AN: As stated, here's the second chapter, and I must reiterate: I'm rusty when it comes to Arthurian Legend, just keep that in mind.
Chapter 2: War Never Changes…
Naruto yawned loudly as he swung himself out of his bed, stretching the weariness out of his muscles as he stood up. It had been about a year and a half after Arthur had accepted him into Camelot and ever since, he had taken very well to his studies under both Merlin and Lancelot. He was already a master of using Mana, in addition to his Chakra and he had mastered most of his Sage abilities, thanks to Merlin. And Lancelot had turned him into a well-trained fighting machine, evident in the fact that Naruto was already considered a full knight, though he had yet to earn his seat at the Round Table, which was his current goal and aspiration.
Arthur had also taken a bit of an interest in Naruto's progression and he would check in every now and then to make sure his newest subject was progressing at an agreeable pace. Other than that, his rule as King was going rather smoothly, despite the talk of the town being that he and Guinevere have produced no heir as of yet. There was always Mordred, but he was already known as a bastard son and was hardly in favor for the throne. Rumors aside, Camelot and England as a whole was at peace for the moment, which gave Naruto the time he needed to be adequately trained.
After he was finished stretching, Naruto walked over to his fireplace and threw a few more logs onto the fire, then walked over to a door that led out to a balcony overlooking the town and promptly opened it, shivering in mild delight when the cold morning air hit his bare chest, which ridded him of the last vestiges of sleep. After taking in a breath of fresh air, he returned to his room just in time to open his door after there were a few knocks.
"Naruto, it's Gawain!" The now identified Gawain called out through the door.
"Gawain?" Naruto asked as he opened the door. "Something wrong?"
"No, no." He shook his head. "Mordred was just looking for you for some reason. I think he said something about wanting you on his patrol this morning. Just came to pass the news along."
"Thank you, Gawain. I'll make sure to be on time."
"Keep working hard, Naruto. Just between you and me? Lord Arthur is seriously considering giving you a seat at the Round Table. The subject has come up the last three meetings and it seems like he's putting some thought into the notion. So don't be surprised if he summons you within the next few weeks."
"There's actually support for me as one of the Knights of the Round Table?!" Excitement was evident when he suddenly whipped back around. "Who, who?!"
"You know I can't tell you who, Naruto." Gawain said, chuckling at the boy's enthusiasm. "In any case, Mordred should still be in the barracks if you want to meet up with him."
And with that, Gawain excused himself to let Naruto dress himself. Minutes later, Naruto exited his room at Castle Camelot now dressed in his armor, which was a set of black full plate armor with red trim here and there, a deep red cloak that was clasped to the armor by two shoulder clasps and a steel broadsword sheathed on his left hip. But everyone who knew him would know that the armor was mostly for show, as he rarely ever wore it except for ceremonial reasons or if he felt like showboating. After concentrating, he was then surrounded by a faint white light and his ceremonial armor was then replaced by a black steel chestplate that had the same red trim, the same red cloak and shoulder clasps, black steel armguards, a black mid-sleeved shirt underneath his chestplate, black pants that were tucked into a pair of hardened leather black boots, a belt that had a few pouches here and there for whatever he needed to carry and a near perfectly made katana sat on his left hip.
Nodding at his new appearance, Naruto then made his way to the castle barracks, where he met Mordred, who was dressed in his usual armor.
"You're late, Uzumaki." The feminine, yet powerful voice of Mordred called out to Naruto as he approached. "Have trouble sleeping last night?"
"Actually… yeah." Naruto admitted after scratching the back of his head. "Nightmares. Of what happened before I came to this world."
"You wanna talk about it?" He asked. "There's some time to kill before our patrol begins."
"No, no, I'm fine." He shook his head negative. "I don't want to trouble you."
"Naruto, we're friends, and friends don't just brush off problems like this." He pressed with a frown. "Your concerns are mine as well."
"Fine." Naruto sighed. "Before I came here, my comrades and I were fighting a Goddess by the name of Kaguya Otsutsuki, who was the Mother of my predecessor, Hagoromo." He paused to allow his friend to catch up with that little bit of info. "We had nearly beaten her when she conjured up a portal to separate me from my friend Sasuke, as she couldn't face us both at the same time. My other teammate, Sakura, grabbed onto me in order to stop me from falling into the portal and called out to Sasuke to help her pull me back in. Sasuke, he…" He stopped himself as the memories returned.
"He… what?" Again, Mordred gently pressed. "What happened?"
"He stabbed Sakura. Impaled her through her chest and let me fall into the portal, along with her corpse. And that's how I ended up here."
"So the girl that Lancelot said died of the plague was…" His eyes widened in realization.
"Yeah." He nodded sadly. "That was Sakura. And for the past year and a half, I've been occasionally seeing visions of what my world has become."
