Disclaimer: I don't own anything within... it's been created for my own amusement and the enjoyment of others. I'm not making anything for this so don't even bother to sue me...

Naruto Ultimate:

The Nightmare of Konoha...

Chapter 8: Evils Willing Slave...

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"Normal Speaking"

'Normal Thinking'

Radio in use

"Jutsu In use"

"Demon/Nightmare Speaking"

'Demon/Nightmare Thinking'

"Inner Spirit Talking"

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(Land of Blades...)

The cool breeze blew through the tree's in the land of Blades, the full moon hung above giving light to the nocturnal creatures, and the stars shown brightly, twinkling down upon the land from so far above... Large armored feet tumbled across a wooden floor, a massive obsidian blade was held in a deformed hand. An armored left hand reached out and opened a door, slowly, quietly so as to not awaken his prey. Within lay a sleeping figure remained blissfully unaware of the danger approaching her. The person lifted his massive blade and swung only to stop barely an inch from the girls blond locks... "Sister... Just five more minutes..." Came her sleepy mumbling as she turned over in her sleep.

Golden eye's widened while the left eye changed color, turning a deep crimson... Crow backed away from Cassandra with wide eye's and a disbelieving expression. Was he really about to murder her in his sleep?! He started to shake then looked down at himself, he was wearing part of his old armor, just enough to protect him from some of the more dangerous enemies he may face... "No... Not again..." Crow whispered before placing his sword back onto his back and hurrying into his room. However as he entered he grunted in pain, falling to his knees. He reached to his right shoulder, the place were a black three pronged star tattoo rested before spinning out of control.

The mark then traveled over his form, glowing a dark color one of it's prongs stretched to wrap around his right arm, the next around his left leg, and the final prong stretched up around his neck to reach his head where it turn down across Crow's right eye like a certain scared Genin. At that moment his right arm began to change fully, but the mirrors he was wearing began glowing, attempting to stop the transformation. First his right eye became a brighter gold with a black sclera, his long spiky hair turned a blood red color and yet the black swirls from his "Curse mark" remained.

Then his arm grew, his forefinger and middle finger fused together while his pinkie and ring finger fused together, making it look like he had only three fingers. The skin of his arm then became thicker, and took on a brownish green color while his shoulder blade grew numerous small spikes, shoulder now had a long plate growing off it, two large spikes then grew along his forearm and veins bulged along his arm and shoulder. His arm was then covered by what looked like numerous tiny red eyes, then the marks on his back began to bulge, becoming ridged as it curved down to his left leg. Then two more marks growing over his shoulder to her right side, the mark on his face then became like his arm as it bulged then became a brownish color, finally the bulging veins then reached to the side of his upper torso and an eye opened there also... (Nightmare: Soul Calibur 2 (His arm and markings are from the 2nd costume))

Crow screamed in pain as the transformation lay only half complete, he heard someone heading towards his room so he crawled towards the window of his room. Crow grabbed a blue colored helmet from under his bed and placed it over his head before then pushing himself up and pushing open the window. "Crow whats...?" Came Sophitia's voice and a gasp of shock as she saw Crow. Crow grunted in pain as the Curse Mark did it's work he turned his head towards Sophitia for a moment before grunting in pain as lightning arched over his body...

"I'm sorry..." He grunted then threw himself out of the window, and down towards the sea bellow. On his decent Crow reached back and used his sword to slow his decent down the side of the cliff, and soon stopped. Using his leverage, Crow placed his feet on the side of the cliff before pushing himself off into a flip, also pulling his sword out he landed on the beach and looked up towards Sophitia's home... He saw her looking down at him and felt his eye's soften... 'Good bye... My... friends...' He thought as Lightning arched over his form once more.

The young Nightmare then ran from Sophitia's home, he had to find some way to end the nightmare once and for all, it didn't matter how, so long as he no longer had to deal with this retched curse... 'Soul... Calibur...' He thought to himself remembering the holy sword Sophitia had used to stop him before it vanished with Soul Edge. His choice made Crow's eye's hardened, this time he wouldn't be controlled by Soul Edge, nor by Orochimaru, he would find Soul Calibur and free himself of this curse... He just hoped he could stay awake long enough to find it... Or risk becoming Nightmare once more...

--

(Konoha...)

Anko and her team were just returning from a mission to retrieve something from a group of bandits... The only complaint... "Why didn't I get to kill more of those useless souls?" Naruto grumbled out and Anko smirked.

