Dante: And who would've thought that this story would've been so positive with it's response. Thank you everyone who supported this insane idea now let's get going.
Small little disclaimer. I want to apologize to everyone reading. Real life has kicked up quite a bit for me so I haven't actually had time to properly sit down and start writing again. It's many thanks to all my friends on Discord that I'm still writing actually. Those guys are a huge help and I enjoy chatting with them daily. So once again, I'm sorry...now it's 3:30am and I have to start grinding in Granblue, enjoy everyone!
(Story Start)
Finding himself within a blazing city, Naruto gazed around the area he was in, the heat of the fire burning him ever so slightly. Getting to his feet and looking around, the injured blonde cursed whatever god was laughing at him as he gazed upon the burning city he was in.
"What the hell?" He muttered to himself, walking through the remains as everything around him fell apart. "Oooookay definitely not in Chaldea anymore. Kurama, are you seeing this?" Asking his closest ally, Naruto was greeted with silence. Shaking his head at the lack of response, the blonde continued on his lonesome way, climbing over rubble and scorched cars in hopes of finding his friends and love. Pausing in his steps as he closed his eyes, Naruto took a deep breath, trying to see if he could stretch out his senses, hoping to find any source of life in the surrounding area.
'It's no good. I can't smell anything aside from burning rubble. Root damn it where are you Olga?' He thought to himself in concern for his love. Moving forward with a burning determination in his heart, he made sure nothing would be standing in his way to get to her.
(In another part of the burning city)
The target of the blonde's thoughts was not happy. In fact she was quite irritated. It was meant to be a simple day, go through her paperwork, introduce herself and induct each of the new masters of humanity and then hope everything went off without a hitch as everyone risks their lives to save the world. But as it is, her other half appeared late with one of the masters apparently being found on the floor. And what's worse he fell asleep during her speech. And now, here she is, wandering a burning city as she slowly but surely reaches her limit. Hearing footsteps around her, she ducked behind a piece of rubble, even going as far as to crawl under the rubble and lay still.
Once the footsteps passed, she removed herself from the hiding spot and continued to move through the city. Hearing a loud clanging sound, she stepped back as a skeleton wielding a half broken sword staggered towards her. Backing up slowly, Olga quickly fled the scene, her heartbeat sounding in her ears. Eventually coming to a stop, she doubled over, her breathing ragged and harsh. Hearing footsteps coming from in front of her, she covered her mouth with her free hand and leaned against the wall, her free hand having her magic circuits flare to life as she prepared a simple curse. As she moved to defend herself, she was greeted to the site of the one master who seemed to instantly set her off.
"Fujimaru Ritsuka!" She growled as Mashu turned the corner, carrying a very large shield.
"Director!" Mashu called happily, the white haired woman backing away slightly as she settled down.
"Of all the people I had to find myself with you it had to be you two." She muttered to herself in annoyance, her eyes closed and shaking her head.
"It's good to see you too Director." Mashu awkwardly spoke, drawing the attention of the white haired director.
"So Ritsuka's your master now?" She asked, a cold calculative gaze in her eyes.
"That's right, also we managed to actually talk with someone back in Chaldea but we haven't actually seen anyone else other than you." Ritsuka admitted, a slightly fearful tone in his voice as Olga's face dropped in fear. Her body shaking slightly as a worst case scenario came to mind.
"If we are the only ones around then whatever happened at Chaldea possibly killed the others. The reason we were currently in such a dire situation is possibly due to the fact that we weren't in the coffins. They were designed to instantly cut any form of rayshifting when the success rate was less than ninety-five percent as we don't want to waste the lives of everyone here." Nodding at her explanation, Mashu proceeded to inform Olga of what she knows of the current area and the mission given to them by the good doctor.
After hearing of a nearby leyline, everything started to fit into place for her. Should they manage to make it there, they can establish a proper communication relay and access the situation. The only problem may be the fact that other enemies such as possible servants may know of this location and are waiting for them.
"Have you two come across Naruto at all?" She asked, her expression softening as she slowly fell to the ground, the anger and adrenaline leaving her body.
"Not yet Director. There were some sounds of fighting a few blocks back but we didn't want to get involved with it." Ritsuka admitted, his head dropping in shame at his cowardice.
"Good decision. Who knows what you may have gotten into had you tried to approach the noise." Her head dipping down as she ran scenario after scenario in her head with her shoulders starting to shake.
Watching their director in concern, Mashu and Ritsuka decided their best plan of action was to stay near her. In a situation like this, having a larger group is more beneficial than leaving others alone. Sitting down next to her, the two stayed quiet as she eventually stopped shaking.
