A/N: Holy fuck, I feel so hyped! I have no idea but I feel like doin' shit! So here's a chapter!
Sidenote, I'm including some stuff from DMC: Devil May Cry (stupid name) but not the actual story or all of the creatures. Definitely not all of the weapons. Probably Limbo, though.
Also, I wanna give a shoutout to killercroc for helping with the demon idea for this chapter. Dudes still awesome. Read his shit.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Devil May Cry
"Hey"- Human speech
'Hey'- Human thought
"Hey"- Jutsu/Demon speech
'Hey'- Demon thought
Let's begin.
"Naruto-kun, I have a question... WHAT THE HELL ARE THESE?!" Haku screamed as she peppered senbon on the offending... things.
Said things were, according to Vergil - who actually kept information on the several enemies he and Dante came across in their travels - burlap sacks filled with beetles from the Demon World that act with a Hive Mind to animate their containers. They wielded executioner blades in one of two areas, an arm for the basic creatures, and a leg for the more acrobatic, unpredictable variants. "According to Vergil, these are Scarecrows... and apparently, they're just as annoying now as they were then!" Naruto explained as he worked in perfect unison with Haku as she flipped over him and he under her so they covered each other's blind spots. Wielding Yamato and Sparda, he utilized both their versions of Summoned Swords to deal with them from a distance alongside Haku's senbon, both metal and ice. They continued this tactic as they ran down the halls of Gato's mansion, following Haku's directions from her many journeys to the room with Zabuza.
Upon busting into the room, they saw two new creatures, one holding Gato's dismembered head in its claws almost delicately. Before Naruto could curse that Gato died before they could do the deed, another demon phased through the back wall and barreled into him, throwing him down the hall.
Kicking off the disturbing insect-like creature shrouded in a dark mist, Naruto jumped into the air and whipped out Rebellion, stabbing it into the ground to stop his sliding and kicked off of it, bolting back through the doorway and bodychecking one of the demons in the room, a bulbous creature with absolutely massive blades on its arms, tiny knives for legs, a large blade tied to its back, and slow, lumbering movements; these were Mega Scarecrow, the strongest members of these basic enemies.
Whipping out Red Queen, he impaled his current target, using a combination of its built-in engine and his Devil Bringer, to impale it against the wall of the building outside, revving the engine and body-sliding on the Scarecrow back into the room, throwing it off his sword into the other Mega, soaring through the air to land next to Haku again. "Hi there." He greeted her after all that.
She gave him a flat look that Dante remarked reminded him of a woman named 'Trish.' "You are such a show-off." She commented.
"And that's why you love me." He remarked, pecking her on the lips and jumping down the hall to fight the other demon, leaving a chuckling Haku to finish off the two Mega Scarecrows.
Facing the insect demon Mephisto, Naruto found he had to dodge a bladed finger that impaled the ground behind him. "Did you just give me the finger?!" Naruto yelled indignantly. His answer was two more spear-like fingers headed for him, belonging to two more Mephistos, which he thankfully dodged. "Okay, fuck all of you." He flatly responded. In the darkness beyond his three current enemies were five red lights; following his instincts, Naruto rolled to the side, dodging five blades. Emerging from the shadows was their wielder, a Faust, a white, fedora-wielding variant of Mephisto, the hat forged from the same dark gas that shrouded its body. It wielded similar weapons from the Mephisto, but all their fingers were extendable, and a blood red. From what he could see under the hat, it actually had a mess of hair that, in Naruto's opinion, looked sort of cool. What wasn't cool was its clear intent to kill him, as it seemed to order the three Mephistos as they all attacked him.
He dodged the initial three blades by running alongside the walls, grabbing Rebellion imbedded in the ground along the way, reaching out for the Faust with his Devil Bringer, but it floated out of reach; Naruto, however, rolled with the punches and used the missed grab to latch on to the wall where it ended and propelled himself down the hall, swinging Rebellion to swat away the Mephistos while he headed towards the Faust. The thinness of the hallway would have doomed the Faust, but its special cloak allowed it to pass through solid matter, dodging Naruto completely, who cursed loudly as he ended up in a large room for thugs to drink and fuck around, crashing into a set of tables and chairs, burying himself in debris.
One of the Mephistos floated down to the pile, looking within to see if Naruto survived. Its answer was a gun barrel being shoved in its face and a thunderous bang launching it backwards, its cloak disappearing with its death, showing it was actually much smaller than first thought, a scorpion-like creature with a single claw-like appendage for the tail. Phasing through the wall, the two other Mephistos and the Faust entered the room, seeing Naruto step out of the rubble, wielding Dante's pistols Ebony & Ivory.
