Night Raid's Lazy Assassin

by KenzoXShuyita

Meet Naruto. Idiot, genius, badass, dumbass, intuitive, clumsy, bastard, and a number of other details, but officially a lazy blond teen that prefers doing nothing over everything. At least quick assassinations should fit his lazy character, right? "I really don't feel like doing anything today. You guys can skedaddle and I'll just...actually, I'll just kill you all now. Cheers!"

9. Chapter 9: Half - Haku (PAWS)

Chapter 9: Half - Pure as White Snow (Haku)

A/N: THANKS SO MUCH TO MY AWESOME BETA, PENGUINLORD352! He made this chapter soooo much better than the rough draft I had beforehand, and I have to thank him profusely before anything else. So, now that that's said, "Thank you very much, Lord of the Penguins." Like, Lord of the Flies…just in Antarctica or something.

For this Author's Note, I want to focus on the people that have supported me and have told me that they were waiting for this update. For that, I really thank you. You guys have given me the motivation to find time to write, even when it was around 12 A.M. and I was dead tired. I hope this chapter was well worth the wait!

The Teigu is my own.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Nothing. Nada. Suck it up!

Intro Omake:

"Naruto, where are your books?" Leone loudly asked, standing just outside his room from what Naruto could hear. The rest of Night Raid sounded like they were right there too unless Leone had suddenly conjured up multiple bodies.

"Again, they aren't mine. They're Sheele's." Naruto opened the door and raised his eyebrows at the crew outside of his door. Each was carrying a different ingredient for a big bonfire. "Okay…I really don't want to show you where the books are now."

Leone leaned forward so that she was only inches from her fellow blond's face. A disturbing glint shone in her eyes as she whispered at him in a deadly tone.

"Where. Are. Your. Books?"

"…I won't tell you," he adamantly replied. He would never relinquish them. Never! They were 'his precious'.

A moment later, Naruto was on the ground, tied up and bound so that he wouldn't be able to fight back with Lubbock taking a seat on his back. Everyone entered his room without blinking an eye at this and began to search, even Akame.

"Why are you doing this?" He narrowed his eyes.

Mine scoffed. "You quote things from your books too often. So many philosophical things, too, that you probably don't believe in. It's irritating."

"I do too believe in them!" Naruto spat out. He looked around from his spot on the floor as they ignored him and chose to glare at Lubbock over his shoulder. "Can you get off of me now? It's not like I can move."

Lubbock smirked. "I'm not falling for that one again, Naruto. Last time you said that, you escaped somehow. You'll have to deal with it."

"You're kind of heavy…it's very difficult to just 'deal with it'."

"Suck it up," was the retort.

"Ah! I found them!" Chelsea shouted in glee. She'd noticed a strange indent on the floor, and curiously putting a hand into it, she found a small trapdoor leading to a whole room filled with books neatly organized by some system or another. She was one of the only members that didn't mind Naruto's quoting, but was rather joining in just for the fun of it, and thus was quite pleased to have located the hidden collection. "Wow, you have a lot of books down here."

A frenzied expression formed on Naruto's face as he began to squirm and struggle like a man possessed.

"No, don't burn those books! I haven't finished memorizing them all! I have only one more book left to go!" He shouted. Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing to stare at the blond.

"Shit…he memorized the books?" Leone whispered, surprised and a small bit impressed, but also horrified.

"Burn them…burn them now!" Mine ordered quickly. Everyone immediately set to work, pouring the odd variety of flammable liquids down into the room after Chelsea got out of the way.

"No! If you burn them, you kill Sheele!" Naruto shouted, his mind racing along options many would discount as illogical. When none of them stopped preparing to start the book burning, Naruto grew more frantic in his fight to get out from under Lubbock. "You're killing Sheele, you're killing Sheele!"

"You memorized almost all of those books, so you could just rewrite them if they mean that much to you! Regardless, we have to burn them now because of you! Sheele would agree with us!" Mine finally responded, a disturbed and zealous look in her eyes. "For the sake of Night Raid's sanity!"

"For the sake of Night Raid's sanity!" Everyone responded in return with equal fervor.

Then the first match was lit, and the fire spread quickly after it was dropped.

Naruto watched in defeat as each page burned before his eyes. Well…at least he moved all of the important books and documents to another undisclosed location…wait, was the fire still spreading?

"Guys, not only have you killed Sheele, but you're destroying my room!" Naruto exclaimed as he watched the fire spread from the books in a large, hungry heat of red. It quickly grasped hold of his bed, his drawers, his clothes…everything in his room. Even the orange stuff. "The Orange! Why?!"

Once more, each of the members looked back to Naruto, but with a fake, apologetic expression.

"Sorry about that."

Naruto just stared back, slight defeat on his expression.

"I…I hate you all."

End Intro Omake.

Chapter 9 START

"…"

"Sorry, Boss. He left while you were talking." Akame confessed.

Najenda sighed. "Of course he did." She raked her real hand through her hair. "It's not too big of a deal, I guess. He's not wanted, and it's not like he's going to run."

"…"

Najenda face-palmed. "Actually…he might just run somewhere and get himself into trouble. Can you please find him, Akame?"

"Hai!" Akame affirmed before jumping off the roof they had gathered on.

Najenda looked in the direction Akame had been heading before sighing again and lighting a cigarette. Then, she looked over to her right where the city of Kyoroch stood in all of its glory as the sun set. She then, very carefully, took the cigarette from her mouth with her mechanical hand.

"Where the hell are you, and what the hell are you doing, Naruto?" Najenda paused to enjoy a moment of quiet before taking another smoke.

"Having fun, probably. Maybe I should've joined him," a cheerful intrusion to Najenda's peaceful moment commented. The ex-general took yet another puff and shifted her eye so that it rested on Chelsea, who still had that ever present half-smirk molded onto her face, even after coming so close to her own death.

The girl had almost died from the blood loss and dangerous wounds, not counting decapitation as well if her story was anything to go by, but her response to such a close call was so flippant and nonchalant that most people would look at her askance if they didn't know her. Her response amounted to the thought 'but I'm alive, so it doesn't matter as long as I don't make the same mistake again.' And that's what made her an excellent assassin, that mindset regarding death and near-death.

"I'd be surprised if he even knew what fun is with how lazy he acts," was Najenda's only outward response before she turned her head to face the sunset straight on. A new beginning in a new town, a place to start a new war: that was what this was. "Just don't get caught, Naruto."

Chelsea's smirk widened. "You know he won't."

XShuyaX

(Location: The Streets of Kyoroch)

One day had passed since the team's arrival into the city which would be the new battleground, and the new morning was dawning. A new day in Kyoroch, and the town was already beginning its daily routine with the opening of street vendors and the otherwise unoccupied early risers. The members of Night Raid typically woke up in conjunction with the rising sun, which had chosen to cast its bright rays into each and every home indiscriminately.

Naruto however was already on the streets by some strange miracle, as he decided to be one of the early risers today. The morning in Kyoroch was still somewhat chilly, so he was quietly grateful for the cloak he'd received from Najenda, although it did make him look somewhat suspicious. He had his hood up to cover his hair, so the only distinguishable feature he had visible was his face, and that was only from the front. His lack of presence went a long way to making his suspicious appearance seem as normal as the ground.

As a result, Naruto was about to ease his way through the morning crowd, walking around and picking up food from a number of vendors...without paying. It was at times like this that his lack of presence truly came in handy; not only did the vendor owners not notice anything, but neither did the customers nor passersby. Naruto simply picked out whatever food, drink, dessert, or even clothing that he liked and took it and went on his merry way, keeping in mind the whole while to work on his actual assignment.

Reconnaissance. He didn't exactly enjoy doing it, hence the repeated acts of theft he was committing to entertain himself, because it required him to focus for long periods of time and keep an eye out for everything, even the smallest details. But he would manage; after all, he was considered better at gathering information than Leone, though still not quite as adept as Lubbock. The green-haired assassin was a natural at information gathering operations. Naruto had learned a lot from the user of Cross Tail, but since the blond didn't spend that much time with him, he didn't learn as much as he could have.

For two hours that morning, Naruto roamed the cobblestone streets of Kyoroch, inhaling everything he saw, heard, and smelled. Especially smelled. It was rather hard to ignore the scent of freshly baked bread with butter wafting through the town square, or tune out the sound of sizzling meats at multiple corner-stores as street vendors shouted out their wares and offers. But again, he managed...by stealing a decent number of goods, and then he proceeded to steal at least enough clothing to last him two years. He wasn't caught, and no one even noticed him walking out of the store with clothes wrapped all around him since he couldn't hold all of the clothes without losing sight of where he was walking.

By the time he returned to their temporary base, an empty house, the members were actually finished with breakfast and were preparing to set out to get a bird's eye view of the city and just enjoy their first day there. It wasn't a particularly large house, but it was comfortably big, and there were enough rooms to give each member their own bedroom, even if not all the rooms were meant for such.

Naruto carefully opened the door to the house and slipped out of his shoes before calling out. "Tadaima." After carefully unwrapping the clothes from around himself, he threw the pile of stolen clothes onto the chair next to the wooden front door and shrugged off his brown cloak, hanging it on the rack above the chair. Naruto paused to sigh in relief. And though he didn't hear her footsteps, Akame had managed to get within a few feet while his back was turned.

"Where were you?" Akame asked, interrupting his relieved pause at being free from the warm bundle of his misbegotten goods. "We already had breakfast and were about to head out."

"I got you guys something," blond replied sagely, as if that explained everything. He then rummaged through the pile of clothing on the chair before extracting a ball of different colored scarves. Naruto then pulled out a red scarf from the ball of scarves and turned around to hand it to Akame. "Here you go," he gifted it to her with a wide grin. Service with a smile, right? She took it in both hands and looked at it with her equally red eyes and then looked back up to Naruto with a small smile on her face.

"I really like it. Thank you," she told him monotonously, the tone at odds with her facial expression.

Naruto deadpanned. "Don't mention it..." He still didn't understand how she was able to smile without the expression reaching her eyes and still somehow mean it. It was something he just couldn't seem to grasp. "Anyway, I have to get the rest of these to the others," he suddenly told her, gesturing to the rest of the colored scarves he'd pulled out, each color matching one of the members. Akame picked one of them out of the bundle; it was a pink scarf with little frills at the end. She looked down to hers to compare and noticed that hers was sewn plainly in comparison.

"Why are they different?" she asked Naruto, who was in the middle of sorting out the rest of the scarves so they weren't tangled up in a ball.

"I was trying to get ones that matched each person's character," he explained, shrugging his shoulders. His eyes lit up as he bent over to pick up another one of the scarves from the pile of clothes, having evidently not ended up in the ball with the rest. "Oh, there's another one. Hmm...now where's Leone's?" he murmured thoughtfully, carefully rummaging through his stolen clothes again.

"You do know that the majority of us won't wear the scarves, right?" Naruto simply shrugged in response to Akame's question, showing that he really didn't care.

"You guys can do what you want with it. I'm wearing mine." Akame frowned.

"Which color would be yours?" she inquired.

"Blue. Ah, there's Leone's." It was a playful scarf filled with embroidery and designs on one side, but almost blank on the opposite side, with only very subtle designs. Akame noted that it did match Leone's character. The blonde was generally very outgoing and teasing, but she could be stealthy and very much like an assassin – granted, Leone happened to be an assassin, so that was rather a good thing all said.

"So...this one is yours?" Akame asked, holding up a blue scarf that was similar in design to Leone, except both sides were just as decorative in design. However, in the very center of the scarf was a horizontal rhombus shaped design that was exceedingly dull in comparison to the rest of the scarf. Naruto grinned and reached out to grab it from her.

"Yup, that's it!" He frowned when she retracted her hand. "What's the big idea, Akame?"

She frowned. "...I don't know." She eyed the colorful blue scarf with her red eyes. Then, she simply closed her eyes and sighed; she decided that she was overthinking the message. She handed the scarf over to Naruto and turned around. "There's some breakfast left over, and Susanoo can still cook something up if you ask. Come to my room when you're ready to go out again."

"Actually...I already ate...a lot. The shop vendors had a lot of good food." He frowned when he saw Akame begin to show the signs of silent enthusiasm. She was shivering and trembling all over. Suddenly, she turned around and pulled him through the door before he could even mutter a surprised exclamation. By the time he had regained his bearings, Akame had also regained her indifferent facial expression. Naruto sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Did you want to go that badly?"

A nod.

"I should've figured." He let out another sigh before looking around the street, then up into the sky. "Well, might as well get started now. We've only got about seven hours of daylight before we have to come back and do some 'work'."

Akame nodded and immediately set off in the direction of the town square. "By the way, Tatsumi and Mine left already," supplied Akame. Naruto whistled.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they started dating soon. Mine seems to be getting a lot closer to him recently; it's just that Tatsumi's so dense that he can't receive the messages." He paused, putting a finger to his chin. "Then again, Mine probably doesn't know she likes him either, so I guess it goes both ways."

"What are you talking about?" Akame turned around and began to walk backwards, easily slipping her way through the crowd without needing to watch her path. She stared intently at Naruto as she draped the scarf over her shoulders and slowly wrapped it around her neck with great care. Naruto remained silent for a moment, staring straight back at her. That was...unexpected. She simply smiled that smile that didn't seem to reach her eyes but he knew was still sincere. "I'm waiting, Naruto."

That broke him out of his dazed silence.

"Uh...yeah...did you realize that Tatsumi and - well, maybe just Mine, but Mine likes Tatsumi and I'm pretty sure that the feeling is mutual between the two. Did you notice that?" She looked up to the sky and saw an endless blue sky above with no clouds above. No signs of bad weather; a good omen.

"No," said Akame with a smile. She looked back down and tugged on one end of her scarf lightly. "I didn't." With that, she turned back around. Naruto grunted, but he wasn't surprised. So he just shrugged his shoulders, placed his hands in his pockets, slouched over lightly, and sighed –

But he still grinned.

He caught up to the girl and began to walk with her side by side. "By the way, you didn't even let me grab my cloak before leaving the 'base'. Don't you think I'll get caught?" Akame simply shook her head. "Hm? Why not?" The blond looked to the side at a concession stand over on the right side of the street, examining its wares before flicking his gaze over to the next one. Boring as well. Oh well.

"You aren't exactly well-known, despite what you may have done in the Capital. Besides, it's too early for them to release a wanted poster for you. It's just how the people inside work." She looked over to the left, but tensed when she was felt a hand rest on her right shoulder, only to relax after a split-second when she recognized it as Naruto's. After he had successfully gained her attention, he motioned for her to wait there and walked off into the crowd towards a food stall he remembered passing by earlier. The menu had reminded him of her, and he only just remembered they were near it by the smell of the food itself. Naruto grinned when he saw the stand, despite the extremely long line. He casually walked through the large line, entered the stand through the back, grabbed two sandwiches the owner was about to hand to the first customer in line without either of them noticing him, and then just as easily exited and ended up at Akame's side with both delicious delicacies. She looked at him curiously, her red eyes practically glimmering with the obvious question. He smirked as he tossed a wrapped sandwich over to her waiting hands. "For you, mi'lady, only the best," the blond stated sarcastically.

Both ignored the loud commotion the missing food had caused over at the stand as Naruto watched Akame unwrap the pastrami sandwich like it was a gift of the gods. All the gods. And then she smiled and her eyes lit up as she looked up at him in a silent 'thank you' before taking a big bite out of the sandwich. Naruto almost gave her the one he got for himself, if only to see that look in her eyes again. It was rare to see her so expressive, after all, but it always made him feel happy to see. He sighed and held the other sandwich out to her just as she finished the first. She took it with a small impish smile, likely knowing he'd meant to eat it himself and knowing something about why he'd given it to her instead.

Akame quickly unwrapped the second meal and took a large bite and grinned. "Yes...this really is the best," she replied with complete honesty. Akame took another bite and moaned in delight. "It's delicious. Thank you, Naruto."

A somewhat flushed Naruto muttered a 'you're welcome' somewhere under his scarf and hid into the collar of his blue jacket. He stole that from a store too, of course. After a few minutes of walking, the two both threw the empty wrappers into a trash bin and breathed out as one. Cold, foggy air left their lips.

"Cold..." Naruto shivered involuntarily, but didn't make any more motion than that. Akame look at him and tilted her head.

