A/N: Wow. I had no idea ya'll would like this so much! Dylan Millwood helped majorly with this chapter, so be sure to thank him for the epicness that follows! And with that...
...away we go!
"Funny thing about power...everybody wants it, everybody needs it."
~Fasha.
Slaughter
In hindsight, perhaps storming the palace wasn't the wisest idea. For the saiyans. Even as they rushed to aid their liege; hastening to eliminate the intruder, they found themselves cut down. Heads rolled, arms were torn from their sockets like tissue paper; entire squads found themselves reduced to ash with the merest flick of a wrist. And still Naruto continued onward, ascending the steps as though he were some fallen angel, tearing his way back to heaven, piece by bloody piece. When he reached the door to the King's throneroom, Naruto placed his hand on it and with a small exertion of his power, reduced the doorway to splinters and crossed the threshold.
Fasha followed an arms-length behind, careful to stay out of his way. Away from his wrath. She'd caught a glimpse of his power already but this...this was ridiculous! No one should have this much power! It was almost enough to make her want to call out to her bretheren in the room beyond. Almost...but not quite.
"Protect his highness!" A squadron of elite saiyans rushed toward them, determined to keep the sparking warrior away from their liege. It was a mistake. Naruto didn't so much blink as he did raise a hand, and those warriors found themselved obliterated like the worms they were. Fasha couldn't but flinch, even as the king rose from his throne. She held no love lost for them but these were her people. And they were dying by the dime a dozen. And...well, she honestly didn't give a damn.
"What disallegiance is this?!" King Vegeta roared, heaving himself from his throne to gaze upon the intruder who dared to court death in his prescence. "Who dares to-
The sun hid his face. Thunder and lightning danced through the grief stricken sky as he descended to the battlefield. He was both terrible and handsome to behold. Death and suffering followed him as his stewards. His breath drew a third of the armies sent against him to hell and those that remained were nothing more than a great feast for vultures. He was the one for whom darkness parted and became created; his gaze held those soul of the enemy of all living things...
...and King Vegeta failed to recognize him.
"Ah...who are you exactly?"
For a moment, just a mere moment the redhead's eye twitched.
Fasha gulped.
'Oh no...
Naruto leered at King Vegeta, his ki sparking strangely. One moment it was blue. The next, it was red. Then a violent violet. It continued on like this, constantly changing, ever shifting, never still. Like a thing alive, the energy enveloped him, roiling and boiling, snapping and snarling. Grunting, he he flung a many-hued hand outward at the strongest saiyan on the planet, fingers splayed.
"I will never forgive you." Naruto hissed, ki flaring. "NEVER!"
And then, the world exploded.
A swathe of destruction tore across the throne, eviscerating the grand seat an instant after King Vegeta flung himself to the right aside. Naruto simply tracked with the motion and fired, obliterating the king's cape as it trailed behind the blast. Even as he materialized to the north, another volley was there to greet him. Vanishing once more, the King of all Saiyans found himself frozen in mid-leap, time seemed to slow as gloved fingers locked around his ankle. He swung around, barking his surprise, raising his hand-
Ground.
His nose subsuquently shattered as his face became intimate with the floor in the way no self-respecting saiyan desired. Once. Twice. Thrice. Fasha couldn't help but cringe as she watched the redhead whipped her king too and fro; smashing him left and right against the floor; staining the upholstery with royal blood. And he very well may have continued had not the King's fist finally found his face. More startled than anything else, he released the royal ankle, blinking in surprise as the saiyan flickered away and thrust his hands backward, cupping them.
"You dare to come into my palace and strike me?!" He snarled outraged by the affront done to his face, his pride. "Dissappear! Both of you!" A stream of violet ki gathered within his clenched palms bulging and swelling with every instant he held it. A unseen breeze gathered in the midst of the room as he raised his power, forcing the ground to quiver in subservience. Despite herself, Fasha edged backwards. This battle was far beyond her abilities; it lay in the realm of the absurd. It felt as if the palace itself were coming apart! And still the violent upsurge in ki increased further still; the mild breeze warping into a shrieking gale; tearing at the floor an the ceiling in its efforts to accost the irate intruder.
"Galick Gun!" King Vegeta roared, flinging his hands forward. "Fire!"
