Chapter 7 – You did what?
Disclaimer, I do not own Naruto nor the Skulduggery Pleasant Series
I'm back, did'ya miss me. No? …okay… really late chapter, but it was unavoidable (again)
May contain OOCness, AU and other applicable nonsense
Note: For all intents and purposes Naruto is female, so please regard as so. This fic was written on the presumption that the reader is semi-knowledgeable on both series. May contain suggestive scenes (not really)
On with the story
Valkyrie was not impressed. Scratch that, she was very far from even being remotely pleased. You could say she was irritated, even if that word felt too mild for what she was feeling.
There the horned redhead stood, along with several important dignitaries from elsewhere, standing around in a crowd sharing their stories and drinking a golden liquid, she assumed was champagne, from crystal flutes. The girl was dressed in an elegant black off-the-shoulders dress that trailed the floor, the sleeves ended in a triangular shape that tied around her middle fingers and had a split on one side, up to her upper thigh to reveal a tentative glimpse of a pale leg and similarly black high heeled shoes. Another thing to notice was that she looked to be around her twenties, bearing a formidable figure that really irked Valkyrie somehow. The horned girl turned woman crossed her arms under her chest, further emphasising her already large chest, much to Valkyrie's consternation. She could gather small fragments of the redhead's tale. Something about a priestess or something.
"She seems to be enjoying herself," Skulduggery said, next to her, looking as sharp as ever, rather he made it seem extremely natural even after all he went through.
"She's actually really bored, this is just her amusing herself," Valkyrie replied offhandedly.
"And how would this be different from enjoyment?"
"She hasn't kicked anyone in the face yet," she continued. "Or defaced something important."
"Ah, so our newest member is a felon with a penchant for debauchery."
"You could say that."
They watched as the redhead reaches into another person's pocket and take another wallet without anyone noticing, well anyone but the Valkyrie and Skulduggery.
"I should go stop her," Valkyrie muttered, striding towards Naruto.
"That would be wise," Skulduggery remarked.
The dark haired teen had to push and weave her way through the crowd surrounding her. Upon sight, the redhead visibly perked up, sending an incredibly amused look at the dark eyed teen. Valkyrie sent a bland stare that seemed to ask 'really?'
Naruto replied with one that said 'Whatcha' gonna do about it'
Valkyrie's scathing glare was answer enough, the girl grabbing the rabbit's arm and dragging her away, ignoring the sounds of dismay she heard behind her. Ignoring everything aside from moving forward and keeping her grip locked on the rabbit's wrist.
"Hey, I think we lost them," Naruto said teasingly, breaking Valkyrie from her thought and causing her to finally stop walking.
Valkyrie said nothing, turning to glare at the other girl. But still, why was she so angry? Sure people were paying a lot of attention to the rabbit, but that happened anyways, the redhead was just a magnet for curious people, but this was different. They were staring at her differently. She didn't like the way they stared at her.
"H-hey, ummm," Valkyrie's attention was brought back by Naruto's voice, as she turned to face her, the normally amused girl's eyes widened slightly, before turning startlingly meek, drifting down and to the side, her expression unusually shy. "C-could you please let go, my wrist is starting to hurt."
With a slightly startled look, Valkyrie let go, wincing slightly at the reddening flesh. It made her feel guilty when the currently taller redhead rubbed her wrist to ease the discomfort.
"Geez, what was up with you back there," the rabbit said in a teasing manner. "Sword training's been good for your grip that's for sure."
"Sorry," Valkyrie muttered distractedly.
"Hey, what's wrong?" cupping her cheek gently, the rabbit tilted her head upwards so that their eyes met.
What is wrong, she thought to herself, no matter how she thought about it, or what she tried to think, they all pointed at the single glaring fact. She didn't want to share, even a lingering glance by those people was unacceptable. No else could look at Naruto that way. Only her. Naruto was… hers?
Where did that come from?
You know where
"Val," Naruto's voice
"I'm fine," Valkyrie replied. The redhead looked conflicted, as if wanting to push the issue, but chose not to.
"Good, 'cuz I have mayhem to wreak and I need my partner in crime with me."
"All in favour of Naruto as the new Grand Mage, say aye."
