A/N: And now we complete another chapter.

For once, I decided to try out a new method by writing the ending first, and then filling in the blanks along the way.

Hopefully it's to your liking.

…

[Steinhǫll, Northern Noxus]

Noise could be heard in the distance as boulders were tossed against the walls of Steinhǫll.

A teenager studied the map sprawled on her table with gloved hands, her features locked in contemplation. She was dressed in durable linens, with steel plates protecting her chest and her boots, and a peaked cap set on the table beside the map and a steel mask and a cup of tea. Over her dress uniform and armor, she wore a long-tailed, fur-lined leather coat due to the cold weather typical of Northern Noxus's proximity to the Freljord. Holstered on her belt over her right hip was a large Piltovan-style revolver with brass fittings—a gift from a Zaunite friend.

In the center of the map was the fortress of Steinhǫll, with a solid red line encircling it to represent the palisade erected to prevent the enemy from leaving. Red wooden arrows were placed at regular intervals along the line, representing ballistae mounted on turrets to put pressure on the defending archers, while red rectangles represent their Citybreaker catapults hurling large rocks to weaken the walls. Large dots marked at various intervals to represent watchtowers that were built to check the progress of the siege while also keeping an eye out for reinforcements, and boxes at certain parts of the map represented campgrounds for the troops. There was a dotted line starting from one point of the map just outside the palisade going towards the fort, marking an underground path her warmasons were excavating to undermine a section of the fortress walls. The good thing about their situation was the lack of any markers on the map for booby traps made to hinder an all-out assault—likely due to the fact that their enemy, Prince Eigil Svenson didn't think that the Noxians would show up here at their doorstep.

After the death of their king at the hands of Darius, the kingdom of Urtis in the north of Noxus had surrendered to the Trifarian Legion, its people absorbed into the Empire as citizens. Not everyone accepted this change, key of which being King Sven Harbard's son Eigil Svenson, who had been out of the city gathering troops to rescue his father. Had Sven come back on time, he could have given the kingdom a fighting chance, futile as it was—instead, the coward left his father to die, going underground to bide his time to reclaim the throne of Urtis.

The mission at hand was fairly simple: quash the revolt before it becomes uncontrollable. What made the mission a little easier was that the prince seemed to have the decency to not allow noncombatants into his revolt.

A few troop movements here and there—surprisingly competent, but nowhere near ready to deal with a proper Trifarian assault force. Eigil himself seemed to have learned from his father's mistakes, sticking to hit-and-run tactics to raid convoys to pick at them slowly…nothing she'd never seen before, but it was hard to deal with when her enemy struck fast and hard. Fortunately, she had someone who hit equally as fast and hard, meeting Eigil's ambushers head-to-head in various skirmishes. Thanks to that little trump card, she was able to push Svenson into the very situation he wanted to avoid, forcing the prodigal son into his own Siege of Urtis. The only difference was that the fort he was locked up in had proven very difficult to crack—unlike the castle itself, this fort was a proper military base with stronger walls; there were siege engines installed to counteract Noxian artillery; and from the way they were holding up, they had plenty of supplies.

It'd been a few days now, and the siege was progressing quite well. Competent as they were, many of these "troops" had no discipline, and no sense of loyalty…it was very likely that Eigil hired a Freljordian bandit gang to shore up the numbers in his rebellion. Besides that, it was equally possible that the few nobles the prince had managed to recruit to his cause had eyes on the throne as well. Between the low morale and discipline of his troops and the disunity of his command structure, it was very likely going to end in the young commander's favor.

The ruffle of her tent curtain had signified that someone had entered. She'd been experienced enough to recognize who had entered just by their footsteps before looking up to find her guest…though the pace was enough to tell her that something had changed. "What's happened, Naruto?"

Uzumaki Naruto stood before her, clad in an even mix of hardened steel armor and durable cloth as befitting his warband's role as raiders and skirmishers. His arms were covered in just enough armor for adequate protection without hindering the fine motor control required of a two-handed weapon, and he wore a cuirass to protect his vitals. He wore a pair of baggy trousers tied up around his knees to accommodate a pair of plated leather boots with knee protection and secured to his waist with a heavy metal belt wrapped over a set of interlocking faulds at his sides. Overall, a combination that provided adequate protection while still giving leeway to speed and agility.

