Archer watched Lee take on Gaara in astonishment. It had been obvious before that Lee was a strong kid. Hell, unrestricted by his weights, Lee was almost able to achieve a D rank in speed. Yet, when Lee opened the gates, he was certain that Lee had achieved a high C rank low B rank. What was even more startling was when he found out that Lee was only able to open five of the eight celestial gates. To think, a boy that young was able to fight at a speed rivaling many Servants. Add in that strange sunset Reality Marble, and Lee was almost guaranteed to enter the Throne at death.

Honestly, this battle was interesting to Archer. The Hyuga duel had been fairly obvious in outcome from the beginning. Hinata was still younger and less experienced than Neji and so she lost. She gave a hell of a fight though, but Neji had hit some sort of point on Hinata's arm blocking her chakra flow. Saber filed the information away to beware the Hyuga boy and went on to try to forget about killing Saber's Master. The boy was still on his hit list and would be for a while...

Both Shirous watched over Lee as he pummeled Gaara in his sand armor sending the boy flying in the air. Both of them knew that it would only take a thought and Berserker would show himself. Archer had no intention of interfering with the fight between genin, but Saber was clearly ready to dash in at a moments notice. *Sigh* that one was an idealist to the core, yet Saber had somehow avoided drowning in it like he had. Life was messed up like that sometimes.

Lee's bandages around his arms once more enveloped Gaara in preparation for the Extreme Lotus. Archer was certain that Lee was disappointed when he had found out that he had used the Initial Lotus to attack a clone. It was clear that using that technique had injured him back then. Now however, Lee was using an even stronger attack to try to finish off the Master of Berserker.

Lee slammed his feet into the clone with such a force that it created a sonic boom. Archer figured that the extreme lotus would be the equivalent of a low B rank attack of a Servant. Of course, for the time it took to activate, most Servants would have killed Lee a dozen times over or used their Noble Phantasms to finish the boy off. As Gaara was sent racing towards the ground, the large gourd on his back turned into sand and acted as a cushion. What should have knocked the Suna boy out had failed. Gaara, though twitching a bit was still awake and conscious; and he was out for blood. Lee was off slightly to the side panting trying to move even when many of his muscle tendons were torn.

Most people would be on the ground rolling and howling in pain, yet Lee was still trying to prove that he could be a ninja with only having Taijutsu. If he had asked either Shirou's they could have told him that it was more than possible for that to happen as where they came from, the entire concept and ability of chakra was unheard of. Ninjas had to rely on trickery, using the shadows, and stealth. None of this flashy explosive moves that a the shinobi of this work preferred. Of course, right now would be a good time to pull out one of those flashy moves with the way Gaara was looking at Lee.

Gaara glared over at the boy who dared to hurt him and sent a wave of sand around Lee's left arm and leg intending on crushing it when the air suddenly became very cold. A primal roar of rage emitted from Saber. His entire body sprouted countless weapons, including two wings of blades on his back. His fingers became claws and his shoes sprouted massive toenails made of swords and daggers. His clothes were torn to shreds and only a few bits of red cloth were attached to his arms. His face sprout various blades all around distorting his looks. Blades emerged from the strangest of places, his tongue became a pincusion of knives. His right eyebrow was replaced by an ax blade. He looked like a monster from tales of ages long past.

Most of the shinobi flinched from the killing intent Saber exuded, yet, it wasn't directed at anyone in the room. Saber suddenly turned around and smashed through the wall dashing off into the distance heedless of any obstacles in his way. Tree, rocks, structures, they were all smashed out of the way or leaped over as he ran towards the village.

Everyone stood there, wondering what had happened.

"Not good," Archer muttered

"What?" Yugito asked.

"His master is probably in danger." Archer answered. All Servants, except Berserkers, could tell insticntively when their Masters were under attack and the general direction of their master was at the time. Not that Acher planned to do anything about this. This was Saber's problem, he had to focus on his own Master at the moment. Besides, Berserker was too clsoe for comfort.

In that brief respite, Lee raised his hand and muttered, "Sorry Gai-sensei, but I forfeit." Lee could not move his left arm at all and his left leg was unable to bear his weight. Gaara glared, denied his pound of flesh and pint of blood, but he was sane enough to know that it was against the rules to attack the fuzzy brows now. Thus, by a small twist of Fate, Lee left the stage with a few torn tendons that would need minor surgery and a month recovering before he could return to duty rather than having two of his limbs crushed. Gai escorted his prize pupil with tears streaming down his eyes as the two of them began making plans on training for the next exam with even more outrageous training styles.

