Disclaimer: First Chapter
Story Start!
Rats.
Shuten watched as Naruto used his blood to draw a spiral on a piece of paper, a paper that was inked to the brim with ancient enchantments. She had been forced to wear a purple hoodie and some violet stockings, as well as shows. She could pass for human at the moment, even with her tall horns going through the top of the hoodie. Naruto was operating in broad daylight, which was against the rules when it came to battles.
He was getting prepared though.
The City of Fuyuki was the battleground for the Holy Grail war, and he was spending his time before the war started by going across the entire city and placing his tags. Honestly, she enjoyed walking around, but she remained silent as she watched him working. She had a large bottle of wine to keep her attention, but she had to admit that she was curious. Naruto put a second tag over each tag that turned both tags invisible to the naked eye.
He would trap people like rats.
She was Shuten Douji, one of Japan's most evil spellcasters. She could tell what the magic he was using was just by glancing at it, and she knew for certain that Naruto was not playing around.
"Next place."
Each Charm served the function of a barrier, and if anything passed through the barrier that fulfilled a condition, then Naruto would be alerted to the person, and a tracking spell would be placed on them. If a Master with Command Spells, or a Servant, crossed the lines of any of the barriers then they would be trackable to Naruto. He would be able to go and finish them off at his pleasure.
"Sweetie... isn't half of the fun just walking around to find the enemy... surely tracking them takes some of the fun out of this?" Shuten spoke up.
"Tracking?"
Shuten raised an eyebrow at his confusion, since from he experience, these barriers tagged people with a tracking magic. Naruto's genuine confusion surprised her only slightly enough to raise her eyebrow, but she smiled.
"Unless... these barriers are not trackers."
"Oh, they are trackers... but I'm not tracking our opponents. The Holy Grail makes sure that we will come into contact with them sooner or later anyway, so there is no point in tracking them down." Naruto ran his hands along the gate of a local high school, with Shuten following behind him. She looked through the bars of the school, and she found herself smelling something foul existing at the school.
Naruto gave a small smirk.
"... There is a Master and Servant in the school right now... we could thin out the competition right now... but instead of doing that..." Naruto trailed off as he slapped a tag on the front of the gate, and then turned it invisible.
Shuten smiled.
"Entertainment!"
"Whenever 2 or more Masters gather in the same area, we'll know about it... whenever 2 or more Servants fight... we will know about it. Then we can watch the fighting... learn about our enemies a little... and maybe interfere." Naruto had no plans to win the Holy Grail war the way that it was intended to be won. He wanted to win on his terms, when he wanted to win, and how he wanted to win it all.
He was preparing traps all around the city.
He was also making sure that he could see everything that was going on with his opponents when they did battle with each other. That was why he had disabled the trackers in the charms, and replaced them with remote viewing instead.
"Heheheheh..."
"Oh... there are 3 Masters in this school, but only 1 Servant... so I guess 2 of the Masters have not summoned their Servants yet." Naruto looked at the school, while Shuten giggled under her breath. She walked faster and wrapped an arm around his waist, and dragged her fingernails up his stomach and to his throat as they stopped walking. "Anyway... looks like this is an enemy servant." Naruto stated as he showed her a blank piece of paper.
The paper started to draw on itself, until it revealed the image of the servant who was hiding inside of the school at the moment. It was a tall woman with long hair, wearing a strange female biking suit, with her eyes covered and a strange symbol on her forehead. He handed the piece of paper to Shuten, and the drawn picture got a raised eyebrow.
"No name?"
"Look at her carefully... she's Greek. The blindfold she is wearing is snake themed, made of snake scales... and she's beautiful." Naruto stated, since he didn't need a name on the paper to figure out exactly who the enemy servant was. Just the context clues of her sexually suggestive, beautiful outfit, her body shape, and her covered eyes was enough. "... She's the legendary Medusa... she's a powerful servant... if only because she's famous all over the world. I can't think of anyone who doesn't know about her." Naruto had learned about her in his world history classes when he went to high school.
She was part of Greek Mythology.
"Medusa... I see... you sure do your hopework." Shuten praised him, and he smirked.
"It's only because she is Medusa that I figured it out... like I said, the legend of Medusa is very famous even here. With her eyes that turn to stone being both her greatest strength and greatest weakness. She is one of Greek's most tragic figures... right up there with Heracles... there are just some heroes who are famous even here in Japan." Naruto stated as he started to walk away from the school. He looked at Shuten for a moment, and she skipped so that she was walking in front of him. "... Honestly, if people want to summon strong servants, they would go for servants with legends that are known far and wide." Naruto rubbed the back of his head.
