A/N: THOUGHT I WAS GONE, DID YOU?! THOUGHT I WAS LOST, HMM?! Nope! I MAY have sustained a serious injury however, which may or may not have involved an accidental gas explosion. Still, I survived, and as I'm sure you've noticed, I've been busy updating quite a bit! But what kind of accident was it, you ask?
To that, I say thus:
FIRE! BAD!
FIRE VEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERY BAD!
Also, apparently I'm getting a TON of hate/death threats now. Wow. I'm not sure if its just one person or several, but they've been popping up a lot this week in particular...
One such reviewer said as much on The Witch and the Warden.
:Never write s*** like this again. People know where you live and will shoot you.
A Fox Amongst Wolves:
:Kill yourself. Just go kill yourself you stupid f***.
Crazy Loves Crazy:
:You deserve to f*** die.
And of course, Song of a Stag:
People like you are what's wrong with society today. You deserve to have your d*** ripped off and choke on it.
AND THESE ARE THE NICE ONES!
I've since deleted the hateful ANONYMOUS reviews, but Its blatant, mindless hate like this-not criticism mind you!-that makes me want to just up and quit the site altogether. I don't even know why they're so angry with me?! What did I do?! But I won't quit, because I know that would disappoint all you guys and girls reading. And to whomever this vile person of persons may be, I say thus: I will write what I please, good sir! YOU DON'T HAVE TO READ MY STORIES IF YOU DON'T LIKE THEM!
And a WARNING! LOOOOOTS of language and crazy in this chapter! Things escalate VEEEEEEEEEEEEERY quickly!
Now, onto the long-awaited chapter! EXPECT CHARACTER DEATH! And expect a certain character to finally get her time in the spotlight!
"I am your anger! Your hate! I am your DEATH!"
~?
Where are your Gods
"Mine."
Bertholdt cocked his head as a distant whisper pierced the forest, listening. Oddly enough, it wasn't fading away. If anything it seemed to be growing louder. Mine. It sounded like a cry now, more than a call. Whatever it was-whomever?-it droned on and on and on, an incessant chant that grated on his already frayed nerves. One that threatened to snap the thin strings of his patience, and send him into a panicked frenzy. A cold and bitter sweat broke out across his brow, his once staid gaze narrowing in primal fright as the distant clamor drew ever closer.
"Mine, Mine...
Yes, the longer he listened, the more certain he became. He'd heard that voice countless times in the past-no! No. It couldn't be him; he was dead. He had to be. Annie was meant to soften him up, then Reiner would swoop in for the kill. That he heard his voice now, felt this killer intent, told him that his comrades had failed. And that alternative meant...
"Mine, mine, mine...
Nervous, he risked a glance at the only other human within earshot. Jean had taken up a post beside him, his sharp eyes watchful for any sign of movement below. If he'd yet head the ruckus, he gave no indication of having done anything about it. Was he in on it, then? Or was it merely his own horrid paranoia acting up again? If Annie-forced though her cooperation had been-and Reiner hadn't been able to stop him...what chance did he have? The thought chilled the shifter to the bone.
"Do you hear that?"
...mine, mine, mine, mine..."
Now that Jean listened, he did hear something.
"Mine mine mine mine mine...
"And it sounds like a lot like...?"
...mine mine mine mine mine mine...
"Yeah, it does."
...mine mine mine MINEMINEMINEMINEMINEMINEMINEMINEMINEMINE!"
CRUNCH.
Bertholdt grunted in surprise as a sparking fist found his face, launching him out of the tree with all the speed of a plunging comet. His body tumbled wildly in the air, hands scrabbling for a handhold and finding none. A tether shot out, anchoring him to a tree, slowing his descent. He had to think, had to fight, had to find a way OUT-
Strong fingers, firm and stern latched around his face.
For a terrifying moment all he saw was that shadow; that eerie, horrible shadow, a dark blot leering out at him through the cracks between his bloodied fingers. Face to face with his attacker at last, he found that words and reason had abandoned him. There was only instinct. Frantic, he lashed out with both his blades, only to watch helplessly as the hardened steel shattered against his teacher's upturned limbs. A furious hiss greeted his desperate efforts, and the vice on his visage tightened, drawing blood.
Then the bastard threw him.