"*cough* Winner Subaku no Gaara." Hayate said ignoring the atmosphere building in the tower. This left only Choji and Naru to battle.

While the two were left to right in the arena, a different fight was about to unfold back at Konoha. A fight that would be unlike any seen in the history of the world. A fight between magi.

Uchiha District

Naruto was sure that today was the day he was going to die. Rin was especially vindictive. She kept pointing her finger at him and shot small balls of energy from her fingers. Naruto could tell from the one shot that he had been unable to avoid that every shot was dangerous. He was already feeling sick from the first Gandr as she called it, any more and he would throw up. Yes, his healing ability would heal him quickly if this were a normal sickness, but Gandr is a curse. The blond girl in blue was almost as bad throwing massive fireballs at him. Whoever this girl was, she was as good as Rin, even using Gandrs herself.

Back at Ichiraku, the redhead woman and pointed a finger at him in preparation of something, but the old man grabbed it and told her to stop least she kill him in one hit. The old man didn't look all that concerned about Naruto's fate, more like he didn't want his food to spill. The red head huffed, told the other girls to go wild and went back to trying to finish the Berserker's Challenge. Naruto, at the time, had no idea how close he came to dying at the hands of Blue only to be saved by Zelretch.

In addition, the strange couple consisting of a boy in a strange black uniform and a the woman with golden hair and red eyes looked at him like he was a roach that needed a good squishing. They, at least, decided to let the red and blue duo do the work for them and went back to eating. Though, the golden haired woman seemed to watch his every movement.

Yet, as deadly as the two girls attacking him were, he couldn't help but feel that the small child with red eyes and pure white hair was the deadliest of the lot. Her killing intent was all but strangling him. She was slowly, methodically walking towards him, as indomitable and unstoppable as an avalanche. If the red and blue girls were volcanoes violently erupting, that small girl seemed to be like a blizzard creeping up towards him. He knew Illya all too well. The Master of Herakles is not a person one can forget lightly.

Rider, of course was giggling like mad enjoying the scene. Hell, for a Servant, she wasn't all that concerned for his safety as far as Naruto could tell. It looked Ike Rider was going to just stand by while she

Naruto summoned a hundred clones to try to slow the girls down, to no avail. Dozens fell by the second to the ruby and sapphire duet while a few looked into the small white girl's eyes and froze, unable to move at all. These ones were then stabbed with a chopstick in the eye by that small little girl.

Yep, it was official...

That little girl was definitely scarier than the others.

In the distance, he could hear alarms blaring in the distance. Naruto knew that particular alarm signified an unknown intruder that was deemed dangerous. At first, Naruto hoped that it was referring to the girls, but the alarm was coming from a different part of the village.

Naruto was too busy to deal with an intruder at this time dealing with the girls from hell. "Take this," He yelled creating another hundred clones. Half of them turned into weapons and he began his Orange Flash technique. The girls were not impressed. Rin shot Gandr out like a machine gun taking out two dozen in an instant before they could throw their weapons. Luvia raised her hand and sent beams of light out that tracked his clones movements and destroyed them. And Illya? She just looked over at them and bound them with her Mystic eyes. Orange Flash became Orange Failure in the face of the three girls.

Behind Naruto, he could hear the alarms being raised far closer to him that they were before. He could hear the sound of something similar to explosions in the background as well as what sounded like swords clashing. Naruto had to gamble to break free of the girls. He summoned one more clone and dashed to the left leaving the clone to deal with the girls.

"Sexy-No Jutsu Male Version." The clone yelled. With a puff of smoke, there stood Archer in shorts, no shirt showing off his abs and biceps smiling with pure white eyes that glittered like Lee's and Gai's. Hopefully the sight of the most badass man Naruto ever met going topless would cause them to faint or at least stun them for a moment.

KABOOOOOM

Nope, it just pissed them off more.

Naruto dashed for his house, hoping that he could lose them in the hidden room that Saber mentioned. He almost made it to the house when he skidded to a stop. Before him, the redhead walked out looking a bit sick, probably from eating too fast and failing to beat the challenge. Beside the redhead was the old man, the man with glasses, and the woman with gold hair and red eyes.

"Ah hem," A voice coughed behind him. Naruto turned his head slowly fearing the worst...

Yep, they were right behind him. Naruto wanted to run, but one look into the small girl's eyes and he felt his body no longer responding.

Off to the south, the sounds of explosions and clashing swords was closing in fast. Whatever was happening off in that direction was clearly giving the village trouble.

