After the longest break, I'm back with the continuation of "Antifreeze fox". At the moment I will be posting only about the half of 11th chapter. The rest should be published as well soon™.

* Review response:
Zikarn Krais, not sure that 'daughter' would be a correct term here. Yes, she has Maria's DNA, just like Cassandra, Teslad, Lucie and Windy May do, but so far it looks like they were grown in a test-tube.
FateBurn, Still Not Dead Yet, fanficreader71, Exalted Demi-Soul, Lord Fic, Markus-Antonius, DarkPirateKing69, Soutrick, ultima-owner, SemenDemon, BladePhoenix41, Alex the Digital HellReaper, Alex2909, god of all, Quelthias, Biblio388, SeparatedUnion, Gbds, Rei Skywalker, thank you for your reviews, folks!
Jose19, at the time of the last chapter, she isn't sure herself, how she sees him. He became her pillar of strength, but... This chapter, though... Well, read and find out. No more spoilers. ^^
Luke Dragneel, canonical name for that is transcendence, apparently. But, yes, she gained a strong connection to the Freezing fields that, among other things does exist all around the Earth in this dimension.
flevantein, regfurby, Naruto is getting stronger, though his curve of the progress is much more acclivous, compared to what we see in manga. Plus, his opponents grow in strength too, and they grow at a faster rate at this moment, hence you might get the impression that he isn't progressing.

* Jutsu list: Pandora techniques:
Accel Turn - A technique that increases Pandora's speed, can be stacked multiple times (double Accel, triple Accel, etc.). Most recently, humanoid Novas showed the ability to use it as well.

* Jutsu list: Shinobi techniques:
Rasengan - (A rank) Spiral sphere - A ball of condensed chakra that rotates in multiple directions at once, can tear and drill trough most obstacles, dealing massive amounts of damage. The technique's power can be boosted by adding elemental chakra or natural energy into the mix.
Kage bunshin no jutsu - (B rank) Shadow clones - Summons a number of user's copies. These doppelgangers are solid (but will poof out of existence if they take a solid hit) and have access to all of their original's techniques. When destroyed or dispelled, the clones return their experiences to their creator.
Kawarimi no jutsu - (E-rank) Substitution technique - Swaps user with a selected object nearby.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Naruto", "Freezing" or whatever other franchise I may borrow characters or ideas from.

"Speech"'Thoughts'
"Speeches spoken by higher beings / techniques"
'Thoughts of higher beings'

Chapter XI: Battle Angels
part I

It has been four days since Amelia had confided into Naruto and then Maria about the uneasiness of the world she could feel with her wings on. And during those four days, anytime the white-haired girl activated her wings, she said that she still could feel the same uneasiness of the planet. But since no one in the trio, not even Amelia herself, could understand how exactly the last E-Pandora could sense that, they couldn't really do anything but wait and be vigilant – hopefully, soon either this whole mess would dissipate and disappear like a dream, or some events would give them a clue about what was causing Amelia to sense what she did.

Meanwhile, Naruto, and sometimes Maria too, continued training their white-haired protege. Well, at this point it was more like continuous spars to help the girl build up battle experience and polish her existing skills.

The Kyuubi jinchuuriki, of course, was spending a great deal of that training time in his sage mode, not only for the purpose of training the whitehead better, but to keep an eye her through his extended senses as well. He was also trying to detect that uneasiness of the world Amelia was continuously telling him about. Alas, so far, he could not sense anything like that, even if his sage mode was supposed to make him one with nature... Then again, it wasn't all that well attuned to sensing these Freezing fields, much less those minute details about them. That, and its range wasn't unlimited either...

Yet, no matter the blond shinobi's inability to either confirm or deflate that, Amelia kept insisting that the feeling of uneasiness she was getting while in her 'winged' state was getting stronger. It was also affecting her, and not in a good way, but neither Naruto nor Maria knew how to help her, beyond giving the white-haired girl some much-needed comfort during the nights.