With a truncated scream, the shifter crashed to the forest floor, landing awkwardly on his leg. The dull crunch of bone signaled the obliteration of his right knee, but in that instant, he had other concerns. A shadow cast itself over him in blood relief, the scarlet spectre standing over him, covered in his comrade's-Reiner!-blood and grinning like the devil himself. The shifter yelped, and flung up an arm to defend himself in a feeble effort to protect his face against the oncoming assault.
It saved his life.
The flung knife-he hadn't even seen it!-thudded home against his hand with vicious strength, wedging itself deep into muscle and bone. He could see the point of the dagger sticking out through the back of his palm like some grisly arrow, slick with his blood. Bertholdt stared back at it, numbed, his mind unable to feel the pain, to realize what had just happened. This wasn't happening. No, no, it couldn't be happening. He'd planned this out so well, he'd been so damnably careful-
"BOY!"
That snapped him back to reality post haste.
Naruto stood only yards away, lowered his outstretched hand, looking like death itself. He'd seen better days. Someone had ripped up his beloved jacket and laid into the flesh beneath, leaving it one massive red-black bruise. Another-Reiner, perhaps!-had managed to goug out his right eye-those were always slow to heal-but the remaining orb blazed with fire, a towering blaze that threatened to swallow him up and spit him back out as a charred corpse. For all his wounds, perhaps in spite of them, he still stood.
And he was absolutely livid.
"I took you in," he began slowly, the words a molten snarl of breath, "Treated you like one of my own." Scarlet chakra thrummed around them with every word, burning like a small sun in the dark depths of the forest's slumber. "And yet you have the nerve, the gall, the asinine intent to do this? To betray me? My family? TO KILL MARCO AND USE ANNIE TO GET TO ME?!"
"It was nothing per-
Naruto flicked two fingers in a sharp, decisive, downward motion.
THUNK.
A strange, curious weightlessness settled in the pit of Bertholdt's right arm. It didn't taken him long to recognize the source, to see the ruptured stump that had once been a limb, to see the bits of bone peeking out just above where his elbow had once existed. This time, there was no escaping the pain. Stranger still, a wild noise was buzzing in his ears, as if some great beast were howling at the top of his lungs.
By the time he realized he was the one screaming, his mentor had gotten a great deal closer. Two fingers rose again, ready to direct another slicing current of wind at him.
"Any last words before I chop you into little bits like I did your friend?"
"W-W-W-Wait a second!" Syllables sputtered out of Bertholdt in a rush, though he knew they'd do him little good. "C-C-C-Can't we talk about this?!" Time. He had to buy himself time! Naruto was already advancing on him, already drawing a knife. He could still see Jean up in the trees, but so far away! Too far! Naruto wasn't going to stop to answer questions, he wasn't going to wait and offer an explanation for this-seemingly-abrupt assault, this unprovoked attack that was anything but. He wasn't going to make the mistake of attacking from a distance, not like before. He'd 'd come in close and take off his head, just to be sure.
God, he might even kill him slowly!
"Talk all you like. It won't change anything."
Naruto moved with impossible speed, slicing down at his head, prepared to cut through Bertholdt's other arm to get at him.
Panic took hold of him, strangling all sense and reason.
'He's going to kill me!'
And then, Bertholdt did the only thing he could think to do.
He bit down on his tongue.
Hard.
Aways below, Naruto threw up an arm and channeled chakra to his palm. He knew right away that it wouldn't be enough.
"Oh, fuck me! Jean! Get do-
THOOM.
(...)
Sasha fared better than most.
"Uh, Connie?" she gulped anxiously, gazing at the sky.
"What?" her fellow student wasn't looking at the horizon; his attention remained firmly rooted on the milling titans leagues below their feet. A small horde had gathered at their approach, a few even hazarded the climb to try and reach them, inevitably failing and crashing back to the ground with dull crunches, broken bones, and disappointed groans. A few moments before, Sasha had been content to watch as well.
Not anymore.
"CONNIE!" she cried, shaking him!
He turned, aghast, and saw.
"Oh, shit!"
Having been downwind of the blast, Sasha had seen their doom coming before anyone else realized what was truly happening. A bolt of lightning from on high split the heavens and roared into the trees, nearly ripping her from her perch. What came next was worse, the entire forest crashing down around her like a set of broken dominoes. Her body was already in flight by the time her mind realized what was happening, chakra and maneuver gear carrying her from the falling tree and to safety.
At least, she hoped it would.
