AN: I GET IT! IT'S ECHIDNA! GET OFF MY BACK!
Seriously, out of all the things in the last chapter, you guys decide to nitpick that one thing? I fixed it; there!
Also, just for explanation, the Rokubi no Itachi featured here is not the bijuu we know as Saiken. The bijuu are still canon, but I might have the other kind featured here and there; I'm still thinking it over, but for now, just think of the Rokubi as fucking Mew, if that helps. Cute and playful, but kinda helpful, and totally gonna be badass sometime.
Also, give me ideas for a Devil Arm for Haku; she'll only get one, so calm your shit. Or it doesn't even have to be a Devil Arm, just a special weapon for her to use.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Devil May Cry
"Human speech"
'Human thought'
"Jutsu/Demon speech"
'Demon thought'
Let's begin.
'Okay... my current situation is not entirely desirable.' Naruto mentally commented, going over his state of affairs as of now.
Unconscious Haku means no help, revitalized Gilgamesh means different tactics, and his power-up means it's about to get much harder.
For some reason... Naruto found this infinitely more fun now. Damn you, Dante.
"Hey!"
With that as an unceremonious signal, the newly transformed Gilgamesh struck, barreling towards Naruto faster than before, nearly catching the devil-hunter off-guard, but a retaliatory Devil Bringer punch slowed him down enough to allow Naruto to react, bringing up Rebellion and Red Queen to block both his right jabs to his head, the force behind them pushing him back with a grunt. Quickly sealing them, he decided to give Kiri Engimono some attention, the mask, wing-pack, and sword manifesting, before he lunged at Gilgamesh with a swing, utilizing one of the seven techniques he created based on the seven famous swords of Kirigakure. Wielding it in a dual-hand grip, Naruto willed the mist into a large hammer. "Soutou: Tsui!" (Twinsword: Hammer) The sudden expansion of the hammerhead caught Gilgamesh off-guard, and he took the full brunt of it in the entire left side of his body, sending him rocketing into the wall on the far side of the chamber. Not letting up, Naruto followed up with another technique derived from the Twinsword Hiramekarei. "Soutou: Choutou!" (Twinsword: Longsword) The hammer flattened against the physical blade before extending greatly, stabbing right into the dust cloud created from Gilgamesh. Unfortunately, Naruto felt resistance, and the blade of mist was stopped short, deflected to the side as whatever Gilgamesh was doing caused it to grate down the blade as he barreled towards Naruto, bursting from the cloud on twin sawblade-wheels created from the ridges in his legs, encompassing his entire height, lances extended from his forearms.
Cursing in shock, Naruto overloaded the mist output, engulfing his entire side of the room in it, deftly dodging Gilgamesh's attack as he disappeared into the mist, utilizing a technique similar to Zabuza's silent killing that made him a sort of phantom in his chosen element. Stopping in the middle of the cloud, Gilgamesh looked around for his prey, missing Naruto jump out of the mist on the other side, smirking. "Bakutou: Daibakuha!" (Blastsword: Great Explosion) Just as Gilgamesh spun around to face his voice, the entire cloud of mist exploded violently with a pulse of chakra and devil energy.
Naruto frowned when Gilgamesh didn't even roar in some type of pain; not a good sign. He was proven correct when his completely unscathed opponent jumped from the dust cloud, four lances attempting to gore him. 'Shit!' Naruto crossed his Devil Bringers in front of him in a vain attempt to block the attack; this was a major mistake on his part.
While the resilience of his arms saved him from being skewered, the accompanying fists still hit him with all their force, rocketing him into a wall faster than he sent Gilgamesh previously.
"Ow..." Naruto muttered, more pain in his back than his arms, as he peeled himself from his crater, wondering why his arms didn't hurt at all. Unfortunately for him, his arms were actually in so much pain, that he couldn't feel it yet. His enhanced healing factor quickly solved that, as the pain came not a minute later, forcing him to bite his lip to the point of bleeding to keep in the scream of agony. Once the desire to yell passed, the pain still there, Naruto grit his teeth and glared at Gilgamesh, Benihime and his own devil blood hard at work healing his arms.
Quickly thinking of something to at least take care of two of those arms, Naruto 'sheathed' his sword on his back, the wing-like appendages of his backpack looping through two of the holes in the sword, as he unsealed Rebellion and Red Queen again. He overloaded the very edges of his swords with a combination of wind chakra, Benihime's volatile youki, and the power of his 'Yamato Trigger', the phantom forming behind him. Disappearing in a blur to Gilgamesh, he was immediately within the demons guard, swinging both his swords for one arm, cleaving the lower left one right off just below the elbow, relishing in Gilgamesh's roar of pain, before grabbing the detached limb with his enhanced Devil Bringer, and throwing it as hard as he could to the other side of the room, summoning Yamato, channeling lightning chakra to its tip, and threw it right after the arm, a spectral fist slamming into the butt of its pommel to aid it in stabbing through the arm and keeping it there, to counteract Gilgamesh's healing.
All of this happened in a span of two seconds, and the quick transition and influx of demonic energies temporarily fatigued Naruto, but he had enough strength to jump away before Gilgamesh could retaliate. Using Yamato like that may have taken away a valuable weapon against the demon, but it might have been worth it to take away just one of his arms. He could probably only do that again with Benihime, since it was thin enough to be used like Yamato was. Problem was, Gilgamesh probably wouldn't let him try that again, so he'll have to go about it differently to achieve the same result.
"Damn you, spawn of Sparda! Commendable all the same, I might say. No one has been able to pierce my armor in this state, let alone cleave off one of my very arms. But don't think I'll allow you the opportunity to do it again." Gilgamesh warned Naruto, cradling his stump momentarily, the ichor from before not present.
"I didn't think you would; that wouldn't make me killing you nearly as satisfying." Naruto bantered in return, smirking at Gilgamesh's growl.
"Your bravado will be your undoing; I will hang your corpse on my wall!" The demon threatened, surging forward with his now-three lances.
