FLIGHT OF THE KITSUNE STAR STRIKER

"Normal speech"

[Talking through a Comm Link]

Chapter 13: A Chilly Rescue

In a cavernous room where a platform adorned with glowing glyphs is situated, there was momentary shimmering sparkles of light before dissipating to reveal Naruto standing atop it. The blonde fox Faunus shook his head a bit since he isn't yet used to teleportation through mysticism. He exited the cave to find himself in a mountainous area covered in snow with bare trees sticking out in various places.

Naruto gradually approached a clearing where he caught sight of a couple Sharpclaws but then heard the sound of an aircraft and quickly took cover upon seeing it hover above. The hatch at the bottom opened up and something was lowered to the ground in a yellow spherical energy field before flying away, Naruto saw it to be a very young Earthwalker and immediately know it to be the son of the King and Queen Earthwalkers, Prince Tricky. He barely held back a snarl when he saw one of the Sharpclaw grunts hit Tricky with its club to force him into a cave and a metallic door slid down and sealed shut.

Making sure that the coast was clear, Naruto went to examine the gate for any way of opening it but wasn't finding any when he heard a bang and looked to see a spiky cannonball heading his way, he cartwheeled to the side while leaving an Accel Decoy in his place to take the hit. He traced the trajectory of the shot and caught sight of a cannon a fair distance away from the gate. He dashed quickly towards where the cannon was located to find the entryway blocked by a barrier out of stone cubes, the blonde Faunus channeled aura to his left fist and struck out with a punch to shatter the barrier and gain entry.

A couple of Sharpclaw grunts rushed towards him with their clubs raised to attack, Naruto rushed at them and performed a cartwheel jump over their heads to land them and attacked with a low sweep kick to knock one to the ground before focusing on the other one. The grunt attempted to attack with a headbutt, Naruto ducked below the attack and countered with a rising uppercut to launch himself and the grunt into the air before sending him crashing to the ground with an axe kick and landing afterwards. The second grunt had recovered and swung at the blond Faunus with his club, Naruto swiftly parried the weapon attack with a backhand and slammed a button hook punch to the gut to make the grunt stumble back in pain then he followed up with a flurry of punches before knocking him out with a haymaker punch.

Watching the grunts disappear, Naruto approached the cannon with a frown and took a stance with his hand on the Dragon Blade before drawing it out in a flash and sheathing with a metallic clink then the cannon split in half and collapsed to the ground. He heard a sound coming from the gate and returned to it to see a red switch above it.

"Guess it would only appear if there weren't any Sharpclaws around," said Naruto before taking out the staff and using the Fire Blaster to hit the switch and open the gate. He went inside and immediately got angry upon seeing the Sharpclaw grunts bullying Tricky and wasted no time in rushing up and punching one hard enough to send him slamming into the wall "If you think you're so strong that you could bully someone smaller than you, then let's see if I can't change that mindset,"

The grunt snarled in response and lunged at Naruto, he blocked the strike from the mace with the staff and kicked the grunt in the torso to push him back then followed up with a combo of strikes from the staff and ending with an uppercut to send the grunt crashing to the ceiling before dropping to the floor. Naruto turned to speak to Tricky only to notice that the young Earthwalker was nowhere in sight and figured that he must have run off when they weren't looking.

Naruto was contemplating on how to find this prince when he heard the sound of engines and looked back to see several Sharpclaw grunts riding on speeders and heading his way, forcing him to jump to the side for them to zip past. His eyes narrowed when he saw one more attempting to follow the others, so he ran at the grunt and knocked him off the speeder with a flying kick before getting on the vehicle.

"Hope you don't mind if I borrow this!" Naruto rolled on the throttle before riding after the grunts in pursuit.

Naruto veered the speeder from left to right all the while getting used to the controls and specs before accelerating in order to catch up with the grunts and apparently they had noticed him as one of the grunt tossed a spiky ball at the Faunus who moved out of the way before it exploded, revealing it to be a bomb. Naruto took evasive action to avoid the bombs being thrown at him till they entered a tunnel inside of the mountains, leaving him hardly any room for him to dodge.

One of the grunts got ready to throw another bomb towards Naruto, he quickly took out the staff and took aim before shooting a fire blast at the bomb to make it explode seriously burn the grunt's hand, making him cry out in pain and not watch where he was going as he crashed into the wall before exiting the tunnel. Naruto continued to use the Fire Blaster on the others ahead of him and was able to land a couple of hits, slowing the ones closest down to catch up to them, a grunt tried to ram him but Naruto applied the brakes for him to miss and run into a pine tree with the speeder exploding.

