4. Final Month And Heading Out

AKA Finishing The Roster

Author's Notes: The first part is a bit Self Insert indulgence I will admit but consider what Einherjar actually are.

Story Start: Beginning of the Third Month, Dojo ID

My latest two 'acquisitions' were kneeling in front of me. Silque from Fire Emblem: Echoes of Valentia and Maribelle from Fire Emblem: Awakening. When it came to medics who could easily keep the enemies away while they were healing the front liners over multiple turns, these two women had been my non-royalty go to magic users. And given just how often we were going to be dealing with the aftermath of army level combat I thought it a prudent decision to buy their Einherjar cards.

Silque and Maribelle weren't the only Einherjar here though. Every female I had added to my team was also kneeling in front of my chair, on padded mats that the ID had provided for them in five rows of five behind the two. This had less to do with them technically being my subordinates and more with the fact that there were now twenty-seven of them. I had called them all for a meeting and they had finished gathering five minutes ago upon which I had created the ID. Now most of them were trading confused looks and talking with each other as they tried to figure out why I hadn't asked any of the males to join us and if the two newbies had anything to do with it.

I finally gave up on trying to put what I wanted to ask delicately and gave a deep sigh as I said "Ladies, do you promise not to try and beat me up if I ask you a question you might find offensive?"

There were more questioning looks. Maribelle was the one who answered as she cocked her head and said "You purchased us in order to aid you My Lord, if that aid requires you to ask us a question, then we will answer it regardless of whether we would be offended or not."

Silque nodded and said "We are also programed in a manner that prevents us from assaulting you outside of training My Lord." She then cocked her head as well and said "Pardon me for the assumption My Lord, but I would have believed that you would have already known this given this large number of other Einherjar you purchased before Maribelle and I."

I held back the urge to frown at their form of addressing me. Two months in and I still wasn't quite comfortable with how the Fire Emblem Einherjar addressed me. The NCIS group calling me Boss was fine, Lord just made me feel awkward for some reason. Shaking my head from those thoughts, I said "Alright, I might as well just dive in then. Let's be honest here, I bought all of you and the guys for one simple reason: This world is crazier than an art gallery painted by the Tazmanian Devil in full twister mode, and as such, I want as much backup for me, Tyrus, and the Straw Hats as possible because we WILL be taking on armies down the line. However, the next Einherjar that I plan to buy is a bit different. I'm not exaggerating when I say that if she's not my favorite female character, then she's definitely in the top three, and if given the chance, I would love to be more than just her commander. However, I can't help but feel like that would be abusing her, abusing Einherjar in general." I rubbed my head with a sigh and said "Basically, I'm asking you ladies what you think about me buying this Einherjar as a companion rather than a soldier."

I had the dubious pleasure of seeing the unusual sight of twenty-seven women blinking once together before looking at me like I was a Luffy-grade idiot. And then I was completely floored as Caitlin Todd of all people stood up from her position three rows in, walked over to my chair and tilted my head up for a surprise kiss. My eyes widened at her actions and when she pulled back a few seconds later, I asked incredulously "Kate?!" The unasked 'What the HELL' was obvious in that one word.

Smirking down at me, Kate said "We are Einherjar Matt, made for the sole purpose of fulfilling whatever role our owners require of us. If you wanted us to, we would ALL be your companions, and we would do so happily."

I blinked a few more times at that before I said "So I made myself a Potential Mega Harem without even realizing it. Guess that's one thing I'm never telling Sanji, even if the End of the World is literally a minute away."

Kate laughed at that before she went back to her position among the others. Once she was seated, Abby grinned from next to her and said "Enough pussy footing Matt! Let's meet this kick ass top pick already!"

Seeing all of the other ladies in my mini army nod their agreement, I shrugged and pulled out my tablet. Opening the Shop program, I pulled up my wish list and brought up the first entry. Seeing the face of the Einherjar calmly looking back at me, I took a moment to just study it before I took in a deep breath and hit 'Purchase'. Kushina's Einherjar card appeared and I studied the determined look she had on her face before I closed my eyes, concentrated on why I bought her, then flicked the card out. The card shot between Maribelle and Silque before it activated and there was a red-haired woman in the standard Hidden Leaf Village Jounin outfit standing before me, long red hair in a ponytail over the knot of her headband with a pair of bangs framing the metal plate.

