Fantasy Unleashed

Story written by Xamusel and AstralXYZ

Disclaimer: Astral and I don't own jack about this except our own characters. Sorry to disappoint (not).

Xamusel: Okay, this should easily be the last time this story goes under rewrite status, before it is otherwise scrapped. If, for whatever reason, it needs to be rewritten… well, not with me as the main author, then. I might help out with the newer rewrite at some point… but that's not likely.

In any case… on with the story!

Book 0

Prologue Arc

Pilot

Change a Variable, Change the Story

Ten years ago… a Kyuubi no Youko suddenly appeared! Its tails lashed out, crushing mountains, and sending shockwaves across the land! Each ninja rose up to defend their villages!

"Hold the attack and wait for Yondaime Hokage-sama!" a bloodied ninja cried out, before he jumped forward to engage the fox in battle.

"It's getting closer! Don't let it get near the village!" another bloodied ninja shouted, throwing a kunai in the process of talking.

Before long, however, the fox started charging a ball of malevolent energy in its mouth and attempted to aim it at the village of Konoha itself. It looked as if the doom of the village was inevitable…

*CRASH!*

…when the Yondaime, a tall man with blonde hair and blue eyes, showed up atop of his friend in the Toad Summons, Gamabunta, who landed on top of the fox and toppled it to the ground. The Yondaime, Namikaze Minato, looked around the area, more specifically at the fox, as a memory replayed through his mind.

Minato was on top of the Hokage Monument, overlooking the ensuing carnage caused by one man and a giant fox that was under his control, even as he thought, 'I have to warn Hiruzen-ossan about what happened!' Before he attempted to go off to find his predecessor, however, a masked man wearing a hood showed up from behind and attempted to grab him by the neck.

Minato held one of his three-pronged kunai in hand and attempted to spear the man through the side of the head, only for the kunai and the hand holding it to phase right through the head, and out the other side of the body! With his hand going through the body, it seemed like an opened hand would just let the kunai ghost through—

"I've got you right where I want you now, Yondaime Hokage!" the masked man got out.

—only for the man to have grabbed his kunai hand and forced him into the unfavorable position of being vulnerable to an attack.

Before the attack could come, however, Minato quickly activated his Hiraishin and carried the two of them over to the abandoned clearing where they had started their fight moments before. With Minato some distance away from his masked foe, he started closing the distance between them, hoping to defeat the man before any further damage could be done to the village that was his home.

"Now I can fight without worrying about collateral damage!" Minato roared, slashing at the masked figure. As expected, the attack phased right through, so he followed up with another slash, trying to figure out what made his technique tick.

When the attack had no effect, his opponent immediately attempted to grab him again, but Minato stepped backwards, luring him in before he performed a backflip combined with a kick, lashing out at the other man's midsection. His opponent saw it coming, however, and immediately backed off to avoid getting hit.

Minato grinned, noticing a slight mistake the man had made. He still needed to confirm his theory though, so he resumed attacking, this time using a flurry of fast, but not particularly hard-hitting attacks. The masked man didn't make any attempt to dodge this time, instead choosing to stand his ground and let the attacks phase through him. After several fruitless seconds of attacking, the Hokage deduced that his opponent's technique either had no time limit, or would simply take too long to wear out. That done, he decided to test his opponent by purposely overextending a kick, even as he mentally locked on to one of the Hiraishin seals he had placed nearby.

The masked man took the bait of the test.

When Minato felt the man grab him, he focused his chakra, applying one of his newer techniques utilizing the Hiraishin. Instead of flashing away to the seal, he used himself as a seal to flash one of his signature three-pronged kunai into the vicinity and sent it flying at the masked man. A splash of blood on his face, and the Hokage grinned when the man let go of him and retreated several steps.

His weakness was that he needed to be tangible in order to attack him! So the only time he could hurt the masked man was when he was attacking!

"As expected of the Yondaime Hokage, you figured out my technique so quickly…" his opponent growled.

"I wouldn't be Hokage if I didn't know how to figure out an enemy technique," Minato quipped, a grin on his face. It was then that a thought hit him. "Y'know, I never got your name… are you Uchiha Madara?"

"Well, you can believe that if you want," the masked figure let out a small laugh. "It's an honour that the Yondaime Hokage thinks so highly of me."

"I don't remember reading Madara to have your specific Sharingan power, though, based on what I've seen of your one eye," Minato countered, hoping to probe for info.

