Chapter 5: Iron against Thunder
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Amid the ruined street, a savage roar erupted from the throat of a special infected, sounding more like a wild beast than a man, as his white eyes locked onto Naruto as though he were prey.
The armor emitted a mechanical hum. The thrusters in its palms began glowing with blue energy.
Tony Stark, better known as Iron Man, was staring intently at his next target.
Now one of the infected, his hunger and rage had reached their limit. Yet he still wore the most powerful suit of armor he had ever created.
The zombie leaned slightly forward, preparing to lunge at Naruto once again.
Standing before him, Naruto slowly raised the hammer.
Sparks crackled around his body. This time, however, his irritation was far greater than before. They hadn't even let him finish his meal.
Faced with the lightning dancing around Naruto, the zombified billionaire genius didn't hesitate. Before the suit's thrusters had fully powered up, brilliant blue blasts erupted from his palms and the soles of his feet, shattering the pavement beneath him.
In an instant, he launched himself at Naruto like a living missile.
Naruto barely had enough time to bring Mjolnir up in front of him.
The impact hit like a freight train.
Tony's metal fist, reshaped into a massive hammer, slammed into the divine weapon. The shockwave split the asphalt around them. The sound was sharp and violent, as if two storms had collided in the middle of the street.
Naruto ended up dropping to one knee, a crater forming beneath his foot while his knee drove another into the ground.
Even though his attack had been stopped, Tony didn't slow down. He stepped back just enough before aiming both hands at Naruto.
The centers of his palms glowed with blue energy as he fired both repulsors at the same time.
Naruto reacted instantly, pulling the Vibranium Shield from his inventory and raising it in front of himself. The repulsor blasts ricocheted off its surface, deflecting in different directions the moment they struck it. But by the time the attack had been blocked, Tony was already on him again.
The armor shifted slightly, forming a metal blade along his forearm. The zombie swung viciously, aiming directly for the young blond's neck.
Naruto leaned back at the last possible second. The blade sliced through the air only inches from his throat.
Then he immediately counterattacked, smashing the Vibranium Shield into Tony.
Even with his armor, Zombie Tony was sent flying like an out-of-control missile by the force of Naruto's strike, crashing through several floors of a building before disappearing into the dust and rubble.
For a brief second, everything fell silent.
Then the building exploded outward.
Tony burst from the wreckage, propelled by his thrusters as the suit's nanobots reorganized themselves, slowly repairing the damage from the impact.
His helmet had reformed as well, but even behind it, his bloodlust and insatiable hunger were unmistakable.
The armor deployed multiple cannons from his back and shoulders.
A barrage of missiles shot into the air.
Naruto looked up just as the sky roared once again.
The dark storm clouds he had summoned himself churned above Manhattan.
"Alright..."
Lightning answered.
A bolt struck the hammer just as the missiles came within a few meters of him.
Electricity erupted in every direction.
The missiles detonated midair before they could reach him, triggering a chain of explosions that lit up the entire avenue.
Tony burst through the wall of fire, his hands transforming once more into enormous mechanical hammers that slammed into the ground as he landed in front of Naruto.
The impact unleashed a shockwave powerful enough to overturn several nearby cars.
The zombie roared before charging once again.
Naruto charged as well.
The divine hammer—and at times the shield—collided again and again with Tony's nanotech-forged arms. Every impact sent arcs of electricity racing through the armor, while the suit's plates relentlessly adapted to withstand each devastating blow.
One of Tony's punches sent Naruto flying. He bounced across the pavement before crashing violently into an abandoned bus.
Naruto grimaced in pain from the damage inflicted by the zombified genius. Though his body showed no visible wounds, he could feel every blow deep inside.
"Damn it..." Naruto muttered as he struggled to sit up, breathing heavily. His stamina was beginning to fade. This was only his first fight since waking up, and exhaustion was already starting to set in—not to mention that he hadn't had nearly enough food to sustain his new body.