"Nice one Illya," Rin said grinning evilly. Naruto knew her from his dreams and remembered the evil smiles and glare, but this was on a whole different level. Those glares and smiles had been aimed at Shirou, not himself. Being on the receiving end of them, Naruto understood where Saber's glare came from. Actually, Saber was a novice compared to Rin. Luvia, on the other hand was almost as good as Rin though her evil laughter going "Ohohohohoho" was far more chilling than her grin.

Arcueid gabbed Naruto by the collar and looked at him in disdain. While many would consider the True Ancestor flighty, those that knew her found out that it was not always so. The Millennium Princess was a being who had lived for centuries and would continue to live on long after men were dust. She had seen and done things that would torment the souls of men and drive them to madness. Her flightiness was real in some aspects, but it is also a mask to hide her doubts and worries. Of all the humans she met, only a few have ever been considered by her as friends. Of course she married a human turned immortal, but besides Shiki, Shirou was one of the few that Acrueid considered a dear friend.

Shirou had given her a gift so precious that she would do almost anything to pay him back. He had given her a way to be with Shiki forever. Never again would she have to secretly worry about watching him die of old age. Never again would she have to worry about being alone. Shirou had gone through hell to give her this most precious gift. For someone to trample upon the memory of his beloved was too much for her. She was willing to give the other girls a chance to wreak havoc, but now it was her turn.

Naruto gulped and paled as he gazed into her red eyes.

"Please... don't kill me." Naruto pleaded

CRASH

The sound was way too close now. If her figured it right, whatever was making that racket would be upon them right about...

BOOOM

It was fast, whatever it was. Naruto didn't have any idea what it was other than gray and red. The thing was a blur. It wasn't until the thing grabbed him and threw him a mighty distance that he knew it was Saber in his changed form.

To be honest, Shirou never showed this form to any of his friends, it was too dangerous to Reinforce his body this much. Rin, Luvia, and everyone else would have slapped him and forbidden him to use it even though Reinforcing was exactly what he needed to do to survive to be a hero. Though knowing Zelretch he already knew of this form and kept quiet about it. That man always seemed to know than he should be able to.

So of course, everyone else seeing a monster made of swords that barely resembled a human. Said monster was seen as a threat and instinct took over. Arcueid was the first to move, dashing forward at an inhuman speed and began slashing at Saber who was stunned at who he was seeing.

"Ac-" He tried to say right before he was sent flying two hundred feet. He was sent head long into a building he, Naruto and Sasuke had fixed up months ago. Shirou winced both in pain and the thought of how long it would take to rebuild it. Before he had a chance to talk, Rin, as usual, went all out and began shooting him with dozens of Gandr. Luvia, not to be outdone by her rival began pummeling the building with as many destructive spells as possible.

Naruto watched on from a roof top as Saber was pummeled by the combined might of Rin, Luvia, Acrueid, and Shiki. Though Naruto was barely familiar with Shiki except for the dream about Saber's funeral, he could tell instantly that Saber was avoiding Shiki far more than the others for some reason. Saber would charge through the other attacks, but he refused to fight Shiki, more like ran away from Shiki for some reason. Naruto filed the fact away to ask Saber later. Naruto suddenly felt a small tapping on his right shoulder. Naruto snapped his head to the right...only to find nothing. Naruto whipped his head to the left, to find himself staring into bright red eyes.

"gah." Naruto tried to speak only to find his body was not responding.

Illya made the exact same curtsy she made the first time she summoned Berserker. "Good Evening young Master." Illya said with a smile. Strange, the smile seemed so innocent, yet so violent at the same time. "I'm going to kill you now." The fact that she said it like it was nothing made Naruto want to whimper. The grass bitch had exuded massive killing intent when she had attacked Sasuke and Sakura, but this girl was different. There was no killing intent, she was going to kill him and it didn't even make her look serious. For her, it was like she was taking out the trash.

He watched as Illya brought out a small knife. It was a simple little thing, a purple blade with a red jewel on the hilt. Upon the blade was the word Azoth. Naruto had no idea that the blade signified that she was an adult Magus. Actually, Rin had given it to Shirou when he was eighteen, but he gave it to Illya Rin and Luvia both had their own daggers on them somewhere probably, but that's neither here nor there at the moment.

"Good-bye young Master." Illya said as she prepared to slit his throat.

'Oh God. Ohgodohgodohgod. Nonononono.' Naruto thought weeping. Before Illya could plunge her knife into his heart, a feminine hand gripped her wrist.

"This has gone on long enough." Rider said seriously. She had enjoyed watching the fireworks, but she had never expected anyone this psychotic here. There had to be a reason for the old Berserker's master to do this, but for the life of her, Rider could not understand what it was.

