Disclaimer: First Chapter
Story Start!
He just felt off.
'Excalibur is reacting, heck, I'm reacting as well.' Naruto reached and rubbed the back of his neck, where the hairs were standing on end. His sword, both of them actually, were reacting to something getting closer to Kuoh. He could hazard a guess at what the Excalibur swords would be reacting to.
The broken Excalibur blades.
Excalibur was the sword of victory, when wielded in the hand of it's true owner, it would never break. The sword was not sentient in the way of it having active thought, but the sword could sense more of itself existed. Naruto's sword was the Original Excalibur in it's prime, before the blade had been broken when wielded by somebody who did not possess rightful ownership of it. The sword giving to the chosen by the Lady of the Lake, naturally when wielded by somebody who was not of the chosen lineage, the sword could not show it's true strength.
"Naruto."
"You summoned yourself again." Naruto didn't need to look behind him to know that Lancer had summoned herself without his permission. Of all of his servants, since he activated his Sacred Gear, Lancer summoned themselves more than any other.
He felt a hand on his shoulder, but didn't aknowledge it.
Lancer took her hand off of his shoulder.
"... I'm sorry to disturb you, I'll de-summon-" Lancer changed her mind. She had sensed Excalibur, the broken swords, on their way to Japan through Naruto. It roused her curiousity, and it made her uneasy. More than that though, she sensed an unease in Naruto and had to summon herself. The unease within Naruto had grown since Ravel and Koneko had started to become more outright with their feelings and attempts to be with him.
He was getting stressed.
"-who are you to me?" Naruto asked Lancer without looking at her.
Lancer stopped what she was saying.
"... You looked at the list of the previous servants summoned, and saw the previous owner of the Sacred Gear was your mother." Lancer knew that Kushina had been able to look up Mito's servants in the book. They she had been unable to summon previous servants, their recorded data was in the book as well as who had summoned them.
Saber: Artoria Pendragon - Kushina Uzumaki
Lancer: Artoria Pendragon - Naruto Uzumaki
Naruto opened the book up and flipped between the two pages. Naruto didn't glance at Artoria, and the woman removed her helmet from her head. She walked forward, and stood next to him on the rooftop of the school. Naruto had told the others he wanted to be alone, and eat alone because he wasn't feeling well.
"I'm... I'm not going to lie to you, so I won't answer that question. You knowing will only hurt-"
"I'm stronger than you think." Naruto told her, and she nodded her head.
"-me. I don't hide this from you to protect you. I'm the weak one, my heart is not strong enough to handle your reaction. You'll hate me, I know you will. I was there when she died, but I wasn't able to save her... I was the one who left you in that convenience store bathroom." Artoria closed her eyes to avoid seeing his reaction. This was as close as she could get to admitting the truth to him. "... My knowledge of the Uzumaki, it came from my time with your mother. Would you like me to tell you about her?" Artoria offered Naruto with a small smile.
When she did open her eyes, she noticed that Naruto's face was hard to read, as if he understood something but at the same time didn't.
"... Do you know who my father is... if he's still alive?" Naruto had the smallest trace of hope in his voice. If Artoria had been around his mother, then she would have had to know who his father was. He always knew who his mother was, but the other half of his parentage had always been a complete mystery to him.
Artoria got physically closer.
"Your father hides their face from you in shame, because they blame themselves for the life you had led. I know that your father has watched over you, and they love you very much. I can promise, that when your father went away, every day they wished they could hold you in their arms." Artoria spoke from experience.
When she had vanished from the world, and got her wish granted, she had been able to live a life where she returned Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake. She took up the Spear instead of the Sword, and ruled a lifetime over Camelot. She created the perfect kingdom, and with it she created an alternate timeline. She had memories of her time with Kushina, and thus the modern day age of technology. She had used that knowledge to bring forth an amazing growth in convenience for her people.
Every day she was internally tortured with her new life though.
She lived with the knowledge, that while she was living her life, her son was suffering all alone. Never a day went by that she didn't miss Naruto, wish to hold him, raise him, and show him the proper path. To pass down her skills to him, and be the father that he needed from her. She lived an entire second life, for another 90 years, where that regret plagued her every day of her life. That entire time, she had been mocked by the existence of Mordred as well, the child she convieved with her sister while drunk. She was mocked by the existence of her illegitimate heir, while her true son was out of her reach.
On her death bed, she died wishing so strongly for another chance to be with her son.
That wish had been so strong, that she connected to the Sacred Gear once more and became his Lancer. Similar to how his wish for a father had been so strong, that their two wishes connected with the Sacred Gear and brought them back together.
It was a miracle in a way.
To rush and hug her son, to apologize to him, or to keep doing her duty and protecting him. She had to protect him from others who could lead him down a path undeserving of him. She had to protect him from the parts of himself he didn't need to know about, and she needed to protect him from her own bad parenting.
She was not a good parent.
She killed Mordred in her first life, got Kushina killed and Naruto orphaned as a Servant the first time around, and then she completely ignored and belittled Mordred in her second life after she was a servant. She had held a grudge against Mordred for inflicting the fatal wound that killed her, and though she did take up a slightly more fatherly role with Mordred in her second life, she was far from loving or supportive.
"Shame huh? So that is it." Naruto sighed to himself. "He wasn't a great person then?" Naruto questioned.
Artoria nodded.
