The supports. T_T
Love you guys!
Anyway, here are several honorable mentions for pointing out to me some things I need to fix or improve on.
darkspawn89
NW Quest 10:
Recognition
April 19th, 724 AS
Border of Fire - Sandy Beaches
Mountain Ranges of Burnt Glass
The "extreaction team" had been long sighted even before they reached the border by Suchi scouts. These scouts had been disguised as civilians, or had even infiltrated the local securities. When they saw even a glimpse of military movements, they sent immediate message to the nearest fortress or outpost of theirs.
In this case, the fortress had been the Sumira Fortress, who got to ready themselves against twenty plus ninjas.
In response to this team, the Suchi forces at the Sumira Fortress sent a total of fifty ninjas, all of them jounins and chunins with few sepcialists at the side to meet the Konoha ninjas.
They were going to destroy this team, and they were happy to do their duty.
If it were to end there, however, things would be easy for Naruto.
No.
The fortress had another hundred waiting for them.
"Get down!"
All ninjas shot down as hail of shurikens and kunais sailed by where their torso and heads had been. However, Naruto, hwo was the one who shouted for them to duck and doge, stood still, and took the blows head on.
t-ting ting t-thri-ting
The first one to notice the sounds of metal was the Uchiha jonin who had been put in charge. In the split second, he deducted where the noise was coming from, and turned towards the source of the sound. There, he saw the High Priest of tanking the shurikens and the kunais like they were little pebbles.
Watching how Naruto stand in the face of the hail reminded the Uchiha of a unmovable boulder taking on a storm of tiny pebbles.
Then the boulder decided to move.
Naruto reached into his warrior monk cloak, and pulled out a ... book?
"You know, I always wanted to do this," Naruto said as he held his hand up. "Repent your sins-!"
A kunai flew into his mouth.
And he caught it by the teeth.
For a second, he stood there, uncaring of the blows being delivered to him, how much damage they were doing to his cloak, nor the fact that he was in enemy territory. No, he just spit the kunai out as he brought his hand down and tossed the book away. Uchiha saw the title, and raised an eyebrow. A random book.
"I guess I can't," he muttered.
Uchiha, who noticed that the man was in his own world, was very confused. 'What the hell is he trying to do?!'
Naruto's sad face became that of a demon in an instant. His eyes slit upward, his lips curved sideways, and his face narrowed. His cloak moved as if there were constantly moving, sharp mass underneath it. The very air stilled and fell heavily like a pressure. The battlefield froze and fell silent as they observed the warrior monk that had just transformed into a demon monk.
Wait, how did the face narrow itself, or for that matter, why was there such a sudden change?
While the Uchiha, the rest of the platoon, and the Suchi ninjas did not know, Naruto knew why.
[Terrorize]. It was a nifty technique he picked up during one of his visit to the Hunting Ground. It was only a year ago when he went in to get some more meat for a small festival for the Order when he came across a [Rivenhaile's Black Dragon], which was the name for their species, apparently.
The dragon was not massive. It was only about as tall as five story buildings. Nothing compared to some of the Grand Dragons that lived in the high skies. While it was not big, it was strong. It was so strong that it had a presence that made Naruto's heart skip. It was danger. It was terror. Its mere presence made his body freeze up.
It was from facing and fighting that dragon that he decided to make his own version of that terror. To induce that terror in others.
But the technique itself was strange. Instead of improving him, the technique actually -for a limited time- debuffed him. It gave him -5 stat to everything about him, but gave him all of those minuses as a total new "Terrorize" stat. Not only did the technique debuffed him every time he used it for the duration he used it, but it debuffed the enemies as well by a multiple of four. Twenty stat points just knocked off whoever he fought.
It was similar to killing intent, but it was still different. One can build up tolerance to killing intent like many veteran fighters did, but [Terrorize] had no such limit... Unless there was something that cancels his technique out?
In the end, he looked like a demon warrior monk to everyone around him. To himself, nothing had truly changed.
He pulled both of his arms out, lifting them parallel to the ground.
Then his hands reached back a bit, and then they warped.
When he pulled them back out, there were two greatswords in his hands/
The Megalodons.
"He he," he giggled. "I guess this'll be easy."
Then he sped forward.
Normally, these ninjas, Suchi and Konoha, would have all been able to observe and intercept the attacks, but for some reason, everything became faster and bluury. They realized that not only did they feel weaker, but they were weaker.
To these ninjas, Naruto was stronger than all of them by far. He was fear.
Squelch
Every single ninjas attention went to one of the Suchi jounin, identifiable by the green vest he wore. It was a silent sound in the middle of a battlefield, but the battlefield had been quieted already by Naruto's impossible actions. The jounin moved forward a bit, his eyes unbelieving of what had just happened to him. And then slowly, but surely, his neck began to form a thin red line from where blood began to drip. His shaky hands reached up and touched the line before his throat opened up like a fountain.
