One With Spirits Chapter 1: One With Spirits, a Naruto + Elden Ring Crossover fanfic

A/N: Here we go.

Trying a different angle here, hope it makes you smile.

Slifer and I worked long and hard on this. Looking forward to your feedback!

This...will, in all likelihood, be my final new Elden Ring Story for awhile. I've covered every facet of it now, and need to go about updating everything else

On that note, "Running to the Edge" -still a tentative chapter- and Everybody Wants to be my Enemy" aren't quite ready yet, so I was forced to post this instead. Honestly, updating on Sundays and Mondays are a proper pain in the arse...

So here we go, something new to tide you over until tomorrow.

As ever, the Embers rule remains: If people don't like this story? If they don't enjoy it? Well...I won't be able to continue it. That's no joke, folks. I'm so busy these days with two jobs; basically, I don't have time off. Not anymore. My free time is limited and as such, I can't afford to focus on something folks don't like. Reviews keep me writing in these times, and keep the daily updates flowing. Silence...silence only hurts. I hate having to beg for feedback, but without it...well, it feels like I'm not making an impact.

You determine this story's fate. Once again, I own no references, quotes, themes, or memes. Nope! Not me! Not a wit or a one.

They're merely tributes to legends far greater than I. Now then, I hope you enjoy.

Bear in mind! This is a Naruto who never met Melina or the rest...

"We're all spirits of a sort, When you think about it...

And there are so many with you...

So very many...

~Roderika.

One With Spirits

"Are you alright?"

Isn't it a wonder how three little words can change your life?

Three little words. It was not the way they were said; for they were delivered with banal sincerity at best, little more than conversational. Nor was it the place in which they were said, for there was nothing particularly alluring about a windswept shack lit by a single fire.

Perhaps it was the one who heard the words, a young flaxen-haired maiden clad in a fluted cream tunic with a crimson hooded mantle turned up against the wind. A shortsword lay strapped at her waist but she was hardly in any position to draw it with her wounds; her right sleeve stood stained a dripping sanguine red, small tears running along its length to reveal the mangled meat within, chips of bone poked ghoulishly from the smarting flesh, the remnants of what might have been fingers stuffed and belted into a long brown gauntlet.

Roderika raised her gaze, idly grasping at her mangled limb. "...what?"

She'd half-expected the hunters -or that awful Tarnished!- to come back, to finish what they had started.

Yet there was no hunter here in her shack. This newcomer hadn't come for her with dogs or knives or swords or axes, or any of it. Instead a pair of empathetic blue eyes stared back at her, and for the life of her she couldn't parse why. If anything, this seemed to be even more down on his luck than her. She could tell just by looking at him. His clothes were little more than orange-black-rags hanging on his body. Were it not for his mesh shirt and breeches, he might've been completely naked. As things stood, she felt her face warm just by looking at him.

And still those azure orbs blinked back at her, framed by whiskered cheeks and tawny blond hair spattered with...oh.

Oh, dear. Was that blood?!

Better days he'd seen, no doubt about that.

"Hey, that arm doesn't look so good." He plonked down beside her, startling her terribly. "Lemme see."

"I...you...wait a moment?!"

The Spirit Tuner gave a feeble resistance, a half mumbled reprimand that he need not extend his pity to one so retched. She attempted to shimmy back into the wall of her ruined shack. That proved a mistake; for her mulched arm smacked limply against the barely mortared cobbles, sending fresh torrents of pain rocketing through her body in spikes of fiery agony. Biting down on her lip, she slumped back onto the wall, stars popping into existence before her eyes. Finally they until they cleared to reveal the blonde still looking at her expectantly.

Ah, she realized, he was waiting for her to give him permission to help her.

Roderika wasn't sure what to feel about that, all she knew was that her arm hurt like hell. It proved to be the final push she needed to offer the tube of perforated meat to the blonde. Even if he couldn't help her, the least she could do was alleviate his curiosity.

'If I cannot be a warrior, nor conjure the courage to be grafted, then perhaps I can at least be a freak.'

