Chapter 5
"Are you sure I can't leave? Or at least change?"
The voice sounded from behind Naruto's mask, still secured to his face and shadowed by the hood of his cloak. He leaned a shoulder against one of the dozen brick arches at the top of the tower, staring expectantly at Julius, waiting for an answer.
The King, once again securing his cape around himself and brushing some of the fur from his neck, looked back to his agent.
"No, you cannot," he responded. "While I do have the report of what happened already, I haven't read it yet and I want the squads to hear your judgments directly from you. And right now you are the anonymous agent Gamma stationed at my command, not the ever-infamous Naruto."
"Thanks for at least letting me get my new undercover clothes. As well as picking the name."
Julius rose his brows. "Ah yes, Gamma. Where'd it come from, again?"
A deep sigh escaped Naruto, and a thump resounded as he let his other shoulder make contact with the stone pillar behind him as well, resting his weight backwards and folding his arms comfortably.
"Well, my summoning contract was with…is with…fuck, is this Schrodinger's Toad?"
"The hell is a Schrodinger?"
"Some guy who fucking merced a cat…maybe…I don't know."
If it were physically possible with the veil covering his face, Naruto would have pinched the bridge of his nose to fight off the oncoming headache. The details of this sort – being quite literally any droplet of information about his additional powers or past – were exhausting to describe to Julius. The man had a hankering for making any simple inquiry into a complete intellectual interrogation. The process had gotten old very quickly, but Naruto still felt slightly indebted to him and nearly always obliged, regardless.
"I'll figure the contract shit out later," Naruto mumbled to himself. "I should still have it sealed away. Who knows, maybe Mount Myoboku hasn't been fucked into the oblivion of time yet."
He then spoke up to his counterpart blond who stood restlessly, waiting for the conversation's continuation. "Anyways, my contract was and/or is with the Toads, and the word for Toad in the old tongue was 'Gama', and apparently you weirdos created an entire fucking alphabetjust for your military, so when I saw 'Gamma' it just kinda fit."
"Did you not have those kinds of designations?" Julius responded curiously. "It makes spelling words over shoddy communications a hellof a loteasier."
Naruto shook his head. "We never used forms of long range communication that could lead to communication errors. We just used a wide-area version of the Yamanaka psychic communication technique. As for designations?"
He kicked a pebble near his foot while thinking of a response. "I mean our black ops members were assigned code names based on animals. One was Tiger, another was Falcon…I think there was a Hippopotamus somewhere in there." Naruto pondered.
"What happened when you ran out of animals?"
"Do you know how many fucking animals there are?"
"A lot?"
"The opposite, actually."
The absurdity of the remark caused both men to heave a light breath in amusement, the huff resolving into Naruto's progression of the explanation. "They ran out of the easy animals early. Stuff like Dog, Cat, and Frog went pretty quickly."
Julius didn't seem too shocked by that. To him, the entire idea was so foreignly abstract that it was nearly laughable.
"Eventually they had to start doing different things in the same genus, so there was a Turtle and a Tortoise as well as a Frog and a Toad, etcetera." Naruto hummed pleasantly. "I'll admit they did a good job, though. No operative ever went without a unique codename."
"Were there so few members?" Julius asked with his brows narrowed in confusion.
"Hell no," Naruto snorted. "We had to start getting mythical. The leader's name was Dragon. One guy was named Fairy, but HR said they had to change it after he came out of the closet."
"Your black ops squadron had a Human Resources department?"
A pair of rolled eyes set the first part of Naruto's response. "Dude, some people were so deep in the organization that they literally didn't exist in the village anymore. The Hokage faked their deaths and the agents wore their mask until they either died or retired - usually the former. They lived in headquarters and on missions. Hell, even the regular members were only allowed personal leave one day a month."
"…and?"
Naruto stared at the man like it was obvious.
"Do you know how much pent-up sexual tension we all had?"
Julius concluded that, no, it was not obvious.
"Excuse me, did you say 'we'?" the King asked.
"God, ANBU would fuck like rabbits in the showers," Naruto exclaimed, no small hint of amusement seeping its way from behind his mask. "Didn't even care who else was in there, either! After missions or training the operatives were as monstrously horny as they were exhausted – enough of both to not give a shit if someone else is in there while you're fucking. At one point the process just became 'if you are in the showers for more than three minutes you are free game'. And nobody except the higher ups even cared! Eventually it got so bad the Hokage had to issue this fucking pamphlet designating where coitus was and was not allowed in base."
"I'm…I'm afraid to ask how you know this much detail despite having only reached the age of seventeen at your 'death'."
"The motto used to be 'Old enough to kill, old enough to fuck'. Though the word 'fuck' could be interchanged with really anything and nobody would complain. Drink, gamble, kill, blah blah blah. It's really just an impolite way of saying as long as you have a headband, you're legally an adult."
"So you…?"
Naruto shrugged once again. "Eh, Jiraiya thought it would be good for me to get a better look at the darker side of the profession. I was only in the organization for around nine months while I was 'out of the village training', but yeah, I spent a fair amount of time in base."
"And you would all just have orgies in the showers?" Julius asked in clarification.
Naruto stared back incredulously. "What? Fuck no," he stated. "The unwritten rule was only two players in the game at a time. We did it in the same place but no more than two people ever made contact."
He gave a mock glare of offense. "We were horny, Julius. Not psychopaths," Naruto replied in feigned accusation.
Julius hummed, turning a playful eye. "So you did partake?"
The sage smiled wide. "Snake was a freak, but Cat was my favorite. She was flexible," he recalled amusingly. "Hell, about halfway through my contract she started memorizing my schedules and would wait for me after I'd get back from a mission. She was a goddamn national treasure."
Julius shook his head in spirited incredulity. "I couldn't even fathom doing that kind of thing, especially around people I knew," he said, a hint of discomfort in his voice at imagining the situation.
Naruto chuckled. "Oh, we never knew who each other were. I mean, I did, but that was just a byproduct of my sage training. Masks were required at all times while not in personal quarters, so we just kept them on while we did it."
"Even in the showers?"
"What's group sex if it isn't anonymous?"
They both laughed, and eventually Naruto lowered his head in another sigh – something he'd been doing more often than not as of late. He was already two days late to start his training with the Lions and had truthfully been excited to meet with their Captain and hopefully start a fine friendship.
That opportunity had been torn from under him and pushed to the unforeseeable future when Julius had asked a favor of him with last night's reconnaissance mission that was currently still putting a damper on his already recently revised schedule.
Honestly, he'd hoped to have at least met with all of the squads before having to leave the city for any reason other than personal travel. Alas, great opportunities are often underlined with the finest of prints – both now and in his previous life.
More of the same, he guessed.
"Ya know, I think I deserve some praise. Maybe a promotion if there is one. I did pull quite a bit out of that dungeon," Naruto suggested, only half-joking.
"So I've heard," came Julius's reply. "What was it? A hefty amount of profit combining gold and gems, information on Diamond's child military experiments, and those swords of yours."
Julius approached the subject of the swords cautiously. Naruto had barely mentioned them in the report and subsequently refused to hand them to the state's collection of weapons, citing only to the King that they were artifacts best not trifled with and that the shinobi would keep them to himself for the time being.
If Julius had wanted to argue, the desire died before he could have even felt it. He knew that Naruto wasn't asking that he be allowed to keep the swords, but was actually demanding that no one other than himself even be in their presence unsupervised.
Still, the man was a King, and any weapons that entered his territory, under his possession or not, needed to be understood if for nothing other than the sake of national security.
Thus, Julius pressed further, asking, "What are they, really?"
"Swords from my time," Naruto answered honestly.
