Chapter 48 The Color

Naruto walked from his home to head off to his lab. It wasn't long until the colors of sound indicated he was being followed. Tilting his head just enough he saw there was a boy his own age hiding in the trees, what was interesting about this boy was he was almost as skilled as the ANBU. Naruto raised an eyebrow at that though never fully revealed his face for the boy to see. He could have preformed a simple body flicker to evade this boy, though that would tip the boy off he had been discovered, however there was the question as to why this stranger was tailing him. Naruto had never seen this boy and he was an smirked as he thought up a plan. Naruto turned in an alley to momentarily stay out of sight, once he felt safe he bit his thumb.

Sai waited patiently on the opposite side of the alley waiting for Naruto to emerge. It didn't take long until he was tailing Natruto again. He followed Naruto as he went to a training ground. After a moment he stood still. Sai watched confused by this display until Naruto turned around to look right at him. Sai was about to run until Naruto pointed at him. It took less than a second for Sai to realize Naruto was not pointing at him directly, but behind him. Sai turned around to see a faceless demon inched away from him.

Naruto watched as Sai was restrained by the Nightgaunt. Not being able to produce sound was what made these beings so deadly. Even Ninja could not match it. After a moment The Nightgaunt flew down with an unconcious Sai in his arms.

"Lets take him to the labs, see who sent him", said Naruto.

As Naruto made his way through the sewer he was laughing to himself at exactly how useful the ability to see sound was. It made hiding from him nearly impossible. He looked back as the Nightgaunt carried the boy. Once they were in the lab Sai was strapped down to a table. Xel was summoned a few second latter.

"Yes my lord", asked Xel.

"I was followed by a boy I have never seen. I figure we should see what he knows", said Naruto.

"It won't work", said Sai.

They turned to see the stoic face of Sai staring at them.

"So when did you wake up", ask Naruto.

"Just now", said Sai.

Naruto nodded.

"Well, you may think we can't get information from you, but you are sorely mistaken", said Naruto.

He nodded to Xel.

Xel walked forward to the boy and began to remove his equipment, then he placed his hands on his head. As his hands began to glow the soft purple light Xel began to read his thoughts.

"The boy was trained well. I cannot access much. His name is Sai, or at least that's what he goes has a seal on his tongue to prevent him from revealing anything, though his mind is free. He is a ROOT agent", said Xel.

Naruto noted the stoic face of the boy seemed to change to confusion for a fraction of a second before returning to normal.

"ROOT, well that's good. Who runs it", asked Naruto.

The Purple glow became brighter as Xel concentrated on the boys mind.

"There is a man in bandages. A scar on his chin. Danzo is his name. Recent events at Dune has lead him to speed up all his plans. Danzo has chosen this boy to watch you", said Xel.

The purple glow disappeared and Xel stood back.

"Danzo, I've heard that name. He made a mistake by sending anyone after me. Now we know who runs ROOT, what else does Sai know", asked Naruto.

"Not much I'm afraid, even with the seal on his tongue Danzo wust have been wary as to exactly what his subordinates know", said Xel.

Naruto nodded. He turned his head to Sai.

"Alright, erase his thoughts, make him think his following me was uneventful", said Naruto.

"He will still follow you", said Xel.

"We have what we need. If he goes missing then Danzo will send more ninja after me. We cannot have our plans ruined", said Naruto.

Xel nodded.

"What is your plans Uzumaki Naruto", asked Sai.

"You are about to forget everything, you have no reason to know", said Naruto.

"Then you have no reason not to tell me", said Sai.

Naruto raised an eyebrow before he turned to Xel.

"Search him again", said Naruto.

Sai seemed to struggle a bit. After a moment Xel pulled out what looked like a small tape recorder Hidden quite well on removed it and handed it to Narto.

"Clever, this is not good. If we damage this Danzo will know something happened. Unless. Xel, Give Sai the memory that he was almost spotted by ANBU and had to jump in the river to evade them", said Naruto.

Xel nodded.

Naruto walked over to a nearby bucket of water and dropped the recorder in. As Xel rearranged Sai's memories Naruto checked the tape to see if it still worked. All that could be heard was static. He dropped it in the water again for good measure.

"Pour water on him. I'll make sure he awakens by the river", said Naruto.

Xel nodded and did as he was commanded. Naruto took the ruined device and put it back on Sai's person, as well as his old equipment. Naruto created a clone. The clone grabbed Sai and ran out of the lab.

"That takes care of him", said Naruto.

"What of Danzo", asked Xel.