~/ *** \~

Two days later, Maria was asked to attend whatever early-morning meeting the Chevaliers needed her at, thus leaving Naruto to train Amelia just by himself. And as the blond shinobi entered his sage mode to get the today's sparring on the way, he suddenly felt something on the edge of his senses that wasn't there before. This foreboding was so faint and elusive that the Kyuubi jinchuuriki couldn't even understand it properly, but, without with any questions, it was there.

"Amelia-chan?" Naruto said, drawing the white-haired girl's attention. "I'm not sure, but I think I can feel it too now." The young sage confessed. "It's all so weak and faint, but I can tell that it is indeed there." The last E-Pandora let out an 'oh' as she studied her partner and the source of her strength for a few moments. Then she released her spectral wings.

"Yes... It is getting stronger still." The whitehead confirmed in a low whisper. "I don't know what is causing this, but it ought to be something terrible... And it's going to happen soon, I just can feel it..." She trailed off. Feeling her uneasiness over this whole thing, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki decided to try taking her mind off these morbid thoughts.

"Maybe it will,.. We just need to get strong enough and we will prevail." He proclaimed loudly. "I we are powerful, we will make it through whatever dangers the future ay hold." Then, looking directly into the whitehead's eyes, the dimensionally-misplaced shinobi said: "Now, let's train!" Giving her a second to process those words, he attacked her then, making Amelia snap into her developing battle-mode mindset...

Naruto and Amelia were having some lunch after a few hours of sparring. Instead of going to the mess or back to the 'apartment' they were living in for the time being, though; they were having something like a picnic on the edge of the training grounds with the foods that Naruto had cooked in the morning and kept fresh and hot with some seals.

Their meal was barely approaching its equator when the blond sage sensed Maria approaching them, apparently thinking that she could do so without getting noticed. Deciding to humor his redheaded lover for a little bit, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki allowed her sneak up on him from behind. Which she did, going as far as placing her hands over his eyes.

"Guess who?" 'The Goddess' asked playfully. Without replying her with words, Naruto leaned his head backwards, before pulling her into a light kiss that lasted for a few seconds. Then the blonde decided to shatter any illusions his partner might have had about her stealth abilities.

"Eh, Maria, don't you already know it yourself that someone like you can never sneak up on me no matter what?" He asked, causing the red-haired beauty to pout – something that Amelia found quite funny as she let out a giggle. After all, not everyone one could witness the world's strongest Pandora pouting like a spoiled child that was denied her favorite toy... Meanwhile, Naruto continued: "Anyhow, we are having lunch, will you join us?" Maria, who was quite hungry, thanks to the long meeting she had endure this morning, agreed.

As the trio ate, the young sage decided that he should share the events of his own morning, in particular, what he had finally sensed with his sage mode today. Maria had listened to that, along with Amelia's own thoughts about the possible reasons for the world's uneasiness, before dropping the proverbial bombshell.

"Guys, I think I might know what is making you so apprehensive." This instantly got the two teens' attention. But the redhead wasn't going to give them the answer without a small history lesson first... "Have either of you heard about the Valkyrie project?" Naruto shook his head since he indeed had never heard about it. Amelia on the other hand did know a thing or two about it:

"I don't know the details, but from what little I have heard about that, Valkyries were supposed to be an alternative to the E-Pandora." The white-haired beauty said. Maria nodded.

"That is quite correct. I also don't know the details, but Valkyries are indeed specially-trained humans that don't naturally possess the ability to utilize stigmata the way conventional Pandora do. Dr. Aoi had developed a way for them to temporarily gain the powers that might even go beyond those of an average Pandora. From the video recording I was shown, at least one of these Valkyries can match even me, at least for a couple of seconds." There was a pause, before 'the Goddess' continued: "And right now, this project is in the final stages of testing. Actually, in four days, there will be a joint exercise between the West Genetics Pandora and the Valkyries."

"So... W-Would that be the event that gives me and Naruto-kun this foreboding?" Amelia asked then.