"You are cold?" He nodded. "Is it that bad?" He shook his head. "I see. Here, a body warmer." She suddenly crashed against his side and wrapped one arm around him.

"Wh-what are you doing?! Ak-"

"Be quiet, Naruto." Akame ordered, her eyes looking directly into his. The two were about an equal height, the blond only taller by three inches now. "I'm an international criminal, and I only have a cloak on. I know that it is suspicious. You aren't well known, Naruto. The Prime Minister's son never let out a single whisper of what happened to him when you encountered him." Her eyes hardened. "There wasn't a single poster of you, Naruto. He didn't tell anyone, and I know that for a fact. Syura is an overtly cocky person, but he makes sure that he can get what he wants.

"He wants revenge, Naruto, and he wants it with his own hands and power. For now, your lack of being known by the people of this town is our safeguard, since almost everyone else on our team is known nationally." Her eyes flickered from Naruto's to the rooftops of random buildings and then to convenient spots closer to ground level where people could possibly hide from view. She lowered her head when she noticed a small, unusual movement from a corner, returning her eyes back to Naruto's quivering and confused orbs. "So do what I ask, because I do know what I am doing." Naruto hesitantly nodded his head and looked forwards. Suddenly, Akame's expression took a complete turn, as did her character. "Great! Okay, let's go on to more food!"

Naruto outwardly grinned, but inwardly he was thinking dark thoughts. 'It's not okay...this is why I fight. Remember that, Naruto Uzumaki. You fight so that people can be free to do what they want, so that they can be happy without a single thought of the Capital in the recesses of their mind.' The blond's smiling face turned and his jovial eyes roamed the area, watching other people smile with family and friends. He noticed the teens running around the streets, utter glee and delight etched into their faces. He watched the kids pass him, their expensive clothes swaying and rustling with every motion.

But he didn't ignore the people on the sides of the streets, begging for a single ounce of meat, or bread, or the kind hand of any person who might give them some money. Beggars...he wouldn't be able to get rid of all of them, even after they won the battle against the Empire, but he could damn well lower the number of them and make this world a better place by simply winning. So losing wasn't an option. It never was. And it never would be. If a fight came to him, he wouldn't run away anymore.

He would engage.

XShuyaX

(Time Skip: Next Morning)

Naruto knocked on Akame's door and waited patiently. He was wearing a new set of clothes, but they were the same exact design as the day before. Just a different color, so it was obviously stolen from the exact same store. He was also holding a plate of food in each hand.

"Akame, open up. I brought you food." There was no response. Naruto suddenly lost his smile and began to narrow his eyes. Something wasn't adding up. She always responded to food. Always. "Akame, I'm coming in. Right now." 'Don't say I didn't warn you,' he thought before kicking open the door since both hands were full. No sword was suddenly in his face, which he was thankful for. But there was also no Akame either…just a fluttering window curtain flaying and dancing with the wind and a bare room, very much missing of its owner.

Naruto stood there for a few moments, absolutely silent and still, just holding two plates of food. His mind went blank, and by the time it rebooted, a whole different Naruto had surfaced.

'Where. The. Hell. Is. AKAME?!' Naruto stormed out of the room after throwing the steaming food on the empty desk without looking. The plates landed perfectly in the center with nothing spilling over the sides. He rushed through every room, not caring if he woke anyone up. By the time he had been through the whole house, every person was awake and confused. Naruto had never seemed so frantic before, regardless of the situation. Before any of the barely awake members could ask anything, the blond was out the door with his jacket flapping behind him, rushing into the crowded streets of Kyoroch. He shoved past people without a second thought over their enraged cries or irritated yells, which became nothing but a buzzing to his ears quite quickly. Every muscle fiber in his very being was tingling...tingling with so much empowering energy, it was best to describe the blond as a powerful missile. He barely restrained himself from using Chi, knowing that doing so would create a huge beacon over his head saying 'LOOK AT ME!' to anyone looking for something suspicious.

'Damn, I should've grabbed my...no, it's better for me without the cloak. I'm not well-known yet, just like Akame said.' Naruto roughly shoved past another person and ignored the scream of surprise, jumping over a few feet along the way. 'Where did Akame go again yesterday after we split up? She was on the other side of the city since Najenda wanted to go from the outside and analyze the city to its core.' The blond's blue eyes swiftly went from left to right, hyper-analyzing everything within hundredths of seconds in his direct vicinity before continuing his rush.

He grit his teeth and subconsciously growled, cursing the fact that he couldn't move as quickly as he wished to without garnering any unwanted attention. Apparently, according to Tatsumi, there were certain people inside the city that could fight Teigu users. And Najenda had said that Esdeath would be in Kyoroch as well.

Naruto frowned, his eyebrows heavily knitted in frustration. Something was whispering softly, but firmly into his ear and mind that something would happen. Something big. Either today, or tomorrow, or even in the next few months...and it was going to happen in this city. And really, something was bound to happen, especially with that kind of special population suddenly added to the city: Esdeath's crew, Night Raid, and a group of people that can fight against people bearing Imperial Arms.

After nearly twenty minutes of rushing through the crowds, the streets slowly became less and less filled with people and more and more open. Eventually, Naruto reached the end of the cobblestone streets and reached the edge of the city, the transition marked by an immediate shift to grassy dirt and a huge change in scenery due to the lower building count.

The first thing that hit Naruto was the wind, which ruffled his hair and played with his locks lightly. Next was the emptiness of the scene before him: gravestones littered the ground, and trees filled the rest of his vision until the mountains in the edge of vision below the sky and clouds. Then, the scent struck him.

There was blood. Fresh.

Naruto's veins stopped pumping blood and starting flowing with hyper-charged jolts of pure electricity. The blond bolt to where his nose guided him, trailing along the scent of iron and liquid, which brought him to a decapitated corpse. He didn't even bat an eyelash at the scene, but he did raise an eyebrow when he saw feathers embedded into the soft earth. Looking around more carefully to scrutinize the newly discovered battleground, he ran about the area.

Suddenly, Naruto paused. Something had flashed in his vision for a fraction of a second, but he had caught it. Staring at the ground, he noticed a glint from a reflection of the sunlight just coming up over the city's buildings. He knew what it was immediately: a wire. Thin to the point it was barely detectable, but strong enough to cut through skin and some muscle - and if knotted carefully able to carry a few hundred pounds with just two strings. But that wasn't the important part. The question was who set it up?

Naruto slowly traced the wire back to two trees, and then looked at each tree carefully. He went through each branch, and then, he found Akame. She was sleeping peacefully. At least that's what it looked like. In actuality, any person that came even within fifty feet of her as she was sleeping in an open area forced her awake, and any time someone opened the door to her room, she was up and ready with her sword at hand. It was a difficult habit for her to get rid of, and Najenda even encouraged her to keep it and hone it so the range of her awareness while asleep in an open area increased.

And as always, she still didn't wake up when Naruto was the individual in question.

The blond stared up at her closed eyes as she slowly breathed, each breath raising her chest, and each exhalation slowly deflating her stomach. Quickly jumping onto a branch of the same tree Akame was sleeping on, Naruto hopped up to Akame's level and nudged her cheek with a touch.

"Akame...wake up," whispered Naruto softly. She only moaned, frowning as she was nudged once more. Naruto heavily exhaled, losing his hard expression and giving off a relieved smile. She could have been in danger, taken away from him, stolen from this world's bounds, forced to fight him; anything remotely similar had been running through his head. It was during that moment, as he stared at Akame asleep in the tree, standing so his head was just even with hers, that he realized something.

He...liked Akame.

There was nothing he could think of that would be strong enough evidence to create a disagreement to this realization. It was an epiphany to a somewhat dense teen like him. The books helped, but never had he experienced this for himself. Familial love, he knew from his scattered memories. Deep friendships, he had with each member of Night Raid. But this kind of feeling...to actually like-like a person...it was so very different. He had felt it for the first time when he was at the original base and saw Akame in that small lake at night when he was supposed to be out and changed. That was when he felt something other than indifference for once in his life.

Akame, a girl who acted indifferent and was dense to many things, the girl who wore mostly black and wielded a blade that could kill any person with just a single scratch, a girl who had seen so much blood and agony. Really, 'girl' was the wrong term for her. She was old enough to kill, and thus old enough to drink and do everything else should she so choose. She was a woman.

Akame had brought color to Naruto's world of grays.

Naruto shook his head, pushing the thoughts into the deep recesses of his mind. He would think about that later; the most important thing was to get his partner out of here and back to base. So he carefully, oh so carefully, placed Akame on his back after placing his blue jacket and hood over her so she wouldn't be recognized, then jumped down to the ground without a sound. Looking behind him, he was content to see Akame's still peaceful sleeping face as she lightly breathed.

'She looks cute.'

He looked past her, and saw the trap that had awaited him if he had messed up.

He turned his head and looked forward, back to the city. Of course Akame had prepared herself in case someone came upon her during her slumber. Except for Naruto. If it was the blond, she would have known she'd continue to stay within the realm of Morpheus.

He still didn't realize just what that meant.

Naruto pushed Akame up a little and grabbed a hold of her lower thighs when he felt her shift slightly down. Immediately after the push, her arms drooped over his shoulders and crossed loosely over his chest, her head directly next to his.

He froze just outside the town when Akame's arms shifted and gently wrapped a bit tighter together around his neck. The feeling of her hair rubbing against his face snapped him out of the surprised daze he'd fallen into. Taking the opportunity to look at his passenger, Naruto found himself staring into her unusually sleepy red eyes. Akame blinked slowly at him and gave him a small smile, one which reached her eyes just ever so slightly, before she shut those eyes again and dozed off. Naruto stood stock still for a few moments, unsure how to react to that, before resolving to get her back before it got too late in the day and let her get the rest she evidently wanted so much.

It wasn't long before the two were in the city's streets once more. The 'couple' received a generous amount of looks from random passers and even a few waves and pointed fingers, all to which Naruto smiled to with a gracious nod, but he was on autopilot the whole time back.

When he had finally placed the girl on her bed, he looked at her one more time, recalling that half-asleep look she'd given him earlier and that smile before relaxing almost unnoticeably and taking a deep breath before letting it out along with a lot of tension he didn't realize he'd been holding onto. Naruto smiled and glanced at the slumbering girl once more and then walked away after picking up the plate of food left on her table. He would eat it himself; Susanoo was a much better cook than he was, after all.

"Are you alright?"

Naruto turned to face Yuna after he had silently closed the door. He shrugged. "I'm fine if she's fine. Sorry for waking you up, Yuna. I didn't mean to make such a huge ruckus."

"It's fine...just try not to be so loud next time, please," she asked politely, pointing up to her ears. Naruto gave her an apologetic grin and nodded before turning away from her and going downstairs and right back outside again. Susanoo was waiting outside for him with a packed lunch. After the blond had gratefully accepted it, he walked away whistling a jaunty tune.

"And what's got you so happy, Naruto?" whispered a cheerful voice right next to his ear. Naruto didn't even bat an eyelash, his eyes focused to straight in front of him. Chelsea smirked as she walked backwards. "So silent, hmm? Were you that worried about Akame?" The blond gave her a look from the corner of his eyes before sighing and refocusing his gaze to the town about him in his very vicinity. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Can't you do your research and stuff in another region? I've got this sector down."

"Nope!" Chelsea chirped. Naruto lowered his gaze. The auburn-haired girl noticed this and her smirk widened. "I'm just joking, Naruto. I'll leave you alone for now. Just keep doing what you're doing!" she cheered him on before slapping him on the shoulder and running off in the opposite direction in which they were walking.

Naruto turned and watched her run away and disappear into the city's crowd before looking down at his hands. Then, he clenched them.

He saved someone...he changed something. Now, it was time to get stronger. Strong enough to change everything and anything.

He looked up from his hands and took a step forward. Just at that moment, a hand gripped his shoulder, stopping him suddenly. Naruto quickly looked over his shoulder to find a girl, a pretty one at that, behind him. She had a horizontal scar on the right side of her face, and was wearing what he assumed was a white, exposing shrine maiden outfit. Seriously? What kind of shrine maiden wears a metal bra top outside of the outfit and still shows cleavage?

"Yes, can I help you?" asked Naruto with a cheerful tone. Service with a smile, right?

The girl grinned. "Of course you can. Have you, by any chance, seen a person with purple hair that hangs down in two bangs around the face. Long hair, very muscular figure-"

Naruto held up a hand to stop her. "Wait, why are you asking me this? There's no way I would know any of this. I just got here a few days ago, for Kami's sake!" He took her hand off his shoulder and began to walk away, muttering, "Man, talk about crazy people. I just got here from the Capital."

Just after he turned a corner and began to inspect some goods from the vendors, he furrowed his eyebrows. "Can you not, please?"

"Not what?" An amused tone responded quickly as the person beside the blond fell quickly into step with him. "Follow you? I'm interested as to just what you are doing," the girl explained. "My name is Suzuka. Pleased to make your acquaintance," she greeted politely. Naruto remained silent, his eyes carefully inspecting the vendors with a practiced eye. After a few more moments of his perusal of the area, she decided he had delayed his introduction long enough. "Aren't you going to introduce yourself?"

"No. Why should I?" was the curt response. Naruto went straight through to another street and began to investigate whether or not this street's vendors had ramen. He was really craving for some at the moment.

"It's common courtesy to introduce oneself after another does so, is it not?" inquired Suzuka calmly. Naruto chuckled.

"I'm not really one for common courtesy. Sorry, but not really sorry." Suzuka raised an eyebrow. Then, her small grin increased in size.

"Is that so? Well then, let me introduce myself properly, interesting traveler from the Capital." The blond seemed to stiffen slightly. He didn't expect her to hear him mutter that he just traveled from the Capital. She noticed that. "I am Suzuka, one of the Four Rakshasa Demons, and I serve directly under the Prime Minister."

A few seconds ticked by. Naruto still didn't even deign to respond.

"Anything you want to say?" The black-haired girl egged on, trying to prompt Naruto to introduce himself.

"Eh...not really," was the noncommittal answer with the over elaborate shrug. "By the way, do you know if there is ramen somewhere around here? I've been searching for forever, and I still haven't found anything." The platinum-haired teen pouted. "If I don't have any in a few hours, I'll start having withdrawal symptoms."

"Are you addicted to that unhealthy noodle splashed in soup?" Suzuka asked, incredulously. It was the wrong question to ask.

She immediately felt Naruto's eyes focus on her with intense power. His cold, azure eyes caught onto her insignificant figure. She was so small, so puny in the presence of this...lover of Kami's greatest creation, Ramen itself.

'Wait, what?' She caught herself and forced a grin. That was a new experience...and she kind of liked it. She hadn't felt something like that in a long time. Insignificance, nothingness, terrifying smallness in the face of an apex predator...it was so strange. She had dreamed for many nights of Esdeath performing her torture on her, and she had awoken many days saddened by the false reality of her dreams. But...this blond boy in front of her, someone she assumed to be just a simple nobody at first, thought somewhat suspicious, caused her to experience something she hadn't imagined possible from anyone other than Esdeath, the sadist goddess herself. If she could just –

"I don't need someone that can't understand that ramen is a gift." Naruto turned his back to her, about to escape into the crowd. "After all -"

"I have ramen back at my headquarters. Would you like some?"

Suzuka had never seen someone turn around so quickly and change their expression from cold and distant to warm and inviting.

"Take the lead!"

XShuyaX

(Location: Borick's Mansion)

"Woah, this is amazing! Really, this is awesome! I didn't know you would have this much!" gushed Naruto through mouthfuls of the holy food. He was eating at a table outside of the mansion, cheerfully talking.

"Is that so? I'm glad you like it. So, now would you tell me your name?"

"Mmm! So good! *Slurp* Yeah, it's Naruto!" Said blond took a moment to look about his immediate area, impressed slightly by the mansion's design and layout. He was outside in a courtyard of some sort surrounded by other tables, but they were all empty. However, it didn't mean that it was any less impressive; the spaciousness of the outdoor dining area was impressive by itself, but the actual courtyard out beyond the stairs stretched on for at least a hundred meters, split in the middle by a large fountain. Large shrubberies and other green plants outlined the area, creating beautiful scenery.

