As soon as he exited the room his body turned slack, falling against the door he pressed his back against the somewhat ornate door that lead to the source of his mental exhaustion. He let out a strained sigh, running a hand through hair out of habit. 'I didn't think negotiations with that wolf would be that stressing.'
Despite the fact that he'd only left the Marquis's company barely a few hours before hand, he couldn't help but feel like that conversation had happened ages ago. Of course, the three hour negotiating session that came afterward probably had something to do with it. The blond however was just grateful he'd gotten hour long break before the Marquis had shown up, and started a new session.
He felt a certain amount of joy when they'd finished negotiations for their pack of non aggression. In the end it was rather easy to get the Marquis to agree on his term, but the old wolf still proved to be quite adept at word play. The proof of the matter being the terms the old man had weaseled in. None of them being highly unreasonable, but still benefiting the Wolf of a man more than the Kusanagi.
Needless to say it was a very hard fought ba-er Conversation. Either way, Naruto would need to get up to scratch with his negotiation skills. It was disappointing for a dragon to be out witted by a wolf, and while the comparison had simply appeared in his mind mere hours before hand. He rather liked the symbolism, and would prefer to live up to it.
He massaged his neck as he pulled his back off of the surprisingly comfy door. Sitting up Naruto walked to the exit. Pushing it open he took a deep breath of the chilly noon air, as he walked around. No one really taking notice of him as he walked towards the wreckage of the court yard. Navigation his way through the mix of buildings that were still in relatively good condition and scattered debris.
Stumbling over a pile of demolished plywood the blond almost tripped when he finally saw what remained of the overly large court yard. The once pristine stone that made up the courtyard was stained a rustic ruby color, large cracks scattered over the ground. Several foot shaped imprints revealing the actions of the dragon, while other parts were made into a weird wavy, and uneven texture like it was liquid frozen mid action. The result of the dragons barbecue breath no doubt, scratches littering the ground, probably from Voban. But despite the bloody outlines that showed where bodies had been resting, despite the ashes that were still drifting through the air, and resting on the ground.
Despite this, the most shocking and horrifying thing in the courtyard was the large black stain on the ground. The fire had burnt so hot that the black area had been turned liquid for a short amount of time, before it had cooled. However within this black spot was an area that had remained untouched, and unscathed by the fire.
An area in the vague shape of a human.
His outline had literally been imprinted into the stone by the dragon's raging fire. An image flashed through his head, pain assaulting his skull as he fell to one knee. His hands slammed down on his ears, his eyes almost rolled into the back of his head.
It was a memory of the exact second the fire had washed over his body. Phantom pain enveloped his body, he could feel it as the fire chewed on his skin, a searing sensation coming from his chest.
It was over in barely a second as he became aware of his surroundings once more. His breath was ragged as he noticed the cold biting away at his body heat. despite the fact it wasn't really successful, it brought his attention to the fresh snow that was falling around him. Standing on unsteady feet, a head-rush momentarily blurring his vision as he walked forward. He paused when he'd neared the scorched stone, kneeling he ran his fingers over blackened ground.
A sound caught his ears, as he turned toward the wreckage of the storage shed. It was faint, almost inaudible to human hearing, but it was there. Naruto was sure he wasn't hallucinating, as he stood up and headed towards the shed. As he got closer he could still see a sparse few embers hidden in the debris of the shed. Shoving a piece of the sheds walling out of his way he could hear it getting louder. Digging into the wreckage he wouldn't have been surprised if he looked one of those cartoon dogs. It didn't take him long to find what was making the sound as the gibberish, became more than just garbled sounds.
It was the laughing cat ringtone, as he finally ripped his prize from the mound of dirt and wood, sending a burst dust into the air. Coughing he waved his hand trying to clear the dust cloud as he redirected his attention back to his reward. It was green smartphone, the screen was large but overly so with a slightly singed green phone cover over the back. The blond felt his eye twitch as he realized what it was.
'This is my cell phone.' he let out an exasperated groan. Don't get him wrong he was happy to find it still working, if slightly melted. But there was just one problem, "How the hell did this thing survive? I get that it fell out of my pocket when I crashed into the shed. But how the hell did this thing survive impact?" an impact witch had reduced his rib-cage to splinters he might add. He was drawn back from his conversation with no one when the phone rang again.
