Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or League of Legends.
A/N
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Chapter 10
Shen waited for the worst. His team lost. Go figure. He was still getting the hang of fighting people like Rumble and Karthus. Getting close was never a problem. It was ensuring that he could get close and take them out that happened to be the issue. Rumble piloted a dorky looking machine with even dorkier looking weapons on them while Karthus just… died? Shen wasn't sure on how to deal with him and frankly, neither was his Summoner. Both were stumped when Shen would kill him, take off running, and then fall over dead after hearing singing.
But that was the furthest thing away from his mind. His previous match was in the past. What he worried about now was Akali. He knew Naruto wouldn't do anything to her. He was too kind for that. The day he turned on his friends without a damn good reason would be the day the sun died. Akali had fought in many matches, but they were practices matches. She fought against wave of minions of and dummy controlled replicas of Champions that expert Summoners controlled. It was all about practice and they made sure that the dummy versions were scaled down for their safety.
Against real Champions controlled by even novice Summoners, death was certain. Akali had fought in many matches prior to her last one, but she had never died. Usually her Summoners were kind and let her do her own thing while offering only the basic level of help, like they should do. But in her last match the Summoner was forceful, forcing her into situations that not even Shen could work his way out of. This led to her first, and apparently, violent death inside the Fields of Justice.
As soon as his match was over he rushed to her room. Before he even knocked he could hear crying on the other side and he couldn't sense Naruto. Gently, he pushed the door open. Akali didn't notice him. She remained crying, huddled in the fetal position. When he shut the door, she stopped and looked at him, her eyes red and puffy. She'd been crying for a while. His first thought was that she killed him after he said something, but he couldn't smell blood in the air. So that was a no go.
"What's wrong?"
(-)
"Are you sure about this?" Relivash felt a great sense of dread as he stared at the back of Naruto. Shirtless and sitting down, Naruto made no attempt to stop him. Relivash wasn't happy about this. To learn about his recent problems so quickly and to have him come to him was a terrible thing. "Naruto," he began, sighing as he worked his magic. Runes and spells older than he worked their way over Naruto's body. Naruto winced as they burned his flesh. "You already have several magic seals to keep the thing at bay just to keep it from interfering with the Summoners when you do your matches. To keep doing this is just…"
"I can feel it slipping," he responded sharply.
Relivash didn't doubt that for a moment. He didn't have the slightest clue as to how Naruto's seal worked. He could study it all his life and never understand it. The design alone had to have taken hundreds of years to just to formulate and probably longer to master. He understood only the basic design of what it did, and even then he doubted he understood it at all. The seal was designed to hold back the energy of the beast within Naruto, but also filter it into his body in the hopes of perfect unity between the two. That was his belief. Naruto didn't know how it worked and all he cared about was making sure it stayed tightly wound. If it was breaking or slipping… well… it was a good cause for concern.
Relivash knew that there were only two people Naruto could go to for something like this: Himself and Ryze. Ryze had already taken a crack and trying to aid the suppression of the beast with his magic, but it wasn't enough. None of their magic was strong enough to seal away a fully conscience being from the minds of their Summoners. Relivash took great joy in knowing that the creature hardly ever lashed out at the Summoners and what control they had over Naruto was limited by all the seals. Naruto was weakened so much while fighting in the Fields of Justice only because of the seals. Outside of the League… Relivash feared for anyone that could provoke him enough to use even a tenth of the beasts' chakra. He'd seen into Naruto's mind. The power of the beast at a four-tailed state was without question immeasurable.
And he didn't just have Naruto's mind to account for that. He had the minds of everyone on the battlefield the day Naruto "died" and returned to life with the power. No one dared to move when it happened. Seeing a boy stand back up after getting killed might have sounded normal. The thought of dying and still fighting was a true statement, just like dying on your feet. It was a real thing. But seeing him come back stronger and meaner and faster was not something you ever saw. That was something you only saw in movies or read about in books. Naruto did it for real. His power… No… the beasts' power was so terrifying that it brought all of the soldiers present to their knees.
