Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Fire Emblem.
Chapter 2
Where there is Fire: Part 1
In your humble opinion, what exactly would you dub as a 'bad day'? Actually, scratch that. What's the one thing that can completely make you go from 'stable' to 'hostile' when on your breaking point?
For example: it could be your alarm clock not waking you up in time to get to your job, getting home after a long day of hard labor only to find your cat has escaped through the window (again), or even finding out the crush you have had for years has been sleeping with your best friend the whole time-many different scenarios, but you get the point. Everyone has that one thing that can turn that 'good day' into a 'if one more person speaks to me the wrong way I'm going to commit arsen' day.
In two Uzumakis' case, their day might as well have been tipping towards that edge.
'Why' you may be asking? Well, let's review the evidence.
After the discovery of a lifetime from Naruto finding out that he did, indeed, have a daughter from the future from a woman he'd yet to meet (and oh, he will get to that in a minute), they had decided to quickly hightail it out of the village before the shell-shocked crowd around them could question them for summoning a demon into the middle of their town; leaving Morgan's unconscious bandits to the villagers' mercy.
Now, in the middle of a forest sitting next to the camp fire made for the night and finished with their 'talk' (which he will, once again, get to in a minute), they were now facing a new crisis.
Between the two laid three cups of instant ramen-two cups empty and currently resting in the bellies of the beasts that consumed them while the other remained untouched as the still hungry duo tried deciding who would feast on the remaining divine treat. Since they had no time to restock on supplies because of their 'self-exile' and the only thing in the area worth eating were berries and grass, the ramen before them was the only food remaining with enough carbs to sate their hunger and get them through the rest of the night without eating each other. They absolutely refused to split the remaining cup in half since "it's a blasphemous act that would send your soul straight to hell" as Morgan so elegantly put it.
"… So, how we doin' this, brat," the older of the two queried, his eyes never leaving the treat before him.
"… You could always give it to your cute, adorable little girl." Naruto probably would have fallen for that more if she'd put even an inch of emotion into that sentence. Like, seriously, Gaara could have put more feelings behind that act.
"Not a chance in hell."
"What ever happened to 'ladies first'?"
"What ever happened to 'equality'?"
"…."
"…."
"I'm younger, so my body needs more food to grow."
"And I'm older, so my body needs more food to live."
"…."
"…."
"Yer an ass."
"At least I have an ass."
Morgan didn't seem to have a comeback for that burn so she stayed quiet and continued staring down the junk food as if it would boil itself on mental command.
"… How about a game of rock-paper-scissors for it? Best of three?" Morgan slowly looked up to her old man unblinkingly.
"I have played that game with you a total of 582 times in my 12 years of living, and I have lost exactly 582 times. It took me seven years to figure out you were using a Genjutsu to cover up your losses and even longer to learn it, but even then, your reactions are bullshit and you'll just find some other way to cheat that I'll probably never figure out till years down the line. What makes you think I want to play something I have a snowballs chance in hell at winning?"
The bearded blonde looked equally blankly back to his shorter counterpart before looking back down to the 'still un-cooked' treat, "You got me there." The current him would have probably never thought to do such an ingenious thing, but apparently his future self was an even bigger genius than the present him. He'd just have to make sure to 'coerce' the girl into telling him more about his 'future-self' after this little 'disagreement'.
Another lull of undecided silence passed and the older Uzumaki sighed. "Look, why don't we settle this like adults? We can both just… just." The blonde blinked rapidly at the new empty space before him. A moment later, his head shot up just in time to see Morgan haul-assing into the woods. First came confusion, then disbelief, and finally anger before he shot up to his feet and darted after the girl who just stole the last treasure he had on this continent.
"GET BACK HERE, BRAT," he shouted in both desperation and rage as he began his hunt for the once 'daughter' to 'ramen thief'.
"YOU'RE BEING SELFISH OLD MAN," the thief shouted back while circling the forest, knowing a straight line would simply get her caught faster by the speedster that was her father. "I HAVEN'T HAD RAMEN IN DAYS AND I'M DAMN WELL NOT SHARING THIS LAST CUP!"
"ITS MY RAMEN YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE SHIT! YOU SHOULD BE HAPPY I EVEN GAVE YOU ONE CUP YOU TWO-FACED STEALING SHRIMP!"
"SELFISH OLD GNOME!"
"UNGRATEFUL MIDGET!"
"BIG TALK COMING FROM SOMEONE WHO'LL NEVER REACH 6 FOOT!"
"...YOU'D BETTER PRAY I DON'T CATCH YOU, GAKI!"
Morgan did her best; she really did. For someone simply running without using an ounce of chakra, she was a lot faster than she had any right to be. But alas, her current level of speed couldn't hold a candle to the man who could cross distances within a blink of an eye.
The inevitable happened and Morgan found herself tackled mid turn. But the battle did not end there. Instead of cat and mouse it had turned into a full blown wrestling match for the salty treat in the child's hand. Headlocks, armbars, ninja chokes, elbows to the groin, it was a slobber-knocker and neither side seemed to be giving in. The latest was a rear naked choke currently being performed by the older of the two while the younger tapped furiously but continued to stubbornly hide the junk food under her shirt.
"Graaaaaah! You're making this harder-Urk-than it needs to be, brat! Just give me back what's rightfully miIIIIIAAAAAAHAHAHAAOOOOOOW! BITING IS ILLEGAL! BITING IS ILLEGAAAAAAAAAL!"
*Crunch* *Munch* *Munch* *Munch*
Abruptly, the two blonde's little 'scramble' came to a screeching halt to the unmistakable sound of crunching. Both heads looked away from each other; one with a mouth full of cloth and flesh while the other pulled the hair of the shorter. When their eyes found the sounds, well, they were shocked, but for the wrong reasons. Of all the things they expected to see, a bear crunching on a very familiar treat was not one of them. Apparently, between struggling to breathe and sinking her teeth into her father, Morgan had let go of the tasty prize. The consequence? Well, it was pretty obvious.
Finished chewing, the bear gave them a long, hard stare before turning around and walking away-full, or just thinking the strange humans were not worth its time.
Hollowed eyes watched the beast victoriously departing as their equally empty bellies moaned in sorrow.
"… Y'know, bear meat isn't that bad," the older shinobi commented as he took another bite out of the peace of meat. Morgan, on the other hand, was not so eager to bite into the greasy meat that was more for revenge than necessaty. She twirled the meat in her hand absentmindedly with a pout that clearly showed her displeasure as she aim the look at her still future parent.