Connie was only a few steps behind; using every ounce of speed he'd garnered to outrun the blast.
Not enough.
He hadn't endured the sort of training she had; his strengths lay in other ares and agility was not one of them. Within moments he was lost in the storm of dust and falling trees. A sharp cry followed, and then nothing more. Sasha whimpered quietly and hastened her pace, she daren't look back for fear of what she might find there. She daren't open the gates again; she'd already made the mistake of using them to off a number of titans on the way here and now sorely regretted that decision.
She wasn't going to make it.
Bitter, angry tears gathered in her wide eyes and stubbornly, she fought them down. Already she could feel the storm gathering at her back, shattered trees and pines shredding through her cloak to rip at her back. It wouldn't be long now. For all her training, all her speed, she simply wasn't fast enough. The image of Connie's body dashed beneath a tree or worse, seized by an opportune titan, flashed through her mind and her heart quickened in her breast, raging like a frantic animal trying to escape its cage. To no avail.
'I'm going to die here.'
She had no possible avenue of escape and she knew it; she could only gather herself up and wait for the end.
'I should be stronger than this.'
Her blood boiled at the thought, burning red hot.
'I trained for this!'
That was when it happened.
'NO!'
One moment she'd been watching a wave of death hurtle towards her, cursing herself for her powerlessness. The next she wasn't. Suddenly, her head was above the treeline-trees that now looked like little toothpicks!- and her maneuvering gear was all but gone. So were her clothes. What. What? What?! Sasha's eyes bulged madly and her arms flailed wildly, seeking a handhold and an explanation where there was none to found at all. Her body was still flying forward, however, its momentum unimpeded, the once dangerous trees little stinging bites against her legs.
"What the hell?!"
Her hands found purchase at last in the soil, carving out deep furrows against the dirt, grinding her momentum to a painful halt. The mysterious explosion rolled over her massive, naked form in a wave of harmless dust. Her mind reeled as she coughed the last of the haze away, clamoring for some sort of an explanation. Somehow, in the span of only a few seconds, she'd gone from a girl of average size, to this...this freak of nature! What was this? Just what the hell was this?!
Frantically, she struggled to preserve her modesty-what little she could with her arms. Embarrassment lit her cheeks a frantic scarlet. What kind of jutsu was this?! Was this even a jutsu?! Would she be even be able to return to normal size? Incredulous panic swamped her in a wave of hysteria.
"Oh, no," she moaned quietly to herself, clutching at her chest, "No, no, nonononononono...
She wasn't a titan. She was still herself...
...only giant.
Then Sasha saw the skinless specter rising up from the ruins of the forest, its back to her.
"No...
(Meanwhile with Bertholdt...)
THOOM!
The blast that followed was nothing short of cataclysmic; it flattened the woods for miles in every direction, sparing neither man nor beast. Trees that had stood strong for decades-centuries!-were uprooted as though they were no more than twigs. Those who weren't quick enough to escape found themselves flattened or worse, buried beneath massive logs that few mortal man could possibly hope to lift. Perhaps some escaped the blast, perhaps some did not.
Bertholdt didn't care for their plight.
Indeed, he barely even noticed.
In the ensuing explosion, that vicious onslaught of steam and noise, he became distantly aware of Naruto and Jean's dismayed shouting-of the forest falling away against his shoulders. Of the massive body taking shape around him. His titan took shape swiftly as it always did. Within moments the once mighty trees were little more than a distant memory, all broken branches and upturned soil beneath his pillar-like legs and feet. A part of him wondered if he'd squashed anyone; if the thunderous rise of his transformation had incidentally killed the very man who wanted him dead.
Irritated, The Colossal Titan pushed such thoughts aside and returned his gaze to the destruction below.
The wind reached him moments later.
"Good!" Somehow, even from this height, he heard the words shouted up at him. "I was hoping you'd give me a fight before I put you down!"
Slowly, Bertholdt turned his head.
An intact portion of woodland told him exactly where the blond lurked and for a moment, just a moment the Titan was given pause; somehow, he'd not only managed to shield himself from the blast, but those around him as well. Impressive. Most impressive. Not that it mattered now. With a speed that bellied his bulk, the Colossal raised a foot and drove it down with all his might. A haze of dust and broken wood answered, with no resistance. There! He'd squashed him like an ant, and now he'd deal with Annie-
WHAP!