"Wait!" High Priest Tenebrae interrupted. "How could you simply choose her as a candidate? None knew of her existence until just two years ago, and may I remind you all, she is a known felon worldwide."
"We do not see why she can't" Corrival Deuce said, a rather portly man who has left his youth behind. "She has provided marvellous company ever since she has arrived and all those charges have never been proven."
Murmurs of agreement shifted through the crowd. The horned woman was simply too enchanting to ignore, one might remark that it was similar to the feeling of being around China Sorrows. Only instead evoking love, it drew them about her in a way that made them want to support her and believe in her.
"It was not my intention to interfere in such a way," Naruto uttered coyly, not that anyone but Valkyrie could tell. "I must humble decline this prestigious position."
"Why not," Erskine Ravel asked. "You have captivated the attention of the world, known far and wide within the span of two years. Even now you command the attention of the people, surely you wouldn't deny them"
The redhead merely covered her mouth and giggled demurely. "Ara, ara."
"I propose a vote then, all in favour, say aye."
The vote was unanimous.
"Excellent."
"You think this is funny don't you?" Valkyrie muttered, pacing through China's library walking towards the figure of Tanith.
"Utterly hilarious," Naruto replied, reverting back to a form that was the same age as Valkyrie, still lacking in the height department, but not by a lot, her clothing shifting to match her size.
"You do realise you have to attend meetings now right?"
"I'll send clones~"
Valkyrie ignored her reply in exchange for greeting Tanith.
"It feels like really long time since I met you here," Tanith remarked, smiling at the duo. "God, you used to be so small."
"This was where we met the first time," Valkyrie said, before putting a fake scowl. "And I wasn't small, I was fun-sized."
"Keep telling yourself that," Naruto chirped teasingly. She was ignored.
"And you were so thin then. Now you're almost as buff as me," cue muscle flexing and dramatic sigh. "I'm so proud."
"I'm not that fit," Valkyrie remarked dryly, if anything she would say the rabbit was that fit. She could still remember she saw the rabbit's body—the girl had no shame, walking out of the shower naked—and she swore the girl had godly abs that oddly suited her athletic frame. Although it might just be the rabbit shapeshifting again.
"Oh c'mon Val you know you are, how 'bout you show us the arms."
"What! Here? We are in a library."
"It's just us girls here right now."
Valkyrie really didn't bother hiding her grin when she took her jacket off. It wasn't because she was showing off to anyone, or anything.
Tanith glanced at the redhead. "I hope you appreciate all the work I put in to make her that solid."
"Tanith!"
"Joking, just joking," Tanith said in between bouts of laughter, before uttering almost silently. "Not really."
"It's not like that."
"Are you sure, remember what happened that time?"
Valkyrie did not need to be reminded what the rabbit did in their room.
[Flashback – With Naruto]
The reflection, for that was what it was, was an ephemeral existence that was neither alive nor was it truly dead. An animated shell would have been an apt description for what they are, or a close enough one.
This particular reflection was that of Stephanie Edgley when the teen wasn't being Valkyrie Cain, and she preferred to be addressed as a person. And nothing made her day more, than the only person that saw her as a real person. Naruto Uzumaki.
Admittedly her state of self-awareness was an aftereffect of excessive use of the reflection by Valkyrie—she refused to acknowledge her original as Stephanie, only she could be Stephanie if the other was going around as Valkyrie.
Another part of it was due to her mysterious benefactor.
The strange energy, vastly different from the energy Valkyrie or Skulduggery used, many times as potent, and at times, burned her insides with how caustic it can be. The origin of the power whispered promises to her ear, like honeyed poison it poured, she knew this, yet when the power began to breathe life into her, actual life, how could she refuse.
No one knew of course, not even Valkyrie, the memories she would give, altered, or otherwise completely blanked. Perhaps Naruto had a slight inkling on what was happening, but if she did then she kept it to herself. The redhead was kind like that, always gentle and compassionate with how they conversed, always treating her like a person. It sent her heart fluttering every time their paths met.