Fueled by anger and a desire of destruction, Naruto had torn into everyone he could find with such blinding hatred that the body count was hard to place. With just a single roar he changed the landscape and sent bodies flying. With one punch he blew away hundreds of acres of trees. And with one single slam of his tail he ripped the ground open. Only when his rampage was over did anyone poke their head out for fear of sending him their way. When Noxus made the report to the Institute of War, the Council was sent in to apprehend him, but none of the Ionias' was willing to give him up. Naruto gave up willingly and the truth was shown to Relivash. That was the when the deal was made: "Fight for me, and I'll send you home." Naruto never stopped fighting. He was the perfect soldier. The perfect instrument to be the will of the Institute of War and its High Council.
But with all great powers came a great risk. The seal, after his rampage on the battlefield was revealed to be weakened. They were quick to notice that the seal he was originally placed with had been tampered. A quick mind read conformed that his master had tampered with the seal in the hopes of aiding Naruto in controlling the beast. That man was either dead or dying in his world. Naruto called him Ero-Sennin, but his name was Jiraiya. Naruto had looked up to the man and when the seal was tampered with, he cut him down. Or at least that was how it seemed.
What few plunges Relivash had taken into Naruto's mind revealed the creature to be angry and so full of hate it was infectious. A simple touch of the beasts' mind brought Relivash to his knees. The echoing words of the beast never left his mind, even to this day. How Naruto dealt with it he didn't know.
It was an hour long process that once over; Naruto was the one that seemed worse off. Relivash collapsed in his chair and took a deep breath. He was still young but that took a lot out of him. "That should tighten it I hope. You're seal is different from our magic and normal seals. You have to understand that this isn't something I can't do again. Your seal is something I don't have the faintest idea on how to tighten it. I can only try and help you keep that thing at bay."
"That's okay. As long as I'm not angry like I have been because of these last two jobs, it shouldn't slip." Naruto put his shirt on and thought how stupid that sounded. There would be days he'd get angry again; angry enough to be pushed to use the Kyuubi's chakra again. "You don't have any more dangerous jobs for me take right now, do you?"
"Thankfully I do not. I think I'll start trying to find other people to take those jobs for a while if you're afraid the seal might act up on you. If that thing breaks and the creature gets out…"
"Runeterra will be obliterated… I know. That's why you have to work hard to get me back home. The sooner I'm home, the sooner this threat is gone." Naruto touched his back gently and felt the sting of the fresh seals. "They'll fade like the last set, right? No one will be able to see them?"
"Yes. They won't show up." Relivash looked at some papers as he added, "How come your people do that to children? They put one in you and another in that redhead, Gaara. Why do they do that?"
Naruto clenched his jaw. There were two answers in his case. Gaara was a different story. He didn't know about the other villages if they had any as well. "They did it to me to save my village as a primary objective. The secondary reason is because we're considered living weapons. I can't say I blame them. They could have done a better job training me. If I had better training I might be able to control him or suppress him on my own without having someone else stop me or just waiting until my rage dies down."
"Why does it feed off your angry? From your memories; that Gaara person seems to have been subjected to insomnia and now suffers from insanity. So why don't you have the same problem?"
"I think our seals are different." Naruto touched the original seal, skipping the first question as he walked for the door. "How close are you to finding a way for me to get back home?"
"We're getting closer. Just a little longer." Relivash smiled warmly. "Before the end of this year, we should have a way for you to get home."
Naruto walked out after hearing that. It was the best news he had all day, and that was after his little spat with Akali. He made a mental note to avoid her for the next couple of days. She'd be angry with him and probably try to maim him for being as dense as he was. Was he in the wrong to think like that? Probably so.
He found his room, undressed, and fell on his bed. He felt something crunch under his stomach. He sat up and found the object. It was a piece of paper. He smoothed it out and read it quickly. He sat up straight, grumbled, and read it again, this time slower.
Dear Naruto
I'm sorry for barging in to your room, but I needed to leave this with you. I know this probably ill timed, given the circumstances and everything, but as soon as you read this, I need you to come to Ionia. If you're reading this and it's late, just come when you wake up. Don't bother coming in the middle of the night. Irelia's guards might attack you again.