His attention was suddenly divided between the ant beneath his heel and the massive log now wedged in his left eye. Before he could even react to his sudden blindness, a large arm closed around his neck and hauled him backwards with ferocious strength. Infuriated, Bertholdt flared steam, venting massive waves of heat from his back. His attacker yelped in a sharp cry of pained surprise but they still held tight, even as they were scalded. Driving a hard elbow behind him, he felt something soft and yielding
It took three such strikes before his attacker finally released him.
At first he thought it another Titan, but no, the face was all too human-those blazing brown orbs all too familiar. He knew that face, warped as it was by anger and rage. She was positively massive, topping out at nearly forty meters, maybe more. Almost as tall as he. Her hair was a wild brown mess, making her look like a wild savage, not the kind, gentle girl he knew.
Sasha?!
How in the hell-
A spark of blue light lit itself under his foot.
"Seventh...Gate...Open."
Bertholdt looked down.
Froze
What?
Said spark swiftly bristled into an inferno.
Confusion warred with incredulity as something stirred beneath his foot. Then, incredibly, that foot-followed by the rest of his leg!-began to rise. Slowly at first, twitching in agonizing increments. Bertholdt balked at the sight. Startled, he pressed down with all his might and attempted to forcibly lower the limb, but whatever-whomever?-was pushing proved indomitable and his leg continued to rise. No, that was impossible. No one, not even Naruto, should be able to lift him! What the hell was he? What was he?!
Just what the devil was he?!
Beneath the massive leg, Naruto slowly straightened to his full height, battered arms quivering with the sheer effort required to do so. Even with the seventh gate opened, it took nearly everything out of him merely to hold his ground in the face of such overwhelming might. His regeneration taxed to its maximum, struggling to repair the damage to his body, to alleviate the blistering burns suffered by the searing steam. But Naruto had never let limits stop him before, and he wasn't about to now.
'C'mon, body...hold together...hold...together...
Everything he was, everything he would ever be, condensed into a single moment.
With a great heave, he tightened his hold, flung up his arms and exerted all his chakra at once in a single, savage shout:
"ORAH!"
What happened next was nothing short of spectacular.
Where anyone other than Jean present to witness it firsthand, they would claim it was nothing more than a controlled judo throw that toppled the large titan. Nothing too special. But the sheer force of this throw ripped Bertholdt's foot off at the ankle and launched the Colossal Titan away like a rag doll. Launched. For a sliver of eternity, and the most fleeting of instants the great Goliath seemed to hang adrift, suspended in the air as though hung from invisible strings. Then time unwound itself and gravity laid claim to its mighty prize.
Jean exhaled sharply as he watched the colossal beast fall. "How the hell...
For the second time that day, Bertholdt reeled, railing wildly against his foe.
'How did he-
"I'm not done yet!"
A flash of blue in his peripheals was his only warning, and then Naruto was on him again, clutching a shrieking rasenshuriken in hand. His arm snapped forward and swept down, flinging the massive sphere into his right eye like a giant bomb. This time the pain was universal. Thousand of tiny chakra blades imploded against him all at once, ripping and tearing at him in a fierce explosion. Against any other titan, this would have been a certain deathblow. But Bertholdt's sheer size saved him once more; instead of losing his head, he merely went blind in that eye and sustained a loss of his face. The sheer size of his visage and thickness of skin kept his loss from being a sizable one.
Nevertheless the impact was a powerful one, snapping his head back and throwing him back down to the ground. A nasty crack echoed somewhere in the back of his neck-an unfortunate rider hadn't escaped in time and was crushed beneath his bulk, horse and all. Then he was down, blinded in that eye, howling in pain.
He lay there for a long moment, stunned and greatly concerned. A few more of those might actually kill him!
'Move, damnit...MOVE!'
With great and agonizing slowness his body responded, painfully pulling itself into something resembling an upright position. The sheer weight of his titan body nearly defeated him then and there. But slowly, stubbornly the Colossal Titan scrapped itself off the plains and climbed back to its knees. Even then, the sundered state of his leg stood-ha!-in stark defiance of his disbelief. How could this have happened?! His strength was purely absolute, unquestionable in its might. And yet he had just been thrown.
Thrown!
He'd been thrown!
