NA: Here is the fourth chapter, please enjoy!
Theme song: Another World by No Limits
Chapter 4: Memories
[Standby for Titanfall.]
The heavens trembled at the sound of a thundering noise, Kushina and the rest of the Konoha shinobi looked up to see several fiery objects coming down towards them, but instead of colliding onto the ground and creating craters, they separated with humanoid metal beings coming out of them and land on the ground with a loud bang.
Kushina watched her son run towards one of them, and to her surprise it grabbed him and placed him inside. She looked at the insides of the machine for a brief moment and it looks like he was sitting on a seat with strange controls. After the lid of the machine closed the a voice was heard from it as it began to move.
[Releasing control to pilot.]
"Alright, Raiders continue the assault!" a synthetic voice spoke out of the machine that sounded very much like Naruto's.
The rest of the pilots did the same and got into the towering machines wielding larger versions of their weapons. Naruto opened fire with his chaingun, ripping the Sound ninjas to shreds, blood and limbs flew everywhere as the Sound ninjas tried to take down the towering machines. But not even their weapons and jutsus were a match as the giant beings of metal had some sort of shield protecting them.
The Konoha ninjas went numb as they saw the carnage, Sound ninjas retreating to only be cut down by their highly advanced and highly destructive weapons. Within a few minutes the carnage stopped with the machines surrounding the mayor's home.
"Come out with your hands up!" Naruto ordered through the machine's speaker.
In a few seconds an elderly man came out with his hands up, "Please don't hurt us, there are children inside!"
"Tell them to come out slowly."
The man nodded and did as he was told, a total of a dozen children came out, some of them wounded from what appeared to be slashes. "This is all that's left of the village, the rest were killed by the Sound ninjas."
Naruto's machine opened and he got down to meet the mayor, "You did what you could…" he looked to see that the children were no older than at least ten years old, he sighed solemnly, "It's only right that we bring them back with us, but what of you?"
"I will go with them."
"Very well." He nodded as he turned to his men, "Radio the guys back at Konoha, we got a few more for pickup!"
Kushina and Kakashi were impressed by the display of leadership he was showing, the medics had already gotten to work in treating any wounded, including the children. Wanting to get closer to her brother, Naruko decided to help Naruto in treating the wounded, thanks to Tsunade's teachings she knew how to treat wounded, and her skills with healing impressed the medics greatly.
As two more Crows arrived, they carefully loaded the children and the mayor on board, not wanting to scare them Naruto rode with them. "Bish, the children and the rest back on board, let's get out of here."
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"So those things we see outside are called Titans?" Tsunade asked Kushina to which the red head nodded.
"They're powerful weapons, and Naruto knows how to use them. It scares me that people from other worlds have such weapons, I can only imagine what their wars are like out there."
"If the council were still around they would be demanding that they hand over their weapons, thank Kami they're no longer around."
"Imagine if Danzo were still around."
The two women shuddered, if that old warhawk were still alive he would be mobilizing his Root to capture their weapons and kill them all. "So I take that Naruto doesn't want to become a shinobi?"
Kushina shook her head, "No, he has no intention of becoming one, he did tell me that he would be more than happy to learn a few things from me but that's the best I will get out of him, he is absolutely loyal to the Militia."
"Can't blame him, I mean those people are practically his family as well."
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Being the curious girl that she is Naruko decided to take a look at one of the Titans, Naruto helped her up and showed her the controls of a standard Atlas-class Titan, "See here? You grab these controls and move them around like you would moving your arms. She did as she was told and lifted her right arm, making the machine's right arm move as well.
Naruko smiled happily that it responded to her movements, "This is so cool!"
"It is right?" he laughed and ruffled her hair making her pout, "Alright that's it for now as the guys are going to do some maintenance."
"K'."
Kushina smiled as she looked at the scene from a distance, her children were bonding as siblings should. At least now she can make up for all the years lost, she approached her children as Naruto helped his sister down, "Naruto, why don't you come home with us for some dinner? I'm sure you must hungry."
"I would like that."
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The Namikaze manor, it was a large Japanese style mansion with a large garden in the front lawn and the back, "This is place is amazing." He smiled as he stepped into the property with his family.
Naruko gave her older brother a wide grin, "It is, mom says that the Namikaze family were a well renowned clan since the beginning of Konoha's founding."
Dinner was splendid, although Naruto would say it isn't as good as Louise's cooking but he decided not to say it at all for the sake of not hurting his mother. Kushina brought them to the living room to show them pictures of Minato and some baby pictures of Naruko much to the younger red head's dismay. To be honest he was a bit saddened that he wasn't part of any of them, but it is to be expected when you were raised in a different world by a different parent.
"This was supposed to be yours." Kushina pulled out an empty picture album, waiting for it to be filled with memories.
In return Naruto raised his gauntlet and pulled out a small device, pressing the small button it revealed a small hologram of a younger him and a brown haired man holding him up on an Ogre Titan. "That's me and my dad, that was the first time I ever stepped into a Titan."