In actuality, it was fairly simple. Illya loved Arturia like a surrogate mother. Saber had treated her very nicely after Berserker was defeated. Not to mention Shirou loved her with all his heart and Illya loved Shirou as the big brother he is to her. Naruto had not only trampled upon Shirou's love, but Illya's love as well, and unlike Shirou she was not inhibited by such things as contracts and ideals. Therefore, Naruto is fair game to her.

Illya glared at Rider heedless of the fact that this was a Servant she was glaring at. It wasn't as if she didn't recognize the familiar face and recognize that this was the original Gorgon that she was glaring at. Illya can be rather brave like that...or stupid, depending on who you ask.

Illya suddenly heard a familiar shout and turned.

"Gata" a flying Tiga yelled as she flew through the air and tried to smack Illya on the head. Behind Tiga a ferocious tiger head appeared and roared. Illya calmly raised her hand and blocked the blow with ease. Unlike everyone else, Illya was immune to the Tiger's wrath. Naruto, Illya, and Rider went back to focusing on Shirou and his desperate struggle with the others. Every time he tried to open his mouth, the others ganged up on him trying to take him down. None of them were going to take chances with a Servant.

Naruto winced as he saw Saber getting blown into another building making it the fifth building that would need major repairs as well as one of ten total buildings that had received damage during this conflict. Sasuke was going to be pissed. Back in the direction of the rest of the village, Naruto could tell from the chakra signatures that several other shinobi were closing in on the conflict. Naruto had to make a choice, send Rider out to distract them and risk getting stuck like a pig by Illya or keep Rider nearby to protect him and risk an incident in the village. He had no doubts that the village could take these girls down. The problem was the cost. How many would be injured, crippled, or killed figthing these girls? How many lives to balance the scale?

"Rider," Naruto said seriously eying Illya who was busy looking over at Shirou as he blocked a strike from Acrueid with his claws. "Several shinobi are coming this way, distract them for a while, but don't kill them."

Rider looked as though she would protest, but Naruto held up his left arm revealing his seals in a gesture that mirrored Shirou's once at a school covered in a blood red sky. Rider nodded reluctantly and dashed towards the intruders. She would obey her orders to the best of her abilities, even if they were unnecessary ones. Naruto was confident that she could do so as Rider was definitely faster than anyone he had ever seen save for Ria and both Berserkers. He kept his head carefully away from Illya and summoned several clones. Each of them dashed into the struggle between the members from another world.

Shirou was surprised, but unable to do much to stop the Narutos from descending. His claws were unsuited to wielding weapons and had to rely on basic attacks that were similar to Acrueid's. As they hit the ground, they made a hand sign and yelled, "Sexy-no-Jutsu male version." Once more, the clones turned into Shirou minus anything on his chest and wearing shorts rather than pants. One clone however, near Shiki had opted to use regular Sexy no Jutsu and turned into the twin pigtailed bombshell with mist obscuring the obscene parts. That clone was especially careful not to turn into a naked Ria lest he open another can of worms in the process.

The effect was instantaneous. For a moment, they all froze, then everyone, especially Saber began destroying the copies as fast as they could to remove the abominations from their sight. As soon as the last clone was destroyed, they focused on the one Naruto that had not changed.

Shirou stormed up to him and glared, "What do you think you are doing Master?" he hissed.

Naruto smiled, "Getting you guys to stop Shirou."

In fact, the plan had worked perfectly, they all had stopped fighting Shirou long enough to kill the clones. Naruto shuddered, sharing memories with those clones had not been enjoyable. Shiki had done an especially chilling thing to the female henge. He had literally sliced the head off with his small knife.

The others all took in the fact that Naruto had called Saber by his name and recognized his voice.

"Shirou?" Rin asked tentatively. The others looked on at the creature made of blades in astonishment. Well...all except Zelretch of course.

Shirou raised his hand and a golden glow appeared before it. The others all tensed preparing for a Noble Phantasm, only to be met with the familiar sight of Avalon. In a moment, he began shedding weapons like feathers on a duck or hair on a cat. Before the others stood a near naked Shirou, though he was wearing tattered remnants of red on his arms a a small shredded loin cloth as well as tatters were stuck to his leg.

"Hello Rin, Luvia, Shiki, Acrueid." Shirou said with a smile. Both Rin and Luvia blushed at the sight of the real Shirou in such a revealing outfit, or lack of outfit as the case was. No clone could ever copy his aura of confidence and idealism.

"ONNIIIIICHAAN" a voice yelled out from above him. He had barely enough time to look up before Illya air tackled him from above grabbing him around his neck.

"Gah, Illya?" Shirou choked out.

