N/A: This is just a bridge chapter and it dose have a point for the later chapters in the story.

Naruto bit into the apple that his new-found mother-God! he loved being able to call Irene that!-had gotten him to pick up. He hated vegetables and wouldn't eat them if he could help it, but fruit, on the other hand, was a different story.

Irene felt this was progress towards weaning her surrogate son off his "acquired taste" for yoma meat. She knew that he'd probably never fully get over it, but at least it could be lessened to some degree.

Couldn't have her charge eating the flesh of a yoma's corpse in front of people, now, could she?

Irene was brought out of her thoughts as she saw the seven-year-old blond boy tense up and seem to stare off into the distance with a sharp glare.

"Lot of malice coming from three people...guess that the three stooges are on the move."

The Abyss Trinity huh? She knew by now to trust what Naruto said he felt in regards to malice. The yoki-block was gradually weakening as he hadn't used his power for a week now. It was slight and gradual, but it was still happening.

While she was confident she could mislead the other two as long as he didn't use that red yoki, Luciela already knew what Naruto looked like. How could that be dealt with? If those three were on the move, she needed to figure that out. The sooner the better. But she was coming up blank as far as a solution to that short of killing her.

She couldn't take Luciela alone, that had already been proven. And even if she tried it, she'd have to fight both Riful and Isley at the same time as well while having her mortal combat rematch with the southern region's Abyssal One. And if she asked another Warrior for help, it would mean exposing Naruto to the Organization. And she'd already sworn off them being allowed to get their hooks into her little seraph, so that idea was no good. She had to do this herself.

Three-on-one against the three most deadly Awakened Beings to ever exist...strong as she was, Irene knew she stood no chance in that kind of situation, and if she died, the three of those beasts would get their hands on Naruto. And even considering that was completely unacceptable.

What was the answer to this problem? She NEEDED to find it!

Naruto turned to her, worried. He didn't like the idea of his mother in distress. His concern was clearly visible because Irene spared him a glance then chuckled and hugged him. "Don't worry, Naruto."

He hugged her back and Irene had to admit, she welcomed the sense of physical affection that Warriors were denied for being half-yoma.

"Don't say that. There's something wrong, I can tell. How can't I worry?" he looked up at her face imploringly, "What can I do to make mom happy again? I need to know. I can't be happy unless mom is."

Irene felt her eyes moisten and her heart melted as she redoubled how tightly she clung to him. He couldn't be happy unless she was? This sweet child...what had she done to deserve him?

"I just have a lot on my mind, is all." she told him, "I know and appreciate that you want to help, but I don't think you can. Still, it's very sweet of you, son." Irene smiled, she liked addressing him by that word.

Naruto gave a small smile, still troubled, but not wanting his concerns to upset Irene further. Still, he hated feeling useless like this, and he hated seeing his mother so unhappy. There had to be something-anything-that he could do to make things better for her.

But what? That was the problem.

One he intended to fix, all he needed was a solid direction he could take.

He looked up as he finished the apple and was brought out of his depressing thoughts as he heard something heavy being set into the soil and saw mom had planted her sword into the ground to use as a backrest. Looking up at the sky, Naruto noticed that the sky was changing rapidly to deep, velvety blue to cold and steely gray.

It was that late already?

Irene held out her arms to her son and he went over and snuggled up to his mother, both of them knowing they could keep going to the next town without stopping, Naruto was similar to a Warrior of the Organization, after all, and had the same level of endurance as she did, but the idea of what could happen to her baby as they went through a wilderness full of Yoma, wild creatures, and cutthroat humans in the dark wasn't something Irene was willing to risk.

Still burdened with his troubled thoughts of how he felt incapable of helping Irene, his mother, with her problems, Naruto forced himself to sleep.

After hours, just as the sun was starting to peek over the horizon, Irene yawned. As a result of her occupation, she woke early. Moving to shake Naruto awake so that they could get a move on. But then she noticed the absence of her charge's mass leaning against her. Irene's eyes snapped open and she leapt to her feet, looking around frantically.

NARUTO WAS GONE!

That couldn't be...he never left her side since she'd taken him in and became his mother, and with how he was living before she found him, she was aware he knew how dangerous it was to be by himself. No way he'd just get up and leave her in the middle of the night without a word. He would've let her know if it was to use the bathroom or something like that.

Unless...