"We've got a problem, Victoria," Naruto explained, putting the carcass of a dove with a message tied to its leg on the table, "The son of a bitch sent out messenger doves—the tower boys managed to get most of them, but one of them slipped through our fingers. From the looks of it, he's calling for help."

"Bugger! That changes everything!" spat the commander, her attention back on the map, "We'll need to break this bloody siege before they get here. How much longer do you think the warmasons will need to break through?"

"The way I see it, our they're gonna need at least another week to get right under that wall," replied the raid captain, "The good news is, they say that we've got more than enough explosives bring down a section of the wall; but if I'm right, the prince's reinforcements will be here in a few days."

Victoria looked through the map, trying to find a solution to their predicament…until inspiration hit her like a stone through glass. She then turned to regard her runners. "Sulla! Send word to the warmasons in the tunnel, tell them to hurry. After that, call the captains of every warband, tell them we're going to build a fort of our own."

…

[En Route to Steinhǫll, a few days later]

Jarl Magnus Jensen was able to round up enough troops in a few days, which largely consisted of the best horsemen he had in his retinue, along with a number of conscripts he'd managed to gather from his own territories and to send messages to the other nobles supporting their cause. They weren't much by any stretch, but more than enough to help break the crown prince out of the siege so that they could continue the revolt in earnest.

Steinhǫll was at the top of foothill, allowing for a great line of sight for long-range shooting. However, the problem was that the Noxian ballistae had much greater range short of the rare mage-archers the Urtis Rebellion had at their disposal, and their Citybreaker catapults truly lived up to their name. Even worse was that nobody knew how the situation had changed since that poor messenger had arrived in their township.

But that was not something he intended to think about…he was in such a rush that he had to forgo scouting operations. No, better to think positively—he was up against an untested commander of a warhost would've made things easier…after all, he had plenty of experience on the battlefield over this so-called "rising star" of the Noxian military. If things went well, he would make her his personal slave, just to rub it in the Grand General's face.

As soon as Magnus and his army made it to the foot of the hill, they were quick to notice the appearance of a wooden palisade being erected around Steinhǫll. No doubt to prevent the reinforcements from getting into the siege.

"Well-played commander," Magnus cursed under his breath, "Well-played."

"What are we going to do, Jarl?" asked his second-in-command.

"There's an opening in the walls," he quickly noted, "Send a first wave through to decimate them!"

…

[Noxian Siege]

"Everyone, defend yourselves!" Naruto warned.

Every member of the Iron Ghosts warhost constructing the palisade dropped what they were doing. Anyone that wasn't able to make it to their weapons made do with their war spades; a combination of wrench, shovel, and axe that served well as an impromptu weapon, and was a signature weapon of the warmasons. Everyone stood at the ready, expecting the enemy to pour through the hole in their defenses that they were trying to plug up.

In terms of armaments, he carried several bandoliers of throwing daggers on his person for emergencies, but his true weapon was a real beast. Its grip was long enough to fit three hands, while its broad, single-edged blade with a squared tip ended in a pronounced beak along the cutting edge. Sharp, scalloped serrations traveled halfway up the spine from the hilt, enabling it to be used as an improvised saw or rope-cutter when necessary. The upturned integral guard at the cutting edge of the weapon provided little protection for his fingers but were mostly intended for catching blades, and a plum pommel prevented it from slipping out of his hands. By all accounts, it was an oversized meat cleaver.

Naruto readied his cleaver as the prince's reinforcements charged through the gap, and was quick to spot the enemy commander, charging in on horseback with a warhammer in hand. With his target in sight, he pounced on the enemy vanguard leader, knocking him off his horse with a shoulder tackle before bringing the blade of his sword down on his enemy. The edge and weight of his cleaver was more than enough to tear through armor; once he was done, he followed through and brought the edge of his cleaver up into the armpit of another enemy soldier.

Time spent under Darius's tutelage had refined Naruto into a very formidable combatant, but he didn't go through life as the man's apprentice without learning a trick or two. And so when a number of enemy infantrymen moved towards him, Naruto reeled his arm back, and swung quickly in a circle around him, cleaving through the enemies trying to surround him. He then spotted a rebel cavalryman about to attack one of his troops from behind, and used the beak of his cleaver to knock him off his horse before following through by bringing the blade down on his neck.

