Act 2 Part 3 Rogue: Ascend pt 2

Rule#7: In gathering intel, little things can tell you a lot. A topflight alarm system, well-placed cameras, shark tanks….. Paying attention to strangers in the area. If you know what to look for, all the details can tell you everything you need to know.

It had been a long night indeed.

He seemed ok for the most part, his sunglasses hid the fatigue in his eyes, and he masked the rest of it with a smile. It was around 1:00 PM and he'd just returned to the park where he had met the young street musician, but the teen was nowhere to be found.

'Hmm, what a bummer, I had hoped he would show up, but it is as expected. Or maybe the time isn't right, but what should I do….' Naruto glanced. There was so much that needed to be done and so much pressure that he couldn't think straight, he wasn't efficient.

What he needed was a distraction. He needed to clear his mind to do his job… but what was there to do?

A bakery, a small church, a shoe-shop, and a clothing shop. At first glance, there wasn't anything of interest around, but then his eyes returned to the small church around the corner. There were plenty of large churches on the Holy City, this one was small, so small that Naruto nearly ignored it and attached to it was a orphanage.

Over the course of his life, he'd been curious about Orphanages, he never could remember if he had gone to one when younger, what happened in between the time of when he was a baby and when he started living alone.

Now? His memories were clear as they'd ever been. He took a deep breath, cleared his thoughts and focused, way back. It was the old man Hiruzen, and… Koharu. Mostly the Elder Woman, it was strange, he couldn't remember her ever coming to visit him after, it was painful. The memories were so vivid that it felt as if he was living them now. Hiruzen was stone cold then, he'd turn his back when the question of his parents popped.

Naruto felt unsure of how to feel about the old man, he was led to believe that nobody wanted him, it could have been different, a lot of things could have.

But now it was too late.

There was nowhere to go back to and the only way to go was forward.

'I guess I can visit, see how they are, and how it's like.' Naruto convinced himself and walked towards the orphanage.

He stopped in front of it's steps and contemplated the situation, him going inside an orphanage.

It perhaps was a good thing that Kaguya wasn't around, for as smart as he is now, he still couldn't predict her thoughts. If she was truly neutral, if she understood his intentions. Perhaps he was selling her short, she'd placed a lot of trust in him since their arrival.

Thinking about misunderstandings, what would the people of the Orphanage think about a stranger with no reason to be there, being there? He needed a reason, and it wasn't very difficult to think about one.

He covered his left hand with his right, and a tiny puff of smoke happened under, when he uncovered his hand there was a golden wedding band.

'This should do the trick…' he thought and walked into the orphanage.

The place was larger than he had expected it to be, the front entrance was thinking and gave the impression of small, but it stretched pretty far.

On first glance he could tell it was run by nuns, there was a receptionist desk with two nuns working on it.

He walked towards them.

"Good day, sir. How can we help you?" One of the nuns behind the desk asked with a smile.

"Good day, miss." Naruto greeted them with a smile. "Well you see, my wife and I, we've been having trouble and we've been giving some thought about adoption… I'm wondering if could maybe meet the kids? Get to know everyone."

"Ah, am sorry to hear that sir, but we assure you that adoption is a wonderful alternative, our kids are great, you'd be lucky to adopt any of them." The nun replied and glanced at the entrance. "But sir, we generally recommend that both spouses come here together for first time meeting, you sure you wouldn't like to come back with your wife?"

"She's on a business trip right now, she will be away for a while. I'd like to get things sorted here on the meanwhile." Naruto replied and one of the nuns got up.

"Okay sir, if you could just fill this, it's for visitors, we like to keep things organized." The nun that was seated handed Naruto a sheet of paper with several information.

He quickly signed it with a mixture of truth and half-truths and the other nun showed him around.

The Orphanage was rather humble and there didn't seem to have many electronics.

"This is the study-hall, they are all studying right now, their break is in an hour and a half." The nun showed him a room with the kids currently in class.

Looking at them he was reminded of himself and his friends back when they were on the Academy. Every memory was so vivid it was as if they were all happening at that exact moment.

Some of them were paying attention to their teacher as if their lives depended on it, others were pretending to do so. His lips twitched upwards, it wasn't as bad.