Letting the spears harmlessly grate across his arms, brought in close to his body, Naruto took care to avoid the fists by pushing his arms outward, throwing them out as well, grabbing Gilgamesh's bladed knee when he attempted to follow up, pushing it back down and slamming his opposite fist right into his chin, knocking him into the air slightly, before he used the spectral copies of his Devil Bringers to wail on Gilgamesh for a good minute, ending with a spin kick that sent him flying. While satisfied with the stylishness of that move, Naruto knew it didn't do him a whole lot of good in terms of actually hurting him.
From within the cloud of dust from his impact, Gilgamesh flew out from an explosive punch to the ground feet-first, sawblades on the sides of his heels heading right for Naruto's face. Deciding to try something risky, Naruto waited until the last moment before intercepting the attack with a giant Devil Bringer, swinging him around before slamming him into the ground as hard as he could. Not missing a beat, he retrieved Kiri Engimono from his back, sheathing it in extremely dense mist, wind chakra coating the edge to make it as sharp as possible. "Dantou: Kuribu!" (Seversword: Cleave) Putting as much strength in his arms as possible, Naruto successfully hacked Gilgamesh's upper right arm at the elbow, repeating the process from before to stake it to the wall, unfortunately disarming himself of Benihime. Quickly checking his arsenal, Naruto now only had Rebellion, Red Queen, Force Edge, Cerberus, Bifrost, Blood-Scythe, Ebony & Ivory, Blue Rose, and Coyote-A. Guns don't really work on Gilgamesh, so those are out; let's try Force Edge and Blood-Scythe.
Casting Kiri Engimono to his back, Naruto unsealed the weakened sword of Sparda and the gift from the turned hero, and lunged forward. He used the wide blade of Blood-Scythe in a reverse-grip to block Gilgamesh's remaining two fists, the lances curiously absent, and swung Force Edge forward, only pushing the demon back, enough for him to throw the silver sword up to grab Gilgamesh with his Devil Bringer, aiming the tip of Blood-Scythe to his throat, extending it on its track to slam the demon's head back, hopefully messing with his breathing, and spinning around to throw Gilgamesh, sending a trailing blade of darkness after him, engulfing him in a cloud of smoke and dust.
'That probably didn't do shit. I'm not going to get anywhere since I used Yamato and Benihime to get rid of his arms, and just doing that required a lot of different energies that are winding me pretty fast. It's only a matter of time before Haku-chan wakes up and tries to help me; despite her new Devil Trigger, she won't last nearly as long as I have, and I don't want her to get hurt.' Naruto thought to himself, catching the returning Force Edge, torn on the idea of Haku helping; she wouldn't be at optimal strength after the drain of unlocking her Devil Trigger, and this fight would only get more difficult.
By the power of convenience, a squeaking call caught Naruto's attention to the entrance to the chamber; casting his eyes there, he spied his little guide that brought him here, the Rokubi no Itachi. The miniaturized minor bijuu began running towards him, steadily glowing bright as he got closer, before jumping at the white-haired youth. 'What the hell?!' Naruto cursed as he was engulfed in a light, and felt a weight around his waist. Looking down once the light disappeared, Naruto spied a belt buckle worthy of a pro-wrestler with the snarling visage of probably the full-sized, more menacing Rokubi, small spikes around the belt as it lead to a mass similar to the backpack for Kiri Engimono, though instead of two wings, it had six tails of an dark-grey metal , ridged armor like flower petals over each other down their lengths, each tip alternating between a metallic purple and yellow, lightning arcing down the tails and between the tips.
'Okay! Things just got interesting!' Naruto commented before outwardly smirking just as Gilgamesh came out of his wall-crater, not a single scratch on him; of course not. Well whatever; now that he had this new Devil Arm, his devil-strengthened lightning manipulation just might be enough to finally put down Gilgamesh, since he did the same thing to pin his arms down.
Reacting to his thoughts, the lightning coating the tails jumped to his arms and legs, turning into claws over his hands and feet. Smirking at this new development, Naruto jumped towards Gilgamesh, who was visible hesitating at the sight of the boys new lightning abilities. Demon-divined lightning was one of the few things that could pierce his armor, even in this form; Gilgamesh wasn't undefeatable back when he worked for Mundus, but most lightning demons were his comrades, so he didn't have to worry about that. Now though... Gilgamesh worried he might die. Shaking his head, he reasoned that it was too soon for the boy to be able to harness enough power to defeat him, even with a new Devil Arm.
Meeting Naruto halfway, Gilgamesh reared his remaining two fists back, drill-lances out. What Gilgamesh didn't account for was Naruto's proficiency in elemental manipulation, including lightning, so he was able to react accordingly, bringing his hands together and shaping the lightning into a drill to meet Gilgamesh's attack, blocking and actually pushing it back, before he broke through the attack and landed a blow right on the demons chest, finally piercing the armor, actually destroying a bit of it, instead of just breaking it then healing. This was much more preferable.
Breaking away from each other, Naruto smirked when Gilgamesh put a hand to his new wound, before going with the flow of this new Devil Arm; curling his fingers into claws and putting them together at the wrists, facing Gilgamesh, he struck. "Itachi-bi: Rairyu no Hoko!" (Weasel Tail: Lightning Dragon's Roar) Thrusting his lightning-clad hands forward, Naruto shot a projectile shaped like a dragons head at the demon, roaring before it hit him, knocking the demon off his feet and leaving puncture wounds patterned like he was bit by something nearly the size of him.
Grunting as he picked himself up, Gilgamesh seethed. "How are you able to do this?! You just received that Devil Arm; you shouldn't be able to know any techniques without practice!" He yelled.
"I'm a shinobi, dumbass! We do this shit for a living! For instance, Hachidou Chidori!" (Eight Path 1,000 Birds) Fists and tips of tails bathed in lightning screeching like many birds, Naruto utilized a technique his father mentioned he witnessed and helped his student, Hatake Kakashi, create, times eight for that 'Naruto flair.' He burst forward to begin what was actually a melee combo.