"Cause I'm the Sensei, I get to maim kill and destroy more than you. When you make Chunin you can go off and reign death and destruction on whomever you want." Anko said with a grin and Naruto grumbled about purple haired bitches stealing all the fun while Sasuke and Ino remained silent, wondering how those two could argue about not getting to kill enough... even Ino wasn't that warped... The four were heading for another mission even as they spoke, mostly because they had finished their last C-rank in less than four hours. Of course the fact was that the group of bandits had already been attacked by a warrior in blue armor, leaving them barely a hand full left for Naruto AND Anko to actually play with.

"So are we really going after another C-rank?" Ino then questioned and Anko chuckled darkly.

"Of course. I told you brats I don't do D-ranks, and I meant it." She said, a bag with whatever the bandits had stolen over one shoulder while Naruto had taken a good portion of the rest for his own, making Sasuke smirk. Anko had made them go on five C-ranks in the past five days, the only reason they got done was because they were low-C-ranks that were still in fire countries borders.

"Then why have we been doing C-ranks like crazy?" Ino asked and Anko grinned widely.

"Because it makes us rich!" She exclaimed and Naruto chuckled insanely while wondering what he could do with all the loot he had taken from those bandits...

"Personally I could care less about the money... I'm enjoying killing all these weak souls..." Naruto said with an evil look in his eye's while Ino and Sasuke saw Madness' eye open up and look around, making the two shiver. No matter who you are or how many people you've killed, that was still creepy as hell...

The group soon entered the Hokage tower, Anko grinning while Naruto continued to sulk about wanting to kill more of the bandits. Seriously, Ino and Sasuke were wondering why he was so obsessed with killing people, they knew it was fun for him or something but this was taking it a bit too far... As they walked into the Hokage's office the old man was with Iruka, said Chunin looking to the group and groaning to himself, if their was a C-rank they couldn't do by this point he'd be surprised...

"Yo Hokage-sama, we need another C-rank ASAP." Anko said with a grin and tossing her bag to the old man. Said aging Hokage only rolled his eye's while taking a small puff of his pipe. He then took a thoughtful look before slowly nodding his head to himself.

"Very well then Anko. I have a simple escort mission for your group if you'll take it... Send him in..." The Hokage conceded, ignoring Anko and Naruto's looks of disappointment, he kind of felt they should be weened from all this death and destruction they normally did. At that moment a man walked in from another room and at first all they could see was a man's hairy arm. Then they saw a bottle of sake in hand, then it moved to show an old slightly balding fat man with a beard and mustache, a band tied around his head. He had on a black shirt, a purple sash, with tan pants, and a pair of black sandal's.

"Whats going on here?" The man asked while looking at the group... "These are the best I could hire... Jeez, I thought I was getting Ninja, not Samurai and Strippers..." The man said and found Anko and Ino both being restrained by Naruto and Sasuke, Naruto laughing loudly as the women wanted to gut the old drunk. "It's gotta be a joke your all nothing but a bunch of brat's... Not Ninja right?" The man slurred and Naruto laughed as Anko started to try and pull out of his grip, being her height was the only reason he was able to hold her off of the old man...

"I swear I'm going to kill him! Naruto as your sensei I order you to let me go!" Anko shouted and Naruto rolled his eye's.

"Sorry Sensei, we need him alive if we're going to get payed anytime soon..." The red head said and Sasuke nodded while still trying to keep Ino from cutting the man to pieces...

"Oh I won't kill him. NO! He'll WISH I'd killed him after I rip his balls off and shove them up his ass!" Anko shouted and all the men in the room shuddered, even the insane Naruto did for crying out loud! After a few minutes of the Hokage trying to convince Anko not to kill the old man, her and Ino both being held back by Naruto and Sasuke. They came to an agreement that Anko wouldn't kill him for the stripper crack seeing as he was drunk, though if he hit on her or Ino on their trip he was fair game for them to slaughter...

"Now then. I am Tazuna a Bridge builder of ultimate renown... And until I am safely back in my home country, were I'll be completing my next bridge, You'll all be expected to protect me... Even at the cost of your lives..." The man said and Naruto raised a brow...

"You mean other's lives... Right? I DO get to kill something on this mission... RIGHT!?" Naruto questioned with a twitching eye and Sasuke rolled his eye's.

