Wow, doing this twice a month is surprisingly harsh when I've also got another fanfic in the works. O.o I actually have a pretty respectable backlog of chapters for this story so I don't get too far behind, but I've also got a lotta shit eating up my time, like building up a backlog for the Twisted Bonds revival and actually going outside to… interact with these strange creatures called hoomanz, lol. There's also having a wife to spoil and other responsibilities, in addition to looking for a new computer, seeking out a nice curio to serve a suitable otaku shrine, doing some job-hunting, and attending the prerelease for War of the Spark. I MUST GET A FOIL COPY OF FEATHER! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW LONG I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR HER TO GET A CARD!

Ahem…

Uh… Sorry, my lore nerd is showing, lol. The recent shit they've been pumping out makes me wanna make a Naruto/Magic crossover just to see if I can fix a lot of the wasted potential... enspecially in the Shadows over Innistrad block, but that'll have to wait.

Sooo... yeah, I've been a busy-ass otaku over this past month, I must say. Hope y'all enjoy this chapter and I apologize, but I might have to start posting updates once a month as originally planned to free up time. Expect new chapters within the first week of every month and lemme know how much you like it, eh? Also, if there are areas you think I should improve on, don't be afraid to let me know! :) This is a learning experience for me, after all, lol.

Chapter Seven: The Second Hunt Begins

Resting at the local inn of Parri, a town in southeastern Toulouse, two women started looking a bit nervous. Unfortunately, that large youki signature they'd been told to avoid seemed to be heading in the same direction they were.

One was a brunette with her hair in a messy bob; her features were a bit on the boyish side, but still attractive by most standards. She had a lean and toned physique under her uniform and a troubled look on her round, pretty face. This girl's name was Uranus; better known as Uranus of the Evil Blade, she currently held the rank of Number 31.

The other was a striking beauty and very feminine in appearance. She had curly, blonde tresses pulled up into a pair of pigtails with straight, side-swept bangs; long, prominent eyelashes; a beauty mark below her right eye; full, rosy lips; and a very girlish, heart-shaped face. Her build was that of a shapely, attractive woman with a sizeable bust and every curve in all of the right places; in short, this woman looked far more suited to be in a royal gown that the 'Claymore' uniform she donned.

Needless to say, she noticed many a young man ogling her out the corner of his eye… not that she minded; it was a wonderful stroke to her ego, after all. This fetching woman's name was Roxanne; the current Number 35 and best friend of Uranus, she leaned up against the wall with her arms crossed as the pair awaited the arrival of their remaining teammates.

It had been no less than three weeks since they'd been given their assignment, so the Number One and their last teammate should be arriving any moment, now. Sill, the owner of that massive youki they were told to avoid was getting uncomfortably close…

"I don't like this," Uranus said, breaking the comfortable silence she and her friend were enjoying with a deep, worried frown. "I can't shake the feeling that something bad's gonna happen."

"It often does," Roxanne pointed out with a dejected sigh. "Such is life in our line of work." Then, she perked up when two more youki signatures entered her range. "Ah! Looks like we have some more company. Two more warriors are coming our way. One is… oh, my! She is immensely strong."

Uranus shifted uncomfortably, having sensed it as well. That had to be the current Number One… there was just no way in hell it could possibly be anyone else!

The women didn't need to wait long, as the two youki signatures made a beeline for them. Soon enough, Cassandra and Miranda entered the inn and addressed their remaining teammates.

The former stepped forward and addressed the warriors respectfully. "I'm… uh… I'm Cassandra," she said awkwardly, before clearing her throat and plastering on a serious look. "The current Number One. My friend here, is Number 36, Miranda. May I ask your names and ranks?"

Roxanne and Uranus exchanged a glance. Clearly, this chick was not a people person. No wonder she preferred to work alone.

The Number 35 shrugged and her friend took charge. "I'm Uranus," the brunette said, "the current Number 31." She then gestured to Roxanne. "This is Number 35, Roxanne. We're ready to head out when you are."

