Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me, this is a challenge given to me by N.A.B. 0206
The Gran Pulse Sage
Gilgamesh, Splitting Up and Odin
The group of five had managed to piece another piece of wreckage, this one they could all easily climb on without fear of getting injured or the piece of wreckage falling apart underneath them. Lightning sat down with Naruto next to her, drawing in the air something that couldn't be seen, causing Lightning to give the blond a curious expression. Unfortunately for her, Naruto didn't see her look so continued to do some kind of calculation with the air, before he nodded to himself in triumph and bit his thumb and proceeded to go through some hand seals.
"What is he doing?" Sazh asked as he and Konan came up together.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Naruto yelled, before he slammed his thumb down into the metal surface, causing an explosion of smoke to appear, causing Lightning and Sazh to get somewhat curious, while Konan looked puzzled as to why he would want to summon someone now. When the smoke cleared, it revealed a very surprised and confused Gamakichi, who immediately brightened up when he saw Naruto.
"Naruto!" Gamakicki cried happily, while Naruto grinned down happily at him. "We thought that you were dead!"
"Well, it's hard to picture a happy ending from where I am at the moment." Naruto admitted, while Gamakichi looked around curiously, wondering why the boy who summoned him was in a junkyard of all things. "Gamakichi, I'm currently travelling with a bunch of new people." Naruto pointed towards Lightning, Sazh and Konan, before he pointed at Hope and Vanille who were below them, looking shocked at the sight of him from their position. Naruto proceeded to introduce them to the giant toad. "I want you to ask the elder toads about the Fal'Cie for me, and to get some notes on them, since the fox knew about them." Naruto told the toad, who looked surprised by something.
"Did you say Fal'Cie?" Gamakichi asked sounding concerned all of a sudden. "Do you have a mark on you?" Gamakichi asked him.
"I think so, because everyone here does." Naruto admitted, causing the giant toad to pale slightly.
"Where about do you have it?" Gamakichi asked shakily.
"I ... don't know." Naruto admitted, causing the toad to hit him angrily. "The hell was that for?"
"You either have it or you don't!" Gamakichi snapped.
"Well the fox said that I had it! So I just went along with it!" Naruto told the toad.
"... Actually ... I kind of got rid of the mark from the beginning." Kyuubi admitted, sounding somewhat sheepish, while Naruto blinked several times trying to process what he had just heard.
'Fox, if you got rid of it in the beginning, then why didn't you say so? And why can I still use these powers then?" Naruto demanded in his mind, sounding really confused by what the fox was saying.
"I only said I get rid of the drawback, I never said anything about getting rid of the benefits of it all." Kyuubi admitted, sounding really pleased with himself. "Besides, the Fal'Cie are bound to be terrified of you because of me, fearing that I would destroy them all if you were turned into a Cie'th, you were always safe from the beginning."
'... If that's the case, why did you get pissed off with me for getting the mark?' Naruto demanded sounding really annoyed.
"I felt like scaring the crap out of you, because you're my only source of entertainment." Kyuubi admitted not looking at all guilty by what he was confessing. Naruto meanwhile was wondering how to get the fox another source of entertainment that DIDN'T involve scaring the crap out of him.
"Naruto, are you going to answer me or not?" Gamakichi asked, sounding annoyed by being ignored for so long.
"..." Naruto didn't say anything at first. "I don't have it anymore."
"WHAT!" The other victims shouted in disbelief, wondering just how that happened to their blond companion.
"I don't know!" Naruto shouted back at the others. "But I'm not going to leave you hopeless or anything. Gamakichi, I need you to still do those tasks for me, if not for me, then for the others, my companions, my friends even!" Naruto pleaded with his summon, who nodded in agreement.
"If they're that important to you, then I'll do it." Gamakichi agreed. "Though next time, you'll need to summon the elders as well to go over this with you, they'll know more than I will."
"Thank you." Naruto uttered, before the summon dismissed himself.
"And when were you going to tell us about the fact you managed to get rid of your mark?" Sazh asked suddenly, causing everyone else to look at the blond. "Just how did you do it anyway?"
"..." Naruto didn't answer his question, he merely didn't have an answer for it, no matter how bad it seemed.
"It's because of your blood, isn't it? It's always protecting your from anything that could harm you, whether or not you wanted it to do so." Konan realized just what had happened to the blond, Naruto didn't say anything, but his fists were shaking slightly. "I never knew the power of your blood was this strong, it's simply amazing to see it in action like this."
"Don't say that ..." Naruto uttered, disgust finding its way inside. "Don't make it sound like what's inside of me is a blessing in disguise." Naruto growled, before he looked up sharply. "I don't care if I'm a monster, I don't care if I'm an L'Cie or not, to me, we're not the real monsters are we? The real monsters are the power, who allows this sort of thing to happen!" Naruto shouted at Konan, who looked surprised by Naruto's outburst. "Do you think I wanted to be cured without finding out why or how! If I'm perfectly honest, I wish that it had been all of you that had been cured instead of me!"
"Naruto, calm down, it's not helping." Konan commanded sternly, reminding Naruto why she was the more experience Shinobi, despite his power she could have easily beaten him if she really wanted to with the right plans in place.
"Why should I calm down? Tell me why I should calm down!" Naruto roared, only to start glowing bright blue and jumped into the air, where he proceeded to float in midair before he turned to the L'Cie.
