Broken Faith 21
Hope, Dreams and Trust
Disclaimer : I don't own anything, Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, Mahou sensei Negima belongs to Ken Akamatsu. Any songs belongs to their respective singers and publishers.
*Quirks eyebrow* 500 plus alerts for this fic, and only 25ish reviews last chapter? Do I need to do something drastic again?
Oh, before I forget, this chapter was released in commemoration of the 352nd chapter of Mahou Sensei Negima.
(I was busy with life and just only fucking realized at 5 a.m. in the fucking morning, (F... yeah! Hyped up on Red Bull!) that it was released a week ago! So I decided to release this chapter because chapter 352 was so... sad... you know. I hope this makes people smile again).
And thus, only three more chapters left of a manga series that has been running for nearly a decade. By the way? I doubt Negi actually died, I think it's more like he faked his death so nobody got suspicious about why he didn't grow old. Him and a few others probably. This IS Ken Akamatsu after all.
Soundtrack List
Pokemon OST – Lugia's Song Original
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann OST – Libera Me From Hell
SCANDAL - Secret Base - Kimi ga Kureta Mono
****Broken Faith****
A cup of cooling coffee sat on the table as a pale skinned hand slowly stirred the tepid liquid as Fate Averruncus stared at the swirling black liquid, seemingly in a daze.
"Master?"
The boy looked up with his pale grey eyes to see a concerned girl in a maid dress.
"Are you ok?" Her question was tinged with concern for him.
"I... I'm alright."
After he had presented his findings during the Kyoto mission to his higher ups they had gone into a frenzy about a missing princess finally being found and jumpstarted their missions in Mundus Magicus. He himself had been ordered to return and prepare for...
Prepare for what?
To subdue Naruto Namikaze if he tried to enter Mundus Magicus.
If that wasn't possible, to cripple or kill.
Negi Springfield and any others were not to be hurt too badly but only the blonde actively presented a threat to their operations. It wasn't that surprising; whispers of the Black Paladin had filtered into Mundus Magicus, someone on good terms with three of five Mundus Vetus Magical Leaders, powerful, cunning and seemed pretty damn unstoppable when he felt like it.
Fate paused in his thoughts and picked up an old magical newspaper clipping and smiled, he had been gathering seemingly random newspaper clips but he could see the connection. Naruto had been busy since Kyoto. In each of this clips there was a pattern, in all of them, a blonde clad in a black long coat and white blank mask was always present, usually hidden somewhere in the background. Most times he was just there, observing like a ghost, but sometimes, the black clad man would randomly intervene in missions. Most people wouldn't notice, but there was a method to the blonde's madness. Murders, Rapists, Slavers, unless it involved a severe crime of some sort against humanity in general he wouldn't intervene in something he had somehow judged according to some hidden principle as not worth his time.
But when he did, the blonde had a spotless record, zero casualties. No one died, be it in his squad, the hostages... Well except for the culprits that managed to piss him off. Those always went missing or more often than not, ended up in some sort of mental coma where they could never hurt anyone else again. When it came to anything that resembled hostage negotiations, the blonde was the go to person. The kidnappers usually never had enough time to regret it before going insane.
A few medical reports had been published on the blonde's 'victims'. Coma, unresponsive to any external stimulation, open eyed sleep, minimal external activity, no signs of life whatsoever other than the bare necessities and the occasional horrified screaming or twitching. There was only one anomaly and it was common to all the victims. The victims' brain activities registered as if the person was still alive and active at all hours of the day, even while sleeping which was unnatural since a human brain usually could only take so much stress before breaking.
Which come to think about it was probably the point.
He had other kinds of missions of course, Fate couldn't help a snort, bulldozing through a standing army that was threatening to cause a rebellion like so much wet paper whilst armed with nothing but a spoon and chopsticks usually had that kind of effect on people Fate supposed and apparently because of that, the blonde now had a standing Marriage proposal with the fourth Mundus Vetus magical leader's daughter as well. The blonde naturally got out of the country as fast as he could when he heard about it and swore never to return until the marriage contract was cancelled.
Nonetheless, someone with that kind of political and physical power wasn't likely to be overlooked as a threat. Mostly because, despite his eccentricities about hiding any information about himself; his main policies were well known. The chances of him standing by and watching a genocide, for it was a genocide in all but name no matter how prettily his bosses phrased it, take place were about as likely as a meteor falling out of the sky and bonking him on the head right now.
Meaning so tiny you'd need a microscope to see it.
Fate cocked his head; that wasn't the problem here; he had never been one to worry about the morality of his actions. Some would even say he didn't even have one to worry about in the first place.
But he didn't want to kill the interesting blonde. And that confused him, the last time he had felt so conflicted was when Shiori...
Still... orders were orders.
Fate lifted the cup and sipped from the cup before hiding a slight grimace at taste of the cold coffee.
****Broken Faith****
A fist moved as if in slow motion, before being halted by another fist, the contact resulted in another big shockwave. Both of them pulled back their fists and started another slow motion repeat before they blurred and were replaced by Naruto mid kick while the white haired man blocked it in slow motion.
Evangeline steadied herself as the slow shocks kept coming even as her squinted eyes stayed steady on the arena, the earth itself trembled as the two idiots on the stage continued to trade punch for punch in slow motion in one spot for the past 7 minutes. To everyone else, they saw the tall white haired man slowly move his body and punch in slow exaggerated motions, Naruto doing much the same, while elements swirled around them as if for no reason, a sudden stone spike or burst of fire would appear out of nowhere without reason. Or so it seemed to everyone else but the few that could actually see what was happening.
"Evangeline-sensei, wh-why does their movements look so weird? And so slow? One moment Naruto-nii san is about to get hit when suddenly they change into another position? Like a disjointed picture..." Negi questioned quietly.
Evangeline snorted, "Their movements aren't weird. You just can't see them."
Negi looked at her in confusion, "See them? What do you mean? They're right there, they haven't moved from that spot!"
Evangeline shook her head, "They've been moving around the arena, but they're moving so fast that you can barely see them. What are you're seeing is an after image."
"Ehh! Bu-but I should been able to notice it if just afterimages!"
"No. Not just afterimages. They are moving so fast their afterimages are nearly invisible. The disjointed movement you can see right now is the result of those invisible afterimages overlapping with another similar afterimage just enough to become visible." Evangeline squinted at the stage, "Naruto's doing good enough to keep up I suppose, but he's still losing."
"Ehh?"
"Shhh! Quiet! I want to see this properly."
****Stage****
Naruto ducked under a punch, it barely missed him but he still had to suppress a grunt as the air pressure from the attack hit him like a truck, twisting under the arm Naruto tried to grapple Rakan only for the huge mountain of a man to slam his elbow onto Naruto's collarbone.
A slight crunch rang out as the blonde ignored the sound of his collarbone fracturing and replied in kind with violent elbow smash into Rakan's gut that barely fazed the man. The both of them disappeared again, the sounds of bone and flesh smacking into more bone and flesh rang out around the arena before the two of them reappeared in the sky, Rakan's arms lifted above him and his fists clasped together in a double fisted hammer and quickly smashed the blonde into the ground violently. The blonde exploded out of the rubble and followed it up by quick hand seals that allowed him to spit a disturbingly large amount of sticky syrup at the falling man.