Glancing at the screen, he almost tripped as he read that Gramps was calling him. 'Oh shit!' he screamed mentally as he clicked the answer button. "Uh… Hi?" he said lamely only to hear a gasp on the other end. "Naruto! Is that you? Are you okay? Is everything okay?" He had to take his ear away from the phone with how loud, Ichirou was asking. "Uh yeah I'm fine, I just er found my phone, Could you calm down and explain why you're freaking out?" He was honestly clueless, it wasn't that he hadn't called. He'd gone entire weeks without calling so that probably wasn't the problem considering he'd only been knocked out for a day. "I'm sorry Naruto, it's just we heard about the terrorist bombing at the shrine you were at… and we were getting worried when you didn't return our call… I-we were beginning to think… to think." His almost impervious Grandfather was practically having a breakdown on the other end and he didn't have a clue as of what to do. "Old man you might, want to sit down, you're almost acting your age." the blond said his own lame attempt at lightening the atmosphere.
But it seemed to work as the older Kusanagi gave half hearted laugh. "Thanks Kid I needed that." Ichirou announced thankfully. "So what going on over there?" the blond almost descended into a panic. 'What am I supposed to say?' rubbing the back of his neck he let a nervous chuckle. "Uh everything's fine here, I sorta just woke after being knocked out…" he almost smacked himself when he heard his adoptive father take a worried gasp. "Nothing big to worry about, I'm perfectly fine. Don't give yourself a heart attack or anything." Naruto said trying to avoid the time bomb he'd just dropped on himself.
"I won't be giving out any time Brat," The old man said gruffly, "I-I better go I need to go and tell Godou and Shizuka that your… that your fine." Swallowing the part of his mind that told him to keep the elder on the line the blond just gave choked up "Yeah I'll talk to you later." when he heard the clicking sound that typically meant the call had ended, he let his arm go slack uncaring as his arm dangled beside him. "Stupid dragon's! Fucking Mages! Why can't life be easy?"He yelled at the top of his lungs, complaining to nothing.
"Well than life wouldn't be fun would it?" He turned his, not particularly surprised to find a bandaged Alexandra staring down at him from a pile of debris. Her clothes somewhat ragged, while her hair was going it's best at attempting to imitate a furby that had been zapped with lightning, and while the bags around her eyes, were plainly visible against her pale skin. "Don't apply your logic to me mortal." He said sarcastically rolling his cobalt eyes. The brown haired girl paused as her skin paled even further as she fell into a bow, A black haired girl, that he hadn't seen before hand following her lead. Oh great were they taking his sarcasm seriously?
"I'm sorry I didn't recognize you your majesty." Announced the caramel eyed woman, voice trembling slightly as she tried to pat down her hair. Much to tired, both physically and emotionally the blond just gave her a blank stare. It went unnoticed however as they just started to shake silently under his gaze, as she continued her speech. "Please do not take you anger out on the shrine, I hold full responsibility please punish me and no one else." Naruto wasn't even surprised anymore, the girl did seem to be the type to make her job her life so it wasn't that off setting she would offer her own life in place of everything she'd accomplished. Naruto however was much too tired to even make an attempt at being tactful.
"You do realize by doing the whole majesty thing you just made me a lot more angry, than simply not realizing my position right?" it was only when he noticed both woman shaking like leaves did he realize that sentence hadn't helped anyone. But once again he was much too overloaded to really care about other people's feelings. "I mean Seriously I'm twelve I have no need of an ego boost! Stop calling me Majesty or whatever…" and now he was rambling just great. Although he couldn't help but find her whole idea that he was going to destroy a shrine simply because she didn't realize who he was at sight utterly stupid. Only around twenty people in the shrine knew that he was a Campione at all. Thanks to Voban's interference most of them simply thought the Marquis had killed the god… thingy.
