Chapter 25 - Viciousness

A slight tremor shook the entire facility. In the command room, a large warning sign appeared on the enormous screen.

"He's coming." a man dressed in a lab coat said meaningfully.

A girl that appeared to be in her late teens or early 20s stood up tense.

"Are you sure it's him and not Cadmus?" she asked.

"Oh, I am sure... at the very least, technology cannot aid anyone in finding this place - and we did eliminate that magic user that Cadmus had employed."

Silence descended for a while. Another tremor was felt, this time stronger than before.

"What are the video cameras showing?" the young woman asked.

The middle-aged man typed quickly on the keyboard and a blurry video started playing.

A blond man surrounded by black lightning was shown destroying everything in his way like a berserker, leaving only charred and dismembered bodies as he passed. One of the guards fired a bazooka at him, at point blank...only for him to catch the projectile in his hand where it exploded without leaving as much as a scratch on his skin. More than twenty guards began firing laser guns at him, but no beam could penetrate the black lightning that was encasing his body. He was like a juggernaut.

The young man let out a sudden shout and stomped the floor with one foot. Black lightning exploded from his body like a sphere, all around him, reducing everything it encompassed to cinders.

When the transmission was interrupted, the man turned towards the young woman who was subtly shaking.

"Are you afraid, Galatea?" he asked.

Galatea brought a hand in front of her face.

"I don't know it myself...but I don't think it's fear what I'm experiencing right now."

A large grin appeared on Orochimaru's face.

"What you are feeling is excitement! The lust for battle! A warrior's desire to fight against a powerful opponent!"

Galatea clenched her hand in a fist. Her eyes began to burn with battle intent.

But suddenly, a feeling of oppression flooded both Orochimaru and Galatea. A heavy boom was heard and the huge metallic doors were blasted to pieces.

Dressed fully in black, only his head was uncovered. His hair was flailing in mid air, cackling with electricity and his body's outline looked blurry because of the massive amount of black lightning revolving around him.

When his eyes fell on the two of them, a monstrous killing intent exploded from him. He screamed, blinded by rage:

"Where. Is. My. Sister?"

Just how Kyuubi's roar alone had shattered buildings and razed to the ground entire forests in his past life, Naruto scream made the reinforced walls of the facility crack and most of the electronic devices in the room exploded.

Orochimaru's face revealed the shock he felt inside. From the data that he had gathered he knew that Naruto was very powerful but what he was witnessing at that moment...

'This- this is insane!'

He was planning on having both him and Galatea retreat but then, he saw her stepping forward.

"Please don't interfere, father. Get away from here as fast as possible."

Without turning around, she said:

"Don't worry... and trust me. I am powerful!"

Then, the concrete floor beneath her feet exploded as she plunged towards her opponent with all her strength. A sonic boom was heard and the two met in the middle, clashing their forearms against each other. The shockwaves of their clash blew Orochimaru off his feet and slammed him into the wall of the room.

The scientist lifted himself up with great difficulty, one of his arms being actually broken.

'I hate it..."

'I hate this weak body so much!'

Even so, he didn't try get away like Galatea had asked him to. Instead, he pulled out a device from one of his lab coat's pockets and a devious smile surfaced on his face.

Scene break

While shrouded by his black Raiton no Yoroi, Naruto was at the level where he could lift a few tons easily. However..

'Just what kind of raw strength does she have!?'

A short moment of respite followed after an intense close combat exchange and they both looked at each other warily, neither daring to underestimate the other.

'I feel like I'm fighting against Tsunade-baa-chan.' Naruto said inwardly.

The resemblance was further reinforced when Galatea's appearance was taken in account along with her enormous strength - blonde hair, beautiful face, an athletic body and a more than considerable bust size. Naruto had the feeling that most likely that was how Tsunade looked when she was in her early 20s.

On the other side of the room, Galatea rubbed the charred tips of her fists.

'His physical strength is formidable. Not higher than mine but enough to allow him to face someone like me head-on.'

Her eyes narrowed as she studied the lightning that was coating her opponent's body.

