Caliburn Initiative 11
Eleventh Step: The Fortress
Disclaimer: I do not own anything. You know the rest.
Right long time no update, apologies, yada yada yada. You know the drill.
Note: Yes, I'm aware the timeline doesn't match up exactly to canon, but as far as I'm concerned it syncs up with what I want to write. So take it as you will, this is an AU work after all.
Soundtrack list
Fate/Stay Night - Whirlpool of Fate
Two Steps from Hell – Heart of Courage
Back On – Infinity
Angel Beats - Ichiban no Takaramono
****Caliburn Initiative****
"Lindy, Fate." A somewhat lean and muscular figure with spiky blond hair called out as he lugged a big duffle bag through the main door, "Anyone home?"
Another head with bright yellow hair, flowing down one shoulder this time, poked out from the kitchen with a surprised expression, "Naruto-kun?"
"That's my name." The blond boy agreed glibly with a wide smile.
"NARUTO-KUN!"
The blond chuckled as he chucked his duffle bag on to the sofa and braced himself with a laugh as Fate came hurtling over and gave him a tight hug.
"You're early." The now 12 year old girl scolded him fondly as she handed him a warm, damp towel for him to wipe himself with, "You should have told me you were coming home. We were all planning to come and meet you on Mid."
"Which is exactly why I didn't say anything," The blond pointed out dryly as he collapsed into the nearest sofa, "I'm perfectly capable of finding my way back here by myself. Not to mention it would have been annoyingly embarrassing to see everyone just standing there."
Fate smiled gently, "That's what family is for, Naruto-kun. We stand there and wait."
The blond simply grunted and let himself relax until Fate calmly poked his aside, "Go and clean up properly before you rest. It's almost dinner time, so I expect everyone will be here soon."
One sapphire blue eye peered up at her curiously as the blond deliberately yawned to show her that he wasn't going to move anytime soon, "Everyone? I'm surprised. Last I heard, Chrono and Amy just got command of their own ship, so I didn't really expect them to be back here any time soon."
"Kaa-san insisted they at least come back for dinner just this once since it's not every day that you're back. But enough about that," The blond girl who was openly known as one of the sweetest, and kindest girls alive narrowed her eyes at him as a dark cloud hovered above her threateningly, "Shower. Now."
Naruto whimpered and began to dejectedly make his way to the bathroom.
"I find it distinctly unfair that the only person you do that to is me." The blond muttered stubbornly under his breath.
"That's because no one else is as stubbornly rebellious as you." Fate replied with an amused smirk, "Besides, you're not the only one."
"I'm not?" The blond hummed whimsically, "Somehow I feel better now."
He heard the blonde girl chuckle from the hall, a light tinkling melody that he realized that he had actually missed.
"No, you're not." The girl repeated herself with a smile, "Nanoha-chan gets it all the time too. Especially when she's too lazy to clean up or finish her homework on time."
"Which is basically all the time?" The blond noted blandly.
Fate hid a smile and made a non-committal hum as she folded her hands on her lap with a patient smile and sat back to wait for the other blond to finish.
The chicken was already in the oven, her vegetables and mushrooms, done up nicely was sitting in the oven to keep it warm for dinner. She could smell the tangy small of salt coming from the roasted fish and feel the light breeze blowing through her home from the open windows.
All was right in her world.
It was not like it had been a spectacularly easy 3 years, particular since all three of them, plus Hayate, were essentially juggling two schools at once. What few breaks they had, happened only when both schools coincidentally had the same holidays. And even then, they were studying or training to keep up with everyone else.
Or at least she and Nanoha were.
She knew Naruto tended to use that time for other things. Things that mostly involved missions that came directly from Crowbel-sama, like the one that he had just come back from. Those usually took anywhere from a week to a day, though there were a couple of times where he had gone missing for an entire month.
She had made very sure to impress on her fellow blond that if he ever went on one of those long term missions again, he'd at least remember to send Lindy kaa-san an update every now and then. Even then, she would admit to being fairly reluctant about the whole missions' thing even though he wasn't even an official recruit yet.
The only good thing Fate would concede about it was the fact that his so-called missions rarely involved battle, and were usually scouting missions disguised as an internship that sent him to the far reaches of the known galaxy as he tried to track down his original planet. Naturally, there were some protests regarding this as certain quarters saw it as favouritism, but those tended to be silenced rather quickly when the blond reappeared at the end of his trips, typically carting a Lost Logia or 2, some random trinkets, and a thoroughly traumatized Anthony-san, from wherever he had gone.
The fact that he was at least passing most of his classes probably counted for something as well, though it should be said that the Uzumaki still pointedly refused to attend any class, practical or otherwise, unless it actually affected his score. Not that his teachers were complaining. It was practically an open secret that the blond boy was actually significantly older than he looked, and was merely doing it so that the Bureau left him more or less alone until he graduated, so most of them were perfectly content to just let him skip their class as long as he didn't stir up any trouble, or depending on who you asked, even more trouble.
That said, most of them had a sneaking suspicion that the blond was doing it on purpose because his scores were absolutely right in the middle of the pack, and never deviated.
At all.
Either way, the outcome was clear.
Academically, the blond was precisely in the middle of the pack, and he wasn't exactly the hot cadet pick of the year for internships, however if anyone bothered to look at his files, they'd probably realize that the third year Academy student who wasn't even an official Enforcer yet had already racked up a Logia count higher than most twenty year veterans did.
Fate would never admit to feeling rather envious about this, but going to class in the morning, attending school in the afternoon, then going back for more classes again strung her nerves rather badly sometimes, and while she was currently in a pretty comfortable spot on the cadet rankings, she still itched to go out and do something that involve physical movement every once in a while.
Of course, as far as their other classmates in school, outside of Arisa and Suzuka, knew, her alleged twin brother was simply just another average middle school student, albeit one with a couple of loner tendencies, and she was not inclined to disabuse them of that particular notion.
It was a readymade excuse, and a convenient one, though it still made her slightly guilty to talk about it to anyone since everyone in her class were such good people, and even better friends.
She felt a slight pang of sadness realizing that the blond probably would never see them the same way she did, though she suspected he didn't really mind since he hadn't really connected all that well outside of the hot headed Arisa or sweet Suzuka and her childhood friend Hideyoshi.
At least he had friends at the Academy.
Or at as Nanoha-chan oh-so-bluntly put it, one traumatized friend/enemy and a rather persistent stalker.
Fate reluctantly smiled to herself at that last one.
Naruto leaned on the doorway and smiled crookedly at the sight of the blonde girl relaxing on the couch, her hands daintily folded on her lap, her long black skirt perfectly arranged and her long golden hair flowing down one shoulder.
She was getting taller, Naruto noted to himself.
At 12, she was already the same height as him, though that would probably change in a few years.
