THE FOUNDRY – QUEEN HUEN PETRA
Fayoth
Boruto grabs one of the nearby colonels by the shoulders, wrestling with him for a few seconds while using his omni-directional eyesight to monitor his father. He smiles as he senses the movements of the 7th Hokage, just what he expected them to be. He places one leg behind both the colonels, dragging him over that leg and to the floor, creating a clear path between Naruto and another of the colonels.
Naruto makes use of Boruto's good-thinking, taking advantage of the opportunity he has offered for a blind-spot attack. Naruto throws an enhanced rasen-shuriken towards the other colonel, bombarding him with not only a tremendous amount of 'life' energy, but an equally monstrous amount of chakra.
Together they have taken one of them down for the count.
"How long has it been old man?" Boruto asks rhetorically.
Naruto bursts forward using his divine oddity. He stands back to back with his son knowing that the enemy will now surely come at them with great numbers. However, with the two of them in this position they are confident that they can fight off any opponent. They are confident that in this situation they are an unbeatable team.
"Too long Boruto. Years too long."
"I made a lot of mistakes," Boruto admits.
Boruto senses two colonels moving towards Naruto in a pincer movement. He knows that his father could deal with this but also realises it would be less efficient if he didn't have to. He coats one of his kunai in 'death' energy and bounces it off one his invisible walls. The kunai transforms into a 'death' rasengan, knocking one of Naruto's attackers backward. This gives the 7th Hokage the chance to use his divine oddity freely, and he does so to send the other colonel backwards.
"If we get out of here alive, I'm sure you and I will make a lot more mistakes yet," Naruto smiles, "Boruto, have you definitely made your decision. Are you back on our side?"
"I don't know if Homeworld should live or die, I don't trust myself anymore," Boruto admits, "But I know that I trust you, more than anyone. Dad, I'm on your side."
As the duo continue to fight together their timing improves, their teamwork along with it. Each blow the difference in their thinking decreases, the ease of their movements increases, and the effectiveness of their opposition dwindles.
Next two of the enemy colonels decide to try the pincer movement on Boruto. They correctly gauged that Boruto's senses are remarkable, but they failed to observe their opponent with such rigour. If they were to look closely, they would see that Naruto's senses are even greater than Boruto's. A sneak attack is not effective against either of them.
Naruto forms a life-gathering rasengan in his right hand. He lowers his left hand and grabs onto Boruto's wrist tightly. Boruto saw this before his father had even made contact and he worked out what he was planning the moment the rasengan appeared. Boruto grabs his father's wrist, tightening their grip on one another. The Shadow 9th Hokage swings his father through the air at the two incoming colonels. Naruto powers-up his leg and kicks the first, he slams his life-gathering rasengan into the second.
Two colonels taken out in an instant.
The many captains aiding the colonels in their struggles are weaker. There are some class 6 amongst them, but most are weaker still, and they are universally less skilled than their opponents. Panic begins to spread amongst them, and they realise how powerful Naruto was to begin with. Now that these two pocket-world geniuses are working together, they are unstoppable.
Nina heard about Naruto's son during the time she spent with the Uzumaki family in the academy. It was said that he was incredibly talented, and it seems to be true. From a first inspection, while he may be marginally weaker than Naruto, she believes his potential is very similar. It also seems that Boruto is not killing the Homeworlders he is coming up against. It seems to her that the family dispute is over. This is bad news for the empire, it has another fearsome rebel looking to overthrow the emperor.
"This will all be over soon Nero," Nina declares. "With the two of them on my side defeating you will be easy."
"You think too much of yourself and far too much of them."
"They might be merciful but don't let that fool you. I have no intention of letting you leave here alive."
Nero bats both Nina's arms aside and kicks her in the chest. Nina is sent scuttling back along the ground. The general watches the two Uzumaki clansmen for a few moments, contemplating what they could have been if things had gone differently. If they had known pocket-worlders could become so strong then the empire's decisions may have changed.
Nina gets to her feet and leaps at Nero. The former bandit throws a punch at her nemesis, a punch which Nero counters with her own. A test of strength with vibrations so intense that they can be felt for miles around. With enough practice, Naruto may be able to infer the entire fight with vibrations so apparent as these.
The test of strength is finished, they prove roughly equal.
"This will all be over soon Nina," Nero says with a smile.
Nina shakes her head. "Where do you get your confidence from? Don't you realise what I'm going to do to you, are you as senile as you look? When they are done, and that will only be a few moments time, you are finished. I'm going to kill you."
Nero holds her head in her hands, seemingly out of frustration. That frustration quickly turns into laughter though, she is laughing at Nina. The bandit knows now that there must be something missing from her understanding of the situation. There is obviously something she has overlooked.
"Did you really believe your network of spies was loyal to you?" Nero asks.
"They are loyal, I selected each of them personally!"
"Maybe, but loyalty is fleeting in a world like this. Especially in Fayoth, especially in her kingdom."