"And how sure are you that he ever used this power in the first place?" the man said, even as he pulled a set of cuff links attached by chains out from his robe and cuffed both of his wrists, after which he prepared himself in a taijutsu stance that seemed vaguely familiar to Minato. "Enough talk, I have a village to raze to the ground…"

Minato set himself into a Taijutsu stance as well, even as he said, "Not that I'll allow it, Obito."

The masked figure actually stiffened at the last word. "You're too perceptive, Minato-sensei."

Minato mentally cheered at figuring out his opponent's identity, even while he charged forward with a roundhouse kick.

Obito stood his ground, letting the attack phase through him as usual. Once Minato had passed through him, he materialized himself along with his chains, tripping the Hokage over as he spun around to try and grab him. "I've long surpassed you, sensei! I will burn Konoha to the ground, along with everything and everyone in it!"

Minato merely used his hands as temporary feet and kicked the stray Uchiha with his actual feet, knocking him down. "Not if you don't see something like this coming, you haven't," he retorted.

"What?" Obito wondered as he laid on his back, trying to recover from the impact. "See what coming?"

Minato didn't answer right away, even as he rushed over to Obito and performed a bit of instant Fuinjutsu, mainly to severely reduce the power his wayward student had… by removing the contract which allowed for Obito to summon and even control the Fox. He also performed a secondary seal on the Uchiha… one which Obito felt the effects of almost immediately.

"What!?" Obito gasped, as he felt the chakra to his eye abruptly cut off. When he tried to reactivate his Sharingan, he found that there was… some kind of block on his chakra network. He could still see, but he had lost the advantage of being able to anticipate the movements of the Yellow Flash. "What did you do, Minato!?"

"First off, I removed your control over the Kyuubi no Youko," Minato lectured as he held a pair of fingers up. "Second, I killed your ability to use your Sharingan, up to a time in which you'll need to retrain it anyway." Putting his fingers back down, he drew one of his kunai and said, "Not that you'll have said time to regain your Sharingan… you're under arrest."

"Tch… I'm not done with Konoha yet! Mark my words, Yondaime Hokage! I will be back to end it!" Obito growled, forming a handsign even as Minato rushed him. One slash later, there was a poof of smoke, and a log replaced the masked man.

Minato looked at the fox as the end of the memory played through his mind, even as he thought, 'I'm sorry… Kushina.'

"Hold the fox still, Bunta!" Minato yelled.

Before Gamabunta could reply to that, however, the fox suddenly started convulsing, even as its giant chakra bomb dissipated into the air around them.

"What's going on?" the Hokage blinked in surprise, watching as the fox abruptly began to disperse, parts of it breaking apart in orange particles that dispersed around the area. When about half of the fox was left, the particles started to fly in the direction of the Konoha General Hospital, much to his horror. "Is it moving there? I won't let you!"

However, before Minato could do anything to the fox that was breaking apart, his 'Kushina's-in-grave-danger' senses went wild. Looking in the direction of his wife, he saw…

"Oh, shit."

…another Kyuubi no Youko.

"Ugh…" Minato turned in the direction of the first fox, which had already completely dispersed into particles now. So far there was no giant fox emerging near the hospital, so… could he consider it safe for now? In the meantime, the second Kyuubi demanded his attention, especially because it was so near Kushina… "I'll get back to the first one later! Bunta, go for the one near Kushina!"

"Roger!" Bunta replied, even as he rushed in the direction of the other fox. Strangely enough, however, the fox was just sniffing around for the time being, as if looking for something. Well, not that they'd let the fox do that, ever.

"Let's get it away from Kushina first!" Minato shouted out to Gamabunta, gritting his teeth. He didn't think he had enough chakra left to teleport ANOTHER Kyuubi out into the wilderness, so they'd have to deal with it here.

As if just noticing Gamabunta and Minato, the second Kyuubi turned towards them and snarled. Before they could do anything, the fox summoned a large amount of… not chakra, it didn't feel like it… over the tips of its tails and formed a large amount of fire into nine balls of the energy. When the fireballs were finished forming…

"Oh no you don't!" Minato roared, locking on to one of his Hiraishin seals outside Konoha. "Hiraishin!" He didn't have enough chakra to teleport the whole Kyuubi, but that didn't mean he didn't have enough to handle an attack of this magnitude!