"That's it! Use your anger! Use the power of the Fal'Cie that was stored inside of you before I destroyed the mark! Use his power to give me the senses that you hold! Let me smell the wonderful taste of blood dripping from your numerous weapons!" Kyuubi cackled in delight, before a figure appeared behind the blond, he appeared to be the shape of a normal human man, only he had six arms instead of the usual two. He had a gray complexion and wore red/orange armor. The thing about him was the fact that he had a different type of weapon in each hand, which put everyone else on edge, the name of this Eidolon was Gilgamesh. Naruto suddenly turned to his Eidolon and proceeded to start a staring contest.
"I have no idea who the hell you are, but I'm already in a bad mood, so if you're here to take me on, so be it!" Naruto snapped, before both him and Gilgamesh dropped to the ground, with Gilgamesh trying to slash at Naruto with all of his weapons, while Naruto proceeded to use his Kunai to block all of the attacks from the summon, before Naruto proceeded to slam his foot into the top of Gilgamesh's skull, sending him smashing into the ground face first. Naruto wasn't done there however, as he proceeded to summon four clones, which dived down towards the Eidolon, who stabbed them all with his weapons.
"Naruto! Let us help!" Vanille shouted down at the blond, who ducked underneath another slash from Gilgamesh, before he slammed a Rasengan into the back of the Eidolon, sending it flying into another tower of junk.
"He won't need our help Vanille." Konan told the girl, who looked up at her in surprise. "He's beaten opponents stronger than this summon on his own before."
"What makes you so sure? I may not have seen him fight someone really powerful, but that doesn't mean I don't want to help." Hope suddenly interrupted, only for Gilgamesh to bow towards Naruto, before he suddenly allowed his numerous weapons to float into the air, before they surrounded Naruto, who proceeded to spin them all before changing them all into a single blade, which kept on changing form. Gilgamesh proceeded to disappear into the weapon, which stayed into a Buster Sword, which Naruto placed onto his back, where a sheath was.
"That's why." Konan admitted, causing Lightning to allow a small smirk to grace her features for a moment thinking of the possibilities that could be done with someone who could actually fight like Naruto could, before the smirk vanished just as quickly as it came.
"Wow." That was all Hope could gasp out. "So that's an Eidolon, and Naruto took it down with ease." He looked down at Naruto with a new shine in his eyes, a new tint of respect perhaps. Naruto then looked up at the others above him, displaying a confident smirk.
"I feel so much better now that I've got that out of my system." Naruto announced, before he proceeded to jump up above Hope and Vanille, and between Lightning and Sazh, who didn't know what to say about his unnatural jump. "So, where are we going next?" Naruto asked Lightning and Sazh.
"I don't know where to go next." Sazh admitted somewhat sheepishly.
"I do." Lightning stood up, having not stood up during Naruto's battle with Gilgamesh, believing that he didn't need any help to defeat the Eidolon. She turned and looked up to the sky. "There." Everyone looked up to where she was looking, only to spot a glowing white ship high in the sky, millions of miles away from them.
"Eden?" Sazh asked in disbelief. "The Sanctum's seat of power." Sazh chuckled to himself, not thinking that Lightning was serious. "Oh, that's a great idea. Just charge right in there, give 'em a taste of L'Cie terror!" Sazh said this, sounding sarcastic as he did so.
Lightning however, was silent. Naruto was also silent, as was Konan, both the ninja feeling that it wasn't something that they should interrupt, for they wanted to see where this went and to see what could happen in the future.
"You're serious." Sazh said, realizing that Lightning hadn't been joking.
"Keep running – it's either die or turn Cie'th." Lightning took a few steps away from Sazh and Naruto. "There's no place for L'Cie to hide. No ... they want a fight? Let's take it to the Sanctum's door!" Lightning looked up to the sky once again.
"This isn't a game!" Sazh cried, while Naruto narrowed his eyes in thought.
"No. That's for damn sure." Lightning agreed, looking at Sazh. "It started with Serah. The Fal'Cie took her. Now I'm a L'Cie too. And the Sanctum's hunting me, an enemy of the state. But who's pulling their strings?" Lightning asked as she looked up at the sky. "A Fal'Cie. Eden. Cocoon's Sustainer and Guiding Light. It probably ordered the Purge, too. Pulse and Sanctum Fal'Cie? They're all the same. And we'll all the same to them: expendable." Lightning continued. By now Vanille and Hope were now reached them, listening intently. "I'm not dying a Fal'Cie slave."
"So? What are you going to do?" Sazh asked her.
"Destroy it." Lightning announced her plans.
"By yourself? What, are you crazy?" Sazh demanded. "Say you pull it off... What's that get you? Satisfaction? Something happens to Eden and it's lights out for Cocoon!" Sazh's eyes widen as he pieced things together, like a puzzle slotting into place. "You want that. You're Pulse L'Cie now, so you just want to snuff out Cocoon!"
"No!" Vanille shouted suddenly interrupting them. "What about Serah? She said to save Cocoon! It might even be our Focus to make sure that Cocoon stays..."
"Our Focus doesn't matter." Lightning snapped, taking a step towards the younger girl. "I don't take orders from Fal'Cie. How I live is up to me."
"Don't you mean how you die?" Sazh asked slowly.
"Don't be so negative, it's depressing." Naruto interrupted. "You make it sound like that our lives are already over."