"Are you ok now Director?" Mashu asked, the silver haired beauty nodding slowly as she stood to her feet.
"Let's continue on the path towards the leyline. Our biggest problem will be if we encounter servants along our way. But if we can properly restore communications, I can get a grasp of the situation and try to sort everything out." Looking towards the black haired master, she coughed into her hands and straightened out her dress. "Lead the way Ritsuka, I'm placing my trust and safety in your hands."
With Master and Servant getting to their feet, they offered their hands to Chaldea's director with confident smiles. Taking the outstretched hands, she was pulled to her feet quickly and thus the small group made the decision to continue forward, their target, the leyline. As the group continued on though, they started to come across things that were unsettling to say the least. Statues littered the streets, their faces caught in fear. Their speed slowed down to a crawl as they kept walking past them.
"I think it'll be smart if we get off the main street." Olga warned, not liking the vibes she was getting staring at each of the statues.
Turning away from the statues, they saw a set of cobblestone steps. Using them, the group walked along the river bank until they reached an underpass. Moving to take a step forward, Olga froze in fear as the light of the burning buildings around them illuminated the area around them. A statue like the ones on the main road greeted them, it's face stuck in utter pure panic as they spotted a shadow standing behind it. The gloved hand reached around the statue's face as they pulled down their hood. Sickly yellow eyes greeted them with sadistic glee as her long dark purple hair drew their attention away from her eyes and somehow more towards the giant scythe she carried at her side.
"Welcome to my garden little ones. Sorry I didn't have time to clean up, you see, I was just trying to figure out which ones I wanted to keep, and which I wanted gone." The sarcastic tone in her beautiful and disarming voice caused the three to tense, waiting for her to attack. "Like this...ugly, repulsive and down right pathetic statue I used to call a master. For sentimental reasons, part of me wishes to keep him, but…" Trailing off, the scythe wielding servant turned her attention to the statue and swiftly removed it's head from it's shoulders. Blood sprayed into the air as she bathed in it, a look of intoxication crossed her face as the geyser slowed to a stop, the blood covering her beautiful face.
"I couldn't let such a terrible figure stain my beauties any longer."
Disturbed by the woman's delight in seemingly murdering her master, the three had to swallow the bile that appeared within their throats. Readying her shield, Mashu gathered as much courage as she could and stood in front of Ritsuka and Olga.
"How adorable. You're shaking in your boots and yet you stand so defiantly. I think I'll make you the centerpiece of my garden, servant of the shield!" Rushing forward, her scythe held high, the unnamed Servant was ready to strike, to prey upon her foes like they were a meal ready to eat. What she wasn't ready for, was the boot covered shin to slam into the side of her jaw and send her flying. Bouncing off the top of the stairs leading down to the river, the servant was flung into the air where she collided with the third floor of a tall building.
Relief came across the trio before they remembered the situation they were in. Looking towards their savior, a smile came across Olga's face as they spotted Naruto, his suit looking a tad worse for wear given the multitude of cuts covering it. Turning to the group, a smile came across his face as he walked over to them.
"About bloody time I found you. Do you know the amount of Skeleton's I had to go through to get here? Hell I had to deal with two servants on the way as well, thankfully I managed to get them to attack each other without much risk being done to me besides a couple of stabs here and there." Ranting slightly, Naruto quickly pulled the three into a group hug. "Thank Root you're all safe."
"Wait, you beat servants?" Mashu asked as Naruto shook his head.
"Not this time actually. I managed to keep the two focused on fighting each other more than me and simply used their own strengths against them, not without a couple of injuries to my person. Nothing but light stab wounds that will heal quickly for me." Shaking off their worries, he felt a slight pain in his shoulder blade and when he reached around to grab at the annoyance, he found a handle deep in his shoulder.
Ripping it out, he found a dagger covered in his blood. Most likely from one of the servants he encountered.
"That bloody Assassin got the last laugh after all." He muttered with a smile, spinning the dagger around and holding it tightly. "Stand back guys, worst case scenario is that I have to worry about you guys getting in my way here." Raising his hands up, he walked towards the stone steps he sent the Lancer into, his gaze turning to the building as she broke out of her small little hole, glass shattering as it collided with the concrete and sent both fighters into action.