When he had first walked through the entrance of the large mansion, he was quite impressed by its incredible size. The entrance itself was grandeur with large double doors made of gold, marked by many ornate designs. Leading up to the door were a set of stairs, and then four large pillars that held up the ceiling above the entrance. Once inside, there was an expansive ballroom with beautifully arrayed tiles matching the themes on the walls, and at the edge of the rooms were circular stairs that ran in a semi-circle and met at the other end once on the second floor. In the middle of the first floor, he noticed a chandelier hanging at the top, an absolutely exquisite one at that, which was made completely of some type of crystal and cut by probably the finest craftsman.

All in all, befitting of a tyrant.

"Naruto, hmm? That's an interesting name," Suzuka pondered loudly. She crossed her legs, sitting directly across the blond. Naruto stacked the now finished ramen bowl onto the stack of twenty-two complete bowls.

"So is Suzuka," he countered. She chuckled politely at his response. "So, why'd you bring me here anyway? I'm grateful for the food and all, but I don't see a reason to bring me here at all." Naruto suddenly stopped chewing and looked up to her with a frightened gaze. "Wait...you aren't a philanthropist, are you?"

"No. Why? I'm pretty sure that being one is a good thing, right?"

Naruto adamantly shook his head. "Nope! I don't know if you heard, but there were a group of philanthropists in the Capital. They would take people in to their house, feed them, give them clothes and a roof above their head, and then torture them to death. Kind of disgusting as to how procedural they were about it, going through a different kind of torture every single time."

"Oh? I think I may have heard of the one you are talking about. They lived in a mansion and I believe the daughter's name was Aria, correct?"

"Yeah...I just hope there aren't people like that here," Naruto wished quietly. Finishing the twenty-fifth bowl of ramen, he stacked the bowl and leaned back in his chair and sighed contentedly. "Ah, that was awesome!" Patting his stomach, which was now quite rotund, the blond animatedly stretched out his body and grinned widely.

"I'm glad you liked it. And as for sadists, there are always people like that, no matter where you go. And I hope that one day, I'll find the perfect one to match me," said Suzuka in a lustful tone. Naruto paused in his stretches immediately, his arms halted above his head. His masochist senses were tingling. His eyes slowly slid downward from the sky to the girl in front of him, and he noticed she was looking at him with a somewhat wanting stare.

"I'm sorry, what?" he replied wisely. "I don't see what I could have possibly done to acquire this kind of attention." Naruto narrowed his eyes and looked outside the courtyard. Suddenly, his eyes opened up in recognition. "No. Don't tell me..."

"That's right," Suzuka smirked, holding up a bowl of ramen. Naruto's neck creaked as he slowly turned to face it. It was at that moment that she began to the tilt the bowl so that its contents began to spill over the edge. Suddenly, she was stopped when her wrist was suddenly held by the blond's hand, and his face was directly in front of her with a cold expression.

"You...will not deface ramen," he threatened slowly. His cold blue eyes became chips of ice. "I will not allow it, and if I see you do that again and actually succeed...I will not forgive you." Suddenly, his tone and attitude took a complete turn as he smiled and backed away from the surprised Suzuka. He picked up and righted the chair that he had thrown in his rush over to save the noodles and sat down peacefully, eating his noodles with gusto.

"But it seems you understand; you are capable of such an oppressive and powerful aura, even for a moment, whenever ramen is threatened. I haven't felt so weak and small in the face of something in such a long time. It's so...exhilarating!" Naruto slowly edged away from the table, still eating his ramen, albeit a tad bit more warily. She edged closer to the blond. "Tell me, can you make me feel like that again? I want it so badly! Show me a new kind of pain and what you can do!"

Poke.

"Ow! But...it hurts so good!" Suzuka shouted in delight, her hands cupping her eyes. Naruto went right back to eating after poking her eyes with two fingers, his bored eyes looking down at his food with a half-lidded stare.

'What the hell have I got myself into? I'm not sure if I should even continue this infiltration anymore or not. This is ridiculous and is freaking me out.' Naruto looked up from the finished bowl and stared at the girl in front of him, who was still moaning in ecstasy. 'Yeah, as soon as I get what I need, I'm getting the hell out of here. Now...where would Borick be?' Suddenly, Naruto's acute sense of hearing caught on to a kind of...was that moaning on the third floor near the balcony window? 'Caught you, you bastard.'

"Oh my goodness...would you do that again, please?" Suzuka all but begged.

Poke. Poke.

"Ahhhhh~!"

Naruto had no qualms with her request. Besides, the longer her eyes were off of him, the longer he could stare at the mansion and get a general picture of the layout and how the building was structured.

"Just wondering, Suzuka. I noticed that there were graveyards all around the town in each of the cardinal directions. This mansion is on one on the edges, and like I noticed, there is a graveyard. Is there a reason for this?" Naruto questioned. If anything, he would rather be working near the center, right where the church of the path of peace was located, but this was fine, too. A bit creepy, all told, but fine. He was getting service, information, and food. Can't beat that, can you, Lubbock?

"Nope, it just was made that way. Again, please?"

Poke. Poke.

"Ahhhhh~! Why does this hurt so good?!" she moaned in delight, whimpering seductively every once in a while. Naruto shrugged to himself, knowing she couldn't see the action.

'Maybe because you're a masochist.'

XShuyaX

(Location: Center of Kyoroch)

"...I hate this job sometimes. Mez was pretty cute, too. Damn it," Lubbock said to himself. He coughed up a bit, spitting out blood after the random seizure stopped racking his body. "Damn, I need to stop talking and get the hell out of here."

So he ran away from the alley where he killed two of the Rakshasa Demons: Sten and Mez.

With this, there were only two left in his book: Ibara and Suzuka.

He didn't know Akame had already taken care of Ibara, and that Naruto was currently appeasing Suzuka.

XShuyaX

(Time Skip: One Month)

Night Raid had taken care of all four of the Rakshasa Demons in literally three days in the city-turned-battleground. Apparently, Tatsumi had invented a live burial technique just for Suzuka, and Seryu Ubiquitous had been defeated by Mine when she used her emotions and her pinch situation as fuel to end the battle. When Naruto was informed of this, some of the members noticed that he seemed a little down in spirits. They misinterpreted his expression and timing, assuming that he felt sorry for the insane Jaeger girl. He quickly corrected them and stated that he felt sad because his source of free ramen had been removed from the world.

"So, are you sad that Suzuka is dead, then?" Akame asked.

Naruto shrugged. "Not really. Susanoo made it better anyway. It's just she was my ticket into Borick's mansion without suspicion. He'll probably start hanging around the Cathedral instead since you guys just killed every member of the defense force sent for him by the Prime Minister."

"Wait, you got into the mansion?" Lubbock nearly yelled, barely controlling his surprise. Naruto calmly nodded.

"Yup. But since that possibility is now shot out the window, I guess our only opportunity of killing our target is through a fight against the Jaegers, since they seem to have caught us here in a deadlock. For Kami's sake, I probably just needed another week at most. I had the layout of the mansion and knew where he slept, for the love of whatever god leads the 'Path of Peace'." He shrugged again nonchalantly before cracking each of his fingers and his neck. "Well then, I guess we'll have to do this mission the hard way, right?"

"Well, our mission was to eliminate Borick and try to keep the 'Path of Peace' afloat. Now, it does appear we will have to confront Esdeath's group," Najenda confessed. She narrowed her eyes and locked on to each person's eyes, especially Naruto's. "But that doesn't mean we have to fight her head-on. Our goal is to get in and 'get the hell out', as Naruto would put it. That's what an assassin does, and that's exactly what we'll do if we can. But for now, train. Train until you can't anymore and then train some more. In a month, I want to see each of you personally to test just how powerful you all have become. Dismissed!"

The surprise that came from the fact Naruto had infiltrated successfully into Borick's mansion and had a chance to complete their mission before even news of the Jaegers arrival hit them was comparable to a thousand-volt shock coursing through every person. Even Chelsea complimented the blond on his stealth and infiltration. He just shrugged and said he knew that he was being followed and Suzuka had somehow had not seen him carrying Akame back with him to their headquarters. In short, that it was all luck.

Either way, they were all dealing with the situation now in their own ways, all with one goal in mind: kill Borick, even with the Jaegers and the all-powerful Esdeath barring their way. That meant training, and lots of it.

Mine had finally recovered from her battle, Tatsumi was always training and improving at a rapid pace regardless of the situation, Leone was outside the town fighting Danger Beasts, Akame was doing...whatever she was doing, Lubbock was recovering still, and Chelsea was sharpening her tools. Yuna, Najenda, and Susanoo weren't really training, but then again, there wasn't much each of them could do to either improve or fight...in their minds.

Naruto, on the other hand, was on his own outside of town, though on the opposite end from Leone. He was shirtless, sweating so heavily that his whole body seemed to have a layer of polish to it. The two hundred pound body weight was pressing down on him intensely as he kept his arms rigidly outward, completely horizontal from his shoulders. He was sitting straight up in a lotus position, focusing solely on his arms.

'Focus...keep the Chi directed right where the muscle meets the metal of the weights to minimize the use of physical force, but maximize the efficiency.' Naruto shut his eyes in concentration once more as he felt the strange physical energy support the muscles right where it needed to, although it did spread out a bit more than he wanted. True, Chi couldn't simply be right under the weights, but had to have a small amount of support on other regions to support the muscles directly taking the strain, but he knew it was spreading a little too far even then. He had been focusing on Chi control for a while now, ever since he decided he had enough strength training for the time being. Naruto wore the two hundred pound body weight at all times. In part, the reason was that he didn't have the key to unlock it. Only one person had the key, and that was Susanoo, who was given strict orders to not unlock the weights by Najenda.

So, Naruto stuck around with the Organism Teigu for a bit, joining in training along Tatsumi, who took everything and more and still soaked in the teachings. Naruto had listened and watched carefully while the old Teigu explained each facet of the training, despite his outwardly bored appearance hinting otherwise, and after a few days he realized something.

It was control that he was lacking.

Susanoo had immense power, of that Naruto was certain. Susanoo was able to destroy a falling boulder that had a radius of at least ten feet, but he destroyed it by focusing on a single point, which he deemed the 'weak link' of the rock. Something about this demonstration had caught Naruto's eye and interest, and he quickly decided to capitalize on what he learned that day.

Having read through every single one of Sheele's books and novels, including the instruction and physiology texts, he had obtained a wide variety of knowledge on a multitude of subjects, more than most people would even consider such an outwardly lazy person to gain in their entire lifetime. Most importantly, he had grasped the basic idea of the human body's weak points.

Much like the boulder, certain points in a regular person's body, if given too much stress or pain, would alter that person's actions quite significantly. For example, if Naruto struck a person's arms to incapacitate their upper body, he would have normally struck right where the triceps separated from the biceps. However, if he struck instead at a significantly more vulnerable point, which would be right at the elbow right where the bone and the muscle tendons connected, their arms would be useless. Or, for another example, instead of hitting the stomach, always aim for the liver or the heart. These differences in target were measured in centimeters at times, but those centimeters would make a huge difference.

But this was done with focus on another. In order to completely understand what areas were more vulnerable than others, he decided to play around with Chi, a very foreign idea to him previously. He would spread the energy around and find out where the muscles and his body required the most assistance when wearing a weight, when walking, or just doing daily exercises. Through this process, he felt he had figured out where a person's most vulnerable points were, or at least his own which was very valuable information either way, and he also significantly increased his control and the number of uses of Chi available to him before he fell to his knees.

No, he was not focusing on pressure points. Pressure points, a person could just study and know without as intense a form of training. Although Naruto knew pressure points could impair an enemy easily, the points and vulnerabilities he was searching for did not simply impair, but enabled him to quickly incapacitate, destroy any chance of struggle, and quickly eliminate his targets. He didn't need the victim of his strikes to be fully aware of what was going on, just quickly taken care of and just as quickly an afterthought.

"Naruto, do you think you are prepared for your test?" Susanoo asked, breaking Naruto's concentration. The blond sighed and let his arms drop heavily to the ground. Then, he stood up, shaking off the leaves on his head and patting the dirt off of his pants and the stray ends of his scarf.

"I guess. Let's go to the waterfall and see how Tatsumi is doing, shall we?" Naruto asked, his back to Susanoo. The much older humanoid narrowed his eyes in recognition of a certain detail.

"Your back has become much more defined and muscular. You have been working hard," he complimented. Naruto shrugged his shoulders to stretch out his shoulder blades, which only emphasized further the muscles that had grew and cut themselves into shape on the blond's shirtless body. He turned around to expose a perfectly cut six-pack that seemed unreal in its solidity and was quickly making way to an eight-pack, along with oblique shapes that would quickly become bumps from the amount of exercise he had done in the last month.

The dreams, which he properly called nightmares, were still starting to get to him.

Then again, he was getting used to the nightmares. But he felt that it was a somewhat sad fact that he had so many nightmares about his precious people dying that he had obtained a kind of resiliency to the nightmares, so that he only woke up with a cold sweat, rather than the sleep talking he was told he'd been near constantly keeping up at first along with the insane tossing and turning that usually resulted in him fighting in his sleep and breaking a few walls.

But he digressed.

"Thank you, Susanoo." The blond had grown another inch and his voice had gotten somewhat deeper. His face was far more angular than when he started, as he had been exercising endlessly for the past month, causing him to come across as much older and more mature in character than he was before. However, that idea couldn't be farther from the truth. He was still the same Naruto that he was before: lazy and only fighting to see what the world would be like in Akame's and Night Raid's vision for the future.

"So, what have you been focusing on for the past two weeks since you decided to stop training with Tatsumi?" Naruto slowly fell into step with his partner. The blond grinned and brought his index finger to his lips.

"That's a secret. But if you can tell I have already gotten stronger, that's a good sign. Hopefully, my training actually bears fruit," breathed out the blond tiredly. He needed to be strong enough so that when the time came, he would be allowed to fight on the front lines. Naruto wanted to fight beside Akame, and he needed more strength...a lot more. Despite the fact that Akame called him strong, he always denied her statements, telling her that until Najenda allows him to fight alongside her, Tatsumi, and Leone, he wouldn't consider himself strong enough. After all, he was made for close combat, so what the hell was he doing in the back next to Chelsea, Lubbock, and Mine?

"I'm certain that you have grown several times stronger. After all, if it is true that you had no idea how to fight nearly six months ago, then the rate at which you progress must be astounding. It is quite difficult to obtain the praise of my master, and she has quietly spoken of you highly when alone with me," Susanoo confessed. Naruto coughed to himself.

"Is that so? Lubbock would be quite jealous," the platinum-haired teen let out with a smirk.

"It would not come as a surprise." Just then, the sounds of cascading waters reached the two's ears. "Come, your test awaits. Tatsumi has already completed his successfully." Naruto raised his eyebrows.

"What was his test?" asked the blond with no lack of interest.

"Remember what I demonstrated to you two?"

Naruto didn't even try to hide his shock. "No way," he let out, his mouth agape. "He destroyed a boulder that was falling towards him?"

Susanoo nodded. "That he did. Although the boulder was much smaller, he is beginning to understand the concept of aiming for the 'weak link' and has also obtained much more strength through his own vigorous training. I can only imagine how much you have improved and I am quite interested, despite being a Teigu incapable of emotions, just how much you have 'leveled up'."

The two entered the clearing of the waterfall, the sounds of water crashing down on water fully hitting the two now.

"Yeah...let's see just how much I improved, shall we?" muttered Naruto to himself. Then, he gestured to the empty clearing of the waterfall. "So, what's the test?" he asked while looking around the area. Suddenly, the blond ducked under a horizontal swing from Susanoo and rolled quickly before jumping away, creating a twenty foot distance between the two. Naruto narrowed his eyes at the Teigu, who was in a battle stance. "She didn't..."

"Your test, Naruto, is to fight me. I will be the assessor of your strength," revealed the powerful Susanoo. Naruto glared at his now deemed 'opponent' with a glare and growled.

"Give me the key, then. I'll fight you at full strength, for Kami's sake." The blond caught a key in his right palm that was thrown at him with such speed that it was barely a glint in his eyes. He had barely reacted in time.

"That is all I wish for. Koi (Come), and give me everything you have!" Naruto grinned as he heard the sounds of a lock release. Shrugging his shoulders once more, all of the weights broke apart and fell to the ground in a heavy heap. He stretched from left to right, rediscovering and reveling in his freedom.