DAMN IT! She'd forgotten what she'd learned about how he had a disorder where he'd still use weapons and fighting skills while still asleep! She'd been surprised to learn about it when she'd found out her boy was still up and training in the middle of the night. at first, she had merely assumed he had either gotten up early or couldn't sleep and had started training to work off some energy, but upon watching him, it was obvious he was moving far too differently, they were flawless. As if there had been a barrier between his level of skill and the full force of what he could be as a warrior and a fighter, but that barrier had been stripped away, showing his full potential and level of ability once he had fully realized it. When Irene tried to get his attention, she was ignored. That prompted her to investigate, seeing as Naruto NEVER ignored her.

When she had neared him with her sword, he attacked for a few minutes, shocking her so much that she actually dropped her sword, but as soon as the broadsword had hit the ground, he'd stopped attacking, and it allowed her to get a look at what was wrong with her son. Naruto's eyes were simply white; his normal ocean blues were gone. He had been unconscious!

It had given Irene an idea as a way to better see to his safety.

With his ability to somehow sense malice, and with how well his training in how to fight was going with his being a tactile learner added onto this, and her new discovery, Irene had been trying to somehow hone his subconscious mind to use that ability to sense malice, threat recognition, and muscle memory to ensure he was more aware of his surrounding through his senses than a regular person would be and, if need be, he could move and and even fight as if he were still wide awake while unconscious.

It had been slow going and she wasn't even sure if it was ever even working, but with all three Abyssal Ones and the Organization after her son, she felt it was worth it, she do anything and try anything for the sake of protecting Naruto from them. No matter how impossible it was or seemed.

But now that had bitten her on the ass!

She'd been successful in training his subconscious, but now it was making him go off in search of the nearest perceived threat! DAMN IT! DAMN IT! DAMN IT!

WHERE WAS HE?! HE COULD BE ANYWHERE! WAS HE ALL RIGHT?!

Irene felt her heart pounding and her breath came out in short, brief gasps as she started hyperventilating, even as she broke out into a ice-cold sweat ans she started shaking uncontrollably. She couldn't fight off the panic of the unknown.

Where was he?! Where was Naruto?! Where was her baby?!

Falling to her knees, her legs gave out and her hands dug into the ground as they balled themselves into fists and tears fell from her eyes.

She'd FAILED!

She was supposed to be his rock. His guardian. Mother.

And she'd failed! In her attempts to give him ways to protect himself, she'd damned him! She'd lost him!

Gripping hold of her emotions, Irene stood up, her face expressionless as a statue.

Irene was supposed to be made of tougher things. She would endure and seek him out to the ends of the earth and beyond if she had to until they were together again. Naruto wouldn't want his mother to break under this kind of pressure.

So she wouldn't.

If she had time to be paralyzed by terror and imagined evils like this, she had more than enough time to get up and find her boy.

And by God, that was what she was going to do.

She just prayed that he could stay out of trouble long enough for them to be reunited...

As dangerous as it was being by herself for the moment, she wasn't as worried as she could have been, knowing Teresa was somewhere close by, all she had to do was shout. And in addition, Clare, after the run-in with that bandit who had his hand cut off and later tracked down Teresa and attempted to rape her, now carried a short sword with her.

As she walked, she heard a sound that made her freeze coming from ahead of her.

Turning towards it, she saw that there was a person crouching over a pile of shattered bones, one being freshly broken from the fact that the person held the pieces in their hands. The bone being broken and smashed was the origin of the sound she'd heard. Ones that looked like they came from a human, but she couldn't be sure. Clare wasn't squeamish, but she decided it was best not to be seen. But as she backed away, keeping the person in her view, she accidentally stepped on a brittle piece of wood.

At the sound of the twig snapping the black-clad figure lunged at her, pulling out twin daggers that were held in a reverse grip in his hands, while Clare quickly yanked her own blade in front of her with both hands.

The weapons met with a clang that made her teeth rattle.

Who was this person? She couldn't see their face. They wore a plain black leather jerkin, leather gloves, black leather breeches, black traveling boots, a dark grey hooded cloak, and a black scarf around their face.

A bandit? Most likely. If it were a yoma, it would've transformed by now and eaten her.

Well, Clare wasn't as helpless as she was when that yoma had kept her as something to amuse itself with.

Clare had always been observant child, unusually observant all things considered and this nature had saved her more than once while growing up. After all, the world had plenty of dangers besides Yoma. Bandits, slavers, and wild animals had all been a real threat for a small family living mostly isolated from everyone else on a small farm. Growing up, Clare had more than once noticed a bandit or slaver and managed to escape before they could spot her.

Admittedly she was unable to notice everything, after all she was only a child, but when she did notice something it was important. It was her observant nature that saved her from the yoma wearing her brother's face, and kept her alive when another yoma took her as a 'pet', and it was why she had realized just how hurt and alone Teresa was.