Stabbing his right fist into Gilgamesh's stomach, causing him to bend inward slightly, Naruto followed up with a painful uppercut to his chin, throwing him into the air, where he followed and returned the demon to earth with an axe kick to the head, stabbing two tails into the right side of his chest and left of his stomach, piercing right through and stabbing the ground underneath, drawing a roar of pain from him. Naruto stabbed another four into the biceps of all his arms, and the last two into his thighs, overloading the balls of lightning at their tips, causing them to explode within, blasting his arms and legs right off, Gilgamesh's one weakness negating his regeneration. Scowling at the screaming Gilgamesh, Naruto channeled lightning to the tips of the tails again, but shaped them into giant hands, and used them to pick up and hold Gilgamesh in the air. "Let this be a lesson to you demons: don't fuck with a devil." He gave his own kind of farewell, before willing the hands to crush Gilgamesh into a large ball of slag and ichor.
With but a thought, his new Itachi-bi flashed with a light and turned into a normal belt, the buckle remaining the same but a normal size. Naruto held his hand out as Gilgamesh's remains turned into a ball of light, flying towards him. In a flash, Naruto now wore gauntlets and greaves just like Gilgamesh's arms and legs, and he was pretty sure that small backpack was what he felt on his back. The new thing, though, was a face mask covering the bottom of his face, bearing the same colorful tribal markings as everything else. Sealing it away, a new tattoo forming on his right arm, Naruto retrieved the swords he used as stakes and walked over to the unconscious Haku and sat beside her, letting his exhaustion take him and sleeping alongside her, the girl unconsciously snuggling with him.
(Three hours later)
Both devil hunter and defected apprentice woke up in the same place they were before falling asleep/unconscious, Haku giggling when she found herself in Naruto's iron grip for the few seconds before he woke up just after her.
"Haku-chan! How are you feeling?" Naruto asked, doting on his partner and girlfriend.
"I'm fine, Naruto-kun; what happened, though? Last I remember is that lightning dragon attacking me." Haku recalled, holding her head slightly.
"You unlocked your Devil Trigger." Naruto answered, seeing he needed to elaborate at her confused and shocked expression. "Benihime-chan says, because chakra originated from the Juubi, it is demonic at its very core, diluted as it is through the ages, and being exposed to me constantly pouring out devil energy and an apparent life-and-death situation completed the equation and unlocked it. She also says you'll be able to use and contain something called 'Devil Hearts' until I unlock my own; do you know what she means?" Naruto asked, a confused expression on his own face.
Blinking twice, Haku reached for her pockets, only to touch smooth skin. Looking down, she finally noticed the new 'enhancements' to her body, and what it did to her clothes and hair. Slowly, a nuclear blush formed on her face, and she quickly covered up the exposed bottoms of her breasts. "Wh-what happened to my body and clothes?!" She sputtered.
Blushing slightly, Naruto looked to the side as he scratched his cheek. "U-uh, that's just how you ended up after you changed back. Then you passed out over here and I fought Gilgamesh-teme. Oh, and the Rokubi showed up and became a Devil Arm for me." Naruto informed her, trying to change the subject, unsealing his Itachi-bi, the tails swaying behind him.
Blushing still, but slightly less, Haku raised a delicate brow. "But, Naruto-kun... the Rokubi's right next to you." She informed him, pointing to his side, unsealing a spare haori and sash, uncomfortably finding it more snug than before, though unable to do anything about the slits in the sides of her pants.
"Huh?" Naruto responded intelligently, looking where she was pointing and, indeed, the Rokubi was sitting there, looking up at him, but his Devil Arm was still with him. "Uh... Hi?" Naruto greeted questioningly with an awkward wave.
The Rokubi waved one of its tails in response, before getting up and bounding away.
"I... think it left some of its power for you to create that Devil Arm. I don't know much about the lesser bijuu, so I don't really understand it's motives, and I couldn't communicate with it when it was with you." Benihime informed Naruto, just as confused as him.
"...Seems legit to me. So are you ready to go, Haku-chan?" Naruto asked, receiving a nod. "Then lets... wait, where do we go? Where we came from is the only exit, and we didn't see any branching paths." Naruto wondered, only for a warping sound to catch his attention. Looking towards it, Naruto spied some kind of floating, spinning platform within a pillar of light. "Think that's a way out?" Naruto flatly asked Haku.
"Probably." Haku responded just as deadpan.
"Oooooooh, I remember those! Portals that just appeared after everything was done like convenient douchebags! Good times..."Dante commented within Naruto's mindscape.
'Oooooookay.' Naruto merely responded, stepping onto the apparent teleporter with Haku, both of them being engulfed in light.
They found themselves in possibly another part of the demonic maze distorting the space underneath the mountain. It was a large room, larger than Gilgamesh's, and the floor was covered in large colored circles, with a massive die in the center held in a spiked cage.
"Oh God no..." Nero immediately said in response to the view everyone shared within Naruto's mindscape.
'What is it?' Naruto asked, slightly worried since Nero was always one to keep his cool.
"That... fucking... dice game. I hated that thing when I ran into it! Whatever it rolls on, your avatar moves. But if it reaches over a certain amount near the end, it will just go back, and you have to try again. Plus, those yellow circles teleport your character between them, including backwards! I fucking haaaaaated this!"Nero explained/lamented.
Dante was off to the side, smirking arrogantly; when he ran into the Dice Game, he just cut the thing in half. Dante ain't got no time for no Dice Game!
"Oh this is going to suck..." Naruto commented out loud. At Haku's question, he explained Nero's hatred, and she shared the same sentiment as him, before an all-grey avatar of the two of them formed on the very first circle. "Wait, what's to stop me from doing this?" He asked no one, rushing forward and slicing the die in half.
Before another one appeared.
"Fuck my life." Naruto commented flatly. "Fine, we do this the hard way." He added, walking over and kicking the die to start this stupid game.
3.
The avatar turned into a ball of light before moving ahead three spaces, landing on a red circle, five Scarecrows, two Frosts, and a Blitz jumping out of portals soon after.
"Fuck. My. Life." Naruto repeated even flatter before unsealing Blood-Scythe.
