Alright, the rest this story's more or less ready in advance! Just have to edit the rest and try to remove any typos in the remaining chapters. The issue is that I suck at editing. XD

If anyone has tips for making that easier, I'd be happy to hear them! :)

That said, the ending also needs to be finished, but there's no hurry, since I have quite a few chapters to edit and post before we get there.

However, I have another fanfic also ready for the same treatment. And its chapters are much longer. Into the Void is pretty close to being completely uploaded, too. So, to avoid overworking myself, we're gonna change things up.

On the first weekend of every month, I'll be posting a newly-done chapter of Into the Void until the rest has been posted and two weeks later, one of the other fanfic, The Mirran, will be posted.

I'm sure some lore nuts of a certain card game would be able to guess what that's about, lol.

Also, rest assured that I haven't forgotten about Twisted Bonds or Silver and Gold; those two are still on my priority list. I'm just kinda stuck and need to figure out what to do with them - the latter especially, lol. Daddy Issues will pop up eventually, as well. I'm just kinda anal when it comes to quality...

On with the fic!

Chapter Twenty-Six: Unsettling Movements

Sitting upon his throne, Isley frowned, deep in thought.

It had been one year since Elenda disappeared; when Rigald came back to say she hadn't returned, Isley immediately assumed the worst: either she was dead or their second Eye turned on them. When word got out that Lord Naruto apparently tamed a "bat demon" at some point, the latter option had been all but confirmed.

It, however, mattered not; Isley's plans remained unchanged. Elenda would be dealt with eventually—if not by the Organization, then he himself would make her pay for that treachery. Either way, she dug her own grave.

That being said, Isley opted not to bother with spying on Naruto any further and instead focused on the Organization.

Speaking of… Rigald entered the great hall to relay his findings on the matter.

"Report," Isley commanded.

"Rizaado has returned from his scouting mission and has discovered something… unsettling," the black-haired man responded.

Quirking an eyebrow, Isley motioned Rigald to continue, "Go on…"

"Apparently, this 'reclusive shadow demon' is real… and stronger than you." Rigald told him. "Her youki is vast and terrifying; like an infinite pool of energy. She appears to visit once every two weeks. Lord Naruto is also known to disappear for one week after she visits the first time every month."

Isley did not like the sound of that.

"The Organization also appears to be mobilizing," Rigald added. "They're moving slowly so as not to draw too much attention, but there's an unusually large concentration of warriors in Toulouse—well over 100, in fact."

Isley was visibly taken aback by that. One hundred warriors?! They've never had that many in service at one time! Even before the Organization ultimately shaved it to 47, the most they ever had at any given time was 60! (1)

"Gather the army, then," Isley ordered after taking a moment to calm himself. "Tell them to get ready; once this conflict is over, we will strike as planned."

Rigald bowed and obeyed. "As you wish, milord."

Meanwhile, back in Zakol Castle, someone was not having a nice day.

Never let it be said that fatherhood was easy; it's not… especially when one ends up siring a pair of little girls who could float at will and end up in the damnedest of places!

Such was the case with Phaege and Akk'Roma, Phae and Akki for short. (2)

Despite having been born less than a year ago, the little hellions looked to be about three or so. Apparently, a Korra-whatsit only takes about nine years to reach maturity and it showed in the little girls Kaguya thrust upon him a few days ago.

Little Phae was the younger of the two, her left eye was purple, and her right was blue. Like all of his kids, she bore Naruto's whisker marks and love for mischief. Her eyes had no visible pupil, much like Kaguya's, and she looked so much like her mother, save for the lack of a third eye and horns. She did have claws, though… and a pool of youki developing in her.

Little Akki, the elder twin, bore a stronger resemblance to Naruto's mother, Kushina, but with the same white hair as her sister and mother. Her right eye was also the purple one, making it easier to tell her from Phaege, and her left was blue. When Naruto asked about it, Kaguya told him her people had a high tendency towards heterochromia.

Speaking of Naruto…

"GET BACK HERE! GET BACK HERE! GET BACK HEYAAAWGH!"

Needless to say, he was not having an easy time with Phaege in particular as he faceplanted on a table in the mess hall when he tried to leap after her. Thankfully, though, a thoroughly amused Riful came to his rescue, gently snatching the girl up with her ribbons.

"Ack! No faaair!" Little Phae whined.

Yeah, they were even speaking already… the pace of their development proved rather jarring to say the least, but everyone seemed to be getting used to it.

Meanwhile, Little Akki floated on up to Naruto and jabbed him a couple of times with a wooden spoon. "I think you killed him, Phae-Chan," she commented.

