Disclaimer: I certainly don't own Naruto, Disney or any of its affiliated properties. If I did, I wouldn't be writing this now would I?
"The connection of our hearts…" : Speech (Bold for yelling ,Bijuu, or massive creatures)
'The connection of our hearts…' : Thought
The forests around Nottingham, England…
It had been a few hours since Naruto had crash landed in the forest- he didn't have a name to put to the settlement he espied in the distance so he was just sticking to calling the place 'the forest'. Given his new form though, he already gave up on ever entering civilization – he couldn't use his chakra consciously in this world, not even a rudimentary henge was possible with how turgid his energy felt. It wasn't all as bad as it sounded however since with the loss of true chakra circulation came the consolidation of said energy from its coils to the surrounding flesh and bone. In simpler terms, Naruto was now in a permanent state of bodily chakra reinforcement, his strength, speed and general statistics augmented to levels he hadn't thought to push his body to before.
Of course, Naruto didn't discover this until way later in his day when he was collecting wood and water for his little camp at his crash site. Grabbing fallen logs with the intent to hoist them over his shoulder led to the logs splintering in his grip with a spectacular burst of wood chippings and splinters and when he put his hands before his face to protect his eyes, he could see the flying pieces of wood travelling through the air in slow motion. What few managed to pierce his thick fur and injure him were quickly pushed out his flesh with his newly improved healing factor (he could already heal really fast but his new level of healing was something akin to Swampfire from Ben 10).
"Damn! I may not be able to use any jutsu but the tradeoff is pretty sweet – I get to be a huge super strong and fast fox with enhanced senses! Shame that literally makes me a monster for humans now…I was hoping that I could do a simple transformation at least…this will make exploring this world extremely hard now…" Naruto whooped before he grumbled a little when he looked down at his new body – he stood at an intimidating eight and a half feet tall as a teenage fox (with Kurama's face so one can imagine just how scary he looked if he so much as lifted his black lips) with impressive musculature rippling beneath his yellowish orange fur (yellow for most his body, with his softer bits covered in light orange fur instead).
"Well…no use thinking too hard about that kind of stuff now – that's more of Ella's style. At least my camp's looking respectable now…it only took like five hours but I now have a place to rest my weary head after a busy day!" Naruto said, looking over his new lodgings with a satisfied expression. His earlier search for water also let him discover streams with lots of fish so he caught himself some trout and was looking forward to roasting them over an open flame (while his new body was great and all, with it came one main issue – his metabolism had been dialed to eleven, meaning that our ninja fox got ravenously hungry quicker than usual).
A few minutes later, a faint trail of smoke could be seen trailing out past the treetops.
"Ah, this is much better – some good grub and a peaceful forest to collect my thoughts in. What more could a fox like me ask for?" Naruto hummed in quiet satisfaction, taking a nice bite out of a roasted trout while looking into the crackling flame before him, occasionally poking the flames so that they didn't go out and turning a stick with two more trout speared on it over them. He was so immersed in cooking and thinking on how to best go about surviving in this new world that he missed a new arrival suddenly pop up next to him with the musical tones of a lute as accompaniment.
"Why, what is this? Why is such a fox, young as ye, alone in this forest when he should be with his family in Nottingham yon?" The stranger said, crowing in surprise when Naruto leaped a clean three feet in the air before turning to him, claws bared and ready to fight.
Naruto, for his part, was extremely confused at what stood before him. The newcomer was an anthropomorphic rooster wearing a puffy blue doublet and a pair of green cotton trousers. While he had seen weird creatures like this before, they were usually in magical worlds or weird twilight realms like Wonderland…this would need further investigation.
"What? You can talk? I thought this world was completely mundane with no magic whatsoever?!" Naruto said as he walked over to the rooster, who looked offended at the insinuation the upstart youth made.
"Now see here youngster, just because you're a bigger lad than most doesn't mean you can have bad manners like that! Of course I can talk – in fact, I daresay that is my greatest talent, besides my obvious skill with my lute here. Allow me to introduce myself – I am Alan-a-Dale but I also go by the Rooster! I am a bard by trade and hail from the town of Nottingham. Now child, why won't you tell me why you aren't with your family instead? The forest isn't safe on account of the beast that appeared in the morning" Alan said, watching as Naruto sighed before making up a believable story to convince the rooster that yes, he had no family and that no, he had no idea about the loud roar and noises from the forest that morning.