As if on cue, the fox threw the fireballs with its tails at the pair that were fighting it, even while moving away from the area where an imminent fiery explosion was bound to happen. As if expecting the fireballs to do the job, it went back to sniffing around, looking for that something it was there for.

The fox never got the chance to do much more, because the fireballs vanished into thin air as Gamabunta jumped through the air where the attack had been, launching a kick at the fox that knocked it a good distance away. In the distance, the fiery explosion that the fox had been expecting sent a shockwave flying through the forest it had landed in.

The fox, which was in shock, didn't get the chance to counter with an attack of its own… though it did rush past the toad with an amazing amount of speed. When it made it to where it was supposed to go, it roared, and attempted to crush the house Kushina and Naruto were resting in!

"Kushina! Naruto!" Minato gasped in shock, before he did the first thing he could think of - he flashed into the house moments before the claw could come down on top of it, immediately grabbed his wife ("Minato-koi? Wha-") and child before he flashed back onto Gamabunta's head.

Mere moments after the claw crushed the house, Gamabunta drew his tanto and slashed at the fox, aiming for the eyes…

The fox managed to react in time by rearing back, resulting in Gamabunta's slash landing across the bridge of its nose. The cut began to emit some steam, before it closed back as if it never happened in the first place, although the tanto did manage to draw some blood. Some droplets of it landed on a still-weakened Kushina, while Minato looked on. "Kushina, are you alright?" he quickly asked.

"I'm… fine… Minato…" Kushina breathed out, mere moments before the blood on her started to evaporate, as if it was never there. "Huh? I'm healed?" she asked incredulously.

"What?" Minato blinked in surprise, almost losing his focus when the jerk from Gamabunta landing after dodging a fireball forced him back to reality. "Kushina, we don't have time! We need to seal the fox into Naruto now, before it does any more damage to Konoha!"

"What?!" Kushina yelled at Minato. "How will Naruto live if he doesn't have his parents?! You're not seriously considering using the two of us as sacrifices to seal Kurama into Naruto, are you?!"

"Kushina, this isn't Kurama," Minato narrowed his eyes as he looked at the fox. "Last I saw of him, he dispersed into particles and moved towards the hospital. I don't know what happened to him, but he doesn't seem to be causing any more trouble. Besides, I'm not seriously considering using both of us as sacrifices."

"What…?" Kushina asked blankly. "Don't tell me you intend to pass the mantle back to Hiruzen-ossan!"

"Let Hiruzen-ossan have his rest, Kushina," Minato chuckled as he made his final preparations and unclasped his cloak. "You can probably still ask him to advise you though, Godaime Hokage-sama." With that, he wrapped the cloak around Kushina and planted a short, loving kiss on her cheek.

"Minato… koi?" Kushina asked, confused by this turn of events. "What about whoever attacked Konoha? What do you intend to have happen to them?"

"That was Obito. I don't know what happened to him or why, but he wants to burn Konoha to the ground. I'm hoping we can still redeem him… but I don't think we have a choice here. Kushina, take care of Konoha for me," Minato sighed, casting one longing glance back at his village. "Make sure the Will of Fire continues to burn in the next generation."

Before Kushina could say anything else, the fox roared at the group, and then… a literal god of Death showed up mere moments later.

One Shinobi faced the Kyuubi no Youko in mortal combat! He sacrificed his life to capture the beast and seal it in a human body! This ninja was known as the Yondaime Hokage!

Konoha General Hospital, later that night

As Kushina walked through the hospital with a contingent of ANBU next to her, she put to use her internal 'Kura-baka sensor' abilities, to figure out what happened to the giant fox. Her chief concern was that it somehow became the size of a baby fox, or something ridiculously similar. Still, she knew that the fox would've been killed in that case. It was only a matter of time before the fox was found…

"Ow… ow… oowwwwwwww!" a woman's voice could be heard… one that Kushina recognized right off.

"That voice… Karen?!" she yelled, before she rushed over to the source, finding her friend in a hospital bed that was designed to let her give birth. However, it seemed like the doctors taking care of her were killed by something, something that had never been encountered before. "Karen, what happened?!"

"Oh… Kushi-chan… I'm glad… you arrived," Kozuki Karen said from her bed, gasping for breath. "Please… save her… my daughter… I'm not… gonna make it…"

"You have a daughter? Who's the father?" Kushina asked, concerned for her friend. "If your daughter needs someone, it should be family, no—"

"Kaika… is ignorant… Kushi-chan," Karen admitted. "He thought… I was… infertile… but… I'm not…"

"Karen… I don't know what to say," Kushina said. "You really want me to take care of your daughter?"

