A/N: As ever we're sticking the "Embers" rule. I don't want this to meet the fate of "The Golden Grimm" or "An Attitude Adjustment" or poor "Titan of Remnant" I'm a man of my word. Partners in Crime and Far From Home will be updated next with everything else, no need to worry about that.

Hey. Sorry about this. I think I'm losing my mind. No, I think I've lost it already. Not that I had much of one to begin with.

*laughs bitterly*

I'm also a bit tipsy writing this, so please forgive any spelling mistakes. I'm drinking to forget a few things. May be putting my dog down soon. Poor little pupper's been with me for more than a decade but she's getting old. Worse, she's dropped a lot of weight the last few days and I can't get her to eat. At this point there's not much more that can be done, or so the vets tell me.

So when this request came through, I had to take it. That may seem silly, but i need a distraction right now.

They said it couldn't be done. Neon, you're not embracing the crazy! Right something truly made! You're ignoring best girl!

As ever I own no reference, quotes, themes or memes. Not a wit or a one.

Really, it would be easier if I did, but that's that.

You want crazy? Alright. LET'S. GET. CRAZY.

"With a strong foundation, and a little bit of sense and imagination, it just takes the slightest trigger to change a person."

"Sometimes the change is good. Sometimes its bad. Sometimes its a bit of both."

And sometimes...something new is born."

~?

Crazy Equals Genius

Nora was about to die.

Really, she was rather cross now that it came to that. Why wouldn't she be? Anyone would. She was just a child after all. There was so much she wanted to say, to see, to do! She'd never left the walls of Kuroyuri. Never had a chance to see the world beyond. Never lived. Never found her mother. Never became an awesome, kickass huntress with a giant hammer and a grenade launcher.

Didn't look like she'd get the chance, either. And she'd finally made a friend, too! Really, it wasn't fair.

Because they were being hunted. Chased through the streets of Kuroyuri, chased through the alleys, through the very night itself. They couldn't escape. Couldn't get away. No matter where they went they couldn't outrun their pursuers. The Grimm haunted every shadow and darkened corner, waiting to pounce at the slightest provocation. Once they finished with the fleeing villagers, they would come for them.

They were just children. They couldn't fight back. They could barely even run away as they were now.

Renny's semblance was powerful and all, but he'd only just unlocked it tonight. And there were so many Grimm lurking in Kuroyuri. He couldn't hide them forever. He'd reached his limit and collapsed only a few minutes ago. She'd been forced to carry him ever since, limping along as the rest of Kuroyuri died around them.

'It'll be probably be slow.' A small, mad part of her gibbered. 'They'll tear us apart, piece by piece.'

She tried to silence it, to no avail.

Behind her, she heard the slavering how of a Beowolf pierce the night. Nora cringed and limped onward. She would not look back. She mustn't look back. Calm. She had to be calm. If she was just calm, they wouldn't be able to find her...not right away, at least. She tried to turn her thoughts elsewhere. Happy thoughts! Gotta think positive things! Her mind cast about, searching for something -anything!- else to dwell upon. Anything that wasn't this hell. If only she had a powerful Semblance like Renny's. Something amazing. Something incredible. Then she could help! They could fight their way free and escape to safety or-

But none of that mattered now, because she'd just rounded the corner and run right into a Beowolf.

Nora blinked.

The wolf blinked back.

She whimpered, and it broke the impasse between them. The grimm growled and stalked forward, regarding her intently. Here at last, Nora's fear finally got the better of her. She darted backward. And in her terror, she lost Ren. His unconscious form slipped from her numbed finger and flopped to the ground as she stepped backward. He went ignored as the Beowolf padded over him. Its inhuman gaze fixed firmly on her. Time slowed to a crawl. She saw its shoulders tense and knew what was coming. Any moment now it would pounce, bear her down to the ground, and crush her skull in its jaws.

Somebody! Anybody! Help!

Deep inside her soul, something twisted.

And against all odds, the heavens answered her plea.

Lightning crashed down from on high, splitting the cloudy night and the street alike with an almighty clap of thunder. The Beowolf before her vanished in a roar of light, obliterated by the holy strike before it could hope to bring its claws down. Grimm were thrown back in droves; dashed against the walls and burning buildings of Kuroyuri. They were the lucky ones. They survived...for all of three seconds.

...alright." a rough voice drawled into the night. "Where the hell am I, and how did I get here?" An awful pause followed. "Nope. Nevermind. Killing all of you with fire."

A flicker of golden light howled into being and smashed the Grimm apart, shattering them like such rotten driftwood. Those crazed, cruel creatures closest never saw what killed them. They barely beheld the light before it tore them to pieces and they died. As one they perished outright, rendered little more than black dust on the wind. Nora shielded her face against it, squinting into the haze that followed.

