Redemption from the Abyss

by Kriegmarine

Deep within the hidden citadel of a rouge Jashinist sect a vile summoning takes place. From the chaos and strife of another world a demon of the abyss comes forth. So, why does said 'demon' look like a preteen brat and how will her presence affect the future of the Elemental Nations? M/violence and gore. AU events. Character death. Slow start/updates. (6/9/2014 - motivation issues)

4. Chapter 4

Uploaded: 3/29/2013.

Written: 3/25-29/2013

Edited: 11/19/2013 (Version 1.02)

Hello again! Krieg here with the next chapter of RftA!

Don't forget to leave a review!

"Talking/Jutsu"

"Whispering"

'Thinking'

"Text in a book"

"Demon/Summon talking"

"Demon/Summon Whispering"

'Demon/Summon thinking'

FYI: My stories shall all be rated "M" for safety's sake. FanFiction is not responsible for the content presented within this story.

Disclaimer: I will make it clear that I do not own Claymore/Naruto or any of its characters, settings, storyline, and/or techniques save my own creations.

X~X~X~X~X

Redemption from the Abyss

X~X~X~X~X

"... Soooo boooored..."

Another lovely day in Fire Country was coming to an end as Hagane Komoru glanced over to her bandage-wearing partner.

"I know your bored to death, friend o' mine, but this duty of ours is a necessary and important position within the village. Besides, it's not THAT bad."

Kamizuki Hiru glared hard at his best friend, head laying upon the wooden desk of the guard station. He and his partner-in-crime were the two chunin colloquially known as the 'Gatekeepers of Konoha' for their frequent stint as guards/inspectors at one of Konoha's three main entrances. It was an important job within the Shinobi Village but an incredibly dull job as well.

"I know its an important role, Komoru, but its just... Nothing EVER happens! All we ever do is sit here, stare across a road, and have the occasional person sign in or out when they come by." He emphasized his point by waving around the two clipboards holding the sign-in and sign-out sheets.

Komoru sighed; This was not the first time she had to deal with her antsy partner. There were times during their duty as guards where Hiru could become absolutely insufferable; This was quickly becoming one of those days. It wasn't to say that he hated performing his duties; He just found guard duty to be less exciting than escort missions or even some D-Rank missions. She knew, however, the perfect way to keep him quite and focused... for a time.

"How about this; If you can stay focused for the rest of this shift, I'll buy you a couple bottles of that syrup you like so much."

Hiru perked up; He has had an addiction to syrup since his early Academy days.

"Mama Yamaka's maple syrup?"

Komoru nodded an affirmative. "That's the one."

Hiru shot back up, a picture-perfect example of attentiveness. Komoru chuckled at his antics; It kinda reminded her of-

"Say... How is that brat of yours doing? A little birdie dropped by and told me he graduated from the Academy and has his own genin team now."

The light-skinned brunette chuckled. Of course her friend would want to talk about her son; Said boy acted more like Hiru than anything else.

"He is doing well. He does his chores and trains hard everyday, just like his father. Its kinda funny, but I can't get him to stop wearing those bandages you gave him for his 11th birthday." Komoru, along with Hiru, chuckled at the recent memory of the boy. "I met his teammates the other day and they seem like they are pretty good; I really liked the girl on his team while the other one..." She looked over to her teammate while he looked back expectantly. "... He was okay." Hiru pouted at her calling his son 'okay'.

"Only 'okay'?"

Komoru smirked. "Yup; Only 'okay'." She laughed as Hiru hung his head morosely before she continued on, regaining his attention. "I also spoke briefly with his jonin-sensei. The man was pretty well-rounded and had a lot of experience in the field; As to be expected from a jonin. Though, he did say he was better with kenjutsu than most other jonin." Komoru glanced over to her friend, only to see him smirking slightly; She did not believe the smirk had anything to do with her son's team. "Of course, you probably had something else in mind when you started this little conversation..."

Hiru's smirk widened into a sly grin.

"How did Kotetsu like that little graduation present I sent him?"

Faster than the eye could see, Hiru was a steaming mess of mangled limbs on the ground courtesy of Komoru's Motherly Fist of Wrath.

"YOU GAVE HIM A DOZEN BOTTLES OF SYRUP! DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW MUCH OF A PAIN IN THE ASS IT IS TO CLEAN THAT STUFF UP WHEN IT SPILLS?!"

