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"AHHHH"-Normal speaking

'get out of my head!!'-Normal thought

"melon"-Radio chat

Chapter II

Teacher

--

C.C. lay naked under Lelouch's cloak in the large cave next to a small pool of water. Next to her knelt the aforementioned teen, having just finished wrapping the girls wounds. His newfound ally and former mentor stood nearby, leaning up against the leg of his Knightmare frame, seemingly watching the other two, but at the same time having a far off look in his azure eyes.

A small smile came to Lelouch's face as he remembered that it was Naruto who had taught him how to properly dress wounds. It was one of the many practical skills the boy had taught him. Boy… Lelouch wondered if that was really the proper term for one such as Naruto. Even though he had the appearance of someone just slightly older then himself, for all he knew, the blonde could be several hundred years old.

He was quickly brought back to his senses and covered C.C. up again with his discarded cloak, hoping Naruto didn't notice the slight reddening of his cheeks. Naruto had always been one to tease him about any romantic relationship he might have when he was under the older boy's tutelage seven years ago. He could only guess what he would say now, and those guesses did not give him any reassurance.

Not that he actually had any romantic feelings towards the green-haired girl. Why should he? She was simply an ally, a comrade, a friend at best.

But then… why had he been so concerned for her? Why did he bother dressing her wounds even though he knew there was no need to? Why did he feel a need to protect her when she was vulnerable? When that piece of shrapnel embedded itself in her chest, why did he feel his heart leap into his throat for just an instant until she spoke? And why, when that Knightmare had loomed over them both, and she had yelled at him to run, why didn't he? Why had he been unable to bring himself to leave her?

Lelouch quickly shook those thoughts from his head. These were not the thoughts that someone in his position should be thinking right now.

Lelouch stood and turned to the one who was his oldest friend next to Suzaku, and probably an even better friend then the other boy. For one very important reason; Naruto shared his views on Britannia.

"Tell me; what did you do to the Lancelot?" he asked the blonde.

Naruto simply shrugged.

"It's more or less a mental shock. It makes the target see what they fear most in a nightmare-like form. It's usually powerful enough to completely paralyze a person in fear, so it wasn't really the Knightmare itself I was affecting, it was the pilot. Why do you ask?"

Glancing over to C.C.'s prone form, Lelouch answered.

"Do you know why it was affecting C.C.?"

Naruto's eyes widened slightly at this before assuming a thoughtful look.

"What were her symptoms?"

"She seemed to be paralyzed somehow, as well as in some kind of pain. The sigil on her forehead was also glowing"

"Well… all contract givers have that power, and my Musashi frame has a special system that amplifies my powers and lets me use them from inside it, so I suppose she was just getting a backlash from it" Naruto answered. His eyes narrowed as he noticed Lelouch looking at C.C. with a look of confusion, wonder and… pity?

"Lelouch… did you touch her while she was like that?"

Lelouch looked back to his friend, seeing the concerned and stern look on his face.

"Yes" he replied, thinking back to what happened when he had tackled C.C.

--

Flashback

"C.C.! Get down!"

Said girl seemed to be broken from her trance as she looked up only to be tackled by Lelouch, both of them falling to the ground in heap.

Lelouch noticed none of this however. The minute he had touched C.C., he was assaulted with images. Hundreds of them. Only a few of them remained in his vision to make out with any clarity. He also felt his Geass activate in his right eye, though he couldn't think how.

He saw a group of people, an angry mob if he could think of anything to describe them, standing outside of a church of some kind. He realized from the look of the buildings around the church and the clothes of the people, that this must be several hundred years ago. The people were throwing rocks and yelling at the church, which had a symbol above its door that seemed eerily familiar to Lelouch. Right as the mob broke through the church's doors, the image shifted again.

The second image was of a nun with the same tattoo on her brow.

He then saw C.C., sitting naked in a stream. She seemed to be crying, whether in pain or sadness, Lelouch couldn't tell. Lelouch noticed a large scar of that familiar symbol now carved around, on, and below the flesh of her left breast.

The next image was of a mass of children, all with Geass sigils on their foreheads. Next he saw other children, perhaps the same ones, running from people. People who seemed to be trying to kill them.

More images passed through his vision, most to fast for him to even register, until a scream sounded through his mind.

"Get out of my head!!" came a voice that Lelouch recognized as C.C.'s.

Right as he heard that however, the flashing images stopped, and a final image appeared. One that chilled him to the core.