I'm writing this to you because I think you need to know that we're pushing for another rematch. Though I doubt Noxus will fall for our challenge, I won't you to understand that you are not to go to anyone in Noxus to try and sway this. Noxus will either accept our challenge or refuse it. If they refuse, we're prepared to go to the Institute of War to barter for their aid. I know that you'll rush over here and tell me I'm being to rash, but you have seen what I have seen. Ionia is split and will never be whole again until the Southern Isles are returned to us.
I know you're going to find out regardless. That's why I'm writing this to you.
Please don't do anything rash.
Signed, Karma.
Naruto followed the letter up and contemplated going to Noxus, despite her demands. Karma didn't control him. He could do what he wanted, when he wanted, and how he wanted. But he could see why she wouldn't want him to go. If he went, there was the off chance that Noxus would use his words against them, and deny them the win if they got it and if they won. That would also explain why so many fighters and famous people from Ionia were joining the ranks as Champions of the League of Legends.
He sat the letter down on the chair beside his bed and put his head down. His mind raced with ideas on how to bypass Karma's orders. He could go to Katarina, but she could play the whole thing to her advantage as well if they lost, meaning Ionia would lose as well. He could return to Ionia and speak with Karma about taking him back as another Champion for Ionia, but to the rest of the world it would show them that he was a true traitor to his word, and he would lose face. He didn't care if he was screwed over. Sure it would hurt his business, but he would lose more than just his business, he'd lose his right to go to all other City-States freely without problem. If he showed he was directly involved with Ionia, he could never step foot in Freljord again under Ashe's orders. If he went to Demacia and Ionia lost, they would string him up for making them back them. Prince Jarvan wasn't a fool. He'd back anyone suffering under the thumb of Noxus, but even he wasn't going to go smacking a beehive with a ten foot stick.
No matter how he looked at it, he had to stay out of this one or Ionia would lose everything.
Naruto rolled over on his side and decided to forget about it. Ionia was his primary concern. His life and home could wait until Ionia was saved. If they found the way to send him home, all they had to do was remember it and then wait for him to be ready. Or failing that, he could always just go on a warpath to make thing right then bounce, but that wasn't his style.
(-)
Naruto awoke to the sound of banging on his door. He checked the time, grumbled to himself about over sleeping, threw on some pants, and opened the door. "What do you want?" he snapped between yawns. Shen stood in the door, his face unreadable. Eleven in the morning and he was still sleepy. That was a change.
Shen pushed Naruto back into his room, shut the door, and poked him in the chest with his finger. "Why did you yell at Akali last night?"
Naruto rolled his eyes. Of course that would be Shen's concern. What else could he possibly have reason to be angry about? "We talked about our past relationship. She threw a fit when I left."
The Eye of the Twilight sighed momentarily. He approached this all wrong. Naruto was already on the defensive. "I got that part." Shen looked around the room. Naruto kept his room surprisingly clean. He expected something else. "Look, I'm not angry with you about this. I knew that this would happen one day. I just sort of figured it'd be you that did the fit throwing." Naruto laughed at him. "I'm serious! You were notorious for throwing fits when we trained together. Look, I'm only here to try and smooth things out. You and Akali have been good friends since you hashed things out all those years ago. I don't want to have to have some awkward silence around the two of you when we hang out. It was bad enough the first month we started dating. I don't wanna go back to that."
"You won't have to. I think she got her point across. It was my fault. I shouldn't have stayed with her. She was suffering from something to do with her Summoner. She could still hear his voice, even after the match was done." Shen closed his eyes and resisted the urge to go the Council of Equity over this. Naruto clearly already had. "Everything has been squared away already. They're looking in on it, but the guy that controlled her was weak minded and couldn't shield his true thoughts from her or the memories of others that he'd already controlled once before."
"Do you know what she saw?" The blond took a deep breath. He had an idea. "Forget it if it has something to do with you. Chances are high it probably does, otherwise last night might not have happened." Shen took notice of the letter. "Fan-mail?"
"Karma," he said softly. "They're trying to get the Institute of War on their side goad Noxus into accepting a rematch sooner than they're supposed to. Karma doesn't want me to interfere. If I do they could discredit the whole thing if Ionia were to win. So I'm sticking my head back in my shell and staying out of this one." Shen massaged the bridge of his nose. "Is that why you guys have been joining up lately? Did you know about it?"