"Sir let us continue, we shouldn't distract them now." The nun gestured for Naruto to follow, seeing as how his presence was beginning to confuse the kids.

He followed and they stopped at the kitchen, it like the rest of the place was very humble, there were three nuns cleaning and beginning to prepare lunch.

On an area connected to the kitchen was the dining hall, which consisted of several white, plastic tables and chairs.

"Hey, since it is going to take a while for the kids to finish their studies, can I help out here in the kitchen, to pass time?" Naruto asked and the woman shifted nervously.

"I'm not sure it is allowed, and there is still a few places to show." she replied and one of the older nuns that was cleaning heard, a middle-aged woman in her late 40s.

"We don't reject help here, do you know how to work a kitchen?" The elder asked and Naruto grinned mischievously.

"Oh you have no idea…" He took an apron and a hair-net.

-1 hour and 30 minutes later -

Naruto knew his way around a kitchen and the craziness that along with cooking. Now that he didn't have anything distracting him, his culinary ability truly showed through the masterful way he mixed the ingredients.

This had to do with the monumental change his mind went through that allowed him access of the memories of everything he had tasted throughout his life, and the knowledge to discern what made them as taste that way. Combined with the times he had helped Teuchi, what he had seen on the coffee shop, Kaguya's cooking shows, and cook books since his arrival….

Let's just say he's a good cook...

His skills were astonishing to the nuns, ever since he'd taken charge the once mediocre school meal seemed worthy for the Pope himself despite their limited resources.

Just as they finished the kids arrived.

"It smells soo good! What is it? Was it you that made it mister?" A young blond boy asked Naruto as the former filled his plate. He was the first in line, he seemed around ten years old, he was thin, his clothes were simple, and he had green eyes.

"I don't really have a name for it, what's your name kiddo?" Naruto asked the kid, being done with his plate.

"My name is Dulio." The boy replied with a smile and Naruto ruffled his hair.

"Alright then Dulio, I hereby declare this dish…'' Naruto paused dramatically. ''The Duliator spaghetti! Now run along, you're going make your friends mad if you hold the line any longer."

Naruto then pointed out to the others. The nuns were helping serve them, but there were quite the amount of heads, and they wanted to meet the mysterious chef.

The kids were all served and went off to eat.

"They sure like it, where did you learn to cook like this?" The nun that was giving him the tour asked.

"Oh I dabble, sort of a gift." Naruto replied and adjusted his glasses then settled his eyes on Dulio. "Who is the boy? What's his history?"

"Oh that's Dulio, he's new here, a war Orphan. He's a good boy, as kind as they come." She said and Naruto crossed his arms.

"Yea, he does seems like a good kid... I think I should better get going, got some things to do."

"Huh, already? But you've hardly talked with them. And look, they like you."

"I'll come visit from now on, just got some things to do." Naruto said while giving back the apron and hairnet.

Upon leaving, Naruto noticed that they were saddened by that. It broke his heart, but there was nothing he could do right now. He was way too busy to adopt a child, plus he had to talk about it with Kaguya…

Or maybe there was something he could do for them.

At the exit, he pulled out a somewhat fat envelope from his backpack.

"Before I go, I'd like to make a donation. Take this, I trust that you sisters will use it wisely and that when I come back, this place will be better." He said and handed over the envelope.

She took it and her eyes widened, "I-I can't take all of this, this is too much!"

"It's for the kids, don't worry it won't be missed. There is twenty-five thousand in here to help upgrade this place. Get some nice things for the kids, re-work the kitchen… I trust your judgement." He turned around and left.

It was possibly the best application for the money that Roygun had stolen from that Drug Dealer back in Australia. There was still plenty more anyway, if they needed any.

-Hours Later-

Despite the relatively short amount of time with the kids of the Orphanage, it had helped him clear his mind.

He now had a clear understanding of what was that needed to be done, and in which order. His primary mission, which he was doing now, was to find a way inside the Main Cathedral and check if they have any knowledge on the Apocalyptic Beast. Things like its location, status and any ways to defend or kill the damn thing.

His secondary mission was to gather information and possibly resources that could be helpful to the creation and preparation of his and Kaguya's world. There exists a delicate balance in the world that makes it work, big fish eat small fish and small fish eat smaller, if when importing and introducing species to their world they were to mess up that chain, then there could be severe consequences.