"That was really selfish of you, Dad." Said 'Dad' had the nerve to look confused. "Unlike you, I haven't had ramen in days and when I finally get my hands on it you just HAAAAAD to be an adult."
Said adult licked his fingers clean before pointing a clean bone at his younger counterpart. "If I recall, you were the one who stole my ramen, brat. Ramen that I was so benevolent to share with you since you didn't have any food. Am I right or am I right?" The girl had the nerve to look away and pout even harder.
"… Whatever," was the totally mature response she decided on before digging back into her less desirable meal.
Sitting in silence, Naruto went over everything that led to this moment. After dismissing the Kyuubi and 'willingly' leaving (definitely not fleeing) from South Town, Naruto and Morgan had finally stopped to go over the facts they'd gathered.
Naruto now knew for a fact that this girl was indeed his daughter. That little stunt she pulled back in the village was just the proof he needed to confirm her claims since he had made that jutsu over 300 years ago to give Kurama a sense of freedom from his cage without killing them both in the process. If he created that seal almost three centuries ago then he could only come up with two conclusions:
One—she had the curse of immortality much like he did. This was thrown out the window since Morgan was firm on the fact that she had only lived for 12 years and had never been to the Elemental Nations. In order for her to find out the hands seals to perform the summoning of the Kyuubi, she would have had to be there or had to have seen him do it on that side of the world. Considering he has only summoned Kurama once in the seven years he'd been here, he highly doubted she could have seen him do it; especially since she would have only been seven at the time.
Second—and ironically the more logical answer, she had, somehow, come from the future. Now, this would have been a very stupid conclusion to the people in this realm seeing the closest thing they had to technology was a stove, but to the shinobi who'd seen the dead risen, a meteor summoned from space and a Goddess in the flesh, the possibility of time-travel didn't sound so unbelievable. Hell, if Kaguya could stop his time, then it wouldn't be too far-fetched to believe she could send people back in time as well. Combine that with the sage cloak and head band she wore that was an exact replica of the metal plate he wore and cloak he always had on his person, being from the future sounded like the only logical explanation.
He remembered when they came to this conclusion… only for Morgan to outright laugh in his face. He was sure if she had seen the things he had seen, then she would not have laughed so hard-him pointing out the signs did not seem to make her any less skeptical. She swore up and down that she wasn't from the future, but not only could she not remember much of what happened the day she was 'separated from her father' besides the fact that they were at some altar in Plegia, she also had no idea how she got to South Town.
She swore she woke up in a bed she didn't remember going to sleep in. She remembered her entire body aching and her head foggy before a man she had never met walked in with a cup of soup. After a confusing conversation and the woman telling her the blonde was found on the outskirts of the town by one of the farmers, the girl panicked and went out in search for him. After almost a day of searching, she returned to the same place and waited—thinking he would come back for her. In a way, he did; even if it was unintentional.
Now, they were in the present and they still had the big question: how?
The altar was the only thing they could go off of, but every time she tried to recall the memory she was forced to stop due to a supposed intense migraine. He didn't know if the future him had something to do with it, but he couldn't find even a singe character for sealing anywhere on her body so he had to chop it up to the aftereffect of time-travel.
The next thing he had to address was the presence of Kaguya constantly leaking from the girl. He had entered his Six Paths cloak form in order to fully get the location of where the chakra signature was coming from. Sure enough, the chakra was leaking like a dripping faucet every other second from behind her eye-patch. Not even some of the best sensors would have been able to feel it coming from her even if they were right in her face. The only reason Naruto could sense it was because of his chakra cloak and even then he would have to be right in front of her in order to point it out.
He was going right for the eye-patch when Morgan suddenly slapped his hand away and brought her arms up in an 'X'.
"No no and NO!" She shouted as she slowly scooted away from her father. "You told me specifically to never ever, ever, EVER, take off this eye patch no matter who asked-you included. You said something very bad will happen to me and the people I love if I took it off and I'm not strong enough to handle its power! If I were to ever do it before then, you said the seals would blow me up for being a 'disobedient child'! I love you Dad, I really do, but I love my life a LOT more, bayo!"
He... could understand that. From the childish way she worded it, most people would think her father was playing around, but he was a seal master for a reason. If his future-self had to seal away whatever was behind that eye-patch, then he had a damn good reason to do so and Naruto had no plans to tempt fate just to sate his curiosity.
Which actually led him to a good question, "Do you at least know what's behind that thing?"
Her answer was immediate, "Yep!"
A smile grew. "Can you tell me?"
Her answer was even faster, "Nnnnnnnnope!"
The smile dropped.
"...Can you at least tell me why?"
He didnt think the girl's cocky grin could get any bigger. "In literally your own words to me," a hand swept back and held her hair tall while the other hand held an index finger above her lip that most likely imitated a mustache before her brows scrunched and octive dropped in what was likely a mocking attempt at his voice. "You are unworthy, little shrimp."
That earned her a bonk to the head...
Well...
Just because he could...
….
Now in the present, there was only one thing left to do.
He had to investigate the Bijuu chakra within her. Morgan had swore she was not a Jinchuuriki, but the fact that she summoned a second Kurama, which by all accounts was impossible and only strengthened his theory that she was, indeed, from the future, said otherwise. Even if she did not remember becoming a Jinchuuriki, she was, without a doubt, a Jinchuuriki, and the complicated seal she clearly had on her stomach with a formula Naruto had never seen before did not say otherwise. Not understanding some of the patterns on the seal, he was forced to enter into her mindscape to try and communicate with the Bijuu that was most likely awaiting his first he could have the answers he was looking for.
One hand on the little girl's head and he prepared to go into her mindscape.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"...Uh... dad... what are you doing...?"
"..."
"..."
"..."
"...Dad?"
"SHHHHHHH! Can't you see I'm concentrating, brat!"
"Oh... sorry..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"...You forgot how to go into mindscapes, didn't you, Kit?"
"..."
"..."
"...No."
"...Move over, Kit."
...
Finally gaining access to the girl's head, Naruto got the second surprise of the day when instead of finding a cage with a Bijuu, he found a sunny sky with wide open meadows that bloomed multiple colors and shapes as far as the eye could see. There was no sign of a Bijuu anywhere, but the feel of their chakra completely saturating the air was unmistakable. It was one of the most beautiful things Naruto had ever seen and hands down the most peaceful presence he had ever felt. With just a thought, he was in Sage Mode and he felt his body shutter in pure bliss. It was like swimming through a pool of positive energy. This girl has either never been tainted by the hatred of the world, or had one of the purest souls he had ever been thankful to be in the presence of.
