Chapter 9

Last Time:

"Thanks guys.. you have no idea what this means to me.."

Now:

Naruto groaned as his alarm clock went off. Yesterday, he had managed to defeat Captain, Natalya, and Hawkeye. Today was his first official day as an avenger. He put on his black cargo pants, steel toed boots, and a black t-shirt and headed towards the kitchen. As he walked down the passageways, he noticed the maintenance robots seemed to be busy today, sunning left and right to service access tunnels, if he guessed correctly. He shook it off as he arrived at the kitchen and made his breakfast.

Naruto scrambled a few eggs, toasted some bread, chopped some fruit, and made himself a cup of coffee. However, before he could actually eat, the screen in the kitchen blinked on and Natalya, Cap, Tony, and Hawkeye were shown on the screen. "Naruto, have you eaten yet?" Natalya asked through the screen. "Actually, I was just about to before you called." He replied. "Good. Meet us in the Rec room right now. We need to talk." Came the response from Captain. Naruto groaned as he looked at his fresh breakfast, but relented and headed towards the Rec room.

~ Rec Room ~

"Are you sure the process will not harm him in any way Jarvis?" Captain asked as he looked at the holographic man. "Yes, Tony. His body is fit enough to where the stimulation of his cells to grow at an advanced pace will not hurt him, but benefit him." Jarvis replied, calming Tony down. "What about his chakra network? Will it be able to handle the stress?" Natalya asked as she looked at the worried face of Cap. "Since the cells will be forced to grow at an accelerated rate, I believe his coils will become larger and larger by the process. And his chakra core will respond to the enlarging chakra coils by producing more and more chakra at an accelerated rate, increasing his reserves."

Jarvis replied, calming Natalya. "However, his control over his reserves will be shot to hell." Tony added as an after thought, worrying Natalya. As soon as he saw the worry on her face, he immediately realized his mistake. "But it's fine. He knows how to form chakra strings, he knows water walking, tree climbing, and kunai balancing. With his knowledge and a few shadow clones, he will be back at his old level in no time." Tony finished as Naruto walked into the room.

All eyes fell on Naruto as he sat in his seat. " Um… you guys wanted to discuss something?" Naruto asked as he looked at the Avengers. Jarvis stepped forward and began to ask a few questions. "Hello Naruto. When was the last time you ate?" "Um….yesterday morning, before the exam." Naruto replied. "Any abnormalities in your chakra coils you can feel?" "No…not really. Why are you asking all of these questions?" Naruto replied and asked.

"Well Naruto, do you remember how I became the super soldier I am?" Captain asked, cutting Jarvis off and asking Naruto a question. "Yea, you told me an old friend of yours developed a serum and you volunteered to be a human guinea pig. But what about the serum? You said it's been lost for ages." Naruto replied. "Jarvis has managed to recreate the serum to a certain degree and has changed it based on a few notes from the Namikaze library."

Tony answered as he looked at Naruto with an expressionless face. "Wait, you mean he cracked it?" Naruto asked with an awed expression. "Yes, but not quite." Natalya said as she pulled up a computer screen. "The current serum we have only increases strength, stamina, speed, and a quicker metabolism.. It offers no advanced healing, muscle growth, or physical growth like Captain's did. In layman's terms, you wouldn't change on the outside, just the inside." Natalya finished as she looked at Jarvis. "I discovered a few intriguing notes in the Namikaze library." Jarvis said as he handed Naruto a file.

Naruto opened it to see pictures of an odd bacterium and test results. "That bacteria was created by Orochimaru of the Sannin in an attempt to create the perfect body. It stimulates chakra cores in order to heighten reserves as much as possible. As you can see, many of his experiments died because their chakra coils were unable to adapt." Jarvis said as Tony took over. " Due to the serum and you having a healing factor due to your Uzumaki heritage, we believe that the bacteria might be a success in you. Of course, your control over your reserves will be shot to hell, but we're confident you can get it back to snuff."

Naruto smiled and nodded and Tony's comment, but turned to see Caps serious expression. "There is on downside. We will need huge amounts of power to get this project going. While the nuclear reactor here could power it, I'm afraid it would suffer a major melt down and this whole bunker would be uninhabitable. We would no longer be with you, Naruto. You would be on your own with power. Ultimately, we have decided to let you make this decision. Power, or .." "No." Naruto cut Captain off before he could finish his question.

"What do you mean Naruto?" Natalya asked as she sat next to him. "You guys are my family, my real family. You guys trained me, cared for me when I was sick, and helped me with my problems. I am not going to give that up. I'll find some other way to get stronger, but not at the cost of those that are closest to me." Naruto said, making Cap look at him with wide eyes. Instead of taking power to accomplish whatever he might want, Naruto chose his family and those that were precious to him. While Cap may have been hesitant to give Naruto the serum because he feared it would turn him into another Red Skull, that statement erased any doubt he had.