Naruto, Boruto, to a lesser extent Nina, they are all sensors. Detecting people is their speciality, and only a special few people can escape their notice. It takes a special person, with a special talent who has learnt a special skill. It is a skill on par with the One True Sense, one that hides your presence when you do not wish to be found, and they have been unfortunate to run into one such person.
As she lets her presence be noticed for the first time, the newcomer draws the eyes of Naruto, Boruto and Nina. They all notice with terror the woman who has been watching this battle the entire time. Now that they see her, they don't know how they missed her in her regal blue robe standing less than a hundred yards away.
It's Huen Petra, the Queen of Fayoth!
Naruto decides to try a surprise attack. He uses his divine oddity to take two powerful steps forward. He forms a life-gathering rasengan in his hand and picks his target. He's going to push his most powerful attack straight into the Queen's head. As he gets close he observes that Petra has yet to activate her divine cloak, meaning her energy must still be of class 7 level, the same as him. This is the perfect chance.
As Naruto converges in Petra, the Queen steps to the side at the perfect moment, giving the 7th Hokage no chance to react.
Just like that, with a single step, he was eluded. This is with no fundamental difference in the power between the two of them. Petra is trying to send him a clear disheartening message. Right now the difference between him and the royals is greater than he can imagine, not just in power but in skill.
Naruto turns around, hoping for one more chance, but as he pushes the rasengan forward his arm suddenly stops.
Petra activates her golden 'control' cloak and as she does so 'control' energy enshrouds Naruto. An energy purple in colour, mixed with gold, an energy so powerful that it's ability to control others can even affect the likes of Uzumaki Naruto.
As Petra's will dictates, Naruto spins around on the spot constantly, uncontrollably. She doesn't let up, allowing him to get more and more disoriented as time goes on. While the empire's greatest enemy continues to wear himself down, she looks to his son. She uses the same energy to grab Boruto, spinning him around in the same fashion.
She looks at Nero and nods to Nina.
"Do you need my help to finish her off?"
"I'll be fine," Nero answers confidently.
"Very well."
Petra walks from the battling duo. She brings Naruto and Boruto with her. They walk either side of her as if dutiful bodyguards, when in reality their will has been snatched from them. This is Petra's 'control' energy, a power unlike any other, a power that took her all the way to the throne of this country. The two pocket-worlders have more strange abilities and talents than anyone, but even they cannot escape from her power.
Petra points the two of them at each other and issues an order to them.
"Fight!"
Naruto takes the lead in that fight, leaping towards Boruto with a 'life' enhanced rasengan in hand. Boruto counters with his own 'death' enhanced rasengan, creating a boom of energy. When they emerge from the flash of light, Petra observes that the two of them are fighting still, exchanging quick dynamic strikes they cannot land on one another.
Eventually Naruto breaks through Boruto's guard, landing three successive punches to his son's gut. An uppercut then puts Boruto on his back. The 7th Hokage creates and enhances a tailed beast bomb, firing that down towards his son. Boruto does manage to avoid the tailed beast bomb but not the subsequent powerful strike from his father, lifting the Shadow 9th from his feet.
"Oh, it seems that the younger Uzumaki has a slight advantage."
Naruto knows that Petra is referring to him. Travelling through time messed up their relative ages, so he knows that at a first glance Petra is likely to have concluded that Boruto is his father instead of the reverse. He wishes that he could find some way to hold himself back but there is no way. They are all at the queen's mercy now.
"You know, I helped to interrogate Carmen," Petra recalls, "Even with my power she resisted talking, she did a much better job than you."
Naruto cringes internally as he is reminded of Carmen. She tried so desperately to keep them safe, to convince them there was no way they could stand up to the emperor. Now that Naruto is so helpless in front of one of the royals, he acknowledges just how right she was. He knows that she must have died during that interrogation.
"He's going to come back, he'll come back with so much more power behind him and then he will become your greatest enemy, that's what she said," Petra continues, "Uzumaki Naruto is going to come for you, he is going to fight you, and he is going to kill you."
Petra smiles away to herself as the two pocket-worlders continue to fight one another. It seems that Carmen's predictions were wrong, she vastly overestimated this young man. Seeing him now Petra is certain that he has a good potential, perhaps he could have become a royal if left alone. However, she doubts that Naruto would have ever been able to match up to Furst. What's more, he is not a reincarnation of Endou Akashi, he lacks the wisdom Akashi had, the wisdom to avoid this situation.
"I'm almost disappointed really," Petra remarks, "Sure, you're strong, but you were trained by the best. With Headmaster Sora's training, someone like you should have been catching up with me by now, yet here you are. You are dying in front of me. You are dying at the hands of your own family."
Naruto stands over a fallen Boruto, the latter appearing helpless on the ground below.
Naruto prepares a life-gathering rasengan. A move that will surely prove fatal to Boruto in this situation.
Likewise, Boruto prepares a sharp 'death' blade. This doesn't escape Naruto's detection, but Petra won't let him react to it.
This is the end for them.
"I'm sorry for betraying you," Boruto says.
"I'm sorry that I let you down," Naruto replies. "I'm glad that you came back. I hope this doesn't hurt."