Then it broke into chaos.
At least a quarter of the Suchi ninjas went after Naruto while the rest kept the rest of Konoha ninjas at bay. Naruto jumped into the fray, already his cloak and conical straw hat bloodied at the edge by the first blood of the battlefield.
With ease, he swung his Megalodon in a wide arc. Suchi ninjas were forced to dodge, but they threw their projectiles as counter with ease only veterans could perform. Naruto took those projectiles head on, ignoring their ripping effect on his cloak and conical straw hat.
Then he threw his other Megalodon with a spin. The sword flew and curved as it flew. The sudden curve caught two ninjas by surprise, and they were too close. The first's head and shoulder lopped off while the second had the blade embed itself through his chest and neck before pinning him to a tree.
Naruto smirked as he felt himself get healed.
Now, the Suchi ninjas were just confused as hell. How the hell was this demon monk taking on all of those hits without a care? How was he tanking them?!
The second reason was the easier to explain -in Naruto's opinion. He was [Observe]ing them. He saw that most of them were between LvL 20 and 30. A good bunch. Right where he was.
For the first reason... well, there was no reason not to. Yes sir, he was tanking them like his class demanded of him! [Zealot] apparently gave him a boost to defense depending on how much enemies he was facing. How come he never saw that before? At his current LvL of Zealot class, Naruto received +0.4 bonus per enemy. This led to a increase of +4 defense to his already 20(+20) defense. On top of that, he wore his special chainmail, which gave him another +20. However, let's not forget the [Terrorize] debuff of -10. So he had a total defense of 55 was not good enough. In fact, it wasn't much. A 64 defense gave him a rough 40% reduction to physical damage.
One might ask how 35% wasn't much. In fact, if 35% was reduced from total physical damage, isn't that a lot?
With a base damage of 5 kunai being thrown at him, sure, he could take one or two. Against such hail of projectiles without end? Not much. His health was going to drain, and drain fast.
This was the part where Naruto, before he came to this operation, had decided to make himself a sustainer. He could not give himself a boost to his health as of yet with anything he could make nor could he improve defenses without investing time to make better armor, which he did not have the time for.
So he gave himself the Megalodons, his first "life-stealer." Every single time he cut someone, each Megalodon gave him 10 hp. A critical strike would give him 50 hp, which he performed two of just now. A total of hundred hp healed with one throw.
He had healed completely already.
It was for this reason he decided to bring multiple Megalodons. However, why did he bring two when he barely had enough strength to wield one? Because wielding two, however reduction to attack speed he got from not having enough strength to wield it one-handed each, gave him more area to hit, and more possible heals.
Like what happened just now. And while he could not swing them fast enough as a one-handed weapon when he had two... He had just thrown one of them, leaving him with only one Megalodon.
And he doesn't necessarily have to swing it.
He burst forth with speed that none of the ninjas in this battlefield could match. He held the Megalodon by his side and tilted it parallel to the earth as he shot forth... and in the way to his destination was another ninja.
The ninja jumped, but not before his chest and right arm was cut open mildly by the moving blade.
+10
Naruto landed in front of the Megalodon he threw, and he pulled it out... And threw it once more to a random direction. This time, though, the ninjas dodged.
Naruto che'd as he jumped towards one of the closest ninjas to his right and spin-swung.
The ninja in question ducked as he weaved through handsigns, and he smashed his hands unto the ground without uttering a name for the technique.
The earth rose up like rapier strikes in sharp and thin cones. Several struck him dead on in fatal areas.
-23, -23, -59, -59
He growled at the smirking ninja before he pointed a finger at him. "[Dark Wind]!"
Black wind sprung forth from his finger tip and sliced through the air, creating a temporary vacuum in its place. But it missed. The Suchi ninja who had damaged Naruto with his earthern spikes smirked before the vacuum collapsed as air rushed through. In a moment of surprise and the pressure of the vacuum, the ninja stumbled to his left... Where his right leg the Megalodon.
+70
Without stopping, Naruto spun around counter-clockwise, and lopped the man's head off.
+70
He smirked in return just as he jumped over several fire and water techniques.
'Seems they are starting to get how to get at me,' he thought as he ducked under a wind scythe. Then as he jumped to dodge another earthern spike, he brought out his taijutsu. He pulled his leg back as he gathered energy there before he struck out.
An orange crescent shot forth from his kick, and struck a shocked ninja in the torso. The ninja flew back before crashing into a tree and falling unconscious.
As Naruto landed, his arms were pulled back into dual punching stance. Then he let his energy exploded forth with his Flare Punch Bullets.