'Besides magic attacks, I have yet to find anything else that could harm my body. I am immune even to my race's fatal weakness - kryptonite; it cannot leave a scratch on me...but his lightning..."

But in a few moments, the blackened skin of her fists regenerated as though it had not been harmed at all in the first place.

Galatea may have been only as old as a toddler; however, her intelligence was not to be belittled.

'Since only magical attacks can hurt me, then that black lightning must be of a magical nature... but father said he is using chakra...chakra - an energy resulted after the fusion of the physical and spiritual energies of the body...magic uses spiritual energy. Therefore, chakra's nature is somewhat similar to that of magic. That's the reason why his lightning can harm me..'

But before she could finish formulating a strategy to deal with her opponent's troublesome ability, a black lightning-encased fist appeared in front of her face.

Just before his fist collided with her jaw, Naruto discharged the lightning that he had been accumulating.

*boom*

The resulting explosion rocked the entire facility!

However...

"You've got to be kidding me..."

He was in such a state of disbelief that he had unintentionally said those words out loud. That lightning encased fist was what he had developed on the Prison Island during his 2 years of training. Only one hit was powerful enough to easily shatter gigantic cliffs...Yet in front of his very eyes, Galatea lifted herself from the ground as though nothing happened! The only mark left by his lightning punch was a small charred bruise on her cheek.

But by the time Galatea got back to her feet, the two of them were both stopped from attaching the other when chunks of concrete started to fall from the ceiling. Thanks to the explosions and shockwaves that their fight had generated, the basement was starting to collapse!

An expression of horror appeared on Naruto's face. It wasn't that he was afraid he would die buried in the ground; he was too powerful and resilient for that. But his sister was just an ordinary girl. If she was also in the basement...

Bluish-crystal like bones started to protrude from his torso, skewering his clothes.

"Where is she?" Naruto yelled, his voice sounding more like an animalistic growl.

"TELL ME!"

Two bones that looked like demonic horns grew from his forehead and his right hand and forearm became covered in a bone membrane, making it look like a spear. His spine underwent a big change too - it pierced through the skin of his back in what resembled spikes like those of a dinosaur and its end grew into a long and deadly looking bony tail.

When his transformation ended, Naruto looked nothing like a man but a ferocious humanoid dragon.

Orochimaru was stunned at Naruto's transformation - it looked very similar to that of Kimmimaro Kaguya's when he released the 2nd level of the Cursed Seal in his past life. But, if Orochimaru himself was stunned despite having seen something similar before, it goes without saying that Galatea was even more than so. She was watching the scene with her mouth agape...And those few seconds of inaction were the greatest mistake she could have made.

She only saw a black blur before something impacted her abdomen. A pain like nothing she had ever felt before overwhelmed her senses: Naruto's spear-like arm, coated in black lightning, was now halfway buried into the girl's stomach.

Still, despite scoring a fatal blow on his opponent, Naruto felt no joy whatsoever. Crazed with anger, he screamed at Orochimaru:

"Tell me where is she! Tell me or I'll kill this bitch! Then I'll torture you until you'll start begging me for death!"

"TELL ME!"

Rage. It was a rage unlike anything he'd experienced before in both of his lives.

Orochimaru had always made his life miserable. In his past life he took away from him the person he considered like a brother - Sasuke. In his present life he took away from him his sister, the one person whom he loved more than everything else in the world. In that moment, his hate and rage at Orochimaru were so intense that he was only 1 step from falling into insanity.

On the other side, even if he had wanted to say something, Orochimaru would have not been able to. The killing intent the berserk Naruto was releasing was so thick and heavy that the scientist was slowly getting closer to dying of asphyxiation. In that moment, the former Snake Sannin did not have any control over his body. In this life, he was just an ordinary human.

Suddenly, the ceiling of the room caved in and large chunks of concrete began to fall. Then, a large, crimson appendage reached through the now broken ceiling and collided against the humanoid dragon.

"Naruto!" a deep demonic voice came "Get a hold of yourself!"

A snarl of anger came from Naruto and, when he screamed, his voice was like a roar:

"Was killing my parents not enough?! You want my sister to die too? DON'T GET IN MY WAY, KYUUBI!"