Kushina studied me for a moment, her eyes flicking at each of my weapons then took in all of the women around her. Looking back at me with a raised eyebrow, she said "I don't know whether to be amused at the fact you obviously like to surround yourself with beautiful women or worry about how you seem to be compensating for something with all of those weapons."

That got some of the other women snorting or snickering while a few of the others outright laughed loudly. Abby and Kate in particular were giggling messes. As for myself, I snorted and shook my head before I said "These aren't the only Einherjar I've purchased, just the female ones that I needed to talk to about your own purchase."

"Oh?" Kushina asked with a raised eyebrow. From her position directly behind Maribelle, Tana hopped up and whispered in Kushina's ear. Kushina's eyebrow stayed raised for a moment before she brought her hand up to her mouth and laughed before she shook her head and looked at me with a grin as she said "My, aren't you such a considerate owner."

I rolled my eyes and said "Yeah, yeah, the others already said I was being an idiot." Standing up from my chair, an action that the rest of the Einherjar followed, I canceled the current ID and said "I'll let Abby catch you up on what's going on and introducing the others. Right now Tyrus and I have some personal time scheduled."

"Tyrus?" Kushina asked with another raised eyebrow only for Tyrus to say right over head "Yo." Kushina jerked in surprise and took a step back as her head snapped upwards with a glowing chakra chain out and posed like a ready to strike viper. Tyrus looked at her in a decidedly unimpressed manner before he turned to me and flicked his head at the redhead and said "That's the one you've been saving up so much money for? A little skittish, isn't she?"

I snorted and said "You suddenly 'appeared' right overhead without warning Tyrus, give her a break." Turning serious, I said "Are you ready?"

Tyrus gained a grin that I had rather quickly learned came to mean pain for someone else as he said "Ready to take on a bunch of Yetis hopped up on steroids? You bet I am." He quickly flapped over and settled onto my shoulders as he said "Come on, let's go already!"

Chuckling, I said "Alright, alright, hold your horses." The last thing the gathered Einherjar heard as I activated the Hoth Id was Tyrus asking "Why would I hold a horse?"

Time Skip: One Week Later

Coruscant ID

Money Multipliers 2X and 5X Activated

Time Dilation 2X Activated.

This place was a mad house. All of my combat Einherjar were busy fighting off waves of enemies that came from every damn direction. We had been caught flat footed on a giant bridge between skyscrapers when the ID had decided "I know, I'll just send everything I've got at them all at once!" Land bound aliens came running across the bridge at us, flying aliens flew at us from above and below. Droids fired their blasters from up above and Geonosians and somethings that were pretty much just flying buzz saws of tentacles and teeth were trying to knock Tyrus and my few Pegasus riders out of the sky along with rip them to shreds.

I stabbed a feral looking Zabrak in the gut with my Tiaha in my right hand while my left came up with a haki infused Kukri knife and slammed into the top of his head. Despite being made of Iron Wood, the knife dug into his head and the alien soon broke apart as it was 'killed' leaving loot behind. I didn't have time to see what it was though due to one of the Droids General Grevious had employed as bodyguards came in, electro pike whirring as it spun towards my head. I blocked the opening strike only for a glowing chain to wrap around the pike and then throw the droid over the bridge way.

"I had that." I said unhappily as Kushina slipped into the spot next to me.

"I'm sure you did honey." Kushina said with a sweet smile even as a multitude of chains shot out of her front and shredded the first three rows of our rushing enemies. As she drew back the chains, she grinned and said "You take me to the nicest places Matt."

I snorted and said "We'll need the funds for later and I need the training. Besides, I don't hear you complaining."

Kushina grinned as we began fighting the aliens who had rushed in to fill the gap and said "It IS nice to be able to cut loose without all of the baggage of killing living beings." Her grin grew as she continued "And we even get money and loot for it!"