And it was thanks to her being observant that she'd actually picked up on some of the ways Teresa fought with a sword, learning through observation.

She didn't know what it was, but the fact was that oddest was that the person seemed to be something strange...something off...about this person, but the odd thing was that she didn't know what.

The one Clare was facing suddenly stiffened and leapt back and away, just as a presence zoomed between them like a sudden gale of wind and Clare found herself in the welcoming grasp of a very familiar silver-eyed woman.

Tightening her grip on her daughter figure, Teresa glared murderously at the one she had been fighting. "Clare, are you all right?!"

"Yes." the young girl said before she was released and her guardian/second mother let her go and faced Clare's opponent herself.

"Good. Stay behind me."

The one Clare now felt pity for jerked suddenly and started mumbling incoherent sentences as they stretched their arms and rubbed their eyes as though waking, then froze as they caught sight of Teresa.

"You're a-!"

The voice was male, but that hardly mattered as he was interrupted when he registered the fact that the woman's sword was descending from high over head toward him.

Swearing, the cloaked person rolled to the side, avoiding the blade that buried itself in the ground and scrambled to his feet throwing a kick to her stomach as he did so. No sooner had he regained his feet and turned to face her, he was forced to duck under a slash at his head and jumped back, putting some distance between them. Landing with a skid, he raised his two dirk.

Brandishing his weapons, he eyed the woman, really not liking the odds he now faced. She was fast, her reflexes were top-notch and he could tell just by looking that she could take a hit: considering that his muscles were screaming, his breathing was labored. This was going to be an uphill battle all the way.

"You are skilled." The woman admitted, adjusting her sword slightly, then she suddenly disappeared from view with pseudo-motion. Eyes widening, he leaned back as the air stirred, the tip of the blade coming with an inch of his throat and then lifted a foot up to avoid the blade's sweep at his ankle. Rebalancing as it came hurtling back at his midsection; he kicked her hands hard forcing it back causing the woman to stumble from the sudden shift in momentum.

His opponent recovered however, pivoting around using the momentum to make another slash at his head. He brought his dirk up, blocking the blow even as the impact sent him skidding away with such force that he almost fell over from it. Recovering from that particular clash, he shifted his stance in preparation for the next attack wishing he could call the fight off – but he doubted he could talk this woman out of whatever she was doing.

The woman was suddenly gone in another blur of speed. Naruto pivoted and tried to stab her as she reappeared behind him, but she managed to twist aside. Under his facemask-like scarf, he grimaced, but pressed his attacks, shifting tactics so that he could stay in close and keep her from freely using her sword but she soon enough realized his plan and slammed a fist into his chest sending him flying.

Pain flared to new levels from the blow, but he ignored it for the moment and let his shoulders fall back so that his weight carried lower. A second later his hand touched the ground and using his momentum and his hands performed a series of back flips before landing in a low crouch. He blanched upon seeing the way his dirk had nearly been sliced in half from blocking her earlier attack.

"Look, I think maybe we got off on the wrong-" he started to say before he dodged to the side as she appeared before him, sword cleaving the ground apart yet again when it struck. Seeing an opening, he hurled one of his blades at her unprotected side, which he instantly regretted as she some how managed to bring her blade around in time to deflect his ruined weapon.

The dirk careened off at an angle, disappearing into the dark forest and left him with only one of his weapons.

"Oh shit." the black-wearing person said. Then his eyes widened as he noticed the familiar spike of energy, yet even as he registered it he noticed that the woman had disappeared before he could even notice. He moved out of instinct but not quite quick enough to avoid the attack completely, the blade slicing briefly into his leg before he managed to escape.

He didn't have a respite as the blade came at him in a blinding flurry of slashes and cuts, coming closer and closer to actually hitting him. Naruto's breath started coming out in short painful bursts as he dodged each attack, before ducking beneath a slash at his neck and planting a hand used it as a pivot point to sweep at her ankle. She jumped over the attempt, and he sprang away while tossing a handful of dirt at her face as he did so.

His injured leg tried to buckle from the shifting weight, and taking the brief moment of distraction as she wiped the dirt from her eyes, he tried to catch his breath, but much too soon, the woman cleared away the last of the dirt he had thrown, staring at him with silted, golden eyes.

"Ok, can we just-" he started once more, before she pulled her arm back and flung her sword at him with blinding speed. He rolled to the side and the next second, he was pinned to a tree by his neck, one of the woman's hands around his throat.

Sheesh! Who was this woman?! She was stronger than Irene!