While Naruto was in Nami no Kuni, he found a metallurgist in the village and had him craft Dante's pistols. The weapons were actually done a few days after Haku joined him, so he picked them up, paying the smith generously with money he looted off any thugs and mercenaries Gato sent his way. After getting the pistols, he gave the smith schematics and up-front payment for him to make Dante's Coyote-A and Nero's Blue Rose. They weren't finished yet, so Naruto had to make do; taking aim, he shot the two Mephistos, but the Faust was too fast. Fortunately, his shots dispelled the cloaks of dark gas, revealing the pitiful Mephistos, which immediately began retreating, actually screaming as they crawled away, showing their heads were indeed upside-down when they were airborne, their former foreheads now their chins.
Naruto actually took a second to let their behavior sink in. "What. The. Fuck." Sighing and shaking his head, Naruto temporarily holstered his guns and pulled them towards him with his Devil Bringers and crushed them together, then slammed them into the ground, immediately killing them, as the Faust shot its fingers at him, but this time he finally reacted, using Rebellion and Red Queen to block three of them and catching the other two, snapping them off and tackling the demon, using the broken blades as daggers, swiping at the demon as it conjured a pair of floating sentries that resembled its bladed fingers. Discarding the blades, Naruto drew his pistols again and shot at Faust, dispelling a part of its cloak and destroying a sentry, but the other cut his shoulder. Ignoring it, Naruto ran towards the lesser demon, continuing to fire, destroying the other sentry and dispelling the cloak, reaching out to it with his Devil Bringer and slamming it into the wall behind it. Curling the ethereal fingers around it, tearing chunks out of the wall, Naruto swiveled around, slamming it into the ground repeatedly, leaving it on the ground on the fifth slam, grabbing Rebellion with his Devil Bringer, and impaling the little fuck to the ground. Once it stopped twitching, he sheathed Rebellion and Red Queen, walking out of the room as a picture swung on its final nail before falling to the floor.
"Hey, Haku-chan, you..." He started, stopping when he saw the entire room was frozen over with several large spikes and clusters of ice around the room and Haku sitting on Gato's table, sipping on some tea. "I see you had fun." He commented while walking around the table and sat in Gato's chair, kicking his feet up and leaning back in the chair. "Please say you got all the documents Gato had before you froze the place." He implored Haku. She was eerily silent, merely sipping her tea and smiling with her eyes closed. "Haku-chan?" He said worriedly, hoping they didn't just go to all this trouble for nothing.
His answer was a scroll being thrown into his face, the force knocking him back, fortunately saving him from being bifurcated by a large blade that erupted from the floor, splitting the desk in half, as she jumped off just in time. Flipping through the air was a fish-like demon with a massive curved blade sprouting from its forehead, several serrated fins adorning its body. Rolling with the punches, Naruto caught the scroll in his teeth, standing on his hands as he stuck his legs out, kicking two living suits of armor right in their heads, knocking their helmets off, showing they were empty inside, but still moving, bringing their lances in to skewer him. Jumping off with his hands, Naruto dodged them and kicked off the ceiling, brandishing Rebellion and Red Queen.
Haku decided to try a series of techniques she created after watching Naruto use his various Devil Arms in his many acts of showing off when they faced against demons, and even a few thugs now and then. Seeing the creature was already cutting through the surfaces of the room, swimming through the floor, walls, and ceiling like they were water, Haku clapped her hands together and slammed them on the ground, bringing forth a cloud of smoke as ice formed on the top of her hands. Quickly joined by a second creature, the fish demons known as Cutlass jumped from their surfaces towards her, but were halted by a pair of large ice gauntlets grabbing their bodies. Tethered to her arms with chakra strings and a seal-anchor, Haku wielded frozen imitations of Naruto's Devil Bringers, now brandishing the demons like a pair of swords. She spun them around for a bit, throwing off a pair of living armors adorned with angelic designs, known as Bianco Angelos, then threw the Cutlass after them, all going out the window. Jumping after them, tearing the window open with her following giant hands, Haku stabbed them into the ground and cut the connection, starting to feel the numbness of so much ice concentrated around her hands and the large drain of chakra. Bringing her hands together into the Tori sign, various ice shards shaped like small birds launched out of the large slabs behind her. "Hyoton: Tsubame Fubuki!" The Cutlass were peppered with the frozen aviary needles, soon dying in explosions of whatever compound tethered both their power sources of demon souls and whatever science fused a fish and a blade into these monsters. The Angelos stood up, lunging at Haku with their lances and shields; they were met by twin swords forged out of ice and tipped with lightning chakra. Soon after joining Naruto, Haku expanded her jutsu and elemental repertoire, understanding specializing in just two elements - three if you counted Ice - would be to her detriment in the future. While difficult, she persevered, and at least accomplished channeling lightning chakra into weapons. Seeing as her Ice Release already utilized Wind Release, she could easily also add wind chakra to the blade edges. Her weapons proved to be equal to the Angelos' lances, but their shields held strong, soon buffeting her weapons after just a few slashes. She quickly rolled out of the way of their counterattacks, shattering her swords into thirds, the six pieces molding into tri-point shuriken with holes in the middles. "Hyoton: Akyura!" (Ice Release: Aquila) She held two, as the other four floated along her arms.