"If no humans come for us to kill we can always go out hunting..." The dark haired teen suggested and Naruto blinked before chuckling to himself insanely, making all the adults but Anko wonder why he was so warped, then look at Anko, and inwardly blame her...

"Okay, we'll meet by the gate in the morning and I want punctuality or my Snakes get to snack on you!" Anko told her team who shrugged and walked off out of the tower, Naruto vanishing in a flash of lightning... "How does he DO that?" Anko then wondered and even the Hokage seemed intrigued by the trick the young man had learned. However, behind them all and sitting on the windowsill was a bird with glowing red eye's. The bird then took flight and followed after Naruto... Long spiky red hair, blue armor, a large sword with an Eye in it, and what COULD be a deformed arm covered by bandages... It had found it's target, and it's mistress would need this information...

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The watcher landed on the outstretched arm of it's Mistress, it looked to her with it's red eye's, somehow giving her the knowledge it had gathered for her. Telling her that it had found the one she had been searching for all this time... The girl grinned insanely and kissed the bird on it's head once more. "Good work. Now lets see if he really is the one we're looking for..." The girl said before then kicking a body next to her into the water, turning the water red as blood...

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(Next morning...)

Naruto, Sasuke, and Ino all stood waiting for their sensei, who soon walked towards them while dragging their client Tazuna behind her. "Alright brats lets move it, I'm still pissed at this guy for yesterday so it would be best to finish this mission quickly..." Anko said with a frown before tossing Tazuna forward, the man groaning in pain as Naruto chuckled darkly.

"Move." Naruto said while kicking him and Tazuna grunted before complying, wondering when did Konoha nin became so crazy... The group then walked down the road, Naruto bored out of his mind wanting to "gather more souls" which they figured kill more people. Anko was munching on Dango she got from... Somewhere... and Sasuke and Ino were the only one's actually watching for trouble... 'Hm... Two weak souls are up ahead... Why do these Ninja never notice these things...' Naruto thought to himself as he saw a puddle and was getting tense...

At that moment, the two "Weak Souls" jumped from the puddle and straight for Anko. However Naruto grabbed one and Sasuke rammed into the other. Naruto then threw the one had caught into a nearby tree before rearing his sword back and flinging it forward. The blade span with a screaming sound before cutting the nin and tree in half, a shower of blood and gore being left in the blades wake as it soon spun around the area once before returning to Naruto's hand like a boomerang.

"BROTHER!" The other man exclaimed only to have Anko smash her fist into the side of his head, knocking him out cold...

"Well... that was boring..." Naruto then said while walking over to the nin and removed said nin's Large gauntlet. "This I can use..." Naruto mused then looked at the other, now unconscious nin and grinned viciously behind his mask. "Can I kill him also?" Naruto questioned with an insane look in his eye's that Anko was slowly getting used too, well... Technically she had that same look whenever she was being insane like him, but...

However, before anything could be done, Naruto heard a whistle sound as a ring shaped blade came out of nowhere and sliced into the unconscious nin, cutting the man in half and killing him in his sleep... 'Didn't expect that...' Naruto thought to himself as then a girl jumped from a tree, flipped once in the air before then landing next to the man and looking down on his corpse... "Ow your so Lucky... you got to die so peacefully..." She said with a frown, Naruto noticing she had an almost unnoticeable accent which he couldn't quite place. Tazuna gawked at her for what she said while Naruto and the other ninja looked the girl over to evaluate her threat level...

The girl had short-ish blue hair, with a thin athletic build, violet eye's, and pale skin, with a beauty mark under her right eye, painted green lips, green eyeshadow, and a purple mark over her face which looked somewhat like Iruka's scar and another at her midriff. She wore an old and nearly destroyed shirt with nothing under it, revealing she wore no bra at all, while purple string was being used to hold the shirt together, green feathers were around her neck wrists and thighs. She wore a pair of green pants with slits on the sides tightened by thick green straps and a green belt around her waist, a pair of long purple gloves with a white and purple flap at her biceps, and last were her thigh high green boots with armor over her shins, knees, and the tops of her feet. (Tira Costume 1 SCIII)

'She seems... Familiar...' Naruto thought to himself then watched as the girl kicked her ring shaped weapon up off the ground and caught it in one hand. She then looked at the group and tilted her head seeing Naruto, before then reaching into her pants and pulling a piece of paper out of... Somewhere. "Blue armor, long and spiky red hair, a strange sword with an eye... I wonder if his arms deformed or not, but the rest is right..." The girl said to herself then mused aloud making those with Naruto wonder if she was all there upstairs... Naruto himself narrowed his eye's however, that was a basic description of Nightmare...