"He looks like a very nice man."
"He was… best dad I ever had."
Kushina was a bit hurt by those words, she had no doubt that Minato would have been an amazing father but the fact that it was this man who raised her son she could not hold it against him, she had no right to.
The blonde then scrolled to the next picture of him a few years later after they joined the Militia, "Oh this is actually a recorded video… computer play recording."
[Initiating playback]
"How much has this guy had to drink?" the voice of Naruto was heard in the video.
"I'M THROUGH WITH THE FRONTIER!" the man slurred, "YOU HEAR ME MACALLAN!? IM THROUGH!"
"Oh great…" Naruko groaned, "a male version of baa-chan."
"Naruko." Kushina frowned at her daughter, Tsunade wasn't that bad… right?
Naruto leaned closer and immediately covered his nose, "Damn this guy smells, dad do you know him or something?"
"Yeah." The brunette nodded as he opened the large manhole lid, "Barker was my wingman during the Titan Wars."
"Titan Wars?" Kushina gave her son a questioning look.
The blonde shrugged, "Dad was an ex-IMC soldier fifteen years back before he led a mutiny on the IMS Odyssey and founding the Colony on Troy where I grew up in. Uncle Barker on the other hand became a drunk during his time in Angel City in the video we're watching."
Barker being held up by an Atlas Titan was slurring and throwing punches in the air, "I'M GONNA KICK ALL YOUR ASSES!" he was then lowered down into the manhole, "HEY WHO DO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!?"
"A big ball of sunshine that guy is." Naruko deadpanned at the pathetic look of the drunk, she had no doubt this guy will get along just fine with Tsunade.
MacAllan shrugged as he got into the manhole with a grunt, "He may not look like much but trust me, we're gonna need him, he's a hell of a pilot. Naruto you be careful out there."
"You trained me for this kind of thing dad, I'll be fine. Just make sure he doesn't take a piss on the way out."
The Namikaze family laughed at those words, "It seems you inherited some of mom's sarcasm!"
"Hey!" she whacked her daughter at the back of her head before turning to her son, "So what were you guys doing there?"
"We were to be a diversion while dad gets uncle Barker out, he was the best pilot in the Frontier and he knew a lot of top secret IMC locations that no one imagined had existed."
"Alright people, we got a job to do!"
"Guys I'm getting a reading just above the city, it's big… WHOA!" In the distance a large ship jumped into the area, "Guys an IMC super carrier just jumped in."
"MacAllan, we know you have Barker, there is no escape, give yourself up!"
"Like hell he will." Naruto growled, "Everyone engage the IMC forces, we need to buy them more time!" the blonde pilot used his parkour and jet pack to run up the walls and get to the rooftops, he equipped his Sidewinder and fired a few rockets at the oncoming IMC Titan. Seeing as it was still intact he did the one thing any pilot was trained to do.
"You jumped on the Titan!? Are you crazy!?"
Naruto chuckled as he gave his mother a reassuring smile, "Easy mom, we do that all the time, besides it's an effective tactic that has been proven many times over."
Naruto got onto the back of the Titan and pulled the lid covering its internals, grabbing his machinegun he poured the entire 80 round mag into it, causing the machine to go critical and for Naruto to retreat to the safety of the rooftops. The enemy pilot ejected into the air, enough time for Naruto to reload his weapon and to go after the IMC pilot. He jumped from rooftop to rooftop pursuing to find his enemy firing an assault rifle at him.
"Damn IMC!" he growled as he returned fire with his machinegun, causing the pilot to duck back into cover, he tried to peek back out but only for Naruto to drop kick him and shoot him directly at the chest, "Dad, what's your status?"
"We're on our way out, what's going on out there?"
"We got the IMS Sentinel hovering over the city." Sarah was the one to answer his question.
"Tell our fighters to launch and aim for its stabilizers."
"What, are you crazy!? Our fighters don't have enough firepower to take down a supercarrier!"
"Sarah, Mac knows what he's doing." Bish intervened, "I'm issuing the order for our fighters to scramble and aim for the Sentinel's stabilizers."
"Sarah, get my Titan down here." Naruto ordered as he marked the ground near him.
The woman simply sighs and nods, "Roger that, standby for Titanfall."
"I'm guessing that this Sarah didn't really understand tactics that much?"
"It's not that mom." Naruto shook his head, "She wasn't used to commanding such a large force, it was a blessing for them that dad became the field commander of our operations, Sarah was more covert ops, kinda like your Anbu."
"So it's more on lack of experience."
"Precisely."
Inside the Titan Naruto was engaging the IMC Titans in his sights, unleashing a torrent of 20mm lead on their hull. One of them went critical causing Naruto to go in for the kill and literally punched it, grabbing the enemy pilot and throwing him at a wall.
"Ouch," Naruko winced "that's gotta hurt."
"Caution, you are outnumbered 2 to 1."
Naruto didn't care, he just kept on firing at the IMC Titans, his buddies on the ground got their rocket launchers and fired salvo after salvo of Anti-Titan ordnances. Thanks to their help they were able to take down the remaining Titans.
