Disclaimer - I do not own Fate/Stay Night nor do I own Naruto
"Senpai, I'm sorry but I won't be able to help with dinner for a while after tonight. Is that okay?" Sakura asked politely as she locked the front door behind her.
Naruto grinned happily, "Finally!" he exclaimed, "I was seriously worried that you had no one else to hang out with, but it looks like you're doing just fine!"
Sakura furiously shook her head, "it's not like that, Senpai!" She denied vehemently, "It's just that I have some personal business to attend to!"
She then proceeded to look at the ground and blushed, "So I would appreciate it if you didn't get the wrong idea," she iterated shyly.
Naruto looked taken aback,
"R-right. Sorry for assuming."
Sakura turned her head back towards Naruto and nodded before noticing something, "Senpai, your hand!"
Naruto raised his hand to look at it while Sakura leaned in closer to do the same. There, on his hand was a weird, faded, and red mark that Naruto was sure wasn't on his hand the night before.
"What is this?" He wondered, "Did I scratch myself or something?"
He tried to recall an incident where he hurt himself but couldn't.
Sakura, on the other hand, kept worriedly staring at his hand and was about to offer him a bandage but before she could, Naruto gave her a reassuring grin and said,
"Don't worry about it. It doesn't hurt so it should fade away soon."
Sakura hesitantly nodded, still a little unconvinced, but after taking another look at the blonde's grinning face, she let her suspicions disappear,
"If you say so, Senpai."
With that, she turned around to head to school. Naruto watched her and as soon as she faced her back to him, his cerulean eyes narrowed dangerously and his bright grin morphed into a grim frown. Sakura started speaking to him about various topics again but he ignored her.
It wasn't as if he wanted to, but this matter with the red mark was a whole lot more important.
'Kurama, did I hurt myself when I was spaced out?' He asked analytically.
Kurama was quick to respond, 'No. Not even once.'
Naruto silently trailed behind Sakura as Kurama continued,
'Although, I do sense a tiny amount of magic coming from that mark.'
Naruto mulled over Kurama's words for a few minutes and flashed Sakura a bright grin in between when she looked back at him. She turned around to face forward again and his grin too, vanished once again.
'This can't be a coincidence,' he said to Kurama after a while, 'a massive amount of magic energy pops out of nowhere and suddenly I have a mark on my hand containing magic energy for no reason? There's no way that these two events aren't related.'
His frown deepened, 'The only question is, 'what'?'
He shook his head a little,
'No. That's wrong. That's not the only question. The only thing I've pieced out is that these two events are related. Other than that, I have nothing. For instance, why is this happening in the first place? Is it focused on me, or does this involve a group? Is this a plot to kill me or is it something else? There's too many possibilities! I just can't figure out!'
He clenched his fists tightly and narrowed his eyes even more, to the point where he was glaring,
'To make matters worse, I have absolutely no way of finding any information. Information that I need. Damn it! If only I had my shadow clones, then I could easily search for and find everything in record time. But… I don't have my chakra, which means that searching an entire city alone for something that most people don't even know about, is the most idiotic decision I can make. Especially since I seem to be involved and don't even have Kurama's negative emotion sensing to aid me.'
Kurama interrupted Naruto's dissection of the situation to offer some advice,
'Naruto, at this point you can't do anything. Right now, all you need to do is keep living life as you always have and keep your guard up. You're involved in this now - whatever it is. That means that something or someone is almost definitely going to come to or for you. That's why, it'd be best if you remained on your guard till that mark disappears.'
Kurama paused for a second as he thought about something and then continued,
'You can sleep at night. I'll remain awake while you're asleep. Don't forget though, I can't possess your body anymore. You'll have to sleep light; I'll wake you up if anything abnormal appears.'
Naruto relaxed and let out a weary smile,
'Yeah, I'll have to be careful for an unknown amount of time but this is all that we can do. Thanks, Kurama.'
He could just feel the giant fox's cocky grin,
'Of course. Someone has to do the thinking around here.'
'Shut up.'
School had ended and the sun was setting, bathing the whole campus in a red glow. Naruto and Issei were standing and talking in the empty hallway, just about getting ready to leave before the sun fully set.
"I honestly thought I would have to hold you back from trying to hurt Shinji again when he insulted you yesterday, but I didn't know that you had acquired so much patience. To completely ignore his taunts? If I hadn't seen it personally and someone had told me that you had done something like that, then I would have laughed in their face. I'm really surprised and glad, Naruto."
