Chapter 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto nor Sekirei, all characters, thoughts and ideas that exist in this story that were taken from the original works belong to their specific creators, Masashi Kishomoto and Sakurako Gokurakuin. Only original thoughts and or characters created in this story are my own.
Notes
First chapter done! Happy belated Merry Christmas!
****Sekirei Unbound****
The immigration lady had to lean away from him as he handed his passport to her, her smile just a bit stiffer than normal. The tall blond man could only chuckle somewhat wryly as he awkwardly removed a leaf from tangled yellow beard attached to his face and threw it off to the side.
The lady's right eye began twitching.
"I uh… got lost on the path of life?" He offered her with an amused grin that was lost in his beard.
Her smile just got even stiffer.
Fine, so he had forgotten to clean up before coming over. Sue him. It wasn't his fault he had been in a bit of a hurry to get here.
He looked around again with a sigh, knowing there was no point talking to the lady any further. The less focus he took from her, the faster she could process his documents and then he could be out of both their hairs.
His crystal blue eyes slid back to something that had been puzzling him ever since he had gotten off the plane.
Perhaps, the first indication that something was wrong, as mundane as it seemed, was the immigration booth he was currently standing at. That, in and of itself, was not particularly strange, he had seen plenty of those before considering how much travelling he had done in the last decade or so, but last he checked, one generally did not need to walk through a corridor wide bio-scanner, an army of security guards, two x-rays and a two-hour long interview just to enter Japan's capital.
The second indication that something was wrong, were the large banners proclaiming his arrival at Shinto Teito Airport, because he was pretty sure he was supposed to land at Narita, not whatever this Shinto Teito or New Eastern Imperial Capital was. Sure, he had spent the past two years or so in the wilderness of Russia before he had found a distress call from an old friend in Tokyo that had sent him legging it over to Hokkaido where he had caught the first plane possible back to Tokyo, but how the heck did something like this happen without him noticing? Not to mention, the name smacked of arrogance and insanity considering the last time Japan had called itself an Empire, things… had gone badly, to put it nicely.
Really, as far as he was concerned, anything with the word "Imperial" or "Empire" in it was an automatic black mark and a huge fucking red flag that there was a megalomaniac running around.
The third and last indication that something was very wrong, was their presence. Whoever they were, they practically leaked chakra by the bucketload, which was weird, because he hadn't met anyone with that much chakra in quite a while. Roughly a decade and some years if he remembered correctly, and that last guy had been a monk somewhere in Tibet. Occasionally he would bump into a few with a miniscule amount in them, just enough to make them healthier and tougher than the average human, but that was about it. And then all of a sudden, there was not one, but THREE chakra filled presences meandering around the airport in a set pattern as everyone gave them a wide berth.
He'd noticed the bloodlust and killing intent too, particularly the strongest of the three. It might have been scary for others, but for him, it barely qualified as cute.
That said, the routes they were walking indicated that they were guards of some sort, meant to supplement the army of security guards, the dangerous looking weapons they toted, and the array of heavy military equipment outside. Whether they were meant to keep people in, or keep people out, was still up for debate.
Put everything together and suddenly that distress call was getting that much more urgent.
If he didn't know any better, he'd say that whoever was ruling Tokyo now had somehow managed to get their hands on people with appreciable amounts of chakra, there were at least enough of those that he could afford to send 3 of them to patrol an airport, and because of that, he now thought he was strong or rich enough to secede from Japan and was gearing up for an incoming attack. He'd bet his life savings that he'd find similar military installations all the other entrances to Tokyo too, be it land or sea.
Probably because the rest of Japan obviously wasn't going to be very happy with the fighter jets he had seen earlier on the airport tarmac and further off in the distance, battle tanks lining up against the borders of Tokyo, to say nothing about the rest of the world.
Really, how did someone even go about renaming Tokyo of all places, the blond mused as he idly received his passport again and began heading to the exit. It's not like it was a single entity that could be owned and renamed as the owner pleased.
His old shinobi instincts were lighting up like a Christmas tree, telling him to do an about face and get the hell out of there because whatever was happening, it was going to be, as good ol' Shika put it, troublesome.
It was a mildly alarming thought.
He wasn't in any particular danger, no. In fact, he didn't really mind wars. They just made it even easier for him to slip away unnoticed during the chaos, but he would much rather not be in a war zone in the first place if he could help it.
As he crossed the threshold on the airport, he subtly sent out a burst of chakra to see if he could get a better sense of just what the hell was happening when all three presences immediately skidded to a stop. Then, almost as if they were doing a synchronized dance, all three of them began moving in his direction.
Fuck.
So they could sense him if he used too much chakra.
Fair enough. He'd just have to go find his old friend and ask him what the hell was going on then.
He'd decide on whether it was worth sneaking out of To-New Tokyo after that.