Right now he was casually walking around the Vatican's Headquarters, checking if he could find an opening. There were several disguised clones scattered throughout rooftops and alleys observing every single detail, of every single person that entered and left.

He'd already formulated a plan to get in, all that he needed was a suitable target…

As he observed, a clone of his dispersed and alerted him of a development. An archbishop was leaving through a backdoor exit, unaccompanied. It was like Christmas, he didn't even know which god should he even thank for that opportunity.

Naruto made haste and with stealth caught up to the old man.

His behavior was strange and secretive, he was a bit of a challenge to follow undetected, surely he was going to do something he probably shouldn't. But after a solid hour of following the old man through secret tunnels and alleys, he had stopped and met with a cloaked person.

The place of the meeting was dark, and without much space but thanks to the Obito's sharingan, Naruto was able to see both men clearly.

'Now this is interesting… Shidou Touji.' Naruto thought upon recognizing the man.

''Are you sure about this son?'' The archbishop asked upon meeting Touji.

''I need to know.'' Touji answered and the old man took out a large envelope from under his shirt.

''In this envelope is everything we know about the incident, but it won't answer all of your questions. Good luck, and God bless you, son.'' The archbishop handed Touji the envelope, then turned around and left.

'He's still trying to figure out what happened… oh well, this is just the opportunity I need.' Naruto thought and followed the old man back. 'Although, I probably should keep an eye out for him from now on.'

When he was alone, Naruto appeared behind him and knocked him unconscious with a chop to the neck.

''Alright it's showtime, now or never, no blacking out.'' Naruto said to himself and then sent the old man to the Kamui realm, then henged into him. 'This should give me the access I need, but I will have to be quick, it is suspicious they can't feel my energy. Hopefully they don't notice too quickly.'

He arrived back in the Vatican through the same path that the original had used, and use the time of the path to get a 'feel' of it, mimic his walking style, expression, voice. There was a number of things that could go wrong, he needed to minimize them as much as possible on his end.

By the time he arrived, he had a pretty solid handle on the persona, he felt somewhat confident of the disguise.

'This guys is high-ranking, so he would have access to most places, but if he would have a business in them, that is a different question. I also don't know where those places are anyway, and it could be risky to ask. Think Naruto… what should I do…' Naruto went through several options and possible outcomes through his head whilst walking towards the library.

It was unlikely that there would have anything top secret in there, but it was as good of a place to start than any.

As he made his way to the Library, Naruto noticed and ignored the stares from nearby people, it was to be as expected. Upon arriving, a young black-haired man approached.

''Your Excellency, this is unexpected, must be important, how may I be of assistance?'' The young man spoke and Naruto mentally cursed.

''Um yes it would be much appreciated, son. I feel like getting back to studying, one should never stop studying the scriptures. Can you assist me with my research?'' Naruto asked while they walked to a secluded area of the enormous library.

Along the way Naruto discreetly glanced through the names of the books on the shelves.

''Of course, your Excellency. You are absolutely right, what do you need?'' The man asked and Naruto silently compared at the amount of respect he had for his "title" to how they respected the Hokage back in the village.

A dream that he'd never reach.

''I'm taking another look on the scripts concerning the Apocalypse, and the scripture around the event..'' Naruto said and the young boy nodded.

''Alright, I'll have a look and be right back.''

"Bless you, young one." Naruto watched as the helpful cleric went to look for books, then went to get some himself.

His time was rather short, he didn't have the time to read them all. So after checking for cameras, and whenever nobody was looking, he'd warp the books to the Kamui realm. Due to the Kamui realms size, it didn't matter if he placed people and objects together, so long as they are very far apart, so that even if they do wake up, they won't bump into those things.

Figuring out a way to keep the people unconscious was on his to-do list. He had a hunch of using genjutsu for that, but he wasn't skilled enough at the moment.

Thirty minutes passed of Naruto going through the books, when the young cleric returned with a large stack of books.

''Here's everything I could find, your Excellency.'' the cleric said as he placed the stack down on a table.

"Ah, thank you. Say, what is your name?" Naruto asked while putting his hands behind his back.

"Oh, it's um, Brian, your Excellency."