The comment somehow took Julius by surprise. No matter how many times he could be told or provided evidence – what little evidence there was – that Naruto was a being from over four-thousand years ago, it was still somewhat baffling to speak so casually about the matter. Now the ninja claimed that he had found artifacts that he had lived along-side? It was enough to not only interest him as a leader but astound him as a learned man.
"Ancient relic swords from millennia ago?" Julius asked, his academic fervor dripping into the interrogative.
"Don't start salivating, Julius," Naruto joked, witnessing the sovereign's excitement. "It's unbecoming of a king."
Julius, realizing he had lost himself in his own interests again, chuckled at the jape and motioned for Naruto to continue with a description of the weapons.
The hooded man shrugged slightly, complying.
"Well, I have no idea who forged them, no idea who first wielded them, and no clue how they ended up where they were. I do, however, know that these are the Seven Swords of the Hidden Mist – one of the Big Five villages – and were wielded by the force aptly named the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist.
"These people were the greatest swordsmen that the Mist could offer and the roster changed many times throughout history. However, the swords always stayed, and when one person left the group, either through means of death or the rare case of retirement, another would take their blade alone with their place in the group.
"By the time I became a ninja, the organization had broken up. Nearly all of the members either died or went rogue. But when they were together...damn were they a force to be feared, I can tell you that. I've heard a lot of horror stories from veterans about facing them on the battlefield. Some brutal stuff."
Naruto finished his small speech and looked back over to Julius who was fully entranced in the spontaneous history lesson. He could tell just from the eager look on the King's face that the man was nearly desperate for more details, and Naruto decided that since Julius didn't fight him on taking the swords, he could at least indulge him on some of the finer details.
"I've only ever faced two of these in combat," he started again. Unrolling the scroll to find what he was looking for, he placed his hand on the paper and, in a burst of smoke, out came a ridiculously large cleaver, easily standing taller than both men from hilt to tip.
"This is Kubikiribocho – The Executioner's Blade in your tongue," Naruto explained. "In my rookie days it was wielded by a man named Zabuza Momochi. We fought him on our first mission out of our village. Tough guy, and absolutely brutal with this thing. Though it just looks like an unwieldable hunk of metal, it's sharp as all hell. Additionally, it can use the iron in the blood of its victims to repair itself. I've seen it shattered near to the hilt and after about twenty minutes of combat it looked brand new again."
A heavy wave of nostalgia barreled into Naruto upon truly examining the sword after all these years. Not only did it signify his first venture out of his village to protect innocent people, but it reminded him of Haku, and of the day that he truly found his meaning as a ninja. Though it was a tool meant for bringing death, he would still feel the spirits of Haku and Zabuza in its presence, telling him that the blade could one day become an instrument of protection rather than destruction.
Naruto briefly wondered if the Demon of the Mist and his apprentice would be proud of how he turned out.
Shaking off his ponderings, he resealed the weapon and searched for another, pulling it out and letting it drop to the floor, lying stationary. Its scaled, club-like form hit the stone with a resounding clack, and Naruto stepped slightly away to create some distance from it and himself.
"This one here is Samehada – or Shark Skin. I'm sure you can see why," he motioned to Julius who nodded. "Up until his death nearing the end of the Fourth War, this was used by Kisame Hoshigake – the Tailless Tailed Beast was what they called him.
"The man was a monster, and not just because of his grotesque, shark-like appearance either. He had more chakra than me by miles, which is saying something considering I had far more chakra than most of the living population at the time.
"His skills weren't too sharp, but his physicality, chakra, and this sword more than made up for it. This scaly monstrosity right here absorbs chakra from a person at an incredible rate. Additionally, it has another, more unique quirk as well..."
The trailing of Naruto's voice drew Julius's eyes from the sword to the ninja, nearly annoying the King due to the shutdown of his education.
"What quirk?" Julius eagerly asked.
Naruto scratched his head, still staring at the prone hunk of scales. "Well, it's a bit hard to explain, but essentially the sword is sentient."
The sentence came out so nonchalant that Naruto felt almost unwell saying it.
The fact that Samehada wasn't just a club with chakra absorbing properties, but was actually a biological, emotionally intelligent being always threw him off when he thought about it. The whole situation simply felt wrong. Especially considering that the 'sword' was said to have been forged by someone.
He'd always become worried at the possibility of creatinga living, breathing creature as a weapon, and the thought that it had actually been done before and Samehada wasn't just some incredibly endangered species of a severely mutated swordfish was genuinely frightening to him.
When he looked for Julius's reaction, the man seemed as perplexed as he was, staring at the scales with wide eyes, his mind most likely searching for how such a feat was even possible given the laws of the natural world.
Deciding to continue, Naruto attempted to find the best words to explain.
"When I say sentient, I do truly mean sentient as well. It had some weird affection for Kisame, almost akin to a dog and its owner. From what I've been told, it has a habit of choosing its wielders, and if you try to grab its hilt without it accepting you, it employs a defense mechanism in it's hilt so that blades will erupt to shred the hands of anyone trying to wield it without its permission.
"That's actually the reason I'm standing so far from it, because I have no idea if it is still alive and, if it is, I don't want to get my chakra sucked out or my hands ground to pieces."
At finally noticing the abnormal distance Naruto had put between himself and the creature, Julius breathed a heavy sigh at the explanation.
"That is… not quite what I would have expected to hear," Julius admitted. "And you said this was made by someone?"
Naruto pondered while stepping over the blade awkwardly, nearly straddling it so that he could lay the scroll on its shaft to seal it away without having to touch it. He was finally able to find the angle needed and Samehada was absorbed into the matrix, giving Naruto leeway to stand up straight and roll the scroll closed, placing it back in the pouch on his waist.
"Much stranger things have happened in my life," Naruto informed, once again leaning his weight against one of the tower's pillars. "I witnessed shit that you wouldn't fucking believe. Hell the entire Fourth War was one three-day long nightmare. That sword, though…I don't think anything as have creeped me the fuck out as much as it has."
And yes, that includes the Eldritch monstrosity that was the Ten tails, Naruto admitted to himself.
"Actually, was the war three days?" he pondered aloud. "Fuck, I forget. It felt like three years, but that just might have been the memories from the sheer amount of clones I used piled in my head."
Julius nodded, perplexed by the war comment but understanding the man's reservedness towards Samehada.
Silence dominated the air for a few moments until Naruto finally felt the group that he and Julius were waiting for approaching, escorted by the King's assistant.
The ninja slipped into the shadows at Julius's brief hand motion, hiding himself until he would be beckoned to come out.
As the Knights came into view, Naruto noticed something strange.
Why didn't I notice them until they got to the castle? Hell, I should have detected them the moment they entered the gate.
It was confusing, at the very least, and worrying at the most. During the Fourth War, Naruto's passive range of life detection augmented by his Sage abilities had been enough to sense every sentient being on the battlefield with room to spare.
Without intentional concentration or using his Six Paths Sage Mode, the radius of detection was significantly less, but it still should have been far more than enough to feel Yuno and Asta at least half a mile away from where he stood now.
Had his abilities diminished? No, that couldn't be true. If I applied myself hard enough I could feel everyone in the kingdom. Hell, if I stretch my reach even further I can even sense Yami taking an early afternoon dump, which is not the information I need right now. Or ever… Ever. Yes, ever sounds good.
Was there an adverse effect on life detection because of magic? That couldn't be it, either. Regardless of whether or not humans have chakra anymore, I'm not detecting chakra. I'm detecting life. It shouldn't matter if that life holds magic, chakra, or no supernatural energy at all. If it's alive and within the radius of my ability, I should be able to feel it.
So that begged the question.
Why the hell does my passive life detection feel so limited?
By the end of that thought, Naruto could clearly make out the faces of Asta and Yuno and he pushed the problem off to the side. It wasn't an immediate concern when there were no large-scale military operations Julius was planning for the ninja to be a part of.