On a completely unrelated side note, Naruto was extremely pleased to note that he had already reached the height he had been at 15, 3 years early.
Turned out good food was actually good for the body.
Of course, that was entirely down to Fate making sure he didn't gorge on ramen every second he was awake, but he wasn't about to admit that to her face.
Still, he was glad to know that the painfully shy Fate seemed to be growing into the woman she was meant to be. He had of course kept tabs on her and Nanoha, mostly out of curiosity and some rivalry, or so he told himself.
While he had spent most of the first year in the Academy re-orientating himself to his new, or old (?), body, and the subsequent 3 years mostly travelling when he wasn't training at the Academy, returning on a semi regular basis for some pointless little paper exams or the occasional side project, he was perfectly aware that both the girl currently resting on the sofa and humming quietly to herself and her best friend Nanoha were currently occupying the number 1 and number 2 spot for all cadets ever recruited by TSAB.
Of course, he had the dry suspicion that Nanoha probably would have been somewhat lower if Fate wasn't around to boss her around whenever she needed it.
That said, it didn't change the fact that the two of them were shattering every record ever made at the Academy with ease, Nanoha in particular when it came to practical battles, while Fate tended to excel in… everything else.
Still, their Academy years were nearly over. The final Academy exams were going to start in a couple of months so it was practically guaranteed that the two of them would presumably have their pick of just about any Division in TSAB by then.
He had absolutely no idea how they were going to handle that on top of school back here seeing as all three of them were about to move on to Uminari's junior high school section shortly after that, but then the two of them were fairly well balanced so he didn't think they'd have too many problems handling it.
Smiling to himself he dropped onto the sofa next to Fate, the fact that she didn't react at all told him that she already knew that he was done, "So where is she?"
"Kaa-san?"
"Mmhmm..."
"Out, picking some last minute grocery." Fate opened her gentle red eyes and flashed a dimpled smile at him, "Then she's going to pick up Chrono-kun and Amy before they come back. Nanoha-chan is already on her way back from the HQ."
The nonplussed Naruto blinked slowly, "Pigtails is at HQ? Why?"
"An interview." Fate replied nonchalantly, "With the Air Armaments service."
Naruto's eyes went wide, "The Air Armaments Service? She's in an interview with Baa-san?"
"Yup." Fate replied with pride glinting in her eyes, "Although she'd probably hit you if she heard you call Crowbel-sama that."
"I officially have no idea why everyone respects an old lady who openly drinks during office hours, thinks that using S-class shooting spells on me is suitable punishment for disobedience and curses like a sailor on a regular basis, but fair enough." The blond muttered under his breath while Fate giggled at his whining tone before he quirked one eyebrow at her, "So why aren't you there with her?"
"I was going to, but she told me to come home and get ready first." Fate admitted reluctantly with a pout, "She told me that I was being more nervous about her interview than she was."
Naruto guffawed out loud much to the blond girl's embarrassment. By the time he finally stopped, Fate was pouting so much that he couldn't resist ruffling her hair affectionately.
Fate pouted even harder.
"What about you? If Nanoha already has people lining up to snatch her up even though we haven't even sat for the exams yet," He regarded her with one eye suspiciously, "Unless… you've already had yours haven't you?"
"I'm joining the Enforcers as a private first class." Fate admitted a little shyly, "my interview was yesterday."
"So you've already spoken to Leone I guess. Did he flirt with you?"
"Naruto!" Fate scolded him, "You shouldn't be so disrespectful!"
"Fine, fine." The blond man smirked, "Did Leone-sama flirt with you?"
Fate let out a long suffering sigh, "What am I going to do with you?"
"Nothing, because you love me."
"If only because no one else will." Fate retorted.
"Bah. You only say that because you don't know that I have a line of admirers just waiting to bask to in my awesome presence!" The blond boasted in an over the top flamboyant manner.
Fate rolled her eyes with a small chuckle as she leaned on his shoulder with a quiet, happy little sigh.
The other blond merely tilted his head with a smile, "Want to see a magic trick?"
"Mmmhmm."
The Uzumaki held out one empty hand with a grand smile, deliberately turning it around so that she could see that there was nothing up his sleeve while the girl watched attentively.
Flicking his hand once, he held out two fingers with a small, translucent yellow orb clenched between them.
Fate laughed and accepted the orb, "What is it?"
"Just a souvenir from my last trip." The blond noted blandly.
"It's beautiful." Fate breathed quietly, mesmerized by the gold, yellowish shine that flowed through the gem. She looked up at him with a gentle smile, "Thank you. I will treasure it."
Naruto smiled thinly, "It's just a small thing."
"Then I'd better get one too, don't I?" A familiar bubbly voice chimed in.
The completely unsurprised Naruto merely chuckled as he summoned another one, this one tinged with a pinkish orange and flipped it into the air where a hand caught it easily.
"Pushy girl." The blond rumbled good naturedly as he felt a pair of arms encircle his and Fate's neck from between as auburn hair nuzzled the two of them affectionately, "How was Crowbel?"
"Good. Nothing I didn't expect. Though Fate-chan wouldn't stop worrying." Nanoha replied with a wink at her pouting best friend as she slid onto the sofa on Naruto's other side, "Where did this come from?" She asked as she played with the little gem.
"My last trip."
Nanoha hummed to herself, "It must've been a nice place."
"That depends on what you consider nice."
"On?"
"I spent approximately 90% of my time there being chased by a huge ass dragon." The blond deadpanned, "The stupid thing was Huge."
Fate looked at him with concern, "Were you hurt?"
Naruto snorted derisively, "Not very likely. That said, trying to dig through an underground ruin while a thousand tonne lizard was going berserk somewhere above you wasn't exactly fun."
He decided not to mention that the whole debacle had ended up with him crippled for entire week and permanently banned from ever entering that particular solar system ever again after he had decimated approximately half of the planet in the ensuing battle.
Sometimes, it was nice not having to write a formal report so he could keep his little encounters like that one off the record, though he was pretty sure that the old lady was going to tear him a new one fairly soon.
Right after she sent that peace envoy to Alzus.
Naruto made a mental note to buy a lot of sake later.
It wasn't going to stop Crowbel from kicking his ass around TSAB, but she tended to miss more when she was drunk, and that was the fine line between 'permanently crippled' and 'severely crippled'.
Nanoha giggled, "You're slipping old man," She replied with a mock taunting tone, "When you were younger you'd have knocked it out long before it was even a problem."
Naruto smiled to himself as he watched the auburn haired girl calmly put the gem into a small pouch that hung around her neck.
She had grown as well.
Of the three of them, she was the tallest right now, with a lithe frame that belied the strength beneath it while her long silky auburn hair hung from one side pony tail rather than the two usual ones.
It actually made her look rather elegant, and Naruto figured it wouldn't be long before he had to stop called her Pigtails entirely.