"You don't a mark of the L'Cie anymore, you managed to destroy yours." Sazh reminded Naruto.
"And you really think that I want you people to die?" Naruto demanded. "I may not have my mark anymore, but I still helped you because I wanted to! I don't want you see get killed over something as stupid as this!" Naruto looked away and grabbed the handle of his new weapon, his Eidolon. "Besides, I happen to like you guys, and personally, seeing you get killed wouldn't be in my best interests, considering I'm starting to see you as potential friends, who I need to help me around Cocoon." Naruto admitted, before he looked at Lightning, ignoring Sazh's surprised look. "But, if you did end up hurting innocent civilians that don't know any better or what's going on, I would be around those first in line trying to stop you." Naruto announced, causing Lightning to snort.
"Don't worry, I'm only after the Sanctum, I'm not out to destroy the world." Lightning almost sounded amused by the idea. "But if it did come to that, wonder if our 'hero' would try and stop me?"
"You want to fight Snow now?" Sazh asked sounding incredulous. "Just like that and you're enemies?"
"Next time we meet." Lightning at everyone. "We might be too." Lightning then stalked off.
"..." Naruto looked down at Lightning, who hadn't even bothered to request that he come with her. "I'm going with her." Naruto announced suddenly. "To make sure that she doesn't do anything stupid or something that she might regret." Naruto told them, before he jumped off and proceeded to glide through the air, using his chakra as some kind of experiment that managed to work. Hope stayed for a few more moments, before he turned to the others.
"Snow deserves it!" Hope snapped at them, jogging off so he could catch up with both Lightning and Naruto. Vanille shook her head in desperation.
"I don't know what I should do." Vanille announced miserably.
"That makes two of us." Sazh sighed, while Konan merely watched them, wondering how they could get out of this mess, for she didn't have the knowledge of the area to do so. Vanille suddenly slapped Sazh's back, causing him to almost slip off from his position.
"Hey! You're taking care of me." Vanille told the only man left with them.
"Well I won't be if you keep pushing me like that." Sazh told the girl.
"And I'll be taking care of both of you, so you can't complain when I suggest something, got it." Konan told them, causing Vanille and Sazh to look at her.
"Fair enough." Sazh nodded.
"Yep!" Vanille giggled happily.
He couldn't sleep. The fact that he had bandages over his eyes made him think and wonder. It was because of this he couldn't sleep. He had to wonder why someone would take him in like this, when he was close to death, when he was practically blind. He had woken up and proceeded to strangle someone when they had tried to inject something into him, only for something to smother his sense and for his body to go limp. Now had he woken up and he could see the colour of the bandages that were over his eyes, but that would mean that his sight was back. But how was that possible? He was sure that his sight was beyond repair! Suddenly, he heard the door to the room open, and quickly turned his head towards the sound.
"Who's there?" He asked, sounding calm and collected, but at the same time, eager to know where he was and how his sight had been returned to him.
"I had been told that you wouldn't be awake for another day, but I'm glad to see that I was told wrong." A woman's voice purred, causing the man to stiffen slightly. "Do not worry, I'm not here to hurt you, in fact, I am here to help you." He heard the woman say. "My name is Jihl Nabaat, and I am the commander of PSICOM." Jihl introduced herself to the man lying on the bed in front of her.
"What are you talking about? I've never heard of this PSICOM before." The man admitted. Jihl sighed to herself, wondering why things had to be difficult. She then proceeded to explain to the man that PSICOM meant, Public Safety and Intelligence Command and what their aims were in the future, hoping to lure the man to joining her ranks. Jihl also told the man about the other side of the military as well, the Guardian Corps, after he had politely asked her about them, feeling that it would be best if he was to know about all the terms in the military on Cocoon.
"I see, thank you for telling me what I needed to know." The man thanked the commander of PSICOM, before he suddenly ripped up to his eyes and tore the bandages away to reveal his black eyes, which suddenly shifted into red eyes with 3 tomoes in each eye. Jihl could barely hold in a gasp after the transformation and before she knew it, she was being pinned against the wall by the man, but she had barely even seen him move!
"W-what are you?" Jihl barely got out, before the tomoes in his eyes started to spin and before she knew it, she was showing him her memories of the past couple of years, her training, her lifestyle, her actions, everything. It was as if he was looking for something while he looked through her mind. Suddenly as quickly as it happened, she was suddenly released from his grasp, but she managed to keep her balance due to her reflexes alone.
"I have what I want." He announced, before he opened up a white box that was beside his bed and proceeded to get his clothes out of the box, clothing that had been cleaned while he was asleep.
"What is your name?" Jihl asked, barely able to keep her voice from cracking, she had never been dominated like that before, ever. She knew that if she was to ever face him in a fight, she would be dead before she even knew it, the fact alone terrified her.
"My name?" The man asked, looking down at her with his Sharingan eyes which showed nothing but disinterest. "Is Itachi Uchiha."
Lightning was continuing on her path to destroying the Sanctum (is that a quest for revenge or not?) for what they had done to her sister and herself, by allowing everything that had happened to happen. She heard footsteps from behind and turned to find Naruto causally walking behind her without a care in a world. He smiled happily and waved cheerfully at her, causing her to wonder if allowing Naruto to come with her was a good idea at all.