Not only that but wounded, blinded in one eye and crippled! All by one man! His ruined leg was healing rapidly of course as was his eyes, but they would take time, a few seconds. Seconds that could be used to inflict a great deal of pain if he didn't hurry, but his body was moving slowly, far too slowly. For each second an eternity passed, an agonizing hell in which he could neither attack nor defend, only will his wounds to hasten their recovery as his
Those precious moments were not wasted by the enemy.
Naruto looked up whistling softly. Akimichi indeed! He'd been right on the money when he'd guessed she might have descended from Choji and his kin.
"Oi, Sasha!" he cried up at her! "I need you to-
"S-Sensei?"
Her head snapped down with such force he was certain it would fly off her shoulders. Her already large eyes grew wide, wider, then wider still. Naruto turned pale, recognize the ominous calm before the storm. Mistakes had been made. Many mistakes indeed! For a frozen instant nothing happened; then the towering brunette colored from the roots of her hair to the the very tips of her toes. "Eeeeeeek!" in a flurry of motion she covered herself with both arms, flailing like a flustered schoolgirl.
"Don't look!" she shrieked, her voice crashing like thunder!
"I'm not loo-
"You are!"
"Eh?"
Her brow darkened thunderously. "Pervert!"
Naruto swore. "Now is not the ti-gah!"
"I SAID DON'T LOOK, DAMNIT!"
You wouldn't think someone so large could move with anything resembling speed. Not so for Sasha! Naruto nearly found himself stomped right then and there-and likely would have have been trampled entirely if not for his superior speed and reflexes. Had he had the sense, Bertholdt would have shed his Titan form and fled right then and there. Instea,d he found himself staring, stupefied by the strange scene unfolding before him. Oh, he knew he should force himself up and fight, but not only did his mangled foot refuse him this, but his mind simply refused to accept what was happening.
"There! I'm not looking, alright?!" Naruto cried at last-because he really hadn't!-clamping a hand over his eyes for emphasis. "Now pick me up."
"What?" Sasha dithered, her wrath evaporating at the abrupt request.
"Just do it!"
T'was a strange sensation to be grabbed by someone so much larger than himself, but Naruto managed reasonably well as Sasha's massive fist closed around him. Her hand trembled nervously, afraid of crushing him to bloody bits, but no, she ferried him to her face easily enough. Her eyes told the rest; Sasha wasn't just nervous, she was absolutely terrified. And why shouldn't she be? She'd gone through so much in the last few minutes, more than she had any right to.
"God, Sasha!" Words jumped out of Naruto before he could stop to think. He forced a laughed, touching her cheek, "Look at you! You're huge!"
"Not helping!" the poor girl looked to be on the edge of tears.
"Look, whatever happened, I swear I'll find a way to get ya back to normal once this is done."
"Promise?" she sniffed.
"Promise." He laid a swift peck on her nose-nearly as large as him!-and turned back to the still-stunned Bertholdt. "Now launch me at that fucker! As hard as you can! Then get out of here! He's mine." It wasn't pride that pushed him to face the Colossal alone; it was fear. He couldn't bear the thought of losing anyone else to that monster. If that meant facing his traitorous student alone, then...so be it.
"But-
"Sasha!"
Her eyes brightened.
"Alright!"
Sasha's massive form momentarily blotted out the sun, but her attack certainly didn't. In the time that it took Bert to realize what was happening she'd already launched his tormentor at him like a ballistic missile. His only warning came in the form of a golden flash. The next thing he new, something had latched right onto his skull. Deep within the Colossal Titan's nape Bertholdt stiffened, growing tense with fear. A pair of blades bit deep into the flesh of his face and held fast, anchoring something there. No, not something.
Someone.
"Surprise, motherfucker."
...gah!'
Bert's remaining eye snapped upward just in time to find his assailant a great deal closer than before, clinging to his face. Once more, the wind carried his words to him. It did not, however, reveal what happened next; that was left for the shifter to witness firsthand with his ruined vision. Frantically he swatted at him with a giant hand, driving the battered blond off his face and towards the ground.
He'd soon wish he hadn't.
Naruto didn't bite down on his hand or thumb as Bertholdt initially expected; far from it, he did nothing of the sort. Instead he reached toward his stomach, the motion slow and deliberate, painstaking in its care. Fingers crooked into claws and made a sharp, pulling motion, tearing away the ruined fabric there. Sparks skittered across his fingertips, spreading rapidly to coalesce into a familiar scarlet shape-one that planted a seed of raw dread in the Colossal's heart.