"I had my suspicion. But right now I don't think we're going to get it anytime soon. Noxus will drag this out until either someone in Ionia can't stand it anymore and does something or the League steps in. In either case, Noxus will win. They can play the victim or conquering heroes with all their silver tongue politicians that they have." Shen moved to the desk and sat in the chair. "Comfy," he said while bouncing on it. Naruto laughed. "You are such a simple person that likes only the strangest things." He grabbed a small wooden cube from the desk and tossed it in the air a few times. "You still keep these little puzzle cubes?"
"They help me think and relax." That was a lie. He kept them because he wanted to beat the thing. It was designed to be annoying and stress inducing for Naruto as the whole point was to line up the colors on one side. It was something he got from Piltover after he had a job over there. Ionia had its own version of toys like that. They gave them to children to teach them patience and improve their thought process. Naruto never mastered even the basic ones. Children solved them faster than he did and that was only because he didn't understand them at all. Naruto snatched it out of the air and chuckled. "You think if I go back to my world I can take all those toys and make my people learn something new?"
"If you talk more about your people, then perhaps I could give you a better answer." Naruto deflated. "I just came here to see what was up with you and Akali. I'll leave now."
"You don't have to leave," Naruto deadpanned, putting the cube back on the desk. "If you wanna know something about my past, just ask."
"You'll lie." Naruto smiled. Shen turned to face him fully; unsure of whether or not that was the truth now. Naruto always skated around the subject, but he never truly out right lied to anyone about his people. He said they were stronger and that on their ranking system he was the weakest. That hardly seemed right unless his people were basically Gods when compared to anyone from Runeterra. What was someone that was higher up in their rank like? "Fine," Shen leaned against the wall, "tell me who this Hatake Kakashi is? You said his name to me once. Well, more like said it in your sleep."
Naruto chuckled. He didn't exactly have great memories with Kakashi. "He only taught him how to walk up trees and showed favoritism to another teammate of mine. When the Chuunin Exams came around, he let us go take the test to see if we had what it took to become Chuunin. We got past the first two parts and then canceled the third one because of an attack on our village. Kakashi-sensei trained his favorite student, my teammate, to better hone his skills and taught him a Ninjutsu during the one month training period we had before the third round. Honestly, he was a lying man that arrived late all the time and always read his porn books in the street." Twelve year old Naruto thought that was dumb and wrong to do. Now, Naruto thought that was genius because he wore a mask to hide his potential nosebleeds. "The first time I met him, I pranked him for being late. Two hours late!"
"Is that we're you get your lying from?"
"No," Naruto deadpanned. "I don't ever lie. And even if I did, I don't get it from him. I think it comes from my master." Shen's eyes almost lit up. "I answered your question. No more answers." Shen chuckled, happy that Naruto had seemingly returned to his normal self with just one question. "I'm hungry. Is Akali up? I'll let her hit me once for putting her through that last night."
"She's in a match. And I'm hungry as well. With me here, I can stop you from eating your noodles."
Naruto laughed. "No you can't."
(-)
"I was just told I'm not going out on any more jobs and you wanna send me out on one?"
Naruto wasn't really angry. This would give him time to get away from everything for a bit. It was better than risking the lives of the Summoners when they controlled him during matches. Naruto hadn't participated in any matches yet with the new seal, but that was probably for the best.
Kiersta Mandrake offered only a sad smile for his plight. "I'm truly sorry, but we need this checked out. As you know, we could always send someone else, but currently they're engaged in a political match for later. If we sent them, they could be gone for the entire thing or show up late. We can't reschedule the match either. Believe me, I'd rather not send you. Relivash sends you out on too many jobs as it is and I believe this is a sign of favoritism. I do not support this, but I do not argue against him. You're track records speaks for itself. That said, I request you please take this job. It's a simple one."
Naruto closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. "What do you want me to do?"
