Awakening of the Omnitrix

A Ninja's Word

Opening his eyes that morning, Naruto felt the fresh fatigue wash over him. His body was stiff, joints creaking as he sat up and climbed to his feet. He didn't sleep well, his dreams haunted by the images of the villagers he put in harm's way.

The fox must have known what was plaguing him, as he let out a low sigh, rumbling in sync with Naruto's stomach.

"You make it hard to rest, child." The kyuubi groaned.

"Sorry," Naruto responded.

He didn't speak as he walked out of the bedroom and glanced down the hall towards Sasuke's room. His door was still shut, so he must have still been asleep. It was probably for the best that Sasuke wasn't awake yet so Naruto could make a stealthy getaway; he'd had something on his mind since he left the hospital that he needed to take care of... after all, if there was one thing Naruto was good at, it was keeping a promise.

The old man didn't deserve to have his shop wrecked, and Naruto was going to make sure it got fixed, even if he had no idea how he was going to do it. If he were to be honest, he had no idea what the place looked like before he crashed through its doors.

"Hopefully he doesn't mind a remodel."

"It sounds like he doesn't have much of a choice."

Thwack.

Ben caught the baseball as it dropped from the ceiling. He'd been awake for a few hours now, having too much on his mind to rest. The events of yesterday were plaguing his mind, just as he was sure it was bothering his successor for perhaps different reasons. Whispers from the ship's crew members hadn't escaped his notice. Azmuth had been up all night looking over the analytics from the Omnitrix and Naruto's vitals.

Thwack.

He was probably looking into Naruto's injuries from the Heatblast clone dispelling, no doubt. From an outside perspective, Ben couldn't have imagined chakra having that kind of an effect. Not that he was a scientist like Azmuth, but maybe there was a better way for the energy to return to its host.

Why was Ben so worried about it? It wasn't like Azmuth was ignoring the problem or anything, so why couldn't he think of anything else?

Thwack.

As he caught the ball, he exhaled deeply. This was starting to become annoying even to him. Ben climbed to his feet and slipped on a loose gray t-shirt before walking towards Azmuth's lab. If he was going to be awake, it might as well be doing something useful.

Niall partially wished old age had taken him in the night. The thought of his achy bones having to shuffle through the wreckage of his store was daunting. Most of the village's ninjas were likely to focus their attention on the outside world or the buildings owned by the more prominent clans. Niall, a relative newcomer to Konoha, was at the bottom of the list; by the time help would come, chances were he'd have to shut the business down and cut his losses.

Not mentioning his injuries sustained when the Uzumaki boy came flying through his doors taking half of the shop out. He'd watched that kid get up and go back to fighting that creature like it was nothing. If there was ever a doubt in his mind about where that kid's allegiance lied, that cleared it up right then and there.

They'd let Niall out of the hospital shortly after sunrise, but he hadn't dared go back to the store out of fear. Instead he'd gone around checking on everyone, seeing if they needed anything. Most of the damage had been contained to a small portion of the village, but there were dozens, close to a hundred civilians even that'd been affected by the assault.

What a travesty...

He walked around for a few hours despite the stirring in the pit of his stomach. Niall was being pulled towards his shop, and he simply couldn't stay away forever. He wished that he'd be able to get caught up in the rebuild efforts elsewhere, but Konoha was quick to the punch. Lord Third made sure all hands were on deck, fixing even the smallest problems.

Truth be told, the old man had assumed he wouldn't get any help until he was back at the shop anyhow, so that was where he finally went.

Expecting to see a horrific aftermath, Niall braced himself for the worst.

"Hey, cut it out will ya?!" the all too familiar voice barked from around the corner, making Niall stop.

"Watch where you're walking!" his voice came again but more distant.

Walking around the corner, Niall was greeted by the sight of ten Naruto Uzumakis cleaning up the shop, carrying wooden planks and shelves, picking up the shattered product off of the ground. He was even stitching up the overhead canopy, although the craftsmanship was rather amateurish.

"What is this?" Niall asked, making the ninja and his clones freeze.

"Hey! I was wondering when you were going to show up. It's hard to put things back in place when you don't know where it goes, you know!"

The old man's heart skipped a beat. He couldn't believe it, the kid actually kept his word and came back to help.

"You actually came?" he asked incredulously.

Naruto chuckled, giving a thumbs up. "Listen up, gramps... when I promise to do something, I don't go back on it..."

Niall had heard stories about that demon child and his antics. All of them painted a dark demeanor, but it was starting to become clear that the village was wrong about Naruto. Why would a demon fight to protect the village that hates him, and why would he keep his word to fix what he had broken?

"I suppose a ninja's word is his honor after all," Niall smiled softly, earning a chuckle from the blond. "I apologize for not being here earlier, I'm afraid I'm what'd you call a procrastinator."

"Better late than never, right?" Naruto replied jumping down from the roof, holding his side momentarily. "You leave the work to me, and let me know where things go."

And so Niall entered the shop and began directing the army of Narutos as needed. At the end of the day, Naruto knew what really mattered. It wasn't whether or not the village hated him, it wasn't that they ignored his heroics or any of that. He knew what really mattered was making a difference, one person at a time.

-----

Hey sorry for the long wait guys. I'm not proud to admit this was way shorter and probably way worse than I would have normally approved, but this was a slog to write believe it or not. Had it wrote once and it was about 2000 words, but this isn't even 1,100. This is honestly and truly the only filler chapter I've ever wrote that I didn't care for too much. It wasn't that it was bad or anything, just a matter of... what am I supposed to be doing here? But, uh... yeah, I'm back. Working on writing until the 10th as that's when I go back to work. I'd like to get one more chapter posted before then.

Either way regardless of the quality of this chapter and my own personal views on it, we are officially starting the first real entry of the story with the Team Formations.

The next chapter should be way lengthier than this one, so stay tuned! Aiming for about 4k to 5k on that one.

Random question: If you guys had to pick any of the Naruto characters to have alien DNA in them, who and why?