The blond with the long scraggly hair tied back with a dark blue forehead strap and an even scragglier beard just sighed and leisurely continued on his way, casually measuring his gait so that he was always just in the peripheral of someone's eye, but never fully in view of anyone.
You would think that the slouching blond man, in all of his dirty hobo suit glory would've been rather noticeable given he stuck out like a sore thumb amongst all his better dressed fellow travelers, especially with his foreign coloring, but when Karasuba, Sekirei #04, Haihane, Sekirei #104 and Benitsubasa, Sekirei #105 arrived and starting looking around fiercely, none of them even noticed him.
None of them even realized they were looking at him as their eyes slid on to him, and then over past him without registering the slightest bit of awareness, recognition or acknowledgement that they had seen something outside of the norm.
They might have had better luck with the cameras and the system into which his documents had been processed had they even known what to look for amidst the throng of people that had been exiting the airport, but they did not, and so none of the three Sekirei were even remotely aware that a wolf had been loosed into the sheep's pen that was now New Tokyo, something they would come to deeply regret in the coming days.
****Sekirei Unbound****
Asama Miya watched with wary crimson eyes as a stranger wandered around outside her home, Maison Izumo.
From her position looking through the kitchen window, she could only see the stranger's shoulders and head as he wandered back and forth behind the hedge that lined Maison Izumo. He had arrived a few hours after lunch, just as the day was turning from afternoon to evening, and was dressed in a dirty looking plaid flannel shirt that looked like it had seen better days. Much better days. She couldn't even tell what was its original color anymore, only that it was now more brown and black, rather than red and black. His hair was a bright yellow, strangely clean despite everything else, and looked too natural to be bleached, not exactly a common coloring amongst Japanese men and to top it off, he also had a well-worn knapsack strapped to his back, the large kind she usually saw people take on long camping trips.
She had thought the man to be a beggar or homeless person of some sort, just passing by, and so she had ignored him at first, until he had unexpectedly stopped right outside her home and appeared to be looking for something because he was glancing up between something he was holding and her home with a perplexed look on his bearded face, his free hand scratching the back of his head.
She was just about to step out herself and ask him if there was something he needed when the blond man made the decision for her with a shrug and headed over to the main entrance before tapping the doorbell. Miya slowly stood up at the loud chime and headed to the veranda where she could talk to him from a distance.
She affixed a gentle and welcoming smile on to her lips as she pulled the curtains, "Good evening," She greeted the stranger waiting behind the gate politely even as she swiftly eyed his full profile now that it wasn't being blocked by the hedge. He was tall, even though she was on the raised verandah, he was still tall enough to speak to her eye to eye, not that was saying much given how short she was, and fairly well built. His beard obscured most of his features, barring his bright blue eyes and made him look like he was somewhere in his fifties, "How may I help you?"
The man blinked.
He hadn't expected the lavender shrine priestess outfit.
Was she cosplaying or something?
In the middle of the day?
It looked nice though.
"Uh. Good afternoon to you too." He replied unsurely to the almost ethereally beautiful woman, "You wouldn't happen to know someone named Asama Takehito would you? He used to stay here if I'm right."
He had expected the crimson eyed woman with the long hair that fell down her back like a purple waterfall (Purple! What the hell? Was that normal nowadays?) and two graceful braids, held together with a takenaga, a white ribbon tied into a shrine priestess knot at the back of her head, framed her oval shaped face and its delicate features, to just say "No." so that he could just go find a hotel or park to sleep in for the night until he thought of another way to get some answers.
What he hadn't expected was the wall of killer intent that suddenly slammed into him while her eyes darkened into a frosty, muddy brown, "And how do you know that name?" She asked quietly, her eyes warning him to be careful about what he said next, her posture tense as if she was about to draw a non-existent sword on him.
The blond tilted his head quizzically and simply quirked one eyebrow at her.
Miya's eyes widened at his reaction and her presence ramped up even further at that.
That just made the man's beard twitch, and she could tell he was amused.
Most people usually reacted badly to her killing intent, and ended up shivering at the knees or rambling about a Hanya. People who could brush her killing intent off with something as simple as quirk of the eyebrow were few and far in between.
And none of them were easy to deal with.
The two of them stared at each other until the blond nodded, "I'm a friend." He began casually, "I helped him with a project a few years ago. I was just passing by Tokyo…. Or New Tokyo now I guess, and figured I'd drop by and say hi and stay a night or two to reconnect."
Miya's posture relaxed somewhat, although she kept her guard up because she had never heard her husband ever mention working with someone outside of MBI for as long as she had known him.
"I'm…. I'm sorry." Miya murmured softly, "I…" She swallowed thickly, "I am Asama Miya, his widow. Takehito-san passed away four years ago."
The blond man jerked back in genuine surprise.
His eyes closed and Miya watched as the man pinched the bridge of his nose, "Shit…" The blond man started before he trailed off upon noticing the woman's suddenly depressed posture, he could feel her genuine grief and pain so he knew she hadn't been lying, "My condolences. I… I'll just go somewhere else."