"We will deal with him later. I'm sure that like you said Sai will still follow me. But I'll just stay down here and have a clone do my daily routines", said Naruto.

"Then I take it you are ready for the surgery", asked Xel.

Naruto nodded.

"As soon as I finish checking on everything I will", said Naruto.

As they walked through the building when Herbert came out holding his arms behind his back.

"Hey Naruto, guess what", said Herbert.

"What is it Herbert"

Herbert revealed in his arms was a metal gauntlet.

"I finished the Gauntlet", said Herbert.

"Ahead of schedule to"

Hebert nodded.

"With all the schematics from sky I finished the probe watch"

He put the gauntlet on and pressed a button on the side. A small spere ejected and shot out before two horseshoe-shaped prongs began to glow. It hovered in the air.

"It stays in the air so there is no need for another person at the end of the chain. It uses the same biological computer we will put in your spine to use psionic abilities to move itself and think. The chain becomes electrified when a fist is made and each individual piece had the chemical bath to make it repair when exposedd to blood. The claws have small needles that inject poison right into the enemy and any poison can be used. I put some of that snake venom we have collected in. On top of all that the chain can retract and detach at the push of a button. For added coolness there is a biometric scanner so only those with their biometrics programmed in can use it, or it activates a five second self destruct device. As long as it is exposed to blood, it can heal from this. All that has to be done is to put in a new self destruction device. Neat huh", asked Herbert.

"Indeed, this will be most useful. Outfit a clone with both the gas mask and this gauntlet, see how well they work together. If works as we hope, send it to the foundry for mass production", said Naruto.

"Yeah, I know the drill", said Herbert as he walked off.

Xel looked to Naruto.

"And yet another weapon to add to our collection", said Xel.

"Once the we get the chakra armor from snow we will have an army to be reckoned with. The question is how well it will be against a Star Spawn", said Naruto.

"We will find out later, the Yithian filth wishes to speak to you. I have much work to do", said Xel.

Naruto nodded. He turned to go find Konohamaru. After some searching he found him in the chemistry lab.

"I understand you want to talk", said Naruto.

"We got a sample of the meteorite from the Star Village. It is some mutant Color, and it just woke up", said Konohamaru.

"So this is apart of the Ceremony", asked Naruto.

"Most likely, I believe the Shadowed man has awakened it. The radiation proves that it has only just woke. I doubt it's been in stasis for two hundred years. It must have been dead", said Konohamaru.

"So what should we do. You know more about the Colors than I", said Naruto.

"We could capture and contain it, but the Star Village is lost to us. The clone was about to dispel when it got here, it used an animal form. Difficult to maintain for very long. I recommend we send in a squad to obtain the meteorite, by force if necessary. Then we get the teams out of there before the third day. We could learn much from the Color, and we have began construction of several Containment units below. The scientist has also been improving the lab, though he refuses to tell me exactly how", said Konohamaru.

"Just like him for it to be a surprize. Anyway go through with your plans. We need to capture the Color. I would say kill it but I have no idea how that would work", said Naruto

Konohamaru nodded.

"I should get back to work. This is the closest any Yithian has come to examining a Color and I do not wish to waste it, I will send out Alpha squad with the prototype gauntlets to capture it", said Konohamaru.

Chakra, the life blood of this planet. It was powerful, though also invisible. If anyone could see Chakra they would see it flow around the meteorite, being absorbed by it. The Color grew and changed as it gained power. It built it up. It could feel the others using Star Chakra as they called it. They would not know what it truly was. And now with the Color alive again they never would. It built up power before it released it in an unseen wave through the village.

Beta Squad were transformed to look like civilians. They went about their day to infiltrate further into the society when they felt something. They looked around. Most saw nothing. Some however saw that every Shinobi was frozen. As if time had stopped for them. Beta Squads leader examined the still form of the Shinobi. They did not move, they did not breathe, their hearts did not even beat. It wasn't long before the civilians of the village began to panic. Then it happened. The Ninja's eyes turned a color no man had a name for. They moved once more, though as they did they changed. They turned into a deformed humanoid being as they moved. Arms lengthened others shrunk and became thick. Their teeth fell out revealing sharp replacements. Hair fell out. Some became severely emaciated before their eyes, others bloated like a dead body. Civilians screamed, allerting the deformed creatures around them. They attacked. They tore at the civilians with their bare hands screaming in rage. Pandemonium hit as these deformed men attacked with reckless abandon. Killing, biting, scratching, breaking, tearing, ripping, mutilating, and all manner of brutal methods to harm anything not changed into a deformed monster. The clones abandoned their disguises and retaliated. Throwing kunai at the deformed men. They would cut through and sickly green and black fluid would ooze out. The Deformed Beasts jumped around. Despite being turned into these creatures, the ninja were still agile. One clone sent out a Tentacle whip, slashing at the deformed beasts. They would bleed the same sickly fluid.