It drenched Rakan as he landed with a wet splat and immediately hardened into clear amber like stuff that was supposed to hold him in place.
It didn't work.
The hulking mountain of a man broke out with nothing but sheer force and barrelled into Naruto, only for the blonde to explode in a shower of electric sparks, momentarily paralysing him long enough for two feet to slam into him from above, driving his face into the ground. Rakan didn't even miss a beat as he grabbed the feet stepping on his head and lifted himself easily from the ground before swinging Naruto around like a bat before repeatedly smashing the dazed blonde into the concrete floor.
An eyebrow quirked as the blonde just lay there until a stone spike exploded from underneath, stabbing through the blonde's body which disappeared in a poof of smoke. Rakan grunted as he simply smacked the stone spike away like an irritating fly before swinging his huge arms around like a helicopter as even more stone spikes exploded from all around him. Suddenly the stone spike barrage stopped when Rakan lashed one huge fist out to his side in a powerful punch that slammed into Naruto's jaw before his elbow slammed Naruto into the ground, the stunned blonde hit the ground with an earth shaking smash before bouncing back into the air from the force of the elbow smash, allowing Rakan to flow into a powerful side kick as a finisher to his combo. The boy that called himself Naruto only managed a quiet 'Oof' of surprise before being blown completely out of the arena, smacking into the water like a comet and hitting the bottom with an unhealthy amount of force if the tremor he felt was any indication. Rakan didn't let his guard down though, he was faster and stronger than the frog eyed blonde, but the boy was tricky and shook off hits like a boss.
As expected, the blonde leapt out of the pool and landed a little unsteadily, rubbing an already healing bruise on his abs.
Naruto let out a quiet and resigned chuckle, "I can't win this can I?"
The huge man didn't even break a smile, he was rather disappointed despite the show of creativity and strength, having expected more from someone Albireo respected, "Of course not. You aren't even fighting properly. You fight like an assassin trying to be a normal person, or a normal person trying to be an assassin. How can you win if you can't even be yourself?" the hulking man scoffed out loud.
The blonde's mouth twisted into a bitter smile, "And what's wrong with an assassin trying to forget things better off forgotten?"
Rakan snorted, "I didn't say that. I just said be yourself, if you can't fight properly, I'll make you fight properly, I haven't had a good fight in a long time and I'm not going to lose the chance just because you want to be a pansy. I don't even know why Albiero respected you enough to call me out at this stage. Insult me and I couldn't care less, but the fact that you're not fighting properly is an insult to Albiero and people learn soon enough that insulting my friends is a different matter altogether." Rakan paused and thought for a while, "Unless I'm the one insulting them, then that's completely alright and even advisable..." He finished with a grin as he lifted one hand and directed his palm at a section of the audience.
"Wha-What are you doing?"
His palm started to glow, "Don't involve them! This is just an exhibition match! There's no need for something that!" Naruto desperately yelled as he scrambled forward to stop the attack in time, seeing the beam lance outward as if in slow motion.
A bright white beam lanced out from his palm and threatened to engulf the spectators but Naruto desperately threw himself in front of the beam and barely had time cross his forearms together as a make shift shield before the beam hit with all the force of a rampaging rhino, his hands burned badly but the blonde simply gritted his jaw, he had endured worse, and held out with all his power and roared back in defiance.
The stage shook as an earth shaking explosion took place, Rakan simply calmly stood and ignored the burning winds his explosion caused and watched the smoke cloud, knowing the boy was still alive, but it was still enough to make quirk an eyebrow at the sacrifice the boy had apparently made. The smoke finally cleared enough to show the boy, only this time he was completely topless and his arms and chest were burned badly as he panted, the giant absently noted that the boy's eyes had changed back into their original sapphire ones; presumably the boy had used up everything he had to stop that attack.
****Broken Faith****
Mana stumbled slightly and cursed as she accidentally allowed her classmates, Ayaka among them, through. Looking back at the arena she could see a mushroom cloud forming. "Hmph, if this keeps up, Chao won't have to do anything but sit back and watch as things go to hell in a hand basket." Mana muttered.
****Broken Faith****
Evangeline shook her head in disbelief; Rakan of all people had just tried to attack the innocent audience. What the hell?
****Broken Faith****
"Mama?" Akako shakily chirped from within the safety of her mother's arms after Chachamaru had thrown herself to the ground just in case Naruto hadn't been able to stop the blast and shielded Akako as best as she could.
"Shh... It's ok, Papa's dealing with the bad man."
Akako nuzzled against her cheek to try and comfort her mother before relaxing, complete and utter faith in her Papa's abilities.
****Broken Faith****
Asuna steadied herself as the latest piece of ceiling to fall chose to fall onto the robot that had just vaporised Mei and Takane's clothes. She looked up nervously at the ceiling, wondering what the hell was going on to cause the unending earthquakes.
****Broken Faith****
Takamichi grunted as the latest tremors dislodged the machine that was holding him and Chibi Setsuna captive, internally he thanked Naruto for helping them even if he didn't know it, allowing him enough space to break both of them free. Turning back at the small floating Setsuna he motioned, "Come on, we have to go help Asuna-san and the rest. I can sense them on the way here."
****Stage****
Rakan's eyebrow lifted further as the blonde's eyes shifted from blue and slit pupiled into indigo blue with concentric rings.
The panting blonde stepped forward, "What the hell was that for? Why did you try to hurt them? They had nothing to do with this!"
His opponent merely stared at him impassively, annoying him even further, Naruto clenched his jaw and threw his hands out, "Tenkuu no Tenbin!"
The broad shouldered man simply shrugged it off as the gravity around him increased tenfold and shot off another of his lasers, Naruto's purple eyes widened and he quickly formed hand seals again before slamming his palms into the ground, "Kuchiyose: Sanjou Tenkuumon!"
Three gigantic wall-like gates with angelic decorations exploded from the ground and the first door with a beautiful angel on the front halted the laser briefly, Naruto grunted as the laser exploded and penetrated the first door with a huge explosion that the second door briefly withstood before cracking, causing Naruto to fall to his knees with another grimace. This technique was a bastardization of the one Orochimaru had, or to be more accurate Orochimaru had corrupted the original summoning that Naruto had found and as such Orochimaru's had different properties, far cheaper to summon but less powerful in terms of defence. The chakra requirement of the original alone was nearly double of the one belonging to Orochimaru and had a continuous drain on his core. But it was still his most powerful defensive technique and each door was on par with one of Gaara's Shukaku statue shields.
Forcing himself to his feet, Naruto released the jutsu and the two remaining gates collapsed back into the ground. The blonde exploded out of the smoke and charged Rakan head on in anger, ducking under one punch Naruto slammed his forehead to Rakan's , making eye contact and immediately drove a mental spike into the man's mind.
Both of them stilled face to face, brief grimaces that flitted across their faces were the only signs they were still alive.
