A/N: The chapter is now done.
At the bare minimum of my standards for words per page too…it was too hard to go on without submitting a chapter here. But at least you get to meet more Legends here.
Anyway, give it a look-see if you can.
…
[Somewhere in Corinth, a week later]
The sounds of a dock harbor at work could be heard outside as sailors settled down in the Misty Moon, telling stories of their voyages.
People from every part of the expanse between Noxus and Ionia could be seen here. Fish Folk captains from the Serpent Isles mingling with their crew, Bilgewater gamblers working hustles. Though none were more common than the Noxian merchants winding down after a long day of trying to sell their wares before coming home. All in all, the typical atmosphere one could expect in a tavern.
It was also here that an old man with the "油" character brushed onto his horned forehead protector could get intel from all over the world. The form under his dirty green Shinobi Shozoku and red vest was well-muscled from years of use and training, and his long, stark-white hair bristled like needles. He walked the world on a pair of lacquered red geta, and he had a large scroll propped up against the wall next to him.
If he were still a child, the idea that there were other lands outside of Corinth was in itself a very overwhelming notion to the old man. Oh he knew, he just didn't get his wakeup call on how big the world was until after he'd gone with his teacher on the last summit to discuss the Treaty of Titus…at that time, the nations of Corinth had put on a very strong front. The point of that exercise had always been to hide the fact that the Five Major Powers were not as united as they seemed, to convince the Noxians that Corinth was too much trouble to invade. In short, it was a bluff against the Empire of Noxus.
Unfortunately, one man would come to call the Five Kage's bluff. The only reason the last Summit went along without a hitch during Namikaze Minato's time as Hokage was because Emperor Boram Darkwill was still sitting on the throne…fortunately, the late emperor was not in his right mind at the time. But when Sarutobi Hiruzen had taken up the mantle of Hokage once more, he was confronted by Grand General Jericho Swain, who called everyone's bluff.
"Ah damn, it's Jiraiya," cursed a feminine voice, breaking him out of his thoughts, "Here I was, making it a point to avoid reunions, and I just happened to walk right into one."
Jiraiya looked off to the side to find a pale buxom woman in her forties wearing an off-white top with dark gray pants under a dark green haori, and a scowl on her face. She had straw blonde hair she had tamed into a pair of ponytails behind her head, and a pair of hazelnut eyes flanking the purple diamond mark in the middle of her forehead. He'd known from experience that the form underneath her Genjutsu was much older than it appeared, but that didn't detract from her strength or skill in the least.
She wasn't alone however, as she was accompanied by an attractive younger woman with jet black, bob cut, wearing only a black kimono with white trim. She wasn't as well-endowed as her companion, but there was a sort of natural beauty about her in the way she carried herself. In both arms, she held what was quite possibly the cleanest pig in the world, wearing a pearl necklace and a dark red jacket.
"Of all the coincidences that happened to me thus far, I think this is the first time you and Shizune have walked in on me," Jiraiya noted, eyeing the raven-haired woman before turning his attention to the blonde, "Well, since you're both here, Tsunade, drinks are on me for today."
Tsunade and Shizune took their seats around the table, eyeing him warily. "If you're asking me to come back to the village, then I'll save you some time and tell you that I'm not coming back just yet."
"Well luckily for you, I'm only here for business, so you're low on my list of priorities right now," Jiraiya replied, "Though I'm surprised you come here to these Noxian ports at all."
"They opened up gambling halls up here in these ports, so I'm here to give them a shot," said Tsunade, as Jiraiya waved down a waiter.
Their server was a female Fish Folk with razor-sharp teeth. "Can I help you?"
"Two glasses of Obsidian," Jiraiya ordered, before looking back at Shizune, "And would you like anything, Shizune?"
"Just a tea would be fine," replied the girl in question.
The waitress nodded. "Any sides?"
"Just the drinks for now."
The waitress nodded politely before trotting off to the counter for their order.
"What are you doing here, anyway?" Tsunade asked, "You're not here to have a look at some 'exotic goods' are you?"
"Much as I want to, I gotta handle business first," Jiraiya explained, "My contacts here and in Demacia were supposed to meet me here: he was going to give me an update."
