A/N: Hello out there, its been so long since I sat down and got down to writing, I forgot if I go by Crumbs or Muffin. Well I'm back people, and who knows for how long so lets just enjoy this moment for as long as we can; I know I will. You should know that I kinda screwed up bad on how I wrote out the story and backed my self up into a corner, it isn't evident now but in the second part of the story. If you do see a plot hole now, I haven't seen it so if you do tell me Id appreciate it. I'm pretty sure Sack is out so no more of him editing. Well lets get going I've talked long enough lets get Oxy out of the way so we can continue.
E/N: So yea, sorry for the delay. School, then my laptop started to act up on me -.- Anyways, its nice to be editing again. We hope you gurls/guys are liking it so far. I know I am. I hope you noticed that I stopped talking in third person, eh its just too much work! YET!!!! I will continue if and only if you, THE READERS, tell me and comment on this fan fic ^_^; Well I got some other news, that I asked muffin if I can say. I have started to write my own story. Although right now I am on hiatus, due to college, I will be posting up shortly. Look at the end of the chapter for the link. It is not a fan fic, rather it is a fiction. Please support your favorite writer's editor!!! Again, sorry for the wait, and I hope you enjoy chapter five!!!! Adios~Oxy. =3
[I don't own Naruto, if I did Naruto would have a daughter named Ramen]
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Chapter 5
*Whistle* *Bang*
Two lights flew into the sky and they revealed two shapes the leaf and 'i' symbols. Naruto later found out stood for Suna, an important ally of Konoha.
The demons saw these symbols and they all roared in unison and ran off. The men all cheered as they saw the demons flee into terror.
Naruto asked Shikamaru "What happened, Shikamaru, why are they all leaving like this?"
Shikamaru replied with a small smile on his face "Reinforcements."
Knights came running into the square from the left, the demons ran right, a group of sages blocked the exit that they ran to. The initial force and their reinforcements surrounded the demons closing in on them. Flying demons tried to escape, but to no use they met arrows of various archers and sages using long range spells making sure none of the creatures escaped. All the demons were now clustered together in a large circle any that tried to escape quickly taken care of.
Shikamaru knew his cue, he sheathed his sword held the staff in one hand parallel to the ground and yelled "Stave of Infinite Darkness, heed my call! Grant me the power of the shadows, to envelope my enemies!!"
The ground shook the sky darkened. A large intricate circular design grew around the Sage's feet, the mark glowed a dark purple a thick black mist seeped through the ground shrouding his feet. The stave glowed purple and lifted into the air. His eyes, nose, and mouth glowed white. The aura seeping form the ground encircled Shikamaru, as it reached his waist it changed to a thick viscous liquid and entered the his glowing orifices. He let out a horrible yell and curled up into a ball floating a few feet off the ground.
He convulsed as the vile liquid entered his body, Naruto moved to help but was held back by Sasuke, Shikamaru stopped shaking and grabbed his staff.
"DARK: EVOCATION OF THE INFINITE ABYSS!!!"
A similar white ring grew around the demons, as the earth cracked dark hand-like tendrils erupted from the ground unholy wails erupted forth from the tortured spirits held in the abyss. Some of the creatures fell through the cracks, and others tried to escape but were held in by an invisible force that seemed to be at the edge of the intricate markings of the circle.
The design changed to a dark purple, several spirits from the abyss shot up through the portal they moaned and wailed finally escaping their horrible prison, they were finally free! They ravaged the demons tearing them limb from limb and feasting on their flesh. The demons tried to attack the spirits but it fazed right through them. Half of the demons trapped in the mark, were killed in a matter of seconds.
The moment the few emancipated spirits had their fill they turned their attention to the humans on the outside, the Shinigami itself burst through the mark he swallowed the escaped spirits in one gulp, giving them a worse fate then when they were just stuck in the abyss.
The god swiped at the demons, they cowered, expecting to be hit...but nothing came. They were relieved when nothing happened to them.
Naruto looked on as Shikamaru was floating, his body was shrouded in darkness, yet his mouth and eyes glowed an eerie purple. He saw four-foot long, bluish-green transparent thing! It looked like a skull and draped from from the back of the cranium was an old tattered garment, and was using sickly looking arms to shove chunks of the demons into its mouth.
It was sickening to him, but he was not terrified. Until a larger thing came from the hole it ate the smaller ones and took a swipe at the remaining demons, what Naruto saw next was surprising to say the least. In its hands where exact replicas of the demons, these copies where attached to the originals by their shadow the demons who tried to cover themselves from an attack looked and noticed this, they paled as their copies were squeezed in the gods hands.