Then the grimaces stopped and Evangeline looked on in shock, shaking it off, she immediately looked around and found the person she was looking for, she grabbed Chachamaru and Negi by the shoulder roughly before teleporting them both beside her target, accidentally taking a happily squeaking Akako along.
"Eeek!"
Negi looked around in confusion, "Nodoka? Err, sensei what are we doing here?"
"No time, girl!"
"Ha-hai!"
"Bring out your artefact now!"
Nodoka took one look at the smaller girl's expression and immediately did as requested without argument, Evangeline pulled all of them closer and forced them to make skin contact with her, eliciting another squeak from Nodoka before she herself placed a palm on Nodoka's Diarum Ejus and all five of them went still.
****Broken Faith****
Naruto looked around in confusion, usually when he used that particular technique he would be transported into the target's mindscape where he would find and manipulate the target's memories but the blonde realized something had gone extremely wrong as he found himself looking at a replica of the Konoha Tower.
He looked around at the familiar scenery and even saw the Hokage Cliff where the faces of all five Hokage's were carved into the stone wall, he had never personally accepted Danzou and Kakashi as the sixth and seventh respectively and that was presumably the reason why only five faces were displayed there.
"Ho? This is interesting... You were capable of something like that?"
Naruto spun around in alarm, "Yo-you!"
Rakan casually appeared out of a dark alley and walked to the opposite side of the square in front of Hokage Tower, "Yes me." He calmly replied as the blonde tensed and moved his burned hands into a defensive stance.
He didn't need to ask what had happened, his technique only worked if his willpower was stronger than his target and he had enough chakra to subdue said target and if this happened then there was no question that his opponent was far stronger mentally and physically than him.
"This is pretty interesting, the old granny has something like this as well, do you have a name for this technique?"
Naruto allowed himself a grimace and a shake of the head; he had never named this technique. Partly because he didn't think it deserved one, and partly because he didn't like it. He only used it against those that deserved it.
"What do you want Rakan? I already gave up, so why are you still fighting? To the point you even tried hurting innocents!"
"And I won't let you give up because of that." the man calmly replied.
"Why not!"
Rakan stomped his foot like a child, "Because it ain't fair!"
Naruto's eyes bugged out, "Huh? Wahaa?"
Rakan pointed at him accusingly, "You got Albiero's gravity magic and annoyingness, you think and act like Gateau, like some cool older person, you fight and look like Nagi, like a tricky bastard, even your sword skills are almost on par with Eishun! It's not fair! You're like a walking Ala Rubra in miniature! Only you don't resemble me in any way at all! So I want to force you to learn how to fight without thinking again, without being restricted by stupid stuff like calculations. Like me! Well... maybe not as awesome..."
Naruto's eyebrow started twitching violently and his fingers started curling around an imaginary neck.
Preferably Rakan's.
Rakan started cooing to some imaginary baby, "Then we can call you mini Rubra, and pet you, and feed you."
A vein popped and started ticking.
"I'll even teach you how to steal panti-"
"Gah! DIE!"
It was Evangeline's turn for her eyebrows to start twitching violently at the great Rakan started rolling around in the dirt with Naruto like two children fighting over a toy.
"Gyah! Enough! If you're just going to play around I'm getting out of here!" Naruto yelled angrily only for Rakan to suddenly flash forward from the ground. Stunned by the taller man's sudden change in attitude, Naruto's eyes widened and he barely managed to duck an arm swipe that had enough power to throw him to the moon. Roaring the blonde leapt forth from his crouched position and barrelled into Rakan's torso, slamming him into a building with enough force to cause it to collapse.
The sounds of people fighting emanated from inside the dust cloud before a black and yellow blur was violently kicked out of the cloud and smacked loudly into the Hokage Tower, ignoring the screaming of his every muscles, the blonde pushed off the wall and sped towards the hulk who was calmly walking towards him and engaged Rakan in another grand melee.
Sage Mode was already useless and the man destroyed any clones he made before they could get away to gather nature chakra.
Naruto desperately fought the huge man as hard as he could but every jutsu and every trick was batted away like so much wet paper as he felt the last of his reserves draining away. His movements slowed and he knew he had suffered a concussion somewhere along the road as he was having trouble focusing on the huge man. A high kick to the face threw him clear through five buildings before the blonde landed roughly and rolled limply on the ground in a groaning mess; behind him were the edges of Konoha. The clearing was empty, ringed by desolate buildings and a sheer rock wall which constituted the Hokage Cliff. The only thing of note was the one solitary tree at the very bottom of the wall.
Groaning again, the blonde tried to lift himself up only for a foot to land on his back and crush him back into the ground.
"Now do you know why you can't win? Why I won't let you give up?
The foot flipped him around before a fist drove itself into his gut with insane force, causing the blonde to cough up blood.
"I said it already; you can't win because you are pretending to be something you're not." The foot kicked him into the air roughly before Rakan drop kicked him into another building. Naruto staggered out, a blur appeared in front of him and the blonde barely had enough time to bring up his hands in order to block an incredibly strong kick.
He winced as he heard his bones crack and his body was slammed into a wall by the force of the kick. He shook his head clear of the pain and realized he was pinned between Rakan's foot and the wall.
"Wha-what the hell does that mean dammit!" He yelled out.
Play Pokemon OST – Lugia's Song
Rakan shook his head and Naruto's blurred vision barely noticed the pitying expression on his face. "Judging from the way you fight, you were never meant to be an assassin in the first place, it's like you forced yourself to be one and later on, either didn't want to, or didn't know how to get out off."
He paused and punched Naruto deeper into the crevice of the wall, "I don't know you but I can tell from your fists, you were an honest person. *Smack* you were someone with ideals and probably had an impossibly high dream as well. *Punch* People probably called you naive, called you stupid. You didn't care, all you had was your dream, but that was enough. *Kick* You probably trusted people and loved them even if they didn't love you back."
Rakan paused and let the bloodied blonde think for a few moments before continuing, "Then something probably happened. Something so bad, that you wanted revenge for it no matter what. You took the fastest short cut. You lost yourself in anger. You became an assassin or something, I don't know and I don't care. Point is you become something you weren't. You became calculative, cunning, and powerful enough that you started winning all the time. Don't get me wrong, that's not necessarily a bad thing, no one called you naive or weak anymore but in return you lost something. Even now you smile to people around you, but you don't trust them until you have enough contingency plans in place that it wouldn't matter if they betray you, am I right? Like I said, you think too much, unlike me." He added rather unnecessarily after some thought. "In some weird way, that knowledge, that wisdom has limited you; it restrained you from hoping for those miracles that you used to create on a daily basis."
Rakan smirked, "Now, the only thing stopping you, is you."
Naruto barely managed to lift his head and spat out a reply, "Stop talking like you know everything!" Spinning around and throwing off the foot, the blonde charged at the taller man, blinding him mid leap with a flash of light before driving down a huge slightly cracked sword that appeared out of nowhere. Jack didn't even flinch and blocked the claymore's descent with a sword of his own, a huge two bladed thing that looked like a cross without moving an inch, Naruto spun and pivoted into a side swipe which was deflected.