"I hope the same."
At Petra's command, the father-son duo attack each other once more. They push 'life' and 'death' together in what is designed as a final collision. Even as Nina breaks free from Nero and launches towards them, she knows that she won't make it in time. She closes her eyes and offers her apologies to the fallen. She offers her apologies to Carmen, to Juan and to Sora, she has failed their student.
However, the strike does not land.
Naruto disappears in a strange swirl of yellow energy.
It is a powerful energy, one that Boruto has not felt before, but he is glad, nonetheless. He thrusts his blade forwards and his 'death' energy finds no target. He is not struck either as the life-gathering rasengan disappears from in front of him. If he didn't know any better, he would guess that his father had been summoned. Summoning is much more difficult in this world though; he has tried it. He doubts there is any shinobi who could have summoned Naruto, after all, if they could why not do it earlier?
Not five seconds after Naruto disappears, Boruto is wrapped in the strange energy too. Within an instant he disappears, leaving behind an empty space in front of the queen. A moment ago she had the two great enemies of the empire in her hands, but now they have escaped.
Nina sees her opportunity and runs from Nero as fast as she can. Travelling in a straight line there is hardly any difference in their speed. She uses this to ensure her escape from the general and can only hope that the queen chooses not to go after her.
Nero does try to pursue Nina, but only to keep up with her. The general expected Petra to come with her to apprehend the former bandit. Nero comes to a halt after four seconds, seeing that Petra clearly has no intention of chasing her nemesis. This is frustrating to the general but more than that it is baffling. In theory Nina is their strongest enemy, why would Petra not go after her?
"My Queen, are you not going to chase her down? She is our most powerful enemy at the moment?"
Petra shakes her head, "Nero, did you see what I just saw?"
"The two Uzumakis disappeared in a whirl of powerful energy."
"Indeed. It looks like we have bigger concerns than a former bandit."
Elsewhere
Stones all around. Hills in every direction you look. This place looks like it could be mined for a thousand years and you still wouldn't be out of material. Tiny crystals can be seen in the rocks even now. It reminds Naruto of the Hidden Stone, but as with all things in Homeworld the scale is much larger.
Naruto is now free of Petra's 'control' energy and is thus free to move around as he wishes.
When he looks around, he sees others, many others. He judges by their body structure and the aura they are giving off that they are each warriors like him. Many of them are likely strong warriors, perhaps even in class 7 themselves. A few people are wearing the uniform of the imperial guard, some are aristocrats, some veterans of the last conflict, some even appear to be hidden experts.
A moment after he arrives a swirl of energy appears next to him. The swirl is quickly replaced with a body, apparently it is his son. He breathes a sigh of relief, at least for now he and Boruto are OK. At least he thinks they are OK; he has no explanation for where they are right now or how they happened to get here. He's never seen this place before.
Swirls of energy continue appearing around them for the next minute. When they stop Boruto estimates that there are roughly two hundred warriors here in total. Someone has brought all these people here, but he can't work out why. There is nobody more opposite than he and the Imperial Guard, why bring both of them to this same place? Why save the two of them from Petra?
"Hello everyone, I am the one who has brought you all here!"
Everyone looks up at a booming loud voice. It is from an elderly looking woman at the top of a hill, looking down on all those she has summoned. She wears a gold and white robe and has distinguished shoulder-length grey hair, both kept so well that they leave an impression. Naruto concludes that this woman must be a very successful aristocrat from the past war because she obviously comes from a wealthy background.
"We are near the Fayoth-Cheqitori border," the old woman reveals, "I know that many of you will have come from the other side of the world. Some of you will have just come from nearby. Try not to let it disorient you."
Naruto and Boruto have both travelled half the length of Aturia to meet up with one another, they know how big the nations of Homeworld are. This woman just summoned them most of the way across Fayoth, that is no mean feat. Even if you had a divine ability to do it the energy requirement to do so would be massive, and with this many people present, it was clearly not easy.
"You are probably wondering why I brought you here," the old woman says. "The answer to that is simple.
"Fate has chosen you."
Battle Classes in this Chapter
Uzumaki Naruto (7) = Life (2) + Transcendent (2) + Shinobi (3)
[Marti] Nina (8) = [Fire + Lightning] (3) + Combo (1) + Manual (3) + Divine Ability (1)
[Ganim] Nero (8) = Hot (3) + Transcendent (1) + Manual (3) + Divine Ability (1)
Uzumaki Boruto (7) = Death (2) + Transcendent (2) + Shinobi (3)
Huen Petra (9) = Control (3) + Transcendent (2) + Manual (3) + Divine Ability (1)
In Response to Guests's Comment
That I accidentally referenced the wrong general
I appreciate that you're probably right but I can't find it.
Sorry.
Thanks for helping.
Thanks for reading.
In Response to m'j doom's Question
About Boruto's level
Boruto's level is as described in the battle class list above.
He is on the same level as Naruto but is slightly weaker due to marginally inferior skill.
Thanks for reading.