The blond cleared his mind, relaxed his muscles, and watched the interaction about to unfold.
Julius smiled warmly as the last of the group approached. He motioned his hand in a polite wave towards the group's eldest member. "Hello, Klaus. These must be your trainees from the Dawn. And you must be the squad from the Black Bulls. It's a pleasure to meet you all."
The man's comment was met with general dumbfoundedness. From the corner, Gamma mused that the Knights must not have been expecting an impromptu audience with the Wizard King. If they had, he was sure Klaus wouldn't have wasted more than the few seconds it took to calm his widened eyes and erect himself into a pristine salute.
"Sir! It is an honor to be in your presence," Klaus bellowed in a near-shout.
The junior Knights emulated his stance quickly, despite the obvious confusion that Asta was showing as to who Julius was. A quick whisper from Noelle was enough for his visage to change to absolute awe, and Gamma was sure the only thing keeping him from shouting his surprise was a quick elbow in the side from his silver-haired partner.
Julius waved off the group's stiffness. "Now now, don't get worked up," he said. "I only brought you here to congratulate you all on your last mission and tell you that it was a job well done. It's uplifting to know that we have such capable Knights in the Clover Kingdom."
Most in the group beamed at the words, not caring much to hide their satisfaction.
"Sir, thank you very much, though I don't know if we deserve your praise," Klaus admitted. "While we found the dungeon and repelled Diamond's forces, we were unable to secure any of the treasure."
Julius chuckled at what could be confused for humility. He could clearly see the self-doubt and disappointment in himself that the Knight was feeling. Not only did the teal-haired man have to report a failed mission objective, but he had to do so directly to his King. He could forgive self-pity for now.
"It's fine, Klaus," Julius responded to ease the Knight. "Regardless of your performance, we were able to procure a significant haul from the dungeon."
Klaus wrinkled his brows in confusion at the claim. "But how could that be when we…"
The realization then dawned on his face. "The agent," he spoke.
Julius nodded in affirmation. "I've been told you met in the dungeon," he said, beginning to ease the group's curiosity at the mysterious man that had approached them on their mission. "I had an operative follow you all to assess your performance and provide aid should the need have arisen."
Seeing the pieces coming together for his small audience, Julius kept his gleeful beam and continued. "I'm glad to hear that you were able to fight back the enemies on your own, and that effort let my agent secure enough of the treasure to help the Kingdom immensely."
Asta chose that time to enter the conversation, his confusion over the mission's circumstances trumping his fascination at being stood in front of his lifelong idol.
"You mean the guy in the hood we met when we first got in the place?" Asta asked, the silver-haired girl next to him visibly embarrassed by how slow on the uptake the boy was.
"Yes, that's him," the King said happily. "As I said, he was there to keep an eye on you all and make sure that you were acting with the manner expected of a proper Clover Knight. In fact, I've brought him here to give you his notes on your performance personally. Gamma?"
At Julius's call, Gamma emerged from the space where he'd hidden himself, visibly startling all of those who hadn't known of his presence. He strode confidently to the King's side and came to a tight halt, standing straight and true, exuding as much of the same professionalism and lethality that he could recall from those past ANBU agents who had been far more imposing than he had been.
"Hello again, you all," he greeted blandly, willing his voice straighter and an octave lower than normal so as to not give away his identity to Yuno and Asta.
"Knights, I'd like to officially introduce you to one of my agents, Gamma," Julius said, as if introducing two friends.
"You…" Klaus let out quietly, recalling the events of their meeting in the dungeon.
"Yes, me," Gamma interrupted, turning his head sharply to bore his gaze into the man. "Thank you for remembering. I recall that you have a name as well, though it has completely slipped my mind."
Julius did well to stifle a chuckle at Klaus's expense. "Now, now, Gamma, don't act with such hostility." The reprimand was too blatantly casual to be considered serious and none present truly expected the masked man to heed it. "We're waiting to hear your thoughts."
Gamma didn't hesitate once given permission to speak, finding it easier and easier as the seconds rolled by to fall back into the behavior he'd adopted during his own brief stint as a covert operative.
"There's good news and bad news. I'll give you the good first so you can fester in the bad later."
As much as he didn't consider himself a sadist - at the least, not anywhere near the scale of Anko - the uncomfortable looks that the junior Knights gave at his declaration came close to bringing a small grin to his face. Still, in an effort to continue the facade of a highly-trained, highly-professional, and highly-lethal operative, he smothered whatever disturbing personality traits he may have picked up from the crazy-snake-woman and moved into his speech.
"You were able to successfully repel Diamond and prevent them from taking anything of significant gain. There was no way to have foreseen the white-haired kid being a genetically engineered weapon and you did well in handling it. For your first real joint operation between squads, I would say that you did a pretty decent job."
The group perked up quite a bit at Gamma's praise, despite how little that praise was. The fact that their job was considered completed and not classified as a complete failure soothed some of their worries and brought a bit of confidence back into their forms. Asta even had the audacity to smile.
"That is true only if you only look at the results," he continued. Only Klaus seemed to catch the undertones of what he'd said.
"This is where my praise ends."
Without waiting for a reaction, Gamma turned only his head to Klaus, keeping the rest of his torso disturbingly statuesque, ready to unload the words he'd had prepared for the past few hours into the man.
"Never in my long tenure in the military have I seen a senior officer willingly abandon comrades in a hostile environment to seek glory for their own squad," he spat with as much venom as his stoic mask would allow. "Leaving two junior Knights alone in an active combat zone – in which I had warned you of Diamond's presence not five minutes prior to your desertion – was one of the most asinine and immature things I have ever witnessed. Your inability to properly assess the situation and conduct the operation in a joint manner could have led to two fifteen-year-old Knights – children –dying unnecessarily in the field."
Gamma didn't spare any sympathy for the man's now crestfallen appearance as he shifted to the blond haired Bull operative fidgeting next to Asta.
"The same goes for you," he said to Luck. "Leaving your teammates – the very same teammates whose protection was entrusted to you by Yami – to their own devices on their first mission against known enemy combatants is one of the most imbecilic actions I've ever had the displeasure of seeing. I had never thought I would see it actually happen in the field, let alone twice in one day."
He pulled his gaze from the boy who, despite having just had his abilities as a leader torn to shreds, was oddly enough still smiling. Gamma turned again to the Dawn Knight he'd just finished with, addressing both Klaus and Luck with lamentation only just finding its way into the detached voice he was still speaking with.
"You are both eighteen-years-old. I had thought that by now you would have learned the value of teamwork and putting the country before your own selfish desires. I see that I was wrong. I've met soldiers half your age with twice the ability to lead and fight. You seem to forget that while you may be separated by names like the Dawn and the Bulls, you are Knights of the Clover Kingdom first, and that goes above your childish rivalries and desires for challenge. Your Captains will be hearing of this and I hope that they find a suitable punishment for your behavior.
"Remember this and remember it well. The glory you bring to your squad and the thrill of fighting powerful opponents can never fill the void that a comrade's death will create. Had any of these four died, it would have been on both of your hands, and you would have had to live with it. Though whether you truly care, I cannot say."
Not wanting to interrupt the rhythm of his tirade, Gamma barely paused before forcing all attention on the two remaining Knights from the Dawn.
"You two," he spoke, dropping much of the harshness from his tone to create a softer, yet still authoritative inflection. Despite having made glaring tactical - and arguably moral - mistakes, Gamma did not forget that these two were soldiers still new to the world of battle. He did not want to traumatize them with a verbal lashing like with Luck and Klaus, but he still held firm to the great disappointment he'd felt, especially towards the black-haired boy who had left his brother in a dangerous area for the sake of competition.