In return for their kunais and shurikens, Naruto gave them a hail of dark orange energy projectiles that snapped necks and crushed ribs.
Then pain exploded in his mind as he stumbled forward.
-218
He looked about him shakily as he pulled up his Megalodon to block elemental attacks and projectiles.
There was a goddamn kunai sticking out of his side, and it was in deep.
'Goddamn it, a fucking critical hit on me! Was it a wind kunai?' he hissed mentally, but he did not pull it out. He knew that if he pulled it out, he would cause a [Bleed] debuff on himself, and that was not good against a bunch of ninjas. But so far, he had eliminated 6 of 10 ninjas. 'Guess it was too optimistic to think that I could handle them all without taking significant damage,' he added to his thought.
He tightened his hold on his clever before he shot forth.
The ninja, a chunin probably, only saw the blurred face of a demonic monk before his chest was pierced through by the clever before his head was snapped backward by a orange fist. He died on the spot.
+70
Naruto pulled the sword out. 'I seriously need to make smaller version of this!' he thought as he dodged a kunai and took a shuriken to his torso.
-2
He fired off two more Flare Punch Bullets to distract that Suchi ninjas. He then shot forth, and slided off an arm from one of them as he reached out and grabbed the other Megalodon he had thrown previously.
+10
Then he swung the second Megalodon with all of his might. The ninja that had been cut previously couldn't dodge.
+70
Another body fell down, having been a prey to the Megalodons.
Naruto stopped his movements. No more attacks were heading his way. He narrowed his eyes as he turned towards where his platoon was. 'The cowards ran away,' he grunted as he high jumped towards the second battle. He bounced between trees, and when he saw the Suchi ninjas, he threw his right Megalodon with a spin.
Chunk
+70.
'Most of my health is back,' he thought as he finally pulled out the kunai, not even looking to see that his wound was closing at abnormal pace. He threw the kunai towards the Suchi ninjas' general direction. It probably didn't hit anyone.
He popped out into a clearing where most ninjas of the two sides were tossing techniques after techniques against each other while several tried to flank them.
And Naruto appeared right behind Konoha ninjas.
He che'd again. "How's the fight going?!" he asked, shouting through the loud noise of techniques bombarding the hell out of the landscape.
"We've been winning against them 2 to 1. I think it's because most of them are chunin!" the Uchiha he put in charge of replied after firing off a fire technique. "But our fight must have alerted their fortress! The operation is a failure!"
Naruto looked at the Uchiha before sighing. "I was going to do this right at the base of their fortress, but I guess this is good place as any," he told the Uchiha. "What's your name?"
"Umm... Uchiha Retsu," the Uchiha replied.
"Well, Retsu-kun, I want you to remember this moment... because you will be the first person outside of my Order to see this," High Priest of Nyx said as he gathered together his mana. "We were told to rescue citizens of Fire, yes?"
"Y-yes?" the Uchiha replied as the rest of the ninjas still fought on. However, one by one, they began to notice a growing well of energy from the Konoha ninjas. Specifically, the mentioned group's flank.
Naruto grinned. "Since they already know that we are here, it doesn't matter if we do a lot of damage, right?"
"W-Well-"
"[Shade Summoning: 20 High-class Shades]!" Naruto screeched as he knelt down and punched the ground.
There was silence for a second.
The shades of the forest, then, began t move, much to the horror of everyone (except Naruto).
Eyes began to appear by the dozens every single second.
Naruto simply grinned. "I am Uzumaki Naruto, the High Priest of Nyx! I have hereby summoned you to do my bidding! And do you know what my bidding is?!"
There was silence as the Suchi ninjas began to run away.
"I want you to go and kill those motherfucking Suchi ninjas in the fortress! GO!"
The eyes all turned away from the clearing towards the fortress built on the mountain pass.
The Suchi ninjas in the forest didn't get far. Even before they were obscured by the trees of the forest, hands shot out of the darkness before ripping them to pieces.
And it was that of a single creature. It slowly stood up from where it had been born from, the shades of the trees. It looked like a centipede like creature with more than twenty pairs of hands. It had a human's head for its head.
It let out a screech as it used its "hands" to speed towards the forest.
All around the forest, same creatures were birthed in the shades of the forest, and they rushed towards the fortress with abandon.
Then screams began to ring out from the fortress. Naruto shot forward towards it, and after a moment's hesitance, the rest of the Konoha platoons did as well.
Utero Akira was a citizen of the Land of Fire.
He lived by the border of Sandy Beaches and Fire, and had lived there for decades. Then these Suchi ninjas came and raided the small village he lived in. They took him, his family, and his friends to this fortress, locked them up.
And now, he was hearing screeches and screams.
They were getting closer and closer.
He held to his family is a tight hug, facing his own back to the door of the prison cell.
