A/N: Right, late again…hehe, I wanted to make this a 20k long chapter but I stopped at 10k for … several reasons.
1) I didn't want to drag it too much
2) It was too hard to proof read this much considering all the stuff I need to do nowadays
3) I can add more in the next chapter rather than using flashbacks in the future (which I will use since I didn't say much about the war and won't as I want to keep it a sub-plot for future use)
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and/or Fairy Tail
Demon's Curse – Chapter 7
"So…I assume the job is done…" Siegrain stated with a grin as the blond stepped in his office. "…though, what happened to you?" he asked noticing the blond was all bandaged up, his armor nowhere to be see – apart from his helmet which he wore on his head.
The knight didn't reply at first, he walked over to his desk and sat down on the couch in front of him, throwing his legs on the mage's desk nonchalantly. Siegrain raised an eyebrow at the blond's behavior but let it skip, just this time. He coughed trying to grab the blond's attention and to answer his questions.
"Ah…just ran into some trouble…nearly lost my live. Nothing new." The blond replied with a shrug as he fiddled with his fingers. "You know what's strange…someone else arrived there before me…" his voice had turned cold as his eyes narrowed behind his helmet, the councilman leaned in his highchair and tapped his fingers against each other as if thinking.
"Oh? I don't remember giving this particular mission to anyone else." He stated, yet the blond didn't believe him, something wasn't right here. Still, the knight decided not to press forward, the man – or better yet, the boy – before him had much more power than him.
"I see…" he replied, Siegrain realized that the blond didn't believe him, he decided to change the topic – albeit a little.
"The monster?" he asked.
Naruto snapped his fingers as he brought his legs down and pointed towards the mage. "Ah yes…the monster…" a twitch appeared in the mage's left eyebrow making the blond grin. "…it's gone…" he said in a dismissive manner, flicking his hand and leaning back in the chair. "…bunch of fairies took it down." He inwardly laughed; he wasn't going to tell him that the beast was now controlled and part of a mage.
Siegrain kept a calm face on the outside, a small smile on his lips. However, inside he was boiling with rage, his plan had backfired. He steeled himself, in the end he would have to resort to the tower to achieve his goal, he only needed a bait to lure his victim in. "Ah, no worries then. You are free to go." He said turning around with his chair and ignoring the blond.
The knight frowned a little, he had hoped he could rile up the mage a bit, just to see what kind of face he would make and try to understand why the councilman loved to rile up people. He stood up and walked out of the office leaving the mage alone to his thoughts, the boy growled as he tried to think of something, he cursed Fairy Tail for ruining his plan.
xXx
A year had passed since the missions; the twenty one year old blond had the blacksmith repair his armor. For a year he scavenged the country side, traveling throughout Fiore and Bosco in an attempt to gather resources to perfect his little weapon, the miniature explosive lacrima. How he got the fragments were his most kept secret, his father knew about it but said nothing, he welcomed the blond's ingenuity.
The knight traveled from town to town, asking mages where and alchemists where to find minerals and herbs needed for the mix, he experimented with numerous ingredients until he finally found the right combination and created a stable lacrima explosive. It still had a few downsides, things that he could not correct but it was better than the already existing one and this one he didn't need to pay for.
He used it in battles on several occasions; he had created two types of such explosive. One that would render its targets unconscious and one that would…clear a path for him when needed. He used the latter on rare occasions and never against human beings.
Currently, the blond was returning from a port town to Tatcha, he had acquired several supplies from Ca-Elum needed to create more explosive. As the blond traveled through the country side a glimmer in the distance attracted his attention. He stopped the horse he was on and scrunched his eyes, looking in the distance. An arrow suddenly wheezed past his head.
The knight's horse pulled back as several arrows fell in front of it, Naruto narrowed his eyes as he unsheathed his sword and ordered the horse to charge. In his travels he decided not to spend money on trains anymore and to acquire a horse, just like all the knights. The one he managed to acquire was a sturdy steppe horse, he had placed chainmail on it to protect it from animals – he considered bandits and highwaymen as nothing more than animals.
As he reached the group of highwaymen Naruto moved his sword back and leaned to the side, as he got close enough he swung his sword cutting a bow in half and one of the highwaymen's arm in the process. He turned his horse around as the rest of them unsheathed their weapons and charged towards him. As the first one got close enough the blond disarmed him and rendered him unconscious by ramming in him with his horse.
There were moments that Naruto hated that he couldn't kill bandits and highwaymen. Killing in self defense was not considered a crime, especially when a knight killed, but it was frowned upon. Considering with how many bandits this world had to deal with Naruto wondered just why he couldn't kill some of them, it would have made the world a much better place to live in.
After only ten minutes the attackers had been dealt with, the majority had been rendered unconscious while a few of them decided to make a run for it. Naruto didn't bother running after them, he tied up the highwaymen that he had rendered unconscious to his horse and continued his journey, dragging the men after him. It was close to noon when he arrived at the outskirts of Magnolia Town.
The merchants leaving the town, or the people going out for a stroll on the countryside looked at him in wonder, they noticed the tied up men dragged behind his horse and laughed silently. It was rare to see this method in bringing bandits to a jail.
"Halt!" the blond stopped his horse as a guardsman stepped forward. "I need your papers sir." The guardsman stated as the blond nodded and handed him his papers. The man looked through them, he saw the stamp of castle Kimos and nodded to himself, he then saw the stamp that signified the blond was part of the knights and handed the papers back without asking any questions. He bowed before him as he allowed the knight entry.