And then.

Quite suddenly.

She found herself looking at a person.

Now, to be fair, Nora was just a child. She knew little of the world and its ways. She knew nothing of magic or miracles. She only knew that she had prayed for help and that something, somewhere, somewhen, somehow, had answered her prayer. When faced with such a miracle she could only come to one conclusion. In hindsight, maybe it wasn't the best one.

But it was certainly amusing. "Are you my semblance?"

Her savior blinked. "The hell's a semblance?"

(.0.0.0.)

Naruto was no stranger to injury.

A storied career as a shinobi had given him wounds that would annihilate a lesser man. His heart was nearly crushed. His body skewered countless times. Literally skinned himself alive in a rage-filled transformation. Had Kurama ripped out of him. Sacrificed his right arm to save his best friend.

By contrast, a rough landing really wasn't all that much to worry about.

He felt the shock rattle his knees and bent them as he always did after a hard jump, riding out the impact with barely a grimace. The confusion that followed it? That was new. He didn't know where he was

"Kurama?"

"Urk. My head. I think I'm going to be sick." His old friend answered surely enough. "Did anybody get the number of that bitch?"

He remembered being struck by a bolt of lightning in the street and little else. One moment they'd been headed toward Ichiraku's after successful mission; in the next, clouds swarmed in over a sunny sky. His world went dark. There had been a flash of flash of light. And now was here.

...alright." he sighed, pinching the brow of his nose as he rose to his full towering height. "Where the hell am I, and how did I get here?" A low growl answered him and he saw the beasts -couldn't be called anything else in his mind- bearing down on a young girl. "Nope. Nevermind. Killing all of you with fire."

They fell easily enough once he called on Kurama. Unfortunately that left him alone with said girl.

Her dirty hair was a dull shade of ginger, and that alone won his attention. She gazed up at him, blue eyes wide, lips trembling knees tucked into her chest as she clutched at herself. Beside her a young boy lay sprawled out in the streets. Dropping to a knee, he checked his pulse. Still alive? Good. Poor kid looked like he had been wrung through the wringer.

The girl blinked up at him with wide, starry eyes. "Are you my semblance?"

He frowned and looked down. "The hell's a semblance?"

"Doesn't sound like an insult."

"Don't you know?" the girl balked at him. "A semblance is a semblance. Just like the Grimm are Grimm."

"Grimm?"

"The monsters." She wrinkled her nose. "Didn't they teach you anything in school? Well, not that you'd go to a school. You're my semblance. Semblances don't go to school."

Blue eyes fluttered in a quick blink. "I have no idea what a semblance is, but I'm not yours. Are you...alright?"

"I dunno." the girl giggled and hugged her knees to her chest; it was a sharp painful sound, as if she couldn't decided whether to laugh or cry. "I think I'm going crazy."

Something deep inside of Naruto winced at the sight. This girl...if she wasn't broken before, this ordeal had nearly done the deed. She looked all of an instant from losing her mind. On a whim, he said the first thing that came to his.

"Eh, you know what they say. Crazy equals genius."

She tilted her head. "Do they?"

"Nah. Just made it up."

He knelt quickly, wincing only a little when those blank blue eyes continued to regard him. A quick surge of chakra through his marked hand set the boy to rights, and another tended to her wounds. The exhausted girl dared a smile at him for his deed.

"Thanks. You're a nice semblance. I'm Nora, by the way. That's Renny." she pointed at herself, then the sleeping boy. "Thanks for helpin' us."

"I'm not a...oh, forget it." something told him it wasn't a good idea to argue with her. Not like this. "You can call me Naruto."

"That's a weird name for a Semblance, mister."

For what felt like the umpteenth time, Naruto resisted the urge to sigh. Semblance, semblance, semblance. She kept calling him that. This was going to be a thing with her, wasn't it? Only then did he notice the fire and the flames raging around them. Really, this was lovely little village...or it would have been, if it weren't currently on fire. And filled with monsters. Also! Screaming people! He was fairly certain that wasn't a good thing. A small sigh tore out of him. Right. Burning village. Questions later! Deal with that first.

With a flick of his fingers, he created a shadow clone.

"Stay." he stabbed a finger at his doppelganger as much at the girl. "Or better yet, find somewhere to hide."

Her head bobbed, to terrified to do anything else. "W-What about you?"

"Gonna kill a few monsters. Should be back by breakfast."

Then he waded into the village.

His world blurred.

Monsters or not, those foul creatures fell all the same. A punch here, a kick there, and these "Grimm" broke like so much kindling beneath his blows. It was a bit sad, really. If they'd used proper tactics they might have overwhelmed him. Instead they rushed in mindlessly, seeking to bury him with sheer numbers. Numbers that would never be enough. Not against him. For every minor wound they inflicted upon him, dozens died. Each paid with their lives, their numbers dwindling.