"You try being called stupid, called pathetic. You try having someone you called a friend betray you, hurt you. I didn't give up even though I was called naive and an idiot. I had four chances to kill him because I wasn't powerful enough to subdue him, but I didn't because he was my friend. FOUR fucking chances!" Naruto thrust his blade into Rakan's torso but it was deflected by another blade that the man pulled out of a flash of light, "Because I was too weak to take it. Too weak to stop him, too weak to kill him, I lost everything." Naruto screamed loudly as he wildly slashed at Rakan, "Because of that I lost my wife, the person I loved died, my surrogate mother, my teacher stabbed me in the back! You try stay being innocent and naive after something like that!"
"SO DON'T TALK LIKE YOU KNOW ME!"
A huge clang reverberated among the destroyed buildings and Naruto's blade was flung away from the force of Rakan's slash, a fist drove into his gut and an elbow slammed him into the ground hard enough to create a crater. Naruto groaned tiredly into the ground.
Rakan lifted the limp blonde by the neck.
"Why won't you just let me repent in peace?" Naruto weakly said.
"Because it's fun." Rakan replied just as lowly and threw him towards the rock cliff where the blonde rolled down the slope before his back came to rest against something that felt rough but cool against his burnt skin.
Naruto blearily looked up and saw brown bark; his eyes went further to see a piece of white ceremonial cloth wrapped around the middle of the tree trunk, even higher were pink leaves blowing in the wind.
A sakura tree.
One finger accidentally touched the tree and a memory floated out of the tree, Naruto watched it, utterly fascinated.
Flashback
A 15 year old Naruto sat underneath a Sakura tree fiddling with a piece of paper in his hands. In front of him was a titanic fox sitting in a cage.
The fox was clearly curious but had too much pride to ask what his jailer was doing and had been doing for the past 8 hours.
"Yatta! I got it dattebayo!"
A loud rumble from the kitsune signalled the end of his patience, "What are you doing?" it roared out loudly. The gust of wind kicked up by the roar sent the boy tumbling head over heels before crashing into the cliff.
"Tch, you could learn to be more polite you know, I was doing this for you!" Naruto yelled back after he had gotten up and dusted himself off.
"Huh?" the kitsune looked at the small boy curiously "Me?"
"Nyehehe! Just watch the awesomeness of Naruto Uzumaki dattebayo!" the blonde walked up fearlessly to the cage and lifted the piece of paper up slowly, the kitsune's slowly widened as he saw what the blonde was doing, "Wha-what are you doing idiot! If you mess with the seal like that who knows what will happ-"
He was cut off in a flash of brilliant light as Naruto stuck his paper on top of the seal that kept the titanic fox locked inside Naruto's stomach.
His big ruby eyes wrenched shut from the flash, Kyuubi slowly waited for something, pain, burning, something that signalled that the boy had obviously failed.
He got nothing.
One eyelid slowly peeled back and shifted around, seeing trees and boulders. Nothing had changed. The other eyelid peeled back now that the fox was sure it was safe. His frustrations slowly built as he realized the idiot blonde had been fucking around with the seals and looked around for a target to unload his wrath upon.
His found his target laid out on the ground unconscious, he didn't stop to think but leap on Naruto and try to scratch him while roaring. He didn't realize the boy was suddenly far bigger than him, or that his roaring had become angry squeaking. It didn't take long for Naruto to wake up from the signals of pain his face was sending to his brain.
"Ouch, Ouch! Stop that!"
"Stop that? Now you say stop that! What would you do if we both died after you messed around with the seal?"
"It didn't fail!" Naruto yelled back.
That caused Kyuubi to paused dramatically and stared at his paw, before looking up at a widely grinning blonde.
"What... did you do? How did you make me smaller?"
"I didn't make you smaller; I brought you out of the seal... Well sort off, hehehe." Naruto said as he scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
"Wha...wha- whatttt?"
"Look around."
The tiny fox did as requested; it even cutely pawed at the ground and sniffed the overturned fresh earth before looking back at the blonde with a weirdly stoic expression on its muzzle, "Why?"
Naruto tilted his head in confusion, "Why what?"
"Why did you let me out? I'm the Kyuubi, the thing that nearly destroyed Konoha, the one that caused your miserable excuse of a childhood. Why?"
Naruto's wide smile suddenly softened.
"Because you are Kyuubi. My one and only true friend."
...
...
..
End Flashback
Tears started to fall as the memory dispersed into floating particles that were blown away by the wind as he heard the sound of footsteps approached him but stopped a few yards away.
This Sakura tree... were his most precious memories of her.
"It's true, I don't know how it feels to experience something like that, and I wouldn't know what to do either but is that what she wanted?"
He pointed at the floating bubbles of memories.
"That's what you lost."
"You forgot how to dream."
"You forgot how to trust.
"And most of all, you forgot how to hope."
He lifted his palms with two large glowing orbs floating in front of them, "Ask that tree, would she approve of what you have become? Now... learn how to dream, how to trust and most importantly how to hope again."
Naruto struggled and managed to crawl forward while propping himself on his elbows, "St...stop... you can hurt me," he managed to get to his knees, "But not this tree, these are my memories of her. Please... please stop..."
Tears fell onto the back of his clenched fists as the ground rumbled from the amount of power Rakan was releasing.
"I said stop..."
The beam launched.
"STOOOOPP!"
Evangeline closed her eyes sadly and turned away, unable to watch as Naruto took the hit head on and the entire place was rocked by the explosion, Nodoka stifled a strangled gasp and Chachamaru watched, determined to learn everything she could about the blonde, Akako struggled in her grip, trying to get to her Papa, squeaking in anger while Negi wiped his tears away but never stopped watching with determined eyes.
"Nii-san is alright!"
"Papa!"
Evangeline's eyes snapped open, "Where?"
A shadowy blur slowly become visible amongst the two story high flames that licked the sky. The weird cliff with the faces was already completely blown away.
In the midst of that sea of flames two shadows become clear.
One was Naruto with his head down and his hair shadowing his eyes as he slowly stood up, completely ignoring the flames.
The other was his Sakura tree, standing tall and healthy despite the flames.
Play Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann OST – Libera Me From Hell
For a moment Negi thought something was wrong with his eyes as he watched a shadowy, blurry apparition of a beautiful woman with pinkish red hair floated behind Naruto with her arms wrapped around his neck.
Negi rubbed his eyes and the apparition was gone.
Naruto looked up to pierce Rakan with a clear eyed stare, clear tears fell unheeded down his cheeks as he heard the sound of chains shattering, his attention shifted up into the blue sky.
"Remind me Akane," he gently whispered to no one.
A short spiky haired blonde yelled at a masked silver haired scarecrow, "And my future dream is to be the greatest Hokage! Then the whole village will stop disrespecting me and start treating me like I'm somebody. Somebody important!"
A slight gesture of his wrist caused an awesome shockwave to emanate from his body, the shockwave completely snuffed out any flames with impunity.