He was almost sad that he had to leave—scratch that, he WAS sad he had to leave. He would have been content to live a millennium within her mindscape and would not have complained even once. This girl was truly something special, and she was his daughter. His daughter.
Just when he was about to leave, he suddenly stopped and turned around when he felt a presence a couple of meters behind him. Sure enough, there was Kurama… as happy as he had ever seen the Bijuu. Yes, happy... and small... very small... like, Akamaru small... currently... chasing his nine tails... like said dog. The scene was so unnatural that Naruto had to rub his eyes and look again…
Nope, chibi Kurama was still running in a circle and apparently in his own little world. The blonde stood there for almost a full minute when the Kurama in the distance finally noticed his presence and stopped on a dime. Tail in his mouth, he stared unabashedly at the blonde shinobi that had, apparently, invaded his personal paradise.
The silence stretched almost uncomfortably as man stared down beast.
Then man burst into laughter while pointing at the chibi fox in the distance.
"AHAHAHAHAHAHA! What the hell happened to YOU-AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You went from terrifying to fuckin' adorable in just a few hours AHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! OH! OH, MY FREAKIN' GUT! P-PICTURE! I-I NEED A PICTURE!" If Naruto could see the Kurama in his head he'd laugh even harder at the embarrassment shown in the form of hidden red cheeks that did not hide the anger he felt. The fact that his chibi form was now running at the blonde with his tongue out and the happiest he'd ever seen himself made it that much more embarrassing.
Just when the fox got close enough to nibble on the blonde's ankle he vanished via older Kurama's will-leaving nothing but a now confused fox behind.
"You will NEVER speak of what you just saw, Uzumaki! EVER!" Kurama growled to his host as he continued to laugh his ass off in the real world.
It was safe to say Morgan stayed confused for the 5 minutes her father knelt still while grabbing her head. Said confusion only grew when the man suddenly began rolling on the ground laughing hysterically while what sounded like the whines of a puppy echoed throughout her head.
Finally calming down, Naruto sat up and smiled at his now truly confirmed time-traveling daughter. "You are, without a doubt, from the future," he revealed, a little too chipper for the little girl. "The seal is as strong as your imagination and Kurama is staying happily within your bubbly. Little. Head." He emphasized his point via poking the girl in the forehead after every pause, much to her annoyance. "I don't know how you got them, or how the future me was able to remove all the chakra from my body to yours without killing himself, but I'm sure there was a goo-"
The older blonde suddenly stopped and shot to his feet as he felt the buildup of chakra dangerously close to their location. It was wide scaled, and whatever was just cast was going to have a large area of effect.
The first sign was the lack of birds chirping.
Or crickets.
Or any sound of life for that matter. When the hell had it gotten so quiet? And wait, thre chakra was getting-
"Morgan. Seal what you can and-"
The earth shook violently and the shinobi was on his feet in an instant. All his past years as a shinobi resurfaced in an instant and he quickly shot to his feet while barking orders at the terrified girl on the ground looking about in fear.
"Run!"
There was only a slight moment of hesitation from the younger Uzumaki before she quickly jumped to her feet and followed behind her father into the trees.
It was a good thing they did too since not even a second later the ground where their camp fire still burned split apart and lava shot out from the cracks. Running at full sprint, the duo had to dodge multiple flaming boulders that rained from the sky while avoiding the multiple tears in the earth's surface that kept cutting them off-Morgan nearly losing her life if not for her father swiftly pulling her into his arms and jumping out of the way of a falling rock that got far too close for comfort.
"D-dad, what's going on?" Morgan asked, her voice shaking and fear clear in her eyes from nearly losing her life.
"I wish I knew, kid." Naruto grimly replied to his daughter as they headed deeper into the woods and away from the flaming forest. He could see animals both alive and being burned alive as they fled from the approaching inferno and rocks falling from the sky with devastating velocity. It... it looked like Armageddon .
Now far enough away from the trembling earth, the older blonde stopped to carefully scan his surroundings. Seeing nothing but trees and smoke, he opted to climb the nearest oak to get a better hold of the situation they'd found themselves in. At the top, Naruto didn't know if he was the one to let out a gasp or the girl currently in his arms. What looked like meteors fell from the ether in flaming arcs that shook their soundings on impact. The smoke merged with what little clouds were in the sky while birds flew away from the forest showed a grim picture to the adult and child.
"Morgan, we need to-"
"Look out!"
Naruto didn't need to think to leap from his branch to the one closest. Good thing too 'cause a second later a flaming blur smashed through his former perch and continued down 10 more rows of oak. Unfortunately for the Uzumakis, the wind from the boulders threw the older of the two off balance and he tried futilely to stabilize himself as he ragdolled through multiple tree branches-the pained cries of his future offspring making him more desperate.
Getting ever so closer to the ground and losing little to no momentum from the fall, Naruto activated his chakra cloak and had a makeshift arm reach out and grab whatever it could to stabilize them. Thankfully, it worked, but not fast enough to stop the older blonde from hitting the ground; hard. Morgan was sent flying out of his arms, but landed next to him safely enough.
Both groaning, they attempted to push themselves up with varying results. One being the youngest easily getting to her knees while the other only able to push himself to an elbow. An 'ow' left older's lips as he slowed in his movements to look to the arm that refused to move. To the horror of not him, but his daughter, it was twisted in an angle that would make any weak stomach vomit at just a glimpse.
"O-Oh Gods," Morgan exclaimed, crawling over to her father and examining the damaged limb. Her arms levitated over it for a momentarily as if wanting to fix it but not knowing how before she looked at her father. "D-does it hurt, Dad? D-do we need to- Oh-oh Gods, I don't have the right supplies to fix this a-and I was never good at medical jutsu and I don't have any painkillers to stop your pain and oh Gods your head is bleeding too and oh Gods I don't have anything for that either and-"
"Morgan!" The girls panic halted. The look Naruto gave her was slightly annoyed, but the pained she expected was nowhere to be seen. "I'm fine. Just stand back so I can fix this." Not even giving the girl time to do just that, the older blonde pushed himself to a sitting position and looked to the damaged appendage. Reaching over, he felt the nerves send a shock of pain to his brain but did not stop him from keeping a tight grip on it. Then without even bracing himself or wincing, the blonde twisted and the cracked that emanated from the damaged limb almost made Morgan vomit. A second later, he flexed the limb in front of him. As if nothing had happened, it responded as expected-leaving Morgan wide eyed and even more squeamish.