"I honestly don't know." Maria replied. "And even if it is the reason, I doubt the Chevaliers would even believe you, Amelia – your ability to sense the minute details about the Freezing field is something that had never been observed before... Plus, we don't know for certain, that join exercise is indeed what is causing this. They will never cancel or postpone it... The best we can hope is that they will be a little more cautious about those Nova dummies they are planning to use." The redhead said.

"Then we should just go there ourselves. In case something does happen during the exercise, we will be able to help." Naruto reasoned. 'The Goddess' was still for a second, before nodding.

"You are probably right. We were actually invited to observe the event along with the Chevalier officials." She said. "Unfortunately, from what I could gather, the seats will be quite a distance away from the area where this joint exercise will be held. If something does happen down there, it would still take us some time to reach the battlegrounds."

"I see..." Amelia breathed out after a short pause.

"Still, being there ready to help would be better than just holing up here and doing nothing." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki opinionated, to the girls' silent agreement.

~/ *** \~

Somewhat abusing Maria's status and her rank of a colonel within the Chevalier organization, the trio got a private jet to fly them to Japan. Still, with all of the time and effort it took the redhead to book that plane, they could arrive to the West Genetics only just a day before that joint exercise...

After settling in the apartment 'the Goddess' owned there since her re-awakening, Naruto and Amelia went to one of the academy's open training areas in order to see what they would sense about the world here in their respective augmented states... Meanwhile Maria headed towards the administrative buildings in order to deal with some formalities or other. And thinking about how much time his red-haired partner and lover was spending on those, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki was quite sure that he didn't really want to be in a Hokage or something like that anymore – that amount of paperwork to deal with was just not fun at all.

Anyhow, during his little investigation, Naruto had discovered one more difference between his sage mode and Amelia's ascended, winged state. The sage sensory abilities were greatly affected by the distance, and to the dimensionally-misplaced shinobi it felt as if the world around him here was all but screaming that something disturbing the natural order was about to happen. On the other hand, Amelia's ability to sense minute details about the Freezing fields didn't appear to be affected by distance as much. At least when it came to things like this – according to the whitehead, she could barely feel any difference about the state of the world, when compared to what she had felt yesterday on the British soil... This all was quite interesting, but Naruto was absolutely sure that right now they just didn't have the time to study these effects: there was a possibility of a disaster that involved Novas happening tomorrow!

~/ *** \~

The technology shown off just before the beginning of the joint training exercise between Pandora and Valkyries was quite impressive. The Nova dummies looked quite life-like and while Naruto couldn't test their ability to imitate the Freezing from fifteen miles away, the offensive capabilities of the dummies seemed to match the real things quite well.

The Valkyries themselves were another piece of an amazing technology. They were supposed to be normal if exceptionally-well trained girls with some technology augmentation that allows them to temporarily use the stigmata. And yet, so far these girls seemed to be quite evenly matched with conventional Pandora, and the ones that were quite good ones, like Satellizer L Bridget or Ticy Phenyl. The mere fact that these girls could do that was nothing short of a technological wonder, even if some cumbersome pieces of technologies were required for the Valkyrie to fight effective for more than a minute...

Not really knowing where the possible disaster might come from, Naruto kept switching his attention from one monitor to another; and he was watching the progress of Team 3, composed entirely of West Genetics Pandora, when the loud whispers breaking among the other guests told him that something interesting was happening.

And, indeed it was. The Nova dummy that should have been destroyed by the Valkyries team for whatever reason refused to stop moving. The Kyuubi jinchuuriki had no idea how those things operated, but he was quite sure that the things happening right now to that dummy was not how it was supposed to be. Next to him, Maria and Amelia seemed to have the same thoughts flying inside their heads.

Quietly slipping into his sage mode, the blonde checked the are within his sensing range. And while he could barely map the edges of the area where this ill-fated training exercise was conducted, he could still feel some weird energy flows spreading form those 'Faylan generators'. And, apparently these very same energy flows were the thing that allowed the damaged Nova dummy to remain active. Now, he was quite sure that the catastrophe he and Amelia could have felt approaching was now happening right in front of his eyes.

