Fusion of Forces | Chapter 21

Clad in only her pajamas and with a soft smile on her face, Pyrrha looked less like "The Invincible Girl" and more like Pyrrha Nikos, the girl. Given she could probably still kick someone's ass six ways to Sunday even in her pajamas, but that was just Pyrrha.

"You look...great Pyrrha," Naruto muttered more to himself.

As per the laws of the universe however, Pyrrha heard it loud and clear, causing a blush to spring up on her face.

"Thanks," she shyly replied.

Normally she would be able to simply brush compliments like that off, being more than used to getting them thanks to her fame, but with Naruto it was a little different. She knew that despite his secrets, he was an honest and good guy who always put the needs of his friends above his own. She also knew that Naruto never said anything with an ulterior motive, at least to those he trusted.

That was the usual case with most of the people who complimented her. They always wanted something from her in return, like them complimenting her meant she owed them.

But Naruto said it simply to say it with no other motive, albeit he probably didn't mean for her to hear it.

After a few moments of awkward silence, the two teens still blushing, Pyrrha cleared her throat and pointed at Naruto's book, "What were you reading?"

Thankful for having something else to talk about, Naruto picked up the book with a small nostalgic smile, "It's called The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi. It's the first book that my godfather ever wrote."

Pyhrra smiled upon seeing how much joy the book brought the blond and decided to seat herself at the edge of his bed, Naruto moving to accommodate his guest.

"What's it about?"

Naruto looked down at the book and slowly thumbed through the pages as he answered, "It's about a ninja who never gives up and vows that he'll break an evil curse that plagues his world."

Not knowing just how similar the book's plot was to Naruto's own life, Pyrrha continued, "Sounds like he's a hero. What's his name?"

The redhead was a little surprised when the blond began to chuckle softly before he looked her in the eye, still chuckling, "His name's Naruto."

Finally understanding why her friend was chuckling, Pyrrha also began to laugh softly, "So your godfather named the character after you?"

Shaking his head Naruto answered, "No, he wrote the book long before my parents were even together. My parents actually named me after the character in the book, hoping that I would grown up to be just like the Naruto in the story."

Pyrrha placed a hand on top of Naruto's, drawing his attention to her, "Well I'd say they got their wish."

It wasn't long till both realized that Pyrrha's hand was still touching Naruto's and almost as if being burned by a fire, they both recoiled. Blushing heavily Pyrrha stood up and nervously said, "Uh, I came to tell you the shower is free for you to use."

Naruto just rubbed the back of his head, "Thanks Pyrrha."

A few minutes later, a very relieved and tired Naruto stepped out of the shower to find his other teammates sleeping away. Throwing his dirty clothes into a hamper by the door he allowed himself to collapse onto his own bed, ready for Morpheus to take him into his realm.

As he began to drift off he heard the soft voice of Pyrrha, "Goodnight Naruto."

Smiling he whispered back, "Night Pyrrha."

The next afternoon found a battle ready team NNPR occupying one of the high tech training facilities that Beacon boasted, Naruto having reserved them a two hour time slot earlier that morning. All of them ran through basic stretches together before they separated to go through their own unique warm ups which was something Naruto was happy to see.

Jiraiya had all but pounded the importance of a good warm up into his head during their little training trip together. Of course for shinobi warm ups were a luxury. The enemy wasn't gonna let you get a couple stretches in so you could properly be warmed up.

Still it was interesting to see each of his teammates unique warm ups. Pyrrha's stretches and what not were more or less centered around her arms which, given her weapon, made the most sense. Of course that wasn't to say she wasn't working out her long legs either.

Naruto admitted that Pyrrha's height was odd to him, seeing as how most girls he had ever known peaked at around the five foot something mark. Even the guys he knew were relatively short, Jiraiya being rather unique with his six foot stature.

Once upon a time he himself had been woefully short, mostly due to his malnutrition. Thanks to his godmother Tsunade, another member of the Sannin, who was a world renown medic said to be capable of healing almost any wound, Naruto was forced to eat healthier. Thanks to his change in diet Naruto was able to put on a healthy amount of muscle and even began to grow quite tall.

What was odd was that he continued to grow tall. At the age of seventeen he stood at a solid six foot, five inches. Considering that his father topped out at five foot something and his mother was even shorter than that, Naruto's height was something of a mystery. Both he and Tsunade had chalked it up to his massive chakra reserves and having Kurama sealed in his body.

With his increase in height, Naruto was more than happy to brag about his towering height. Seeing as how even Yang was a head or so shorter than him, Naruto was sure that he could continue to do so. Pyrrha put a stop to that. Sure she was still shorter than him, but not enough so that he had to look down to look her in the eye. Shrugging Naruto just chalked it up to it being another quality that made Pyrrha different than most girls.

:::

Book 1 available to download.

You can now access all my latest crossover stories and exclusive content on Ko-fi! Visit ko-fi.com/queenofkings2000 to dive into new adventures and support my writing journey.

Thank you for your amazing support!