badly as the dog-nin had been, Naruto danced down the road, leaving the other ninja to follow or lose track of him. Amethyst eyes glittering mischievously, Naruto made a show of adding a minuscule waggle to his hips as he walked, perfectly aware that several people behind him were quite distinctly drooling. There were even a few nosebleeds. He smirked.

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“We’re stopping for the night already?” Naruto asked, disbelievingly. The sun had only just begun to near the horizon.

“Lots of people in our group,” Asuma said. “It takes more time to prepare camp, gather firewood, find something to eat…”

“Screw that,” Naruto said flatly. “You dorks prepare camp. I’ll return with firewood and food in a minute or two.” He smirked at the disbelieving looks. “Hayasa no Jutsu!” Just like that, he was gone. Less than a moment later, he was back with no less than four hundred pounds of wood stacked recklessly across his arms and shoulders. He threw a few of the larger logs into a mass and unleashed a fireball at them, creating an instant bonfire. “Right back with the food!” he said cheerily, vanishing again.

“Cripes, he’s fast,” Asuma breathed.

“It’s a jutsu,” Kakashi muttered, Sharingan uncovered. “I’ve never seen that one.”

“And it is?” Kurenai asked blandly. Jiraiya interrupted before they could respond, knowing far more as a sannin than the jounin did. None of the students heard him, busy setting up camp as ordered.

“It’s a speed technique,” the hermit answered. “He’s deliberately warping time around himself so he can move at untouchable levels. He’s not changing the world, he’s changing himself so that he can push himself out of the space-time continuum.”

“Is that possible?” Gai asked, stunned.

“Are shape-shifting Chinese dragons possible?” the sannin countered.

“Fair enough,” the green-clad man conceded.

“What? Camp still isn’t set up?” Naruto asked suddenly, shocking all of the older men right out of their minds. Across his shoulders laid a mid-sized deer, something that should satisfy the entire lot of ninja, even including himself and Chouji with their bottomless stomachs. He sighed, feigning annoyance. “Why don’t you five go help your students? I’ll set this thing up to roast. Okay? Okay!”

Stunned, the five older ninja allowed themselves to be herded off away from the fire to help pitch the tents and roll out the futons. Still, they were watching avidly as one of ‘Nakyma’s’ claws extended exponentially into a makeshift scalpel and went to work cleaning the animal, expertly skinning the animal, separating it into bits and skewering the pieces onto spits to roast. With a few quick hand symbols, he even managed to convince the spits to rotate on their own. Seeming not to mind freaking out his ‘new’ companions, rather enjoying it in fact, he seized a meaty shin and started eating the raw flesh, taking great amusement in the display that pretty much everyone else was turning some shade of green. He gulped down his mouthful.

“And how do you know how to cook if you eat your food raw?” Kakashi asked slowly.

“I’ve seen humans before, dimwit,” Naruto responded, taking another bite, making sure to let a bit of blood slip down his jaw. It was fun watching his former sensei twitch. “Have you gotten camp set up yet?”

“Yes,” the jounin answered slowly, still looking more than a little grossed out.

“Who’s bunking where?” Naruto asked. “I see quite a few tents, but I’m not sure where I go since I’m a quite unexpected member of your group. Sixteen of you and one of me leads to quite the odd number, so who goes where? Four teams and one sannin, but six tents. Three in five tents and two in one?”

“Yes,” Kakashi said again, this time intelligently averting his eyes from the gruesome sight of raw flesh being consumed. “One is Tenten, Sakura and Ino. Two is Kurenai, Hinata and Shino. Three is Asuma, Shikamaru and Chouji. Four is Gai, Lee and Neji. Five is Jiraiya, Kiba and myself.”

“That leaves me with Sasuke,” Naruto summed up.

“He’s been rather touchy about personal space or contact ever since a friend of his died,” the silver-haired man explained. “Since he offered to let you stay in his district, thus showing some sort of personal interest in you, the other jounin and I have decided that it would be the best pairing if you bunked with him.”

Suddenly feeling full, Naruto stood up and launched his mostly eaten lower appendage far out into the woods, far more than a mile, certain that some carnivorous beast would have fun with it. “I think I’ll go out for a walk. Who has which watch?”

“Watch?” Kakashi asked numbly. “How do you know about watches?”

“Quit treating me like an imbecile!” Naruto snapped, purple eyes flashing. “I just told you, I’ve seen humans before, and that includes ninja.”

Kakashi nodded, easily giving in and raising one hand apologetically. The demon had the same temperament and vindictive qualities of a certain student he used to have. “Neither you nor Sasuke are on watch tonight.”

“Good. I’ll be back later. Don’t worry about who chooses which tent. I’ll just sniff him out,” Naruto said, flicking his nose. Popping his back as he stretched, he wandered out a few feet before his former sensei’s voice stopped him.

“How do we know you’re coming back?”

“Why would I not after that act in Stone?” Naruto asked, laughing. Under his breath, he tacked on a snide comment as he departed. “And I thought you were supposed to be a genius among ninja, pervert.”

Both of Kakashi’s eyes flew wide open when he caught the barely audible remark. A genius among ninja? A pervert? How on earth did Nakyma know that?

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To Be Continued…
Sorry for the delay. My new job is running me ragged. I am trying, but writing takes time and I’m always busy with the job. I get paid for 8 hours a day and work 12 to 15, so take pity on me for my slow updates. Please R&R!