"My, oh my, I feel so light!" The blond brought both arms down to chest level and his hands to shoulder height. "Well then..." he smirked, "shall we begin?"

The two stared at each other, both slowly sliding into their respective stances. Suddenly, the two broke into a sprint towards each other at an unspoken agreement to begin. The opponents met at the middle of the waterfall, their fists clashing with the other before engaging in an intense bout of hand-to-hand combat. Naruto was easily weaving through the quick kicks and punches that Susanoo threw his way after that, incorporating his own counters through his dodges. Right before they hit the water, the two punched each other, their fists connecting powerfully.

'Controlled Chi Impact!'

The two blew away from each other. Naruto landed on a large rock and hopped a few times to bleed off the momentum from the extremely powerful punch. He looked down at his right hand and clenched it quickly to assess its condition.

'Doesn't hurt too badly. But damn, Susanoo punches hard. I can only imagine how difficult this battle would be if I had to fight him with his weapon.' With that thought thrown out the window, Naruto dropped into his stance again and raised his fists. 'Let's see what happens if I engage first this time.' Focusing Chi to specific muscles in his legs, Naruto bent low before suddenly exploding forwards like a blast from Pumpkin, destroying the rock he stood just a half-second before.

Susanoo didn't even bat an eyelash at the increase in speed, raising his guard and catching each of Naruto's punches while the blond was still in the air. When he finally hit the ground, Naruto began to incorporate kicks, but even those didn't hit. Not even the roundhouse kick to the side. Susanoo simply blocked that with an arm. Seeing that this plan of attack wasn't working, Naruto spun on the balls of his feet quickly, letting his eyes slide from his opponent and letting his spatial recognition take over. Then he released a wind-whirling high kick to Susanoo's face with such a high velocity that most would've taken the blow without ever having seen it.

However, Susanoo wasn't most people, and simply took a step back, dodging the kick by a mere centimeter, a distance Naruto noted was likely deliberate.

'Fine...let's see how this goes!'

Naruto suddenly ducked under a punch and a spinning kick that had been sent at him in reply to his high-speed kick. Then, he quickly dropped to the ground and spun so that his extended leg struck one of Susanoo's own, since the other was in the air. Susanoo felt his balance be momentarily disturbed by the Chi powered kick, and that was all the time Naruto needed to capitalize on the opening.

"Gotcha now!" shouted the blond as he flipped over onto his hands and exploded up, cracking his heels into Susanoo's chin with enough force to send the Teigu reeling, but not enough to throw him careening through the air. However, this didn't stop the blond as he let his unpredictable nature take the lead. At the moment that Susanoo's eyes went skyward, Naruto split his legs and began to spin quickly on his hands before launching himself up, sending three circular helicopter kicks flying after the previous attack, each landing with a resounding crack against the Teigu's cheeks and face before landing on his hands once again.

Naruto hopped off his hands and landed in a crouch so that his head was about at Susanoo's thigh level. Letting the past two weeks of control training take over, he focused the Chi into his hands, arms, thighs, and the balls of his feet before exploding up and slamming his fists into Susanoo's abs with the crushing force of a wrecking ball, right where the heart was. Even then, however, Susanoo did not fly backwards, as Naruto had expected.

'Then how about this! Liver punch!'

Susanoo, who had bent over from the extremely powerful double punch, suddenly found his eyes looking back up to the sky from a quick, explosive open palm strike that gave even his neck whiplash. Then, for the first time in the fight, he actually felt himself losing purchase with the rocky ground as a dangerously vicious pain ripped through where he knew a human's liver would be as though a sledgehammer had been slammed into his side.

As if in slow motion, he saw each second slip past him. First, the extraordinary pain began to crush into his body and break his bones, despite his extremely powerful body due to his status as a Teigu. Then, he slowly tilted his head as his feet began to lose grip with the ground, his eyes catching the blond's for just a moment. And in that moment, he saw something dangerous in the blond's intense gaze.

He saw power, an untapped power well that was so deep, he may as well have been looking into an ocean whose depths were so far and so deep and so dark that he couldn't even begin to fathom the greatest capacity of the man before him.

Naruto, at this moment, was no longer a boy inside Night Raid who had been accepted into the crew by strange circumstances, but a man, who to Susanoo, fought with pride, and fought with every fiber of his being. To the Teigu, despite what he felt was his lack of emotional connection, Naruto's eyes said-no shouted everything! They spoke so much and said so many words that a full conversation or even a series of lectures could not even begin to describe the emotions breaking free from just a single fight. There was one thing very clear however.

Naruto was a man. And to Susanoo it seemed as if the man before him had finally found what he was searching for.

A purpose. A reason to fight.

And that reason...it was to protect. The only question was, did Naruto know it yet? Did he himself find out that this was what he knew to be his purpose? There was only one method to be certain. Fight him and break him until he realized that he didn't fight for himself if he truly didn't know already.

Naruto, who had thought he had given Susanoo quite a beating, widened his eyes in undisguised shock when he saw the Teigu, who was just about to go airborne and crash against the waterfall's flow, suddenly regain traction with ground and counter with a powerful blow, right to Naruto's neck. The blond felt himself wince and his left eye twitch slightly from the agony that began to spread through his neck, then his shoulder, and then his back.

He was lucky he had just concentrated the Chi right where Susanoo had punched before the strike landed, or else he was quite certain he would be down and unconscious with a wound that would last at least two weeks, even with his surprisingly fast recovery rate and Chelsea's and Susanoo's assistance. Naruto skid back nearly twenty feet from the powerful strike, his right hand scratching along the ground to slow down the slide.

"Damn...that hurt a lot," muttered the blond as he slowly stood back up. "Let's try this again, then..." Naruto groaned as he rolled out his neck. He really was lucky he had reinforced it in time, or else he was certain that the pain and irritation would be the least of his worries.

'Let's see...he's nearly thirty feet away. If I blitz him again, he'll probably block normally and we'll just go into another fight that he'll win. Then...behind? Am I fast enough?' Naruto questioned himself as the two continued to stare off at each other. The blond grit his teeth and narrowed his eyes in concentration. 'Only one way to find out...'

Once more, Naruto focused Chi onto the balls of his feet and to his legs, maximizing his explosive jumping power and upping his speed dramatically. Then, he bounded forward, closing the gap in a single jump. Right when he was about to strike Susanoo from the front was when the Teigu raised his guard but Naruto suddenly vanished from view.

'What?' Susanoo barely managed to think before three quick, consecutive punches struck him in the lower back, a few inches off from the spinal cord. Susanoo, to his credit, barely let out a grunt of pain from strikes that would normally debilitate any normal person, or even a skilled fighter. He turned quickly, trying to catch the blond in a backhand, but Naruto had jumped over it into the air already, having guessed that action to be Susanoo's first response.

Flipping over the extended appendage, Naruto used the arm as leverage and gripped it with both hands as he flipped, speeding up his front flip. Right when his eyes lost sight of Susanoo, he extended out his right leg and kicked Susanoo as hard as he could with a powerful axe kick that would shatter most men's shoulders, neck, and collar bone. Immediately after the kick, Naruto jumped back using that same leg and gained some distance from his opponent to assess the situation and how much damage he had dealt. For the former, the situation was not very good. As for the latter, he hadn't really dealt much damage, if the way Susanoo simply cracked his neck and gave Naruto the 'bring it on' gesture with his right hand meant anything.

"Oh, I'll give it to you for sure!"

And he charged in once more against Susanoo, the two quickly caught inside a beautiful, deadly dance. Naruto was ducking under punches, lashing out with his own strikes, retaliating with fast and explosive spinning kicks, and even flipping out of the way of his opponent's blows by the smallest of margins. As the seconds ticked by, their dance grew faster and faster as their movements increased, their intensity doubling, and their focus and power multiplying exponentially. Soon, the two were barely anything but blurs, using the whole area as their battleground, even going so far as to use the environment to their advantage.

'Watch him carefully...tilt the neck a few inches to the right to dodge the jab. Now try to strike at the elbow.'

'No, no, he saw that it was coming. Quickly! Throw out a kick!'

'Damn, he dodged it. Then again, he's not really hitting me either.' Just at that moment, a punch whistled through Naruto's locks of hair. Immediately afterwards, a wind struck the blond's face, showing just how powerful the blow was. 'Damn, he isn't going easy on me!'

'Strike lower; aim for the abdomen and force him to keel over slightly to create an opening!'

And so this dance continued, the rhythm and tempo constantly increasing until one had to drop out. That one was Naruto.

With a short burst of Chi, Naruto circled around Susanoo, dodging a five-hit combo with surprising ease. However, he didn't expect the Teigu to track his movements and quickly stop him by striking with a powerful punch to the neck. It was the same exact location as the first time, showing how experienced and skilled the battle Teigu was and the precision he held. And this time, Naruto didn't react quickly enough to put up a guard or even reinforce his body.

The blond went flying in the direction that Susanoo had punched. Naruto found himself slip off his feet and fly off at a breakneck speed before crashing against a tree, nearly fifty feet away from where he had been struck by Susanoo. He coughed and gagged as the impact against the wooden bark forced the air out of his lungs, and then slowly slid down to fresh ground, where he landed on all fours and began to cough again.

"Yes, it appears you have gotten much stronger." Susanoo decided to give Naruto some incentive, stating an obvious truth first. Anyone that could land that many hits on him without him countering easily was indeed a powerful opponent. However, an opponent that went down with a single counter was also a weak one. "However...you are also much too weak to fight alongside me. When we confront Esdeath's group, you will not be in the frontal assault, as Najenda had suspected," Susanoo stated, saying the words that Najenda had told him to speak. She reasoned that this would force Naruto to fight with what Chelsea said was 'his inner strength'.

"Shut...up," Naruto forced out through coughs. Slowly, the blond began to stand on his feet, slipping once as he got onto one leg, his hands gripping the raised knee with so much determination and strength that Susanoo was actually shocked. There was a dangerous will in the blond, he realized, that he quickly identified as what Chelsea had spoken of.

The man that he had deemed his opponent, just for this moment in time, had a specific trait that would make him one of the most powerful and frightening men in the world. And that trait was stubbornness.

The will to never give up.

Susanoo knew, at that moment, that hardheadedness was the specific trait the auburn-haired girl spoke of with such a cheesy smirk. He had struck the blond with enough strength that Tatsumi would have been unconscious without a doubt, regardless of where he punched. But here was Naruto, slowly getting back on his feet...no, he was already on his feet, standing tall in a battle stance, despite breathing heavily and knowing he had no chance in hell against the Organism Teigu directly in front of him.

"Shut up! You can't tell me what I can't and can do! Only I can determine that myself, and I'll show you...I'll show Night Raid...hell, I'll show the whole damn world my power!" Naruto quietly stated, though his words came across as clearly as a punch to the face. He cracked his neck and suddenly exploded towards Susanoo once more. For some reason, whether it was an illusion or not, Susanoo saw the blond's eyes become somewhat primal, an extended vertical orb instead of a perfectly round pupil, as Naruto closed the distance.

How fitting. Animals never stopped struggling until they died. Such was the case for desperate humans as well, and also for humans that had lost everything and had nothing more to lose. Susanoo had seen many in such a state, and Naruto's expression, full of determination and grit, as well as primal power, struck a chord in the Teigu.

Maybe...maybe he did have the feelings of a normal human as well.

"Koi (Come)!" Susanoo challenged, revealing nothing of his thoughts as he reared his right fist back. Naruto's only response was to cock his fist back as well and then meet Susanoo's fist. The two met once more in a clash of fists. Naruto struck out with a diagonal blow, trying to hit the extended appendage right on the elbow.

It failed, his left hand blocked by Susanoo's right open palm. Naruto's feet touched the ground, and he threw a high kick, trying to land a blow against Susanoo's ribs. This also failed. The moment the blond retracted his legs, Susanoo shot out two punches, the incoming strikes almost untraceable. Naruto barely ducked in time, getting out of harm's way. Or so he thought. Susanoo just simply brought both of his hands together and hammered them down on Naruto's skull.

The blond crashed to the ground in a heap from the excessive force, creating a small crater from the short spurt of explosive power Susanoo allowed himself to use. When Naruto didn't move any more, he turned around and began to walk away. He would talk to Naruto after he told Najenda his assessment. The blond would wake up and would need time to himself after such a defeat. Susanoo was certain that Naruto would feel his pride shatter and drown in embarrassment after such a quick defeat, despite his best efforts to improve in the past month.

And improve he did, multiple times over. But multiplying two over and over again against a million was hardly a factor. There was simply no contest, especially against Susanoo, an Organism Teigu that could not only dish out the most punishing offensive attacks, but also take the most fatal blows and not bat an eyelash. He was, what some would call, an extremely powerful offensive and defensive fighter.

Naruto simply stood no chance. In fact, the only members he deemed capable of fighting him for such an elongated period of time was either Akame or Tatsumi, although the latter would probably succumb to the extreme blunt force that Susanoo would bestow upon the boy's body with just a few strikes. Akame would be a challenge...until he went into Magatama Manifestation form.

So caught up in his thoughts, he didn't hear Naruto slowly shift on the ground. The blond drew in a raspy breath and coughed from the painfulness of just breathing. But damn it all, he wouldn't give up like this! He gave it everything he had, and this was all he could do? He needed something...anything! A trump card far beyond just Chi. A master of Chi would probably be able to fight Susanoo on even footing, even after his Magatama Manifestation formed, but that would take years of training. He didn't have years!

Desperation began to claw into Naruto's psyche, and his eyes began to glow again.

"Where...*Cough cough*...do you think you're...*Cough cough*...going?" Naruto asked in a breathless voice. Susanoo turned and saw the pitiful, and yet absolutely inspirational sight of the blond slowly getting up once more. It was a much slower process, but it was an impressive feat nonetheless.

Susanoo watched silently, his eyes catching everything. The blood Naruto spit out every time he coughed. The way his hands were shaking as he propped his elbows up and pushed himself onto all fours. The shaky breaths the blond took, as if it was taking everything he had to simply stay conscious. The last blow to the blond's head should have easily forced him unconscious and even given him a concussion.

When Naruto slipped on his feet trying to get up, Susanoo quelled a raging storm in his stomach that was roaring at him to help the blond get up.

'No...this is his fight. He is broken right now...so what does he have to say at this very moment.'

"Naruto, do you know why you are weak?"

Suddenly, Naruto ceased all actions to stand up, his right foot finally having found proper footing on the ground. A few moments passed in silence, the only sound being the waterfall echoing through the forest. Then, he slowly lifted his head so that, for the first time since Susanoo had ever met Naruto, Susanoo found tears in the blond's eyes.

"It's...*Cough cough* not my choice to be weak!" Naruto weakly responded, his voice slowly fading away as his eyes dulled at a constant rate. He was losing consciousness. "I...I won't lose! I can't lose!" Suddenly, as if Naruto found a power in him he had never touched, he slowly rose himself to his feet at a much faster rate, all the while talking and coughing out blood. "I'll get stronger...I'll get stronger!" he chanted, to himself and to Susanoo.

It was a promise.

Naruto slammed a closed fist into the ground to find some, any kind of grip. Suddenly, he turned to the side and coughed blood heavily, but he continued to rise. He slipped three more times on his feet, just trying to get to his knees, but he kept trying.

That was a trait Susanoo could respect.

"Don't you feel shame, groveling and trying to stand up, even though there is nothing left you can do other than stand? Don't you feel your pride shattered and yourself humiliated by this defeat?"

"Since...haa...haa...when did assassins care about those kinds of things? I won't give a damn about my pride if the situation requires it! Humiliation? I'll stand a hundred times more and still feel proud that I can stand! I'll become stronger...until I'm the strongest...until no one will never call me weak!" Naruto was now on his feet, his body bent over so that his hands were gripping his knees. "So, even if I lose now...I promise I won't ever lose again!"

"I will fight!" Naruto whispered with all the strength he had left in his body. Then, he fell unconscious, his blue eyes completely dull.

But Naruto was still standing. He was unconscious, beaten, humiliated, destroyed, and defeated. But he remained standing, caught in between a fighting stance and a relaxed pose.