He looked back at the tin man, watching as the cannons on his armor began charging.
Not wanting to give him the chance to fire, Naruto hurled the shield at the zombie with all his strength.
It bought him a brief moment to recover, as the pain still hadn't completely subsided.
The Vibranium Shield spun through the air before smashing into Tony's helmet, throwing him off balance for an instant and interrupting the attack he had been about to unleash on Naruto.
The shield ricocheted off several structures before returning to the blond Uzumaki. Naruto caught it cleanly and secured it back onto his forearm.
His eyes, their pupils now narrowed into slits, gleamed intensely.
Regaining control, Tony hovered in front of the Uzumaki. Meanwhile, the thrusters in his palms and the arc reactor in his chest began charging once again.
Naruto raised both weapons, with Mjolnir pointing toward the sky.
The storm answered.
A colossal bolt of lightning crashed down upon him.
Energy surged around his body like a living tempest.
Before him stood Tony Stark—a ravenous zombie clad in one of the most advanced suits of armor ever created—roaring as every one of his repulsors blazed at maximum power.
For a split second... they locked eyes.
A child against an adult.
Then they both attacked at the same time.
Their attacks collided in the middle of the street.
The lightning Naruto had stored within the divine hammer was unleashed with overwhelming force. At the same moment, Tony Stark's repulsors and arc reactor erupted with a devastating blast of energy, fueled by a massive portion of the armor's power reserves.
The collision was catastrophic.
Light swallowed the entire avenue.
Nearby cars were lifted off the ground, windows throughout the surrounding buildings shattered, and the pavement cracked apart as though the city itself had been struck by an invisible hammer.
For several seconds, the energy from both attacks struggled for dominance.
But Mjolnir was more than just a weapon.
It was the perfect conduit for the storm itself.
Naruto tightened his grip around the hammer's handle as electricity coursed through his arm and spread across his entire body. The lightning answered his will, roaring louder and louder.
Then he stepped forward.
The lightning exploded outward.
Tony's attack was overwhelmed in an instant. The divine lightning tore through the blue energy blast as if it were nothing before slamming head-on into the Mark 50 armor.
Tony was completely engulfed by the storm.
The armor's systems immediately began to fail, even as they desperately tried to compensate. The nanobots reorganized themselves in an attempt to absorb the damage, but the sheer amount of energy was simply too much.
Had Tony been in peak condition, free from the virus, he could have accomplished far more. He was a genius capable of adapting to nearly any situation, even fighting someone like Thor himself. But the virus had severely damaged much of his brain, drastically limiting his abilities and preventing him from pushing beyond what he had already achieved.
White and blue bolts of lightning raced across every inch of the suit.
The metal plates twisted and buckled as the electricity surged through them.
Tony roared.
Naruto took one step forward.
Then another.
With every step, the lightning grew even more intense.
Mjolnir began to shine like a small star in his hand.
Tony's armor crashed violently to the ground.
Sparks burst from every joint. The arc reactor in his chest flickered erratically.
Yet the zombie's white eyes remained locked on Naruto.
He kept trying to stand.
He kept trying to attack.
Naruto tilted his head slightly.
"You're still annoying."
He raised the hammer.
With a swift motion, Naruto hurled Mjolnir straight at Tony's head.
Unable to react because of the momentary paralysis caused by the overwhelming lightning, Tony could only watch as the divine weapon came hurtling toward him.
The impact obliterated his head instantly.
His body, now completely out of control, lost all mobility and collapsed onto the ground, lying there like nothing more than discarded trash.
[Target Eliminated!]
[You have eliminated the infected Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man—a peerless genius whose mind revolutionized the technology of his world.]
[Rewards: (Tony Stark's Intellect), (+150 SP)]
Silence.
Only faint arcs of lightning remained, dancing around Mjolnir as the storm slowly began to calm over the city.
Naruto stared at the corpse for several seconds.
