Chapter 4

Ah, the beloved Chapted 4! Here already. This is where things start to pick up, where the heroes and villains of the future carve out there place in the world. Trials will appear. The Chaos Gods are weakened, but they are far from lost… And as we all know, the moment Chaos was broken beneath the walls of Praag, the warriors of humanity gleefully returned to slaughtering each other.

Heroes will rise. Demons will rise. A lot of rising will happen, is my general point. Like a bakery. Or a Viagra testing facility. That's how much rising.

I do not own Naruto or Warhammer. Except in the earth varient #1333762485, where I own both. Great place. The world is on fire, and aliens have enslaved/eaten 98% of humanity, but I sit in an abandoned basement, looking at the models featuring only slightly fewer skulls than the world around me and the manga I drew on sheets of toilet paper, thinking "I could totally sell these to someone. Oh wait, they're dead."

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Naruto walked into his village. His armor was covered in chips and scrapes, and the shortsword in his belt loop was dripping with blood. He carried a brown-grey sack over his shoulder, and a roll of scaled skin beneath his arm. The skin was still wet to the touch, and it slithered and shook as the last touches of life left it.

Two years had passed since the unnamed girl was killed. Naruto never learned her name because nobody ever spoke it. Even her family had taken to pretending like she had never existed. Only a sad pile of bones at the foot of the wall left even the slightest clue that she had ever even existed.

In the village, six new families had joined, and the children were beginning their training. A handful of men now populated the village, several coming in from the new families, while a few of the children had finally reached the ambiguous age of man-hood. As Naruto entered he could see three of the more skilled men training the teenagers in the ways of combat.

He scoffed. What they called training, he called swinging a sword as fast and hard as you could. The adults beat the kids to toughen them up, and left the rest to time and combat experience.

Still, it was none of his business, so he ignored it. Those men had each offered to train him, after hearing how a six-year old raided a chaos goblin cave. Fact of the matter was, he had much better things to do.

"Azalk. You in there you lazy old man?" One of the village elders had been sacrificed the year before. Azalk was probably going to be killed sometime in the next year or so. Sooner if the weather turned bad.

Naruto eyed him warily as the elder left his little hut. The man walked with a stooped hunch, his curly white beard hanging halfway down his chest. Only the slightest cloud-like tufts of hair remained on his head. In all ways, Azalk seemed like a normal old man. A little like Hiruzen actually.

Keeping his guard up, Naruto dropped the thick roll of still-living leather on the floor. "It's fresh. What do you want for the work." A man did not live to be old in the Chaos Wastes just by being lucky. Azalk had knowledge and skills, both more valuable than gold. He knew the beasts of the Khorn landscapes, and how to make things with his hands.

This was the only man Naruto ever considered learning from. But no matter how many skulls he offered, the old man refused him. He would not pass on the secrets of leatherworking.

Azalk stroked his beard with a lazy hand. "This is all for that shield huh? Six skulls for payment. Two large stones, five fist sized rocks, and four goblin spines for the materials."

Now Naruto had no idea how a man could make a shield out of goblin spines and rock, but Azalk had never lied to him before. He dropped the sack, and almost a dozen goblin heads spilled out onto the floor. Shaking out his bag, Naruto started heading out of the village.

"I'll be back soon Old man. Try not to die before I get my shield."

"There's life in these old bones yet. Just you watch, I'll still be kicking long after you're dead and gone." The two shared a laugh, and Naruto left Azalk to his work.

"One of these days… One day I'm going to find something to make him teach me." Naruto made the promise under his breath. He had already spent too much time stagnating. He needed to find his way to the lands of men, far across the chaos wastes. There he could meet up with his friends, and join an army that wasn't made up of the lost and damned.

As he was leaving the village, he saw her.

A year younger than he was, she was someone he had seen many times before, but never spoken to. She smiled, walking alongside him as they went towards the gates. A cherubic face beneath short black hair, set with piercing stone-grey eyes. Wearing a sand-colored shrift that hung down to her knees, she looked the very picture of childhood innocence.

Naruto knew better than to fall for that here. In this village, everything was a threat and the sweeter things were the more they wanted to kill you. They didn't speak a word as they walked, him tensely striding forward with a hand on his sword, her happily skipping. When they reached the gates she stopped, looking at him, then at the ground, before she pressed something into his hand and ran off into the village.

He sat there, holding the pearl white skull of a rat as she ran off. "I hate this fucking village."

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It was a land of darkness, ruled by eternal shadows. But Choji no longer needed light to see, he could see in the darkest shadow and spot the gleam of metals no matter how they tried to hide. He lived the live of a miner, the eternal metronome of a pickaxe swinging up and down, cut by peaceful moments of tunnel searching when one vein was tapped out.

His mining team worked around him, each dwarf flowing with their own rhythm. The smack of the pick, the scrape of the shovel, the squeak of the cart, everything had a song inside of it. The deep dwarves understood this, and as the day wore on, rich baritone voices began to sing out.