"Good," Cassandra replied with a satisfied nod. "We'll be heading out immediately, then. If you have any questions ask Miranda. She's... more comfortable with socializing than I am."

A few days later, the small team did their best to avoid the massive youki, but they seemed to be managing. Hopefully, the Awakened One won't think they're hunting him?

The rumors they'd caught wind of along the way implied that the being was male and thus a member of the Lost Generation, which would make him much harder to deal with on its own due to the experience he'd likely have accumulated by now. But this one's youki was massive—easily one of the top five as far as Cassandra could tell. As such, she was not at all confident in her team being able to take him on. Sure, she probably could if they weren't able to avoid him, but the risk of her teammates—Miranda especially—getting killed was simply far too high for her comfort.

If nothing else they can try and edge away from that Awakened One and make it seem as if they haven't noticed him. Cassandra just hoped he wasn't on his way to Lautrec because that would complicate things.

"We should head a bit more southward," the Number One announced. "It'll take longer to enter Lautrec as a result, but we can hopefully avoid this thing; I'd rather not deal with any unnecessary conflict until we at least find Sylvia and her kidnapper."

Her teammates had no arguments there. That Awakened Being's youki was starting to get to them, leaving the women quite thoroughly on edge. So, they did just that… only for the youki to follow them, much to their dismay.

"Shit…" Cassandra muttered. Okay, who were to Lost Generation's top five, again?

Starting with the weakest, she remembered that Lars the Lanky was last spotted around the southern mountains of Toulouse, but that was well over twenty years ago. It very well could be him.

Chronos of the Silver Tongue apparently never got along with Isley, so he went down to Mucha when the the Abyssal One claimed the North and hadn't been seen since. That said, this wasn't likely to be him. The Awakened Being came down from Alphonse and Chronos was suspected to have avoided that territory like the plague.

Next was Dauf the Dim. No one had seen him since he awakened, so it could be him as well.

The third possibility was Rigardo, the Silver-Eyed Lion King. If if this was him, Cassandra's friend was jolly well fucked. His speed was legendary, even before he awakened! If they crossed paths with him, her team would be dead before they could react and there wasn't a damn thing she'd be able to do about it. The Number One frowned deeply, dreading the thought.

Fortunately, they knew for sure that it wasn't Isley, the White Silver King of the North. Thank the gods! He was said to be even faster than Rigardo, now! While she was stronger than him, Cassandra was not at all confident that she'd win if they came to blows; the previous Number One, Lutecia the Universal, was even stronger than her and he came back down with the woman's head in a burlap sack when she tried to challenge him! (1)

Cassandra took a deep, calming breath and collected her thoughts. So, it was either Lars, Dauf or Rigardo… No! She still couldn't risk it. Turning to her teammates, she could practically see the black cloud of dread hanging over them. "Keep moving," she barked. "Double time! Now!"

They did precisely that without question.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit…" Cassandra growled beneath her breath, several moments later. That youki was getting closer! Today was just not her day was it?! Seriously why was that Awakened One going for them when they were actively trying to avoid it!? Was it seeking them out for a fight!?

"Wh-what should we do?" Miranda asked, looking very worried.

"Run ahead," Cassandra barked, sliding to a halt and taking her sword out of the slot of her back plate. "I can take him, but I will not allow you to get hurt!"

Hearing that, Roxanne grabbed Uranus by the wrist and started bolting as if the fires of hell were after her. "You heard the lady, Number 36!" she called out to the pigtailed blonde. "Get moving!"

Miranda frowned deeply and gave her friend a concerned look. "Don't you dare get yourself killed."

"Just go! I'll catch up!" She yelled before turning in the direction the youki aura was coming from.

With nothing left to say, the Number 36 bolted as well.

Cassandra took a deep breath to calm herself. Her sword held at the ready, she awaited the arrival of whoever was following them. Soon enough, she could sense that he was getting closer and not long after, the ground started to tremble from his footsteps.

Definitely not Rigardo, then… that was a relief. Even in his awakened form, the man in question was… relatively small: only about eight feet or so. That said, it was almost certainly either Lars or Dauf. She would find out who it was soon enough.