Naruto accelerated once more to pursue the two remaining Sharpclaw grunts and caught up to one of them. the grunt brought out his mace to attack but Naruto unsheathed the Dragon Blade and sliced the mace in half and slashed once more to bisect the speeder for it to spilt into two and the grunt to tumble in the snow. The last grunt was now fearful due to being the last one and tried to escape, Naruto wasn't planning to let that happen as he channeled aura into the Dragon Blade and swung it to launch a crescent wave of energy to take him out.

"That takes care of those guys, and now to…OH CRAP!" Naruto saw a cliff just ahead of him and tried to hit the brakes but was too late as he went off but was lucky to splash into a hot spring at the bottom. Naruto swam to the edge and climbed out when he heard snickering and looked to see Tricky looking at him in amusement "What's so funny?"

"-," Tricky spoke but Naruto still couldn't understand.

He was about to call Levy to translate when he got a notification on his Connexus then mentally activated them to project a holographic visor with the HUD displaying a loading bar which was at 99% before hitting 100% and a popup window appeared saying [Translator App successfully installed. Initiating program]

"-lucky you fell into the hot spring or you would be frozen by now," said Tricky while laughing.

"Oh ha ha, let's see how you would like if you dropped off from a cliff," said Naruto in annoyance now that he could understand the language.

"Hey I wouldn't do that if I were you! My dad's a King Earthwalker and he'll bash you up!" said Tricky warily stepping back.

Naruto was saddened upon hearing that "Sorry kiddo, but your dad's been captured. It was why I had been sent to rescue you,"

Tricky's eyes widened in disbelief "Dad's been captured?"

"Yeah, your mother was the one that sent me to find and bring you home,"

"Is she…okay?" asked Tricky in a hopeful tone.

"She'll be fine, plus I have a friend of mine who's a doctor with her too. Now we just need to get you back to Thorntail Hollow," Naruto got to his feet while sending a message to the team that he was able to find Tricky and now returning to the Queen Earthwalker "By the way, the name's Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze but you can just call me Naruto,"

"It's nice to meet you Naruto," said Tricky, cheering up a bit.

The duo proceeded through the only path available to them through the mountain until it branched into two with being over a pool of lava, he would have been able to jump over it by himself but he can't risk doing so while carrying Tricky so they took the much safer route where they came across some large blue fungus.

"Those are Blue GrubTub Fungus!" Tricky stared at them hungrily.

"What are they?" asked Naruto.

"They're an Earthwalker's favorite food, and I'm feeling kinda hungry right now,"

"Then go ahead and help yourself, I can wait,"

"But the problem is that they're very hard to catch,"

Naruto looked at the prince with a quirked eyebrow "You make it sound like they actually run away,"

"That's exactly what they would do, please Naruto?" said Tricky pleadingly.

"Okay okay, just give me a minute," Naruto quickly dashed forward and stunned the blue GrubTubs with strikes from the staff before picking them up and taking them to Tricky "Here you go,"

"Thanks!" Tricky ate the GrubTubs and felt more energetic now that he's sated. They continue onward only to get to a dead-end with a gate barring entry to a small cave, Naruto was contemplating on his next move when Tricky picked up a scent and traced it to the source before digging to unearth something "Hey Naruto, look what I found!"

Naruto went over to see some sort of stone plate, he applied pressure to it and heard the gate nearby open which gave him an idea "Tricky, mind if you step on the stone plate to keep the gate open so I can check what's behind it?"

"Okay Naruto, I'll wait," Tricky stepped on top the plate while Naruto went inside the cave to find a switch at the end, Naruto inserted the bottom end of the staff into the slot and pulled it down to trigger it before leaving. Seeing as there's nothing more they could do there, the duo doubled back but noticed that a rock platform had risen in the middle of the lava pool. Naruto realized that the switch caused this and picked up Tricky and made his way across only to come to yet another dead-end. Tricky took notice of a crack in the rock and had an idea, he went over and began digging his way through to the other side "Come on, Naruto! This way!"

"Tricky, wait up!" Naruto crawled through the hole and saw Tricky scampering away before running after him. He caught up but not before seeing the young Earthwalker being chased by a group of Sharpclaw grunts.