Singing the songs of the tunnels.

When there were Ratmen around every corner, the tunnel songs gave strength. When the battle line began to falter, the tunnel songs gave courage. When reinforcements arrived in time to save the day, the tunnel songs gave the tired warriors new strength to carry on and crush one more of the filthy vermin.

Choji had yet to see battle, and he was grateful for that. The Skaven had been sniffing around their old tunnels. Several had needed to be bricked over to make sure none of the vicious little beasts got any ideas.

"Dor Dwer-ad! Give us a song!" One of the other mining dwarves called down the tunnel, and a dozen seconding voices cheered him on.

Yes, it was said that Choji had been born with many gifts. A powerful name, for one. The eyes of greatness, wealth, and skill. And a rumbling voice, as deep as the mountains and richer than any gold mine. His voice carried through the tunnels for miles in every direction.

"Ya want a song huh?" Choji asked with a grin, leaning on his pickaxe. "Here's one about a dwarf I knew, went adventurin for a loooong time. But me throats AWFUL parched, I dunnae think I can sing it without some good stout to wash the dust out."

Cheers went up through the tunnels, and a flagon quickly found it's way into his hands. Choji quaffed it down in one fell swoop, letting out a booming burp afterwards. "Good stuff! The best of the best! Is that yours Gelgar? I guess the rumors about your little gold vein were true after all. Well the best of luck to the best of Dwarves!"

Another cheer rose, as the many miners took a small break. Ale was poured, lunches were eaten, and the entire mine went quiet as a vampire's bedroom. "Now I think I promised you lads a song! Hows about 'The Tale of Shik-Maru' Ah got a feelin in me bones ye're gonna like this!"

His hand started tapping the head of his pickaxe on the hard stone floor. A gentle tempo forming. The other Dwarves were quick to pick up on it, and soon dozens of mining tools rapped out the same steady beat.

The song came from a place deep inside of him, resonating up from his bones. He hardly even needed to think about the lyrics, as he sang of his adventures with his team in that time a lifetime ago. It exploded forth, like the torrent of a raging river, flowing so fast he barely even heard the words as they left his lips.

For many minutes he sang, wasting the midday break several times over, but not a single Dwarf stopped him. He sang of his companions, the lazy trickster dwarf Shik-Maru, the elf-girl with golden hair who declared herself the leader, and the food loving Dwarf Kogi, all following the caravaneer human Ash-face who always smoked strange plants from faraway lands.

In the beginning he sang of fear and friends, how the four met along an endless dirt road, joining the caravan to serve as protection against the monsters of a strange land. Then the tune became one of growth, as each learned what it was that made them unique. The elf maiden, struggling to find strength when her kind was so inherently weak. The lazy dwarf, trying to keep what he cared about the most without working too hard. The food dwarf, who had grown content with his companions and was constantly scared of letting them down. And the human, wise in the ways of the world and happy to take on such varied company. A man who saw only the heart of his friends, not their blood or looks.

Then the story turned sour, as a vampire encountered the caravan. A vampire aided by a powerful necromancer who attacked the guards with conjured beings with metallic skin and human hearts beating inside their chests. Ash-face drew a sword, as the vampire approached and it turned out that he was skilled in combat. Faster than an elf, stronger than a dwarf, he fought the vampire to a standstill on that dusty dirt road. But the undead used foul magic, and had eaten so many lives that its body repaired every injury. Ash-Face grew tired, and the vampire hacked off his head.

In the end, Ash-Face never needed guards. He just wanted some company.

The pick drumming took on a sad, somber tone. The mournful pace of a funeral hymn. Some of the dwarves had to wipe tears from their eyes.

Choji told them how Ash-Face had the last laugh, burning the caravan and all the goods inside before his death. The undead could get nothing, and in the thick smoke the elf and two dwarves escaped.

Once more the story picked up it's pacing. The three heroes trained like they had never trained before, hiding in the woods by that forgotten road. They found their inner strengths, training and growing until they were each skilled in their own fields.

Then the trickster dwarf found the vampire's lair. While the dwarf and the elf distracted the necromancer, he slew the vampire in single combat, burning it's body until nothing remained but ash before scattering the ash on the four winds.

Then the three of them killed the necromancer, putting his head on a pike in honor of their victory.

Finally the story trailed off. Choji stopped singing as the emotion took it's toll. He never should have brought up Asuma and Ino. Dwarves were not fond of non-dwarves in their stories. They likely would see him completely different now, judging him as an elf-sympathizer.

Choji sat in the silent cave, waiting for something. Anything.

All he heard was silence. As if the entire world had melted away during his song. Then the voice came. "So… What happens next?!"

And the rest. "Oi! What happens to da three!?"

"An elf learnin ta fight like a real warrior! I don't believe it!"