Shit, shit shit hsithsithsithisthishisthisthishtsithishit-
"Are you a Fire man?"
He snapped his shut eyes open, not having realized that he had closed them. He slowly looked over his shoulder to see the owner of a girl's voice.
And there stood a girl. Her hair black as the night itself, her eyes as deep as the deepest of the abyss, and her clothes were black like death.
She stood there with a smile, as if there was nothing wrong in the world. As if there was no bleeding body behind her. As if her hands did not hold spines and heads of men.
"A f-fireman?"
Her smile just grew wider. "Yeah, yeah! Are you from Fire?"
His eyes widened as he realized what she asked. "Y-Yes-"
She let out a giggle. "Then go back home! I'm going to play with some of the toys a little more!" she said as she ran out of the cell and into the corridor. It wasn't long until Akira heard shouts. He heard sounds of weapons clashing and jutsu's being launched. There was lights. But in the end, there was only another scream followed by something wet being crushed. It sounded very much like a watermelon.
Akira did not know until that moment how easy it was to crush a man's skull.
When the rest of the Konoha ninjas made it to the fortress's front gate, they were greeted by a sight that rivaled a slaughtered village of helpless innocents.
Except those killed here in this fortress were anything but helpless innocents. They were trained soldiers. They were skilled killers. They were proud fighters. They were ninjas.
And they were slaughtered like pigs, their back turned to the enemy. Their body splattered against the walls. One man even looked like some sort of a giant stepped on him.
Uchiha Retsu stared in horror. As a twenty nine year old jounin, one who has been in service of the clan and the village for the last one and half decade, he had seen a lot of dirty deeds done and forgotten by the world.
This ... scene in front of him just made it to top 2.
"Shit," he muttered during the small pause he gave himself to observe the scene before he sped forward. His comrades followed him without a word like the veterans they were.
Just by being in the courtyard of the fortress, his boots were stained with blood.
"SIR!"
But just before he was going to enter the stronghold, one of his comrades shouted at him for attention. "What is it?!" he called back.
"Enemy reinforcements! I see at least three hundred! They'll be here in less than ten minutes!"
Uchiha cursed. "Find the Priest and the prisoners! We're getting out of here!"
Naruto stood before the last room where his shades have yet to conquer. In it were twelve ninjas and five trained samurais. They were holding out well against the shades. He had to appreciate their tenacity and strength. They were fighting against creatures of nightmarish forms, and yet they did not break down before the creatures in fear.
Oh, they were shaking in fear still... They were good men.
"Uzumaki-dono!"
Naruto looked through the cuts in his conical straw hat at Retsu. "What is it, Retsu-kun?"
The Uchiha frowned before he spoke. "There's enemy reinforcements coming our way. They must have anticipated an attack here to have sent them in advance to meet us. We have to leave now with the prisoners, or the prisoners will get caught up in our crossfire," he explained. He then looked at the entrance of the room which was besieged by the priest's shades.
He shuddered as he looked at the monsters bang at the walls and the wooden door.
Naruto, on the other hand, looked on disappointedly. The High-class shades were good soldiers, able to tank a lot of damage. They were good close-quarter fighters as well. However, unlike the Lord-class and those above themselves, the High-class shades were not able to travel through shades unless they were of such design.
Retsu winced as the wooden barricade broke open to the punches of the black creatures. He watched as others rushed in, and soon, the only thing he heard was silence in what used to have voices of man trying to survive.
The monk grinned as he saw the end of the garrison. "Well then, shall we be off? I, for one, do not want to fight on a thousand man, even if I am perfectly capable of kiting them."
The Uchiha nodded hesitantly before leading Naruto back to their allies. Then with few instructions, they were gone.
When the Land of Sandy Beaches, or rather its lords and nobles, learned of the assault on Sumira Fortress and the slaughter that took place there, they took this chance to accuse the Fire of instigating a war...
Their efforts, however, were hampered by a single survivor's account on the assault on Sumira Fortress.
It's c-coming, the darkness is rising! They come from where there is shadow!
We were cornered. W-we were sc-cared. It was not ninja! It w-w-was not human.
Those eyes. Those horrible eyes and their dozen tentacles.
P-Please, don't send us back there. They'll eat us!
April 28th, 724AS
Konohagakure
Hokage Tower
Orochimaru smiled as he finished reading the report from Uchiha Retsu and another one from Uzumaki Naruto. "Well, it seems like our operation was a success," he congratulated the operatives sitting in front of him. "Still, our losses were regrettable, but at least our forces were able to harvest more of them in return, especially you, Naruto."
Naruto just waved off the comment. As the only member among the raid/rescue party who was not dirty, tired, and worn, he had been "chosen" to submit the report. The rest of the team would debrief later once they were rested briefly to get their tired bodies to work properly.