There was a tense silence between until Tsunade decided to break the ice. "So what crawled up your ass the last time we spoke?"
"Well, it all started just after sensei sold Naruto to the Noxians," Jiraiya began, "As you can imagine, I wasn't happy at all with that arrangement, so I made a beeline to Konoha to give Hiruzen-sensei a piece of my mind. After I made it clear to him why it was a bad move, he told me what happened at the Summit—particularly about how Grand General Swain humiliated the Raikage in front of all the other Kage by exposing his village's secrets to them. Because of that, I was given the task of infiltrating Root and finding out what blackmail Swain had over Konoha that he was able to power through the bluff made by the Five Kage Summit."
"And what did you learn?" asked Shizune.
"I can't tell you, it's too horrible," said Jiraiya, cautiously, "But I will say that in giving Danzo so much unchecked power, Sensei had indirectly given Swain plenty of blackmail material to destroy Konoha at least three times over without lifting a finger."
Tsunade sighed. "I told him not to do it! I told him once that Danzo could not and should not be trusted with so much power. I even told him exactly why I didn't want that bastard to have any more power than he already had—and now look what's happened all because he didn't listen to me…all because he thought a man as bad as Danzo could be saved. I mean, wasn't that last attempt on his life a wake-up call as to Danzo's true allegiance?"
"Evidently, Sensei doesn't wanna kill him just yet; still thinks he can wring some use out of Danzo before finally killing him," Jiraiya bit out, "Honestly, I think he should've just killed him then and there for high treason alone…and it's thanks to Danzo's selfishness that Naruto's now fighting as a Noxian soldier instead of for Konoha's best interests."
"A sentiment of which I can relate to," Tsunade added, "The only question I have now is, where's the boy now?"
"According to my source in Noxus, he's been put on a mission to Ionia," Jiraiya explained, "I imagine he's already landed on one of their colonies a few days ago and…"
The waitress returned with shot glasses filled with a very dark, clear, reddish-brown liquid and a teacup; among the cups was a folded piece of paper which marked a page, which she politely handed to Jiraiya upon setting down her tray. "Your orders…and one of my clients told me to deliver this to the fit old-timer."
Jiraiya gratefully accepted the book. As he unfurled the paper, he was quick to note that the handwriting belonged to a spy he'd sent to keep a closer eye on Danzo's actions. He wasted no time in transcribing the contents of the paper—within seconds, his face had blanched with horror upon completing the message, before it flushed red with a barely-constrained rage.
"What does it say?" Tsunade asked.
"That bastard!" Jiraiya snapped, "Danzo hired that goddamn psycho to assassinate Naruto!"
…
[Navori Province, Ionia]
The sounds of soldiers training and drilling could be heard in the air as Naruto walked through the camp. Among them, he could see the men of his warband training with the locals.
This was one of three colonies the Noxians had established on Ionia, and it was all that was left of Jericho Swain's failed attempt to take over the fey archipelago. Whether the first campaign was a failure or not, the Empire was loath to let the Ionians have those lands back. Between bandit raids, skirmishes with Irelia's forces, and the Navori Brotherhood, those three colonies held strong for now. But in Naruto's eyes, it was only a matter of time before the entirety of the archipelago united to drive the Noxians out.
He sighed as he pushed aside the curtain to their tent, and was quickly greeted by the sight of his warband, with his officers front and center at the table. Each officer of Naruto's multinational warband had their specialty.
The four of them were among the surviving members of his original warband, becoming his family when their arrogant captain made a serious mishap in a skirmish against Demacia in the Argent Mountains. After that, Naruto was promoted in his place, and the four of them became his officers.
Brooding over the map in a suit of armor more cloth and leather than metal, his deep brown skin marking him as an expatriate from one of the Shuriman colonies. The form under the scant amount of armor he wore was lanky and slim, but nimble and precise—and yet there was strength in that wiry frame of his, like a cobra ready to strike. His main weapon of choice was a gauntlet-sword and a flat, razor-sharp ring he kept holstered at his side; but in the event of an emergency, he kept a flexible whip-sword wrapped around his wide, leather belt.