Then he slumped down against a pile of rubble, resting Mjolnir beside him as he pulled out another bag of food and began eating. He breathed heavily, still exhausted from his very first battle.
Although his new body—whose true nature Naruto knew nothing about—possessed greater endurance than any ordinary human or even any known superhuman, it was still in its earliest stage. It would take time before he could accomplish much more.
After several minutes, he finally managed to catch his breath and stood up.
Only then did he truly take in the battlefield around him.
Overturned cars.
Scorched asphalt.
The remnants of explosions scattered everywhere.
He simply let out a quiet sigh before turning his gaze back to the man, studying him with curiosity. He found himself intrigued by everything Tony had accomplished, especially that remarkable suit of armor.
Now that Tony was dead, he could finally admire the imposing nanotech armor, its red-and-gold finish gleaming despite the damage.
The Mark L Nanotech Armor fit seamlessly around Tony's headless body, its sleek red-and-gold metallic exterior retaining its smooth, aerodynamic design. A raised collar of nanobots encircled the neck area, while the heart-shaped Arc Reactor glowed from his chest. Thin blue streams of energy traced across the armor's surface, pulsing weakly after the damage inflicted by Naruto's lightning.
[Name: Mark L Nanotech Armor]
[Bearer: Tony Stark (Iron Man)]
[Universe: Marvel / Earth-214901]
[Type: Technology / Multi-Form Combat]
[Rank: S-]
[A collection of self-assembling nanoparticles stored within the second-generation heart-shaped Arc Reactor, capable of instantly forming weapons, shields, and combat systems. The Mark 50 represents the pinnacle of Stark engineering—an adaptive platform that continuously reconfigures itself to respond dynamically to any threat.]
[Abilities: (Adaptive Nanoconstruction), (Integrated Multi-Purpose Weapon Systems), (Automatic Reactive Protection), (Optimized Aerial Combat), (Direct Neural Interface)]
As he continued observing it, the same notification that had appeared when he picked up Mjolnir and the Space Stone appeared once again.
Naruto examined the armor with curiosity before asking Aetheria,
"How do I take it off?" he asked, his eyes fixed on the magnificent suit with fascination.
[All you have to do is tap the Arc Reactor twice to store the suit. Doing so also makes it much easier to detach it from its wearer.]
Hearing her explanation, Naruto gave a slight nod, though deep down he still didn't truly understand the suit before him.
He had seen what it was capable of during his battle against Tony.
But beyond that... he knew nothing.
His system hadn't explained how the armor worked, nor had it provided any protocols or authorization procedures.
It had given him only one simple instruction:
How to store the suit.
Nothing more.
Even so, he turned his attention to the Arc Reactor embedded in the suit's chest, which the system highlighted as though it were nothing more than a simple interactive point. Extending his left hand while holding Mjölnir and the shield in the other, he followed the instructions exactly, despite not fully understanding them.
He tapped the Arc Reactor twice.
For a brief moment, nothing happened.
Under normal circumstances, the suit's system should have ignored him completely. He carried neither Tony's biometric signature nor any registered authorization, and the command itself wasn't valid.
Yet the armor responded anyway.
The liquid metal flowed back into the Arc Reactor.
One by one, every nanite was reabsorbed until nothing remained except the small triangular Arc Reactor embedded in Tony's chest.
Naruto didn't know it, but none of this should have been possible.
The suit didn't recognize him.
Its systems hadn't accepted him.
The command wasn't valid.
And yet... it had obeyed.
He stared at the Arc Reactor for a few seconds before pulling it from Tony's chest. The device radiated a gentle warmth, almost as if it recognized the presence of someone who should never have been able to possess it.
[Item Identified: "Mark Armor L"]
[Would you like to establish a bond with this item?]
[Yes] – [No]
Naruto looked at the new screen for a moment before lowering his gaze to the Arc Reactor.
He remembered the magnificent suit.
Then he made his decision.
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