He hefted his knapsack back on and was about to leave when the woman's voice rang out again, "Please wait!"
The blond turned back with a quizzical look, "Yeah?"
He watched as his friend's widow opened the gate and stepped back with a light but welcoming bow, "Maison Izumo won't turn anyone away, much less a friend of Takehito-san." The purple haired woman said simply, "Please come in and rest. At least for one night."
Those blue eyes flicked behind her before flicking back, "Your housemates won't mind?"
Miya smiled faintly, "As long as you bath first, I don't think there will be an issue."
The tall blond man chuckled dryly, "Yeah, fair enough."
****Sekirei Unbound****
Miya waited in the living room patiently, two cups of steaming tea were already served on the table top as she stared unseeingly at the trees lining Maison Izumo's hedge.
She had not invited the man in just because he claimed to be her dearly departed husband's friend. She was also wary of him, and intended to find out what he was doing here, especially now of all times, right in the middle of the First Phase. Had he also been "upgraded" like the only other friend Takehito had?
She resolved to find out.
"Do you work at a shrine?"
Miya blinked at the sudden question.
She most absolutely did not jump or gasp.
Crimson eyes glared at the blandly smiling blond before they blinked again incredulously.
The blond man had shaved, and her earlier guess at his age had been completely off the mark.
He looked like a completely different person, not a day over twenty-five, with three strange whisker marks on each cheek, likely a birthmark of some sort. He wasn't handsome by any stretch of the word, but the scars on his cheek added a certain ruggedness to him and went well with the simple but clean black shirt with a single orange band across his chest and jeans he was wearing. His hair was still slightly damp and a worn looking towel lay around his neck as he happily took a seat on the other side of the table with a content sigh.
If he noticed the wooden sword lying by her side, he said nothing about it, instead he simply reached across the table for the rag next to Miya and he began to mop up the spilled tea, pointedly ignoring Miya's incredulous stare. The purple haired woman didn't snap out of it until the blond man had refilled their cups from the tea kettle, prompting Miya to flush at the faux pas of making a guest pour his own tea.
"I'm sorry. You looked so different from earlier." She mumbled even as she gripped her cup tightly.
"It's alright." The blond shrugged even as he sipped his tea, breathing out another content sigh, "It's been a while since I had time to sit down."
"You travel a lot?" Miya asked blandly, "I don't think I've ever heard Takehito-san mention you before."
"You could call me a wandering doctor I guess." The blond replied with a casual shrug, "I tend to go from village to village where they don't have good medical systems. The rest of the time I spend just camping out in forests." He sipped from his cup, "So, you work at a shrine? If I remember correctly, the Otori Shrine is pretty close by."
Miya just shook her head, "I just like it. Takehito-san said it suited me."
The blond hummed noncommittally before looking at her, "Is it okay if I ask what happened to Takehito?"
The blond watched as the woman across the table from him deflated again, practically radiating an all-consuming grief once more. There was no such thing as a timeline for people to come to terms with the loss of a loved one, but she must have really loved the guy if it was still affecting her this badly even four years later, he mentally noted.
"It… It was a work accident." Miya closed her eyes temporarily and stopped herself from grinding her teeth as a flash of anger burned through her, "Some… equipment malfunctioned. Takehito-san sacrificed himself to save his… colleagues."
The blond man hmmed softly. Not quite the truth, but not a lie either, he noted again. Probably had something to do with the fact that this lady and the three other presences he could feel in the house, because all four of them were leaking chakra like crazy.
He shook his head sadly, "Takehito was a good man and one of the brightest people I've ever met."
That seemed to bring some life back to the woman, "How did you meet him?"
"In a manga and anime forum."
Miya blinked.
Naruto calmly sipped his tea.
"Excuse me?"
"In a manga and anime forum." The blond man repeated again nonchalantly, "That's how I first met him. We were arguing about which was better if I remember correctly. He liked harem anime. I thought it was stupid and unrealistic."
Miya's mouth opened and closed soundlessly for a few moments, before she made a quiet, "Oh."
"That was the first time we interacted I suppose." Bright blue eyes danced with amused nostalgia, "It wasn't until later that we became friends."
"And this…. Project you were referring to earlier," Miya started hesitantly, "It was something to do with that?"
"Oh no. Not at all." The blond man said. He eyed her consideringly for a moment. Given her emotions earlier and the fact that she was obviously somehow involved in this whole mess, he felt that he didn't need to hide it from her. She might even be able to help, "I think it was about ten years ago. He sent me an image, asking me if I had seen anything like this before."
Calloused fingers retrieved a piece of paper from his pocket before they gently placed it down on the table and slid it over to her side.
Miya went pale as she stared blankly at a picture of the Sekirei crest, a bird in flight above a ying yang symbol, with two inward facing tomoes on each side, sitting in front of her.