As the blond passed the guardsmen he turned around slightly. "Where is your jail?" he asked.
"Go to the western part of the town, its close to the canal." The guard replied. Naruto nodded as he turned around and continued his journey.
It didn't take long for the blond to reach the town's jail, the guards nodded to him and opened the stable for him. The knight tied his horse inside the stable and untied the bandits; they had woken up by now. Naruto motioned for them to get up and walk forward, they knew better than to try and run away, the gate had been closed anyway behind the blond.
One of the guardsmen opened the door for the knight and his captives, letting them step inside the building. Once inside Naruto walked forward and saluted the knight in charge of the place, said knight returned the salute and looked at the blond's prey.
"Impressive number you have there…" he said as he stepped forward to the bandits and looked at each other, they growled at the knight as if trying to intimidate him, but with a glare from the knight they all shut their mouths and whimpered.
"Do you have rooms for them?" Naruto asked as the knight nodded and called out for two guards, he ordered them to take the bandits to the cells and turned towards the blond. He walked past the blond and to the desk in the room; he opened one of the drawers and took out a bag of jewels and spilled the content on the desk.
After a few minutes the man turned towards the blond and handed him five thousand jewels. Naruto nodded accepting the money, he was surprised how well the man paid for a few bandits. "A pleasure doing business with you knight." The blond said with a bow as he turned around.
"Likewise." The man called as Naruto walked towards the door. Before he could open the door a nearby job board caught his attention. It was mostly empty, only one task was there, he walked over to it and grabbed it. "Interested?" he heard the knight call out. "I was about to send it to the mages since they do most of the jobs here." He laughed.
Naruto realized that Fairy Tail had their guild in this town, so jobs for the guardsmen were mostly scarce due to people going to the guild to give their requests. The job wasn't something out of the ordinary, he had to patrol through the countryside and take out any bandits he might run into.
The blond turned towards the man and nodded. "I'll do it, I could use a few money." He said as he turned around and opened the door. "I'll return in the morning." He said as he stepped out the door and walked to his horse.
The knight untied his horse and got back on it, he rode out of the stable and back on the busy streets. People moved out of the way as they saw him, giving him space and nodding in his direction, showing respect – something that the blond liked at lot, he liked knowing that people respected his line of work.
He rode through the streets passing by stalls where merchants exposed some of their goods to the public, so as to attract their attention and maybe get them to enter their shop. Naruto saw all kinds of merchandise, ranging from weapons, to magic items and groceries. The blond looked at the pack tied to the horse and checked to see if he had any more torches left. He nodded to himself as he saw five more, it would be enough for a night patrol.
"Naruto-san?" the blond turned around looking for the sound of the voice. He saw a girl in the crowd waving towards him and trying to reach him. He stopped his horse and waited for the girl.
He smiled as he recognized who it was. "Hello there Lisanna-san." The blond said with a smile, though she did not see it due to the helmet.
The girl stopped next to the horse and bowed towards the blond, she looked back up at him and smiled happily. "I knew I recognized the armor." She said, her eyes then moved to the horse. "But I never knew you had a horse."
Naruto laughed at that making the girl giggle. "Busy are we?" he asked looking towards the large bag of groceries she was carrying.
"Someone has to do the shopping, else we run out of food." Lisanna replied "Did you come to visit us?" she asked, her eyes seemed to be shinning as she asked that.
The knight chuckled as he shook his head. "Didn't think about that…" he replied, the girl huffed as she crossed her hands over her chest. She then grinned as she moved her hands and the bag behind her.
"Say, why don't you come now?" she asked him "I'm sure sis would be happy to see you." The girl giggled making the blond raise an eyebrow. He shrugged in response.
"I guess…got some time till my mission starts." He told her as he extended his hand towards her. "Hop on." He said, her eyes sparkled as she placed her hand on his, the knight pulled her up and helped her sit on the horse behind him, finally the knight ordered his horse to move forward with Lisanna telling him which way to go to reach the guild.
"So what job do you have?" she asked after a moment of silence leaning to the side to see the blond's face, or at least the front of his helmet.
"A night patrol, need some money." He replied casually. "What have you and your siblings been doing since we last met?" he asked her.
The girl sighed at little. "Not much, we kept taking jobs, having fun with our friends, the usual." She replied dangling her feet, she grinned as she looked towards the blond. "Though my sister had been thinking of you since you departed." She told him with a giggle.
The blond turned his head towards her with an incredulous look on his face. "She has?" he asked not believing her, they barely knew each other after all.
Lisanna laughed at him making him wonder why she was laughing, after a few minutes she calmed down and shook her head. "I was joking…a bit." She said with a wink "When we got back she wouldn't stop talking with master Makarov about you and for a good month or two she had been very eager to meet you again."
Naruto turned around and shook his head. "I should thank you." He heard Lisanna once again. "Since that meeting…she had changed, I like they way she changed."
"She didn't strike me as a bad person." The blond replied trying to sound like he didn't have that much influence over the girl's change. Lisanna however shook her head, a distant look appeared in her eyes as she continued talking.
"In the past, she would have ignored anyone or disrespected them, she wouldn't have cared about anyone other then her friends and family. She used to get in a lot of fights, for no reason…" she said as a smile appeared on her face. "…but since that incident, she became more open, more helping and she doesn't get into that many fights anymore." She finished with a laugh.