The Shinigami squeezed the souls of the demons in his hands until they popped. Their eyes flared as they saw themselves explode. Before they could blink, their hearts exploded coughing up copious amounts of blood. In the last few seconds that some were unfortunate to stay alive; lived to experience the descent to the abyss dragged by the remains of their souls, by the Shinigami himself.
As the seal closed, the skies cleared and Shikamaru fell from the sky as the dark shroud that was around him dissipated. He landed on his back with a heavy thud, he tried to get up but fell back on his hands and knees.
All the knights and sages roared in triumph. Shikamaru had a hard time catching his breath, he lurched up a dark bile-like substance, Naruto and Sasuke rushed to his side, he tried to get up but collapsed.
A few medics came over to him and put him on a stretcher while another scooped up the black substance Shikamaru threw up using a containment charm and placed it in a glass vile.
Shikamaru grabbed one of the medics by the collar and brought the medic's ear to his mouth. Naruto noticed this but he could not make out what he told the medic.
The medics eyes went wide and tapped his temple. "Royal escort requested, Shikamaru has returned." Both young men followed their new friend as he was taken to a medical tent but were stopped short of the entrance.
"I'm sorry you two but we need to extract the Ultrus that formed in his body." A young woman of about 17, told them, she was wearing a medical gown her hair under a cap, some of her hair was sticking out telling people it was red, her eyes an olive green. All in all a very pretty young doctor. Her 5'8" frame hit Naruto's 6'2" at his shoulders so she had to look up to the man to yell at him.
"But he's our friend!" Naruto protested.
"I don't care if he's your damn father, you are not allowed in there!" the young doctor scolded him, her olive eyes flamed but still held their charm. "Look this is a long process and I need time to get it all of the Ultrus if I don't, he'd go berserk!"
"B-but..."
"NO! Look kid" The way she had to turn her neck up didn't help to impose fear in the blonde. "I don't care if your the damn King of Suna your not get-..."
She stopped looking at the men and turned slightly to the left tapping her temple, both men were a little surprised as she started talking to herself.
"Yes?... two just came in with Nara...Ultrus poisoning... right...yes a blond and a...HE'S WHO!?!?! ...Y-yes we're in fr-front of med-tent ga-gamma bu-but...Okay I'll inform them sir." she now turned back to them.
Her face was a bright red, Naruto thought was only reserved for fruit "I-I-I'm terribly so-sorry my Lord I had no idea of your identity. It was requested you stay here and wait for the escort." She quickly said curtsied in front of them and ran off her face even more red.
"What the hell was that all about?" Sasuke asked Naruto
"Was just gonna ask you the same thing, even here the girls fall for you. I mean did you see that? She even went all out with the bow and everything." Naruto shook his head at the thought of all the attention his friend received.
"No idiot that was towards you, she ignored me." Sasuke replied stunned that his friend was that dense.
"Why me..." Naruto pondered out loud but his train of thought was interrupted by the sudden appearance of three knights. They removed their helms and revealed their faces, one had long black hair and white pupil-less eyes. The one immediately to his left had red swirls on his chubby cheeks, and the last one had red marks in the shape of a fang from the top of his cheeks to the end his mandible.
These three had different armor than the rest of the knights, most notably the absence of the leaf symbol on their chest plates like all the others, but instead on other different places. The white-eyed man had it the forehead of his helm, the bigger mans was on his stomach, and the feral looking one on his right shoulder plate.
The white-eyed one, placed his helm under his left arm, placed his right arm across his chest and bowed his head respectfully to Naruto, the other two followed suit.
"My Lord, we are already in your debt for just hearing our plight, and yet you helped in the siege. You fought in our battle, my Queen would like to apologize to you for our mistake, we let our guard down and you were dragged in. Please if you would come with us, we are to take you to see her. There she can explain everything and answer any of your questions. Now please my Lord follow us."
Naruto freaked that this guy was calling him 'Lord'
"Look buddy, I'm waiting for my friend to get out of there-" pointing to the tent. "-so I'm not leaving with out him he's the only one I trust so you can go just go back to where-ever the hell you came from, cause I'm not leaving with you, not with out Shikamaru at least." The blond replied, turned, and walked to a bench just a few feet from the tents opening.
Just then a large dog, much larger than a Great Dane, came running from down the street barking loudly towards the red cheeked knight
"What is it boy?"
'Woof'
"A message?"