Even from his towering height, Berholdt saw the flare of red light. And although he experienced it as little more than a tiny candle in the coming darkness, he saw it all the same and felt a pinprick of concern. Somehow, the Colossal Titan felt those eyes-eyes so much smaller than his own-lock onto him and felt the challenge they carried. He willed his wounds to hasten in their healing; he even managed to repair his leg mere moments before the worst came.
Then the ninja snarled; it was a deep, throaty sound that had no business belonging to a man. And on that snarl, a lone sentence carried once more with the winds:
"Your turn, Kurama."
Then all hell broke loose.
Abruptly the blond seemed to swell up to meet Bertholdt all at once, changing all the while. His face, once human, pushed itself outward in the form of a bestial muzzle, teeth morphing into wicked fangs. Fingers curled and became paws as he sank onto all fours, his body swiftly sprouting scarlet fur. All the while his body stretched and grew, surging upward and outward, ever continued to gain muscle and mass beneath. Tails writhed into life, nearly tenfold in all, gouging the ground with might and power.
And it was still growing; even larger than he'd remembered!
Having seen this beast once before could not possibly prepare him for this. It was like watching a living calamity. The ground shook. Mountains trembled. The very sky itself darkened, clouds swarming in to smother the setting sun, strangling all light, any semblance of hope. He'd been expecting a titan. That was a smaller form, one he could handle. This...was not a titan. Not in any way, shape or form did the beast before him identify as such a being, though he almost wished it had.
He was looking at a nine-tailed fox.
Unbidden, Bertholdt took a large step backward on his good foot.
Kurama turned his muzzle and bared his fangs in a soul-chilling sneer.
"Where is your god now?!"
Then the beast barreled into him with all the force of a falling star.
(Meanwhile...)
Annie woke with a crash and a start.
"What the hell?!"
All the world shook around her in a mighty quake, bucking like a fierce, wild thing. Her arms shot out to steady herself on the ground-that was when she realized she wasn't alone. A pair of hands steadied her instead as she nearly fell back, latching onto her shoulders in an angry iron vice. She started, turned to slap the hand away-and froze. A pair of burning blue eyes burned into her own, pinning her where she sat, branding her with their cold anger. Instinct quailed in the face of sheer despair, her face growing pale as she looked back at that unflinching face.
"Naruto."
"No." the clone's voice was flat like the ground itself. "Not Naruto."
An icy dagger of dread stabbed at her, dredging up the memory of what she'd done. Why she'd done it. How betrayed he must feel. Unbidden, another quake shook what remained of the wood. Now that she looked, she saw other bodies around her. Some were moving. Others...not. Someone dabbed a cool cloth against her forehead, she thought it might be Petra-who else had hair like that-but she felt too numb to much care who was seeing to her wounds. Her concerns lay decidedly elsewhere.
"What's happening?" she dared to venture.
"Boss is fixing your mistake." the doppleganger answered coldly. "You should be grateful."
A new voice interjected before she could finish. "She's awake?"
The clone nodded.
Once more Annie found herself the subject of scrutiny, much to her dismay.
Erwin Smith was perhaps the last person in the world that she wanted to see at this moment. He clearly wasn't happy to see her, either. Disheveled, bloodied, and missing what looked be a good portion of his right ear, the leader of the scout corps looked all of three seconds from flying off the handle. If the heat of his gaze and subtle twitch of his jaw were an indication, she'd best hold her tongue. Nevertheless, she returned it with a blaze of her own until the man
"Explain yourself."
"There were casualties, of course." Erwin murmured. "We'll have a full accounting when we get back."
A heated silence followed.
...where's Sasha?"
Both men exchanged a look.
"She reacted...poorly to the incident."
"Poorly how?"
"Well," the clone coughed, "Remember way back when I mentioned she might be descended from the Akimichi?"
"Yeah?"
"Turns out I was right." the blond grimaced.
"Wha-
"Now," Erwin interjected angrily, his words black, "What are we going to do with you?"
Shame colored her visage a rosy red.
"I'm not...I'm not your enemy."
The clone eyed her callously.
"We'll see."
(Back with the Naruto...)
Kurama felt...good.
Damned good.
Really good?
Fuck that, it felt fucking fantastic to stretch his legs again!
Paws?
Whatever!