"You do realize that you basically just complimented me, yes?"
"Hardly," Nanoha replied with a laugh, "More like your mere presence alone incites an unthinking sense of hostility from every thinking being within a 1 kilometre radius."
He was saved from replying when a green haired lady, still as beautiful as the day he had met her, stepped through the door with a familiar dark haired young man and a large chested woman.
The fact that the woman instantly began to charge right at him like a rampaging rhino the moment she laid eyes on him before she proceeded to do her best to squeeze him to death might have something to do with it as well.
****Caliburn Initiative*****
"I'm stuffed." Naruto groaned as he rolled onto his back.
Fate simply watched the blond curiously as he tried to navigate his rounded belly onto a more comfortable spot on his bed while Nanoha-chan simply laughed as she pushed him so she could sit on the bed as well, "It's your own fault for gorging yourself isn't it?"
"Excuse me?" Naruto eyed the girl beadily, "Did you or did you not see Lindy shoving practically everything on my plate as if she thought that I haven't eaten in years?"
Nanoha simply laughed as she patted his huge tummy with an insulting smirk while the blond tried to bat her hands away.
Meanwhile, Fate continued to watch the two of them play with a gentle smile.
The Uzumaki was pretty much the epitome of unassuming when he was relaxed like this, to the point where most people didn't even associate the name Uzumaki with the idiotic blond newbie that pranced around the place on a whim.
"Did you know that they use recordings of you as part of our official curriculum?" She asked quietly.
The blond bent his neck at an angle so that he could scrutinize the girl standing in his doorway as he futilely batted Nanoha's attempts to tickle him away, "You're going to have to be more specific."
Fate quirked one brow, "More specific?"
"There's actually a shitton of recordings of me going around." The blond replied casually as he wobbled into an upwards position on the bed, "So I'm not sure which one you are referring to."
"It was your battle against the 104th Ground Forces Battalion. From a few years back I think." Nanoha supplied helpfully with a grin, "They blurred out your features, but they couldn't hide the sheer crazy. Anyone who has ever met you would have recognized it was you on the spot."
"Oh." The shinobi scrunched up his features, "Nope. Doesn't ring a bell." He remarked blandly.
"It's the one where you strung their leader up and then you taunted all his team members into taking pot shots at you. Pot shots that you deliberately blocked with his face. Specifically his face." Fate noted dryly.
"Like I said. Sheer crazy." Nanoha echoed with a shrug.
"Oh that one." Naruto pursed his lips uncertainly, "I think he was annoying me."
"You're going to have to be more specific." Nanoha echoed his earlier statement in with a smirk, "Everything tends to annoy you."
Naruto sighed contentedly, "Including you, Pigtails."
Fate laughed softly as she eased on to the bed on his other side, "Did you know what the title of that particular lecture was?"
"The pure and undiluted awesomeness of Naruto Uzumaki?"
"It was 'How to deal with highly unstable people with hostages'." The auburn haired girl on his left deadpanned.
The blond blinked his unnaturally blue eyes thoughtfully before shrugging, "That sounds awesome too."
The blond girl on his right laughed softly at his nonchalance before pursing her lips thoughtfully, "Exactly how many of these recordings did you make?"
"About a hundred, give or take." Naruto replied languidly, "The crazy old hag somehow got it into the head that since I can apparently replicate myself, I could use it to show off how awesome I was to everyone." The blond male boasted with his chest puffed out.
Nanoha stared at the puffed up blond inscrutably for a long moment, "It was punishment for breaking the moon wasn't it?" She commented with a straight face.
The Uzumaki promptly deflated and began to comically mope in a corner, "The entire goddamned TSAB basically used me as its own personal punching bag for an entire week. She had the gall to tell me that she would refuse to let me join the Academy if I lost even one Match and I had to fight Every. Single. One. of the blasted Ground Forces Battalions. ALL FOR ONE DAMNED ROCK! TESTING MY SKILLS MY STINKING RIGHT FOOT!"
The two girls promptly ignored his sudden break down / rant as Fate pursed her lips, "Don't all your clones dispel in one hit?"
"They do."
Fate yelped as the grinning blond was suddenly back on the bed with a cheerful grin.
Nanoha's eyebrows rose even higher as she simply ignored his mood swings.
As sad it sounded, she was actually used to them already. In fact, the two of them had sort of turned it into a game.
The blond would have fun trying to elicit a reaction from her by making his swings as rapid and unpredictable as he could while she brushed everything off with a single, insulting, eyebrow.
Unfortunately, the same could not be said for Fate-chan.
The poor girl was just too kind and sweet not to be affected.
"And you won all of the Matches anyway?"
Naruto smirked.
"Actually, since you put it that way, I'm a terrible punching bag aren't I?"
The sides of her lips rose grudgingly, "You're just terrible. Period."
Naruto laughed when the bracelet on his left arm began to beep.
Blinking, the blond summoned an opaque window wordlessly as his two friends watched him glance through the contents of the message which they couldn't see from behind the screen.
"Another mission?" Fate asked with a scrunched up frown, "You just got back from one."
"Not really," The other blond admitted calmly with a surprisingly serious mein as he dismissed the screen, "Someone just needs my help for a minor personal problem, but it'll still probably take me a day or two."
He sighed to himself, "I'm actually thinking of moving to Mid permanently after I'm done with middle school. There's no reason for me to stick around really and I can get more stuff done if I focus on Mid alone and don't have to rush around."
The two girls shared a look.
"When are you leaving?" Nanoha asked him quietly.
Naruto quirked one brow at her, "You're not going to tell me to stay?"
Nanoha shrugged, "It's not like me and Fate haven't thought about it ourselves. Besides, would you listen to us if we told you not to?"
"Probably not."
"Exactly." The auburn haired girl sighed and threw herself on his lap, "It'll mean that much less time we get to spend with you I guess but it's not like we can order you to stay. I mean, even I think it's a reasonable thing to do with all the stress of dealing with two schools."
Fate nodded as she slowly sat on the bed next to him, "But we decided we'll try to work while we do high school first. If it really affects us that badly, then we'll reconsider moving permanently as well."
"What did Lindy say?"
Fate smiled gently, "Kaa-san said she'd support us no matter what. She'll even sponsor us if we need it."
"I see."
She quirked her head, "When do you have to leave to help your friend?"
"Tomorrow." The shinobi glanced at her pout and ruffled her hair with a half grin, "I still have time for breakfast I think, it's not that urgent yet."
Nanoha punched his side with her own half smile, "Sure, sure. Saving the world can wait until after breakfast can't it?"
"After lunch too." Naruto agreed seriously, "But not before dinner."
Nanoha laughed as she hugged him briefly once last time and jumped off the bed, "You're an idiot sometimes."
