For the Glory of the Empire

(Prelude)

Minato loved his Village, but he wasn't naïve—he knew that if the citizens learned the truth about his son now, they would hate him.

He understood that they would need time to heal, to calm down.

So as the Reaper prepared to devour his immortal soul, the deity asked, "Have you any last requests, mortal?"

Minato, weak and dying, said, "I want you to take my son to a place where he can grow up like a normal child, and then return him here in a decade or so. That should be long enough for the Village to regain its senses. If you do this, I ask that you please tell Sarutobi of this, so that the Village will know my son once he returns."

The Lord of the Dead agreed, and as Minato saw only the gaping Maw rising to meet him, he heard the Reaper say, "But I cannot guarantee that he'll want to return."

Minato's last words were: "Then so be it."

And then there was only darkness.

________

The battle-hardened veteran could see only a burning flash of crimson light in the clearing before him, followed quickly by a silent explosion—the likes of which nothing he knew of could produce.

After a few moments, there was naught but a silence that nothing dared to break.

Chilled by the unnatural lack of noise, the soldier walked into the ashen crater, the semi-molten soil crunching beneath his feet.

It was then, near the center, that he heard it: the sound of shallow breathing.

Slightly increasing his pace, he wondered what it could possibly be—if it were a fiend, he would merely kill it.

But to his immeasureable surprise upon reaching the indentation's center, he instead found a sleeping baby covered in red energy.

It had blonde hair as yellow as the sun, and three whiskers upon each of its cheeks.

Nearing the boy, he sensed a wild, all but uncontrollable power raging within him.

The soldier decided that he would have the boy raised and trained for his own purposes—that the child would become a warrior nearly as powerful as he was.

"All the better for vengeance…"

Taking the child into his arms, he swiftly turned and marched back to his mount.

He marched out of habit, rather than protocol—he was the perfect soldier: always analyzing his enemies, always thinking tactically, ruthless in combat, using every advantage he could get.

And the Gods had just given him yet another advantage to use against his worst enemy.

Getting astride the chocobo, the seasoned warrior returned to his home, plans already forming within his mind.

Hearing a small sound, he looked at the baby to find him awake. The child's eyes were as blue as one could imagine.

Deciding to go ahead and think of a name, he said, "Child, I don't know what your birth name was, but you'll use it no longer. Your name is… Eurias. Eurias, I am your master and teacher. When you are older, you will come to fear me and to admire me. You are to be my heir in all matters, Eurias. One day, others will ask: 'Where do you come from?'"

Removing the visor on his helmet, the veteran finished his brief speech.

"And your answer will make you dangerous in their eyes, someone whom they dare not cross. When they ask you 'Whom do you call Father?', you will tell them, "Gabranth."

__________

Short, but well-written, I think.

This just came to me suddenly while I was researching Gabranth on the FFWiki, and as I'm writing down pretty much any idea I can get my hands on, (yeah, my writer's block is that bad, despite liberal use of Force Choke and Force Lightning on it) I knew that I had to go ahead and type it up. While most of my upcoming Naru/FF crossovers are going to be mostly Naru-verse, this one will be FF-verse for quite a while, I hope—at least the next few chapters or so.

So please, tell me what you think—good, bad, WTF? Reviews inspire me.