Susanoo couldn't help it anymore. He walked up to Naruto, and when he was directly in front of him, dropped to his knees and placed his hands on the blond's muscular shoulders. He wasn't entirely certain why he was saying this now, but somehow he knew he had to say it, as though even though the blond could not hear him, the world would listen in his stead.

"I am sorry that I lied to you, my friend. You are powerful...and you are strong," he spoke in a deep tone, talking to the unconscious teen. "I could feel your emotions through that short fight; a true warrior can understand another warrior's thoughts and feelings, even through just a single strike. We fought for nearly five minutes, and I now understand you completely...more than you probably understand yourself." Susanoo looked up to the sky. "I have heard that Tatsumi has mountains of potential, so much that he can easily reach General-Class within a few years, maybe even shorter. After evaluating this theory, I have to state myself that the words that escape your friends' lips are true; he is a prodigy."

"But so are you, Naruto. I know you cannot hear me, but someday, someone else will realize this as well. You are a genius, and you will far surpass me in every essence of the definition of strength. If Tatsumi represents all the land of the world and the high mountains, then you represent the ocean and its uncharted depths and the deep abyss. You are a well of unmatched power, just waiting to be unleashed...as an Organism Teigu, I can sense it."

He stared the dull curelean eyes of the blond with his powerful orbs of blue with a seriousness that would crack most men under its gaze. Then, he said -

"You will be strong."

If Najenda ever, ever again ordered him to break Naruto in a fight to find out what his 'true strength' and motives were, he would fervently refuse and defy his master's orders, no matter the consequences.

Naruto was strong. He had lied to the blond, calling him weak. What kind of coward would fade away from consciousness at professing his willingness to fight and his promise to become the strongest in the face of an opponent multiple times more powerful than himself? Why was he the weakest in Night Raid...if he had the most powerful drive that Susanoo had ever seen in his long years in this world? What kind of weakling was Naruto, if he fell unconscious, and remained standing in the best fighting stance his broken body would allow...no, his body wouldn't allow it. Susanoo saw how Naruto struggled to even breathe. That was all willpower and struggle. Raw determination to carry on despite everything telling him to stop.

Naruto was a man, through and through, and he would be damned if he saw the blond die before Naruto realized his full potential. Naruto had so much to learn, despite how quickly he progressed, but that only meant that he would become so much stronger, so much more powerful, so much more intelligent in the ways of warfare and the world at large. He just needed to tap into that well of power and find himself and realize that his power...it was born from his willingness to protect others.

Those that he deemed precious.

Susanoo shook his head and then bowed to Naruto's unconscious body. This blond was an honorable warrior, and he would treat him as such.

Yes...he could only imagine how much Naruto would improve over time. And the possibilities which would be unleashed if he just had a Teigu.

That's why...when Susanoo returned to base with a beaten and broken Naruto and gave his assessment to Najenda he told her that Naruto would be in the back, supporting the others, and not in the frontal assault. He never once said, however, that the reason was because Naruto was too weak. It would have been too great a lie. But still, he ensured that the blond remained off the front line.

Because until the day that he unleashed his true potential came, Susanoo would not allow Naruto to die.

XShuyaX

(Time Skip: Four Hours)

Naruto slowly opened his eyes to the world as the fading sunset began to go down. The light was a pale orange-yellow glow that illuminated the city streets with a strange sense of warmth that ever afternoon sunset seemed to give off. The sounds of laughing children and shop vendors still yelling out their wares reached his ears...everyone seemed happy.

He tried to get up in bed, but immediately groaned and flopped right back onto the cushion. Whatever hit him had hit him hard enough so that his whole neck and back felt like utter hell, and even his shoulders were feeling stressed beyond belief. "You shouldn't get up yet. You were injured quite heavily in your spar against Najenda-sama's Teigu."

Naruto turned his head to the side, resting his neck as much as possible against the pillow. He couldn't, for some reason, seem to identify the voice of the speaker. Did he hit his head that hard? At least he knew it was female.

"Akame..." said Naruto after he recognized the person at his bedside. He sighed, too tired and sore to even turn his head, and continued to stare at her. "How...what did Najenda say about the test?" he finally asked after a few moments of silence between the two. The wind rustled the window curtains for a brief second before it came to a stop.

"Najenda said that the results of your self training was very impressive, if Susanoo's report was accurate," she told him. She had been in the room when Susanoo had given his assessment of her charge, and she was happy to find out that he deemed the blond easily above Captain-Class based on the army's standards. Naruto was making leaps and bounds in his training, and if Najenda-sama's widened eyes were anything to go by and make a guess using, the white-haired ex-general was astonished as well.

"But not strong enough and impressive enough to stay with you guys in the front, right?" asked the blond. She shook her head. Naruto closed his eyes, suddenly feeling so tired and empty. They remained that way for a few moments, neither saying a word, simply keeping to their own thoughts. It was a peaceful kind of silence, but one held with a bit of awkwardness and sadness. Akame didn't really know how to comfort the blond, but she didn't realize that just her presence was enough to keep his dark thoughts at bay for the moment, despite his great sadness at his failure to convince Najenda of his strength. "How much gauze and bandages did you use?" he finally asked, his eyes still closed. He was trying to get a feel for his body, but he had overused his Chi during the fight and it was not of much use in that task as a result.

Akame tilted her head in thought, bringing a finger to her chin as she looked up to the ceiling in contemplation. After a few seconds of mulling over the correct numbers, she responded –

"Well, I'm not really sure, since I wasn't there when they wrapped you up. However, your forehead and the top of your head are covered in bandages and gauze for certain. From what I have seen, your chest, shoulders, neck, and also your arms and hands are wrapped in bandages. Gauze, I'm uncertain for what locations of your upper body, but I'm going to assume it was applied to you upper cavity, shoulders, and the base of your neck. Your arms and hands seemed to be fine, although a bit roughed up for some reason. Your legs also had a few scratches, but nothing a few days wouldn't heal," she informed him, confirming everything that he needed to know.

He had lost, and he had been defeated badly.

For some reason, the spar between him and Susanoo was somewhat blurry. Did Susanoo actually hit him on the head that hard, or just hard enough to jumble his memories?

"I need to get out of this room," Naruto spat out, forcing himself into a sitting position. Akame, however, pushed him back down to bed, pressing down on his chest before he was even halfway up and propped on his elbows. She stared at him from above with barely distinguishable concerned eyes.

"No. Right now, Naruto, you need rest. You can train later, when your body has recovered. We still have about two weeks until we make our move. Until then, we...I need to you rest until you are in peak condition to join us in our assault against Borick. We only have one shot at it, and I won't accept failure, especially if my student was the reason and because I didn't press you down hard enough to rest," admitted the girl. Her hair lay sprawled on the bed, covering Naruto's whole upper body covered in bandages, the sheets having fallen off his chest as he rose. He was in a kind of tent of hair, and the only thing above him was Akame's face, the window and curtains dancing in the sunset wind and orange darkness.

"...Fine. Can you give me a kunai, at least?" Akame furrowed her eyebrows imperceptibly, but the blond noticed. Six months of being with a person that revealed very little emotion, but not few in affections, did that to a person. "No, don't worry. I'm not going to do anything stupid. I'll just play darts or something. I even made a durable target, see?" revealed the blond, jutting his chin in a certain direction.

Akame looked beneath the window and noticed that there was, in fact, a target. It was rectangular, with a large circular pattern touching the edges of the box. Once it was propped up on the opposite side of the bed, she sat back down on the chair at the bedside. Naruto held a kunai in his hand, carelessly spinning it in his hands and fingers with all the cares of the world thrown out of his mind. However, when he threw it, he was shocked when the kunai completely missed the center and barely hit the edge of the target, which was only nearly twenty feet away.

"No way..." whispered the blond in silent despair. Akame watched as the blond's eyes glinted in determination and he threw another kunai, then another...and then another. "Another...again...again...again...AGAIN...AGAIN!" he began to growl, constantly missing the target, his kunai starting to stray farther and farther away from the target and some of the sharp blades beginning to stick onto the wall. Akame said nothing, spectating quietly as Naruto desperately threw each blade.

"This isn't right...I've never missed...I haven't missed the center for nearly two months!" he explained, his wide eyes staring at the board littered with kunais, none even within ten inches of the center dot. He just sat there in bed, not moving, his bandaged face void of emotion. The older girl carefully fixed her eyes on the blond's face to check for any dangerous change in emotions as he continued to lay his disbelieving eyes on the target.

Slowly, he turned his head to her, his eyes sending all the words she needed. She held up ten more kunai, giving them to him one at a time as he threw them, each one missing the target. Gradually, Naruto's disbelief changed to anger, and then his anger to torturous anguish, and finally to deathlike tiredness. All that hard work...all that effort...all those months...and he couldn't hit a target anymore.

"What the hell have I been working for?" he inquired of himself in a whisper, but Akame heard. The two remained silent once more. Night had already come; the two were in the room for nearly an hour, with Naruto constantly throwing the kunai at the wall, not even hitting the target after a while. Akame knew how much pain this was giving to the blond, but she knew that not giving him the blades would hurt him even more mentally. He needed this...he needed to keep throwing, or else he would go insane over how he failed to do something so simple. But she knew he would keep trying until he got it, and his passionate stubbornness wouldn't let him go about it any other way.

Even though all he needed was a day's rest for his arms to heal and his shoulders, shoulder blades, neck, arms, and hands to properly function and work in alignment, she wouldn't stop him.

Even when she told him goodnight and walked out of the room, leaving a tray full of kunai in his lap, along with his shuriken and needles, he continued to throw. He didn't even respond with his own goodwill of goodnight, continuing to throw nonstop after she closed to the door. Outside, she noticed Susanoo, Lubbock, Tatsumi, and Yuna all standing outside, leaning against the wall next to Naruto's room. She didn't say a word to them, instead nodding to them all. They responded in likewise, and she sat by their side, making herself comfortable.

She soon fell asleep to the constant sound of Naruto's continuous efforts to hit the rectangular target, which quickly became a muffled thumping in her sleepy condition.

Naruto didn't stop once through the night, continuing past the darkest hour of night, through the deepest moment of darkness, and even through the moment the sun began to rise.

And all the while, he said only one word.

"Damn...damn...damn...damn..."

XShuyaX

(Time Skip: Two Weeks)

It was nearly sundown, as the sunset's light danced along the ground, slowly crawling up the mountains in the far view. Once again, like tradition, the vendors were selling their last wares of the day, and the children were on the streets again, playing games and running around, causing their own little kinds of fiasco and enjoyment. Away from all of this, away from civilization, and deep into the forest and closer to a certain waterfall clearing, the sounds of grunting and palm hitting rock repetitively resounded incessantly. Then, a mighty crunch echoed through the trees, and the large rock split apart, but the hits did not stop there.

"...That time took eight strikes to break that boulder...I need to bring it down to four!" panted out a tired and exhausted blond. Naruto had recovered from his battle against Susanoo, and his body was in training condition once more. He easily hit the targets once more, was gaining strength quickly, and improving again at an absurd rate, even though he had been training for only a week more; he had spent a week bedridden.

But the two weeks were too short to heal the damage in his psyche. Susanoo...he had called him weak. Weak, and not qualified to stand beside Akame, Leone, Najenda, Tatsumi, nor Susanoo himself in the front lines against Esdeath's Jaegers. Naruto felt his skin begin to crawl as his heart began to cry and feel empty. He had spent the long week in bed throwing kunai and shuriken at the target, day in and day out. It wasn't a surprise to anyone when he asked Tatsumi to buy another three targets for him. Within the fourth day, Naruto had recovered enough to hit the target dead center every single time. By the fifth day, his deadly throws were penetrating farther into the targets so that the whole kunai sunk into the material and the tip of the blades even began to scratch the walls. It was then that Akame took away all of his tools and told him to rest.

So for two days, Naruto sat in bed, home alone while the rest of the team went out to do their own little things. In other words, for two days, Naruto sat in reflection, constantly running the fight in his mind. And the issue was that the longer that Naruto replayed the battle in his mind, the more irritated and irate he became. He hadn't stood a chance against Susanoo...and then Najenda disclosed the fact that the Revolutionary Army would need fifty thousand experienced soldiers and at least ten Teigu users, including Akame, to defeat this person named Esdeath. To think that she was so powerful that she could possibly take on that many people with ease was...unimaginable to Naruto. He, who couldn't even hold up a candle to Susanoo, wouldn't even be a flicker in the eyes of Esdeath, if that were the case. He was a mere bug...and this made him indignant, so he thought it through again. But this always led him back to the battle assessment he had with the Teigu.

It was a long, vicious cycle for two days.

The moment he was allowed to leave the bed, it wasn't much of a surprise to anyone that he immediately went back to the waterfalls and trained. He needed to do something to get rid of the thoughts in his head, and his way of dealing with the dark thoughts circulating in his mind was to deal with the base of the matter of contention. He would get stronger, and through the training, the dark thoughts ignited a fire in him so bright, that it kept him running on an endless fuel. The thoughts flickered here and there during his training, but the one main quote that kept playing in his mind was –

'Naruto, do you know why you are weak?'

"Damn it!" roared the blond as he brought his right hand up, his elbow stuck near his body. Then, with all the force he could gather, he struck the heel of his right palm against another boulder, easily large enough to roll over seven people at once. The giant rock sphere groaned and rumbled greatly, then split in half as spider-line cracks beautifully etched along the surface of the giant split. Naruto stood still in between the two, panting deeply.

"...That took seven strikes. Again!" And so he jumped onto another boulder that he had brought over to the waterfalls, starting on his one-hundredth and sixty-eighth rock that day. The whole waterfall clearing was littered with broken rocks that Naruto had yet to remove from the area. At the start of the day, Naruto would find boulders and bring them over to the waterfall by rolling them, which required immense strength, an insane sense of balance, and intense concentration. Then, during the day, he would break boulders with his bare palms, strengthened with Chi. Finally, when Akame would come to the waterfalls and tell him to come back to base, he would remove all the broken rocks from the area and clean up.

It was a ridiculously torturous training regimen, but it was one that he enforced upon himself. No one had told him to do anything, and not a single person said anything to him even when they all found out was he was doing. Naruto had his reasons to train at such a ridiculous level, and if he had drive, there was no reason to stop him.

It's not like he would've listened to them anyway.

"Naruto." A feminine voice shattered Naruto's concentration right before he struck down on another large rock. He dropped his arms and stood up on the rock, standing still. He just...stood there for a minute, watching the waterfall reflect the sunset as the orange glow receded slowly. The platinum-haired blond felt the cool mist from the waterfall and the wind cool him down and refresh him as his hair tussled with the zephyr. Finally, Naruto turned around and looked down to find Akame staring up at him. "It's time for dinner, and there's a meeting afterwards."

"Wakatta (Got it)," he responded curtly before jumping to the ground. He looked around the area and sighed tiredly, suddenly feeling the drain from smashing rocks all day, much like the last six days, hit him. "I need to clean up first. I'll catch up to you later, alright?"

"I'll help you. Najenda-sama said that we'll only start dinner once everyone is at the table." Naruto gave her a flat stare.

"So you're only helping me to get food quicker, basically."

"Basically."

"...Whatever. Let's clean up," Naruto told her as he bent down to pick up half of a stone. She quickly joined him, and the two worked in silence that was in no way awkward. It was a serene and peaceful night, and it had taken nearly thirty minutes to clear the area, the whole time passing by with only the sound of the waterfall crashing down on the water. During the hour long walk back, Naruto decided to strike up a conversation, taking note of the fact that the streets were pretty much empty, a stark contrast from when light was out.

"Akame...am I weak?" he asked, looking away from the girl besides him. She immediately turned to him, staring with a quizzical expression clear on her face.

"No. Who told you that?"

Naruto shook him head, the action shaking the bangs that had grown. "It doesn't matter who told me, but the message is important." The blond brought his right hand up to eye level and clenched it shut. "I just...wish I was stronger. I'm tired of being weak..." Naruto turned his neck so that the two's eyes met. "...you understand what I'm saying, 'ttebayo?" She gave him a strange smile in response. Naruto frowned and raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What's so funny?" Her grin only widened, and she turned her eyes away and faced forwards.

"It's nothing, Naruto. It's just interesting to note how much you've changed in the past half year. The things you're saying and asking now, you would have never asked before," she pointed out. Naruto paused at that, recalling the way he used to act.