As Hiru twitched on the ground, groaning pitifully, Komoru huffed in annoyance. "I still can't believe you corrupted my lil' Kotetsu into eating that stuff." She gained some tears in her eyes and continued on in a weepy voice. "It's almost as if you did it to spite me..."

She expected Hiru to vehemently oppose her accusation, but no denials came. Komoru looked over to her partner only to find him still on the earthen floor of the inspection station, twitching feebly. She felt a bead of sweat trickle down the back of her head.

'Perhaps I overdid it...'

She was about to help Hiru when something out of the corner of her eyes drew her attention away from her downed teammate towards the dirt road leading into the village. She was slightly surprised to see a woman with long, ribbon-like black hair pulling a small cart of goods towards the gate of Konoha in the waning light. The woman herself looked to be in her mid twenties and wore a yellow dress, a pair of dark-green sandals, and a yellow sun hat made of straw that accentuated her natural beauty. The chunin noted that the woman had stuffed her dress's few pockets with a variety of flowers such as daisies and camellias. As the traveler walked up to her, Komoru couldn't help but feel a ping of jealousy towards the woman; Why couldn't she have a head-turning body like that? In a light and whimsical voice, the alluring traveler broke Komoru from her musings as she spoke.

"A pleasant evening to-"

X~X~X

"-you, Ninja-sama."

As Riful spoke pleasantly to the female guard manning the walled village's inspection station, she couldn't help but feel giddy with hidden excitement. She had been on this strange new world for going on a year and three months and within that time she had learned most of the mannerisms, customs, history, and language of this world's inhabitants from the self-proclaimed 'Jashinists' along with some abilities that would leave many an Organization warrior pink with envy. The initial attempts to learn the language were incredibly troublesome but had become easier when one of the Jashinist priests, an intelligent young woman that had been blinded during a bandit raid many years previous to Riful's arrival, took it upon herself to compare words and grammar between her and Riful's languages using simple objects such as rocks and trees as a base point from which to expand their respective vocabularies. Riful would admit to herself that, even after all of time spent with the Jashinist woman, there were still some holes in their language she had yet to fill. Still, it was more than enough to be viewed by the land's inhabitants as a 'local'. What she did find to be absolutely enthralling were the few 'Ninja' abilities she had been taught thus far.

"...Umm, can I help you, miss...?"

Riful was broken from her reminiscing by the guard's questioning... well, question.

"Oh! Forgive me for spacing-out like that. What was that you said?"

The woman chuckled while Riful mentally fumed; It was such lack of awareness that got many Claymores and Awakened Beings killed. She had trained hard over her many years as both a Warrior and an Awakened Being to crush such absentmindedness; It would appear that she was getting out of practice in this new world.

"It's alright; I do it from time to time myself. I asked how I could help you, miss." Said the female guard, smiling in good humor.

Oh, well that wasn't the response she was predicting. Riful had expected the embodiment of military decorum when she initially began planning to come to the shinobi village; Curt words and cold demeanors were expected, not smiles. Her surprise must have been evident as the women across the counter's smile seemed to widen.

"This the first time you've visited a Hidden Village, miss?"

The odd question only served to make Riful sigh.

"... Yes."

The woman manning the guard shack uttered a single bark of laughter, startling a trio of gossiping women passing the village gate.

"Ha! Well, today's gonna be a real treat for you, miss! Konoha is the oldest, largest, and most powerful village in all of the Elemental Nations! As such, we offer a wide assortment of products and services such as guided tours of our rich cultural heritage, inclusing the world-famous Hokage (Fire Shadow) Monument and the historic Kikyo Castle, massive markets from which anything you may have ever wanted can be found and bought at a reasonable price, relaxing spas and resorts to melt away your stress and fatigue from a long day's travel, a large selection of fine restaurants and eateries for the very best dining experience the Elemental Nations can offer, and finally the Services Request Office where one can get the very best in shinobi services!"

Riful was admittedly relieved when the women finally finished her cumbersome speech, far more intent on entering the village than learning about Kona-everything from the woman before her; She was this close to cutting the guard off when her stifling village introductory speech (or whatever it was meant to be, this being the first time she had experienced such a thing) finally ended.

"W-well, while I may look into those other things you mentioned at some point, I was wondering if I may enter your fair village in order to sell my goods; I have heard that Konoha takes care of visiting merchants splendidly."