"I-I think I'm gonna be sick."
Naruto rolled his eyes at what he perceived to be an over-exaggeration, "If you think that's bad, you should see me fix my neck." Not seeing the girl go even greener, the older blonde pushed himself to his feet and stared in the direction the boulder had crashed. About 100 yards from where he previously stood was a trench created by the boulder that had nearly splatted them both. Every tree in its path was either uprooted or snapped in half while the flames that no longer covered its body spread to the surroundings. If that wasn't enough of a sign that they needed to leave this forest then the fact that the chakra was getting denser to the point it was almost suffocating him more than the smoke definitely did it.
"We have to get out of this forest-"
For the second time that night his senses flared high. He was instantly back on his feet and standing protectively in front of Morgan with his father's famous kunai held in reverse. Ignoring the sudden wariness from the kid's chakra he stared intensely at the direction the new chakra signatures that had suddenly appeared in his (hopefully) temporarily short range.
Sure enough, dashing to a stop before them were two very noble looking individuals-a girl and a man. The girl held what looked like a healing staff and wore a hoop skirt with the skirt split on both sides over a cage crinoline and white stockings combined with leather boots. Above of the dress she wore what looked like a long white apron with a leather corset that pushed up her almost non-existent chest along with blonde pig-tails that stretched to her shoulders. All-in-all, she was the perfect depiction of royalty with a hint of flourish when looking at the frills on her attire.
The man was marginally different. He was a muscular young man with hair as blue as the rest of his outfit and sharp blue eyes to boot. He wore an elegant looking long sleeved shirt that was sleeveless on the right and proudly showed a tear drop brand that Naruto had only seen on one other person in this realm. He also wore a long white cape and a silver metal plate that looked like it hovered over his right shoulder with an elegant looking sword strapped to his right as well as grey gloves on both hands. To end it, he wore two long boots with one matching the color of his outfit while the other was completely grey. This man clearly had no sense of symmetry and Ino would have shed a tear in anguish at the fashion disaster before him.
Expectedly, the situation quickly became hostile the moment the blue haired man saw the kunai held defensively in the shinobi's hand and drew his own blade in retaliation. He wanted to ask questions like "why were they here" or find out how the hell these two seemed fine with all this killing intent poisoning the area, but the man beat him to it.
"Who are you?" The man snarled in defense. Naruto knew who this man was. Kami, how could he not when his chakra felt so similar to the ruler of Ylisse herself.
Chrom, Crowned Prince of Ylisse and younger brother of Exalt Emmeryn, and from the Emmeryn lookalike behind the prince he could deduce she was the first Princess Lissa Lowell. Wow, he really did have the Devil's luck.
"Who are you?!"
Not wanting to escalate the situation, Naruto slowly lowered his guard-understanding the need to not make unnecessary enemies.
"Not your enemy," he instead reassured, his actions being rewarded with the prince slowly lowering his own weapon of choice.
The shinobi's eyes widened and he turned sharply to gaze up to the sky as the chakra in the area began to gather at a single point above the forest. He could vaguely hear the princess behind him say something and Morgan gasping but his eyes were glued on the event illuminating in the sky. What looked like the edges of a magic clock was currently rotating in the air while multiple white lights began compounding into one giant ball in the center.
Then the ball of light flattened and the crease in the space opened.
An eye looked down on the world.
The power behind that one eye was as if Kami herself was looking down on them and made the shinobi's grip on his weapon tighten. Whatever that was in the air held a power stronger than anything he'd felt since the age of shinobi. The fact it was here of all places was surely no coincidence and Naruto was ready for whatever challenge it brought his way.
Then the eye began spitting out multiple humanoid figures that dropped 500 feet from the air and to the ground—two landing mere meters away from the group. Naruto and Chrom got back into their respectable battle stances as the figures in the distance moved and stood on two humanoid legs. The distinct sound of bones popping was heard from the pitch black figures as they slowly stabilized their centers. Metal glistened, illuminating the axes both creatures (cause they sure as hell weren't human) as they held them strongly while their glowing eyes glared hatefully in their direction.
The blonde had seen many jutsu that revived the dead. Most came from Orochimaru's and Kabuto's jutsu and even their labs would make even the sturdiest Jonin throw up in their mouths at their experiments. The bodies that were before the blonde right now only brought up bad memories and the disgusting chakra leaking off of them reminded him too much of those who used that snake's cursed seal.
Their bodies were almost pitch black and wore nothing but pants that were in tatters. The remains of what could have once been armor hung off their necks and their faces, Kami their faces, were rotted and had eyes that glowed a bright violet.
These 'things' were corpses raised from the dead. Plain and simple.
"Lissa, stay back," he heard Chrom speak, now standing right next to him. He could hear Morgan fumbling for something in her sack and quickly put a stop to it via grabbing her shoulder and gently pushing her aside. She immediately protested despite the shake in her voice but one firm look from him was enough to kill her protests and make her quickly retreat safely behind a nearby tree. "Don't suppose I can count on your help, stranger?" The blonde only gave Chrom a brief glance before replying in the form of a nod. Nothing else needed to be said as the two fighters waited for their enemies approach.
Then the corpses jumped towards thier pray with surprising speed and the battle was on.
Naruto immediately threw his kunai at the incoming corpse. To his increasing awe, the corpse reacted fast enough to raise its axe protectively in front of its head, allowing the kunai to bounce off of its iron harmlessly while not breaking it's stride. The blonde didn't stay surprised for long and was dashing towards his foe with another kunai in hand. Faster than the corpse could react, Naruto's enhanced his kunai with wind chakra and sliced right through the head of the corpse before it could even complete raising its axe to attack. Turning around quickly, he prepared to make another killing blow just in case the corpse continued moving but was met with the thing turning to smoke and its remains blowing in the wind.
Scanning his surroundings, he was just in time to see the Prince dispatch his enemy while somehow sweating as if he'd ran a marathon. Moving to check on his daughter, she was still peaking behind the tree she'd hid behind, the fear still prevalent in her chakra despite the lack of it showing on her face.
It was completely understandable, yet disappointing, that she missed the 6 foot abomination currently standing just feet behind her, axe raised high. Where the hell it came from the blonde didn't know, neither did he waste time and sent his chakra enhanced kunai pass the girl's head and between the eyes of the creature. A scream sounded to his 9 before he could even see Morgan fall in shock.