The blond sighed softly and shook his head, he still didn't believe he had much of a influence over changing someone. He wasn't the best person to be looked at for live changing, his hands were deep in blood, his nose was longer than a road from all the lies. But then again, he decided to ignore all that and just accept the facts.
As the guild came into view the blond was taken aback by its size, he had never seen a mage guild before so he had no idea how they looked like, Fairy Tail was impressive. He stopped on the road and helped Lisanna down, the girl told the blond to follow her to their stables. He was impressed that they had a stable, even though it was small – it could only hold three horses – but it was more than he expected.
After leaving his horse in the stable the blond followed the mage in the guild, as soon as they entered the guild however the knight was forced to duck as a chair flew over his head, he looked towards the now shattered chair and then towards the interior of the guild were a brawl was taking place. Lisanna sighed a little.
"Don't mind them…" she said walking forward, the blond carefully followed her trying his best to dodge any wayward projectiles.
"Is this…normal day occurrence?" he asked, everything here was new to him, he had never imagined that a guild would be run like this.
The girl laughed softly and shook her head. "Not really, you get used to it however after some time and it becomes … normal."
The blond nodded accepting her answer, he still wondered however why they would fight each other. He understood sparring, but what was happening in the guild was more or less an all out brawl.
Lisanna led the blond to the guild's bar, she told him to take a sit as she walked in the back to leave the groceries. Naruto sat down at the bar and looked at the guild's interior, admiring the place. While the blond was busy with his surroundings Lisanna ran through out of the kitchen through the guild looking for her sister, a sly grin present on her face.
She ran past Luxus who seemed to be sleeping at one of the tables with his feet on it and down the stairs to the basement. The girl smiled as she saw her sister down there checking the stock and arguing with Erza, like always. She ran up to her sister and tapped her on the shoulder, the elder girl turned towards her and smiled asking what was wrong.
"You have a visitor." She said with a grin as she then told her to go upstairs. Mirajane raised an eyebrow at that and asked her who the visitor was; her sister however just shook her head and kept quiet, her smile never leaving her lips.
With a sigh the girl walked past her sister and headed upstairs. Erza looked towards Lisanna in a questioning manner; the younger girl however shook her head and said nothing opting to run after her sister giggling all the while. The red head, curious, followed them upstairs.
As they reached the main floor they noticed the brawl taking place, Erza thought that this was the reason Lisanna brought them up, however when she looked towards her rival she saw her staring at the bar with a small blush on her cheeks. The read head looked towards the bar and noticed a figure she had never seen before.
"Who is he?" she asked turning towards Lisanna who giggled.
"He's the guy I told you about." The girl replied making Erza's eyes widen as she looked back towards the knight who was staring at the brawl with fascination. She then looked towards her rival who began to fidget. "What are you waiting for? Go and talk to him!" Lisanna told her elder sister who looked back at her.
"But...I don't know what to say." She complained as she looked back at the knight. "I mean, we hadn't met for a year…"
Her sister sighed as she walked behind her and started pushing her earning a surprised gasp. "Just go and say 'hi'."
Mirajane bit her lip as she looked at her sister and then back at the blond. The girl nodded and slowly began walking towards the blond, she didn't know why she felt like this now. She was the one that invited him to the guild after all but she had never expected him to actually come one day.
The girl stopped a few feet from the blond, her presence attracted his attention, the knight turned his head towards her and smiled behind his helmet. "Hey…" the girl said in a weak voice, mentally she berated herself, wondering why she was getting all emotional. The blond's smile didn't falter as he raised his hand in a wave.
"Nice to see you again." The blond replied while taking his time to study her. She wore a black one piece dress with a short skirt holding the top together with a ring and a string that went around her neck. Naruto did a double take at her clothing, he thanked himself for wearing the helmet, he could feel his cheeks burning. The clothing really complemented her figure.
The girl smiled a little sensing him stare. "Want something to drink?" she asked grabbing his attention, his eyes connecting with hers. "On the house of course." She winked, her initial loss gone now. The blond nodded as he took off his helmet and placed it on the bar next to him.
Mirajane walked behind the bar and stopped in front of the blond. "Fancy anything in particular?" she asked him, the blond simply shook his head letting her know that anything would do. After looking through the large number of beverages for a few seconds Mirajane pulled one of the bottles and opened it for the blond. She handed it to him with a glass.
Naruto took the glass and bottle, nodding towards her. "Care to join?" he asked taking Mirajane by surprise, she giggled and nodded handing him a second glass. The blond grinned as he poured the beverage in her glass first and then into his.
"How have you been?" he asked taking a sip from the glass and tasting the beverage, it wasn't anything he hadn't tasted before but it had a much better taste.
The girl shrugged a little. "Much better…" she replied with a smile while moving her finger above the glass. "…it was hard at first; I kept having nightmares of the event."
"Oh?" Naruto raised an eyebrow at that.
Mirajane nodded and sighed. "In the dreams you never showed up…" she mumbled, loud enough for the blond to hear. He could only imagine how it was, or how it would have been if he was only a second later. "…but its better now." She added with a smile.
"That's good to hear."
The white haired girl nodded and placed her hands under her chin, she smiled towards the blond. "But what about you? I wasn't expecting you to actually take up my offer." She told him.
"Do I look like the kind of guy that would reject an offer from a beautiful lady?" he asked with a mock hurt tone making Mirajane giggle. "I might have been late, but … better late than never no?" he asked her with a big smile.