To his credit, Yuno didn't even flinch and stayed at attention, his face holding firm as if it was made of the same material as Gamma's mask. Mimosa was visibly more distraught, clearly bracing herself for what she anticipated to be words as harsh as those used with her squad leader.
"A good soldier follows orders," Gamma admitted, looking between the both of them. "This is true. If your King gives you a command it is your duty to complete that task regardless of the circumstances."
The two nodded at the words.
"However," Gamma continued, "an even better soldier will question those orders if it endangers the lives of their comrades or innocents. Klaus gave you an order to leave the Bulls and follow him through the dungeon. You were being good soldiers by following said order. You would have been even better soldiers by questioning its legitimacy and arguing that leaving Asta and Noelle behind was a bad idea. Despite the fact that you were following a direct superior's instruction, that is no excuse for leaving men behind. I am disappointed."
As Gamma's gaze shifted towards the only two Knights who remained undisciplined, their fear was far more glaring than their Dawn counterparts. Noelle swallowed a nervous gulp and Gamma watched a few distinct beads of sweat running down the uncovered portion of Asta's forehead.
"Noelle. Asta."
Letting the kids settle for a single moment, he spoke once again.
"You were forced into unfamiliar territory in unfavorable circumstances with the odds stacked against you. You were abandoned by your comrades not once, but twice. Regardless of all of that you pushed forward to complete the mission despite being at a massive disadvantage, saving the lives of your fellow Knights in the process. You may not have completed the mission, but you kept yourselves and everyone else alive, and that's more important. You did well. My only words for you are to ask Yami to run you through some trap detection and disarming drills. I saw the ones in the dungeon gave you both quite a bit of trouble."
He didn't miss the looks of shock mixed with relief that the two Bulls had adopted, and once again nearly let his lips tug upwards. He truly was proud of their work. It wasn't - and shouldn't - be often that you're led into such a potentially dangerous mission with so many things going wrong, and despite their lack of experience and general clumsiness in dealing with specific problems, they did what needed to be done to secure their survival. In Gamma's book, that was enough.
The operative finally turned to address the entire group once more, enjoying the looks of disappointment and self-loathing a few of the Knights had sprouted a bit more than he admittedly should have.
"That is all I have to say," Gamma concluded. "I hope that I've given you all something to think about. And remember these words: Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are lower than trash. You are never stronger than when together."
With his review concluded, Gamma felt Julius's hand slap him on the shoulder. The agent had almost forgotten the man was there.
"Thank you, Gamma. I can always count on you to ruin the morale of my troops."
"Bitter truths are better heard than veiled fibs," Gamma responded, reverting his voice to the straight and aloof tone he'd spoken with before his chiding of the Knights in front of him. "While certainly harder to reconcile with oneself, the next generation must learn to become strong alongside the reality of existence, not sink into weakness among comforting lies."
Julius's eyebrows raised in mock surprise. "Wow, that was almost…poetic."
"Anything uttered from my mouth resembling poetry is merely my own eloquence. You pay me to kill people, sir, not to compose sonnets."
"I pay you?"
"Not nearly enough, sir," Gamma responded through gritted teeth.
Julius let loose a bellowing laugh at that, wiping a feigned tear from his eye before turning back to the group still before him.
"Now then!" he let out excitedly, clapping his hands together. "The main reason I called you all here was to invite you to the Valor Ceremony occurring in a few minutes! Some of our top Knights are being awarded for their achievements and I'd love it if you would participate. If you'd be so kind to follow me, I'll lead the way."
Julius didn't wait for a response as he turned and walked away, knowing that the soldiers would follow his lead. To his satisfaction, the Knights did just that, with Asta and Yuno leading the way. Julius halted for a moment to let them catch up, positioning himself between the two brothers, meeting their stride and bending low to relay a private message of his own.
"I'll show you those whose results you're going to have to outclass," he whispered gleefully, the look in his eyes making the statement sound more threatening than it truly was.
Gamma called after the King as he led the troops away.
"Will that be all you need of me, Lord Julius?" he asked.
Julius waved a hand over his shoulder, not bothering to turn back. "Yes, Gamma, you may retire for the day."
"Thank you, your grace."
After a quick bow, Gamma raised his head to see the Knights slowing their paces to turn and look at him.
"I look forward to working with all of you again," he spoke flatly, before disappearing, his body seemingly dissolving and being whisked away by the wind.
Yuno let out a subtle 'hm' before remarking, "That was polite of him. I thought that he was quite angry with us."
Julius chuckled once more. "Oh believe me, he is. He's just very professional when not given permission to speak his mind."
After making a quick stop in his quarters to change from his undercover uniform into more comfortable trousers tucked into black leather boots and a white shirt that hung loosely from his body, reminiscent of the sailor's clothes that he had been given those few days prior.
Naruto surmised Julius got some sort of humor from the wardrobe, and seeing how he hadn't had a chance to go into the city and buy his own clothing, the sage was stuck obliging the king's humor for now.
The blond took his time, not quite desiring to attend the actual ceremony. After a twenty minute interim, he snapped the book he'd been passing his time with shut and pushed it back into place in the pouch on his belt, making for the door and passing through the numerous hallways until he reached the entrance to the dining hall.
He slipped in quietly and scanned the room, spotting some faces he was familiar with and others he had yet to formally meet.
The group that Julius had invited made home at their own corner away from all of the others, most likely attempting to avoid their ire in some way - Not that it's working, the blond mused, noticing many stares of contempt in the room directed towards the 'filthy commoners'.
There were more than a few members from the Dawn as well as the Lions and the Roses.
Naruto raised his brow at the familiar blue cloaks and searched for his target, finally finding the familiar head of blond hair tucked neatly into a gleaming silver helmet.
Naruto smiled as he moved swiftly towards the table, going unnoticed by most until he slipped soundlessly behind the woman's back, then switched from stealth to fun, making exaggerated movements to grab a plate and casually pile it with food.
"God, these ceremonies are boring, huh?" he asked the woman's back, earning himself a rare jolt in her shoulders as she turned to him.
Smiling, he stuck a pastry from his plate with a fork and shoved it into his mouth.
"Tho hai go'a seh, da foo' es phenohmena'," he forced out through the dessert he was still chewing with a blinding grin.
"Naruto. I did not know that you would be in attendance today," she said dryly.
Naruto swallowed the pastry, placing the plate he'd loaded with food down and plucking a napkin from the ornately decorated table to wipe the crumbs from the corners of his mouth.
"Neither did I," he responded cheerfully, "but then I overheard Julius say something about a buffet and I thought that I should come check it out. Ya know, make sure that none of the food is poisoned and what not."
"How valiant of you," Charlotte retorted blandly. "The people will sing songs of your efforts."
Naruto nodded confidently. "I always thought I deserved my own song," he said in feigned seriousness. "A grand orchestra playing music as beautiful as my life is."
"I assume a song detailing your exploits would only be sung in brothels and bars," came Charlotte's reply.
Naruto shot backwards in fabricated surprise, his brows raised . "My my my, did Charlotte Roselei just jape at me?" he asked incredulously.
"Did you believe I was devoid of humor?" she questioned back, taking a sip from the cup of wine she had been holding.
Naruto relaxed himself, snagging a cup already filled with some brand of fermented red for his own. "Should I answer seriously, or is this a trap?" he jested, inhaling a gulp of the wine.
From their right, a small chuckle was heard, and both Naruto and Charlotte turned to see Sol across the table, her eyes downwards and cast aside with a hand at her mouth, repressing the blatant urge to liberate a snicker from her throat.
Looking at the girl's state he looked back at Charlotte, grinning smugly and motioning towards the dark-skinned girl with his arm as to emphasize the example he was proudly being presented.
"Thank you, Sol," Naruto said, pleased with himself. "See, Charlotte? Even your own Knights think that I'm funnier than you."