Their resident Yordle sniper wore a customized suit of armor built mostly for speed and concealability, favoring strong fabrics over durable metal plates, all built by herself to fit her diminutive size. As far as her capabilities, her time as a Bandle Scout had taught her the value of preparation, and for that she had a number of tools and devices for various purposes. She tinkered with a long gun consisting of two metal plates flanking a magnetic coil around the barrel, its ammunition being a hopper he knew was filled with heavy-gauge ball bearings.
The only other female in their crew was a tough, lightly-armored woman from Bilgewater with reflexes as sharp as the hunting knife she carried for emergencies. What little armor she wore revealed bright, bluish-green tattoos that contrasted against her deep tan, marking her as a member of the Buhru people that lived off the coast of Bilgewater. In battle, she favored a chained harpoon attached to a spool at the small of her back, along with her trusty hunting knife.
The last commanding member of his warband was a towering native of the Freljord, a man as strong as he was wise, his half-naked, muscle-bound body covered with an intricate array of blue tattoos. He wore no armor except for a white bear pelt, but fought with bare hands protected with hand wraps, and carried a bag of rune-carved bones that he used to channel his magic to either support his allies or to cripple his enemies before breaking them. Instinct had told Naruto that there was also a beast within him not unlike his bond with the Kyūbi…which was likely why they got along quite well.
"All right, ladies and gents, gather round, we've got ourselves a special mission," Naruto announced, spreading the map out on the table in front of his officers, "The job we've been assigned to is both easy and hard, because we're here in Ionia to hunt down a very special target: Riven."
The entire gathering looked at Naruto with no small modicum of shock on their features; there wasn't anybody in the warband who spent a significant amount of time in Noxus and hadn't heard of that specific name and the story behind it.
Riven was the name of quite possibly one of, if not the most famous woman in all of Noxus. Once a farmer's daughter who desired a better life, she joined the Noxian military during the reign of Emperor Darkwill—her prowess as a swordswoman had earned the late emperor's attention, who then gifted her a mastercrafted runeblade. Eventually she would be sent as part of the Invasion of Ionia, being among the first soldiers to storm the shores of the Navori Province, earning her the title of "Butcher of the Bay" by the Ionian defenders. For reasons unknown, she would eventually defect to Ionia after the war, and would be known as "the Exile" from then on. At the time of her defection, she'd been living as an Ionian farmer, before eventually being captured and made to fight in the Reckoner's Arena in Noxus Prime, then disappearing during the Ruination.
"Are you sure that's even possible?" asked the Yordle, her voice gruff from infrequent use.
"Got no choice but to try, Hilfe," Naruto replied with a sigh, "The order's come from the Grand General himself."
"I'm certain we're more than enough to hunt down a fugitive," the harpooner, her voice low and husky, "Seems a little overkill to bring the entire warband here."
"As it just so happens, Aveline, there is a reason I brought all of us out here." Naruto continued, "There's been an uptick of Navori Brotherhood activity in this area, so our other mission is to reinforce this colony until we've either pacified the area, or we get what we came here for. That means we're gonna set up shop here until we get a lead." He then turned to regard the Shuriman officer. "Rohan, this is your job for the time being; locate Riven, come back with her position, and then we'll go from there."
The now-named Rohan nodded his head in affirmation as Naruto's attention turned to the Freljordian shaman. "Tostig, make sure the barriers protecting this place are in tip-top shape," Naruto said, turning to the Freljordian, "I don't want the Brotherhood thinking this colony is an easy target."
"They will not catch us by surprise, Captain." Tostig assured, rotating his neck.
Naruto nodded in appreciation before his features hardened slightly. "We all have a job to do, people, so let's get it done."
"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"
Heaving a sigh of frustration, Naruto looked to his commanders. "Of all the times…! Hilfe you and Rohan are on overwatch; if those Navori Brotherhood assholes brought any unpleasant surprises to this fight, I want you two to deal with them first."
"You got it boss," affirmed Hilfe, pulling a bolt on her rifle before running out the back of the tent with Rohan in tow.
A masked man rushed into the tent with a sword in hand, only to slump to the ground dead with a throwing dagger embedded deep into his face between the eyes.