The girl nodded towards him as she began asking him what he had done in the past year, the bystanders – Lisanna and Erza – watched their interaction with fascination, the younger girl was pleased to see her sister talk openly with someone outside the guild, Erza however was shocked that her rival was talking with someone so casually, she had never seen this side of her.
The red head smiled as she watched them, her smile dropped as a book suddenly connected with her head, she turned towards the brawl in the guild and glared hard. The girl marched towards them intent on stopping the fight and breaking a few limbs in the process. Lisanna laughed as she walked out of the way and went in the kitchen to take care of the groceries she had bought.
Naruto and Mirajane were obvious to what was happening in the guild, their conversation had blocked out everything that was happening around them. The blond was focused on the girl in front of him and what she was telling him, the girl was focused on the blond, listening to his stories and adventures with great interest. She was right, the knights really had an exciting life, she had always believed it was boring and filled with paperwork, but it wasn't like that at all.
Their conversation was suddenly interrupted as a pink haired boy appeared in front of the blond, in between the two. He looked the knight with narrowed eyes, as if scanning him. "Who are you?" he asked as the blond smiled.
"Uzumaki Naruto, knight of Kimos." He replied as the boy's eyes widened, he suddenly pulled back and jumped into a defensive position.
"I swear it wasn't my fault the ground underneath that building collapsed, it was that other guys fault!" he shouted while flailing his arms around as if he was defending himself.
The blond blinked towards him not comprehending what he was saying, he heard Mirajane sigh as she suddenly appeared next to the boy and started lecturing him on manners. The knight chuckled as he saw the embarrassed look on the boy's face, apparently he had made a mistake and confused the blond with someone else. Still, it made the blond wonder just what he was talking about.
Mirajane sighed as she walked back towards the blond and resumed their conversation. Thought this time they weren't alone anymore, several guild members, including the pink haired boy, joined them. He met with Elfman once again, he was surprised to see him bruised and beaten up like that, though from what Mirajane told him it was because of the brawl he most likely took part in.
The knight managed to get to know several people in Fairy Tail, he met their guild master as well. The blond was surprised the man was so small yet was so powerful being one of the ten wizard saint mages, he had enjoyed his time with the mages. When the time to leave for his mission had arrived he was surprised that Mirajane wanted to assist him telling him that she knew the countryside around Magnolia better than anyone.
Naruto tried to make her change her mind yet she seemed adamant on joining him, in the end he caved in and allowed her to help him under the condition that he'd do all the fighting. The girl wanted to know how knights worked, she wondered if patrols for them were eventful or just boring chores.
It wasn't like that at all, the moment they stepped in the countryside they were attacked, their attackers were quickly dispatched however by the knight. Throughout the night the blond did his best to capture as many brigands as he could, taking down a total of three camps, the last one with the help of the mage. In her eyes, the blond was a very interesting person, though she felt like there was something different about him since they last met.
During the night she felt some sort of energy brewing inside the blond and for a second she thought that it was calling out to her. She didn't understand and no matter how much she tried to sense if the blond had any magic reserves she couldn't find anything. He intrigued her, he was mysterious and funny. She had hoped that the blond would spend more time in Magnolia, yet in the morning he cashed in the reward and departed for his castle telling her that he would try and visit some time in the future.
Their meeting only left Mirajane wanting to know him more, she felt happy talking to him, she felt secure around him. She wondered why though.
xXx
A week later the blond arrived back in his home village, he decided to pay a visit to his mother as he hadn't seen her for a whole year. The blond waved to everyone in town, they waved back at him and cheered for his return, the people had grown to love him for everything he did for them. He made the countryside safer, he protected their village from bandits, wild animals and magical creatures.
As the blond reached his house he got off his horse and tied it to the makeshift stable he had there. He walked inside the house and looked around, he heard someone crying in the kitchen. The blond walked in the kitchen and saw him adoptive mother crying, she was sitting at the table, her head in her palms.
"Mother?" he asked drawing her attention, the woman gasped as she looked up towards the blond. A teary smile appeared on her face as she ran to him and grabbed him in a hug, tears continued to flow from her eyes as she broke down crying once again. "Mother? What's wrong?" he asked.
The woman shook her head as she rasped out the answer. "Your father…he's leaving for the war." She said. Naruto's eyes widened as he heard that, he pushed his mother back a little and looked at her in the eyes.
"What war? I've heard of no such thing!" the blond nearly shouted. Aleandra shook her head crying.
"I don't know! He won't tell me!" the blond frowned as he pulled himself out of her arms.
"Where is father?" he asked. The woman pointed towards their bedroom and the blond excused himself, he told her he would get the answers out of him. He walked out of the kitchen and towards the bedroom where he found the knight-commander packing clothing in a hurry.
"Father." The blond called out, the man looked at him for a second and resumed packing his bags. The young knight narrowed his eyes as he stepped inside. "What's this about a war?" he inquired.
The elder knight stopped for a second and sighed shaking his head. "I'm not allowed to talk, by the king's order I need to embark tonight's train and head to Pergrande Kingdom and assist in the war." He told his son as he resumed packing his bags.
The blond watched as the man threw clothes in a backpack and prepared his armor. "Do you really need to go?" he asked stretching the words. "Can't you send any other knight?" he asked raising an eyebrow.
The man looked towards the blond. "They weren't specific in their request…they said a knight from each castle throughout Earthland."
"Then send someone else!" he shouted making the man looked at him with wide eyes, this was the first time the blond raised his voice at him.