Captain smiled as he tossed Naruto a pair of keys and a map. "We're doing it Naruto." He said as he turned away. "Those keys are for an abandoned warehouse Jarvis was kind enough to purchase. We moved all of your stuff there. Weapons, uniforms, a laptop, a communicator, and a copy of the entire programming of this bunker. In that map I marked the location of the Natalya's last secret bunker. While the landscape might have changed, it holds all of the technology this bunker does."

Captain finished. "But what about the radiation?" Naruto demanded. "This place was made to withstand an H-bomb, It can hold radiation it. Besides, all of the service entrances are already secured and welded shut. The place where the serum will be administered will be an isolated room. After it has been done, you will have to start the self-destruct and seal the gate. No technology or anything from this bunker can be exposed to the outside world." Before Naruto could retort, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his neck and he slumped in his chair.

Everyone turned to see Black Widow holding him, making sure he didn't slam his head onto the table. "I'm sorry, Naruto, but this is for your own good." She whispered as she ran her fingers through his hair.

~ Time Skip: Project Chamber ~

Naruto groaned as he felt a small prick in his shoulder. He looked up to see Tony injecting something into his shoulder. "That wasn't too bad." He said, making Tony look up at him. "That was just the penicillin." He said, making Naruto gulp. "Nervous?" Asked Cap. "A little. Will I ever see you guys again?" He asked as Natalya took out four vials and put them into the injecting machines. As various patches of what looked like rows of needles descended into his arms, Natalya spoke. "There's a backup of all of the data in this bunker in the warehouse we told you about. All you have to do is upload it into the system and we'll be there, just the way we are now."

Naruto groaned as the needles dug themselves into his chest, legs, arms, and stomach. As soon as the injections were administered, the examination table he was on rose into a reclining position. "What's going on?" Naruto asked. "You will be bombarded by a special ray that stimulates muscle development and growth. This will help boost your strength, agility, flexibility, chakra reserves and coils." Naruto nodded as the chamber closed and the intense light began to bombard him. Tony was at the controls turning a wheel clockwise to control the ray.

"60…65.." Tony counted as a loud scream tore through the small chamber. "Stop it!" Natalya demanded, worried for Naruto's safety. "We can't! Either way, this place is going to blow!" Tony replied as he kept turning the wheel. "80…85..90.." Captain America stared worriedly at the chamber where Naruto was in. He remembered the intense pain, but knew that ultimately it would help him. "100…" Tony said, the large room growing deathly quiet. No more screams for Naruto, no.. nothing. "Is he alright?! Get him out!" Natalya demanded, only for the machines to suddenly blow and sparks of electricity to fill the room.

A large alarm blared and a loud computer voice began announcing the melt down of the nuclear reactor. As Naruto stepped out, he tried to stand on his own, but couldn't. He was caught by Hawkeye. Captain looked at Naruto and stared in awe. His body had been stripped of excess body fat and his already existing muscles had been sharpened to the point where it seemed like a sculptor had take a chisel at him and hacked away. His face was much sharper, the baby fat from his cheeks long since gone.

Overall, the changes made to his physical appearance were minimal, but significant. Naruto took his black t-shirt from Natalya, but before he could respond, was ushered out the only remaining exit. "Naruto, the melt down has begun." Tony said as he looked at the keypad in front of him. "Type in your codename and the self destruct sequence will begin." Naruto hesitated at first, but was reassured when Cap placed his hand over his shoulder.

"Things can't last forever. Now go." Naruto nodded, typed his name in, and ran towards the exit hatch. As he got outside, he noticed he was right at the exit of the forest of death. He then sealed the hatch and walked away. A small "THUMP" was heard, and Naruto knew that was the end of the Avenger's bunker. He dug into his pockets and found the keys and map. "3325 Bushido Ave., huh?" Naruto asked as he headed put on a henge and headed towards town.

~ Time Skip – Bushido Ave. ~

Naruto groaned as he finally got to Bushido ave. He had been wondering the village for most of the day and had found a small place that sold maps. He bought one of the entire Elemental Continent and was shocked at how big it was. He was shaken from his thoughts as he arrived at a run down warehouse. He silently unlocked the door and let himself in, and was amazed by the interior. It was by no means the bunker, but it was clean, had his equipment, his laptop, his clothing, and his bed. On the desk where his laptop sat was a small picture frame.

He picked it up and smiled. It was a picture of last night. He, Jarvis, Tony, Hawkeye, Natalya, and Cap were huddled together with Naruto's face buried into a slice of cake. He smiled, then looked at the map Cap had given him and compared it to the one of the Elemental Nations. But the map he had been given seemed different. More Spread out. Currently, the world's land was just one big chunk. 'But how?' Naruto wondered as he took out a piece of paper and turned on the laptop. He had a lot of research to do.