"Your father was perfect, but not a person. Your father lacked many things that a person needed to be called a person, and your birth was perhaps the only time in your father's life that they had ever felt pride. Your birth was a startling moment of self-discovery." Artoria admitted to Naruto.
She had been expected to become King.
She had given up her humanity and womanhood to become a King.
She became a perfect warrior to become a perfect King.
She inheritted a Kingdom, she didn't obtain a Kingdom that she herself built. The only thing she created was the Knights of the Round Table, and even that wasn't something she could claim as solely her creation.
She had created Naruto, her son, and she had held him in her arms. For once, something she had never been able to do in life, she had created life and held to make something truly valuable. She did what she could never do after she had given up her femininity, and started to hide her female gender in order to give her people a male King.
Nitocris appeared between them.
"Egypt is yours." Nitocris stated as she took a knee before Naruto. Her appearance signified the end of Naruto and Artoria's conversation, and she put her helmet back on. Naruto glanced at his Caster and smiled at her.
It had taken over a week, but she had done it.
"Good, you've done well." Naruto complimented her performance.
She smiled more widely at the praise.
"It was simple really, the common folk are quite afraid of a Pharaoh coming back to life. I laid curses over those who opposed me, and now Egypt has submitted to the rule of Pharaohs again. Should I aquire nearby countries as slaves for your army?" Nitocris asked Naruto with a serious frown. She wasn't upset, but she wanted to follow another order soon.
Naruto thought about Egypt's location.
He scratched his whisker marks.
"... Don't act rashly, if those running the country have submitted to you, then they have submit to me. Libya and Sudan are the nearest countries and can be left alone, but nations that have Islam as their national religion will not abandon their god or country to me. They will rebel and try to crush your rule in Egypt... crush them. They have a weak military, but their troups are tenacious and willing to die for their beliefs. They are in a perfect strategic spot to aquire Russia and China in quick order." Naruto gave his orders. He would allow her to move as she wanted to, because her actions could easily be monitered by him and he could bring her back the second she did something he wasn't going to approve of.
Artoria looked at Naruto and nodded.
"I will follow your orders, but I thought you wanted to keep the casualties as few as possible." Nitocris asked with a tilted head.
Naruto blinked.
"Don't crush the entire country, bait their army into launching an attack. Start to position a lure force at the border, while surrounding their bases. Do not attack innocents, but crush their military will overwhelming. They are a country that will rebel against me, and many innocents will die on both sides. I forgot how close their countries were to Egypt when I had you take the country over." Naruto bit his thumb in annoyance. It was only now coming back to him the location in the world Egypt was.
It was in the perfect place to take over Africa, but it was in a horrible spot for getting attacked by tenacious forces.
"That could start war."
"Free the slaves, the women and children who were captured and forced into sexual slavery, the Africans who are slaves will be returned to where homes. If they attack first, then retalation is allowed by the UN. With their military crushed, crush the moral of the people by freeing all of the slaves in the country. This will earn a good reputation with other African countries, and it will further lower Islamic morale." Naruto gave his stategy. It was simple, but hard to pull off as well. With this strategy, he would gain several more countries in the matter of a few days if performed properly.
Crush enemy morale.
Gaining the support of enemy civilians.
Gaining the support of nearby countries.
Destroy their military, take away their slaves, put into place a new system of laws that allow for more freedom than the current laws. Give the people a new hope that is far more bright than the life they lead now, and he could crush many future rebellions.
"I see, what is my time limit?"
"... 2 weeks, you have 2 weeks to follow my orders. After that, you will take a break. You aren't suited to taking down Russia and China, for that I will need to bring both nations down by force in the span of 1 day. Force them to submit or be crushed... I need to place 2 servants in positions where they make a show of force on such a scale that the nations have no choice but to surrender." Naruto needed to silently steal the countries close to those two countries, in order for that power play to become more viable.
Artoria nodded her head.
Naruto was using stealth operations, and having Nitocris act in a way that would allow for the least amount of innocent deaths possible. He needed to crush the morale of his enemies, and then instill a bright hope in them that his kingdom would be the greatest hope they could have. Any that would be too tenacious in their refusal to submit would later become rebels.
"Human so-"
"You just need to move the Egypt's troups close to the bases, in order to make it seem like we crushed them with my military. You and Mordred will completely crush their military bases together, that is the only way to get this done as fast as possible. My military, my people will then move in and save as many civilians as possible from the wreckage." Naruto gave could tell that Nitocris had no faith in Egypt's armed troops. That was why they were just a front, using supernatural force to crush the enemy would create far more fear of starting a rebellion.
Artoria's eyes widened.
"Using supernatural powers... it wouldn't just be faster, but it would shake the faith of those who have weak faith. You are destroying even the possibility of future rebellion." Artoria smiled as she spoke.
Naruto turned and faced his servants.
"I will unite this world under my banner, and under my banner there will be peace. All nations, all people, will be equal under my flag. My flag will become their hope, I want to create a world that most people will be happy to live in. Those who rebel will be crushed." Naruto proclaimed once more his goal.
His Kingdom was expanding.
Chapter End!
Please Leave Me Lots of Nice Long Reviews, But No Flames Please!
So, Next Up is the Holy Sword Arc.
Also, Naruto is now TRULY a King.
He rules all of Japan AND Egypt, and plans to gain more countries for his Kingdom soon. Now, when Naruto calls himself a "King" he ACTUALLY is a King WITH a Kingdom.