He shook his head however. "No, there is no one with as much experience in fighting. I must go." He stated as he returned to packing his stuff. "You will be left in charge of the castle while I'm gone." He said as the blond frowned.
Naruto watched his father for a few more seconds, a flashback from when he was fifteen popped in front of his eyes at that moment. In the flashback he was talking to Aleandra, the woman telling him how scared she was of losing her husband in battle. The blond shook his head, they had already lost enough. Friends, family…a son. He walked over to the man and with a swift move he rendered him unconscious.
"I'm sorry…" he whispered "…but I have more experience in wars." He stated coldly as he remembered all the people he had killed in his previous life, he knew how to fight in a war and now he knew how to fight side by side with brothers in arms. Without a second glance he turned around and left, as he passed by the kitchen he stopped. "Father is asleep, I will send someone else in his place." He stated.
The woman looked at him with wide eyes not understanding what he meant. "I'm the second in command after all…" he whispered as he walked out of the door and untied his horse. The blond mumbled an apology as he rode away from his house, he had broken one of the knight's rules…this time however, it was for a good cause.
It didn't take long for the blond to reach the train station in Tatcha, he was surprised when he saw Siegrain there along with the knight of Kimos and a group of unknown knights.
He got off his horse and walked forward, one of the Kimos knights took the blond's horse as young knight moved towards what he believed to be the officer. The man was wearing a golden metal armor with various enchantments inscribed into it. A fur clock was held on the back together by an emblem which connected the four edges of the cloak. The armor seemed to be a scale like design, almost similar to his, yet more refined, on the armor's chest he thought he saw the design on a skull, yet he wasn't completely sure about that.
"Are you the representative of Castle Kimos?" the man asked, his voice held power and authority. He was a man in his late forties.
The blond nodded without hesitation as he kneeled down in front of him. "Lieutenant Naruto Uzumaki, of Castle Kimos reporting sir." He said as the man brought up a clipboard and looked over it.
"Hm…we were expecting the knight-commander." He said as he glared towards the blond.
Siegrain stepped forward with a small grin. "Ah but he is a much more valuable asset." He said, however his words died in his mouth as the man glared towards him in a 'who asked you' fashion.
"About that…" the blond started drawing the officer's attention towards him. "…he is currently indisposed due to an unforeseen illness." The man looked at the blond and then at the clipboard and nodded as he started cutting Ronda's name out.
"I see…he wouldn't do us any good in his condition." The man said as he motioned for the blond to stand up. "Name." he ordered.
"Uzumaki Naruto."
The man scribbled in the blond's name on the clipboard. "Rank."
"Lieutenant." The blond replied.
Once more the man scribbled the answer on the clipboard. "Base of operations."
"Castle Kimos."
The man nodded as he wrote it down. "Age."
"Twenty one." The blond replied making the man stop and look at him with a raised eyebrow.
He shook his head as he scribbled down the blond's age. "So young…so stupid." He said with a grumble as he placed the notepad away. "Your … contact man here will tell you all you need to know, board the train in five minutes." He ordered as he made a sign towards distance.
Naruto glared towards Siegrain as the boy approached him with a confident grin on his face. "I wasn't expecting you to come…" he said in a pleasant tone as if he meant the opposite. The blond growled.
"Just tell me what I need to know." He said crossing his arms over his chest.
The mage laughed as he shook his head. "Alright…all you need to know is that what you will fight is not human, so prepare for the worse." He said cryptically. "I would tell you more, but there are ears here that are not allowed to hear the truth." He said with a grin as he looked towards the rest of the knights with the corner of his eyes.
The young knight growled as he turned around to ignore the boy. He saw one of the knights approaching him, he was holding the castle's banner in his hand. The man kneeled down before the blond extending the banner. "May it protect you in battle sir." He said as the blond took the banner in his hand.
"Make sure you carry it in battle, it's the only way to distinguish you from foes." Siegrain said with a grin as the blond ignored him but made a mental note to fight with the banner in his hand.
Naruto thanked the knight who stood up and saluted, the rest followed suit as they heard the trains whistle. The blond walked towards his horse however one of the knights stopped him. "You won't be needing her, or so we were told sir." He said as Naruto nodded sadly and turned around; he boarded the train just as it was leaving.
A sly grin appeared on the councilman's face, things went better than he had anticipated.
Hours later the knights could be found travelling back to their castle with the blond's horse in tow, it was then that they came face to face with their commander. The man was red, he seemed to be extremely pissed about something.
"Where is Naruto?" he shouted, anger dripping out of his voice, the men looked at each other in wonder and then towards their leader.
"He already boarded the train to Pergrande sir." One of them replied as the color drained form the man's face. He started shaking as he took a step back.
"No…" he mumbled grabbing his head. "…that damn retard!" he shouted gritting his teeth. His head snapped up, they could see the tears flowing from his eyes. "I want the fastest messenger sent to my office! Pronto!" he yelled, the men scrambled as they ran towards the castle leaving the commander alone at its outskirts. There was still time he said to himself, if he could send the letter to the council they could make the change, he prayed that it would be like that.
xXx
Naruto watched as more and more knights boarded the train each time they stopped in a town that had a castle nearby. He saw and met knights from all over Fiore, when they passed the border he thought they would stop at stations in Bosco and pick up more knights, however they did not. One of the knights he met – a woman – told him that the train they were on was tasked with taking knights only from Fiore, there were other trains that took volunteers from the rest of the countries.