Another lesson Naruto had been taught came not from his master, but from following the disgraced swordswoman named Riven during her time in the Fleshing Arena…sometimes against Darius's brother Draven. Along with learning her technique, he'd been taught to deal with the fodder swiftly and efficiently, so that he could save his energy for the more difficult opponents that he had to single out. Most of his strikes up to that point had been light as he cleaved through the enemy infantry while keeping an eye out for enemies too strong for his warband to handle. He heard a shout off to the side of his vision as he spotted a large soldier about to charge in on him—Naruto charged back, leaped into a slide, cleaved off the soldier's leg, and followed through with an upward slash that bit into the man's shoulder.

As he stood back up, he saw another soldier charging after him as he recovered. He was close to Naruto when a loud bang resounded through the air, as something struck the soldier in the head and knocked him back.

Naruto turned to find that his rescuer was none other than Victoria, riding atop her armored basilisk Gaia, the barrel of her revolver was smoking after shooting down the enemy soldier. It was quite a sight to see her with her war mask on, her cream-colored hair and the tail of her trench coat billowing in the wind. Satisfied with her save, Victoria holstered her revolver to draw the saber sheathed at her saddle, before letting out a resounding war cry as her unit of cavalry began to push back the rebel reinforcements.

Knowing what was to come, Naruto turned to regard the rest of the battlefield, his voice resounding through the battlefield. "BASILISKS!"

As though prompted by the call, Noxian basilisk riders charged from the rear of the battle. As basilisks were fed very little before battle to make them more aggressive, the Noxian soldiers gave their cavalry a wide berth to avoid getting eaten along with their enemies. Naruto watched as the cavalrymen clashed, and watched as the hungry lizards tore into the enemy steeds, their riders knocked off their steeds and forced the rebellion into a retreat.

Noxian soldiers cheered as the rebel reinforcements were repelled.

"No time to celebrate just yet!" Victoria called out, earning everyone's undivided attention, "Finish this palisade now, or we'll have to go through this again tomorrow!"

She really didn't need to say anything else as she left on her basilisk.

Naruto turned to regard the rest of the troops in the area. "You guys heard the lady, let's finish this wall up so they don't come back and annoy us again later…but for tonight, drinks are on me!"

The troops cheered. They had a fort to attack, and they'll need all their strength to do it.

…

[Konohagakure no Sato]

Was it worth it?

That was the question Hiruzen had been asking himself for the past few years or so since the meeting with Jericho Swain at the Five Kage Summit to discuss the terms of the treaty.

Any other time, if he were asked to give up Naruto for the sake of peace, the answer would have been a firm, but polite 'no.' But the so-called "Principle of Vision" was very insistent on his demand; there was a sort of confidence in his gaze, as if he knew something about what was going on behind Hiruzen's back. In the end, the choice came down to either selling out Naruto for what precious little time he could get to prepare, or putting Konoha front and center in Swain's ambitions before the other villages.

At the time, he told himself that selling out Naruto was for the good of the village, that Danzō would be needed now more than ever…until he decided to find out what cards Swain had in his hand to be able to make the demand he did. And what he learned disgusted him to no end: secret deals with the other villages to sell out state secrets; numerous counts of terrorism; even sabotaging his attempt to prevent the Uchiha Massacre. And that was only the start—if Swain knew all this, that meant he already had enough blackmail material to destroy Konoha twelve times over without lifting a finger and that he'd been sitting on this intel for quite some time.

Thinking back on it, it was his fault to begin with. When he reactivated the cell, he should have made sure there was oversight into Root's activities to ensure that none of the things Danzō sanctioned would come back to haunt the village in the future. And now, because of his distaste for getting his hands dirty, Swain had all the ammo he needed to rip off Hiruzen's balls and shove them down his throat in front of all the other Kage during the summit. Because of that misplaced trust, Hiruzen was politically humiliated, lost the village's Jinchūriki, and learned that his so-called 'friend' was nothing but a dirty traitor. In hindsight, Hiruzen should have executed him a long time ago for the terrorism and the conspiracy to commit high treason alone.