Pushing any further thoughts to the backburner , Naruto swung his weapon in scythe form, tearing a chunk out of the nearest Frosts chest, causing it to jump back and put its only functioning hand to the wound. It hissed at Naruto and shot large icicles from the chunk replacing its right arm, forcing Naruto to dodge, the silver-haired youth smirking when its retaliation and overall noise caused the Blitz to attack it. As Naruto turned to the second Frost, he listened as the Blitz wrecked the first ones shit with a lightning beam. Blocking its claw swipe with the sword, having reverted it just before, Naruto, through a bit of effort, manifested a Shadow Nail without transforming the weapon and utilizing the mini-portal and stabbed it into the Frosts stomach, jumping away as it slowly turned black, formed glowing red cracks, and causing the Frost to stumble and roar in pain.
The technique Naruto just used turned one of the nails into a bomb of darkness, infecting the enemy before finally exploding.
With a hissing roar, the Frost rapidly began to match the weapon in its stomach, before exploding in darkness, killing the demon. Instead of just leaving a bit of its remains that would then evaporate, a tangible black mass was left where it died before flying towards Naruto's weapon, causing him to cast a bewildered look at it before shaking his head and putting it off for later thought, turning to go help Haku, just in time for him to witness the death of the second Frost, and Haku appearing by his side after dispatching the Scarecrows, leaving them with the Blitz. Nodding to Haku, Naruto created four clones, all armed with Ebony & Ivory, before forming a firing squad, hailing bullets on the Blitz, quickly bringing down its lightning shield, before it could even begin charging them.
When it did start charging, Haku was ready with her Akyura, Naruto with his Blood-Scythe. Haku lunged forward, sweeping the ice tri-shuriken forward, tossing the Blitz back and up slightly, before they flew back to her grasp, and she spun around, throwing them into a bladed ring around her, biting into the Blitz' natural armor, before she positioned the weapons into a staircase configuration for Naruto to climb, which he did, before jumping high up above the Blitz, Blood-Scythe in its scythe form, diving down with a spin, turning into a human buzzsaw. Upon impact, Naruto's attack slammed the Blitz into the ground, creating spiderweb cracks, before Naruto jumped up slightly, somehow since he was still buzzsaw-like, breaking out of it and stomping on the Blitz' stomach with both feet, stomping with one twice, then punting it across the room. Reaching after it with his Devil Bringer, Naruto swiveled on his heel to toss the Blitz Haku's way, who readied several large spears of ice, shooting the first to meet the flying Blitz midair, impaling it in the stomach and sending it back, Naruto leaning to the side as it flew passed him, turning around as the remaining four ice lances flew passed him, barely ruffling his cloak, watching as the Blitz was impaled in all its limbs. It roared as red sparks traveled across its body.
"Oh no you don't!" Naruto yelled, rearing his fist back and swinging the giant spectral Devil Bringer forward, crushing its head and the section of wall behind it. The arm disappeared as the Blitz burst into a pillar of red lightning and disappeared. With a sigh, he turned back to Haku and the die. "Well that was a chore. Apparently this is gonna happen every time that thing lands on a red circle. So fun." He commented. He then walked over and kicked the die again.
6.
The statues turned into light and moved, landing on a yellow circle, turning back into statues, only to register the circle, change back, and cross a line that appeared for a second, skipping about 5 circles.
"Oh awesome!" Naruto yelled in excitement, Haku nodding happily beside him. His enthusiasm caused him to run over and punt the die harder than he intended, unfortunately sending the thing bouncing everywhere, eventually beaning Naruto in the back of the head. "Ow!" He yelled just as he began to fall. He landed on his stomach, the die sitting on his back like the asshole it was.
5.
"Red." Haku told Naruto when the statues stopped.
"Kami-dammit!" Naruto yelled when he shot up, the die disappearing for the fight that would ensue. However, this enemy was... weird.
It was an ice ball. That was it. There was just one, and it was floating around. And conjuring flaming swords - wait what?!
"Shit!" Naruto cursed as he rolled to the side to dodge them, three massive greatswords made of fire embedded in the ground beside him, before pulsing and flashing. "Double shit!" He scrambled to his feet and jumped away, just in time to get out of the blast radius. Turning around and armed with Rebellion and Itachi-bi, Naruto flipped Dante's sword into a reverse grip, channeling energy until it glowed red, swinging it thrice at the weird probably-demon, knocking it back and only scratching it. Growling, Naruto stuck Rebellion to his back and strung through hand seals, puffing his cheeks and chest before launching his technique. "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" He blew a large fireball at the enemy, Haku buffing his technique with a Daitoppa. The ensuing massive fireball slammed into the ball of ice, almost immediately evaporating it.
From within the fire and smoke came a scream, but not of pain and a dying breath, but of rage, the force of it dispersing the elements obscuring the creature within, revealing the true form of the enemy summoned by this damnable game.
It seemed like a feminine conglomeration of fire and ice, enticing yet deadly, baying for blood. It appeared to be a human female made of ice, darker blue ice forming swirl patterns on its body, originating from the space between its neck and right shoulder. However, its left breast and arm, and right leg were made of solid, yet flowing lava, its 'hair' a flickering flame held in its frozen head.
"...I don't know whether to be aroused, or terrified." Naruto commented flatly, Haku appearing by his side and smacking him on the head. "Terrified it is!" He corrected after his brain stopped rattling. The as-of-now unnamed demon let out a screeching cry at the shinobi/devil hunters as a trio of spinning, flaming greatswords formed around it. "Yep, definitely terrified." He added before using his Itachi-bi to launch himself forward in an enhanced Stinger, driving Rebellion right in its abdomen, kicking it off his sword when it just screamed at him again, sweeping his Devil Bringer around to grab her projectiles with the spectral copy, sending them back at it, only for the damn thing to bring up its ice shell again.
"Freaking copycat!" Haku yelled as she made ice gauntlets connected to small morning-stars that covered her hands. She swung her arms to the sides, the morning-stars tripling in size to basketballs, extended on chains of ice, then she swung her arms inward, slamming them into the sides of the creature's - Vergil decided to name it Witch; they can't all be winners - ice shell, cratering them slightly, before they just fixed themselves. "Copycat and a bitch!" She yelled.
Naruto was off to the side, silent in the face of this side of Haku. But its regenerating shield snapped him out of it, and he manifested Red Queen, pulling the trigger to the Exceed system until it reached Level 3, the engine within the blade of Nero revving in anticipation, the blade glowing red-hot. Gripping the handle in both hands, Naruto Streaked forward with the propulsion of Red Queen, a trail of fire following his blade, as he spun around thrice, slicing the shell in half, then the Witch's - let's just roll with it, Vergil seemed so proud of that - right arm off, the third strike dodged as the creature jump-floated away, screaming and holding her frozen stump, the arm shattering on impact.