"Yeah, sorry about that – I haven't really spent a lot of time out of the forest you see…my parents, who were wandering hunters, were the only other people I saw my whole life and I lost them a few years ago when they went on a foraging run and never returned. I was left to my own devices for almost six years before I finally came to this forest here you see. I just arrived an hour ago so I had no idea what happened here!" Naruto said as Alan clucked in sympathy before patting his thigh (he would have patted his head but Naruto had around seven feet on him and he didn't see anywhere to land on his broad shoulders).
"Well, you are in luck – Nottingham is a nice little town and King Richard a kind and great ruler. I am sure he would help you out should you ask!" Alan said as the two of them started talking, Naruto sharing what few herbs and grains he still had in his resized clothes from when he was in Jungle Book's India.
Meanwhile, back with King Richard, the Sheriff and the kid foxes…
Richard and the sheriff had assembled a force of forty men in full armor and weapons and were ready to ascend the mountainous trails leading up to the forest. While mustering a greater force would have been easy for the reigning monarch, Richard was all too aware of how such an act would have incited a far greater degree of panic from the peasant folk, quite possibly even leading to a mass exodus from the town (most prey animals were wont to break out into panicked stampedes after all…).
"Alright men – here are your orders: you are to scout ahead into the forest while the King and I bring up the rear. Keep an eye out for anything strange and remain vigilant – your king demands your best!" The Sheriff yelled as the regiment before him (consisting of rhinos, wolves and vultures) beat their chests in agreement.
'Let's hope that this is just a case of an upstart lion trying to challenge the king – we can just kill the fool and tell his Majesty that the cur tried to attack the men without provocation…' The sheriff thought as he walked in front of the King's horse, his right hand palming his short sword strapped to his rotund midsection (whether he could actually use that sword was another matter entirely – he relied on his brute strength most of the time anyway…).
His piece said, the small army travelled up the mountain trail. Off to the side though, three children could be seen scurrying off in a similar direction.
"Marian, I simply must protest this course of action – I know Robin is a remorseless daredevil with no hope for redemption but to drag ladies like us into something like this is madness!" Kluck, Marian's lady in waiting (in training) said as she tutted in disapproval.
"Oh come of it Kluck – nobody is forcing you to tag along and Marian trusts me! Besides, Little John and I know this forest like the back of our paws – there's really nothing in there we haven't seen before and we only started exploring that place three years ago (for those curious, Robin and Marian were twelve years old and Lady Kluck was fourteen years old – Naruto has the biological fox age of thirteen…his mental age is up for debate though…)!" Robin huffed in annoyance as Marian giggled at her friends' dynamic. They both wanted the best for her but in different ways so it was fun to see them butt heads at times – Kluck was quite a plucky little chicken most of the time (this time though, Naruto's roar had really ruffled her feathers as it were…).
"Don't worry Kluck dear, remember if anything goes wrong, we have the Rhino Guard a shout away so it's okay to trust Robin and Little John!" Marian said Kluck simply chuckled in derision.
"Those meatheads? Why, if I was just a little older, I am sure I could knock them all down without much issue! But I suppose you're right, if anything, they'd distract any beast that would try to attack us children…" Kluck said as the trio entered the forest, where they soon met or better yet 'found' Little John, who was quite busy shooting the breeze, dozing off with a pleasant lazy smirk on his muzzle.
"John! Wake up man- you're making our group look bad here!" Robin said, running over to shake the bear awake while the girls tittered at his embarrassed face.
"H-huh? Robin? Sorry about that pal – I was waiting around for you guys and when the day started getting warmer I just dozed off I guess!" John said, rubbing his head with a good natured closed eye smile.
"That's fine – do you know where the noise earlier today came from?" Robin asked as the three kids crowded around the bear teen, who looked pensive for a second before nodding.
"Sure do! I didn't go check the place out yet but I do know where to go to find it – follow me!" John said, the children moving in the direction of Naruto's camp.
Meanwhile, back with Naruto and Alan…
Having had an early lunch, Naruto and Alan were busy exchanging stories, the rooster regaling Naruto with many tales and musical numbers while Naruto shared some heavily edited versions of his own adventures. They really hit it off, with Naruto coming to really like the goofy but charismatic rooster with a unique sense of chivalry. After cleaning up the firepit and disposing off the leftovers of their meal, Naruto began looking around the campsite, wondering how he would try to get to Nottingham like Alan said.
"Hey – how do I get to Nottingham from here? I am a literal stranger around here so any help would be great!" Naruto said as Alan bowed with a smile.