Facing down a group of four Angelos, Haku lunged at the nearest one, swinging the glacial weapon in her right hand, its two copies following her movements, slashing at her current opponent. The three weapons grinded against its shield, spinning at mind-boggling levels, as she threw the other three shuriken at each of the remaining false angels, the weapons attacking them like a one-man cloud of insects, slashing here and there all over them. Bringing her splayed hand closer to her quickly, she used her control over them to herd the Angelos towards her, jumping away from the one she had pinned, and attached chakra strings to the two she held, dangling them from her fingers and snapping them back and forth at the Angelos like a pair of deranged yo-yos. Bringing them back near her, she used chakra to detach all of their blades, having them float around her, pointing towards her enemies, her index fingers out like she was using a gun, blaming Naruto's influence on this detail, and 'fired' the shards at them, bringing a storm of pain down on them. Three of the Angelos fell from this onslaught, but the final managed to bring its shield up at the last second; to take care of it, she had the remaining cores of the weapons overlap each other, fusing them together into a spear, throwing it at the Angelos as it brought its shield down, impaling it right through its core into the tree behind it. When everything was said and done, she sighed and let her shoulders and stern face relax. Just as she was about to turn around to return to the mansion, Naruto appeared next to her, apparently done with his opponents. His face was stern and he seemed to be thinking something over intently. "What's wrong, Naruto-kun?" She asked.
"According to Dante and Nero, some of these demons we've just encountered aren't natural demons; they're man-made, and only one organization made them. Thing is, they're all dead. So where did they come from?" Naruto answered, whispering the last part to himself. Filing that away for now, since he had no leads, Naruto decided to move on. "We can't do anything about that for now. So Haku-chan, wanna try Sparda-jii-san's idea?" He asked, smirking at the spike of killer intent from his mindscape.
Sparda indeed had a very special idea to train Naruto and Haku. Meditating together, they could enter Naruto's mindscape and meet the Dark Knight. He offered to cast them into a special realm he designed during his relaxing years so he would not grow rusty; he also had Dante and Vergil go through it, and now it was Naruto's turn.
Nodding and following Naruto to the safehouse they shared, one of Gato's they stole during their shenanigans, they locked all the doors and windows, laid down all the traps, and sat in the center of the room, back to back, and closed their eyes.
When they felt that familiar falling sensation, as Haku had entered his mindscape before, just to 'meet the family,' they found themselves in the darkness of Naruto's mindscape. From it, only Sparda came forward; straight to business, it seemed.
"So what's this about a new training idea, Jii-san?" Naruto asked, smirking at the tick mark that appeared on Sparda's forehead.
Coughing into his gloved hand to remain calm, Sparda snapped his fingers and the world around them exploded into light, blinding them for a second. Opening their eyes and adjusting to the light, they found themselves... awake.
"Oh, what?!" Naruto complained, standing up in outrage.
Their abode exploded outwards, the debris staying afloat in the air, as they found themselves in some strange version of their world, plateaus of earth floating in sunlit nothingness, the environment upside down, and rightside up, and all turned around.
"Oh... what?" Naruto squeaked as he looked around the fucked up world.
"This is Limbo." Sparda appeared beside them, Haku having stood up to stare at the world.
"What is this place?" Haku asked.
"When the Demon world and the human world overlap, Limbo is created. I created it in my spare time. In reality, it's sort of a giant Devil Arm, for I used the soul of a demon to give it form. As such, the world will try to kill you as you make your way to the other side. Good luck." And with that, Sparda disappeared.
"Oh that was helpful." Naruto commented flatly. Rolling his eyes, he began his journey to the end of this trial alongside Haku.
They started by hopping across the fragmented landscape, a bit scared when some of the platforms shot out from under them, but Naruto managed to save them both by latching onto a distant tree – floating sideways – with his Devil Bringer, catapulting them across the gap. Unfortunately, there came several instances where he couldn't reach Haku in time, so she had to compensate with her own version of travel. "Hyoton: Enjerurifuto!" (Ice Release: Angel Lift) Conjuring a claw and chain wrapped around her arm, Haku threw the grappling hook and swung across the emptiness below her, smiling at Naruto who was extremely relieved she made it. But of course, having a smartass like Dante inside him meant something...
"You totally pulled that out of your ass, didn't you?" Naruto commented.
"It got results, didn't it?" She defended.
"I guess. Makes sense, though; such a nice ass for it." Naruto suddenly appeared next to her and was caressing her behind, eliciting a violent blush and almost causing her to overshoot her grapple.
"N-Naruto-kun!" Haku yelled in shock.
Before Naruto could make another comment, they landed on a large platform and several others flew to the edges and flipped up, boxing them in, massive glowing letters forming across them, accompanied by a rumbling voice from the emptiness around them.