The same short blonde boy angrily glared a scarred man wearing a bandana down, "Screw you! Don't underestimate me! I don't quit and I don't run! You can act tough all you want! You're not gonna scare me off! No way! I don't care if I DO get stuck as a genin for the rest of my life! I'll still be Hokage someday!"
The tall white haired man finally gave Naruto a smile for the first time they had started fighting; "Now... you are someone worth fighting."
A short blonde, blue eyed boy crawled on the ground, beaten up and hurt, he still managed to growl out at a scared red head with the kanji for love tattooed on his head, "It's almost unbearable, isn't it…? The pain of being all alone. I know that feeling, I've been there, in that dark and lonely place, but now there are others, other people who mean a lot to me. I care more about them than I do myself, and I won't let anyone hurt them. That's why I'll never give up, I will stop you, even if I have to kill you! They saved me from myself, they rescued me from my loneliness, they were the first to accept me as who I am. They're my friends."
A burnt hand lifted up slowly and a bluish green orb slowly formed, "Rasengan Niigata: Rasenshuriken."
A screeching sound overwhelmed everybody present, causing them to cover their ears; Chachamaru covered Akako's cute fluffy fox ones and muted her own ears, before with a simply flick of his wrist Naruto sent the huge screeching orb careening towards Rakan, the tall man immediately leapt away before Naruto stomped his foot, somehow causing four huge pillars made of lightning to explode out of the ground and Rakan crashed into some sort of invisible wall before a snap of his burnt fingers caused the screeching orb to explode outwards, engulfing Rakan inside the lightning barrier.
It didn't take long for the man to burst out of the barrier with a huge amount of scratches visible on his body, wildly looking around for Naruto, he was surprised when two hands burst out of the ground and grabbed his feet before another blonde appeared out of nowhere below him in a handstand before springing upwards and kicking his chin with both feet. Rakan sailed into the air and was dog piled by a huge amount of clones that all exploded in around him an awesome display of fireworks; electricity, fire and water. The explosion threw him higher and higher before he felt arms wrapping around his torso. Grunting Rakan elbowed the person behind him before more clones appeared out of nowhere and before he knew it, he was fighting hard to defend himself from the aerial dog pile from every direction, restraining him as much as possible.
Another Naruto, high above Rakan held out his palm for another orb to form, this one a deep red, orangey red splotches occasionally flared across its surface, "Rasengan Niigata: Taiyo no Bakuhatsu". Seemingly disregarding his own safety, the blonde rocketed downwards with the enlarging miniature sun held in front of him like a shield.
The observers watched from afar as the red orb which was as huge as a building with a small black speck holding it, slowly slammed into the distraction clones and Rakan alike and they all hit the ground before an incredible heatwave and implacable rumbling emanated from ground zero where a huge brilliant orangey, reddish white dorm slowly expanded, swallowing everything in its path although everything started to melt long before the dome reached them.
The dome completely swallowed fully one quarter of the original Konoha before receding, leaving nothing behind but an unblemished glass crater.
A cracking sound echoed in the newly formed canyon. It was quiet before another one rang out and a small crack formed in the middle of the crater. The tinkling sounds of cracking glass got louder and more frequent as the cracks spread, a slightly burnt Rakan with his hair cut short, or burnt off, suddenly exploded from the ground in a shower of tinkling glass with one last powerful blow and landed outside, gasping for air, "Damn. That was one helluva an attack. If I hadn't dug myself deep underground, I probably would've been fried into a crisp."
"Those are only the second stage. There's one more." A disembodied voice rang out, causing Rakan to look around wildly, "The technique originally belonged to my father, the first stage Rasengan. I improved them into the second stage by adding an element to the standard non elemental Rasengan orbs. Then I realized one thing about them. Wind Element cuts, but the original Rasengan grinds, adding the element only added more cutting power of the grinding. Lightning element added a piercing effect that conflicted with the grinding. So I changed the form of the original Rasengan."
"Rasengan Saishu Genkai : Ame no Nuboko."
Rakan's eyes widened and immediately bent over backwards, barely avoiding a flash of blue, "The Ame no Nuboko; Izanagi's spear. By forming a spiralling spear instead of a sphere and adding the Lightning element to it, the spiralling spear's piercing/drilling is power enhanced even further by the piercing power and speed of Lightning."
Rakan began to jump around, desperately avoiding the blue flashes that he could barely see moving at the speed of light and left huge trenches and holes whenever they passed or hit the ground.
"I don't even need to throw them too hard, the electrical properties of this jutsu causes the thrown spear to act like a rail gun."
Rakan rapidly back flipped, danced, bent and skidded around the blue flashes that fell like extremely dangerous hail before something tripped him. Rakan immediately regained his balance and managed to kick the person that had tripped him away before grinding to a halt before looking up, only to find himself staring down the business end of a bright neon, bluish white, violently sparking javelin that looked like Naruto had reached into the clouds, grabbed a thunderbolt from the heavens themselves and commanded them with god-like impunity.
A taller blonde, still with the same clear blue eyes, stared down a person who declared himself God. An incredibly thin red head with purple eyes with concentric rings around the pupil stuck in some sort of crab like chair with black spikes poking out of his back, "If you can't trust in the world, then put that trust in me. I will break that curse in your place. If there's such thing as peace, I will find it. I won't give up."
That was the last time he remembered having such clear and unclouded eyes….
The spear thrust forward and Rakan spun around, barely avoiding the spear and swung his blackened sword. Naruto used his bright blue miniature thunderbolt like a makeshift sword to defend himself from a huge cracked and blackened cross of a sword in a shower of sparks and the two of them danced back and forth in a pockmarked field of broken glass in a weird dance of blades.
Every time the blades clashed, it ignited the air around them in a loud ringing and shower of sparks.
The two of them landed on opposite sides of the crater sporting multiple wounds, Naruto steadied his blazing sword as Rakan stared at his badly chipped and blackened blade before hefting it onto his shoulder with a casual grin.
"Let's end this."
Naruto grinned, as if signalling his readiness the sparking javelin started to increase in size and it's sparking intensified violently. Both of them started calmly walking towards each other, each step cracking glass underfoot, slowly increasing in speed before with a roar both of them charged each other simultaneously.
With all the force of two freight trains hitting each other, the final explosion of light signalled the ending of the fight between the two panting titans.
The blade of the sword that resembled a cross had been broken off but still managed to stab through Naruto's torso while the sharp end of a blazing blue sparking javelin pierced Rakan's chest, a few centimetre's short of his heart.
Both of them coughed up blood and grinned.
"Heh, not bad."
And the mindscape shattered like glass.
Rakan, Naruto, Evangeline, Chachamaru, Akako, Nodoka and Negi were all violently thrown back into the real world.
Naruto's real body pitched forward in exhaustion before being steadied by one huge arm. The blonde turned one tired blue eye at the giant and barely managed to whisper one word, "Why?"
The giant smirked slightly, "I don't know you, I don't care about you, but Albeiro thought you were worth something, so I simply tried to make his prediction come true. That was a good fight. I hope you can fight the original soon now that you're worth something."
Naruto chuckled tiredly and closed his eyes, ignoring the shouting from the red headed reporter from his class and Rakan poofing into a panting, struggling Albiero.