"Wait for me!" Lightning blinked when she heard Hope's voice, who panted when he caught up with her, leaning on his knees as he did so. "I'm going with you." Hope told the pink-haired woman and Naruto.
"I can't babysit you anymore." Lightning told Hope.
"Come on Lightning, it's not like he hasn't got a reason to do this, besides we can toughen him up." Naruto told Lightning before he turned to Hope. "You do have a reason, right?"
"Y-yea!" Hope nodded in agreement.
"Well there you go, and even if you don't want him to come with us, he'll have to help us with those PSICOM round corner." Naruto told the soldier, who turned sharply to find 5 men in PSICOM uniform.
"Great, a PSICOM hit squad." Lightning cursed her luck, before one of the men who was dressed in all black, a PSICOM Tracker, pressed a detonator, which caused an explosion behind the group of three. They all looked behind them to see a load of junk falling apart and blocking their way. Naruto blinked before he looked at Lightning.
"Well would you look at that, our way back is blocked." Naruto told Lightning, signaling that they couldn't just leave Hope here, even if that was what Lightning wanted. Naruto pulled his buster sword from his back and pointed it at his new enemies. "Well, might as well use you idiots as a test run." Naruto shrugged confidently, before he launched himself at the Corp Gunners and the PSICOM tracker. One of them was cut cleanly in half by Naruto's attack alone. Lightning sliced through another of them, while Hope proceeded to use his Fire spells to blow the others up. Soon it was only the PSICOM Tracker left and Naruto allowed his sword to shift into a Gunblade, which he allowed to swing in the air cockily.
"You choose the wrong time to do this." Lightning growled.
"Easy Lightning, don't want to get too pissed with the bastard, you might get caught off guard." Naruto grinned cockily as he caught his Gunblade and pointed it at the PSICOM tracker, just as he was about to punch the blond. Naruto merely pulled the trigger to see what it did, only for the PSICOM Tracker to get his brains blown out. Naruto blinked when he saw what he had done to the Tracker and whistled in amazement. "Wow, didn't think one of those bullet things could do so much damage, even if it was by accident."
"..." Lightning didn't say anything.
"Hey Hope, good job over there, impressed me with your control over magic." Naruto gave the young boy a praise.
"I have to agree, not bad." Lightning told the young boy after Naruto praised him.
"Really? Thanks."
Sazh, Vanille and Konan looked from where they were standing peering over some wreckage where they could see some smoke in the background of where Lightning, Hope and Naruto had gone.
"Uh-oh. Army's out to play." Sazh told them.
"What now?" Vanille asked Sazh and Konan.
"I don't see a way that we could go that way any longer, but if we stay too long then this army you talked about will catch up to us." Konan mused. "We should get moving and quickly, who knows what will happen."
"So we should run." Vanille confirmed, causing both Sazh and Konan to look at her. "There isn't anything else that we can do at the moment."
"You're right." Sazh agreed. "Besides, it's not like Lightning needs us to help her or anything. Neither does Naruto for that matter." Sazh told them.
"Naruto is the last person that probably needs help right now, but he would want to protect both Hope and Lightning, even if she doesn't need it." Konan told them. "It's the type of person that he is, whether you want it or not, he will help you."
"That's good to hear." Sazh told Konan, before he started to leave. "I'll try to find us a way out of here. Come on." Sazh told the two woman, before they followed his lead, wondering where this journey would take them."
Back with Lightning, Naruto and Hope, the youngest of the three was currently pacing.
"There will be more soldiers. We should keep moving." Hope told Lightning and Naruto, before he turned to them. "Lightning? Naruto? Are you worried about the others? I'm sure that they got away okay."
"So can you, if you leave now." Lightning told the boy.
"With Konan they should be fine." Naruto reassured the boy.
"With me, it will be fight after fight." Lightning continued as if Naruto hadn't said anything. "I don't know how it'll end. It's anybody's guess."
"I know that. But ... I need to get stronger." Hope told them both.
"Trust me when I say this, experience will make anyone stronger, hell, you've been fighting for most of this place already, so I could say you've already gotten stronger." Naruto told the boy, who seemed to blush under the praise. "Besides, when I was first fighting, I was so much more shitter than you are right now. But forget about that, I won't say anything more." Naruto interrupted just as Hope was about to say something. The boy instead turned to Lightning, who had been silent.
"Lightning?" Hope asked.
"Call me Light." Lightning requested. Naruto opened his mouth to say something. "Not you Naruto, only Hope." Naruto started crying anime tears muttering about 'how life was so unfair' so some reason. He was simply ignored.
"What's the plan from here?" Hope asked Lightning, while Naruto looked at the woman as well.
"Through the Gapra Whitewood to Palumpolum, we'll find transport to Eden." Lighting told the young boy.
"I live in Palumpolum. I can show you all the shortcuts." Hope told Lightning, explaining what he could do for her.
"No side trips." Lightning told the boy sternly.
"No need. I don't think L'Cie are welcome at home." Hope replied, as they started walking off.
"See, Hope can help you, no need to leave him behind Lightning." Naruto chuckled, while Lightning gave him a cold look.
"You can stop complaining every once in a while you know? It would be nice to be able to get some peace and quiet." Lightning told him coldly.