Naruto whipped his head towards his friend and scowled,
"That guy insulted me? What'd he say? Actually don't tell me, just tell me where to find him. I need to introduce his face to the ground!" He raged.
Issei sighed in disappointment and disbelief, "Of course. I shouldn't have expected anything less. The only reason you dealt with his insults so calmly was because you just weren't paying attention."
Naruto dropped his scowl and laughed sheepishly,
"Hahahaha, yeah. I didn't pay attention to anything the entire day yesterday. That was my bad."
Issei sighed again before he looked out the window,
"Ah. It seems we got too caught up in talking. We better leave before the sun sets," he warned.
"Yeah, you're right. Let's go," Naruto agreed.
Issei shook his head, "I'm sorry, but I still have a few matters that I have to deal with. You go on ahead. It'll take some time before I'm free."
Naruto let out an impressed whistle, "Wow. The Student Council President sure has a lot to do."
Issei chuckled slightly, "Exactly," he confirmed, "Get home safe, Naruto. Don't lollygag or wander, ok?"
Naruto walked down the stairs and waved behind him, "Yeah, yeah. See ya, Issei."
He walked down two flights before he heard a voice and some laughter.
'That sounded like…Shinji,' Naruto thought to himself.
Shinji was entertaining the two girls beside him and would have continued doing that if it wasn't for that blonde pseudo-friend of his who was standing there as if he was expecting him.
"What? You're still here, Emiya?" He asked, smirking.
Naruto growled, "Oi, Shinji. I heard you were talking shit about me yesterday. If you want your ass kicked just say so!" He finished with a yell.
The two girls beside Shinji took a few steps back from the confrontation as Shinji's smirk grew in size, "Of course it took you one whole day to respond to my comment, Emiya. I should have expected nothing less."
His brought up his hands in mock exasperation, "Truly, your stupidity has no equal."
Naruto clenched his fists and barely restrained the urge to pummel the purple haired boy.
Honestly, Shinji had absolutely no idea why they were friends. Naruto just had this weird personality that brought people he interacted with to his side. He himself had been roped in when they were in middle school. Anyone who had tried to do something bad to the blonde had found themselves shunned by all their peers and any rumors started about him were shut down instantly.
All because of him.
To be honest, Naruto's personality and charisma made him jealous. If Naruto actually tried, then he could probably become the most popular guy in the school.
All he had to do was talk to a few people and he'd be set.
but…for some reason…Naruto was always stuck in his own world. It was as if he didn't care whether he passed or failed, nor did he care much about anything else - except for the archery club (and that was only because he had challenged Naruto and said that he would never be able to hit a bullseye ten times in a row).
It wasn't like he hated everyone, on the contrary, he would greet anyone who came up to talk to him with a bright grin, and a few minutes later it was almost like you were childhood friends or something. It's just…it was as if the only reason he was in class was because it was mandatory, not because it would help his future or anything, as if he was aiming for something that this place simply could not help him with.
Well, whatever. It wasn't like thinking about this would lead to anything. All he had to do right now, was get rid of the easily aggravated blond and go to the store with the girls.
Shinji smirk turned incredibly devious, "Naruto, Fujimura-sensei told me to tell you to clean the archery club dojo."
Naruto made a face of confusion, "Eh? Why?"
Shinji gave a sharp glare to the girl who was about to say something before he gave his pseudo-friend a relaxed grin, "I don't know, something about punishment for quitting the club, I think?"
He put a hand on the whiskered teen's shoulder, "You should probably hurry up though. Don't want to be late for dinner, do you?"
Naruto looked out the window before he ran down the stairs in panic, "I'll kick your ass later, Shinji! I gotta hurry up and clean the dojo for that damn Taiga!" He yelled behind him.
Heh. What a naïve guy. With the work Taiga gave him taken care of, the only thing he had left to do now, was enjoy his time with the girls.
There was no doubt about it.
He really was amazingly smart.
By the time he finished cleaning the dojo, Night had fallen and the moon was hanging high up in the sky.
After putting all the supplies back and smoothening out his clothes, Naruto stretched his arms until he heard a satisfying 'crack'.
'Naruto…you know that purple-haired womanizer was lying to you, right?' Kurama asked.
Naruto froze, 'What! He was?' He exclaimed.
Kurama let out a giant sigh and face-palmed, 'I can't believe you fell for that. Why are you even friends with him?'