Evangeline staggered back from the book while Negi steadied Nodoka. Chachamaru stumbled a bit while Akako changed into her human child form mid leap from her grip and sped towards the arena where her father was being helped onto a stretcher.
All of them looked up at where Naruto had fallen asleep and Evangeline smirked as she dropped her barrier causing a slight look of daze to pass on everyone present without magical awareness before they all shook themselves and refocused on the tournament, they would remember it was flashy but not enough to remember exactly what had happened, "That wasn't bad at all. He nearly won."
Negi grinned widely as he watched the blonde being carted away with a happily squealing that her father was alright Akako buried her face into his chest while the blonde faintly smiled and stroked her hair with closed eyes, "Yeah! Nii-san was pretty cool."
****Broken Faith****
"Fueeh..." He tried to raise a hand to block out the light filtering through his eyelids that was amplifying his headache but someone stopped him from moving too much and laid a piece of wet cloth over his eyes.
"You feeling better?"
"Papa!"
Forcing himself to extend his senses as his hand automatically went to calm Akako down by petting her hair, he tried to identify the speaker, "Chi-chizuru-san?"
"You were pretty out of it."
"Wha-what happened? Last I remember... Oh yeah, the fight with Rakan and Albiero..." the hand flopped onto his eyes and a small smile played on his lips, "Whe-where am I?"
A new voice spoke, "In a private hospital next to the arena, I didn't want anybody you didn't know going near you so I forced them to bring you to a private one. I shouldn't have bothered though, you weren't hurt too bad physically; most of your injuries even healed almost immediately but that last hit did a lot of damage mentally. I'm surprised you didn't become a brain dead vegetable." Evangeline commented idly.
The blonde on the bed snorted quietly, "Wouldn't be the first time someone called me stupid in big words."
"Hmph, you ARE stupid. Case closed."
The sound of cloth shifting caused Naruto to perk up, "Is there someone else here?"
"Your visitors, I take it you're healthy enough to take more abuse?" Eva-chan said with amusement.
"Huh?"
In reply the vampire simply grinned an evil grin while Naruto extended his abused senses even further and groaned as he felt the people in the room, "I'm so dead aren't I?" He muttered quietly to himself.
Other than Evangeline and Akako, he could sense Konoka, Chizuru, Mana and Ayaka all gathered in the room. Peeking under the piece of cloth slightly, he confirmed what he sensed in addition to the varying degrees of stoic expressions on their faces. He absently noted that Asuna wasn't there while Konoka was leaning on the wall beside Evangeline on the far side of the room with a smirk on her face, ready to watch the fun begin. Mana stood by the door watching silently, Ayaka quietly fidgeted on a chair beside Mana while the Chizuru had taken the seat beside the bed and had been the one to tend to him while he rested.
Naruto propped himself on the wall as best he could with a giggling Akako on his chest, "Yo!"
Chizuru moved first, "Yo, my foot!" *Slap*
"Gah! Chizuru!"
She stood back and gestured for her two companions to say what they want.
Mana silently stepped forward and swung her palm as well. *Slap*
"Ok... I deserved that as well..." Naruto whimpered quietly as he massaged his glowing cheeks, as he watched the dark skinned mercenary step forward, "A-Ayaka? I'm already hurt." he whimpered piteously and he looked at the only person he thought would sympathise with him, Konoka, pleadingly.
She stuck her tongue out at him.
Ayaka growled and started to pummel the idiot on the bed, "Gah! OK OK, I get I was wrong! Stop hitting me! Ow!"
The bed ridden blonde groaned at the two black eyes he received to match his two glowing cheeks as Ayaka stepped back with a huff and crossed arms.
Akako giggled harder.
"Stop giggling you! You're getting too heavy!"
Akako pouted cutely at her father.
Eva simply smirked wider at the back of the room Mana spoke in her usual quiet tone, "You owe us for scaring us like that Namikaze. You even took on someone like Rakan like it was a joyride. I thought you were smarter than that."
Naruto frowned, "Hey! You can't really blame me for something like that, I don't know who Rakan was or is. Besides I can't just back down whenever I'm fighting someone more powerful than me, that's not right for a guy!" Naruto protested desperately, "Plus that wasn't really my fault. He wouldn't let me give up."
Mana's lip curled slightly, "I don't care. You still owe us." She said evenly while the others nodded approvingly.
Naruto sighed and realized that trying to win an argument against the female half of his species was probably an exercise in futility no matter how valid his reasons were. So he resorted to the wisest/smartest possible thing a man in his current position could do at the time.
He grovelled and begged.
He tried to grovel as pitifully as he could on a bed, "Alright, alright, I get it. I was wrong. I shouldn't have made you all worry so much so please tell your humble servant what he can do to make it up to all of you?"
An awkward silence filled the room at his declaration as all three girls shared a glance before Chizuru filled it by stepping forward authoritatively with a sly smile, "As punishment for scaring all of us here, you will be sentenced to accompanying us for the festival tonight. I don't care how but if you don't, we'll simply assume you don't care that you made us worry."
"Me too!"
Chizuru glanced back at Konoka before adding carefully, "Alright, Konoka too."
"H-huh? Al-all of you?" one eye watched Ayaka carefully, not wanting her to know about magic even if she probably still thought it was CG.
Mana quietly stared at Chizuru with a hint of disbelief but seemed to accept it easily enough while Ayaka sputtered incredulously, "I don't care about an idiot like him! Besides how can he accompany all three of us?"
"That's up to him but don't you want him to apologize by being your servant for tonight?"
Ayaka blushed and spluttered a bit longer before turning to point at the blonde that was still massaging his cheeks with a regal finger, "The only reason I'm agreeing to this is because you owe me an apology alright! There's no other reason!" before stomping out of the room.
Meanwhile Chizuru and Mana smirked at each other almost challengingly before leaving the room.
Naruto sighed in relief as the awkward tension in the room left the same time as the three of them and started to pet a still pouting Akako in apology while Konoka moved to take Chizuru's former chair beside him on the bed, petting Akako as well. She smiled brightly at the both of them and nuzzled back.
"So? How long has it been since I blacked out? I remember trying to dive into Rakan's mind but either something went wrong or Rakan overpowered me. We fought and then the mindscape failing and kicking us back into reality but that's about it."
"Not too long, just about 45 minutes I think, despite your mental injuries you were healed even after 30 minutes barely passed." Evangeline said.
"Probably because your head is so incredibly hard," Konoka added cheekily before pausing at a knock at the door. All of them in the room fell silent and after a while the door creaked open enough for a brown eye to peek in.
When the person saw that Naruto was in the room, the door opened wider to let a girl in an elaborate chinese costume with her hair braided into two buns walk in.
"Chao-san?" Naruto voiced the question everyone else was thinking.
"Naruto-san, Konoka-san, Evangeline-san, Akako." The chinese girl greeted everybody quietly.
"Can we er... help you?"
The chinese girl looked up with a smile, but Naruto noticed a brief flash of... guilt and concern? flash across her face, "No, no.. .I'm the organizer of this event, I just felt a little guilty that one of the contestants was hurt so badly under my watch."