"Just 'sometimes'? Does that mean I have to up my game?"
"I don't think the world could survive that." The energetic auburn haired girl commented dryly as she and Fate waved him good night.
****Caliburn Initiative****
Fate groaned and stretched in her bed, luxuriating in the softness of her own bed, her mind sluggishly moving at the speed of molasses.
This always happened every time she was home, Fate groaned to herself.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with the bed at the Academy, but when she was at home, it was just so hard to wake up and she had no idea why.
Groggily pulling herself upwards, she drearily wondered what had woken her up so early as she carefully tip toed around the softly breathing pile of blankets on her floor that was Nanoha.
The answer became readily apparent to her when she stepped out of her room and the smell of freshly baked bread immediately assaulted her senses.
Smiling happily, the still half asleep blond girl began plodding down the stairs, uncaring of her messy hair and crumpled pyjamas and headed straight for the kitchen where she saw a tall figure humming to himself as he pulled something round out of the oven.
There was only one person she knew that could bake, and Nanoha was, ironically enough despite the fact that her family ran a cafe/bakery, not him.
Smiling to herself she plodded over to the blond's broad back and placed her forehead on his back with a half sleepy, half happy greeting that sounded more like a wounded dog's whine.
"If you fall asleep there, I can't guarantee that you won't wake up in the garden." The blond threatened her mildly.
Fate made a mildly miffed sound as she kept her forehead where it was.
"Yes, yes, I know you're somewhat awake. But I'm being serious. If you stay there, I can't finish this cake."
There was a gasp of horror as Fate backed away and shuffled over to the table, her half open eyes glinting with greed.
"I made three." The blond commented brusquely as he placed a plate of waffles, liberally smothered with honey and butter, down in front of her grabby hands while two clones seamlessly split from him without a single gesture to continue his task of decorating the cakes, "One for you, one for Nanoha, assuming she wakes up within the next decade, and one more for Lindy to share with Amy."
The girl looked up at him and made a curious sounding grunt that prompted Naruto to roll his eyes.
"No. you may not eat all three cakes before they wake up."
The blond smiled affectionately as he ran his hand through her messy hair, messing it up even further, eliciting another whiny grunt.
"Okay, okay, I'll stop that so you can eat." Naruto grinned as he sat down while the girl gleefully began to dig in.
Even 3 years later, for all her elegance and gracefulness in battle, Fate still utterly failed to stop being a blanket bug in the morning.
She also happened to be something of a glutton for sweet stuff, something he was sure she was going to regret as soon as she finally came to her senses later on.
Nanoha on the other hand pretty much adored chocolate, especially the bitter kind. That particular bit of knowledge had come fairly handy at least once a month when the usually sweet tempered girl turned into a walking, ticking, time bomb.
And he meant that in the literal sense.
Naruto sipped from his own cup of steaming green tea as he watched the blond girl dig into his waffles with a near orgasmic moan
"I made enough waffles for everyone, twice over, so you don't have to stuff your face you know." Naruto commented airily.
Fate made an insulted sniff.
"Nonsense, I wasn't implying that you were a glutton at all." Naruto replied dryly, "I was merely reminding you to stop and breathe every once in a while."
The blond girl made a curious face at him.
"I already had my breakfast, it's already 10am in case you didn't notice." The blond noted with a wry smile.
The girl made a startled sound through her waffles.
"Yeah, I got bored of waiting. Figured I might as well do some baking before I left."
Fate blinked slowly, then she fluttered her eyelashes at him apologetically.
"Don't worry. I won't be gone long. We can spend time together when I'm back." The shinobi replied good naturedly as he finished his tea right as Chrono walked in with a heavy yawn.
"Yo Captain."
"Commander now." Chrono corrected him without even missing a beat then he stopped short as he realized there was more than one idiot running around the house, "What are you doing?"
All three of them grinned cheesily, "Baking cakes?"
"Please stop that," the dark haired young man groaned, "It's too early in the morning to deal with your idiocy."
"Oi." The miffed blond huffed, "Just for that, you don't get a cake."
There was a happy sounding grunt and both of the males instantly snorted in sync.
"No, you don't get an extra cake just because Chrono isn't getting one."
"It's not like I would have liked one anyway." The dark haired man noted flatly as he poured himself some coffee. Leaning on the kitchen counter, the eldest son rolled his eyes at Fate's pout.
"I was thinking Academy might have put some discipline in her, but it looks like she hasn't changed that much, if at all. She's still the baby of the family."
Naruto chuckled at Fate's defensive whine, "Don't pick on her Chrono. She's not completely awake yet."
"I know, that's why I'm teasing her now." Chrono smirked, "If she ever gets married, I pity the man who has to put up with her in the mornings."
"Says the person who's currently whipped by Amy."
"I'll get you back for that, you know that right?"
"You'll try to get back at me, but it won't happen. Like the past 3 years." Naruto corrected him with an amiable grin.
Chrono rolled his eyes as he placed the cup down with a more serious mein, "So? Have you thought about it yet?"
Fate curiously looked between the two men with one eyebrow raised.
"Not yet." Naruto admitted calmly as he poured himself another cup of tea, "I'm not really in a hurry to enlist, so I'm afraid I'll have to pass on your offer."
"Hmph." Chrono huffed quietly, "Well, if you ever change your mind, the Arthra will always need a good Enforcer on board."
Naruto offered the boy a thin smile, "I'll keep it in mind. But for now, I'm sticking to Crowbel's plan. I'm going to float around before I decide."
"So you're basically going to attach yourself to any outgoing Enforcers or Investigators." Chrono hummed softly, "Have you picked up any leads yet?"
"Some." Naruto calmly reached behind him and made a grasping motion, "Fragments here and there but nothing concrete."
Both Fate and Chrono's eyes went wide as the blond slowly dragged a great sword out of a dimensional rift.
Giving the heavily damaged huge broadsword a flick, Naruto spun it around like it weighed nothing, a sharp, bitter smile playing on his lips, "I'm getting closer. I've narrowed it down to the Siegmund Cluster, but considering there's about three million planets in there, uninhabitable or otherwise, so that's not really saying anything."
Naruto calmly de-summoned the huge blade and continued sipping his tea with a neutral expression.
The fact that he managed actually find bits and pieces lying around the known galaxy meant that there wasn't much hope for his home planet went unspoken.
Chrono coughed awkwardly, "Sorry."
"Don't mind."
As Chrono left the kitchen to go wake Amy, Fate set aside her empty plate, got up and shuffled over to him.
Blinking slowly, she wound her arms around the nonplussed blond's neck and sighed softly.
Naruto's lips lifted a little, "Thanks."
He gently pecked her forehead.
"Go back to sleep. I'll be home before you know it."
Fate shook her head, "Waffles."
Naruto laughed at the girl's first word of the day.