That was, at least, what the previous owner of the cart and clothes had told her about this village before she found a place in Riful's stomach. It didn't really matter to Riful one way or another as she had little interest in currency; Knowledge about shinobi and their abilities was what she was seeking.

"Of course! But first, I'll need to check you and your cart for any contraband along with having you sign-in, not to say that I don't trust you or anything." She winked conspiratorially at Riful, making said Abyssal smile. "Here's a pen and the sheet you'll need to sign is attached to the clipboard over there."

After the brunette handed Riful the black pen and waved towards the general direction of the sign-in/sign-out sheets, she stood up from her seat and went through a doorway in the back. She reappeared a few moments later walking out of the shadows cast by the guard shack and immediately went to the small cart of goods. After taking a few moments to figure out how to use the 'Pen' and what a 'Clipboard' was, Riful wrote her alias, Katsuya Mina, down on the paper. Riful spent the rest of her time watching the sleeping guard snore away his duty, lightly chatting all-the-while with the other guard, before said woman walked towards the clipboard containing her name.

"By the way, do you happen to have a Merchant's Licence on you..." She looked down to where Riful had written her alias, "Katsuya-san?"

Riful looked at the woman as if she had grown a second head; Never before had she heard of such a silly thing.

"What's that?"

The woman's brown eyes widened in surprise, the reaction making Riful uneasy, before she laughed moments later. Her laughter only grew upon seeing Riful pouting at her. It took her a few moments to get her laughter reigned-in before she could speak once more.

"Sorry! Sorry! A stupid mistake on my part. It's all a rather recent law signed by the Konoha Council that requires merchants and businesses within Konoha to have a Licence as proof of legitimacy; Supposed to increase the quality of products and services they said, not that I've noticed any changes!" She smiled at Riful. "Anyways, a Merchant's Licence is pretty easy to get, Katsuya-san. Just go to the Merchant's Committee building in the Market Central; You can't miss it!" At this Riful was finally waved through.

Walking through the imposing gates, Riful's first real glimpse of Konohagakure were trees, a dirt road, a few buildings bordering the road, and more trees. Shrugging, she meandered along the road with the small cart of goods before pulling off the road.

After a short walk, she found a large oak perfect for her use. She hitched the small wagon next to the tree before walking up the side of the broad oak, forming a perimeter around the area with her senses all-the-while. Finding a suitable limb on which to rest, she quickly chucked off her clothes and curled into a ball to nap; She could do her sight-seeing of the village tomorrow.

X~X~X

Riful woke up early the next day to the sounds of the forest, a most soothing noise she would admit to herself. As she lay upon the tree limb a couple meters above the forest floor, she began to plan out her day. 'Alright, what do I want to do?' She hummed in thought, watching as a gentle breeze flittered through the leaves of the great oak she lay upon. 'I need to see what these shinobi are like, of course; If what Musashi said was true, the shinobi here are simply fabulous! I do believe I'll also need to gain access to whatever they use as an archive for their knowledge; They may have information that can help take me back home. And... huh, I can't really think of anything else at the moment, I guess I'll use whatever time I have left to take in the sights if I cannot come up with anything else.' After yawning and taking a few moments to stretch her sleepy muscles and spread her senses, she donned the simple dress once more, slipped on her shoes she had been wearing the other day, and placed the wide-brimmed sun hat atop her head before channeling some yoki to her feet and calmly walking down the oak tree. Smoothing out a few wrinkles and removing some minor dirt stains that had formed in the dress overnight, Riful ditched the small cart and made her way back towards the road. Brushing past low-hanging branches and prickly bushes, she found the road and began to make her way towards the center of the village. It was about five minutes later, after navigating a few bends in the road and giving a few greetings to other early-risers, that she finally got her first good view of the 'village'; It made her wonder whose childish joke it was to call this place a 'Hidden Village'; The 'village' was clearly a sizable city and was, in too few ways, hidden. She made her way further into the city towards a large gathering of humans she could detect with her yoki; No doubt the location of a marketplace. She was confident that the markets would prove fruitful in her endeavor to observe the habits and behavior of shinobi. Meandering through the largely-vacant streets leading further into the city, she couldn't help but be awed by the amount of foliage within the city and how well it and the city's architecture seemed to compliment each other; The innumerable trees, grasses, flowers, and bushes of the city's parks and forests seemed to blend in perfectly with the wooden houses, colorfully-painted shops, and tall 'Power Poles' that held rubber-coated 'Power Lines' high above the streets of packed dirt and pavement, forming a colorful mosaic too beautiful for words to fully describe.