"Brian huh… I've met a Brian. Good Man… your help is much appreciated." Naruto placed his right hand on the young man's shoulder. "Bless you."

In one quick motion he chopped the young man's neck and knocked him out cold, then warped him away to the Kamui dimension before his body fell to the ground.

"Much appreciated indeed…" Naruto looked at the stack of books the guy had brought, then warped them too.

And then shortly after, he created a clone in the form of the young man he had just knocked out.

'Alright, now I should be able to roam here freely…' Naruto thought and with the clone 'guiding' him, he began to roam the library in search of books that could be useful.

Although in the end, there weren't that many left.

After thirty minutes passed, an old man approached the two.

"There you are! I've been looking all over for you." The old man glanced at the cleric, and he took the message and left them alone. "The Project Nexus documents have been sitting on your table for weeks now and we are running out of resources. We need you to sign those papers for more funding."

'Project Nexus? Did I hit the jackpot?' Naruto thought and faced the man. "Project Nexus? Ah, right. I was going to sign them earlier, but then I thought, 'I ought to see it's development with my own eyes.' Did you not receive the meeting request? I've been waiting here for quite some time."

The man's eyes widened. "I apologize your Excellency! I didn't receive it!"

''All is forgiven. Let's go, I've waited long enough.'' Naruto said and the man nodded and began to take Naruto. 'This type of acting is hard… hey Kurama, guys, you all there.'

'It's Kurama turn to keep an eye on that woman, what do you need, Naruto?' A voice resounded in Naruto's head. 'It's me, Kokuo.''

'Oh alright, so I take it the jutsu is working well?'

'Yea, we've been doing as you asked. We are taking turns and every time she thinks of your appearance, we change it a little. As far as she is concerned, you have black hair, round shades and cross shaped scars on your cheeks.'

'Oh that's great, thanks guys. Does she suspect of anything?'

'She knows that it isn't how you look like, and it is driving her insane. I got to say, it's a bit cruel… nya.' Another voice joined in the conversation, which Naruto identified to be Matatabi. They now had a deal that to not confuse him, they'd either say their name after, or something characteristic of them.

'It is, but the only other option was killing her. Besides, I made sure to make the chakra receptors as thin and small as possible, she shouldn't feel a thing, or did she?' Naruto thought back while the old man took him to a hidden staircase behind a wall.

'Nope, to her, it is some spell… nya.'

'Then there's no issue, it's better than dying… anyway, you guys are also sort of present inside my clones right?'

'Yes, we are! Lucky you, ne?' Choumei joined the conversation in her usual jovial manner.

'As a matter of fact, yea. Since you guys are inside my clones, then you can see what they are doing. It is possible that the clone I left behind gets discovered, and if it does then it will do what I would do, which is knock the person out and replace with another clone, but they are limited on chakra, so can I send them chakra through you guys?'

'Uh…actually. Yes, we can act as a gateway to them.'

'Perfect… wait, which one of you said that.'

'THE GREAT SHU-' A loud smack was heard and the connection was closed, and Naruto was brought to an underground research area locked by a thick metal door.

''Project Nexus is right this way, your Excellency. But I must say now, while it may not seem impressive, I assure you that project Nexus will revolutionize the way, we produce weapons and finally give us an edge over those devils.'' The man said and Naruto could see a twinkle in his eye, either he was a fanatic, or he had some serious hate for the devils.

''I understand, take me to it, I want to see it with my own eyes.'' Naruto replied, adopting a stern look.

''I like this new enthusiasm, your Excellency. Right this way.'' He opened the metal door to reveal a large room with several church officials and scientist walking around and working on...something. The object in question was basically just a heap of metal, a round metallic platform open with several wires surrounding and inside the contraption and six metallic poles around it.

"Hmm…'' Naruto raised an eyebrow and felt some of his chakra drain, possibly from the Bijuu diverting to the clone.

''I know it doesn't look pretty…..or functional but it is coming along as expected, we just need more time…''

''And money, but of course all great things do take time. I want to see your notes.'' Naruto asked and walked towards the machine.

''Of course, yes they are right there…'' the man went to a table and began searching through it, ''Where did I put those notes? I just pu- there they are!''

He quickly grabbed the notes and handed them to the disguised Naruto, who took it and began to read. He didn't have it for long, to the scientist it seemed like he was just glancing through the papers, but that was all that it took to ingrain every word into his memories.