Sol shot her gaze toward the source of the statement and narrowed her brows angrily at the blond man. "I'm not laughing at you, nitwit. I'm laughing at that."
Naruto followed the girl's directing finger towards a view of three Eagle Knights that had approached the contingent of Bull and Dawn members. Ignoring the other conversations around him, Naruto focussed on the group well enough to hear the beginnings of an aggressive argument.
And at the center of it all was-
"Oh for fuck's sake, Asta," Naruto sighed in annoyance.
He didn't miss Charlotte's lips turning upwards ever so slightly before she raised her winecup to hide her growing amusement. "A brutish rookie causing a scene? No wonder you know him."
"I just told you that you're not funny. Stop it," Naruto shot back, putting his cup down and walking quickly around Charlotte, hoping to diffuse the situation before Asta could make any more a fool of himself or the others with him.
Those hopes were shattered when the white-haired boy jumped aggressively onto the table and began shouting. What he shouted about Naruto didn't know. He'd learned to tune Asta's tirades out after only a few months of living at the church. He was sure that with how the mood had settled it was something akin to 'Don't look down on me'-this or 'I'll be the Wizard King'-that.
Heatedly breaking through the growing crowd, Naruto stepped right in front of where Asta stood on the white tablecloth and unceremoniously pulled the boy's feet out from under him, sending the youth crashing to the floor.
"That's enough soapboxing, Asta," Naruto said, giving polite, although completely disingenuous smiles of apology to those gathered around. "Don't get your disgusting feet near the food."
Asta righted himself from where he'd fallen and looked to whoever had sent him toppling. At the sight of the brother he hadn't seen in nearly a week his face went from anger to confusion.
"Naruto?" he asked, confused.
"Yes, me you idiot," Naruto reprimanded. "Stop preaching on the table in the middle of a banquet or I'll grab you by the ear and drag you back to Lily myself. Understood?"
At that, Asta's forgotten frustration appeared again, and a pang of hurt rang through his heart at the possibility that Naruto would criticize him for standing up for his friend.
"But didn't you hear what they were saying?" Asta accused, violently pointing a finger towards Naruto.
Seeing Asta's conflicted expression, Naruto knelt down to get eye level with the boy who still had his backside on the ground.
"I'm not saying that they weren't being cunts," Naruto whispered quietly, growing content with how Asta's visage evened out at Naruto's insinuation. The blond then raised his voice so that the rest of the crowd could hear. "I'm saying to get your dirty shoes off the table. Some of us are trying to eat."
Asta smiled abashed after that, soothed by his brother's words. Naruto didn't care if the boy argued with the Silva's. In fact, his hushed message sent a hint of approval. What Naruto said had equated more to: 'I know that they're assholes and I'm proud of you for defending your friend, but could you please not make a spectacle out of it? I'm trying to enjoy the banquet.'
It was typical of Asta's surrogate brother, and the boy welcomingly accepted a hand to help him up. He had only just gotten to his feet when a voice thick with disdain cut into the silence that had taken the room, directed towards Naruto.
"Don't think that you belong here either, runt."
All eyes drew to a trio of silver-haired individuals garbed in distinguishing cloaks that designated them members of the Silver Eagles.
Naruto turned with the group to the three that he hadn't noticed before, and after a moment of scrutiny, his gaze morphed from one of examination to one of confusion.
One of the men of the group - siblings, if the similarity between their features was anything to go by, Naruto thought - took the blond's silence as his turn to talk again. "What? Lost your nerve to speak just as our failure of a sister has? Have you finally realized that those of your status do not belong in the presence of nobles?"
Naruto's confusion only grew as he opened his mouth slightly, and he could see quite a few members of the small crowd lean in, eager to hear his rebuttal.
"No. I, uh…You guys…What the fuck is wrong with your hair?"
Naruto could hear more than one failure to contain a laugh, with Asta not even trying to hide his own. He even spotted a rare smile from Yuno, though one that was quickly smothered back into a neutral expression.
"Excuse me?" the man who had spoken demanded in offense. The sage saw the two others next to him narrow their eyes in a manner that suggested he should watch what he said next.
Still, Naruto took the Knight's blatant invitation to continue with gusto. "I mean…yikes, guys. Just… And do people even really talk like that? 'Just as our failure of a-' because… come on, man. I never thought I'd actually hear someone say something so cliche without getting embarrassed."
Silver hair, in the Eagles, and I think I recognize the guy in the middle, Naruto thought to himself. Yeah. Wasn't he at the test for - ohhhhhh. These are the Silvas.
Breaking from his introspection, Naruto refused to concede his dominance in the conversation, settling into a rebellious glare toward the obvious leader of the Silvas standing between his brother and sister. "Which you should be, by the way. Embarrassed, that is. Because this is just fucking dreadful for me to listen to and I can't imagine how you feel having actually said that horseshit out loud."
Once he finished, the room stood quiet. Most were shocked at the sheer audacity of a commoner speaking in such a tone to a royal family, especially one of such prestige as the Silvas. Others, Naruto guessed, were still suppressing laughter.
Naruto nodded his head slightly towards where he knew Noelle was standing, not willing to break eye contact with the man glaring at him.
"Noelle, what are their names?" he asked innocently.
There was a slight pause in which Naruto assumed Noelle was hesitating with the answer, out of either unwillingness to join the conversation or fear of her siblings. The indecision didn't last long, however.
"…Solid, Nebra, and Nozelle," she spoke quietly.
Naruto nodded confidently in thanks to the girl and finally shifted his eyes towards the one who had spoken prior, folding his arms to display his absolute boredom with the current situation, attempting - and successfully achieving - to piss the trio off ever so slightly more.
Call it petty all you want, but nobody fucks with Naruto Uzumaki's family and gets away with their dignity, Naruto mused.
"So I'm assuming the guy with the half-cut and the superiority complex is Solid," Naruto muttered, motioning with a limp finger at the Knight before folding the arm back over his chest. "Name doesn't really suit you, though. You look softer than warm bread, bud."
Not leaving time for a retort from the red faced Silva, he turned to the female that nestled herself at Nozelle's side.
"Which means you must be Zebra?"
"My name is Nebra, peasant. Be sure to say it correctly," the woman spat at him.
"Or what?" Naruto challenged, his eyebrows shooting upward in amusement at the prospective answer.
Nebra smirked wryfully, as if Naruto should already know the answer. "You would do well to never find out, cur," she challenged.
At that response, Naruto's delight immediately vanished. It was truly disappointing how rare good threats were these days.
"That was, by far, the laziest threat I've ever heard," he drawled. "You should be ashamed of yourself."
When her mouth opened to respond, Naruto's own voice halted hers.
"Seriously. You should be ashamed. Of...well-" Again, Naruto dug his hand from the comfortable fold and motioned at Nebra's entire body.
"...you know," he finished, once again turning immediately to the next subject of his verbal torment, not caring to hear an answer from either of his previous two victims.
"And that must make you Nozelle, Captain of the Silver Eagles," Naruto concluded, once again matching Nozelle's gaze with equal intensity."
"I am. And you must be Lord Julius's new pet," Nozelle said.
Naruto audibly chuckled at the barb. It may have not been the best, but at least this one has some fight in him, he mused.
"Say that all you want but let's not forget that you wanted me on your squad," he replied, recalling only days ago where Nozelle had offered the ninja a spot in the Eagles. Rather eagerly, too, if Naruto's memory hadn't failed him.
"Which is a mistake I am glad to have avoided."
"Do you do it yourself?"
The question came quickly after the other, barely giving time for breathing room, and with little context to go on, Nozelle made the foolish mistake of asking for clarification.
"Do what?"
"Braid your bangs into that…uh…whatever it is," Naruto asked, playing with his own hair in mocking confusion. "Do you do it yourself every morning? Or do you have a servant do it for you? God, I actually can't decide which would be more embarrassing."