Lissa was back-pedaling, fear clear to see as two corpses staggered her way. Her back eventually met a tree and her legs gave out under her-weakly holding her staff instictively over her head to block the incoming axes. Chrom was already sprinting but his exhaustion was evident and it was clear he wouldn't make it in time to save his sister from her inevitable fate.
Luckily for the nobles, the shinobi's kunai proved much faster. With pinpoint accuracy born from years of training, the kunai soared and appeared between the princess and abominations. In what most combatants of this realm would call supernatural, the blonde appeared above the corpses with a Rasengan in one hand and the kunai in the other. Swiftly, he slammed the chakra sphere into the head of the one to his right while at the same time delivering a devastating kick to the cheek of the other. The first corpse began dissolving before it could hit the ground while the other simply staggered back despite it's head being turned almost a full 180 degree. Landing, he went to dispatch the still stunned corpse before watching as a familiar piece of metal stuck out of the creature's torso. Then the sword sliced upwards and the abomination joined its brethren in the smoky afterlife that was hopefully hell.
Not seeing any further danger, the blonde looked to the dissipating smoke expecting to see Chrom's very distinct clothing and hair. The hair he found, but the person to whom it belonged to was definitely not the young noble. Unless the prince had suddenly shrank about a head and lost almost all his muscle mass, then he very much doubted the one currently sheathing Falchion was the prince of Ylisse.
The new bluehead was disguised behind a butterfly mask that tied around his/her hair. Said mask had three slits going horizontally on both sides where the eyes should be and was clearly holding back more hair than the owner wanted to be seen. He/she had on an all blue outfit with long blue boots that extended all the way to his/her mid-thigh with grey edges and had long blue gloves that cut out the tips so the fingers could be free and went to his/her shoulders. He/she also had a tiara that Naruto could tell was holding back hair along with a blue cape with the brand of Naga shown proudly at its center. And, once again, he/she rested a hand on the legendary blade that was doing nothing to prove this person wasn't Chrom.
Thankfully, one look behind the new arrival proved his theory wrong, seeing Chrom walking towards them while sheathing… the same sword… what the fuck?
Morgan slamming into his back was the only thing stopping him from continuing that investigation. A look over his shoulder showed the girl had her face buried in his back and a feel of her chakra indicated she was still coming down from the fear of probably knowing she could have died once again if not for his timely intervention.
"You two are quite skilled." Chrom's voice suddenly spoke in the lull as he walked closer to the trio, stopping only to embrace the sister that had suddenly enveloped him into a tight hug. Comforting her with a smile and a few pats on the back, he looked back to the two who had saved his sister's life. "What's your names?"
Naruto was just able to catch the completely astonished look the new bluenette was giving him before he/she turned away and addressed the prince, presumably, for the both of them, "O-our names are not of any importance right now, sir." The tone in which the he/she spoke was clearly forced, as if trying to lower his/her natural octave but everyone kept quiet, either not caring, too focused on the current situation or just thickheaded. "We must not dally here long. There are more of these creatures just North of our position. I suggest you ready your arms and attack swiftly. Kill as many as you can before they are able to gather or leave the forest towards a nearby village."
The way he/she spoke immediately told the blonde this he/she was familiar with fighting these new undead creatures; how still being up for questioning. Chrom seemed to agree, but Naruto was more interested in the heart of the eye above the sky. Though the dark chakra heavily overshadowed Kaguya's, the fact it was the most he'd been close to was far too much of an opportunity for him to pass up. If there was something in the eye of this storm then he'd be sure to search every inch of it.
"I will scout the area," he spoke up, to which Chrom immediately shot down as if he had a say in the matter.
"I do not believe that choice to be wise, stranger. If this man is correct, then there are more of these things out there than any man can currently handle on their own. Our numbers are currently our only assurance. Splitting them by even one can lessen our chances at survival."
"Gathering information is my specialty," was the blonde's immediate rebuttal. Information is power in these situations. Running around like headless chickens hoping we don't run into one of these things around a tree isn't my idea of fun. I'd rather risk my life obtaining useful information that can potentially save more lives than risk it and fail knowing there was a chance to prevent it."
He didn't expect the nobles of this world to understand his logic, nor was he asking them to. The life of a shinobi heavily pushed the fact that intel was power and paranoia was your second best friend aside from a kunai. The more intel you had on the enemy the more likely you were to take advantage or plan an opening for their weaknesses. Even if it was just a 1% increase in your chances of victory you take it, even if that wasn't exactly why he was doing this. Glancing to the sky and seeing the eye slowly but surely closing told the blonde he was running out of time.
"He's right," surprisingly, the he/she spoke in his favor. "If he is as proficient as he says then any information we can gather on our surroundings could do us good. It would prove detrimental if we are ambushed by a horde a scout could have warned us of."
Chrom looked back to the shinobi, hesitation plain to see on his face. Thankfully, he grunted in assurance. "...Alright. There is a fort I spotted Southeast of here. We'll expect you there in no less than 30 minutes. If you are not back by then, then we will come looking for you." Typically, this was supposed to be the part where most people say 'we will have no choice but to leave you behind' but Chrom proved the kind of man Naruto thought he was and nodded to him in conformation.
"I-I'm going with you!"
...And there it was. The dilemma.
"No, you're not," Naruto immediately shot down the girl who forsook his back to circle and stare into his eyes.
"But-but I can fight!" the blonde raised a skeptical brown as if pointing out the last 20 minutes to the girl. "Th-they just surprised me is all! I'm more than ready to fight by your side, Dad! Promise!"
"Morgan, that was not a request," Naruto tried putting more force in his tone but the girl only grew more and more persistent.
"I will look after her," Chrom, thankfully, stepped up, seeing it as a chance to at least relieve himself of some of the guilt of sending a man off into unknown danger. Morgan looked to the bluenette in abject shock before looking back to him. The fear and betrayal on her face would have made any normal parent falter.
"But... but..."
Seeing the clear distraught still not leaving the girl, Naruto decided to take a different approach. He was, of course, a parent after all. "Listen, kiddo," he said as he took hold of both her shoulders, Morgan looking up with those big blue eyes that shined with the beginning of tears. "You protected an entire village by yourself, did you not?" Her lip quivered but she was able to nod at the praise. "And you have training, right? Training and jutsu that can easily protect the people you care about, no?"
Another nod.
"And you have confidence in your skills, no?"
Another nod and the praise seemed to make the girl stand taller.