"Hello? As long as we're going along this path we won't get any peace and quiet, remember? You said it yourself. It will be fight after fight." Naruto pointed out bluntly. Lightning decided to ignore him this time, deciding to rush forward so they could get to their destination quicker. "Why is it that all the good looking girls are either extremely violent or bad tempered these days?" Naruto sighed as he followed the pink haired soldier on her path of destruction, with Hope following not too far behind. It wasn't too long before they ran into trouble in the form of some more PSICOM troops.
"Too easy." Lightning muttered as she finished off the last of them, while Naruto was trying to get his weapon (now a pike) out of one of the men. "How did you manage to kill them with that thing?"
"Easy." Naruto answered. "I simply put a lot of strength and speed behind it." Naruto told Lightning, who blinked. "But still, will these morons ever learn that they have no chance in hell in beating us? It's almost insulting." Naruto told both of his travelling companions as he finally got his pike out of the PSICOM tracker, before changing it back into a Gunblade. It wasn't too long before they managed to get to the next part of the junkyard.
"Any trace of the L'Cie?" One of the PSICOM Trackers asked his partner, who was looking over a Pulse Dreadnought.
"Nothing. No sign that it's been activated." His partner replied. Suddenly they turned after hearing a sound.
"Who's there?" They demanded, only for one of them to get a Rasengan to the face, shattering his mask and destroying his skull, while the other one got sliced up by Lightning. Hope decided to have a look at the Dreadnought.
"What was PSICOM doing here?" Hope asked.
"Probably thought we'd use a Pulse machine to escape." Lightning answered, while Naruto blinked.
"We can use that thing?" Naruto asked, sounding somewhat surprised, especially after what had happened last time. "Wow, didn't expect that."
"Maybe we should try it." Hope offered, before he had a look at the machine. "What does this do?"
"Hey, you're gonna hurt yourself! Don't touch that!" Lightning cautioned the young boy.
"Yea! That's my job to do stupid dangerous things, not yours!" Naruto offered, causing Lightning to give him a deadpanned expression. "What?"
"Not helping." Lightning pointed out.
"Wait. What if it works?" Hope asked them both, climbing on the machine.
"Leave it!" Lightning snapped loudly, but Hope had already activated the machine, much to Lightning's annoyance and Naruto's amusement. "I told you to leave it."
"Stop! Stop already!" Hope cried desperately as he pressed some buttons at the cockpit of the Dreadnought, only for him to suddenly gain control of it. "I think I got it." Hope called down to them. "Light! Naruto! I think I can work it!" Hope sounded really excited by what he had achieved.
"Well? What are you waiting for? Bash down that wall!" Naruto shouted up to the boy, sounding just as excited by the idea of seeing the machine in action and NOT fighting them this time, as he pointed at the wall that was blocking their path. Hope managed to pilot the Dreadnought towards the wall and with a powerful punch, proceeded to smash it down so they could get across the gap that had been behind it. "Hey Hope! If you see any robots, smash them out of the way! Take advantage of that's Dreadnought's strength!"
"Right!" Hope nodded as he moved the machine to go across the bridge that he had just created. Lightning meanwhile gave Naruto a cold stare.
"Why are you encouraging him?" Lightning demanded suddenly, she really didn't need the child to slow her down right now.
"Simple. If Hope gets some confidence in himself he will do better, why put someone down when all they really need is some encouragement to do better to get what you want?" Naruto asked Lightning, who froze in place as she thought about it. "All it really takes is a little encouragement to turn someone into something that you could need in the future. Besides ... he has a quest for revenge." Naruto's expression turned cold. "I will not allow Hope to become as twisted and demented as my friend did." Naruto told Lightning. "Anyway, let's go, we'll need to see what damage Hope did with his new toy." Naruto seemed cheerful once more, before he sped off after Hope and his path of destruction. Lightning was trying to get rid of the cold chill that had gone down her spine.
'That expression ... it was almost ... frightening.' Lightning thought to herself before she started running so she could catch up with both Naruto and Hope. When Lightning had caught up with Hope and Naruto, after seeing the destruction that Hope had caused, they were at a steep edge, where Hope was trying to manoeuvre the Dreadnought and hopefully get the footing right, only for it to go all wrong and for the Dreadnought to go over the edge crashing to the ground, while Hope landed flat on his back, having screamed on the way down.
"Nice landing." Lightning commented, sounding almost amused.
"Hope! I wanted to have a go!" Naruto complained with anime tears running down his cheeks, looking somewhat embarrassing for someone his age. Lightning and Naruto jumped down, while Naruto had a quick look at the now powerless Dreadnought. "Yep, it's dead, just when I was going to ask if I could have a try too!" Naruto pouted.
"Grow up." Lightning told the blond. "We'll find another one somewhere, whether or not we have to wait several months is another thing for you to worry about."
"That sucks!" Naruto complained childishly.
"Let's get moving." Lightning commanded, before Hope got to his feet.
"I need a minute. I'm still winded." Hope sounded a little out of it as he clutched his stomach due to the way that he had landed from a high fall.
"You're too soft." Lightning told the boy.
"He's still just a kid that hasn't got the experience yet." Naruto reminded Lightning, inviting himself into the conversation once more, but Lightning had started to walk away.
"Wait up!" Hope called out to Lightning, desperately trying not to be left behind. This left Naruto staring behind the boy with a deadpanned expression over his face.
"Sometimes, I don't even know why I bother." Naruto sighed, before he started following them at his own pace.
"I hope we find another one of those things." Hope announced, causing Naruto to give him a look.