"KILL THEM"
Pools of darkness formed across the now-arena, two – technically three - new demons forming before them. About half of the pools rose up, taking the form of large cats with glowing red eyes; these were Shadows. The other half acted as portals, creatures similar to Mephistos and Faust exiting, only they had human-like masks clad in a hooded shroud of darkness, some wielding a giant pair of scissors, others a single scythe. Their masks had a definitive green glow, but the final creature seemed like the big brother of these shrouds, these Sin Scissors/Scythes. Bereft of hood, a horned skull adorned a larger shrouded demon, wielding a pair of scythes; this was a Death Scythe, clad in a crimson glow.
With a terrifying roar that shook the air, the Death Scythe – the apparent leader – ordered its fellow demons to attack. The three Shadows ran forward, two jumping up slightly only to turn into spears of darkness, intent on impaling the two shinobi, the third jumping high up and turning into a large blade, spinning as it fell towards them.
Haku dodged the spear heading for her, throwing senbon at the Shadow and the nearest Sin Scissor, only for them to pass through the latter demon or bounce off its weapon. Conjuring a pair of frozen blades, she blocked its impending attack.
Naruto blocked the spear with Red Queen, deflecting it to the side and making a run for its center mass as it shrunk back down, swinging the massive blade to finish it.
Only to pass right through it. Well fuck.
Jumping back when it swiped its claws at him, Naruto switched to dual-wielding Sparda and Yamato, taking more swings at the creature, even using the latters dimensional slashes.
Nothing.
"Aah, fuck!" Naruto roared and pulled out Ebony and Ivory, unleashing a storm of bullets on the creature.
This time, it recoiled in pain and roared before its dark form fell away like a puddle, a flashing-red orb floating in the space it once occupied. Taking a chance, Naruto took out Rebellion and used a Stinger to cross the distance between them combined with stabbing it. Following up with Trillion Stabs, his hail of attacks chipped away at the orb as its flash quickened. He feared something bad would happen if he didn't kill it fast enough. Thankfully, the ending blow shattered it, and the pool evaporated. Acting quickly, he spun around and unleashed another round of bullets, quickly following with a wave of Summoned Swords, deciding to try something Vergil theorized, targeting the spinning Shadow in its blade form heading right for him. The bullets quickly broke its physical shield and the ethereal blades embedded themselves in the revealed core. Quickly revving up Red Queen and putting Vergil's theory to the test, Naruto disappeared in a blue flash and appeared in front of it, unleashing his red-hot blade in a spin of flames, shattering the core and killing the second Shadow.
Feeling good about himself, Naruto headed towards the third Shadow, Haku busying herself with the Sin Scissors and Scythes and dodging the Death Scythe.
Heavily annoyed by the shades that kept strafing through her attacks, Haku conjured a single giant Hyoton: Akyura and jumped into the air, tucking into a ball to fit in the center and spinning like a giant buzzsaw, knocking aside the scissors of her chosen target and cleaving through its tether to the physical world: the mask.
With a ghostly wail, the illusionary shroud dissipated and the scissors were left embedded in the ground, soon shattering like glass and disappearing. Landing without missing a beat, Haku swung the massive tri-shuriken around towards the other Sin Scissors, breaking its weapon in half and splitting the mask of a Sin Scythe behind it. Catching the weapon and separating it into three swords, holding the third in her teeth, her Kekkei Genkai giving her an immunity to the cold of it, she engaged the now 'Sin Sword.' (See what I did there? :D Eh? Eh? No? Fine...) Knocking its weapons aside and swinging her head to the side, Haku growled as the ghostly being floated through her attack, having just barely missed the mask. She finally snapped and started swinging her blades every which way, soon overwhelming the demon with her uncoordinated strikes, finally slicing its mask in half, also taking out a Sin Scythe that tried to sneak up on her while she was distracted by the Sin Scissor/Sword.
All that left was the Death Scythe. Before she could engage the leader in combat, she noticed Naruto was caught by the Shadow, now morphed into a giant pair of jaws and flashing red, soon exploding. "Naruto-kun!" She screamed, running over to the airborne Devil Hunter, who landed roughly on his back.
Overconfident with the destruction of the first two Shadows, Naruto messed around too much with the third and didn't kill it in time and in its berserker state, it was much faster and aggravated. It slipped under him and captured him, its overloaded core exploding and rocking his body with burns, cuts, and scrapes. Thankfully his youki and Devil blood were healing him, but the pain was still there. He blamed Dante for the overconfidence leading to his current situation. Standing up, idly chuckling at the panicking Haku standing over him, he waved off her worries and turned their attention to the Death Scythe who roared at them again, the arena shaking as Limbo jumped back to life.