I knocked a jumping Gungan that for some reason had been yodeling while brandishing an ax out of the sky and literally stomped its head in with my for a moment shiny black foot as I said "Glad you like it so much."

Our conversation would have continued but Tyrus finally seemed to have gotten tired of trying to keep his wings attached to his body as he shouted "ENOUGH!" The next instant, lightning surged out of his body clearing the sky in a fifty foot sphere around him and lightning rained down first one side of the bridge then the other before he fired streams of electricity at the buildings where the last few droids that my mages hadn't yet hit with spells had been hiding. A few moments later, all of the enemy flyers were dealt with and I blinked in the silence for a moment before my expression fell flat as I saw a lot of money and loot fluttering in the air, most of it falling down into the abyss of the planet wide city. Sighing, I said "And there goes about a million dollars' worth of cash and items."

Tyrus let out an aggravated snort as he came down next to me and said "Well I'm sorry about that, but they were all starting to PISS me off!"

"Ah, don't worry Tyrus, we won't let the meanies bother you again." Kushina said sweetly as she patted his side.

"Bite me woman." Tyrus said back as he jerked out of her reach, currently grumpy due to having been fighting in the air for a solid thirty minutes during that fight.

"Touchy." Kushina said even as she grinned.

I rolled my eyes and said "Alright guys, grab what you can real quick then lets get off this bridge before the ID starts spawning more enemies."

"Yes Sir!" the other Einherjar quickly replied and cash and loot were quickly stored in bookbags that all of us were carrying that were linked to my Subspace Pocket Inventory. (And hadn't that been a handy little bit of spell work to buy a month ago at fifty dollars a rune tag?) Once we had gathered everything on the bridge, we quickly got off and out of the mild but constantly blowing wind in the large area and spit up as we entered the nearby buildings.

As I entered a building with Kushina and Tyrus, my partner cocked his head and said "By the way Kushina, I've noticed you only used your chains today and none of your jutsu or shinobi tools, why is that?"

Kushina shrugged and said "Just a personal challenge I guess."

I snorted and said "Yeah, because she likes to 'swing' in and steal my kills."

"Ooh, witty." Kushina said teasingly while sticking out her tongue. I tried to snatch said tongue but well, Jounin. That had her laughing before she snapped to dead serious in an instant as a chain snapped out and speared an alien that tried to ambush us from above. All talk ended at that point as we began clearing the floor of the building we were on and the next five above it, a procedure I had long since worked out with my 'veteran' Einherjar.

Time Skip: One Week

Forrest ID

Money Multiplier 2X, 5X, 10X

Time Dilation 2X, 5X

The intermittent sound of gunfire mixed with the whine of a single energy pistol rang out in the forest. My latest, and for the moment, last group of Einherjar were shooting at anything that moved along with the NCIS MRT (Main Response Team). Said latest group of Einherjar was from the Stargate Universe, Atlantis to be more specific. They were: John Shephard, Aiden Ford, Rodney McKay, Ronan Dex, Teyla Emmagan, Samantha Carter, and just because I felt like her diplomacy skills could be needed and she could help Robin with translations, Elizabeth Weir. Elizabeth currently wasn't in the ID, instead learning as much about the Quetzalcoatl culture as she could. The rest of the group though was here, most of them working with the others on loot acquisition. The last two, Samantha Carter and John Shepherd were inside the perimeter circle the two groups had made. This was because these two were the whole reason I had even bought the last group.

See, I had no clue at what point in the time line I was currently at, and as such, I didn't know what island the first Navigational Point would be set to, all I knew was that I was currently in the East Blue. While this ocean was no where near as whacky as the Grand Line, that was STILL a lot of water to cross, no matter which island I was sent to. So, in the interest of not missing my meeting with the Straw Hats due to boats just being slow, I had decided that I was going to buy an aircraft. However, I did not know how to fly an aircraft. The answer to my dilemma was simple, buy an Einherjar that knew how to fly. Naturally I chose one of my favorite series to draw on and bought John Shepherd, then I said "Ah screw it" and bought the rest of his team along with his two female commanders, Elizabeth for the afore mentioned reasons and Sam because she too was a pilot and it never hurt to have another person who knew how to shoot a gun.