Until then, Naruto was giving out his version of the scenario, which he already had.
"If that's all, I'll return to the temple," Naruto said and gave the Hokage a mock salute before he turned around and left.
As Naruto left the tower, he yawned, his eyes naturally closing shut as he basked in the morning sunlight.
Now, in hindsight, yawning -and forcing his eyes to close in the process- in one of the most busiest street in Konoha was a bad idea.
"Get out of the way!"
Naruto only had half a second to glimpse at the bulldozing figure before he was hit by it.
-3
Now, don't let the damage fool you. Sure, the number represented there is miniscule. However, what was truly worrisome about this "assault" was its force. The kinetic energy behind it hurled Naruto along with the tackler down the street where they rolled around like small balls before coming to a stop.
"Argh," Naruto muttered as he slowly sat up from where he laid.
"Damn it," the tackler muttered from somewhere behind him, having rolled farther than he had. "I told you to move out of the way..."
Naruto glared over his shoulder. "Why would you even be running so fast close to the side of the street in the first place...?!" he hissed before he stood up. "Who the hell are you anyway-?"
His voice died away as he recognized who had just tackled him.
"...Sasuke?"
The tomboy from those years ago ... hadn't really changed. Neither had her fashion. He watched her as she stood up with a scowl on her face. Sasuke wore a simple long-sleeved black shirt with a raised collar and the Uchiha crest on the back, and black shorts. The V-cut on her shirt exposed her growing chest, but they were covered up by a bandage rolled around hair, which was longer around the back and top, was tied up to a ponytail while her front and side hairs were left alone as bangs, under which was a Konoha headband.
Hell, she even grew in height! She was as tall as him!
"Do I know you, jerk?" she growled back.
Naruto just stared at her for a second, confused as to how she didn't recognize him.
After all, anyone would remember the person responsible for beating the shit out of them, right?
Naruto looked at himself and realized why. He still had his warrior monk armor set on. He took off his hat and undid the clothes hiding his face. "It's me, Naruto! Remember the kid that beat you up-!"
He got a punch to the face.
-5
He stood there with the fist implanted in his face. "...Ow," he muttered as she removed her fist. "What was that for?"
She just glared at him. "You didn't even give me a good fight before you got yourself arrested, you bastard! You beat me up, taunt me, then you go and get yourself arrested, and I can't do jackshit! I didn't even get to hit you properly!"
"You just did."
She threw another fist in anger, but he dodged her fist did time by tilting backward. "Okay, you could stop punching me. I get it," he said before he had to dodge another punch. "Fine, fine, I'll give you a spar sometime this week. Are you happy with that?"
She stopped and glared at him. "A spar every week."
He just shrugged. "Sure, sure, whatever. You can stop your bitching now," he said before he dodged another punch.
Land of Sandy Beaches accused Fire regardless of lack of direct evidence of Konoha activities around the fortress; Naruto and Retsu had done well in cleaning up, even as they retreated.
For weeks on end, the two courts bounced back and forth on the matter ... until a single bloodstained Konoha headband was found less than a kilometer away from the fortress.
The Daimyo of Sandy Beaches -with reassurance of a quick victory from his generals and from many of his allies- declared war on Land of Fire.
June 6th, 724 AS
Land of Fire, Konohagakure
Temple of Nyx
Naruto narrowed his eyes as he read his copy of declaration of war that Sandy Beaches had sent to Fire. In it, it stated several co-belligerents of the war on their side.
Old Land of Winds
Land of Waves
Earldom of Black Woods
While the Old Land of Winds was weaker than it had been before the rebels had broken the country in half, it was still one of the top ten Lands.
While the two Lands' courts have been in debate over the matters of state, Naruto had visited Tobirama. Through the retired Hokage, he began to learn about more statistical military analysis among other things.
What he learned from Tobirama made him reconsider some of the methods he had been using to manipulate his community. For example, the Order of Nyx. While the Order was a philanthropic, religious order, it was considered a military order because of its leader, himself, their location, and its members' numbers and stance in life.
First off, those who knew of him and his capabilities considered him to be a A- to S-rank asset, not an individual soldier or ninja like most fighters were counted as. All Kage's and their subordinate commanders were considered to be in this rank, which made Naruto someone to watch from the perspective.
Second, the location of the Order was established in Konoha without an interference of significant sort from the Hokage. This meant to all military powers out there that the Order of Nyx was a order friendly with Konoha, or cordial at least. This made the Order and its members a possible threat. Or would have been if it wasn't well known that the Order's leader, Naruto himself once more, was an associate of Konoha, even having been one of its genin hopefuls. This elevated the Order from a possible to a definite threat.
And lastly, its members.