How could she not be entranced by the woman—the voice had told her Naruto's true age and therefore cannot be called anything other than that by her. Her hair, luscious and as smooth as silk, each strand like fire, eyes as vast as the ocean and as blue as the sky, perhaps more so. The smooth unblemished skin, as pale as the moon and her lips as red as freshly spilled blood, how she longed to touch them, to feel them, dare she say it, to taste them.
Going through that list of reasons why she adored Naruto, part of her pondered if it made her seem a tad obsessive, but she cared not for those thoughts. If anything they were also a reflection of Valkyrie's thoughts, much to the reflections ire.
Honestly, how stubborn can the teen be, never acknowledging her suppressed desires? How else could Stephanie have known that Naruto slept in only in her yukata and that the cloth was paper-thin, or how she knew exactly what the redhead's nude form would feel like against her own, or how the rabbit was hairless down there?
Valkyrie would try to play it off, but Stephanie knew better that her actions in finding those facts out were purposely done, if on a subconscious level.
With a muttered greeting to her parents, or rather Valkyrie's parents, she excused herself to her room with an excuse of the need for a nap after a long day of school. Neither objected, as the reflection of their daughter entered the room and locked it behind her. It was at this point she allowed the memory to continue 'recording', only what she wanted Valkyrie to see will be seen, and no more.
With a tired sigh—she really was tired from school—she turned from closing the door and was mesmerised by a sight to behold.
Naruto laid on her back, her appearance, that of a woman only a couple of years older than Valkyrie, her hair as if a fiery halo, making her look divine in the eyes of the reflection, or even more so than usual. Her obi had partially been undone, parting the yukata enough to expose a deliciously tantalising amount of snow white skin.
As if sensing her arrival the redhead roused from her sleep, her hair swaying as she stifled a yawn as she stretched her limbs, not realising that it bared more skin for Stephanie's view.
Without a second thought the reflection was upon her, pushing the redhead gently back down as she towered above, still dressed in school clothing.
"Welcome home Stephanie," Naruto greeted, her pale, pupil-less blue eyes shining with warmth and curiosity. "Did you have a nice day?"
This was their usual greetings, something they have been keeping a secret from Valkyrie. She had her reasons, and while she had guessed the influence within Naruto was what held the rabbit's silence.
Stephanie smile amorously as she replied. "Better now that I'm here with you."
"You always know how to make me feel special don't you?"
With the same smile the reflection traced a single finger from the woman's jaw, heart racing at the jolt she received from the contact, down to her chin. Further down she went, lightly tracing the redhead's neck with her nail, leaving a trail of goose bumps in the wake of her action, before coming to a stop just between her collar bones. She smirked slightly at the glazed look Naruto was giving her, almost as if she was lost in a trance.
Stephanie couldn't really hold herself together when she made a face like that. With nary a thought, she leaned forward, intending on claiming her stake and insuring Valkyrie saw every second of it. As if snapping out of a trance, Naruto's eyes sharpened suddenly as she tried to rise. Stephanie couldn't have that, not when she was oh so close.
With barely a second thought, large blue spectral hands grasped at the redhead's biceps, pushing her down. It was another gift given to the reflection by her benefactor within Naruto, a peculiar ability to harness a pale blue energy to whatever shape she wished, the wisp-esque appendages originating from her shoulders.
Hesitating no longer, Stephanie leaned forward and captured the same red lips that have always enthralled her with her own. She shivered in delight as she felt the other slowly begin to return it. The reflection parted her lips, in a daring move, and snaked her tongue out. Naruto gasped as the wet appendage touched her lips, allowing the dark haired girl entrance.
Sweet, she thought absently, as they both lost themselves to their embrace. Reluctantly separating herself from the redhead, Stephanie ogled the flustered form below her, from her flushed face as red as her hair, to her heaving chest panting for breath, committed every single detail to memory.
It was that point that the memory turned dark for Valkyrie.
[End Flashback]
Valkyrie scowled at the reminder. On top of it all she received only pieces of the memory, almost like her reflection was trying to keep something to itself.
"Look, it's probably nothing," Tanith said, seeing the conflicted and upset visage on the dark haired teen had.
"Nothing?! Tanith they were making… they were…" Valkyrie did not know how to say it without blushing."
"They were playing around?" Tanith supplied nonchalantly, emphasising the playing part as if there was a deeper meaning.
"Yes, that."