"And you want to show those skills off, do you not?"
This time, the girl's eyes seemed to widen.
Chrom honestly thought what the man was doing seemed slightly manipulative. Playing on the kids emotions while highlighting all her strengths was indeed smart. Children were easy to coax especially when you were playing the tunes they wanted to hear and the girl seemed no different. If they weren't currently in the middle of a crisis Chrom would have probably commended the man for his quick wittedness.
"But most importantly,"
Then it began to get a bit... ridiculous...
"Think about the stories you can tell when this is all over!" Chrom actually had to stop to rewind what he'd just heard. "Picture it with me. All alone in a burning forest, monsters on all sides, no reinforcement for days, and the kicker, a prince and princess helpless and alone with not a knight in sight! Think of the bragging rights you will have for protecting such, important figures!"
"Pr-prince? Pr-princess," the girl sounded a bit confused, and rightfully so.
"Just look at them," the man turned the girl in their direction, the masked swordsman suspiciously not in view of the younger blonde. "These poor... not-so-defenseless, scared prince and princess are in desperate need of a protector with your particular set of skills, and what kinda hero would you be if you left them to fend for themselves in this monster infested wasteland? What if something happens to the prince and princess of Ylisse when you could have been there to protect them? What if they are hit by a stray arrow, tears streaming down their faces as they desperately cry for a hero? *Gasp* what if one of them falls down and can't get up? Who will help them up, Morgan? Who?!"
Chrom felt offended. He understood the meaning behind the speech and the girl was, rightfully, worried about sending her father to his potential death, but making them out to be damsels in destress was both demeaning and rude-a feeling Lissa surely felt if the pout she was now giving the blondes through her own teary eyes was anything to go by.
From his height, he couldn't see the girls eyes since they were now shadowed by her bangs but he was sure she was old enough to at least see the ridiculousness in the blonde's words. "...You," there was no way that speech worked. There was absolutely no way she believed that hogwash- "ARE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT, DAD!"
...If the situation called for it, Chrom would have definitely facepalmed. "This is no time for me to be selfish! Right now, there's a prince and princess that needs my help and I could never call myself a TRUE hero if I left them to fend for themselves! Don't worry, Dad! I'll make sure there's not a scratch on them by the time you get back!"
'...Well, it worked... I guess,' was Chrom's thoughts as the girl now strode towards him with a swagger that was definitely absent before. Standing tall and giving a Feroxian salute, the girl smiled widely and spoke with an even bigger confidence.
"You have nothing to worry about, Mr. Prince! I will make sure you and your sister both make it out of here alive and well enough to sing songs in my name, dattebayo!"
The prince chuckle. He was no stranger to having strange companions and he was sure he'd only scratched the surface of strange with the two newcomers.
"Milord! Milady!"
And speaking of companions.
The prince turned and was relieved to see his knight and previous new companion running his way. "Are you hurt anywhere!"
"We're fine, Frederick." Chrom reassured as he turned his head to the two who had saved his sister's life. "If not for these two, we'd-" only to pause in puzzlement to see the clearing now a blonde and swordsman short.
?
Naruto jumped through the trees at high speeds as he headed towards the direction he felt his shadow clone pop. From the memories he received, the clone that had gotten the closest to the eye was just dispelled by a unknown force to the back of its skull. Thankfully, the eye was no longer spilling out the flesh-eating monstrosities, but the problem stemmed from what exactly made his clone dispel.
The clone had apparently been spotted even in stealth and led a number of them in a circle around the eye. They were not as strong as the one he'd fought, but their numbers were significantly larger and it proved troublesome for the clone to continue recon with the hyperawareness.
Unfortunately, something got the jump on him during its process of evading. One moment he was jumping from a tree and the next there was the sound of whistling before something fast tore his head clean off. Naruto didn't get to see what it was, but it had to be one of the stronger signatures the clone pointed out in the center, meaning they were protecting something and Naruto would be damned if he didn't get there first.
It wasn't hard to find what killed his clone. Landing on a nearby tree close to the eye, he scanned the area his clone had first scouted. Standing directly beneath the eye was damn near an army, and in the middle of that army was a corpse bigger than all the rest. It was at least 7 feet tall and unlike the many corpses around it, this one's distinctions were clear to the eye. Its body was midnight black and wore nothing but dark, torn pants that looked as if a breeze was enough to blow it off. Contrary to it's brethren, this abomination was a lot skinnier and had hair that went down to the back of its knees where his giant red axe also hovered. If that wasn't enough, the red malevolence that could be seen by the human eye rising up from the things body really gave the feeling of the final boss.
This thing was strong. Stronger than all the other corpses he had the displeasure of meeting and definitely stronger than the prince and Morgan combined. In fact, this thing had one of the strongest chakra presences Naruto had ever felt in this realm.
And a rising feeling of excitement welled up within the former Kage of Konohagakure no Sato.
As expected, the alpha of the army stopped in it's tracks when it felt the blonde's presence appear in its range. Looking over its shoulder, he spotted the blonde who grinned and pulled a kunai from his pouch. Seeing the new threat (or diner) the abomination turned fully and didn't waste a moment sending his underlings to do its bidding-inadvertently revealing its sentience despite its decrepit state. In the same instance, the blonde created a literal army of his own with but a simple handsign. A large puff of smoke covered half the clearing forcing the dead army to stop as an army equal to their own now matched their numbers. A challenging smirk came to the blonde's face as he saw the army general's brow furrow.
Then the alpha screeched and the two armies charged.
Wall met wall and instantly the sounds of steel against steel overshadowed the dissipation of clones and zombies. Though they were evenly matched in numbers, it was clear which side was more skilled by the proficiency in which the clone army dispatched the undead. A simple stab was all it would take to kill a clone, but that meant nothing if the undead wasn't fast enough to touch even one of them. Yes, the occasional clone was taken off guard while dealing with one or two, but for every one the clone army lost, the undead general lost 3, 4 and even 6. It was as close as massacres got and in less than 10 minutes all that was left of the general's army was the general himself who, much like the blonde original, had not moved from its current position.
Naruto had to give the thing credit where credit was due. Despite being surrounded by over 100 tall, it still stood strong and did not take its eyes off of him since the battle began. Hell, he was sure the only reason the thing did not join the fight was because he didn't do the same. Commendable, but it would not let the thing leave here alive.
At that same thought, five of his clones suddenly charged the undead general, hoping to put an end to thing before the original could get a crack at him; the bastards.
If the clones were your everyday humans, they would have certainly missed what happened next.