"What the hell is going on", screamed a clone who was stabbing a creature repeatedly in the head with a kunai. Though the beast refused to die.

"I don't know just kill the things", said another clone.

The clones attacked the beasts with all they had as civilians ran around in fear, many would fall prey to the deformed beasts. Several clones transformed their arms into blades and began slashing at the beasts. Though even disemboweled, bisected, and impaled the creatures would not stop attacking. It was as if they were incapable of death. The leader of Beta Squad lashed out with a Blade like arm for his right and a tentacle for his left. He attempted to keep the beasts back though they were to strong and agile. They would leap around to avoid his attacks.

"Dammit, find a building to hold up in, we need to regroup", screamed the leader.

As they fought through wave after wave of the deformed beasts Beta squad met up. Together they were able to hold a spot for their leader to look for somewhere to hide. He pointed to the temple where the Meteorite was held.

"There, lets secure the Meteorite", said The leader.

Like a well oiled machine the squad kept the deformed beasts back. While they had yet to kill a beast, they could hold them back.

"Dammit, these fuckers are immortal", said a clone.

"They can move but they fight like shit, just keep them off us", said another clone.

They took to the roofs and ran away from the deformed beasts who roared and snarled at the clones as they ran. They leaped through the village heading right to the temple. Several clones entered the building closing the doors just enough. The others ran in while keeping the deformed beasts at bay.

"Fuck this", said A clone.

He took out a paper bomb and attached it to one of the creatures heads. They ran back in as a large explosion was heard. They began grabbing what they could to barricade the door. Looking out a window they saw the headless Deformed beast flailing around for a few moments before falling over dead.

"Well they aren't immortal. Just hard to kill", said the clone who put the paper bomb on the beast.

They looked around the temple noticing it was uncharacteristically empty at the moment.

"I guess they went outside, but to be sure split into groups of three, use heavy explosives", said the leader.

After a while four teams were created. Each holding a paper bomb ready to use.

"We really need something better than this. Why didn't we bring nitro", said a clone.

"Enough whining. Everyone unseal your gas masks. Keep your radios on. Kill any of those things. Once done converge on the meteor. Don't get within ten feet of the thing unless I say so. Now move out", said The leader.

Each clone grabbed a scroll and unsealed the gas mask. Putting the poison canister on their backs and fastening the masks tight they all turned on their radio to investigate the area.

Naruto laid face down on the surgical table. Strapped down with a piece of mood in his mouth to bit down on, His shirt was removed. Over him stood Xel, Konohamaru, and Herbert.

He looked at the device about to be implanted into his spine. It was ling and thin with a transparent dome at the top with what could only be described as a green brain held within. It has several thin wires running around it. Konohamaru grabbed it while Herbert took out a scalpel.

"Ready", asked Herbert.

Naruto nodded.

"You will be out for a week at the most, so you will still make it for the exam", said Konohamaru.

Xel grabbed an IV filled with the reagent. Taking the tube. He stuck the needle at the end into Naruto's arm. He winced as it flowed through his veins. It was cold.

"That should keep you alive for this. Now this is going to hurt like hell. Just make sure you concentrate Kurama's chakra where I say", said Hebert.

Naruto nodded.

"Well this is going to hurt. A lot", said Herbert.

Naruto bit down hard on the piece of wood as Herbert used the scalpel to cut a line from the top of his spine to the bottom. After a moment of folding the skin back to reveal it Konohamaru placed the device on top the spine. They cut into his spine to fasten it. Naruto was screaming through the pain though he did not loosen his bite on the wooden piece. He had to focus. They ran wired through each vertebra while Naruto focused Kurama's Chakra to heal that area. Black tears poured from his eyes as he shut them tight. the device was weaved into his spine slowly and carefully. For what seemed like an eternity to Naruto they stuck wires through his bone while using special needles to fasten it as they did. After little over an Hour Naruto felt like he was going to die, in fact had the reagent not been flowing constantly through his veins he probably would have. New blood was pumped in as well. Though no painkillers could be used due to the possible effects it would have on Naruto's concentration of Chakra.