"I'll be driving it next time. It's not fair that you got all of the fun." Naruto complained, not noticing that Lightning was starting to get annoyed. Naruto suddenly transformed Gilgamesh into a giant shuriken. "Duck Lightning!" Naruto shouted, before he threw the shuriken at Lightning's direction. The pink haired soldier barely ducked in time as it sped over her body. She snapped her body up to look at Naruto angrily.
"What the hell was that for?" Lightning shouted, before Naruto suddenly leapfrogged her of all things, and caught the giant shuriken in his hand, but now it was stained with fresh blood.
"There were PSICOM up ahead and I just got rid of them for you." Naruto sang, causing Lightning to twitch violently, before she slammed her fist into Naruto's skull, sending him smashing into the ground.
"Then warn me what you're next time!" Lightning snapped, while Naruto got up as if nothing had happened, even as the large bruise on his forehead was already starting to heal. "I hate you."
"Love you too." Naruto replied happily as they continued on, Hope remembering why he was dreading this in the first place back at Bresha Lake. Soon, they were at a bridge, above a large waterfall. Lightning was ahead of everyone, while Naruto was in the middle, looking concerned for a sluggish Hope, who suddenly tripped over a piece of metal that was on the bridge. Lightning stopped.
"This isn't working." Lightning turned to look at Naruto and Hope. "I mean, you're a liability Hope. You'll just slow me down." Lightning told the young boy in frustration.
"What?" Hope looked distressed by the mere idea of holding Lightning back and quickly got to his feet.
"I'm sorry, but I can't protect you when ... AH!" Lightning started, only to suddenly gasp in pain and fall on one knee, holding her chest as her brand started to glow a pink colour.
"You can't leave me here! You've got to take me with you!" Hope cried, sounding desperate.
"Lightning, you can't be serious!" Naruto shouted at the pink haired soldier, who glared at him trying to cope with the pain. "Are you out of your mind? Leaving a kid like Hope out here on his own, he'll never survive!" Naruto looked furious, Hope know that he should feel hurt, but could also understand why Naruto was saying those words, trying to get Lightning to keep him around.
"You know Naruto. I really don't know why I even bother keeping you around either!" Lightning was now shouting at Naruto. "All you've done is either being a pain in the ass or act like an immature brat! I'm getting sick and tired of it!" Lightning shouted. "I didn't think that I could ever hate anyone more than Snow in my entire life, but I guess I've found that I can! I HATE YOU MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE IN THIS GODDAMN WORLD!" Lightning roared, only for a burst of pink light to appear underneath her, almost like a summoning seal that had suddenly revealed itself for the world to see. Naruto's eyes widen and he pushed Hope back, aiming for the boy to be out of danger, as he pulled Gilgamesh from his back and holding him in a defensive position, as if he expected an attack. Lightning leaped forward, just as a figure was summoned where the soldier had been standing moments before. He looked powerful, majestic even, but like a humanoid machine. It drew a long powerful looking blade and advanced towards Naruto, and proceeded to slam his blade at the blond, who actually blinked in surprise at the power that had been behind the attack.
"I don't know who you are." Naruto started, even as he could feel himself actually starting to be pushed back. "But I'm not going to let you get past me and harm Hope!" Naruto shouted as he started to push the figure back, getting a grunt of surprise from him.
"This can't be happening." Lightning uttered, before she leaped at the figure, Odin as she had found out thanks to her Libra spell, only to feel paralysed as she started to feel as if the life was being sucked out of her, Naruto caught the soldier so she couldn't get injured due to the fall, only to have to dodge an attack from Odin and do a back flip to where Hope was.
"Lightning, come on, we need to do this now!" Naruto hissed out. "This is your Eidolon and we need your help defeating it." Naruto uttered, as Lightning slowly got to her feet. Naruto then charged at Odin, who had been charging at them as well, clashing blades before Naruto got in a powerful kick, aiming to force the majestic Eidolon back quite a bit. Suddenly Lightning entered the fight, slicing at the incredible looking Eidolon, hoping to be able to stop him somehow, only for feel something from him. Something she didn't think was possible. She could feel approval, Odin's approval. It was at that moment that Naruto was suddenly forced back, Odin's blade cutting into Naruto, blooding pouring down from his forehead.
"Cure!" Lighting shouted as she sent healing magic Naruto's way. Even if she had hated him, even if she thought he was the most annoying and damnable person that she had ever met, she knew that she needed him in some way shape or form. But she didn't understand why. Suddenly Lightning, Naruto and Hope combined their efforts together by sending magic at the creature, while Naruto didn't have to worry about the nasty side effects thanks to the Kyuubi, as much as the blond hated to say it, Lightning and Hope, when his turn came, did have to worry, for they still had their brands and weren't ninja like Naruto was. Suddenly Lightning felt an urge to call out a name.
"Odin!" Lightning called out, causing Odin to stop his advance almost immediately, almost as if it had surrendered, just like Gilgamesh had done beforehand with Naruto. Suddenly, Odin changed before their very eyes, while Gilgamesh had changed into a blade that could always change form into another weapon, Odin changed into a white horse. He stepped towards Lightning and proceeded to withdraw within her brand, vanishing before their very eyes. Lightning panted from what appeared to be fatigue after a difficult series of battles, before she dropped on one knee.