He laid hands on her and a gentle golden glow stemmed from his palms.

The woman let out a pleased sigh, the cool feeling of relief washing over her arm. That once blazing fire that she perceived the limb as had now been dipped into a freshly babbling brook, quenching away her pain into bubbles of bemused serenity. In its place an almost pleasant numbness crept through her.

Without the pain to keep her awake, Roderika found felt herself slump as the totality of her exhaustion rushed in. Days on end spent running, fleeing pursuit with no food and what water she could spare to drink, all of it hit her like a giant's club. Unbidden her eyes began to droop. Sleep became an inevitability as the cool feeling of relief placed upon her led her to rest. Her vision dimmed. Her shoulders slumped, body succumbing to the in sweet succor of slumber.

"You're alright." his voice was the sweetest music to her ringing ears. "I'm here. I've got you."

The last thing Roderika saw before sleep took her were streams of steam lethargically rising from the confines of her mangled sleeve.

And with sleep came dreams.

The young woman found herself propelled through a series of strangely bemusing viions, fragments of memory and whimsy making their way through the gates of horn and ivory to occupy her as she slept. One note persisted throughout all of them; she found herself surrounded by spirits, hundred of them, perhaps thousands, all swimming past her towards a distant gold light that tinkled with warmth. It rather reminded her of a swarm of fish. She'd always been able to see such spirits, hear them, yet here and now she found herself overwhelmed by them.

So many!

They saw her, danced around her, cooed happily in her ears, tugged her along.

Without thinking about it, Rodrika found herself swimming along with this school of spirits; floating through murky grey fog towards the warm gold light at the end of the tunnel.

She reached out, fingers grasping at it, only to find darkness...

...well, well." a voice like thunder rumbled. "Its been ages since I had a visitor. However did you wriggle your way in here?"

Roderika rounded on it. Words fled from her lips as she saw it. No! Him!

A giant crimson fox lounged before her, sprawled out in the dark. She couldn't even see all it of it. Were those tails? Nine of them...?! She couldn't blink. She couldn't move. She was completely, utterly frozen by the sight of this beast. Don't breathe. Don't even think. Maybe if she made herself terribly small, it wouldn't eat her...!

"Aren't you an interesting one." It grinned at her, baffling her further. "No wonder he's taken an interest in you."

Words forced themselves out through chattering teeth. "What...what are you...?"

"Just an old fox. Still, I think its high time you woke up."

It flicked a clawed finger out, touching her forehead.

Reality snapped back like a rubberband.

Several dim conclusions registered in her awareness, fogged though it was from however long she slumbered. The first was an immense stiffness in her neck and the hardness of the rough wall she leaned against, a not so gentle reminder her that she remained in the windswept shack where unconsciousness had taken her.

The second came in the lack of the fire that lit the room. It had all but gone out, leaving fresh beams of morning sunlight to shine through the cracks and holes in the walls, catching shafts of dust that cloyed in decrepit places such as this. The last and most surprising conclusion, one that snapped her from befuddled lethargy into surprised wakefulness at last, was that the sun wasn't the only light source.

"...!"

Looking down at her right arm, Roderika saw it sheathed in a translucent orange shroud of some form of energy; it bubbled slowly, reminding her strangely of caramel she'd once seen cooked in front of her. The memory seemed a lifetime ago. The fingers of her right hand twitched on reflex, closing around the phantom memory of a long forgotten sugary treat. Moved. Actually moved!

The flaxen maiden's eyes narrowed briefly before widening. Impossible, how could this be? She'd all but resigned herself to the loss of her limb. And yet now she found herself raising her right arm, still sheathed in the bubbling amber energy. How warm it felt. Almost as if it was submersed in a cloud of warm fog or a freshly stuffed pillow, all the pain of its mangling a thing of the past.