With a swiftness that belied its size, the general brought its axe from behind him and swung so hard the blonde could feel the wind generated by the force from where he stood 100 yards away. The clones that had pounced were all bisected at the waist and dispelled along with a few clones that were knocked back by the wind from the attack.
The shinobi was momentarily speechless. That one swing could have matched a B rank jutsu, yet the thing didn't even look winded in the least. If that attack would have hit even the toughest armor of a knight then there would be no debate on which side would win. Brow furrowing, he stared at the acknowledged threat that was now no longer allowed to leave this clearing alive.
The same threat that was now holding its axe towards him in challenge.
And Naruto couldn't stop the grin creeping on his face even if he tried.
Replacing himself with the closest clone, he was pleased to see the general had followed even that movement seeing that his eyes tracked him all the way till he was standing only feet away from the thing. Being significantly taller, the creature had the pleasure of looking down on him while the blonde looked up. The malevolence rising from its shoulders as he stood ready for battle would have told bystanders that it was the more intimidating fighter if they didn't know the blonde personally; the significant difference in both height and weapon size making it more so. However, any self-proclaimed weapons master would boast: it's not the size of the blade that matters, but where you place it. And Naruto was nothing if not a master at his current weapon of choice.
Some would say what he did next was dishonorable. Some might even say it was just below the line of being a craven.
And Naruto Uzumaki would gladly give those hecklers the middle finger.
Most of said fools were knights or nobles that cared to uphold honor by all means. A group of idiots who honestly believed they should keep their code even in the face of death. Those same people would be laughed out of every shinobi village to ever exist and deserved whatever came their way.
Like the kunai the blonde threw, without warning, right through the general's kneecap. Similar to a building losing its support pillars, the monster crumbled to its only remaining knee and did not even defend itself as the blonde quickly closed the gap and delivered a powerful front kick that snapped its head back, using the momentum from the kick to flip back and away from the stunned figure. Not wasting any movements, the blonde steadied himself mid-air and threw three kunai into the chest of the creature. Landing, he could see the kunai didn't penetrate too deeply, but that wasn't his original goal. The general only had time to straighten its neck and glare back at the blonde before the tags attached to the kunai began to burn down.
An explosion shook the battlefield. Despite the heat and shockwave that followed, Naruto stood tall with hands in his pockets and a smirk on his face. Why? Because, despite popular belief back in his Realm, cool guys look at explosions. That and he could still sense the thing was still alive and kicking despite the punishment it just went through.
Sure enough, the smoke cleared and the general was back on its feet glaring at the blonde with a hatred he once didn't think the creature was capable of. Its midnight body hid the chard marks across its skin and a bit of embers burned in its messy long hair, but it looked otherwise unfazed by his attack. So fine in fact that the blonde blinked twice when the hole he'd put in the things knee was now nowhere to be found.
'Huh, so it can regenerate too,' he noted before another kunai appeared in his hand.
Good thing too because the abomination was right in front of him with it's axe raised high above its head at the same instance his guard was up. The axe came down and the ninja jumped to his right to avoid the blow that smashed against the earth with such force it made the clones surrounding them stumble while also raising dirt into the air to cover its form. Using its makeshift camouflage, it swung its next attack in an arc hoping to catch the blonde off guard. The blonde instictively ducked under the slash. Taking a page from Rock Lee's book, he slammed a foot into the corpse's face. To his growing wondermemt, the kick didn't even move the creature's face. It slowly looked down on him and if the blonde was a lesser man he'd feel fear. Instead, he used his arms to catapult backwards, performing multiple back-flips before landing on his feet a few yards away. There were over 30 different ways he could have ended the fight at that moment but ending the fight too early oddly didn't seem right to him. A surge of something he hadn't felt in a long time rushed through his very veins and the glare on the things face as it charged once more only made the blood in the shinobi's veins run faster.
The shinobi met the corpse halfway and already had a kunai plunged into the corpses chest just above the heart before its axe could even come down. As expected, the general didn't even act as if it'd just been impaled and brought down another swing in hopes of splitting the shinobi in half; a task proved difficult seeing the nimble shinobi dodged every power swing with little to no real movement. After a particular wide swing, the general watched the blonde retreat while quickly making multiple signs with his hands that it had never seen before.
"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu (Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu)."
Out of the shinobi's mouth erupted a ball of flames that quickly consumed the corpse entirely. Fire may not be Naruto's strongest element, but having centuries of time on your hands and the help of a Bijuu did wonders for his control. Boy, Sasuke and Kakashi would be proud if they could see him now.
The blonde watched in both amusement and amazement as the corpse began swinging madly inside the fire before coming out with its body even darker than before while missing parts of its face to show the hollowness inside. He only retreated back when the now super-heated axe swung to cut him in half.
His surprise wouldn't stop there, however.
The malevolence that once lifted from the abomination was now covering the multiple holes that it had accumulated over its body. This time, the blonde witnessed the corpse's regeneration as skin stitched itself back together much like his own regeneration. If that wasn't surprising enough, the malevolence began gathering at the axe as it began releasing to the heavens.
Naruto's senses began to flare wildly and he jumped clear out of dodged before the thing could complete the motion of its next devastating attack. Good thing too since the second the axe hit the ground an explosion of power uplifted dirt and sent a shockwave that spread across their battlefield. The unprepared clones once surrounding them were all caught in the blast and dispelled at once while the original landed safely in a tree about 50 yards away from the attack's radius.
A few seconds later, the Earth stood still once more and the corpse looked up from the destruction it had brought. Now standing in a 5 foot deep trench with about 30 yards in width, the creature huffed in clear exhasution as it scanned the area for its prey.
Something appeared behind and and before it could turn something tore into its side, shredding flesh and sending it flying and spinning in equal measures before hitting the ground and tumbling to a stop. The flesh on the general immediately began knitting itself back together, but from the way it struggled to push itself back to its feet told its enemy its previous surprise attack had done more to it than it would have ever thought possible. All the power granted to him to deal with the pesky insect and he couldn't even land a single blow on him? Frustration bubbled within the creature and it made sure the glare it gave the slippery human held all its hate.
Meanwhile, Naruto was no longer grinning. The power the thing just displayed was on par with a B-Rank threat in his Realm, but at least an A-Rank in this one. How anyone in this realm was meant to deal with things like this he would never know and if there were more like it then it'd be best to rid the world of at least one of them.