Shuten smiled.
"Like mine."
"I was trying to summon my ancestor... but yes. King Arthur, Cu Chulainn, Heracles, Medusa, Gilgamesh, Arash, Cleopatra, and Julias Ceasar... these are the kinds of servants that anyone would try and go for." Naruto could think of some servants with legends so far reaching that he would be able to recognize any of them at the drop of a hat. "Thankfully, Gilgamesh and King Arthur wouldn't be too much trouble for you... the others would be much more dangerous." Naruto hoped that none of tghe other servants he listed of summoned.
He could see Shuten defeating either Gilgamesh or King Arthur, but if she went up against Heracles then she would be hard pressed to win. Well, to be more precise, if the enemies summoned either King Arthur or Gilgamesh, he knew enough about their legends and the abilities that were recorded about the previous Grail War to be able to make a plan to take them out.
"Oh... and how would I beat Heracles?"
"You don't... if Heracles is like his myth, then you would have to kill him 12 times. I can see you killing him 5 to 7 times before he killed you... you're strong... but you can't beat Heracles by yourself. So we would need to make allies with somebody you CAN beat, but can also kill Heracles... which narrows things down." Naruto put his head to it to think of strategies for all of the most famous heroes in history.
He had lists.
Those that Shuten could easily beat like Medusa.
Those that Shuten could beat with a struggle like Gilgamesh and King Arthur.
Those that Shuten could not beat like Heracles.
"You're doing your research... kind of boring." Shuten slowly teased him as she nuzzled up closer to his side.
"Like I said, I'm only making plans for the heroes that people would desperately try to summon. The most famous heroes all have the most obvious weaknesses to plan around... well... most of them do. Gilgamesh died of old age, and King Arthur was killed by Mordred... neither of those two have an obvious weakness to exploit... and if King Arthur has the Sheath to Excalibur... you can't win against him." Naruto stated with a frown.
The only reason King Arthur got killed in his legend, was because he lost the thing that made him unbeatable. If he was summoned properly, with the sheath to Excalibur, then Shuten would have no chance of winning in a fight, either fair or unfair.
"Pretty sure Gilgamesh is stronger than I am?"
"Not true... Gilgamesh was noted in the last Holy Grail war to summon and launch weapons like arrows. In long range combat, he wins. Gilgamesh is dangerous because he has accesss to the weakness of all other servants... you don't have a weakness Gilgamesh can take advantage of." Naruto looked at Shuten.
She was killed after being poisoned, and beheaded in her sleep, and even then she did not die right away. Her weakness was poisoned wine, not a weakness that Gilgamesh could summon in battle against her. He would be overwhelmingly powerful, but in the end she could kill him if she managed to force the battle to close combat.
"And King Arthur?"
"With the sheath, no chance... without the sheath, major struggle. Lets see... Achilles would be a challenge... but Medusa was most likely summoned as a Rider... the same class Achilles would be summoned into." Naruto was trying to think of all of the heroes that were famous enough to become well known in Japan. "... but you're part divine so you can injure him, so he shouldn't be too much trouble... Socrates would be an easy win... but..." Naruto paused and stopped walking.
Shuten stopped as well.
"Yes Sweetie?"
"... I pray that Elvis Presley gets summoned, that would be badass. You would win for sure, but damn if I don't want to hear his music live." Naruto just realized that there were a lot of famous people that could be summoned that Shuten could beat, and that he would love to meet. "... I doubt anyone would want to summon a musician though." Naruto couldn't imagine anyone going out of their way to summon a modern day legend like Elvis.
"So... you're saying people are more likely to try and summon super famous heroes?"
"Yeah... every sane person would want to summon the most powerful hero they can think of. When you think powerful, you think Heracles, King Arthur, and Gilgamesh... King Arthur and Gilgamesh were recorded taking spots in the last war... I asked the priest which servants got summoned last time... so it is unlikely they get summoned this time... honestly... there are like 20 famous heroes that people would be desperate to summon." Naruto could remember myths from world history, and he could see the ultra rich people that typically participated in these wars to go after those heroes. "... I tried to use my blood as the catalyst to summon my ancestor... but got you instead... thankfully you're a Japanese famous figure, and you're not human so you're stronger than most heroes." Naruto grabbed her horn and pushed her away from him.