The sound of large metallic feet hitting the ground filled her ears, as did that of splintering wood and falling trees. A dark silhouette filled her vision while he approached. Then, a big, brown face with a dull, almost dazed expression poked out from between the trees before her.

That was definitely not Lars… Shit. That could only be Dauf the Dim. A fitting moniker, due to the look on his face. Pushing forward, he snapped the trees in his way like twigs to reveal a grotesque and muscular body covered in thick brown armor, much like an exoskeleton of pure metal. He had a hunched back and elongated arms with several metallic looking rods protruding from under a plate on the back of his head like the quills on a porcupine. His eyes menacingly glowed a sickly yellow.

He stood a good 20 feet tall, but the Awakened One wasn't hunched over, he would have been towering over some of those trees.

The now-identified Dauf looked around to see if he could spot this chick's teammates and frowned when he realized they were nowhere to be found. Were these bitches underestimating him?!

"Oi! Where's yer teammates?!" Dauf demanded, rather rudely at that, as he glared down at Cassandra with his glowing yellow eyes. "I know yer not alone, no huntin' party has one member in 'em!"

"You're not the one we're hunting," Cassandra told him politely, giving him a respectful bow in an attempt to appeas Dauf and diffuse their situation. "We were heading to Lautrec to deal with someone else. Sorry if we gave you the wrong impress-"

"You honestly expect me to believe that bullshit?!" The Awakened One interrupted her harshly. Then, as the metallic behemoth took a swipe at her, Cassandra narrowly evaded his grasp by bending her knees and balancing on her toes. The woman's back hovered barely even an inch above the ground. She sprang back up to a standing position immediately after his hand passed by as though she were made of rubber.

"It's the truth," Cassandra roared insistently. "We were trying to avoid you, dammit!"

"A common ploy," Dauf grunted. Deciding he's had enough of this conversation, he opened his mouth wide and shot a rod at her without warning. "That trick's so old it's from my day!" (2)

Cassandra leapt out of the way quite easily and rolled into a kneeling crouch. She looked up at him with a flat stare, "I can see why you're called Dauf the Dim, now… You honestly think we'd still be using that tactic?"

The hunting technique in question hasn't been used for several generations now! Nowadays warriors of the Organization are instructed to not engage Awakened Ones unless they're part of an Awakened Being Hunting Party. Since the Awakened Ones are alone and generally stay away from civilization, the reward killing an Awakened One for the sake of doing so was simply not seen as being worth the risk. It's only when they're causing enough trouble for the Organization to take notice that a Hunting Party is sent to kill them, and the tactic of making it seem like they were avoiding the target to try and catch them off guard eventually fell out of favor when the Awakened Ones started wising up to it.

They were once human, after all, and humans are generally capable of cognitive thought. So while it was used once upon a time, it wasn't as effective as it used to be. Sure, at times it does work by accident… but such instances were the exception by a long shot.

"Yer just diggin' yerown grave, bitch! I'mma rip yer limbs off and shove 'em up yer ass!" With that, Dauf shot five more rods at her, but she practically breakdanced around each and every last one of them. Her nimble evasion was quite the spectacle to behold. Then, staying low to the ground, Cassandra tried to lop his leg off at the shin, but her attack literally bounced right off.

"Ow! Fuck!" Dauf yelled out and then he punted the woman across the thicket that served as their battlefield. Cassandra let out a startled, but pained cry as she sailed through the air before making a rough landing on the ground. She had to stop her momentum by digging the tip of her sword into the ground.

"Damn! That hurt..." Cassandra had not been expecting Dauf to be that strong to be completely honest. Nor did she expect his armor to be thick enough to withstand her attack. Giving him a once over, just before he sent a few more rods her way, Cassandra took note of some gaps in the armor around the joints. So, she evaded his attacks, grunting in pain as she did, and decided on a plan of attack. Clearly, those were weak points in his armor, so she just needed to get close enough once again and strike at them.