"You know the drill," Naruto said, unsheathing his greatsword, "Time to earn our pay."
Tostig rotated his neck and his shoulders before cracking his knuckles; Aveline twirled her hunting knife while holding her harpoon on the offhand. Everyone was ready for battle, everyone had their role to play.
…
[Noxus Prime]
The map of all Runeterra lay outstretched before Victoria as she contemplated her next move.
She needed to take her mind off the fact that the most important pawn in her game against the Grand General had been taken from her; sent on a fool's errand to track down the Exile and bring her back to Noxus again.
There was no denying that Noxus was mighty, but it was not as great as she'd liked; everywhere she went, Victoria could see the signs of a nation already on fire. On paper, it looked like Noxus was doing fine with its meritocratic viewpoint—and while she believed in its core principles of strength of the individual, she noted that it led to a lot of rebellions that needed to be quashed. It was something she didn't doubt that the Medarda family knew all too well.
To his credit, Jericho had made good progress the day he slew Emperor Darkwill, and established the Trifarix. Because of his views on the strength of the individual, everyone in Noxus started off on a level playing field, and were given opportunities to grow…even eliminating slavery from Noxus altogether. The only problem was that it was merely a beginning—the actual progress was not happening fast enough for her liking.
"Hello, darling," greeted a voice from behind.
"Lord Vladimir," she replied, knowing exactly who was in the room with her as she turned to face the speaker.
Her guest was a middle-aged, platinum blond man dressed entirely in blood-red fineries, most prominent of which being a silken coat over a red vest, grayish pinstriped pants, and red boots. He carried no obvious weapons except the talons he wore on his fingers, and the daggers stitched to the cuffs of his coat…but Victoria knew of Vladimir's ability to telekinetically manipulate blood. She also knew that her guest's sharp, youthful appearance was merely a façade for the withered, millennia-old codger he really was.
Vladimir circled the map, taking note of every detail that was marked. "I see the apple didn't fall too far from the tree," he tittered, "The Grand General seems to be planning for another long game as usual…though to think he'd be playing against you of all people."
"Jericho didn't put any stock into the concept of family," Victoria argued, taking care to keep her tone as civil as possible.
"And yet you still have no idea why he spared you?" asked Vladimir, "Of all the other members of your illustrious house, even I cannot fathom as to why he spared only you…of all the other members of Swain House, among all the others of his flesh and blood, he let you live."
"If you intend to use me as collateral against the Grand General, then you are out of bloody luck," she bit back, "The closest relationship I've ever had with him is as student and teacher; anything closer implies that he bloody well liked people, but we both know he doesn't…he only cares about himself and the empire."
Vladimir had a look of faux surprise on his features, before his wicked grin returned. "And I see you have his fire. That's good."
"May I inquire as to why you have come, Lord Vladimir?" Victoria asked.
"I'm merely here to evaluate you, my dear," answered the nobleman, "You see, I've seen a good many people use the power of blood magic for their own benefit, and you are no different my dear; the only thing I cannot fathom is what you would use this power for."
Victoria said nothing. "Perhaps it is because it goes beyond mere self-gratification."
Vladimir remained silent as he looked into her eyes, wondering what was behind those hazel-colored jewels that would drive her to seek him out. He grinned in amusement, before breaking out in a raucous laughter. "Now I see! That makes you more interesting than I thought!"
Her guest stepped back, giving her room as he sank into the ground. "You are correct; everyone among my Crimson Circle sought me out for their own reasons…many of them for mere self-indulgence, but not you, Victoria Swain! Not you! Out of all of them, your purpose is quite clear; you want far more out of life than to sate an addiction…no, you want the future! You intend to use this power for ambition…and that, my dearest Victoria, is why you interest me!"
With her erstwhile guest gone, Victoria sank into her seat—this would not be the last she would see of the blood mage.
Vladimir wasn't wrong…she had ambitions. And like Jericho, her ambitions would be of benefit to the Empire.
She could only hope she survived long enough to see those ambitions through.
…
[Navori Province]
Interesting indeed.
Freelance contracts were often boring, but they filled in the time between assignments handed to him by the cabal; but what started off as mere practice had turned out to be the makings of a new masterpiece!
