Fusion of Forces | Chapter 22

Turning to observe the other two members of the team, Naruto was none too surprised to see Ren meditating. He was a little surprised to see Nora actually carefully and tediously going through her own stretches and lifts. Then again he was the poster boy for the saying "looks can be deceiving". And besides that, he knew very well that despite her deceptively foolish demeanor, the girl could pack a whallop. After all she was the only one who was actually able to at least dent the armor of that Death Stalker on her own. Admittedly she was only capable of doing so after numerous Aura empowered hits, but it still showed just how much power her hits held.

Naruto shivered to think what kind of damage the hammer wielding girl could be capable of if she were to ever learn Tsunade's super strength technique. Tsunade herself was capable of creating fissures in the earth with a simple punch and that was on her worst days. Naruto had to resist the urge to scream in terror when he imagined what Tsunade would have been capable of with Nora's hammer.

Seeing the rest of his team ready to go for whatever he had in mind for them, Naruto stopped his own stretches before joining his teammates at the center of the training field.

"Alright now that we're all warmed up, it's time to get some actual training. From what I've seen you guys already know your own strengths and already have things you guys want to improve on. As such the best thing for us to do right now is to train on working as a team," Naruto paused to turn to Nora and Ren before continuing, "I already know you two know how to work together well so, for now, me and Pyrrha will team up and see how we fare against you two. Sound good?"

Ren nodded, agreeing with Naruto's assessment, while Nora...was Nora, "Yes sir! C'mon Ren time to show em the power of friendship!"

Chuckling Naruto turned to address Pyrrha as they walked to the other half of the field, "Alright so I already know you're pretty good at both long and short range combat. You have any preferences?"

"Well if I had to pick, I'd say close range, mostly because it takes me less time to prepare for, which I doubt those two will give us," Pyrrha replied.

Nodding his head Naruto agreed. Ren was agile and quick footed, but lacked stamina. As such he and Nora were likely to go with the hit hard and hit fast tactic. That was a very bad idea for them though.

Naruto was a stamina monster and could take hits that could kill most people and shrug them off like nothing, ready to keep going. He knew that Pyrrha, while not as much of a stamina monster like him, could hold her own. Add to that the fact that both he and Pyrrha were able to quickly analyze their opponents and come up with plans on the fly, they were the worst duo for Ren and Nora to go up against. He and Pyrrha could outlast them and use their fatigue as an advantage.

Of course that all sounded nice on paper. Naruto knew well enough that plans did not survive contact with an enemy, much less one as unpredictable as Nora. She was the unknown element. Naruto had fought so many agile and speedy opponents like Ren that he pretty much had a formula on how to beat them. Nora was like him though - strong, durable, a heavy hitter, and unpredictable.

"Well I guess we hit em as hard as we can and see if we can't tire em out. Just watch out for Nora, who know's what she'll pull out."

Pyrrha nodded as she pulled her shield and sword from her back, taking on a ready stance. Naruto unravelled the scroll that held his own weapon, unsealing it in a poof of smoke.

Across the field Nora and Ren had pulled out their respective weapons, looking just as ready as their teammates.

Calling out across the field Naruto spoke, "Alright! So team Red Storm versus team...uh…"

"Pancake!"

"..."

"..."

"...right. Team Red Storm versus team Pancake! Ready?...Go!"

In a burst of speed both Ren and Nora took off heading straight for Naruto and Pyrrha. More than prepared for this Naruto stuck his staff into the ground before reaching into the pouches on his thighs. Pulling his hands out, kunai knives were grasped in each of the open spaces between his fingers. Before he tossed the blades, Naruto made a quick mental thank you to the people responsible for Remnant's technology.

Normally he would have to carefully aim for non-vital spots lest he wanted to end up killing someone. Thankfully though, each of Beacon's training grounds were outfitted with some mechanism or other that layered the people in it with a barrier of sorts that blunted most damage. Where his knives would normally pierce, they would now only bruise and sting.

Pyrrha seemed to take advantage of this as well, swiftly situating her shield on her back before shifting her sword into its rifle form, taking aim, and letting loose a hail of bullets.

Despite knowing about the protection the training fields offered, Nora nor Ren were too keen on getting hit by any of the projectiles headed for them. The two childhood friends shared an almost imperceptible nod before Nora took point. Heaving her hammer into the air, Nora drove the massive weapon into the ground in front of them, sending chunks of the ground flying into the air, providing team Pancake with a suitable cover from Red Storm's rain of projectiles.

Ren however put the chunks of rock to further use, using them as a platforms that allowed him to swiftly hop his into the air over the rain of kunai and bullets.

Showing off his control over his body, Ren twisted himself in mid air, his twin pistols aimed straight at Naruto and Pyrrha. Applying the necessary force, Ren pulled the triggers and let fly his own hail of bullets.

Pyrrha and Naruto adjusted to the onslaught with relative ease.

The red head grabbed her shield off her back, crouched low, and hid behind the round bronze item. Using the curved groove in the shield, Pyrrha situated her rifle and began to answer Ren's bullets with her own.

Naruto meanwhile applied Chakra to his palm, sticking his staff to it, and, using a plentiful amount of Fuuton chakra, began to spin his shakujo at high speeds. Moving at the speeds it was, the staff was naught but a circular blur shielding Naruto from Ren's bullets.

Even with Ren finally coming down from his brief venture into the air, Pyrrha and Naruto were being kept pinned down by his non-stop hail of bullets, something Naruto had to question. Didn't this guy ever run out of ammo?

Before Naruto could pursue any theories on Ren and his endless supply of bullets, Nora finally decided to make her appearance, the recoil of her weapon propelling her straight for him. Cursing to himself, the blond was prepared to pull out a Kawarimi no Jutsu (Body Replacement technique) when, to his shock, Pyrrha appeared in front of him in burst of speed, shield raised to take the hit.

:::

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