Nozelle's face darkened, and his siblings around him had only grown more irate with each word that Naruto spoke.
"You seem to have quite the mouth," Nozelle said.
"You seem to be shitty siblings," Naruto replied happily, enjoying the strained, near constipated look Solid was adopting.
"Ya know," Again, Naruto left no room for anyone to insert themselves between his voicings. "Julius warned me that the nobles of Clover were a bit…uh…prejudicial towards those of lower social standing, but I didn't realize how far you take it. You guys are quite the narcissists."
This time Solid finally found his way back into things. "We do not think ourselves superior to the commoners. We know we are. We're royalty."
The pride in his voice disgusted Naruto to his core. That level of vanity was closely reminiscent of when Nagato had truly thought himself a god. More and more Naruto realized just how much Julius did need help connecting the royalty with the commoners.
"You're not superior. You're assholes," Naruto surmised, eyeing all three of them. "Assholes. The lot of you. Your mindset will bring this country to ruin."
The power that Nozelle abruptly exerted after Naruto's last 'observation' wasn't hard to miss. It seemed to the shinobi that he had finally found how much rage Nozelle could feel before his magic manifested into this mutated form of killing intent. It exploded from the Captain's body, and Naruto could see some of the junior knights were feeling suffocated by its density.
"The Royals of Clover have brought this Kingdom to a prosperity that has lasted for centuries," Nozelle finally spoke, his voice threatening. "Talk all you want, but the truth cannot be fought by a foreigner's words."
Naruto shrugged at the insult.
"Words can bring destruction that no magic could ever compare. Prosperous or not, once the masses speak, your status means nothing."
The wisdom did nothing to alleviate Nozelle's violent contempt. In fact, they really weren't meant to in the first place. However, the Captain took it as the last straw.
"Let me show you the power that helped create this country," he muttered, very obviously priming an attack on Naruto.
The blond didn't move, but he was ready for whatever would come. His legs tensed in preparation to dodge whatever was coming and his thumb was already stroking the inside of his wrist where a few of his Hiraishin kunai were sealed away.
If given even another second, Naruto was sure that the dining hall would have ended in tatters and the Clover Kingdom would have been missing a Captain. A good story, he concluded, but one with a poor outcome and constant apologies to Julius. Not something I'm excited to experience.
That thought was why Naruto was more than happy to see a firm hand clasp tightly down on Nozelle's shoulder.
"Does the Silva household have such little shame to attack a man for merely mouthing off?" a rich bass boomed, and Naruto looked at the face of the man who had just unknowingly saved Nozelle's pride and/or life.
"I suggest you unhand me, Fuegoleon, lest you lose the hand," Nozelle said, shrugging the hand from its perch.
The now named Fuegoleon didn't pay attention to the blatant threat, instead speaking with the dignified tone expected of his position. It was the same tone that Nozelle had lost as his exposure to Naruto's keen ability to - as the ninja in question aptly described it - 'infuriate stuck up assholes' had been prolonged.
"Regardless of your opinions on their presence, Lord Julius has offered them a spot at this ceremony. They have earned the right to be here, whether or not they are commoners."
"I'm shocked that someone with royal blood could speak so ignorantly," Nozelle shot back with spite. "The Vermillion house must be in a great decline to accept the presence of peasants and failures at the same table as ourselves."
Naruto weighed the fight in his mind.
More so, he weighed the pros and cons of letting two leading authorities in the military he was now a part of have a - pardon his Iwa-speech - dick-measuring contest in the middle of what was intended to be a banquet celebrating the promotions of many of the Knights in attendance.
Only after he was done having his own fun at the expense of the Silvas did Naruto realize how much he simply wanted to eat in companionable silence. As selfish as it was considering he'd spent most of the last fifteen minutes assaulting three of the most respected royals in the country, he decided to give a go at easing the tension, hoping that the banquet's patrons could return to the absolutely delicious pastries the cooks were serving.
Making his way toward the hostile duo, hands in his pockets and sporting a lazily-casual trot, Naruto raised and waved an arm to signal the Captains.
"Hey, guys," he said plainly, doing his best to emulate how Kakashi had simmered fights between himself and Sasuke, "this is very poetic and all but can we cut to the part where we all stop fighting and start eating. I don't know about you but I'm starving."
His only response was a glare from both Nozelle and Fuegoleon.
Blowing out a hot breath, Naruto threw his hands in the air and gave a muttered, "Fine then. Fight for all I care."
And when the Lions enter the fray, the confrontation becomes an altercation, Naruto mused.
The two Captains returned to their heated argument - one that Naruto was now more than happy to excuse himself from after his attempts at diplomacy had failed. He stepped towards the group that Julius had personally invited to the banquet, all tension lost from his posture. He gingerly clapped a hand onto Asta's back, motioning towards Fuegoleon and Nozelle still locked in their superiority match.
"Is it me or did it just get really tense in here?" Naruto asked.
Asta's eyes bugged, pointing an accusing finger at Naruto.
"It's been tense! You were the one who made it tense!"
Naruto slapped the hand away gently.
"No, you made it tense," he corrected the flummoxed Bull. "I made it more tense. And then those guys blew it off the fucking rocker! It's not my fault that the nobles here can't take criticism."
He made a quick turn to where Charlotte was standing, still observing the spectacle.
"Not you, Charlotte. You're doing great!" he exclaimed.
Her response of, "Please do not talk to me, stranger, I do not know you," quite honestly hurt Naruto just a little bit, and hadn't yet gotten over the ever-so-teeny-tiny wound that the woman's words had left him with when another Lion Knight approached, this one a youth around Asta's age sporting hair reminiscent of what Pein's had been.
The boy halted in front of them, sporting an introspective look and introducing himself as Leopold, younger brother of the man currently having a pissing match with Nozelle.
"You know, standing up to those nobles took quite a bit of strength and no small amount of courage," Leopold admitted, albeit seemingly more to himself than anyone else present. "Especially considering all of the influence that the Silvas hold."
His visage shifted to one of a man who had finalized an important decision and Leopold finally smiled widely at both Naruto and Asta, extending his hand outwards.
"Alright, I've decided. You two are now my rivals."
Rivals? Naruto asked himself exasperatedly. This kid waltzes up and thinks he can declare me his rival? No. Nope. No. No way. "Nope. Nuh uh. Not me."
Leopold, obviously having not been planning on being turned down, looked quizzically at Naruto, nearly offended.
"Why not you as well?" he asked.
"I have had more than the recommended dose of rivalries in my life and they've all turned out to be incredibly annoying experiences that usually end in near-fatal injuries on my body," Naruto replied, shaking his head once again in a denial of Leopold's request.
"That's hyperbolic and you know it!" the boy challenged.
Not wishing to entertain the current topic of conversation any longer, Naruto bent down to eye level, taking advantage of the fact that most of the room's attention was now on the spectacle that the Captains of the Lions and Eagles were currently creating, he let his loose shirt dragged downward. Coupled with its low cut, the motion exposed a portion of his chest only to Leopold if the orange-haired Knight was to look down. .
"You see that scar on my chest, boy?" Naruto asked so that only Leopold would hear, watching as the boy's eyes searched, finally coming across the large patch of scar tissue on Naruto's right pectoral. Once he saw Leopold's eyes stop their search, Naruto continued.
"My rival did that when we were twelve."
Naruto would admit the younger Vermillion did a good job of hiding the horrified recognition that he was obviously suppressing at the moment, and the question the boy whispered hesitantly was actually slightly funny.
"Gods, how are you still alive?"
Naruto chuckled lightly at the question, standing back upwards and quietly replying, "You should see the exit wound."
In one motion, Naruto grabbed Asta's collar and heaved him towards Leopold as a gesture of 'Here. You can have this one', and once again retreated more and more to the back of the crowd that was still captivated by Fuegoleon and Nozelle.