Fasha felt the color drain from her face as the surge of magenta surged towards them, growing larger with every second. He'd actually used it! The Galick Gun! That was the King's mightiest attack! Nothing could stand up to it! She braced herself to run, to flee, as her unlikely ally was cut down-
Naruto slapped it aside contemptuously; the blast searing past her face, shearing through the wall and outside, detonating magnifcently somewhere amidst the city below the. Fasha could only blink. Black eyes fluttered open and shut with all the rapidity of a hummingbird's wingspan. What just happened? Naruto had repelled Vegeta's attack as if it were nothing! He didn't even appear fazed! If anything, he looked...bemused? Frowning down at his palm, he raised his gaze, pinnioning the king with those horrible, awful eyes.
"Is that all?" He asked. "I expected more from the king of this pitiful planet."
Vegeta laughed; it was a sharp, scornful sound. "I must say, I'm actually enjoying myself. You make the very marrow in my bones quiver!"
Naruto arched an eyebrow.
"Tsk...You do know I'm using less than one percent of my power, right?" the former blond asked with a scoft.
The silence was deafening.
"I'll take that as a no..."
"What the devil's going on here?" a new voice said over a loudspeaker coming from above the palace.
At hearing it, both Fasha and King Vegeta paled.
There was the sound of a ship landing and part of the roof was blown inwards, leaving a hole through which a figure that made the bile rise in King Vegeta's stomach levetated himself through.
His skin was darker than Frieza's, but lighter than Cooler's. He wore standard saiyan fatigues over his chest, adourned with a black cape, yet he was clearly not a saiyan. The "dome" on his head was colored dark blue in hue, along with his horns, bearing thick lines that marked him as the galaxy's most feared being.
King Cold.
Tailing him were his sons and their guards. Frieza was accompanied by Zarbon, Dodoria and the Ginyu Force, and Cooler along with his own three lackies, Doore, Naze, and Salza.
It was obvious just by looking at the brothers that the only thing keeping them from killing one another was the fact that their father was present. Cold looked over the sight before him as though it were no more significant than a dung heap.
"Trouble with you men, Vegeta?" Cold sneered, "Of course, any of my sons's troops would have smeared him all over the room by now."
Naruto looked up at the Horn-head, his old annoyance at being underestimated kicking in.
"You're all talk...I'll take on all ten of them at once and I won't even lift a finger to do it." He said coldly, narrowing his eyes. 'Oh great, now I'm acting like Sasuke...damn 'Now you must fight for vengeance' thing...' he thought, cursing the destroyers of his world anew for giving him one more thing to hold against them.
Guldo, Recoome, Burter, Jeice, and Ginyu, along with Zarbon, Dadoria, Doore, Naze, and Salza, all of them scowled at offense before Zarbon piped up. "That's absurd. You think you can defeat ten opponents all on your own at once? If we did that, you'd die instantly. We refuse on the grounds that it's bellow us."
Naruto grinned wickedly "Oh I get it...you guys are so damn weak you can't even fight! I wonder what that means about your bosses, after all if the bozos you serve are so tough, why do they need to hide behind those who are weaker than they are?"
King Vegeta felt his spine stiffen in horror, while confidence to the point of arrogance wasn't uncommon for Saiyans, this fool was going to get them all killed!
Frieza and Cooler shared a glance, then looked over at their father and saw he was frowning deeply and his power was starting to build up. The siblings felt their blood freeze solid in their veins. King Cold being displeased was NOT something they wanted to be on the receiving end of all because of one smart-mouthed chimp. They glared at their servents and fired a few beams at their feet to get them moving.
Needless to say, their minions got the point and all of them surrounded Naruto, thinking that this would be over quick, especially with them all facing only one man at once.
Well...as it turned out, they were HALF right...
His ki flared around him and the next second, all ten of his opponents were flung black, seeming to turn to sand as they were until there was nothing left. The man in front of them hadn't moved an inch, his arms held behind him in a relaxed position so it couldn't have been him, yet something had blasted them away as if they were nothing.
As his ki died down, the redhead's experssion remained totally indiffrent, just as it had been since the ten had surrounded him a second before their deaths.
...It was over quick.
Frieza and Cooler both felt their eyes bulge and their jaws drop like hunks of led. King Vegeta felt his lips twitch. This one...while he could be an extreme asset, and saiyans respected strength, this man could easily overthrow the Saiyan royal family.
Fasha on the other hand, was looking at Naruto as if her were some ancient war god of her people mixed with Adonis. It was awe-invoking...and he'd made out with her earlier. What the HELL had she been so pissed about?!
"Hmmm...I like this one!"
Frieza, Cooler, and King Vegeta all turned to gawk, thunderstruck, at King Cold.