'Woof' 'Bark' 'Growl' 'Woof' Woof' 'Whine'
"Okay good job boy." He petted the humongous animal on the head, and turned to the head knight
"Sir Neji(A/N: eww sounds weird right? Might change), we just got a message from the Queen it seems her majesty is meeting with the King of Suna and is headed to Kumo. Apparently this wasn't the only attack, Storm Cliff was destroyed, they're going to use this attack to scare the King of Kumo into signing the treaty. Her majesty says this'll take three days and she won't be in the castle till then."
"Very well then. We can wait for Shikamaru's treatment to end and then we take him and the Lord to the Queen, when she returns." Now turning to Naruto "Well my Lord it seems we can comply to your wish. Chouji go find us accommodations in this town, it seems we'll be here for two days." Chouji nodded and disappeared in a flash despite his size.
Naruto did not even break his attention to the entrance of the tent, hoping for some news of his friend.
Sasuke was in the corner, brooding, he never noticed but not having all the attention was kind of annoying, at first he found it refreshing but now it was just angering him.
Kiba started to play with Akamaru, while Neji stood their his eyes fixed on the street waiting for Chouji's return.
A few minutes later he did, it took a few minutes of coaxing but they finally got Naruto to leave the tent. Chouji was the one to convince him to leave he revealed, he and Shikamaru knew each other since they were kids, and he was worried as well but that they needed to leave the medics to do their jobs.
Walking through the city to the inn, Naruto and Sasuke could not believe their eyes, buildings were destroyed, bodies laid on the street, people picking through the rubble of their homes trying to salvage what they could. Small children did their part by picking bricks that were intact and placed them in well formed stacks.
Adults helped medics carry the bodies of the dead off the streets, people crying out for lost loved ones. Children cried for their mother and fathers, mothers cried for their children.
Several people were trying to put out small fires with buckets of water. Knights and sages took care of the larger ones with spells, various kinds, some had blobs of water fall from the sky onto the flames, others streams of water emitted from the end of their wands/blades.
It was a sad sight to both men, but they kept moving to their destination, the other three knights kept on moving, seemingly unaffected by the scene.
They arrived at an inn, it was damaged in the attack but was still in operation, Sasuke thought to himself that it was forced open for these knights they were following, who were obviously of higher rank and status than the others because the others saluted them.
They were greeted by an old man his head was bandaged, and his arm was in a sling, but he showed them to their rooms.
They spent the next two days there, waiting, Naruto got fed up just sitting there, only twenty minutes in, and decided to help with the cleanup. Sasuke decided to join him because,... well he didn't have any one to talk to, Neji was to weird, Kiba to dumb, and Chouji would just be munchin' or worrying about Shikamaru.
Before Naruto left, Neji had put another spell on Naruto's appearance he made it so when ever he left the inn it would automatically work, and stop when he stepped into the inn. Both men tried to do their best where ever they could not knowing any spells, they were placed in bucket or clean up crews.
On the last night Naruto headed back late into the night. Sasuke had returned to the inn once the sun started to set but Naruto kept going well into the night. The 3 knights had already eaten and gone to bed, but the old man and his daughter had stayed up to serve him dinner, ramen. The old man left after he showed Naruto to the dinning room.
Now the girl was in her early twenties. She was a brunette, hair up in a ponytail it was fairly long, she had brown eyes and was slightly tan from working outside, probably from light gardening most likely for the inn's vegetables. She wasn't gorgeous but she was pretty.
Naruto best described her as a girl you would want to go steady with. On his rating she was pretty.
See Naruto had three ratings when it came to girls: cute, pretty and hot, Naruto also didn't believe in an ugly woman, each woman was beautiful in her own way.
The inn keepers daughter seemed very nervous when she was serving Naruto, he like always was just as dense as ever.
"Hey, um...-"
"Ayame."
"Ayame, this ramen is the best ramen in the world. I mean when I make the stuff in the cups, it's nothing compared to this!"
"Why thank you, My Lord, it is the inn's specialty. Unfortunately since my father's arm is broken I had to make it myself, so its not up to par with my father's recipe." She looked down, trying to hide the blush she got from hearing his praises.
"Are you kidding me this is the best ramen ever, anything else would fall short of it! Boy I would sure love to have this everyday 'till I die!" His face beaming as he kept slurping the noodles.
Now Naruto being the dense idiot(or naïve pure-hearted man your pick) did not notice the implications that the words "everyday 'till I die!" On the other hand, poor Ayame did, passing out from such a sudden proposal, from such a handsome man.
"Hey! Are you okay! AYAME!" He rushed over to the woman who passed out for seemingly no reason, he pulled her up so that she was cradled in his arms.