Naruto groaned, giving the girl in question a flat look

"Nevermind," she chirped.

"They are terrifyingly intelligent for their age," Riful added as she reeled Little Phae in. "That woman was not kidding when she said they mature faster than humans do." Seriously, even Harja didn't grow this fast, and she looked like a two-year-old by the time she was their age!

"They're going to be the death of me…" Naruto whined before he rolled around… and off the table and bench, "...Ouch."

"Are you okay?" Riful asked, thoroughly amused.

"...Yeah…" There was a brief pause. "...The ground broke my fall."

"You poor thing," Riful sighed. If nothing else, it was her turn to sleep with him tonight, so she would have plenty of time to make him feel better. She then looked at Phae and gave her a small smile, "Now you need to be a good girl. You'll drive your daddy to his grave, and you don't want that do you?"

Little Phae pouted childishly. "No...:"

"Good girl," Riful said encouragingly, then she uncoiled her ribbons around the girl and watched as she floated down until her feet touched the ground. Phae was still pouting and had crossed her arms. "If you keep being a good girl then maybe daddy will get you something nice?"

"Totally…!" Naruto voiced from where he lay, his hand rising above the table to give a thumbs up. "Be good girls for a few hours and I may get you both something nice."

"...promise you will?" Phae asked.

"Uh-huh, you promise, Daddy?!" Akki chimed in adorably, eyes sparkling as she poked her head over the table to look at him.

...Damn, they found him out!

"Cross my heart," Naruto replied as he lowered his hand.

"Yaaaaaay," Akki clapped her hands together with excitement as she cheered.

"You big softie," Riful giggled.

"Someone's gotta be," Naruto grunted as he got up from the ground. Then he sat on the bench… and rest his head against the table with a loud slam as chasing after those little hellions had taken a lot out of him. Of course, the nearest one climbed onto his back with a playful giggle, grabbing onto his shoulders for support as she started to purr.

Kaguya heatedly insisted she had no idea where that trait came from when he asked. Apparently, he just needed to figure out how to make her purr, but Naruto stowed that thought away for later. He was tempted—oh so very tempted—to groan in despair when one of those hellions got on his back. Naruto instead, just jolted in place and it was there on the bench he remained.

Riful merely rolled her eyes and took the hand of the other daughter before walking on over to take a seat beside him. Now he knew her pain when it came to dealing with Harja by herself. Still, though, the fact Little Phae and Akki could fly of all things made this babysitting harder than it needed to be on Naruto; it was something she did not envy him for in the slightest, which was why she opted to help him on occasion and cut her man some slack.

Still, it made the Abyssal loli wonder what abilities these 'Korratoi' would unlock in the years to come. They were such curious, little things, she had to admit.

She looked at Naruto and gave him a pat on the head. And he groaned in dismay when Phae started jumping up and down on his back.

He was going to be very tired by the end of the day, she could tell.

Meanwhile, Riful's daughter, little Harja, was perched on Sylvia's shoulder, staring down curiously at her baby half-brother, Minato as his mother tended to him.

The boy, like his big sister Kushina, had the pink hair and whisker marks from Daddy's side of the family. They were in the nursery along with a very satisfied Kurako nursing her twins while Sakura was checking up on several of the other kids present.

"You sure Daddy didn't have him with Sakura?" Harja asked innocently, drawing flat look from the one-armed pinkette that was promptly ignored, much to Sylvia and Kurako's amusement.

"I'm sure," Sylvia replied with a giggle. "I was there when both he and his big sister were born, after all."

Harja perked up at that. "Really? What's it like?"

"Painful, but worth it," Sylvia replied with a proud grin. Once she was done putting her baby boy to bed for his nap, the white-haired tomboy reached out with her senses and noted that Naruto was nearby. Riful was with him, too, luckily enough. "Now that he's been taken care of, though, let's go see Mommy and Daddy, shall we?"

"Okay!" Harja chirped.

With a smile and a nod, Sylvia left the nursery and headed towards the mess hall. By the time she got there, Naruto had his face on the table, with Phae and Akki playing King of the Hill on his back. The poor thing. Sylvia chuckled sheepishly, knowing full well that this was ultimately her fault.

"I need this, she said," Naruto jabbed jokingly, reminding her of precisely how.

"To be fair, you did at the time," Sylvia countered with a giggle. "Anything new from Elenda, yet?"

"Not yet," Naruto replied. "Those girls at the border haven't moved since she spotted them, last we heard, but we won't know for sure until she comes back."