Naruto puzzled over the question for a second before he answered.
'He wasn't like this before y'know? He was still arrogant, yes, but he used to be a lot nicer. Now though…I don't know what happened to him, but now he's…this. I wanna help him before I lea-'
He halted his explanation as soon as he heard the distinct sound of metal clashing against metal.
'What? I thought people only used melee weapons against one another in official competitions in this world,' The blonde thought to himself.
'Are you going to go check it out?' Kurama asked cautiously.
Naruto considered his options for a second,
"Yeah, the timing's way too weird. I have to check it out; it may be my only way to gain some more info on the situation."
'Then be careful,' Kurama warned, 'You have nothing in your arsenal except for your physical abilities.'
The whiskered teen resolutely nodded before he quietly ran towards the source of all the noise. As he got closer the cacophony of metal clashing against metal got louder and increased in pace.
'The time of silence in between the clashes has reduced to the point where even the most skilled human in this dimension can't keep up. I don't know if magecraft can increase a person's speed to this point, but even if it can, that means that something supernatural is occurring over there,' Naruto analyzed.
A few seconds later, he turned a corner and gazed upon the source of all the noise.
Just a little further away from him, there were two people fighting, one wore some kind of red and black garb while the other wore some kind of blue and silver bodysuit.
The one dressed in red and black was using two Chinese-style short swords. One was colored black, while the other one was white.
On the other hand, the one dressed in the blue and silver bodysuit was utilizing a glowing red spear with intricate designs on it.
In an instant, the two broke apart and the one with the spear crouched and placed his spear in a diagonal line in front of him. The spear let out some sort of visible red energy that instantly put the other on guard.
Naruto took a small step forward to take a closer look at what the spearman was doing.
It was just a small step but it was enough to catch the spearman's attention.
"Who's there?" the man in blue yelled as he disabled his technique.
'Shit! I've gotten rusty!' Naruto berated himself as he took off towards the entrance of the school building.
'What are you going to do?' Kurama asked with an undertone of urgency in his voice.
'I'm gonna run into the school. That man, when he was fighting the guy in red, instead of stabbing, he was slashing a whole lot more. If I move into the school, then he'll be forced down to only stabbing,' Naruto replied as he ran.
'But that means that you won't have anywhere to dodge either. The only place you'll be able to dodge, is backwards! Considering the length of his spear, you'll be hit for sure!' Kurama protested.
The blonde teen let out a confident smirk and rebutted the biju's statement,
'Not true. If the school corridors were only corridors, then you would be right.'
He skidded and shot through the entrance of the school as he continued explaining his plan to his tenant,
'Thing is, a corridor inside a school is filled with things like classrooms and stairs. I know this terrain better than him…probably, and that means that I can utilize all the areas in the school better than him. Not only that, but I also know what's going to come up next if I head in a certain direction. That means that I can make plans based on the upcoming areas, while the only thing he can do, is chase me.'
Naruto rushed up the stairs and swiftly ran into the corridor.
Instead of continuing to run though, he stopped to look back, hoping to see the intimidating figure of the man in the bodysuit.
Only…there was nothing but air behind him.
'What? Is he waiting for me outside? Did he figure out my plan?' He asked himself.
He waited for a split second more before Kurama frantically yelled out a warning,
'BEHIND YOU!'
Naruto didn't hesitate.
He leaped forward as far as he could and twisted his body at the same time.
As soon as he touched the ground again, he found himself facing the man in blue and silver holding out his spear out as if he was stabbing someone.
"Hoooo," the spearman crowed, "you've got good reflexes."
Lancer was impressed.
This kid had managed to dodge a blow that he hadn't even seen coming.
Well, with the amount of killing intent he was leaking and how slowly he thrust out his spear, it wouldn't really be that impressive for someone in his era to be able to dodge that.
But the blonde kid wasn't from his era. He was from this one.
An era full of complacent people, who never actually faced each other in combat.
This kid was an odd one.
So he asked,
"What's your name, kid?"
Even if the kid was about to die, he still wanted to know his name.
What could he say? He was interested.
The whiskered kid smirked a little shakily,
"Naruto," he said, "Uzumaki Emiya Naruto."
Lancer too, gave him a smirk,
"You can call me, Lancer," he introduced before continuing,
"I'm sorry, Naruto, but you won't survive this night," His red eyes narrowed, "Dead men tell no tales and whatnot. Curse the fact that you were born with no power or luck,"
His voice was grave.