"It's our time." The dimensionally-misplaced teen said as he began rising out of his seat. His two lovely partners followed his example a moment later. The people around them already could see that something was not right with that Nova dummy, but it didn't look like any of them could perceive just how badly this could go.

"Maria, where are you going?" Gendo Aoi asked as he saw the trio on their way out of the hall. The said beauty paused in the mid-step, turning her head to look at him.

"They..." She tilted her head in the general direction of the area where the exercise was being conducted. "Will need our help. And I will not keep them waiting." Naruto and Amelia, who too had stopped to observe this scene unfold, nodded in agreement with 'the Goddess'.

"You really believe that something awful will happen?" Gendo asked then. "I can see that things already don't go the way they were supposed to, but... Those Pandora and Valkyries... They are strong, do you think that they won't pull through this on their own?"

"Maybe they will, maybe they won't." Maria replied looking firmly at the man that had almost become her life partner during her times as the world's only Pandora. "But call it a premonition, this is just the very beginning of the disaster happening there. I really hope we're wrong here, but wouldn't it be better if we go out there as a reassurance?"

"Of course, you are right, Maria." Gendo agreed. After all, his own grandson was out there... "You have my blessings, go and save the day." He said, while handing out three communication devices to the redhead and her partners. Accepting those, 'the Goddess' continued on her way towards the soon-to-be battlefield, Naruto and Amelia hurrying after her...

Even though the threesome was given the means to contact the Pandora and Valkyries out there, actually doing that turned out to be impossible: whatever the strange occurrence was taking place on the training grounds, it was jamming radio very well – barely anything but statics could could be heard on any channel, and the screams and pleadings that did manage to get through drew a rather terrifying picture of what was happening...

And since it looked like the mess happening right now was still just the beginning of the disaster, Maria, Naruto and Amelia ran as fast as they could, wanting to get there as soon as possible. Alas, they still needed to cover quite a distance – all three of them really hoped that those trapped into this nightmare gone real will be able to keep themselves alive for a little bit longer.

By the time they reached the end of the bridge, the situation on the training grounds went from one level of hell to the next. Radio interference was still as strong and with almost all of the Pandora out there being under some sort of psychic attack... Well, those few Pandora and all five Valkyries that still could respond to noise-filled radio messages couldn't really do much to save their comrades. Mostly because everyone else was fighting some ghosts only they could see and getting close to them was almost suicidal.

On the top of that, the Nova dummies still were rejecting the shutdown commands and kept attacking anything within their sight. And given that those kept going ignoring pretty much all of the damage they were taking, those who could fight them could barely hold them back. And as if the dummies weren't enough, the command center was reporting that the real Novas could make their appearance at any moment.

"So... How do we proceed from there?" Amelia, who had already called forth her spectral wings, asked as the trio stood at the entrance to the training grounds that were quickly becoming the hell on Earth. Before either of her partners could answer, a happy voice broke through the radio noise: the Valkyries finally managed to destroy one of the Nova dummies, or at least it sounded like that.

"Well, I think we should split." Maria replied. "I'll go by myself, you and Naruto will be the other team. Since it seems that the situation can be resolved now, our priority will be breaking the Pandora out of these illusions and evacuating from the area." Making a moment-long pause, she added: "And should the real Nova arrive, meet up with me and those who still can fight before engaging it. Don't risk yourself too much." Receiving the nods from her partners, 'the Goddess' stepped through the invisible line that was the edge of the training grounds. She was about to dash into the mist when the cries coming from the radio made her stop.

From the stream of cries that suddenly filled the channel, one could hear that the chattered core of the Nova dummy somehow remained active and was actually summoning a number of monsters – probably some new kind of Novas – from beyond this world now. It already didn't sound nice, but, unfortunately, it was just the beginning: just about a dozen of seconds later a group of Pandora that weren't caught in the illusions reported that the other dummies too were now spawning some kind of miniature Novas.

"S-should we change our p-plans?" The white-haired beauty asked. Not really knowing where she stood in terms of power, she was understandably scared by the idea of facing a horde of Novas.