Gingerly propping herself up-her left hand still dimwitted and full of pins and needles from sleeping on it-Rodrika reached up and unbuckled the straps that held the brown gauntlet tight to her sleeve. With infinite care she pulled at the fabric shrouding her fingers; it gave some resistance, still caked in coagulated blood as it were, but eventually it came loose.

And she saw.

Roderika's mouth fell open, flabbergasted by the sight before her. Where once her right arm up to the elbow had been little more than slowly rotting gore and pulped bone, now she beheld a pale arm, its long slender fingers pinkened and new. What manner of miracle was this...?

The arm remained the focus of her attention for a great while, so much so that she was surprised when someone spoke. "You're welcome."

"Eeep!" Roderika squeaked, her restored hand flying to her mouth as she realized the blond from before was still here, lazily sat on his haunches across from her. He looked much as he had the night before, though with a distinctly satisfied look on his whisked face. He looked between her and her returned appendage. Frowned a little, now.

"You're not going to attack me, right?"

Roderika shook her head. Not that she could, but still. She wouldn't dream of such.

He wasn't like that awful tarnished who'd tried to break her barrier before. Nothing but a brute with a club, that one...and...why was this one laughing?!

"Finally, a friendly face!" as she looked on aghast, her unlikely ally flung up his arms and fell onto his back with a happy laugh. "I've been stumbling around here for days now and everyone and everything's tried to kill me. Well, there was this weird one-eyed lady that asked me to help her, but she seemed kinda odd, so I turned her down." He babbled on and Roderika listened with half an ear, still focused on her arm. He certainly had an odd strength about him; a staid boldness that she lacked.

...how'd you get all the way out here anyway?"

Roderika chewed at her lips. Blast it, she'd gotten lost in her thoughts again!

"You look troubled. Why not tell me about it?" he offered. "Venting always helps me feel better."

She took a moment, wondering just who or what the young man before her was. Such sincerity had proved surprisingly rare in the Lands Between. You were just as soon to be tossed to that Loathsome Dung Eater than you were to be given a good morrow. Yet with no impetus or provocation, this nameless blonde had given her back her arm and now asked to be told her pathetic story so she could get some measure of peace of mind? What an awfully quixotic fellow.

And just like that, she remembered why she was here. What had let her to such an awful fate:

"Everyone's been grafted." She tucked her knees into her chest and closed her eyes, shivering a little at the memory. ,"Everyone who came with crossed the sea for me. They fought, for me." Fear gripped her and she clutched her healed arm to herself, trying to quell the memory, but it was no use now, it all came rushing back. "They had their arms taken...and their legs...then their heads. All of it, taken and stuck to the spider...

"..." the blond did not respond, resting his chin atop his fist to hear her story. She noted idly that there was some confusion in his eyes, as if he didn't know just what she was talking about.

Surely that was nonsense. Surely he knew the horrors of this land?"

"Didn't you know?" a peal of hysterical laughter burst out of her despite her best efforts to hold it back. "If you're stuck to the spider, you become a chrysalid. Quite the lark, when you think about it." No, it wasn't! Just the thought of it terrified her, but if she stopped laughing now, she was going to cry, and once she started that she knew there would be no stopping it. "You're headed to Stormveil Castle, aren't you? Like the rest. Hope you weren't enticed by that fellow with the strange mask."

"..." still her guest didn't speak. He quirked a brow silently, head cocking to the side in vulpine curiosity.

"No? You've come to be one with the Spider then, I presume?" she bit her lip to stifle another miserable laugh. "That makes us two peas in a pod. But I don't have your courage. It's scary, you know." she clutched her knees tighter to her chest, suddenly fearful of losing them as she'd nearly lost her arm. "Having your arms cut off, or your legs...or...or your head...

Silence stretched between them. Roderika couldn't bear it, so she filled it with more words.

...I want to be like everyone else, but I'm just too scared. I'm nothing but a craven, you see." she paused, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment, "Oh mercy me, I don't even know your name,"

"You don't know mine, either." he pointed out gently.

Yes, well, that made her feel a bit better. Her head bobbed. I am Roderika, a Spirit Tuner from across the sea, a rather cowardly one as it turns out."