"Wow..." he breathed out. "I...I guess I have changed a little." He narrowed his eyes and looked down at the cobblestone ground. "But I'm still weak. That hasn't changed."

"Give it time," she wisely told him. Naruto growled.

"We don't have time. That's a luxury we don't really have," said Naruto. Akame just smiled again strangely.

"Make it through this mission, and we'll have a lot of time before our next confrontation against any powerful force from the Empire." Her voice suddenly took a darker tone as her red eyes gleamed when they passed a street light. "That, I can promise to you."

"...You promise?" he asked, almost childishly.

"I promise," she expertly responded. "You'll have all the time in the world to train to eventually reach our levels and to find a Teigu that matches you."

Naruto broke out of his frown and threw on a big grin. He held out a closed fist.

"Sounds good!"

She pounded his fist fluidly, as if the two had been teammates their whole lives.

"Always."

XShuyaX

(Location: Night Raid's Base in Kyoroch)

"Wow Susanoo! I didn't know that your ramen was that good! I almost forgave you beating the crap out of me in our battle!" Naruto joked happily as he pat his stomach contentedly. The Teigu grinned down on the blond and patted the top of his head and ruffled Naruto's hair. The grin quickly switched into a slightly annoyed expression. "Hey, I'm not a kid!"

"To me, you are all children," Susanoo responded easily. "Now, be silent as my Master gives her orders for our assault on Borick." The Teigu pulled out a chair for himself and sat beside the blond, who had crossed his arms and slouched over before puffing out air to pushed up the hair stretching over his eyes.

"In two days, we will attack the Cathedral," Najenda began, immediately obtaining everyone's attention. "We have an underground tunnel that has reached the Cathedral and can easily attack that way."

"But Boss..." Mine interjected. "Don't you think Esdeath's group would have expected us to attack from below?"

Susanoo nodded. "That is certainly a possibility. But that is why Master is such a great tactician. She had already prepared for this kind of ordeal."

"That is true," Najenda agreed, allowing a small smile to break through from the compliment. "We will have two teams; one will be attacking from underground, and the other will be in the air. We'll be using the Air-Manta to infiltrate the Cathedral and assassinate Borick quickly and efficiently in the midst of the chaos. The two teams consist of offensive and defensive. On the defensive from the underground will be Leone, Susanoo, Tatsumi, and myself. All of us have high regenerative properties or powerful defensive qualities, making us well suited for this position."

"Can't disagree with you on that point, Boss!" Leone chirped as she took another sip from her expensive sake. Najenda grinned.

"Good. Now, the offensive team from the air will consist of Lubbock, Akame, and Mine. Our only goal is to assassinate Borick and get the hell out of there. Even with our limited forces, we can take care of this mission if we put Borick as the main objective and not Esdeath. And the bonus is that Esdeath's specialty is offense, not to play on the defensive side, so there might be a gaping opening."

"Then...Borick will be eliminated!" Akame said resolutely, concluding the thought in everyone's mind. Each person in the room had made their resolution for the fight in two days, whether it would be their last day in this world or not. Either way, it would surely be a day to remember.

"Wait a minute!" Naruto shouted, breaking the silence that had pervaded the room after Akame's resolution. Everyone turned to the blond. He slammed a closed fist against his chest. "What about me, Sea-chan, and Yuna?"

Najenda nodded in understanding.

"I was getting to you three," she explained, watching the wary eyes of the blond carefully as it dilated. He seemed supremely annoyed for some strange reason, as if he was not getting he wanted. "Naruto, you did well in our last confrontation against the Jaegers, so I want you to play the same role as a support." Najenda turned to Chelsea, who was licking a lollipop. "You will be a support as well, but more focusing on offensive this time. If you see a chance to assassinate Borick, go for it! If any of your team's members needs help, however, you know what to do." Chelsea nodded. The white-haired ex-general acknowledged this by dipping her chin curtly. "And as you, Yuna...I have to thank you greatly for your services. Your ears have been a huge boon for us in information gathering, especially for the past month and a half in this city. However, I'm going to tell you to take the second Air-Manta they bring us and join the main forces of the Revolutionary Army when they come."

"What?" was the confused response from the large-eared girl. She gave a broken look over to Naruto, who looked just as conflicted and confused. Najenda didn't even bat her eyelash.

"Yuna, you are neither an offensive nor defensive player in the scheme of the whole game. If this were a game of chess, your figure would be a scout, which is worse than a pawn, but just as important in some cases. You are alive and have retrieved valuable information; your job is complete. Now, it is time for you to make your escape and make due with what is best for you and for our revolution, which is to assist the Revolutionary Army from tomorrow," explained Najenda. Yuna opened and closed her mouth multiple times, as if unsure of what to say. In the end, her hesitation won, and she remained silent, dispassionately and sadly acquiescing to Najenda's orders.

"Is that all?" Naruto asked quietly. Najenda turned to face the blond and raised an eyebrow when she saw his eyes flaring with a strange electric static. He was pissed, but he also seemed to understand the situation. He remained seated with his arms crossed, and his face betrayed no emotions other than in his eyes, which were a storm of waves and hurricanes along with lightning and heavy rain and wind.

"Yes. You are all dismissed! Do you what you need to do to prepare for the assassination in two days. Make sure you all rest properly, understood?"

"Hai!" Akame affirmed.

"You got it, Boss!" Leone and mine said agreeably in sync.

"Of course, Master," Susanoo nodded.

Lubbock just grinned, as did Chelsea.

"Wakatta (Got it)," Naruto said coolly.

Yuna remained silent. The moment that the party broke up, she immediately went away from the dining room and walked outside. Soon, everyone had dispersed from the kitchen table other than Najenda and Naruto, who remained in the same position as before except that his eyes were closed. She grinned at him as she brought her elbows propped up on the table and her hands together, fingers interlaced, as she rested her chin on the top of her hands.

"You seem displeased, Naruto. This would be the second time you have disagreed with me on an order," she began. Naruto quickly shook his head.

"No. I don't disagree with you, and I understand where you are coming from." The blond opened his eyes, revealing deep pools of ocean blue. "I came to talk to you about a different subject."

"Oh?" Najenda couldn't hide the intrigue in her voice. "And what could you possibly ask for, Naruto?"

"Not ask, Najenda. I'm here to talk about a Teigu." He paused, letting the subject sink in.

"A Teigu for me."

XShuyaX

(Time Skip: Two Nights Later)

The calm before the storm. And if fortune proved to be true, a big storm was coming, one so large that it could topple a single domino that would start everything. The event that would take place in just a few minutes would make its way into the history books as a turning point for the eventually end of the war between the revolutionaries and the Empire.

It was the darkest hour of the night, the perfect time for assassin's to strike. Both sides had a goal in mind, and the results would have nothing to do with the divine. Everything will come by the hand and strength of the warrior, and loss to Esdeath would result in extreme torture. Straight above, into the night sky, it was clear with no clouds in sight, and the moon and flames of the earth were the only lights.

Naruto slowly walked out of the trees and into the grassy clearing, where he saw a group of men sitting near crates, just waiting for someone to go their way. Well, he wouldn't be the person to do it. He had specific orders to not engage anyone unless he had to assist an ally, and so far, there were no sounds of fighting. So, he quickly hid himself among the many trees and became nothing into the night's shadow.

"Are you nervous?" Chelsea asked from behind another tree. Naruto slumped down the trunk and sat so that his knees were up to his chest.

"Not really. If anything, I'm just worried that something is going to go wrong..." he looked up to the bright moon above. "I can just feel it. Can't you, Chelsea?" he asked, a bit of nerves lacing his voice. The auburn-haired girl just giggled and reached over to ruffle the blond's hair.

"Don't worry about it! That's how every rookie assassin feels like when they first start!" she told him cheerfully. Naruto stuck his tongue out at her in reply.

"I've been a part of this group of misfits for over half a year now."

"Still a rookie, little noob!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What does noob mean in the first place?" Chelsea looked away from him and looked straight ahead into the welcoming darkness.

"Actually, I'm not really sure. It just seemed to fit the situation." She turned to Naruto just in time to see him deadpan. She grinned happily. "Naruto, there's no reason to be worried about this mission. We have a strong team, despite your insecurities about them."

"And yet, you were the first person to say that they were going to die if they didn't grow up and understand fully the life of an assassin," he pointed out. Chelsea nodded.

"And that is why I have faith in your teammates; all of them have grown up and every one of them know what they are getting into. But Naruto, you have to understand what you are getting into as well. It's a harsh reality out there, and in this world that we've been thrown in, there is no mercy for the weak."

Naruto let out a sigh, breathing out icy fog. "Why are you telling me this?"

"You are the youngest in our group, and I also feel that you are missing something: your will to fight for a cause. All of us have a reason to fight, I feel like, except for you."

Naruto hummed in thought with his eyes closed. The two remained silent as Naruto calmly tried to formulate a response. After about a minute, he spoke. "Whether or not I have a goal in mind for myself, I believe that I will be happy to see my friend's dream come true." He opened his ocean blue orbs and turned them onto Chelsea, boring into her eyes. "I want to see the world that she wishes for, and I want to live in that world."

The two stared at each other for another few moments as Naruto gave Chelsea time to let what he said sink in. She blinked twice slowly, and then her smirk broke free, adorning her face as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

"And that's why I have to call you a rookie, Naruto," she said as she lightly punched his shoulder. "You don't fight for yourself, so you don't know when you can live another day and when you will die. Most likely, you would end up sacrificing yourself for the sake of your precious people." When he didn't reply, she continued, knowing she hit a mark. "I'm glad to have you as a partner, Naruto, and I'm glad to have seen you again after all these years, but I'm going to ask you to make another promise." He turned to her, but she was looking straight ahead again. "Promise me that if I am in a situation that I would die, that you would not sacrifice yourself for me."

"No, I won't promise that," he replied quickly with a cold tone. She turned to him to try to convince him, but she immediately froze when she saw his eyes, this time filled with an immense power that spoke volumes. "I won't go back on my original promise, and I will die before I do." Naruto narrowed his eyes, the chips of ice becoming harder. "Do you understand?"

Chelsea opened her mouth hesitantly; about to respond 'yes' to the much younger boy, but immediately shuddered when she felt a powerful level of bloodlust rip through the night air. She saw Naruto stiffen from her side, meaning that he must have felt it as well. She stood up quickly and looked out into the clearing over her shoulder, still behind the tree. Naruto was beside her in a moment, doing the same thing, looking out into the area and making sure that nothing too dangerous was occurring. Suddenly, the two flinched when they saw a giant energy beam blow right past them.

"So much for our genius sniper," Naruto quipped. Chelsea giggled.

"It's not the time to make jokes, Naruto. The others are fighting right now. We should try to assist them," she ordered him. He nodded, and the two broke into a run in opposite directions. Naruto rushed through the trees and foliage, expending as little energy as possible to rush to the very front of the cathedral. After only about a minute, the huge cathedral broke out into view, and Naruto came to a stop near the edge of the trees. Looking around the area, he saw the clearing was littered with bodies, either dead or clearly injured. No one on the ground lying on the grass was fit to stand or run, much less fight.

Naruto took a step out into open in the direction of the open door of the cathedral, which was where he was sure his teammates had gone along with Najenda. The moment he did though, he froze as a blast of bloodlust struck him so hard to the core that he felt himself shiver down to the bone. It wasn't from the chill of the night, despite how frigid the air was. The vileness and sheer cruelty imbued into the unmasked killing intent made him afraid. The image of his death replayed over and over in his mind, and each time, he felt his resolve slipping away.

Was this...was it really the right decision to come to the aid of the front group? If it was like this, and always so dangerous and frightening, wouldn't it be better if he stayed in the back lines?

'Then what about Akame?'

Naruto forced himself to take another step forwards, despite how much his legs and hands quivered in fear. If he was afraid, without even seeing his opponent inside the cathedral that was letting out so much frightening power and such a deadly aura, how were his teammates doing? With a renewed resolve, Naruto walked forwards until he was right in front of the giant double doors to the cathedral. It was barely ajar, so a slim layer of light escaped through the door. Naruto managed to fit one eye through the margin, and what he saw made his eyes widen and mouth gape immediately as he felt his blood run cold and charge into painful volts of electricity, all spreading through his body, then concentrating to his brain.

He held in the urge to cry out in agony as the painful strike of memories hit him once more, but he had no idea why. He cursed his mind for shutting down at this moment.

It was always the same! It shut down the first time when Sheele died, then second time when Chelsea almost died, and now when there was Esdeath in front of him, her blue hair flowing beautifully behind her in a deadly wind. And the worst part was that his teammates were all on the ground, struggling to fight back still, but it looked so hopeless in his painfully narrowed eyes. Almost like...when he was trying to fight Susanoo.

Then, his eyes closed as his memories took over.

XShuyaX

(Flashback: To Where It All Began)

(Play OST: Vogel Im Kafig from Shingeki no Kyojin)

It was a peaceful family, made complete with its eight-thousand, six-hundred and fifty-eight members, each of them skilled as a warrior and as a nomadic villager. Even the children were capable of killing lower-class Danger Beasts and fending for themselves out in the open if they ever needed food. They were a nomadic tribe that had a lot of love for each other, and not much for outsiders. It was just a part of their values.

One day, a group of three came upon the tribe and suddenly asked for entrance into the family. The village leaders took a vote promptly, and the three outsiders were denied. However, the chief village elder took a moment to speak once for the family of three, and a second vote commenced. An hour later, the family had added three more to its numbers: a husband, a wife, and a young, healthy blond baby.

The three were quickly integrated into the family, although somewhat warily. They weren't given a tent of their own, nor clothes or bedding, but instead told to make their own. It was a part of the rite to enter into the tribe, and the mother and father easily did so. Within a day, the two had prepared a tent made out of the skin of a certain Danger Beast that allowed a great amount of insulation, and was also lightweight enough to carry on the back of a pack without assistance. For bedding, they were warm enough in a single layer of woolly fur from an interesting breed of Danger Beasts.

"Are you happy with this, Sochi-kun?" Kushina asked the young three-year-old. The curious child looked up into his loving mother's eyes with his large blue orbs, his index finger in his mouth. Suddenly, he giggled and smiled. He nodded his head, and he brought both hands high into the air in childish delight. Kushina's eyes glinted in motherly love as she picked up her son with all the grace of a well-poised woman. "Oh, my Sochi-kun is so cute! Minato, don't you think he's just adorable?"

"Well, he is quite the beautiful child," a deeper voice said from behind the young adolescent. Naruto wriggled to try to turn around and face his father, who had knelt to the ground to be eye-level with his wife and his beloved child. Minato chuckled and took the child carefully from Kushina and faced his blond son, who giggled and clapped his hands once he saw his father. Minato broke out into a huge grin and poked his son's forehead. "Aren't you a happy one? Are you happy?"

Suddenly, Naruto lost all cheer and frowned. His parents immediately copied the motion and asked him what was wrong. The young blond in the family pointed at his father and said, "Tou-san called me 'happy'. My name is Naruto!"

Both parents immediately laughed merrily, and soon, the confused blond child joined in, the three in their own little world of giggles and good times.

Not surprisingly, the next day, the set of values the tribe lived by immediately kicked in. To them, the young family of three was still considered outsiders. All village leaders had all spoken against the blond husband and redhead wife in hushed whispers, and despite the chief village leader's best interests, the village immediately set to work in making the two the black sheep of the larger family. It wasn't long until the son was involved in their unfair treatment.

Naruto found himself watching other children play instead of being able to join him. In his first attempt to try to introduce himself and play with some of the younger children, he was given the cold shoulder. After a year of this kind of treatment, he gave up on the kids and decided to move on to the teenagers. Some of them were nicer, and others were worse than the children, but those that were nice would either tolerate him or even welcome them, despite their parents' misgivings.

So he grew up happy and healthy along with his loving and overly caring mother, Kushina, and his happy-go-lucky father on the outside and serious persona on the inside, Minato. Together, the three of them were a happy family by themselves, committing to their weekly duties without fail and always staying together when given the chance. When around Naruto, they never failed to give him a happy smile full of cheer and mirth, and in turn, Naruto took on the impression of a happy child. He truly believed that they were a happy family, despite the misgivings sent their way.