"umhmm," Illya hummed as he began tightening her grip causing Shirou to have problems breathing. "Shirou, you liar, you promised to take me on a date." Shirou thought back and recalled how he had promised Illya a few months before he left to fight the Battle of the Crimson Moon the he would return. Illya had made him promise to take her on a date to ensure that he came back home. Unfortunately, after the battle, Primate Fury was set loose and forced him to head towards his final battle.

"EH?" Rin and Luvia stammered. A date? Illya had crossed time and space to an alternate world to have a date?

That that was just...

Brilliant.

"Shirou," Rin and Luvia began, both of them intended on beating the other to the punch. However, they reckoned not the enthusiasm of a True Ancestor.

"Shirou" the Millennium Princess yelled as she glomped him around his chest. With Illya around his neck and Acrueid wrapped around his chest, breathing was almost impossible. Naruto was astounded by how pale Shirou's skin could get.

"Ah," Rin and Luvia said outraged that they had been beaten by the Ancestor. The two rushed forward and added their own arms to the group hug. Shirou's world was filling up with spots of various colors as his air supply was dwindling dangerously.

"Uh girls, I think you're killing him." Naruto pointed out. They all looked up to see Shirou's eyes had rolled upwards until his pupils were hidden and all they could see were the whites of his eyes.

"Ah, Shirou!" Rin, Luvia, and Acrueid cried out as they released him. Only Illya stubbornly refused to remove herself from her brother. Of course, without the support of the girls, the unconscious Servant began to fall towards the earth, though Shiki was there to catch him before he hit the ground.

Shirou stirred a bit then opened his eyes and focused on Shiki, "It's been a while Shiki-san."

"Too long Shirou-san." Shiki said with a small smile. He then helped Saber up to his feet with Illya still clinging on like a predator to her prey.

"Shiiiiirroooouuu." Illya said angrily at being ignored.

Saber shifted Illya a bit so that she was clinging to his front and hugged her, "It's been too long Illya, I've missed you."

Illya was inwardly pleased, but turned her head to the side and huffed, "Don't think that I've forgiven you for breaking your promise. You promised to take me on a date."

"Hai Hai," Shirou said as he continued to hug her he looked up to talk to the others only to go as pale as he was a moment ago from lack of air.

"Shi-rou-kun." an angry voice came from behind Rin and Luvia. Everyone turned their focus towards the source. It was Madam Blue, the Fifth Magician, Aozaki Aoko, and she was pissed. Illya silently let go of Shirou and scurried away, she was no fool to stand between Blue and her target. The woman blew up mountains for standing in her way of a walk.

Aoko pointed a finger at Shirou.

"Rho Aias," Shirou yelled desperately, seven giant petals that represented the layers of the shield of Aias appeared before him. Each layer was as strong as a fortress and the final layer was able to withstand the spear thrown by Hector of Troy. Against Aoko, however, it was nothing more than paper. She made a noise from her lips that sounded like a musical note, a single musical note that held more power within it than a nine line Aria. The resulting explosion destroyed all seven layers in an instant and sent Saber flying through three houses.

Naruto took one look at the devastation caused by Aoko and paled. He could already imagine what Sasuke would say when he came back.

Aoko continued to advance upon Shirou with fire in her eyes, "Do you know what we went through after you died you heart less fool? Rin and Luvia couldn't stop crying for a week."

'That was you.' they both thought, but were too smart to comment. Life is too short to be cut down from foolish actions.

"Tohno-chan," Aoko said referring to Akiha, "locked herself in her room for two days and wouldn't talk to anyone."

'That was you,' Shiki thought, also keeping his mouth shut. His immortality would not protect him from the powers of the Fifth Magician.

"Acrueid practically glued herself to Tohno-kun as she cried over your death." Aoko said as she was almost upon Shirou.

'That was a bad week,' both Shiki thought again. Acrueid nodded her head in agreement to Aoko and crossed her arms.

"Zelretch was actually serious for once." Aoko informed him. That made them all snap at the news, then ponder. It was true, Zelretch had stopped laughing and making jokes for two days, then he went right back to his normal behavior. The man rarely took anything at full seriousness, everything had a joke or a punch line to it that only he understood.

"I beg to differ," Zelretch said as he came out of Ichiraku, "I'm always serious."

Aoko rolled her eyes, but did not comment to the Magician of Kaleidoscope. Instead, she reached through the rubble and dragged Shirou out. "Well, what do you have to say for yourself."

"Gomen. I'm sorry that I put you through that, but I would not let the Beast run wild." Shirou said resolutely.