Letting out a groan, Naruto dashed towards them and performed pole vault with the staff to land a kick to the head of one of them. this brought the other grunts to attention as they went to attack the fox Faunus with their spiked clubs, Naruto rapidly defended from both sides with his staff before blocking one with his weapon and kicking the other away from him, Naruto swung the staff at the grunt's legs to knock him to the ground then brought it down on his head for the knockout blow. He suddenly leapt into the air with an Accel Decoy in his place to take a hit from behind by a grunt then came down to stomp on his head to slammed it to the ground. Naruto saw the first Sharpclaw grunt he knocked back getting up and thrust his hands at him for an Accel Decoy to appear from behind and knock him in his direction and slammed an aura-powered punch to the face for the knockout with the grunts soon teleporting away.

Naruto turned towards Tricky with a frown "That was dangerous Tricky, you could have been hurt or worse!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't know they were around here," said Tricky apologetically.

"Look, just stay close to me but hide when there's a fight,"

They continued onwards into a clearing which was actually a lake but was frozen over, they met with a mammoth which is identified as a SnowHorn. Apparently the SnowHorn was too hungry to talk to strangers but Tricky was able to help out by finding Alpine Roots which are a SnowHorn's favorite but can't dig them out by themselves since they grow underground, this earned them a Scarab Bag which Naruto knows is going to be helpful during his time here as well as directions to Thorntail Hollow. Naruto sensed another underground shrine nearby and had Tricky dig a hold to gain access and use to further empower the staff before getting back on their way.

He learnt that he was currently in SnowHorn Wastes which is where the SnowHorns live, they encountered a Sharpclaw who goes by the name Bribeclaw. The Sharpclaw was blocking their route to Thorntail Hollows and wouldn't let them through unless they paid him 25 scarabs to look the other way, Naruto rolled his eyes at this but paid nonetheless since he figured he would be coming back here sooner or later.

Naruto and Tricky found their way into some sort of sewer, they made their way through by swimming in the water and letting themselves be carried along by the current to the end of the waterway. Following through a couple more tunnels, they finally arrived at Thorntail Hollows with Naruto activating the switch to open the gate, they then heard the sound of sobbing and Tricky recognized who it is.

"That's my Ma!" Tricky took off before Naruto could say anything. Naruto hopped off the ledge and ran after him back into the shelter to see him nuzzling the Queen Earthwalker in concern while Chopper was tending to her.

"How's the queen looking Chopper?" asked Naruto.

"She started feeling ill while you were gone and I've been trying to help her out of it but I don't exactly have experience in dinosaur anatomy," said Chopper worriedly.

Tricky then spoke up "We need to find White GrubTub Fungus, she gives them to me when I'm not feeling well,"

"Then let's go look for some, hopefully some of the Thorntails would know where they could be found," said Naruto,

He and Tricky left the shelter and went to consult some of the Thorntails. They were told that the White GrubTub only grow inside the ancient well which is the mysterious stone structure nearby but were advised to acquire a Firefly Lantern as the place is very dark, so Naruto went to the shop to purchase the item after searching for the needed scarabs before heading to the ancient well with Tricky burrowing through a cracked portion of the wall and stopped before a ladder leading deep into the well.

"Alright Tricky, you wait here while I go down and find the White GrubTubs," Naruto got ready to climb down the ladder.

"But I need to help my mom," Tricky protested.

"Which is why I need you to stay, I can understand that you're worried since I would feel the same way about my mom, which is why I'm going to find those GrubTubs as fast as I can,"

"Okay, please hurry. My mom looked real bad,"

"I'll get right on it,"

Naruto climbed to the end of the ladder, he took note of the large red fungi called MushGus and remembered the warning from the Thorntails of how they release toxic spores when anything draws near them, so he made sure to stay away from them. he entered the first chamber and already felt the staff vibrating, telling him that there's a shrine nearby. He let it lead him to a small island in the middle of a pool where it pulsed strongly, Naruto reached into his pack and took out a pinkish dandelionlike seed and planted it for it to instantly grow into a large green pod. Naruto placed a fair distance between himself and the pod before shooting a fire blast from the staff to detonate the pod and reveal an opening.

"Heh, they don't call them Bomb Spores for nothing. Talk about nature's explosive ammunition," Naruto muttered to himself before going inside and arriving at the shrine, he held the staff over his head and arcs of blue energy from above struck the staff several times, making it glow brightly. He felt the staff inform him that he can now use the ability called the Staff Rocket Boost which grants energy propulsion, enabling him to launch himself at any direction.

Naruto exited the shrine and scoped the area; he came across a pressure switch and figured that it required something heavier than himself to place on top of. He took notice of a stone bridge overhead and had an idea as he used the newly acquired energy propulsion of the staff to launch himself up to it and then broke a large piece of it with a bomb spore to place on the switch which in turn opened a gate nearby for him to go through.

