Awakening of the Omnitrix

Passing the Torch

"Ugh, what?" Ben groaned as a call woke him up.  He was barely able to get out of bed to see Azmuth was standing there in his doorway with a worrying smile, as the Galvan normally showed two emotions, neither of which were joy.  "Can't it wait til morning?"

"He's made his decision, Benjamin."

That was enough for Ben to be wide awake.  He was barely dressed as he was hopping out the door to follow Azmuth, not forgetting to grab a briefcase that contained what they had been working on earlier that day.

Naruto watched as Ben and Azmuth came into the office, and he wasn't really surprised to see the sleep in Ben's eyes as he entered.  It looked like Ben had just woke up a few minutes earlier, in fact.

"So, Naruto, you've come to a decision?" Azmuth asked, hopping onto the Hokage's desk.

"Yes, Azmuth.  I accept."

Ben nearly did a fist pump, but refrained from it.  "Excellent," Azmuth replied, looking at Hiruzen.  "Is this okay with you, Lord Hokage?"

"It is, when Naruto chooses to do something, he puts all of his heart into it." Hiruzen acknowledged.  Azmuth then looked at Ben, who smiled.

"Naruto, go with Benjamin while I have a word with Lord Third about the conditions of your new journey."

Naruto didn't argue and walked with Ben out of the office and into the streets of Konohagakure.

"What made you accept the offer?" Ben asked, knowing how unsure Naruto was just yesterday.

"Someone wanted me to steal a scroll for them.  It's a scroll that contains secrets to our village.  If it were to fall into the wrong hands, our entire village could be destroyed.  Thinking about that, it made me think about how the Omnitrix, it could do that on a larger scale."

"You know, that's pretty smart."

Naruto chuckled lightly, rubbing the back of his head.  "So, you wore it before, right?"

"Yeah, sure did.  You're looking at a bona fide Omnitrix veteran." Ben gave a thumbs up, and saw how amused that made the kid.  "It's a lot, the responsibility of it, but it can be a lot of fun too.  I was a couple years younger than you when I first found it."

"You were ten, right?"

"Yep.  I was on summer vacation with my Grandpa and my cousin.  We were camping when I took a walk.  A shooting star appeared in the sky, but... it actually wasn't one.  It turned mid-air and came right at me, almost hit me too.  After it crashed and the smoke cleared I found a small pod in the crater.  It had this watch in it.  Craziest looking watch you'd ever see in your life, I'm telling you.  I went to touch it and it jumped onto my wrist.  Tried getting it off, but it wouldn't."

"That sounds scary."

"It was, especially being a ten year old kid in the middle of the woods.  Once I calmed down I ended up accidentally activating it, and transformed into one of the forms in it."

"How many are there?"

"When I first used it, there were ten.  However, there's millions of DNA samples in the Omnitrix, from species all over the universe."

"Alright, how many will I have starting off?" Naruto asked, as they approached Ichiraku's.

"Same as I did, ten.  It's better for you anyway, so you can get become used to their abilities and master them.  You'll get more as time goes on."

Naruto seemed content with that answer and didn't pry more on that subject.

"Am I really going to be protecting the Earth?"