"Nice ta meetcha." The blond young man thumbed his chest, "U'm," he introduced in a pleasant voice, "And to be honest, Roderika, I haven't got the foggiest what you're talking about. But by the by, I don't think there's anything all that wrong with not wanting to be torn apart."

Of course he said that, but he'd not seen the spider. He'd not felt the earth tremble underfoot, not heard Godrick's laughter as her companions and kin were torn apart while she fled...

"If its not too much trouble...could you pass on a message for me, if you see the little chrysalids up in the castle?" Gods, she was so afraid, but she forced herself to continue before her nerves faltered again. "Tell them...tell them, I love them. And that despite my craven heart, I'm sure I'll be joining them soon enough." she managed a sheepish smile. "I'm finally getting the hang of this "pain" thing, you know-

"No."

Roderika paused, somewhat taken aback by his denial. "No..?"

Naruto sighed, sat up, and unceremoniously leaned over her. Heat flared across her face. So close! Too close...!

Two fingers flicked Rodrika's forehead, both drawing a cute noise of discomfort from the woman and snapping her out of her depressive diatribe.

"None of that," Naruto chided her. "There's no point in dying if you've got so much to live for. But you've got one thing right, you aren't going anywhere for a while." his gaze strayed back to her arm. "I may have restored your arm but you still lost an awful lot of blood." He eased himself to his feet, his back giving a satisfying pop when he stretched. It occurred to Roderika with a depressing flash that he must have been sat there watching her recover all night. "But if your friends are up at the castle, I guess I can pass along a message."

...thank you."

Roderkia nodded numbly, simply watching Naruto stretch several times. Eventually he was satisfied and striding towards the rotten sheet of wood that constituted the shack's door,

"I'll be back in a few hours."

She was forgetting something, wasn't she? Her eyes brightened when finally it occurred to her and she made to stand, only to fail a her legs buckled. She waved her left hand frantically try and allay his departure, "Wait a moment, Sir Naruto!"

"C'mon, now." Naruto paused and turned on his heel to face her, leveling a cautionary stare at Rodrika who swayed lightly on her knees. "It's just Naruto, and what did I tell you about blood loss?"

She pouted at his reprimand before lowering her head in apology, sliding down to sit on the floor.

Naruto nodded, satisfied that he had been listened to but remained standing in front of her to see what she wanted to say.

here..there." Rodrika's face gained a small, thankful smile as she retrieved a small box from within the confines of her tunic. "Can you perhaps take this little one along with you? The poor thing deserves someone braver than me, I think. And the spirits look rather fondly upon you. It'll be glad of your company, I think, the little one. Her name is Aurelia…"

She offered him her little box of ashes.

Naruto accept after a beat passed between them, popping it open to look inside.

And something happened. He touched the ashes.

"What do we have here...

Naruto grunted softly, perhaps feeling a small tug behind his navel as she often did when she summoned a spirit; a fleeting feeling quickly drawn upwards into his hands towards the tips of his fingers. There was a spark of light from his nails like a static discharge into the ashes that began to glow a faint silver. Translucent silvery powder began to froth from the box like someone had just conjured a cavalcade of dry ice, speckled motes of silver light hidden amongst the vapour as it was slowly drawn from the box to float in the air before him in one large, undulating silver globule.

Slowly it shifted until it took on a form of a thin silver mushroom shaped membrane from which five thick tentacles hung swaying in some unseen breeze.

It was… a jellyfish, one that was not quite there yet emitted a tinkling sound and pale lilac light. Naruto stared at it, confusion and whimsical interest flashing in his eyes. He slowly raised his hand to pat the domed top of the jellyfish to pat it, yet when his palm brushed the surface there was another flash of light, this one stronger.

A mote of brilliant golden radiance was drawn out of his palm and drawn inside the 'head' of the Jellyfish, flickering like the flame atop an aged tallow candle but no less brilliant. Slowly it looped inward into the heart of the spectral creature until the bauble of gold light rested at the 'center', just above where the tentacles hung.