They had made little stops since they left Fiore, there was one stop in Bosco to gather supplies and refuel the train and since they there had been no stops until they reached Ieberg and finally Pergrande Kingdom. It took them a total of one week to reach the kingdom, they entered its borders during night time, the blond didn't see anything, it was cloudy outside and the moon's light had been blocked by the clouds.
By morning however the blond managed to get a good look at the kingdom's country side, a mix between a Havana, the arid desert and steppe. He saw the king's castle in the distance as well as the city it was located in, the train however did not head in its direction instead it went towards the north, towards the border with the northern plains. No one knew exactly what was beyond the border, very few ventured there and those that did either returned insane or never returned.
He tried to gather as much information as he could from the rest of the knights, very few would talk to him however, they were anxious, only the woman from before answered some of his questions with the little knowledge that she had. It wasn't enough however, not even she could give him a clear insight on what might be beyond the border. She guessed there was another kingdom there, there had been reports of patrols across the border and they had engaged in small talk before.
He asked her why people vanished beyond the border; the woman told him that it was because of the road. The road was dangerous, even the other kingdom's patrols rarely traveled towards the border so as not to go through the passages. Those that knew the roads or were lucky could make the trip safely, why they wouldn't return it was a mystery however. Maybe life in the other kingdom was better; maybe they feared going a second time through that road.
The conversation came to an end however as the train came to a full stop and the officer started shouting how they would be disembarking here. The young knight grabbed his gear and stood up following the rest of the knights, once outside he looked around assessing the landscape. A vast desert greeted him, it went for miles. Towards the north he could see the mountains, but they were far away.
Naruto, just like everyone else, began to wonder why they stopped here, in the middle of nowhere. They saw that as soon as they all disembarked the train started leaving; none of them however moved an inch despite that.
"Alright girls!" the officer shouted drawing their attention towards him. "You might be wondering why we stopped here…" he paused as he looked around, everyone nodded and mumbled in agreement. "…we aren't heading to the frontline, not yet, we are to support another company to the west from here." He said as he began walking around, one of the knights spoke up.
"Sir, who are we supporting and against whom?" he inquired as the man stopped and turned towards him.
"You will see when we get there, I want you all to form a line, two side by side." He ordered as he turned with his back towards them and began walking.
The knights followed suit moving behind him in a line of two, the blond ended up being paired with the woman he had been talking with in the train. He made no attempt in talking with her however; he knew the drill in this scenario.
Naruto wondered what people would think if they saw the large group of twenty knights marching through the desert, they were all carrying their banners in their hands with the officer occasionally ordering them to move faster.
At times the blond wanted to stop and just rest for a few minutes, marching in the desert's sun was not something he had done before. However he knew that if he stopped he would disgrace his comrades, he now answered to the officer, he knew what he had signed himself into and had no regrets on that matter, he only hoped that the officer wouldn't force them to fight without resting.
For hours they walked in the scorching sun, the blond wondered how the others were holding up. He noticed the woman was getting tired by the minute, the knight in front of him stumbled several times and shook his head at least once. Suddenly, the officer raised his hand and ordered them to stop, he turned to face them and it was then that the blond noticed the few beads of sweat rolling down his face, though, apart from that he showed no signs of fatigue.
"You have fifteen minutes to catch your breaths, our destination is close." He said as he walked to a nearby rock and sat down, taking out a bottle of water and drinking a quarter of its contents.
The blond cursed the sun as he looked around for a bit of shade, he had no luck however, he was forced to try and catch his breath under the sun's touch. He took his time to watch the rest of the knights, no one was in the mood for talking, he could see two that were extremely tired and trying their best not to fall unconscious.
"The sun will set soon…" he heard the woman speak next to him, he turned towards her and noticed she was looking towards the sky. He followed her gaze and looked up at the sun as well, the knight brought his hand up to his face, he then looked back at the woman who seemed to be spacing out, watching the horizon.
After fifteen minutes the officer ordered everyone to move out once more, they complied without a word and continued their march. By nightfall the scenery around them began to change, like the blond saw when they were in the train. It seemed like the Pergrande Kingdom had several types of terrains. The air slowly became more humid, vegetation started to appear around them and then the ground became moister. The land around them started to turn into a swamp, with large trees and grass growing around them.
By the time the moon was shinning in the sky they were already inside the swamp making their way to God knows where. The blond was grateful however for the fact that he didn't have to endure the sun anymore, though marching in the swamp didn't make him feel comfortable.
"Keep your eyes peeled men…" the officer suddenly spoke up. "…we've reached our destination, the company we are supposed to assist is here and they might need our help." He stated, from the tone of his voice the blond could only deduce that they would see some action soon.
That put them all on the edge; most of them had unsheathed their weapons after the officer spoke. They had broken off from the two man formation and formed a three man one. Naruto ended up being in the middle, holding a torch in his free hand and lighting world around them. To his right was the woman and to his left was another young knight, probably five or seven years older than the blond.
They marched through the swamp for hours with no action and no sight of the people they were supposed to support. The land underneath their feet came to an end and they were forced to continue marching through water, its level reached the blond's waist and marching through it proved difficult.
The officer suddenly raised his hand and ordered everyone to stop, he could see the knights around him tense, they were expecting something to happen. A strange sound echoed around them making the blond look around to try and spot the source. A twig broke a few feet away, to his right, he spun to the right along with several knights that were already holding their shields or weapons up in a defensive position. Naruto noticed one of the knights strap his banner to his back and bringing out his shield.