A large crater was formed under his feet as he plunged towards what he was seeing now his enemy.

Kyuubi, now as large as a horse, was having 4 of his large tails wrapped around something. He only had 5 others to use in combat. Even so, the former bijuu knew that he stood no chance.

'This is dangerous...he's become like a mindless beast.'

Kyuubi quickly jumped to the side, dodging Naruto who was coming at him not unlike an enraged rhino...

"Get a hold of yourself, retard! Your sister is safe, I saved her!" Kyuubi screamed, trying to make him get back to his senses.

But Naruto looked like he didn't hear him. Naruto's spear-like arm was just about to pierce into Kyuubi's body when the demonic fox unwrapped his tails from what he was holding and shouted almost desperately:

"Snap out of it, are you trying to kill your own sister?!"

Even through the red haze that was clouding his eyes and mind, when his eyes got a glimpse of what Kyuubi was holding, his body stopped as if it was frozen... long hair, of crimson colour, even more intense than the fox's own fur... and through the strands of hair covering her face, he saw her... it was his beloved sister, Misaki.

He lifted his right hand, intending to touch her, as though to convince himself that she was real...only for Kyuubi to back away in panic.

"O-Oi, oi, have you really lost it? You really want to kill us?!"

It was then that through his foggy vision, he took notice of the state of his right arm...that it had become like a bone spear. His arm fell to the side and he let himself drop on his knees. In that moment it was as if all the power that he had previously displayed was being sapped away. The black lightning around him faded away and the bones that made him look like a humanoid dragon started to slowly sink back into his body.

Naruto only had time to get one more glance at his sister's face before his vision darkened and he slipped into a deep slumber.

Kyuubi sighed loudly in relief. But then, he said annoyed:

"Great, now I have to carry both of them! What am I, their nanny?"

Scene break

A grunt of exertion was heard as a silhouette sat up sluggishly from amidst the rubble and debris covering the entire facility. Although one his arms was broken and he was bleeding profusely from a wound on his head, the man was relatively fine. It was a real miracle that he had managed to survive in the aftermath of two god-like beings' confrontation.

It was Orochimaru. His face that was usually carrying a confident or mocking smirk was now livid with anger.

With a bit of difficulty, he made his way towards the downed form of the blonde girl. Half of her body was buried under heavy chunks of concrete and in her stomach, a very large hole could be seen... however, she was still breathing.

Orochimaru plopped himself down next to her. His voice was hoarse when he spoke:

"So much...I have invested so much in you..."

"All these years of research to find a way to remove your racial weakness to kryptonite...all those enormous sums of money invested...all those subjects experimented on in order to perfect my skill in modifying the DNA, to become able to improve your body...all of this to make you the ultimate fighter, the strongest being in the Universe!"

"But in the end, I did all of these for what...?"

"For nothing! It was all wasted!"

A weak sound was heard then from Galatea's bloodied lips:

"Father... I... sorry..."

A hollow laugh came from Orochimaru.

"Sorry? ...you have nothing to be sorry about."

"After all it was my mistake for creating..."

"...A failure."

Although she was feeling immense pain and she knew she was going to die, Galatea had not let it show on her face. But when her father's words reached her ears, her eyes widened. Galatea had never cried in her entire life. However, in that moment, tears started to stream down her cheeks like a river. It looked like she was trying to say something, but instead, only sounds of her choking with her own blood came from her mouth.

"Pathetic." Orochimaru uttered before sitting up and living the destroyed command room.

He came back after a while, carrying a sealed vial.

"Do not worry. Your life was not entirely meaningless. Your sacrifice in fighting Naruto had not been in vain."

Then, he uncorked the vial and poured it on the bloodied hole in her stomach.

"I've made you nigh impossible to kill. At least impossible for normal humans. However, it was always my plan to leave you vulnerable to a certain poison that only I can concoct. It was for the unlikely case where you would slip out my control."

"It's truly regrettable that it ends like this for you, but I cannot have you survive this. There are too many secrets that my enemies could get from you."

"Enjoy the last 3 minutes of your life..."

Then, he bent to her and pressed his thin lips to her forehead.

"Farewell, my dear daughter."