Right now, the three of us were huddled over my tablet looking over all of the aircraft the Multi-Verse Trade Forum could offer. Would it have been better to do this outside of the ID? Yeah, but given the time dilation was up and we had already been in here for three hours, we might as well decide what we were going to get during a break. Unfortunately, a Puddle Jumper was out, they were just too darn expensive! Seriously, Non-Jnichuuriki Kushina was my most expensive purchase yet at a whopping five million dollars, and even that seemed like small change compared to the THREE BILLION DOLLARS that one of those would have cost. In comparison, a Huey Helicopter was only a 'measly' Twenty Million Dollars. A Chinook was in the Thirty Eight and a Half Million ball park while an Osprey went for Seventy Two Point One Million Dollars. Clearly, we were going to have to kick up our loot grinding over the last two weeks we were here. I foresaw much 'experience' gained in the money multiplier and time dilation parts of my ID creation skill.

"Well, it's no 302 but the Chinook seems like the best option. Got a nice long range and is roughly half as expensive as an Osprey." John said as he studied the tablet.

"I agree, we shouldn't spend anymore than we have to on a vehicle that isn't going to see much use once we're on the Straw Hats ship." Sam said with a nod.

"Right, and it'd allow me to buy a few wizard's tents for expanded space on the ship as well." I said in agreement.

"Guess we ought to get back to shooting at things then." John said as he stood up and made sure he had a fresh ammo clip in his P-90. Sam and I also stood up and we rejoined the others. It was going to be a LOOOONG two weeks. Once we were up, the two fire teams regrouped and we began actively hunting again.

Time Skip: Morning Of Departure

As sunlight entered the cave that had been my bedroom for the last three months I opened my eyes and gave out a large yawn. The sound drew a sleepy mumble from the body wrapped in my arms and I smiled down at Kushina's sleeping form. We hadn't done anything beyond kissing and cuddling with each other and we always slept in shirt and pant pjs but the time where I had actually had a girlfriend, no matter how technical said relationship was, had been surprisingly enjoyable.

Always someone who woke up early but liked to sleep in for a bit, Tyrus, eyes still closed while he rested on his bed said "So this is the day when we finally leave huh?"

"Yep. For better or for worse, we're going to be tracking down Monkey D. Luffy today." I said with a sigh before I gently shook Kushina and said "Kushina, time to get up." Her eyes snapped open as soon as my hands went from holding to shaking her. The Kunoichi was tense for the briefest moments before she once more relaxed in my arms and gave her own yawn, one hand coming up and cutely rub at an eye. Smiling up at me, she said "Morning Matt."

"Morning Kushina." I said and rubbed the top of her head before I shifted and got out from under her and off the bed. Beginning to properly stretch, I said "Your turn to use the shower first."

"Right." Kushina said and there was a blur of red as her long hair trailed after her as she went for the shower. I watched her go for a moment before I turned towards my tablet and for the first time in a month activated its map program. When it loaded up, I set it for the East Blue and immediately noticed the blinking diamond that showed that the Nav System was unlocked. Idly reaching over to the card holster holding the rest of my Einherjar, I pulled out John and Sam's cards. A quick mental activation had them standing by me and I held up the tablet to John as I said "We've got our destination."

John accepted the tablet and I saw him blink before my eyes closed as I let out another yawn. I still heard him though as he incredulously asked "Are you kidding me? That's only thirty miles from here, we could get there in a couple of hours with a good motor boat."

I pouted and said "All that money for the Chinook we could have used for goodies."

Sam actually giggled as she said "Ah don't say that Sir, I'm sure we'll be glad to have the Chinook down the line."

"Yeah probably." I said with only a small grumble.

"Why don't Sam and I go start our test flight while you get ready Matt." John said and I nodded. As the two walked out of the room, Tyrus stretched out all of his wings and curled his body in a bunch of half circles before he flapped up into the air and said "I think I'll go ahead and start making my goodbyes as well." I gave a nod and he dove out of the cave and made an immediate right hand turn.