"Oi! Ayame wake up!" It was to no avail she was out cold, but her face was red, more so than the annoying doctor from Shikamaru's tent.
"I guess she was tired from staying up till this late just to serve me dinner." Naruto shrugged, he gently propped her up against a wall, as he washed his bowls and set them to dry.
He then quietly picked up Ayame, she now had a grin on her face and was giggling, mumbling something, her blush even more severe. "With the noodles? Okay but only for you!"
"Huh, it must be a good dream; it has to be with noodles involved." Naruto grinned to himself.
Realizing he didn't know where her room was he carried her to his room. Even if he had known where she slept, he would be too embarrassed to enter a girls room, let alone with out permission. He gently took off her shoes and apron, seeing as how it was all dirty, placed her in the bed and tucked her in. He exited as quietly as he could and closed the door behind him.
Yawning, Naruto headed to the lobby of the little inn because there was a couch there and decided that he would spend the night there. He collapsed on the couch his body sore from all the work he did today, he took of his boots laid down and drifted off to sleep.
NARUTO DREAM START
'Where is that ass-faced freak?! Where is he?! He's here I can smell him?! This whole place reeks of his damn stench!'
*Bang*
Several knights and mages attacked the gigantic Nine-tailed demon. It was a routine night when the demon just appeared out of thin air and was now headed toward the town.
"We have to hold them back, until the King Arrives! Come on! FOR KONOHA, AND HER KING!!!" A woman knight yelled and attacked head first at the beast, with her charge several others followed. Her sword's crossguard glowed a bright green as she yelled "Fish's Arrows of Wind"
She jumped high into the air. She held out her left arm and a her hand glowed green from her palm dozens of green bolts shot out aimed straight for the beast.
Much to her horror the animal brushed her strongest attack away with its tail, like it was swatting a fly. A second tail flung for her, she was to slow to react and was hit. On that day she was one of the hundreds of fighters that Konoha lost in less than 10 minutes.
*ROAR* The beast roared and was about to unleash it's next attack when a large poof of white smoke appeared out of seemingly nowhere.
*Ka-BOOM*
"He's here he's finally here! RETREAT!"
As the smoke cleared there he was the King on top of a large toad, with a large pipe in its mouth, its large tongue waving about revealing its piercings. The King stood there on top of the toad, his arms crossed.
NARUTO DREAM END
Ayame woke up scared that she didn't find the poster of "Magicaster" her favorite group, she realized that it was one of the guest rooms. She got out of bed and found that it was supposed to be Naruto's room.
'Why am I in Naruto's room, what did I do yesterday?'...she remembered Naruto's comment and connected it with her dream...'NO! I wouldn't do that, he wouldn't do that would he?'
*SNORE*
'That came from the living room.'
Ayame walked towards the noise, into the the main lobby and found Naruto all twisted on the couch. She gave a small smile as she saw the man deep in slumber.
"Naruto..Naruto..." she tried to wake him.
"Naruto... Naruto. Naruto, its morning, time to wake up."
Ayame nudged the man, finally awakening him from his slumber whispering gently into his ear. "Mr. Uzumaki, it's time to wake up."
Naruto still half asleep, rolled over on to his back to thank who ever it was that woke him up. But to his surprise there was no one there. He looked around and on the floor was Ayame her face crimson, eyes swirling and a wearing a smirk. He looked down and his morning friend was waving high and proud.
"Oh Crap!" He yelled as he covered himself with his cloaks and tried to wake up Ayame.
It took him a several minutes to wake her up, in that time everyone else woke up too. Ayame, too embarrassed to look at anyone especially Naruto, ran into the kitchen and prepared breakfast.
While waiting for breakfast Neji had something to tell to tell his group
"Well it seems that today Shikamaru will be released so we can finally head to Konoha. But before we actually head out I need to tell you two, how exactly we will stay in formation. From the reports I have been getting from the people involved in the siege, I've been able to deduce that you both have some sort of combat experience-."
Naruto grew a huge grin on his face, the ever stoic Sasuke grew a small smirk.
"But, you two are worse than children playing knights-..."
"What the hell are you talking about!? You just said we did good!?" Naruto cut in, pissed.
"No I never said you were good only that you knew how to lift a sword, but any page fresh out of the academy could beat you. The only reason that you are not dead is because of those runes that were given to you."
"So what are you saying?" Sasuke asked, hiding his anger for being told that a child could beat him.
"Well the mission was to protect you so we were prepared for that, but I'm afraid that you two will get in our way on the way to Konoha if we are confronted with enemies. Shikamaru will be in between you two in the middle. So you two will be protecting him."