Wait...stronger than mom? There was only one person that hadn't turned into a monster already that fit that description. At least, not as far as Naruto knew.

"...You're Teresa of the Faint Smile, right?" he asked.

The woman looked shocked, "How do you know my name?!"

The boy shrugged "Heard about you from mom. Talks about you a lot."

Mom?!

Teresa wasn't expecting that and her eyes reverted to silver and her pupils became rounded again. "Who are you?" she asked.

In answer, the one Teresa had pinned sheathed his dagger, then reached up and lowered their hood, exposing sun-bright blond hair that stuck up like the spines of a sea urchin and hung atop their head in loose spikes, before they pulled the scarf they wore down to expose lightly tan skin and a face with three whisker-resembling markings on each cheek to go with the blue eyes and blond hair.

"My name is Naruto. How do you do, Miss Teresa?" he said.

Clare looked at him. The person she'd been fighting was a boy her age?!

He looked around, as if hoping to spot something, not spotting it, he looked fearful, only to seem to realize something, then turned to Teresa.

"Say...you're a good sensory-type, right, Miss Teresa?"

"Yeah. Why do you ask?" the woman asked, tone unsure. She didn't know what to make of this development. A human. A human kid. She'd been fighting and about to kill a human kid.

Talk about close. If this boy, Naruto (what kind of a name was that, anyways?), hadn't caught her by surprise by pointed out he knew who she was, she would have lopped off his head! Talk about breaking the Organization's greatest taboo...and in front of Clare! The idea revolted Teresa like nothing else.

Naruto beamed "You can help me find mom then?!" he asked hopefully, eyes shining with utter joy.

Find his mother? Teresa winced-her becoming more expressive further proof of Clare's influence on her. She was going to hate telling him this.

"I'm sorry boy, but my sensing only works on yoma. I can't use it to track humans."

"So you can't find Irene?!" Naruto shouted, feeling the icy claws of panic that came with being lost and separated from family and not being able to locate them.

HELLO! Teresa felt her jaw drop and she let him go. Did this kid just admit to referring to Irene as "mom"?! She felt stunned. Irene...the iceberg, her best friend...had taken in a kid?!

Granted that Teresa herself couldn't talk, seeing as she had Clare. But still...

Ho, it'd been awhile since she'd had any dirt to tease Irene over! Not since they were trainees! Now news like this practically fell into her lap!

Shooting Clare a quick glance, Teresa turned her attention to the black-wearing boy.

"Just to make sure we're talking about the same Irene, she's a warrior the same way I am, right? Resembles an elf? Pale skin, angled eyes, pointed ears, silver hair, sword too fast to see...any of that sound familiar?" Teresa asked, listing the traits that she had teased her best friend about by constantly calling her an elf back when they were younger. Ho, those were the days...it made Irene furious to be called things like "Madam Pointy-Ears"!...Then Irene had been taught to suppress her emotions for the sake of creating her Quicksword technique and now seemed so withdrawn and aloof that she seemed to have no more emotion than a marble statue.

Teresa missed being able to get her riled up.

Naruto nodded vigorously, an eager, beaming smile on his face, "Exactly! All of it!"

Teresa snickered. God must really like the direction she had started going with her life since taking Clare in. Only way to explain this. Had to be!

"Well...why didn't you tell me that in the first place? I can't track humans with my sensing, but Irene and I are both hybrids, I CAN track her because of that! All right, kid. You can come with us until we find Irene. But if you try anything funny, you'll regret it. Got it?" The silver-eyed woman said, to which he nodded.

Teresa set him down and moved off somewhere out of the two children's sight, looking like she was holding something back and was about to burst. Once she was far enough away, the two heard a long stream of loud, maniacal laughter.

Naruto and Clare shared a glance, Naruto had the sinking suspicion in his gut that he just set himself up for mom having a reason to punish him.

"So..." Naruto said uncertainly, "can you tell me your name?" he asked Teresa's companion, whom he guessed was to Teresa as he was to Irene.

She appeared thin and frail, had straight, light brown hair in a long "princess"-style, and was dressed in a brown skirt dress, brown armbands, and brown shoes. But he saw something in her that reminded him of the "Will of Fire" people back in Konoha had, Something in her eyes held a kind of strength to continue fighting against all odds, a frighteningly strong willpower and strength of character.

Somehow, Naruto found it suited her perfectly.

"My name's Clare." she said.

At that, Naruto had to stifle a laugh. Teresa and Clare? The twin goddesses? Seriously? "I see..." he said. "Well...hope nothing bad happened...don't know how I got here..."