What everyone got back from the deal beyond averting war with Noxus was the ability to establish garrisons in the mainland so that it would be more convenient to hire out Corinthian Shinobi for a variety of missions. At least, that was the face of the deal—what everyone in Corinth really wanted was a foothold to potentially attack and sabotage Noxus's ability to make war on them. Though Swain seemed all-too-eager to accept this stipulation, it was very likely that he'd seen that coming, and for whatever reason he seemed confident he could handle any attempt at sabotage the Corinthians might attempt. Not to mention that the Grand General showed that he was aware of everyone's dirty laundry when he humiliated A during the Summit—no violence, just a threat to expose everything that the Raikage sanctioned.

Still, in spite of the bad things that had been happening so far, he was able to make Konoha even stronger. Instead of simply trying to pump out more Shinobi earlier, Hiruzen made sure that Iruka's curriculum covered more practical skills than academics as though a total war were on the horizon. All in all, they would be ready by the time the Noxians decided to drop all pretenses to begin their invasion of Corinth in earnest…and to prepare for the possibility that Naruto would be sent to spearhead that invasion.

As he looked up at the portraits of his predecessors and his late successor, Hiruzen asked himself the same question: was it worth it?

In the end, the old Hokage settled for a very brutal, but very honest no: Danzo had done so many horrible things behind his back that saving his life actually hurt the village more than saved it. And now, because he allowed the wrong person to have so much unchecked power without even monitoring him for signs of treason, Danzo was free to undermine his attempts at peace with no consequences. Because he thought Danzo was a true patriot, that he wanted what was best for his village and was worthy of a chance at redemption, Konoha was in danger from within and without.

And for his weakness, Hiruzen had only himself to blame should the Noxians decide to come knocking on their door.

…

[Siege of Steinhǫll]

Tensions were high as the Blood Fox raider warband were on standby at the battlements.

In the week or so since the palisade was completed, the rebel reinforcements had tried to breach their defenses, and they were able to repel them every time; they almost did on the third time, until their leaders died in the last skirmish. With the loss of their leadership, the peasant conscripts abandoned their cavalry commanders on the battlefield and scattered, leaving the rebel prince to his fate.

Naruto waited with his warband for the all-clear to begin the raid, as the warmasons worked around the clock to prepare for the assault. Most commanders would have taken the loss and simply capitulated to her demand, but it was pointless in Naruto's mind, considering how much of an egotistical bastard the prince's dad was. Then again, he had no right to question her decisions—after all, she was the commander of the warhost, while he was a captain of a warband.

"I can smell their fear," said a voice in his head, excitement lacing its tone, "They know we're coming, kit."

"And they say foxes are more patient than that," he replied under his breath.

He learned he carried the Kyūbi no Yoko shortly after he arrived on Noxus Prime. At the time, his mind was a storm of emotions until he settled on rage—there was no doubt in his mind the Grand General demanded him as payment for peace with Corinth specifically for that reason. He had no idea why, but he'd resolved to make the best out of the situation, especially when he considered that he was already too far from Corinth to feasibly make a return trip…and so while he trained under Darius and his brother Draven, he sparred with the fox. Their duels up until that point had impressed the fox so much that by the time he first walked into the battlefield, he was given permission to use its power.

He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard the sound of heavy feet pounding towards him at high speed. Naruto looked to the side to find Victoria riding towards them, coming to a stop in front of him, accompanied by her personal runner Sulla.

"Any news from the tunnel?" he asked.

"They're setting the fuses as we speak," replied the commander, "As soon as the walls come crumbling down, and he still won't surrender, I want his head."

Naruto snorted as he shouldered his cleaver. "Not if I get to him first."

Victoria smiled in amusement; she would have shot anyone else for being so cheeky, but Naruto had grown close enough to be her right hand. He'd heard the rumors—of how he was being groomed to be the next Hand of Noxus, and of how her meteoric rise was taken as a sign that she was aiming to become the next Grand General and succeed Jericho Swain as the Principle of Vision. All that was needed was a third member to fill in the seat that was the Principle of Guile…assuming the Faceless One would let that happen, though he did remember seeing a younger form boarding Leviathan with them.

Either way, he put all other thoughts out of his mind as he waited for the demolition team to do their work. He rotated his neck and his shoulders, keeping them limber in anticipation for the coming assault.