Unfortunately, it would appear that he cracked some of her ribs with that assault and her shoulder was also hurting like a bitch. He probably busted that, too. Still, she could take him… all she needed was an opening. But, Dauf the Dim was not quite as stupid as his moniker would imply, at least in the realm of combat and he kept her at bay with a hail of metallic projectiles. (3)

But then, as though Rabona, the Battle Maiden, herself, heard the Number One's unspoken prayer, a white blur entered Cassandra's field of vision to reveal Uranus above Dauf's head and with a roar, the Number 31 slammed the pommel of her claymore into the Awakened Being.

"GAH!" Dauf cried out in pain and hunched forward hands on his head to keep the newest attacker from doing anymore harm.

And when he did, Cassandra's youki spiked. This was her chance! She let loose a roar of her own, ignoring the pain, and lopped his right foot off at the ankle in one mighty swing. Dauf let out an agonised cry at that and fell on his side, holding his stump while bawling his eyes out like a child.

"Y-you bitch," he wailed. "You stupid bitch! I'll kill you!"

"Your own damn fault!" Cassandra snapped at him. "I told you we're not after you!" She then took a deep, calming breath and turned her attention to Uranus. "Thanks for the save, now let's get out of here." They still had a job to do… and it'll have to be delayed a bit thanks to that lucky hit he got in. Her whole torso and sword arm were sore, now! Fuck!

"Your friend insisted I try and help you out after she saw you go flying," Uranus pointed out as they vacated the area. "Sorry for going against your orders like that, but after seeing that look on her face, I couldn't help myself."

"It's fine," Cassandra replied with a warm smile. With that, she and Uranus regrouped with the rest of their team, leaving Dauf to lick his wounds as it were. Though he was down, the Awakened Being was still dangerous… and pissed the fuck off. Getting the fuck out of dodge before he could reattach his foot was ultimately the best course of action.

Fortunately for said Awakened One, the hunting party being assigned to kill him was still being assembled… so he at least had time to recover.

Back in her castle, while nibbling away at some beef, Riful perked up. A confused frown marred her pretty face.

"Something wrong?" Naruto asked.

"I don't quite know?" The brunette looked even more confused while giving her reply. "It feels like I'm being... tugged somewhere, but I can't quite tell why for the life of me."

"Huh… weird,"

"I know," Riful agreed.

"Sooo…" Naruto decided to change the subject. "How are you faring?"

"Better, now," the Abyssal loli muttered with a sigh. "It's still… weird realizing that I have another person growing inside me, though…"

"You'll get used to it," Naruto reassured. "Uh… the idea of being a mother, I mean. Just give it a little more time."

"And apples…" Riful muttered, that frown deepening even more. "For some reason, I keep craving apples."

Yeah… she'll get used to it eventually. But, it would take a while to say the least.

As for the rest of his little harem… well, the ones not sealed away inside his belly that is, they were happily settling in. Though the castle could still use some renovation, it was looking much better now.

Neideen and Sylvia's rooms looked as good as new, even having whitewash reapplied to the walls! It lacked any murals, granted, and looked rather plane as a result, but still; that was one hell of an improvement! They felt like royalty!

The beds Naruto provided were also terribly comfortable. Neideen swore she was oversleeping as she shambled on into the dining hall completely naked and plopped down into her baby-daddy's lap..

The blond in question smiled at her and give the woman a loving peck on the cheek."You have a good nap?"

"Better than I've had in years." It was true; she slept like a little baby! "I swear those beds from your homeland are so comfortable I can sleep in them forever."

Naruto chortled, "Well, my people were quite a bit more advanced, technology wise." Then he grinned mischievously, "But, if there's one thing these beds are good for, it's fucking your hot ass into the mattress. And waking up to seeing your fat tits in my face while you fuck me into next week."

"Oh, you," Neideen giggled playfully. "The dirty talk is my job, damn it!"

Naruto rolled his eyes in amusement, before pulling her down into a smoldering kiss. After a moment the blond pulled back to catch his breath, before saying with a smirk, "Just because it's your 'job' doesn't mean I can't talk dirty back to you; I like seeing how flustered you get."