"What's happened to it?"
"Kaguya won." He spat. "Sasuke's dead and everyone's fallen under what's called the Infinite Tsukuyomi. My world has… well, it's nothing worth protecting or going back to anymore." He shook his head and looked to his friend. "My new home is here, in England. I've made new friends, I have a new Lord, I have two exceptional teachers… and I know of this one particularly annoying boy who likes to pester me for information on my world that I have the misfortune of calling my best friend." Naruto snidely said, cutting his eyes to Mordred, who actually smiled and chuckled at the comment.
"Aww, I love you too, Naruto. I'm so glad that you think so highly of me." Mordred replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Now, come on. We have a patrol to get underway."
(Outside Camelot: Two hours later)
"Another boring patrol…" Naruto huffed as he lightly spurred his horse on to match the relatively slow pace that Mordred and his horse had set.
"What? You'd rather our patrols be packed with barbarians to kill?" Mordred asked half-jokingly. What he didn't expect was for Naruto to come flying off of his horse. Next thing he knew, he was on the ground and Naruto was already standing with his katana drawn.
"Stand, Mordred." His eyes were narrowed and there was an edge to his voice. "The Saxons have returned."
"How many?!" Mordred asked as he got to his feet and withdrew his own longsword.
"A raiding party of about fifty or so. One of their archers nearly nailed you in the head."
"In that case, I thank you for saving my life. But on the other hand, I believe we should retreat back to Camelot where our own archers can cover us."
"Too late for that."
And indeed it was too late, evident when the many warcries of the Saxon heathens thundered through the air as their warriors began their charge.
"Well…" Mordred sighed with a smirk. "You take half and I take the other half?"
"Try to keep up this time, will you?" Naruto chided back as he took a step forward and soon flashed in front of the Saxon barbarian that was at the head of the charge. One clean slice was all it took to rid him of his head.
Coming up on Naruto's rear, Mordred also flashed in front of the Saxon that was going for Naruto's blind spot and promptly brought his longsword crashing down and through his chest, felling him in one blow. Sensing danger, Mordred ducked just in time to see Naruto's katana cutting through the neck of another barbarian that was charging from his right side and likewise, Naruto leaned to his right just as Mordred stabbed forward with his longsword and into the gut of yet another barbarian.
The battle continued on in this fashion, the two knights working in perfect unison, making the battle less of a battle and more of a fatal crimson ballet as the blood flowed freely with each barbarian that was felled by their morbid dance until only one was left alive, thanks to him making the smart decision of running away. With a sigh, Naruto picked up the bow of a dead archer and nocked an arrow into position. Taking a few deep calming breaths before finally steadying his aim, Naruto loosed the arrow, which hit its mark dead on after a few seconds of flight time.
"Not too shabby for two on fifty." Mordred said as he wiped some blood off of his face.
"And here comes our reinforcements." Naruto said, stopping himself from scoffing as Lancelot, Kay and a company of knights came thundering up.
"Well, then… looks like we weren't needed after all." Lancelot said a hint of amusement to his voice as he looked around at the carnage.
"Who had the most kills this time?" Kay asked.
In response, Naruto pointed to his right with his thumb to Mordred, who grinned toothily, making Lancelot and Kay laugh at the childish nature of the grin.
"You're one up on Naruto now, Mordred." Lancelot chuckled at his student's misfortune of losing. "Honestly, I thought you'd run away with this little contest, Naruto." He stated as he helped his student onto the horse, as his and Mordred's horses had been killed during the skirmish.
"I let him have this one." Naruto said, gaining a scoff from Mordred.
"Admit it: You were off your game today, Naruto. I won fair and square!" Mordred yelled over Kay's shoulder.
"Keep dreaming! I was too busy protecting your ass to concentrate on getting more kills!"
"What was that?! You wanna fight it out?! HUH?!"
"Maybe I do! What then, Mordred?! What'll you do when I completely dominate you?!"
"Shut up! We're dueling when we get back to Camelot and you BETTER bring your A-game."
"Lancelot, what did we do to be stuck with two blonde bundles of energy…?" Kay muttered to Lancelot.
"Just endure it until we get back to the castle, Kay… then they can beat each other senseless as many times as they want to and we'll finally have peace."
(Camelot: Dusk)
Sure enough, Naruto and Mordred did indeed duel and as expected, the end result was a draw… all 14 rounds. Currently, we find Naruto painfully shrugging himself out of his armor inside the barracks, trying to ignore the bruises that Mordred had given him.