"No." Maria replied. "I doubt that these new types can be that strong... But the faster we can off them, the better." Next to her, Naruto nodded in agreement – the Pandora out there were either caught in the illusions and unable to properly defend themselves, or were forced to operate with a very limited access to their powers in order to keep the clarity of their mind. And those five Valkyries, no matter how strong they were,.. well, there were just five of them, and they were still humans, meaning that they won't be able to keep fighting at their full strength for long. Thus, it more or less left himself, Amelia and Maria to clean up this mess. Or, at very least, keep the Novas from spreading out until the reinforcements from Chevaliers could arrive.

"Alright." The whitehead said with a small nod as she materialized her glaive.

"Let's go!" Maria commanded. Then she made a leap into the mist, before stopping. "Also,.. They say, only those with real stigmata are affected by those illusions. Be careful, Amelia." And not waiting for the other girl to reply, 'the Goddess' disappeared into the distance. The two teens looked at each other, before taking off into the mist as well...

As Naruto and Amelia were getting deeper into the training grounds that became the battlefield, the white-haired girl noticed something: the black mist that apparently kept other Pandora trapped in the illusions had absolutely no effect on her. Well, it greatly reduced the visibility – like any other kind of mist would – but that was it. Quite surprised by discovery of hers, Amelia shared it with the blond sage.

"Probably, something changed about your stigmata back during the Alaskan fiasco." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki replied with a shrug.

"Probably." The whitehead agreed. Then she looked somewhere into the distance. "Also, get ready, I can feel a group of small Nova not too far ahead. Whatever they are, don't be fooled by their size – they are probably twice as strong as an R-type each." Naruto let out a sigh. If what Amelia was telling was right, to have a mere ghost of a chance of victory...

"Are there any Pandora there?" He asked. There was an unnervingly-long moment of silence, before he received the answer:

"Yes. Nine are still fighting, another three are out but alive... And..." Amelia made another pause. Shaking her head, she forced herself to continue: "And I can feel a weak residue from another one. She must have died just moments ago." That was bad, very bad. And it meant that needed to hurry up, lest any more Pandora lost their lives in this slaughter.

"Amelia!" Naruto said. "Go there and help them. I'll catch up with you in a few seconds." He needed to enter his sage mode if he wanted to have at least a chance against those Novas. And, hopefully, the soon-to-happen fight will resolve before he ran out 'juice' so to speak – even though the Kyuubi has been much more helpful in the recent time, the blond still wasn't about to trust the bijuu with his life and lives of others just yet.

"Alright." The white-haired beauty replied as she kept running towards the Novas, leaving Naruto, who stopped to collect the natural energy, behind. As she kept approaching the battlegrounds, Amelia felt the presence of another Pandora vanish. This made her push herself even harder: those girls needed her!..

Finally, the unnatural mist that covered the entire area could no longer curtain the fight from the white-haired beauty's eyes. And what she saw was blood. It was trickling out of the numerous wounds on the Pandora's bodies; it was on the ground, having oozed out of the torn limbs; and it was... it was on the teeth and around the mouths of those small Novas as well as on their claws.

"Get out of here!" A Pandora with a huge hammer for her volt weapon shouted as she struck an unknown-type Nova. Her blow, which could easily collapse a small building, merely pushed the beast back, doing it absolutely no damage. "These things are too tough! You won't be able to do a-... Argh!" The girl screamed as another of those monsters that got behind with something that looked suspiciously like an Accel turn picked her up by her leg. The Pandora tried to smash her hammer into the thing in hopes that it will let her go, but it caught her arms with its free monstrous hand.

But before it could tear the poor girl's limbs off, the blade of Amelia's glaive was thrust through the alien's head. And while the Nova's body felt like it was made from a solid rock, putting more strength behind her weapon, the whitehead was able to bisect the damn thing vertically... And then the fight stopped as everyone still alive – both the Pandora and even the Novas – stared at the 'winged' beauty.