She swallowed thickly and slowly looked the blond man in the eye, "Why…. Why would he send you that?"
"I have a PhD in Linguistics." The blond replied blandly. It was a bit of a dodge; Takehito had indeed sent it to him because he really did have a Doctorate in Linguistics, but he had accepted the job for a completely different reason.
He smiled thinly before continuing, "Takehito told me that he was working with an archaeologist slash adventurer who found that somewhere. The two of them had tried everything they knew to decipher it, but everything they tried never worked. Apparently, he was getting desperate when he sent that to me. It was pretty fascinating really, it looks like a simple image of a bird, but it's composed of miniscule scripts. That one picture has enough words in it to form an entire library."
It felt like her intestines were twisting themselves into knots, Miya reflected to herself, but she forced herself to ask, "And… you were successful in deciphering it?"
The blond man shrugged noncommittally, "It took a while. Like I said, I don't spend a lot of time in cities because I prefer to stick to small villages or forests and Takehito was adamant that we don't share anything on the internet, so we had to set up a dead drop system across the globe. He'd drop the documents in the one closest to where I was last at, and then inform a mutual friend who would let me know to go pick it up. It took about a year going back and forth like that before we had a fully functional database. It took another year before we understood the phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. After that, I started hearing from him less and less until I stopped getting messages at all. I figured he was just busy…."
The blond man paused and hummed thoughtfully to himself, "In fact, I had almost completely forgot about him until I stopped by Timovskoye to buy some supplies." He admitted blandly, "It was sheer coincidence that I bothered to take a look in the dead drop box we set up there and found a message from him. If I hadn't found it, I would have just continued back into the forest."
He slid another piece of paper over to Miya.
This one was simpler, it only had three English sentences on it, and was presumably what the blond had been holding earlier.
FC
I pray for atonement at the central shrine with 11 steps. Help.
55
And Maison Izumo's address.
The blond folded his arms across his chest with a heavy sigh, "I immediately checked in with our mutual friend first but he hasn't received any notification from Takehito in the past five years, so we don't know exactly how long that message has been sitting there, only that it's not more than five years." The blond slowly shook his head wearily, "I went back and checked all our other dead drop boxes, but they were all empty. Which implied that he only had time to throw that letter into one box. Didn't even have enough time to tell our friend. It doesn't take a genius to realize that something was going on, so I legged it back to Tokyo as soon as possible." The blond concluded as he emptied the rest of his cup of now cold tea.
It was with mounting horror that Miya finally realized, without a shred of doubt, just exactly who she was staring at.
Ten years ago, would have been two years after Takehito had joined MBI after he graduated. At the time, MBI was still only a minor firm that was largely unknown in the grand scheme of things because even though Minaka had discovered Kamikura Island in 1999 and claimed it as his own territory, he had only been a self-proclaimed adventurer who was funding himself, genius or not. On top of that, he had been unwilling to share his discoveries with the world and guarded the island's treasures with a jealous zeal despite the incredible pressure from both international and national sources to let others study the island as well.
She hadn't been awake yet at the time, but Takami had mentioned before that it had taken them quite a while before they managed to access the systems, and from there, the Sekirei. They had found the island yes, but they had no idea how anything worked and Minaka had been extremely hesitant to involve anyone whom he had not personally met or recruited. At the most, they had been able to take a few pieces from the ship itself, taking extra care not to damage the systems in the process, and analyze what it was made of.
The advances that had brought about, mainly in material sciences and construction, and parked under MBI's construction arm, had apparently been sufficient to buy them enough time for Takehito to join them, who had then secretly drafted this man for help. It was only after that that enough advancement had been made and she had been awakened about two years after that, which matched up with what the blond man was apparently saying.
Shortly after that, Matsu, Kazehana, Karasuba and Mutsu had been awakened and tuned in a rush.
Just in time for all the governments and interested parties to get fed up with Minaka's excuses and resort to directly invading the island.
In other words, this unassuming blond man was the person who had made Minaka's insane plan possible at all.
Said blond man frowned as his friend's widow practically exploded with negative emotions, so much so that he didn't even need his old partner's help in identifying them.
Fear, anger, and even a dash of hatred thrown in for good measure, radiated out in waves from her slight frame. The blond man frowned; he was starting to genuinely think that he was about to get attacked when Miya's head snapped back up.
"I-I'm sorry. I need to think. Please make yourself at home." Miya muttered shortly before she suddenly stood up and steadily left the living room.
The blond just watched her go in confusion, "Just what did you do, Take-chan?" He murmured to himself as a slight breeze blew his papers right back to the palm of his waiting hand.
He glanced at his large knapsack that was still sitting outside the verandah so that it didn't bring dirt into the house itself. He couldn't even unpack because he had no idea which room he was supposed to stay in for the night, and that was assuming he wasn't immediately kicked out once Miya was done cooling down.