"Hey brat, who the hell are you and what are you doing here?" Anko then questioned and the girl turned to look at the woman before frowning at her...

"Tira..." She said then grinned insanely, surprising Anko as it looked like one of her own insane looks... "And it's time to die!" She then exclaimed lunging at Anko and swinging her Ring Blade, Anko rolled out of the way and Naruto swung his sword to knock this "Tira" away and to the side while he dropped the heavy gauntlet from the nin. As he did so however, he saw purple flames border around her body, invisible to all but his own eye's... An insane grin spread across his face as he saw the power and began to shiver in anticipation...

"Finally! A Powerful Soul!" Naruto said with wide eye's before crouching down and ramming into Tira, pushing her back and into the forest away from prying eye's. Naruto soon stopped and Tira rolled back along the ground, using her momentum she managed to get on her feet and lunge at Naruto swinging her ring blade at him. Naruto dodged to the side then swung Madness, the girl quickly blocked before then spinning her ring blade to knock him to the side and she kicked him to the dirt.

"This is completely absurd... No... No... I just don't understand this at all... How can you be him?! Answer me!" The girl questioned incredulously and Naruto's amber eye's narrowed angrily on the girl... "In fact... Let's find out... Just how dark your blood is." The girl then said while swinging her ring blade over one arm and Naruto growled angrily.

"YOU WRETCHED CONCEDED HUMAN!" At that moment, with a deafening roar, Naruto spun his body, swinging Madness low to the ground. Tira jumped over to the attack only for Naruto to spin his body once more, knocking Tira away. Naruto then ran towards the girl and grabbed her by the throat, then jumped into the air and slammed her into the ground, amber eye's looking down at her with pure hate and malice...

"YOU HAVE DARED TO INSULT ME WORM!?" Naruto yelled angrily before lifting Tira up by her throat and narrowing his eyes once more. "Receive the punishment... Of Darkness!" Naruto growled out and reared back Madness with his left hand before swinging it towards Tira only for his arm to be covered by violet flames and Madness eye to open and look directly at him... Naruto growled towards the blade then tossed Tira to the side and slammed Madness into the ground with a twitching eye... 'WHY THE HELL ARE YOU PROTECTING HER!?' He demanded of his sword then looked at Tira from the corner of his eye as the girl began to cough while rubbing her throat.

"So... is that it..?" The girl then questioned before grinning widely. "LET'S PLAY!" She then exclaimed and lunged at Naruto once more, making the young psychopath wonder if she had some sort of death wish. Naruto rolled to the side as Tira swiped the ground he had been on, the blue armored warrior then cracked his neck before lunging at Tira and swinging Madness wildly. The girl was limber however, and easily bent backwards to avoid the attack before then kicking out at the armored ninja.

Naruto was pushed back and Tira then flipped to her feet and into a short spin before throwing her ring towards him, the weapon spinning rapidly the blades on it now like a saw. Naruto's eye's widened for a moment before he then ducked to the side, his shoulder getting clipped by the weapon as the only damage to him thus far. "Hmm... Your sure lasting longer than I expected..." The girl said as she looked at an angered Naruto who took a deep breath and crouched low to the ground.

"Show me... Your Madness!" Naruto then growled before lunging forward and then ramming his right shoulder into the girl knocking her back before then heaving Madness over his shoulder and slamming it down into the ground. Tira however had rolled out of the way before flipping back to her feet then flipped several times till she came to her Ring Blade which she then kicked up and caught in time to block another swing from Naruto's sword, irritating Naruto greatly. The azure clad warrior then backed away from Tira and felt himself tense as she then attacked.

Naruto quickly blocked her weapon by pushing his sword forward, only for her to move her weapon and cut the bandages on his arm and flip away from him...'Wait... Did she want to see my arm? What possible use could that be?' The young man wondered as his bandages fell from most of his arm to show the bulging freakishly deformed appendage...

"So... It is you..." The girl then said with her eye's wide before smiling insanely, while Naruto narrowed his eye's on her... "I'm SOOOO sorry, Master! But I had to make sure you were the right person!" The girl then exclaimed and Naruto blinked before wondering what the fuck she was on... And where he could get some, he needed it right about now...

