Land Of Snow Arc (8) : Armoured Naruto.

With Naruto wearing the armour, everyone else looked at him with focus.

"Can you tighten your legs Naruto? That might activate the armour."

Naruto nodded and clenched his hands while tensing his muscles as everyone else paid attention to him.

Sasuke looked on with his Sharingan activated while Sakura observed Naruto from a little distance away. Tachibana was the only one standing right by Naruto's side and closely inspecting the armour as it functioned.

"Can you feel anything Naruto?" Tachibana asked but Naruto shook his head as he scratched his cheeks, "Should I be feeling something?"

"The armour is taking chakra from his body.", Sasuke said while pointing at the yin-yang symbol on the armour.

"Now that you mention it, it feels a little ticklish?" Naruto said unsure about how to describe what he was feeling.

'I guess the rate at which it is absorbing Naruto's chakra doesn't even leave a dent in his massive reserves.'

"So the armour runs on the chakra of the person wearing it?" Sakura asked calmly.

"Looks like-." Tachibana said but was forced to dodge when all of a sudden a pink spherical shield wrapped around Naruto.

"How did you do that?" Tachibana asked with some surprise.

Naruto was still confused but Sasuke had the answer to his question, "The chakra flow shifted slightly in the armour. Instead of simply powering it, the armour is projecting that chakra outwards after modifying it using complicated seals that I don't understand."

"Hmm…" Tachibana nodded, "Naruto-kun, could you relax your body a little?"

"Sure…" Naruto nodded but all of a sudden instead of the shield powering down, Naruto found himself pummeled face-first into a wall.

*BANG*

Everyone became worried and Tachibana looked at Sasuke to see if there were any difficulties but after he shook his head, Tachibana walked up to Naruto and spoke to him.

"Are you alright?"

"Ughh…my head…it hurts…" Naruto complained as he pulled away from the wall. There was a bump on his head, and his nose was pink with a single red streak of blood leaking out of it.

"I guess that's a special feature of this suit. It can increase your speed tremendously." Tachibana explained patiently but Naruto wasn't listening and much of what Tachibana said went over his head.

"Sasuke-kun do you know how to turn off the suit?" Sakura asked and Sasuke looked at the suit in silence for a few seconds before he nodded.

"I can help.", Sasuke said and walked closer to Naruto. He carefully extended his arm to touch the Chakra armour, but just as he was about to disrupt the flow of chakra-

*BZZZTTT* *OUCH!!*

-Naruto activated the pink shield again by mistake and caused Sasuke to jump back because of the strong lighting that arced into his body through his finger.

Sasuke held his hand and examined the swollen burn mark on it with a glare, but remembering he had to appear 'cool' in front of Naruto, he quickly hid his hand while pretending as if nothing had happened.

Naruto's expression, however, turned for the worse. He didn't even feel pride in the fact that whatever he had done had caused Sasuke to look uncool in front of Sakura.

"Can I never get out of this armour now!?" Naruto shouted while dropping onto his knees. "Tachibana-kun!!! Help me!!!!" Naruto shouted trying to hold Tachibana's thigh but Tachibana did his best to dodge him since the pink armour hadn't been deactivated yet.

"Naruto! Aren't you the strongest ninja in the world that will become the Hokage in the future!!!" Tachibana asked causing Naruto to freeze in his place. He looked at Tachibana with an adoring look and then shouted, "Yes! I will become the Hokage!"

"I believe in you Naruto!!! So don't worry about this. This is just a small trouble on the way to becoming the Hokage!! I promise you we'll get you out of that suit before anything too bad happens!"

"Tachibana-kun!!!!" Naruto shouted with love but Tachibana, Sakura and Sasuke had already left the room before closing the door behind them.

"I promise to help you Naruto!! You can have my instant ramen until then as compensation!!"

Naruto's eyes were watery but he quickly wiped his tears and looked at the several tasty ramen bowls to indulge himself in a quick meal.

"I guess the old man Hokage was right, each bad situation has its own good sides and I just need to find and enjoy them. Where else could I have gotten a great friend like Tachibana-kun? He's so nice."

Once they were sufficiently far away, Sakura and Sasuke turned to look at Tachibana. "Tachibana-kun, is it safe for Naruto to be in that suit? What if it does something to him? We should've thought better and asked Yamato-sensei's permission before giving him the armour to wear!"

"Don't worry about it." Tachibana casually waved his hand, "I can divine about it and if it really turns out bad for him, we can just get Yamato sensei to help us. I'm sure he won't mind it if we say Naruto 'accidentally' happened to find the suit while we were experimenting with it and tried it on to grow stronger."

Sasuke and Sakura looked at Tachibana with wide eyes causing him to shrink a little.

'Why are they looking at me like this?'

'Why do they look like I'm the only one that was wrong?'

'Weren't they involved in the research too?'

Tachibana ignored their pointed gaze and pulled out his pendulum.

"Wearing the special armour is dangerous for Naruto."

Tachibana repeated the statement seven times and opened his eyes, the pendulum was spinning counterclockwise allowing Tachibana to show a smile.

"Would you look at that? This means it's really good for him to be wearing the armour. So don't worry about it." Tachibana said and casually waved his hand.

"Who's wearing the armour?" Yamato asked from behind the trio.

Everyone became stiff at Yamato's question and turned around slowly.

"Where's Naruto?" Yamato asked giving Team Seven a confused look that made them even more afraid.

'He doesn't know! He didn't hear us fully!' Tachibana deduced.

"Ah. Sensei he's not well right now and he needs to rest a little." Sakura covered for them as Tachibana nodded and Sasuke looked away not wanting to lie directly in front of Yamato.

Yamato gave the trio a suspecting look before he smiled and explained, "If he's sick I need to check up on him a little so that I know it's not a poison the enemy has used-"

Tachibana grabbed Yamato's hand to stop him and explained, "Don't worry sensei, Sakura here already checked on Naruto. There were no wounds on him that might've poisoned him. We're already sure it's just Naruto's stomach complaining to him because he eats too much Ramen."

Yamato gave Tachibana a strange look but then nodded and relaxed.

"If you say so."

With Yamato relaxed, he gave the team a simple order, "I want all of you guys to come to the same room we were in before. We will plan out our course of action for the future of this mission."

Tachibana and co. nodded with a smile until Yamato added, "Bring Naruto. I'm sure he should also know the plan so that no one is left behind."

Tachibana and co. gulped with worry but then quickly nodded, "Yes Yamato-sensei he'll be there."

Yamato nodded and left after which Sakura turned to Tachibana and asked with worry, "What do we do now Tachibana-kun!?"