"Yes...I like a warrior who can subatomically dismantle his enemies by simply fairing his power and shrug off that he just erased them utterly without even changing his expression in the slightest. True ruthlessness like that is quite the rare treasure these days. And to think you had someone like this here as a surprise, Vegeta...very well done. I'm impressed." King Cold said approvingly with a thoughtful expression.
Naruto cracked his neck and looked back at Cold, locking eyes with him.
"You wanna have a go seeing as those flunkies were that useless?" Naruto said.
Everyone looked shocked. Now this fool was dead!
But to everyone's surprise, Cold laughed. "You'll forgive me if I'm not so arrogant as to clash with you just yet, though I do confess that I'd be willing to take you up on that at some point. I'm aware that fools as kings lead to the end of the ones they lead to oblivion. And what's the point of a ruler without subjects? That's why I have no desire to challenge you, being a ruler myself, I can't afford stupidity."
Naruto looked at the tall one with the curved, almost devil-looking horns. This guy wasn't arrogant and valued life? Yeah right...and Gai and Lee hadn't been obsessed with blathering about the Flame of Youth. Making a note to kill this guy, his sons and anyone else that followed their mindset later, Naruto nodded decisively to himself, settling on the action.
"I'm hoping to see more of this warrior in the future, so don't disappoint me, Vegeta." Cold said then turned, "Come boys, we're heading back to our homeworld. I'm feeling in quite a good mood at the moment."
Shooting a glance at the redheaded (what they assumed to be) Saiyan and making a note that getting him mad would be suicidal if their father was put into a good enough mood to where he didn't kill anyone or blow up a planet after seeing this one's power. The brothers followed their father and a few moments later, the ship the family had arrived in was gone from the solar system of the Saiyan homeworld.
King Vegeta gawked at the young man, the same one who had stated that he'd never forgive the king. Forgive him for what, the ruler neither knew nor cared.
"Y-y-y-you...you...do you know what you just accomplished?!"
Rather than answering, Naruto reared his fist to the side and hit King Vegeta in the ribs with a roundhouse punch. Naruto generated a lot more ki than he probably should have, but the king deserved it and more. He punched King Vegeta in the chest and smiled when he heard something like bones being crushed by a train. King Vegeta's eyes rolled into the back of his head. The whole palace shook and groaned as it was pushed to the limits of its structural integrity due to the shockwave of the hit.
'He did that by implementing a double-strike, first using the proximal interphalangeal joints of his right hand and then folding his hand to strike with the proximal phalanx joints. The first strike countered and negated the target's natural resistance and the latter strike was delivered within 1/75th of a second, struck the target before it could recover from the initial blow, and thereby causing it to shatter completely. Added onto that, he generated as much energy into one limb as possible and released it at the precise moment of contact with his second strike. Pure genius! But something like that takes almost perfect control of his energy!' Fasha thought in shock.
Naruto frowned, that was him combinding the Futae no Kiwami or "Mastery of the Two Layers" that he'd found in an old scroll in his father's home, with the method that made Tsunade-baa-chan's strength so herculean. He'd never been able to use them perfectly like that before, but he guessed his control improved after the fusion.
"Those who want my respect have to earn it, no exceptions, even to kings. And I refuse to bown down to a whipped lapdog that's weaker than I am." Naruto hissed as King Vegeta coughed up blood, if it hadn't been for his armor, the prince would be rueling now in his father's place.
The saiyan woman rushed forward and bowed at the waist.
"Sire...I aplogize, but this is the mysterious otherworlder I brought before you earlier." Fasha said quickly.
The king went wide-eyed in shock at that. So this was the one from before? Impossible! And yet...as he looked upon the warrior before him, he could sense they were one and the same being. He knew how upsurges in power could reformat a warrior's appearince, after all. It was the same as when saiyans turned into Oozaru apes.
He had done all of this using less than one percent of his power?
The king had to curse himself for having erased such a race from the universe, if this was what they were capable of, then what would the Saiyans have gained through crossbreeding with those shinobi? All that potental thrown away! It made his furious just thinking about it!
And of course he'd seek out the king to clame vengence for the loss of his world once his power was awakened. That was natural, instinctive. The king was a fool to dismiss that thought. It was obvious that the loss of his world and everyone on it would be something he'd never forgive.
Gathering himself up off the floor with as much dignity as he could, the Saiyan monarch locked eyes with the former prisoner. He had to fight down the urge to gulp, those eyes...those horrible eyes...
It wasn't just their color, it was that they were eyes froze over with hatred.
"Well alien...I have to say I'm impressed. If you would be so kind as to join my forces, I can promise you a ranking among the elites..."