Once he was gone I began packing up everything we hadn't gotten yesterday. The shower would obviously go last but I stored the few camp chairs littered around the cave, deflated the air mattress, unhooked my phone from the solar generator and stored said generator. A minute later, the sound of the shower stopped and a few moments later Kushina came out, Chakra visible in her hands as she used it to push all of the water out of her long hair in one continuous push. Despite my expectations, she wasn't in her 'shinobi' form, instead wearing a pair of jeans and a red shirt that had a picture of a snarling wolf on it. That said, it wasn't like she actually needed her shinobi equipment to be dangerous, not with her chakra chains and Taijutsu ability.

Smiling, Kushina walked over and gave me a quick kiss as she said "Shower's all yours Matt." I nodded and walked over to it. One quick wash and a change of clothes later, I grabbed my noseless mask and slipped it on, though I left it on my forehead, and grabbed a cereal bar, tossing one to Kushina as well. True, as an Einherjar she didn't actually need to eat and the bar would just be transformed into energy to help power her a little bit better for a while, but it was the thought that counted. As we ate, there was the sound of helicopter rotors pounding the air and the Chinook soon flashed past the cave as it did a quick circuit around the island.

Once we had eaten, I strapped on all of my weapons and slung my bookbag over my shoulder. One last glance around the cave that had been my home for three months, and then I began the long trek down the mountain and to the clearing where the Quetzalcoatl usually practiced and where the Chinook was currently coming down to land. Kushina burrowed into my side as we walked and I slid an arm around her shoulders as I said "Not going to lie, I'm going to miss this place a little."

Kushina hummed and said "The locals are certainly nice."

"They are at that." I said with a grin, remembering all of the times I had been hanging around a massive bon fire started by said locals and listening to their story telling and song singing.

Tyrus rejoined us after we had finished climbing the mountain and were walking through the woods. He easily settled onto my shoulders, his head resting on top of mine. As we came into the clearing, he heaved a sigh and said "Hard to believe I'm finally leaving this place."

I let out a hum and said "Here's hoping to a victorious return in about a decade or so."

"Amen to that brother." Tyrus said and I didn't have to see his face to know that he was grinning.

We had an honor guard waiting in front of the rear hatch of the Chinook, a dozen of the oldest Quetzalcoatl sitting on their fifty plus feet tails in large coils, their heads bent down to human head height. The oldest member of the island population was in front of them, his ninety two foot length was trailing around the group and the Chinook. Giving me a respectful bow of his head, he said "Matthew, it has been a great honor to have you as a guest these last three months. Safe journeys young one."

"Thank you Sanjou, may the winds always bring you storms to nurture your home." I said giving a bow of my own head and the appropriate farewell.

The dark green snake turned his gaze on Tyrus who stiffened to attention on my shoulders and he said "Take care of him Tyrus, you know how helpless humans can be." The grin on the elder's face said that he might be joking.

Tyrus grinned as well and said "I'll try sir, but apparently we're going to be joining up with an even bigger idiot."

"Oi." I said around my grin and chuckle, because really, Luffy was a Grade A moron on the best of days.

Sanjou let out a cackle before he shifted so that way we could walk past him and up the ramp into our ride. He and the other elders retreated to a safe distance away from the Chinook and several other Quetzalcoatl joined them to watch as the hatch was raised. John and Sam glanced back from their spots in the cockpit and I nodded while twirling my right pointer finger in the air. The two nodded and as Kushina and I sat down and strapped ourselves into the seats of the cargo hold they began spinning up the rotors. Tyrus settled his length along the right bench and we all watched as the land slowly fell away before we began moving forward, rapidly gaining speed.

As I watched the island fall behind us, I glanced forward at the ocean in front of us and said "Just wait Luffy, we're on our way."

END

Author's Notes: Update Schedule and Poll on my Profile

Finally, finally off that island. Next chapter has this story actually getting somewhere.

In other news, there is a poll that will determine if I add a new story to my roster and what that story is that will be taken down once I reach the week where I work on Fish Tales. VOTE ON IT PLEASE.