"You okay, Haku-chan? You went a bit agro back there." Naruto commented once his flight got him beside her, snapping the girl out of it.
'Oh Kami, it's just like in Kumo!' Haku mentally whined when she heard the word 'agro.' She's supposed to be the level-headed of the two of them, and she flipped her shit! "Yes, Naru-kun, I'm fine... just lost my cool for a bit." She assured him.
In response, Naruto hefted one of her morning-stars to enter her line of sight. A morning-star... made of ice.
"Shut up." She said with a minor blush; always one to make a pun out of something, Naruto was.
Merely smirking, Naruto sealed Red Queen and unveiled his newly acquired Gilgamesh, his grin growing under the mask at Haku's shocked face at his new Devil Arm, and shot towards the Witch, appearing before it could react and sending it upwards with a sharp uppercut, gouging her frozen flesh right up the middle of her torso and shattering her chin right off. Once he touched down again, he quickly revved up the sawblades on his heels and shot after her in a flaming triple roundhouse kick, kicking right through her abdomen and separating her legs from the rest of her, before using her upper torso as a platform to gain some altitude, then shooting down fist-first, slamming the demon in a crater-forming impact that shattered what remained of her, the legs following soon after.
Standing up from the crater and sealing Gilgamesh, Naruto walked over to Haku with a haughty smirk at her seemingly-frozen gobsmacked expression, gently closing her gaping mouth.
She snapped out of her shock and turned on him. "Why didn't you do that from the beginning?!" She yelled.
"What, and keep you out of the fight? Hell no; gotta keep you on your toes." Naruto responded, poking her nose, resulting in an unamused frown that was still adorable on her face.
Laughing at her annoyance, Naruto walked over and punted the die once it reappeared, causing it to land on a 3, moving the statue to a green circle. When it landed there, Naruto and Haku felt a cleansing sensation throughout their bodies, and they felt healed of most injuries and any fatigue.
"Oh! That's awesome! I like the green circle!" Naruto piped up when it began, Haku nodding beside him, more appreciative than her counterpart since she still felt a bit of fatigue from her transformation. This time, Haku walked over and kicked the die, watching as it rolled around and landed on a two, moving to another yellow circle, skipping ahead to about one lucky roll away from getting them out of there. After a pair of 'whoo's' at being so close, Haku kicked it again, landing on...
1.
Well, they can't all be winners. And of course it landed on a red circle.
"Haku-chan?" Naruto spoke up flatly as the die and their statue disappeared, portals for demons appearing.
"Yes?" Haku responded just as flatly.
"Bad." Naruto responded with a very light tap on her head, blaming her for their current predicament, before they both readied themselves, Haku conjuring her six tri-shurikens of ice, Naruto unsealing Blood-Scythe, to face... a legion of normal Scarecrows, and three Mega Scarecrows. Nodding to each other, they rushed forward into the twelve Scarecrows, suddenly appearing back-to-back in the middle of them, six finding Haku's Akyura in their chests before they were pulled towards the duo, Naruto suddenly taking over with a 360 degree swing of Blood-Scythe in its sword form, a red blade of energy flying outwards and immediately killing those six, plus another three, leaving three normal Scarecrows... before more began to climbing out of the portals they thought disappeared. "Okay, shit." Naruto commented. Looking around allowed him to catch sight of the three Mega Scarecrows jumping in the air to slice them to bits. Grabbing the shoulder of Haku's battle kimono, Naruto rolled away and saved them both, also putting them right where they started.
"We'll need to split up to thin the crowd faster." Haku advised, receiving a nod from Naruto as they ran back to the growing crowd of demons, both taking one part of it far enough from each other to divide the demons' attention between them instead of just going for one area because they stuck together. Alongside around half of the Scarecrows going for both of them each, two Mega ones went for Naruto, while the third lumbered towards Haku.
On his side of the room, Naruto sealed Blood-Scythe and brandished Gilgamesh, as his eyes scanned his current enemies. A moment later, he lunged at his opponents, uppercutting the closest Scarecrow, pushing it back slightly, before he grabbed its shoulders and hefted himself up, balancing on top of the fumbling demon as he shot his feet this way and that to kick away the other Scarecrows that tried to jump-attack him, before letting gravity bring him back down behind his current mount, using the momentum to slam the demon into the ground, rearing his arm up and letting the booster build up power before slamming it right into the demons face, a small shockwave and explosion of energy killing it and the three Scarecrows too close to him almost instantly. Straightening himself and turning to the remaining three Scarecrows and two Megas, Naruto let his eyes momentarily flicker to Haku and her own little contained slaughter, letting a proud smile come across his face when she appeared to be cleaning house.
(With Haku)
Having parted with Naruto, Haku faced her opponents, eight Scarecrows and one Mega, and cursed as she once more lamented her lacking of a legitimate weapon, having to use chakra to form a pair of ice swords, Hyoton: Tsuin Hyoryu Kiba (Ice Release: Twin Ice Dragon Fang), and her personal technique, Akyura. Hopefully using them together would help her thin out the numbers faster. Now she understood Nero's hatred of this Dice Game.
Shaking her head of those thoughts, Haku waited for her opponents to come for her, and didn't need o for long, as one of the Scarecrows with the blade for its leg attempted to slice down on her with a jump. Easily side-stepping it, she dispatched the demon by bisecting it with the blade in her hand, releasing the insects inside, died when exposed to the air. Haku moved on to kill the others, turning herself into a tornado of blades as she moved herself around her area with wind chakra, slicing more of them to bits. Turning to the Mega Scarecrow, Haku willed her Akyura to shatter and bond with her swords, reforming them into a pair of massive broadswords, Hyoton: Hyoryu Tsume. (Ice Release: Ice Dragon Claws) She swung one of them just in time to parry one of the Mega Scarecrows 'hands', knocking it off-balance. Swinging both of them allowed her to break the blades of its opposite hand and slice its stomach open, the swarm of demonic bugs escaping, causing the form to deflate and inevitably disappear as the insects died in the open air.