The second the thing was back on it's feet it was charging the blonde once more with a roar that matched its sudden ferocity. Naruto dodged multiple swings with ease even when the general began swinging faster, wider and more obvious swing patterns that proved its growing frustration.
A well placed chop made the thing stagger. A powerful kick to the side of the knee made it fumble, an uppercut lifted it into the air while a spinning back kick sent it flying back once more. Now that the aura that once covered the thing was gone it seemed the thing was a lot more susceptible to damage. Blows that the creature usually shrugged off actually staggered it and the damage the blonde dealt didn't seem to be regenerating nearly as fast as it once did. That last blow out of anger dropped the creatures threat to the blonde significantly and Naruto couldn't help but feel disappointed.
The thing was nothing like humans. Though its power made up for its clear lack in intelligence, it wasn't as graceful as the many warriors the blonde had fought in this or his own world and it showed in every swing it delivered. It was just swinging in the hopes it would hit something and that was a fight the blonde had no interest in entertaining.
Unfortunately, it was time to end this.
His clones didn't spot anymore as powerful as this one roaming the forest but it was best not to leave the brat and royals to the off chance one of them slipped his senses missed one. There are consequences that Naruto didn't want to deal with if something were to happen to the royal brats that wouldn't effect him personally, but Ylisse and maybe even the continent as a whole. The general gave him a decent fight and he would have loved to see what else it would pull out of its ass, but good things always had to come to an end.
As the shinobi jumped back from a particular heavy swing, he landed on his feet and gave the heavily breathing corpse a foxy smirk-feeling solace in the fact that even these things felt exhaustion. "You're one tough bastard, I'll give ya that," he spoke for the first time in their battle, putting away his regular kunai for its three-prong counterpart. "Sadly, I don't have all day to play with you. At least you can die knowing you were killed by Naruto Uzumaki," he boasted, far too chipperly for the corspe's liking.
As if also knowing the next strike would be the last, the manevolence it had lost returned over its body in a flare of purple and it got down on all four as it continued to glare hatefully at its adversary. The malevolence was even more powerful than it had been moments ago, but the blonde could tell it wouldn't last long by the way it seemed to flicker constantly.
Yet, the thing did not charge. Instead, it was staring at him. Yes, the hate in its eyes was clear to see, but there was also something else. It was as if the thing was... waiting? As if there was an expectation there that it wanted to be met.
It was strange. Naruto knew he could beat this thing. He knew he didn't need to expend any power or outside force to beat this thing. He knew the thing most likely didn't match up to even his adversary back in the Leaf.
And yet, he felt as if he was insulting the thing. Here it was, on it's last legs and willing to show the full extent of its power.
And the blonde hadn't even touched his.
He understood. The thing may not have much intellect, but it understood battle. It was insulting to fight an opponent that wasn't taking you seriously and the blonde almost gawked at the fact he understood that from a corpses. The thing knew it was no match for him and was ready to die. However, before its death, it wished to be acknowledged. How... human.
Without much more thought, the blonde's body lit up in a brilliant display of orange and yellow along with black that cover the inside of his cloak and front. Flame-like aura danced around his entire form and both his eyes and hair mirrored the outline of his new form. The chakra cloak he'd gained through the war with Obito and Madara flared bright and unobstructed. Six spheres of energy that could erase a human with but a touch hovered behind him and the kunai he held in his hand was replaced by two pole-like objects made from the same spheres.
The absolute stupefied face of the creature before Jim was very human indeed. Naruto didn't know the man that was within before he became the thing he is now but he was sure even his soul could feel the power he emanated. A power that far out classed anything he'd ever felt before.
The shock eventually faded and was replaced with a determined resolve. The stance it had broken to gawk at the blonde's new form had returned and the malevolence returned in full force; the flickering it once had no longer present as it remained a constant, unshaking pool that rose to the challenge in hope of being acknowledged.
Naruto acknowledged the thing's power. He didn't know if it was this power in life, but he was sure to send it back to the grave a warrior that died respected.
Enough said, Naruto got in a stance of his own. It was time to end.
Out of respect, he allowed the creature to charge him. Running on all fours, it was almost twice as fast as before; moving faster than a thing of its size had any right to be. With swift movements, the poles in his hands were thrown just as fast as the incoming train. Both hit their mark with devastating affect-one taking off the arm still holding the axe while the other its leg. However, it's sure tenacity did not make the thing stop. Grabbing its axe mid-air with its teeth it kicked off the ground and leaped headfirst towards the awaiting shinobi. Only inches away, it it turned its head and swung with its remaining strength at its glowing adversary. For but a brief moment as the blade grew closer to its adversary neck, the thing thought it had a chance at victory.
That slight hope vanished along with his foe.
A second later, he felt a large energy source appear above him and instinctively knew its end had come.
In slow motion, Naruto saw the corpse's protective energy disappear almost in resignation before something other than grunts and screeches leave the thing's mouth. Two distorted words he didn't think the thing was capable of speaking.
Then time resumed and the Giant Rasengan he'd created in that split second crashed into and through the body of the general.
...
Naruto looked up to the sky as the eye began to fade out of existence. It seemed all he had to do to get rid of the thing was kill the general and it would all go back to normal. The chakra in the air was still thick with the foreign signature, but Kaguya's pressence had disappeared altogether.
Letting out a sigh of frustration, he turned to the crater that had once been his opponent-the only evidence pf the thing's existence being the giant red Killing Axe it left behind. Hesitating for only a moment, the blonde knelt down and gripped the axe in one hand. Enhancing his muscles with chakra, he hefted the weapon into the air and inspected it. The aura it emitted was still present, raising every hair on his body while pulsating as if it was sentient. It felt like his adversary did and he was sure whoever his foe once was lived and died with this axe in his hands.
"...'Good fight', huh," he mumbled the thing's final and only words before storing the weapon into a scroll. looking up to the smoke filled sky one last time he acknoledged his senses returning to him before leaping into the foliage. He'd kept the kids waiting long enough.
A/N: Had to actually cut this chapter in half. It was reaching 20k words and I didn't want it to go any further than it had already traveled. Also, literally took me 3 months just to edit/add to this ONE chapter :(. Hopefully all my hard work wasn't for not and the lot of you enjoyed it.
Also, thank everyone who reviewed and followed. Getting over 140 followers in a week is insane and I appreciate both the ones who returned and the new readers. I'll have part 2 out on Friday and one more chapter next Friday before I edit the rest. Hope you enjoyed and hope to see you all again.
Criticism amd spell checkers wanted, but flames will be ignored.