Years of hibernating, of building up his strength, had all led to this moment. Freed from all restraints, all worries, all frustration, he was finally allowed to have his due! It was a glorious experience to have a body again, however temporary, to feel the fresh air against his fur, the earth beneath his paws. The taste of fresh blood in his jaws, the terrified squeaks of all the puny mortals beneath him as they quailed at his majesty and pure might just before he trod them underfoot...
Ah, well. Beggars couldn't be choosers. One fight was as good as any other.
Speaking of which!
Bertholdt scored a lucky sweep with a leg suddenly, driving a massive foot into the biju's face. For what little good it did him. Kurama writhed upright, his tails thrashing the ground and uprooting a tree to fling at the giant's face, forcing a flinch. The fox barked a triumphant laugh and lunged after him, eyes gleaming, fangs flashing in the twilight.
'Don't wreck everything!' Naruto's thought cracked at him like a whip.
The kitsune snorted. "Bah! Let me have my fun!"
He'd no interest in squashing the man's mates, at any rate. The man would never stop sulking!
This was precisely why he'd driven the Titan out of the remains of the forest in the first place. Out here on the empty plains he only had to worry about the occasional titan, and those were too small to inflict anything in the way of lasting harm. No, the only one truly capable of doing that was right in front of him-whoa!
A scalding burst of steam reminded Kurama of his present adversary as the Colossal tackled him into the ground.
They went down in a heap, titan and beast, clawing at one another.
Fang met flesh and the latter yielded generously; copious amounts of blood spewing forth as he ripped into his adversary's upper chest. A searing hand closed around one of his many tails and tore it asunder. Kurama bounded away with a snarl, grimacing furiously at the pain in his mouth and spat the flesh out. Neck! He needed to get the neck! Or barring that, blast the bastard to bits. Of course, that entailed knocking him down in the first place to make that shot count.
He wasn't doing any damage like this!
The titan might be larger than him-and bloody hot thanks to that steam!-but he possessed the gift of speed, where this fool was little more than a lumbering brute. And he'd had years to learn their ways, their strengths and weaknesses. Take that armored one for example. That might have been messy. Or Annie, even. In Kurama's experience, nimble targets were always, always, absolutely ALWAYS the worst; better to have a massive, slow-moving bear you could catch and tear apart rather than a nimble mouse you'd only exhaust your energy against.
And what a bear this was!
Bertholdt lunged at him and Kurama ducked a sweep that would've sheered his head clear off. He had no doubt that those hands could and would inflict serious damage should they ever get ahold of him. Not that they would if he had anything to say about it. Centuries of experience had made him cagey; wary of second mistakes. He wasn't about to come anywhere within reach of those massive limbs unless he knew he could writhe out from under them.
Still, the titan's flesh was soft, and he was slow.
Compared to that one, this Bertholdt fellow was little more than a dumb brute. A large one, perhaps, but size wasn't everything. They clashed briefly, once, twice, thrice again, neither willing to fully commit to an attack that would otherwise end or save their lives. But Kurama was content to wait, and so was Naruto. Something this large was bound to make a mistake sooner or later-
GOTCHA.
A single misstep of Bertholdt's-an instant of hesitation as he put his right foot forward-was all it took to end it for good.
Kurama pounced forward, leaping as high as his legs would carry him. Bertholdt, clearly not expecting such a frontal assault, was caught wholly unprepared. Clawed paws dug into his massive chest, the sheer weight of the beast joined with his own and forced him down. Teeth closed around the titan's shoulder even as he tried to thrash him off, gnashing, gnawing, ripping through boiling skin and muscle with savage fervor. An instant of searing blood and bone in his mouth and he was past, shearing the goliath's right arm free in a spurt of red and black. Bertholdt roared furiously, the sound like a demon's howl; a rolling, piercing cry sure to attract titans for miles around, but by then it was already too late.
Kurama crashing into him like an avalanche before his severed arm could regenerate, taking hold of the left and worrying it like a wolf at a bone. Weakened fingers reached up to grasp at his skull and he promptly bit them off, ignoring the burning agony of boiling blood in his gums. Bertholdt flared steam and struggled upright, jaw gaping in one final, desperate attack.
Kurama/Naruto wasn't having it.
"Oh, no you don't!"