Dispersing her weapons, Haku turned to situation, only to sweatdrop at his, admittedly awesome, showboating.
Naruto was quickly making short work of his enemies, actually grabbing all the giant claws of one of the Mega Scarecrows and stabbing them into the ground, swinging his leg straight through them, breaking them off and kicking the demon itself back. Naruto quickly followed up by slamming a charged-up fist into the ground, kicking the blade shards up, quickly punching and kicking each piece at each demon, killing all but the undamaged Mega Scarecrow, embedding the blade in its bulbous body and hampering its movements. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to impede its ability to attack, as it jumped into the air and curled up into a ball, using the blade on its spine and its claws to attempt to slice down on Naruto.
Of course, the Devil hunter wasn't going to let that happen, so he charged up the booster on his gauntlet until it glowed red. Just as the Scarecrow was about to come down on his head, Naruto shot upwards in a crimson spiral, the Divine Dragon landing right on the blade shard embedded in the Mega Scarecrows chest and driving it straight through and out its back, the demon popping like a balloon almost instantly afterwards. Sealing away the weapon and landing soon after, Naruto smirked at Haku as she shook her head in exasperation. "Hey, you gotta admit that was awesome." He commented, receiving an indifferent shrug, but the smile told all. "Come on; maybe my crazy luck will get us out of here." He offered as he walked towards the die that reappeared.
Giving it a solid kick, Naruto watched as the thing rolled across the room and landed on...
3.
"And Kami says yes!" Naruto gave a violent fist pump as their avatars moved to the final spot in front of the exit, then disappeared in a flash of light.
Haku, however, wasn't as enthused. "Uh, Naruto-kun... what does Nero say about the purple circles?" She asked, eyes narrowed at the spot the statue landed on that was, indeed, purple.
After asking his ancestor, Naruto paled. "Oh shit... he says that's the 'boss circle.' When he landed on them, he had to re-fight demons like Berial and Echidna. Granted, we haven't fought them yet, but in our case, it would mean we'd have to fight Gilgamesh again." He relayed to a quickly paling Haku.
They quickly spun around, armed and ready for whatever this stupid game had in store for them. When they saw what awaited them, they felt distinctly less ready.
On the surface it appeared relatively underwhelming; a monolith of muscle in a vaguely humanoid shape, the only distinctive flesh they could see an ashen grey, mostly on the upper pectorals, collarbone area, and head. The rest of its body was covered in black scales that pulsed with darkness, veins under the grey flesh pulsing with black light to a heartbeat, a robe hanging from its waist covering its lower body, save for the right leg sticking out. It lacked a face, save for a glowing scar where the forehead would be, crossing where a right eye would be. Atop its head was a roiling mane of fire that fell between its shoulder blades, and between the major problem and red flag to the both of them.
This was a demon... that had chakra. Behind its shoulder blades were two orbs of chakra flickering as if aflame, the flesh beneath them cracked and ruptured like the mouths of volcanoes.
'Uh Vergil? Mind explaining what the hell is up with this thing?' Naruto asked, mildly disturbed.
"Um... Well, from what I can see, the demon was originally a Demise, but it was changed drastically. It wasn't nearly this tall, didn't have those scales over as much of its body as it does now, and the fire was smaller. Oh, also, it didn't have chakra!" Vergil explained, just as disturbed as Naruto.
"So that means..." Dante started, trying to put the pieces together.
"Someone is experimenting on demons and injecting them with chakra. Whoever this is is an obvious enemy to Naruto and Haku." Sparda finished, a scowl on his regal face at this new information.
Before Naruto could respond, the apparently-enhanced Demise moved, the orb behind its right shoulder blade extending into a chakra arm, slamming the palm into the ground and propelling the demon towards them, its right arm reared back. Haku moved to the side, out of its path even as Naruto stayed in place and reared his gauntlet-clad fist back to face the demon head-on. Seeing the silver-haired half-devil rear his fast back, the Demise turned its open, clawed hand into a reciprocatory fist, launching it forward when it was close enough, and their fists clashed, the internal struggle between their dueling kinetic energies resulting in outward shockwaves, creating progressively-larger cracks on the ground. Right in the midst of their struggle, a fist made of chakra reached over its shoulder and socked Naruto right across his face, sending him flying towards the other side of the room. Just afterwards, it grunted in irritation, as a large, spiked ball of ice impacted its back, before it melted due to the volatile, unstable chakra on its back. It turned around and gave Haku an invisible glare before lunging at her for the next attack. It was halted by a massive hand made of ice forming in its path and grabbing it by its entire torso. Haku spun on her heel, controlling the hands movements, and threw it back from whence it came, sending it towards Naruto who readied himself once he peeled himself from his crater in the wall.
Naruto smirked when he saw the enhanced Demise coming his way; rearing his fist back and letting the drill-tipped booster deploy and build up power. The moment it flashed for a second time, Naruto let his fist fly, right for the demons head.
Unfortunately, the enhanced Demise foresaw Naruto's intent and used its sloppy control over this foreign substance its torturers called chakra as a makeshift jet that spun its body, saving itself from losing its head, and thus dying instantly. Unfortunately, the payoff was losing its right arm that appeared in the line of fire. Normally, there was little that could pierce its scaly hide, but Naruto's superior physical strength, coupled with the power of the Gilgamesh Devil Arms, proved the victor here, and thus its limb went flying.
Of course, Naruto, seeing the demon think fast, which was a first as well as terrifying, quickly formed a clone and Kawarimi'd with it, saving himself from 200+ pounds of flying demon; he had just gotten out of that crater, thank you very much.
The demon roared as it slammed into the crater-wall, growling as it climbed to its feet and held a claw to the gored flesh on its shoulder. Suddenly, its growls increased tenfold as white-hot agony coursed from the wound, an orange light bursting from within the bleeding flesh.
"Oh no..." Naruto groaned, having hoped against hope that something like this would happen.