A pulse thumped out from the jelly, invisible, but Roderika felt as if a distant explosion thumped against her chest. She watched, enthralled as tendrils of auric light unwound from the heart of gold and reached out to the dome and tentacles of the humming spirit. They curled this way and that, inquisitively searching until they broke through the surface of the dome to float in the free air, all while producing a surprised sound from the jelly. It floated in silence for a few seconds before the gold tendrils began to spiral down, wrapping around the spirit jellyfish until it was covered in an amorphous cocoon of golden flame.

Neither Naruto nor Rodrika spoke, Naruto because he likely didn't know what was going on and Roderika because this was the most awe inspiring yet baffling sight she had ever witnessed in all her years. She'd always had an affinity of sorts for spirits, but this eclipsed even that. She was about to say something when the cocoon moved again, beginning to pull inwards and grow brighter as it was reshaped. Where once was a revenant in the shape of sealife was now a blob of gold and silver. Now it began to distend and fold, limbs and a head pulling off from the light like an unseen demiurge crafting new life as the light grew stronger.

Then with a sharp 'POP' the golden film cracked and faded away, leaving behind a truly bizarre sight.

Where once had been a hapless jellyfish now stood a startled girl, translucent and ghostly still, but a girl nonetheless.

"I...what happened?" She sneezed, and a cloud of poison flew from her lips. "What is this?!" the little one whirled left, then right, searching for answers and finding none. "Where am I? Sister? Where have you gone...?"

Naruto gawped at the little ghost just as Roderika did, but to his credit, recovered first. True to his nature, he walked right up and said hello to the former jellyfish. The ghostly girl rounded on him and started speaking a mile a minute. He chattered back just as fast, launching into a series of rapid questions that the little one -Aurelia!- returned in kind.

Roderika climbed to her feet, eyes unseeing and ears unhearing.

Mistakes were made.

Aurelia's gaze fastened to her like a baby chick. "Who are you? You called me. Are you my Mama? Do you know where my Sister is?"

Naruto sniggered.

Roderika sputtered. "Mama?! No, no, certainly not-

Aurelia whimpered and she found herself unable to finish that sentence.

Naruto's snicker became a cackle. The ghostly girl rounded on him for it. "Then you must be Papa!"

"Eh?!"

Where Roderika a spiteful sort, she might've laughed at his flustered expression. As things stood she was too stunned to do anything but smile.

That settled it, then. Naruto was touched just like her, no even moreso. He'd done more than usher this spirit in, he'd given Aurelia life. Sense. Sentience again and...wait, wait, wait!

Why was she moving?!

Reality rushed in and Roderkia realized that, lost in her thoughts all alone as she'd been, she'd failed to notice Naruto's approach. She had been picked up -swept clean off her feet!- when she wasn't looking, lifted like she weighed nothing, settled against his back to ride piggyback. Her fingers dug in, clinging tight without thinking. It did nothing to stop the scarlet flush flaring across her face. His hands were poised on her thighs and she'd never once been touched there!

"What is the meaning of this, good sir!?"

"Its simple" Naruto craned his neck to look back at her. "You've just made this mess a whole lot more complicated, so seeing as you can't walk, I'll carry you."

She flushed. "I beg your pardon?"

Aurelia chirruped happily. "You're coming with us, aren't you, mama?"

Her?! With them?! No, no, no! That was an awful idea. She could barely fight. And yet. What did she have to lose? Her fingers curled around his.

"Sorry, not sorry." Naruto grinned. "If I gotta take responsibility for...whatever this girl is, then so should you!"

Roderika's mind fizzled This was much too sudden! She wasn't ready for that kind of responsibility!

Aurelia cooed softly and clasped both hands before her face. "Can we go find Sister, now?

...heh." Naruto thumbed his nose. "Sure, why not?"

Balls to it. That tore things. When Naruto started laughing again, Roderika couldn't help but giggle with him.