Clare stared at him, dumbstruck. "You know you fight in your sleep, right?"

Naruto went wide-eyed about that "You're kidding right?" he asked.

Clare shook her head, "You attacked me while you were sleepwalking...sleep-fighting...whatever you want to call it."

"WHAT?!" Naruto shouted, shocked. "Ho man!...I what?! You're not hurt are you?! I'm sorry! I just...last thing I remembered was falling asleep and...I'm so sorry!"

Clare graced him with a small smile. "Don't worry...you didn't hurt me. And even if you did, it wouldn't have been your fault. You didn't know what you were doing...besides, Teresa wouldn't have let me be hurt."

Naruto gulped and nodded, he knew from his time with his mother that those swords weren't for show or decoration. And if he was right about Teresa and Clare being the same as him and Rrene...he shivered, not liking where that thought was going.

He was brought out of his thoughts as his stomach let out a loud growl and he looked down at it, then scratched the back of his head sheepishly "Uh...I'll go get something for the three of us then..." he said, then walked off into the woods, Clare staring after him, then thought of something and when off her own way.

A few minutes later, Naruto arrived back at where Clare stood waiting, carrying a trio of rabbits in his hands.

With practiced movement, he used his remaining dirk to skin, gut, and clean the rabbits, and then-putting aside the hearts, lungs, kidneys, and livers-buried the viscera so that the scent of the offal wouldn't attract any scavengers or yoma. Without salt, he could not properly season any sort of food, but he knew enough about flora to know which non-harmful plants at least released pleasant smells when he crushed them between his fingers, and those he rubbed over and packed into each of the carcasses.

Gathering thin, flat stones, he made a small, crude oven by stacking them on top of one another. Next, he dug a pit, filled it with wood, and lit a fire by drawing a peace of flint along the edge of his dirk to produce a spark. He tended the fire until he had a bed of coals that glowed cherry red. Cutting three wands of dogwood, he stripped the bark and seared the wood over the coals to burn off the bitter sap, then spitted the carcasses on the wands and suspended them between the stones of the makeshift oven. For the organs, the used the top of the stone oven after greasing it with fat for a makeshift frying pan.

He crouched over the meal for three, slowly turning the three wands so the meat cooked evenly.

"You can cook?" Clare asked.

Naruto shrugged, "Over a campfire, yeah. Other than that, bit too many rules for my taste. What I like best about making food over a campfire like this is as long as it's cooked all the way through but isn't charred to the point it makes eating tough, it works. Simple is best."

Clare nodded, realizing that his statement at the end encompassed more than food preparation, but that his saying simple was best was a general comment. One with which she agreed, honestly, why people thought that making things more complicated made them better was beyond her.

Clare giggled. Then held out a hand to him, presenting his other dagger to him, the one Teresa had deflected into the woods earlier.

Naruto brightened and smiled as he nodded in thanks, taking the blade from her and sheathing it.

Teresa returned as the food finished and sat down, looking at the blond boy whom was sitting next to Clare...a bit too closely for the adoptive mother's taste. Clearing her throat, she was rewarded with the pair jumped and scooted away from one another. Teresa fought back a snicker as the trio each picked a freshly-cooked rabbit Shish kebab and ate. Once the three were finished, the Number One decided to get down to business.

"If you don't mind my asking, why are traveling with Irene?" Teresa asked, turning to the whisker-faced boy.

At that, Naruto looked startled, "Ok...if you're their best, why haven't they told you anything?!" he said, then he muttered about how the Organization was sloppily run before he turned to Teresa and told her about what he knew of the situation.

To her credit, she only raised an eyebrow. She knew the balance of power was shifted when that yoki had shown up, but for the three Awakened Ones of the North, West, and South to form an alliance.

She had to confess that this "Seraph" character that Irene had been sent to track knew how to shake things up.

Well, she had wanted to see her old friend again for a while anyways, and returning her kid to her gave her an excellent excuse to do so. Besides, it had been a while since she'd seen her handler, Orsay, so she had been kept in the dark about the events like the formation of the Abyss Trinity, so she felt she owed it to him to get him back to Irene.

Clare gave her mother figure a glance and she knew Clare was of a similar mindset. They stood and Naruto followed their example. Shutting her eyes and concentrating for a moment and straining her senses against the (thankfully) weakening yoki shroud the Seraph had generated, Teresa smirked as she located a very familiar yoki signature and her eyes opened again, giving Naruto a small nod, to which, he beamed.

"Let's go you two." she said and the three moved off to find Naruto's adoptive mother figure and Teresa's best friend.