'A little bit of time, my ass… this thing is decades away from complete. I doubt they would be able to complete this in the next century even if they had proper funding. Some of the components needed haven't even been invented yet! Although… if it were complete then this could be, troublesome.' Naruto handed over the papers to the man and walked over to the machine.

It was a heap of metal, probably useless now, and with the knowledge he currently possessed, he wouldn't be able to finish it.

''Very well, I will approve the funding when I get back.''

''Thank you, your Excellency, you will not regret this!'' The man said and shook Naruto's hand. The scientists all around seemed relieved and cheered. Naruto felt some of his chakra leave him again.

''I know you won't, you are doing the Lord's work.'' Naruto said and they all nodded. 'This acting is tiresome.'

''Of course! I must say, your Excellency, for a while I thought you were avoiding this and that you wanted to shut down the project. I'm glad that wasn't the case, we should celebrate!''

''That sounds great, but I'm short on time and am tired.'' Naruto turned around and the man followed.

''Right, allow me to escort you out then.''

As they made their way out, Naruto felt more chakra leaving him. It was starting to becoming taxing, he had used the Kamui quite a few times to follow the Archbishop and kidnap him, on top of the constant drain of the nine bijuu of feeding on his chakra and the occasional drain of them sending his chakra to the clones, was starting to affect him.(1)

'Naruto, some of the clones found a vault, with some very interesting things, but they feel that after taking them, it will alert the authorities. So whatever you are going to do, do it now, and we will synchronize them… this is Gyuki.'

'Oh, I'll wrap this up now.'' As they both turned around a corner, he swiftly chopped his escort's neck and sent him to the Kamui Dimension, then transformed himself into him, and turned around.

The machine was too important to just leave it behind. From what he read in those notes, it had a ridiculous amount of potential that it would probably never reach in their hands.

He was aware that he wouldn't be able to do much about it now, but that didn't mean in the future he wouldn't.

Naruto in his new disguise, entered the lab and clapped his hands to get the attention of the workers.

''Attention everybody!'' Naruto called out and waited for all of them to turn to him. ''Today is a good day, and you all have worked hard. The Archbishop will approve more funding and we will have to work harder than we ever did. But for today? Take the day off! Tomorrow, I want everybody here before sunrise.'

''Yes sir!'' One of the employees said in happily, and they began to pack up.

'Just say when, Naruto.' The deep voice of Kurama spoke, the only one that didn't need to identify itself.

´As soon as they leave. They won't know what hit them… need to eject all the captured humans, so pass that message to the clones. Oh and to not dispel all at once either.'

After the last worker left, Naruto cracked his knuckles. 'It's showtime!'

He made a cross-sign and five clones appeared.

'All right…..synchronize.'

Naruto warped the device to the Kamui realm, and the clones warped everything else, and the Bijuu diverted some of his chakra to the clones that were away. They took everything, the tables, the cameras, even the dishes and hidden vaults, not a single nail was left behind.

Nobody knew anything, to the church it happened like a sudden storm, and as quick as it came, it went. The captured priests and exorcists were all found in a pile of tangled limbs, thankfully alive.

A week later

Word of the event travelled throughout the world, as what was called "The Heist''. The church still hasn't done a complete inventory of what exactly was lost, and the numbers raised by the hour. There was no clue as to how it was done or the identity of the group that had done it, or why. Numerous terrorist groups attempted to claim credit over the incident, but there was nothing to validate the claims. Police and Church authorities are making a appeal to the public for any information on the group or it's leader, who they dubbed Rogue.

'Rogue huh, i like it. Sounds badass…' Naruto folded a newspaper and placed it under his arm. 'but I'm not pulling something like that again anytime soon. That was too stressful, plus I should have everything I need for now..'

He was in a park, resting on a wooden bench. He'd been resting since "The Heist", and taking things easy. He had researched about how ecosystems functioned, from the smallest to the largest, of all sorts of environments. He also took his time to catch up with math, science and technology, no big leaps, but at least the subject wasn't gibberish to him anymore.

Unfortunately, that was as useful as the books that he had stolen from the church gotten. They didn't have any information relevant to his primary mission, the beast that destroyed his home.