Happy that he was in a listening mood, Kiersta handed him a news article. "It's sad that we have to find out about it through the news, but we want you to look in to this." Naruto snatched it up and skim read it. "Kalamanda has a been a source of great concern for everyone, as you know, but this recent incident has brought even greater concern to me. Six people are injured and while no charges have been made against the fighters, no one is going to openly voice their concern with both Demacia and Noxus present. I want you to go there and figure out what happened. I doubt that the people are truly going to tell us anything."
Naruto finished reading it and groaned. "So basically I'm going to go check out a drunken brawl that happened at a tavern?" He balled the newspaper up and tossed it to her. "You're insane if you think there was any ulterior motive behind this." Kiersta unfolded the paper and sat it down on her desk. She favored the news and she wasn't done with it yet. "I understand that you guys are looking out for me and that I'm basically your private ninja, but I'm not investigating this."
"Then consider it time off. Relivash has already voiced his concerns about using you future matches. If your seal is indeed breaking, we may have to remove you from the roster of fighters. I know you do not wish this, but if your seal is breaking and the beast gets a chance to flood its thoughts and will into a Summoner… Well… you get the idea."
Naruto clenched his teeth in anger. She had a valid point.
"This shouldn't take you more than a day. I know you're tired of all the senseless traveling and fighting, but you should do no fighting with this job unless attacked by bandits or wild animals. Both of which seem to understand where you stand with your strength, whether by an animals' basic instincts or a humans' ability to read the news."
"And in that one case where I do fight someone that doesn't watch/read about the fights I've gone through, what then?"
"Just don't get angry."
"You realize that in fighting, people get angry, right?" Kiersta offered a sincere smile. Naruto sighed and scratched his head. "Well, it would be nice to see Katarina again. I haven't seen her since our last match together." He wondered if Kiersta knew he was lying. Probably so.
"Then I hope you have fun spending time with your friend. So I take you will accept my job offer?"
"If you promise to help Ionia in return for completion, yes I'll do the job."
"I can only do so much. I cannot force Noxus to return the Southern Isles to Ionia. A match has been set in stone. Though I will agree with you that that match is far too long away for anyone in the Southern Isles, it is a deadline that will be met to the letter. No sooner. No later."
The blond Jinchuuriki grumbled but put on a smile. "I'm just heading to Kalamanda to look in on this fight, right? Nothing else?"
"Correct."
"Then I'll do it. Just send the money you're paying me with to Karma in Ionia. Every little bit helps them."
Kiersta gave him a slight bow of her head as the blond departed. Relivash, your little toy soldier might be strong, but the more you use him the weaker he gets and the more enemies he racks up. Azir and now Renekton are only a few of the people out there that want him dead. And if your fear of the seal breaking comes to pass, I doubt anyone could stop such a thing.
Kiersta looked at the documents on her desk. They finally got to do a Judgment on Xerath and during it they got the full details on the fight during his capture. The memories that they saw from him during his Judgment played out the fight he had with Nasus and then Naruto. While nothing was surprising about the whole thing, it was clear that Naruto's fear might be well placed. If it wasn't for his fight with Azir they might not have known how truly close Naruto was to losing control. More precautions would have to be put in place on him as a person if the seal was truly close to breaking.
In the meantime Kiersta knew that the seal would hold. Naruto was a strong person. He wouldn't fall so easily to the power of the creature.
A/N
I heard that my last chapter had some issues with the writing where you couldn't figure out who was speaking, so I'm going to work on that to fix that and post it tomorrow when I wake up.
So again with the time line for where Naruto was when he left, he left a few days after the seal tampering with Naruto by Jiraiya. After re-watching/reading that part in the story, it wasn't stated how old Naruto was when Jiraiya did that, or at least I didn't see it in the one I looked at, so I'm saying that Jiraiya did that after a year in to the training he had with him.
Please keep in mind that Naruto doesn't trust Kyuubi and he hasn't learned that Kyuubi would rather sleep than mess with people, even in Runeterra. Naruto still hates Kyuubi and hasn't learned his name or anything else about him. So please keep that in mind. Naruto doesn't know Kyuubi's name and hasn't had his seal fixed by his father or anything. Just because the Naruto manga is over – to my knowledge – don't assume that Naruto and Kyuubi are friends in this story.