"Lightning!" Hope cried in concerned, while Naruto reminded silent even as they both checked on the woman. "You're brand looks ... different. That must be your Eidolon, like Naruto has on his back." Hope looked almost in awe at the fact that they had survived against something like Odin. "Naruto, why do you keep Gilgamesh out?"
"Hope ... I told you earlier when we were still with Sazh, Vanille and Konan, my brand somehow got destroyed by something earlier on, so Gilgamesh can't go back into my brand, and I doubt he could go anywhere else." Naruto explained before he looked at the sword that was Gilgamesh. "Besides, I think he likes the fresh air."
"..." Gilgamesh wasn't going to give them an answer.
"Magic and mumbo-jumbo, I must have hit my head on that Purge train." Lightning muttered darkly, before she got to her feet, Hope got his feet quickly as well, Naruto however, was taking his time.
"Am I really in your way?" Hope asked quietly, hanging his head in shame, almost expecting some kind of response that would further shoot down his confidence. Lightning didn't give an answer. She merely started to walk away, much to Naruto's anger. "I'll do better! I'll try harder, I'll ..." Hope started to try and get Lightning to keep him around.
"Hope." Lightning interrupted the boy, causing Hope to sigh, expecting some kind of telling off, while Naruto saw the look in Lightning's eyes as she turned well to look at him, allowed a smile to grace his lips. "We'll toughen you up." Hope looked up at her, with a surprised look on his face. "I'm sorry, about before." She apologized, causing Naruto to blink, wondering if he had heard right. However, Hope had rushed forward, looking eager to help, so he realized that he had heard right.
'Seems like Lightning does have a heart after all.' Naruto thought to himself, wondering how he should apologize to her, before he followed Lightning and Hope wondering if he should be worried about PSICOM in the area anymore.
Further ahead, Lightning and Hope had been encountered by PSICOM troopers.
"L'Cie!" The leader snarled.
"Got my back?" Lightning asked the young boy who she was going to train with Naruto, if he ever got there.
"Yea." Hope nodded, just as they got attacked.
Not too long after, Naruto whistled at the destruction that had been left after Lightning had summoned Odin for the very first time, looking very impressed with what he could see.
"I take it that this was done by the mighty Odin then?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow, looking around, seeing a stray flicker of electricity every here and there.
"Yea! It was pretty awesome to see! You really missed out!" Hope told Naruto, sounding really excited with what he had seen, causing Naruto to blink in surprise at the cheerfulness that the silver haired boy was showing.
"Well, someone's finally acting like their age, it's about time too, I was starting to get concerned that you might be an emo of all things." Naruto laughed, causing Hope to gap at him in shock.
"That's not funny!" Hope cried, looking really annoyed by what had just happened. Suddenly, however, the boy dropped to his knees and started to pant heavily, as if the day's events had finally caught up with him. He leaned against a nearby rock so he didn't suddenly collapse right there and then.
"We'll stop here." Lightning announced suddenly, causing Naruto to look over at the pink haired woman.
"Sorry." Hope apologized, believing that he was dragging the pace down because he couldn't keep up.
"Don't sweat it." Lightning reassured the boy as he suddenly turned his back to the rock that he had been hoping as a support for his weight. "I'll look around, you rest up." Lightning told the boy.
"I'll go with you." Naruto told Lightning as he made a shadow clone, who knew as soon as he was created that he was going to look after Hope.
"You don't need to." Lightning told Naruto, as if she wanted to avoid a conversation with him at the moment.
"I've got a clone watching over Hope, so I can go with you." Naruto told the pink haired soldier, who sighed in defeat, knowing that she couldn't argue with the blond much after that comment.
As they walked along, it was an awkward silence that filled the air, neither Naruto nor Lightning seemed comfortable with the silence.
"Naruto ..." Lightning started.
"Lightning ..." Naruto started.
"I'm sorry!" Both Naruto and Lightning apologized at the same time, causing both of them to blink and look at each other in confusion. "What are you?" They asked at the same time. "Why would you?" They asked at the same time again, looking surprised by each other.
"You first." Naruto offered, causing Lightning to look surprised.
"Why ... are you apologizing for? You've been a lot of help ever since you've arrived." Lightning asked Naruto, who gave her a deadpanned expression.
"But I've also been annoying as hell, and I'm surprised that only you snapped at me to be honest with you, I was almost expecting the others to do so as well." Naruto pointed out bluntly. "You've had a good reason to be pissed off with me." Naruto announced. "So why are you apologizing to me?" Naruto asked the solider.
"I didn't mean ... what I said the bridge." Lightning admitted, looking away almost as if she was ashamed by what she had said to him back where she had summoned Odin because of her rage.
"But you were frustrated with what had happened to you, what had happened to Serah, Snow acting like an idiot, even more than I can act, Sazh acting like he didn't care. It's obvious that you would be upset by it." Naruto pointed out.
"But that's still no excuse!" Lightning told the blond, looking ashamed. "I was about to leave Hope behind because I thought that he was weak, holding me back, dragging me down, a liability! That's not how a soldier should act! I'm supposed to protect people! Not put them in further harm! I ..."
SLAP!
Lightning blinked several times, before she rubbed her cheek, where Naruto had slapped her across the face, a red handprint now embedded in her pale skin.