"Yes… please… save Kirika… Shiori… don't let… her… di… e…" Karen breathed her last, bequeathing her daughter to the woman who was her best friend.

With tears in her eyes, Kushina gently walked over to the child, holding the crying baby close to her. "Kirika Shiori, huh? I never heard of a person with two given names before," she mused.

As the child felt the warmth Kushina was exuding, she stopped crying, and started to fall asleep in her new mother's arms. In a matter of moments, she was sound asleep, as if hoping that this would never end.

Almost as soon as the child was asleep, Kushina's internal 'Kura-baka' sensors started going haywire, as if the fox was in the immediate vicinity. "Huh?" Kushina blinked, looking around for the source, only to realize…

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" she declared in a soft tone, looking at the child in her arms. "How did it come down to this?"

Outside of the Gates of Konoha

A lone figure secretly made their way through the early light of the rising sun. It was the best time to depart as the ANBU guards would be tired from being high strung for so long and suffer weakened vision as the night turned to day. Nevertheless, the figure made their way carefully through the trees near the road.

Although proceeding with great care and caution, the figure's mind was full of turmoil. As would be told in the years to come, everyone lost someone that night. This included the lone figure.

'I'm sorry,' the figure thought. 'I couldn't be there for you and our daughter.' Tears were threatening to well up in their violet eyes, but the figure pushed them back, though idly wondered if it would be a good thing to be caught and killed now by the ANBU.

It was hard, but the figure took to heart the memories of happiness…

'Has any of this been worth it?' the figure thought, rubbing furious at dark black hair on their head as they passed a boundary point and allowed the tears, and their effect, to flow freely.

Later that day…

Kushina groaned as she rested her head on the desk that her husband had handed down to her as the Godaime Hokage. She wasn't sure if she was fit for the job… well, sure, she had training on how to handle political matters as a main branch Uzumaki, but it had never really been put to the test until now. For now though, she'd just have to follow Minato's wishes and do the job as best as she could.

The repairs on Konoha following the attack were still undergoing. Naturally, the Hokage Tower was one of the first to be restored as the administrative centre of the village, but everywhere else was still a mess. Hence the towering stacks of paperwork on the Hokage's desk. There were far too many things she needed to deal with - repairs to damaged buildings, requests for supplies, missives from other villages offering help (there was NO way she was letting Kumo in again, damn the lot of them), authorizing foreign workers to help with the reconstruction…

"How did Minato-koi have the patience to do all this… right, he had Kage Bunshin," Kushina muttered, staring at the looming stack of paperwork. Furrowing her brow, she could've sworn that it just grew bigger before her eyes. "I still wanna burn it."

It was then that there was a knock at the door, before a very welcome sight showed herself in. "Hey, Kushi-chan!"

"Miko-chan!" Kushina stood up from her desk so fast, she almost upset the stack of the devil's spawn on it. Looking around from behind it, she spotted the black-haired woman that was one of her very best friends. "You're alright!"

"What made you think I wouldn't be?" Mikoto pouted, before her expression turned serious. "In any case, I wished to know if you had anything to share about the one who attacked Konoha… mainly to give you and everyone else a hand."

Kushina opened her mouth and closed it, wondering if she should really tell Mikoto that it was another Uchiha that had attacked Konoha - and a long-thought dead one too. Letting out a sigh, she decided that it would be better not to tell one of her best friends a lie. Before she could say anything, however—

"Kushi-chan, are you in? Secchin and I decided to drop by to see how you were doing…" a female voice called out.

"Oi, what about me?" a male voice protested.

"Oh, hey, Hito-chan, Secchin, Akihiro-san!" Mikoto called out to the trio that had gathered outside the door. "Come on in, if it's alright with Kushi-chan."

"It's fine, I need the company right now anyway," Kushina waved.

A graceful, kind-looking woman with long dark blue hair entered the room, together with a silver-haired woman who wore her hair in a wavy manner reaching down to her waist and a man with a similar shade of silver hair cut short. The latter two were holding hands, even while they approached the recently-christened Godaime Hokage.

"Well… now that the gang's all here," Mikoto said, fully aware that two of their total number had died the previous night, "what do you know about the situation, Kushi-chan?"