"Now that's a dwarf who settles his grudges!"

One of the dwarves set a hand on Choji's shoulder. "Boy. You got a gift there. A gift from the gods themselves. A verse of that song is worth a sack of gold." And just like that Choji found his hands full of money.

"You'll tell us more soon, right?"

"Aye, with a song like that, I could mine for days!"

Choji smiled, glad that his companions enjoyed his song. A song that had carried further down the tunnels than he intended it to.

Miles away, deep down in the darkness, furry ears twitched as they heard the last echoes of the song. Eyes opened in the darkness, and jagged teeth pulled back in a crooked smile.

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"We go to war!" Stomp. Stomp. Stomp. Heavy footsteps shook the earth.

Fun fact, did you know the Hyuuga love to gamble? It's a sport within the clan, dating back to their founding. Long before they were the stuck up elitist prudes they eventually became, they were a band of rough and tumble warriors who fought hard, drank hard, and gambled the hardest.

In the years before the first Hokage, there was a saying, "The eyes are the only organ a Hyuuga won't bet." When they settled down in a tribe with the Manriki and Gusari warrior bands, forming one of the nine primary powers that would eventually unite to form the Land of Fire, the Hyuuga had to stop their impulsive gambling.

At this point, they became the elite of the elite, the finest warriors in the land. They adopted the same elitist mentality, and an even tighter lock was placed on the gambling. It became a nobleman's past-time, and a training game. Who could see fate itself?

"We go to fight!" Smash. Smash. Smash. Massive bodies shattered every tree in the way.

Neji had been prodigious in this game as well, though his time was mostly spent training. His only experience was before his father died, several years of successful gambling against even the finest Hyuuga. He learned the tells and tricks to a T, and only his father never lost a hand to him. Needless to say, in the Hyuuga clan gambling dens, it was only cheating if your opponent could see how you did it.

But the most important lesson Neji learned was the all-important bet. When do you go all in?

"We will smash them! We will crush them! Our lands shall be ours again, and these diseased things will never touch our land again!" A roar filled the air, sending every animal in a mile scurrying for safety. Ten-thousand reptilian roars followed it.

Neji stood at the head of an army. His new body was easily eight feet tall, rippling with sleek reptilian muscles and covered in stone-hard scales. In one hand he held a brutal weapon, a three foot long stone club with teeth attached along the length of the blade. Teeth from dozens of native creatures, many unbelievably poisonous. Some needle-thin, some as wide as a finger and razor-sharp. In his other hand a spear was strapped to his forearm. Made of the elongated forearm bone of a massive jungle beast, it was sharpened into a brutal point.

A pack of Carnosaurs stood on his right, the lead dinosaur lazily chewing on a jungle bird that got too close. Their eyes were cold and intelligent, and the leader looked him straight in the eyes as it sunk its teeth deep into the animals chest, splattering its mouth with blood.

On his left, hundreds of skinks vanished into the forest. Each of the warriors barely came up to his hips, but the darts they carried dripped with lethal toxins, and the blowguns were masters of silent killing.

A legion of Saurus followed him, many marked with a blood-red palm print. These were the legendary warriors of the sunken world, who Neji had blessed personally with his own blood and a touch of magic. Spears and shields looked far less intimidating that the thousands of carnivorous warriors.

Behind them, the real threats marched. Dozens and dozens of Kroxigor. Warriors as tall as he was, with gigantic clubs. Each of them was marked with his bloody clawed hand-print, over one eye or on the top of their head. Each looked around the forest with eager eyes, craving the coming battle. Their cold-blood was running warm today!

On came the war-beasts, massive dinosaurs carrying warriors, weapons, and magical support items. Their bellowing roars sounded the call to fight, and their skin was so thick that a sword would struggle to even scratch it.

Neji looked over the army. He had set off from his home city with two dozen Saurus and a handful of Skinks. But the call to battle and the promise of driving out the disgusting invaders had turned his rag-tag band into a bloodthirsty swarm. He hoped the Skaven could put up some kind of fight…

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End of Chapter 4! So I had some writer's block here, still not sure how I feel about Choji's song, but it served a purpose so there's that. I know I'm a few days late getting this out, but I've got a chem test today, so things have been a little hectic.

Hopefully next chapter comes out this weekend. Goddamn I can't wait to write clan wars!

So yeah, since I am putting together a war, I'm going to request one of three things from my oh-so-brilliant readers. Give me any of them and you shall be mentioned next chapter.

A)A clan Pestilens army list. All clan Pestilens (Pre-age of sigmar, so no verminlords, anything else is good to go though. Approximately 10,000 points or so, make it whatever you want though!

B) Lizardmen and Skaven heroes! The bravest of the brave, the boldest of the bold! Give me an approximate statline if you want to see your character in this war!

C) Magical items. Rings, swords, shields, amulets, fake glass eyes, I simply do not care. Give me anything and everything you've got!