"I'm sorry, but I can't let you talk yourself down." Naruto told the pink haired soldier. "Nobody's perfect Lightning. I know that for a fact, since I'm the perfect example of it. Everyone makes mistakes, even professionals. There is no such thing as a perfect person, or else the world wouldn't be able to improve, evolve for the generations to come." Naruto continued. "I know that I may be a bit young to be talking about these sorts of things, but there is no reason whatsoever that you can talk yourself down like that. I'm not the one who had been leading the group before we got here. It was you who had been doing that, because of your experience on the battlefield and because of your knowledge of the world." Naruto told Lightning. "Me and Konan, we were hopelessly loss before we found you guys, and we still didn't know where we were going to go, but you gave us a purpose, a reason. And for that I thank you."
"Naruto ..." Lightning uttered.
"Besides, how could I ever forgive myself if I let a pretty face like yours always look so negative?" Naruto grinned foxily, causing Lightning to blink in surprise at the compliment.
"Were you trying to flirt with me?" Lightning raised an eyebrow at the blond.
"And if I was?" Naruto asked.
"You choose a really strange place to do it." Lightning shook her head, not sure whether or not she should be surprised by him anymore.
"Let's go check on Hope, he's bound to be fast asleep by now." Naruto chuckled to himself.
"Yea."
Chapter 8 is completed.
It's been a while since I've updated this hasn't it? But to be honest with you, I've been having a few writer's block, which annoyed the hell out of me.
Now, I know I'm going to get some comments for what had happened to Naruto's brand mark, so I'm going to give my argument.
In other fanfics, Orochimaru has branded Naruto with his Cursed Seal, only for Kyuubi to destroy the seal and eat that part of Orochimaru's soul, and I had been wanting to find an excuse to get Naruto fighting Gilgamesh.
So here's the catch, Naruto is no longer branded by the mark of the Fal'Cie, no longer making him a L'Cie, however, thanks to the Kyuubi he gets to keep all of the magic without having all of the downsides that a L'Cie would have.
Also, I've finally revealed the person who had been found as Itachi Uchiha, why? Because it's Itachi fucking Uchiha, quite possibly one of the most greatest characters of all time that was ever character in Naruto, if not the best character ever created. He even had an epic backstory which blew everyone away at the time, what more could you want?
Don't answer that.
Oh, and I've been getting some flames from this one annoying bastard, flames that I always delete because of the fact that they are anonymous reviews and therefore pointless to have. Also if you flame me using your account, I will simply block you so you can never do so again, because you're ruining it for everyone else, it's like seeing the comments on Youtube for crying out loud.
I have just one thing to say to that person.
If you EVER tell me that I am writing like Kishimoto and that I should write Naruto/Final Fantasy crossovers like people like VFSNAKE who ALWAYS overpowers Naruto to the point where it's not even have to fight at all, he might as well be a god that he is going to destroy the world! The story becomes so predictable and boring after a while because of this. And there's also the fact that the guy always pairs Naruto up with Hinata and then goes ahead and makes it a HAREM pairing!
That's like playing different video games but always finding out that it's always the same ending, it really does get boring after a while, you know?
And he does it over and over and over and over and over and over again. He has so many stories but they have the same idea everytime.
Naruto get beaten. Never happened in the first place.
Naruto gets rescued. They always love him, he's the main character, he can't die ... actually yes he can, because we can do what we want afterward.
Naruto gets extremely powerful after 2-3 chapters! Surely it takes a lot longer than that to get THAT strong, surely.
Naruto kills all the bad guys without breaking a sweat. Yawn, making the fights more exciting!
Sasuke ALWAYS gets bashed. You can make him so he's not a prick.
Naruto ALWAYS ends up with Hinata. There are other girls out there.
Hinata always shares Naruto with other girls. Why? I would have thought that she was so obsessed over the guy that she would never EVER allow him to be with anyone else.
Naruto either impregnants all the girls and have a happy family and lives happily ever after OR Naruto announces his love for his numerous amount of wifes and lives happily ever after. Zzzz. That must get boring after a while, surely.
Anyway, before I get off track even more.
I'm sorry, but I want to make my fics at somewhat REALISTIC so that Naruto isn't always winning his fights and that he DOES have some weaknesses, besides, PEOPLE DIE, it's a matter of life, nothing can stop this cycle.
So please ignore the fact that I am currently holding your voodoo doll over a lighter if you ever try to flame me again.
Also ignore the fact that I will write complaints to people if other people use my work and don't even bother to cover it up. ... not mentioning any names here.
Apart from this sour end to the chapter, I hope that you have enjoyed the chapter.
One more thing.
Omake - Itachi's eyesight.
Itachi didn't know what was going on, one moment he was merely walking down the corridor, the next thing was that he was in a room in never ending darkness. He didn't even know why.
"I wonder where everyone is." Itachi mused to himself, before he suddenly felt a presence sneaking up behind him and grabbed the person quickly. "Who are you, and what have you done with the light?" Itachi hissed darkly.
"Rebecca? Oh dear, not again." A doctor could be heard.
"Amanda? Is that you? Where am I?" Itachi asked, sounding confused. "And why are you in this Genjutsu?"
"No Itachi, this isn't a Genjutsu, you just need to be injected again, your eyesight's gone." Amanda sighed. "And Itachi, can please let Rebecca down? It's not her fault that she's always horny around you."
"..." Itachi didn't let her go.
Until next time, goodbye and goodnight.