"Why, it would be my pleasure to take to my great town! If we set off now, we should make to the town gates by sundown!" Alan said as Naruto nodded at him appreciatively before the two of them started walking in the direction of Nottingham. However, it wasn't five minutes into their walk when the duo faced a problem – Naruto was a giant compared to the rooster and given that they had just eaten lunch, Alan wasn't too comfortable trying to keep up with the long strides of Naruto(seriously- one step from Naruto was around four for the bird!)…
"Pray, slow your feet child! I can barely keep pace with your strides!" Alan huffed out in exhaustion as Naruto stopped before walking over to the bird with an abashed expression.
"Oh, I am sorry – I should have seen this coming. Wait a minute though – I have an idea…" He said before picking up Alan by the waist, the bird letting out a surprised squawk.
It was at this moment that a member of the Rhino guard appeared, just in time to witness Alan squawking as a huge furry being lifted him to eye level. Fearing the worst, the guard bellowed to alert his mates before rushing over to stab Naruto in the back with his spear. It was a testament to the muscle mass of Naruto that the spear didn't sever his spine and kill him outright but the blade still penetrated his flesh and broke off inside him, leaving the flabbergasted guard with a useless shaft.
With a roar of pain and anger, Naruto placed Alan on the ground before whirling around to face his attacker, pulling out the spear head from his back with an angry growl, the rhino paling in fear as the giant fox (head and shoulders taller than him) dropped the spear head on the ground, his wound slithering shut with a rush of steam. Naruto's eyes had also changed – gone were the familiar blue eyes that twinkled with mirth. They were instead bloody red eyes set in an inky black background so it was understandable that the rhino faced with such a beast would shriek in fear.
"Ohhhh…you shouldn't have done that buddy – now I am going to have to rearrange some your bones you see…" Naruto growled before leaping at the guard, punching him in the face, breaking his horn and launching him into a nearby tree, breaking it and knocking the rhino out cold, blood oozing out his mouth(he also broke a few of his teeth).
This was the scene the rest of the Rhino guard arrived to see and upon seeing one of their own in such a condition, they all bull rushed Naruto with angry bellows, the fox merely blowing out a steamy breath before systematically disabling the force of rhinos with hand to hand combat.
"Hold your attacks ruffian! This here forest is the domain of King Richard, first of his name – if you value your life, desist your attacks and submit to lawful arrest!" The Sheriff said as Richard looked at the scene with serious eyes.
"Oh should I? Who's going to make me? These foolish rhinos almost killed me with a stab to the back! I…ALMOST…DIED! How's about I rip open that fat belly of yours and show you what your entrails look like?!"Naruto growled, the haze of his bloodlust having yet to abate, even as the Sheriff quailed at Naruto's murderous look while Richard walked forward, unsheathing his broadsword as he did so.
"Child, while it is true that my guard acted rashly, you aren't helping your case with your behavior. Lording your strength over the weak isn't the sign of a worthy man and I would prefer to avoid sullying my blade with the blood of a child…" Richard said, acknowledging the issue before him in a matter of fact tone as Naruto snorted before sitting on the forest floor with a quiet huff.
"Yeah right. That clunky sword wouldn't even slow me down even you got a lucky hit in but you do make a point. Besides, Alan said you were a good guy so I guess I can let you guys have a second chance, even if you were planning to backstab me again…" Naruto grumbled as Alan let out relieved sigh before walking over to assess his friend's 'injuries' (?!) while Richard looked confused.
"I beg your pardon? I brought no one else besides those you see here…" He said as Naruto jerked his head in the direction of some bushes, which after some wiggling and rustling, revealed Robin, Marian, Kluck and John, who looked ashamed they were caught.
Richard only sighed in exhaustion, palming his face in exasperation while Naruto surprisingly started chuckling in amusement.
It seemed that no matter where he went, children would be children. At least this world looked more interesting than the last…
And that was chapter 53 – a bit of a messy introduction with Naruto and the rest of the Robin Hood cast but I wanted to shake things up. I'll put up a poll on the arc pairings for Naruto on my P**reon channel so feel free to vote (9/6/2024)!
If you'd like to support me you can find me on Patreon on the 'search for creators' bar under DudeWithaMac (I only get free time on Sundays since money's extremely tight-details on Panacea chapter 14). Alternatively, you guys can follow this link:p#at#re#on.#com/DudeWithaMac (remove the hash tags). Reviews and comments are always welcome!