"The attacker… was an Uchiha," Kushina revealed reluctantly, not missing the flinch from the dark-haired Uchiha matriarch. "We thought he was dead… I don't know what happened to Obito-kun to make him hate Konoha so much that he wants to destroy it." Another flinch.

"Kushi-chan… is there any proof to this?" Mikoto asked, despite having the feeling deep down that her friend was telling the truth. "I mean, why would he hate Konoha that much?"

"Minato-koi was sure it was Obito-kun," Kushina nodded resignedly.

"He used to be such a good kid… I wonder what happened to him," Yukikaze Setsuna mused, leaning against her husband, Akihiro.

"I still remember how enthusiastic he used to be about being a ninja," the Yukikaze patriarch shook his head. "If only we could get close to him, we could use our doujutsu to find out what happened to him…"

"No need." Another male voice abruptly announced from the open door.

Turning to face the owner of the voice, Mikoto asked, "What do you mean by that, Kakashi-kun?"

The one-eyed ninja with the silver gravity-defying hair that entered the room let out a sigh as he looked at Mikoto. "Remember that incident when… Rin was kidnapped by Kirigakure to use as the Sanbi's container?" Despite the face mask hiding a good deal of his face, none of the others missed the way he tensed up as he recalled his dearly deceased teammate.

"Yes, I remember… she was reported as MIA by her team leader," Mikoto answered, confusion evident in her tone. "Why?"

"What the team leader didn't say…" Kakashi sucked in a deep breath as he continued, his emotions raging within him. "…Was that I had to kill her myself. At that time, the Sanbi's chakra was overwhelming her, so… I had no other choice…"

"What?!" Mikoto yelled in shock. "How come you killed her?! If she didn't die—"

"If I didn't kill her, the Sanbi would've gone berserk, come out and started destroying everything around us!" Kakashi pointed out, raising his voice near the end. After a moment of silence, he inclined his head slightly. "Sorry, it's just… bringing up bad memories."

Before Mikoto could say anything else on that subject, a hand was placed on her shoulder. Turning to look at the one responsible, she saw Kushina shaking her head. "Kushi-chan?"

"Mikoto, can't you see how much he's suffering? Let him go," the Godaime Hokage patted her best friend on her back softly, before turning to Kakashi. "I assume that meant that Obito found out about what you had to do."

"I'm assuming as much, too," Kakashi nodded. "I don't know how, though, considering that I thought I saw him die on me… when he gave me his eye."

"Yes, that would pose a problem, especially since we have no way of knowing how he managed to survive what he was reportedly killed by," Mikoto mused with a nod. "Oh, Kakashi-kun, you said he gave you his eye? How did you activate its special properties without being an Uchiha?"

"Simple: it's always on, and he had it at all three levels before Mangekyou," Kakashi answered, shocking everyone else.

"I'm sorry, come again?" Hyuuga Hitomi, the woman with dark-blue hair, asked in a tone that was a mix between shock and confusion.

"I heard a voice in my head that explained what the next stage of the Sharingan is, ma'am," Kakashi answered as honestly as possible. "I only activated that one stage when Rin died… the stage required the death of one's best friend by the user's hands."

"Then that means you have the…" Akihiro stared at Kakashi incredulously, before shaking his head. "You have been through far too much, Kakashi-kun."

"I think we can agree to that much," Mikoto said, before walking over to the other Sharingan user in the room. When she made it to him, she said, "Please… don't use the eye you've been given too much. You need your life more than your honor to a friend that has gone rogue."

"I can't promise that, Mikoto-san," Kakashi shook his head in remorse. "If I set him on this path in the first place, it will be my responsibility to stop him."

"Not that honor, Kakashi-kun!" Mikoto clarified, getting his attention. "I meant, don't force yourself to follow his life habits when you are your own person, and not a copy of Obito!"

Kakashi looked a little taken aback, before he forced a chuckle. "I've been caught out, haven't I?"

"Is there anyone in this room who didn't think Obito's way of finding excuses to be late was extremely lame?" Akihiro pointed out. "I think we can all agree we don't need any more of that."

"Indeed," Mikoto answered, before looking Kakashi in the eye. "Still… if, for whatever reason, you are late, please have a legitimate excuse, and have it be the truth."

"I suppose I don't need to mope anymore now that I know Obito's alive, huh…" Kakashi looked up at the ceiling for a moment. "Very well. Thank you, Mikoto-san."