He'd originally come to take out his mark right then and there in his own camp; get it done and over with so he can mull over his next art project. But it seemed much more interesting to watch him…this rising star among the Noxian military from another land. That the Navori Brotherhood was here was a mere coincidence, but it provided him with ample opportunity to gather intel on his target.
The next Navori attacker to rush into the tent was sent flying back out by a Freljordian giant's massive hands, as the giant cleared the path for his captain and colleague. He would be followed by a deluge of more Navori attackers, trying to fell the mountain of a man, only to be the victim of his titanic, lightning-enhanced fists smashing into their bodies. He ignored their petty blades and drove them back to create more room for his target and his Buhru companion to deal with multiple opponents, taking some of the pressure off of him. At the same time, the Buhru woman used her harpoon to distract and displace unwary combatants, pulling her targets close enough to slash at their throats with her knife.
Throughout the skirmish, the onlooker could hear a thunderclap ringing through the battlefield, as the Freljordian channeled his power through his runes to enhance his punches with lightning that jumped through five targets. He then used his power to create a localized thunderstorm around a watchtower where a Yordle sniper and her Shuriman pointman stood atop the battlefield with her rifle in hand, taking potshots at distant targets beyond the walls of the camp. The thunderstorm broke the swarm of Navori attackers off from their assault on their watchtower, making Shuriman's job easier as he cut down everyone that tried to swarm their position with a combination of ring tosses, and slashes and stabs with his gauntlet-sword. Every shot the Yordle fired from her comically-large rifle broke the sound barrier, piercing targets from afar with surprisingly long, metal projectiles that lanced into their bodies like small spears.
In his eyes however, the true star of the show was the mark himself. There was a grace in his movements as he mowed down many victims with every slash of his flowing, rotation-centric fighting style like a scythe on harvest. In the frenzy of his little dance of death, there was a certain graceful freedom in the simple brutality of his movements, as he barely stopped except to deliver highly accurate power-strikes and thrusts. Every now and again however, the onlooker noted that the mark would do something that a proper Noxian commander would almost never do: protect and save his own forces. And yet, instinct had told him there was more, so much more to see in the mark…a secret within that he kept up his sleeves for emergencies.
Between the commander's dance, and the synergy of his team and his warband, it didn't take long for the Navori Brotherhood to break from their assault on the colony—a mere hour before they finally turned tail and ran. Sounds of celebration could be heard as the last of the attackers fled the village, thanks to the mark he'd been sent to assassinate.
Sadly, that was his cue to exit the stage, but what he'd seen was more than enough to tease out his interest.
Oh, the wondrous show they would put on!
A stage needed to be set for their eventual confrontation…and he would make sure it would be the most spectacular show he'd ever set thus far—with any luck, he would even be able to make this story even greater than that duel he'd had with the Steel Shadow of Piltover. There would be music! There would be drama! But above all, there would be despair! He looked forward to seeing the look of despair on the face of this new rising star of Noxus when he came crashing down to the earth, defeated.
For now however, he would remain as quiet as his weapon, and he would prepare all his tools and make all his calculations. For this to work, he would have to isolate the young commander to make their duet a truly wonderful spectacle…and doing that would require an extra measure of cruelty. For this, he would go the extra mile.
He was a Virtuoso - he was Perfection incarnate.
And this particular performance had to be flawless.
…
[Somewhere in Noxus]
It'd been nearly a week, but she was able to get back on the trail of her prey.
Once she found the signs, it wasn't difficult: the so-called "Iron Maiden" always left a trail of dead Noxian soldiers in her wake, and all so she could rid the world of the Black Rose. Everywhere she went, the operative could see dead bodies strewn about, all of them wearing the armor of Noxian soldiers, with splashes of red used to denote their allegiance. Some were impaled, others were trampled under what appeared to be hoof prints…and some had died painfully as their steel breastplates looked like crumpled tin foil, crushing bones and vital organs into a pulp. Luckily, the operative had the sense to not carry any metal on her person, as the Iron Maiden was a Ferromancer, a mage that could magically manipulate magnetism and control metals.
From how wet the blood trails were, it was clear that her target was close.