Within five minutes, the first explosion rocked the ground, the walls of the fort falling while dust clouds filled the air, exposing disoriented rebel soldiers trying to regain their bearings.

"Let's go!" he called out, his warband whooping as they followed him in his charge.

Ballistae fired their bolts upward, raining death upon the exposed rebel soldiers, softening them up for the rest of the warhost as they closed in. Naruto and the Blood Foxes were among the first infantry to set foot in the open courtyard of the fortress; while many of them had fled upon seeing them, the remaining rebels tried to fight back, but were cut down in the first wave. Their destination was the keep, where he was to take the head of the stubborn prince if he still wouldn't surrender.

After the first few minutes of the assault, the rebels started fighting back more effectively; not that it mattered to Naruto as he cut through many of them with his dance-like movements. The remaining rebel infantrymen were cut down like blades of grass, until he came across the prince's royal guard, dressed in their brazen armor, which mandated more finesse than usual. With many of the royal guard taken down, he was able to cut down many of them as he led the Blood Foxes towards the keep, clearing a path for the battering ram as it broke down the double-doors.

The first thing that greeted Naruto and his warband upon entering the keep was a hall filled with starving and tired rebel soldiers, all of them standing at the ready to fight back, joined by a number of tattooed Freljordian warriors all garbed in a mish-mash of armor. At the back of the keep was a form in a simple cuirass sitting on a hand-carved throne, a sword by his side and a fur cape around his shoulders. There was no no need for introductions, he was quick to recognize the man as Prince Eigil Svenson from the several times the Blood Foxes and the rebel ambushers encountered each other in a number of skirmishes throughout the campaign.

Beside him was a large Freljordian man, his head shaved except for a scraggly beard and a ponytail. His hulking, musclebound form contrasted against the rotund gut he had, along with an intricate array of woad Freljordian tattoos exposed due to the minimal amount of armor he was wearing—just an armored-up left arm, faulds, boots over trousers. In his bandaged right hand he wielded a large mace in one hand, and a round shield in the other. This was apparently Narfi Wall-breaker, leader of the Freljordian bandits Prince Eigil had hired.

The bearded man pointed the shaft of his flail forward and roared a command to the remainder of the prince's forces, charging into battle with the Noxians. Naruto answered by leaping into the fray, cutting through the enemy forces as he made haste towards the enemy champion, forcing him to step back from a Noxian soldier he'd knocked down. The noise died down as everyone noted at the boy who rescued the soldier, waiting with bated breath as the two stared each other down.

"I joined the foolish prince's crusade for the throne, hoping to cut off the Hand, and Noxus sends a boy to fight me?!" asked Narfi, his voice booming with rage and disbelief.

"I'm not my master, but I think I'm more than enough for you," Naruto fired back, readying his cleaver.

The bandit leader snorted in amusement. "Who are you, brat?"

"Uzumaki Naruto, raid captain of the Iron Ghosts."

The duel began when Narfi let out a resounding roar, charging with his shield raised and forcing Naruto to roll aside, dashing off to the side to avoid getting flattened by his opponent's mace. Seeing an opening, Naruto slashed at Narfi's wrist in an attempt to take one weapon out of commission; his opponent was quick to recover from the missed strike in an attempt to counter with a blow from his shield. Naruto rolled under the shield, making a swing for Narfi's exposed torso only for the giant Freljordian to leap back, and bring his mace down on the flat of the cleaver just as it passed; a single strike to the blade was all he needed to break his weapon in half.

Recovering from the sudden shock of losing half his cleaver, Naruto ducked under Narfi's attempt to make a swipe for his head with both of his weapons before drawing a throwing dagger and jabbing it into his opponent's thigh. He then used the remainder of his cleaver to cut into Narfi's abdomen, forcing the bandit to reel over in pain, giving him ample opportunity to leap onto his back, and bury the broken blade into his opponent's skull.

After retrieving his weapon, Naruto turned to face the rebel prince, who looked on in morbid curiosity as he studied the environment; his hired champion had been defeated, his troops too demoralized to continue fighting, and his fort was in ruins.

The sound of heavy footfalls could be heard as Victoria rode into the keep, her basilisk Gaia looking at the prince with a hungry look in her sanguine eyes.

As she came to a stop in front of Prince Eigil, she had only one question. "Will you surrender now?"