"You're welcome, Kakashi-kun," Mikoto replied. Turning to look at her best friend, she asked, "So… what else do you feel we need to know?"

"That I might not be available for our usual meet up this week since I'm swamped in paperwork?" Kushina glared at the stack of paperwork on her desk. Had it grown yet again when she wasn't looking!? "I'm going to need some help with all this…"

"Don't you know how to use the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu?" Hitomi asked from her spot in the office.

Kushina raised an eyebrow as she raised her hands in the necessary handsign. A poof of smoke later, a sickly-looking version of her appeared beside her. "Something with the healing I experienced when I was splashed with the second Kyuubi's blood messed up my chakra network. I've already checked with the medic-nin, they say it's only temporary. So until then… no Kage Bunshin for me."

With a wince, Hitomi and Mikoto simultaneously said, "Ouch."

Kakashi cleared his throat, saying, "I'll take my leave… I'll see you later."

"Have a nice day, Kakashi-kun," Setsuna waved as the silver-haired jonin left the room. "Well, as nice as it can get with the rebuilding effort ongoing…"

"I think I can spare some time to help you with the paperwork, Kushi-chan," Hitomi spoke up, running her hand over her engorged belly. "I'm not expecting for about another month or so anyway."

"Aw… thanks, Hito-chan," Kushina beamed. "I hope that we can get it done double-time!"

"Shall we make that triple-time?" Setsuna laughed as she stepped forward too. "I still have about another month to go too!"

"Really? Thank you, Secchin!" Kushina cheered, even as she glomped both women.

"Not so hard! Not so hard!" Setsuna gasped out loud as she felt Kushina starting to put too much pressure on her bloated belly.

"Eh?" Kushina looked at the women, before she let go and retreated a fair distance. "ACK! I'm so sorry!"

Setsuna and Hitomi breathed sighs of relief.

"Well… shall we get to work?" Kushina asked.

Within a room of shadows….

Ten people, obscured by the shadows, were discussing plots of an unknown agenda.

"Is it ready?" the leader asked the others.

"Not yet," replied one of the generals.

"When will it be ready?" the leader asked further.

"Soon," another of the generals replied.

"Very well… when it's ready, all will know of Project Apsilon," the leader said simply.

"What of the Children?" a third general asked.

"They will be of little significance," a fourth general pointed out. "Besides, we have more to worry about, like restoring Him from death."

"Indeed, that will be important," the fifth general pointed out. "For now, we must be careful, as the Children need not be made aware of the truth."

"What I meant was, what if the Children find out that their powers can destroy Him, and focus their efforts to stopping it before He can come back?" the third general elaborated, getting the attention of the rest.

"Well, they will be continuously fed lies about their powers, and about the truth, if you're worried," the sixth general answered.

"To think, we don't have any way of confirming the status of the Children once they've been born, not at all… do we?" the seventh general asked.

"Relax," the eighth general answered. "We don't need to worry at all, given that He provided us with the tools to confirm the truth of the status of the Children."

"This better work," the final general said, grumbling out loud. "We've almost lost one of our pawns for keeping the most recent of the Children in check because of a fluke in the battlefield. If you ask me, sir, this is starting to become a right pain in the—"

"Enough small talk," the leader commanded. "We mustn't let anyone interfere with Project Apsilon. Dismissed."

With that, the ten vanished, as if they were never there to begin with.

In an underground military complex…

A man that looked to be in his teens, in spite of his actual age being 26, walked through a highly sophisticated military complex that had been gathering dust for a rather long time. He was flanked by a pair of soldiers that he had hand-picked to escort him, soldiers who were rank and file in the Principality, nothing more. Still…

"I can assume you two have no idea why I selected you at all, right?" the man asked.

"No, sir," the soldier on his right replied in a straight tone, keeping to his training.

"I see…" the man answered, tone neutral.

"Really, Lucanor, you need to remember that those outside of the Giovanni bloodline aren't as gifted as you," a man wearing a scientist's coat said from in front of the three in a reprimanding tone.

"Yes, Professor Schwarzwald," the man, now identified as Lucanor Giovanni, answered.

"Sir, may I ask why we were chosen?" the other soldier on the left asked hesitantly, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"I chose you for three reasons," Lucanor answered, not bothering to look at his soldiers. "The first is that you two were the only ones available at the time… the only ones to be the first of Lucrecio's finest soldiers." Upon arriving at a door, he looked to the man known as Schwarzwald and asked, "If you wouldn't mind, Professor?"