"H-How?" At least two of the other Pandora whispered in complete shock. True, they weren't the strongest out there, but... no matter what they did, their attacks failed to even scratch these humanoid Novas, yet this girl they've never met before took that creature down pretty much with a single blow... And even more, now that this girl was standing there, the mental pressure that was handicapping them ever since this unnatural mist appeared was now gone. Staring at Amelia in shock was their great mistake, though: the Novas had quickly recovered from their confusion and were attacking again.

But before they could take advantage of the humans' lack of attention, a new player appeared on the battlefield. Naruto and three of his clones charged in, a rasengan in their hands glowing with power like miniature blue suns. And while those weren't strong enough to do any real damage to the Novas, the senjutsu-powered techniques still managed to push the humanoid beasts away from the girls.

"W-Who are you?" One of the Pandora asked.

"We are the backup, at least for now." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki replied as he dodged a clawed swing that one of the humanoid Novas had aimed at his head. "Now, gather everyone and get the fuck out of here..." Catching the Nova's arm, the blonde threw it over his shoulder, before repeatedly punching its head with his sage-mode strength until the thing stopped moving, apparently dead. "...These things are a little bit too much for you." By now all of his clones were destroyed, meaning that it was just him and Amelia to stand between these monsters and the wounded and exhausted Pandora. Thankfully, there were only four of those beasts remaining...

"What are you all waiting for? Go!" The young sage barked. This seemed to finally snap the girls out of their stupor... Glancing at that the Pandora for a moment to confirm that they were now getting the hell out of the area, Naruto returned his attention to the humanoid Novas. Apparently he didn't kill that one as he could see it rising up from the ground to join its remaining four 'comrades'. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" Two doppelgangers burst into existence next to their original. They likely won't last for more than a few seconds, but that was quite enough for the blond shinobi to recharge his sage mode.

Once back to his full power, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki stomped onto the ground mightily, causing it to crack as a power shock-wave threw the Novas away from him. He was strong, he knew that, but taking on three of these at once was beyond him. One on one, though... Jumping to his first target, Naruto delivered a powerful hit to its head, visibly breaking its neck. Were it any living being originating from the Earth, this would have killed it instantly. But the Novas were some sort of an alien life-form from a different dimension, so he succeeded only in making it stumble back a step as it's body began repairing the damage.

Sensing another beast appear behind him via Accel turn, the young sage jumped aside, causing the aforementioned Nova to put its clawed hand right through the first one's upper chest. Using the situation to his advantage, Naruto hammered the alien's extended arm, causing it to rip its comrade's chest apart, thus destroying its core.

Apparently, these things were somewhat intelligent as the Kyuubi jinchuuriki could see something akin to shock appear on his opponent's mug as it realized that it had just killed one of its own... The blonde didn't let it bother him too much, though, as he summoned a big rasengan into his hand, before smashing it into the distracted Nova's head. The beast let out a gurgling sound as it stumbled back, its arm still lodged deep in other's body making its movements awkward and unrefined.

Summoning another, even bigger, rasengan, the young sage pushed it into the wound the alien monstrosity got from his previous attack. It's flesh was proving surprisingly resistant to damage, but the tight ball of natural energy was slowly drilling its way through it. Before the technique could reach the Nova's core, though, Naruto was forced to get away from it as another one decided to jump into the fight. And while it's movements were still animalistic, it made sure that its sweep attack would not hit its wounded ally.

Quickly glancing at Amelia, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki confirmed that his white-haired protege was doing quite well, even if the two Novas she was currently fighting were forcing her to be on defensive. Returning his attention to the alien that was trying to maul him, the young sage dodged another sweep attack from it. Then he quickly dashed inside its guard and punched its chest with enough strength to shatter concrete wall into dust.

This punch caused the armor-like skin on the alien's stomach to crack, but the core he needed to destroy in order to kill the Nova was still hidden under many more layers of flesh, each tougher than a slab of granite. But when did such trivialities stopped Naruto? He just kept punching the monster with the sage-mode strength till he bared its guts. Hoping that this was enough and his next attack will be able to finally reach and destroy the core, Naruto created a rasengan, expending almost all of the natural energy he still had in his body.