"Damn him…" Naruto grunted as he set his chestpiece on one of the many tables. "It seems like we're still dead even with each other…"
Naruto then rid himself of the rest of his armor and clothing, then made his way into the hot baths that were adjacent to the barracks. These baths were enchanted by Merlin to help speed up the recovery of Arthur's knights should they have been wounded in battle. Lowering himself into the hot but not overly so water, Naruto sighed in contentment.
And there he stayed for a number of minutes just relaxing and reveling in the feeling of the water working away the stress of the day's events. So enraptured was he that he missed another person lowering themselves into the water, and so thick was the steam that when he eventually opened his eyes, he couldn't see that he wasn't alone anymore.
"I wonder when Arthur's gonna call me for that promotion…" Naruto wondered aloud as he then heard a gasp from across from him, putting him on edge instantly. "Who's there?!"
At this exact moment, the steam decided to clear away, revealing… Mordred? No, this was a girl yet... no, it was without a doubt Mordred. As he stared on, Naruto's jaw slowly hit the floor as realization slowly crept upon his face.
"M-Mordred…?"
"N-Naruto…" Mordred breathed, a heavy blush to her face as she did her best to cover herself up.
"But you… you're…" He was now doing his best interpretation of a fish.
"A-A… a woman, yes… I've tried to keep this a secret from everyone… as you know, women can't serve, let alone become knights or own land… but I… I wanted my Father's approval…"
"So that's why…"
"Yeah… until now, I've succeeded in keeping my real gender a secret. But…" At this point, she moved her hands to uncover her breasts, which were not too big and not too small at the same time. "If it's just you, then… I… I d-don't mind…"
"W-Wait, Mordred…" Naruto said while turning his back to her. "This… it's just so sudden…"
"For you, maybe… but for me, it's been a constant battle. We've been best friends for a long time, Naruto… and for a while, I've wanted us to be… more…"
At this, Naruto turned back towards her in shock… and he turned right into a smoldering hot kiss thanks to his female guest which brought a bright red blush to both of their faces. Mordred had closed her eyes, yet Naruto's remained open in shock, but, slowly, he let himself return the kiss as he also closed his eyes. A heavily approving moan escaped Mordred as Naruto finally began to return her kiss and tears of happiness threatened to spill over as she linked her arms behind his neck. After a few more seconds, they both broke the kiss, a thin trail of saliva connecting them as Mordred's piercing green eyes bore into his cerulean blue orbs.
"Take me…" She breathlessly huffed. "Please… take me, Naruto… I want to be yours…"
In response, Naruto dove back in for another kiss to which Mordred readily accepted. During the kiss, she gently pushed him down and back into the water, then up against the wall of the pool. She knew that Naruto was letting her dominate the kiss, evident when he suddenly flipped their positions, so she was pressed back first against the wall. She knew what was coming next, so she held herself against his body as hard as she could as she felt him enter her. A few light whimpers then turned into a loud moan as her barrier was broken and the tears finally spilled over. In response, Naruto softly shushed her and began wiping away her tears.
"Now…" Naruto began as he pressed his forehead against hers. "With this, I swear… I'm never leaving you. We're bonded now. And I'm forever yours…"
"I love you…" Mordred finally admitted through the pain and tears. "I love you so much, Naruto!" She then sealed her declaration with yet another kiss.
After a few more moments, Mordred's pain had now been dulled enough to the point where she spurred Naruto on to continue. What followed were the many shameless moans from Mordred and her cries of approval until finally she and her fellow blonde soul mate reached their limits together. With one final loud moan, Mordred collapsed into the water, breathing heavily as she snaked her right hand to her belly as Naruto pulled out and collapsed into the water next to her.
"Inside…?" She breathlessly asked.
"I… reached my limit. I ran out of time…" Naruto replied, also trying to regain his breath. "I'll take responsibility…"
"I don't care if I get pregnant from this… just as long as you're by my side, I'm content."
"I love you too, Mordred…" Naruto said after a few moments of silence, which made the girl next to him smile brighter and wider than ever before as a few more tears of happiness escaped her.
'Have I finally found… my reason to exist…?' Thought Mordred to herself as she and Naruto shared one last tender kiss. 'Have I finally found my happy ending?'
AN: And done! So, with these two chapters, what did you guys think? Good? Bad? Admittedly, I'm having fun writing these, and if it seems I'm rushing a bit, it's because I am. As far as I can figure, the story will go through Fate/Zero and then Fate/stay night, it's just that I have to get the backstory out of the way before getting to the parts you all want to see.
Now, onto pairings. As always, I have no idea and I want input from you guys. Should I keep Mordred? Should Naruto find out the secret of his king and end up with Arturia? Or should I wait and hold off until the Grail Wars? Give me some good, solid reasons for your choice of girl(s)! Oh, and one more thing, this probably won't be a harem unless you guys can convince me to make it one.
This is ZeroDivisionRaijin, signing off!