He saw a frozen wasteland, devoid of life, or light as it seemed to be night. A great storm blew across the landscape and occasional rocky outcropping or mountain, swirling the snow around in a great tempest. But what Lelouch was really looking at, was what was standing in the center of it all. It was some kind of dark beast, more massive then any Knightmare frame. It seemed vaguely humanoid, and was hunched over on what seemed to be its hands and knees. Lelouch couldn't make out any details about the creature, as it was to dark to see well. The only detail he could make out was a large horn emerging from its forehead. Suddenly however, the beast seemed to rear itself up, throwing its arms out as it roared to the heavens. As it did, the entire creature seemed to turn a luminescent white, and massive wings spread from its shoulders. Just as its great roar reached its peak, Lelouch's vision turned white, and he was brought back to reality.

End Flashback

--

Naruto sighed almost in defeat as Lelouch told him what had happened.

"Naruto, those were her memories that I was seeing, weren't they?"

"Yeah. When you touched her, it seems you got a backlash and saw into her own mind" Naruto answered.

Lelouch nodded in confirmation. He hadn't said anything about the final image. He had a feeling that there was something more to that and he didn't want Naruto knowing that just yet.

Deciding to broach another of his questions to his former teacher, Lelouch looked to the black and gold machine that Naruto was leaning against.

"I didn't know you had a Knightmare frame. And what kind is it? I've never seen anything like it"

Naruto chuckled as he followed Lelouch's gaze.

"Well, to answer your second and third questions, it's the Musashi. It's a custom model that I designed using technology I stole from Britannia's R&D. I also took some inspiration from the stuff that Indian scientist Rakshata came up with. She designed the Gurren Mk. 2 that your people use as I recall. As for your first question, back then I didn't have one. I only finished this thing about a year ago"

"So does that mean you're here to join us?"

"Of course" Naruto answered with a small grin. "You know I'm always up for a fight, and you'll need me to bail you out of whatever shit you get yourself into"

Lelouch smiled softly at Naruto's teasing. In all actuality, he was glad to have his former teacher with them and not just for his piloting ability, which seemed to rival or even surpass Kallen's. Naruto had always been a voice of reason to Lelouch, as well as in many respects his moral compass. If it weren't for the boy's teachings, Lelouch was pretty sure he'd still be consumed by his own thirst for vengeance for his mother and sister. Or dead.

That and his strategic and tactical mind was already finding uses for Naruto's talents. Needless to say, there were many. Not only was Naruto an excellent pilot, on par with the likes of Kallen and the Lancelot's pilot (whoever that was), but unlike the other two he was a skilled tactician. While his tactical skill was still below Lelouch's own, it was still better then anyone else in the Black Knights. Plus, he had a talent in strategizing that would make him an invaluable ally. He could quickly adapt to changing combat situations, either reforming his original plan or coming up with a new one. While these new plans would not be as effective as ones Lelouch could come up with, they were better then any he could formulate in the same amount of time. Then there were his newly revealed supernatural abilities, which Lelouch knew would come in handy. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Lelouch knew he could trust him. Naruto would stay at his side through thick and thin, and unlike Suzaku, he shared Lelouch's ideal that such contemptible methods were necessary in such a situation. In fact, Naruto had been the one who had taught Lelouch that ideal.

"There's one other thing I wanted to ask you"

Naruto raised an eyebrow in curiosity, an action Lelouch had seen often in him.

"Shoot"

"If you are like C.C., and can give contracts, why didn't you offer me a contract back then?"

Naruto sighed and shook his head.

"For two reasons" he replied, holding up two fingers to convey his point. "One, you weren't ready"

Lelouch cocked his head to the left in curiosity. "What do you mean?"

"Well, think of the state your mind was in back then. If I had offered you such a power back then, what do you think would have happened? Do you think you would be using it responsibly or controlled like you are now? Or would you have done something… different?"

Lelouch's eyes widened slightly at this, and the realization of how right Naruto was. Acknowledging this, Naruto continued.

"That, and you were too young to begin with. Too inexperienced. Power is not something to be given to the inexperienced or immature. People like that can't control it, and that's even more true with a mental power like Geass. Chances are it would have driven you insane. Trust me, I've seen it happen before, and chances are you'll see it for yourself what it can do to a person. I've found that Geass users tend to be drawn to one another for some reason or another"

Lelouch nodded in affirmation.

"And what's the second reason?" he asked.

Holding up two fingers, Naruto answered. "The second reason is… I can't" he said as he shrugged.

"You… can't?"

"Nope. Let's just say I'm… different then from C.C. and other contract givers"

"How so?" Lelouch asked.

"Sorry but I can't tell you. Not yet anyway"

Lelouch decided to drop the topic. It was obvious Naruto wasn't going to tell him, at least not yet.

Walking back over to where C.C. lay, Lelouch knelt at her side.

"Even so, I'm glad you decided to join us" Lelouch mused. Frowning seriously again, he turned his attention back to C.C., running his fingers over the mark tattooed on her forehead. "Clovis was researching her in secret, so she's obviously not related to Britannia. Her vital signs, though, are just like any normal human being's."