"Sorry? Sorry? Words will not take back the pain you put us through, what you put me through." Aoko said as she began to cry a bit. "You stupid fool, you knew that it would get you killed. You knew that you would die facing Primate Murder. It would have taken seven Counter Guardians to kill it, yet you went out to fight it alone." She raised her hand and attempted to slap him, hard.

"And I killed it," Shirou finished as he caught the hand.. Aoko was silent at that. He had done it, he had killed the spirit of Gaia, the Beast whose very mission, the very meaning of existence, was to kill all humans. "Speaking of Counter Guardians," Shirou said breaking into the conversation, he looked over at Rin, "Archer is here as well." Rin blinked at that. Archer? As in her old Archer? It had to be by the way Shirou was looking over at her.

"Turns out your theory was fairly close to the truth, he is me, but not me at the same time." Shirou told her. Rin walked up, avoiding the debris and looked him directly in the eyes. "It seems that he was a possibility from the future, a future where he drowned in his ideals and sold his soul to be a counter guardian. Turns out, that was not what he wanted after he died, but he is stuck as a Counter Guardian for all eternity."

Rin waved her hand dismissively, "That doesn't matter Shirou, you are you and he is himself, what I want to know was if he was lying to me."

Saber blinked a bit at that but nodded, "Yes, he knew who he was and had all his memories from the beginning."

Rin's fist clenched until he knocked began cracking. "That guy...I'll kill him." Rin swore.

Zelretch looked over at the devastation, uncaring of the conversation between Shirou and his student and said to Illya, "I won."

Illya stuck out her tongue, "Bleh, I won. They hugged him as soon as they knew who he was."

Zelretch waved a finger at her, "Maybe, but they blew him up first. I won."

"Ah," Shirou said dazed, "Won?"

"Oh yes," Zelretch said as Illya eeped a bit that Shirou overheard their conversion, "Illya and I had a bet on whether they would blow you up first or hug you first."

Shirou winced at that, but ignored it as he looked over at Naruto who was doing his best to blend in to the background. "Are you safe Master?"

"Naruto," Naruto corrected out of habit, "Yes, I'm fine. Though that one is freakin' psycho albino." He said pointing at Illya. Honestly, if he had pointed to the rest of the girls he would have probably been accurate. He would have died shortly after, but he would have probably been right. As it was, only Illya wanted to kill him right now. As Illya advanced, Rider appeared beside Naruto.

"Master, the intruders are unconscious for now." Rider informed him. She held back on telling him how she had kicked all within an inch of their lives and fled.

Naruto paled at the thought of explaining to the village what had happened to the Uchiha compound. Surely there would be more shinobi coming soon. "We need to go. Now."

Saber instead looked over at the magi, "Could you help us out here?"

The female magi sighed while Zelretch smirked a bit. They all headed for various buildings and began chanting slightly. Damage repairs was among the basic of basics taught to all True Magi, unlike Emiya Shirou, not only to fix any problems that inevitably occur when practicing magic, but also to keep the knowledge of magic a secret. As the only people here were magi, True Ancestors, Immortals, Servants, or Masters, using said ability was perfectly acceptable. Too bad hot blood had kept them from holding back the destructive magic that caused the whole fiasco in the first place.

Naruto blinked at the skill the Magi were performing as the buildings were quickly restored. Within a minute, every building looked exactly like what they had been before the attack of the girls. It was only while they were busy fixing everything that he noticed something. His own house, which should have been horribly damaged as well had barely a scratch on it. He filed it away to find out how the one house had been spared from the same devastation as most of the compound. He was glad to see that Ichiraku was unharmed, but it was concerning that the old man and Ayame had not come out to investigate the whole thing.

"Saber, why is it that no-one has come here yet? Teuichi and Ayame are just across the street." Naruto asked.

"Simple, they put up a barrier that makes others ignore what's happening here. A bomb could go off and defeat everyone here, but no-one outside the barrier would notice."

Naruto blinked, "Including the ones who were chasing you?"

Saber nodded.

"So...sending Rider off to distract them was..."

"Pointless," Saber told him, "Noble, but pointless."

"Then why did she...?" Naruto asked

"You threatened her with a command seal, of course she'll head off and obey to the best of her ability." Saber pointed out. Naruto slapped his hand to his face as Rider nodded judiciously, this might teach the young Master to learn to trust his Servants more. Or at least, in matters dealing with magi.

"Oh, before I forget." Saber said with steel in his eyes. Saber held out his hands and traced two copies of a familiar wooden sword. Dual welding both Torashinais, his very presence was replaced by Fuji-nee. Naruto gulped as the familiar, yet terrifying vestige of a giant tiger appeared behind the woman and roared as she yelled "Unforgivable!" Fuji-nee slammed the two swords on Naruto's head as hard as her avatar could. The result was a small explosion of dust as Naruto was suddenly standing on his head in a small crater, legs held high in the air with on foot twitching violently.