Then, he pushed it into the hole in the Nova's gut. It took the jutsu over a second to breach the final layers of the armor-like completely, before it finally reached the beast's core. The core resisted for a little bit more, before the damage was taking became too much...

"Gah!" Sudden cry coming from Amelia drew Naruto's attention. Whirling around, he saw the white-haired beauty with a shocked and pained expression on her face as she was standing with one knee on the ground, supporting herself with her shaft of her glaive. And the Novas she was fighting clearly were going to use her moment of weakness – whatever had caused it – to their advantage. One of them was already reaching out it attempt to grab the distracted girl by her waist.

Quickly replacing himself with a limb that once was a part of a currently dead Pandora, Naruto appeared next to Amelia. Grabbing the Nova's extended hand with his both arms, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki threw the humanoid alien as far away from his partner as her could. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to recover fast enough to do something about the other monstrosity and ended up in its iron grip. Surprisingly enough, the Nova was somehow able to prevent him from using substitution technique while it was holding him.

The next moment there was a flash of silver and the dimensionally-misplaced shinobi found himself falling onto the ground, the beasts now-severed hand still wrapped around his body. But since the limb was no longer attached to its owner, the sage strength was now enough for the blonde to free himself. Eventually, as the grip the hand had on him was still annoyingly-strong.

"Sorry." The whitehead, who was now back to her feet and ready to fight once again, said.

"Are you alright?" Naruto asked as he finally extracted himself out of the hand's clutch.

"Yes, sorry." Amelia replied as ducked under the wounded Nova's sweep attack aimed to decapitate her. Then she severed the beast's second arm as well. Since it seemed that she was doing fine now, Naruto charged at the alien invader he had thrown away from his protege a little bit earlier. And since he already knew how to deal with these things, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki was quite sure that disposing the Nova off wouldn't take him too much time.

Appearing right inside the monster's guard in a burst of speed, the young shinobi began raining the most powerful punches he could master onto its stomach, getting a little bit closer to exposing its core each time his fist connected with the beast's body. Finally, he decided that he had done the Nova enough damage. And since he had recharged his sage mode earlier, Naruto felt no need to skimp on the natural energy he put into his rasengan, thus the tight ball of chakra he had summoned this time was noticeably more devastating, drilling right through the Nova's core in a mere second.

With his current opponent dealt with, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki glanced at Amelia, only to find out that the whitehead had offed her Nova some time ago and was now in process of putting the final alien monstrosity in the immediate vicinity down.

"So..." Naruto began as he and Amelia were catching their breath after the fight. "What had happened to you back then? You were doing so well against these Novas and then... You suddenly were on the ground, so defenseless." He asked. Given the mess they all were in right now, knowing what could cause the white-haired beauty to collapse like that could be life-saving important.

"I had sensed s-something appearing." The winged E-Pandora replied. "It was... It was really powerful and dangerous... S-so powerful that even Maria-sama might not be a match to it... I was just so shocked and scared..." The Kyuubi jinchuuriki now too was, let's say, concerned. Anything that came even close to Maria's level was highly worrisome.

"Is it still here?" He asked. Amelia nodded in response.

"It is somewhere near the center of these training grounds, and so far it hadn't moved much. But it... it summons more of these Novas we had just fought... I can sense at least a few dozens of those and more keep appearing." Damn, those were some really bad news!

"And what about Maria?" Naruto asked, wanting to know what his partner and lover was up to.

"She has been heading towards this summoner Nova ever since it appeared." The whitehead replied. "Currently, she is fighting a group of these foot-soldier humanoid Novas roughly a mile and a half away from it." She made a pause, quite a long one, before asking: "What should we do?" It was maybe ten seconds before the young sage gave his answer.

"I think, you should go meet up with Maria." He said. "I'll try to draw these humanoid Novas away from their summoner." Amelia looked at his with surprise and fear clearly seen in her eyes.