The blonde's smirk stabilized and his cerulean eyes danced menacingly,
"I won't die here, nor will I die tonight."
The kid's smirk morphed into a malicious smile,
"If you think you can kill me, them why don't you try?" The kid asked confidently, as if he was sure of his own victory.
Heh, if the kid wanted to be killed so badly, then who was he to deny him?
Lancer raised his spear into a charging position and rushed towards Naruto,
"Here I come!"
'Shit, the only reason I was able to dodge was because of Kurama's negative emotion sensing and the fact that he vastly underestimated me. I can't fight him right now, especially not in this terrain. He has the definite advantage if we fight here,'
The blonde shifted to a looser stance,
'but if I try to escape using this terrain, then that advantage becomes mine,' he thought to himself as he waited for Lancer to charge.
"Here I come!" Lancer yelled and contrary to his expectation, instead of dodging backwards or rushing towards him, Naruto bolted towards the side and crashed through a classroom door.
Lancer lost his smirk and stopped his charge after barely missing the blonde, and then, he too rushed inside after him.
There he was!
There, right in front of Lancer, was his crafty opponent who was rushing towards the other end of the room.
Lancer smirked again and once again charged towards him…
…only to stab nothing but air again as the infuriating teen once again barreled through another door that led back out to the same corridor that they had entered from and barely dodged his attack.
"Tch, you're not gonna make this easy for me, are ya, kid?" Lancer wondered out loud before rushing after the blonde again.
The only problem was… the hallway was completely empty with no signs of shattered windows or anything.
'Hmm? Where did he go?' The ancient spearman wondered to himself as he looked around.
He walked a little towards the direction that he was sure that he heard the blonde go towards.
'Now that I think about it, his footsteps are really quiet. I could barely hear them while he was running,'
He let out a quiet chuckle,
'Well, he messed up the first time I heard him.'
His eyes glowed with unholy intensity,
'One of the last mistakes of his life.'
He walked a few more steps before he came upon another flight of stairs.
"Now, which way did you go? Up or down?"
He wondered aloud before he spotted a piece of brown cloth, no doubt belonging to his elusive opponent, caught under the railing on the flight of stairs heading upwards.
He let out another chuckle, then ran up the stairs, unwilling to let his target get away.
'Sounds like he fell for it,'
Naruto thought to himself as he stayed crouching on the bottom floor, underneath the stairs.
After a few seconds of deliberation, Naruto got up and quietly ran for the exit.
He turned the corner and ran past the lockers, but before he could make it out the door, two new figures appeared in front of him.
One man and one girl, both dressed in red.
Before they could say anything though, Naruto barreled past them and told the girl in a barely audible voice,
"Sorry Tohsaka, but I gotta go. Have fun with your date!"
"Eh? Eeeeeeh? Date? Y-you're wrong! This guy's not my date!" Rin yelled at the fleeing blonde boy, blushing bright red.
The message failed to reach him however, since he had already left.
"Rin, what do you want to do? Do you want me to track Lancer?" Her Servant asked calmly.
She considered her options for a second, before she responded,
"No. We follow Emiya-kun. Silently. We don't want him to know we're there."
Archer turned to his master and raised an eyebrow, "May I ask why?"
Rin responded instantly,
"Lancer is a servant," she explained in a matter-of-fact tone, "Giving him the slip isn't that easy. There's no doubt in my mind that Lancer will be able to track down Emiya-kun. When that happens, we'll catch Lancer by surprise while he's trying to kill Emiya-kun."
Archer nodded slightly,
"That's a good plan, but… I hope that's the only reason."
The black haired girl blushed slightly,
"O-of course! There's no other reason at all!"
She clapped her hands together angrily,
"Now shut up! We have to get going; there's no telling how far he's gotten!"
Archer shrugged his shoulders calmly,
"Right, right."
'Why are you still running, Naruto?' Kurama asked curiously.
'That guy, there's no way he won't be able to track me, his senses are way too sharp,' the whiskered blonde explained, 'I have to make it back home before he manages to catch up. All my weapons are there, not to mention that I have the home field advantage there.'
'Home field advantage? What do you mean by that?'
Naruto was quick to answer,
'It means that I have the lay of the land while he doesn't. I know the dimensions of the house and don't need to look around to figure out where everything else is placed, since I already know based on my current position.