Her thoughts had come to a halt when she heard heavy feet trampling towards her from behind.
The Black Rose agent turned to find the target charging towards her on a steed, lance poised to impale her at high speed. She was quick to throw her target off by throwing the corpse of a Noxian soldier in hopes of dismounting the rider, or at least slowing her momentum; the target's steed was barely even slowed down by the impact, as it knocked the corpse aside, forcing the operative to roll aside, away from the thrust.
Trained eyes allowed the operative to see that the rider had dark brown skin and sun-kissed hair, and the slim form of someone that had been training from a young age - fit, but not overly muscular. Though she was not quite strong physically, her attire was a simple set of strong, durable strips of metal that were magnetized to her body, in combination with female under-armor that afforded her a rudimentary level of protection. The lance she wielded had a helical groove going up its length like an oversized drill bit, with a glowing spark of power near the hilt and a needle-sharp tip.
Her steed was a gestalt of thick metal plates held by magnetic force into the shape of an equine creature with a blade on its head like a caricature of a unicorn. The very proportions of the gestalt's body resembled the massive war horses that Demacian knights charged into battle on. The operative could see the plates were curved, as if they were made from pieces of armor.
"Rell, the Iron Maiden," noted the Black Rose operative, "You weren't easy to find."
"So a Black Rose agent comes all this way to get me herself?" the target spat out, scoffing, "That's a first."
"I'm probably the only one who would," replied the agent, "But contrary to what you think, I'm not here to fight you."
"No! You came here to die!" declared Rell, her steed leaping into the air.
As her form careened in the air, Rell's steed disassembled itself into its component parts before reassembling itself around her in overlapping plates of armor. The operative rolled aside, just in time to avoid being smashed in the crater her target had just created upon landing, before re-engaging. Rell switched from wielding her lance in a one-handed grip to two-handed, in order to better wield it as she thrust it like a spear with a shorter shaft. The operative ducked under the stab, her hands glowing with power as she grabbed her opponent by the forearm before following through with a deluge of palm-thrusts that hit Rell in her center of mass.
The operative stepped back and watched as her target struggled to move, visibly trying to will her body into moving. "What the hell's happening?!"
"According to the Corinthians, there are 361 specialized pores on the human body known as Tenketsu that would allow one to use Jutsu, otherwise known as Spells to the rest of the world," explained the operative, casually circling Rell without a care in the world, "Those with the knowledge and ability to do so could force those pores shut, denying their victims the ability to cast even a simple spell…or if applied correctly, they could even deny them the ability to move." There was a defiant silence from Rell as the operative stopped in front of her, her voice taking on a stern tone. "Or, even kill their victims outright if they so fancied."
"Then why haven't you?" Rell asked.
"Because I have a very interesting proposition for you," replied the operative, her tone relaxed and not at all bothered by the hostility in her target's voice, "I wouldn't be speaking with you right now if I weren't confident that the Black Rose was deaf to this part of the Empire, so you may as well settle down, so we can talk."
"Yeah, well I'm in no mood to listen, you may as well just kill me now!" Rell fired back, "You let me go, and I'll kill you, then your cult, and then I'm gonna burn Noxus to the ground!" At this, the operative giggled, earning a raised eyebrow from Rell. "What, you think I'm making this up?!"
"It just so happens that a friend and I feel the exact same way."
Rell could not have predicted the next words to come out of her pursuer's mouth, nor could she predict how fast her jaw would hit the ground upon hearing them - and from a Black Rose agent at that. She could practically feel the operative grinning under her mask.
"We too want Noxus to burn."
…
A/N: And we're done.
It seems a chess match is going on between Jericho and Victoria Swain over the future of Noxus. With Naruto out of Noxus, Victoria's opening moves will be much harder…not that it changes her endgame.
And with Danzo hiring a certain Virtuoso to assassinate Naruto, you can expect a much harder fight to be the focus of the next chapter. Fittingly enough, his entrance is marked by the Fourth Chapter of this story.
In any case, this may or may not be a filler, but I'm using it to build up for something later.
Anyway, don't be afraid to leave a review, all I ask is that you keep it civil and relevant.