Naruto and Sasuke agreed, Naruto was going to say something in protest, but Ayame came in with the food, ending all discussion.
After breakfast they, packed up their things meeting in front of the hotel, Naruto was the last one out.
"Well Ayame, thank you for all your service for these past couple of days. It was a pleasure to meet you,-" Naruto leaned in closer to her and whisped in her ear."and I am sorry for this morning I hope you can forgive me." His expression crestfallen.
"Of course, Naruto it wasn't your fault." Ayame replied flustered. He gave a huge grin and gave her a big hug. She sighed happily as she rested her head on his chest.
"Thanks Ayame-chan(A/N: See note at end of chapter) Make sure to take care of yourself. So that I can have more of your awesome ramen again." He released his hug, much to her secret sadness.
He thanked old man Ichiraku, with a firm handshake Ichiraku had a gleam in his eye as he shook his hand glancing back at his daughter.
Naruto joined his guard and friend to pick up Shikamaru.
It had been three days since, the attack and Naruto and Sasuke were amazed at the progress that the citizens made. The damaged buildings had their frames rebuilt, all the fires were put out.
"Wow these people work hard." Sasuke remarked, as he eyed the work that they had made.
"Not surprising." Kiba added
"What does that mean?" Sasuke asked.
"Most of the people that come to Hylat have come from areas where demon attacks are common, trying to escape them. We are here to protect them...but we failed and they got through. Those demon bastards will pay!" Chouji answered clenching his fist. Naruto paid attention but he couldn't, or wouldn't talk.
"So how common are these attacks then?"
"Living on the plains attacks are not common but a possibility but lately, for some reason they are becoming more common. The last major attack was on small farming village just on the edge of the Konoha forest. But this today...it should not have occurred." Neji stated his face hardening trying to discern the attack.
"Why? I mean I don't think any of these attacks should happen why is this one so different?"
Chouji answered the normally quiet man "Minion class demons stick to attacking small villages, or farmlands. Never in the history of the five Great Kingdoms, have demons attacked a town."
Whine Bark. Growl Bark Bark Woof.
"Yeah good point boy." Kiba replied to his massive hound.
Sasuke's eye twitched. "What did he say? Couldn't quite hear him."
"He said that the last attack was on the town of Konoha itself by the Kyuubi but that's a special case because its an Overlord class demon. And even that is an understatement." Kiba translated mumbling the last part.
"No this attack was worse than we think-" The Knights eyes flared Naruto burst out "WHAT!!"
"-we must hurry to the Queen and tell her of the attack." They quickened their pace to the tent.
"What do you mean? She already knows. Isn't that why she went to that 'lightning cliff' place with the other King?" Naruto questioned bobbing and weaving through the crowd.
"No the hidden part part of the attack." Neji relayed stopping as they neared the tent Shikamaru already waiting outside.
"Took you long enough, man this is so troublesome." Shikamaru droned as the group approached. "You figured it out to Neji?" He nodded.
"What is going on here dammit tell me!!!" Naruto yelled.
"Jeez what a drag. I just got out of the hospital and I think you popped my eardrum. I'm assuming you already know of the attacks and how these demons stick to small areas?" Naruto nodded.
"In the fight did you notice something about the way they fought?"
Naruto tilted his head closed his eyes and scratched his chin. "Uh...most had no hair."
Everyone sweat dropped at the comment. It was so unexpected even Akamaru joined in, despite not having sweat glands.
"Most followed specific ones." Sasuke realized
"And what does that mean?" Shikamaru questioned, giving Naruto a chance to redeem himself.
"They were organized." It finally hit Naruto. "Wait what does that mean then?"
"It means we are fucked. What a drag." Shikamaru deadpanned.
A/N: Hi everybody, long time no read right. So it was a bitch I'm not gonna lie I didn't want to write so I didn't. That and well College is worse than a possessive girlfriend, especially if your an Engineering major Aren't I right Oxy? Any whoo so like I said the whole '-Sama' v. 'Lord-' thing is complicated cause I am not going to be using much Japanese in this fic. Why? Cause im not Japanese and the only Japanese is for easy relation to the real story hence Sharingan.
BUT!!! I am keeping the '-chan' because English has no way of conveying these ties, especially with Naruto's dense-ness. So there.
E/N: Hope you liked it!! ^___^ and yes. As muffins was saying, college, ESPECIALLY when you are an Engineering major, is a bitch -.- Anyways here is the link to my story. The story is called, Sanitas [Latin for Sanity] fictionpress(dot)com look up sanitas. I hope you all read. Thank you!!