A/N: Aaaaargh! My computer crashed! I'm writing this now from my home computer, but its not entirely reliable and I can't always be on. So no more SWTOR for me at the moment, which is kinda a bummer. Probably gonna need a hardrive and everything, so...bummer. Alright, now that I gave ya'll and update on my situation, back to the author's note!
WARNING! This story has LEMONS! Lemons I say! If you don't like, don't read, because the M-rated stuff will be ramping up in later chapters! As for the matter of the protagonist's name, I've settled on Narukami Yu, because, well, it just makes more sense to go with what the anime and the new game says. Besides, it sounds better, wouldn't you agree?
In this chappy, we finally see the truth behind Naruto's flirtatious behavior, and why he just can't seem to say no to some of these girls... Lots of good stuff in this chapter, and just a touch of fanservice. Enjoy! I nearly worked myself to death on this one! Sorry if its short, but hey...
...I'M BACK, BABY!
"Oi, oi oi oi, how did this get so out of hand, dattebayo?!"
~Naruto.
Fracture (Interlude)
The shadow's hands caressed his face, cradling him in her lap. "My prince. My sweet, darling prince...
Naruto blanched.
"Yukiko...
"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" She hollered at him, her eyes flashing stormily. "Don't. It's 'Yuki-chan' or don't you remember?" She grinned deviously as something occurred to her. "Of course you could always call me your princess...my prince." Without another word lowered herself onto him anew, straddling him with her hips.
The robe slid from her shoulders like water of a duck's back. But this was no duck. Yukiko was a swan. A beautiful, slender swan, elegant and graceful, reaching down for the buckle of his pants, lust a-blazing high in her golden eyes. With a flick, she tore it free. And that was when the shit hit the fan; because at that very moment...
The door came crashing open.
"NA-RU-TO!"
Fuck all kinds of duck.
In one smooth movement he tucked and rolled, extricating himself from Yukiko's shadow in a dirty tumble of shouts and swears, his hands closing around a collar as he tumbled past. Not a moment too soon. Fire seared across his back in an angry line; whooshing past him to crash into the unprepared shadow, striking her square in the chest.
The Agilao detonated spectacularly. It was a very nice explosion-he thought. Very...FIERY. Of course, that might have something to do with the grenade he had left hooked in his belt. What? It wasn't excessive! It was a perfectly reasonable thing to do. Always come prepared! That was his motto! Wait. Wait. A. Minute...hadn't he had a full belt of those? When he heard the whine, he knew.
Oh, bugger.
Time seemed to slow, reality moving in a crawl. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Narukami and Hanamura, just stepping into the room. They'd be fine. The others wouldn't. His hand rose, making a fist. Crushing-
"KURAMA!"
When it blew, the ensuing conflagration all but destroyed the bed-and the pants he'd left behind-destroying the highly flammable cotton sheets in searing blast before expanding. As though from outside herself Chie saw it all-saw it swell before her eyes, dance in those warm brown orbs, grow large, heat her skin as she flew-wait wait wait, what? She was indeed flying backwards, her feet leaving the ground, but it wasn't the fire, wasn't the heat that tucked her into a warm chest, shielding her from the flame.
The next, she heard a roar of pain.
"Okay, that fucking hurt!"
Ground greeted them without pause, sending
Daring a glance, she found a slightly singed face staring down at her. Smoldering, savaged skin peeled back, healing instantaneously before her very eyes. His back lay burned nearly to the bone, painstakingly knitting it back together piece by awful piece. His jacket was gone, reduced to mere scraps of fabric on what had once been his shoulders. Then she realized something else.
"Yukiko?!"
"Here." Naruto grunted, hoisting the blackette off his shoulder. "She didn't get hit. Still out like a light, though.
Naruto had grabbed her, Naruto had hauled her backwards just as the blast bloomed into life, hauled away form the inferno even as it grew large in her eyes. She was safe. Yukiko was safe.
Her shadow...not so much.
The blast had indeed set her aflame, but as they looked on, her smoldering body rose from the ashes like a phoenix.
"NO!" Shrieking the dark apparition leapt from the bed, already changing, her body warping into something hideous. "You can't have him! He belongs to me!" Her advance found itself stalled as a wall of ice erupted into existence, Chie's Tomoe lunged forward, glaive spinning.
"Oh, no you don't!"
"W-What? What are you doing?!"
...enough! Dissappear, ya pain in the ass!" Saki wasn't having any of the apparition's antics, either. Even as creature was born-even as it took shape-even as it flared her wings in preparation for a spell of its own, she raised a hand and crushed the card into life.
"Lamia!"
It was Naruto's first time seeing Saki's persona up-close-and-personal in person. It was...not an experience he wanted to repeat. Her persona took the form a dangerously beautiful woman, but from the waist down she was all serpent, a massive snake towering over him. Those coils were now wrapped firmly around Shadow Yukiko, her fangs bared menacingly. She was absolutely furious; he could see it in the creature's eyes without even looking at her mistress. She wasn't just angry.
Saki was livid.
"Look, I know you're pissed, but I can explain-
Clenched knuckles collided with his cheek, cratering it. To his surprise, he found himself decked so hard he actually lost a tooth.