Apparently painfully, from its roars, the demons 'gifted' chakra sought to fill in the gap its missing arm left, tearing through its body to the wound and forming a new arm for it. The new limb appeared to be on fire, and seemed to be making a conscious effort to keep its current form, the same length as its flesh and blood arm, but the demons control seemed to be slipping, as the limb pulsed like a heartbeat, and kept shifting around, going from lanky to overly bulky, long to short, and sometimes not even just a single arm, or even an arm.
"Oh ho, a double-edged sword! Well, let's see if you like this!" Naruto offered, switching Gilgamesh for Itachi-bi and coating his hands and feet in lightning, taking the form of claws. With that, he rushed at the Demise, leaving a stream of lightning in his wake, as well as the pawprints of the Rokubi on the ground in his footsteps. He appeared in front of the Demise with his fist buried in his stomach; before it could react, he had the lightning encasing his explode like a pulse, blasting a chunk out of its stomach and sending it deeper into the wall. Naruto didn't let it rest and continued to pound into it, ending with shaping the lightning around his hands into a pair of spikes and driving them through either side of its chest, forming the tips that popped out of its back into hooks to let him get a grip and pull the demon out of the wall, spinning on his heel and throwing it Haku's way.
His partner leaned out of the way and formed a long lance of ice and threw it after the demon, the Demise slamming into the opposite wall before it was impaled with the oversized icicle, roaring in pain. Unfortunately for the dynamic duo, that wound was a bit too close to him and the corrosive chakra that was injected into it began its work, both filling in the large chunk torn out by Naruto's attacks, and melting the section of ice inside its body, causing the rest to fall off. The demon finally had enough of being on the receiving end, and struck, letting its shifting arm turn the fingers into things akin to miniature cannon barrels, shooting spikes of concentrated chakra at them, causing them to jump around to dodge, until it shifted its arm into something resembling a blade and lunged at the closest human, Haku.
Thankfully, she dodged by substituting herself with a slab of wall roughly her size, saving her hide. Temporarily. It reacted fast enough to turn all but the tip of his blade-arm into a tendril of sorts and extended it after her. Again, she managed to dodged it attack, and the force it put behind it caused the blade to get stuck. Fortunately, for it at least, it managed to put more corrupt chakra through the arm, and a second limb bulged from the side of it facing Haku, extending into a full arm with a set of claws, also on a tendril-like limb heading for her.
While Haku inadvertently diverted its attention, Naruto headed straight for the Demise itself, fists aglow with lightning chakra, intent on tearing more chunks from it until it stayed down. Unfortunately, it foresaw this plan, and acted accordingly, diverting its personal attention to the silver-haired half-devil, its chakra assaults still going strong, confusing them both.
Little did they know the extent that the chakra was corrupted in order to be successfully injected into a demon. Through countless experiments, the energy referred as chakra within the demon could only be called such by the thinnest margins, due to its origins as... well, chakra. But now, it was perverted, twisted into something else. Much like the Cutlasses and Angelo's they encountered, it was forged into this state by the hands of men whose reach extended their grasp, turning it into something akin to an energy-based demon on its own, like a parasite inside the Demise. It explained how it acted, seemingly harming the demon the more room it had, and not holding a constant shape. As such, it could act independent of the Demise, creating a fearsome 'team.'
Naruto was faced with the Demise focusing entirely on him, so he couldn't attack it so easily. As such, he fell into an actual stance instead of the haphazard, on-the-spot-moves he used against demons because... well, it worked. The stance he was using was Dante's Swordmaster Style for gauntlet-type weapons, as he had employed several in his career, and thus created a style for them alongside swords and the more strange weapons. Dante also mentioned that this type of weapon-fighting style was based on his friend Trish's style of fighting when she used her hands and feet clad in demon-lightning.
Countering the Demise's claw swipe with a punch of his own, Naruto followed up with another into its chest, then a kick right up into its chin, throwing its head back, before swiping its leg out from under it, sending it toppling over and giving Haku a break since their connection pulled the energy demon back unexpectedly. In the second it was airborne as it fell, Naruto fell onto his arms and used chakra to spin, spreading his legs and juggling it in the air with continuous kicks, his feet becoming glowing blurs, until he suddenly stopped and used his arms as springs to propel himself upwards, his feet slamming into the center of its back and sending it flying into the ceiling. Not letting up, Naruto channeled chakra to his legs and shot up towards it, leaving a trail of lightning in his path, electrocuting the demon when he landed, and clinging to the ceiling with chakra, pinning it in place with his Itachi-bi, and whaling on it with his fists. When he was finished, he reared his hands back, immediately forming a pair of Rasengans, the orbs becoming imbued with demonic lightning. "Tsuin Rasengan!" Driving them into its face and chest, Naruto was actually sent flying by the ensuing explosion.
Haku grew relieved when her enemy, the annoyingly flexible sentient 'chakra', let out a screech and retreated to its host, shrinking into what remained of it; its left arm, associative flesh of its torso, with the center of its chest having been blown out, and the rest of its body. With its head gone, the Demise was officially dead... but the parasitic energy remained.
"Why do I feel like I just made our lives much harder?" Naruto asked once Haku returned to his side.
"Because life sucks." Haku lamented flatly.
Naruto sweatdropped at the normally chipper Haku's morose response, only for it to increase when the demon twitched and rose to its feet, its torn-open flesh glowing with its parasitic 'ally', as well as what remained of its entire upper body, before it exploded in a showed of gore, leaving only its legs as the chakra beast manifested a new upper body, assuming direct control now.
Its new form was about as muscular as the Demise, but lacked the flaming hair and scales. Of course, now the dominant form, it could condense its composition to be just as hard as the scales. Instead of flames, it now sported a pair of gnarled horns that seemed to be fused with its head, the darker lines in them swirling right into the eyes - three orbs of concentrated, glowing chakra, two being on the left side - and a jagged maw on its face. Its arms were slightly thicker than the Demise's, with horn-like protrusions sprouting here and there, swept back. On its shoulder blades, where the chakra spouts of the Demise were, now sprouted two huge arms, each about as large as its entire body, tipped with claws, folded against its back like wings. Such was the weight of its extra appendages that it fell onto all fours.
"Well... fuck." Naruto commented awkwardly.
"I blame you." Haku immediately rebutted.