God. You'd think by now the two would have just started fighting. The hell's this taking so long for?
Disregarding the thought, Naruto moved quietly to a now abandoned table still filled with food, grabbing another one of those delicious desserts from the serving platter and munching on it happily. He was so engrossed in the flavor - Is this raspberry filling? - that he only just noticed when he'd settled comfortably next to the yellow-eyed girl who had been partnered with Yuno in the Dawn.
And, of course, being an Uzumaki with working vocal cords and a mouth that could open, he lived up to his family name by starting a conversation despite the worsening atmosphere in the room.
"So you're the girl teamed with my little brother, huh?" Naruto spoke, finishing the rest of the pastry with one large bite.
To his surprise, the girl didn't shift under his gaze, which then led to him wondering why he thought she would be shy around him.
Of course, she sure looked as if she would be nervous under attention, but judging by appearances wouldn't be fair at all. Still, she'd certainly been sheepish enough when she'd met him under the guise of Gamma. Though, that also wouldn't be fair. Even Asta, as bullheaded as he was, looked frightened after the scoldings he'd given earlier.
Perhaps it was her resemblance to Hinata? Not in how the girl looked - the two didn't share many similarities apart from the roundness of their faces.
No, he finally realized. It wasn't their looks. It was their mannerisms.
Mimosa - praise the lord that I remember her name - carried herself similar to how Hinata had. She had a foreign grace about her, carrying herself proudly as the member of a distinguished family but with the recognition that she wasn't inherently better than others because of that.
Thus, when he moved to speak with her, he expected her to nearly shut down. Instead she turned to meet his gaze as anybody else would.
"You're Yuno's brother?" the girl responded a bit confused. "You don't look anything alike."
Naruto shrugged nonchalantly. "He's adopted."
The response elicited a quiet 'oh' from the girl in understanding.
"And so am I," Naruto relayed casually. "It's a weird house-church-orphanage-thing." He waved his hands in an attempt at conveying whatever the hell he was trying to convey. Naruto convinced himself that it was supposed to be the shape of the church, though he quickly recognized that to any bystander not familiar with the building, he was simply swinging his hands in a nonsensical manner.
Luckily, instead of being put off by the motion, Mimosa covered her mouth politely as she giggled.
"Actually, I can kind of see the resemblance now," she said with sincerity.
"Really?" Naruto asked, eyebrows raised. "That's actually…that's bad. That's kind of bad." He concluded, bending down to the girl's height and looking directly into Mimosa's eyes, examining them. "That's really bad. We don't look alike at all. Are your eyes okay? I can fix it if they're not."
The action was enough to elicit another chuckle from the girl, and Naruto righted himself upward again with a warm smile.
"I mean in your personality," she clarified. "If you really did help raise Yuno, I can see he learned a lot from you."
"Haven't you only known each other for a week?" Naruto asked.
Mimosa grinned confidently. "I'm a decent judge of character."
"Well then thank you," Naruto said, bowing his head politely at the compliment. "Anyways," he continued, searching for another cup to drink from, "How's the feast been going for you? Get enough food? Mingle a bit? Meet a new archnemesis?"
"Nothing like that, no," the girl replied politely. She scanned the guests of the room, some having lost interest in the argument between the Captains that was surely going no farther than the two seeing who could intimidate the other more with their magic power. "I've just been here waiting for it to be over. Asta's charade was a bit much for me but adding Fuegoleon into the mix was an entirely new deal of embarrassment."
She turned back to Naruto with a resigned face. "I kind of just want to go home."
Naruto nodded in understanding.
"I hear ya," he acknowledged. "Though, we're probably feeling the opposites… What's the opposite of wanting to go home?...Not wanting to…? Hell, it doesn't matter. Point is, I've been cooped up for a while without any action. I could use a good quest right about now. Something to get my blood pumping again."
As if summoned by his words, the doors to the banquet burst open, slamming into the walls with a speed Naruto wasn't quite sure that doors of that size and make were meant to achieve. All heads turned to watch as a man donning a hooded robe ran through the opening, breathing heavily.
"There's trouble! The city is under attack!" the hooded man yelled frantically.
Despite the gravity of the news, Naruto couldn't help but crack a smile at the irony of this happening immediately after what he'd said. He looked towards Mimosa with a reserved grin.
"Ask and you shall receive," he stated, gently pushing the girl towards where the other Knights were gathering and quickly prepping for a full sprint, intent on retrieving his gear and getting into the city proper as quickly as he could to assess the situation.
Charlotte's voice stopped him from his exit.
"Naruto, where are you going?" her voice called urgently.
Naruto turned back, looking between her and where the hooded man now stood in the doorway, flexing his brows as if it was obvious.
"You heard the man," he said, readying himself to run once again. "City's under attack. I'm getting my shit and then getting out there."
Again, Charlotte's call halted him. "Do you not think you should help assess the damage and plan the defense? I understand that you are well versed in military strategy and I think that you should be there."
Naruto considered it. He would have been happy to have left the Captains to their own devices. Not out of any spite, but more for the fact that those present were not aware of many of his abilities and their orders - that they would have expected him to follow without question - surely would have underutilized his talents in the given situation.
He figured it best to leave himself out of the deliberation entirely and go about strategy in the true Naruto Uzumaki fashion: Save Damsels, Punch Bad Guys, Get Drunk. Preferably in that order, though not necessarily in that order.
Yet here Charlotte was asking him for help, wasting precious seconds that could be spent littering the city with Hiraishin markers and an army's worth of clones - not that the woman realized she was wasting that time.
Well, to be fair, she wasn't really asking for his help. It seemed more that she simply thought he should be at the meeting. Maybe she truly believed that he had valuable experience with macro-management military strategy. Maybe it was because she thought that Julius's new attendant should be present at such a high profile strategy meeting. Maybe she just liked to look at his ass.
Yeah, definitely the third one, Naruto thought incorrectly. Despite his self-considered divinely-gifted ass, he knew he was trying to fool himself with that wish. However, since he knew that he knew he was trying to fool himself, then he knew that because he knew that he knew then he could-
Right. Shit. City under attack, he chastised himself.
With a hint of frustration, four clones of Naruto appeared to Charlotte's left. Naruto barked orders at them.
"Number One: lock down the walls. No one gets in or out until this is over. Number Two: start evacuating the citizens and make sure they're out of the way. Three: Damage control. Any of those fires spread and I'll kill myself to spite you. Four will get to the other squads and mobilize them. You know where to send them. I'll be out soon to deal with the hostiles."
Without delay, the clones nodded and disappeared from sight, leaving Naruto to turn back to Charlotte, walking quickly toward the gathering of other Knights as Charlotte followed.
"Alright, let's talk strategy," he sighed out, glancing towards a massive stone slap that had been constructed by one of the Dawn Knights, detailing an aerial view of the city in real time.
The duo hadn't even made it to the table when Asta rushed past them, screaming something about 'going to where it's the loudest'. Leopold followed confidently after, shouting something about rivals that made Naruto recall Gai and Lee in more detail than he'd have liked. Once again, he did his best to ignore most of it.
"Well that's one way to go about it," Naruto sighed, not missing Charlotte cringing mildly at the site.
Seeing as how two Knights were already heading straight into the thick of things, Naruto felt no more need to dabble in the room any longer. He could see Fuegoleon inhale in an attempt at issuing orders of his own, but Naruto shouted quickly to cut him off.
After all, if Charlotte insisted that he stay for the strategy briefing, there was no way he was letting these guys make the decisions.
He didn't become the strongest ninja in the world to be ordered around, dammit!
"Alright, listen up and listen well because I'm not going to be the one to explain to Julius why his city was destroyed while we were all still in it!"