Running towards the demon before the terrain would change to their disadvantage, they cursed when their section of the arena zoomed away from the rest. Jumping across the gap, the same thing happened, only it was farther and an overhanging broken pillar lit the way for them to swing across. Again, the platform distanced itself from the Death Scythe, two pillars letting them cross. When the final stretch came, the Death Scythes platform flew far away, various pillars providing a treacherous way across. Deciding not to risk it, Naruto picked Haku up in a piggyback, chuckling at her blush, and jumped, using his Devil Bringer on the first two pillars to cross. He cursed loudly when a nearby boulder crashed into the next pillar, shattering it and dooming Naruto. Quickly thinking, he used the Devil Bringer to punch off a chunk of it for a good foothold and pulled it towards him, landing safely. Sighing in relief, he unsealed Rebellion and threw it towards the Death Scythe, jumping to ride it like a surfboard, smirking at its terrified shriek and haphazard block. The blade of Dante shattered one of its weapons and impacted it right in the mask, but only succeeded in tearing off the lower jaw and breaking off the horns. That wasn't enough to kill it, unlike its lesser brethren, as it still had plenty of kick, roaring at them and attempting to throw them off. Knocking aside its swipe with Red Queen, Naruto punted its damaged mask away from its shroud, jumping off and pulling Rebellion out, letting Haku stand on her own feet.
The masks eyes dulled for only a second, flashing back brighter than before and its shroud returned, rising through the ground and bringing its remaining weapon back. Roaring at them, its glow flared to life, and it threw its Scythe, the blade spinning through the air, only to be caught by Naruto and thrown back, phasing through its formless body, returning by its will. Haku engaged it in a fight of blades, slowly chipping its scythe down, until she fused them into a broadsword and shattered the blade, resting her weapon on her back, letting Naruto use it as a foothold to kick off of, a glowing Red Queen erupting in flames as he swung down, shattering the mask and finally killing the damn thing.
Landing with a slide, Naruto slowly stood up straight and sealed his weapons away, Smirking at the panting Haku in victory. Before they could celebrate, their long road to this location was rebuilt into a large hall of a cathedral, only for several pools of darkness to formed along the floor and walls, glowing eyes revealing them all to be Shadows. The Liquid forms of the demons shoot across the surfaces, intent on engulfing the shinobi, causing them to sweat slightly as the wall behind them exploded outwards.
"CAN'T RUN. CAN'T HIDE"
The voice was back, mocking them. Deciding against fighting, they jumped out the hole and used the various platforms and overhanging pillars or trees to distance themselves from the impending Shadows. Once on stable ground, they looked back just in time to see a massive black claw shoot out of the tunnel, only reaching so far before it had to recede into the shadows, an ominous reminder that these demons will only get tougher in their journey, Haku resigning herself to Co-Devil Hunter. Eh, it might be fun.
A red circle appeared below them and Limbo soon faded away. They woke up back in the hideout, not moving since they sat down. Standing back up, they chuckled over the training session, agreeing to do it again sometime in the future.
For now, though, they must continue their journey across the Elemental Nations, wiping demons from this realm and righting the wrongs done unto the people.
Jeez, they sounded like some vigilantes. Oh well.
(5 months later)
Naruto and Haku stayed in Nami no Kuni long enough to oversee the building of the bridge that connected it to the mainland, solidifying the future of Nami's economy and the hope of the people, then they headed north, to Kaminari no Kuni. Traveling along the east coast of Hi no Kuni, they made it to the border to Yu no Kuni and crossed without incident. The Land of Hot Water was known more for its hot springs than shinobi villages, but it used to have a village, Yugakure. It was mysteriously wiped out years ago, a real bloodbath. No survivors. Also no witnesses, so no one knows who or what did it. Naruto had a feeling he'd find out in the future, but for now, that would be in the back of his mind.
Now Shimo no Kuni... That was a whole different beast.
Shimo no Kuni was known as the more tame version of Yuki no Kuni, cold but not frostbite-inducing freezing. It actually had a Spring and Summer, snowing only in the Winter. And it was Spring right now. So...
"Why the fuck is there a foot of snow as far as I can see?!" Naruto yelled indignantly at the border between Yu and Shimo, for there was indeed at least a foot of snow as far as they could see. There was also a monstrous blizzard that didn't seem to let up. The stranger fact was the immediate climate change right behind the sign at alerted one to crossing the border. Not even an inch behind it was free of snow.
'Well that's strange.' Benihime commented from within the seal, but also from a new weapon at Naruto's waist.
Benihime forgot to mention something very important to Naruto when he left Konoha, and she only remembered it a month ago: she became another Devil Arm for Naruto.
Much like the real Kyuubi, her Devil Arm form was beautiful, and as such, Naruto never had it sealed away. It was an average-length blade, the grip, wrapped in a black cloth, bent forward at the end, a pommel shape overlapping three times, a red tassel hanging off the bottom. Lacking a conventional guard, this weapon opted for a U-shape covering three inches of the blade, bearing a petal design. Just under the guard was a red string wrapped around the pommel three times in a bow, topped with a paper decoration on the front. The tip was a slanted razor instead of tapering to a point.
The Devil Arm Benihime gave Naruto the manipulation of lasers and explosives with his swings.
When Naruto first attempted to cross the border, a demonic seal blocked him, a net of red lasers, and several roars sounded behind them. Seeing Haku brandish her senbon, he turned and faced a trio of a new demon, something Vergil informed him was called a Frost. Fitting, seeing as they were now attempting to enter Frost Country.