"I'd rather be a low-rank, they're sent into combat situations more, and I'd trade this power I have in exhange for your head on a pike!" Naruto snarled , furious that the ruler assumed he could buy him off.
The king narrowed his eyes at that. Well...that was expected, yet it was also an oppertunity...even if that last part made him wonder how sane his race actually was to make an enemy this powerful.
"While I can understand why you're angry, I'm sure that in time your rage will subsid...UGACH!"
The ruler was cut off as Naruto's hand clamped around his throat, and judging by the hate coming from the blond-turned-redhead's face, trying to tell him that how he felt after his world was destroyed would pass as if it were just a bad cold was the wrong thing to say!
Fasha lept forward and tried prying the two...keyword being 'tried'. As she knew, she couldn't get the otherworlder's hand to budge at all.
"Hold up! He swore he'd refuse to die until the three you just met were dead! Kill them first so that he's got no reason to wish to survive!" she cried. "After that, you can demand trail by combat, its required for all saiyans to bear witness to that so there's no doubt as to who the victor is. And MORTAL COMBAT is fully accepable!"
Naruto paused at the words of the woman, letting them sink in. Legally kill the king in front of his entire race after stripping him of why he wanted to live for? Shooting a contemptuous glare at the King, he threw him away and into the wall behind the leader of the planet.
"All right, but make no mistake: I WILL kill him, and I'll even attack him opportunistically with the aim to murder him if given the chance." Naruto told Fasha, turning to look at her dead in the eye.
She nodded.
Looking at the scene at he rubbed his neck, King Vegeta thought abouyt what he was seeing. From his point of view, it seemed as though Fasha had some small level of control over the alien's actions. He could use that. Well...looked like that low-class, Bardock was getting a new member of his unit.
Naruto turned on his heel and walked from the palace, his expression steeled into nutrility with Fasha following.
"You really do hate all Saiyans, don't you?" she asked as they left and put the the carnage of dead bodies and blood-drenched saiyans that had tried to defend the palace strewn throughout the building behind them.
"You filthy monkeies are warriors, so answer me this: "Why do you fight? Do you fight to gain power or do you want power to fight?" and "Am I strong and can I get stronger?" have you ever asked yourselves that?...when your king ordered that my world die, he did more than turn my planet to ash and have all my friends and family slain, he stole WHY I asked myself those questions from me." Naruto hissed, cold rage lacing every breath as it left his body.
Fasha stoped dead, horrorstruck. By Saiyan logic, that was the worst thing that could happen to a warror!She felt something well up in her...some weird emotion that was completely foreign to her scope of understanding. What was it called again? Pity? Sympathey? She scoft at the notion. Saiyans didn't feel either of those things, they weren't built that way. Still...as she trailed behind the shinobi, she had to confess that the warrior in her understood why he was so wrathful.
She reached out and grabbed his wrist and he frose so suddenly that anyone watching would have figured he'd grown roots.
"If you know what's good for you, unhand me or I'll take that hand of yours off me in my own way, Saiyan." he spat.
Fasha frowned, she'd introduced herself to him earlier, yet he loathed her so much that he saw her a little more than a beast with a title? Well, she'd give him that, it'd take a long time...if ever at all...for her to earn his respect. that he was even tolerating her right now was taking all his self-control. Not that she blamed him. Her race had slaughtered his.
"Relax, its just do you have anywhere to stay besides that prison cell you were tossed in?" she asked. the planet Vegeta was hardly a place for anyone to sleep out in the street, weak or strong. The other Saiyans wouldn't leave him be.
Naruto stiffened as he looked over his shoulder at her and blocked out Kurama's laughing. Please don't let her have what he though she did in mind...
"No." he said stonely.
Fasha walked in front of him at that.
"Come with me." she instructed.
Naruto fought down a groan as he followed Fasha, his eyes, either by instinct of catching movement or Kurama steering them, followed her tail as it wagged and swayed side to side as she walked ahead of him. He'd be lying if he said she wasn't attractive...for a saiyan.
"Well, well...looks like you ARE going to get the chance to bed a monkey like her!" The Nine-tails cackled gleefully in Naruto mind.
'SHUT IT, FLUFFY!' Naruto snapped.
A/N: Aaaaand there you have it! Unexpected, right? Naruto's gone and really shaken things up by uniting with Kurama, AND threatening the Cold family. Like? Dislike? By all means, let me know, though I hope its the former! Alas, I am off to work now, so I eager await your reviews, dear reader! They keep me writing, so, in the immortal words of Trunks...
...REVIEW OR IT WILL BE THE END OF ALL OF US!
R&R! =D