A chain shot from lancer aimed to capture Naruto which he jumped with ease. Rushing to meet him in mid-air, she was unprepared as a second Naruto appeared off of Naruto's back and nailed her dead centre of her skull, sending her to the ground as it grabbed Naruto and with the same momentum it used to attack her, threw him towards the ground. Rolling out of the small crater, she quickly struck. Nearing the ground, he brought the dagger from Assassin forward and blocked the blade of Lancer's scythe as his impact caused the small crater to become larger with rocks flying up. Pushing the servant back and clicking his middle finger and thumb, a small rune appeared around the two as black flames encircled them. Retreating from the flames, Lancer was unprepared for the pieces of rubble to be flung her way, through the flames that had appeared. A smile came upon her face as she readied her scythe.
As they came closer, she swung with all her might, her deadly weapon easily cleaving the flame coated projectiles in two. Walking out of the crater and dusting himself off, Naruto rolled his right hand as he stared at the flames behind him. The black flames he conjured faded away as he laughed slightly and clapped his hands.
"You know Lancer, I underestimated you. I expected your bloodlust from becoming..this to completely overwrite your desire to survive. Had those flames engulfed you, I doubt even one such as yourself could've survived….Medusa." The sincere respect in his tone despite the gesture he was making made the now named servant narrow her eyes.
"So you figured me out. Was it the statues?" She asked mockingly, her gaze turning to her waterfront 'garden' before slowly drifting back to him as the other members of Chaldea made their way to the main road.
"Yeah. That weapon you're using wouldn't happen to be Harpe would it?" He asked, a small trace of genuine fear lacing his voice as he stared at the scythe.
"Someones done their research, it seems. It is indeed Harpe, the same weapon that was used to claim my life while it was within Perseus' hands. And now I can make special use of it with my fearsome ability." The pure confidence within her voice was unnerving. Dropping the dagger and kicking it away, Naruto rolled the sleeves on his jacket upto the elbow and started stretching, confusing everyone watching.
"You're probably wondering why I'm stretching now. Well this next move takes a very heavy toll on my body actually for a huge trade. In this case I'm gonna give you a word of warning. If this hit's you, it's going to hurt." He warned, all sense of fun leaving his tone instantly as everyone noticed his body tense.
"Hahahaha! I'd like to see this actually hurt. I'll give you a free shot. If you fail, I'll take your head right from your shoulders." Licking her lips as a psychotic smile came upon her beautiful face, Medusa had to stop herself from losing control of her laughter.
Smiling to himself, Naruto let out a breath as his hair and clothes started to gently move as if wind was flowing around him. Blue markings covered his body before they started to flicker red. His muscles bulged as he took the stance of an Olympic runner. Two hands touched the ground in front of him as his legs stretched out behind him. As the lines covering his body continued to flicker, smoke leaked from his body enveloping it in a pale red light. The ground around him seemed to melt away slightly as his gaze was locked directly with Medusa's own. Twin scarlet orbs forced the golden eyed servant to back away slightly, and that was the one mistake Naruto was looking for.
"Times Three!" With a roar, he vanished. A sonic boom sent everything behind him flying as within what seemed to be a single instant, Naruto was already standing directly in front of Medusa.
His right arm reared back. His left held her in place, tightly gripping her shoulder, His left leg was leading the body as the foot was firmly planted forward. Twisting his hips and stretching his right leg back for balance and extra push. Naruto lunged forward, his right arm connecting directly with the woman's lower jaw.
"This is what happens! When I put my back! Into the punch!" With the crunch signaling a major blow done to the Lancer servant, Naruto threw all his weight forward as Lancer had no other option. She was unprepared for the strike, unprepared for his speed, unprepared for the contact. And as such, she flew. She didn't know when she started, but what she did know was that she did. Her body crashed through multiple buildings and constructs as the waterfront and her garden faded from view. Back on the ground, Naruto was still stuck in his stance after delivering the punch. His right fist raised to the sky as blood leaked from tears that appeared on the arm from the force. His muscles had been boosted within the instant of the punch so quickly they ripped apart like wet paper. Standing up properly as his right arm hung limply at his side, Naruto turned to face his friends, a look of complete shock on the face of Mashu and Ritsuka while Olga only shook her head at his antics.
"So Lancer is taken care of for now. What's our next plan of action?" He asked, walking over to them while holding his injured arm.
"Make our way to the leyline, establish contact and get back home in time for a nap." Surprisingly, it was Olga that said these words. Her face hidden within her hands, showing she's already had enough.
"As good as that is, I don't think you kids will have it that easy." A calm voice said as a figure approached the group.
A large fluffy white and blue coat with a hood covered the man's upper half while a magician's robe covered his lower half. A wooden staff sat across his shoulders as he removed the hood, showing crimson red eyes and blue hair.
"Judging by the weapon of choice I wanna say you're a caster." Olga muttered, backing up slightly as Mashu moved to stand in front of the group. Naruto cursed his luck and grabbed his arm tightly.