They were reptilian humanoids with over half their bodies covered in ice. Teardrop shaped heads gave way to fanged maws, three layers of armor hide behind them, leading to a light-blue tail swinging behind them from the middle of its back instead of the conventional area of the tailbone. They had icy spikes flanking its head where the eyes should be, and two spikes on each shoulder, their rights arms completely encased in ice, the left leaving their tough scales showing, spikes pointing up from its hands and long icicles for fingers. Their legs from the knees down were encased in ice but still moved as if they were free.
Holding his arm out in front of Haku, Naruto decided to face these demons alone to familiarize himself with Benihime's techniques. Drawing the sheatheless blade from his waist, Naruto gripped it in both hands and took a solid stance, his eyes spurring the Frosts to attack.
With a hissing roar, the nearest Frost lunged towards him, brandishing its iceberg of an arm as a sort of club.
Naruto reacted calmly with a swift swing of his blade. "Nake."(Sing) A red arc of energy flew from his blade, firing several energy blasts that impacted with the Frosts arm, shattering it and knocking the demon back. Turning on one of the other Frosts, he swung again, utilizing another technique. "Shibari." (Binding) A net of crimson energy, much like the barrier blocking them, flew from the blade, capturing the shocked demon and restricting it as it struggled. He appeared before the bound demon in a blur of movement, tapping the net with the tip of his blade. "Hasobi Juzutsunagi." (Fire-Playing Beaded Mesh) Several orbs of fire formed along the net, causing the demon to increase its struggles for fear of its life. Naruto uppercut the demon harshly with his Devil Bringer, sending it flying into the sky where it exploded violently, yet a safe distance from those fighting.
With his back turned to the other two Frosts, Naruto was seemingly unaware when they launched their frozen, bladed fingers. Until he spun around and pointed the tip of the blade at them. "Kamisori." (Razor) An blast of energy flew from the blade, cutting right through the projectiles with ease, snapping at sharp angles to catch up to the rest, then turned on the Frosts, stabbing through their bodies multiple times, soon destroying the large slab of ice of one of them and cutting off the claw of the other.
Disappearing in another burst of speed, Naruto appeared before the one roaring about its missing hand and impaled it in the chest. "Sasu." (Stab) Another blast of energy formed a larger blade around the weapon, slicing clean through the demons body, its head soon following when Naruto swung upwards. Its body was soon encased in ice.
He quickly spun around and threw his arm forward, the ethereal copy of his Devil Bringer flying forward to grip the remaining Frost by its entire torso, and he soon slammed the demon on the ground back and forth, until he swung his arm and threw it skywards, Benihime soon followed, clad in red energy forming a spear around it. "Supia." (Spear) Upon impacting with the Frost, it exploded in a brilliant shower of crimson, whistling like firecrackers. Benihime soon returned to him, unharmed by the explosion.
Victorious, Naruto returned his weapon to his waist and turned to the barrier, expecting it disappear. When it didn't, he turned to the mass of ice the second Frost became, only to find it gone. He was soon tackled to the ground by the revitalized demon, body healed and hand reformed, as it began attempting to maul him with its claws and teeth.
Having his left arm caught in its teeth, yet unharmed due to the near invulnerability of his Devil Bringer, Naruto began beating on its head with his other arm, elbowing its claw away when it attempted to strike. Finally kicking it off, he aimed his index and middle fingers at it, calling upon a technique Benihime taught him a while ago. "Byakurai!" Lightning-like energy flew from his fingers in a blade, impaling the demon through both its shoulders, keeping in place above him, as he unsealed Yamato, holding it in his teeth, and used a hail of Summoned Swords, to riddle the demon with ethereal blades, letting the last one carry it higher into the sky as he dispelled Byakurai and wielded Yamato in his hands, doing a simple swing but conjuring its swarm of dimensional slashes right where the Frost was heading. Sheathing the blade just when the demon was in the center, it was sliced to bits as it exploded into ice shards with a final roar.
Along with youki training, Benihime also taught Naruto Kido, or Demon's Way. The techniques utilized his special combination of youki and devil blood, as well as the spiritual half of chakra, a truly powerful concoction of energies.
Sighing in relief, Naruto saw the barrier finally fell, and they continued on their way into the frozen hell of Shimo no Kuni. He already had his suspicions at first, but just crossing the border confirmed it; this was caused by another powerful demon. Apparently one with a strong affinity to the cold and ice, as well. Joy.
Thankfully Shimo no Kuni was a small country, about a third as small as Yu, so getting to this demon, who was probably at the center of the country, would be easy. Shimo had only a single shinobi village, Shimogakure, but several civilian towns and villages. Passing through them, they asked around about the sudden torrential frost. After about two hours of asking and traveling, they found that the blizzard was heavily concentrated around a mountain shrine just north of the capital, which they thankfully just departed from. They also bought several winter coats to make it through the harsh weather, which only got worse as they neared the mountain. Unfortunately, the shrine was on the northwest side of the mountain, so they were going to be in the blizzard for a while. Could nothing be easy, just once?