Maybe...maybe things would be alright after all. She would continue to help him.

And so too would the spirits. Come what may. And perhaps one day...

...he might open his heart to her, as she had begun to with him.

A/N: Aaaaand scene.

Well? Should this be a story? What say you? Yay or nay!

As ever, reviews keep me writing. They're the only form of payment I'll ever receive. Without them...I can't write.

So in the Immortal Words of Atlas...Review...Would You Kindly?

And of course, enjoy the previews.

References for daaaaaaaays!

Surprise, surprise~!

(Previews)

"It comes, it comes! A new dawn! A new era! Blessed be the Age of Souls!

Aurelia was a good girl.

She tried to be that, even if nothing else.

She didn't know why she was here, let alone how she could think again.

But these two were nice. They reminded her of Mama and Papa. Which meant they must be! So she would help them. She would fight.

"I say again, I would like to offer you an accord-

"Nope. Not interested."

SLAP!

"Monster! Murderer! You killed them! All of them!"

SLAP.

"You dare strike me?!"

SLAP!

Roderika ducked a blow and skittered backwards, courage faltering at last. What had she been thinking?!

Godrick reared back, looming over here. "I am the Lord of all that is Gol-

"STAY AWAY FROM MY MAMA!"

Aurelia spat cloud of poison hit him in the face, rendering the words a wheeze. He stumbled back, warding his ax before him.

"All those people you killed." Naruto stalked after him, eyes ablaze. "All that suffering you caused. Now its your turn!"

Naruto eyed the ashes as one might a ticking time bomb. If it was anything like the last time with Aurelia...

He brushed a finger against them. Light flashed.

"I knew it!"

Everyone liked him. The spirits, even more so.

The spirits, they loved him. They followed him, even now.

Roderika often wondered if he could see them as she did, hear them.

So many spirits. Some of her world, others of his.

Even now she spied two lurking nearby; a woman with long red hair was always near him, smiling fondly. His mother. And with her a striking blond fellow who couldn't be anything other than his father. They rarely spoke. When they touched his shoulder he never seemed to notice. Every now and again the woman would look at her and just beam. T'was the sort of maternal smile that reminded Roderika of her own mother, little more than a faded memory in the back of her mind.

There were others, sometimes. A man with mismatching eyes and dark hair. He spoke to her sometimes. That one always seemed so sad.

Once she'd seen a great giant of a man with white hair and a painted face. He'd laughed so loudly that he'd startled her; then uttered a single word before fading away.

"Finally."

She'd not seen him since.

"Where," Roderika swallowed a mouthful of venison, then coughed once to comport herself, "Where did you get that?"

"This?" Blue eyes crinkled in a smile as Naruto set aside his own humble fare. "Some old horned geezer kept coming after me, so I hunted him down, kicked his ass, and took his sword." He touched a hand to the necklace now dangling around his neck. "Got a sweet talisman out of it, too."

Roderika squeaked, hands flying to her mouth.

Horned...geezer? Oh. Oh, dear. She could only think of one being who matched that description. He'd slain Morgott the Grace-Given, then. He'd been the capital. To the Erdtree. Which meant...!

"Why aren't you Elden Lord?"

He'd spoken loudly and at length of fixing this world; this realm, in dire need of repair. So why hadn't he?

"Well, I ran into a little problem," he admitted, looking away with a sheepish grin. "The tree wouldn't let me in. Kurama wanted to blast it to cinders, but I'm looking for a less...destructive way. One that doesn't hurt this world anymore than its already been hurt. Just haven't found it yet." when she looked askance at him, he reached out and took her hands in his. "Was wondering if you had any ideas."

Roderika was a simple girl. She knew where her skills lay; tuning and speaking to spirits, strengthening them, guiding them to greater purpose.

She most certainly didn't know how to burn the Erdtree. But his hands were so very warm in hers.

...is that a no, then?"

Roderika was silent for a long moment. Then she started to laugh. "You're an odd one, aren't you?"

"Lady, you don't know the half of it...

R&R~!