Fusion of Forces: Remnant's Maelstrom

"Ya know I'd have thought most people wouldn't want to fight me after my little display at the docks," Naruto called out cockily to his sparring partner.

Said partner, the red haired beauty of team NNPR, shrugged, "It just gives me more reason to want to spar with you, so I can improve."

And there it was. The reason, or at least one of them, that the blond Jinchūriki found himself attracted to his teammate and partner. She wasn't like most people who, upon attaining a certain level of strength, became content. No, Pyrrha was always striving to better herself in some capacity, be it her battle prowess or even herself as a person. And it wasn't for some selfish or contrived reason. No, the young battle prodigy simply wanted to be a better person for the sake of it and to better help those around her.

To Naruto, who was willing to lay down limb and life for those he considered his precious people, it was an endearing quality. Sure he knew that Jiraiya, Tsunade, and even Kakashi were more than willing to - and had in the past - put themselves in harm's way to protect him, but to have that same level of loyalty and caring returned to him by someone his own age and of the opposite sex was new and inviting.

Even amongst his peers, the Rookie 12, he had never felt that they would go above and beyond should push come to shove. Even when they found out he housed the chakra monster responsible for almost wiping Konoha off the map, he felt no closer to them. If anything they were more likely to keep him at arm's length. To their credit it wasn't out of fear of him, but more fear of what would happen in the worst case scenario, which as shinobi one always had to be prepared for.

Stretching out his limbs and pumping chakra throughout his body in preparation for what would no doubt be a blood pumping spar, Naruto chuckled, "Alright so any rules or restrictions?"

Pyrrha followed her partner's example and began to go through her own series of stretches, "While I'd like to ask you to at least try as hard as you did down on the pier, but I don't think it'd be a smart idea."

The blond had to give the green eyed Huntress-to-be credit, while he could underpower his jutsu so that they weren't as lethal or as destructive as they had been on that night, it still wouldn't lessen the fact that he would be breathing flames that took on the form of a mythical beast.

Sparring with other Shinobi meant that you at least had a vague idea of what your opponent could do, especially if you knew what village they hailed from. Here in the world of Remnant where the term ninja invoked the image of people sneaking around in black pajamas, no one would guess that Naruto's version of a ninja meant giving the finger to the laws of physics and telling Newton to shove an apple where the sun don't shine.

As such for anyone to be prepared to properly fight Naruto they would either have to fight him enough times to know what to expect or be given a cheat sheet with all of his attacks and what they did on it.

Pyrrha being Pyrrha had obviously decided to go for the former.

"Alright so I'll keep it small scale and go from there. That alright?"

Switching Miló into its javelin form while gripping Akoúo with her other hand, Pyrrha gave a firm nod.

Seeing that his friend was in her battle mode, Naruto decided that he'd give the "Invincible Girl" a harsher run for her money and pulled out Hi no Ishi. He had also realized that he hadn't really been using the weapon which was a shame seeing as he had went through the trouble of making it himself with Kurama's help.

Resolving to start using the shakujo more often, Naruto's normally bright blue eyes hardened and gained a frosty cold glint to them. He wanted Pyrrha to grow stronger just as much she herself did and to do that meant he couldn't fool around. No, he was going to put her through her paces and then some.

With an unseen and unheard signal, the two were off in a burst of speed. Naruto, being far faster than Pyrrha, managed to cross more than half the field in the time it had taken her to cover a third of it and was already aiming a horizontal swing at her abdomen.

Having sparred with her blond leader numerous times by this point, the young woman was more than prepared for this and brought up Akoúo just in time. What she wasn't prepared for was the amount of force behind the swing. Having Nora on her team, Pyrrha was no stranger to having to evade or defend against hits that could shatter concrete and dent steel. However the swing from Naruto had felt like she had just tried to stop a speeding train.

:::

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