Well, duh! The Order is full of ex-convicts-suddenly-turned-religious! It doesn't make sense in the first place!
AKA from other perspectives, the Order of Nyx is just a cover-up for military build-up. It does not help the Order's case that its member count was swelling well above a thousand.
If Naruto continued this way, just going about his own missions, his own quests, his own needs, his family was going to be attacked. Worst part, he can't be everywhere at every time to stop an assault on his family members. If they stayed within the temple, which was very sustainable by now, they would definitely have the protection of their goddess, Nyx. Should they leave it, however, -and as all humans beings do- they tend to wonder, even knowing leaving their place of safety can mean uncertain and/or certain death.
Such a discovery had made Naruto feel ... conflicted. Order of Nyx was initially a quest for getting his class, but it changed into a family. It was no longer part of a quest, it was part of him.
And changing it meant changing him, his outlook on his work, his creation. That required a lot of willpower from any individual. But if anything, he was the Gamer, one of the most flexible beings on the planet. He made the necessary changes.
The Order of Nyx was going to train and arm up ... for their own safety.
With that decision made, Naruto and Shunhyu quickly started setting up training regimes and gathering equipments. However, Naruto himself was not a man of plans, which made him leave the planning to Shunhyu, who was generally the planner of the Order.
Another change was how he began to take people in for dungeon raids. Why would he do that? One, it was impossible for him to collect every single loot of every single things/beings/whatev's he slew. Taking on people would help with the increased loot, whether the loots are meat or scrap metal.
Two, it was to give his Order fighting experience. Fighting experience set aside the veterans from the greenhorns. In a war where they will be targeted, most of the Order members were woefully behind that aspect. So to give them experience, he took them on.
His first attempt at team dungeon raid had been at the Hunting Grounds with seven others, including Shunhyu, Karelia, and Meiji. With his instructions and few tools, they were able to hunt down a LvL 34 Tiger Bison, a ferocious animal weighing at 2.4 tons. That was at least a ton of meat that he could carve out and eat, and he had been thankful that he brought people along to help him. What would have taken several hours was reduced to a single hour.
He even saw that they LvLed up after taking the beast down.
But among them, Karelia seemed to be the strongest. At LvL 25, he was the strongest member of the Order. Right after returning from the expedition, Naruto asked of Karelia to be the Order's shield. Karelia accepted, and Naruto gave him the official designation of Zealot.
That was when the amazing thing happened.
The man's class, which had been a Prisoner, changed into a Zealot, like him. The man even had a small conversation with Nyx, who came to visit her newest Zealot. While Karelia did not become a Gamer like himself, Naruto certainly saw that such a change had a huge boost to Karelia. After the conversation and subsequent change in class, Karelia received an average of 5 points to all of his stats, except wisdom.
He then went on to repeat similar conversation with Shunhyu, Meiji, and few others. The result?
Meiji became a Guardian, another class of tanks, but one with more crowd control (stuns, slows, etc) than debuffs like Zealots had.
Shunhyu became a Monk Priest, a mix of a monk-type fighters and the Priest-type healers. Monk Priest, according to its description, fought up close like a monk when required and healed from a distance when there was a need. Unfortunately, this class had absolutely no defense aside from healing capabilities.
Alvilda Normades, a devout believer, became a Priest as well.
Sabene Juadantes became a Spear Archer, an interesting class whose primary ammunition for their longbow ... was spear. Big surprise there. This was an interesting class, actually, because it allowed the individual to pull a several kilo spear without weight penalty. So they were basically walking and shooting ballista's with a fire rate that was quadruple of a normal ballista.
Now, if Naruto got Sabene to ride a horse, then he would become a high mobility, rapid fire siege weapon.
Damn.
Naruto was actually jealous. Sure, he had the Shades to throw at anyone who wanted to fight him, but not many people had the privilege of saying that they were walking, talking ballistas.
Details of the last few days aside, Naruto continued on with that method and converted the entirety of his Order into different classes. By the time he was done, he calculated that with a month of training and discipline, his Order could rival a hidden village.
But he didn't because they were his family. Oh, he would get them to train to defend themselves when he couldn't, but he wouldn't force war upon them.
That was their choice.
With the Order set on that path of self-defense, Naruto turned to his other concerns.
Like the declaration of war.
And the goddamn message from his ability.
A Declaration of War!
You, or your dependents, or friends, or allies, have been declared war against!
During this period of time, Gaia is especially concerned about the Gamer's effect on the war!
Because of this, the Gamer receives a status!
[War
Description: There is a war abound, and you're involved in it. You must survive and win!
Effect:
-Cannot create or use dungeons unless at home base.
-Cannot use dungeon to move
+Every innocent lives saved from events gives the Gamer +1 with One True God.
+Every knowledge book saved from events gives the Gamer +1 with Nyx.]