"Not at all, Lucanor," the scientist answered, opening the door by typing in a pass code. With the door opening, the group of four saw that the lighting in the room was down.

"Sir, I have a torch with me," one of the soldiers said, holding out said item and igniting it.

"Put out the torch," Lucanor said, clapping twice. As he did so, the lights turned on, revealing the inside of the room to be a mass of weapons that looked like futuristic muskets of great variation.

Blinking, the soldier did as he was told, before peering into the room in wonder. "Wow."

"The second reason I chose you two is because of your adaptability with combat situations," Lucanor continued his line of thought from earlier. "Not only are you two capable of using your blades to a great degree, you also managed to master the process of using firearms, something which is to be mandatory for the future. In fact, there's a testing ground in the next room over, to test you two out against some target drones."

"Are these firearms?" the other soldier studied one of the nearby futuristic muskets closely, trying to stop himself from running his hands over it to study the make. "They look nothing like our current ones."

"Indeed, they are firearms," Schwarzwald said. "However, the current ones we have are actually derived from a weapon many centuries old, which I find extremely funny in the strange sense." Upon getting looks from the soldiers, he said, "It would seem that our world was hit by some sort of cataclysmic event that rendered it near-inhospitable… we only have records of everything leading up to the event, but we're perfectly aware that this technology is from the past, not the future."

"Ancient… technology?" the soldier near the muskets almost dropped the one he had been holding. He had made absolutely sure not to touch anything that looked important though.

"Indeed, ancient technology," Lucanor answered. "Before you think it's impossible, we have managed to verify the accuracy of this information, based on the type of ammunition the weapons use. It is a great fact that these weapons need to be maintained once more to ensure they're up to the task."

"Lucanor, you almost forgot the third reason," Schwarzwald said.

The soldiers looked reverently at the new weapons, before turning towards the man that had led them there, unable to hide the expectant looks on their faces.

"The third reason why I chose you two… was that you have the highest ratio," Lucanor finished his train of thought.

"Pardon me, sir?" the soldiers blinked in unison.

"Oh, wow, an in-sync query," Schwarzwald said. "Now, that's pretty rare."

"It matters not, Professor," Lucanor said to his instructor. Turning his attention to the soldiers, he asked, "What do you know of the UPH project?"

"Um, nothing, sir." one of the soldiers replied, wondering if they were supposed to know about the project.

Lucanor Giovanni nodded, saying, "I figured you wouldn't know of a top-secret project only a select few would even know existed. The UPH project, short for 'Ultimate Processed Human' project, is what will lead humanity out of its current dark age, by upgrading select humans from their rather primitive state to reach the pinnacle of human evolution… and, before you say anything on the Church, they'd rather use it themselves for their own goals than allow others to use it for the betterment of humanity."

The two soldiers weren't quite sure what they were supposed to make of that. "What does the UPH project have to do with us being summoned here, sir?" one of them asked.

"It has to do with the fact that you two were found to have the highest survival ratio in your blood, the very thing that would allow you two to live more than any other candidate in the trial phases," Lucanor answered. "The UPH project also has to do with expanding the abilities of humanity, and you two have been chosen to become test subjects, to see to it that you help better humanity as a whole."

"Sir… with all due respect, I'm not sure if I want to become a test subject for this," the first soldier shifted uncomfortably, the look the second soldier shooting at him telling him he thought the same way.

Before Lucanor could answer that, Schwarzwald asked, "Well, which would you rather have? Dull, dreary lives with little chance of improving the human condition? Or lives of adventure, with you two being the first of many potential recruits to help free the world we live in from danger?"

The two soldiers looked at each other hesitantly. They couldn't help but be lured to the idea of adventure… and true, their lives were rather dull for now. "…Sir, do we have to decide now?" one of them slowly asked.

"Not at all, no," the scientist answered. "However, the time will come when you have to choose, and it might even be too late to go with it then. Just some words to think on."

It was at that moment when a separate soldier came running in, huffing and puffing all the while. "Your… Majesty… we've… been robbed!"

Raising an eyebrow, Lucanor asked, "Come again?"

"It was… Emperor… Barbados… he stole… the signet ring!" the third soldier reported, before he collapsed.