With each death the blond advanced. One step. Two. Three, now. Rip and tear.

Great golden hands formed above him and smashed down, splintering the street. Bits of ashen and white bone flew through the air. Those mighty palms flattered one. He tore the head off another. Gigantic chakra jaws clamped down and tore a third asunder like so much meat. Still, they kept coming. Fine by him. So did he. Whatever injuries he'd sustained, his reserves were still full, brimming with wrath.

"On your left."

"Got 'em. Rasenshuriken!"

A giant amalgamation of bird and bone evaporated as the keening sphere leaped from his palm. Its ashes were still fluttering to the ground when he flung himself at the next monster.

Naruto snapped his fingers and a staff sprung to his off hand as he leaped. He brought it crashing down on a giant ape, then spun to cleave a towering boar in twine. A particularly clever wolf tried to strike when his back was turned. He sensed its intent long before it pounced. Its body dissolved under a hail of truth seeking orbs. They whirled to life in his free hand to eviscerate another creature bearing down on him. That was...what...the thirtieth? He'd lost track.

All around him he could feel lives winking out one by one. Little embers of life, extinguished as he fought on. Nora wasn't one of them, but the deaths pricked his conscience all the same. He wasn't quick enough. He had to fight harder, better, faster, stronger. He raged all the more and gradually, the horde began to part around him.

Finally, enough was enough.

"Oh, so you have an army, do you?! That's nice." he crossed his fingers and pulsed with chakra. "So do I!"

With those words, a towering plume of smoke filled the ruined village. Then another. Another. Another still. His battered jacket fluttered in a bitter breeze and the smoke swept away to reveal his reinforcements. Hundreds of angry blue eyes glared azure daggers at the horde before them. These monsters lacked both means and manner of speech, but he was fairly certain he heard some of them whimper. Maybe it was his imagination. Maybe he'd simply gone mad. Who could say?

Naruto's smile was juuust the wrong shade of vicious. "Present arms!"

Clenched palms rose, each cradling a Rasenshuriken. As one, they loosed upon the Grimm.

In the ensuing explosion he heard a terrified keening cry. Nora! He flung himself in the direction of her voice.

A dark shape cantered ahead of him in the smoke. Slowly at first, then at speed. He rounded on it, confusion warring with anger. Reinforcements? Did this village have soldiers or shinobi? At first glance he thought it was man on a horse. He wasn't wrong...but he wasn't right either. His senses shrieked a warning as the haze parted. It wasn't human. Not human at all.

"What...is that?"

It looked like some hideous cross between a horse and its rider fused at the hip. No, it was more akin to say the rider had grown out of the twisted beast itself; a twitching corpse sat atop a black destrier, arrows bristling from its back, eyes burning like twin pits in its hollow skull. It saw him and raised a gangly arm. No words passed its maw, but the gesture proved implicit enough.

Kurama made a gagging noise in the back of his head. "Well. That's nightmare fuel. And I've seen some hideous things."

The creature took one look at him and shrieked.

"Right," Naruto grit his teeth against it. "Kill it with fire. All the fire!"

Its mount charged him, even as the rider struck out at him with its slender limbs.

Dodging a swipe of its claws and called a whirl of chakra to his hand. An eerie wail filled the air, tearing at his

He took the first strike on a forearm and shouldered it aside, uncaring of the rent it left in his arm. Those wicked claws struck the street and kept coming. Dust and dirt sprayed into the air, peppering him with upturned cobblestones. He snagged one out of the air and whipped it toward where he'd last seen the abomination.

Its eerie wail pierced the gloom and

He bounded toward it, only to find his work undone; for the razor sharp tile he'd thrown had cleaved through the rider's chest. Still, it didn't die. Burning pits regarded him furiously, without regard for its own life. With a jerking, spasmodic movement, it ripped the jagged edge from its chest. Another piercing scream tore through the air, ripping at his eardrums.

Enough.

Naruto's body pulsed gold and he leaped forward, kicking off a wall to mount the monstrosity. With a furious roar he finished what he'd started. His fist snapped forward in a quick punch, simple and clean. One punch. That was all it took to slay the rider's body. Its horned facade snapped back with an awful crack and went limp, a puppet severed from its strings. Black ash showered him. Some got in his mouth, causing him to gag. He spat it out and slashed down with a kunai, just to be certain.

Beneath him, the Grimm's horse-half stilled.

"Just like that, huh?" Naruto released a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Well, that was easy-hey!

Without word or warning the unholy creature reared back to life underneath his legs and threw him off.