Sounds began to echo around them, everyone was looking around trying to spot the source. They all moved closer to the knights in the center, the officer moved back as well and prepared to fight whatever would come out.
Then, all of a sudden, the sounds stopped. There was no more noise around them, all they could hear were the sounds of the wind blowing through the trees. Despite all that no one moved, no one blinked. They all stood rooted in place like statues, the blond was more than sure that something would happen.
A wheezing sound suddenly echoed through the forest, he heard several knights scream in pain as well as a series of metallic thips echoed around him. He felt the woman next to him drop down and heard her grunt in pain, the blond turned towards her and saw her holding her side, a strange white arrow sticking out of her armor at her waist.
"Incoming!" he heard someone shout, the blond looked up and his eyes widened as he saw strange humanoid creatures charging from the bushes, it looked like their entire body was made out of a mix between rotting flesh, mud and moss. Behind them the blond saw another set of weird humanoid creatures, these ones shined under the moon's light as their entire body seemed to be made out of crystal.
Naruto's eyes widened as he moved forward and grabbed the woman, he then moved back with her just in time as a hail of arrows from the crystal like humanoids rained down in the previous spot they once stood. A knight appeared in front of the blond and blocked one of the charging creatures, cutting it down in half.
While the knights were fighting around them the blond was trying to pull the crystal arrow out of the woman's armor without injuring her further. The woman grunted in pain as she tried to bend the arrow and rip it out. After several seconds of working on the arrow they managed to pull it out. Naruto stood up and turned to face the attackers.
"We have to move!" the officer shouted "We're sitting ducks here!" the blond couldn't agree more with that, he turned back towards the woman that was standing now and grabbed her, he placed her arm around his shoulder and told her to follow him. The group of knight began running through the water, trying to get to solid land, or better yet, to higher ground.
Several knights took a defensive position behind the group; using their shields they stopped hails of arrows from hitting their retreating brethren. As they reached higher ground the group turned around and waited for the enemy to attack, several knights took out their bows and started firing salvos of arrows back towards the strange archers.
However, as soon as the creatures realized the knights had the advantage now they turned around and vanished in the darkness. Naruto was surprised they were smart enough to prepare an ambush and not to attack when the enemy had the advantage, he wondered just what were those creatures. They looked relatively like human beings.
They stood for a few minutes to catch their breaths and to make sure that their attackers were gone, the officer then ordered them to move out stating that if they stood any longer they would only meet their deaths. A howl in the distance only made the knights agree, they had no idea what they were fighting and how smart those creatures really are.
By morning the group reached their destination, a large camp belonging to the company they were supposed to support, they all looked tired and they had a lot of injured men. It was then that the group was briefed on what they would face, it was then that they learned what they would be fighting in the years to come. Naruto couldn't believe it, they were supposed to fight magical creatures and find out from where they kept coming, towards the north at the border there was another war yet they didn't go into detail with that one.
The blond didn't like it, it was one thing to fight a few magical beasts that had no tactic and it was another to fight humanoid magical creatures that knew how to plan ahead and how to fight their opponent. The officer briefing them reassured them that they would win and the war would be over soon. Naruto wasn't so sure about that.
xXx
One year later the blond was still in Pergrande Kingdom, still fighting the war against the magical creatures. Over the course of the year they had lost a considerable number of soldiers and out of the twenty knights only ten remained, the other ten dying in battles. They had fought for half a year in the swamp, trying to clear the area of the creatures and find out from where they kept coming. They had no luck however, each time they thought they found the source the creatures would come from another location and take them by surprise.
After those six months reports had been coming from the towns to the north, people vanishing, dead rising from their graves at night and killing people, strange creatures lurking in the shadows. Naruto as well as a group of soldiers were dispatched to investigate; there were no other forces to send. Once more the blond responded to an officer that had been assigned to the group, said officer however had fallen in battle two months later in one of the towns.
They had confirmed that the dead were indeed rising from their graves at night and harassing the towns, it was during a battle against the undead that the officer had fallen to their blades only to come back to life the next night and fight against his brethren. The mage in their group said that there was some sort of magic looming over the towns, that the cause of the uprising might be another mage – a dark mage. He could not confirm it however as he fell in battle as well.
With no officer in charge the blond took command of the squad, being the one that had the highest rank despite coming from Fiore's knight branch. He led the squad from town to town, gathering clues and trying to find out where the source of the undead was. Yet with each passing week he had lost more men, one or two per week. After a month he was the sole survivor of the group, he couldn't return to the company without any answers, without any clarification on where the source of evil was.
He continued looking for clues, along the way he met with messengers of the company, he communicated with the leader of the company through them and let him know of his quest. The man allowed the blond to uncover the source as the King wanted whatever was causing the undead uprising terminated, he however would not send any help as they were by now completely tied down.
Naruto wondered how news of this war had not reached the lands beyond Pergrande Kingdom, maybe the army silenced anyone that tried to speak of it, most likely they held it under closed wraps to not cause panic. It worked, to some extent, they were left to fight these wars by their own with no support from the other armies, they were forced to hire mercenaries for the jobs they needed to be done. It wasn't his place to question them however; the blond kept his mouth shut and did as he was told.
It was close to October when the blond finally had a lead to the source of the undead; he traveled towards the mountains where a town had reported attacks by the undead. It was recent and rumors of someone or something inhabiting the nearby castle – which had been abandoned for years – made the blond believe that this was where the man responsible for everything was hiding. He sent a message towards the commander of the company and told him of his discovery, he did not wait for a reply however as he wanted to get there before the target would run away.