Scratching the back of his head, the blond man sighed quietly and figured he'd just go out for a walk and have dinner outside while he looked for a backup place to stay. Hopefully it wouldn't become necessary by the time he was back.
****Sekirei Unbound****
He wasn't sure if it was his luck, or just plain karma.
He had gone more than a decade without ever bumping into someone with appreciable amounts of chakra, but all of a sudden, they were all over the place and it felt like he couldn't go more than 2 steps without bumping into one of them.
There had been one at the oden stall where he had bought his dinner to go, a drunk lady chugging down copious amounts of sake. His ability to sense negative emotions had kept him far away from that one. She had felt like a great big ball of bitter anger and regret that was trying to drown herself in sake.
He had sensed a pair of those presences moving around the rooftops, likely twins going by their chakra signature, that simmered in anger.
Two more went flying past after that, throwing water and fire each other. The one with the fire natured chakra just felt irritated, whereas the water one was indignant about something.
Then there were three more at ground level, wandering around aimlessly at for some odd reason. He couldn't sense anything from them, but that was probably because he couldn't sense positive emotions.
Overall, it was getting rather irritating.
There was something going on, and he was locked out of the loop.
The constant flood of negative emotions wasn't helping matters either. He always ended up feeling like he was covered in filth and needed to take a loooong bath at the end of the day to get himself clean again. It was one reason why he preferred to stay alone in forests. That and they were a constant reminder that chakra or no, humanity was a selfish, greedy mess.
They didn't need his help making things worse.
Hence, he typically refused to involve himself with normal human matters, because he'd inevitably end up going Madara or Kaguya on them, and the thought of that terrified him, but when people with huge amounts of chakra started running around all over the place, he figured that he automatically had a right to get involved either way.
Takehito's little encrypted message didn't really help either and he doubted the guy's widow would willingly tell him anything if her emotions had been any indication, which meant that he would have to take active steps to address that particular issue.
The only problem was finding a source of information. The obvious answer was breaking into MBI considering they were the ones that seemed to be overseeing this whole mess if their banners all over the place were any indication, however he wanted to keep that as a last option. At least not until he had a better idea of what was going. From there, he had a multitude of techniques and methods to get the information he wanted.
Technically, he could've done the same for his friend's widow, but it just didn't feel right to bug her, much less use any of his more forceful information gathering techniques on her.
The blond man absentmindedly munched on some fishcakes on a stick as he wandered around pondering how he was going to solve that particular conundrum, stopped short when he realized that his feet had brought him to a park. Not really all that odd given his preference for staying in places where there were high concentrations of nature chakra.
The problem was, he could feel two more of those presences in the park.
The first was rather close to him, and was staying stationary.
It was the second presence that interested him, however.
Whoever it was, it was emitting a strange sense of regret and a smattering of self-hatred as it honed in on the first presence. It was carrying another person with it too; this one had a far smaller chakra presence compared to all the other anomalies he had already bumped into today. It was the kind that he usually ignored because it was too far below his notice.
He couldn't tell anything more.
Without Sage Mode or actively pulsing his own chakra, his ability to sense chakra was limited to half a kilometer at most, and most things beyond 200 meters were too fuzzy for him to get any details beyond the fact that they were there.
The blond casually looked around as he entered the park and stepped under the tree where he knew satellites wouldn't be able to track him and kicked off.
It didn't take him longer than a minute to arrive at the bench where the first chakra signature was sitting and he scanned her over from the shadows halfway up a tree.
This one was a woman too, with short, light brown hair and on her face was a blank, depressed expression. She was basically naked save for a bloody looking shirt and even that wasn't buttoned up, not that that would have done anything given her chest size. She had her legs drawn up so that she could hug her knees and curl up into a depressed little ball, and the bad angle made it so that he couldn't tell if she was wearing anything down there.
Most importantly, prominently displayed on her forehead, as if it was stamped there of all things, was that familiar looking image of the bird and the ying yang symbol.
Naruto sighed. Up till now, he had simply connected the dots between these people, MBI and Takehito by dint of coincidence, but now that that image was there, it was all but confirmed that his work had been used on these people somehow.
Just then, the other two presences he had been waiting for arrived on the other side of the empty park clearing.
The individual walking ahead of the… (he didn't know what to call them, so he just went with 'chakra user' for now) chakra user was shorter than said chakra user, his posture, expression and swagger all screamed rich and privileged and seemed to indicate that the chakra user was subordinate to him. The chakra user's slightly bowed and submissive posture did nothing to dismiss that notion nor did his expensive looking pure white uniform and cravat, with gold lining its edges.
The chakra user on the other hand, carried the air of someone who had at the very least seen combat. He had messy gray silver hair and grey eyes, and was dressed in sensible looking greyish black attire that was topped off with a yellow scarf. The way he carried the sword also indicated that he had some skill with it.