And he was right; Minato and Kushina loved their child greatly, and it was a joy everyday to see him grow one day at a time. They saw him turn four at the nomadic village, and they celebrated with the others just because it was their set of values to celebrate any child's birthday with a great feast. However, the majority of the food was prepared for by Naruto's mother and father, but they did it all with a grin. They'd do anything for their son and for his happiness.

Sometime after his fourth birthday, Naruto noticed his parents were getting berated by one of the mothers in the large family. He immediately hid behind a house when he heard curse words being thrown at his two favorite people in the world, and slowly, tears made way to the blond's face. He knew that the family didn't like his mother and father, but he never knew to this extent. So, he ran away from the conflict and cried to himself near the edge of the village. It was then that he met Chelsea, who was randomly walking around and taking an afternoon stroll through the snowy plains. Noticing the sniffling blond, she walked over to him and broke into conversation with the child. She quickly realized that he was the son of the black sheep's family...but she didn't care. She never really listened to her mother and father's rambling anyway.

"So, what's your name, little buddy?" she asked, a slight smirk on her face. Naruto turned to her, his wide eyes glaring at her with all the force of a four-year-old child. "Oh, I'm sorry, did I hurt your feeling, little one?" she apologized in a teasing, antagonizing tone that pushed all the right buttons to irritate the blond.

"My name is Naruto! And I'm not little! I'm three feet and seven inches!" He argued, crossing his arms and huffing in annoyance. Chelsea giggled and looped her arm around the young child's shoulders. Naruto widened his eyes when he was suddenly pressed against the much older girl's side. Looking up to her in confusion, she saw her grin down at him.

"My name's Chelsea, little one. Want me to be your older sister?" she offered, knowing he would accept. No one had accepted him into the family and she knew that. Two years after the three had been accepted into the nomadic tribe, and yet they were still not considered a part of the family. It was ludicrous. Well, if she wanted to see change, she would have to do it herself. And she knew she had made the right decision when she saw the blond's face shine through all of the tears that had been shed and look up to her with those beautiful eyes and eternally sun-filled grin.

"Of course!" he shouted happily as he wrapped his arms around her side, barely going halfway across her stomach and lower back. "I always wanted an older sister!"

Eventually, it became common for Naruto to be seen with Chelsea, despite her family's warnings. Soon enough, her parents gave up, and she was with him all of the time. The young girl had friends of her own in her own age group, and they met Naruto as well. It wasn't long until Naruto had a whole family of brothers and sisters, each of them at least nearly six years older, but he didn't mind. He was slowly getting a larger family. The next year for his birthday, his mother and father were surprised when Chelsea and each of her friends brought enough food by themselves for the whole tribe. Minato and Kushina abashedly took the food and prepared the feast, but soon they were talking with the kids with ease, so glad that their child was breaking out of the shell of tribal values that were pulling them down.

Things were looking up for the family of three, especially for the young blond.

Then, disaster struck. Naruto came back to the village with his parents after his daily errands and had gone out to play with his older brothers and sisters. The group was playing a game of tag, and Naruto was obviously the slowest, since he was the youngest and had the shortest legs, but he always given a handicap. Suddenly, during their game, one of them saw a long line on the edge of the horizon. It was unnatural and blurry, and it seemed to be moving in their direction. However, the innocent group of children and teens decided to ignore it and continue playing, not noticing the large blurry shadow out in the horizon slowly evolve into a giant army rushing at their home. They ended up being nearly a mile away from the village, and when the smoke rose from the tents and the buildings, all panic broke loose among the children. Unsurprisingly, when they all ran for the village, Naruto was far behind, so he reached his home last.

Through all of the smoke and flames, as well as the cries of pain and agony, as well as the sounds of clashing blades and battle, Naruto somehow wormed his way through everything and found his tent. It was still up, and his parents were there. They were talking about something quickly and urgently, but the moment they saw their son, they dropped to their knees and hugged him tightly.

"What's going on? Are the bad people here?" Naruto asked in utter confusion. The two pulled away and shook their heads, giving him their best smiles. Suddenly, Minato pulled out a necklace and gave it to Naruto, who stared at it in confusion.

"I can't use it, Naruto, but maybe you can. I have a feeling...your mother and I have a feeling that you will be the change to revolutionize the world. You may not understand us now, but know that...know that we believe in you, no matter what!" Minato spoke with absolute conviction, despite the tears starting to come down his face. Kushina was already sobbing, knowing that she and her husband had no chance against the force that had come against them, but at least they would be able to save their child...maybe.

The leader of the opposing force was just so powerful and yet so young, but she had defeated the chief elder despite his control over a Teigu. She had watched as those that ran at her in an enraged state all fell quickly to their deaths with messy red in their throats, the blue-haired beauty striking efficiently and easily with her sword. Minato, who saw the girl killing all with ease and indifference, ran for the deceased chief elder and took off the man's necklace, willing to use it as a sign to tell the nomadic villagers that he had died and try to ignite a sense of revenge to fight with even more fervor.

However, when Minato put the necklace on his hand, a sudden voice spoke to him, but it wasn't verbally. It was all mental, and everything was in his head. However, it told him that Minato wasn't worthy of wielding the power, and the voice spoke no more.

So, they were back at the home tent, and Naruto was told to run by his parents, the necklace of power roped around his neck. He promptly followed the dying wishes of his parents, despite not understanding what was going on. His parents must have known what they were doing.

However, right when he reached the village borders, a sinking feeling hit his gut, and he immediately turned around. He ran through the streets quickly and made his way back to his home...but at the spot where his family's tent should have been were only ashes and a few posts that Minato and Kushina had set up. Eyes wide, the blond slowly backed away, tears brimming his eyes. Suddenly, he turned around, frantically running through the large village looking for his mother and father. When he found them, he found them much like the tent: extinguished and the fire in their eyes gone from this world. They would never say they loved him again, and he would never see their smiling faces once more.

So he fell to his knees and cried, wailing for the two bright lights in his life.

"Oh, look! One's alive!" A manly voice shouted. For some reason, his vision blurred, and the memories skipped over this certain part. Then, a woman walked into the scene, but instead of a faceless mask with blue hair, her face was marked with stunning beauty and youth. Despite her beauty, however, Naruto stared at her with fear...and then anger. Heavy, uncontrollable, black anger.

'I won't forgive her, I won't forgive her...I WON'T FORGIVE HER FOR KILLING TOU-SAN AND KAA-CHAN!'

'Engage?'

"I'll destroy you!" Naruto roared as a bright light engulfed him. He brought both hands down to his side and bent them and he leaned backwards as the power filled every fiber of muscle in his tiny being. Then, his rage took over, and everything turned red.

(OST: Play 4:33)

He slowly began to walk towards the two through the wide alley of snow and ashes, the flames lighting the sides of the street. The blond's face was darkened by the child's bangs as it swayed from side to side. Esdeath watched in childish interest as the blond slowly staggered his way towards her, as if drunk. Suddenly, the young child disappeared from in front of her.

"This is for Tou-san..." a voice whispered in her ear. She barely managed to turn her neck halfway, not enough to even get a glimpse of the person behind her, before an explosive backhand struck her right on the back of her head. She went flying, flipping a few times before rolling on the ground and then crashing through a tent in flames. Aldrec, the male that had first noticed the blond and had teased him, immediately charged the blond. Naruto, who was still in the air, turned to face the new offender and set his eyes on the insignificant being before him.

"You..." was all he said. Then, Naruto disappeared again, and Aldrec felt a heart-wrenching feeling appear in his stomach as he keeled over and coughed out blood. Looking down, Aldrec saw the blond's closed fist penetrate his stomach, the young boy's hand marred with blood. Then, he fell over, dead.

Naruto looked down at the body, not even batting an eyelash. It would be an hour before the shock of what he had done would hit him. But it wasn't time for him to regret what he had done quite yet. Esdeath was standing, walking towards the blond quickly with her sword drawn, a wide, bloodthirsty grin on her face.

"My, oh my, a child, but yet one so strong! Come, fight me! The rule of hunt and be hunted shall be seen through today!" she shouted with a crazed grin on her face. Naruto stared at her quietly, then tiled his head, one eye wider than the other, but both with extremely narrow pupils.

"Well...then I graciously accept. And if you end up being the hunted..." he whispered. Esdeath suddenly felt agony spread through her back as she felt herself fly through the air and crash face first into a brick building. Turning around slowly as she groaned in pain, she saw the blond carelessly walking towards her, his red eyes boring into her with rage and flames. "...well, that's just too bad, isn't it?" He finished.

She couldn't even move when he grabbed a fistful of her coat and raised her so that she was at eye-level with the small child. He raised his right fist and held it up, getting ready to punch her in the head with enough force to probably end her life.

"You...I will avenge my parents. I may not be able to avenge every person here that you have killed, but at least I can take vengeance for my village's loss."

Esdeath chuckled, blood spurting out of her mouth. She was enjoying every moment of this. If she died in battle, then so be it. "Such big words coming out of a five year old...Sochi-kun," she taunted. Naruto's eyes widened in shock, and then narrowed immediately after in fury. No one...no one but Kaa-chan ever called him that.

'I will kill her!' The dark thoughts quickly plagued the blond's mind and began to ruin his psyche. Everything he loved and had, gone in a day...all because of this person. He raised his fist and brought it forwards to hit her square in the face.

'Sochi-kun!'

Naruto suddenly stopped, and Esdeath widened her eyes as the blond suddenly let her go. He looked confused as he turned around multiple times. Then, he looked down at her with his blue eyes, and then down to his quivering hands. What was he about to do...kill a person? Even if she killed his parents, didn't they always tell him to learn how to forgive?

"I...I don't know if I can forgive you yet," Naruto spoke in his high-pitched tone. Esdeath watched the child carefully. "...But I will not kill you. But I still hate you." Then, he turned and ran away.

And the rest of his memories returned in a rush.

(End: Vogel im Kafig)

XShuyaX

(Flashback End: Return to the Cathedral)

Not even a second had passed. Naruto noticed this when he opened his eyes and looked forwards, and the same exact scene before the onslaught of memories struck him continued to play in front of him. Everything seemed…slower…more focused.

Naruto slammed his fist into the ground, creating a huge dent into the earth as spider-web cracks stretched up the crater. He noticed that the cracks were spreading slower in his eyes than normal.

'So…what is your answer?' a voice asked him. Naruto opened his eyes with difficulty, the pain in his head and body slowly going away. He was still on the floor, his arms to his side and his body slightly on his left. The doors in front of him were now wide open, giving him a perfect view of what was occurring.

Akame was in Esdeath's iron grip, her hair being pulled back so harshly and the general's foot on Akame's back to prevent the girl from moving.

Naruto growled with a feral nature and slowly began to lift himself up.

'Is that even a question?' He was now on his feet, both hands still on the ground. 'I won't hesitate…there is no reason for hesitation at this moment.'

'Analyzing life force…extraordinary.'

'You think I won't fight? I may not be the strongest in our group…but I sure as all hell and by Kami above me not fight when they need me!'

'Analyzing strength…extremely high.'

Naruto glared at the sight of each of his teammates on the ground, demolished by the wrath of force named Esdeath. His eyes narrowed and eyebrows furrowed the moment he saw Leone's broken body laying helplessly on the ground, the girl's eyes defeated and absolutely lost. The nightmare he had of failing to save his teammates barraged his mind, but this only fueled his anger into rage.

'I hate that look…I won't forgive her…I WON'T FORGIVE HER!'

'Analyzing speed…extraordinarily high, almost impossible.'

'I'll destroy you…take you apart limb by limb…demolish you just like I broke you apart eleven years ago!'

'Analyzing willpower…wants to protect to the point that fear of death is gone.'

'I won't let you kill them...even if the price I have to pay is my own life!'

A mad look entered Naruto's eyes, which were glowing blue way brighter than before. The azure eyes were actually beginning to give off a streak of blue wherever he moved, leaving behind a trail of light.

'Analyzing compatibility…eighty-one percent. Second stage is possible. Engage?'

"I will…utterly crush you," Naruto promised.

'The cost is one-third of your lifespan. Engage?'

He pushed open the door wide and stepped inside the Cathedral.

'Engagement confirmed.'

And he felt power.

XShuyaX

(Time Rewind: A few moments before)

Esdeath roughly grabbed Akame's hair and lifted the young girl's head up to that the black-haired assassin was forced to grip her hair so the intensity of the scalp removing tug wouldn't force her to succumb to the terrible pain. The younger girl grit her teeth but didn't close her eyes for a second. Closing one's eyes because of pain resulted in many deaths; she would not let herself be one of these numbers.

"So, this is the power of Night Raid? I thought you would all be more challenging!" Esdeath taunted, crushing Susanoo's core underfoot. Looking behind her, Borick was laid across the ground, slain with a deep gash into his jugular. The general tip her hat as she dipped her head down. "Although you did kill the target...so to make things equal," she brought her head back up. "I'll just kill all of you after taking every one of you to the chamber."

Najenda flinched.

'What am I hesitating for? Borick is dead, and Kurome has been practically removed from this fight. All I have to do now is use the third stage of Magatama Manifestation and then we can escape...hopefully.' Her eyes narrowed in exhaustion and cunning thought. 'But that might not even work. Tatsumi is down after Esdeath destroyed him right after he regained consciousness so that Akame could reach Borick. Leone is incapacitated. Chelsea can't really help us in this situation...Mine is behind getting prepared to snipe whenever possible, but she's compromising her position from her obvious intent to kill her. Akame is currently being held down right now. Susanoo had been destroyed...Lubbock was apparently taken out by the other Jaegar according to Akame.

'And then there's Naruto...he can't possibly help us in this situation. Not something of this grand scale.'

All this, Najenda thought within the span of two seconds, hyper-analyzing every possibility and situation within a fraction of what a skilled tactician could pull off. However, nothing was coming close to a good ending or escape without her use of the final Magatama Manifestation. Something was holding her back though...as if the threads of fate were telling her to hold off and wait...wait...wait...

But how much longer?!

"Najenda." The ex-general glared up to Esdeath once she called her. "Before I take you to the torture chamber, I wanted to ask just out of curiosity: do you or any of your disappointing accomplices know of someone called 'Naru-chan'?"

Najenda's eyes immediately widened in recognition for a split second, but the expression change was gone as soon as it came. It may as well never have been there.

"Who?" she asked expressionlessly. Esdeath didn't seem deterred by Najenda's 'lack of knowledge' on the person. Instead, the blue-haired general seemed to react quite different. Her expression became quite lustful as her eyes glazed over, as if she were reminiscing about a certain extraordinary memory.

"I'll never forget it...the day when I was beaten by a young boy who was nearly a decade younger than I was. It's been a long time since then, nearly eleven years, but that's a memory that I just can't forget and won't allow myself to forget. It's too precious...by the Empire, I've wished to see him for so long." Esdeath's eyes lost their gaze as she looked down to the girl held by her iron grip. "Say, Akame, do you possibly know someone named 'Naru-chan'?"

Akame kept an iron lip, not even making an utterance of pain as she continued to bear the agony, even when Esdeath pressed harshly against the girl's back with her heels.

'I don't have a choice!' Najenda finally determined as she raised her right hand toward the destroyed core of her Teigu. However, right before she said the necessary words, two things happened at once. One, her arm was forced down, and secondly, two kunai clattered to the ground right after Esdeath deflected the now harmless blades.

(Play OST: Unravel by Ling Tosite Sigure)

"Naruto, what are you doing here?! You'll get killed!" Najenda shrieked. Naruto remained silent, keeping his right hand over the metallic arm and glanced over to Esdeath.

"You…" he muttered.

"You!" she recognized, her smirk changing to a wide smile. "I've finally found you! I can only imagine how much more powerful you've become in these eleven years."

Naruto remained silent…then spoke to Najenda.

"Grab everyone and anything you can that's necessary and run," he ordered. She widened her eyes to the stern and confident tone Naruto gave off and the fact he had the audacity to tell her what to do. Before she could rebuke him, he looked down at her with his shining blue eyes and said, "Please, boss. Let this be my mission."

It was his first time actually calling him by her title. She gulped, looking up at him, the young boy giving off a sense of power and indomitable will. Then, she narrowed her eyes.

"Make sure you come back! This is my order, Naruto!"