Her horn was jabbing into his side as they walked.
"Oh Sweetie... you are thinking too hard... you should relax... the war hasn't even started yet."
"Oh Shuten darling... you can't seriously think the war hasn't already started?" Naruto looked at her with a grin.
The second he summoned her, the war already started for him, and he wanted to use the lack of fighting to gather information. Only idiots sat around waiting for the fighting to start without doing any prep work. He had summoned an amazingly powerful servant, but for all of her power, they had no chance of winning at all if they didn't give it their all.
"Anyway, I already know 4 of the possible Masters. Rin Tohsaka is the last of her blood, so she is for sure a Master. Illya von Einsburn is another assured Master... and either Sakura Matou or Shinju Matou will be the 3rd promised Master... those 3 families always produce Masters." Naruto had done his homework. He knew where Rin and the Matous lived, so if he really wanted to, he would just go to their homes and finish them off at his pleasure.
Of course, only AFTER they summoned their servants, otherwise the Holy Grail would randomly select another person as a Master, and he would be back at square one.
"Are you secretely smart?" Shuten asked him with a raised eyebrow.
"... What?" Naruto looked at her. "... This is just obvious stuff... if you WANT to win a fight, summon the strongest fighter you can summon. Those three families are rich, and always produce masters... so OF COURSE they will ALWAYS summon extra powerful servants. If anything, you would have to be retarded to NOT realize this stuff." Naruto was insulted by her insulting his basic common sense.
Common sense.
It was common sense to make your team as strong as possible, which meant summoning the strongest possible servanrts with the most history behind them. At the moment, the Caster, Saber, and Archer classes were the only unsummoned classes.
"Honestly... I think the Priest might be a Master as well. He was a Master during the last war... I would bet he summoned either Medusa to keep an eye on the other Masters... or he summoned a Lancer... I can't see a Priest risk ruining his advantage by summoning a hard to control Berserker." Naruto didn't notice as Shuten gave the widest smile. "... It's possible... so we're going to be placing tags around the Church... if a Servant leaves that area... then we have our answer." Naruto had them walking the way they were walking for that reason.
"He did seem shifty."
"I know right! My gut tells me the guy is a Master... he fits the qualifications, and he has previous experience... with his experience... he would pick a servant with a weakness that is hard to exploit... and summon based on that." Naruto frowned as he ran a list of servants through his head.
"What makes you say that?"
"He knows... he knows that if your servants name gets exposed, their weakness does too... he has experience with a Holy Grail war... so... he isn't likely to summon a Berserker... I would guess if he summons a Caster, it will be somebody like Merlin or Leonardo Da Vinci... and if he summons a Lancer, it will be either Cu Chulainn or Nagao Kagetora." Naruto hummed in thought.
Shuten watched him.
"... Cu Chulainn." Naruto stated after giving it a moment of thought. "... The Tohsakas and Matous are Japanese, so they would be more familiar with Kagetora for sure. If the Priest is smart, he would try to summon Cu... Cu's weakness is that he can't eat dog meat... a perfect weakness since we can't exploit it." Naruto narrowed down the possible Lancers to one.
"...and if he summoned a Caster?"
"He wouldn't... Casters are among the hardest to control servants... not because they are strong, but because they are smart... any experience Master would not want a Caster as their servant."
"YOU tried to summon a Caster." Shuten pointed out.
She called him an idiot.
"I tried to summon Tamamo no Mae... my own ancestor. I was hoping that our bond of blood would make her more willing to work with me... since she are literally family." Naruto had the only advantage of being related to the Caster he had tried to summon. "... I have no idea what Illya would try to summon though... she might have summoned Rider or a Berserker... it's hard to guess... I have literally no information on her other than she IS a Master." Naruto couldn't help but curse his lack of information.
"This is entertaining as well..."
"Illya either summoned Berserker or Rider, while the Priest summoned Lancer or Rider... an experienced man would know he couldn't keep his servant a secret with Berserker... Riders and Berserkers sound more powerful than Lancers... so an inexperienced person would be more likely to summon them... Riders are useful for gathering information." Naruto muttered under his breath.
A vein was bulging on his head, and Shuten was enjoying the show of Naruto putting all of his brain towards trying to use the knowledge he did have at his disposal to his advantage. She could appreciate his mind for combat and the strong head he had on his shoulders when it came to fighting.
He would have made an AMAZING war time general.
Chapter End!
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