"Guys the battles over, everyone get to the evac point." Bish told everyone through the radio.
"Copy that, Dad we're pulling out, the Sentinel is in full retreat from sustaining heavy damage but we took too much losses."
"Alright, we just barely got out, I'll you see you all back at the Redeye."
[Ending playback]
"And that was that, we got Barker out and on the next mission we managed to destroy the supercarrier Sentinel."
"That's some war… how did you get through all of that?"
"It was all thanks to Louise, she was the one who helped me get through it all." He scrolled to the next picture showing him and Louise.
"She's beautiful." Naruko stared at the picture of the young woman with long pink hair and eyes as pink as a gemstone.
"She is."
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It was the next day and Louise was at work in the market, she had decided to work with Miss Dobson and her fruit stand, "Louise, are the strawberries here yet?"
"No Madame Dobson." The pinkette shook her head, "Monsieur Iglesia said it would arrive within the hour."
"Ah I see, well it cannot be helped, today isn't a busy day after all. Well we are done for today Louise, you can go home now."
Dear diary,
Working with Madame Dobson in her fruit stand is really fun, once again I am show what it means to live a simple life with common people. Naruto had sent me a message this morning that he will be home within the week, I cannot wait for him to come home.
I had begun to worry when Field Commander Graves informed me that they had found Halkeginia and have already begun treaty talks with the Kingdom of Tristain. He had assured me that he will do his best and try not to reveal that I am alive, but I already understood that that kind of thing would be difficult considering a rumor like that could spread if one soldier lets it slip. So I had decided to take firearm lessons with the many women in the Militia, I chose the RE-45 Autopistol because of how easy it was to handle and how cheap it was to get one because of how many there were out there, I have no doubt that once the Vallieres find out that I am alive they will send men to take me back. I will do whatever it takes to secure my happiness, if blood must be shed then so be it… I just hope I am ready for such a thing and that Naruto comes home soon, he would know what to do.
I have no doubt that my 'father' would start calling me a disgrace of the Valliere name for deciding to live like a commoner and to be in a relationship with a commoner. He always preached about how the life of a noble is the only good life to live… how wrong he was.
Well enough of my rambling, today there weren't that much customers as it was during the middle of the week with market day always on a Sunday. It was nice to see some familiar faces walking by and to see new arrivals coming out of the transport ships each week. The town isn't that big as Persephone was one of the least populated colonies out there but it did have one of the largest garrisons of Militia troops.
I hope you are doing okay big sister Cattleya, because I am.
Love,
Louise
She sighed as leaned on her desk and stared at the ceiling of her home, placing her pen down and closing her diary she looked out the window to see that her home was on a small hill overlooking the town. She smiled as she saw children in the playground playing, she then began to imagine blonde haired pink eyed children running around the house with another baby in her arms, she imagined a family of her own with the man she loves.
Her pet kitten Lelia jumped onto her lap and purred, she smiled and stroked the cat's soft fur and asked the cat, "What do you think Lelia, would I be a good mother?"
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Halkeginia
Commoners, commoners who use technology that are a thousand years more advanced than theirs, and what was worse is that many of the nobility of Tristain were insulted that they were commoners. It was unbelievable that none of their people had magic or nobility in their culture, but Henrietta had to keep the peace and went on with the talks with the Frontier.
Right now a Frontier delegate were headed to the noble house of the Valliere, Marcus Graves himself volunteered for this as he wanted to personally see what the Vallieres were like. And he can see why Louise had such low opinions of them, but it troubled him to see that the mother Karin was in a depressed state, then there was the eldest sister Eleonore and the middle child Cattleya. Cattleya looked so much like Louise and seemed to be the more mature one.
Despite being slightly depressed Karin had to put up a face in order to proceed with the talks.
In the hallway Cattleya was simply walking to the living room where her parents and sister were when she overhear a few of the Frontier soldiers speaking to each other, being curious she hid herself by the corner and listened.
"That Cattleya lady, she looks so much like Louise."
"Shut up Saito." One of the hissed, "Louise asked us to keep this quiet, she told us she doesn't want them knowing she's alive, remember?"
"Right, sorry…"
The older pinkette widened her eyes and placed her hands on her mouth in shock, 'Little Louise, she's alive?'
"Do you want her to use the skillet on us like she did Barker? You know how scary she gets when she's mad."
"You don't have to tell me twice."
"Just keep this quiet, Louise isn't asking much."
"Right, right."
'She's alive, she's alive! Oh thank Brimir she's alive!' tears were welling around Cattleya's eyes, relieved that her precious Little Louise is alive and well. But why, why did Louise want to keep it a secret that she's alive? She had to know, she will try and arrange an agreement for her to come with them, perhaps that Marcus Graves can help…
She will see Louise, no matter what.
NA: And there you have it! Chapter 4 of this exciting series, thanks to Saito's idiocy Cattleya finds out Louise is alive.
Don't forget to review and see you guys around!