Naruto's resigned tenor turned forceful baritone drew the attention of all those still in the room. Ironically enough, he saw more than a few Knights come to a sort of attention at his booming declaration. Though, that's what usually happened when he used what Shikamaru had dubbed his 'Kage Speak'.
The voice he'd spoken to the banquet hall with wasn't the familiar casual, easygoing manner that he had introduced to the inhabitants of the capitol. Now it was the voice of a commander; the voice of a Kage. It was a voice that you listened to - not because of what the speaker was saying, but simply because he was speaking.
In response to seeing both Fuegoleon and Nozelle open their mouths - most likely to protest with no little prejudice and, in Nozelle's case, insulting remarks, his attempt at taking command. Naruto gave them no room and instead spoke again, studying the map of the city still flowing animatedly from the Dawn Knight's creation.
"We've got massive destruction in the Central, Northern, and Eastern sections of the city so let's do this clean and quick so I can finish my steak!"
Almost subconsciously, Naruto began going through the wisdom he had gathered as a High Commander during the Fourth War in his head.
Speak clearly. Speak confidently. Speak powerfully.
"Fuegoleon, Noelle, you're on Asta and Leopold. Once you get them, head to the North Section and clear it out!"
Check. Four millennia of isolation can't take away an Uzumaki's ability to talk loudly and proudly. Checkmate, time.
Leave no room for question. Leave no room for doubt.
"Silvas! The most chaos looks like it's coming from the central district so head there and find out what the fuck is going on!"
Despite the harsh glares leveled from Solid and Nebra, Naruto did not move in the slightest. The plan would work. Naruto didn't doubt it in the slightest. The plans always worked. Either by luck or by skill or by some grey dude giving you superpowers and telling you to kill his mom, they worked.
Hold yourself with pride. Let them see your absolute confidence in your decisions.
"Charlotte, Sol! Take the East! I want that section cleared within the hour!"
Charlotte even took the initiative to nod slightly, if not out of minute curiosity and sheer dumbfoundedness. It was subtle, sure, but it was still the highest form of acknowledgement Naruto received from anybody.
Make it clear who holds authority.
"Everybody else you're on civie duty. Split in two and make sure the people stay safe!"
Once again, there were no protests. Looks of confusion and question, sure. But nothing verbal, and as a wise man (Naruto) once said (about five seconds ago in his head), if you don't say anything, you aren't heard.
If it hadn't been before, surely it was now clear to those who hadn't known him before his taunting of the Silva siblings and especially to those who were already familiar with him that this was no longer Naruto the dopey blond that poked fun at royalty and enjoyed a good session of banter.
This was Naruto the Commander. And Naruto the Commander was now giving the orders, whether you liked it or not.
Never make an order that you yourself would not carry out.
"I'm already working on securing the city's perimeter and damage control. Fuegoleon, once I'm done I'll meet you in the North to back you up!"
Doing the most menial and time extensive work myself? Double Check.
Naruto grinned inwardly.
Finally, and most importantly, give 'em a dash of that never-failing Uzumaki humor to keep spirits up.
"If this city isn't saved by the end of the day I will personally beat the shit out of every single one of you!" he finished, vanishing from the hall to make for his room and collect his stray gear.
The Uzumaki charm never fails!
That was nowhere near as charming or humorous as he thinks it was, Charlotte thought, quickly pushing her criticism of Naruto's sense of humor aside and forcing herself to think quickly about how to further approach the city's safety in the wake of Naruto's self dismissal.
If only for a few seconds, the wizards still in the dining hall all formed similar thoughts of the situation. Questions such as 'Who does he think he is to give orders to Clover Knight Captains?' and 'What authority has Julius granted this boy?' ran rampant through the more senior Knights, while the lower ranking individuals pondered whether or not to follow the orders, waiting for their own Captains to give confirmation of what should be done.
In one case, through his mild irritation at having been interrupted in his own attempt to give the Knights orders to go by, Fuegoleon formed a minute sense of respect for Naruto. Despite the Vermillion's dissatisfaction at having been commanded by the raucous blond and still not entirely sure the boy held the authority to do what he did, there was no denying that the directives had been concise, sensible, and honestly nearly identical to what Fuegoleon himself was planning to issue.
Only a few seconds had passed after Naruto's departure when the silence was broken by Charlotte, who motioned quickly to the Blue Rose Knight standing closely at her side.
"Sol, let's go."
The girl looked at her Captain with confusion shared by the entire room at Charlotte's words.
"We're gonna listen to him?" Sol asked hesitantly.
"Yes," Charlotte replied surely, not wanting to waste anymore time. "Now make a golem so that we can be off."
At her superior's assured tone, Sol steeled herself and nodded, quickly creating a golem from the dining hall's floor tiles and whatever stone laid underneath. The large creature formed beneath the women, immediately turning for the door to make headway into the city proper.
"Captain Roselei, are you sure it is wise to listen to the boy?" Fuegoleon questioned before the Rose Knights could be off.
There would have been a time that Charlotte would have conveyed a resounding 'No' to the man's inquiry. In fact, that time had been only around a week ago. Even only an hour ago, Charlotte would have hesitated dramatically at the inquiry.
But the way Naruto had spoken only moments ago somehow swept the doubt from her mind. She'd known he'd had some form of experience in a military leadership role. Even if Julius hadn't told her outright, from the dinner Charlotte had shared with Naruto only a few evenings prior coupled with how he handled the Blue Rose Knights during training, there'd been enough evidence to show that he'd had skill in military strategy.
The familiarity with which Naruto slipped into a commander's role and gave direct, logical instruction in such a short amount of time despite being under such pressure finalized her recognition of his authority. Though she couldn't be sure whether or not he was of the rank or status to give such commands, the aura of certainty he exuded that the actions he was ordering would lead to the best outcome all but cemented her belief in him.
Hence, she had no qualms or misgivings in answering Fuegoleon, although in a more censored and linguistically twisted way than she had reasoned her own trust in Naruto, if only to appease those who felt their pride wounded by the last few minutes.
"In any other circumstance, no," she responded. "However, Lord Julius has put his faith in him. I am willing to do the same."
Once again a hushed silence fell, and Charlotte observed the looks on Nozelle and Fuegoleon's faces as they considered her words. Not wishing to stay any longer while her home was under siege, she made a motion at Sol to allow the golem to proceed out of the castle.
Charlotte's movement was once more abruptly halted as the empty space that Naruto once occupied blurred for an instant, and again the man who had become the subject of conversation came into visibility, clothed in an odd fashion of armor that Charlotte assumed must have been his equipment for battle.
She didn't have much time to stare as Naruto glanced at all of the Knights in complete shock, obviously having expected to return to an empty room.
"What are we fucking standing around for?" he yelled harshly. "People are dying! Let's move!"
Naruto bolted through the doorway of the dining hall at blinding speeds, soon followed by Sol's golem. Behind the Rose Knights came multiple different vehicles formed of magic, each racing to distinct areas of the city in hopes that they could put this invasion down quickly and cleanly.
Letter from the Esteemed Dicktock McJerry, Esquire
Aight, a note first.
I say that Kisame has more chakra than Naruto by miles. This is true on the technicality that you are not counting Kurama's chakra added to Naruto's own, which I believe is fair.
Overall story clarification:
This story is meant to be fun. It is not a heart-wrenching drama. It is not an epic length lore expansion. It is not an in depth character analysis.
It is a story where you can enjoy Naruto being strong, saying funny things, and getting into some trouble. It is simple. It is fun. It is not to be taken too seriously.
I am not an amazing writer. I am not claiming that. But first and foremost I want this story to be as fun for me to write as it is for you to read.
So don't be so serious. Sit back. Relax. And enjoy as Naruto says *funny thing* to [insert person here].
Enjoy.