"Still, for there to be twenty," Riful chimed in. "One has to assume the Organization is planning something if nearly half of their forces are so close to Lautrec's border. Thankfully, she managed to scare that one girl off. Aya, was it?" According to the other warriors in his harem, she was the Organization's Eye. To think she'd been there for gods know how long, ogling them from just outside of their own range. How unsettling…

"Yeah," Sylvia replied with a grim expression. "To make matters worse, I have no doubt that she would have been able to sense Harja, here—possibly Nora and Kushina, too…"

"She also likely sensed Kaguya during her visits," Naruto added. "In case that got the reaction I think it did, we're staying on high alert; no one leaves the village except for Elenda, since she can stay out of harm's way more easily than anyone else."

"You're so lucky she and I can eat regular food," Riful commented.

"Sakura's working on something that should help your cravings and hers," Naruto pointed out. "But, yeah… I am so grateful that you don't actually have to eat people exclusively." Thankfully Kaguya was continuing to send criminals their way, so that was helping, too.

"Oh, so that's what she's been doing with those carcasses," Riful chirped. "I-hi-hinteresting~!" (3)

"Please, don't," Naruto whined, lifting his head to look at her. "You're gonna scare the kids."

"She's funny," Phae chimed in, drawing a giggle from Riful. "I like her~!"

"Not helping…" Naruto groaned, putting his head back down with a thump.

"That aside," the Abyssal loli added. "Neideen's heading our way. I assume she has something to add?"

"Probably Elenda coming back," Sylvia commented.

"Won't know until she tells us," Riful said with a shrug, then she cooed and tickled Phae who giggled happily at the attention.

Not even three minutes later, Neideen entered the mess hall, a tired look on her face. By now, Harja had migrated from Sylvia's shoulder to Naruto's, while the white-haired tomboy tended to Phae and Akki—much to her hubby's relief. Riful was still present, as well.

"Hey," Naruto called out. "You doing okay?"

"Yeah, more or less," the former Number Nine replied with a halfhearted grin. "Just a bit of a nervous wreck, knowing that the Organization's apparently looking to send a massive task force after us."

"We'll get through this," Naruto assured. "I promise."

If nothing else, that made her feel better. They did essentially have three Abyssal Ones on their side, after all. Kurako was terrifying, even before she got a new body and was apparently stronger now; Naruto was long since back at full strength and keeping himself sharp, and then there was Riful herself. The Abyssal loli had long-since recovered from having Harja and was back to her old self... save for her diet, thankfully.

On top of that, they had Dauf, Neideen, and Cassandra. Elenda was also quite the asset, being a former Eye and a flyer. She was only a Number 20, back in her time, but she was still useful. Finally, there were Elizabeth and Evianna, Numbers Three and Two respectively before abandoning the Organization.

Uranus, Roxanne and Miranda were a bit questionable in their applicability to this situation, but they were getting stronger. Gods willing, they'd be able to assist in the siege to come.

"If they wanna hurt, you," Akki chimed in, tilting her head in a questioning fashion, "then why not just ask Mama to make them dead?" (4)

'Well, that was… creepily adorable,' Naruto thought. "Because, some of them are... good people who are just trying to do their job, honey," he replied, taking a moment to consider how to word it as he ruffled her hair. "Daddy doesn't wanna punish them for that if he can avoid it."

"Daddy's too nice," Harja commented with a childish pout. She was very worried about that...

"Maybe a little," he admitted with a sheepish chuckle. "Truth be told, a lot of friends I made were people who tried to kill me at one point. You would be surprised what a little butt-kicking and a heart to heart can do."

"...Daddy's too nice," Harja repeated with her expression unchanging, which made Naruto in turn give her a flat stare.

"Harja, if Daddy was more ruthless, then your aunties Cassandra, Neideen, Roxanne, and Miranda wouldn't even be here. They would be six feet under, right about now." Naruto said in a tone that sounded as if he was trying to talk to a five-year-old. Technically, she was one-and-a-half, though, so...

"You wouldn't be here either, Harja" Sylvia added, before looking to Riful and hastily said, "Uh, no offense."

"None taken," replied said Abyssal with a shrug. It was the truth after all; had Naruto been a bit more ruthless, he would have killed her the second he found out she had been spying on them all those years ago instead of impregnating her. Had she been in his shoes then she would have killed the person spying on her.

"Do we know how many warriors the Organization is sending after us?" Sylvia questioned.

"According to Elenda's last report, there's over a hundred in Toulouse," Naruto answered, "I find it hard to imagine that they'd send them all this way and leave all those stations unfilled, though. As it stands, there's about twenty around the border."

"Seems about right," Neideen chimed in.

"I won't be surprised if they have more on the way," Riful said with a sigh that was filled with faux cheer, "The Organization's not going to be pulling any punches, that is for sure. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of those warriors are trainees or otherwise unranked."