After about three hours of trekking through the snow, Naruto around at the shrine carrying Haku piggyback again. They couldn't find sufficient footwear, so Haku was stuck with nothing but sandals on her feet, and even with her Kekkei Genkai, it was still fucking cold. So Naruto, without asking her, began carrying her like the gentleman he was.
Setting her down once they were inside, they found the shrine in a dilapidated condition, everything covered in a layer of frost. Once they shed their winterwear, the shrine rumbled as a growl echoed through the building. Then a great roar nearly deafened them, dripping with hate and malice.
"SPAAAAARDAAAAAAAA!"
It would seem they were expected. And judging from the crashes and fumbling, hurried crashes that could only be the footsteps of some massive beast, their gracious host would be upon them soon.
Wielding both Yamato and Benihime, Naruto was ready for whatever demon arrived. Seeing his partner wield a pair of ice swords, he knew Haku was ready as well.
Crashing through the wall above the forked stariway came the monster responsible for the state of Shimo no Kuni. A towering beast wrapped in black gauze like a mummy, fingers of bone encased in ice and several icicles hanging off its arms, three large frozen masses in its torso peeking through the bandages, the lower half of its face-bandages hanging off, showing a frozen lower jaw of demon bone, several bandages swaying behind it like tendrils, this great demon greeted them.
"SPAAAAARDAAAAA!" It roared again, its voice shaking the large lobby they stood in, several icicles from the ceiling falling down and shattering.
"That would be me." Naruto greeted, undeterred by its size and fury.
"YOU! SPAWN OF THE DARK KNIGHT! YOU SHALL DIE TONIGHT! I AM THE BIFROST, CRIYOGON!" Pointing an accusing claw at Naruto, Criyogon, ran forward like a berserk, intent on crushing Naruto for carrying the blood of Sparda.
Jumping to opposite sides to dodge the raging demon, both shinobi raked the weapons across his body as he passed them, only succeeding in cutting the bandages, revealing the frozen flesh underneath, several spikes shooting out once the bandages were gone, almost goring the both of them. Crashing against the entrance, Criyo roared as he spun around, swinging his long arms, bringing down several icicles and smacking the two of them out of the air, Haku conjuring a frozen ramp to catch her so she could slid and eventual jump onto her feet instead of slamming into a wall of the floor, Naruto using his Devil Bringer to punch the ground, stopping his violent landing. Swinging Benihime, Naruto attempted to pierce his flesh again. "Nake!" The arc of explosive crimson flew and impacted with the great demon, detonating just as violently as ever.
This time Criyo actually roared in pain amidst the explosions, grasping the glowing orb over where its heart should be, the bandages around it gone in the fire, more frozen flesh shown underneath. Taking this moment to analyze the situation, Naruto immediately pointed the three orbs as his weak spots, but knew it wouldn't be that easy. Criyo clenched his claw after assessing the damage to one of his cores, the back of his hand bearing the design of a fanged skull with a spine-like ridge up the forearm. Several thick spikes of ice grew from his body, shielding the damaged core from further attacks, one large spike growing from its back, almost piercing the walls of the shrine to the outside, soon shattering to reveal an insectoid arm of ice within, which curled up against him for future use. The tendril-like bandages on his back rose up and shot forward, crushing the ground where Naruto and Haku once were when they dodged. Swinging his arm, he sent forth a wave of large icicles after them, destroying the architecture when they dodged again, only for Naruto to spin around and grab the last one with his Devil Bringer and threw it back, hitting Criyo square in the face.
Roaring in rage and pain, Criyo turned his revealed visage to Naruto, sighting him as the more immediate threat than the human female. Several spikes of ice grew from his brow and around the crown of the skull that was incased in ice, glowing blue eyes in voids of black above a shattered, fang-filled maw. Layers of ice grew from the back of his head, imitating the look of the armored hide of the Frosts, a similar-looking whip-like tail growing from the base of his neck.
Slamming his claws into the ground, Criyo opened his mouth wide and roared a blizzard at them, Naruto jumping to Haku and conjuring a hexagonal crimson shield with Benihime. "CHIKASUME NO TATE!" (Blood Mist Shield)
Haku aided the defense by conjuring a multi-layered dome of ice around them behind the shield. For thirty whole seconds, the storm raged within the shrine, the crimson shield slowly cracking as it was constantly attacked. Soon it shattered, and one by one the layers of Haku's dome fell. Just when the last layer was about to shatter, the storm stopped, and everything was quiet. Slowly standing up, the two were confused as to what happened to Criyogon. Their questions were answered when one of his hands broke through the dome and grabbed Naruto, pulling him closer to the demon as Haku screamed after him, sending her own store of frozen swords at the demon in retaliation, sometimes nicking one of the cores but not enough to dissuade Criyo.
The demon began slamming Naruto in the floor, laughing at his pain.