He had also visited the orphanage twice, to check on the kids and if the money that he had left was being spent appropriately, and spend time with the kids.

They were good kids, Dulio especially, he felt that if circumstances were better, he could've actually adopted the boy. But it would be awkward if Kaguya left him alone for a week, for him to appear with a son.

And thinking about the white-haired goddess, he felt like it was about time he met up with her and Roygun. His business in the Vatican was all but finished.

To think that only around a week and a half had passed since he had arrived in the Vatican.

He calmly got up from the bench and left. Once he reached an alley and was sure nobody was looking, he teleported.

What he found… wasn't what he expected to find, after only a week and a half.

Naruto's mouth opened and closed… the planet was torn asunder. It it was scorched, frozen and crystallized, as well as there several craters around.

"What… the… fuck." He muttered and explosions resounded on the distance.

He covered himself in his six paths chakra cloak and rushed to the source of the sound.

Very far in the distance he saw was Kaguya chasing Roygun with her hands coated in chakra shooting barrages of lightning at the devil, who desperately flew for her life. The technique seemed to be a variation of her 80 Gods Vacuum Attack, but instead of pure chakra, she was firing lightning chakra.

'Y'know, I'm pretty sure Kayuga was a bit less…...emotional when I last met her.'

Roygun was doing an impressive job evading Kaguya's attacks. Which made him idly wonder just how long had they been training, probably not for just a week and a half.

'Nah, she was always emotional, the eyes just give off that impression, nya. Don't forget she tried to kill everybody.'

'Right.'

Kaguya stopped upon his arrival, and powered down her lightning fists, giving Roygun space to breath and land, while Naruto reached them. Once he did, he also powered down and stared inquisitively at Kaguya, who stared back stoically while Roygun passed out.

She was naked and her body was covered in bruises and burn marks.

''Okay… you know what? I'm not even gonna argue with you about how you train her.'' Naruto walked over to Roygun, ejected one of his cloaks from the Kamui realm and began to dress her up. ''We got a lot to talk about, and a lot to do… like fixing this place and healing her.''

Sometimes he wished that he knew fuinjutsu to seal things in scrolls, it would have made his life easier, instead of having to store everything in the Kamui realm. On the positive side however, it was good to master the eye, out of the two it was the most troublesome due to not being an eternal mangekyou, like Sasuke's.

''This world is simple to fix.'' Kaguya said while picking up the newspaper that he had dropped to cover Roygun, she quirked an eyebrow upon reading it.''You robbed the entire Catholic Church… I am impressed.''

''Yup, got a lot of cool stuff from them, they had these two really cool swords that I'm still trying to figure out how they work. Although I do feel bad... I might return some of the things.'' He finished dressing Roygun and began healing her, he had a large blush.

Kaguya's eyebrow twitched, and she burned the newspaper, something Naruto didn't notice due to having his back turned to her.

After finishing, Naruto lifted Roygun over his shoulder and took out his notepad from pocket. "I explain here what we gonna need to do and bring to this world, and some other stuff."

Kaguya took the notepad and he continued.

"We can talk about it and catch up later, honestly I guess I sorta missed having you around." He smiled and began to warp away. "See you home."

His reply was a fireball heading towards his face. By the time it reached him, he was gone.

'And everything is back to normal.'

Notes: Dulio in canon goes to a Church facility, I am choosing an Orphanage, and in there he unlocked his Sacred Gear and was then trained to be a soldier. But I honestly don't rly care about canon so things will be different. It is why I like writing before canon starts, gives me a liberty regarding the timeline to do whatever I want, since they never are specific about things like when did Dulio awaken or how.

1) - To the people that bother me about him having super chakra because of the bijuu, it is the opposite. The bijuu aren't giving him chakra, it is the opposite, they are diverting his chakra to regrow themselves. (In other words, he isn't as OP as you think he is! - Dangasaur

P.S. Guest - Kaguya needs the bigger chunks of bijuu chakra to remain herself. They both can't instantly have full grown bijuus. that is not how things work, if it were, then there would be hundreds of bijuus running around.

(There might be a new story….idk, Dangasaur)

(P.P.S It's better to be a little less caustic if you want clarification, a little kindness goes the whole way! - Dangasaur)