As Riful meandered leisurely through the streets and alleys of Konoha, wishing the cities of Turiel were as aesthetically pleasing as this 'Konoha', she observed the city inhabitants slowly arise from their overnight slumber and begin to go about their daily routines; Children would talk animatedly with their friends as they made their way to the 'Academy' (a new place of interest she promised herself to go visit soon). Store owners would restock their shelves before opening-up and begin hawking their goods to any and all that passed their open doors. Laborers and couriers rushed to-and-fro, carrying their packages to wherever they were needed. She was delighted to see an occasional Shinobi/Kunoichi jumping across the rooftops or walking down the streets, giving brief glimpses into their fascinating lives. It was during this time, watching a few non-shinobi going about their lives on a largely-vacant street, that Riful accidentally bumped into someone.

"Oh! Umm... Sorry about that. Are you okay?"

Riful was about to snarl at the blundering fool that bumped into her, enraged that someone had gone and interrupted her shinobi stalking, but stopped when she saw who exactly bumped into her; A beautiful, red-headed woman of fair skin wearing a high-collared, sleeveless white blouse under a long, loose-fitting green dress was looking worriedly at her through azure eyes. Riful idly noted the woman's long, bright-red hair was parted to the left side of her face with a small clip and that her belly was swollen from the late stages of pregnancy as she replied to the redhead with a polite tone.

"I am unharmed; Simply startled. The real question is are you alright?"

The other woman grinned weakly, scratching the back of her head in embarrassment.

"Heheh, I'm alright; It'll take a lot more than that to put me down, 'ttebane! Anyway, I don't believe we've-"

"Kushina!"

Looking over to the side, Riful finally noticed the older woman whom had just interrupted the now-named Kushina. She wore a a purple kimino along with an off-white haori. The elder's long, brown hair was tied-up into a ponytail that fail down her back. Her face, interestingly enough, had little in the way of wrinkles. Looking into her deep brown eyes, Riful could see the cunning intelligence behind them; This was not a woman to be trifled with.

"Y-yes, Biwako-san?"

Biwako crossed her arms over her chest as she glared up at the younger woman before her.

"What did I tell you after we left Mikoto?"

Riful watched in veiled amusement as Kushina seemed to shrink before the older woman.

"Oh. R-right." Turning around, Kushina gave Riful an apologetic smile. "Well, I've gotta run so I'll talk to you later... Umm..."

Riful chuckled lightly, hiding it with the palm of her hand, as the older woman began to drag the taller redhead away. She understood the unasked question though and, on a whim, decided to tell the woman her real name.

"My name is Riful."

The other woman gave her a wide grin as she was led further down the street.

"It's good to meet you, Riful-san! I'm Uzumaki Kushina and I'm going to be the best mother EVER, 'ttebane!"

"DAMMIT, KUSHINA!"

Riful waved towards the other woman as she was dragged out of sight, chuckling at her antics. She slowly let her arm drop a few moments later and smiled.

'That's good to hear, Kushina...'

Clapping her hands together, Riful turned around and began to happily walk back the way she had came, smiling as she continued her exploration of Konoha on the breezy day of October 10th.

'Nothing beats the taste of a newborn's innards, after all.'

X~X~X

The security at the entrance was lax due to it being peace-time conditions; The inspection would have been more invasive otherwise.

While I am unsure as to how a truly-canon Riful would react to being offered training, mine will not be so foolish as to decline such an opportunity at increasing her strength and/or knowledge.

There will be no eating of Naruto in this fic.

(ADDITION) Previous reasoning behind Riful's ability to change her human body's physical age was, simply put, idiotic. Got something that could better explain the sudden appearance of this ability but it will take a while for the idea to be fully fleshed-out within the fic.

(EDIT - 11/19/2013)

Removed all the in-depth information pertaining to her ninja training; Much better to reveal it as the story goes instead of being like, "Hey guys, Riful trained this, that, and those with Musashi before he showed this to her and repeated the entire process over with new shit." Added more dialogue and descriptors throughout the fic to make up for the lost wordcount. Thought about changing the very last section of the chapter, but ultimately decided against it; A ladies gotta eat, dammit, and fresh meat had that wonderful 'melt-in-your-mouth' feeling that all Yoma and Awakened Beings take delight in.

There still will be no eating of Naruto in this fic.