A paw crushed down on his chest, pinning him to the ground as though he weighed no more than a feather. Those same paws flipped his body around, exposing the back of his neck. Sharpened fangs the size of houses clamped down on his jugular and yanked, ripping through steam and flesh to the soft body beneath. In the time that it took him to raise his massive arms it was already too late; the beast had cut through to daylight. Dark eyes fluttered open almost against their will, just in time to see his doom dawning upon him, to feel the fetid breath of his foe hot upon his face.
Massive jaws gaped open wide, exposing a large swell of light dancing at the back of the beast's throat. The shifter tried to free himself but to no avail; he just couldn't struggle free fast enough. Any attempt to do so only tightened the trap. He could only stare helplessly, impotent, unable to move.
That light.
Could light be black?
"How 'bout those last words?" the fox rumbled.
Bertholdt knew it then, in that moment. Naruto probably saw it in his eyes, too. The fox was better; and he was going to die. Still the swirling sphere of death continued to build, burning brighter and brighter with each passing second of existence. There would be no surviving this. No regeneration, no lucky break, no Reiner or Annie come to save him at the last. He barely even had it in him to curse the blond for besting him thus far, though his anger burned bright and fierce. Still, he gathered himself up enough to spit in his killers face.
"DAMN IT-
Bertholdt's last sight was that of the Bijudama hurtling towards his face at point blank range, then...
...nothingness.
A/N: THE TALE CONTINUES! What will happen next?! I apologize that I wasn't able to include the Annie-Petra scene in this but my muse demanded that this be a fight chapter and she's a stubborn little thing when she wants to be. Romance and family will just have to wait until next chapter. I've expanded on that preview, though! And another challenger appears?! Find out next time in...
...I'm Only Human!
So...in the immortal words of Atlas...
...Review...Would Ya Kindly? And of course, enjoy the preview! Hope it makes ya smile! THAR BE THREE OF THEM THIS TIME! KUDOS TO THEE WHO GET THE TFS REFERENCE!
(Preview)
"Whaddya mean I can't turn back?!" Sasha whined! "You said it would be easy, sensei! You promised!"
"Hey, hey, I never said that, its just going to be difficult-ah, hey! Don't cry...
The brunette didn't stop bawling.
Naruto winced at the crashing sound of his student's voice from his place on her knee. What little he knew of the Akimichi clan stemmed from what Choji had told him in the past, and it wasn't much as that. As it turned out enlarging ones size wasn't all the difficult once you got the hang of it, returning to normal size was the hard part. He regretted not listening to the specifics, there. Seeing as there weren't any Akimichi around these days, or ANY other ninja beyond those he'd trained himself, the results were...
...unpleasant to say the least.
Sasha had been trapped in this massive body for the last three days now, and she'd been wholly miserable all the while. Cold, naked, and hungry.
"Does it help that I've always had a thing for tall chicks?" he ventured lamely, hoping for a smile.
He completely deserved the resultant stomp.
Every.
Bit.
Of.
It.
Naruto turned his head and spat out a tooth.
"You were saying, bub?"
Zeke swore.
"Aw, that's not fair at all...
"Sorry. No fucks given."
"Uhm...am I missing something, here?"
Naruto looked this way and that, desperately searching for an escape, but to no avail. Annie had a firm hod of his right arm, and Petra his left. Try as he might he couldn't bring himself to escape-it felt as if all his might had been drained away. The wrath of a woman was truly a terrifying thing indeed! Petra's bashful look put him ever so slightly at ease, but Annie's baleful glare only made him wriggle all the more. Fly! Fly, you fool! His mind clamored wildly for an exit and finding none available, promptly shut down.
'Sorry, kid. You're on your own.'
Traitor!
"Erm...girls?"
Petra and Annie remained scarlet.
"I'm pregnant/I'm pregnant, you ass!"
"Oh. You're just pregnant." a pause, as the realization sank in. "The...the both of you...eeeeeeeeh...
"And there he goes." Kurama facepalmed.
Naruto flared Sage Mode, saw it, promptly blew a smoke ring and toppled backwards. Mercifully, he was out cold by the time his skull struck the floor, and as such never felt the pain of his head kissing the stones, nor that of the latter's loud cry of denunciation. Annie remained none too pleased-bastard's own fault for knocking her up and he thought he could just pass out?! Ohhhhh, there would be a reckoning for this!
"Hey, don't pass out!"
No response.
A finger poked his cheek.
"Is he dead?" Petra frowned.
Annie colored madly.
"He'll wish he was as soon as he wakes up!"
R&R~! =D