Wait... the barrier didn't affect her? Either she had only been watching a video feed which was unlikely, or she knew about magic. Something nagged at the back of the blonde's mind.
"I see..." Naruto carefully said, "I thank you for your concern."
Then to his surprise Akako climbed down the bed and toddled over to Chao.
The girl seemed to be surprised for a moment before her smile resumed and she bent down to hug the small girl.
Akako squealed happily and clambered into Chao's embrace, nuzzling the chinese girl happily. That alone raised one of Naruto's eyebrow, he hadn't known that they even knew each other, Akako was very reserved in front of adults she didn't know or those Naruto didn't personally vouch for. For one she hated Albiero. Although that might be because the idiot kept stealing her candy whenever he thought Naruto wasn't looking. That was more of a joke and Albiero teasing the kitsune though, since he always let Akako bite him afterward, sort of like an elder fox pup helping the younger ones during their teething?
Chao cooed at the happy girl before setting Akako down, "Here, I have a present for you."
Akako cooed back happily as Chao removed a jade green hair stick that kept her hair in buns before gently and softly looping Akako's long hair around into one similar bun with a practiced hand and pinning it together with the stick. The jade green contrasted with Akako's fire red hair nicely.
"Thank you!" Akako squealed before hugging the chinese girl tightly.
Chao smiled softly at Akako before whispering quietly enough that no one else heard her, "That's the pin you gave me Akako-nee san. Remember to give it back to me in the future."
Akako turned confused ruby eyes on the chinese girl, but Chao simply smiled and bid the rest good bye before swiftly leaving the room before Naruto could thank her.
The three adults shared a confused glance before Konoka shrugged and brought out a small mirror for Akako to admire her new pin. As she held the mirror up, the princess seemed to realize something, "That reminds me. Negi's match should almost be over by now. Shouldn't we get going for the ending ceremony?"
"Eeeh! I totally forgot! I wanted to watch that!" Evangeline started before dashing forward and grabbed Naruto out of bed before dragging the blonde out of the room with her, "Ow! Ow! Injured person here!" Naruto's pleading was completely ignored by the vampire, while Konoka picked Akako up and followed the two blondes with a Cheshire smile. Chao completely forgotten.
****Broken Faith****
Play SCANDAL - Secret Base - Kimi ga Kureta Mono
"Eight!"
"Nine!"
"TEN! Contestant Albiero is the winner!"
Nagi Springfield waved cheerfully at the screaming crowd before turning back to the shorter red head, "It's time Negi. It was good seeing you."
"Wha-what are you talking about?"
Nagi drew a calming breath and smiled, "Since Albiero used his Pactio to summon a copy of me, it probably means that the real me is dead. But I'm happy just seeing you Negi even though I can't do anything for you. Just seeing how big you've grown makes me really happy for some reason."
Negi felt tears threaten to fall, "Yo-you're not dead Otou-san!"
"Eh?"
"Yo-you came back 6 years ago on that snowy day to save me and Onee-san!"
Nagi grinned, "I see... So there's still hope. I hope the original is as prou-"
"NAGI! You bastard!" someone interrupted them with a yell.
"Eh?" both Springfields turned to look at the newcomer with similar confused expressions on their faces.
Nagi spoke first, "Who are you?"
"Evangeline-sensei?"
That startled Nagi, "Huh?" he pointed at Evangeline, "That's your sensei?"
Negi nodded excitedly, Nagi turned back to look at the vampire, "Evangeline? As in Evangeline McDowell? Why are you so small?"
Evangeline immediately steamed and tried to hit him, "I am not small! And if I am it's because of your stupid curse!"
"Eh... Oh... OHH! I totally forgot to lift that curse! I was really worried that I left without lifting it!" Nagi said as he stopped the small vampire from hitting him by putting one hand on her head so her shorter limbs couldn't reach him.
She averted her eyes and tried to inconspicuously nuzzle into the hand on her forehead as she mumbled something quietly.
Nagi bent lower with a smile, "Did you say something?"
Evangeline blushed harder before jerking a thumb over her shoulder, "That idiot already helped me lift most of it."
"Idiot...?" Nagi looked at where she was pointing and saw a pile of flesh and bright yellow hair behind Evangeline.
"Dammit, even if I'm healed, I'm still sore Eva-chan..."
Nagi got a weird expression on his face, "Neh, Negi... who is that?"
Negi looked at the pouting blonde, "That's Naruto-nii san. Why?"
Naruto stood up while grumbling at a smirking Evangeline when he noticed the strange red headed man that resembled Negi staring at him, "Yo! Yoroshiku. Do... Do I know you from somewhere?"
Nagi laughed brightly, "It's good to see both my sons looking so handsome."
Everyone present stared at him like he was crazy while Naruto slowly edged away from the crazy man, "I am not your son... you must be mistaken..." he said carefully.
"But your name is Naruto Springfield isn't it? It even starts with a 'N' like all the males in our family, you're as blonde as your mother was, you look like me and Negi even calls you nii-san!"
The blonde's eyebrow twitched, "No... My name is Naruto Namikaze... Negi doesn't call me that because I'm related by blood to him, my mother was a red head, and both my parents passed away already..." He was getting ready to run as soon as he reac... "Gak!"
Naruto ducked as a grinning Nagi jumped at him and tried to crabwalk away before a smirking Evangeline stepped on his cloak and prevented him from going anywhere, allowing a grinning Nagi to snag him by the collar.
Dragging a protesting Naruto by the collar to where a stunned Negi was standing he pulled the boy into a group hug, knocking Naruto and Negi's skulls together, "Ah! Don't sweat the small details! You look like my son if he was blonde so who cares if we're not blood related. I'll just adopt you," Nagi smiled softly, "I'm not insulting your parents, you can still love them but now you have another family to take care of you. No sweat!" Nagi grinned.
The shadow in Negi's memory had been wearing a hood so the Thousand Master's face hadn't been clear.
Naruto's eyebrow twitched harder as he took in the idiotically grinning Nagi's appearance in, "I take it yo-you're Nagi Springfi-?"
"Call me dad, like Negi does." Nagi interrupted him calmly.
"Bu-"
"Dad!"
"I'm older than you!"
"Fuck that, DAD!"
"Will you stop ignoring me?"
"Otou-chan works as well?"
Naruto sweat dropped at the red head's selective hearing and wondered how to get his point across until a timid voice snapped him out of his musings, "Nii-san... yo-you don't want to join my family?" Naruto looked down to see Negi's watery eyes and sighed before asking quietly, "How about Eva-chan? She's my little sister."
Evangeline blanched as she realized what Naruto was doing as payback for tripping him up.
"Eh? Blood related?"
"No."
Nagi grabbed Evangeline before she could run away without hesitation, the vampire squawked loudly as she was forced into the group hug, knocking all four skulls together, "Welcome to the family!" Nagi happily declared
"Geddof me you idiot!"
"If I suffer, you suffer."
Evangeline couldn't decide who she hated more at that moment.