Using what will he had he focused on healing the finished areas causing his spine to grow around the wires connecting to small nerves. Naruto felt like passing ot but Xel used psionic powers to keep him awake and focused. He could not rid of the pain completely, but he could lessen it. Naruto attempted to flail around his bonds though they kept him still. A pool of his black tears flowed around his head. He bit down so hard on the wood in his mouth it was close to breaking. Then the movement stopped. He focused the Chakra along his lover back healing it. he began to move up but stopped before he got to high. Once he finished Herbert grabbed the top of the device and fastened it down. He took the small wires and plugged them into Naruto's brain stem. Had Naruto's head not been fastened down he would be shaking. He still screamed as He saw the blood mix with his black tears near him. Several splotches of green reagent visible in the crimson liquid. Naruto's breathing became erratic as he felt like he was paralyzed as small wires were attached to different parts of his brain stem. The eyes rolled in the back of his head but Xel's powers forced him to stay awake. Then it was done. Using what strength he had he focused all his energy to regenerate himself. Even when he was done he still felt the pain. Xel released his head, At that moment Naruto felt the full effects of the pain he could not feel before. He took a shuttered breath and instantly passed out.

Beat Squad carefully searched the area. The screams of civilians could be heard outside. As they make their way deeper through the temple the environment begins to change. Mist collects on the floor below them causing a foul smell. The deeper they made their way through the temple the colder it got. The deformed beasts who were once men could be heard outside the walls, ripping and tearing at the remaining civilians. One clone carefully made his way to a window and peeked through. He got a good look of the creatures that were once men.

"What the hell happened to them", whispered the clone.

"Star Chakra, that's what happens when men play with forces they do not understand", spoke another clone behind him.

"But the stuff seemed so useful before. How did that happen. They look like they were born and raised in a radioactive wasteland?", asked the clone peeking out the window.

"I don't know how, but I do know that we need to get to the color"

The clone nodded before leaving the window. They made their way through the temple once again, after some exploring they heard the pitter patter of bare feet on the ground. They prepared themselves as they turned a Corner. Not far away was one of the deformed Beasts gnawing on it's own fingers. They hid and readied their bombs.

"Hold up, save those. I have a better idea", said the clone.

He lifted his arm causing a black orb with white rings to form. He ran toward the beast with the spiraling ring in his hand. When the beast saw him moving towards him he let out a yell and ran to the clone. The clone leapt backwards while he threw the spiraling ring at the beast.

The green and black fluid coated the walls as the beasts skin was torn from his body. Then the muscles. When the Spiraling ring began to fade all that stood there was a pile of gore. The clone smiled. He reached for the radio in his mask.

"Beta squad, team three reporting in. We have some good news, the Spiraling ring works better on these things than paper bombs. Just a heads up. Over", said the clone.

There was static for a moment.

"Beta Squad, Team one. We read you loud and clear. Good work. Now head for the meteorite. You need to see this. Over", said the leader.

The clone nodded before motioning for his clones to follow. They were happy to be wearing gas masks, because the mist around their feet could be smelt through them. They could only imagine how it would smell without it. Slowly they made their was to the center of the temple where team one and four was waiting.

"Where is team two", asked a clone.

"They have run into a small pack of those beasts. But look at this", said the leader.

He slowly opened the door to reveal the room had several deformed beasts taking civilians and bringing them to the meteorite. Some were already beginning to deform.

"So that's how they do it. They are giving them star chakra to make more. We need to stop them", whispered a clone.

"We are working on that, I sent in a clone disguised as a mouse to set paper bomba around the room. As soon as they go off we release a wave of poison from our masks. Now everyone as soon as they go off activate thermal vision. These bastards show up on it brighter than anyone else", said the clone leader.

The clones nodded.

"We don't know if we got our message to the boss, we don't know if he is sending help, we can't think about that now. Right now we have to stop these things from spreading. So far it seems like they are still in this village and not leaving but we can't rely on that. Our objective is simple. Secure the meteorite, we can't kill a color, but we can capture it. It's too late for this village, but you can bet your ass that we won't allow this to spread", said the leader.

He removed a scroll from his belt. Opening it he poured in some Chakra before a metal and glass container could be seen.

"Konohamaru says this should contain the meteorite and keep it from doing anything outside the container, We have only a few so be careful with them", said the leader.

"Yes sir", spoke the clones in unison.

"Remember, right now we are the first and last line of defense to keep this from spreading. Now get ready", said the clone.

After a moment a mouse came out from a small hole in the wall before changing to normal.

"The bombs are set to go off in a moment, got ready for the fire works", said the clone.

The deafening sound of an explosion was heard. The clones kicked the door open releasing as much gas as they could while activating their thermal vision. Several held spiraling rings in their hand and threw them at the deformed beasts. During the fight team two had made their way in and started to unleash all they had at the beasts. They systematically took out the beasts using only paper bombs and spiraling rings. It was much simpler when in confined spaces so the beasts could not move as well. They finished quickly.