When the blond reached the town he was greeted by silence, no one was there, the streets were empty despite being noon. He walked through the town inspecting his surroundings, he saw several doors from buildings broken, laying on the ground, he saw a building that had been burned to the ground with skeletons in front of it and this wasn't something recent.
The blond spent the entire day trying to find any living soul, he had no luck whatsoever, by nightfall the blond had lost hope in finding anyone and took shelter in an old tavern. He barricaded the doors and windows just in case there were undead in this town and waited. He felt tired, he wanted to sleep but he knew that he couldn't, there was no one to watch his back in case the undead broke through the doors. So he stood and waited, he waited for something to happen, to get his mind off of sleep.
At around midnight he heard footsteps coming from upstairs, he stood up and unsheathed his sword. The footsteps were coming down, the stairs squeaking under their pressure. With each step the blond became more and more tense.
"You've finally decided to come…" he heard a voice coming down from the stairs, he raised an eyebrow as he thought he had heard that voice somewhere before. "…it's a pleasure to meet you again." The blond's eyes widened as he saw a girl appearing in the room.
She was shorter than him by half a head; she had long white hair and silver eyes. He did a double take as he remembered those features. "You!" he shouted pointing the sword towards her, the girl smiled as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"So you remembered." She said with a happy smile making the blond lower his sword a bit. "You must have questions…they will be answered in time, I assure you." She said with a small smile.
"How did you know I'd be here?" he asked as the girl chuckled slightly and shook her head.
"It was I that sent that rumor in your direction." She replied as the blond narrowed his eyes. The girl moved her hands away from her chest and towards her leg, she pulled up her dress making the blond freeze and wonder what she was doing. It was then that he noticed the dagger from years ago, the girl took it in her hand and twirled it through her fingers. "Now…" she began, her smile never leaving her face. "…I believe its time for us to go." She said as the dagger glowed for a second.
The door was suddenly bashed down, an armored figure stepped inside the room. The windows cracked and the makeshift barricades that the blond created where flung on the floor, numerous corpses jumped through the windows and moved towards the blond. Fire spewed around him in three corners as three fire wraiths, identical to the one he had slain years ago appeared in the room.
"I'm terribly sorry for doing this." The girl said, Naruto didn't know if he should be pissed at that or believe her as she sounded sincere about what she just said. "But father wouldn't like it if you knew the way inside." She said as the creatures charged towards the blond.
Naruto swiped his sword in front of him cutting down three of the corpses down. He moved back as the armored creature appeared in front of him and slammed a massive axe in the ground in front of the blond. "You idiot, don't kill him!" the girl shouted as the armored creature threw its axe away and moved to punch the blond.
The knight ducked under the armored creature and moved to cut it in half only to be hit in the side by a fireball. He was sent flying through the wall and landed in the street, in the middle of a horde of undead corpses. He groaned as he stood up and tightened his hold on his sword. Naruto charged forward towards the undead cutting his way through them, planning on opening a path through which he could make his escape.
The girl grinned as she had expected this, she watched as the blond cut through the large number of undead with ease yet no matter how many he killed they just kept coming. The three wraiths's charged out of the house and started hurling fireballs towards the blond, Naruto saw them coming and jumped out of the way, the fireballs hitting the undead he was confronting.
Finally, the armored creature stepped outside as well and moved towards the blond. The knight was slowly getting overwhelmed; even with all his training he didn't think he would survive this. His eyes widened as he saw another fireball heading towards him, he brought his hands up as he didn't have enough time to dodge it. The fireball hit him head-on sending him flying through the group of undead.
He shook his head as he tried to stand up, his eyes narrowed as he saw the armored creature in front of him. It grabbed him by the collar and started slamming him on the ground, the blond coughed as the creature grabbed him by the head and hurled him in another wall. Naruto crawled out of the ruins, he saw his helmet laying on the ground in front of him, cracked in half.
A foot suddenly stepped on it shattering it, he looked up at the armored creature. "Power…" a voice whispered in his mind, the blond thought it was the creature before him that spoke. "You have the power to fight…use it…use us!" the same voice called out once more. His eyes widened as he heard that, was his magic starting to speak to him? Or was he going insane?
The creature suddenly moved to strike him, the world around him froze and darkened as the blond found himself laying on top of a floating rock in the middle of a dark abyss. He slowly stood up and looked around, there was nothing, it was quiet.
"Use your powers boy." He heard the voice from before call out.
"Who are you?" the blond shouted.
At first the voice said nothing, it stood quiet making the blond wonder if it would ever speak up. Then, before the blond could question it again it spoke up. "We are your power, we are the ones you summon, we are your servants. Use us!" it ordered making the blond take a step back and narrow his eyes.
"Do you think I'll listen to you? Do you really think I would use you?" he shouted in anger towards the voice. "You ruined my life! I don't need you!" he shouted.
The world became quiet once more, then the ground under the blond's feet began to rumble, a pair of red eyes appeared in front of him, glaring towards him. "You will regret it, that woman will be the death of you." It spoke trying to make the blond understand why he needed to use his powers.
"I'd rather die!" he spat out as the ground trembled and started shattering under his feet.
"Very well then." The voice spoke up as the ground shattered under the blond who started falling in the dark abyss. The eyes watched him as he fell, a malicious laughter echoing around him before his entire world went dark. "If you won't use us…we'll just use you…"