All of them ignored Evangeline as Kazumi dropped down from her podium to take a photo. Nagi smiled proudly, his arms looped around Naruto, Negi and Evangeline. In the end she stopped struggling to get out of Nagi's grip around her neck, blushed, and averted her eyes as Kazumi's camera flashed.
Kazumi grinned and gave them a thumbs up.
Nagi stepped back and petted all three of them on the forehead, "It's time to go, I'm sorry about leaving so soon after doing this but this is just an illusion," he smiled sadly as he looked at all three of them, "Naruto, Evangeline, you two take care of each other and your little brother alright?"
The two of them shared a guilty glance before nodding.
Naruto and Nagi made eye contact briefly before Nagi knelt down in front of Negi. There was a slight note of pleading in his eyes that he knew the other two had not noticed.
"Negi, I hope you get as tall as Naruto when I see you again."
"I promise Dad."
Nagi waved energetically as a light array started to surround him, "When you find the original remember to make him officially adopt all of you. Even without me here you guys can depend on each other!"
Naruto nodded bit a bittersweet smile as he looped one arm around Evangeline and Negi's shoulder.
"Jaane!"
Negi started sobbing quietly while Evangeline tried to hide the fact that she was crying as well. They all watched Nagi as long as they could until the light got too bright and completely engulfed the grinning Thousand Master then they all looked away to shield their eyes.
The rumbling and lights obscured almost everything but the last thing they saw was Nagi mouthing, 'I love you all, see you soon.'
By the time they looked back, KuNel Sanders had taken Nagi's place. Negi buried his face into Naruto's cloak and tried to stop the tears unsuccessfully, prompting Naruto to pat his back soothingly. Evangeline looked she wasn't too far off either.
Kazumi stepped forward and tapped Negi's shoulder gently, causing the child teacher to stop crying and make eye contact with her. Kazumi smiled sadly and quietly whispered, "This belongs to you Negi-sensei."
Negi's tears stopped as he accepted the picture with shaking hands before clutching it to his chest.
"There's no need to cry Negi, your family is here."
Negi nodded absently in reply, his tears still fell but they were no longer those of sadness, as he continued to clutch the picture to his chest.
Naruto nodded at Kazumi in thanks before gently shepherding Negi and Evangeline to the podium to accept their prizes. Albiero silently joined them and Naruto silently thanked him for not doing anything stupid to ruin the moment with another nod. Albiero received first prize, Negi second while Naruto and Evangeline shared third prize. Konoka, Setsuna and Asuna were also given honourable mention and the 5 million yen to share amongst them.
Reporters immediately tried to crowd around the winners after the quick ceremony but were immediately halted in their tracks by a very intimidating glare from a purple eyed blonde. The more persistent ones managed to ignore the glare coming from said blonde until the glare was upgraded into a more powerful Killing intent. Everyone one of them froze, paralysed mid step, the weaker ones started vomiting.
Ignoring the reporters, Evangeline looked around them to ensure no one was watching before nodding in satisfaction and quietly teleported all of them back to her cabin unnoticed.
Once there, Naruto gently picked up a dazed Negi and tucked him into one of the guest rooms.
Walking back into the hall he found Evangeline staring out a window with a thoughtful expression and dropped into the couch opposite her. The room was filled with a comfortable silence until he quietly spoke, "That was a pretty interesting tournament wasn't it?"
The blonde's voice startled Evangeline, "H-hmm...? Ye-yeah... I guess it was. What are you doing to do now?" she replied just as quietly.
"I don't know. Walk around maybe. I still have to figure out how to apologise to Ayaka, Chizuru and Mana later."
"You mean dates." Evangeline replied idly.
"Apologies. That's all I can give them." Naruto stated evenly.
"Nii-san? Evangeline-sensei?" both of them turned around in surprise, not expecting Negi to be moving around so soon.
Naruto's brow furrowed in concern, "Negi? Shouldn't you be resting?" He motioned at Negi's arm, "You're still hurt from that match aren't you?"
Negi looked at his arm in confusion before replying "N-no... It's alright; you don't have to heal it... I can't rest yet, I still have to go meet up with the class. They wanted to celebrate my victory with some sort of tea ceremony. I don't want to let them down."
Naruto sighed, "I'll go with you and make sure you're alright." He glanced at Evangeline, "You coming?"
The vampire shook her head before staring absently out the window again, thinking of who knows what.
Naruto walked out of the cottage beside Negi quietly, "Pass me that picture. I'll take care of it for you."
Negi looked up in surprise and realized that he was still clutching the picture to his chest.
He stared at the picture that immortalized his family one last time. A grinning Nagi stood above them all, his hand looped around a half smiling Naruto, himself with an absolutely huge smile, in the middle was a blushing Evangeline with her eyes averted to the side.
Negi passed it to him reluctantly once he was done committing the picture to his memories. The blonde frowned slightly at the reluctance before kneeling down beside Negi who stopped and stared at him inquisitively. Naruto bite his thumb before gently pulling Negi's wrist closer and started drawing some sort of symbol on his wrist. Negi watched him draw a familiar symbol he had seen on the back of Konoka's neck on his wrist a few times before; when he was done Naruto grunted slightly, embedding the seal with his chakra, the rune that was drawn in still wet blood immediately solidified into some sort of black pattern on his skin. Placing the picture on top of the seal Naruto brought Negi's other palm and laid it on top of the picture.
"Push your magic into the picture, make sure the magic from that palm passes through the picture and makes contact with the surface of your skin underneath the picture where the seal is drawn." Naruto instructed.
A small poof of smoke appeared and the picture suddenly disappeared, startling Negi. Naruto simply grinned amusedly at the boy's reaction, "It's inside this containment seal now. Whenever you want to see it again just push more magic out like you just did."
Negi curiously tried as instructed and the picture reappeared with another poof of smoke.
The 10 year old teacher grinned and hugged Naruto around the neck in gratitude, muttering his thanks at the same time.
Naruto just smiled a lopsided smile and patted the boy's back.
"Come on, a gentleman must never be late to a date."
Negi grinned and jumped onto his brother's broad back before the blonde could walk away, "Gah! What are you doing?"
"Carry me?"
"What for?"
"Cause you're my real big brother now?"
Naruto grumbled although they both had small smiles on their faces as they walked off.
****Broken Faith****
AN
Tenkuu no Tenbin – Scales of Heavenly Balance
Kuchiyose : Sanjou Rashomon – Summoning : Triple Heavenly Gates
Rasengan Niigata : RasenShuriken – Spiralling Sphere Second Form : Spiralling Shuriken
Rasengan Niigata : Taiyo no Bakuhatsu – Spiralling Sphere Second Form : Exploding Sun
Rasengan Saishu Genkai : Ame-no-Nuboko – Spiralling Sphere Final Limit : Heavenly Jewelled Spear
Was it good enough? This was the one fight I wanted to make sure everyone's jaw drop at, so to speak. If it works... hehehehe...
I hope the family moment at the end was satisfying as well. *I seem to be making a habit of trying to make as many people cry as possible don't I? On another note, those that recognize which anime Secret Base came from, I dare you not to cry. xD*