"That's right, girly. Cu Chulainn's the name and by the looks of the blonde who sent Lancer flying, you guys need an extra set of hands." The now named Chulainn pointed out, a smile on his face as everyone seemed taken back.
"You're not-"
"Wanting you guys dead? Nah. The only ones who currently seek that, are no doubt Saber and her band of corrupt misfits." He waved off their concerns with ease.
"Oh grand, so what you're saying is that we have roughly six blackened and empowered servants to deal with." Naruto complained as he rolled his shoulder, the injuries he sustained seemingly gone already.
"So you noticed she was still alive. Yeah, including Medusa over there, we still have every other servant to deal with all being powered by that grail. Before this little chat continues, I think we may want to move from here. No doubt all that action roused the big guy from his sleep." Cu warned, his gaze going towards a certain part of the city as it fell apart.
Seeing no other options, Ritsuka approached the servant with Mashu by his side. Leaving Naruto and Olga alone as the two gazed into the flames consuming all around them.
"Not exactly what I had planned for a date after so long." He joked.
"I just wanted to set everything up, relax with a coffee and be happy that we succeeded...none of this was meant to happen." She said quietly, her head down as her shoulders shook.
"That's a thing about life honey. No matter what you have planned, life is always gonna find a way to throw a wrench at it. All we can do is suffer through it with a smile when it's over. Flip the bird and walk away." He laughed, getting a small laugh from his partner.
"Stop with the sagely advice would you. It doesn't fit you." The smile she had was all Naruto needed as he turned around and joined the group. Leaving the beauty to her own thoughts before eventually doing the same.
The group of now five made their way to the leyline where they were able to finally contact Chaldea again. Romani explained the dire situation on his side, the current masters being in critical condition, the staff being reduced to only a handful. And what Naruto saw as a personal victory, the possible death of Lev Lainur. He had nothing against the man per se, but he always seemed off to the blonde. Never truly there and when he was, he always treated him like a child and never gave the respect he deserved. Ignoring his own personal feelings, Naruto watched with a proud smile as Olga stepped in, prioritizing the lives of the masters by placing them within Cryostasis until they could get proper treatment.
After everyone had settled down with the situation back at base now in their minds. Cu came up with a plan of action. The group would act together to deal with Saber and her minions. Assassin, who he revealed to be Hassan of the Cursed arm, and Musashibou Benkei had both been defeated leaving only four servants for them to deal with. Medusa, who was most likely licking her wounds and lying in wait for revenge. Saber who guarded the Holy Grail with Archer as her protector. And the biggest problem of all, Berserker. A rampaging beast who targets anyone who gets close to him.
"The best thing we can do is ignore Berserker and go straight for Saber and Archer. Lancer won't attack us in the open now that she's already had her ass handed to her on a silver platter, meaning all we have to do is get rid of the weed at the root. We take out Saber, and that grail is ours."
Hearing the plan laid out, no one could argue against it. Why bother drawing more attention when they were on a race against time. When everyone was ready, the group set off for town once more.
When they entered the burning ruins, they moved carefully and quietly. Cu and Mashu worked on taking out any problems that occurred on the way.
"Anyone getting a bad feeling?" Naruto asked, not liking how easy it had been for them to sneak as close as they had to the cave which held the grail.
"It's a bit too quiet for my liking. But that probably just means no ones around due to Berserker murdering everything." Cu mentioned, agreeing in his mind that it was beginning to become a little too easy for them.
"Hold it!" Naruto ordered, his gaze snapping around as something set off every sense of danger he had.
Everyone thought that possibly it was just the nerves getting to him when nothing occurred, That sense of danger fading away as the ground kept close to rubble. When it faded, Naruto turned to the rest, apologizing as he didn't know what came over him. But when he turned around, the glass of the building they were standing in shattered and a large hand grabbed him by the back of his head and pushed. Everyone watched as Naruto was carried off by a large behemoth, pushing him through walls and glass with ease before it all set in.
Berserker had struck.
(Chapter end)
Well….Hopefully you guys enjoyed that chapter. I know it was rushed, especially at the end. But the next chapter will wrap up Fuyuki's singularity and then start more on the time of Chaldea. Plus we get the first servant that Naruto will summon. Before I leave I wanna say one thing, Naruto's special brand of magic unique to him works as a multiplier, the higher it is, the stronger he becomes, the higher the risk. The comparison for this, he can rival the pure brute strength of someone like Medusa when using it. Skill wise, it allows him to rank up to a state where he mimics Monstrous Strength C at X3. He just caught her off guard which is why she suffered
Anyway that's enough from me. Adios