"I wouldn't either," Neideen said with a sigh. "The Organization does have the mindset of 'quantity over quality' when it comes to warriors under their thumb. If a Number goes missing, deserts, gets killed or awakens then they immediately promote another warrior to a higher rank, or demote a warrior and fill in the gaps."

Naruto crossed his arms and closed his eyes. "Well… large numbers or not I'll figure something out." He sighed; he can make thousands of himself for one thanks to Kage Bunshin and those clones can do everything he can do. Since his clones can also use the Kage Bunshin, he can just go and overwhelm them through sheer numbers alone if all else fails. Furthermore, this village was heavily fortified, which would make it easier to defend… he just needed to make sure these girls can't just charge right through the walls.

"You usually do pull some miracle out of your butt at the last minute," Sakura muttered fondly.

Naruto chortled at that. "I suppose so. I can count quite a few incidents where the odds were against me off the top of my head." Gaara, Zabuza, Shion, Koyuki; those were incidents he could recall easily. The odds were not in his favor on all accounts but in the end against all odds, he succeeded. He was extremely lucky that's all he can say. "We probably should get in contact with Kaguya, though… I'm thinking that having a few more 'mages' on our side would help a lot. We should at least have my other students join in, I think."

"Seems like a good idea," Sakura agreed. "If they do start a siege, then we'll also need supplies like food and water in case they try to starve us out… especially for the villagers and Awakened Ones." Then she rubbed her chin with her only hand and added as an afterthought, "Having a few 'mages' on hand would be a good idea. Have you heard anything about the Tailed Beasts? Kaguya did say she was going to bring the seven of them back, right?"

"Last I heard, yeah," Naruto replied with a nod. "While having them here would be of major help I'm not too sure that's going to be possible. She's still working out how to replicate the way they were made while giving them bodies like Kurako's. No luck on that front just yet, though it's not surprising, really… according to the sources she dug up, it took the sage fifty years to create them the first time around."

Sakura frowned at that "I see… Well, I thought I should ask, anyway."

"It's fine. As for who could come and help us if the time comes, who would you suggest?"

"The Kazekage, Gaara." Sakura answered immediately. Gaara still saw Naruto as his best friend, and she often saw the redhead putting himself in Naruto's place and asking himself what Naruto would do in various situations. She knew if Naruto needed help then he will provide it. No questions asked.

"With those sand techniques of his, I could see him easily restraining a lot of them at once," Naruto replied with a nod.

"Sand techniques?" Neideen asked with a curious look.

"Gaara of the Desert," Sylvia chimed in. "He has the ability to manipulate sand at will… he was one of Naruto's most challenging opponents when they first met. Long story short; if you were to fight him, run. Just run."

"What? Why?"

"He'll turn the ground against you in every way imaginable." Naruto answered. "Trust me, it's like fighting a force of nature."

"Fighting him is like trying to fend off a sandstorm and avalanche at the same time, I hear," Slyiva added.

"Yeah, pretty much," the blond confirmed.

"I can't help but want to see that for myself, now," Riful commented, looking rather interested.

"Before we get sidetracked again," Neideen chimed in, "Elenda's on her way back. She'll be here very soon."

"I'll go meet up with her," the blond replied with a grateful nod. Then, he turned to Phae and Akki. "C'mon you, two! We'll see what else she has to add and then contact Mommy."

The twins perked up at that and started floating towards him with eager looks on their faces.

"So that's how it is…" Kaguya muttered, her voice emanating from the mirror she gave Naruto. The blond in question was back in his throne several moments later with Elenda standing beside him—Harja, Phae and Akki playing around in the otherwise-empty great hall as the two spoke.

"Yeah, it's looking kinda grim over here, but we do seem to have the advantage," Naruto replied.

'Gaara's a good recommendation, but it is worth noting that he has his own village to run," the god-empress pointed out. "We cannot expect him to forego his responsibilities at the drop of a hat, but I'm sure he'll be more than willing to help regardless. I shall inform him of your situation."

"Thanks a bunch, Kaguya." Naruto said, a grateful look on his face.

"You are quite welcome," she replied, averting her gaze. Then she cleared her throat and continued. "I will also let your other students know about this… that aside, how are the twins?"

Naruto suddenly got a distant look on his face. Then, he quickly came back into the present and gave the woman a haunted look.

"They're a handful. A big handful. They float everywhere…"

Kaguya allowed a smug grin to spread across her flawless face.

"It's not easy, is it?"

"No. No, it's not." Was that how he was like for everyone else when he was younger? Because if so, then he had a brand new appreciation for Iruka-Sensei putting up with his shit back in the academy. "They take more after me than I'm willing to admit."