Hell, he didn't even know he could use his dungeons to move across space ... until he realized what had exactly happened to get him in the prison in the first place.
"Derp me. I could've saved us a lot of time getting to Sumira," he muttered to himself after a facepalm. The trip to Sumira had taken several days, and the reason for it was because they had to avoid settlements along their route. With his dungeon, they could walk into any settlement because there would no one there.
He sat there and contemplated. The declaration of war proved to him that encouraging his people to train up had been a good idea. Hell, it was a really good idea.
But now, he was involved in a war. He would now have to kill people who had done him nothing wrong. It would be different from the Underground Massacre or even the Forest of Death massacre in his previous universe.
...Would it be? In the Underground Massacre case, those who were killed were those who wronged his family. In the Forest of Death Massacre case, those who died were those who wanted to kill them. 'Well, I'm kind of sure there were those who just wanted to get the scrolls and keep others alive, but I'm sure I only killed few of them... I hope.'
This time, these soldiers he would fight against were all innocent until they drew blood.
So should he wait for them to draw blood first? Why not? It was not like -
"Sir, I -I want to ask if you'll allow me to fight for Konoha."
-he had his family in the ranks of Konoha. Nope, apparently he did.
He facepalmed himself.
Maybe he should dump some of those reserve points into Luck?
...
Fuck, how much points did he have again?
"Status," he spoke out loud.
Ping.
He read through his own stat's to remind himself of his own stat's, and then stared at the number at the very bottom.
104 points.
A whole hundred and-!
He stopped everything he was doing. "Okay, time to upgrade myself," he said, and began to work down the list.
Strength. He had good amount of strength, currently at 25 + 13. But ...
"It could be better," he thought out loud. He knew it could be better because of the Megalodons. They were perfect weapon for someone like himself who tanked all sorts of hits that others could not because of the weapons' life steal ability. However, in his last engagement, he could not wield them as much as he could have. "I could've saved myself a lot of trouble just by investing ten points or so," he continued his thought chain out loud. "So... why not just dump a lot of points in there?"
ClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClick
There, twenty points. Now, his strength was 45 + 13.
Ping.
[+20 strength gave +5 HP (Martial Art Freak)]
"Sweet," he grinned.
Now, defense.
Currently, it was at 20 + 20, which -in his personal opinion- could better. After all, his class was a tank. So...
ClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClick
Ten points, totaling defense up at 30 + 20.
Luck.
...
ClickClickClickClickClick
Now at 12.
Regeneration, Control, Accuracy, and Attack Speed, he'll leave those alone.
Dexterity. Hmm...
ClickClickClick
Now 20 + 2.
Endurance was at a total of 40, which seemed to be good enough, so he skipped it as well.
Now, his intelligence and wisdom...
Eh?
They were only 14 and 14.75? Was he dumb then?
He looked at the points left. [66]
"Well, I could use some intelligence and wisdom. I mean, I am the head honcho of a big order now, aren't I?" he encouraged himself ... as he dumped ten points each.
That left him at 46 points still left.
Why not five more each? 36 points left.
...
What the hell...
ClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClickClick
Into Strength, and rest to Defense.
Ping!
Naruto stirred a bit, and turned to his left.
[You have invested 50 or more points into one of the Stat Category in one sitting.
As a result, you will gain a random technique or skill based on the category of investment.]
[Iron Defense LvL 1
Description: The body stands tall even in the face of a storm of arrows and bombs.
Passive: Increases Defense by 30 points.
Passive: Increases Strength by 5 points.
Active: Passive Effects are removed.
Active: Consumes 100 Energy and 5 HP per 10 seconds.
Active: Increase Defense by 50 points at the sacrifice of half of Attack Speed, Dexterity, Speed, and Accuracy for the duration of the technique cycle.]
Already, the points he invested into wisdom and intellect were paying off as Naruto began to analyze this new skill. [Iron Defense] was a long duration cycle technique, meaning that it acts like a toggle buff.
By the end of the week, Naruto learned that twelve of his family member had volunteered to join the ranks of Fire's Konoha infantry regiment. Some had selfish reasons like money, while others served to reduce their prison time or for their families.
He didn't stop them. Like he had established earlier in the week, Naruto would let them decide for themselves.
Oh, and how it hurt to know that some of them will die.
... But at the same time, he saw a pattern among them. The tanks, healers, and other supports were the ones who stayed behind with the Order, whether by choice or by force while the aggressive frontline fighters like warriors, demonslayers, and curse weavers were the ones who volunteered. There were some exception to this pattern, of course, but it seemed that way to Naruto.