Rin, Luvia, and Illya shook their heads remembering the fiery short woman who despised being called Tiger. It seemed that Shirou could not let go of the lessons he learned from her; that or he was just a sentimental fool. Probably both. A short distance away, Rider was trying her best to refrain from laughing, but her trembling shoulders were giving her away too easily. Rider was pleased to have such an interesting Master and partner Servant. The pair were making this the best summoning in her life. The whole thing was so entertaining, she was sure that she would die from laughter before the Ceremony ended.

Saber looked over at his old friends and smiled a bit, "It seems that we have much to discuss. Please, come inside." He said motioning to the house. "We can have some tea and talk in a civilized manner there." He lead the party back to his Master's house leaving the boy stranded in the crater with Rider looking on while still giggling madly.

'My sisters would be proud,' Rider thought with amusement.

Area 44 tower

"With this, the prelims have concluded," Hayate announced. Naru had won fairly quickly, but the whole stadium had been thrown into pandemonium at the departure of Saber causing delays. The man had broken through several structural supports and electrical wiring in his made smash and dash flight towards the village. Several proctors had, after a bit of confusion been sent out after Saber to see what was wrong. The Hokage had overheard what Archer warned of Yugito and took it to heart to protect the son of the Fourth Hokage. Yugito would have offered to send Archer to investigate, but there was no way in hell that she was going to be anywhere near the Master of Berserker without her Servant. The brief moments that she had seen Berserker attack were more than enough to tell her that even the Raikage would have some problems against the monster.

Choji and Naru had, eventually been called down to fight the last battle. It was short and almost as embarrassing as the fight between Ace and the Nara boy. Choji had, with the encouragement of all you can eat beef pot and changed into a giant ball and wrapped himself in kunai intending to roll Naru around. Naru rolled her eyes a tiny bit and let loose a strange lighting jutsu from her hands. It had seemed like black clouds forming around her as Choji advanced. As soon As choji entered the clouds, he was bombarded with lighting bolts and knocked conscious. There was a brief hustling of the medical crew to ensure that Choji's heart had not stopped, but it seems that the Kunai acted as a grounding allowing Choji to survive with a few burn marks that shouldn't leave much scarring if any.

Many jonin recognized it as a rare Bloodline Limit belonging to Kumo, Black Cloud. It was said that this ancient Bloodline was one of the founders of Kumo, though their numbers are said to be fewer than a dozen left. As always, wars bleed villages and bloodlines dry.

Each of the participants were to pull out a piece of paper from a covered box, though it appeared that Naruto would have to deal with whatever was left. As they looked at the piece of paper, they all saw that it was a single number. Each of them were instructed to call out their numbers. After that, it was determined who would go in what order for the finals which would involve a tournament in a month.

A few had muttered about waiting a month, but they acknowledged that they were given time to prepare, not only for the tournament, but also for the dignitaries to arrive.

The order was determined to be as follows:
Naruto versus Neji

Sasuke versus Gaara

Naru versus Sakura

Shino versus Kankuro

Temari versus Shikumaru.

After that, they were all dismissed. Sakura and Sasuke were ordered to follow Asuma out of the forest as Kakaski had dashed after Saber in case Naruto was in danger. Sakura noticed that several of the medical staff, a few proctors including Anko and even Gai had followed Saber's destructive wake. Not that she blamed them of course, she had wanted to follow as well, but Kakashi forbade them from following. Sakura had to admit that as much as she hated Naruto for using such obscene techniques, she didn't want him to die...at least from anyone other than her.

In all the hustle and bustle, everyone had forgotten one thing...Sasuke.

'NoW, fLEe. tHeY aRe aLl tHIeVes aVEnGeR. Go, thEy oNlY weAkeN yOu.' The voice whispered in his ear. Sasuke shook it off, but wished it would just shut up.

'YoU nEEd tHiS pOwEr. nEVer lEt TheM tAke iT.' it whispered. While Sasuke would never turn away power, if it didn't stop talking, he'd start considering it. The voice, as if sensing his thought was silent for a while. He then saw that Sakura looked at him in worry. She had asked him something and he hadn't heard her.

"What was that Sakura? I was thinking." Sasuke said as smoothly as he could.

"I just wanted to ask you if you were worried about Naruto?" Sakura asked.

"Why would I worry about the dobe?" Sasuke asked.

Sakura blinked, "Because he's our teammate."