Yousuke looked away from the fray long enough to whistle. "Damn, that looked like it hurt...
Narukami shook his head
"Women are strange creatures indeed."
The molar clattered across the floor with an audible tink of a sound, regrown almost before the original even shattered under Konishi's heel. For a moment Naruto just gawped at her, disbelieving. He couldn't believe she actually had the gall to walk right up to him and whack him. This wasn't at all the same, terrified her girl he'd rescued from the television so long ago!
"You," Saki began pointedly, shouldering her weapon. "Have some explaining to do once this is over."
"And I'll gladly explain." he countered, grabbing her by the collar. "When its over."
A tittering laugh greeted their ears.
Shadow Yukiko was giggling, a dark, maddened look in her eyes.
"Prince...my prince...why did you betray me? You'd said you would stay with me forever...so why are you with her?" Her head cocked aside, regarding him with faux sorrow. "Liar. You're a liar, just like the rest; you had your fun, and now you have no more use for me. Is that it? Is that all I was good for? A one night stand? If so...if so...
Chie's jaw clicked open. "Wait...what? Naruto...you...did...what?!"
"Fight now, explain later!"
"You'd better!"
Her fellow shadow frowned, recognizing the look in her eyes, feeling the energy beginning to build. She was directing all of her fire into something, pouring her very being into one, last, final, desperate attack. In the old words of a certain smuggler, he had a very, VERY bad feeling about this...
Uh-oh.
"He is not your prince!" Saki spun, fixing the beast with a glowering expression, unaware that the real Yukiko at her feed had begun to stir. "He's not anyone's prince. He's mine." A flick of her wrist battered the shadow with another of Lamia's nerve-wrenching poisons. "You just stay the fuck there and die like a good little shadow!"
"If I can't have you...if I can't kiss you...feel you...hold you...
Naruto frowned. "Saki."
"Shut up!" she snapped. "I have this under control." She did not, in fact, have anything under control. The shadow in Lamia's grasp began to writhe and buck; physically fighting to escape from within the confines of its captor. Lamia uttered another hearstopping hiss, visibly cringing as the phoenix began to sear her scales. Still she held on, crushing the bird's bones. In hindsight, it had seemed like a good idea at the time.
...if...I can't...have him...
"SAKI."
Shadow Yukiko cried out, her read feathers burning with an eerie, otherwordly light as the fire within detonated.
"THEN NO ONE CAN!"
"Saki, get down!" Naruto raised an arm. "She's gonna bl-"
Then things truly went pearshaped.
A/N: FINALLY! *Flops onto back* This chapter was hell on the nerves, and HELL to write. Hope you enjoyed it, and the much needed insight as to Naruto's...condition. Yes, he was once human, an once a shinobi. That was a looooong time ago. As you can see he's aged rather well-not at all?!-over the centuries. He also has a bit of a complex, with wanting to live his life to the fullest, while at the same time satisfy all those who desire his affections. Poor boyo. But what, oh, what, caused his metamorphosis into a shadow? But all the threats from his past are dead now...right? Hopefully I've peaked your interest with this and the upcoming battle and difference to the Persona realm.
Hopefully you're looking forward to the eventual arrival o Naoto as much as I am, so...
...review, WOULD YOU KINDLY? AND VOTE FOR THE DECISION! The next decision marker will involve Chie and Yukiko, as well as be every...entertaining. *stifles nose bleed* I'll have actual lemon posted soon, so look forward to 'em! Though I don't know how I'm going to top this chapter, I'll just have to try, won't I? Be sure to review!
And of course enjoy the preview this time, but enjoy this little omake first:
(Omake)
Saki's face was deceptively calm as she shouldered the bloodied baseball bat.
Her skirt ripped from the battle, her blouse severed, she looked every bit the angry yakuza that Naruto suspected her to be. It was almost funny, seeing this angry, demented side of her. At least it would've been, if she didn't look like she was about to clobber him with that bat...
"Now, then," she began to turn, slowly, firmly enunciating each syllable, "Why were you-
YOINK!
When she turned her attention back to Naruto, the blond was already well out of the room.
"EXIT STAGE LEFT, 'TTEBAYO!"
"Come back here, coward!"
Naruto exhaled harshly, expelling an angry breath through his nose.
"So," he began pointedly, "Let me get this straight. You thought, somehow, that it would be a good idea to, and I quote, let me decide. Ah!" His eyes cut to Saki when she opened her mouth. "Let me finish. Basically, its being left for me to choose which one of you I want to be with. That's it?"
There was a silence.
"Nope." His body spun away, walking back towards the television. "Not doing it."
"WHAT?!
His head poked out of the screen, annoyed.
"Don't you "WHAT?!" me. I already told you.
If I have to choose...
He leaned forwards.
...then I choose you both."
Yukiko and Saki colored mightily.
"But-
Whatever else might've been said died the moment he kissed them. Just for a moment, lips touching, brushing, then he was gone again.
Yukiko swooned.
"Why do I feel like we've just been trolled...
Hope ya liked it! R&R! =D