'Is this where I die?' Naruto asked himself as his vision began to darkening, the pain soon numbing his body.
'Naruto wake up!'
'Wake up, kid!'
'Naruto-kun, don't die!'
His tenants all yelled for him to fight back, but their cries were unanswered.
Just when Naruto was on the edge of death, Yamato pulsed, glowing brightly in his demon grip. An ethereal flame-like aura engulfed the sheathed weapon, and Naruto's eyes snapped open, glowing a brighter red than usual.
With the final slam, Criyo kept his claw on the supposed dead lineage of Sparda, laughing in triumph, both at Naruto's death and the human females anguish at the same fact. His laughing was cut short when his arm was blown away from the floor, shattering up to the mid-forearm. He roared in absolute agony, clasping the freezing stump, glaring at the cause of it, only to growl in shock.
There in the crater formed from his attacks with the Sparda-spawns body stood Naruto, encased in a storm of blue demon energy as he held Yamato, an ethereal figure of an armored demon following his movements as he looked at his empowered body and glared up at Criyo, the figure behind him following suit.
This was Nero's Devil Trigger form, now bestowed on Naruto. This was achieved when he was in harmony with Yamato for the brief time he had it. The figure that appeared behind them was similar to Vergil's Devil Trigger, according to Dante, a power they informed Naruto he would acquire sometime in the future. It had a sheathed that was actually part of its body on its left wrist, a pair of horns on the sides of its head with concave, inward slopes, curved armor part of its body between its torso and shoulders, the right longer and curving more than the left, and it wielded a spectral copy of Yamato in its right hand, as opposed to Naruto's left. Contrary to popular belief, Naruto was ambidextrous, so this didn't pose a problem.
"WHAT ARE YOU?" Criyo asked indignantly, confused from the tales of the Devil Trigger forms of both of the previous spawns of Sparda, which were physical changes, as opposed to this.
Ignoring his question, Naruto began to speak. "Ever since I was born, I heard a voice... 'Power... Give me more... power!' When the day came that I would follow this path, I became a demon. So be it. Anything to keep her safe. Anything... so she won't CRYYY!" With a demonic roar, which created a shockwave that pushed Criyo back slightly, Naruto burst forward, intent on finishing liberating the demon of its arm, slicing up the stump with Yamato, the spectral demon mirroring his attacks. He ran up the broken limb, slicing it to bits now, even though he couldn't before, and soon shot down, raking his blade through the first core, shattering it immediately. As Criyo roared and rocked in agony, Naruto cut off his right leg, bringing him down close enough so he could take care of the core in the demons right side. Swinging his blade like mad, the spectral demon copying his movements on the other side of him, the core soon exploded, sending another wave of pain through Criyo.
The pain was such that Criyo couldn't get up to attack Naruto for inflicting it, even as more ice spikes shot from his body, shredding the bandages that remained on its body. Jumping high up, Naruto combined the powers of the blades he was currently wielding, various Summoned Swords, floating around him, glowing with the crimson energy of Benihime. "AKI!" (Fall) With a wave of his arm, the blades all embedded themselves in the remaining core to the left of Criyo's spine, and Naruto distanced himself from the imminent explosion with a platform of demonic energy below his feet, serving as Haku's shield as Criyogon was soon engulfed in a massive explosion that rocked the shrine, a final roar echoing throughout as he died. The light soon died, and a light snow began to fall, the remains of Criyo.
Naruto's half-Devil Trigger died down, and the glow faded, exhaustion setting in even as Criyo's soul flew towards him. A new Devil Arm. Yaaay...
He fell onto his back, grunting slightly on impact, and raised his arms slightly to look at them, feeling them form as gauntlets.
An ice-blue color, the gauntlets took the form fanged skulls that looked to be eating his arms, five of the fangs acting as his fingers, glowing like his Devil Bringers, armor extending from the crowns up his forearms, a ridged line of spikes on the outsides up to the elbows, an opening letting a whip-like tendril peek out, like the tails of the Frosts from before. The eye sockets glowed with a blue fire, trailing behind with his movements. "Let's go with... Bifrost. Yeah... that's a good name." Naruto said to himself, chuckling up until his arms fell back, consciousness leaving him.
End Ch. 3
Yeah, another Devil Arm! Technically two, 'cause I forgot to bring up Benihime in the first chapter... sorry. And yes, Naruto is learning Kido from Bleach, since it means Demon Way. And I just re-read the challenge, so Naruto will also get all the Devil Hearts (those gem things that gave you special powers in Devil Trigger in DMC 2) and Dante's Majin form (the quad-wing with red arm blades). Speaking of which, the Devil Trigger Naruto got will now be specified as a Yamato Trigger, since he'll be getting a legit Devil Trigger later. Also, again I give credit to killercroc for the idea of Criyogon (I came up with the name right as I was typing this, so there you go) I went with it 'cause there's never been any kind of mummy demon in a NarutoxDevil May Cry crossover, and you guys know me and being original! :D So yeah, hope you liked it, please review.
Ja ne!