"B-b-b-but!.." She tried to protest.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine." Naruto tried to reassure her. "I have a way to fight these things much more efficiently... It's just something I don't want to use with my comrades nearby – as able to fight as it will make me, this power is highly dangerous for everyone near me." He said as he took her hand into his. "Now, go, don't waste time."

"O-Okay..." The winged E-Pandora agreed finally. She made a couple of steps away from him, before stopping and turning around to face him once again. "Be safe, Naruto-kun." She said, before adding in a low whisper that only she herself could hear: "Be safe... I... I won't be able to go on if something happens to you... I... I love you, Naruto-kun..." Then, after steeling her resolve, she was on her way to meet up with Maria.

As he watched Amelia head towards where Maria supposedly was, the dimensionally-misplaced shinobi began his preparations for what will probably be the hardest fight in his life. And from his most recent experience, even his sage mode at its best was not enough to deal with these humanoid Novas effectively. If he wanted to fight those things for real and live through the ordeal, he needed to resort to using that power. And even then, he will probably need more than just three tails... Thankfully, his relationship with his demon had improved and it was possible that the tailed beast would let him use that much of its power without major negative effects.

'Hey, Kyuubi, wake up.' Naruto sent a thought to his tenant. 'It's time we show these aliens that they have no chances here and should just return to whatever hole they had crawled out of because you are the strongest one here and won't let them do whatever they please in our world.'

'Stop trying to coerce me into fighting your battles through flattery, ningen.' The nine-tails boomed out of its cage deep inside the blond shinobi's subconsciousness. 'But this time you are right, those things are getting insolent if they think they can take over the place with me still around. I shall help you in putting these bastards in their place once again, hairless monkey. I will lend you a shred of my endless power!'

'No need for the dramatics, Kyuubi.' Naruto responded, slightly annoyed by his tenants haughty speech. 'But back to the business, I'm sure you have been observing my fight with these small Novas earlier – even with my sage mode it wasn't exactly easy to off them for me. I know you are as powerful as a natural disaster, Kyuubi, but we still should be careful when fighting them as one... I'm afraid, I will need more than just three tails worth of your yoki if I'm to destroy these monster fast enough.' The nine-tailed demon was silent for a few seconds, before it gave its answer:

'Fine, you, sack of bones. I will give you as much power as you need – these things need to be taught, who is the top kitsune here! I will even do my best to keep my consciousness separated from the chakra I'm feeding you. But that is not something I can easily do, so don't be too angry if you still go berserk and tear all these puny humans you're fighting for into shreds as well.' That... didn't sound very safe.

Then again, in his four-tailed state – even if both times he had entered it in the past he was not in control of himself any longer – he was capable of causing enough damage to change landscape. Without precise control, such power could cripple or kill his allies just as well as it could annihilate his enemies. But... this was the risk he had to take if he wanted to be able to take on that many humanoid Novas at once.

'Alright, alright, Kyuubi. Let's get going.' The blond shinobi thought to his tenant. Then, drawing upon the powers of the nine-tailed beast, he began flaring the yoki in hopes that this will attract the attention of the alien monsters – he needed to get them away from whatever super-powered Nova Maria and Amelia were going to fight.'

Alas, it seemed that these humanoid Novas were showing no noticeable reaction to Naruto's attempts to attract their attention with yoki flares. Either they just couldn't feel it, or, for whatever reason, they did not wish to investigate them, choosing to remain where they were instead. This was not good, not good at all... But then again, plans almost never survived the contact with the reality, so he should have expected something like this.

Sighing, the Kyuubi jinchuuriki got ready to start hunting those humanoid Novas down himself. He probably should head straight to where that uber-powerful summoner Nova was so that he could take out its minions and clear the way for Maria and Amelia... But that plan was put on hold when the first Novas started entering his sage mode's sensing range. Apparently, it just took those things far longer to take the bait than he had anticipated.

"The battle... is about to start." Naruto said to himself as he prepared to unleash a version two of the yoki cloak upon the Novas... Hopefully, he won't lose the control of himself in the process...

To be continued... soon.
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Part II is to be published soon™