The blond narrowed his eyes as Najenda turned and ordered the retreat.

'Not all orders can be followed through, Boss...'

Esdeath widened her eyes as suddenly the blond disappeared and was behind her.

'Don't think I'll fall for that one again!' Esdeath thought as the backhand missed Esdeath's head by a hair's breadth as she leaned forward, pivoting to bring her rapier around at the ideal height to skewer him right through his left eye, rather than taking the blow as she once had. This action caused her to let go of Akame's hair. The savage grin on her face vanished as she felt a pair of legs sweep her feet out from under her and saw a blur snatch Akame away just a moment later.

Halfway through her fall, she saw the blond looking down at her, staring at her and holding the red-eyed assassin in his arms. Then, she was kicked on the side with excruciating accuracy to a rib point.

"What?!" she gasped out as an explosive pain began from her side, and she lost all footing with the ground as she flew into the wall of the cathedral and crashed through. However, she kept her grip on Akame's hair, which Naruto noticed instantly. He reacted, his hand a simple blur as he cut the girl's hair just as she was about to fly up, and caught her in a bridal carry. He looked down at her, a small, sad smile gracing his lips.

"Naruto..." Akame breathed out, noticing his eyes. His grin seemed to become even more morose.

"Run, Akame..." he put her on the ground gently, then turned his back to her to face Esdeath, who was just beginning to walk through the hole in the wall and the smoke. "And...I promise I will always make it back to you...alive."

The red-eyed assassin stalled for only a second before blitzing into action, grabbing Leone and her body parts and then escaping, not even bothering to look at her sister, who cried out to her in outrage. Right now, weakened as they were, Night Raid was no match for Esdeath's full power. Akame knew that Naruto realized this as well, so he stepped in so that they could escape.

'And...not all promises can be kept.'

"So...shall we fight?" Esdeath chuckled, a crazed grin on her face as she jumped into the air and summoned hundreds of ice spikes, all aimed at Naruto. Then, they flew.

Naruto saw each and every one of the deadly particles of demonic ice, hyper-analyzing the situation with his strange power up and rush of adrenaline. Together, everything seemed to slow down to the point that the ice spikes were moving half the speed they actually were.

'I…can see everything!'

The blond was easily flipping and spinning out of harm's' way, grabbing the spikes as he smoothly dodged them and throwing them to incoming spikes that would've hit him regardless of how much he spun.

"Yes, yes, this is it! Enthrall me with your power and strength! Esdeath screamed in delight as Naruto began to throw some of her homing ice missiles back at her. She watched his cold, blue eyes in anticipation, impatiently waiting for his every move, his every action. She had been waiting for Naru-chan for so long!

Realizing that the blond was fast enough to dodge hundreds of the ice spikes, regardless of how well she timed them, she changed tactics. Raising her right hand high, she snapped her fingers and summoned a giant pillar of ice that was large enough to actually crash through the ceiling of the cathedral and take up more space than the whole floor.

"Show me your power!"

Naruto just stared up to her and the giant pillar of ice as the shadows adorning his face increased each second the column came closer to him. Right when Esdeath disappeared from his view, he bent his legs and focused the raw power he gained into his right hand, feeling it charge up stunningly quickly with a level of strength he would have never imagined with Chi only. Natural instincts telling him that his hand was sufficiently charged, he leaped up to the ice and brought his fist up.

Esdeath smirked as she saw from above her pillar of ice creak and then shatter, the large column of ice splitting apart and creating a kind of dome around the area. She dropped to the ground and saw through the dust and brought up her arms once she caught sight of a silent and calm Naruto.

"This can't be all? I mean, you are fast, but you're hardly faster than your teammate, Leone!"

Naruto didn't even deign to respond, and Esdeath suddenly felt a colossal amount of power exude from the blond. Yes...this was what she was waiting for.

"This time…I'm not going to make the same mistake," the blond said, his eyes flashing with hyper charged lightning. He blurred, but Esdeath followed him with her eyes, blocking each of his strikes and deflected every one of his kunai no matter from which angle he attacked.

"Now...it's my turn," the blond said, lightning arcing off of his body.

He blurred, but Esdeath followed him with her eyes, blocking each of his strikes and deflected every one of his kunai no matter from which angle he attacked.

'This power...something tells me it has the power to do anything, as long as I can imagine it...as long as I have the life force to uphold that imaginary power. Something inside me…my instincts are guiding me! Follow it!'

Esdeath looked up at the last moment, having lost sight of the blond. What she saw was the blond pointing down at her, his index finger lighting up with blue lightning.

'Then...may the skies smite you for your impudence and conceitedness!'

UNRAVELING THE WORLD!

The blue lightning exploded from the blond, firing down in lethal forks to the wide-eyed Esdeath. The elemental attack exploded once it struck her and the ground, blowing up dust and concrete alike from its extreme power. However, Naruto didn't stop there, blurring around the ice dome and using the area to his advantage to move even faster.

'May the flames from the deepest pits of hell burn your soul!' Black flames burst into life from the air, crashing into the area Esdeath was.

'Even this water cannot wash away your abhorrent sins!' Waves of water conjured from the moisture in the air crashed through the ground floor, then changed into a small-scale hurricane.

'May you lose all foundation with the world and fall!' The very earth shook, as the ground lifted and then all flew with a mind of its own towards the center of the increasing layers of dust and smoke.

'And may this wind sever your ties with the earth and take away all you hold dear!' A wind picked up, and then a small dust devil, and then it evolved and exploded in size, becoming the destructive tornado, picking up the water and earth with it.

Lightning attached itself onto the wind devil as it unleashed its unholy fervor on the demoness of ice. The wind picked up everything, grabbing the cathedral's large blocks of marble and the demolished stairs; it was soon a tower of wind. The elements then all combined and exploded.

Naruto dropped to the ground calmly nearly fifty feet away from the edge of the elemental explosion, his fingers barely touching the floor, which was now all moist dirt. The concrete had been ground to dust. He then slowly stood up, waiting patiently as the smoke diminished and slowly waved away from the idle wind blowing through the destroyed clearing that a beautiful Cathedral once stood. He dipped his head to the side an inch, two spikes of ice harmlessly zooming through his cheek. He heard the twin thuds behind him as the spikes completely embedded themselves into a trunk of a tree nearly a hundred feet behind him.

Esdeath came into view, and Naruto narrowed his eyes. She was panting, her clothes were somewhat ripped, singed, and moist, and there was even blood slowly oozing out of some of her injuries...but the look in her eyes made him frown. "I've...waited for so long!"

Naruto's frown deepened as he got into stance. This was Esdeath...the monster of the Capital and the Imperial Army. She was the only person in the world that could demolish hundreds of thousands of troops all on her own. So who the hell was he to fight her one on one?

He blitzed in, moving even faster than before with raw lightning surging through his body like the might of a god. Flames and wind mixed in his appendages as he threw powerful kicks and punches; each of his strikes blocked and deflected still. However, he noticed that with each kick and strike, fresh cuts would open up on her pale, perfect skin. And yet...her crazed grin seemed to stretch endlessly, growing by the second.

Naruto increased the level of power, noting that whatever energy was fueling him was running low...this would be it then. He attacked with everything he had, blurring and blitzing, combining wind and fire, water and lightning, earth and water, everything that enhanced elements beyond its individual component.

Naruto widened his eyes as the two met eyes mid-strike. Her smile widened even further as she counter-attacked, landing a crippling blow to his chest. He flew back nearly thirty feet, flipping backwards midair and skidding on the ground for nearly ten seconds. The moment he looked up, his eyes were exposed to ten giant ice spikes points towards him.

Without even thinking, Naruto slammed his hands to the ground right when the spikes hurtled towards him at sonic speeds. The wielder of the demonic ice widened her eyes in glee as she saw the very same ten spikes jutting out from the ground, stopping her spikes from striking and impaling the blond. Then, her expression suddenly changed from gleeful to murderous, all in a split second.

"I've had enough fun."

Naruto once again widened his eyes as he felt his opponent's level of power increase astronomically, exponentially increasing by the second. Using the last of his energy to try and stop whatever she was doing, he rushed to her, his hand outreached with hundreds of flower-like ice spikes pointed towards her. Right before they pierced her, however...everything froze.

Esdeath dropped her arms in slight exhaustion from using her trump card. It wasn't necessary, but...she felt compelled to use it. She turned to look at the blond, his beautifully desperate expression directly facing her with his mouth open in a shout. So young...so talented...and yet so ignorant. But, he had given it his all, and she felt it was necessary to show him how far away he was from her level.

She walked around the thorn-like flower ice spikes and up to frozen Naruto who was in midair. Then, unsheathing her rapier with a sharp, resounding sound, she stabbed him three times through the chest.

Then, time unfroze.

Naruto coughed out blood, all sense of control escaping him as the only thing he could think about was the excruciating pain coursing through his chest. He fell to the ground and cursed, screaming at Esdeath.

"I will end you…and rid this world of its wrong."

His shouts were quickly silenced with a sword next to his jugular. He looked up to Esdeath, who peered down at him with a dark visage, her equally blue eyes cold as ice chips.

"Do you know why you are alive? Alive, despite the iron rule of Teigu: once Teigu wielders engage in battle intent with the will to kill, one will leave dead. I'll give you a hint. It's because I never intended to kill you," she revealed. Naruto widened his eyes, his ears and brain barely picking up that revelation before succumbing to unconsciousness.

Esdeath continued to stare down the blond, then she sighed and sheathed her rapier. For some reason, he wasn't as strong as he could have been nor should have been. But even so, because of him, Night Raid won this battle. But she had won the second confrontation against the blond easily...something that bothered her. He was so dominating against her the first time at the age of five.

She shook her head; it doesn't matter now.

"Kurome, let's go!" she shouted through all of the dust. A moment later, said girl was by her leader's side. Kurome looked down and her eyes lit up with recognition at the blond boy. "We've captured Naruto, the wielder of The Founder. This mission is a partial success."

XShuyaX

(Location: Elsewhere)

Akame and the rest of the team ran in silence, the only sound resonating through the forest being the cracking of dry leaves and the other alive and conscious teammates running alongside her. Sometime through the run, Leone had regained consciousness and groaned.

"Where's...*cough cough* the blond idiot?" Leone murmured sarcastically, her one good eye looking up at Akame. Akame continued to run, not even daring to look down, unless to expose her especially red eyes.

It didn't matter. Leone smelled salt coming from Akame.

"Captured or killed."

But for some reason, she continued to hope. The last thing Naruto promised to her rung in her mind like wedding bells...he would always come back to her...he promised...

"And...I promise I will always make it back to you...alive."

Chapter End.

A/N: And that's it, folks! I really hope this chapter was worth the wait, because this specific chapter is the longest chapter I have ever written and have spent the most time revising for all time.

As always, please tell me whether you enjoyed this chapter or not! No flames, please! Constructive criticism as always, and Naruto will offer you meals cooked by Susanoo! And if you found any errors in the chapter, please tell me!

Now, as a special for taking soooo long to update, Chapter 8 Reviews, regardless how short or long your reviews were! We got 56 reviews, so here we go!

Dragonlord99: Updating right now!

Guest: Of course Naruto has to have something up his sleeve. Otherwise, like you said, all of this would be useless.

Rassh0l: I hope this did keep up the good work.

Deux Ex Letum: I'm sorry this story isn't to your liking. I'm sure there are many better stories out there, a level I attend to reach eventually!

LegionsEnd56: Well, wait no longer! The Founder has come!

Luna: I am very happy you enjoy my story! I only hope that this chapter appeased your wait.

Wolven Phoenix: Busy. Had multiple jobs and was in a swim club at the same time.

Entelejent: Thank you!

Guest: Sorry, but I'm not that much of a harem person. It's just not my thing.

Guest: Well…you were close. Damn close.

Guest: No promises! Updates come when they come.

Guest: Thanks for the compliment! Here's the update you've been waiting for!

Milennial: I thank you for having faith in this story and reading to its update point! Don't worry, it's about to because a rolling train of super speed in pace. I don't know Ryner…sorry! So no influence!

DraxAQN: He's done it! He went in! Did it meet your expectations? I certainly hope so!

Demon Bro the 14th: Thank you. I'll try to bring the next update as soon as possible! Hope you enjoyed this update!

DIANRIZQI99: He certainly has come a long way, hasn't he? Well, it's been a long time since the beginning of the story, so it's only natural.

MysteryAsia: No no no! You have to eat your food! I hate stories that make Naruto curb stomp everyone…despite my stories having some of that as well. Well, at least Dark Flash isn't too bad when it comes to godlike.

MysteryofOrigin: I hope it was more awesome than hilarious. :D

Guest: Naw, no Chelsea and Naruto. Just Naruto and Akame.

Shin1gam1: Thanks! I hope you enjoyed this update.

LastManStanding616: I love being a tease. :P

OoOXylionOoO: I'm glad you waited, hahaha! Was it worth the wait?

Kami no Doujutsu: I hope this chapter was just as phenomenal to you as all the others!

Telron: I wonder if this chapter was interesting to you…well, at least you discovered his Teigu!

Luffyxrobin-luffyxnami: I'm sorry for letting you down. Well, third time's the charm right?

Mikaeru346: I've been told my character interactions and developments are my most powerful points in writing. I intend to keep these strong points apparent in my stories.

Azure Saiyan: He's come a long way, certainly, but Naruto's still got a long way to go.

OpticInferno: He had a Teigu from a young age. He just forgot about it.

Ultima-owner: Nice read.

Angel Dave: Hahaha I hope this chapter was up to your expectations! I gave a lot of effort into this chapter!

Mas2009: Seriously! He'll get strong eventually!

Greenstripe: Thank you for explaining what you like about the story. I really appreciate it, and I hope you do the same for this chapter!

Western White Tiger: Oh my, what a long review! I don't know what to say other than 'thank you very much'! I've worked on this chapter for nearly thirty-five hours in total, and it was over the course of a month due to a tight schedule! I hope you can leave as explanatory a review as last chapter! I really enjoyed reading it!

Uzumaki no Rinne-Sennin: Thanks man! I hope this update was just as interesting. Ja ne!

BoB teh Snail: Naw, she lived! And yes, I love character development. I love watching characters grow and change.

Fish on Stick: Well, sorry to burst your bubble, but he still hasn't technically 'kicked ass'.

Pissed dragon: I'll try my best!

Guest: Haha, I suck and rock at the same time? But you were actually close; this is the battle of epic proportions!

Guest: Indeed, this is it!

Mergo: Thank you for the support! I really appreciate it and hope to see more of you!

Kyranol1: Haha, yeah. I wanted to keep her alive. This is the first change in everything.

YuukiAsuna-chan: Oh…oh but he did use it. Right in this chapter, that is! Hope you enjoyed it.

FateBurn: Yes, he doesn't quite know it, but he eventually realizes it. Now…it's time to change the world of Akame ga Kill! Join the ride!

0Anonymo0: I'm a sappy writer rolling my eyes at my own stories. Go figure.

Guest: I'm glad you waited, then! I hope it was worth the loooong update time!

OBSERVER01: Interesting…more like uh-mazing! Wooooo, praise me! Looooove me, Saber!

Kenshin.503: Damn, how did you know it was all coming in chapter 9? But yes, everything happened in this chapter. I hope it was epic enough for you, haha!

Suntan140: Another person that's correct! That voice is his Teigu!

R-king93: Thank you. I'm really glad that you enjoy my story and took the time to even write that one word to leave me your sentiments!

Anonymous2033: Hell yea! We're all insane, but an epic kind of insane!

Almighty Spartan: I appreciated the fact the dealt with the slow pace of the story. Now…prepare for things to spice up and speed up.

Fieryfoxpaws: But…were you expecting him to already have his own Teigu and know some things about it subconsciously? O.O

Desropter: The system like text is his Teigu! He's stronger than many with this Teigu already! However, the cost of its use is so dangerous that he must train without it to be on equal footing of most Teigu users.

RoyalTwinFangs: Sorry, but the Teigu is completely my own. Haha, sorry!

Zant's Minion: It's fine. I appreciate the fact you left something behind and told me how you feel. But, if you told me what you didn't like and what you did, I'd appreciate it a lot more.

Tera12: Thaaaaaaanks man! I tried my beeeeeeest!