A naughty one though she may be, Neideen was still not used to someone else hitting on and talking dirty to her. It was so… surreal being on the receiving end of that shit. But, she kinda liked it.

"Keep that up and I might just start fucking you, right here and now," she cooed.

"Ahem..." The both of them perked up upon hearing Riful clearing her throat exaggeratedly to get their attention. "Don't hog him to yourself, now!"

"I know," Neideen replied with a childish pout. "But it's my turn to play with him, today."

"Oh, I know," the Abyssal One replied. "Just making sure you don't forget to share is all." She then readdressed Naruto to issue him a reminder as well. "We're almost out of fruit, by the way. When next my turn comes, we're going shopping."

Naruto chuckled nervously, easily sensing the ulterior motives behind her words. While she had started eating human food once more, she apparently still needed some… 'fresh meat' in her diet. "Noted."

"I have half a mind to break your other shoulder," Miranda grumbled, several minutes later as she popped the pieces of her friend's shoulder blade back in place. "Do you have any idea how terrified I was when I saw you bouncing along the ground like a child's plaything?!"

Casandra grunted, while Uranus and Roxane both winced at the pop that came from her. That sounded… unpleasant.

Still… they were alive.

"If we all had engaged him at once, there's a good chance that we wouldn't be having this conversation," Cassandra explained. "I didn't want to risk losing my only friend. I'd rather die than let that happen."

Miranda frowned, averting her gaze. "Well, we're not hunting this 'Naruto' character and rescuing Sylvia with you in that condition. We should rest for a couple of days. Reattaching limbs is one thing, but broken bones are very tricky. Thankfully, the ribs he broke didn't pierce your lung. If we get in a fight before you've recovered, though, the risk of that happening and potentially killing you is very high."

"So, I take it the captain's an offensive type, then?" Roxanne asked. Though she wasn't one herself, she knew a defensive type could recover from broken ribs in only one day… possibly a few hours, depending on how many and how bad it was.

"I am," Cassandra grunted, answering the question herself.

"That makes three offensive types and one defensive, then," Uranus chimed in. She could tell that Miranda was the latter, given how good she was at aiding with regeneration. "We'll have to bear that in mind when confronting Naruto."

"We'll also have to be careful in how we engage him as well," Roxanne added with a thoughtful frown. "If he truly is as strong as the Man of the North then we will have one hell of a fight on our hands."

"Sound advice," Cassandra replied with a nod. "We'll come up with a gameplan while we're all resting up... but at the end of the day, we have no idea where in Lautrec he is. That said, if he catches wind of us looking for him before we actually find him, then we'll need to have a defensive strategy as backup."

Neither of the girls were about to argue with her on that.

"We'll come up with it later," Miranda assured. Then, she started nudging at her friend impatiently. "But for now, I need you to lie down and focus on regenerating."

"A-alright," Cassandra muttered, averting her gaze as she complied.

And so, they stayed put for the next hour or so, before setting up camp in a more suitable location. It would be no less than three days, per Miranda's insistence, before they got moving once more.

1: While writing Naruto's Quest, Spy and I more or less came up with a timeline for the events of Claymore's lore, like when Lutecia was Number One and how she died. It was fun to do, actually, and gave the world a bit of a history, so why not use it, right?

2: Being the former Number Three, I feel Dauf - despite his shortcomings - would have been well-versed in the tactics of his day. One does not appear to gain that kinda rank through sheer power, after all, and so it would have made sense if there were at least some competency requirements. That said, his stupidity is… reduced in this fanfic. Not by much, hence the moniker I gave him, but enough for him to be even scarier than in canon, methinks. =3

3: Given his abilities and the fact that he showed some knowledge, even in canon, I feel that Dauf would likely prefer keeping his opponents at bay. He also exhibited what looked like a very low threshold for pain, which only makes this being his favored tactic seem more likely in my opinion.

Aaand with that, I think we're done, here! :) Hope y'all enjoy and I look forward to updating in a month or so!