Also.
Finally.
A male chakra user!
He'd almost started thinking that someone had found a way to pump out female chakra users in some sort of insane male sexual fantasy. None of the female chakra users he had met so far looked anything less than beautiful, and almost all of them were physically gifted to the point where it just felt artificial. Even the ones that weren't were still beautiful in their own way, so the sight of a male chakra user was almost reassuring.
It meant he didn't need to do a Pein just yet.
The option was still on the table though.
The two of them stopped a safe distance away from the first chakra user for the shorter guy to contemplate the first chakra user. The woman just ignored both of them as she stared blankly into thin air, not giving any indication that she had noticed them at all.
"Mutsu, is it safe?" the shorter one said haughtily.
The one behind hesitated for a moment before bowing even lower, "She is a Scrapped Number. I can defeat her but I still do not think she is worth your attention."
"The fact that she is a Scrapped Number just makes her even more valuable." The shorter boy hummed, "There is 107 of you, but only one of her."
"She still can't be winged." The taller male reminded his shorter counterpart.
The shorter boy shrugged with a smirk, "Others may think her useless because she may not have any practical use, but to me, she is a shining rarity worth treasuring. Besides, no harm trying is there?"
"It is as you say, Hayato-sama." The chakra user acquiesced with a slightly deflated posture. The self-hatred coming from him couldn't be any more obvious.
The boy that he now knew was named Hayato stode forwards confidently with Mutsu following behind.
The woman on the park bench simply eyed him blankly, showing no reaction whatsoever until Hayato was standing directly in front of her.
Even then, she still showed no reaction, her eyes continued to be blank and listless.
Hayato leaned forwards, his lips puckered.
His eyes slowly closed when he suddenly let out a loud squawk as his collar was yanked backwards and Mutsu's arms wrapped themselves around his waist. There was a brief moment of weightlessness as Mutsu leapt back, landing nearly ten meters away from the woman on the park bench.
"Whose there?! Show yourself!" Mutsu suddenly growled.
"Wha-Huh?" Hayato could only blink in confusion when he realized that there was a brace of…. wooden sticks (?) sticking out of the ground where he had been standing.
The little boy paled. The sticks were all sunk deep into the ground, so it wasn't hard to guess that they had been thrown with great force. If Mutsu hadn't yanked him back when he did, he would have been stabbed in both eyes.
A blond man slowly emerged from the trees behind the Scrapped Number, one hand in his pocket while another carried a bag of… oden (?!), which was presumably where the wooden sticks had come from.
"You know…" The man began as he casually placed himself between the Scrapped Number and them, "where I come from, forcing kisses on helpless, injured women isn't exactly a good thing."
Mutsu's eyes narrowed at the blue eyed blond, he didn't feel like a Sekirei, nor did he carry himself like someone who knew how to fight, yet the wooden sticks in the ground told a different story. He had thrown them with enough finesse to make sure they didn't break upon hitting the ground, and enough strength to pierce the packed earth.
"Woman?" Hayato spoke up condescendingly as he composed himself and hurriedly flattened his rumpled shirt with an irritated huff, "You don't even know who that woman really is do you? She's no normal human. She's useless to you, someone who doesn't even know what she's worth."
"Does it matter?" The unknown man countered placidly, "She's hurt and she doesn't even look like she knows what day it is, much less where it is. Normal or not, I'm not going to stand around and let someone kiss her for fun."
"If that's all you're worried about, then rest assured that I will make sure that she is well taken care off at my residence." Hayato immediately declared.
The blond immediately snorted, "You really think I'm going to fall for that?"
Hayato's eyes immediately narrowed at the other man, "You just want her for yourself, don't you?"
"For myself?" the blond shot back quizzically, "What the hell are you even talking about?"
"You…. really don't know do you?" Hayato couldn't help himself as he chuckled quietly, "You idiot! That's a-!"
The school boy was cut off as Mutsu clapped one hand over his mouth. Hayato immediately glared at Mutsu until the taller male removed his hand reluctantly, "Whatever. If you're going to insist… Mutsu! Remove him."
Mutsu simply sighed and placed one hand the hilt of his katana and readied himself, "Please step aside. Don't make me fight you." He said quietly.
The blond man simply cocked one eyebrow at him.
The silver haired man nodded at the non-answer and burst forwards, far faster than a normal had any right to, and reappeared next to the blond already mid swing.
And promptly missed.
His slash was perfect, but it barely grazed the blonde's chin.
Then a foot rocketed into his gut and Mutsu was instantly sent skidding backwards.
"Gah!" Mutsu coughed and spat out a glob of blood as the point of his sword sank into the ground like a makeshift crutch. He could practically feel his kidney bruising as his he swayed in confusion.
He had no idea how he had missed; he was absolutely sure that he had not misjudged his strike.