"Uh... Master?" Naruto questioned while still keeping a firm grip on Madness while the girl nodded her head rapidly.

"Yep. I'm Tira formerly an assassin of the "Bird of Passage" group. And all my life I've always had someone telling me what too do, but one of the rules of our group was that we only obey those stronger than us, and that the weak are servants to the strong. So when I found out about a warrior in blue armored called Nightmare, who slaughtered thousands just for fun. I decided I'd find him so I could pledge myself to him completely! BUT it looks like I kinda got carried away... Again..." Tira explained then said at the end with an insane grin on her face and Naruto wondered if maybe she was related to Anko... Or by some misguided twist of reality, himself...

"Er... Right... Then what about the rest of your family?" Naruto then questioned and the girl giggled into her hands her ring blade slung over her right shoulder so it went around her body.

"My father and brothers were the last to try and control me. But they were too weak, and the rest of the Bird of Passage were killed by one of those Feudal Lords for attempting a coup or something... I don't know exactly what it was that happened... But my brothers and father tried to order me to kill the Lord, and I figured if they were really strong then they wouldn't have been losing in the first place, so I killed them and left." Tira explained happily nothing seeming to get her down, and Naruto blinked... She was willing to kill her own family... Nice...

"Okay... Then why become MY slave? I'm sure their must be other powerful people in the world, ones more like you at least..." Naruto questioned then said and Tira grinned towards him again.

"All my life I've killed people, I learned to kill before I could even fully talk, In fact, it was my first and favorite game... So I wanted a master that would be blood thirsty, insane, ruthless, cruel, and absolutely powerful, so I could kill more people all I want! It's just so much fun to kill all these weaklings after all! So when I heard about "Nightmare" I knew I'd found the perfect master to give myself too! And, here we are!" The girl then exclaimed and Naruto blinked before wondering exactly what metal ailments she was suffering as she was looking like she was Bipolar or something... "So then master. What's my first order!?" The girl asked him happily and Naruto took a thoughtful expression, looking to Madness, he briefly considered ordering her to cut her own head off and let him have her soul... But he was fairly certain his sword wanted to keep her alive for the time being... Oh well...

"Your order shall be simple Tira. I am Nightmare true, but I have many enemies and my power is not yet complete. I need strong souls and fragments of the sword Soul Edge in order to become whole once more. Also, many in the place I am making my home would kill me as soon as they were to find out I was indeed Nightmare. So refer to me as either, Master, or Naruto while around the other ninja... Understand?" Nightmare explained while placing Madness onto his back then questioned and Tira took a thoughtful expression.

"I understand Master, I can follow master but can only call him by Master or Fishcake, I like Master more than fishcake though, Master." The girl said and saw that Naruto at looking at her with an annoyed expression. "Also, Master needs powerful souls and pieces of this "Soul Edge" thing in order to be fully restored... Right?" Tira questioned and once more Naruto nodded his head to the insane bipolar girl... "Okay!" She then exclaimed before flipping into several hand stands and then towards Naruto who caught her in his arms, her arms then wrapped around his neck with a cheeky smile on her face. "I will do as Master wishes then." She then said and Naruto grunted with an annoyed expression.

"While your here, fix my bandages, I don't need everyone seeing my arm yet..." Naruto then said and Tira nodded while staying in his arms. She then reached around his neck to fix the bandages and Naruto walked off back towards the others with an annoyed frown... 'What the hell have I got myself into with this one?' He wondered to himself while adding an extra subordinate to his now ever growing list...

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(Elsewhere...)

Somewhere hidden underground, gold and other fabulous treasures were hidden in what looked like an underground city. A large statue of a man sitting on a throne sat at one part of the massive cavern. Dust and cobwebs had formed all over, covering the underground world in dark shadows, a massive chandelier swung to and fro as a figure began to twitch on the ground... "Voldo... Voldo..." An ancient voice called out and the figure began to twitch more rapidly, one of it's hands raising up, a strange three pronged weapon in hand. "Rise up Voldo... Seek out Soul Edge once more... Bring it to me... My Voldo..." The voice ordered and a figure clothed in metal and leather rose out of the webs and dust to shake itself then hiss and moan towards the statue...

"Go now my Voldo... And make me proud... To be your father..." The voice then ordered and "Voldo" nodded his head to the mans voice before then walking with a lumber away from the voice and it's owner, walking into the world in order to hunt for Soul Edge once more...

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TBC...

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