'Are all people affected by their classes? Or is it the class that affect an individual?' he thought as he approved another member's volunteering. This particular man was a LvL 15 Voodoo Patchman, a particularly nasty class that sets up AOE(area of effect) traps that damage and debuff everyone within it, allies included. It was nasty because -including the ally attacking part- most of debuffs were related to slow-acting poison, decay, burn, and all other sorts of other morale crippling sickness that carried on for weeks on end.
Yeah, may God bless the other side because Nyx isn't going to give any.
June 7th, 724 AS
Land of Sandy Beaches
The Land of Sandy Beaches was exactly the kind of land its name described, a whole coastline of sandy beaches without a single rocky patch to be spotted. This was mostly because many battles that took place here had resulted in such a coastline by wear and tear of not winds and water but of jutsu's and people. The Land of Sandy Beaches also did not extend their territory into the inland; when given the chance, they always expanded sideways. Because of their tendency for such an unusual expansion, most of their territory was consisted of coastlines after coastlines. So instead of farmers, Land of Sandy Beaches had fishermen that rivaled the fishermen of Land of Water.
Naturally, thanks to their large number of sea-knowledgeable men and women as well as many rivers that come down to their coastlines, the Land of Sandy Beaches made much of their revenue in many things related to the sea. They sold fish inland. They had many trade harbors. They had a large navy, which secretly took on the guise of pirates to raid enemy and rival harbors.
One such pirate lived in Land of Sandy Beaches. He was a Read Admiral of the LSB Imperial Navy. When he was not appearing at the navy headquarter for reports or just casual visits, he was known to the rest of the seafaring community as a fearsome pirate, one that strikes fear into everyone not flying the flag of the Land of Sandy Beaches.
He.
Was.
GANGPLANK!
Name aside, on this day, Gangplank was enjoying a good day. A few hours ago, he had looted a particularly rich Fire-affiliated trade boat, and now, he had just raided one of Land of Water's trade boat.
Today was good.
And then a weird ... thing appeared in front of him. No one else but he saw the box in front of him, which had the following words.
[Welcome to the World, the Gamer!]
He was very confused indeed.
"Skipper!"
Gangplnak looked over his shoulder. "What is it, lieutenant?" he asked the non-obvious-lieutenant-who-looked-like-a-pirate.
The lieutenant quickly handed his captain the scroll he had just received via a message bird.
"W-War, skipper! War with Fire!"
Gangplank blinked. Then blinked twice.
Blinked thrice.
Then his mustache lifted up as his lips curved upward with a huge grin.
"C'mere, me beauty! It seem like we're gonna-" he shouted as he pulled his lieutenant closer into a man hug, one arm over the boy's shoulder, but he was interrupted.
"Y-You're being sent to the coastal raid department...sir."
There was a moment of silence as Gangplank detached himself from the boy before he spoke. "Arr... That's not good. I don't like them admirals there. They hate me ass and me they."
The lieutenant's eyes narrowed along with several other "pirate's." Gangplank sighed inwardly at the subtle change in the crew. He knew that they were fanatically loyal to him to the point that betraying their homeland would be nothing. They did not like that their captain was a subject of dislike from other top dogs.
Gangplank shrugged. "Probably because I banged half their daughters and wives."
They relaxed and sweatdropped.
Gangplank's Base Stat
LvL 49
Age: 37
Height: (5'10")
Weight: 77 kg (170 pounds)
HP: 1041
Energy: 12,000
Mana: 600
Class: Privateer
Category: Debuff Fighter
Stregnth: 50
Defense: 50
Speed: 20
Luck: 30
Regeneration: 0
Control: 27
Accuracy: 37
Attack Speed: 31 (3.00 atk/sec) [Capped Until Change]
Dexterity: 25
Endurance: 50
Intelligence: 20
Wisdom: 38
Naruto's Base Stat
LvL 33
Age: 14
Height: 161 cm (5.3 feet)
Weight: 57.2 kilograms (126 pounds)
HP: 580 (+24)
HP Regen:
-Passive: 16(+5) HP/minute
-Kyuubi-Regen Active: 20 HP/second
Energy: 100,000-Self + 1,000,000,000-Kyuubi (Activation Requirement: Unknown)
Energy Regen:
-Passive: 100(+5) ENERGY/minute
-Kyuubi Active: 1000 ENERGY/second
Base Class: Zealot
Category: Debuff Tank
Mana: 1500 (MAX for Zealot)
-Mana Regen: 30(+5) mana/ minute
Strength: 75 (+13)(+10)
Defense: 36 (+20)(+30)
Speed: 25 (-8)
Luck: 12
Regeneration: 6
Control: 13
Accuracy: 20
Attack Speed: 20 (2.42 atk/sec)
Dexterity: 20 (+2)
Endurance: 30 (+10)
Intelligence: 29
Wisdom: 32 (-2.5)
Stat Points to Allocate: 0