He smirked a little at his plan, 'My advantage is that Lancer has to constantly look around to reaffirm his position, while I have don't have to worry about anything like that. He's much stronger than me at the moment, so every disadvantage counts.'
'This plan isn't as foolproof as you're explaining, correct?' Kurama deduced.
Naruto lost his smirk, 'Yeah. Lancer is an experienced fighter, so he can deduce his surroundings in an instant and he probably only has to look around once to find out the relative position of everything. The only time he has to look around again, is when he changes the direction that he's looking at and his position at the same time. If I keep him where he is and let him face just one direction, then he'll have to look around only once. The only chance I have, is to disorient him in my terrain. Even then, after a while he'll probably get used to where everything is. I can't let this fight drag on.'
'Are you going to fight inside the house?' Kurama wondered.
'No. My dodging space is severely limited there and it has just enough space for him to wave about his spear however he wants. Fighting in there is suicide.'
Kurama had one last question,
'Do you think you can win?'
The fight between Lancer and that guy in red flashed in his mind once again and he forced a smile,
'Of course!'
"Looks like you were expecting me, kid," Lancer said in an easy going voice after a second of tense silence.
"I was," Naruto replied, on guard.
The two were standing in the Emiya household's backyard.
Normally they wouldn't have been able to see each other at such a time in the night (at least Naruto wouldn't have been able to) but the moon hanging high up in the sky did a fine job of solving that problem.
"I honestly didn't expect you to be able to trick me like that. A feat like that deserves praise," Lancer said, quite impressed.
"I see. So as a prize for managing to trick you, would you mind telling me what the hell is going on here?"
Lancer let out a small laugh, "I wouldn't mind, but sadly, this whole thing is supposed to be a secret. So you can see why I can't tell you anything.
Naruto sighed in disappointment, "I thought so. You wouldn't be killing me if you actually could tell me anything about this."
While he was speaking on the outside, he was also furiously analyzing all the information he'd gained on the inside,
'He says that he has to keep this whole thing a secret and back in school, there were two people fighting. At least now I know that this isn't some elaborate plot based around me. It also seems like Tohsa-'
'FOCUS! HERE HE COMES!' Kurama warned suddenly.
Naruto barely noticed the spear heading for him in time for him to dodge a fatal blow.
"Gah!"
The spear had still managed to graze his arm though.
"You really do have good reflexes," Lancer praised, "But that won't save you from death!"
In an instant he was once again in front of the blonde teen and this time, the young man had no time to react.
Lancer's foot shot out and nailed Naruto right in the stomach.
The whiskered dimension traveler coughed up blood as he flew across the backyard,
'Shit! I made a mistake!' He lamented as he crashed through the door of the workshop and landed inside of it.
'My plan depended on me being able to keep up with Lancer, but the way I am now, I can barely even react to any of his movements!'
He put a hand on the wall for support as he struggled to get up.
He was out of options and not only that, but his only way out the workshop was blocked by the very same person who put him in this position.
Lancer raised his spear while Rin, on the rooftop, tensed her muscles along with her servant.
Naruto too, prepared himself to respond to any attacks that Lancer made, and as he did, the blood from his cut slid down his arm and dropped on to the faded, white-colored magic circle below.
Before any of the four could make a move, the magic circle underneath the blonde activated in a gust of wind and flash of bright light.
"The seventh Servant!?" Lancer yelled in surprise as he blocked a swift blow that still managed to send him tumbling outside.
There, in front of Naruto, was a petite blonde woman dressed in a blue and white dress and silver armor.
Instead of chasing Lancer outside, the mysterious woman turned back towards the whiskered teen and asked,
"I ask of you, are you my master?"
Naruto's response was delivered clearly and without hesitation,
"No."
The female warrior stumbled slightly,
"Eh? What do you mea-"
"I'm sorry lady," the young man apologized, "Somebody prank called you or something. I'm pretty sure I didn't order a hooker who specializes in cosplay and S&M."
"A-a hooker? Yo-You're wrong I'm not a hooker!" The blonde haired lady protested, "Your Servant, Saber, has come in response to your summons!" She said, raising her voice in indignation while trying to explain the situation.
Naruto let out a nervous laugh, "R-right. I'm sorry but please go home now. I seriously did not order a teleporting hooker."
Lancer chose this moment to intervene from the backyard,
"You guys done over there? Can we start this battle now?" He asked, a little tired from waiting for them to finish up their argument.
Rin face-palmed.