"Are you kidding me?" he righted himself with a hiss. "What does it take to kill you?!"

Bereft by the abrupt death of its rider, the horse charged him in a frothing hooves flailing in the air in a wild attempt to crush him flat. Naruto grit his teeth and sped in. A quick sidestep carried him forwards and beneath those mighty forelegs. He caught each near the ankle, eyes burning gold with molten wrath. Rather than rip them off, he held fast, rooting the beast where it stood. The beast snapped at him with its teeth, to no avail; even with its long equine neck its jaws couldn't do anything more than shower him with fetid breath.

Man gaze upon monster, and the latter yielded to the former.

Kurama reared around Naruto jaws gaping large. Larger. Largest. Black light built around those golden jaws, with the Nuckelavee at its center. Still it thrashed in his grip, desperately trying to get at him. Wholly unaware of its impending demise, those ghastly teeth were still snapping at him when the blast went off.

"You're done tormenting these people! Just die!"

The tailed beast bomb was nothing short of spectacular; even from this distance Naruto himself forced to close his eyes against the light. It rammed into the Grimm head on at an upward angle and carried it off, rocketing it away into the clouds. Light burned away the darkness to split the sky. For one wonderful moment it was as if the sun itself peeked over the horizon.

And then it was done.

Exhaustion crashed down upon Naruto as he realized just how long he'd been fighting. Chest heaving, covered in countless minor wounds, he turned in search of his next opponent. Instead he found only silence. Was that it? Where were the rest of them? He spied Nora; she dared a timid smile across the square. He mirrored it with a rusty laugh as she limped over, tugging a now-conscious Ren with her. Well, at least they were alright. But really, where were the rest of the Grimm-

Someone shouted. "Hail to our Hero!"

Naruto's gaze snapped toward the sound, somewhat taken aback. "Eh? Hail? Me?"

A second took up the cry. "Hail!"

Baffled blue eyes rounded on the sound, terribly startled. He couldn't find any Grimm. Not a one.

"Hail!" another cried!

Little did he know that the Nuckelaave was the last monster -the last Grimm!- still standing in Kuroyuri. His clones had dispatched the rest while they brawled. By standing his ground, he'd held back the worst of the horde and given others time to hide, if not escape outright. Many had chosen the former. Even now he could see survivors emerging from the rubble, battered and bruised, but still alive. The human spirit really was a remarkable thing it seemed.

Now all these people were all staring at him.

"That! Was! Awesome!" Nora all but raced to his side, eyes shining like twin stars. "How did you do that?!" she gasped as a thought hit her and latched onto his leg. "Can I do that?!"

"Its not that simple-

Naruto didn't get a chance to finish; because her outburst broke the dam. As one the survivors crowded in around them. Plaintive voices filled the air. Grasping hands reached out, seeking his shoulders, his chest, anything really. Everyone saw him. Everyone knew him. Everyone wanted to touch him. Too much touching! Way too much!

Kurama chortled softly. "How amusing."

"Wait, wait, wait!" his arms flailed even as his face flamed with embarrassment." I really didn't do much...!"

"Hail!" Much to his chagrin, others immediately took up the cry. "Long live our hero! Long Live the Lord of Kuroyuri! Long may he reign!"

A/N: Thus did a madman's reign in Mistral begin. And. Everything. Changes.

Just think on that for a moment.

To say anything more would spoil things, so I won't. As ever we're sticking the "Embers" rule. I don't want this to meet the fate of "The Golden Grimm" or "An Attitude Adjustment" or poor "Titan of Remnant" I'm a man of my word.

So in the Immortal Words of Atlas...

...Review...Would You Kindly?

And have some previews.

(Preview)

Nora squealed atop his shoulders. "Best semblance ever!"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "She's not going to stop calling me that, is she?"

"No." Ren replied with a mild smile. "No, she is not. You'd best get used to it."

...suppose that makes you my little brother then."

The stoic boy actually blinked at his words. "When you put it like that...

Nora giggled and pointed toward the horizon. "Forward faithful steed! To glory!"

"I can't be a hero?" he wiped a line of blood from his mouth. "Who decided that? I can't save everyone? And who decided that? I decide such things!"

"That's impossible!" The bandit balked, eyes wide. "I ran you straight through! What the hell are you?!"

"To you? I may as well be god." Blue eyes pulsed gold as his body began to glow. "Now bow."

He'd said it as a joke, a means to terrify the man. He didn't expect him to actually do it.

"Mercy, my lord!" Incredibly, the fool did just that. "Please, spare me! I'll renounce my chief and serve you!"

"And who do you serve?"

"Raven Branwen!"

"Lionheart, was it? No, I don't think we want any of your help. Scram."

R&R~!