"What!?" the soldiers gasped in unison. "Emperor Barbados!?"

Schwarzwald looked at his protege carefully, noting that the raised eyebrow was exactly what his pupil showed to display that things were not going according to plan, something that only a very select few would ever see as the truth. "Lucanor, what should we do? Without the signet ring, you won't be able to follow through on your duties as leader of the Principality of Lucrecio…"

Lucanor looked at his right hand, where he had a ring on his pinky finger that looked suspiciously like the signet ring, before he looked at his mentor. "It seems that the replacement Emperor is under someone's influence for this," he said in a cryptic tone that only Schwarzwald would get meaning from. Turning to his soldiers, he said, "You two, bring your fellow to the med-lab, and place him on the central table. He needs to be restored properly, so make sure he can get that way."

"Sir, yes sir!" the two soldiers saluted in unison as they pulled the third soldier to his feet and walked off carrying him between them.

Lucanor turned to face his mentor again, asking, "Did Elias ever realize I had the real ring on my right hand?"

Raising an eyebrow, Schwarzwald answered, "Er… no, I don't think anyone knew you were wearing the real ring at all times. Hell, even I was confused until now."

"Good, I was worried that I was that transparent," Lucanor answered. "Now… how about we look into the development of our giant humanoid fighting machines?"

Schwarzwald looked at his student with a blank look. "Lucanor, who do you take me for? Of course I'd love to do so!"

Meanwhile, in a small village…

A pub in the south side of the village of Hod was just opening its doors for the first time, many people taking the chance to get some food at a decent price, with most everyone getting the opportunity for some good drink as well. It was in this village, an unknown town with little to offer, that a meeting would take place inside its pub.

A pious-looking woman, wearing a long red robe, stepped inside. She looked around for an available table before finding one. She walked over to it, seeing that it was empty of customers, and simply sat down at the spot where she would be able to see the door. She was willing to wait for around an hour, just to be on the safe side for how long it would be for her fellow to show up, and order some food for them both—

"I'm sorry I'm late, your excellency," a voice said from in front of her, bringing her from her thoughts.

The woman looked over her fellow, the owner of the voice, and studied him for a bit. He was wearing the outfit of a commoner usually found around the area, but it was his facial structure that set him apart from anyone else. His eyes looked draconic, for one thing, just as his jawline was lizard-like… this was the right person.

"Oh, no, you're early," the woman replied, waving off the man's apology. "I had only gotten here about a minute ago. Please… have a seat."

"Thank you, your excellency," the man said, pulling up a chair and sitting down across from her. "Now… what is it you called me here for, ma'am?"

At that moment, before the woman could answer, a waiter came and asked, "May I take your orders?"

Blinking in surprise, the two of them looked at the waiter, before looking at the menus on their spots at the table. Picking them up, the church woman and the draconic man looked through the options, quickly selecting the needed options for eating to fill their stomachs. After giving their orders, the waiter left them alone, intent on giving them a chance to chat together for the time being.

"So… what was it you needed me for?" the man asked, curious about the development that was possibly happening at that moment.

"I needed to let you know that Yoko's missing. Truly so. She vanished without a trace, Zhoul Orgus," the woman said matter of factly. "I'm putting you up to the task of finding her wherever she might be."

"Oh? Well, I don't mean to argue with you about this, but, why have me come here when we could have done this in the privacy of my home?" the draconic man, Zhoul Orgus, asked, confusion evident on his face.

"Simple," the woman said. "You don't have any food in your belly to fuel your teleportation spell, which this was meant to rectify. Besides, if you traveled in your nobleman's outfit, you'd probably be extremely out of place."

Zhoul blinked at that, before he nodded in understanding. "I see," he said. "Well… when do we eat?"

At that moment…

"Here are your orders," the waiter from before said, placing the dishes in front of them both.

Xamusel: Okay… this is getting to be utterly complicated for some reason. However, it'll be less complicated in due time, I hope.

Now, though, well… Astral gets to write his notes here.

AstralXYZ: Well, we've got the plot lined out nicely for quite a few chapters. Hopefully we don't repeat the mistakes we made the last time around. Hopefully.

Xamusel: Yeah… quite a lot of mistakes had come from the previous renditions. Hopefully… things will be better this time.

No, the review corner won't show up until the end of the current plot arc, and only at the end of each plot arc. Just be content to read and enjoy.

See you all next chapter!