Directing a weary mental order to his clones to stay until Fate was finished and clean everything up, the blond shrugged on his travelling cloak and duffle bag, and casually summoned a teleport array.
"I'll see ya then."
The blond waved languidly and simply walked through it like it was an everyday thing to summon teleport arrays with such ease and casualness.
Fate blinked.
Then she shrugged.
She had more important things to do right now.
Namely, waffles.
She drew a deep breath again, savouring the sweet smell of honey and bakery.
Mmm…. The Uzumaki couldn't cook to save his life, but somehow, he was a god damned professional at baking sweets and cakes.
It never really occurred to her that Naruto had developed that particular skill out of sheer necessity in order to survive in a house full of females.
****Caliburn Intiative****
"Yo, Rin."
The statuesque woman merely stared at him balefully, "That is not my name."
"I know." The blond replied nonchalantly, "But I also know that your name is a mouthful and I'm too lazy to bother right now."
"Then don't talk to me at all."
The shinobi pouted childishly, "But I like talking to you. Or teasing you. Or riling you up."
Reinforce gave the young man, who had literally dropped out of thin air and straight into the sofa right in front her with an annoying air of casualness that instantly told you that he did it on purpose because he knew it annoyed her, a deadpan stare, "Basically you just like to annoy me."
Naruto stretched with a luxurious grin, "Doesn't everyone?"
"No. Just you."
"But I can't help it," Naruto mock sighed in a dreamy manner, "It's not easy, but every time I manage to through that stoic expression of yours, it feels like I just accomplished something significant in my life."
"Your life must be devoid of any significant achievements if something so insignificant can make you so happy." Reinforce noted blandly.
"Does kicking your ass count?" The blond asked innocently.
One of Reinforce's eyebrow twitched in annoyance, prompting a triumphant grin from the blond.
She sighed a sigh of long suffering, "Must we do this every time we meet?"
"Yes." The blond replied blandly with a smirk, "Yes, I must."
"Joy." The silver haired woman remarked tonelessly, "At least you're not flirting with Master anymore."
The blond who had basically made himself at home on the chair at the kitchen counter next to her simply shrugged, "That's because of her accent," Naruto whispered conspiratorially, "It makes me just want to hug her and/or make her my little sister. Preferably both."
"I'll kill you before I let you do that."
Naruto gave her a sunny smile, "I'm sure you will. Which is why I do it." He sighed happily, "Having so many overly powerful people trying to kill me makes me feel like I'm back in my hometown."
"Why am I not surprised?"
"Incidentally, where is everyone anyway?" The blond lounging on her family's couch asked blandly.
"I sent them out on some errands. Master already had plans with Arisa-san and Suzuka-san thankfully enough."
Play Fate/Stay Night - Whirlpool of Fate
"Errands?" The blond inquired curiously as he regarded the leggy silver haired woman flatly, his tone taking a more serious turn, "You really think that's enough?"
"I left a note as well, should we take longer than necessary."
"The last time we had a date, it took us 1 week. Half of which I spent recovering from your love taps in a cave." The blond pointed out.
Now that he thought about it, he seemed to spend a lot of time recovering from various things didn't he?
Reinforce winced, "Please do not call it a date." She pursed her lips and sighed quietly, "And I have reason to believe that it will not take longer than a day this time."
The blond's eyes narrowed, "Does this have anything to do with why it's happening earlier than usual?"
"I suspect so." Reinforce commented tonelessly.
"I see." The blond folded his arms with a thoughtful frown, and glanced at her pointedly, "Rin… I know you would prefer to keep this quiet, but are you sure we shouldn't tell Signum at least? I'm pretty sure she already suspects something."
"She does." Reinforce agreed quietly, "But she feels that it is not her place to interfere until I request her assistance."
Naruto grunted to himself, "Same old Signum."
"Are you worried that you are unable to handle this alone?" Reinforce questioned flatly, but Naruto could see the challenging glint in her crimson eyes.
The Shinobi merely snorted derisively, "I'm more worried about Signum and Hayate coming after me if anything happens to you. It's bad enough that you refuse to ask them for help, but if they find out that I've been helping you keep it a secret, they won't let me off with just a few bruises, to say nothing of what Fate and Nanoha will do. I didn't mind it so much the past few times, but there's something different this time, and you know it."
Reinforce sighed softly.
She knew indeed.
Each and every one of her episodes, as she liked to call them, always happened on a fixed schedule thanks to the embedded programming. Activation always took exactly one year from the point where enough energy had been gathered, and if the execution failed for one reason or another, the program would go dormant for exactly one more year.
Both she and Naruto had immediately known something was wrong when she started feeling the signs again even though it had barely been half a year since her last episode.
But there was absolutely no way she would involve her Master in this. Not even involuntarily, and Naruto was not the sort to break his promise to keep this a secret between the two of them even though he tended to define things like the truth a little too loosely sometimes.
She had lived for 3 years.
A glorious three years.
She, the Book of Darkness, had lived as family with her Master.
Granted, she couldn't help the rest of the Wolkenritters with the community service they were doing to pay off their role in the whole incident three years ago because she had avoided using any magic like it was the plague, afraid that it would only accelerate her little problem, but she made up for it by ensuring that her family would come back to a warm home, a lovingly made dinner.
As far as she was concerned, if she finally stopped functioning this time, then it was merely something inevitable coming true.
In the best case scenario, if Uzu… If Naruto successfully quelled the Defense Program again without a problem, then it simply meant that she would get another year with her family before they redid the whole cycle again.
In the worst case scenario, then it meant that she would have stopped functioning or the Defense Program had escaped or defeated Naruto.
Left unspoken was the fact that both of them knew that this particular arrangement left the blond bearing everything on his shoulders if anything went wrong. If he had backed out, she couldn't even blame him because it was what she would have done in his place now that she had Hayate.
Instead he had put himself at risk, every single year, without any hesitation whatsoever.
Every year, he would argue that Hayate had a right to at least know and then relent whenever she started looking lost.
Every year, he fought against an SS rank monster on his own, withering the Defense Program down resolutely, bit by bit, even if it took him a whole week to do it.
Every year, he bore the injuries she had dealt to him with a wry smile and then laughed when she apologized.
Every year, she would essentially forget about him until she needed his help again, and she felt a slight pang of guilt for treating him so badly.
With that in mind, she did something she had never done before in all their previous discussions.
She bowed her head.
"I know I'm asking for a lot… Naruto…. But I refuse to put Master and her friends in danger, even if it's necessary."
Naruto simply closed his eyes with resignation.
He already knew what his answer was going to be, no matter how much he disliked it.
This was not the first time they had had this particular discussion. In fact, this was the fourth time in the past few years, and it always went the exact same way.