She stirred in her sleep, whispering something. Caught off guard, Lelouch leaned in closer in case she was asking for something, pressing his ear close to her lips.

"C.C.?" he asked in a low voice. A drop of water fell from the ceiling and Lelouch suddenly pulled away, eyes wide as he looked back down at the green haired girl laying naked beneath his cloak. At what she had whispered in a voice so soft he was sure not even Naruto, whom he knew had unnaturally good hearing, would have heard.

"You finally called me by my name," she whispered. Shocked, Lelouch sat back on his haunches, Naruto's quiet chuckles echoing from the walls. Lelouch was as dense as ever it seemed.

Coming back to his senses as she stirred and woke, he spoke to her, "I removed the shrapnel and cleaned your wounds."

"There was no need," she replied as she sat up.

"So it would seem," he mused.

"You didn't have to save me," she declared boldly. "Why are you always so unnecessarily proud?"

"Well, I learned something interesting," he smirked lightly. He said her name, but the sound of water dropping to the floor made it impossible for Naruto to decipher, not that he really cared. "Your name."

C.C.'s eyes widened briefly before settling into her normal look. "Eavesdropping is a bad habit to get into," she said coldly.

"It's a nice name," he told her, though his voice made it hard to tell it was a compliment. "Certainly more human than C.C."

"That's stupid," she told him with a hint of humor. "Nothing about me is human. After all, I…I…forgot everything. All of it. I can't have a name."

"Well, this is as good a time as any to say it," Lelouch said dispassionately. "Yes, you saved me back there…and indeed, several times before, including giving Geass to me. So…I won't say it twice. Thank you."

C.C.'s eyes went wide, "That's the first time anyone's thanked me for anything"

Lelouch smiled softly before schooling his expression.

"Well then, would you mind returning the favor? Call for me again, like you did before."

Lelouch blinked owlishly, "Oh, your name?"

"Just once," C.C. said, smiling slightly, "kindly, gently, like a lover would."

A smile twitched at his mouth, "Very well."

His lips curled over each syllable and his voice was soft and warm, indeed like a lover.

Naruto was a little annoyed now. It wasn't like he really cared, but why exactly was it that both times C.C.'s name was spoken, a drop of water would fall into the pool of water and obscure the sound? But that was irrelevant. Hearing Lelouch's interactions with the girl was highly amusing.

After a minute of silence, during which he ignored the blonde's soft chuckles, Lelouch asked, "How was that?"

It took the girl a moment to respond, during which he noticed her pleasurable shiver, but she said, in her usual tone, "Horrible. It was absolutely horrible. It wasn't kind or gentle and you didn't sound anything like my lover. Your pronunciation was off and you looked cold while saying it, too."

Naruto's chuckles grew slightly in volume, but Lelouch couldn't help the smile, "You're such a shrew."

"Of course I am," though she was smiling, she replied as if it was more obvious than the sky being blue. "I am C.C., after all."

Not much later, dressed once more in his infamous costume, Lelouch turned his cell phone off with an audible beep. Ignoring the other frame in the cave, Kallen came rushing into the cave, panting with excitement. As she caught sight of him, she called out, relieved, "Zero! Are you all right? The others are already—."

She paused as she caught sight of Naruto and C.C., the former of which was cheerfully waving at her while wearing a disarming smile "Who are you?"

"Ah, don't worry," Lelouch said smoothly, "she's a dear friend of mine and he is our latest recruit, Naruto Namikaze"

As the red haired girl nodded and left to return to her machine, though she was eyeing Naruto suspiciously on her way out, and Naruto himself returned to his own, Lelouch turned back to the green-haired girl, who was now fully up and dressed.

"C.C., I don't know why snow is white, but I do find such white snow beautiful. I don't hate it at all."

"I see," the girl responded neutrally.

Naruto's lips curled as he climbed into the Musashi's cockpit, "Well, that certainly is interesting."

He never did explain what he meant by that as Lelouch and C.C. got onto the frames hand as it powered up and sped out of the cave.

--

Wow. An update in two weeks? I'd say that's a new record for me.

Yes, Lelouch is acting a bit OOC, but remember, the AU element of this story started seven years ago when Naruto became Lelouch's mentor and pseudo-caretaker. More on that will be filled in later.

As for Lelouch's vision, well that will be explained over the course of the story (major plot element).

Concerning Naruto, his abilities are going to be somewhat of a combination between Newtype abilities, C.C.'s abilities (I'm just going to assume that all contract givers can do that 'mental shock' thing), some illusionary powers (concealment mainly), and force powers. Now by that I mean mind tricks and maybe a little telekinesis, not force choking or electrocuting people (at least not yet)

Read and Review please.