Now that he thought about he should probably do something to maintain his anonymity. Following that thought he Reached inside his jacket pocket, with the simple thought of maintaining his anonymous status. What he pulled out was a simple necklace with a braided cord with a single pendant hanging on to it. He immediately knew what the necklace did, after all it would be strange that a dragon didn't know the purpose of what it was keeping in it's hoard.
The necklace by itself was worth quite a bit of money, as the pendant was made of pure platinum, forged into the shape of the "Juubi's eye" whatever the hell that was, and enchanted with the specific purpose of maintaining his own anonymity, with a couple of mildly amusing side affects. Mostly just driving the stupidly weak willed insane. (...Maybe this coming back from the dead thing had effected him a bit more than he thought?)
The blond however was just increasingly happy that he'd gotten [Dragon's hoard] as an authority. After all it let him summon valuables, and what could be more valuables than an item enchanted with a forgotten spell? He paid no attention to the girls as they managed to recompose themselves seemingly realizing he wasn't paying attention to them, slipping the necklace on lazily. It wouldn't prevent people that already knew he was a Campione from realizing it, but it would make it impossible for most others to figure it out without him telling them.
His attention was brought back to reality as Alexandra and her company addressed him. Turning to face the girl he raised an eyebrow, she was wearing the standard garb of the shrine maidens her hair brown, like Alexandra's while her eyes remained a much lighter blue than his own, probably a year or two younger than him. Her skin was pale in an unhealthy way, fingers twitching like she was in the sights of a rabid animal. "What did you just say?"
The girl seemed to freeze her breath becoming more panicked, as she played with her hands nervously. She spoke again, her voice trembling and barely above a whisper. Putting a hand up to his ear, "Speak up, I can't hear you." The Girl's body looked like it was going haywire as she opened her mouth and screamed at him. "What! What were you thinking when you killed it, how did you kill it! How did-Could I have- Would it…" the girl stopped holding back tears as she locked her eyelids shut, falling to the stoney ground with a thumping sound.
The blond proved himself to be worthy of his title as Epimethius's child as he shoved Alexandra away and wrapped the young girl into a hug. One hand pulling the girl into his lap as the other was ran through her hair. The girl didn't really seem to care that she was literally being held in the arms of a natural disaster, as she practically crushed him with a hug.
Patting her back as she sobbed into his shoulder, In all honesty he had no idea what he was doing so he just did what he used to do for Shizuka when she was sad. So he sang a song, it wasn't really fit for the situation but it worked. It was an old lullaby that he could remember his mother from this dimension singing him when he was younger.
The only witness to this scene was the eighteen year old Alexandra Olsson, the mournful song echoing in her ears. Nature itself seeming to respond to his voice as the snow wrapped the young king and the girl on his lap in a tear rending embrace. In later years she would claim this to be the first sign in a plethora of clues, that Naruto Kusanagi was no mere human.
He was something more, something Better.
For he was a kind, Campione and wasn't that just terrifying?.
She pulled her long blond hair from her eyes, as she looked at the remnants of the Swedish Dragon Shrine. She sighing she fell back into her seat, waiting for the car to stop. It was several minutes later that she finally stepped out of her car paying the cabby as she did so. A large red winter coat around her shoulders as her red winter boots made squelching sounds against the mud.
The symbol of the copper black cross imprinted on the back of her coat. Black pants skin tight against her legs as she walked forward. Finding the person she was looking for, she tapped her shoulder, drawing the woman's attention away from the person she was talking to. The somewhat strained smile on her face fell as she saw just who had shown up.
"Erica, what are you doing here?" she asked tonelessly, as she eyed the blue eyed girl in front of her. "Oh whatever could you mean Alex?" she said in a tone of false innocence, a smile that some would comparable to that of the devil's on her face. Alexandra rolled her eyes as she glared at the young blond. "We both know you hate Sweden in the winter, and the only other reason you come other than pleasure is work, now what do you want." The eleven year old girl just sighed her face morphing into something resembling seriousness.
"The copper black cross was curious and Papa thought it would be a good experience for me." The girl admitted offhandedly, as she played with her hair absentmindedly. Alexandra however sighed, palming her face out of misery. "I can't help but feel like you're holding something back Blandelli." the blond just smiled like the cat that caught the canary. "Now whatever could you mean?"