Sasuke rolled his eyes a bit, "He had Rider with him, and now Saber is coming after him. He'll be safer than we are." Sasuke was referring to the forest that they would have to get through to get back to the village. Even with a jonin, the forest could still kill them if they were unwary.

"Still..." Sakura said unable to shake the feeling of dread.

Sasuke sighed, "Look, once we get back, we can separate and look for him. He's probably been to Ichiraku. From there we can look for him."

Sakura nodded, agreeing with the sentiment. Privately, she wanted to enjoy every minute with Sasuke, but she also wanted team Seven to all become chunin. If one or more of them were unable to become chunin, they would inevitably be separated. As chunin, there was a good chance that they would have many missions together before they went their separate ways. Team Seven was like a second family to her, and Sakura did not want to break up the good times. Yes, some missions had been down right boring, the Wave mission had been a bit scary, but everyone got out fine. In all, Team Seven was an enjoyable place for her to be, to break it up after less than a year together would be painful.

That, and she also knew about how the last team to make it completely through the exam and become chunin on the first try belonged only to the legendary Sannin. Which meant, if their team passed, she would have eternal bragging rights over Ino and any Kohai or Sempai that irritated her.

When they got to the village, they were greeted with a horrifying sight, the gate had been broken open. It looked like someone had taken a battering ram and smashed open a hole in the wall. No, it would have taken a battering ram several attempts to get through the gate. It looked like it had taken a single hit to piece the material leaving a six foot hole in the gate. The force also seemed to have jammed one of the gates open a bit as it was knocked off one of the hinges. As they passed through the gate, they saw that several stands, stalls, and buildings had holes and damage on them going in a straight line towards the Uchiha Compound...and Ichiraku.

Sasuke and Sakura looked at each other and dashed on ahead leaving team Ten behind them. The two leaped onto the rooftops and began a mad dash to the compound. Yet, as they came close to it, they found several shinobi sprawled out against the walls and there were signs of combat. Several of the walls had crumbled as a being with tremendous strength had smashed them in the fight. All around the chunin were various medics treating the various broken bones as best they could until they could rush the ninjas to the hospital.

Sasuke and Sakura continued on towards the compound seeing massive destruction of two different types as they neared the compound. One was probably the mysterious force that blew through the gate as it kept going in a straight line. The other was a more sporadic attack that left ninjas unconscious or injured in the wake.

The two of them dashed forward as fast as they could to the compound heedless of the potential danger that they were in. As they were about to enter the compound, they noticed that several shinobi, including Kakashi were laying around in what looked almost like a line. Each of them were holding their stomachs as if they were nauseous and would throw up at any time. It was strange as they dashed up to the shinobi. Why were they all laying around at the same area? It was like there was some sort of barrier-

Sakura and Sasuke suddenly got down on their knees feeling like their stomachs would pop out of their mouth at any moment. Never before had any of them felt this sick in their life. It was like have the work sicknesses in the world bombard them at the same time. The world was spinning, their stomachs were rebelling, they had a fever, their sinuses were stuffed with indescribable filth, their eyes could not focus two feet in front of them.

Sasuke and Sakura had run into a special boundary set up by one very pissed of magus in red who had wanted to kill Naruto. While crude, Rin had been able to erect the boundary in a second so that she could focus on killing the boy. Normally, a magus would try to be far more subtle on hiding the barrier, but Rin was in far too much rage to notice or care.

So, many Shinobi found themselves outside the compound sick as dogs uncaring if a building next to them blew up. It took another jonin after Sasuke and Sakura to notice the trap that the unaware jonins from earlier and the worried genin had run into. It would take a bit of work with a rope to pull them back, but as soon as everyone was freed from the barrier, they felt healthy again.

The Hokage looked at the hidden barrier with worry and irritation. It was clear that Saber had smashed everything out of his way to get to Naruto, but the other attack on the ninjas was an unknown at this time. All the witnesses could say was that there was the sound of chains rattling followed by darkness as they were knocked unconscious. Adding in this barrier, and Sarutobi was ready to declare a state of emergency.

Volunteers kept going to the edge of the invisible barrier only to end up trying to puke. His local sealing experts were lost on what to do. None of them had ever seen anything like this barrier before. It was both simple, yet far too complex. Sarutobi decided it was time to call in an expert. It seems his wayward student would need to be brought back to the student. He'd just have to war the local bathhouses to lookout for peeping toms, in particular, one with white hair, looked kind of like a monk, and wore the sign of oil on his forehead.

Author's note: I'm going to have to cut this chapter here. Between having twelve hour clinicals, two days of college lecture, and work on the weekends, you guys are going to have to live with this update. Next chapter, Jiraya meets the girls in the hot springs. How long will he last?