"You came at me with intent to kill." The blonde observed placidly, "It wasn't bad, but you lack skill."
"You…" Mutsu coughed again, as Hayato watched with a horrified expression as his strongest Sekirei had been sent to his knees with one kick, "You are not Sekirei. What are you?"
"The world is a large place. Much larger than just Japan." The blond replied indirectly, with that same nonchalant tone of someone commenting on the weather, "I suppose that's what you and the woman behind me are then?"
"I am Mutsu," The silver haired man breathlessly introduced himself with a low tone as he slowly stood up again, "Sekirei #05."
Mutsu burst forth again, slower this time as he opened with a wide slash.
This time he saw it.
The blond's footwork was impeccable, he swayed half a step back before shuffling back. Mutsu immediately followed up with another strike.
Or rather, he tried.
Right before he could slash, a sandalled foot landed on the hilt of his sword, pushing it back into the scabbard before the blond was suddenly there, lightly kicking off from the hilt of his sword into graceful backwards flip.
The foot that encountered his chin and sent him flying backwards was anything but soft or graceful.
The whole world spun.
And then he was rewarded with a vicious kick to the gut.
This time he was sent flying.
Mutsu blinked as he found himself staring upwards at the sky blankly and had to weakly wipe the sweat and stars from his eyes even as he slowly got back up.
"You Sekirei are tough." The unruffled blond man noted with an amused lilt, one hand still in his pocket while the other still carried a bag of oden, "Faster. Stronger. Do you have any other tricks?"
"Hayato! Run!"
The short boy spun around and promptly skidded to a stop as a wooden stick shot by his ear, leaving a bloody line on his cheek.
"Ah, ah, ah." He quaked in his shoes as he heard a playful voice ring out from behind him, "No running. I'm having fun now you see. If you try, I'm afraid the next stick will miss and hit something…. Important."
"Shit!"
Mutsu started running to Hayato.
He would have preferred kissing a beautiful lady, but he doubted he had any choice right now.
The enemy was that overwhelming.
It was even worse than fighting #01.
Because he could at least see #01's moves.
Watching this man's move was like watching a hazy illusion that gave him a headache. He looked like he was moving back, his muscles, his posture all screamed that he was taking a step back, but he was actually moving left. He could look like he was leaning forward, but actually be moving backwards. Basically, none of his actions actually meant anything.
With enough time and experience, he had no doubt that he would be able to break down the blond man's footwork, because a human's body was limited in its actions. He couldn't turn a kick into a punch for example, but they didn't exactly have time now did they?
The worst part was, the entire time, he had not felt the blond use even a speck more energy than a normal human would have.
And yet Mutsu felt like he was fighting against an immovable mountain.
The blond man simply watched curiously as Mutsu grabbed the shorter boy by the ears and kissed him.
He didn't really have any opinion on that.
The wings of light that suddenly bloomed as the Sekirei suddenly exploded with chakra on the other hand, that was new and interesting.
"Earth of my pledge, spread to protect; The territory of my Ashikabi!"
"Is that normal for you guys?" He asked the woman behind him, "Not the guy kissing another guy part. The wings."
To his surprise, he could see a slight stirring of life behind the woman's eyes as she nodded sadly.
The blond man hummed to himself then blinked as Mutsu burst forwards, at least twice as fast as he had been before with powerful overhead strike, his katana glowing with power, "Golden War Blade!"
Mutsu in midstrike watched, as if in slow motion, as the blond squinted at him, before he grinned playfully.
Then all of a sudden, the blond wasn't the blond anymore.
It was Hayato.
And he was looking straight up at Mutsu's incoming sword in shock.
He chanced a glance back at where he had left Hayato, only to find the strange blond man standing there instead.
"SHIT!"
Mutsu pulled back so hard that he felt his right arm get yanked out of its socket, but he made it. He managed to cancel his skill in time. So instead of crushing his Ashikabi's head with his own sword, he brained him with his shoulder instead as the two of them went tumbling down helplessly, his sword planting down right by Hayato's terrified eyes and shaving a hair or two away.
And then, the monstrous blond was there again.
He casually placed one foot on the blade and pushed.
Mutsu cried out in fear as he half crawled, half threw himself forward to catch the hilt of his katana with his one good hand.
Hayato's went cross eyed, his pupils narrowed into pinpricks, as he fearfully stared the blade of the sword hovering right above his nose.
"STOP! WE YIELD!"
"Oh?" The blond man hummed, "Is that supposed to mean something?"
"The Plan! We retire! We won't enter your territory ever again!" Mutsu screamed hoarsely as the blade became heavier and heavier.
"And this lady here?"
The Scrapped Number blinked at them blankly.
"We want nothing to do with her! She's a Scrapped Number!"
"I'm sorry, that term doesn't really mean anything to me. Would you mind explaining?" The blond queried politely, despite the fact that he was basically holding an executioner's blade over their figurative necks, or nose as the case may be.