…

[Noxus Prime, a week later]

The initiation into the Black Rose had been easy.

The journey to get there, on the other hand, was a challenge in itself as even among the decadent Noxian aristocracy, the core principle of strength through merit still existed. The only problem was that backstabbing, while frowned upon, was still a legitimate way of enhancing one's station—after all, Guile was one pillar of Noxian strength.

Since she'd been brought to this land, the shadow had been given a harsh lesson in survival as she tried to survive on the streets. It wasn't easy to adjust from her noble upbringing to living like a peasant, but she didn't merely survive—she adapted, overcame, and thrived in the cutthroat environment that was Noxus Prime.

However, now was not the time for recollections, not when she could perch on her loft to watch the victory procession above the streets of Noxus Prime from the northern campaign. She enjoyed seeing the shower of sanguine rose petals falling down upon the returning warhost known as the Iron Ghosts. Their prize, Prince Eigil, was in a cage within Victoria's line of sight, and the target of many tomatoes; evidently a tradition among the ancient Noxii tribes during victory parades to give victorious generals a reality check in order to keep them humble.

There were a number of warbands in the Iron Ghosts, and all of them had accounted well of themselves in that action, their flags flying as they walked down the boulevard. Among the rabble of soldiers on parade, the shadow was quick to identify Victoria Swain in a small gap among the troops, her long, cream-colored hair flowing in the breeze. In many ways, she had to hand it to the girl; it wasn't easy to climb up in a society that frowned upon nepotism, and thanks to the Grand General's hands-off approach, she was able to shine on her own merits.

The young Swain House member wasn't alone however, as she was escorted by the leader of one of her warbands, and it was very hard not to recognize him. Captain Uzumaki Naruto stood by her side, shouldering his broken blade as the two of them walked down the streets towards the Stairs of Triumph, no doubt to report their success to the Trifarix. The shadow had been following him as well, as part of her assignment as a member of the Black Rose…and nearly getting caught several times. She would have been lying if she didn't admire how much stronger he'd gotten over the years; that toned, battle-hardened body would've had no trouble attracting any number of potential mates. Yes, even after being hardened on the streets of Noxus Prime for all these years, she was still feeling the pull.

That the two of them got closer as the years went by elicited a confluence of emotions from the spy. She was unable to tell what feeling was strongest at the moment, but she had to quash them immediately…after all, there may come a time when she would be given the task of assassinating them both—no matter how much she hated it.

But for now, she wanted to savor the atmosphere, and let the two of them enjoy their victory..

After all, she had an escaped weapons project to chase down.

…

A/N: Completed.

As you can see, it's a timeskip.

With regards to Victoria's new look, I decided to go more for the WWI cavalry officer look, with a twist. Her tactics, however, I see as a combination of Julius Caesar (as demonstrated here), Cao Cao, and a bit of Ulysses S. Grant. I won't confirm yet as to how she's related to Jericho, but I will confirm that she IS a part of Swain's family.

Naruto's armor however, is a combination of both Guts's armor right up until he gets the Berserker Armor, combined with Mordred's armor from the Fate series. His cleaver, however, is based on Nosferatu Zodd's weapon…but he'll get a more definitive weapon later on. Speaking of which, you can see the Siege of Steinhǫll as Naruto's personal Battle of Doldrey.

As far as my plans go, I could have Naruto staying in Noxus so that he can help Victoria change the nation…or I could have him going back to Konoha to revisit his desire to become Hokage. Hell, depending on how I feel, I could even have him spearheading the Noxian Invasion of Corinth, thereby derailing Akatsuki's plans and forcing them to rethink their strategy.

With any luck, I haven't burnt out any excitement just yet.

Anyway, don't be afraid to review so long as you keep it civil and relevant.

…

Vocabulary:

Fort within a Fort—pretty much the same way Caesar dealt with Vercingetorix during the Battle of Alesia. The only difference is that Caesar didn't try to undermine Alesia, and there are only civilian conscripts here so there is no incident where women and children are left to starve outside the fortress.

Prince Eigil's position in the parade—based on the Roman practice of "memento mori," wherein the defeated king or general of any battle is put within sight or earshot of the victorious Roman general, sometimes even saying things like "remember, you're only human" to that general. The idea was to give the victorious general a reality check so that they stay humble.