"...For once, I'll accept that. Now let's go!" He announced, Itachi-bi at the ready as the... uh... 'Vergil, the hell should we call this thing?' Naruto mentally asked, since Vergil was the naming guy.
"Uh... Chakra Parasite? You gotta give this kind of stuff time, kid." Vergil responded on such short notice.
'You came up with Witch pretty fast!' Naruto countered.
"That one was fairly obvious!" Dante's brother defended.
"ONLY TO YOU!" Everyone in the mindscape, sans Sparda, commented.
Slightly wincing at all the ruckus in his head, Naruto turned his attention to the Chakra Parasite (pending) as it roared at them at charged, using its giant secondary arms to push off the ground like the Demise did for its first move, claws bared.
Both shinobi Devil hunters scattered, Naruto switching out Itachi-bi for Kiri Engimono, realizing it wouldn't really be that great an idea to attempt to punch or kick the thing. Best to use large and ranged attacks to put it down, though he didn't particularly want to chance using jutsu against it; who knows what will happen with its special constitution. With that, Naruto lunged at it as it turned itself around using its arms like stilts. "Choto: Ito!" (Longsword: Thread) The segments of his sword separated, connected by concentrated mist, extending towards the demon and stabbing straight through its chest, causing it to roar and attempt to dislodge the weapon.
Before he was pulled off his feet, Naruto retracted the blade. 'Okay, only managed to piss it off.' Naruto observed flatly. Shrugging that off, Naruto went for a different tactic. "Dantou: Kuribu!" Sheathing the blade in extremely dense mist, to the point of sharpness, Naruto put all his strength into hacking a chunk from it.
Naruto successfully split its chest wide open, causing it to roar in agony and step back. Unfortunately, as it was just chakra, the wound knit itself shut, and the demon was now twice as pissed. It jumped up, rearing all four of its arms up and slamming them down, just barely missing a fumbling Naruto, but sending him flying as it shattered the floor, kicking up several slabs.
Haku did not stand idly by; she formed one of her Akyura, before going through another technique. "Hyoton: Kyodai Shuriken!" (Ice Release: Giant Shuriken) The relatively large tri-shuriken went up in a poof of smoke and suddenly became so large that Haku could stand in the center with plenty of room. Hefting the massive weapon with the use of chakra, Haku put all her energy into throwing it, slicing through the slabs in her way, successfully hacking off one of its giant arms.
Naruto appeared by her side, seeking to end this. "Haku-chan; if I supply you the chakra, can you do that a couple times to pin it down?" He asked.
"If you can actually do that, definitely." Haku responded, already going through the seals, waiting for him to share the chakra with her.
Nodding, Naruto set a hand on her shoulder and began funneling a moderate amount of chakra into her. Among elemental jutsu and the Rasengan, Minato taught Naruto many supplementary skills, such as the Chakura Fuyo (Chakra Imparting) technique. Usually only used by shinobi with a full tank going in to assist a comrade, it could also be used by those who had truly monstrous reserves, such as Naruto, as long as they were familiar with the signature of the recipient, otherwise they might induce chakra poisoning. Thankfully, they were both quite familiar with each other's signatures so that would be a rare occurrence.
Stifling reflexive sounds from the rather... pleasing sensation of Naruto's warm chakra mingling with her own, Haku put it to work and created the other five Akyura before invoking the previous technique again, throwing them one after another, slicing off the other demons giant arm before embedding the other four in its limbs, pinning it against the wall.
"Okay, let's finish this thing!" Naruto announced, going through several seals while Haku did the same. "Fuuton: Fuuryudan no Jutsu!" (Wind Release: Wind Dragon Bullet Technique)
"Suiton: Suiryudan no Jutsu!"
"Conbo Jutsu: Hyoryu Ikari!" (Combo Technique: Ice Dragon Rage)
Their elemental dragons combined into a moderately beautiful technique, several intersecting slabs of ice forming the serpentine form with swaying whiskers and glowing, crimson eyes.
With synchronized mental commands, the dragon roared forward. The Chakra Parasite merely kept trying to struggle free, right until the very end.
With a cataclysmic crash and the shattering of glass, the dragon slammed into the demon and nearly reduced it to a stain on the wall and ambient chakra dissipating into the air.
"That... was awesome!" Naruto whooped with a broad grin.
"Indeed, that was an interesting end. Though this whole escapade was just so we could get through a single room." Haku remarked, glaring at the spot the die had once occupied.
"Yeah, Nero was right; fuck that dice game." Naruto agreed, glaring at the same place.
"Told you! Uncle Nero knows all!" Nero remarked within the seal.
Dante gave him a slap.
End Ch. 5
So yeah, how 'bout that Ninja Storm 4 DLC? All I have to say is one thing:
YES! THE SOUND FOUR ARE BACK! THAT'S ALL I'VE EVER WANTED!
...So yeah, I'm a bit happy we got them back, even if it appears to just be Jirobo, I think.
Granted, I don't have the game myself yet, but I've seen the jutsu and mechanics and it looks awesome. Though, I'm kind of sad to see this series come to an end; it's up to date, got Kaguya and The Last characters, so unless more DLC comes out for the Boruto movie, Ultimate Ninja's done; I was around for the very first on the PS2.
...I'm supposed to talk about the chapter, right? Whoops. Well, for quick recap: Naruto got two new Devil Arms, Giglamesh and an original one, and they were stuck in the accursed Dice Room. Anyone else remember that thing? It's always been fucking annoying, since it's entirely luck as far as I know. Anyway, I also brought in the Witch from DMC: Devil May Cry, but tweaked it so it's not so plain.
And yes, the Demise demon is Demise from Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. He had a cool design and interesting role in pretty much every game with Ganondorf ever, and I wanted to have the die actually become the demon, but I kept drawing a blank, so I went for this, also teasing at the fact that The Order is in the Elemental Nations somehow. They'll come in later... maybe.
Also, if it seems like I'm taking the piss with Vergil... I am and I'm not. Everyone is kind of stuck in Naruto, so I want to give them some role, and Vergil's essentially the Bestiary/new demon namer. Granted, everyone's training Naruto, but you get what I mean.
So as always, tell me what you think.
Ja ne!