The blonde faunus came across a Thorntail who didn't seem alright in the head and even wondered how he got here but was allowed to continue since he had a firefly lantern with him. He climbed down another ladder to descend even further and the cavern grew darker as he moved on. Luckily, Naruto caught a few of the fireflies nearby to place in the lantern. He searched critically in the darkest parts of the cavern but was eventually to gather enough of the White GrubTubs then made his way back to the shelter where the others were waiting.

"I got the GrubTubs!" said Naruto as he entered, then he brought out the fungi from his backpack and quickly fed them to the Queen Earthwalker. They waited with bated breath for quite some time then she finally woke up and appeared to be much better compared to before.

"Mom, you're okay!" said Tricky, curling up to her in relief.

"Thank you Star Fox, for saving my son and saving me," said the Queen gratefully.

Naruto and Chopper smiled with the former responding "You're most welcome, it was the right thing to do anyways. Could you explain to us just what happened here?" he switched on the audio of the Connexus so everyone at the Great Fox could listen in.

"This is all the work of General Scale, the leader of the Sharpclaw Tribe which are a nasty bunch of pirates who have always wanted to rule Dinosaur Planet. We have always been able to stop his attacks but this time he's somehow gotten stronger and defeated our army at the Krazoa Palace before breaking the seals of the ForcePoint Temples,"

"Okay, we now know the instigator of all this. So, what's the purpose of these seals?" asked Naruto.

"The planet is rich with a magical force which is so strong that it continually pushes our world apart. To stop this, four SpellStones were placed inside the ForcePoint Temples,"

[Interesting, I never would have thought that such a thing is possible for a planet] said Levy thoughtfully.

"With the seals broken, General Scales entered the temples and removed the SpellStones. With nothing to stop the magic force, the planet was torn apart,"

Chopper let out a gasp "That's so terrible!"

Naruto crossed his arms with a frown "Yeah, but at least we have several objectives; find the SpellStones and return them to the ForcePoint Temples to restore the planet, and we also need to put a stop to General Scales and whatever he has planned,"

[That's pretty much the gist of things so far] said Peppy.

Tricky looked at Naruto with admiration "He's so cool!"

"My son will remain with you, for only a dinosaur of noble birth can breathe life into the SpellStones," said the Queen Earthwalker, much to the surprise of the Star Fox team.

"A-Are you sure about this? Things will definitely be dangerous and I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to him," said Naruto giving a pointed look at Tricky who looked sheepish, knowing exactly what he was talking about.

"He knows the planet quite well and I'm sure he has proven most helpful during his time with you,"

"I…can't deny that," said Naruto admittedly.

"C'mon Naruto, we'll make a great team! The three of us!" said Tricky excitedly.

"I think we should take him with us Naruto, we need a guide after all," said Chopper.

Naruto let out a sigh and rubbed the back of his head "…fine, he can come along. But he gets sent back the very moment he messes up,"

"Yay!" Tricky jumped happily at being accepted.

The Queen Earthwalker nodded in approval "Good, now our spies have indicated that Scales was last seen in DarkIce Mines. I know the Gatekeeper Garunda Te, a silly fellow but he can guide you to the SpellStone. Go back to SnowHorn Wastes and find him," then she presented a yellow key "The Sharpclaws dropped it when they attacked, it could be of use somewhere,"

Naruto took the key and placed it inside his pack "Thanks for the information your highness, let's get a move on you two,"

"Roger that," Chopper nodded in affirmation.

"Okay Naruto," Tricky scampered next to them.

The newly formed trio set out of the shelter and are now on a quest to save Dinosaur Planet from destruction before it is too late.

This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, Naruto arrived at Ice Mountain where he launch a rescue mission to save prince Tricky which pretty much involved a high-speed chase with some members of the Sharpclaw tribe and was able to succeed. He escorted the prince back to Thorntail Hollow only to learn that the Queen Earthwalker wasn't well and needed medication. He ventures into the ancient well to search for White GrubTubs to help her recover. Now knowing what has happened and what needed to be done, Naruto and Chopper is joined by Tricky on their quest to restore the planet to its normal state.

I choose to forgo the boost pad and enable Naruto to use the Staff Rocket Boost at anywhere so as to make things even more interesting along the way in the arc, so be sure to read and review like always.

This Hussbek from Ghana.

Telling all to live healthy lives.

And signing out.