The clones stood around looking at the damage. Then they turned to the meteorite. An aura of colors with no name emerged from it. It changed through different nameless colors as if it was trying to speak. Not wasting time the leader ran forward ready to put the meteorite in the container. But with each step he felt sick. A band of color from the meteorite made it's way to the leader. As he got closer he breathed harder. It was like this thing was sucking the life out of him.

The other clones ran forward to help their leader but they fell to the same fate. The clones began to bleed from every orafice as the color draied life from them. The clones could hear the pitter patter of many bare feet coming towards them. The deformed beasts slowly made their way to them. They were much to sick to do anything. They closed their eye to wait for their deaths when the wall exploded. They turned to see Alpha Squad wearing masks and gauntlets. They charged forward releasing their chains which snaked around the deformed beasts as if it were alive. The electricity caused the Deformed beasts to convulse and move strangely though it did not stop.

The Alpha Squad leader walked to the Beta Squad leader.

"We're here to help. You guys look out of it. Let us handle this", said the leader of alpha squad.

He reaced for the container near the Beta Squad leader and walked toward the meteorite. While he felt sick with each step he sill had enough energy to make it to the meteorite. WIth what strength he could muster he put the container next to the meteorite. He pushed it off it's clawed pedestal into the container and sealed it. The Color tried to fight back but without a physical body all it could do was weaken him and now that it was sealed it couldn't eve do that. The Deformed beasts tried to stop him but Alpha squad clones kept the beasts at bay. The leader looked at the meteorite. The thing was filled with the nameless colors as they moved around trying to look for an exit. The meteorite could be seen through the colors. The leader strapped the canister to his side as he turned to the deformed beasts who were no longer moving. Even being attacked every single one of them was staring at him with uncontained anger and rage painting their faces. All at once every single beast charged through the clones attampting to get to the alpha squad leader. He ran around using their concentration on him against them. The squads attacked the beasts as they chased the leader bt they never stopped. They began to claw at them injecting poison but the beasts fought threw that. The leader looked to his soldiers.

"I'm going to lead them out. You get beta squad out of here. This place is toast in a few days anyway. Once I give them the slip I'll meet ou at the drop off point", he said as he ran through the hole in the wall.

Waves after waves of the beasts followed him. The remaining clones stopped and grabbed Beta Squad before they limped away.

Alpha leaders ran fast but they were catching up fast. Alpha Team should have gotten the Beta team out by now. There were to many deformed beasts to fight and they were jst as agile as him. The Meteor was slowing him down as well. He jumped and ran up a nearby tower. The beasts used claws to climb up to him. Naruto jumped up and landed on the roof. He created a clone who continued to run while he preformed a body flicker to another roof. He hid and watched as they climbed to the top to the clone. They sprinted on all fours moving like animals towards him. Alpha teams leader set the meteor down and tried to catch his breath.

He looked at the canister that held the meteor. The colors swirled as they continued to try ad find some way out of meteor itself was unaffected. He got up to head to the drop off point. As he ran through the roofs he felt the memories of his clone returning to him. The clone had been killed by the beasts.

Naruto woke on the table. He still could not move and felt like he had been skewered by Zabuza's sword. His eyes trailed the room before they fell onto Xel.

"How long was I out", asked Naruto hoarsely.

"A few hours. You are still healing. So far there doesn't seem to be rejection of the implant which is good. We removed the reagent as soon as we got you enough blood. You should be fine, though you need to rest. Right now your body is still getting used to the device", said Xel.

"I just saw what is happening at the Star Village. They got the color, but the populace has deformed into...something", said Naruto.

"We can discuss that later. Rest easy my Lord", said Xel.

Naruto didn't need to be told twice. He closed his eyes and wen't back to sleep.

In the Star village the Shadowed man watched as the clone made off with the color. He was not concerned. The process had already started and soon the village would be no more. He lifted his arms. Golden light emerged from his hands causing a pillar of energy to move toward the sky. It pointed to the Star that would allow Cthulhu to awaken. As the pillar faded a grey mist filled the town. From the mist the bodies of the sleepless dead formed from the mist. The Shadowed man watched as the village tore itself apart. The sleepless dead were misshapen corpses that shone with white light. They were transparent and shambled through the village. Had anyone seen them they would recognize the tattered clothing the sleepless dead wore was the clothing found at Dune the city that was no more. The sleepless dead systematically destroyed the remaining civilians. This would be the Star Villages final days.