"So, it's only a reflection, your reflection. Technically speaking, she did that with you. And since it's you, doesn't that tell you anything at all?"
Valkyrie blushed a deep red, before looking troubled. "You didn't see it, it glared at me when it walked back into the mirror."
"Really? It glared at you?"
"Yes."
"An honest to goodness glare?"
"It was like she wanted me to disintegrate on the spot with her eyes."
"That's not very normal."
"No it is not."
"Hey remember me? Still here by the way." The forgotten third voice muttered, slightly irked that they were talking about her like she wasn't there.
"How was it?" Tanith asked without missing a beat.
"Tanith!" Valkyrie exclaimed indignantly.
"She was okay," Naruto replied casually.
"Rabbit!"
"Hear that Val, you need to do some more work before you can please her," Tanith teased lightly.
"I'm going to forget you said that," Valkyrie glanced at Naruto. "And you, miss Grand Mage, you can't just blurt out things like that, what would people think?"
"That I am very passionate." Naruto replied evenly.
"Wait! You mean you actually got the position?" Tanith asked. "I thought that was just a joke they were spreading."
"Hey, I can be a leader if I wanted to." And it was true, although she led more people to war than during peace, not that they needed to know that.
"...Right"
"Oh you guys suck."
End of the story
I updated it yay. And it might, or might not please my current or otherwise, readers. Anyways sorry about the delay (again), but it was unavoidable sadly.
Omake: The Wayward Uzumaki Adventures 2: Playing dress-up with brats
"Hello I'm from Shinmei-ryu~~ Just kidding, I am a noblewoman, come to claim the princess at your hand as compensation for the money I have lent." The strange girl claimed as she left the carriage she arrived in. the light-haired girl wore clothing befitting a noble and exuded the aura of a normal teenage girl, but Tsukuyomi was far from normal.
"I won't allow it!" Setsuna replied heatedly, dressed in an attire befitting a samurai. "I won't give ojou-sama up to the likes of you!"
Needless to say, it only heightened her classmates' beliefs on the nature of her and Konoka's relationship.
"KYAAH! That was so cool Se-chan!" Konoka said ecstatically, glomping the raven haired girl. Of course like Setsuna, she too was dressed for the occasion, within a floral kimono, looking much like a princess.
"It looks like I have no choice then~" Tsukuyomi uttered, before tossing at Setsuna, who caught it deftly. "I challenge you to your ojou-sama."
"Ara ara, it seems you children have caused quite the stir."
This was when Naruto chose the moment to interrupt.
The crowd parted, revealing flowing red hair, dressed in her old priestess robes, the same orange hakama over her black kimono, her red sage coat draped on her shoulders with her strangely shaped wooden geta making clacking noises against the floor. Her horns were revealed for all to see, however the crowd merely thought of them as props to the show, along with the shakujō she once saw old man Six Paths carried.
"Oh who might you be?" Tsukuyomi asked, intrigued by the depth, or rather absolute lack of it, within the redheaded priestess.
"Merely a forsaken priestess taken in by her kind princess." Naruto, or as they knew her Kaguya answered, unknowingly adding herself into the spectating class members thoughts on nature of Setsuna and Konoka's relationship.
"Usagi-chan," Konoka greeted Naruto excitedly. "Your part of the act too?"
"Of course my hime, anything for you."
"Aha, you're onee-sama from the other night weren't you?" Tsukuyomi claimed after examining the priestess, lightly blushing as she did so. "Are you still upset about it?"
"Ah yes," Naruto remarked, as though remembering something displeasing. "I still haven't punished you for what you did."
More fuel to the fire.
"Hyaa~ Onee-sama, if you keep talking like that I might not be able to stop myself." Cue blushing from Tsukuyomi.
"Then come, I shall take all you can give." Cue sadistic look on Naruto.
Naturally, where Naruto is involved, chaos ensued.
End of Omake
Hoped you guys liked what was written, and plz don't hate me too much if you dislike what I have written. Kaguya's influence re-awakens in the form of the reflection and the duties of a Grand Mage (and how to avoid them)
That's all for now, hoped you like the ooze that poured from my head
Thanks for reading!
Questions are welcome,
Bye Bye now ^-^