He would protest, but Reinforce would eventually get that look in her eyes that said she would do anything to keep Hayate and her Knights safe, up to and including begging him apparently.
That part was new.
Either way, there was simply no way he could say no to that.
Not unless he wanted to be a hypocrite.
"Okay." Naruto finally breathed out softly, "Okay."
"Thank you, Naruto."
"I love you too, Rin." The blond replied with an impudent smirk.
"And like I have already mentioned, my name is Reinforce, given to me by my Master, Hayate of the Night Sky." Reinforce reiterated stoically, "Please do not mangle it for your own convenience."
"If you say so, though we both know that I'm going to ignore you anyway."
"Why must you irritate me so?"
"Honestly? I 'm not sure." Naruto admitted, "At first I thought it was because you reminded me of someone I used to know. She'd insist that she was a tool too, she'd swear that she didn't have emotions, that she was just a tool, that she would do anything for her precious people, exactly like you. I thought the two of you were similar…. But now I just want to see you smile, I want to see you angry, I want to see you annoyed. I want to see you. I can't really explain it beyond that."
Rin felt a strange heat warming her cheeks as she felt an unfamiliar urge to deliberately look anywhere but at him.
****Caliburn Initiative*****
Uninhabited planet #349
"Bloody Dagger!"
Naruto swiftly vaulted over the first sword, feeling the blade barely graze his back as he landed gracefully and skated to one side, rapidly making handsigns while crimson hued daggers continued to rain around him.
"Doton: Tsuchi Ken." Naruto intoned quietly as he rapidly fired five thick shards of rock one after another.
Reinforce frowned as she calmly summoned two thick barriers, allowing them to stop and absorb the kinetic power of the shards easily and fired another blast of magic that the blond merely dodged like he was taking a walk in the park.
He was utilizing a rather peculiar combination of wind and water elements, she knew. The utility jutsu seemed to coat the ground beneath his feet, allowing him to literally skate across the ground with incredible speed, rendering fully half of her arsenal useless as he was far too fast in this state for most of her projectile based attacks to hit while her guided missiles were defused by his rock shards long before they even reached him.
That said, it was clear that there was a serious drawback with his spell.
While the jutsu seemed to allow him greater acceleration and speed on lateral ground, it was fairly useless, and even hindered him from getting firm enough footing to dodge attacks from the mid to short range.
That said, he obviously knew that and compensated by making sure that she couldn't get close enough to use her monstrous strength, skating away gracefully each time she tried.
A great orb appeared above her head and the blond's eyes widened momentarily as the silver haired woman launched her orb straight at the ground instead of at him with a massive explosion.
Silently congratulating her in his head, the blond immediately vaulted in to the sky, flipping before landing slightly unsteadily when she flashed directly in front of him, an energy orb already primed and ready as she released it point blank.
"Doton: Rasengan!"
Rather than fall back, or even dodge, the blond, almost by reflex, thrust his arm out with a dense spinning orb of dark brown energy.
Her beam hit the orb head on and there was a massive explosion, the sheer force of the explosion alone throwing her back although she sustained little no damage whatsoever.
By the time the dust had cleared, all that was left at the outer edge of the massive crater was a rapidly spinning black orb, composed of some super dense material.
Scrunching her brows curiously, she scanned the orb and huffed quietly.
Unlike all his other elemental Rasengan, the earth one was actually a defensive technique. The spinning and the earth elemental energy combined to create a ball of hyper dense material that spun at high velocities, essentially deflecting anything that came into contact with it, though if he hit anything with it, it would have almost certainly been shred into bits by the razor sharp rocks.
That said, the last time they had fought, this version of the Rasengan had only been a bare idea in his arsenal. Obviously he had finished it in the past year since the two of them had fought.
She looked around the crater around them and tilted her head.
It looked to be about several kilometres deep and thunder sparked violently above them from the sheer magnitude of the spell she had used.
Beneath her, the orb of spinning rock slowed down until it crumbled away to reveal a rather amused Uzumaki.
"Really?" He questioned her with a cocked brow as he peered down the crater, "Not even five minutes in and you're already trying to murder me and tear the planet apart?"
"It was the most expedient way to expend my energy." Reinforce commented stoically, "The more I cast, the faster the Defense Program awakens."
"I know that," The shinobi replied dryly as he back flipped over another lance of eldritch fire and fired a burst of flames in return that billowed around the two of them. It wouldn't do anything but serve as a momentary smoke screen against someone like Reinforce, but that was more than enough for him, "I just think you didn't really have to fire that at me. There's a perfectly good sky up there for you to shoot at."
Unaffected by the smoke, Rein calmly summoned a wall of water to absorb the blast of lightning before directing it to swirl around her, promptly catching the clones that came from behind and electrocuting them before she sent it roaring forwards like a tidal wave at the blond who dodged with a yelp as the burst of electrified water scoured a deep gouge through an entire cliff.
Rein smirked, "Where would the fun be in that?"
"Meanie." Naruto replied with a chuckle as he spun once and dodged another of her attacks, "So how much more do I have to entertain you?"
"Not long." Rein whispered as she dredged up even more of her power and began flinging orbs of pure black energy at him, "Darkness is already clouding my vision. Soon, it will overtake me and you will be able to let loose."
"Yeah, and it's is going to hurt like a bitch." Naruto muttered to himself resignedly. In all their past battles, there was not a single time where he had not won without severe injuries and exhaustion that had kept him bed ridden for a least a day.
Naruto let out a deep breath as he began preparing himself to deflect the orbs of inky blackness with a chakra infused fist when they shuddered to a stop.
The blue eyed blond frowned as he warily watched the orbs vibrate in mid-air violently until they imploded.
A piercing scream proceeded to rend the air and he whipped around to stare at Reinforce who was crumpled on the ground, clutching her head.
"Rin!"
Something was wrong. In past battles, whenever Rein had hit her threshold, she would fall into a perfectly calm state as she basically tried to destroy everything around her, signalling that the Defense Program's first state had taken over.
At that point, he would have had to damage her enough until the base program, the corrupted Darkness revealed it's more monstrous form, but he had never seen her react like this before.
"nA… Na…ru… run." Rein groaned as she felt her vision breaking into pieces as a dark shadow engulfed her, the last thing she saw being Naruto's wary and worried expression, staying well away until he knew what was going on.
The perfectly spherical orb of inky shadows floated in place momentarily until it slowly split into three separate orbs.
The three separate orbs split again into nine.
By the time Naruto had recovered enough to realize that something had gone horribly wrong, he was already surrounded by at least 100 of the orbs, with the largest one containing what Naruto assumed was Rin, directly in the middle.
Then to his horror, the orbs began to shrink into vaguely humanoid, faceless shapes.
Flicking three shuriken into his hands, he charged them with as much electricity as he dared and flung them at the nearest orb, only for the humanoid shape to catch all three of them to catch them with its malformed fingers and crush them into useless metal lumps.