"Something went wrong during the tuning process. They said she's defective." Mutsu groaned out rapidly as he tried to wedge his shoulder under the sword hilt, "She can't be winged like me. So… so they removed her number. I don't know anything more!"
The blond man's eyes hardened into chips of ice, his casual tone was now silky smooth, like a coiling snake, "They scrapped a person, they scrapped her because she was… defective?"
Mutsu cried out in agony as the force behind the sword practically doubled. The sword point sank into the ground, slicing deep into Hayato's ear.
The boy was outright sobbing now.
"And why would I spare him? Someone who even as a child, is willing to abandon all sense and morality for the sake of a game and apparently thinks nothing of collecting and treating other people like toys?" The blue-eyed man asked curiously, "Who seemed perfectly willing to ask his Sekirei to murder someone."
"His father is a powerful man. If kill his son, he will come and find you." Mutsu countered weakly; his voice was impressively steady despite his shaking arm and knees.
"If he does come for me, then there will be two dead men by the end of the day instead of just one." The blond man replied blithely, "Along with whoever else happened to be in the way. I'm kinda sensitive to that kind of thing you see, it's like an allergic reaction. Only instead of sneezing, I kill people."
"Please! He's just a kid, he was lonely and stupid! He doesn't know what he's doing! If you want to kill someone, kill me!"
"Hmmm." The blond man grunted to himself, "No more kissing random women and men who don't want it?"
Mutsu's eyes brightened, "No, I swear it! Even if I have to chain him up myself!"
Mutsu could have cried in relief when the foot was finally lifted. Instead, he tapped his head to the ground in a dogeza, "Thank you. Thank you so much."
The blond man simply grunted as he sat on the bench next to the Scrapped Number, "Leave."
Mutsu manhandled Hayato onto his good shoulder and immediately began scrambling away from him.
Silence settled back into the clearing as the man quietly began eating his oden again, he hadn't let the bag go the entire time. Too bad the daikon was now cold and soggy. He pointedly ignored the staring woman.
Some would say he had let them off too easy, and the blond man figured they probably weren't wrong.
That said, it wasn't as if he had let them go without insurance though. He had had plenty of time to put a nice new jutsu he had made on to the boy. A mix of genjutsu and ninjutsu to create a whole new category of jutsu, inspired by the stories of curses he had heard of during his stay in this world.
He doubted the boy was going to get any sleep any time soon.
And regardless of everything he had said earlier, he was not in the business of murdering children, even if they were psychopathic monsters.
"So. You got a name?" He spoke casually.
The woman next to him tilted her head slowly, "… Akitsu."
He jabbed one wooden stick in her direction, "Want me to take a look at you? I'm a pretty good doctor. Bet I could fix whatever they did to you."
Akitsu considered the offer for a good minute before she nodded.
"Alright then. Let's get you back to my place before I take a better look at that thing on your head."
Both of them stood up, and Naruto promptly blanched.
His earlier question was now answered.
Akitsu was indeed, not wearing anything on the bottom.
****Sekire Unbound****
Dinner had already come and gone, however she had yet to see the strange blond man.
Miya sat on her knees patiently on the verandah even as the dishes sat in the sink unwashed.
His knapsack was still there, so she could only assume that he had gone out for dinner instead.
She was ashamed of herself.
For a brief moment, earlier this evening, she had absolutely hated the blond.
But she also acknowledged that without his work, she would have never met Takehito.
Her children would have never woken up.
And even if what Minaka was doing was an abomination, it was better than what would have happened if the Disciplinary Squad had not been awakened on time. It wasn't his fault that Minaka had chosen to abuse his work like that. He had no idea what was happening after all.
Thus, she resolved to thank him the moment she saw him, and welcome him to her house, together with a hot dinner.
Unfortunately, that plan was derailed the moment that shock of bright spiky yellow hair, tied back into a messy pony tail with a blue band, reappeared outside Maison Izumo.
Because he was accompanied by another.
A woman who was very clearly a Sekirei.
She blinked in recognition as Akitsu, formerly Sekirei #07 crossed the threshold of Maison Izumo.
The blond behind her simply leaned on the gate and folded his arms with a lop-sided smile, "So. Sekirei."
Crimson eyes flicked between Akitsu and the blond, "She can't be winged."
"Not yet."
"They said she can't be winged."
"They've clearly never met me."
Miya frowned at him, "You want to wing her that badly?"
"No. but I want to see if I can help her get better."
Miya's frown deepened, "You can really help her?"
"I can help her." The blond agreed.
She silently considered him for a moment, "Who are you really?"
"Uzumaki-fucking-Naruto." The blond man replied as if that was all that needed to be said.
"Clang!"
Miya smiled sweetly at the blond who had blocked her ladle with a wooden stick, "No swearing allowed."
The blond simple chuckled.
****Sekirei Unbound****