That drew a hearty chuckle from the woman. "Yes, they do," she replied.

Speaking of…

"Hello, Mommy~!" Little Phae chirped, perching on Naruto's shoulder.

"Oh, hi, sweetie," Kaguya cooed in a motherly tone. "How are you and Akki enjoying your time with Daddy?"

"This world is weird and the people talk funny, but it's so cool!" Phae exclaimed childishly. "One of our sisters can turn into ribbons and is fun to play with and Daddy's so nice and so are his wife and mistresses and their house is huuuge! It's like a mountain that was turned into a big, stone house and it's fun to explore!"

Both her mother and father shared a warm smile as she went on and on. It was so adorable! Obviously, it didn't take long for Akki to join in as well and the two were relentless in sharing every little discovery from how different the people of this world are to the rest of Naruto's little family and what they're like.

Eventually, though, they had to stop because Kaguya had things to do back on her end and the same went for Naruto himself. He had to get some preparations done.

Meanwhile, all the way in Toulouse, the Organization was not at all idle. Bolstered by forces from the mainland, they were going all out in their intentions to do away with this perceived threat to their operation.

As such, a large twenty-wagon caravan could be seen traveling towards Lautrec. Of course, Dae was among them, his latest project in the back as he drove the frontmost wagon. Beside him was the trainee whose specific talent made her a living lie-detector.

The girl was blind, her eyes covered with a black cloth as she donned the full uniform and armor of her peers. Though she had no personal crest, this girl would prove quite useful in weeding out any dissenters who may compromise their operation before they become a problem. Her name was Savra, the youngest warrior to be promoted since Riful at the tender age of ten. (5)

She was rather petite, even for her age, being the daughter of peasants who couldn't really afford to feed her as well as they'd hoped—thus stunting her growth. She had silver hair, arranged in dreadlocks, and lightly tanned skin.

"The group in Nile is troubled," Savra pointed out. "They are scared of something."

Dae couldn't keep the grin off of his face upon hearing that. The town in question was three days away and she could tell that from here? Quite impressive, indeed. "Everyone is on edge," Dae replied. "Demon Lord Naruto is quite the infamous figure, after all. It's said he's on-par with Isley of the North. To make matters worse, he has the Witch of the West, the Demon Fox of Zakol, and an unidentified 'shadow demon' with immense power in his ranks, along with seven deserters, two more Awakened Beings, and at least 2,000 humans."

"Will the humans be spared?" Savra asked.

"It depends entirely on them," Dae said with an eerie chuckle. "While you warriors are not allowed to harm humans, we have a number of soldiers to help out with that; warriors fighting humans is not going to be a problem. That will be reserved for the men. You girls will be specifically tasked with the 'demons' and deserters."

"What of these 'growing youki' sources?" Aya asked, bringing her mount closer upon hearing their conversation.

"That will be for you and Savra to investigate," Dae replied. "There were rumors about the Demon Lord being somehow able to breed with your kind; I thought nothing of them until those 'strange signatures' were first mentioned in your report. If my suspicions prove correct, no harm is to come of his offspring."

If those rumors did prove to be true… then he was going to have a field day with those brats! New avenues would be open; more options; more possibilities! Would these offspring have the capacity to awaken? Will the stigmas of 'claymores' be healed if their flesh was included? Would their blood have some unforeseen properties? Would they have the same abilities as this 'Lord Naruto' character? Would they be able to breed with 'claymores' as well? What would their offspring be like if he forced them to breed with each other? So many questions, so few answers! He hoped that with their flesh and blood being under his… tender care, he would be able to find out. And if they were to die…no one would even bat an eyelash. That would just give him more experiments to perform.

And don't get him started on the Shadow Demon! A being of unlimited power? He couldn't wait to get his hands on that one!

"I understand," Aya replied, bowing her head respectfully.

Savra, meanwhile, frowned at the dark intentions she felt coming from Dae, but said nothing.

1: Given how awkward a number 47 is, my headcanon is that they originally had 50, only to shave it down later for one reason or another - likely to save resources.

2: Named after Phage and Akroma from Magic: the Gathering.

3: I can't help but picture her sounding a lot like Vegeta from DBZA in future installments, lol.

4: Is it weird that I found this adorable?

Also, yest, as I'm sure many of my readers would've noticed, the wording she used is inspired by Majin Buu.

5: Hello, again, Savra! As stated before, this girl was among my contributions to Naruto's Quest; her name is a reference to Savra, Queen of the Golgari from Magic: the Gathering.

And that's another one done! That said, I hope y'all enjoyed! :)