The humanoid thing seemed to be scrutinizing him with a tilted head when a face slowly started to take shape on the lump of wobbling material that was its head.
"Okay… that is officially the creepiest thing I've ever seen." Naruto remarked to himself dryly as he found himself staring at a replication of blank faced Nanoha.
All around him, the shapes seemed to be undergoing similar metamorphoses into different people, most of whom he was at least acquainted with.
"What the hell?" Naruto murmured to himself with confusion as all of them continued to ignore him and faced upwards at the sky where a purple array began to form, revolving slowly when Naruto heard a loud gasp.
Whipping around again, he saw Reinforce being pushed out of the largest orb like it was made of some sort of gel as it began to ascend towards the revolving circle. He didn't recognize the spell, and as far as his limited knowledge went, he was pretty sure it wasn't of Belkan or Mid Childian origin.
Ignoring the orb for a moment, the blond skidded to a stop next to a haggardly breathing Rein, her red eyes open but disturbingly unfocused.
"Rin! What's happening?"
"St… Stop them Naruto…. They… Earth… Hayate…"
It was all the information he needed.
A lance of pure bright electricity seared through the sky and slammed straight into the circle, destabilizing its core and piercing straight through with a massive crack.
As one, every single clone there looked at him simultaneously.
"Creepy. Creepy. Creepy. Creepy." Naruto muttered under his breath as all of them, every single one of them having the face of people he knew, only expressionless and utterly pale, began moving towards him, "This is officially the last time I help you do ANYTHING if it means I have to deal with zombies, Rin."
Naruto muttered under his breath as he carried the fragile looking woman in his arms in a bridal carry and began to high tail it out of there.
"The mighty Uzumaki… afraid of zombies?"
"Did you JUST make a joke? Right now? Really?" Naruto exclaimed with a yelp as he dodged what was unmistakably a hail storm of Plasma Barrets, "And incidentally yes. I'm afraid of zombies. And ghosts. Mostly ghosts." The blond pursed his lips, "On a completely unrelated note, I should have brought another pair of pants with me."
Rein chuckled softly as Naruto ducked into a small crack in a cliff face.
"Seriously though, what the hell are those?"
Reinforce wearily stood up on shaky legs. Her face was smudged and her sweater dirtied, but somehow she still looked amazingly beautiful.
"Fragments," She breathed shakily, "Fragments of the Darkness of the Book of Darkness. Subroutines that were programmed to activate as a failsafe in case the Defense Program was unable to perform its duty. Their only purpose is to find the Master and liberate the book from her control because they think Master is an intruder."
She closed her eyes to hide the tears brimming in her crimson eyes.
Play Two Steps from Hell – Heart of Courage
"I am Reinforce, Librarian of the Tome of the Night Sky. In the end, I am nothing but the Bringer of Misfortune to my Master."
"No you're not."
A tall figure to her left side sighed softly.
"You're much more than that."
The twenty year old form of Naruto Uzumaki emerged with a thin smile.
Before them, the multitudes of clones, their numbers increasing with every minute began to surge towards the crack they were hiding in
"You're also Rin, oldest sister of the Yagami family. Lover of fluffy sweaters and owner of a massive sweet tooth that you think no one knows about."
She could see some of them already firing spells, spells recorded in her library.
"If you forget that, then I'll just keep reminding you. Better yet, I'll let Hayate do it."
Reinforce watched as the blond held out his hands and circular arrays bloomed into life around him, revolving slowly as he began casting with incredible speed despite not using Caliburn.
"Wide Area Protection."
The first spell hit, and fizzles against the thin gold dome.
A form fitting black TSAB devoid of the customary Enforcer spikes materialized on his form, while a well-worn white cloak with faded red flames threaded onto it hung from his left side and black and gold lined pauldrons materialized before clamping onto his shoulder with a loud click.
It was his custom Barrier Jacket, she knew that much.
She just hadn't expected it to look so worn.
Cracked and dented, but it still gleamed, showing the care he put into maintaining it despite the stress he regularly put it under.
"Defense Bunker."
Two circles, a beautiful golden, orange hue bloomed and created a dome around her.
His arrays began spinning faster and faster, and there was something deeply rhythmic about it, as if he was moving to his own beat as he almost casually summoned shield after shield that deflected every spell.
"Anchor Field."
"Rotation Signet."
Two more domes layered themselves on the first, but the blond was not done as he continued rapidly casting defensive spells until Reinforce was encased in what was essentially a massive, glowing, mobile bunker that slowly revolved in place.
Reinforce smiled thinly as she remembered something Signum had told her.
Despite being a mere third year Academy student, he already had a title, though it wasn't very well known owing to the fact that he typically didn't fight seriously at all unless necessary.
The Fortress.
Despite his propensity for huge area of effect spells, it had come as a particular surprise to everyone that knew him that his actual affinity had been for defense spells rather than offensive ones.
In fact, defense spells were the only spells he could cast without Caliburn's assistance, and he had practiced them to a point where even his weakest defense spell, the Round Buckler was powerful enough to withstand a combined assault from Signum and the rest of the Wolkenritter. He also tended to augment it with the Shield Burst spell to create to the Thorn Mail, his own signature custom defense spell that absorbed any attack and either added the attacks energy to its own to enhance its defensive properties to insane levels, or reflect the blast directly into his attacker's face.
Suffice to say, everyone that knew who The Fortress was, also knew that trying to fight The Fortress in close combat was essentially suicide.
If your own spells didn't knock your head off first, his extreme proficiency with close quarter weapons and melee combat basically ensured that his hands would certainly finish the job.
A fact that caused the rather competitive Signum no end of sleepless nights as she kept trying to come up with combos to deal with the blond's own unique fighting style.
That said, the Uzumaki was a peculiar mage.
Unless necessary, he rarely resorted to using spells at all, preferring to deal with problems in a more personal manner using his shinobi techniques and misdirection.
Until something annoyed him.
Then he'd bust out the spells.
"Just stay there until I'm done."
His pauldrons moved back with a loud click, revealing layered plates that resembled samurai armor on his shoulders while an armored half skirt appeared around his waist, protecting his back and his legs while more layered plates appeared on his knees.
It was the full form of his Barrier Jacket.
"Caliburn, initiate Spear form 3." The blond barked.
[Yes, my Master.]
A staff with a large blocky point materialized in his hands, part two handed mace, part spear.
Twirling it around like it weight nothing, the blond swung it around until it was pointing straight ahead.
Play Back on – Infinity
The pauldrons on his back began to glow a deep orange and Reinforce was startled to notice that they weren't pauldrons at all.
They were miniature warship thrusters.
With a massive thrum, the blond literally exploded forwards.
"Line DRIVE!"
A series of massive explosions erupted into the air as the blond essentially plowed through an army of Dark Pieces, shredding everything that wasn't fast enough to get out of the way completely and completely destroying anything stupid enough to try and tank his move.
When the dust cleared, there was a new canyon on the formerly unmarked planet as the blond skidded to a stop at the other end.
Without missing even a beat, the blond spun underneath a swift sword and let go off his mace.
Halfway through his spin, twin swords materialized out of thin air in his hands and he began simultaneously fending off 9 of Fate's clones.
His blades were a storm of light and steel as he spun and duck with incredible speed when the spear/mace hybrid suddenly reappeared mid swing, utilizing the momentum he had built up to smash into the ground with enough force to shake the entire canyon with a roar.
His thrusters began to thrum again as he took off into the sky,
"Caliburn, load slot 2!"
[Slot 2 load. Plasma Barrel shift to Northern Cross.]
"Fire!"
Reinforce merely held on tight as an utterly massive ribbon of light carved its way across the planet, cutting another deep canyon into the face of the rock.
Scanning the composition of the beam, she couldn't hold back a thin grin.
There was only person she knew that could power up a simple Plasma Barrel spell into what was basically a bunker busting wave motion cannon, to the point where her recognition systems couldn't even categorise it as the same spell anymore.
[Master. Enemy incoming.]
Naruto snorted as he back flipped as switched to dual swords mode, catching the halberd that came rocketing out of the dust with one blade and stabbed the other blade into a Fate look a-like in the stomach with a slight grimace and turned his thrusters to full, roasting a Shamal clone that had been approaching him from behind into crisp while he shot forwards.
"What's the result?" Naruto asked tersely as he summoned the mace again and crushed a Signum clone into fine paste with a glance at where he had left the blade in the Fate clone so that it could do a deep analysis of whatever he was currently fighting.
[High speed clone generation. Point of origin unknown. Spell unknown. Unable to copy.]
Naruto rolled his eyes.
"Fine. Fuck it then."
He was getting mildly exasperated from fighting all these clones wearing his friend faces like they were creepy masks.
"Caliburn, Slot 1." Naruto ordered with a serene calmness.
If Caliburn couldn't pinpoint the origin of the clones, then it became a relatively straight forward issue.
[Slot 1 load. Axel Shooter shift to Meteor Bombard.]
"Authorisation code: 11011, releasing limit from 10% to 20%." The blond barked as his eyes swiftly flicked everywhere, Caliburn working rapidly to keep up with him as he marked every single clone.
[Slot 1 authorisation accepted.]
The AI confirmed mechanically as a second cartridge proceeded to load itself with a loud click.
[Meteor Bombard to Hollow Genocide.]
An absolutely massive circle appeared above him.
For a moment, all was silent.
Every single clone on the field immediately began to move towards him in almost slow motion when he flicked his hand once and fired.
It almost felt like the planet itself wouldn't stop shaking as the blond proceeded to nuke everything within a 50 kilometre radius to kingdom come.
If he couldn't find the point of origin, then he would simply destroy all of them simultaneously.
****Caliburn Initiative****
Play Angel Beats - Ichiban no Takaramono
"You've been holding out on me." Rin commented softly.
Naruto hummed non-committally as he helped Reinforce walk down the street with one arm around her waist.
"Technically I'm not supposed to exceed 10% under any circumstance without Crowbel's permission… and partly because Caliburn can only go up to 20% for about 10 seconds before it starts to crack under the stress."
Caliburn cursed him softly.
"So all this time… you've been fighting me with only 10%?" Reinforce inquired blandly.
"It was closer to 5%, but yes." Naruto conceded quietly, "Are you angry?"
Rin laughed softly, and Naruto glanced at her.
She looked tired, haggard, but so carefree.
"Not at all." She glanced at him, "If you have that much power, why don't you just leave? You have nothing to be afraid of."
"Where would I go?" Naruto smiled thinly, "There's a trillion freaking systems out there. I could get a ship with the money I've saved so far, yes. But the fuel alone would probably bankrupt me within a week before I died of starvation, and it's not like I can plug myself into the generator and power it through willpower alone. I stick with TSAB, and I get to use their warships and their fuel. I get access to their star charts so I can narrow down the systems one by one. They get my expertise for some of the more sensitive missions, and occasionally when Crowbel needs something blown up, she asks if I can help. Win win."
They saw the Yagami house coming up along the road as the two of them limped along.
"Reinforce?" A figure walking down the road with four other silhouettes exclaimed with a thick Kansai accent, "What happened?!"
"Get your hands off Reinforce! What did you do to her?!"
Naruto very calmly side stepped a raging Vita and poked her forehead, "Oi, oi. What makes you think that was me?"
"Who else could it be?" the belligerent red head asked angrily.
Naruto glanced at Rin who simply bowed her head, "I'll leave that to her. She should be the one to tell you."
"Naruto!"
The blond merely regarded the silver haired woman next to him with a beady eye, "Tell them."
There was an unfamiliar note of steel in his words and Rin found herself almost unconsciously nodding,
"Naruto-san?" Hayate approached the two of them with a worried frown, "What do you mean by that? Tell me what?"
"Ask her." Naruto said simply as he waved lazily, walking down the street towards the Harlaown's place, "It's not my place to tell you."
Rein stared down at her left hand.
For a single moment, it seemed to frizz like a malfunctioning screen and she had to supress a wince of pain.
She looked up again, "Naruto…. Thank you."
The blond didn't look back as he walked down the road alone, he only waved again and she was reminded of his back.
Of how it had been clad in broken, dented armor, but still he refused to slouch or sag.
Of how his white cloak seemed to represent everything that he stood for, no matter how well-worn and raggedy it had become over the years.
She hoped he found his Family as well.
****Caliburn Initiative****
Naruto opened the door to the Harlaown residence and entered with a sigh.
Inside, he saw Nanoha and Fate reading something. Fate was sitting daintily on the sofa while Nanoha was sprawled across her lap.
"Yo."
Fate looked up and smiled gently, "Welcome home."
Nanoha simply waved, "You're back earlier than I expected."
Naruto shrugged, "Like I said. It was just a minor issue."
"Did that issue have anything to do with a missing Reinforce?" Nanoha questioned blandly, her lips drawn into a tight line.
The blond man smiled thinly, "It might have."
Nanoha simply nodded, averting her gaze from him, while Fate looked at her worriedly.
Silently, the blond plodded over to the girls and collapsed into the sofa with a weary sigh.
His figure wavered for a moment before the 20 year old Naruto was replaced by the 12 year old one.
"I think I might stay for high school after all."
Nanoha hesitantly looked back at him, "…Why?"
"I was reminded not so gently today that there's no point in hurrying things I guess."
The auburn haired girl smiled brilliantly.
End Caliburn Initiative 11